Object Name: “Biotronic Man” stickers
Maker and Year: IPC Publishing, 1977
Object Type: Decorative stickers
Image Source: Comic Vine
Description (Richard McKenna):
https://wearethemutants.com/2016/09/22/biotronic-man-stickers-1977/

The Portuguese painter and illustrator Lima de Freitas (1927-1998) created a vast number of covers for the Portuguese pressLivros do Brasil.  For more on the range of art he produced in his career consult his wikipedia page [here].

A while back I reviewed Mordecai Roshwald’s Level 7 (1959) and discovered de Freitas’ amazing cover (below).  More than any of the US editions, it evokes the claustrophobic tone of the novel (and even some of the surreal elements). (...)

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http://lapiedradesisifo.com/2014/04/07/la-primera-batalla-interestelar/

http://www.revistaamalgama.com.br/05/2012/a-histori

a-verdadeira-luciano-de-samosata/

http://futurism.com/

http://viverdaescrita.com.br/como-ter-seu-livro-publicado/

http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/18/12203868/frontier-a-different-kind-of-space-opera-from-image-comics-and-jonathan-hickman

http://www.lynmcconchie.com/new/?p=251

Keith John Kingston Roberts (20 September 1935 – 5 October 2000), was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stories featuring a teenage modern witch and her eccentric granny) and "Escapism.^[1][2]

Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym Alistair Bevan. His second novel, Pavane, which is a collection of linked stories, may be his most famous work: an alternate history novel in which the Roman Catholic Church takes control of England following the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I.^[3]
Roberts wrote numerous novels and short stories, and also worked as an illustrator. His artistic contributions include covers and interior artwork for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, later renamed Impulse. He also edited the last few issues of Impulse although the nominal editor was Harry Harrison.^{[3]
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Keith_Roberts} 

C. L. Moore–or “Catherine the Great,” in the words of superfan Forrest J. Ackerman, who collaborated with Moore on the short story, “Nymph of Darkness” (1935)–influenced  contemporaries at Weird Tales and then Astounding, as well as her friends in the Lovecraft Circle.

Robert E. Howard, author of Conan, was among Moore’s fans. Howard shared unpublished work with Moore and considered it an honor  to have been able to collaborate with her on the short story, “The Challenge from Beyond” (1935).  (See the introductions and essays in Robert E. Wagner’s Echoes of Valor II and Sam Moskowitz’s Horrors Unknown.)

Moore was also greatly admired by writers such as her friend, Robert Bloch (the author of Psycho), who gave an address in her honor at Denvention Two.  Bloch recalled that when he first met her in person in 1937, it was already clear that “[e]ven then, like all your readers, fans and fellow-writers, we were ready to swear that you were going to make it. Your talent and imagination were already beginning to revolutionize the genre…” (Denvention Two program).

CLM-REH -1935-01-29 - 1

Correspondence between C. L. Moore and Robert E. Howard, Jan. 29, 1935

It’s important to point out that, contrary to the myth, Moore never concealed her gender in order to publish in the pulps, although she did attempt to hide her identity as a pulp writer from her employers, hence the initials.  (See Moore’s correspondence in the 30s with H. P. Lovecraft and Robert H. Barlow.  See also Moore’s interviews in the 70s with Dee Doyle, Byron Roark, and Jeffrey Elliot, in which she stated several times that she never sought to conceal her gender.  See also Moore’s Afterword to The Best of C. L. Moore.)

Moore made no attempt to hide her gender from the sf community, and the fact that she was female was well-known as early as 1935, if not earlier.  Moore’s readers knew to refer to “Miss Moore” in their letters to the editor, and correspondence between writers Clark Ashton Smith (who was among Moore’s fans) and Donald Wandrei refer to her as “Miss Moore” as early as February 1935.  Moore herself signed a letter to the editor of Weird Tales as “Miss Catherine Moore” in October 1935.  Except for a brief period of at most a year, Moore’s gender wasn’t a secret to any of the male editors, writers, and fans who celebrated her work throughout the pulp period.

This revelation made no perceptible difference to fans, nor to her fellow writers and competitors at Astounding.   In 1935, E. E. “Doc” Smith, the “Father of Space Opera”, wrote a fan letter to Astounding in response to her first science fiction story, “Bright Illusion” (1934), what might be viewed as pulp science fiction’s first successful “love story.”  Smith praised “Miss Moore’s” story profusely, remarking that “I perceive in her ‘Bright Illusion’ a flame of sublimity” (Astounding January 1935).  (Meanwhile, she continued to win Reader’s Choice awards for her weird fantasy series, Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith, in Weird Tales.)

“Bright Illusion” remained a genre favorite for many years.  In 1966, Laurence M. Janifer asked twenty major authors and editors in the field to pick five stories for inclusion in an honor roll anthology. Moore and Kuttner together ranked as the fourth “most often cited” author, below Heinlein, Sturgeon, and Fritz Leiber, but above twenty-eight other authors, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and H. G. Wells. Moore was the only author to have each of her stories nominated more than once. Of the three tiers created by number of votes, “Vintage Season” ranked in the top, “No Woman Born” in the second, and “Bright Illusion” in the third (despite not being reprinted since 1934). (See Laurence M. Janifer, 18 Greatest Science Fiction Stories. Originally entitled: Master’s Choice. New York: Tempo Books, 1966.)

Moore’s influence was felt for decades, including in the much later work of Robert Silverberg, who wrote In Another Country (1990) to serve as a sequel to Moore’s short story, “Vintage Season” (1946).

Poul Anderson also credited Moore as an influence and, like Silverberg, was a fan.  In his introduction to Pulp Voices, he remarks: “My first C. L. Moore story, ‘There Shall Be Darkness,’ was a revelation…It was gorgeously romantic, evocative, emotional, and poetic…I will never forget the awesomeness of ‘Judgment Night’ or the poignancy of ‘No Woman Born’…If I have managed here and there to use language a bit strikingly myself—that is for you, the reader, to decide—then a considerable part of the reason has been that I read her” (Anderson 7).

Moore, of course, also influenced her younger friend, Leigh Brackett, a science fiction writer and the wife of Edmond Hamilton, also a science fiction writer.  Moore’s husband, Henry Kuttner, served as Brackett’s mentor early in her career, and the four writers were fast friends, corresponding regularly and sometimes vacationing together.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5832078/10-science-fiction-books-that-changed-the-course-of-history?platform=hootsuite

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lorynbrantz/18-razoes-pelas-quais-o-quinto-elemento-e-um-dos?bffbbrazil&utm_term=.axdKQoMYm#.ptwKbQXyO

As maneiras mais tradicionais de se assistir aos filmes são: pela ordem de lançamento ou pela ordem cronológica. A primeira é a ordem conhecida como Ernst Rister. A sequência que deve ser seguida é Episódios: IV, V, I, II, III E VI

Para ler mais: http://www.diariogeek.com.br/2014/08/conheca-ordem-correta-para-se-assistir.html

http://spots.gru.edu/nprinsky/ScienceFic/SciFi_Prehistory&Pioneers.html

 
Prehistory
The prehistory of science fiction can be traced from the beginnings of literature to the development of the scientific method c. 1600:
Classical Literature
Homer mentioned mechanical servants akin to robots in The Iliad.
Lucian of Samosata (born c. 125 A.D) wrote a number of satirical dialogues based on fantastic ideas.

He was the first writer of interplanetary fiction. Icaromenippos or Journey Through the Air describes a journey to the moon with the aid of strapped-on wings. One of his more titillating passages describes the custom in which Lunar inhabitants choose to wear artificial private parts.

Thus Lucian is also the first writer to describe prosthetic limbs and cyborgs!

Other Early References
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55), wrote Voyage to the Moon (1657), in which a traveler fastens a quantity of small bottles filled with dew to his body. The sun sucks him up with the dew and he lands on the moon.
Pioneers
Science fiction as we think of it today is generally dated from the composition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley in 1818. Her novel as well as works by Nathanial Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe emerged from the gothic strain of the Romantic as embodied by Shelley, Hawthorne, and Poe.
By the end of the 19th century, the field began to take on its modern shape with the publication of the first of the scientific romances of H. G. Wells.

