Naughty...

For readers on the Naughty list, we recommend a re-read of the 1992 Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special from DC, featuring intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo - the last Czarnian. (Unlike Superman and Krypton, Lobo was the last of his species because he killed all of his fellow Czarnians when he was 17*.)  

For readers with the good fortune of being unfamiliar with Lobo, he first appeared in Issue 3 of Omega Men as a villain in 1983, but was retconned into a very different character in the early 1990s.  The brutal, violent, crass, over-the-top version of Lobo was originally intended as a parody of anti-hero characters like Wolverine, but as is sometimes the case, the parody became its own new normal, and Lobo ended up as one of DC's most popular characters during the 1990s. 

The Paramilitary Christmas Special, written by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant and illustrated by Simon Bisley, stands as a representative Lobo adventure.  Hired by the Easter Bunny to kill Santa Claus, Lobo carves a bloody path through St. Nick's army of elves, after which he duels an equally brutal Santa with knifes, eventually cutting off his head.  

Now in control of the North Pole, its factories, and its comprehensive Naughty and Nice lists, Lobo converts the toy factories to bomb production, and circles the world dropping explosives rather than presents.

And a merry fraggin' Christmas to all.

- Sid 

* Well, strictly speaking, he killed half of them when he was 16 and the other half after he turned 17.

"Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea..."

I just overheard one of my workplace managers explaining that the recent rash of mystery drone sightings in New Jersey are government aircraft that have been dispatched to conceal and obfuscate the appearance of plasma orbs which have been sent into the skies by aliens who have been living in the oceans for thousands of years. 

Recommended reading would be The Kraken Wakes, John Wyndham's 1953 novel of enigmatic aquatic alien invaders.  Hopefully that's not what's happening right now, because it doesn't end well.*

- Sid

* Well, it sort of ends well, in that after everything falls apart, the military industrial complex finally manages to find a way to successfully fight back, but it's a bit late in terms of the global collapse of civilization.

UPDATE: Casual readers may not be aware that I work in training for cargo terminal workers on the West Coast of Canada.  That being established, the Vice President in charge of our department has reassured me that, should aliens start sinking container cargo ships, we would remain open as long as possible.

FREE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY!! (Now that I have your attention...)

Short fiction has always been the backbone of science fiction and fantasy, providing both an ongoing entry point for new authors and a sandbox for established writers to play in - not to mention writers such as Harlan Ellison whose careers were almost entirely based around their short story output.* 

As such, I have found that one of my favourite parts of the monthly Reactor newsletter has been their short story offerings, which have been consistently readable and have introduced me to some new authors, such as Lavie Tidhar and A. T. Greenblatt.

As the year comes to an end, Reactor has released an eBook edition of their best stories from 2024:

https://reactormag.com/download-some-of-the-best-from-reactor-2024-edition/ 

You can also download bundles of their fiction by months, or read any of the stories individually online:

https://reactormag.com/all-of-reactors-short-fiction-in-2024/

And it's all free, very hard to beat free.

Enjoy!

- Sid

* Science fiction and fantasy writers tend to be tagged by their best known novel, regardless of their other output - you know, that part in the review where it says, "Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001..."  For Ellison, although he did produce some long form work, his signature piece is probably his 1967 short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or possibly A Boy and His Dog. (Maybe The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World?)