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Caroline Munro in Space?
Speaking of Caroline Munro (as I was in my last post Lovely Ladies And Pleistocene Behemoths: A Visit To The Hollow Earth With Edgar Rice Burroughs)… here’s an amusing bit of trivia regarding Space...
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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Paul Cain’s ‘Fast One’ (My intro)
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a...
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Rules for Me and Thee, It Turns Out
Good afterevenmorn! My social timelines have been abuzz… alright, they were abuzz a couple of weeks ago, I’m slow… with the news that a certain writer is a wee bit miffed that their attempts to be...
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A Book Worth Reading Every Year: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
In a few days I’ll begin my twenty-first year of teaching fourth grade; as I tell my new families every intro night, I’m going to keep doing it until I get it right. As always, the year ahead is...
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Goth Chick News Reviews: We Can All Relate to Murder Your Employer
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide (Avid Reader Press, February 21, 2023) First and foremost, this review is in no way a reference to our Black Gate big cheese John O. Speaking for...
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A to Z Review: “The Pagan Rabbi,” By Cynthia Ozick
Over the past several years, I’ve embarked on a series of year-long review cycles at Black Gate. In 2018, I reviewed a story-a-day to coincide with an author whose birthday it was. In 2022, I selected...
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Robot Avatars, Criminal Combines, and a Sisterhood of Space Pilots:...
July-August 2024 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction & Fact. Cover art by John Sumrow (for “Sisters of the Flare”) and Shutterstock Might as well get the bad news out of...
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Quatro-Decadal Review: Weird Tales, November 1989, edited by John Betancourt,...
Weird Tales, Fall 1989 (Terminus Publishing). Cover by J.K. Potter There has been quite the gap in my reviews. I’ve been high-centered on Weird Tales. Many factors played a role in this — mostly that...
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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Hammett &‘The Girl with the Silver Eyes’ (My intro)
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a...
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Conan Well Captured: Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking
Conan: City of the Dead (Titan Books, June 18, 2024). Illustrations by Richard Pace John C. Hocking’s (1960 -) Conan and the Emerald Lotus came along in 1995, near the end of the Tor Conan pastiche...
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Cinema of Swords: Swords in the Arthouse
Historical adventure and fantasy films tend to be straightforward genre pictures long on plot and action and short on deep themes and introspection, which is okay, you can’t have everything. Or can...
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Goth Chick News: Buckle Up – We’re Going to the Fan Expo
Way back in 2010, Black Gate photog Chris Z suggested we check out the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. This was by no means a new event in our fair city. In fact, the Chicago Comic Con was first held...
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A to Z Review: “Basic Agreement,” by Avis Pabel
“Basic Agreement,” by Avis Pabel appeared in the September 1958 issue of Astounding and was reprinted in the December UK issue of the magazine. It is the only story by Pabel that appears in the...
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I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie, Part III
Bug Buster (DMG Entertainment, 1998), Mesa of Lost Women (Howco Productions, 1953), and Earth vs. the Spider (American International Pictures, 1958) Bug Buster – 1998 – Prime Giant bugs? Not until the...
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It’s Only a Matter of Time
The human mind daydreams its way around certain specific topics with exceptional regularity. We fret about personal security, we hope for love (in its innumerable forms), and to round out the likely...
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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a...
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An Essential Purchase: The Weird Tales Boys by Stephen Jones
The Weird Tales Boys (PS Publishing, September 2023). Cover by Les Edwards How could I not purchase The Weird Tales Boys, by Stephen Jones? It focuses on the three authors whose work has most inspired...
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Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the...
Seriously, how many D&D encounters did this one scene inspire? (Jason and the Argonauts, 1963) I sincerely doubt any Black Gate reader needs an education in who Ray Harryhausen was or why his...
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Necronomicon Coming
Not the book of cosmically horrible… stuff, we’ll say “stuff” and let that be that, shall we? Not the Necronomicon of dread lore and Lovecraftian literary shenanigans. No, Necronomicon, as in a ‘con,...
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Goth Chick News: Bring on the Retro, 16-Bit Games Are Coming Back
RetroRealms – Halloween Gameplay Screenshot There is almost nothing I love better than a thunder-stormy Sunday afternoon spent playing video games. These days, those hours are spent in my souped-up...
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