Our picks this month:
*Featuring a foreword from David Tennant himself, and an exclusive Fourteenth Doctor story!*
You've never seen a Doctor Who Annual quite like this . . .
In November 2023, Doctor Who returns to our screens with an almighty TARDIS-crashing bang. David Tennant is back as the Doctor, Catherine Tate is back as the incredible Donna Noble.
And this celebration of 60 years of Doctor Who really is just the beginning . . .
The Doctor Who 2024 Annual is THE place to start this incredible journey. With exclusive information about this amazing new era, including behind-the-scenes photos, dialogue, costumes and hints from the new episodes.
Pursuing a fugitive space monster, a Being of Light enters Earth’s atmosphere. Accidentally colliding with a patrolling jet, piloted by Science Patrol Agent Shin Hayata, the Being merges with the pilot to save his life and vows to defend the Earth.
Now whenever the planet is threatened by alien invaders, terrifying monsters or any threat beyond the capabilities of humanity, Shin Hayata transforms into the towering Ultraman to restore peace and save the day.
Dive into the action-packed adventure as told by Hugo, Clarke and Scribe Award-winning author Pat Cadigan.
Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ long-time roadie, personal assistant, and devoted friend, was an invaluable member of the band’s inner circle. A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Evans loomed large in the Beatles’ story, contributing at times as a performer and sometime lyricist, while struggling mightily to protect his beloved “boys.” He was there for the whole of the group’s remarkable, unparalleled story: from the Shea Stadium triumph through the creation of the timeless cover art for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the famous Let It Be rooftop concert.
Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.
Long before Rush accumulated more consecutive gold and platinum records than any rock band after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, before the seven Grammy nominations or the countless electrifying live performances across the globe, Geddy Lee was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, after his grandfather was murdered in the Holocaust.
As he recounts the transformation, Lee looks back on his family, in particular his loving parents and their horrific experiences as teenagers during World War II.
He talks candidly about his childhood and the pursuit of music that led him to drop out of high school.
He tracks the history of Rush which, after early struggles, exploded into one of the most beloved bands of all time.
He shares intimate stories of his lifelong friendships with bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart—deeply mourning Peart’s recent passing—and reveals his obsessions in music and beyond.
This rich brew of honesty, humor, and loss makes for a uniquely poignant memoir.
Johnny Cash is one of the most beloved and influential country-music stars of all time, having composed more than six hundred songs and sold more than ninety million records. He received twenty-nine gold, platinum, and multiplatinum awards for his recordings and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
This is the first time Cash’s fifty years of songwriting have been collected anywhere; this book includes the lyrics to 125 songs and the stories behind them. Perhaps more than any other American artist, he spoke to the soul of the nation as well as to the triumphs and challenges of his own life. These pages explore Cash's range as a poet and storyteller, taking readers from his early life and first successes through periods of personal challenge, activism, and faith. The result is a profound understanding of Johnny Cash as a man and an artist, as well as the American story he helped shape.
An essential collectible that sheds new light on Cash’s life and work, this book includes rare visual material in addition to remembrances from Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, “family historian” Mark Stielper. Released for the twentieth anniversary of the legendary musician’s passing, it will be a landmark in music publishing
LEGO toys have sparked creativity and joy for generations, delighting families with each and every new connection. Now, LEGO Space: 1978–1992 explores the latter half of the twentieth century through the lens of LEGO Space—illuminating the brand’s own history alongside the popular culture and world events that helped to shape it.
This collection includes statistics and trivia for each set from across nearly two decades, fascinating insights of the LEGO Group as a company, and celebrations of the talented designers who helped to create each essential piece and kit.
This gorgeous chronicle is perfect for LEGO fans and builders of all ages, and will excite any reader with an interest in the fascinating history of the peerless and classic building toy!
J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of the languages and history of Middle-earth as recorded in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, was one of the most prolific letter-writers of the last century. Over the years he wrote a mass of letters—to his publishers, to members of his family, to friends, and to “fans” of his books—which often reveal the inner workings of his mind, and which record the history of composition of his works and his reaction to subsequent events.
A selection from Tolkien’s correspondence, collected and edited by Tolkien’s official biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, and assisted by Christopher Tolkien, was published in 1981. It presented, in Tolkien’s own words, a highly detailed portrait of the man in his many aspects: storyteller, scholar, Catholic, parent, friend, and observer of the world around him.
In this revised and expanded edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, it has been possible to go back to the editors’ original typescripts and notes, restoring more than 150 letters that were excised purely to achieve what was then deemed a “publishable length,” and present the book as originally intended.
