Comics Friday: the new digital-first, pay-what-you-want Lovecraftian YA detective comic from Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente Thom Dunn

happy mutants John Varley's "Irontown Blues" – noir doggy science fiction from one of the field's all-time greats Cory Doctorow

writing Raymond Chandler is the once and future king of opening paragraphs Seamus Bellamy

Vintage Weird Editorial guidelines from Spicy Detective magazine, 1935 Mark Frauenfelder

science fiction Max Barry on how science fiction prepares us for the apocalypse Mark Frauenfelder

happy mutants The Black Ghost: superhero noir comic starring an antiestablishment vigilante and a hacktivist sidekick Alex Segura and Monica Gallagher

music How software sterilized rock music Rob Beschizza

happy mutants The 2019 Locus Award nominees: your guide to the best sf/f of 2018 Cory Doctorow

books The creator of Encyclopedia Brown wanted to remain a mystery Mark Frauenfelder

Business Pepsi is suing four Indian farmers for growing a proprietary "Lays" potato, seeking $150,000 each in damages Cory Doctorow

happy mutants 2019 Hugo Award finalists announced Cory Doctorow

Audio Welcome to Hollow Falls – and Lethal Lit, a New Scripted Crime Podcast Alex Segura

police misconduct Stormy Daniels arrest was pre-planned by high-ranking Columbus police detectives, according to whistleblower emails Mark Frauenfelder

fake news Kidnapping solved, Tom Cruise’s love plot, and inside Area 51 – in this week’s fact-challenged tabloids Peter Sheridan

movies Rot the eyes right out of your head with this collection of 60 free Film Noir classics Seamus Bellamy

crime NYPD Commissioner "troubled" by news of cop arrested for running an international heroin ring Mark Frauenfelder

television Grant Morrison on Happy! "the world is a nihilistic hellhole plunging toward screaming entropy, but … we have hope" Thomas Negovan

happy mutants The Private Eye: a supervillain tries to bring the internet back to a world where the press are the cops Cory Doctorow

Science Public entomologists struggle with an epidemic of delusional parasitosis Cory Doctorow