Friday, January 13, 2023

BURROUGHED BY MARY BAADER KELLY IS OUT NOW FROM ANGRY ROBOT

 

 

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Jeff Beck, Guitarist With a Page in Rock History, Dies at 78

 

Jeff Beck, Guitarist With a Page in Rock History, Dies at 78

His playing with the Yardbirds and as leader of his own bands brought a sense of adventure to their groundbreaking recordings.



Thursday, December 1, 2022

Ray Nelson, Artist, Author, and Fan

 

Ray Nelson (1931-2022)

Ray Nelson self-portrait

SF writer and Rotsler Award winning fan artist Ray Nelson died in his sleep overnight November 29/30 his son, Walter, announced today on Facebook. He was 91 years old.

As an author Ray Nelson was best known for his short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning,” which became the basis of John Carpenter’s film They Live. He also had a short story, “Time Travel for Pedestrians,” in Harlan Ellison’s Again Dangerous Visions (1972). Nelson collaborated with Philip K. Dick on The Ganymede Takeover. His 1975 book Blake’s Progress, in which the poet William Blake and his wife are travelers in space and time, has been called his best work by critic John Clute.

As an artist, in the 1940s Nelson appropriated the propeller beanie as a symbol of science fiction fandom. His fannish cartoons were recognized with the Rotsler Award in 2003. He was inducted to the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2019.

The Ray Nelson website, which Walter set up, has more bibliographical information, and samples of his artwork. There you can also read a humorous article about Ray’s collaborator, “The Last Days of Philip K. Dick”.

Nelson was born in Schenectady, NY in 1931. He became an active science fiction fan while attending high school in Michigan. After graduation, he went to the University of Chicago (studying theology). In the Fifties he lived for four years in Paris, and met Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William Burroughs among others of the Beat Generation, as well as existentialists Jean Paul Sartre, Boris Vian and Simone de Beauvoir. He subsequently co-edited Miscellaneous Man, the first “Beatnik” little literary review. In Paris, he worked with Michael Moorcock smuggling Henry Miller books out of France.

Honors Nelson received as a writer included a special citation from the Philip K. Dick Award in 1983 for The Prometheus Man. As a fan, in addition to the awards already mentioned, he was a Best Fan Artist Retro Hugo finalist in 2001 (commemorating work done in 1950) and received the 2014 FAAn Lifetime Achievement Award.

 Reprinted from File 770 Copyright by Mike Glyer 2022

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Greg Bear (1951-2022)

 

Greg Bear (1951-2022)

Greg Bear

Five-time Nebula winner Greg Bear died November 19, a week after heart surgery from which he never awoke. A CT scan showed stroke damage was caused to many parts of the brain by clots that had been hiding in a false lumen of the anterior artery to the brain ever since an earlier surgery eight years ago. After a review of the possible outcomes by the medical team, and following the wishes expressed in his advance directive, Bear was taken off life support and died two hours later.

The author of over 50 books, Bear’s novels won Nebulas for Moving Mars (1995) and Darwin’s Radio. Three other works of short fiction won Nebulas, and two of those – “Blood Music” (1984) and “Tangents” (1987) — also won the Hugo.

Bear’s writing was very successful in translation, too. He twice won Japan’s Seiun Award, as well as the Ignotus Award (Spain), and Prix Apollo (France). Altogether his works have been translated into 19 languages.

Bear sold his first short story, “Destroyers”, to Famous Science Fiction at age 15, and along with high-school friends helped found San Diego Comic-Con.

He also published work as an artist at the beginning of his career, including illustrations for an early version of the Star Trek Concordance, and covers for Galaxy and F&SF. He was a founding member of the Association of Science Fiction Artists. He even created the cover for his novel, Psychlone, a 1988 reprint from Tor.

In 1983 he married Astrid Anderson. They have two children, Chloe born in 1986, and Alexandra, born in 1990.

He was a guest of honor at the 2001 Worldcon, Millennium Philcon.

He served as President of SFWA from 1988 to 1990.

A resident of the Pacific Northwest, he was eligible for and won the first Endeavour Award in 1999 for Dinosaur Summer – and won it again the following year for Darwin’s Radio.

Bear participated in Sigma, a kind of think tank where science fiction writers share insights about the future with agencies laying real-world plans, twice making national news as one of the group’s representatives to Department of Homeland Security conferences.

Bear’s career honors include San Diego Comic-Con’s Inkpot Award (1984), the Robert A. Heinlein Award (2006) presented by the Heinlein Society, and the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society’s Forry Award (2017).

