So here was my reaction when I received this unsolicited review copy of Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C.: “Hm. That’s kind of neat.” And I gave it a cursory glance and set it aside. Some time later, I …
Continue ReadingBack in the 1970s, the first Star Wars toy I got was a Landspeeder. The first action figure I asked for to drive it around? Darth Vader. Because the heck with accurate movie re-creation: This guy ruled. Star Wars: The …
Continue ReadingWord association: Say “Halloween,” and I think,”Ray Bradbury.” In a 1993 piece for TV Guide, Bradbury described the deepest experience of his favorite holiday as “tasting darkness, but thrilled by the encounter because we are alive to savor it. It …
Continue ReadingOur household has always had a kind of special connection with PBS’ Arthur, because it’s one of the first kids’ shows I remember specifically sitting down to watch with my daughter. The show debuted in September 1996, so it’s almost …
Continue ReadingScience fiction author and geek dad Tobias S. Buckell has a Kickstarter project going to fund a return to his Xenowealth universe. I was introduced to Buckell’s novel Crystal Rain back in 2008 and was immediately drawn in by the …
Continue ReadingWhen I was probably 9 or 10 years old, I begged my dad to take me into the freak show tent at the county fair, intrigued by the big airbrushed banners of the Spider Lady and the Human Pretzel. Dad …
Continue ReadingKirk Demarais is a total retro pop culture junkie. As an artist and author, he’s visually chronicled the history of novelty prank and magic trick maker S.S. Adams Company , contributed several paintings to fun shows at Gallery 1988, and …
Continue ReadingSometime in the summer of 1991, when I had rented my first apartment and was staying in Bowling Green, Ohio between my sophomore and junior years of college, my hometown best friend Aaron came over for a visit. He brought …
Continue ReadingIllustrating the changing nature of language can be as fun and easy as embarrassing the heck out of your teenager by using “groovy” while her friends are around. (Or even just threatening to.) Newly-minted Hugo Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal …
Continue ReadingLen Peralta’s Geek A Week year-long trading card art and podcasting project will spawn a sequel. This Friday, Sept. 2 at DragonCon, the artist is launching “Season 2” of the series at a Geek A Week Reunion Panel including Jonathan …
Continue ReadingThere’s always been room in my house for a little Weird to go along with the Science. Okay: maybe more than a little. When I was a kid, I loved In Search of… And when my daughter was younger, she …
Continue ReadingFilming of The Avengers is underway here in Cleveland, and the week’s off to an action-packed start. (That clip looks like it comes from the employees at Medical Mutual of Ohio, which has been posting photos and video from the …
Continue ReadingIt’s hard for me to believe it’s already been almost a year since Star Wars Celebration V wrapped up in Orlando. On the other hand, it’s only about 13 months until the next one kicks off, and for old-school fans, …
Continue ReadingAt Star Wars Celebration V last August, Lucasfilm teased attendees with a single glimpse of a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi when the original trilogy’s Blu-Ray release was announced. Not quite a year later, and with the nearing …
Continue ReadingWe stood outside the tomb, watching it collapse. Then we got our Experience Points and had pie. In a moment a quarter-century in the making, I completed my first Dungeons & Dragons quest this month, with my wife and daughter …
Continue ReadingIn April 2005, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone to my daughter. It was about a month after her eighth birthday. As of this summer, she’s officially a high-schooler. And this week, of course, the two of …
Continue ReadingFans of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper, let the hyperactivity commence: The premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day is just eight days off. The dark, hard-edged Doctor Who spinoff returns to television July 8 on the Starz network after a …
Continue ReadingJim C. Hines’ four-book “princess” series comes to a close on July 5 with the release of The Snow Queen’s Shadow, and while I’m sad to see this series end, he’s written a fantastic finisher. From The Stepsister Scheme through …
Continue ReadingPushing 30 years old, the Transformers franchise has seen so many incarnations and storylines and characters that some aspect is sure to have ticked off or been ridiculed by or flat-out alienated even the most die-hard fan at some point. …
Continue ReadingYou can tell by Simon Pegg’s movies alone that he’s never stopped wearing his geek heart on his zombie-blood-spattered Jedi robe sleeve. His autobiography, Nerd Do Well — which comes out in Gotham Books’ hardcover edition June 9 — is …
Continue ReadingMy Doctor Who fandom was born relatively recently, when Netflix instant-watchability landed the TARDIS in our family room. Yes, I grew up in the 1980s and became a budding science fiction geek in the shadow of Star Wars, consuming all …
Continue ReadingYou ever find yourself halfway through a too-big bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, fingers all fake-cheese powdery and think, “I haven’t been hungry for twenty minutes now, so why am I still – ” >crunch,crunch< That’s the kind of inexplicable …
Continue ReadingOn May 16, 2007, CBS announced the cancellation of Jericho, sparking a fan movement that resulted in 20 tons of nuts being sent to the network in protest. And I know this thanks to Today in Geek History, a bare-bones but …
Continue ReadingJohn Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation hits bookstores today. Already read the GeekDad author interview and book review? Wrap up your release-day psyche-up with Fuzzy Nation’s brand-new Official Power Ballad, “Fuzzy Man,” by Paul and Storm:
Continue ReadingE. Archer’s Geek Fantasy Novel showed up at my house one afternoon in an unexpected package from Scholastic Press. Fittingly, it turns out. Because while this strange story of a boy named Ralph has its share of strengths and weaknesses, …
Continue ReadingI read two books in order to write this one-book review. I didn’t have to, but you can count me among the science fiction readers who hadn’t heard of H. Beam Piper or his book Little Fuzzy before John Scalzi …
Continue ReadingJohn Scalzi has been a science fiction reader since he was a kid. He’s also a two-time Hugo Award winner, the recipient of the John W. Campbell Best New Writer award, and president since July 2010 of the Science Fiction …
Continue ReadingRemember Steve Eves and his 36-foot rocket? It’s sequel time! Two years after his record-setting blast-off, the Northeast Ohio builder behind the 1:10 scale Saturn V is scheduled to launch a smaller but more complex Saturn 1B model this Saturday, …
Continue ReadingFoxTrot comic strip creator Bill Amend brought this to our attention via his Twitter feed. It’s the creation of pet store employee Jeff Gretz and his co-worker Sarah, inspired by a customer comment about Amend’s March 6 FoxTrot. (“It was …
Continue ReadingYou know those cartoon scenes where someone gets so hungry that they start seeing everything around them as food? Sometimes I wonder if that’s what happens when Bonnie Burton looks around, only instead of food, it’s Star Wars stuff. That …
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