Something Productive This Way Comes...

Probably not, but I'm sure I will achieve more with today than Live8 will (what a fucking stupid name), someone let me know what time they have scheduled in the elimination of all third world debt. That bit I might watch.
Y'know, the more the world fucks itself in the ass the more I am glad I am not a social satirist, because its getting less and less funny.

Hey - thought I'd chip in on some of this, can't be bothered to reference everything in a Comment, so Sam is in Red. Apologies to Brian Hibbs...

Christ, what a dull fucking day, glad I am not stuck in London.

Hey!

Yeah, yeah, but as it turns out I had to go to London yesterday for (another) NIN gig, but it was all good. I should come up to London sometime to hang out with you again sam, its been too long.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. Bored, bored, bored. Lets try and focus on the good in the world.

Eisner/Miller: its an essential discourse on the dichotomy of comic books yadda yadda yadda. Eisner comes up with a good point about the nature of the medium and Miller takes it the wrong way and gets all defensive about about his work as he suffers from small penis syndrome. Seriously though, its a good book and both men come out with very good points about the comic industry, each being unique to the generation and environment the creators work in.

The most interesting thing about this book was, without question, the way they disagreed with each other. I think it's pretty rare that two people have such different approaches and attitudes to their field, clearly spark off each other and get a little antsy about the whole thing, but still admire each other enough to actually argue and fight sensibly over points.

Really made me want to pick up some of the Spirit Archives too... but £30 a pop? Yikes...

Sin City: Great books. Volume 5 was a little weak and volume 6 suffers from what all anthologys suffer from, being a mixed bag. But all in all, thoroughly enjoyable throughout. Oh yeah, fine ass movie too. People whinge that Nancy didn't have her tits out, yet no-one has said to me "its a shame we didn't see Dwights knob", so I don't think the faux-concern over Ms. Callahans breasts was for the sake of accuracy.

Going to go see this one again. I've only got the first 5 books (you didn't like Family Values? That suprises me, actually), been warned against vol. 7. But without question, Yellow Bastard, Hard Goodbye, Dame to Kill for and Big Fat Kill are the strongest and essential reading.

It's a shame though that in the film we didn't get to see Dwight's kno... wait, nevermind...

Family Values just seemed a bit bland, I don't really like Mio, I don't really like 40 year old guys trying to appeal to the skater generation, and while I felt most of the tit / nipple shots in the first few volumes had a place in the story, I felt the sheer volume of pointless tit-tape slips detracted from the charcater development and story.

Family Guy Series 4: Yeah, its an illegal download job, but I will buy it on DVD so its not all bad for Seth. This fills my life with humour in an otherwise bleak world populated by Coldplay fans.

Brian Wood: The art in Couriers Vol. 2 let down an otherwise fine, if somewhat by the numbers story; would make a great 1/2 hour movie. As would Ellis' "Red". Whatever happened to the half hour movie format? Surely in this post-media apocalyptic MTV-2 fallout limited attention span era the 1/2 hour format would be immensely popular, yet the movie studios keep churning out 2 hours at a time?!?
Pounded was immensely good, fantastic really, an Oni tpb. £6. I have never heard of it before seeing it listed in the back of another Wood publication. If you think fake Hardcore (pre-emo) kids are tossers, read this book and laugh along with (or at more acucurately) the trust fund babies.

I'm still a Wood newbie. Grabbed his Martial Arts extravaganza, Fight For The Future for 50p each the other day, enjoyed that, but Demo remains a mystery to me. It's on the list though, don't worry.)

Channel Zero!

24 Hour Party People: Great film. The Joy Division back story was brilliant as I was too young to have lived through it and didn't really like music until I was 18, so its the first time I have really seen the formation of that scene. And Partridge is in it too.

Video Games: Can't get into them at the minute, don't know why. Roll on Halo 3.

People should give Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within a go. There's some great gameplay, enough action and properly mind-warping puzzles in those games. Other than that, yeah, it's all a big Meh.

Yeah, PoP:SoT was amazing, one of the best balanced video games I have ever played, simple yet mind-boggling puzzles and the most charming lead character I have seen in a video game for some time, and the emotional content of the story rivaled most Hollywood blockbusters.
Warrior Within; An otherwise great game marred by zero character growth and a lead character who tried too hard to be "cool" and "edgy" (look mummy, he swears!), and a cast of villains who are in the game for little more than to give 14 years olds (and probably a few 40 years olds too) something to wank over. Ubisoft turned out a sequal which would make EA proud: sold shitloads and was inferior to the previous incarnation.

Deaths Head: The Original. Met Geoff Senior at a TF con the other week, nice bloke, bought him a pint. Shame he is wasted on advertising and not drawing comics anymore. Cracked out the old Deaths Head series. Real shame Marvel own the rights, it would be great to see a return of Deaths Head.
Hey Simon Furman, if you are reading this, how about we through a pitch together for Marvel? Get Mr. Senior on board. Could be glorious.

Life Update for anyone who cares:
Got a few story ideas in the pot. Maybe a small publishing house with a mate. Need artists. Anyone have Charlie Adlards e-mail?
Trying to organise a signing for my shop as well, got Dillon, Fabry, Hitch and Lloyd; no reply from Ellis, which is a real shame, would have loved him in my shop, would hate to meet him (for the same reasons he never wanted to meet Hunter S Thompson).
Driving lessons going well.
Wrestling company going fine, got our new ring, we wrestle fortnightly.
Monthly Metal night is winding down a little, wouldn't mind if it disapeared to be honest.
Gym is going well, personal trainer leaving which is a shame.
Girlfriend is great, couldn't be better to be honest.
Un-read Monthly comics starting to pile up, really couldn't care less about X-Men or Laphams Detective Comics, or Spidergirl. More about that in a future column.
One of my cats has gone insane, looks confused and keeps doing the same thing over and over..