Category: News

If you’ve read ORIGIN: The Story of Wolverine, Weapon X and various issues of his own title and the X-Men books, then you know the basic background of the mysterious mutant called Logan and the secrets behind who he was in the past. It took many years to piece together, but we finally learned the truth.

Basically, Wolverine was born James Howlett, later taking on the name Logan after discovering he was a mutant with heightened senses, advanced healing, a connection to animals, and bone claws that could extend from his hand.

Logan traveled the world, becoming a samurai at heart, later becoming involved in the Weapon X project, working alongside his old enemy Victor Creed AKA Sabretooth, a mutant who had similar abilities but none of Logan’s compassion. Weapon X eventually attempted to turn him into a bio-weapon, burying most of his memoies, implanting false ones, and lacing his skeleton and bone claws with the unbreakable metal adamantium. After escaping Weapon X, he worked for the government for a few years before finally joining the X-Men. Since then, he has become a true hero, discovering his whole past in recent years.

But this story was not intended from the beginning. There were a few other proposed ideas for Wolverine that were discarded. There were ideas hinted at but later disproved or simply never followed up on.

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Anime and manga distributor Central Park Media filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last Friday, which means that the company does not plan to restructure and its assets will be liquidated. CPM put out such classic anime as “Revolutionary Girl Utena,” “Project A-Ko,” “Demon City Shinjuku” and “Grave of the Fireflies.” They also published yaoi manga under the Be Beautiful imprint as well as assorted shojo and shonen titles. However, they hadn’t issued any new releases in a year.

This news comes less than two years after the collapse of Geneon USA. Apparently, CPM won’t comment on how they got to this unfortunate pass, although they’ve obviously been struggling for some time. Of course, times are tough in publishing, and the bottom’s dropping out of the manga market in Japan. Geneon also cited illegal downloading as a factor in their troubles, and I’m wondering what role that played in CPM’s demise.

It’s sort of ironic, really. Fan subs and scanlations helped build the manga and anime industry in the U.S., and now they’re probably helping to tear it down.

Amy Goldschlager is an editor at findingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, and SweetSearch, the smarter search engine.

Ticket sales are already off the charts for this weekend’s kick off of the summer movie blockbuster season. We all take our chances hoping for another Dark Knight and not another Spirit, but what about the creative people who roll the dice risking millions? Meet Michael Uslan who, for over three decades, has been the bridge between properties like Batman and the movie industry. Plus Mike Gold gets nostalgic for a good police riot and Marvel wants to swap comics with you!

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced the winners of their annual Nebula Awards tonight in Los Angeles, California. The ceremonies was toastmastered by Janis Ian— yes, that Janis Ian. Ian Randal Strock of SFScope stayed up extra late to cover the ceremony and post the results in real time, and we’re shamelessly cribbing from him here.

And the winners are:

Best Novel (presented by Joe Haldeman): Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, September 2007)

Best Novella (presented by Mary Robinette Kowal): “The Spacetime Pool” by Catherine Asaro (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2008)

Best Novelette (presented by David Gerrold): “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2008)

Best Short Story (presented by M.J. Engh): “Trophy Wives” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, DAW Books, January 2008)

Best Script (presented by Wil Wheaton): WALL-E by Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon. Original story by Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter (Pixar, June 2008)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (presented by Karen Anderson): Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt, September 2008)

Other, non-Nebula awards, previously announced but awarded tonight, include:

Grand Master: Harry Harrison

Author Emerita: M.J. Engh

SFWA Service Award: Victoria Strauss

Solstice Award: Algis J. Budrys, Martin H. Greenberg, and Kate Wilhelm

Bradbury Award: Joss Whedon (accepted by Jane Espenson)

Hey, wait, we have Joss’s acceptance speech right here! The wonders of the future…!

Scientists make super-strong metallic spider silk

LONDON (Reuters) – Spider silk isalready tougher and lighter than steel, and now scientists have made itthree times stronger by adding small amounts of metal.

The technique may be useful for manufacturing super-tough textiles andhigh-tech medical materials, including artificial bones and tendons.

“It could make very strong thread for surgical operations,” researcher Seung-Mo Lee of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, said in a telephone interview.

Lee and colleagues, who published their findings in the journalScience, found that adding zinc, titanium or aluminum to a length ofspider silk made it more resistant to breaking or deforming.

They used a process called atomic layer deposition,which not only coated spider dragline silks with metal but also causedsome metal ions to penetrate the fibers and react with their proteinstructure.

Lee said he next wanted to try adding other materials, including artificial polymers like Teflon.

The idea was inspired by studies showing traces of metals in thetoughest parts of some insect body parts. The jaws of leaf-cutter antsand locusts, for example, both contain high levels of zinc, making themparticularly stiff and hard.

Yeah, sure. We know where they really got inspired– Web of Spider-Man #100.