Enthusiasts for his writings will find much that is new, for the letters not only include fresh information about Middle-earth, such as Tolkien’s own plot summary of the entirety of The Lord of the Rings and a vision for publishing his “Tales of the Three Ages,” but also many insights into the man and his world. In addition, this new selection will entertain anyone who appreciates the art of letter-writing, of which J.R.R. Tolkien was a master.
Wish you could spend more time enjoying British TV, rather than endlessly clicking around ever-changing TV menus to find the shows you want to watch?
The British TV Streaming Guide includes more than 2500 British shows from 23 US-based streaming services (both premium and free). For each, we tell you which British shows are available, when they came out, and a short description of what they're about.
Looking for a specific show? Flip to the index in back and you’ll find all the shows and their streaming services in an alphabetical index.
As this is our winter guide, we've also included guides to British Christmas movies (35 of them) and British TV Christmas special episodes (from both new and classic shows).
Take a deep dive into a turbulent era of the Star Wars galaxy and chart the rise of the Rebellion from the prequel trilogy through Obi-Wan, Andor, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to the original trilogy.
For many years, the state of the galaxy between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope was a mystery to Star Wars fans. With the release of Star Wars: Rebels and Rogue One, and more recently, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, an exciting new era has begun to emerge – the Dawn of Rebellion.
Before Luke Skywalker ever picked up a lightsaber, the rebels were scattered and desperate bands of idealists, fighting their own battles against the might of the Empire. Victories were few, losses high, and danger ever-present. This Visual Guide charts this darkest of times, revealing all of the key characters, locations, vehicles, and weapons from the hit Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, with supporting material from the Skywalker saga. Includes an exclusive new cross-section artwork of the Fondor Hauler.
Founded in 1960 by Chris Strachwitz, the one-man operation Arhoolie Records eventually produced more than four hundred albums during more than forty years in operation, exploring the far corners of American vernacular music—blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, hillbilly, Texas-Mexican norteño music, and more.
From the very beginning, Strachwitz brought his camera along with recording equipment as he met and recorded now-legendary artists such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Clifton Chenier, and Big Joe Williams. This book collects more than 150 of his best, most intimate, and exciting images—many never-before-seen—each with rich captions by Strachwitz and award-winning music journalist Joel Selvin, along with a substantial 20,000-word essay by Selvin about Arhoolie, Strachwitz, and the music.
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A new manga adaptation of the only H.P. Lovecraft story published as a book during his lifetime, by modern horror master Gou Tanabe!
In the winter of 1927-28, the isolated coastal settlement of Innsmouth, Massachusetts was assaulted by U.S. government agents—its waterfront burned and dynamited, its people taken away to internment camps.
Yet that was neither the beginning nor the end of the horror uncovered by a young antiquarian who traveled to Innsmouth in search of rumors from the town's dead past, only to find them still very much alive...and find truths lying under water deeper and colder than any earthly grave!
Bands like R.E.M., U2, Public Enemy, and Nirvana found success as darlings of college radio, but the extraordinary influence of these stations and their DJs on musical culture since the 1970s was anything but inevitable. As media deregulation and political conflict over obscenity and censorship transformed the business and politics of culture, students and community DJs turned to college radio to defy the mainstream—and they ended up disrupting popular music and commercial radio in the process. In this first history of US college radio, Katherine Rye Jewell reveals that these eclectic stations in major cities and college towns across the United States owed their collective cultural power to the politics of higher education as much as they did to upstart bohemian music scenes coast to coast.
Jewell uncovers how battles to control college radio were about more than music—they were an influential, if unexpected, front in the nation's culture wars. These battles created unintended consequences and overlooked contributions to popular culture that students, DJs, and listeners never anticipated. More than an ode to beloved stations, this book will resonate with both music fans and observers of the politics of culture.
Even by the standards of the 1970s, even compared to Jar-Jar Binks, the legendary 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is a peerlessly cringeworthy pop-culture artifact. George Lucas, who completely disowned the production, reportedly has said, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it.” Just how on earth did this thing ever see the light of day?
To answer that question, as Steven Kozak shows in this fascinating and often hilarious inside look into the making of the Special, you have to understand the cultural moment in which it appeared—a long, long time ago when cheesy variety shows were a staple of network television and Star Wars was not yet the billion-dollar multimedia behemoth that it is today. Kozak explains how the Special was one piece of a PR blitz undertaken by Lucas and his colleagues as they sought to protect the emerging franchise from hostile studio executives. He shows how, despite the involvement of some of the most talented people in the business, creative differences between movie and television writers led to a wildly uneven product. He gives entertaining accounts of the problems that plagued production, which included a ruinously expensive cantina set; the acrimonious departure of the director and Lucas himself; and a furious Grace Slick, just out of rehab, demanding to be included in the production.
