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new comics we crave

Flight Attendants and Jedi Apprentices Blow Your Mind In This Week's Comics

It's a relatively light week at comic stores this week, but that's to everyone's benefit, as what is coming out may just blow your mind so much that you wouldn't be able to read anything else anyway. New (non-Clone Wars) Star Wars, new futuristic superheroes, the return of Spider-Man's favorite alien and something to deal with your David Tennant-longing while Doctor Who is off-air all await you under the jump. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Tue Aug 19 2008
By Graeme McMillan
4,587 views, 22 comments

world's end

When Superheroes Fail To Save The World

Superheroes, as we all know, exist to save the day. It's what they do - Swoop down from on high, solve the problems and swoop back on out again. But what happens when they not only don't save the day, but play an active part in the destruction of the world? That's the basis for the latest relaunch of DC Comics' Wildstorm line, entitled World's End. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Sun Aug 17 2008
By Graeme McMillan
10,481 views, 29 comments

star wars

5 Things We Want To See In The Clone Wars TV Show

By now you'll have seen the movie - or, perhaps, decided that you don't want to see the movie because even just the idea of Ahsoka has scared you off - and know what kind of thing to expect from the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show: Anakin Skywalker frowning a lot and hanging out with stormtroopers and stereotypically camp Hutt monsters. But that's not enough for us, so here are five additional ways that the Clone Wars could win our hearts. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Sat Aug 16 2008
By Graeme McMillan
6,017 views, 37 comments

mangobot

Coming Soon from China: Dystopic Futures, the Next Steve Jobs, and a World Full of Drumming Androids

Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. I'm a total sports nut. Olympic season makes my bones shiver with excitement. But this year, I took my mind off record-breaking swim relays and super-twisty gymnastics routines for a minute to consider the host country's techno-socio-political future. The opening ceremony confirmed my theory that China is breeding robots. (We already know that the cute girl who performed the patriotic song was lip-syncing and that the fireworks shown on TV were fake. I'm pretty sure that the 2008 drummers who kicked off the five-hour technological spectacularity were androids, too.) But what else is up in the giant nation that many believe will be the next world superpower? I called some experts and came away with a list of five predictions for China's next half-century. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Fri Aug 15 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
15,223 views, 23 comments

death sports

Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves -- The Ten Most Gruesome Scifi Death Sports

Maybe the Olympic Games are all about fostering world peace and crap like that, but we know that sports of the future will be the stuff of bloody, oil-fueled nightmares. To celebrate all the sports that don't foster cross-cultural understanding, we bring you a list of the very best scifi death sports captured on film. Competitive games should always lead to death, or at least maiming, don't you think? Well, yeah — duh. Check out our entrail-spattered list of future entertainments that kill. More »

Feature

9:15 AM on Thu Aug 14 2008
By Annalee Newitz
46,314 views, 69 comments

kronk burger

20 Things That Should Be Their Own Genres (But Aren't)

One of the great mysteries of the universe is why some types of story get to repeat, with endless variations, while others just don't. How is that space opera gets to be its own genre? Or the amnesiac detective story? Or time-travel romance? Who decides that these things are genres, but some other perfectly great story ideas are denied genre status? Here are 20 things we think are way overdue to become genres of their own. Fight the power! More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Wed Aug 13 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
9,688 views, 69 comments

new comics we crave

It's All About The Tie-Ins For This Week's Comics

It's a heavy week for tie-ins at the comic store this week, with prequels, sequels, adaptations and source material for movies, video games and our favorite TV show hitting shelves tomorrow. There's even the re-appearance of the much-delayed Halo comic for its third "monthly" issue in the space of a year, but that's just one of the many cross-media treats waiting for you under the jump. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Tue Aug 12 2008
By Graeme McMillan
2,954 views, 15 comments

what to watch

TV This Week: Stargate Atlantis Has One Big Fat Reveal

Welcome back, Stargate Atlantis — we missed you! This week promises the dramatic return of a past character, and Rodney almost sinks the city. (Or tries to save the city, who knows with this Stargate math?). Plus, the mighty Hercules, Kevin Sorbo, cameos on Middleman as hero from the past (fingers crossed for more ridiculous Sorbo hair). More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Mon Aug 11 2008
By Meredith Woerner
4,108 views, 15 comments

steal this pitch

How To Make Smallville Watchable Again

As the story of Clark Kent's awkward young adult years heads into its eight year as a television show, it's time to face an even more awkward truth: Smallville kind of sucks. For the last seven years, the show has had its moments of greatness (Yay, the very existence of Chloe!) and it's moments of... well, not so greatness (Hello, almost every subplot that ever involved Lana Lang). With the show's eighth season being its first without Lana and Lex as regular cast members as well as its first without show creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, we'd like to take the opportunity to suggest some other changes that could make the show worth tuning in to every week. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Sun Aug 10 2008
By Graeme McMillan
8,996 views, 40 comments

the phantom

Is The Phantom Really Sci-Fi?

