THE CANON 3
(of Genre Fiction)
Wonder Factories! Virtual Reality!
Avatars! Science Fantasy! Demon Possession!
Beast Fables!
Feminist SciFi! PostMod SpecFic!
ESPers! Vampires! Clones! Dystopias!
Empathic Detectives! Cyberpunk! Steampunk!
Ghosts! Diverse P.I.'s! Highlanders!
Dark Fantasy! Magic School! Comics Lit!
Alt History! Hacker Grrrl!
In chronological order, here are 50 key books where many of our modern legends come from...
The Basics, Dept.:
1) This is an entry primer for Speculative Fictions.
2) This is an Alternate Lit List for alternative seers.
3) Feed your mind and your aspirations will follow!
in three subsequent jumps:
The Canon 1 focuses across 800 BC to 1950, from the early legends through the 19th Century Classics to the Pulp Magazine era.
The Canon 2 focuses mainly on the 1940s to 1970, from the Golden Age to the New Wave Of Science Fiction. It also spotlights female and multicultural authors who deserve more illumination.
The Canon 3 focuses on the 1960s to 2000s, from the New Wave Of Science Fiction to today.
- MOVIE
- TV show
- Book
- Comic
- Music
- Game
1)
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES,by Ray Bradbury
Gothic modern.
The carnival of bad souls covets yours.
Leads to:
Umbra/ge.
▷ Bradbury's story evolved out of his "Dark Carnival" anthology's short story, "The Black Ferris" (1948), and a screen treatment for a Gene Kelly film that didn't get funded (1955). The book emerged as the shadowy companion to the radiant "Dandelion Wine" (1957).
▶▶▶ King's books "Danse Macabre", "The Dead Zone", "Salem's Lot", and "Joyland"; the film adaption SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1982); Koontz's "Twilight Eyes" (1985); Dunn's "Geek Love" (1989) ▴; Stine's 'Goosebumps' books (1992); Gaiman's "American Gods" (2001) ▴; the Pandemonium Carnival in the League of Gentlemen TV series (1999); Layman's "The Traveling Vampire Show" (2000); the HBO series 'Carnivale' (2003) ▴; endless Black Metal songs and concept albums; Ferrario's "Dark Carnival" (2003); Morgenstern's "The Night Circus" (2011); the anthology book "The Midnight Carnival: One Night Only" (2013); 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' (S04, 2014) ▴.
Also Read:
- "Dandelion Wine", by Ray Bradbury (1957)
by Shirley Jackson
Jackson converted insular dread into literature.
Leads to:
Anima.
▶▶▶ Books like;
Cormac's "Outer Dark" (1968); Levin's "The Stepford Wives" (1972); King's "Carrie" (1974) ▴; Andrews' "Flowers in the Attic" (1979); Harris' "Red Dragon" (1981) and "The Silence Of The Lambs" (1988); Atwood's "Alias Grace" (1996); Palahniuk's "Haunted" (2005); Padgett's "The Secret of Ventriloquism" (2016); Machado's "Her Body and Other Parties" (2017); Hunt's "In the House in the Dark of the Woods" (2017).
▶▶▶ Comics and Graphic Novels like:
Moore, Bissette, and Totleben's "Swamp Thing" (1984) ▴; Gaiman's "The Sandman" (1989) ▴; Burns' "Black Hole" (1995); Kerascoët's "Beautiful Darkness" (2009).
▶▶▶ Films and shows like:
Polanski's REPULSION (1965) ▴; Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW (1973); THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1976); THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) ▴; THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999); Lynch's MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001); ORPHAN (2009) ▴; Aronofsky's BLACK SWAN (2010) ▴; the 'American Horror Story' TV series (2011); THE WITCH (2015); I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE (2016); MOTHER (2017); the film adaption WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (2018); the TV adaption of Flynn's 'Sharp Objects' (2018).
Also Read:
- "The Haunting of Hill House", by Shirley Jackson (1959)
by Walter Tevis
Alien perspective.
Maybe we're too alien for our visitors' sake.
Leads to:
Refugee.
▶▶▶ Roeg's film adaption THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976); Bowie's album "Low" (1977) ▴; Tarkovsky's STALKER (1979); Dick's "VALIS" (1981); Sayle's urban inversion THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984) ▴; Carpenter's STARMAN (1984); the set designs for Manhattan’s apartment and Ozymandias' retreat in the WATCHMEN film (2009); Faber's book and Glazer's film UNDER THE SKIN (2014) ▴; Bowie's stage musical Lazarus (2015); the TV sequel series, 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (2022).
Also Read:
- "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert Heinlein (1961)
Also Watch:
-- UNDER THE SKIN (2013)
The woman who fell to Earth.
by Roald Dahl
Embrace life and don't be selfish.
And have fun making wonderful things.
Leads to:
Curiosity shoppe.
▷ ★ Actual Wonka candy bars!
▶▶▶ the film adaption WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) ▴; Sammy Davis, Jr's cover version "The Candy Man" (1972); Levinson's TOYS (1992); the band name Veruca Salt; the second film adaption, Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (2005) ▴; two official Wonka video games; MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM (2007); Gilliam's THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009) ▴; the opera 'The Golden Ticket' (2010); the musical 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2013); Primus' album "Chocolate Factory"; Spielberg's adaption of READY PLAYER ONE (2018) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
Gene Wilder.
The film improves the book.
Ask yourself in life, "What would Charlie do?"
by Philip K. Dick
Virtual surreality as social farce.
Leads to:
Social media/tion.
▷ ★ Virtual Reality!
▷ With canny prescience, the 1965 novel weaves themes of climate change, virtual reality, interactive avatars, social media addiction, thought police, trans-humanism, designer drugtrade, future visions, and alien godhood.
▶▶▶ songs by Delta V, Constants, and Valerio Maina; paralleled by the '60s New Wave Of Science Fiction works of Zelazny, Ballard, and Ellison; BLADE RUNNER (1982) ▴; '80s CyberPunk and the novels of Gibson, Sterling, Rucker, and Stephenson; Otomo's manga "Akira" and its film adaptation AKIRA (1988) ▴; THE MATRIX (1999); The Sims video game (2000) ▴; Morgan's 'Altered Carbon' trilogy (2002); BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017); Jones' film MUTE (2018); the series 'Maniac' (2018) ▴; Birney and Audley's film STRAWBERRY MANSION (2022).
Also Watch:
--'Philip K. Dick's ELECTRIC DREAMS', Season 1 (2018)
by Daniel Keyes
What is the toll of advanced awareness?.
Leads to:
Grey matters.
▷ The book was adapted as the film CHARLY (1968), and won the Academy Award for Cliff Robertson's performance as the lead.
▶▶▶ CHARLY (1968); multiple adaptions on TV, Radio, and stage, in the U.S., England, France, and Japan; the stage musical 'Charlie and Algernon' (1978); Tony Bank's album "A Curious Feeling' (1979); Dr. Manhattan in "Watchmen" (1985) ▴; AWAKENINGS (1990); LITTLE MAN TATE (1991); GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997); Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" (S05/E16, 1997) and "Statistical Probabilities" (S06/E09, 1997) ▴; I AM SAM (2001); 'The Simpsons: "HOMЯ" (S12/E09, 2001) ▴; Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (2003); the award-winning dance piece 'Holeulone' by Karine Pontiès (2006); the band Flowers For Algernon; Tom Davis' album "Flowers For Algernon" (2010); 'The Good Doctor' TV series (2017) ▴.
Also Watch:
- CHARLY (1968)
-"Where the Wild Things Are", by Maurice Sendak (1963)
-"Nova Express", by William S. Burroughs (1965)
-"The Iron Man: A Children's Story in Five Nights", by Ted Hughes (1968)
Stories of Speculative Fiction,
edited by Judith Merril
Space Opera gives way to the literary, the experimental, and counterculture values.
Judith Merril and Harlan Ellison were among the first to champion and compile this speculative renaissance. This is a primer.
Leads to:
Feed your head.
▷ New Wave authors:
UK: Michael Moorcock, Judith Merril, Thomas Disch, Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, and John Brunner.
USA: Norman Spinrad, Joanna Russ, Samuel R. Delaney, Carol Emshwiller, Phillip K. Dick, James Tiptree Jr, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sonya Dorman, and Phillip Jose Farmer.
▷ Paralleled by Speculative Fiction writers like Harlan Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Pynchon.
▷ The adult illustrated fantasy magazines Metal Hurlant ▾, Heavy Metal, 2000 A.D., and Warrior.
▷ The introspective, abstract, postmodern, anti-hero, sociopolitical outlook of the Counterculture and the New Wave influenced European films like:
Truffaut's adaption of FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966), PRIVILEGE (1967), Kubrick and Clarke's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) ▴, Vadim's BARBARELLA (1968), DOPPELGANGER (1969), NO BLADE OF GRASS (1970), Kubrick and Burgess' A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971), Powell's THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW (1972), THE FINAL PROGRAMME (1973), Bass' PHASE IV (1974), Malle's BLACK MOON (1975), Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976), ALIEN (1979), MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR (1981), TIME BANDITS (1981), OUTLAND (1981), 1984 (1984), BRAZIL (1985), Bilal's BUNKER PALACE HOTEL (1989), NAKED LUNCH (1991), CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995), CODE 46 (2003), MOON (2009), NEVER LET ME GO (2010), INCEPTION (2010), CLOUD ATLAS (2012), UNDER THE SKIN (2014), EX MACHINA (2015), HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES (2017).
▶▶▶ 'Doctor Who' in the '70s ▴; 'UFO' (1970); 'Space: 1999' (1975); Wagner and Azquerra's "Judge Dredd" comic (1977); Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (1979); Moore and Lloyd's "V For Vendetta" (1982); Milligan, McCarthy, and Ewin's "Strange Days" (1984); Delano, Ellis, etc. on "Hellblazer" (1988); 'Red Dwarf' (1988); Gaiman's "The Sandman" (1989); Morrison's "The Invisibles" (1994); Ellis and Cassaday's "Planetary" (1998); 'Black Mirror' (2011) ▴; Moore's "Fashion Beast" (written 1985/adapted 2012).
Also Read:
- "Dangerous Visions", Various authors, edited by Harlan Ellison (1967)
A collection of the American wave authors.
by Roger Zelazny
Surrogate super-selves on a greater plane.
Leads to:
Prosopopoeia.
▷ ★ The real-life C.I.A. operation Argo, chronicled in the Oscar-winning film, ARGO (2012).
▷ ★ Avatars. Zelazny's book revolves around surrogate selves, taking the cue from the avatars of Hinduism. The video game Habitat (Lucas Arts, 1986) used the term avatars for cyber selves, which became a common term on the internet for onscreen identity after Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk book "Snow Crash" (1992).
▶▶▶ Hawkwind's song "Lord Of Light" (1972); Jack Kirby's designs for an unmade film and related theme park (1979) ▴; Clarke's "Fountains Of Paradise" (1979); MacDonald's "River Of Gods" (2004); Morrison's "Vimanarama" comic (2005) ▴; ARGO (2012) ▴; Dhar's "Vimana" (2012); Banker's "Gods Of War" (2015); the Pixar short film, "Sanjay's Super Team" (2015) ▴.
