Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: "The Ultimate Life Form"

My recent Operation Trojan Horse re-read wasn't merely on a whim- it was inspired by a brief passage in Nick Redfern's new book The Pyramids and the Pentagon, almost an afterthought in the context of the book. 

The Owls Are Not What They've Seen

 

 During my Operation Trojan Horse re-read I kept seeing the year of my birth- 1966- recur throughout the text. It was a busy year for UFOlogists in general but for Keel especially, since it brought him to Point Pleasant, WV to investigate the Mothman drama, with its attendant aftershocks like the saucer flap and the MIB invasion. 

As Ashtar Commands

I've been re-reading John Keel's Operation Trojan Horse and finding I'm not quite as impressed as I was the first time I read it. Before it seemed like a marvelous corrective to ETH orthodoxy, but on re-reading I was often struck by Keel's lack of discernment (if not outright blarney) and kneejerk tendency to ascribe everything to his "Ultraterrestrials." 

Ray Bradbury RIP: Fare Thee Well, Rocket Man

I read a lot of sci-fi in my younger years, but mostly short stories. To me the short story was sci-fi's native form-- present an idea, initiate a conflict, resolve the conflict and see where the idea stands when the dust all settles.

Before Watchmen: A Dissenting View

The big tempest in the tiny teapot of the comic book world is DC's new Before Watchmen program, which has press-ganged some of the biggest names in comics to create mini-series based on the stars of the original Watchmen maxi-series from 1986. 

Given that the paperback collection of Watchmen still sells thousands of copies every year (it's the Dark Side of the Moon of the funnybook ghetto), such a move was inevitable.