Packed with memorable anecdotes, drawing on extensive new interviews with countless people involved in the production, and told with mingled affection and bewilderment, this never-before-told story gives a fascinating look at a strange moment in pop-culture history that remains an object of fascination even today.
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Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen—whether it be the 1960s or the 2020s—the Velvet Underground represents ground zero.
Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang around a psychedelic rock and roll band—a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol’s Factory—the Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up. They never smiled in photographs, wore sunglasses indoors, and invented the archetype that would be copied by everyone from Sid Vicious to Bobby Gillespie. They were avant-garde nihilists, writing about drug abuse, prostitution, paranoia, and sado-masochistic sex at a time when the rest of the world was singing about peace and love. In that sense they invented punk and then some. It could even be argued that they invented modern New York.
Drawing on interviews and material relating to all major players, from Lou Reed, John Cale, Mo Tucker, Andy Warhol, Jon Savage, Nico, David Bowie, Mary Harron, and many more, award-winning journalist Dylan Jones breaks down the band’s whirlwind of subversion and, in a narrative rich in drama and detail, proves why the Velvets remain the original kings and queens of edge.
Steven Grant, a mild-mannered man who lives a mundane life, is plagued by blackouts and memories of an existence separate from his own. But after a fateful encounter, Steven learns that he shares a body with Marc Spector - a former mercenary and the ruthless avatar of Khonshu, Egyptian god of the moon and vengeance! Now, with Marc's enemies converging on them, Steven must learn how to adapt to this new life and work with his alter ego - even as other godly motives come into play.
From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, involving four hundred voices from the industry, Hollywood: The Oral History, lets a reader “listen in” on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera—Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Harold Lloyd—to the biggest behind it—Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on screen: musicians, costumers, art directors, cinematographers, writers, sound men, editors, make-up artists, and even script timers, messengers, and publicists. The result is like a conversation among the gods and goddesses of film: lively, funny, insightful, historically accurate and, for the first time, authentically honest in its portrait of Hollywood. It’s the insider’s story.
Legendary film scholar Jeanine Basinger and New York Times bestselling author Sam Wasson, both acclaimed storytellers in their own right, have undertaken the monumental task of digesting these tens of thousands of hours of talk and weaving it into a definitive portrait of workaday Hollywood.
In 1968, Nick Drake had everything to live for. The product of a loving, creative family and a privileged background, he was not only a handsome and popular Cambridge undergraduate, but also a new signing to the UK’s hippest record label, Island.
Three years later, however—having made three well reviewed but low-selling albums—Nick had been overwhelmed by a mysterious mental illness. He returned to live in his family home in rural Warwickshire in 1971, and died in obscurity in 1974, aged just 26.
In the decades since, Nick has become the subject of ever-growing fascination and speculation. Combined sales of his records now stand in the millions, his songs are frequently heard on TV and in films, and he has become one of the most widely known and admired singer-songwriters of his generation.
Nick Drake: The Life is the only biography of Nick to be written with the blessing and involvement of his sister and estate. Drawing on copious original research and new interviews with his family, friends, and musical collaborators, as well as deeply personal archive material unavailable to previous writers—including his father’s diaries, his essays, and private correspondence—this is the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of Nick’s short and enigmatic life.
Come join us for a celebration of Marvel Comics Bronze Age! Interviews with Writers, Editors, and Artists who helped create Marvel Comics most explosive creative time period.
Featuring: Marv Wolfman, Steve Gerber, Val Mayrik, Steve Engleheart, Bob McLeod, Frank Brunner, Tony Isabella, P. Craig Russell, Ed Hannigan, Danny Fingeroth, Peter B. Gillis, Bob Budiansky. J.M. DeMatteis, Jim Salicrup, Doug Moench, Gerry Conway, and more! With a Foreword by Mike Friedrich.
Few would have expected a small gathering of British comic book fans and creators in the early '70s to spark a cultural revolution, but this was the start of a disparate movement of punks, dropouts and disaffected youths who reinvented a medium and became the imaginative heart of a global success story.
Based on years of interviews with a generation of leading writers, artists and editors, Karl Stock reveals the true story of the wild times, passion and determination that helped, hindered and saw the reinvention of comics.
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