> "The unbelievable meteoric rise of Indian Science Fiction Fantasy"
Also Watch:
- ARGO (2012)
by Peter S. Beagle
The scion of Tolkien, Lewis, and L'Engle come of age.
Parallel to the New Wave Of Science Fiction, the counterculture was deconstructing the dynamics and depths of Fantasy with literate innovations.
Leads to:
Chimera.
▷ Other innovative writers in the new wave of Fantasy included;
Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Mooorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Roger Zelazny, Katherine Paterson, Philip Jose Farmer, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, Tanith Lee, Richard Adams, Vonda McIntyre, and Terry Pratchett.
▶▶▶ Films influenced by the new wave of Fantasy include:
FANTASTIC PLANET (1973); Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973), ZARDOZ (1974); Malle's BLACK MOON (1975); Lucas' STAR WARS (1977) ▴; Bakshi's WIZARDS (1977); Gilliam's JABBORWOCKY (1977); the hand-animated WATERSHIP DOWN (1978); the dark fantasy EXCALIBUR (1981); the animated HEAVY METAL (1981); Gilliam's TIME BANDITS (1981); Henson's DARK CRYSTAL (1982) ▴; the animated FIRE AND ICE (1983); Miyazaki's NAUSICAA of the Valley of the Wind (1984); Scott's LEGEND (1985); LABYRINTH (1986); HIGHLANDER (1986); THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) ▴; Wender's WINGS OF DESIRE (1987); Švankmajer's ALICE (1988); Greenaway's PROSPERO'S BOOKS (1991); Caro and Jeunet's THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995); Yimou's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (2004); McKean's MIRRORMASK (2005); Del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) ▴; BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012); THOR: The Dark World (2013); 'Game Of Thrones' (2011); 'Outlander' (2014).
Also Watch:
- 'The Last Unicorn' (1982)
Animated adaptation.
10)
DRAGONFLIGHT,by Anne McCaffrey
The conventions of Fantasy rewritten like contemporary Science Fiction.
Leads to:
Tarragon.
▷ Female authors have been a primary throughline of Fantasy literature:
from Margaret Cavendish (1600s) and Ann Radcliffe (1700s), to the 20th Century with Francis Stevens, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, P.L. Travers, and Madeleine L'Engle.
But Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win both the Hugo and the Nebula prizes, ushering the success of new wave writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Tanith Lee, Diana Wynne Jones, Natalie Babbitt, Vonda N. McIntyre, Joan D. Vinge, Diane Duane, Diana Gabaldon, and J.K. Rowling.
▷ Fantasy comics with female leads include: Thomas and Windsor-Smith's "Red Sonja" (1973); the Pini's "Elfquest" (1978); "Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld" (1983); Marx's "Sisterhood of Steel" (1984); the 'Xena: Warrior Princess' TV show (1995) and "Xena" comics (1997); Moore and Williams III's "Promethea" (1999); Medley's "Castle Waiting" (1999); Smylie's "Artesia" series (1999); Marz's "Mystic" (2000).
▷ Since the success of the LORD OF THE RINGS films and the 'Game Of Thrones' TV series, an explosion of feminist media expanding Fantasy parameters include: Pearson's "Hilda" graphic novels (2010) and the 'Hilda' cartoon show (2018) ▴; 'The Legend of Korra' TV series (2012) ▴; Costa's webcomic "Peritale" (2015); Louis' "Agents Of The Realm" (2016); Leth and Levens' "Spell On Wheels" (2016); O'Neill's "Princess Princess Ever After" (2016) ▴; Thompson and Douhard's "Mega Princess" (2016); Hicks' "The Nameless City" books (2016); Wheeler and Ganucheau's "Another Castle" (2016); Naifeh's "Night's Dominion" (2016); Dawson and Wood's "Ladycastle" (2017); Ostertag's "Witch Boy" graphic novels (2017) ▴.
by Harlan Ellison
Ellison became the center of the new wave of speculative fiction.
Leads to:
"Shades of earth are ringing through my open views..."
▷ Ellison's peers included the US and UK authors of the New Wave Of Science Fiction, but also authors like J.G. Ballard, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Pynchon, Joanna Russ, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; and filmmakers like Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Irina Aktasheva, Robert Altman, and Andrei Tarkovsky; and his work influenced comics writers like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, and Garth Ennis.
▶▶▶ Incredible Hulk #140, Ellison's story "The Brute that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom" (1971) ▴; the film adaption A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975) ▴; Boyle's "The Worlds End" (1987); Morrison's "The Invisibles" (1994) ▴; 'Neon Genesis Evangelion': Episode 26 (1997).
by James Tiptree, Jr.
An omnibus of Tiptree's short stories between 1969 and 1980.
James Tiptree, Jr was one of the most heralded writers of modern SF for his first decade, but -for some reason- was less supported when later revealed to be Alice Bradley Sheldon.
But quality is timeless, and divisions are dust.
Leads to:
Multiplicity.
▷ After Mary Shelley invented Science Fiction writing the very postmodernist "Frankenstein" (1818), the kneejerks immediately believed the book had been ghosted by her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Across time, female authors of Speculative Fiction often used male pseudonyms to slip entry into the OldBoy publishing world. Important examples include: Vernon Lee / Violet Paget (worked across 1880s-1930s); Murray Constantine / Katharine Burdekin (1920s-'30s); L. Taylor Hansen / Lucile Taylor Hansen (1940s); C.L. Moore / Catherine Lucille Moore (1940s-'50s); P.L. Travers / Pamela Lyndon Travers (1930s-'80s); Paul Ash(well) / Pauline Ashwell (1940s-'90s); Andre Norton / Alice Norton (1940s-2000s); JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith/ Joanne Rowling (1990s-).
▷ As an example that gender is simply a social construct and that individual merit is all that matters, Tiptree helped free the possibilities for authors living beyond arbitrary segregations, such as: Jessica Amanda Salmonson, JY Yang ▴, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Poppy Z. Brite ▴, Vivek Shraya ▴, and Charlie Jane Anders ▴.
Also Read:
- "Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers" (2017)
by Larry Niven
The heir to Arthur C. Clarke; hard science and bold physics.
Leads to:
Nimbus.
▶▶▶ Clarke's "Rendezvous With Rama" (1973) ▴; Star Trek: Animated, adapting Niven's "Slaver Weapon" (S01/E14, 1973); Pratchett's spoof "Strata" (1981); Forstchen's "The Alexandrian Ring" (1987); Banks' 'Culture' book series (1987); the Catwoman in STAR TREK 5: The Final Frontier (1989); the Dyson Sphere in Star Trek: Next Generation, "Relics" (S06/E04, 1992) ▴; Reynolds' "Houses Of The Sun" (2008); the Ringworlds in the video games Halo ▴, Stellaris, Star Ruler 2, and Space Empires; the Ringworld in 'Star Wars: The Book Of Boba Fett' (S01/E05, 2022); the Ringworld in 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' (S04/E03, 2023).
by J.G. Ballard
Deconstruction worker.
Ballard's experimental satire approached speculative fiction from a cubist lens.
Leads to:
Explication.
▷ Ballard's postmodern sensibility has had a direct influence on writers like Bruce Sterling, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Lee Killough, John Gray, Terry Dowling; and the films of Ken Russell, David Lynch ▴, David Cronenberg ▴, and Lars von Trier, as well as Sam Esmail's 'Mr. Robot' TV series ▴.
▶▶▶ Film adaptations of Ballard's work include EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1984); CRASH (1996); and HIGH-RISE (2015).
▶▶▶ Ballard's influence on music is immense: The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" (1978), covered by Grace Jones; Joy Division's "Atrocity Exhibition" (1980); Merzbow's album title "Great American Nude" (1991); Gary Numan's songs "Love and Napalm" and "A Question of Faith" (1994); Botch's album "We Are the Romans" (1999); Exodus' album "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007); Mão Morta's album "Pesadelo em Peluche" (2010); Danny Brown's album "Atrocity Exhibition" (2016); and the band names The Atrocity Exhibit and The Comsat Angels.
> The brutal musical legacy of JG Ballard
by William Peter Blatty
The ONLY demonic possession book and film that matter. All else is just degrees of pastiche.
Blatty's book, and Friedkin's film, perfectly balance the ambivilent dislocation between rational science and supranormal fear.
Leads to:
Incendiary.
▷ Too many bad rip-off and parody films that won't be named.
But notable films which are truly worthwhile include Polanski's preceding film ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), Kubrick's adaption of King's THE SHINING (1980), Raimi's surreal farce THE EVIL DEAD II (1987), THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005), Kent's THE BABADOOK (2014), Hawley's TV Series 'Legion' (2017)▴, and much of the two-season 'The Exorcist' TV series (2016-'17).
▷ The serial music chimes of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" used in the film's soundtrack directly inspired Goblin's SUSPIRIA theme, John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN theme, and Mark Snow's 'The X-Files' theme; and songs like Skinny Puppy's "Love" and Radiohead's "Burn The Witch".
▷ The film inspired songs like The Ohio Players' "Runnin' From The Devil" and the Brothers Johnson's "The Devil",
▶▶▶ Richard Pryor's "Exorcist routine", later expanded on Saturday Night Live (1975); King's books "Carrie" (1974) and "The Shining" (1977) ▴; Blatty's post-script book "Legion" (1983), which he directed as the film THE EXORCIST III (1990); GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) ▴; Alan Moore's character, the punk exorcist John Constantine (1985) ▴; the gargoyle Pazuzu in the 'Futurama' TV series; Allen's historical book "Possessed" (2000); Pielmeier's "The Exorcist" stage play; Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl" (2005).
Also Watch:
--THE EXORCIST (1973)
One of the finest films of the New Hollywood>, beyond genre or time.
-"Another Roadside Attraction", by Tom Robbins (1971)
-"The Lathe Of Heaven", by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
-"Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke", by Philip José Farmer (1972)
-"The Princess Bride", by William Goldman (1973)
by Richard Adams
All power to the peaceful!
Leads to:
Parable.
▷ In the tradition of beast fable social commentary, the book descends from "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), "The Jungle Book" (1894), "Winnie The Pooh" (1926), "Animal Farm" (1945), and "Planet Of The Apes" (1963); and is paralleled by "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" (1971), and "Tom Ass - Or, The Second Gift" (1972); and descended by "Maus" (1980+) and "Hunters Moon" (1989).
▶▶▶ Wangerin Jr's "The Book of the Dun Cow" (1978); the hand-animated adaptation WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) ▴; Dann's "The Animals of Farthing Wood" (1979); the animated THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982) ▴; William's "Tailchaser's Song" (1985); Le Guin's "Catwings" (1988) ▴; G. King's "The Wild Road" (1997); Martini's "The Mob" (2004); Morrison and Quitely's "We3" (2004); the CG-animated adaptation 'Watership Down' (2018).
Also Read:
- "Maus I and II", by Art Spiegelman (1980-1991) ▴
A memoir of the Holocaust which won the Pulitzer Prize.
Also Watch:
-- WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)
Animated classic.
by Michael Moorcock
A deconstruction of Fantasy by the counterculture, critiquing monarchy, deities, and stifling conventions.
