Archive - Agent of Weird: Exploring the Write Fantastic

Evolve or Die: Is this the End for Sword and Sorcery?

Can the genre ever move on from Robert E. Howard's Conan? How can writers possibly innovate within this narrow fantasy subgenre? Is the sword and…

Jun 5, 2024 •

Mapping the Labyrinth: A No-Mucking-About Beginner’s Guide to Starting Out as a Writer

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a young person in possession of a desire to write, must be in want of advice from an old fart

Jun 14, 2024 •

Fantastic Beasts and How to Write Them

Some Jurassic examples of great monster-writing

Jan 28 •

What Hawk the Slayer Got Right

Defending a sword and sorcery kinda-classic

Oct 25, 2024 •

Lessons From Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin’s 'A Wizard of Earthsea' is a classic, no question. But does anyone still care? Writers and creators of fantasy, neglect this book at…

Jul 24, 2024 •

28 Days Later (2002) vs. 28 Weeks Later (2007)

The first two in the ‘28’ trilogy predicted the future and made ‘zombies’ scary again. But the movies’ terrors are more subtle than you think

May 19 •

How to Write a ‘Mission Briefing’ Scene That Doesn’t Suck

James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) shows us how it’s done

Nov 4, 2022 •

The Five Types of Twist Ending

Deliver a sting in your tale

Jul 12, 2023 •

Review: Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)

Remembered as the kids' movie that terrified a generation, this classic British fantasy still casts a deep, dark and enthralling spell

Nov 11, 2024 •

Who Goes There? (1938) vs The Thing (1982)

John W. Campbell's classic novella of Golden Age science fiction and John Carpenter's modern horror masterpiece - both absorb new meanings in the age of…

Mar 26 •

Review: The Green Knight (David Lowery, 2021)

This hallucinatory yuletide fantasy baffled audiences on release, yet remains one of the greatest films in Arthurian cinema. And, yes, it’s a Christmas…

Dec 13, 2024 •

Science Fiction Double Feature: The Crow (comic book vs. movie)

The 1989 comic by James O'Barr and the 1994 movie starring Brandon Lee share the same melancholy heart, though it beats in very different ways

Sep 18, 2024 •

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