Category: Backstage Pass


Expand your Star Wars library with pocket-sized books from Insight Editions

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix — Leave a comment
September 23, 2021

sw comic mini cover ab sw poster mini book cd

Whether you use it as the perfect stocking stuffer, for an office party gift swap, or you just want some convenient content to carry around in your backpack, publisher Insight Editions has the right book for you.  For Harry Potter fans we reviewed the detailed MinaLima-designed treasure trove The Art of Harry Potter–Mini Book of Graphic Design a few years ago, and for superhero fans we looked at two volumes of the history of Wonder Woman in comic book covers.  These are jam-packed books that literally fit inside your pocket, and the content spans the scope of pop culture and genre.  Love Batman?  Check.  Mickey Mouse?  Check.  Beauty and the Beast and other Disney favorites?  Check.

Today we have previews from four of Insight Editions’ books featuring Star Wars, one with the artwork of Ralph McQuarrie, a two-volume collection of Marvel comic book covers, and another with famous poster artwork that spans the 11 films.  Typically available at $11.99 or less, it’s an inexpensive source for the visual details of the movies, production, and marketing that you’ve never seen before, and a quick gift idea for your favorite Star Wars fan.

Here is a comparative look at the size of the books in the series:

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Check out these previews from The Complete Star Wars Marvel Comics Covers Volume 1 and Volume 2, Star Wars: The Concept Art of Ralph McQuarrie, and Star Wars: The Poster Collection:

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Star Trek: A Celebration–After 55 years the original series gets a definitive account of cast, crew, and the production like you’ve never seen before

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — 1 Comment
September 21, 2021

Star Trek A Celebration cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

In many ways the most diehard Star Trek fan is going to be surprised when they flip open the new behind-the-scenes account of the original 1966-1969 series in the full-color, hardcover, coffee table-style book, Star Trek: A Celebration.  Even if you’ve read everything about Star Trek you could get your hands on, you haven’t seen it in one volume presented like this.  Star Wars fans have seen this kind of volume in the works of the late JW Rinzler, and although this book is not as dense, it will serve the same purpose for Star Trek aficionados.  The wildly popular The Princess Bride–A Celebration was given similar treatment, as was the landmark Star Trek: Voyager–A Celebration, released only this year, also by publisher Hero Collector.  I can’t understate what a welcome book this is for fans of the original Star Trek series.  As Star Trek fans across the globe celebrate 55 years of the Star Trek franchise, coinciding with the centennial of the birth of its creator, Gene Roddenberry, it’s well past time fans got a book to–yes–celebrate one of the greatest and most influential television series of all time.  Star Trek: A Celebration is available today for the first time here at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.

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Updated and expanded Star Trek Shipyards volume incorporates Starfleet ships from Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard

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September 20, 2021

sts future cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

By my count there are six books so far in the Star Trek Shipyards library from publisher Hero Collector: Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2063-2293, Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294 – The Future, Star Trek Shipyards: Federation Members, Star Trek Shipyards: Klingon Fleet, and most recently in 2021, Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and Delta Quadrant (reviewed here), and Star Trek Shipyards: The Delta Quadrant Volume 2 (reviewed here).  With two more volumes due out in the coming months available for pre-order now (Alpha Quadrant and Major Species Volume 1 and Alpha Quadrant and Major Species Volume 2), the publisher is taking a step back with the late summer release Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294 – The Future, an updated and expanded edition of the second volume in the library, adding significant content to the original edition.  The most popular of the Star Trek Shipyards library, this volume presents many of fans’ favorite ships of the line in high-quality illustrations.  A lot has happened in the franchise in the past few years, and readers will find much of it making its way into this book, with vessels from all three seasons of Star Trek: Discovery to Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard. 

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TCM’s Essential Directors–A definitive guide to the most influential directors in Hollywood

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September 17, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

For both film buffs and a new generation of a movie fans, a definitive guide to the most influential film directors–spanning a century of Hollywood creativity–will soon be a fixture in libraries everywhere.   Turner Classic Movies/TCM and film writer Sloan De Forest, author of TCM’s Dynamic Dames (reviewed here) and TCM’s Must-See Sci-fi (reviewed here), chronicle 58 directors, their works, and influence on the filmmaking in TCM’s The Essential Directors: The Art and Impact of Cinema’s Most Influential Filmmakers.  From Charlie Chaplin to Steven Spielberg, these are the directors that film aficionados will be unlikely to quibble with.  Some made their marks as household names, others are legendary auteurs, while others provided a singular film or image that has made them synonymous with Hollywood royalty.  From epic dramas, to laugh-out-loud comedies, readers will find TCM’s Essential Directors as the go-to source for the heavy-hitters behind the biggest movies in history.

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New Star Trek Designing Starships volume features the ships from Deep Space Nine to the movies

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September 10, 2021

Designing Starships cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

Where Star Trek Shipyards is an in-universe library looking at the hundreds of ships of the franchise, Star Trek Designing Starships is a library about the creators and creative process behind those ships.  The fifth volume of the encyclopedia of Star Trek ship design has arrived as publisher Hero Collector continues its series after volumes on the starships Enterprise, Voyager, the Kelvin timeline ships, and Discovery.  The human adventure continues in Star Trek Designing Starships: Deep Space Nine and Beyond.  It’s available now here at Amazon.  As with the publisher’s previous books, Star Trek Designing Starships is known for its colorful, high quality illustrations in a coffee table-style hardcover edition, providing a near-exhaustive library to the array of the franchise’s highly-detailed spacecraft. 