Leads to:
Dark Fantasy.
▷ Like Ballard, Moorcock had enormous influence on music:
Deep Purple's album "Stormbringer" (1974); Hawkwind's albums "Warrior on the Edge of Time" (1975) and "The Chronicle of the Black Sword" (1985); Blue Öyster Cult' song "Black Blade" (1980); Diamond Head's "Borrowed Time" album (1981); the band name Mournblade; NME's song "Stormbringer" (1985); the band name Tygers of Pan Tang; Dark Moor's EP "The Fall of Melniboné" (1985); many Black Metal albums and songs.
▶▶▶ Adam Warlock ▴; the sword BlackRazor in Dungeons & Dragons games; the parody Elrod of Melvinbone in Cerebus comics (1978); the video game Chaos: The Battle of Wizards; the roleplaying game company White Wolf, Inc; Sapkowski's lead character from The Witcher series, Geralt of Rivia (1986) ▴; Gaiman's short story "One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock" (1994); Smax in the "Top 10' comic series (1999) ▴; Captain Zodiac in "Tom Strong' comics (2005); the Elric brothers from the 'Fullmetal Alchemist' animated series ▴; the sword Stormbringer in "Game Of Thrones"; the Grome software (2014).
by Ira Levin
Reject all conformity and oppression.
Ira Levin also wrote "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Boys From Brazil".
Leads to:
The personal is political.
▶▶▶ the film THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975) ▴; Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" (1985) ▴; DISTURBING BEHAVIOR (1998); THE WORLD'S END (2013); O'Neill's "Only Ever Yours" (2016); GET OUT (2017) ▴; 'Riverdale' (S03, 2018); the podcast and TV series 'Homecoming' (2018) ▴; DON'T WORRY DARLING (2022).
Also Watch:
-- THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)
Faithful and poignant.
by Thomas Pynchon
The "Ulysses" of speculative fiction.
A book so exhaustive and exhausting that few who say they've finished it actually have.
Leads to:
Stealth trajectiles.
▷ Paralleled by peers:
books like Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five", Reed's "Mumbo Jumbo", Ballard's "Crash";
and filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Chantal Akerman, Peter Greenaway, and Matthew Barney.
▷ Music inspired by the book:
Devo's song "Whip It" (1980) ▾; Laurie Anderson's song "Gravity's Angel" (1984); Camper Van Beethoven's song "All Her Favorite Fruit" (1989); Pat Benatar's album title "Gravity's Rainbow" (1993); Frith and Kaiser's song “The Kirghiz Light” (1995); Bill Laswell's dub song “A Screaming Comes across the Sky” (2000); Coheed and Cambria's song “Gravity’s Union” (2013).
▷ Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta's "Starstruck" (1984) graphic novel was dedicated to Pynchon because of this book ▴.
▶▶▶ Perec's "Life: A User's Manual" (1978); DeLillo's "Ratner's Star" (1976); Acker's "Blood and Guts in High School" (1978); Moore's unfinished "Big Numbers" comic (1990) ▴; Wallace's "Infinite Jest" (1996); Danielewski's "House of Leaves" (2000); Bolaño's "2666" (2004); Zak Smith's drawing exposition, "One Picture for Every Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow" (2006); Thomas' "The End of Mr. Y" (2006); Hall's "The Raw Shark Texts" (2007); the film IMPOLEX (2009); Abrams and Dorst's "Ship Of Theseus" (2013) ▴; Moore's opus "Jerusalem" (2016); 'The OA' (2016).
-"Dhalgren", by Samuel R. Delaney (1975)
-"Woman On The Edge Of Time", by Marge Piercy (1976)
-"Bridge To Terabithia", by Katherine Paterson (1977)
20)
THE FOREVER WAR,by Joe Halderman
A Vietnam vet traces the spiraling trajectory of violent madness.
Leads to:
Extinction.
▷ The counterculture's disillusionment and rejection of the Vietnam War and the Military-Industrial Complex inspired many episodes of 'Star Trek' (1966-'69), Ballard’s “The Killing Ground” (1969), Spinrad's story "The Big Flash" (1969), Moorcock's "A Cure for Cancer" (1971), Le Guin’s novella “The Word for World Is Forest” (1972), and Wilhelm's story "The Village" (1973).
> "The Vietnam War as American Science Fiction and Fantasy"
▶▶▶ Haldeman's Star Trek novels, "Planet of Judgment" (1977) and "World Without End" (1979); Pohl's "Gateway" (1977) ▴; Card's "Ender's Game" (1985); the soldiers in ALIENS (1986) ▴; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Battle Lines" (S01/E13, 1993) ▴; Hamilton's "Fallen Dragon" (2001); Baxter's 'Destiny's Children' books (2004); AVATAR (2009) ▴; the series 'Homecoming' (2018).
by Nicholas Meyer
Meyer's bestseller rejuvenated Holmes by situating him within actual history and concurrent fiction.
Parallel to Phillip Jose Farmer's books, this began the contemporary trend to recontextualize pulp fiction and history together.
Leads to:
Cross-overs!
▶▶▶ Extensions of the cross-fiction approach that followed include:
the Wellman's "Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds" (1975); Hall's SF-tinged "Exit Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective's Final Days" (1975); Collins' "The Case of the Philosophers' Ring" (1978); MURDER BY DECREE (1979) ▴; Faria, Jr's "O Xangô de Baker Street" (1995); Norbu's "The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes" (1999); Moore and Campbell's "From Hell" (1989) ▴; the alternate Batman story, "Gotham by Gaslight" (1989); Carr's "The Alienist" (1994); Ellis and Cassaday's "Planetary" comics (1998) ▴; Moore and O'Neill's "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comics (1999); the anthology "Shadows Over Baker Street" (2003), which includes Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald"; Chabon's novella "The Final Solution" (2004); Carr's "The Italian Secretary" (2005); Malmont's "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril" (2007) and "The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown" (2011) ▴; McCleary's "The Alchemy of Murder" (2009); Horowitz's "The House of Silk" (2011); the TV series 'Penny Dreadful' (2014).
Also Read:
- "Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke", by Philip José Farmer (1972)
Also Watch:
-- THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976)
A solid if slightly loose adaptation, from Meyer's script.
-- TIME AFTER TIME (1979)
Meyer's directorial debut.
H.G. Wells vs. Jack the Ripper in the present day.
by Stephen King
Don't tell her what she can't do.
Shirley Jackson, weoponized.
Leads to:
Retribution.
▶▶▶ De Palma's CARRIE (1976); Jean Grey and the Dark Phoenix in X-Men comics (1976) ▴; THE FURY (1978); King's "Firestarter" (1980) and FIRESTARTER (1984) ▴; Dahl's "Matilda" (1988); the "Carrie" Broadway musical (1988); Cassie on 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', "Help" (S07/E04, 2002); RINGU (Japan, 1998) and THE RING (2002) ▴; River Tam in Firefly (2002) and SERENITY (2005); the undervalued alternate film adaptation, Pierce's CARRIE (2013); the ITV series 'Him'; Eleven on 'Stranger Things' (2016) ▴; THELMA (Norway, 2017); the Carrie Musical episode of 'Riverdale', (S02/E18, 2018); 'The Umbrella Academy', (S01, 2019); X-MEN: Dark Phoenix (2019); the kids in THE INNOCENTS (Norway, 2021); the school dance in 'Wednesday', (S01/E04, 2022).
Also Watch:
-- CARRIE (1976)
De Palma channels Hitchcock.
by Peter Benchley
Predator.
Benchley's savvy pulp novel tapped into mid-'70s sociolpolitical anxiety by way of primal fear. Steven Spielberg's film version quickly became the highest grossing movie yet made.
Leads to:
Blockbuster.
▷ The book made Benchley a bestselling author. The film version launched director Steven Spielberg, composer John Williams, and star Richard Dreyfus as in-demand superstars.
▷ JAWS (1975) is the Big Bang of modern blockbusters.
Films had usually been released gradually outward by regions, depending on reviews and word-of-mouth. JAWS countered this by releasing nationwide simultaneously during the Memorial Day weekend, as school let out for Summer. The film became a cultural phenomenon.
George Lucas repeated this two years later with STAR WARS, establishing the summer blockbuster strategy for decades ▾.
▶▶▶ Bad:
weaker sequel films; rip-offs like GRIZZLY, PIRANHA, CROCODILE, and ANACONDA; Fonzie "jumping the shark" on the 'Happy Days' show; the henchman Jaws in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER; (sigh) the SHARKNADO films; THE MEG.
▶▶▶ Good:
the Land Shark on Saturday Night Live (1975) ▴; Benchley's "The Deep" (1976) and THE DEEP (1977); ALIEN (1979) ▴; "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel (1988); Beastie Boys' sample of JAWS theme in "Egg Man" (1989) ▴; OPEN WATER (2003); THE REEF (2010).
Also Watch:
-- JAWS (1975) ▴
-- ALIEN (1979)
by Joanna Russ
Written in 1970, Russ harbingered the rise of Feminist Science Fiction which enriched the decade by advancing more possilities for the medium, its creators, and the audience.
Leads to:
The human.
▷ '70s Feminism advanced all media -movies, television, books, comics, and music- with new perspectives.
Key speculative authors included: Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr, Kate Wilhelm, Suzette Haden Elgin, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Suzy McKee Charnas, Vonda McIntyre, Pamela Sargent, Octavia Butler, and Margaret Atwood.
by Anne Rice
Vampire renaissance.
Ann Rice's debut led to a series of bestselling sequels, charting the international history of vampires to the present.
Leads to:
Oral tradition.
▷ The bestselling books led to the 21st Century boom of Vampire media, from THE LOST BOYS to Buffy The Vampire Slayer ▴, to TWILIGHT and 'True Blood', to 'Becoming Human' and 'The Vampire Diaries'.
▶▶▶ Martin's "Fevre Dream" (1982); THE HUNGER (1983) ▴; Romkey's "I, Vampire: The Confessions of a Vampire" (1990); Almereyda’s NADJA (1994); Kalogridis' "Covenant with the Vampire" (1994); BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (2001); Harris' 'Southern Vampire Mysteries' books (2001) and the HBO series 'True Blood' (2008); Lindqvist's "Let the Right One In" (2004) and film versions ▴; Meyer's 'Twilight' books and films (2005); Kostova's "The Historian" (2005); Valentino's "1140 Rue Royale" (2007); Jordan's BYZANTIUM (2012); Witter's graphic novel "Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story" (2012); Jarmusch's ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (2013) ▴; the Vampire theatre in 'Penny Dreadful' Season 1 (2014); the interviews structure in WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014); the TV series adaptation 'Interview With The Vampire' (2022).
Also Read:
- "The Vampire Lestat", by Anne Rice (1985)
Another side of the story.
by Kate Wilhelm
Clones.
While cloning had been used in earlier SF works, Wilhelm dealt with it with prescient care as it became a mainstream concept in 1970s culture.
Leads to Leads to Leads to Leads to:
Clones.
