MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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1963 (1993)
Alan Moore
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Contributed by "William E. Emba"

A six-issue series, one of the best of the retro comics out there. this is Moore's ingenious pastiche of Marvel comics in the critical (for Marvel and for the world) year 1963. Strange things are happening, pointing to mysterious visitors from 1993.

Along the way a 4-D villain wrecks havok with the Hypernaut (who lives aboard a Penrose triangle shaped satellite), in a way that intelligently illustrates the fourth dimension (with many 4-D effects accomplished by treating the 2-D panels in an Escher-like way), and with the Hypernaut defeating the villain by exploiting his own 3-D nature.

Elsewhere in the series are also graphs explaining time travel, a remarkable example of Galilean relativity, and left-right reversals.

The fake fan letters in the back include one complaining about an inaccuracy in the Hypernaut's math, which gets a weaselly response.

The series is marred in that it was supposed to have a whopping giant-sized conclusion, but it didn't happen, and it is now lingering in legal limbo. But the issues are greatly enjoyable as is.

(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to 1963
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Big Numbers by Alan Moore / Bill Sienkiewicz
  2. The Adventures of Topology Man by Alex Kasman
  3. Storm: The Chronicles of Pandarve by Martin Lodewijk (writer) / Don Lawrence (artist)
  4. It was the Monster from the Fourth Dimension by Al Feldstein
  5. Tre per zero by T. Sclavi (writer) / B. Brindisi (artist)
  6. The Phantom Scientist [Le Chercher Phantôme] by Robin Cousin
  7. Message Found in a Copy of Flatland by Rudy Rucker
  8. And He Built a Crooked House by Robert A. Heinlein
  9. L' idée fixe du Savant Cosinus by Christophe -- Georges Colomb
  10. Nymphomation by Jeff Noon
Ratings for 1963:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
2/5 (1 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
4/5 (1 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreHumorous, Science Fiction,
MotifHigher/Lower Dimensions,
Topic
MediumGraphic Novel/Comic Book/Manga,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)