When I wrote Episode Four of THE MINUS FACTION back in 2015, I wondered whether a breakdown in the normal order, like a blackout, would create suspense — whether readers, who seem to live most […]
Month: March 2020
(Art) The Sci-Punk Savages of Dirty Iron
The sketches and drawings of Shanghai artist Yang Jialun (AKA Dirty Iron) present a wonderful contrast. While on the one hand they are rendered with blueprint-like precision, on the other, their subjects are grimy and […]
(Fiction) The Shri-class Intelligences
Balram was right about one thing. Sonrisa was hesitant to leave the farmhouse. She doubted she’d be allowed to return. She leaned her bike deftly into a turn, right, then left, moving through the empty […]
(Art) The Anime Gameworlds of Cosimo Galluzzi
With their bright colors and otherworldly subjects, the digital creations of game artist and illustrator Cosimo Galluzzi are clearly inspired by Moebius and Studio Ghibli (remarkably similar for being from completely different cultures). With its […]
(Curiosity) The Planck length as a “pixel” of our universe
One of the chief characteristics of simulations is low information density compared to the phenomenon being simulated. Even very complex simulations with relatively high information density will still fall short of reality — in the […]
(Fiction) Just don’t let your mom find it
04Oct 14:37 I sat in the car on the side of the road for a good fifteen or twenty minutes. The Cormacks’ teenage daughter was flirting loudly with a neighborhood boy on the leaf-covered front […]
(Art) The Magical Woodland of Alexandra Dvornikova
I’ve used several of these as title images, so it’s only fair Ms. Dvornikova, an artist from St. Petersburg, Russia, gets a post to herself. It looks like she has a book out now, too. […]
(Art) The Sultry Djinn of Ana Mirallès (NSFW)
Ana Mirallès is a Spanish comic book artist known particularly for her treatment of erotic subjects. After completing a degree in fine arts, she became an illustrator for several publishing houses. Her first publication came […]
I sit in one of the dives/ On Fifty-second Street/ Uncertain and afraid/ As the clever hopes expire/ Of a low dishonest decade:/ Waves of anger and fear/ Circulate over the bright/ And darkened lands of the earth,/ Obsessing our private lives —W.H. Auden
Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we […]
(Fiction) Scratch ‘n Sniff
The neighborhood dated from the previous century. There was hardly a curb. Deep green lawns sat nearly level with the street. There were no fences. Each yard blended into the next. The Arneson house was […]
