The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » Cory Doctorow

Appeals Court

Joe — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:02:03 +0000

Cory Doctorow has posted up his reading of the first part of Appeal Court by himself and another of my fave SF writers, Charlie Stross, as a free podcast. It’s a sequel to a previous Doctorow/Stross collaboration, Jury Service, which I see is still listed on Cory’s site to listen to as well, so go and enjoy. Cory comments that he and Charlie are working on a a conclusion to this series, Parole Board, and that Tor will be publishing it all under the title Rapture of the Nerds. (tip of the hat to John Taylor Williams for the link; John, it should be noted, also handled the sound mastering on the podcast)

Alex’s audio round-up

Joe — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:24:41 +0000

Its another Thursday and kicking piles of falling leaves and fiddling with his conkers comes Alex Fitch to tell us about his latest shows; as usual for more details and links to podcasts of previous shows check the Panel Borders site:

Strip!: Emma Vieceli, promoting new British Manga, tonight on Resonance FM at 5pm, podcast afterwards at Panel Borders

Continuing ‘women in comics’ month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to Emma Vieceli, illustrator of the Manga Shakespeare adaptations of Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing who has also contributed to the graphic anthology “Comic Book Tattoo” which adapts the songs of Tori Amos into strip format. Alex and Emma also talk about the crossover between traditional Western comics and Manga as a new generation of small press creators in the UK experiment with both forms, a practice that is encouraged by the ‘Artists Alley’ that Emma helps organise at the twice yearly MCM Expos in the Docklands and the publishing collective ‘Sweatdrop studios’ that she’s a member of.

(cover to Self Made Hero’s popular Manga Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, art by Emma Vieceli)

Predicting the present with Cory Doctorow, tonight at 10pm on Resonance FM, also available as a podcast on Sci-Fi London

Alex Fitch talks to writer Cory Doctorow about his work, focusing on his novel Little Brother and short story collection Overclocked. Alex and Cory also talk about the latter’s interest in technology and disseminating information and the kinds of science fiction that interested him as a developing writer from George Orwell to William Gibson. The podcast also includes a reading of his short story Printcrime by actress and comedienne Jessica Fostekew.

Reality Check: Man vs. the Eyeborgs, online at Sci-Fi London on Wednesday 30th

Continuing our podcasts of talks and Q & As recorded live at this year’s Spring Sci-Fi London festival, Alex Fitch talks to the cast and crew of the new Science Fiction thriller Eyeborgs which sees surveillance cameras combined with miniature robots to create deadly machines that give Critters and Gremlins a run for their money! Featuring director Richard Clabaugh and star Adrian (Highlander) Paul…

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: In the company of women

Continuing “women in comics” month on the show – we have two interviews with creators whose comics are set in worlds featuring primarily female characters. Alex Fitch talks to Pam Harrison, the Queer Press Award winning creator of “House of the Muses – the latter days of Sappho of Lesbos” while (Eagle Award winner) Tom Humberstone talks to Pia Guerra, artist of “Y: The Last Man” who won the 2008 Eisner Award and 2006 Joe Shuster Award for her work on the title.

Alex’s audio round-up

Joe — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:48:36 +0000

It’s Thursday and its time for Alex Fitch to update us to the next batch of upcoming shows he’s involved with; as ever for more details and links to podcasts of previous shows check the Panel Borders site:

Strip!: In the company of women, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards at Panel Borders

(cover to the first issue of House of the Muses – the latter days of Sappho of Lesbos by and (c) Pam Harrison)

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: The art of Karen Rubins

Continuing ‘Women in comics’ month, Alex Fitch talks to artist Karen Rubins about being the Comic Book Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, being visited by members of the public and their collaborating on a strip displayed in her studio. Alex and Karen also discuss the latter’s career so far from drawing goth-styled comics for the small press to creating short manga pieces in “The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga 2″ and “Manga Jiman 150″.