Reposted from File 770 Copyright 2022.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

MARVEL MOVIE RELEASE DATES

 

Key Release Dates

  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever               

      • Release Date:2022-11-11



    • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
      Release Date:  2023-02-17
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3       
    Release Date: 2023-07-28
  • The Marvels / Captain Marvel 2
  • Captain America: New World Order
    Release Date:
    2024-05-03
  • Marvel's Thunderbolts
    Release Date:
    2024-07-26
  • Blade 2024
    Release Date:
    2024-09-06
  • Deadpool 3
    Release Date:
    2024-11-08
  • Marvel's Fantastic Four      
  • Release Date: 2025-02-14
  • Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
    Release Date:
    2025-05-02
  • Avengers: Secret Wars
    Release Date:
    2026-05-01

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Donald M Grant Newsletter

 

Welcome to issue #107 of the Donald M. Grant Newsletter

4 October 2022

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. ZDENEK BURIAN - CZECH ARTIST
2. PHIL HALE - ART BOOK - USE MUSIC TO KILL
3. THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE STILL AVAILABLE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. ADVENTUROUS WORLD OF ZDENÄšK BURIAN
WONDERFUL WORLD OF ZDENÄšK BURIAN
THE FORGOTTEN WORLD OF ZDENÄšK BURIAN
THE PREHISTORIC WORLD OF ZDENÄšK BURIAN

I was an admirer of the art of Zdenek Burian long before I traveled to Prague and
met him in 1975. Zdenek Burian is best known internationally for his paintings of
dinosaurs, extinct mammals and prehistoric man but his illustration work is only
known in the Czech Republic. These three massive, 9 1/2” x 13”, 414 page, 473
page and 508 page books reproduce, from the original art, mostly complete sets of
illustrations for books published by various
Czech publishers in the years 1921 to
the 1970’s.

Wonderful World of Zdeněk Burian contains over 400 illustrations for the 35
books by Jules Verne that Burian illustrated.


TARZAN - ILLUSTRATED BY ZDENÄšK BURIAN

From 1969 – 1970 renowned Czech artist ZdenÄ›k Burian illustrated three of Edgar
Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels – Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan and
The Beasts of Tarzan. John Coleman Burroughs, son of Edgar Rice Burroughs and
an artist himself, was so impressed with the art that he arranged to buy most of the
originals from Mr. Burian.

Published originally in softcover these three novels are now available in 6 1/4” x
9 1/4” hardcover format with the total of all 50 full page gouache illustrations
reproduced on coated stock. In
addition there are 28 smaller spot illustrations.
Note - Text is in Czech, not English


The Mammoth Hunters (Lovci Mamutů) by Eduard Štorch

Full of amazing illustrations by Czech artist Zdeněk Burian who is internationally
known for his paintings of prehistoric life, The Mammoth Hunters is the story of a
tribe of primitive man living in ancient Central Europe. However, as the text is all
in Czech, you are most likely buying this book for the re-markable art.

This book includes 6 full page color plates and 52 pen & ink illustrations.


The prehistoric world of ZdenÄšk Burian

This 578 page book is the first of a projected series to publish the prehistoric
paintings and drawings of Zdenek Burian. We have not yet ordered copies from
Prague, so if you would be interested in buying a copy please send us an email at

office@grantbooks.com with Burian as the subject so we can gauge interest.

2.  PHIL HALE - NEW ART BOOK - USE MUSIC TO KILL

Now available is a new Phil Hale art book - USE MUSIC TO KILL - which
showcases the last fifteen years of Phil Hale’s art.

USE MUSIC TO KILL is a collection of over two hundred paintings, pho-
tovarish, drawings and collages in Phil's distinctive style, from a career that
has spanned fine art, portraiture, illustration, fashion photography, film and
music. It is a full color 11” x 11”, 272 page hardcover book. Copies include a
glued in signature plate.

For Donald M. Grant, Phil illustrated THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAW-
ING OF THE THREE and A MONSTER AT CHRISTMAS as well as three
books of art - GOAD, MOCKING BIRDS/RELAXEDER and LIFE WANTS TO 
LIVE - as well as the collaborative DOUBLE MEMORY: ART AND 
COLLABORATION with Rick Berry,


3. STEPHEN KING --THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE

Still available are the Artist Edition of THE WIND THROUGH THE KEY-
HOLE (signed by Jae Lee). Please note that this Artist Edition was released
prior to the Trade Edition and so is the First Edition of this book:


Thank you.

Robert K. Wiener, President
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc.