Endgame 2050 (2020 Documentary) – imdb, on YouTube [Official]
(!disturbing content!)
Tag: retro
1854 – The Djinn (2021)
timespace coordinates: fall of 1989, US
The Djinn is a 2021 American supernatural horror film directed and written by David Charbonier and Justin Powell. The film stars Ezra Dewey as a mute boy trapped in his apartment with a sinister monster when he makes a wish to fulfill his heart’s greatest desire.
1839 – Justice Society: World War II (2021)
timespace coordinates: Metropolis >> early 1940s France, the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, Manhattan.
Justice Society: World War II is an American animated direct-to-video superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment. It is the 41st film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line.
The Justice Society of America (JSA) is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team was conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The JSA first appeared in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940–1941), making it the first team of superheroes in comic books.
1834 – Boros Szikszai aka Boros Zoltán and Szikszai Gábor Hungarian concept artist duo
Somehow I feel really pissed that there is not much to be seen by this incredible cult duo of Hungarian illustrators (one of them, Gábor Szikszai lives in LA to my knowledge working inside the gaming industry). I tried to trace as much as I could about their work – altough I do not have the least knowledge in Hungarian language I managed to dig up a few things. Both seem to embody the best of the 80s- 90s, somehow combing pulpy-glossy, realist imagery, feeling like airbrush and looking like VHS tape covers. They did some great futuristic cityscapes (including a lot of fantasy character work & magicpunk game cards). Here I want to mostly focus on their proper SF work and tell you how I found out about them.
I stumbled on their work via this incredibly nice panorama coverart work for Sector General cycle in its German translation. I would love to print out this panoramic view inside my room so one could actually sit inside the station looking outside – surrounded on all side by this picture. In fact if you collected or read all the books in the series – in the end you could complete this puzzle of an orbital galactic Hospital – the centerpiece of James White’s Sector General series. James White is a Northern Irish SF author that settles the majority of his stories and novel around Sector 12 General Hospital – an immense floating hospital station located in deep space. It is widely considered the first explicitly pacifist space opera (published from 1957 onward) in a stark contrast with contemporary US space operas, which were generally militaristic. In fact the station is seen from. The start as an ideal way to make peaceful first contact possible between very different alien species. Each section of the station is like the ISS a patchwork of various habitat each ward customized to the metabolic, chemical, anatomic requirements of its patients. Taking into account gravity, atmospheric pressure, respiratory needs (if respiration is your thing). White’s hate of war and xenophobia is an important feature driving the whole series. His ability to make goodness – interesting, moving and actionable (instead of battles, destruction, invasions etc) is quite unique. In fact he loathed violence so much that the only violence was that of planetary catastrophes, accidents, surgery rooms or emergency situations. It presents us with a credible and believable version of altruistic space doctors that work towards establishing xenobiological mutualistic or symbiotic relationships.
A few notes of the Hungarian Galaktika(1972-1995) SF mag where Gábor Szikszai duo published some of their early work) – like most of the East European, ex-Socialist countries, SF was a true mass phenomenon not a niche thing. The more I find out about the specific publications and distro histories of neighboring countries of Bulgaria and Hungary (as well as what I gather from my own experience with Romanian SF publications), the more I realize how deeply enjoyed and widely spread were ideas discussed by SF mags or anthologies, how diverse the available range of translations and how wide the outreach of these magazines was. I heard an anecdote about how the Bulgarian translation of Dune became the talk of the town. From the kids at school to the ladies selling flowers or the engineers on scaffolding of construction sites (this is a story I heard from Bulgarian historians of SF). Of course a lot of these mags plummeted after 1990, and their fortunes went up and down along the years. Of course a lot of East European ‘talent’, some of its best illustrators made it way towards better payed, more prestigious venues, starting their studios or continuing to work for the US or German video gaming or card board game market. At the peak of its popularity Galaktika had a print run of 94,000 copies (for a population of 10 million).
It is really hard to track the work of Boros Szikszai online and there is not a lot of archival materials so I am thankful for everybody that scanned or made available (not least to them!) their amazing work. I appreciate their airbrush style that reminds me somehow of the best of lonf 80s and 1990s, the slick chrome artwork of Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama without the explicit pinup poses or how they pushed Syd Meadesque cityscapes towards a cyberpunk straight-to-VHS or straight-to-DVD 90s trashy kind of look. I also like the fact that they made a lot of futuristic ads using the picturesque Budapest Danube shoreline, always quite recognizable in their 90s work. They even have a pretty cool dystopian Budapest cityscape. Sadly a lot of their SF and cyberpunk work is very hard to find online (most is just magic card decks and WoW).
Official Gábor Szikszai website
An article in Hungarian about their work (had to use Google translate but has lots of links)
1796
timespace coordinates: The Flying Train, Germany, 1902
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through New York City in 1911
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through Paris, France in late 1890s
timespace coordinates: San Francisco, a Trip down Market Street, April 14, 1906
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through the Streets of Amsterdam, 1922
timespace coordinates: Laborers in Victorian England, 1901
timespace coordinates: Views of Tokyo, Japan, 1913-1915
timespace coordinates: Moscow, Tverskaya Street in 1896
The oldest recorded video, timespace coordinates: “Roundhay Garden Scene”, England,1888
timespace coordinates: 1895 – France, Lyon, place des Cordeliers, – Factory outlet, France, Lyon, Monplaisir, chemin Saint-Victor (today rue du 1er Film) – The Landing of the photography congress in Lyon,
1896 – Launch of a ship, France, – Switzerland, Geneva, National Exhibition, Swiss Village, – Westminster Bridge, Great Britain, London, – France, Lyon: Quai de l’Archevêché, – Panorama of the Grand Canal taken from a boat, Italy, Venice, Grand Canal, – Arrival of a train in Perrache station, France, Lyon, – Broadway, United States, New York,
1897 – Jaffa Gate: east side, Jerusalem 1897 – The pyramids, Egypt, Giza – Panorama of the Golden Horn, Turkey, Istanbul – Camel caravan, Jerusalem, – France, Lyon, place du Pont – Japan, Kyoto, Honshu,
1899 – Biarritz: the beach and the sea, France, Biarritz, – Grande Plage, – Bad weather at the port, Italy,
1900 View from a whaling boat in motion, France, Hyères – Panorama taken from a sedan chair, January 25, 1900, French Indochina (now Vietnam), village of Namo, Annam
1902 Fort-de-France: market, Martinique, Fort-de-France, French Antilles
1780 – Willy’s Wonderland (2021)
timespace coordinates: 2010’s remote Hayesville, Nevada
Willy’s Wonderland is a 2021 American action comedy horror film directed by Kevin Lewis from a screenplay written by G. O. Parsons. The film stars Nicolas Cage, who also serves as producer, along with Emily Tosta, Ric Reitz, Chris Warner, Kai Kadlec, Christian Del Grosso, Caylee Cowan, Terayle Hill, Jonathan Mercedes, David Sheftell, and Beth Grant. It follows a quiet drifter who is tricked into cleaning up an abandoned family entertainment center haunted by eight murderous animatronic characters. (wiki)
“At this point, Cage’s movies don’t have to be reviewed, but rather stamped with official certificates of weirdness.” Frank Scheck
imdb / rottentomatoes / Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) / The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
1757 – Psycho Goreman (2020)
PG: Psycho Goreman, or simply Psycho Goreman, is a 2020 Canadian science-fiction horror comedy film written and directed by Steven Kostanski (Astron-6). It stars Nita-Josee Hanna and Owen Myre as a young sister and brother who unwittingly resurrect an ancient extraterrestrial overlord (played by Matthew Ninaber). (wiki)
Having been acquired by RLJE Films and Shudder, Psycho Goreman is scheduled to be released in theaters and on video on demand on January 22, 2021.
TimeSpace Warps 