Doctor Who Short Story

There's a nice little Christmassy Doctor Who story at the Telegraph website (and in today's paper), by Paul Cornell:

Repentant Dayglo Scrooge says...

Post-it-note Dayglo Tiny Tim adds:

Dayglo Scrooge says...

Knocked up in a spare few minutes on A4 using highlighter pens...

Forbidden Lego

This looks like a good book - Forbidden Lego - Basically, a manual to create weapons of all sorts out of the danish building blocks. Awesome!

Russ Abbott - Hero

If this is true, then I forgive Russ Abbott for anything else:

After many years, Abbot bought the performing rights to his hit Atmosphere, and refuses to allow it to be played on radio as he considers it to be a dire representation of his talents; ...(it spent two months in the UK Top 20 in 1984).

Frosty Gone Wild

This animatronic snowman has been a source of much fun in the Fish household every Christmas. Not only is he lovably cute, but we suspect he doesn't really care what he is saying.

Is he really singing:

Frosty the Snowman
Was a happy jolly soul,
with a poined up eyes (of ice?) and a button nose,
and a lively I don't know!

Star Wars Holiday Special - Highlights!

Christmas is coming! And to get you in the mood, here's a historical snapshot of what Wookiees got up to around Christmas time, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.....



Don't think of it as losing five minutes - think of it as gaining 1:55.

Neil Gaiman - Odd and the Frost Giants

Neil Gaiman has a new book out for World Book Day, and it only costs £1: Odd and the Frost Giants

Guardian Newsapaper Comics

The Guardian has a new Comics section every Saturday, also online.

"Robotgirl is the strip, by John Aggs, and appears to be a taster for a "secret" project called The DFC. (In reality a new weekly anthology comic coming soon.)"

(via)

getting lewd with the food

I'm liking Flight of the Conchords at the moment...

Rsizr

I've been playing with Rsizr - This photo resizing application allows you to contract or expand uploaded photos by removing or adding pixels where they are least noticeable (you can manually specify areas of interest or areas to remove). This lets you change the dimensions of a picture while preserving certain areas (eg focal objects, people, buildings) while adding or removing space from backgrounds, or even removing objects or people. Its quite snazzy.

Back from Brum

I'm back from Birmingham! It was a fun con, hello to everyone I met, and everyone I didn't.

In the meantime, it owuld appear my email address isn't working (I had used a funny bit of code to hide it from Spambots.) Sorry if you've been trying to reach me. You can now get me by typing in the email address shown in the picture.

Baffling Mysteries Covered

UPDATE! Finally, you can print it off:

Or read it here:

Baffling Mysteries - Coming Soon

I'll have a new mini-comic ready for the Birmingham International Comics Show - Baffling Mysteries #1.

Keep watching for an online version, but if you'll be at Birmingham, look out for this logo:

Trucking all over the world

When I heard this first song on the radio, it made me think of the second...

Disco Ant

Still playing about with Sketchcast:

Sketchcast

Just testing out this little feature:

Comics Britannia Shows

The BBC4 website has the Show Listings for Comics Britannia related programming. So far, the shows have been great, tonights 'In Search of Steve Ditko' was very interesting and entertaining. I'm looking forward to the repeats of the Broons and Oor Wullie documentaries, having missed them first time round. The Moebius one could be interesting too. Not sure why they've included the film 'Tron' under the comics umbrella though.

Search by title on RadioTimes.com for the full schedules including repeats.

Muslim Cartoonist Asia Alfasi on BBC

For a few more days you can watch 'Ramadan: She's a Thoroughly Modern Muslim' on the BBC iPlayer (if the poxy thing works for you, that is! I'm having a few 'technical difficulties').

'A light-hearted portrait of middle class life in modern Britain. Four Muslim women strive to meet the challenges posed by faith and British culture.' Featured is acclaimed Comicbook artist Asia Alfasi. You might also spot a few other comic artists in some scenes.

Keepon Movin'

What the world needs now, is Love, Sweet Love. Until then, I'll settle for dancing robots; This video features a cute little robot called Keepon. I want one!

More details can be found here

TV Round-up

Search for Steve Ditko to air on BBC4 on September 18th at 9:30pm,

Heroes gets a hardcover comics collection,

Theres more Trapped in the Closet,

part 1 of Richard Dawkins The Enemies of Reason documentary (part 2 aired tonight, so will probably follow soon.)

