Non-fiction: Alfred Lansing: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (1959) Written by the American journalist Alfred Lansing and published in 1959, Endurance is an account of one of the most famous stories in the history of Antarctic exploration, the failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914. Shackleton attempted to traverse the Antarctic continent, Continue Reading
Antarctica
Research Blog Antarctica #157 – Quick, Before It Melts (the novel)
Fiction: Philip Benjamin: Quick, Before It Melts (Random House, 1964) Philip Benjamin was a New York Times reporter who had been to Antarctica twice when he published the novel Quick, Before It Melts, later made into a movie. The title is a joke based on the idea that the Antarctic Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #156 – Penguins on Ice
Comic book: Sergio Salma: Penguins on Ice (ibooks, 2005) Penguins on Ice is a collection of comic strips about Fred the Penguin and his compatriots. The jokes are based on simple ideas, such as how all penguins look the same. The artist, Sergio Salma, is guilty of a sin so Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #155 – The Antarctica Challenge
Documentary: Mark Terry: The Antarctica Challenge (Canada, 2009) The Antarctica Challenge is a Canadian documentary about what’s happening in Antarctica in terms of climate change. It explains the effects of the changing temperatures on animal life, glaciers, and the planet as a whole. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #154 – Riding the Ice Wind
Non-fiction: Alastair Vere Nicoll: Riding the Ice Wind (I.B.Tauris 2010) By now, books about moderns expeditions to Antarctica are a relatively big genre. Earlier examples on this blog can be found here, here and here. The challenge of this sort of book is that it’s always the same story. 1. Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #152 – Shackleton’s Journey
Children’s book: William Grill: Shackleton’s Journey (2014, Flying Eye Books) Ernest Shackleton’s failed attempt at crossing the Antarctic continent is one of the most famous stories of early Antarctic exploration. His ship was crushed by ice, and he and his crew had to travel vast distances over ice and then Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #151 – Mystery in Antarctica
Comic book: Francis Bergése: Mystery in Antarctica (Cinebook, 2015) Buck Danny is an American ace pilot and the hero of a long-running series of French comic books. Mystery in Antarctica is Buck Danny no. 51. Like with any pop culture phenomenon, once it runs long enough it acquires its own Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #150 – Anibal 5
Comic book: Alejandro Jodorowsky & Georges Bess: Anibal 5 (Humanoids Publishing, 2015) This is a collection of two Anibal 5 albums, published in English by Humanoids. I read the first one in Finnish translation as a child, and its mix of softcore sex and scifi weirdness made a big impression on Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #149 – Whale Wars, season 4
Tv series: Whale Wars, season 4: U.S.A. Whale Wars is a documentary tv series following the anti-whaling campaigns of the environmental group The Sea Shepherds. Season one to three were pretty amazing stuff, with dangerous confrontations in the Antarctic Sea. In season four, it feels as if the series is Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #139 – Ice and the Sky
Documentary: Luc Jacquet: Ice and the Sky (France, 2015) Luc Jacquet is the director of the movie March of the Penguins, so this is not his first time with an Antarctic subject. Ice and the Sky is a documentary about the career of the French glaciologist Claude Lorius and also Continue Reading