[SF/F/H Link Post] Japan’s Sci-Fi Future; Fantasy Webcomics; Did French Sci-Fi Comics Influence STAR WARS?

Interviews & Profiles

• Rob Valley Talks About His Epic New Film Pear Cider and Cigarettes.
• Olivia Olson Talks Raising the Stakes for Adventure Time‘s Marceline.
• Taking a Gritty Look at Japan’s Sci-Fi Future, an interview with Nick Mamatas about Haikasoru.

News

• Ancillary Sword General Preorder Period Opens for Subterranean Press’ limited edtion, signed print run.
• Apex Magazine Artist of the Year 2015.
• The 2017 MLA conference, to be held in Philadelphia, PA, seeks papers that probe Latham’s assertion of SF’s relationship to countercultural movements.
• An Imagined Museum: works from the Centre Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections sees three major European art museums bring together over 60 major, post 1945 artworks from their prestigious galleries, drawn on Ray Bradbury’s 1953 sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451. [via Paul Di Filippo]

Articles

• Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud about Luke Skywalker Can’t Read And Other Geeky Truths by Ryan Britt.
• 8 Science Fiction Illustrations That Now Feel Crazy Prescient.
• Trying to identify what made the Universe transparent.
• The Rorschach Test: Watchmen, Truth, and Lies.
• 4 Webcomics For Your Inner Fantasy Lover.
• SciFi Book Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
• J.K. Rowling reveals the secret she told Alan Rickman about Severus Snape.
• Citizen Astronomers Play Increasingly Important Role in Discovery of Cosmic Phenomena.
• 7 Real Products From Dystopian Fiction.
• The Best New Kids’ Graphic Novels for Ages 7-14
• Pottermore losses explain decision to place Harry Potter e-books with other retailers.
• Let’s Talk About the MVPs of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.
• 30 Much Anticipated Young Adult Novels for the First Half of 2016.
• Mysterious Poe Toaster Returns To Baltimore – That’s Edgar Allen, not bro Poe. [via Paul Di Filippo]

TV & Movies

• Why Composer John Williams Knows More About Star Wars Than You Do, musically speaking of course.
• The French Sci-fi Comics That May Have Influenced Star Wars – It’s uncanny how close some of the similarities are.
• Meet the Animator Behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
• New Star Wars Rebels Trailer Reveals A Major Connection To The Force Awakens.
• Netflix’s Black Mirror Reveals New Cast Members, as it moves to its new home on Netflix.
• Chris Pine Raves About His Wonder Woman Co-Star Gal Gadot, But Clams Up When It Comes To Lynda Carter.
• The 2016 Oscar Nominations Were Unusually Kind To Science Fiction.
• Mark Hamill Takes A Bold Approach To Make Sure Fans Won’t Be Fooled Again.
• HBO’s Westworld hasn’t aired yet, already needs a two-month hiatus – that can’t be good…
• Maybe The Martian really was 2015’s funniest comedy after all.
• Outlandish as it seems, Game Of Thrones is rooted in English history.
• TV Review: Meet the new X-Files, same as the old X-Files.
• Listen to an excerpt from Hans Zimmer’s Batman v Superman score.
• Netflix’s growth elicits fear in Hollywood.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens One Month Later: What Worked & Didn’t Work – Now that we’ve all calmed down a bit, did they really need another Death Star? – No, no we didn’t.

Art

• An Homage to the Starman (David Bowie.)
• Ralph McQuarrie’s stunning view of the Dune Sea.
• Childhoods End: Overlord spaceships by Ben Mauro.
• Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard Valkyrie by Christian Groß.

More Fun Stuff

• Invite Olaf To Lunch With This Disney Bento Box.
• Star Wars Cake and Cookies Galore – These look adorably delicious!
• Crafts: Monster Luggage.
• Clever The Shining Shower Curtain Recreates Room 237’s Bathroom – What’s next, the Bates Motel shower curtain?
• The Evangelion Popcorn Bucket Is Suitably Insane.
• The Best Movies of 2015 Look Even Better in LEGO.
• Funko Bringing New Futurama Pops and Dorbz – Good news everyone!
• Here Are Some Fallout 4 Secrets That Didn’t Make It Into The Game Including A Fighting Cage Mode.
• The Top 5 Tabletop Games of 2015 That You Haven’t Heard Of…
• Iron Maiden is releasing a free-to-play mobile RPG – As Bill and Ted would say, “Excellent!”
• Deus Ex Plus Die Hard: Consortium – The Tower – In!
• Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor Looks Delightful.