Michelle Ryan Bionic Woman interview,

Finally, the Sarah Silverman Program

Drinks at Mile End

I had the pleasure last night of spending several hours in the company of some of the UK Small Press Scene's brightest luminaries. Several folk on their way to CAPTION had arrived in London, so David Baillie took the opportunity to arrange for them to turn up at his local pub, and a good time was had by all. The host eventually turned up, having got lost on the way.

Following the recent launch of TRIPWIRE magazine (available in Shops now), editor in chief Joel Meadows used the night to discuss possible future articles, many of which sounded very interesting, if faintly litigious.

Also present were Leon Hewitt, Matt Badham, Andrew Colman and 'Comics Foxiest Chick' Bridgeen Gillespie, a veritable think-tank of movers and shakers. Each had many ideas to share which could easily shape the future of Small Press, and even the world!

Sadly I had to leave to catch my train, so I'm sure I missed all the best ideas, which would have pickled and percolated to perfection throughout the night. Still, next time you experience something new and revolutionary, there's a chance that it had it's origin last night in the east end of London.

Yesterday's Tomorrows

Jealous? You should be, if you don't own this book. Now that Summer's over, and the nights are drawing in, you could do worse than pick up a copy, for £25 (probably cheaper on Amazon), or £35 for the deluxe slipcased limited edition, with art prints (exclusive to Forbidden Planet International, discounted to £24.50 at time of writing).

As you'd expect from Rian Hughes, the book design is lovely, with striking embossed hardback covers, and gorgeous paper stock throughout.

The collection contains a mixed selection of works, including hard to find stories from a selection of small publishers, plus the meat of the book, the collaborations with Grant Morrison, Really and Truly from 2000ad, and the controversial Dare from Revolver/Crisis. Also included are some preliminary sketches, promotional images, and more.

Hughes' deceptively simple style reveals so much detail on closer inspection, he really is underrated, and it's about time that changed. Start the ball rolling by picking up a copy yourself!

Oh Sh!#!!

I'm with Douglas on this one.

Prince at the O2

Saw Prince in concert last night at the former millennium dome - And it was fab! I'm not a hardcore Prince fan, so I hadn't heard some of the older songs he played since probably when they were last in the charts. It was a great atmosphere, and a fantastic night. Interesting venue too, with lots of eateries and bars to visit before and after the show.

Here's the playlist:

01. Down By The Riverside
02. Satisfied
03. Cream
04. U Got The Look
05. Musicology
06. Play That Funky Music
07. Wonderful World
08. Joy In Repetition
09. Anotherloverholenyohead (feat. Rock Lobster)
10. Peach
11. Lolita
12. Black Sweat
13. Kiss
14. I Feel For You
15. Controversy (feat. Housequake chant)

Encore 1
16. Purple Rain

Encore 2
17. Crazy (feat. One Nation Under A Groove chant)
18. Let's Go Crazy

Encore 3
19. Take Me With U
20. Guitar.

And if you can't make the show, get the album!

James Redington, RIP

Just read that James Redington died - Bit in shock. James was a good bloke. wish I could think of more to say right now. My condolences to his family and friends - I'll raise a glass to you tonight, mate.

Douglas Hill (April 6, 1935 to June 21, 2007)

I don't remember much about Douglas Hill's books, but what I do know is that I LOVED them as a young kid - I regularly checked them out from my local Library, I couldn't get enough of them. For years, I've tried to remember what the books were, or who wrote them. Sadly, an obituary provided the reminder.

Trapped in the Closet

The Guardian reports that alleged perv R Kelly is to release the next segments of his 'Trapped in the Closet' opera-thing next month. I'm not a fan of the guy or his music, but this work, wonderfully parodied in an episode of South Park, surely crosses the border into insane-masterpiece territory.

"I definitely couldn't tell you what's going to happen," says Kelly of parts 13-30 of his twisted soap-on-a-ropera. It's hard to know what else he can mine out of the human condition that he hasn't already touched on in the first half of TITC. Gay pastors, cheating wives, adulterous husbands, jailbird brothers and midget assassins are just some of the characters embroiled in the 35-minute drama. Badly acted and executed, yet utterly gripping, like his charges, this could run and run for years with no sign of conclusion.