Announced at Comic-Con, Lee Falk's classic comic strip hero The Phantom is being developed as a TV movie and potential series for the Sci-Fi Channel by Carnivale's Daniel Knauf and his son, Charlie. But what is it about "the Ghost Who Walks" that makes him especially science fiction-y? We run down what to expect from the new version, and also look at just why he belongs on that particular channel. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Sat Aug 9 2008
By Graeme McMillan
2,506 views, 28 comments

jewels of apator

Bob Eggleton: The Texture of Monsters

Welcome back to Jewels of Apator, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's biweekly column about the intersection of art and the fantastic. Bob Eggleton has created so many book covers, interior art, monster art, and miscellaneous projects that it’s hard to keep track of his total output. And that's not even including film work for Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, The Ant Bully, and the forthcoming Invasia. One constant across all of his projects, though, is a unique tactile sensibility. Eggleton’s art has texture. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Fri Aug 8 2008
By Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
3,100 views, 11 comments

ask a biogeek

Son Of "Where Are My Cybernetic Implants?"

Welcome to Ask a Biogeek, a column where you ask UC Berkeley researcher Terry Johnson any question you want — no matter how weird. There seems to be a strong correlation between my posting an article on a subject, and my RSS feeds filling up with exciting new research, which I then wish I'd been able to include. The usual post-article deluge of goodness, combined with the poster for a Neuromancer movie practically forced me to revisit the burning question: Where are my cybernetic implants? More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Thu Aug 7 2008
By Terry Johnson
2,061 views, 25 comments

true confessions

The Little ARG That Failed

Between the giant banners advertising the D-9 alternate reality game (ARG) with anti-alien slogans, beyond the Dharma Initiative recruitment booth, there was a little stack of postcards at Comic-Con that read "You are being deceived — www.youarebeingdeceived.com." It was the calling card for an ARG that nobody saw. How do I know? Because io9 built the You Are Being Deceived ARG, complete with a phone number you can call and two mysterious linked URLs, as an experiment in marketing and mass deception. What happens when you try to deceive people but your lies are drowned out by better-funded lies? Allow me to recount our strange tale. More »

Feature

10:19 AM on Wed Aug 6 2008
By Annalee Newitz
5,402 views, 83 comments

new comics we crave

Spider-Man Webs Up This Week's Comics

If you're heading to the comic book store this week, I hope that you like Spider-Man. Otherwise, you may find yourself with a surprisingly light shopping bag on the way out. The post-San Diego slump hits now, with next-to-no new launches or trades allowing Marvel's webbed-wonder to try and steal all the money from your wallet. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Tue Aug 5 2008
By Graeme McMillan
3,956 views, 16 comments

rant

Spock Is Sexy? Illogical!

Everyone always thinks of James Tiberius Kirk as the resident ladykiller of the starship Enterprise, but has another member of Starfleet's most celebrated crew been hiding his pointy-eared light under a bushel? A random assertion by friends at Comic-Con has led me down a particular rabbit hole that I may never fully recover from, but you can all join me... under the jump. More »

Feature

12:00 PM on Sun Aug 3 2008
By Graeme McMillan
5,059 views, 35 comments

comic-con 08

Was This Year's Comic-Con The Big One?

It was the con that, it seemed, confounded a lot of people. Press shut out of panels, celebrities turned away from parties, comic publishers vowing never to return and 125,000 fans all in one building for four days without end. Every year, San Diego Comic-Con ends with people griping that it has gotten to be too big and that something has to change, but was this the year that lived up to the complaints? More »

Feature

12:00 PM on Sat Aug 2 2008
By Graeme McMillan
5,347 views, 50 comments

mangobot

Mac Funamizu's Gadget Designs of the Future

Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. Mac Funamizu is a tech geek, designer, and futurist who has created quite a lot of buzz among design circles for his innovative gadgets from the future. The 38-year old Tokyo native has always loved Apple, Google, and Starbucks, but he always felt inconvenienced by the extra steps involved in using them. (Why mouth off a complex multi-conditional order of coffee when you could just customize your cup of joe online? Why doesn't Google Maps give you more than just a topographic image of what you're looking at?) At first, his ideas were just rough sketches in his Moleskine. But then he started posting his neat, provocative ideas online, and now developers are contacting him to try and make some of them a reality. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Fri Aug 1 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
8,464 views, 24 comments

terminator

Which Will Be Cooler: Terminator 4, Or Sarah Connor Season 2?

For the first time ever, soon the Terminator will be competing... with the Terminator. It's likely that Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles will still be on the air, telling its own version of the robo-pocalypse/time-travel story, when Terminator Salvation hits theaters next May. Both versions will have their strengths and weaknesses, but which will be cooler? Here's our early Terminator scorecard, including a bit of spoilery speculation. (Also, the full version of the new T4 poster is below as well.) More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Thu Jul 31 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
6,280 views, 53 comments

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