ack Kirby and Stan Lee: Together they were responsible for creating such comic-book icons as the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor ... and Bombu the Witch Man?!?
Yes, it's true. These revered master craftsmen of the Silver Age kept very busy prior to that legendary era, trying to earn a living in Marvel's monster books. Amazing Fantasy, Journey Into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and other titles appeared every month in the late 1950s. And they were filled not with superheroes but with weird creatures that shambled in from jungles, forests, swamps, radioactive craters, other dimensions and interstellar space. Today, these rousing retro stories are relatively neglected. Except on Monster Blog.
Here you can get acquainted with such characters as "Diablo, the Demon From the Fifth Dimension," the "Stone Men From Saturn" or "Torr, the Beast Man From Beyond." These characters, plus more than 200 more, have pages chronicling their attributes and appearances, and cross-linking their continuity, where applicable. Of course, there's lots of high-quality reproductions of the artwork, including full scans of entire stories (very readable on the screen, even at reduced size).
Additionally, you can revel in the comments from knowledgable readers, who contribute their own insights and memories of these marvelous, nostalgia-producing tales. Collectors have a section devoted to their needs.
Many of these creations were resurrected to appear in Silver Age stories. For instance, readers might recall that Thor once fought the Stone Men From Saturn. If you didn't have that bit of trivia storied in memory, you will after visiting the jovial, unpretentious, fascinating Monster Blog!
—Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week—July 18, 2005
s the iPod craze spreads and people become more accustomed to listening to highly customized audio libraries, the demand for original digital programming builds. For SF fans, one of the best sources for news, fiction and humor—not to mention a host of indescribably quirky features—is the SciFi Podcast Network.
A growing archive of downloadable files aimed at iPod owners (but usable by anyone with a decent computer and an Internet connection), TSFPN has a declared agenda of providing the world "with the best SF-related podcasts in the universe." To that end, they offer a range of nonfiction programs. A quick browse reveals a weekly series called "The Secrets," hosted by author Michael A. Stackpole, which focuses on writing tips for new authors. For Star Wars fans there's "The Force.Net"; meanwhile, others might prefer "Geek Fu Action Grip," which is about (among other things) successfully raising a geek child. TSFPN features abundant fictional content, too, of course—everything from author readings of SF stories and novels to old-fashioned radio shows like The Adventures of Doctor Floyd.
Podcasting is the latest, greatest mutation of what used to be radio, and sites like TSFPN allow visitors to fine-tune every facet of their entertainment library. Like everything else on the Web, the experience has become interactive: listener ratings are provided by the site to warn fans when a podcast might not be worksafe or child-friendly, while the discussion forums allow users to review shows and suggest other possible podcast offerings.
With a strong core of interesting, regular shows to keep listeners coming back and a commitment to finding the best SF podcasts available, The SciFi Podcast Network stands a good chance of becoming one of the genre's most visited sites.
—A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—July 11, 2005
lying cars, moving sidewalks and battles with Martians—surprisingly little time has passed since many believed the near future might be a glittering, high-tech utopia ... or the scene of an interplanetary war. At Tales of Future Past, these dreams and the SF art that informed them are lovingly examined, curated into a sort of electronic museum for anyone wanting to indulge a bit of nostalgia for the innocent future view that pervaded the Golden Age of the genre.
The brainchild of pop-culture commentator David Zondy, this site does not try to comprehensively archive all the pulp art of the early 20th century. Instead, representative samples of magazine and book covers are divided into themes, like atomic power, future cars and
robots. The images illustrate short essays on Zondy's chosen themes: Sketches from the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis adorn the article on future cities, while in the discussion of life on other planets, demonic aliens caper in the harsh environment of their Venusian homeworld.
It is always a pleasure to find a site that combines good writing with a balanced selection of well-chosen images. By mining the sometimes cheesy but always delightful pulp-art scene of the 1930s and subsequent decades, Tales of Future Past provides a genuine feast for both the eyes and the mind, a sincere and thoughtful celebration of SF's rich artistic and imaginative heritage.
—A.M. Dellamonica
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