...Trapped In The Closet, Parts 13-30 are out next month

Charlie Brooker speaks truth

Charlie Brooker (formerly of 'Oink' comic) sneaks a nerd reference into his latest column:

"The astronomically smug and watery Piers Morgan (who - and this is a reference only three of you will "get", but it's true - looks precisely like a Chris Ware cartoon character)"

More Laugh Out Loud Cats

Important Stuff now online

My 'Important Stuff' comic is now available online - Click Here to find out how you can read it.

Victory!

I'm told that, following my appearance on BBC TV's Points of View last week, the corporation has made a stunning U-Turn in its stance on end credit promos. I haven't heard if thats true, but if so, I'd just like to claim full credit. Tokens of appreciation will be gratefully accepted, if you feel so inclined.

Literally 1,000,000 emails

I just got back from my week-long holiday, to find literally one million emails in my inbox (give or take), so I may be some time in replying to them, and updating the website and stuff. In the meantime, check out the Laugh Out Loud Cats:

Points Of View

Look! I was on telly! You can watch it online at the BBC website, if you really want to. Apparently, its true that the TV adds 10Ibs, and makes your voice sound funny!

Bionic Woman Preview

Thanks to artist Roger Langridge (currently drawing Muppets 'Pigs In Space' comics!), I can now bring this blogs infatuation with new Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan back to comics, since he posted this illustration on his blog:

Also, NBC posted this preview footage:


Enjoy!

Clone again, naturally

The trailer for the new Star Wars spin-off is up.

Via Badlibrarianship.

I found a review!

Staticgirl reviewed one of my minicomics on her FatSquirrel blog, back in 2006. Go there to see what she made of my very rare Tall Thin Comic!

The BAFTA is surely mine

Had a strange day today - I played the part of a troubled viewer for a 'Points of View' segment, a performance for which must surely be in the running for a BAFTA.

It all started when I read THIS, followed by THIS, then wrote an email basically saying the new policy was a bit rubbish. The Beeb phoned me back to come on the show and give a grilling to the head of Marketing. Unfortunately, I hadn't prepared that well, but hopefully my bit will make some sort of sense with some clever editing.

This being TV, it was all filmed out of order - We did the interview first, then filmed me asking the questions again, then filmed me arriving, then leaving. Unfortunately, we didn't employ the blue box for that. (Say, that look kind of suits me! Hope they keep me in mind when auditioning for the next series.)

You can probably see me making a fool of myself on TV this Sunday. Thankfully, I'll be leaving the country the next day.

Bristol Comic Expo Aftermath

Finally recovered from last week's Bristol Comic Expo enough to write a short post about it!

Was nice to catch up with different bunches of people around the bar or in the train shed. Big Shout out to the usual suspects. Sorry if I missed anyone.

I distributed a fair sized stack of my latest minicomic, as well as a limited run of my Nephew's debut effort.

I got a couple of nice sketches from D'Israeli and Roger Landridge (inspired by the rescheduling of Doctor Who that Eurovision weekend).

Also, managed to avoid running into my ex-girlfriend (and her new bloke) too much. Bonus!

Michelle Ryan fans rejoice!

My website hits have increased exponentially since I posted a picture of Michelle Ryan following the announcement of her playing the new Bionic Woman, so for all the new visitors to my site, here's a treat - Access Hollywood has the first preview footage.

Love on the Rocks

I have a two page strip entitled 'Tales from the Pub Portentious: Love on the Rocks' in Portent Presents 2, from Harlow-based Portent Comics. The strip has a strange origin, it was created ages ago for another mag, which fell through. I completely rescripted it into something else for this. There doesn't seem to be any detail on the Portent website yet, but it's £3 I believe, and I'm sure they'd be happy to sell you a copy.

UPDATE (June 2011):
Dedicated with respect to James Redington, the brains behind Portent Comics, who sadly passed away 4 years ago.

Read Online:

Dead Elvis

My latest Minicomic is entitled 'Dead Elvis', and can be found at the Bristol Comic Expo.

A reformatted version may be put up here at some point, but for now, its an "Expo Exclusive"!

You will also have the chance to buy copies of '4321', my 24 hour comic, direct from me for £1, or available as a swap.

Dead Elvis Update!! - Now available online here:

Printable version:

Read Online:

A Smackeroo on the back of her hand

The Daily Show covers the coverage of the Queens visit, with amusing results!

Slaine and Arkham Asylum Trailers

This Website has some nice looking fake trailers for non-existent films based on comics. They're in Spanish, but worth checking out for the stunning visuals. Warp Spasm!

UPDATE: Now with Subtitles!