▷ Earlier work with Cloning included:
Huxley's "Brave New World" (1931); THE RESURRECTION OF ZACHARY WHEELER (1971); 'Star Trek: The Animates Series': "The Infinite Vulcan" (S01/E07, 1973); multiple instances in 'Doctor Who' (from 1973 up); Gwen Stacy's clone in "Spider-Man" (1974) ▾.
▷ ★ Actual cloning!: Dolly the sheep (1996).
▶▶▶ Levin's "The Boys from Brazil" (1976); Parliament's concept album "The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein" (1976) ▴; The Clone Wars in the STAR WARS films (1977) ▴; Replicants in BLADE RUNNER (1982); Crichton's "Jurassic Park" (1990) and JURASSIC PARK (1993); 'The X-Files', "Eve" (S01/E11, 1993); ALIEN: Resurrection (1997); STAR TREK: Nemesis (2002); RESIDENT EVIL (2002); CODE 46 (2003); X-23 in 'X-Men: Evolutions' (2003) and LOGAN (2017) ▴; Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (2004); Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" (2005); AVATAR (2009); Murphy's "Punk Rock Jesus" comic (2012); the Clone Club in 'Orphan Black' (2013) ▴; OBLIVION (2013); 'Dark Matter' (2015); GEMINI MAN (2019).
by Angela Carter
Gender, Race, and Power are only false social constructs, a brainwashing dogma designed to divide and conquer.>>
Leads to:
New You.
▶▶▶ Waters' "Tipping the Velvet" (1998) ▴; Palahniuk's "Invisible Monsters" (1999) ▴; Peters' "Luna" (2004); Stace's "Misfortune" (2005); Winter's "Annabel" (2010); Black's "Perfect Peace" (2010) ▴; Lowry's "The Earthquake Machine" (2011); Woods' "The Albino Album" (2013); Klaber's "The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell" (2013) ▴.
by Vonda McIntyre
Feminist Sorcery.
Leads to:
Holistic.
▷ Like Science Fiction, Fantasy conventions were rethought through '70s Feminism, with works including: Anne McCaffrey's 'Pern' books (1967); Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" (1969); and Russ' "The Adventures of Alyx" (1976).
▶▶▶ Lynn's "Watchtower" (1979); The "Sword and Sorceress" anthologies, edited by Bradley (1984) ▴; Tepper's 'Jinian' books (1985); Mercedes Lackey's huge ouvre; Pratchett's "Equal Rites" (1987); Scarborough's "The Healer's War" (1988); Winterson's "Sexing the Cherry" (1989); Pierce's "Wild Magic" (1992); Windling's "The Wood Wife" (1996); Modesitt Jr's 'Spellsong Cycle' books (1997); Gaiman and Vess' "Stardust" (1998) ▴; Zhaan and Noranti on the 'Farscape' series (1999) ▴; Croggon's 'Books of Pellinor' books (2002); Bennett's 'The Bonemender' books (2005); Liu's "Shadow Touch" (2006); Valente's "In the Cities of Coin and Spice" (2007); Okorafor's "Akata Witch" (2011) ▴; Lo's "Huntress" (2011); Snyder's 'Healer' books (2011); Jackson's 'Sense Thieves' books (2012); Anaya's 'The Healer' books (2014); Jemison's "The Fifth Season" (2015); Didkinson's "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" (2015); Samatar's "The Winged Histories" (2016); Cordova's "Labyrinth Lost" (2016).
by Douglas Adams
Monty Python and Doctor Who writer joyrides the universe.
Leads to:
Science superscription.
▷ ★ Actual Babel Fish translation devices!
▷ The number 42 has been referenced by shows like 'The X-Files', 'LOST', 'NCIS', and 'Stargate Universe'; Miles Morales' origin spider; games like Fable II, Destroy All Humans, Borderlands, Universal Sandbox; the Google HQ building; and the band name Level 42.
▶▶▶ Gilliam's TIME BANDITS (1981); Cox's REPO MAN (1984); The Adventures Of BUCKAROO BANZAI (1984); Adam's "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" (1987); SPACEBALLS (1987); 'Red Dwarf' (1988) ▴; BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989); Gaiman and Pratchett's "Good Omens" (1990); Brust's "Cowboy Feng" (1990); Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or,..." (1997); THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997); MEN IN BLACK (1997); 'Cowboy Bebop' (1998) ▴; Moore, Cannon, and Ha's "Top 10" comics (1999); 'Futurama' (1999) ▴; GALAXY QUEST (1999); 'Farscape' (1999); THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT (2001); Fforde's "The Eyre Affair" (2001); 'Doctor Who' (2005 return) ▴; WALL-E (2008); FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL (2009); ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011); PAUL (2011); THE WORLD'S END (2013); 'Rick And Morty' (2013); GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014); Ness' "The Rest of Us Just Live Here" (2015); 'The Orville' (2017); THOR: Ragnarok (2017); Valente's comedy "Space Opera" (2018).
30)
KINDRED,by Octavia Butler
Sociopolitical consciousness and diverse voices.
Leads to:
Liberation.
▷ The success and acclaim earned by Octavia Butler opened the doors for more Afrofuturist women:
Nisi Shawl, Jewelle Gomez, Nalo Hopkinson, L.A. Banks, Tananarive Due, Andrea Hairston, Nnedi Okorafor, Andrea Hairston, N. K. Jemisin, and Karen Lord.
▶▶▶ Bishop's "No Enemy But Time" (1982); Yolen's "The Devil’s Arithmetic" (1988); Walker's "The Color Purple" (1982) and "The Temple of My Familiar" (1989) ▴; Gabaldon's "Outlander" books (1991) ▴; Gerima's SANKOFA (1993) ▴; Willis' 'All Clear' books (2010); Atkinson's "Life After Life" (2013); Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" (2016) ▴; 'Legends Of Tomorrow', "Abominations" (S02/E04, 2016); Hamid's "Exit West" (2017); Duffy and Jenning's "Kindred" graphic novel adaption (2017); the TV mini-series adapation 'Kindred' (2022).
Also Read:
-- "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
by Thomas Harris
(ca. 1803-1805), by William Blake
The third major Detective innovation:
the Deductive Detective (Sherlock Holmes);
the Hardboiled Detective (Philip Marlowe);
and the Empathic Detective (Will Graham).
Leads to:
Profiler.
▷ The Empathic Detective, or Profiler:
In the book, Will Graham reverse-engineered murders by an empathic intuition about sociopaths. By contrast, Clarice Starling in the sequel "The Silence Of The Lambs" (1988) ▴ solved crimes by empathic intuitions about the victims.
After the first book was adapted as the film MANHUNTER (1986) ▴, the Profiler archetype quickly permeated mass culture.: the empath on 'Unsub' (1989); Agent Cooper on 'Twin Peaks' (1990) ▴; 'Cracker' (UK, 1993); 'Profiler' (1996); 'Criminal Minds' (2005); 'Numb3rs' (2005); MAD DETECTIVE (Hong Kong, 2007); 'The Killing' (Sweden,2007/US,2011); 'Homeland' (2011); 'Top Of The Lake' (Aus, 2013); 'The Fall' (UK, 2013); the prequel TV series about Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, 'Hannibal' (2013) ▴; 'True Detective' (2014); Hopkins flipping the script in SOLACE (2015).
▷ Forensic Detectives:
the success of the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1990) film made Forensic Detectives the vogue.
William Petersen (Will Graham in MANHUNTER) lead the first of four 'C.S.I.' shows (2000) ▴; 'Crossing Jordan' (2001); 'NCIS' (2003); 'Cold Case' (2003) ▴; 'Rosewood' (2015) ▴.
Full circle: Criminal Pofiling was developed at Quantico in the late-'70s. Harris based characters and events on its leads while researching the book. Lead profiler John E. Douglas wrote the memoir "Mindhunter" (1995) with a nod to the film title. These true-life origins of "Red Dragon" were adapted as the TV series, 'Mindhunter' (2017) ▴.
▷ Serial Killers:
the Oscar-sweep success of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS ▴ made theatric serial killers and genius sociopaths the mode.
Earle on 'Twin Peaks' (1990); Ellis' 'American Psycho' (1991); Carr's "The Alienist" (1995); SEVEN (1995); Peace's 'Red Riding' books (1999); Lee's biopic SUMMER OF SAM (1999); THE BONE COLLECTOR (1999); MONSTER (2003); Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2005); Dexter' (2006); SAW (2007); ZODIAC (2007); The Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) ▴; 'The Blacklist' (2013) ▴; The Beast in SPLIT (2016) ▴; 'Barry' (2018); 'Killing Eve' (2018).
▷ Combining 'Twin Peaks' with SILENCE lead to 'The X-Files' (1993), its 'Millennium' spin-off (1996), and the film X-FILES 2: I Want to Believe (2008).
Also Read:
-- "The Silence Of The Lambs", by Thomas Harris (1988)
Also Watch:
-- MANHUNTER (1986)
-- THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1990)
-- 'Hannibal', a prequel TV series (2013-'15) ▴
-"2010: Odyssey Two", by Athur C. Clarke (1982)
-"Fevre Dream", by George R.R. Martin (1982)
-"Contact", by Carl Sagan (1985)
-"The Hellbound Heart", by Clive Barker (1986)
-"Islands in the Net", by Bruce Sterling (1988)
by William Gibson
Virtual Reality, Hackers, and The Matrix.
Leads to:
The Net.
▷ ★ Actual Virtual Reality (approximately)!
▷ You reading this.:
The book invented the terms 'Cyberspace' and 'The Matrix', and forecast future mass public use of the Internet beyond just the Military and Academia.>
▶▶▶ Murakami's "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (1985); Sterling's "Schismatrix" (1985); Cadigan's "Mindplayers" (1987); the magazine MONDO 2000 (1989) ▴; Stephenson's "Snow Crash" (1992); the magazine WIRED (1993) ▴; Bowie's "Outside" album (1995) ▴; Morgan's 'Altered Carbon' trilogy (2002); Cline's "Ready Player One" (2011); Pynchon's "Bleeding Edge" (2013).
▶▶▶ the Metal Gear video games (1987); the Shadowrun video games (1993); the Deus Ex video games (2000).
▶▶▶ Jodorowsky and Moebius' "The Incal" comics (1981–'89); Gillis and Saenz's all-digital "Shatter" comics (1985); Shirow's manga "Ghost in the Shell" (1989) ▴; Moreno's all-digital "Batman: Digital Justice" graphic novel (1990); Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita" manga (1990); the nine titles in Marvel's "2099" comics (1992); Morrison's "The Invisibles" (1994); Lee and Minor's "BrainBanx" (1997); Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" (1997); Venditti's "The Surrogates" comic (2005) and SURROGATES (2009).
▶▶▶ the 'Max Headroom' series (1985); AKIRA (1988); FLATLINERS (1990); Chung's 'Æon Flux' cartoons (1991) and ÆON FLUX (2005) ▴; FREEJACK (1992); GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995); Bigelow's STRANGE DAYS (1995); the 'VR.5' series (1996); THE MATRIX (1999); the 'Batman Beyond' animated series (1999); Cronenberg's film eXistenZ (1999); the 'Harsh Realm' series (1999); the 'Dark Angel' series (2000); Whedon's 'Dollhouse' series (2009) ▴; Gilliam's THE ZERO THEOREM (2013); the 'Westworld' series (2016); GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017); READY PLAYER ONE (2018) ▴; NEPTUNE FROST (Rwanda, 2021); the cyberpunk remodel of 'Beauty And The Beast' in BELLE (Japan, 2022); all Hackers on every TV show.
