Catching up after a couple of interesting days dissecting SFWA and Worldcon. These organizations have really done so much to destroy sci-fi and fantasy, and the whole BookTok trend now is the final death knell. It’s sad to watch, and all we can do is create differently and build.
Fandom Pulse is a full-time job, and we provide the best pop culture news out there! Please support us by grabbing a paid subscription!
LAcon V’s Numbers Confirm That Worldcon Is Dying
Worldcon organizers spent months building hype for LAcon V, the 2026 World Science Fiction Convention held in Anaheim. Los Angeles carries one of the largest fan and media populations in the country, and after two years of modest recovery in Glasgow and Seattle, this looked like the con that would prove Worldcon still had pull. Convention Registration released the final numbers Sunday, August 30, and they tell a different story.
170+ Jewish Artists Sign “Enough!” Open Letter Defending Mark Ruffalo Against Paramount’s Antisemitism Accusation
Mark Ruffalo picked a fight with the company trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and on August 21 that fight turned into an accusation of antisemitism. Ten days later, more than 170 Jewish artists, writers, filmmakers, and academics answered with an open letter of their own, titled simply “Enough!”
GTA VI’s “Boycott” Was Never Real, and the Numbers Prove It
For months, if you spent any time in gaming spaces online, you’d have thought Grand Theft Auto VI was facing a genuine consumer revolt. Petitions. Hashtags. Thread after thread of people swearing they were done, that this was the line, that Rockstar had finally gone too far. Then the actual sales data came in. Grand Theft Auto VI is on track for the str…
Ahoy Comics Bets Its Whole Publishing Line on Being Certifiably AI-Free
Matt Kindt designed an open-source emblem for one purpose: let creators tell readers, at a glance, that a comic came from a human hand and nothing else. Ahoy Comics just became the first publisher to commit its entire line to wearing that emblem, starting with Mark Russell and Russ Braun’s The Forgotten Divine. And now that the logo is actually circulat…
SFWA Rejected Tarzan Writer Michael Tierney’s Membership, And He Says It Wasn’t About His Credentials
Michael Tierney, the writer and publisher behind decades of licensed Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard work, gave Fandom Pulse an exclusive account of his rejected application to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. His account, shared with permission, lays out a membership process he believes weighed his work differently once it came time to count it.
Why Does Hollywood Hate Male Heroes?
Buried deep within The Left’s war on men is an even more insidious battle:
God of War’s Live-Action Series Just Threw Out Four Finished Episodes
Amazon’s God of War series confirmed Dave Bautista as its new Kratos on August 21, replacing Ryan Hurst after an on-set bicep injury. What doesn’t always make the headline: all four episodes Amazon had already finished filming with Hurst are being scrapped and reshot from scratch, on a production Deadline reports runs over $15 million per episode.
Monte Cook Games Built Its Brand on “Betrayal” Rhetoric, Then Its Fans Accused Them Because Of An AI Trailer
Monte Cook Games pulled its own promotional video this week after fans caught it using AI-generated footage, an unusually pointed embarrassment for a company that has built its entire public identity around opposing exactly that.