“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it. It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be. Oh, and it’s not true.” Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Scientists hooked a squid up to an iPod. This is what happened.
A complete 1953 Pogo storyline featuring, “Simple J. Malarkey,” Walt Kelly’s stand-in for Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. (via MightyGodKing–click through for more about Pogo and the Red Scare).
“This, then, is the story of Maxwell Knight—the man called M—and a cuckoo called Goo. Knight was a tall, patrician British intelligence officer in charge of MI5 departments dealing with counter-subversion on home ground. And yes, as ‘M’ he was the inspiration for James Bond’s controller.” Helen MacDonald recounts the story in an excellent piece. [...]
Achewood, now animated!
Friend of The Gutter, Robert Mitchell interviews Birdemic director, James Nguyen. They discuss film-making, Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Birdemic 2 and what people can do to reduce their negative impact on the environment.
Walt Kelly presents Pogo‘s Albert Alligator in Muckey Spleen’s The Bloody Drip, “a Publication of the New National Treasury of World Culture.”
Beloved shipmates, Joe Hill has started a Moby-Dick big read along. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is holding its annual Moby-Dick Marathon today. And the Moby-Dick Big Read Podcast is still downloading a chapter a day with such dauntless readers as Tilda Swinton and ! It’s enough to keep you from knocking off gentelmen’s hats [...]
Tales of derring-do! Girl adventurers! Occult mystery! Infernal foes! Secrets revealed! Pirates! Love, loss & betrayal! Intricate art bound in lovely hardcovers! Indie going mainstream! Original creations! It’s been an incredible year for comics. So many good ones that I can’t even begin to claim to know what would be the best comics of 2012. [...]
At Wildgrounds, Kevin Ma shares his most enjoyable “bad” film and most enjoyable “good” film of 2012.
Nefertiti the astronaut spider has died. She had lived aboard the International Space Station for three months. PBS has an obituary. (Thanks, Andrew!)
Movie Morlocks‘ Kimberly Lindbergs has a diabolically delightful look at hell hounds, creepy canines and just plain bad dogs.
Kitties with their own cameras. Find out what they’re doing out there.
Deceptacon Transformer Starscream faces My Little Pony Rainbow Dash in a battle to the death at Death Battle! Start about halfway through the video to get straight to the battlin’!
Behold, Filthy Earth Worm Baby Humans, Danielle Koenig, Roman Dirge and Eric Trueheart–the writers of Invader Zim–have been interviewed! (Thanks, Matt!)
A gallery of images from a 1520 bestiary. (Thanks, Miguel!)
The Gutter’s own Carol was kindly invited to discuss director Kaneto Shindo and his ghostly films, Onibaba and Kuroneko on Monster Island Resort Podcast. If you’re curious, feel free to listen here.
Director and screenwriter Kaneto Shindo has died. He lived past 100 and made masterpieces including Onibaba, Kuroneko, Children of Hiroshima, Lucky Dragon No. 5 and The Naked Island. He also wrote the screenplays for Seijun Suzuki’s Fighting Elegy, Yasuzo Masumura Irezumi, Kinji Fukasaku’s Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, Seijiro Koyama’s Hachi / Hachiko [...]
Grab your silver wolfshead canes, your wolfsbane or just loose the beast within and listen as The Gutter’s own Carol Borden talks about werewolves on Monster Island Resort Podcast. (It will certainly pass the time, if you’ve been chained up for the duration of the full moon).
Enjoy full-on awesomeness as The Raid is recreated in stop-motion animation. (Thanks, Colin!)
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