Mary Shelley and the Gothic
Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was just 19 when she wrote Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) as her entry in a competition to tell ghost stories.
Frankenstein is generally recognized as the first true science fiction novel at least in part because the monster is a product of a scientific experiment gone bad. The novel combines social criticism with new scientific ideas.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a gothic writer, is considered the father of both the short story and the detective story.
His best stories are horror or detective fiction. However, he did contribute to the genre:

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" deals with the quasi- scientific theory of mesmerism
The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym (1836)--is a novel about a sea voyage into the unknown with science fiction trappings
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) was a writer of gothic fantasy and also a master of the short story.
Both "The Birthmark" (1843) and "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844) contain elements of scientific experiments; however, Hawthorne was always more concerned with guilt and innocence than with science.

Jules Verne (1828-1905), a Frenchman, was influenced by Poe in his use of scientific details and his choice of the outsider as hero. His novels are full of scientific gadgetry.
He did not invent science fiction but was the first to succeed at it commercially with novels (most of them serving as the basis of feature films, usually less than more faithful to the novel) such as

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1863; expanded, 1867)
From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
Around the Moon (1870)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
Robur the Conqueror (variant title, The Clipper of the Clouds) (1887)
Master of the World (1904)

Other 19th Century Authors
Edwin A. Abbott wrote Flatland (1884), about a two-dimensional society. The work is science fiction in content, but not in form, being straight expository prose.
Robert Louis Stevenson contributed to science fiction with the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886).
Edward Bellamy (1850-98) wrote Looking Backward (1888), about a man who wakes up in the year 2000 in the Boston of the future.
In this work, Bellamy predicts future technological developments without grasping their possible social repercussions.

H. G. Wells and the Scientific Romance
Dominated by H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, science fiction in the period between 1890 and 1915 is marked by examination of modern society or the urge to escape from urban culture.
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) spanned the great gulf between the mid Victorian period when he was born (in the year dynamite was invented) and the atomic age which he predicted and lived to see.
He wrote what he called "scientific romances."

Wells can be said to have invented most categories of science fiction (feature films, usually less than more faithful to the novels have been made):
time travel--The Time Machine (1895)
interplanetary travel--The First Men in the Moon (1901)
alien invasion--The War of the Worlds (1897)
future war--The World Set Free (1914)
sinister biological experiments--The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896); The Invisible Man (1897)
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), author of some 70 books, was one of the commercially successful authors of the early 20th century.
He wrote what would today be called science fantasy.

Though probably best known today as the author of Tarzan of the Apes (1912), A Princess of Mars (1912), his first published story, introduced Barsoom (Mars) and brought interplanetary adventure into science fiction to stay.

Horizontal Rule
Wells and Burroughs
Brian Aldiss describes Burroughs and Wells as representing the two opposing poles of modern fantasy:
Wells teaches us to think--he stands at the thinking pole.
Burroughs teaches us to wonder--he stands at the dreaming pole.
Mary Shelley stands at the equator between them.
According to Aldiss, at the thinking pole stand great figures.

Stan Lee hitting a Martian with a typewriter…

A ciência e  a arte se encontram em um dos mais característicos e cultuados gêneros da literatura: a ficção científica. Ao imaginar possíveis consequências do uso das descobertas científicas e das realizações tecnológicas na vida das pessoas, os autores se aventuram em empreitadas de futurologia ou de alegoria – e daí pode resultar uma previsão / descrição certa ou errada, mas que sempre diz muito sobre o imaginário de uma sociedade cada vez mais influenciada pela ciência e pela técnica.

Condensar, numa lista diminuta e arbitrária, um dos mais férteis e diversificados gêneros da literatura não é uma tarefa das mais fáceis - e me valerei aqui de alguma malandragem para criar um top 10 com mais de 10 livros.

