Editorials

I shamelessly used most of the Sci-Fi clichés, but I always kept a deep respect for real science, and real drama. This conflict eventually became an issue I couldn’t avoid any longer about 1985. The editors of Sci-Fi for a generation have fallen in love with their own ‘literary’ wisdom, which is far off the mark, and deceptive; more on the order of pandering profitably to the lowest common denominator: people who comprehend neither science nor drama. The dirty little secret is that you can’t pay to make Sci-fi fans attend a Real Science Presentation, which I used to present at Sci-Fi Cons with a Physics professor partner from Guilford College (now deceased early and much missed). The problem with SF is that the more liberties you take with reality to make a story possible at all, the less meaningful becomes whatever human point the story makes, which is the only one worth making. This Sci-Fi habit is a direct descendent of 1920s Pulp Fiction – and they just moved the exotic locations further off when the old ones became tired from being better known in the real world, and eventually off-world. As the planets ran out, determined uninhabitable, well, then, on to the stars, and when they got too far off, we skipped off to Fantasy which isn’t anywhere at all, and we get to use magic spells. So Tarzan of darkest Africa morphed into Jon Carter of Mars and there he got ray-guns instead of boom-sticks and spears, and could then fly around on Pterodactyls, instead of wearing a loincloth and swinging from the trees on vines. Note that the babes in briefs didn’t change: that’s the key! And if the heroines wear overalls today, that’s only because it’s politically correct.

Dave Sim once told me that Comics was a Medium, but Science-Fiction was a Genre.  This is a fine and a real distinction; I am still learning from it.  Just so, Cinema is also a Medium.  And when you transfer a Drama from one into another medium, there is always a slippage, a shifting of emphasis and content.  This isn't an issue of craft, or sincerity, or

Before we being, a word from Jermaine: Now that the new Acme site is up and running, we return you to your regularly scheduled installment of M.A. Foster's Eyeless in Gaza editorial feature! Exclusive to Acme Comics.com, look for never before printed pieces as well as archives from the previous incarnation of our website. Coming soon! And now...our feature presentation!

Eyeless In Gaza - June '07

I am Dead and You are Alive?
(Apologies to Phillip K. Dick and Immanuel Carrere, his biographer)

Before we begin, a word from Jermaine: Now that the new Acme site is up and running, we return you to your regularly scheduled installment of M.A. Foster's Eyeless in Gaza editorial feature! Exclusive to Acme Comics.com, look for never before printed pieces as well as archives from the previous incarnation of our website. Coming soon! And now...our feature presentation!