Also Watch:
-- BLADE RUNNER (1982)
-- GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995)
-- THE MATRIX (1999)
by Paul Auster
Trying to unscrew the inscrutable.
Leads to:
Headtrip or Shrink.
▷ The Detective genre, with its murky complexities and existential dread, lends itself to PostModern deconstruction.
Examples preceding Auster include: McCabe's "The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor" (1937); O'Brien's "The Third Policeman" (1940/pub.1966); Robbe-Grillet's "The Erasers" (1953); Highsmith's "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1955); Dürrenmatt's "The Pledge" (1958); Burrough's "Naked Lunch" (1959); Welles' version of THE TRIAL (1962); Godard's ALPHAVILLE (1965); Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" (1966); Kōbō Abe's "The Ruined Map" (1967); Sciascia's "Equal Danger" (1971); Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE (1973); Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase" (1982); Scott's BLADE RUNNER (1982); von Trier's THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984).
▶▶▶ Examples following Auster include: Moore and Gibbon's "Watchmen" (1986) ▴; Adams' "Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency" (1987) ▴; Lynch and Frost's 'Twin Peaks' (1990); the Coen's BARTON FINK (1991); Tarantino's PULP FICTION (1994) ▴; Holland's "Death in a Delphi Seminar" (1995); Singer's THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995) ▴; Nolan's MEMENTO (2000); Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (2003); Pessl's "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" (2006); Miéville's "The City and the City" (2009).
Also Watch:
-- THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984)
by Margaret Atwood
Separatism is poison.
Bite the hand that beats you.
Leads to:
RESIST.
▶▶▶ Sargent's "The Shore of Women" (1986); Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country" (1987); Moore and Lloyd's "V For Vendetta" (1982/1988) ▾; James' "The Children of Men" (1992) and CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) ▴; Harpman's "I Who Have Never Known Men" (1995); Anderson's "Speak" (1999); Satrapi's "Persepolis" graphic novel (2000) and PERSEPOLIS (2007); McHugh's "Nekropolis" (2001); Vaughan and Guerra's "Y: The Last Man" comics (2002) ▴; Holmqvist's "The Unit" (2006); Hall's "Daughters of the North" (2007); Jordan's "When She Woke" (2011); Hashimi's "The Pearl that Broke Its Shell" (2014); 'Orphan Black' ranch (S02, 2014); Mandel's "Station Eleven" (2015); MAD MAX: Fury Road (2015) ▴; the '3%' TV series (2016); Alderman's "The Power" (2017); King's "An Excess Male" (2017); Melamed's "Gather the Daughters" (2017); Erdrich's "Future Home of the Living God" (2017); El Akkad's "American War" (2018); Pichetsote and Campbell's "Infidel" comics (2018); Zumas' "Red Clocks" (2018); Dalcher's "Vox" (2018); Shah's "Before She Sleeps" (2018).
art by David Lloyd
Also Read:
- "The Testements", the sequel by Margaret Atwood (Sept. 2019)
Also Watch:
--'The Handmaid's Tale' TV series (2018) ▴
by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
The postmodern superhero.
The literate graphic novel.
Mainstream acceptance of the graphics literature form.
NOTE: This is a self-contained story, period.
Any other "before" or "after" supplements or 'franchise extensions' by other parties are a complete fraud perpetrated by the greedy and supported by the foolish.
😊
Leads to:
PostMod Comics Lit.
▷ "Watchmen" is the Big Bang of modern comics legitimacy.
British author Alan Moore became a prime architect of the '80s Comics Renaissance; he advanced the maturation of the medium, initially with the first deconstructed superhero, Marvelman ("Miracleman" in the US), and then the radical "Swamp Thing", and then "Watchmen" and "V For Vendetta".
When re-collected in book form as Graphic Novels in the late-'80s, the works earned literary credibility through bookstores, libraries, press, and bestseller lists. The adult form and its mass support led to the mega-Conventions, media experts, and screen blockbusters of the present.
▶▶▶ Acolytes:
WATCHMEN
• The Golden Age and Silver Age, rethought postmodern -
▸▸▸ the "Wild Cards" anthology books, edited by George R.R. Martin (1987); the appropriation of the Bloody Smiley symbol for Acid House and Madchester raves (late 1980s); Pop Will Eat Itself's anthem "Can U Dig It?" ["Alan Moore knows the score."] (1989); Busiek and Ross' "Marvels" comic (1994) ▴; Busiek and Anderson's "Astro City" comic (1995) ▴; Waid and Ross' "Kingdom Come" comic (1996) ▴; Willingham's "Pantheon" comic (1998); Moore, Cannon, and Ha's "Top 10" (1999); Way and Ba's "The Umbrella Academy" comic (2007); WATCHMEN (2009); Stephenson's "Nowhere Men" (2012); Schwab's 'Vicious' books (2013); Morrison's pastiche "Pax Americana" (2014) ▴; 'Elementary', "You've Got Me, Who's Got You?" (S04/E16, 2016); 'The Umbrella Academy' (S01, 2019).
MIRACLEMAN
• The naturalistic, realistic superhero -
▸▸▸ Morrison and Yeowell's "Zenith" comics (1987); Ellis and Hitch's "The Authority" comic (1999); Neo vs. Agent Smith in THE MATRIX trilogy (1999-'03); ultraviolence in Ellis' "The Boys" (2006); Black Adam since DC Comics' event series "52" (2007) ▴; Waid's "Irredeemable" comic (2009); Ellis and Gastonny's "Supergod" comic (2009); Gunn's SUPER (2010); CHRONICLE (2012); MAN OF STEEL (2013) ▴; Lemire's "Black Hammer" (2016); GLASS (2019).
V FOR VENDETTA
• Power to the People -
Moore and artist David Lloyd used the Guy Fawkes mask as the face of dissent: anonymity/unanimity.
▸▸▸ after the success of the film adaptation V FOR VENDETTA (2006) ▴, the mask was taken up by democratic activists and the Anonymous hacktivists worldwide; the Everyone collective on 'Elementary' (2012); F Society in 'Mr. Robot' (2015) ▴.
(The blank mask has also become cheap shorthand to demonize activists as terrorists in bad films, shows, comics, and malware ads.)
▷ COMICS LIT I: Awards -
Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" (1973) had offended the old-guard Pulitzer jury, but the literary cred earned by the graphic novels "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" (1986) augered the turning tide:
• PULITZER -
▸▸▸ Spiegelman's graphic novel "Maus" (1980-'91), Morrison's allegory Beloved (1988), Chabon's comics-centric The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2001), McCarthy's spec-fic The Road (2007), Diaz's genre-centric The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008), and Whitehead's spec-fic The Underground Railroad (2017).
• Awards -
▸▸▸ "Watchmen" (Time's 100 Best Novels, Hugo, Eisner); Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home" (Time best novel 2006) and "Fun Home" musical (5 Tonies, 1 Obie); Lewis' "March" (Natl. Book Award, RFK Award); Bell's "El Deafo" (Newberry Medal).
> List of award-winning Graphic Novels
▷ COMICS LIT II: Indie Films from adult graphic novels -
Moore's FROM HELL (2001); AMERICAN SPLENDOR (Oscar nom, 2001); GHOST WORLD (Oscar nom, 2001) ▴; ROAD TO PERDITION (Oscar nom, 2002); A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (Oscar nom, 2005); Moore's V FOR VENDETTA (2006); ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (2006); PERSEPOLIS (2007); Moore's WATCHMEN (2009); SCOTT PIGRIM vs. THE WORLD (2010); The Extraordinary Adventures of ADELE BLANC-SEC (2010); TAMARA DREWE (2010); BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (2013) ▴; GEMMA BOVERY (2014); THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (2015) ▴; MY FRIEND DAHMER (2017); VALERIAN and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017); DEATH TO STALIN (2017); GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017) ▴.
▷ COMICS LIT III: Indie Comics and the TV screen -
Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman's works blueprinted the adult Vertigo Comics* (1993)>, and all its successive imitators, leading to these show adaptations.
▸▸▸ 'The Walking Dead' (2010); 'Constantine' (*,2015); 'iZombie' (*,2015); 'Lucifer' (*,2016); 'Preacher' (*,2016); 'Wynonna Earpe' (2016); 'The End of the F***ing World' (2017); 'Happy!' (2017); 'Doom Patrol (*,2019); 'Swamp Thing (*,2019); 'Deadly Class' (2019); 'The Umbrella Academy' (2019); 'Y: The Last Man' (*,2020).
- "Miracleman, Book 3, Olympus", by Alan Moore and John Totleben (1988)
- "V For Vendetta", by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (1982/1988) ▴
- "The Sandman", by Neil Gaiman,+ (1989)
by Toni Morrison
The heart is a haunted place.
Leads to:
Spectre.
▶▶▶ BELOVED (1998) ▴; Due's "The Good House" (2003) ▴; Brockmeier's "The Truth About Celia" (2003); Enright's "The Gathering" (2007); Waters' "The Little Stranger" (2009); ENTER THE VOID (2009) ▴; Winters' "In the Shadow of Blackbirds" (2013); THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013); PERSONAL SHOPPER (2017); A GHOST STORY (2017) ▴.
Also Read:
- "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts", by Maxine Hong Kingston (1976)
Also Watch:
-- UGETSU (1953)
-- BELOVED (1998)
by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Victorian Futurism.
After defining Cyberpunk as edgy futurism, Gibson and Sterling reapplied the aesthetic to the past.
Leads to:
Puff Zoom.
▷ The concept of Victorian Futurism dates from Verne and Welles's books and across the 20th Century in varied works, which include: Peake's "Titus Alone" (1959); THE TIME MACHINE (1960); 'The Wild Wild West' series (1965); Moorcock's "The Warlord of the Air" (1971); TIME AFTER TIME (1979); Jeter's "Morlock Night" (1979); Powers' "The Anubis Gates" (1983); Gilliam's BRAZIL (1985); Blaylock's "Homunculus" (1986); and Miyazaki's LAPUTA: Castle in the Sky (1986).
K. W. Jeter was the first to give the general name for the loose genre in 1987.
▶▶▶ the roleplaying game Space: 1889 (1988); BACK TO THE FUTURE III (1990); The Chaos Engine video game (1993), inspired by "The Difference Engine"; Mignola's "Hellboy" comics (1993); the Myst trilogy of games (1993); Jeunet and Caro's THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995); the 'Doctor Who' TV movie (1996) ▴; Moore and O'Neill's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comic series (1999) ▴; Miéville's "Perdido Street Station" (2000); the roleplay games Skies of Arcadia (2000), Arcanum (2001), and Rise of Nations (2003); Reeves' 'Mortal Engines' books (2001) and MORTAL ENGINES (2018); HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (2004) ▴; STEAMBOY (2004); design aesthetics at the Burning Man festival; the Oz-reimagining TV maxi-series 'Tin Man' (2007); Gevers's anthology "Extraordinary Engines" (2008); del Toro's HELLBOY II: The Golden Army (2008); Thomas Dolby's album "A Map of the Floating City" (2011); 'The Legend of Korra' animated (2012); 'Penny Dreadful' (2014); Tardi's APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD animated (2015); the sequel film ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016); Ha's "Mae" comics (2016) ▴.
