1.
I’m sharing two commissions this week, both of which just so happen to relate to works of literature, giving rise to a bit of a theme for this week’s newsletter.
First up:
Julius Dax, thief, repo man, and precarious robot repair man. He’s been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he’s stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated, as uncovered in the pages of REPO VIRTUAL by Corey J. White.
2.
“Molly, Case. My name’s Molly. I’m collecting you for the man I work for. Just wants to talk, is all. Nobody wants to hurt you.”
“That’s good.”
“‘Cept I do hurt people sometimes, Case. I guess it’s just the way I’m wired.” She wore tight black gloveleather jeans and a bulky jacket cut from some matte fabric that seemed to absorb light. “If I put this dartgun away, will you be easy, Case? You look like you like to take stupid chances.”
“Hey, I’m very easy. I’m a pushover, no problem.”
“That’s fine, man.” The fletcher vanished into the black jacket. “Because you try to fuck around with me, you’ll be taking one of the stupidest chances of your whole life.”
She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten double-edged, four centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the burgundy nails.
She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.
From William Gibson’s NEUROMANCER.
3.
This sort of thing definitely lends itself to video more than a blog post, and I was planning on doing this as a video but my mic was picking up all matter of sound from several block away; lawnmowers, blending machines, and very loud birds (Houston is, after all, kind of tropical). So I figured I'd just make do with a blog post for now.
Anybody who knows me knows that I am a fan of both comix and science fiction, so a magazine that brings both together really makes absolute sense to me. I find myself a little frustrated at the tendency for these “scenes” to exist completely separate from one another, siloed off in their own echo chambers when of course there's an overlap, and it's an overlap that ought to be expanded even, at least in my mind.
So it was with great surprise when I came across this 1975 magazine that sought to bring both worlds together, a magazine put out by Marvel Comics of all people! It's a pretty good effort, with each issue running original material as well as adaptations of works by giants in the science fiction field (Harlan Ellison! Frank Herbert! Robert Silverberg!). All shorts, with only the occasional comic running across multiple issues.
Let's take a closer look at issue no. 2, the earliest issue in my possession.
4.
The last letter from Shady Habash.
All my best,
Ganzeer
May 23, 2020
Houston, TX