Reality Check: Predicting the present with Cory Doctorow, online at Sci-Fi London

Alex’s audio round-up

Joe — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:11:01 +0000

Its Thursday and while I go searching autumnal trees for conkers here’s Alex Fitch to update us to the latest shows he’s involved with; as usual check the Panel Borders site for more information and links to podcasts of previous shows:

Strip!: The art of Karen Rubins, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

Reality Check: Predicting the present with Cory Doctorow, online at Sci-Fi London on 16th September

Coming soon:

Strip!: The art of Pia Guerra, due on Resonance FM on the 17th

Continuing ‘women in comics’ month, guest interviewer Tom Humberstone talks to artist Pia Guerra about her acclaimed 60 issue run on the post apocalyptic comic Y – the Last Man, her recent work on the mini series Doctor Who: The Forgotten and working her way into the medium via the small press and illustrations in comics as varied as Spider-man and Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror.

(panels from Y the Last Man, art by Pia Guerra, published DC)

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Fab Toons and Splendid Zines

Starting ‘women in comics’ month on the show, we have a couple of interviews with small press creators who are selling their self published periodicals at festivals and competitions around the country. Dickon Harris talks to Bea, a.k.a. Beatrice Lane, in an interview recorded at the Bristol Small Press expo and Alex Fitch talks to Francesca Cassavetti in an interview recorded at “Schmurgen con” in Mile End. Bea publishes “Bear Cave” ‘zines on a variety of subjects from short fiction to music reviews, with her latest issue ‘The most splendid bands I know’ due out shortly, while Francesca’s “Fab Toons” comics tell a variety of autobiographical stories from her life, in strip format, from her days at art school to dating a former punk star and the birth of her first child.

Panel Borders: The Atom Style part 1 – Woodrow Phoenix and Garen Ewing

The first of two episodes of Panel Borders looking at the history and practice of ‘The Atom Style’, which is currently the focus of an exhibition at The Atomium in Brussels. Alex Fitch talks to artists Woodrow Phoenix and Garen Ewing about their work, exemplified in their recent graphic novels Rumble Strip and The Rainbow Orchid volume one, respectively. (Originally broadcast 06/08/09 on Resonance FM)

Neil Gaiman reads Cory Doctorow

Joe — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:05:22 +0000

Here’s a lovely treat from the recent science fiction Worldcon, two top writers brought together as Neil Gaiman reads from Cory Doctorow’s short story The Right Book, created to mark the 150th anniversary of The Bookseller, the journal of the British booktrade, imagining a look forward at the next century and a half of bookselling (via Boing Boing).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Z0m1X46CM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oRNi5eYVtY

Cory wins the Promtheus

Joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:02:10 +0000

SF writer par excellence, Boing Boinger, lecturer and gentleman Cory Doctorow has won this year’s Prometheus Award, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society for science fiction which explores notions of liberty and freedom. Cory’s acclaimed Young Adult novel Little Brother, which has youngsters becoming grassroots activists in the face of governments endlessly curtailing civil liberties and intruding into our privacy ‘to protect us’ after terrorist attacks.

I know Cory has long been a campaigner against exactly this sort of government scare-mongering and use of fear to pass laws unchallenged which greatly interfere with the very liberties we are supposedly trying to defend and that Little Brother has inspired a lot of youngsters around the globe to tackle the surveillance society (it doesn’t hurt for kids to learn not to always take a government’s justification for their actions as gospel in my opinion), so this must be the cherry on the cake for him to win the Promethean, especially on the very first time he was nominated for the award. JRR Tolkien’s mighty classic Lord of the Rings was inducted to the Hall of Fame; the award will be given out at Worldcon. Cory joins previous winners such as Ken MacLeod, his sometime writing partner Charlie Stross, Vernor Vinge, TerryPratchett, Neal Stephenson and Larry Niven – some seriously heavyweight science fiction literary company. (via SF Awards Watch)