Also Read:
- "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" graphic novels by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (1999)
by Walter Mosley
Murder, no rote.
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) supposedly invented detectives, but Catherine Crowe’s "Adventures of Susan Hopley" preceded it months earlier with three female sleuths.
Holmes and Marlowe have a wide range of company, with detectives from every sphere, such as Mosley's 'Easy Rawlins' books.
Leads to:
Public I.
▷ Previous to Mosley, diverse detectives include: Catherine Crowe’s "Adventures of Susan Hopley" (1841); Rinehart's 'Hilda Adams' books (1914); Upfield's 'Inspector "Boney" Bonaparte' books (set in Australia, 1929); Christie's 'Miss Marple' books (1930); Stratemeyer's 'Nancy Drew' books (1930); Fickling's 'Honey West' books (1957); Himes' 'Harlem Detective' books (1957); T. Hillerman's 'Leaphorn and Chee' books (Navajo, 1970); Tidyman's 'John Shaft' books (1971); Paretsky's 'V. I. Warshawski' books (1982); Jones, Campbell, and Anderson's "Somerset Holmes" comic (1983); Haywood's 'Aaron Gunner' books (1988); Barnard's 'Charlie Peace' books (1989).
▶▶▶ Baker's 'Virginia Kelly' books (1991); Neely's 'Blanche White' books (1992); Bland's 'Marti MacAlister' books (1992); Patterson's 'Alex Cross' books (1993) ▴; Hill's 'Joe Sixsmith' books (Britain, 1993); Rowland's 'Sano Ichiro' books (Japan, 1994); Mickelbury's 'Gianna Maglione' (1994) and 'Carol Ann Gibson' (1998) books; Wesley's 'Tamara Hayle' books (1994); Evanovich's 'Stephanie Plum' books (1995); Hambly's 'Benjamin January' books (set in 1830s New Orleans, 1995); Grimes' 'Theresa Galloway' books (1996); Garcia-Aguilera's 'Lupe Solano' books (1996); Smith-Levin's 'Starletta Duvall' books (1996); Massey's 'Rei Shimura' books (Japan, 1997); Deaver’s 'Lincoln Rhyme' books (1997); Carter’s 'Nanette Hayes' books (1997); See's 'Red Princess' books (China, 1997); Smith's 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' books (Botswana, 1998) ▴; Thomas-Graham's 'Nikki Chase' books (1998); Rusch's 'Smokey Dalton' books ('60s Memphis, 2000); Bendis and Gaydos' 'Jessica Jones' comics (2001) and the 'Jessica Jones' TV series (2015); ▴; Bates' 'Alex Powell' books (2001); Hirahara's 'Mas Arai' (2003) and 'Ellie Rush' (2014) books; Cotterill's 'Dr. Siri Paiboun' (Laos, 2004) and 'Jimm Juree' (Thailand, 2011) books; Larsson's 'Lisbeth Salander' trilogy (Sweden, 2005) ▴; Davis' 'Sophie Katz' books (2005); A. Hillerman's Chee sequels, the 'Bernadette Manuelito' books (2006); Hall's 'Vish Puri' books (India, 2009); Kwei Quartey's 'Inspector Darko Dawson' books (Ghana, 2009); Stuart's "The Pigeon Pie Mystery" (2012); Pandian's 'Jaya Jones' books (2012); Hall's 'Elouise Norton' books (2014); Yu's 'Aunty Lee' books (Singapore, 2015); V. Khan's 'Inspector Chopra' books (India, 2015); A. Z. Khan's 'Esa Khattak' books (Toronto, 2015); Larson and Williams' "Goldie Vance" comics (2016); Ahmed and Kivelä's "Abbott" comics (2018).
▶▶▶ Park's SHAFT (1971); COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1972); 'Get Christie Love!' (1974) ▴; 'Police Woman' (1974); 'Cagney & Lacey' TV show (1982); 'A Man Called Hawk' TV series (1989) ▴; V.I. WARSHAWSKI (1991); THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991); DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995): 'The Wire' (2002); 'Karen Sisco' (2003); 'Veronica' Mars' TV series (2004); 'Luther' (2010); 'The Bletchley Circle' (2012); 'The Fall' (2013); 'Happy Valley' (2014); 'Miss Sherlock' TV series (Japan, 2018) ▴; 'True Detective', Season 3 (2019) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995)
-"Jurassic Park", by Michael Crichton (1990)
-"The God of Small Things", by Arundhati Roy (1997)
-"Brown Girl in the Ring", by Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
-"Cryptonomicon", by Neal Stephenson (1999)
by Diana Gabaldon
The conventions of a Romance Novel rethought with historical accuracy and speculative fiction.
Leads to:
The whole kilt and caboodle.
▷ Classic Time Travel Love Stories include: Star Trek, "City on the Edge of Forever" (S01/E28, 1967); TIME AFTER TIME (1979); BACK TO THE FUTURE III (1990); IL MARE (Korea, 2000) and THE LAKE HOUSE (2006); Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife" (2003); THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME anime (2006); the Outlander TV series (2014).
▶▶▶ Books in a similar vein include: Roberson's "Lady of the Glen" (1996) ▴; Atkinson's "Human Croquet" (1997); Gage's "Wishing for a Highlander" (2012) ▴; Claire's 'Morna's Legacy' books (2013); McDougall's "Veil of Time" (2014); Layouni's "Hemlock" (2014); Brown's "Beautiful Wreck" (2014) ▴; Kearsley's "A Desperate Fortune" (2015); Ashford's "The Color of Secrets" (2015); Robson's "After the War Is Over" (2015); Mortimer's "The Outcasts of Time" (2017); Reisz's "The Night Mark" (2017); Ellsworth's "Stars Over Clear Lake" (2017); Cooper's 'Dawn of the Highland Dragon' books (2017); Longley's "Tangled in Time" (2017); McElwain's "Caught in Time" (2018) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980)
40)
SNOW CRASH,by Neal Stephenson
Avatars and Diversity.
Taking a cue from the Rastas, Ninjas, and Razorgirl of Gibson's international "Neuromancer" (1984), Stephenson pointedly extends pro-diversity and anti-sexism while redefining the concept of cyberspace for the rising World Wide Web generation.
Leads to:
Tech/nicolor.
▷ ★ Avatars. Amplifying on Zelazny's "Lord Of Light" (1968), Stephenson makes Avatar the official online-surrogate term.
▷ Predescessors in diversity include: Scott's 'Dreamships' books (1992); Thomson's "Virtual Girl" (1993); Goonan's "Queen City Jazz" books (1994).
▶▶▶ Nagata's 'The Bohr Maker' books (1995); STRANGE DAYS (1995); Akomfrah's THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY (1996); Lee and Minor's "BrainBanx" comics (1997) ▴; Ellis and Robertson's "Transmetropolitan" comics (1997); Forbes' "Exit to Reality" (1997); Okazaki's "Afro Samurai" manga (1998) and 'Afro Samuarai' anime (2007); Zion in the MATRIX films (1999) ▴; Mosely's "Futureland" (2001); Grimwood's 'Arabesk' trilogy (2001); Eskridge's "Solitaire" (2002); Bear's "Carnival" (2006); Morgan's "Black Man" (a.k.a., "Thirteen", 2007); Beukes' "Moxyland" (2008); AVATAR (2009) ▴; WRECK IT RALPH (2012); the inclusive anthology "Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow" (2016); 'Nightflyers' (2018) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- THE MATRIX (1999)
Morpheus and Trinity.
by Caleb Carr
In the spirit of Meyer and Farmer, fictional mysteries set within historical times and figures.
Leads to:
Reverse analysis.
▷ In "The Seven Per Cent Solution", Meyer teamed the fictional investigator Sherlock Holmes with the real mental investigator Sigmund Freud. In "The Alienist", Carr combines the two into the fictional Dr. Laszlo Kreizler.
▶▶▶ Scorsese's adaptation of THE GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002): Larson's "The Devil in the White City" (2003) ▴; Pearl's "The Dante Club" (2003); Brady's "A June of Ordinary Murders" (2012); Faye's "The Gods of Gotham" (2012); 'Copper' (2013); 'Ripper Street' (2013) ▴; Price's "By Gaslight" (2016); the 'Mindhunter' series (2017); Ricca's "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective..." (2017) ▴; Hirsch's "The Devil’s Half Mile" (2018).
Also Read:
- "The Seven Per Cent Solution", by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
- "From Hell", by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (1999)
Also Watch:
-- 'The Alienist' (2018)
Mini-series.
by George R.R. Martin
Gritty realism, complex royal intrigue, fatalistic tone.
Tolkein complexity rethought by way of the historicity of The War Of The Roses.
Leads to:
Winter.
▷ The success of Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy films (2001-'03), with their naturalistic approach to Fantasy, greenlit HBO's series of 'Game Of Thrones' (2011).
The success of 'Game', with its gritty edge and worldbuild, inspired screen projects like: CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011); 'Merlin' (2012); THOR: The Dark World (2013); A FIELD IN ENGLAND (2013); German's HARD TO BE A GOD (2013); 'The White Queen' (2013) and 'The White Princess' (2017) ▴; 'Atlantis' (2013); 'Vikings' (2013); 'Black Sails' (2014); 'Outlander' (2014); 'The Last Kingdom' (2015); 'The Shannara Chronicles' (2016); 'Westworld' (2016) ▴; 'American Gods' (2017); WONDER WOMAN (2017); BLACK PANTHER (2018) ▴; 'Disenchantment' (2018) ▴; 'Outlaw King' (2018); 'Medici' (2018); 'Norsemen' (2018); AQUAMAN (2018); 'Queen Of Shadows' (2019).
▶▶▶ Novik's 'His Majesty's Dragon' books (2006); Bardugo's 'Shadow and Bone' books (2012); Jemisin's 'The Fifth Season' books (2015); Tahir's 'An Ember in the Ashes' books (2015); Gratton’s "The Queens of Innis Lear" (2018); Kuang's "The Poppy War" (2018); Suri's "Empire of Sand" (2018); James' "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" (2018).
▶▶▶ Martin's own prequel stories "Hedge Knight" (2003); Vaughan and Staples' "Saga" comic (2012) ▴; "Rat Queens" (2013); Sundberg's "Stand Still Stay Silent" webcomic (2013) ▴; Busiek and Dewey's "The Autumnlands" (2014) ▴; Liu and Takeda's "Monstress" (2015) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- EXCALIBUR (1981)
-- 'Game Of Thrones' (2011-2019)
by J.K. Rowling
Magic youth.
Rowling led a generation of readers through their youth with empowerment metaphors.
Leads to:
Alohomora!
▷ The Harry Potter series advances a rich tradition, which includes: White's "The Sword In The Stone" (1938); Lewis' 'The Chronicles of Narnia' books (1950); Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" (1969); Murphy's "The Worst Witch" books (1974); Gaiman's "The Books of Magic" comic (1990).
