More Stoppard Links

Well, somebody liked Stoppard's "Heroes." It won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

And Daniel Radcliffe is using some of his "Harry Potter" earnings to buy a Stoppard manuscript entitled "Murder."

Sleeper "Cell"

On Sunday, The Chronicle ran my latest science fiction and fantasy column, covering Stephen King's "Cell," Kevin Brockmeier's "The Brief History of the Dead" and "The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana" by Jess Nevins.

I probably gave "Cell" a kinder assessment than it deserved. The plot really is rather dumb if you think about it for more than a second. But I was in the mood for a guilty pleasure at the time, and that's what King delivered. So, good on ya, Steve.

Here's a very funny Digested Read of "Cell," courtesy of The Guardian Unlimited.

WonderCon

I'm interested in doing more freelance writing about comics. With that in mind, I was a correspondent for Comic Book Resources at last week's WonderCon, just a block away from my office. I wrote about:

Grant Morrision, talking about the "WE3" movie, hopes for an "Invisibles" anthology hardcover and language magic

The Future of the DC Universe, which sounds quite headache-inducing and a huge financial drain on anyone who wants to follow all its permutations

Upcoming Vertigo books, which honestly don't excite me very much. Oh, well.

Ave Atque Vale Bluths

I'm really going to miss "Arrested Development."

Playing the Trump Card

Stoppard asks whether the right of free expression is self-evident.

StoppardFest in Winnipeg in '07

Details are still very sketchy, but a StoppardFest has been announced for January '07 in Winnipeg. Apparently, this year's O'NeillFest was something of a depressing bust, but organizers hope the StoppardFest will achieve the level of success attained by 2004's AlbeeFest.