DilloCon Schedule
In which we are on the way to hang out with some of our favorite people while we talk about geeky things and hopefully sell some books.
As this issue hits the interwebs and lands in subscribers email in-boxes we will be on the way to one of my favorite conventions, ArmadilloCon right here in Austin, TX.
If you are in the area come and escape the heat at a fun literary convention full of speculative fiction goodness, where you can join me for the following sessions:
Friday, August 4th
- Starship Smackdown - 4pm
Saturday, August 5th
- Signing session - 11:00am
- The MCU: What Was Phase IV? What Is Phase V? - 1:00pm
- Writing for Existing Franchises - 2:00pm
- Reading - 4:30pm
- Insert Archvillain Here - 8:00pm
- The Panel With No Subject - 9:00pm
Sunday, August 6th
- 60 Years of Doctor Who - 10:00am
- AI Will Murder Us All In Our Beds - 1:00pm
This year we will also be set up in the Dealers Room where we will have a great selection of books, paperbacks, and graphic novels for sale under our FOREST COMICS & BOOKS banner. So stop by and pick up a few bargains to sustain your reading habit over the weekend.
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers who have joined since last week. There’s also been a notable increase in readership for the newsletter over the last few weeks.I really appreciate your interest and support. If you’re one of those folks who have recently joined us but haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so by clicking the button below to get each upcoming newsletter delivered straight to your email.
Brabazon Bits
This week I completed the initial draft of the chapter covering the design process for the Bristol Brabazon, including how thanks to a speech in the House of Lords, the aircraft officially designated as the Bristol Type 167 ended up being known colloquially as “The Brabazon.”
Next up is compiling my notes for the chapter about the construction of the extended runway and the new Aircraft Assembly Hall (aka The Brab Hanger ) at Filton.
Word Slinging
The new anthology, The Man Who Laughs about a certain Crown Prince of Crime, was officially published earlier this week. Congratulations to editors Lou Tambone and Rich Handley.
I am honored to have some words included alongside essays from Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Paul Kupperberg, Michael Jan Friedman, LaMarrison Forte, Tom Mason, Steve Englehart, Paul Cornish, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Alex Galer, Joseph F. Berenato, John Trumbull, Jo Duffy, Jim Beard, Duy Tano, Brian Cronin, Bobby Nash, Bob Rozakis, and Valentina Rossi.
Also out this week is another article for the Reworked website, this time I share a few thoughts on the sometimes tricky subject of content governance.
Pages and Screens
Book Read in 2023 - “ Elvis: The Graphic Novel “ by Chris Miskiewicz & Michael Shelfer.
Covering the beginning of Elvis’ career from high school to the early days of stardom is a big task to take on, especially in light of the numerous excellent biographies about the King’s early days (notably Last Train to Memphis ), and even to the recent biopic.
Unfortunately while the early high school era stuff is well paced here and does a good job of introducing us to Elvis as the awkward loner, it falls short once Elvis gets into the studio. As Elvis’ career takes off the storytelling becomes more disjointed and harder to follow. You really need a good prior knowledge of this period to keep track of who’s who and why particular events are important.
Not helped by some confusing panel transitions and transposed dialog word balloons.
Strangely the thing most missing is the music. I guess for licensing reasons no lyrics are included in the scenes of Elvis performing and it leaves the art on the relevant pages feeling somewhat muted.
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - A quick reminder that Episode 25 of The Before They Were Beatles podcast is now live and available on your podcast platform of choice.
Entitled “Beginnings and Endings” it covers the events of September through to December 1962 as we complete our journey as The Beatles return to the recording studio, make their TV debut, and say goodbye to Hamburg.
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
The July issue was recently published and introduced us to the young John Lennon - If you want to find out more, now is a great time to subscribe.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we move on into April 1968 with just two new Batman related releases from DC Comics that month with issues of Detective Comics and Brave & The Bold hitting the spinner racks.
The Detective Comics one being the standout of the two with a dramatic cover from artist Irv Novick as The Boy Wonder, not for the first, or the last time, seems to have suffered the ultimate fate.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else that might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter