I figured that I would share some of the best blogs that I’m regularly reading, which might be of interest to those of a similar bent toward geekery:
Christopher Mills is a one-man pop culture virtuoso. I originally started reading his “home” blog, Atomic Pulp — with that name, how could I turn it down? Atomic Pulp is his general blog, given over to self-promotion (he’s a comic writer, editor, and graphic designer) and pop-culture obsession. When he notices that a particular pop-culture focus is taking up a lot of posts, he’ll spin them off into blogs of their own. The two of his spin-offs which I read regularly:
Spy-Fi Channel — which, as the title indicates, is devoted to Secret Agents, Superspies and the like. A member of the COBRAS group (Coalition Of Bloggers wRiting About Spies) — which features several other blogs I read as well (more on these, below).
Space:1970 — Mills’ newest spin-off blog, an extended love letter to the Sci-Fi movies and television shows of the 1970s. As a fellow obsessive, this one might as well be titled: “GARETH’S CHILDHOOD: THE BLOG.” Of special joy: The regular feature “Space Babes”, spotlighting the women who loom large in the lives of geeks of a certain age (my age, not to put too fine a point on it), as gateways from the “girls are icky” stage of childhood into the “Say, now…” initial hormonal whisperings of adolescence….
Moving away from the oevre of Mr. Mills, we find ourselves at one of his fellow COBRAS blog: Tanner’s Double-O Section. Another excellent blog devoted to the Spy genre in films, television, comics and literature. Excellent source of news regarding upcoming releases.
Also of note from the COBRAS group, the excellent The Illustrated 007, which features artwork from a staggering array of sources, much of it very rare — including international editions of the Bond novels, toy packaging artwork, paintings accompanying magazine articles, and much more. I’m an absolute Bond nut, and quite a lot of this stuff is new to me — and that’s saying something.
Moving away from spies, The Groovy Age of Horror is devoted to the 60s and 70s in the horror field — paperbacks, comics, movies, and more. To be honest, the blog has slipped a bit recently — he’s covering a lot more of the Italian Fumetti stuff (very NSFW), and expanding his coverage to more recent works (like DC’s “Blackest Night” comics event). I liked it better when he was more focused on the “Groovy” — Tomb of Dracula comics, Series paperbacks like “The Guardians”, and Hammer films — but the blog is still a good read, if not as good as it once was.
In the realm of steampunk, Brass Goggles is a good blog, but honestly, the forums are better than the actual blog. I go to the forums quite a bit, but for blog reading, I stick with Voyages Extraordinaires and Steampunk Scholar, in addition to occasional glances at the main Brass Goggles blog.
Of general geek-interest, I’ve found that the personal blog of SF author Chris Roberson has yet to steer me wrong. Roberson’s Interminable Ramble is a mix of personal commentary, self-promotion and “hey, this is Totally Boss — check it out!” posts. The latter is where the blog shines. In fact, a large amount of the stuff that I’ve posted about here from time to time was originally brought to my attention by the esteemed Mr. Roberson.
For things Doctor Who, my go-to source is the Gallifrey News Base, which took over from Outpost Gallifrey when it shut down earlier this year.
There are more, of course, and what constitutes “regular reading” changes as interests wax and wane, but those are a good start. If you have any suggestions for good sites that I might not know about, feel free to comment!
