Sea Lion Press

By Raffaele Gaggioli. Paranormal detective Dylan Dog stares out at an alternate history in his 240th issue. Copyright Sergio Bonelli Editore, taken from their webshop to illustrate article. My country seems to love the historical genre but not the alternate history genre (known in Italy as “ucronia”). While Italian bookstores are full of works that recount past events, with a pr...

By Matthew Kresal. Part Two: Chain of Circumstance 19th of October, 1962. Fridays were never Chris Bennefield’s favorite day of the week. There were numerous reasons for that, some having to do with recovering from the events of the four days proceeding it. It was also because it was the one day of the week he was guaranteed to have to see his editor because of the Sunday editio...

By Gary Oswald. The Kingdom of Ireland commemorates Edward I, flying the blue lion flag derived from his coat of arms. (Actually it's a 2023 event by the Ulster-Scots Agency to bring attention to Edward Bruce.) Low-quality screenshot from the RTE News report (linked) for purposes of illustration The key battle of the First War of Scottish Independence was Bannockburn in 1314. Af...

By Alexander Rooksmoor. I had long been interested by how sophisticated the culture of the Muslim states of southern Iberia had been in the Middle Ages. The University of Córdoba, founded in 786, was the oldest university in Europe. Pope Sylvester II (946-1033; Pope from 999) graduated from it and it attracted the children of Christian monarchs to study. I was riled when people ...

By Matthew Kresal. Part One: A Pretty Bad Fix 19th of October, 1962. Silence hung over the Cabinet Room for a moment. The white walls that had seen much history over the previous six decades bore witness to it all. A silence that drove home that another historical decision might be imminent. Or would be if the son of a bitch would make one. Curtis LeMay, four-star general in the...