▶▶▶ DiTerlizzi and Black's 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' books (2003); Riordan's 'Percy Jackson' books (2005); Scott's 'The Alchemyst' books (2006); Rothfuss' 'The Name of the Wind' books (2007); Moore and O'Neill's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century" (2009) ▴; Carey and Gross' "The Unwritten" comic (2009) ▴; Grossman's "The Magicians" (2009) and 'The Magicians' show (2015) ▴; Okorafor's "Akata Witch" (2011) books ▴; Riggs' "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" (2011); Messenger's "Keeper of the Lost Cities" (2012); Rowell's "Fangirl" (2013); Johansen's 'The Queen of the Tearling" books (2014); Larson's "Pennyroyal Academy" (2014); the prequel film series FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (2016); Bell's "The Uncommoners" (2017); Chainani's "The School for Good and Evil" (2018).
Also Read:
- Gaiman's "The Books of Magic" comic (1990)
- Carey and Gross' "The Unwritten" comic (2009)
Also Watch:
-- The eight film adaptions of the seven HARRY POTTER books (2001-2011).
by Michael Chabon
When comics fans became awarded authors.
Chabon's novel about a love triangle during the Golden Age Of Comics -with a protagonist inspired by Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Jim Steranko- won the Pulitzer Prize.
Leads to:
Genre Cred.
▶▶▶ Lethem's "The Fortress of Solitude" (2003) ▴; "The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist" comics (2004); Vaughan, Rolston, and Bond's sequel graphic novel "The Escapists" (2006); Malmont's "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril" (2006); Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" (2007) ▴; Alexie and Forney's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (2007) ▴; Maharaj's "The Amazing Absorbing Boy" (2010); Chabon's kids book "The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man" (2011); King and Fowler's "A Once Crowded Sky" (2012); ARGO (2012); King and Gerad's inversion of Kirby's "Mister Miracle" (2018) ▴; Eskew's "Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark" (2018).
by Neil Gaiman
Mythology 2.0.
Pray to the gods but don't be the gods' prey.
Leads to:
Deus hex machinations.
▶▶▶ Willingham and Buckingham's "Fables" comics (2002) ▴; Hopkinson's "The Salt Roads" (2003) ▴; Riordan's 'Percy Jackson' books (2006); Phillips' "Gods Behaving Badly" (2007); Jemisin's "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" (2010); Miéville's "Kraken" (2010); the 'Once Upon a Time' show (2011); Okorafor's 'Akata Witch' books (2011); Hearne's 'Iron Druid' books (2011); Wilson's "Alif the Unseen" (2012); Gillen and McKelvie's "The Wicked + The Divine" comic (2014) ▴; the 'American Gods' TV series adaptation (2017) ▴; the "American Gods" comic adaption by Russell (2017).
Also Read:
- "Lord Of Light", by Roger Zelazny (1967)
- "Anansi Boys", by Neil Gaiman (2005)
Also Watch:
-- 'American Gods' TV series (2017)
by Yann Martel
One person's magic realism is another's alternate perception.
Leads to:
Myth understanding.
▶▶▶ Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" (2002) ▴; Gruen's "Water for Elephants" (2006); Martel's "Beatrice and Virgil" (2010); BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012) ▴; Rowley's "Lily and the Octopus" (2016); Pan's "The Astonishing Color of After" (2018) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- LIFE OF PI (2012)
by Susanna Clarke
Fantasy worldbuilding as alternate reality.
Leads to:
Alchemical reactions.
▶▶▶ Wecker's "The Golem and the Jinni" (2013) ▴; McCay's "The Witches of New York" (2016) ▴; Shawl's "Everfair" (2016) ▴; Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" (2016) ▴; Gene Ha's comic "Mae" (2016).
Also Watch:
-- 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' TV maxi-series (2015)
by Stieg Larsson
* (First published as "Män som hatar kvinnor / Men Who Hate Women"
The tenets of Cyberpunk distilled into an espionage and crime thriller, redefined by the advent of punk savant Lisbeth Salander.
Leads to:
Fe-maelstrom.
▷ Larsson finished two worthy sequels before his untimely passing: "The Girl Who Played With Fire" (2006) and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" (2007) ▴.
A False Estate has issued irrelevent 'sequels' in book, film, and comics form.>
▷ The three books were adapted into the 'Millennium Trilogy' TV maxi-series (Sweden, 2009) ▴, and then edited into three films for international release.
The first book was re-adapted in an English film version with Fincher's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (USA, 2011) ▴.
▶▶▶ Flynn's "Sharp Objects" (2006); the 'Forbrydelsen' (Sweden, 2007) and 'The Killing' (USA, 2011) TV shows; MacLeod's 'Inspector Anita Sundström' books (2010); McGrath's "White Heat" (2011); Beukes' "The Shining Girls" (2013); Torre's "The Girl in 6E" (2013); Sund's "The Crow Girl" (2016); Sam Black Crow on 'American Gods' (S02, 2019).
Also Read:
- "There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me", by Eva Gabrielsson (2011)
Also Watch:
-- THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Sweden, 2009)
-- THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (Sweden, 2009)
-- THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (Sweden, 2009)
-- THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (USA, 2011)
R: Lisbeth Salander, art by Leonardo Manco.
-"The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (2007)
-"The Windup Girl", by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
-"All the Birds in the Sky", by Charlie Jane Anders (2016)
-"Children of Blood and Bone", by Tomi Adeyemi (2018)
by David Mitchell
Experimental novel with interwoven narratives across time.
Leads to:
Conceptual clockwork.
▷ Similar experimental novels with spanning narratives include: Hesse's "Siddhartha" (1951); Cortazor's "Hopscotch" (1963); Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967); Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler" (1979); Pavić's "Dictionary of the Khazars" (1983); McHugh's "China Mountain Zhang" (1992); Moore's "Voice of the Fire" (1996) ▾; Danielewski's "House of Leaves" (2000); Hemon's "Nowhere Man" (2002); Wong's film 2046 (2004).
▶▶▶ Cunningham's "Specimen Days" (2005); SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008); Bolaño's "2666" (2008); MR. NOBODY (2009); Nicholl's "One Day" (2009); I ORIGINS (2014) ▴; North's "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" (2014); 'Sense8' (2015) ▴; Hall's "Speak" (2015); McCormack's "Solar Bones" (2016); 'The OA' (2016); Saunders' "Lincoln in the Bardo" (2017); McKinnon's "Storyland" (2017) ▴.
Also Watch:
-- CLOUD ATLAS (2012)
-- 'Sense8' (2015-'18)
50)
THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO,by Junot Diaz
The Reveal: Speculative Fiction is literature with a wider lens.
All stories are simply human allegory and the interplay of possibilities. There actually are no borders -in land, bodies, or minds- and all is wide open.
Diaz's book overstands this where Wikipedia doesn't: their review analysis focusing on the (high) Literary while segregating the (low) Speculative as trivia is why they entirely missed the twist that redefines what was happening all along. Separatism has made their insight a blindspot.
SpecFic -parallel to science, art, and dreams- is just a heightened perception of the possible that can lead to the actual.
All false social binaries aside, Oscar isn't a marginal cliche; he is the sum of all the works on these Canons who has learned this higher truth.
And in the end, the craft you make is equal to the mind you awake.
Leads to:
Zafa.
▶▶▶ Walton's "Among Others" (2008) ▴; Godot's "Supernatural Hero" (2013); Reid's "Neanderthal Seeks Human" (2013); Anders' "All the Birds in the Sky" (2016) ▴; HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES (2018) ▴; CLARA SOLA (Costa Rica, 2022).
> 100 Must-Read Books of Magical Realism
by Joseph Campbell
At the end, the book of all beginnings.
By comparing world myths, Campbell traced the roots of all storytelling through the hero archetype and the transformative journey.
The book's distillation of the Monomyth became a template for countless authors and filmmakers ever since.
Leads to:
Roam all roads to leads.
▷ Kubrick and Clarke read it before making 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), George Lucas while making STAR WARS (1977) ▴.
▶▶▶ excerpts in Adams' "Watership Down" (1972); Vogler's "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers" (1992); Bierlein's "Parallel Myths" (1994); "The Weatherlight Saga" in Magic: The Gathering (1997); Rowlings' 'Harry Potter' books (1997); Hyde's "Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art" (1997); 'LOST' (2004); the video game Journey (2012)...
> Why EMPIRE and LAST JEDI are actually the Best of the STAR WARS films
KEY FILMS, SHOWS,
MAGS, and COMICS
The New Wave of Science Fiction and successive literary movements were paralleled by classic Comic Strips, genre Films, and the Modern Age of Comics.
Taken together, their ideas forged much of our Pop Culture today.