Eis as obras fundamentais da ficção científica:

http://zh.clicrbs.com.br/rs/noticias/planeta-ciencia/noticia/2013/11/os-10-ou-mais-livros-fundamentais-de-ficcao-cientifica-4333547.html

As previsões da literatura que viraram realidade


Muita gente se surpreende com a criatividade de alguns escritores quando o assunto é o futuro do planeta. Existem os que acham que os autores exageram. Acontece que alguns dos exercícios de futurologia mais excêntricos da literatura acabam acertando no alvo (ou perto dele). E quando isso acontece, o resultado é uma legião de leitores boquiabertos se perguntando: “como é que ele sabia?” Confira alguns exemplos.
Link:
http://blog.estantevirtual.com.br/2015/10/14/seis-livros-que-acertaram-previsoes-no-futuro/

Falling Free (Queda Livre) é um romance de ficção científica escrito em 1988 pela autora norte americana Lois McMaster Bujold e vencedor do Prêmio Nebula do mesmo ano. É o quarto livro da saga Vorkosigan, mas o primeiro na escala cronológica dos livros de Bujold. O próximo livro na minha lista de leitura seria The Vor Game, o vencedor de 1991, mas como esse livro é o sexto livro da saga Vorkosigan, e como nunca tinha lido nada de Bujold, achei melhor começar lendo o primeiro livro (na escala cronológica interna) para ter uma ideia melhor do material com que iria lidar. Fiz o mesmo com Sundiver antes de ler Maré Alta Estelar, e confesso que estava cético se isso não acabaria se mostrando desnecessário ou até uma perda de tempo. Para minha surpresa Bujold revelou-se uma autora de ficção científica extremamente competente, superando em qualidade estilística e em vários outros aspectos autores como David Brin ou Kim Stanley Robinson. Antes de partir para a análise do livro, faço uma introdução sobre o universo criado por Bujold.  - Texto de Alessandro Ciapina.

Para ler mais: https://leiturasparalelas.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/falling-free-lois-mcmaster-bujold/

Esperei quase três anos para ver esse filme, devido a enxurrada de críticas que surgiram à época na rede, criticando detalhes inócuos do filme, que em nada interferiram na trama e no bom roteiro que agora posso elogiar após ver o filme fora de circuito de cinemas e trollagens da net. A história, precursora de mitos ficcionais modernos como Superman e Star Wars a primeira vista parece uma repetição do mesmo, mas lembremos: ela é de 1911, enquanto os dois sci fi novels citados aqui são de 1938 em comics e 1977 nos cinemas, respectivamente. Centenas de publicações que vieram depois da obra de Burroughs buscaram nos elementos e na essência da Space Opera do criador de Tarzan subsídios para construir a base da moderna ficção científica Pop. Arrisco dizer que Edgar Rice Burroughs é o precursor da Space Opera e da novelização como produto lucrativo que se expande além do meio em que foi originalmente criado para produzir riqueza e fama ao criador.
Um filme divertido e que merece uma chance de expansão da série. Mas, em tempos de Star Wars, fica difícil que o mesmo estúdio (Disney) lance uma sequência para concorrer com outro produto de sua autoria.
A Princess of Mars is a science fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his Barsoom series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine in February-July, 1912. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th-century pulp fiction.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars

http://www.erbzine.com/mag4/0421.html

Vencedor incomparável da lista, o projeto era formado por duas sondas espaciais – Helios A e Helios B – com o objetivo de estudar os processos solares. Embora ambas tenham atingido altíssimas velocidades, o recorde oficial ficou para a segunda delas, que atingiu 252.792 km/h (157.078 milhas por hora), quase 586 Bugatti Veyron
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                                                                   (Fonte da imagem: Wikimedia Commons)

http://www.tecmundo.com.br/veiculos/13811-os-10-objetos-mais-velozes-construidos-pelo-homem.htm

fonte original: http://themysteriousworld.com/top-10-fastest-man-made-objects-ever/

Para quem gosta de ciência astronômica, a mais antiga ciência humana, o blog de Salvador Nogueira é o mais indicado para quem quer ler na nossa língua nativa, o português. Segue o link para saber mais:

http://mensageirosideral.blogfolha.uol.com.br/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd00esF-fjo