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Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier–New book looks at 1960s futuristic sci-fi design

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September 6, 2021

Star Trek Designing the Future cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

For nearly 55 years sci-fi fans have been watching and re-watching Star Trek’s original series and rebuilding futuristic components from the show in their own homes.  In the 1960s it was easier, as many of the components that defined the early look of Star Trek were simply “found objects”–items existing in the real world that could be repurposed to create a vision of the future.  Midcentury Modernism was the artistic movement that coincided with the inception of the worldbuilding for Star Trek, and fans Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire chronicled some of the Star Trek creators’ use of those designs in their new coffee table book, Star Trek: Designing the Future–How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future.  Take a look at a preview of this introduction to the artistic movement and the early Star Trek design aesthetic below, courtesy of publisher Insight Editions.

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Star Trek Villains–The past comes together to forge the biggest look yet at the enemies of the Federation

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September 3, 2021

STAR_TREK_VILLAINS_COVER

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sometimes you wish you could go back in time, to decades past where life was simpler and you could grab a magazine at the local bookstore or grocery store rack to get a fix from your favorite movies or TV series.  Back in the 1970s and 1980s sometimes that meant Starlog, Starburst, or Space Wars, Fantastic Films Magazine, or even mags aimed at the younger set, like Dynamite.  Then publishers targeted fandoms with The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine for Star Wars, and Star Trek Communicator all sprouting out of fanzines.  Titan Magazines has been publishing both Star Wars Insider and Star Trek Magazine–soon to become Star Trek Explorer–for decades, and it’s the articles from the Star Trek mags that fans can “read again for the first time” as Titan launches its best magazine-sourced overview yet from the big franchises, Star Trek Villains, now available for pre-order here.  What is your favorite Star Trek villain?  Check out a preview below courtesy of Titan.

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Dark City–Dig into an excellent history of film noir in latest TCM journey through the movies

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September 1, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last month I reviewed TCM’s Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics, the eighth volume reviewed here at borg in the TCM library.  TCM is busy with new releases this year, and its look at film noir takes a different approach.  Written by Noir Alley host Eddie Muller, The Art of Noir author and proclaimed Czar of Noir, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (available now in bookstores and at Amazon here) is actually an update of his 1998 look at film noir of the same name.  It’s an essential look at the genre for both novices and diehard fans, providing just enough about the key films to entice readers to add several movies to their DVR, and giving long-time noir audiences new ways to think about some classic films.  Whenever I hear someone referred to as an expert in genre, I make notes.  Here I made a list of what those essential and important obscure noir films should make any book on film noir.  Muller includes discussions of all of them except one, from Laura and Shadow of a Doubt to DOA, from Sorry, Wrong Number, Sunset Boulevard, and Call Northside 777, to The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Chinatown.  So the book by all counts is the real deal and worthy of its accolades for both its original and new edition.  Unlike some of the other TCM books I’ve reviewed here at borg, Dark City: The Lost World of Film is not only an annotated guide to a list of recommended movies.  What film noir movies would you expect to find inside?

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Star Trek: A Celebration–Star Trek Day is approaching, celebrate 55 years with new chronicle, now available for pre-order

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — 1 Comment
August 28, 2021

Star Trek A Celebration cover

With a new Star Trek Day event coming next month, Star Trek fans across the globe will be celebrating 55 years of the Star Trek franchise, coinciding with the centennial of the birth of its creator, Gene Roddenberry.  The 55th anniversary of the launch of the series is worthy of the celebration, and authors Ben Robinson and Ian Spelling have created the latest definitive, behind the scenes account of the 1966-1969 series in their new full-color, hardcover, coffee table-style book, Star Trek: A Celebration, available for pre-order now here at Amazon.

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On September 8, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Central, get ready for Star Trek Day (not to be confused with First Contact Day–April 5, or Picard Day–June 16, or Alien Day–April 26, or Star Wars Day–May 4).  Star Trek Day 2021 will be all virtual– a better deal than, say Star Wars Celebration and D23, since everyone can join in for a virtual event.  Look for 13 streamed panels, including several retrospective panels, as well as panels featuring stars of all five in-production Star Trek series: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, to feature Anson Mount’s Captain Pike and the early Enterprise crew.  Check out streaming platform Paramount Plus for more information, which says fans worldwide will be able to live-stream the Star Trek Day celebration panels for free at StarTrek.com/Day. 

First check out this big, 14-page look inside Star Trek: A Celebration:

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WandaVision–Go behind the scenes in first book about the unusual Disney+ Marvel show

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Retro Fix, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
August 27, 2021

WandaVision Hardback Cover WandaVision_Newsstand_Cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s a surprising and unique story in Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It’s WandaVision, the almost hallucinogenic, time-tripping story of the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame through the eyes of Wanda Maximoff.  Now fans have their first look inside the making of the series in Marvel’s WandaVision: The Official Marvel Studios Collector Special, a full color, hardcover, souvenir guide to the characters, creators, and development of the Disney+ series.  It’s being released in three editions, one via newsstands, one via comic shops (add it to your pull list at Elite Comics now), and a hardcover version you can pick up here at Amazon and at brick and mortar bookstores (it’s currently an Amazon #1 Best Seller!).  Enjoy a preview for borg readers below from Titan.

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