Revenge of the Jedi Kittens

More light-saber cat fights, courtesy of FinalCutKing:

Complete Contents of Galaxis October 2011 Issue

Now that several hundred people have already sampled the second issue of Galaxis, my digital magazine devoted to "The Worlds of Science & Science Fiction," it's time to share the entire contents with you.

FEATURES  

The Great Starship Challenge (help NASA and DARPA plan an interstellar spacecraft)
Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Episode Guide (to the reimagined series)
The Old German Future (a look at forgotten German science fiction)
Prometheus Unbound (a critical examination of the free-for-all attempts to publicize secrets about Ridley Scott's new film)
Bunky's Odd Friends (Lyle Lahey's 1970s comic strip rediscovered)
Perry Rhodan Starts Over (rebooting the German SF series)
Trips to the Moon (possibly the very first SF story ever written)
Saturn's Secrets (photo guide to the ringed planet) 

DEPARTMENTS 

Viewscreen (when politics and SF meet)
Launch Tube (short news about Schwarzenegger and the next Terminator, remembering Martin H. Greenberg, Star Trek updates, and more)
Worldly Things (these are a few of our favorite things)
Webbed (websites of interest)
Compendium (event listings – exhibits, conventions, space launches, lectures, and much more)
Mail (reader reaction)
Reviewscreen (reviews of The Magician King, The Windup Girl, The Host, the summer's superhero onslaught, and more)
Plus, of course, a look at the next issue.

All of that is in one colorful 60-page magazine, which I've designed for people who love science fiction and science, and particularly for people looking for something a little different, a little deeper, than they get from other magazines in the field. Won't you join us?

Remember, you can read or download a free digital copy of Galaxis from here, or you can purchase a print-on-demand copy here.

The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Copyediting

 As often is the case when I write a post about magazine covers, this is apropos of nothing particularly significant.

This morning I found online the above cover of a 1992 issue of Omni magazine. I immediately figured I should order a copy, because it features an article on Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of the great TV shows of all time. Except ... Omni mistitles MST3K on the cover text: "Laughing at the Future with Mystery Science 3000."

It would not be the last time that MST3K was incorrectly identified on a genre magazine cover. Four years later, Starlog would announce the MST3K motion picture by shouting on its cover, "Joel, Tom Servo & Crow make a movie!" Which would have been great, except that creator and host Joel Hodgson had left the show some time earlier and it was his successor, Michael J. Nelson, who made a movie with the help of his robot friends.

Chinese "UFO" Videos

So either China has been recognized even by aliens as the new alpha nation worth visiting, or digital videography has achieved widespread popularity in Guangzhou



We'll probably learn soon enough that this was all just a publicity stunt for an upcoming Chinese science fiction movie.

My Interview with Immigration Attorney Lavi Soloway

Lavi Soloway (photo by Klaus Enrique Photography)

There have been some momentous developments in the nation's immigration laws lately. After journalist Jose Antonio Vargas spoke at The Commonwealth Club (where I work) about his life as an undocumented immigrant, I talked with well-known immigration attorney Lavi Soloway about what it all means and where it might be heading.

Read it on The Commonwealth Club of California's blog

I think I'm going to have to buy this issue.

10 Years Later, Still Fresh

As we head into the 10th anniversary weekend of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, I offer up some memories that I've posted here before:

Remembering 9/11 in New York City 

I can only imagine what this time of the year is like for the people who lost loved ones in those plane hijackings and the destruction of the office towers and part of the Pentagon. My connection to it is merely one of my memory starting with walking to work in Manhattan. The offices for Internet World magazine were located just a couple blocks north of Union Square, which means that if one went to a north-south street, one could count on seeing the twin towers. Read the entire post

Galaxis #2 Now Available on MagCloud Print-on-Demand

Galaxis: Galaxis

New! Complete episode guide to the new Battlestar Galactica series, plus a look at the lost worlds of German science fiction, a Cassini visit to Saturn, Perry Rhodan starts over, Bunky comics, SF from the Roman empire, reviews of The Magician King, and so much more!

Galaxis Issue Two – Now Available

Open publication - Free publishing - More comics

The free digital edition is available at issuu.com.

Looking at Wookies: This Week in Cool Magazine Covers

Apropos of nothing whatsoever, I serve up for you today two covers that feature the same cool photo of Chewbacca from The Empire Strikes Back.

The Fantastic Films cover on the left is the September 1980 issue, one of approximately 4 zillion Empire-themed covers that FF published. (Hey, you go with what sells newsstand copies; no argument there.) The cover on the right was actually not an external cover; it was inside the July 1980 issue of competitor Starlog, serving as the intro page to its special anniversary section.

Though I take second place to no one when it comes to over-the-top Starlog appreciation, I have to give first-place honors here to the Fantastic Films cover. It's colors are better, and even the piling on of endless cover text works in the manner they did it. Either way, we need more Wookies on magazing covers.

Click on the image to biggie-size it.