KEY FILMS:
-- A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) ▴
-- THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971)
-- THX-1138 (1971)
-- WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
-- SHAFT (1971)
-- CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972)
-- SOLARIS (1972) ▴
-- THE GODFATHER (1972)
-- SILENT RUNNING (1972)
-- SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE (1972)
-- THE EXORCIST (1973) ▴
-- SERPICO (1973)
-- FANTASTIC PLANET (1973)
-- DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)
-- LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)
-- SLEEPER (1973)
-- DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)
-- WESTWORLD (1973)
-- SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
-- THE GODFATHER Part II (1974)
-- ZARDOZ (1974)
-- CHINATOWN (1974) ▴
-- PHASE IV (1974)
-- THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)
-- THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)
-- JAWS (1975)
-- LOGAN'S RUN (1976) ▴
-- CARRIE (1976)
-- THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)
-- ERASERHEAD (1977) ▴
-- SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO (1977)
-- STAR WARS (1977)
-- CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) ▴
-- HALLOWEEN (1978)
-- INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)
-- SUPERMAN: The Movie (1978)
-- STAR TREK: The Motion Picture (1979)
-- TIME AFTER TIME (1979)
-- ALIEN (1979) ▴
-- STAR WARS: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
-- ALTERED STATES (1980)
-- THE SHINING (1980)
-- SUPERMAN II (1981) ▴
-- BODY HEAT (1981)
-- RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) ▴
-- MAD MAX II/ THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981)
-- OUTLAND (1981)
-- TIME BANDITS (1981)
-- E.T. (1982)
-- POLTERGEIST (1982)
-- STAR TREK II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
-- BLADE RUNNER (1982)
-- THE THING (1982)
-- BORN IN FLAMES (1982)
-- STAR WARS: Return Of The Jedi (1983)
-- THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984) ▴
-- NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) ▴
-- GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
-- NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984)
-- REPO MAN (1984)
-- STAR TREK III: The Search For Spock (1984)
-- THE TERMINATOR (1984)
-- BLOOD SIMPLE (1984)
-- 2010: Odyssey Two (1984)
-- COCOON (1985)
-- WINGS OF DESIRE (1986) ▴
-- ALIENS (1986)
-- CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986)
-- MANHUNTER (1986)
-- STAR TREK IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
-- BLUE VELVET (1986) ▴
-- THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) ▴
-- HELLRAISER (1987)
-- AKIRA (1988)
-- MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) ▴
-- WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988)
-- THE ABYSS (1989)
-- TETSUO: The Iron Man (1989)
-- THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
-- THE ROCKETEER (1991)
-- STAR TREK VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
-- TERMINATOR II: Judgment Day (1991)
-- ORLANDO (1992) ▴
-- FARAWAY, SO CLOSE (1993)
-- PULP FICTION (1994)
-- GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995) ▴
-- HEAT (1995)
-- APOLLO 13 (1995)
-- THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995)
-- THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995)
-- 12 MONKEYS (1995)
-- STAR TREK: First Contact (1996)
-- PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997)
-- ABRE LOS OJOS (Spain, 1997)
-- CONTACT (1997)
-- PI (1998)
-- BABE: Pig In The City (1998) ▴
-- GALAXY QUEST (1999)
-- THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
-- THE IRON GIANT (1999) ▴
-- THE MATRIX (1999)
-- SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
-- LORD OF THE RINGS: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
-- HERO (China, 2002) ▴
-- THE RING (2002)
-- LORD OF THE RINGS: The Two Towers (2002)
-- LORD OF THE RINGS: The Return of the King (2003) ▴
-- INFERNAL AFFAIRS I, II, and III (2002-'03)
-- THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003)
-- THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (2003)
-- X2: X-Men United (2003)
-- ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004)
-- HARRY POTTER And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)
-- SERENITY (2005) ▴
-- STAR WARS: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)
-- CHILDREN OF MEN (2006)
-- V FOR VENDETTA (2006) ▴
-- SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
-- WALL-E (2008)
-- LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden, 2008)
-- THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
-- AVATAR (2009)
-- CORALINE (2009)
-- MOON (2009)
-- THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Sweden, 2009)
-- STAR TREK (2009)
-- INCEPTION (2010)
-- TOY STORY 3 (2010)
-- ANOTHER EARTH (2011)
-- HUGO (2011)
-- THE TREE OF LIFE (2011)
-- THE AVENGERS (2012)
-- BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012) ▴
-- THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2012)
-- PROMETHEUS (2012)
-- ELYSIUM (2013)
-- SNOWPIERCER (2013)
-- GRAVITY (2013)
-- A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT NIGHT (Iran, 2014)
-- DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) ▴
-- X-MEN: Days of Future Past (2014)
-- UNDER THE SKIN (2014)
-- EX MACHINA (2015) ▴
-- STAR WARS: The Force Awakens (2015)
-- MAD MAX: Fury Road (2015)
-- THE WITCH (2015)
-- ROGUE ONE (2016)
-- HIDDEN FIGURES (2016)
-- BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017)
-- STAR WARS: The Last Jedi (2017) ▴
KEY SHOWS:
- 'Science Ninja Team Gatchaman' (1972; a.k.a, Battle Of The Planets, 1978) ▴
- 'Star Trek: The Animated Series' (1973)
- 'The Six Million Dollar Man' (1974)
- 'Space: 1999' (1975) ▴
- 'The Bionic Woman' (1976) ▴
- 'Wonder Woman' (1976)
- 'Mork and Mindy' (1978)
- 'The Twilight Zone' (1985)
- 'Amazing Stories' (1985)
- 'The Ray Bradbury Theater' (1985)
- 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (1987) ▴
- 'Superboy' (1988)
- 'Alien Nation' (1989)
- 'Twin Peaks' (1990) ▴
- 'The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' (1992)
- 'The X-Files' (1993)
- 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' (1993)
- 'Earth 2' (1994) ▴
- 'Star Trek: Voyager' (1995) ▴
- 'Cowboy Bebop' (1998)
- 'Futurama' (1999)
- 'Farscape' (1999) ▴
- 'Spaced' (UK, 1999)
- 'Star Trek: Enterprise' (2001) ▴
- 'Samurai Jack' (2001)
- 'Firefly' (2002) ▴
- 'Lost' (2004)
- 'ReGenesis' (2004)
- 'Doctor Who' (2005 revival) ▴
- 'Life On Mars' (UK, 2005)
- 'Fringe' (2008)
- 'Misfits' (UK, 2009)
- 'Adventure Time' (2010) ▴
- 'Sherlock' (2010)
- 'Game Of Thrones' (2011) ▴
- 'Black Mirror' (UK, 2011)
- 'The Legend Of Korra' (2012)
- 'Outlander' (2014)
- 'Star Wars: Rebels' (2014)
- 'Mr. Robot' (2015)
- 'Daredevil' (2015)
- 'Westworld' (2016) ▴
- 'Legion' (2017) ▴
- 'Star Trek: Discovery' (2018) ▴
KEY MAGAZINES:
- "Cinefantastique" (1970)
- "The Spirit", by Will Eisner (1940s reprints; 1974) ▴
- "Metal Hurlant", by Moebius, Druillet, Bilal, etc. (1974) ▴
- "Starlog" (1976) ▴
- "Ah! Nana" (Feminist answer to Hurlant, 1976) ▴
- "Comics Journal" (1977)
- "Heavy Metal" (Metal Hurlant US, 1977)
- "Fantastic Films" (1978)
- "Omni" (1978)
- "Epic Illustrated" (1980)
- "Raw" (1980)
- "Comics Scene" (1982)
- "Video Watchdog" (1990)
- "Wrapped In Plastic" (1992)
- "Cinescape" (1994)
- "SFX" (1995)
- "Comic Book Artist" (1998)
- "Alter Ego" (1999)
- "Illustration" (2002)
- "Back Issue!" (2003)
KEY COMICS:
• "Green Lantern/ Green Arrow" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams (1970) ▴
• "New Gods", "Mister Miracle", and "The Forever People", by Jack Kirby (1970) ▴
• 'Doonesbury" comic strip, by Garry Trudeau (1970)
• "Superman" by (w) Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, (a) Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson (early '70s)
• "Batman" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams (early '70s)
• "Swamp Thing" by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson (1972)
• "Shazam!" by Denny O'Neil and C.C. Beck (1972)
• "Amazing Spider-Man" #121-122, by Gerry Conway and Gil Kane (1973)
• "Manhunter" by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson (1973)
• "The Shadow" by Denny O'Neil and Michael Wm. Kaluta (1973) ▴
• "Killraven" by Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell (1973) ▴
• "OMAC" by Jack Kirby (1974)
• "Captain Marvel" and "Warlock" by Jim Starlin (1975)
• "The all-new X-Men" by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum (1975)
• "American Splendor" by Harvey Pekar with R. Crumb, etc. (1976) ▴
• "Detective Comics" by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin (1976)
• "The Micronauts" by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden (1978) ▴
• "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams (1978)
• "Bloom County" comic strip, by Berkeley Breathed (1980)
• "The Uncanny X-Men" by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin (1979-'81)
• "Master of Kung Fu" by Doug Moench and Gene Day (1981) ▴
• "Daredevil" by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (1981)
• "Love and Rockets" by Los Brothers Hernandez (1982) ▴
• "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" by Hayao Miyazaki (1982)
• "The Rocketeer" by Dave Stevens (1982)
• "V For Vendetta" by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (1982/1988)
• "Ronin" by Frank Miller (1983)
• "A Distant Soil" by Colleen Doran (1983)
• "Swamp Thing" by Alan Moore, Steven R. Bissette, and John Totleben (1984) ▴
• "American Flagg" by Howard Chaykin (1983) ▴
• "Starstruck" by Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta (1984) ▴
• "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, by Bill Watterson (1985)
• "Crisis On Infinite Earths" by Marv Wolfman and George Perez (1985)
• "Marvelman" (UK, 1982)/ Miracleman (US, 1985-88) by Alan Moore, with Leach, Davis, and Totleben ▴
• "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986)
• "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (1986)
• "Batman: Year One" by Frank Miller and David Mazzuccelli (1987)
• "Maus I" (1986) and "Maus II" (1991) by Art Spiegelman
• "Dykes To Watch Out For" strip, by Alison Bechdel (1987)
• "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman, + (1989)
• "Shade, the Changing Man" by Peter Milligan + (1990)
• "Bone" by Jeff Smith (1991)
• "Enigma" by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo (1993)
• "Hellboy" by Mike Mignola (1993)
• "Starman" by James Robinson and Tony Harris (1994)
• "Marvels" by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (1994) ▴
• "Astro City" by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson (1995) ▴
• "Kingdom Come" by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (1996) ▴
• "Earth X" by Alex Ross and Jean Paul Leon (1999)
• "Planetary" by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (1999)
• "Promethea" by Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III (1999) ▴
• "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (1999)
• "Top 10" by Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, and Gene Ha (1999)
• "Tom Strong" by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse (1999)
• "Daredevil" by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (2001) ▴
• "Alias" by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos (2001)
• "The New Frontier" by Darwyn Cooke (2004)
• "All-Star Superman" by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (2005)
• "Starstruck" revised, by Elaine Lee, Michael Wm. Kaluta, and Lee Moyer (2009, 2017) ▴
• "Batwoman" by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III (2009) ▴
• "Saga" by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan (2012) ▴
• "Sex Criminals" by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (2013)
• "Ms. Marvel" by G. Willow Wilson + (2014)
• "Paper Girls" by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (2015) ▴
KEY GRAPHIC NOVELS:
♦ "A Contract with God" by Will Eisner (1978)
♦ "Love And Rockets, vol. 1: Music for Mechanics" by Los Bros Hernandez (1985)
♦ "American Splendor" by Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, + (1986)
♦ "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987)
♦ "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller (1987)
♦ "The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes And Nocturnes" by Neil Gaiman + (1988)
♦ "Maus I/II" by Art Spiegelman (1991)
♦ "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud (1993) ▴
♦ "Palestine" by Joe Sacco (1996)
♦ "Ghost World" by Daniel Clowes (1997)
♦ "Cages" by Dave McKean (1998) ▴
♦ "From Hell" by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (1999)
♦ "Gemma Bovery" by Posy Simmonds (1999) ▴
♦ "Wonder Woman: Spirit Of Truth" by Paul Dini and Alex Ross (2001)
♦ "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" by Phoebe Gloeckner (2002) ▴
♦ "Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories" by Gilbert Hernández (2003)
♦ "Blankets" by Craig Thompson (2003)
♦ "Black Hole" by Charles Burns (2005)
♦ "The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" by Will Eisner (2005) ▾
♦ "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
♦ "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel (2006) ▾
♦ "Starstruck: Deluxe Edition" by Elaine Lee, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Charles Vess, and Lee Moyer (2011)
♦ "March, vol. 1" by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2013)
♦ "Unflattening" by Nick Sousanis (2015) ▴
♦ "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters" by Emil Ferris (2017) ▴
Music Player!
(in order according to the list)
Rock! Prog! Funk! PostPunk!
Indie! Electro! Soundtracks!
© Tym Stevens
See also:
-The Canon 1: 50 Books That Created Modern Culture
-The Canon 2: 50 More Books That Created Modern Culture
-2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY - Its Transcendent Influence on all Pop Culture, with Music Player
-How STAR WARS Is Changing Everything!
-The Big Bang of STARSTRUCK: The Roots and Branches of Lee and Kaluta's Space Opera
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