Speculative fiction (and nonfiction about speculation fiction) by Chris Baker. My work has been published by Wired, Flash Fiction Online, Underland Press, Slate, Shacklebound Books, Alta Journal, and Rolling Stone. My history newsletter is PopCulturalPrecursors.com
NEW NEWSLETTER: In 1985, an ambitious game simulated the ruinous long-term effects of a conservative political agenda on a Midwestern city. It now feels less like dystopian sci-fi and more like current events. Read it here.
Here are some fiction and non-fiction pieces I forgot to post about... LATEST POP CULTURAL PRECURSORS NEWSLETTER: Before there was Battle Bots or Real Steel or Pacific Rim or even Robot Jox, there was the Critter Crunch. Read the epic story of the world’s first robot death match at the 1989 Denver MileHiCon. I’m trying out a different format for this post—an online version of an 8-page zine. Read it here. History article presented as an 8-pg zine FLASH PIECE: I have a story in Flash Fiction...
I examined a tragic real-life event in Texas history through the lens of Mexican ghost ballads, dark fantasy pulp, EC horror comics, Swinging Sixties steampunk, spaghetti Westerns, sci-fi manga, & a psychedelic Jodorowsky fever dream. Flash piece in the anthology Twisted Trails: Tales of the Weird Wild West. Buy it here and read my story: “Specters of the Crash: A Cross-Media Survey of Paranormal Narratives Surrounding the Crush Collision of 1896 (Journal of the Texas Folklore Society, Vol....
In 1987, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game added vital details to the sci-fi universe that are still used today.The impact is still felt in movies, games, novels, and streaming series. I updated and retrofitted an article I wrote for Rolling Stone a while back and posted it on my newsletter. Read it here.
The Father of all Pop Culture Zombies This travel writer introduced the undead to America. He also ATE HUMAN FLESH. In my other newsletter Pop Cultural Precursors, I wrote about the twisted life and legacy of William Seabrook. He’s the travel writer who first introduced zombies to Western pop culture. He was also a bohemian, an occultist, a sadomasochist, and a self-confessed cannibal who wrote about the smell, taste, and texture of human flesh with the relish of a restaurant critic. .Read...
From Above: An (Info)Graphic Novel Dyslexic illustrator crafts the most minimalist comicbook ever made I pitched around a review of Martin Panchaud’s book From Above: An (Info)Graphic Novel. It caused a huge sensation and won several awards when it was published in Europe several years ago, and it was just released in America for the first time on July 22nd by Abrams Books. No outlet took me up on my pitch, so I’m writing about it here. Imagine the entirety of the blockbuster 1977 space opera...
A Peek Inside of Everyday Devices Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components is the ultimate coffee table book Cross-section of an HDMI cable with four independently shielded twisted pairs We use HDMI cables whenever we turn on the TV or plug a laptop into a monitor. It’s just a featureless black tube of PVC, but did you ever wonder what’s inside of it? Slice through the outer jacket and you’ll see something surprisingly beautiful—dozens of braided bunches of wire in casings...
After a century's delay, a literary sensation written by a 9-year-old gets a sequel.I pitched around a review of this bizarre new graphic novel, but no one bit. So I’m lobbing it up here on my vanity site… Daisy Ashford created a viral sensation more than half a century before the Internet was invented. She was a precocious child from an upper-class family in East Sussex who penned a story called The Young Visiters or Mister Salteena's Plan when she was just 9 years old. Now, 135 years after...
The TV Cowboy Who Built the Modern World of Merchandising75 years ago, Hopalong Cassidy became the first superstar of the small-screen. Then he built a gargantuan product licensing and sponsorship empire.Every holiday season, we’re all treated to an audio reminder of the Great Hoppy Craze of 1949. Next time you hear Perry Como or Bing Crosby crooning that old chestnut “It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” pay attention to the lyrics: It's beginning to look a lot like ChristmasToys in...
I had a short piece published in Alta Weekly about a new graphic novel by an icon of the alt-comix scene. Carol Lay has been publishing in landmark underground anthologies like Weirdo and Wimmen’s Comix since the Reagan era. She’s also known for her own series Good Girls, which offered a sardonic punk-ified riff on the tropes of old romance comics. Lay went on to do commercial illustration, animation, film storyboarding, and comics work for established outfits like DC, Marvel, Hannah Barbera,...