Category: Comics & Books


These Are the Voyages–Book explores Star Trek fandom and abandoned TV series

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — Leave a comment
August 13, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

TV historian and Star Trek expert Marc Cushman is back to continue his second trilogy of books about the development, production, and struggles behind the first two decades of Star Trek.  In These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, Volume 2 (1975-77), at last we get to delve into the biggest Star Trek project never delivered: The 1970s Star Trek: Phase II series that would be parted out and become Star Trek: The Motion Picture and later Star Trek: The Next Generation.  And that’s not all–ideas and early scripts for Phase II continue to be tapped in the 21st century Star Trek series and films.  Even better, Cushman digs into the ever-developing Star Trek novels, conventions, and more, which became the practice grounds for the wider, broad world of pop culture fandom as a whole.  How did Star Trek finally movie forward from the original series to become what it is today?  How did the fans play a major role in making that happen?   Continue reading →

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Stargirl’s first season rises to become the best superhero series and comic book adaptation on TV yet

Filed under: Comics & Books, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
August 12, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

After what I viewed as the best superhero series pilot yet here at borg back in May, Stargirl never let up, never let us down, and with this week’s season finale rises to become the very best superhero series yet.  We can slice and dice and compare series like The Flash and Arrow, Supergirl, and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but did any of them adapt the comic book mythos to the screen as written and drawn by years of comic book writers and artists?  Or did they all twist the stories to cut away at what made the stories enduring in the first place?  Even Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina–two fantastic comic book adaptations–were nudged aside by thirteen perfect episodes of comic books in TV form.  Not since the heart in the original series The Flash, The Incredible Hulk, and the animated series Superfriends has a series full of superhero characters gotten so much so right.  And one scene in the season finale was so good, so surprising, it may have you stand up and cheer.

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Alien: 40 Years/40 Artists–Artists pay homage for 40th anniversary

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
August 10, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Forty years of Alien.  It’s worth celebrating.  Ridley Scott blended science fiction and horror in a way never seen before, and it’s in large part due to the uniquely dark imagination of H.R. Giger, who we’ve discussed for years here at borg.  Plus he gave us one of sci-fi’s greatest heroines (in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley) and cats (in the ginger crewmember Jonesy).  We’ve taken a look at multi-artist tribute concept books before at borg, including the massive The Thing Artbook, Star Trek: 50 Artists/50 Years, and The Mike Wieringo Tellos Tribute books.  Anytime we showcase a major benchmark in comic book titles, like Detective Comics 1000th issue, Wonder Woman’s 750th issue, and The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #800, or charity projects like the Wonder Woman 100 showcase, we’re seeing the same thing: a variety of artists interpreting an icon of popular culture.  In Alien: 40 Years/40 Artists, we’re seeing another artist challenge, and the result is among the best of the bunch.  The new tribute arrives at bookstores tomorrow, so you have one more day to pre-order it at a discount here at Amazon.

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Horizon Zero Dawn–Comic book series spins out of the video game

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August 7, 2020

As Guerrilla’s PlayStation 4 action game Horizon Zero Dawn: The Complete Edition arrives on the Steam gaming platform today, a new comic series begins, expanding on the storyline.  In Titan Comics’ monthly series Horizon Zero Dawn, a hunter heroine named Aloy adventures across a post-apocalyptic land dominated by magnificent, robotic creatures.  Aloy joins another hunter heroine, the noble Talanah, after the events of the game, as humanity fights for survival on a new earth.  Co-created by one of the writers of the Horizon Zero Dawn game, the comic catches up with Aloy as she meets a new breed of mechanized killers.  Check out a preview of the first issue of the series below.

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First look–The Art of Star Trek: Discovery goes behind the scenes of first two seasons

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August 6, 2020

Titan Books has released the first images of the next Star Trek book, and fans of the franchise will want to check it out.  It’s The Art of Star Trek: Discovery, Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann’s latest look inside the extensive Star Trek universe.  Star Trek: Discovery, the newest chapter in the Star Trek Universe, follows the exploits of Vulcan-raised science officer Michael Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery as they boldly go where no one has gone before.  You can now pre-order the book here at Amazon, and we have a preview of The Art of Star Trek: Discovery for borg readers below.

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Later–Stephen King crime novel coming to Hard Case Crime

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August 5, 2020

Stephen King has penned his next crime novel for Hard Case Crime.  In Later, King creates another character with special powers, a young man drawn into a crime tale.  King’s non-horror works are our favorites, including Joyland, an incredible story of a young man working a carnival for the summer with a dose of murder, which we previewed in King’s original book tour here at borg, and The Colorado Kid, reviewed here, a story of quirky characters and a dead guy who may be from nowhere or somewhere.  Later is coming to bookstores and online retailers in March 2021, and it is now available for pre-order here at Amazon.

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Baseball 100–Comics artist Mark Chiarello launches new look at the best of the best

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July 31, 2020

Comics artist and illustrator Mark Chiarello (Batman, Hellboy, Star Wars) and non-fiction writer (National Geographic, The History Channel), former Marvel Comics senior editor, colorist and writer, and consultant for Major League Baseball Nel Yomtov have teamed up to join the ultimate baseball debate: Who are the greatest 100 players in hardball history?  Who holds the number one spot?  Is it Babe Ruth?  Willie Mays?  Jackie Robinson?  Shoeless Joe Jackson?  Baseball 100: A Celebration of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time is a new book offered as part of a crowdfunding campaign that began yesterday.  And it is already halfway funded.

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Book review–R.A. Salvatore’s latest trilogy wraps today with his exciting new Drizzt novel, Relentless

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms — Leave a comment
July 28, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Come, let us be quick.  The crumbling world will not wait for heroes who pause.

Returning with a story at the very foundations of Dungeons & Dragons today is fantasy author R.A. Salvatore with the final novel in his latest Drizzt Do’Urden trilogy and his 34th Drizzt novel overall, Relentless.  In this third act everything is at stake for the friends of the dark elf ranger, especially for his mother, his father, and his wife, as Salvatore takes readers back to the very circumstances of Drizzt’s birth–and reaches far into his future.  The plot switches from skirmishes and battles to the careful ministrations of dark influences in the matriarchal society of Menzoberranzan and the reactions and responses of everyone to them.  Available here at Amazon today, the release is also nicely timed to the forthcoming 5th edition of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden–Salvatore first presented Drizzt in the Ten Towns of that realm three decades ago.

Plus, bugbears, yochlolk, and glabrezu–oh, my!

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Comic-Con@Home–BBC/HBO panel previews second season trailer for His Dark Materials

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July 27, 2020

Last year at San Diego Comic-Con we got our first look at season one of His Dark Materials, BBC and HBO’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s popular fantasy novels, so it’s no surprise the second season trailer premiered at this year’s Comic-Con@Home.  Logan star Dafne Keen returns as Lyra to lead a cast including Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariyon Bakare, Andrew Scott, Amir Wilson, and newcomers to the series this season, Terence Stamp, Jade Anouka, and Simone Kirby.

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SDCC 2020 free Souvenir Book–Your first step into the larger world of Comic-Con

Filed under: Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
July 23, 2020

In a normal year for San Diego Comic-Con, we at borg would be taking photos and checking out the new products, panels, and movie trailers, and trying to share as many as possible.  But first we’d go through the badge line and get our annual, over-sized haul bag, which we’d probably keep folded up anyway because it makes it difficult to move around.  But with that bag is the annual “Comic-Con book,” which is not a comic book, but an official book about half of a medium-sized city telephone directory (what’s a telephone directory?).  The book would be full of discussions about anniversaries of comic and pop culture events and salutes to individuals who have gained some portion of iconic status for fanboys and fangirls everywhere.  But you never read this during con week.  Why?  You’re too busy trying to cram in all you can before the show is over.  Sometimes you don’t even find this book until two months after you get back home after the con and are revisiting your swag.  This year, the SDCC staff has made it possible for everyone to download a copy of that book.

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