New Pop Culture Paper Ephemera for Perusal and Purchase

 Click here: Pop Culture Paper Ephemera (nenoworld.com)

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Recently Read: Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson

Author Michael Benson saw 2001: a Space Odyssey, in its initial 1968 Cinemascope release, at around the same age I did, age 7. Viewers who saw the film at this age seem to have a special affinity for and wonderment of it. Youngsters, I believe, didn't approach the film with the same set of expectations older people did, expectations of plot logicity, character development, a requisite love interest subplot, etc. Instead, the young could concentrate on and most acutely appreciate what was on the screen: a mostly non-verbal, poetic and visionary presentation of philosophical ideas unprecedented in not only the genre of science fiction but in the entire history of cinema.

There have been many (and many good) books written on the amazing four years plus production of the film, but for an overview both insightful and intimate, Benson's book can't be beat. With access to archives and new and unpublished interviews with the creative staff, Benson unearths and reveals a deluge of details, anecdotes and background context which doesn't fail to fascinate from the first page to the last. You'll discover many entertaining stories about the production director Stanley Kubrick himself didn't and couldn't have known about. You'll also be amazed in new ways about the monumental scope of the project and the difficulties it overcame to reach its fruition.

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Recently Read: House of X/Powers of X, by Jonathan Hickman

Jonathan Hickman's massive reboot of the X-Men universe is visionary and complex. Hickman's at heart a science fiction writer and this 12-part journey has so little to do with the immediately previous X-Men series (so poorly written as to be nearly unreadable) that it's as if Arthur C. Clarke had been hired to take over. In fact, House of X has the kind of cosmic scope and sense of import that Clarke's novel Childhood's End exemplified.

Originally released as twelve comic book chapters, the series jumps back and forth from storyline to storyline, giving glimpses of the evolution of mutants (and mankind) over many hundreds of years of time. In the "present", Professor X and Magneto have joined forces to congregate all mutants, regardless of their moral character, on the sentient island of Krakoa, and willing to make diplomatic deals, difficult to refuse, with world leaders. I won't spoil the story's surprises, but can say the series creates an entirely new and endlessly varied sandbox for current and future X-Men series writers to play in. Hickman has returned the series to its science fiction roots.

Aiding understanding and appreciation of this new world is a cohesive design for the packaging, by Tom Muller, incorporating logos, a new language/typography, charts and maps. The design has gone on to be used by subsequent X-Men series.

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Lot of 16 Sci-fi Digest Mags from 1952 - 1979, from the Neno Archives: $35 PPD.

PayPal accepted! Conditions range from Fair (reading copy) to Very Fine. Average condition: Good+. Authors include Asimov, Clarke, Farmer, Edmund Hamilton, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, Ben Bova, and much more. mneno@columbus.rr.com

Illustrators include Virgil Finlay, Kaluta, Dan Adkins, many more.

Books include:
Analog - Sept., 1970 (Cover worn/Good); July 1976 (Cover worn/Good)

Fantastic - Dec. 1968 (Good)

Galaxy - May, 1972 (Good); Sept., 1972 (Fine); Nov., 1973 (Fine); Dec., 1973 (tape across cover/reading copy); Sept., 1974 (Good); Nov. , 1974 (Very Fine); Sept., 1975 (Good); Sept./Oct. 1979 (small tear in cover/Fair)

Other Worlds - Aug., 1952 (two copies) (Good)

Science Fiction Adventures Yearbook 1970 (Fine)

Space Adventures - 1970, Spring (Very Fine)

Thrilling Science Fiction - April, 1974/All Virgil Finlay issue (Fair)

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