Just ran across

a link on the CBC site to The Comics in Canada: An Illustrated History.

And did you know that Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, was born in Alberta? And Joe Shuster, the original artist who drew Superman, was from Toronto.

Web comics

Vague SF themes to most if not all of these, so fair game!

• Professor Weigo’s Lab: particularly funny for science students, I would imagine.
• The Adventures of Dr. MacNinja
• Married to the Sea
• Dinosaur Comics: all-time favourite
• Alien Loves Predator: “In New York, no-one can hear you scream” (not updated too often but read the archives)
• Kukuburi: really nice (thanks, Adair).
• xkcd: “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”

• OnlineComics.net

Drop links to your own favourites in the comments.

Some more links:

• Pulp Italian sf magazine covers (via BoingBoing)
• Philip K. Dick covers (via SF Signal)
• Raymond F. Jones (no relation. Via SF Signal)
• Science Fiction Paperback Covers
• The Pulp Zone
• The Best (Worst) Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Covers

Cheesiest covers

And now, YOU decide the outcome of the cover contest. First, refresh your memories: click on the thumbnail to go to the original. Then, vote in the comments or via email.

 

Now this is really cool!

Seeing is believing: check out this SFF cover explorer and this graphic novel and comic cover explorer (via information aesthetics).

Just over at

the Facebook group Lisa set up (thank you, Lisa) and posted some pictures: covers of SF magazines from the 1960s. There are scads and scads of images of pulp magazines and novels online; the ones I chose are actually reasonably tasteful. But if you love brightly coloured, sometimes cheesy illustrations of giant squids in spaceships menacing women whose skimpy clothing, and bodies, defy gravity, pine no more! Check out:

• Visco: “a visual catalogue of the cover art of the science fiction, fantasy, weird and horror fiction magazines from the early twentieth century to the present day.”
• The Gallery to Science Fiction, Fantasy, Weird & Occult as published by the British, Australians and Canadians from the 1930s-1966 as Paperbacks, Digests, Pamphlets, Pulps, and Magazines
• Google “science fiction+covers,” “pulp+SFF,” or any other such combination.

Tell you what, let’s have a contest. Find the most hilarious cover and win your choice of Tim’s coffee and doughnut, paid for by yours truly. Post it on your blog. Contest closes by start of next class.

[Small print: Contestants may be asked a skill-testing question involving quantum physics and must be of legal age. Employees of UNBSJ, their families, pets, and alien succubi are ineligible to enter this contest. Sponsors reserve the right to substitute Vachon cakes and no-name coffee.]