Starship Smackdown
In which we tested out some new convention panel ideas, sold some books, and generally had a great time.
Last weekend’s ArmamdilloCon here in Austin, TX maintained its position as one of my favorite conventions. It was a fun way to catch up with friends I don’t see often enough, and to meet some folks I’ve only known online, as well as get to know some new folks too.
The panels I was on were great fun and often thought provoking. A special shout out to those on the five panels I moderated for being respectful and well behaved even when disagreeing. Lively debate is always fun, although I I wasn’t expecting the panel on the Marvel movies to be the liveliest.
I also tested out a couple of new panel ideas at the convention.
The Panel With No Subject (which I heard people refer to as “The Panel With No Name” - which was a much better title and one I’ll use if we do this again) worked well. The concept was that as host I had a list of twenty random questions that the panelists hadn’t seen and we’d roll a D20 dice to see what questions came up. Many fun stories were told as a result. Unfortunately we were scheduled against the awards ceremony and a well-attended promotional event so we had a small (but engaged) audience who all said they enjoyed the panel and found the idea fun. A couple of folks also gave some great feedback that will help with what is a work in progress.
We kicked off the convention with the Starship Smackdown. Not my original idea as I’d been on this panel at DragonCon last year, and I thought it would be fun to try it out at my local convention. We asked the audience members to nominate 16 starships, (and I’ll admit some of the first ones called out were not what I was expecting) from which I filled in a bracket in order of nomination. The panel members were then tasked with debating who would come out on top of each face-off, gradually whittling the 16 down to two finalists.
At the event I promised I’d post the full bracket in this very newsletter. So here it is.
You may disagree with the results, but that’s the way it came down in the room (and continued in a few debates afterwards).
This year was the first time we’ve run a table in the Dealers’ Room under our FOREST COMICS name, and it was a very successful three days of book selling. The car was definitely a lot lighter traveling home on Sunday afternoon than it had been when we headed out on the Friday. Thanks to anyone who stopped by for a chat and picked up a book or two.
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
Not too much writing this week, but some serious reorganization for, as I suspected, one of the chapters I had in my original outline proved to be surplus to requirements as there wasn’t enough research material to justify a whole chapter. So I combined what material I did have across two other adjacent chapters. As a result, what could have been writing time, ended up as reorganizing time as chapter numbers in various files and tracking spreadsheets needed adjusting. Not a very glamorous aspect of putting a book together, but better to do it at the time of making the change than potentially get confused at a later date.
Word Slinging
In the mail this week was the new edition of the Dutch language Bondesque magazine which included a few words by me on James Bond’s connections with Jamaica. It’s an honor to be part of such a great looking publication.
Pages and Screens
Book Read in 2023 - “The Ship Beneath The Ice“ by Mensun Bound
A first hand account of two expeditions to locate the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance that was lost to the Antarctic ice packs in 1915.
Told in diary format by expedition director and marine archeologist, Bound it is a surprisingly personal, and intimate account of the frustrations, fear, and self-doubt of the first failed attempt in 2019, and the tension, relief and jubilation of the successful voyage in 2022.
Although Bound references and quotes corresponding diary entries from Shackleton and various members of the original crew in his narrative, it still helps to have a background knowledge of the events that lead up to the ships disappearance and the remarkable story of survival that followed.
(I suddenly realized this week that although this section has always been titled Pages & Screens, I have rarely posted any of my movie reviews here. So it’s about time I corrected that.)
Movies watched in 2023 - Battle For Sevastopol
A 2015 joint Russian / Ukrainian production (a fact that now gives the movie a strange underlying tension) about the life of WW2 Ukranian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko who it was claimed had 309 kills. When asked about she felt killing killing so many men in cold blood she famously responded “not men, fascists.”
On the one hand this is a stark brutal movie that through some powerful cinematography portrays the toil, terror, and toll of a combat sniper on the Russian front. Russian actress Yulia Pereslid1 is excellent in the lead role.
But it is unfortunately undermined by an unnecessary focus on Pavlichenko’s love life, some dodgy CGI, on-the-nose melodrama, poor dubbing, and the strange choice of Eleanor Roosevelt as the overarching narrator. - The result being that what could have been a powerful examination of a remarkable woman becomes a narrative mess.
And the one thing it isn’t is a movie about the Battle for Sevastapol. It could have been more appropriately titled “Lady Death” (Pavlichenko’s nom-de-guerre).
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
We are still adding new items to our FOREST COMICS & BOOKS store on eBay each week. So don’t forget to click on by and check it out.
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week with four comics published in Brazil during April 1968.
Of the four my favorite was issue #82 of their main Batman series which featured another of their occasion photo montages with a couple of local actors in costume.
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
Since watching this movie I found out that not only is Yulia Pereslid a good actress, but she also trained as a cosmonaut!
Possible improvement for "Starship Smackdown" for the future:
A randomized list of comparisons so you never know which TYPE of smackdown the ships will have: Prettiest, Overall Coolest, Deadliest, Best Commander/Pilot, Best Name, Funniest, etc.
If you use just those 6, each pairing has a d6 rolled to find out which type of battle they're in. Randomness to give every ship chance.
So, for example, Deathstar vs Gunstar ... Deadliest favors Death Star, Best C/P favors Gunstar, and the fans could override and choose the underdog, plus it would be interesting to see how the fans vote on the others.
And Gunstar vs Millennium Falcon, gives Gunstar a chance in Deadliest, Prettiest and maybe Funniest, so it's not just a pure popularity contest.
Please feel free to take that idea and do with it what you want. You don't even have to credit me. I just think it would make the smackdown better.
I hope I can make it to Austin next year.