Here’s a nifty Ray Bradbury item some people may not know about:
Bradbury, Ray, editor. Futuria Fantasia. Graham Publishing/Blood and Guts Press, 2007. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Bradbury, and containing a picture of him signing copies laid in. Reprints four issues of the fanzine of the title Bradbury produced just after graduating high school. Includes contributions from Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, Hannes Bok, Damn Knight, Forrest J. Ackerman, etc. A fascinating glimpse into Bradbury’s early life, and the beginnings of several illustrious science fiction careers. Bought off eBay for $30. Replaces an unsigned copy.
I’m happy to see that the Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kickstarter has hit $3.3 million, meaning they’ll produce at least six episodes.
At $4.4 million they’ll make nine episodes, but at this point $5.5 million (twelve episodes) is looking like it might be a stretch.
Also Patton Oswalt is joining the cast as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, a move I’m pretty “meh” on (though I can see the physical resemblance between Frank Conniff and Oswalt).
Sunday I saw Kung Fury, the crowd-funded parody of every cheesy 80s cop show, science fiction movie, and fighting video game, rolled into one absurdist package.
It has everything you could ever ask for in a short film featuring a kung fu cop traveling back in time to stop Hitler, including dinosaurs, Tron-era grid computer graphics, obviously fake video compositing, and a soundtrack that sounds like it was composed by Giorgio Moroder after a 72-hour Jolt Cola binge.
The Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kickstarter has hit their $2 million goal, which means it’s funded and they’ll do at least three new episodes.
Everybody Smile!
And they still have 25 days to go! Now let’s hope they make it all they way to their 12 episode $5.5 million stretch goal…
Dick, Philip K. World of Chance. Rich and Cowan, 1956. First hardback edition and first thus under this title (the first hardback edition of Dick’s first published novel, published earlier in the U.S. as the paperback original Solar Lottery), an Ex-Library copy with tape ghosts to inside covers, slight signs of pocket removal from FFE, inner front hinge half-cracked, slight dust staining to page block edges, in a dust jacket that has about 1/8″ trimmed from top and bottom, and a larger amount (possibly 1/4″ to 1/2″) trimmed from inner flaps, not removing any text, but trimming the flap edges right to the edge of the text block, plus tape ghosts and a touch of edgewear; call it a Very Good-/Good+ Ex-Library copy, though it presents much better than that list of flaws would lead you to believe. Currey (1979), page 159. Levack, 38b. One of the rarest Dick hardcovers.
This is one of the many things on my want list, since I always thought it was a neat little book, and I finally found a copy I could afford.
Asimov, Isaac. Three By Asimov. Targ Editions, 1981. First edition hardback, one of 250 signed copies, a Fine copy in a Near Fine- tissue paper dust jacket with a 7/8″ semi-closed tear on the top right front cover, with associated wrinkles (the white streaks at left and top are reflection glare from the dust jacket protector). All the pages seem to be made of hand-made paper with ragged edges. Bought for $107.79 off eBay.
William Targ was a former editor at Putnam who ran a one-man small press in his retirement. This and the Ray Bradbury book Beyond 1984 were, as far as I know, the only SF Targ Editions published.
Shout! Factory has acquired cult comedy series “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” Variety has learned.
The news of the acquisition comes the same day Joel Hodgson, the creator and writer of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new season of the show.
With the new deal, negotiated by Shout’s David McIntosh, Shout! Factory now has the proprietary rights the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” from Best Brains, Inc., including all brand assets and global intellectual property. The media company is partnering with Hodgson and his company Alternaversal, LLC on future endeavors surrounding the “MST3K” brand, including plans for new content development, digital media initiatives, live events, merchandise licensing programs and content syndication to international territories.
The one caveat I have is evidently there will be a “new cast” for the show. I think the consensus is that the MST3K faithful would love to have Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff back in their old roles (and possibly J. Elvis Weinstein back as the original Tom Servo; given his attachment to RiffTracks, Kevin Murphy seems unlikely to reprise the Tom Servo voice role). But I’m certainly willing to give the new cast a chance.
Was checking out something about C. L. Moore while preparing the latest Lame Excuse Books catalog (which should go out via email early next week) when I stumbled across a recording of Moore reading her own story “Shambleau”:
And if you haven’t read any C. L. Moore, she’s well worth checking out…
When this cool novel/art assemblage was announced in 2007 at a price of $50 (I think it was listed at $65 on publication), I thought two things about it:
That’s cool, and I want one.
I don’t want to pay $50 (or $65) for it.
They were even offered at a slightly short discount for dealers, which is why I passed on it. When it came out in late 2008, neither I (nor anyone else) was buying much of anything, and I’m sure the lavish nature of the production helped contribute to Payseur & Schmidt’s demise.
Di Filippo, Paul (illustrated by Jim Woodrung). Cosmocopia. Payseur & Schmidt, 2008. First edition hardback, one of 500 copies with a band signed by Di Filippo and Jim Woodrung around the box, in a decorated cardboard box with a cardstock illustration and a Jigsaw puzzle, in the case as well as the book, sans dust jacket, as issued. Paul Di Filippo alerted me to the fact that Fantagraphics bookstore had copies on hand for Jim Woodrung’s signing there at $30 a pop and I managed to call and snag the last copy.
