Tank Girl (1995, USA)
Director: Rachel Talalay
Writer: Tedi Sarafian (screenplay) and Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett (comic strip) Continue reading “#WomenMakeSF Review (2): Tank Girl (1995)”
Tag: Comics
Amazing Stories, Amazing Art: SF Magazine Cover Art
Originally posted: April 2016
The cover art for the Unsettling Scientific Stories project is taken from original cover art created by Arnold Kohn for the August 1947 edition of Amazing Stories (vol.21, iss.8). I proposed it as a suitable image to represent the project as it communicates the awesome power of science. The figure is both frightened and in awe of the power he holds in his hand: the potential of science, and specifically in this cover, the potential that atomic science has in the hands of humanity. Trying to find an image to represent a project that spans more than 100 years is not an easy task. But the idea that science has been looked upon, feared, respected, and misused is one that weaves its way throughout the project. Kohn’s art for Amazing Stories communicated an idea rather than a story. Unsettling Scientific Stories is of course about stories, and some very specific stories but it is also about how ideas about science were communicated through text and image. Continue reading “Amazing Stories, Amazing Art: SF Magazine Cover Art”
You gotta make way for the Homo Superior: Mutation, Evolution, and Super Powers on Screen
Originally posted: February 2015
- Detail from the title sequence from X-Men: First Class
Recently I went to a fascinating research seminar on the history of the theory of mass extinction and the human fears of and impact on extinction given by historian of biology, Dr David Sepkoski (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin) at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (University of Manchester). It got me thinking about not only imagined extinction in fiction (I’ve researched/written about Planet of the Apes’ and its post-human/post-apocalyptic worlds), but also about how some recent science fiction shows, predominately in the Marvel (MCU) and DC storyworlds, have drawn upon human fears of extinction and being replaced (and thus super threatened) by another human race (or more specifically, a secondarily evolving hominin species). The fear isn’t of an invading species of aliens, or the rise of intelligent apes – but a threat that is much closer to home, a threat from within human DNA (what Kirby [2007] refers to as ‘the Devil in our DNA’). Continue reading “You gotta make way for the Homo Superior: Mutation, Evolution, and Super Powers on Screen”
What Entertainment Can do for Science, and Vice Versa
Originally posted: August 2015
- One of the plausible zombies from The Last of Us (2013) – in the game the zombie infection is a fungus that kills and transforms its hosts
We are experiencing a golden age for the fusion of science and entertainment. Oscar-winning films such as Gravity and The Theory of Everything, television ratings titans like The Big Bang Theory, video games including The Last of Us (2013), and high-traffic web-comics like XKCD have shown that science-based entertainment products can be both critically and financially successful. Continue reading “What Entertainment Can do for Science, and Vice Versa”
‘You’re Blind, But You See So Much’: Netflix’s Daredevil and Blindness
Originally posted: 20th April 2015
Netflix recently released its most recent original series, an adaptation of Marvel’s Daredevil. It joins Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Agent Carter’s focus upon the more human characters of the Marvel Universe. Agent Phil Coulson, Agent Peggy Carter, and Daredevil/Matt Murdock are all human and definitely distinct from the god, the genetically enhanced super-soldier, the angry green scientist, and even the genius (billionaire playboy philanthropist) and his super-suit of armour. Unlike Agents of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Agent Carter that were produced for weekly broadcast on television, the newest addition to the Marvel franchise has been released in a 13-episode load. This gives the audience the option to binge-watch the entire series, space it over a few days, or (if you have the willpower) over a few weeks. I have taken a break from my viewing marathon to think about a few things that came up during the first half of the series relating to the way the series communicates Murdock’s blindness and how this sensory deprivation makes him a super (human) hero. Continue reading “‘You’re Blind, But You See So Much’: Netflix’s Daredevil and Blindness”
The Science Sleuths: Fighting Crime with ‘Science’ in Golden Era Comics
Originally posted: January 2015
Jill Trent first appeared in issue #6 of the pulp comic The Fighting Yank published by Nedor Comics. The Fighting Yank was a patriotic Second World War series launched in 1941 and was about ‘America’s Bravest Defender’ – Nedor’s pulpy equivalent to the Shield and Captain America. Jill Trent is a rather unusual character for the era; a scholarly female scientist who used her own knowledge to fight crime. Continue reading “The Science Sleuths: Fighting Crime with ‘Science’ in Golden Era Comics”
Dr Amy C. Chambers 