he stylized signature is unmistakable to any lover of fantastic artwork: sensual glyphs with a vaguely Oriental/Middle Eastern cast to them. The famous last name enshrined in the sinuous strokes? The one and only Frazetta. This bold signature is the first icon to capture your eye when you visit www.frankfrazetta.com. But the visual wonders and hard data that lie behind the signature are manifold.
First comes an engagingly written biography of the artist that must approach monograph-length, copiously illustrated with charming family photos and examples of work from all stages of Frazetta's life, including rarities seldom before seen. Divided into decades from the 1940s to the 1990s, this captivating life story recounts how a talented Brooklyn youngster born into very average circumstances pursued his vision through years of struggle in the fields of comic books, newspaper strips, paperback illustrations, movie posters and album covers, finally reaching the pinnacle of having a museum dedicated to his work. (The absolutely newest information on Frazetta is contained in the "News" section, archived from month to month.)
The Frazetta Museum itself--newly opened this April, though an official celebration is still scheduled for June--can be explored via another link. (An earlier incarnation of the Museum closed after a fire, which fortunately spared all the artwork.) The Museum is located on the grounds of the Frazetta family estate, and consequently visiting hours are limited. This portion of the site offers a handy means of confirming the times of entry.
A storefront offers everything from inexpensive calendars and bookmarks through moderately priced lithographs to high-end original paintings. And paid memberships to this site--ranging from Trial ($15.00) through Exclusive ($40.00) to Premier ($75.00)--bring a host of online and purchasing advantages.
-- Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week -- April 23, 2001
ike any innovation, online SF magazines come in a number of shapes and sizes, all with varying levels of quality. One of the most promising of the many new publications on the Web, though, is definitely Strange Horizons.
This site is set up beautifully, and offers fans a choice selection of reading material. There are author interviews, book reviews and articles of general interest to SF readers. One especially meaty piece provides in-depth analysis of Ted Chiang's excellent SF story "Seventy-Two Letters," which appeared in the Ellen Datlow anthology Vanishing Acts. The article is doubly a pleasure to read because it gives a deserving work of fiction the sort of attention usually reserved for novels
alone.
Needless to say, this Web page also offers fiction, and plenty of it. Contributors including Bruce Holland Rogers, Cecilia Tan, Jennifer de Guzeman, Joe Murphy and D.K. Latta all spin tales for browsers' enjoyment. Exploiting another of the great potential strengths of online magazines, the Strange Horizons back issues are archived, which means there is a growing number of these stories available to readers for a potentially limitless window of time.
Strange Horizons operates on a donor system. Visitors may read anything they wish. If they like what they see, a quick click leads to a page outlining many ways to support the magazine, from cross-linking to a personal web site to putting down cold, hard cash. With so many good stories, illustrations and articles to choose from, this is indeed a site worthy of such support. More importantly, it is one that readers will want to visit regularly.
-- A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week -- April 16, 2001
ive-action role-playing, a genre that combines classic sit-down adventure games with elements of improvisational theater, laser tag and group storytelling, defies easy description. The phrase may evoke, in many minds, images of gamers dressed in medieval costumes, brandishing fake swords and charging at each other across the green expanses of public parks and forests. However, such images come from only a small chapter of the larger gaming story. The Live Action Roleplayers site goes to some length to define and include all the diverse forms of live-action role-playing.
In case the concise definitions and well-structured information on LARP don't provide a clear enough picture of what this hobby is all about, the webmasters at LARPA go one step further. Entire game scenarios are available on this site for surfers to download. The adventures offered on the page are not pirated--they appear with author permission. They include tabloid scenarios--"I was a teenaged mutant from outer space!"--mysteries, space opera, vampire adventures and virtually everything else imaginable. There is even an adventure which takes place in the context of an SF convention panel on science and technology! The scenarios are varied enough that there is something for every type of player group, whether it is a small party wanting a few hours of light entertainment, or a crowd complete with costumes and props, looking for a full day's enjoyment. There are even 20-minute microgames for two players that are specifically designed to introduce new gamers to fundamental concepts of live-action play.
The LARPA site functions as a point of contact for gamers, offering current news, a calendar of events and contact information for LARP organizations across the globe. It also features a page of links to gaming resources on the Web. The page itself is simple in design but packed with data. As a result, it sometimes loads very slowly. However, users interested in this gaming sub-genre will find the information very much worth the wait.
-- A.M. Dellamonica
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