Free Comic Book Day

Nice to hear Paul Gambaccini give FCBD a plug on his radio show today, by playing Michael Buble's version of the Spider-Man theme.

Sadly I didn't get to a comic shop to pick up any free comics - But I did download a few mags from Twomorrows (still available until Sunday), so its not all bad.

Tintin Interviews - Chris Ware

There are a bunch of interviews here with different cartoonists talking about Herge's Tintin. Chris Ware had some interesting stuff to say:

...As for "storytelling," I think this is one of comics' esthetic hurdles at the moment, which was the novelist's problem 150 years ago: namely, to take comics from storytelling into that of "writing," the major distinction between the two to me being that the former gives one the facts, but the latter tries to recreate the sensation and complexities of life within the fluidity of consciousness and experience. As far as I'm concerned, that's really all I've been trying to do formally for the past decade or more with comics, and it's certainly time-consuming, since it has to be done with drawings, not words.

Know how to make a wormhole?

Science Fiction continues to be proven right:

The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to other universes, a new study says. ..."Theoretically, wormholes are much better than black holes"

So, that settles the question of 'What's best?', but the problem remains - Just how are Wormholes made?

"I see Robots... Giants worm-shaped Robots...", a leading thinker was heard to propound.

In Search of Steve Ditko

I've known bits about this for a while now, but it looks like it's finally gone public, with Jonathan Ross mentioning it on his Radio 2 show last Saturday. Can't wait to see it! Keep your eyes peeled in the direction of BBC4.

Purely Superfluous Nextwave Cameo

The Warren Ellis / Stuart Immonen creation make a guest appearance in Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness #3. Read the entire sequence here.

Spinal Tap Reform Again

Watch the video here, and read all about it on the Live Earth website.

Time is a strange... Mistress

Spider-man suit "a decade away"

An article in New Scientist proposes that the age of the arachnid-inspired vigilante may be closer than we think...

IMAGINE owning your own Spiderman suit, complete with gloves and boots to allow you to stick to walls, and even a sticky silk spinner to swing between buildings. That might be a step closer to reality, thanks to Nicola Pugno at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy, who has come up with a scheme for an adhesive material and "spider silk" based on carbon nanotubes.
...
That just leaves the problem of swinging between buildings on Spiderman-style silk. Researchers can already spin metre-long carbon nanotube fibres (Science, vol 309, p 1215), and much longer ones should be possible, so Pugno proposes making a "cable" consisting of around 4 million nanotube fibres.
....
Stefano Mezzasalma at the University of Trieste in Italy says the approach could work. "The first prototype of a Spiderman suit might be ready in a decade or so."

M-I-L-F, don't you forget

Tori Amos' new video, Big Wheel. I think the song is rather good:



Here's another song, Almost Rosey, performed live.

The CD is available in regular and accompanying DVD versions:


Now, lets see what that post heading does for my hits...

616

Alan Davis talks about the origin of the designation '616' for the Marvel Universe, as introduced in the old UK Captain Britain strips.

Geek Hierarchy

Spider-Man Musical

According to Popbitch:

Bono and The Edge - the new Ben Elton and Andrew
Lloyd Webber. They're writing the lyrics and music
for a Spider-Man musical.

In the meantime, here's the Snow Patrol version:

London Zine Symposium

I expect I'll be popping in here at the weekend. I might drop of some of my comics to sell. If you're there, keep an eye out!

Chris Weston Blog

Chris Weston regularly posts art and entertaining commentary to his blog. He appears to be working on something now that looks rather good, with lots of old wartime comics characters. You can even spot the British character 'Night Raven' on one of the pieces.

This pic was posted back in November, but there's been plenty of tantalising sneak-peeks since then.

Spiderman Annual 7

No, not that one. This new one was created by my 5 year old nephew, Logan. I did the lettering, but the art, script, and cover logo is all his. Snow-Man and Pumpkin-Man are new creations, copyright Logan. Click on the cover to read. Enjoy!

All New, All Different (but the same)

You may notice some changes around here, as I'm playing with the new Blogger template functionality. Some page elements are kind of crammed in at the moment, hopefully everything should settle soon.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Saddened to hear one of my favourite authors, Kurt Vonnegut Jr died yesterday, aged 84. His work was a godsend a few years back, when I had a daily bus commute.

Some of my favourites include Slaughterhouse 5, Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Breakfast of Champions. I have a hardback of short stories still waiting on my shelf to be read, which I was intending to take on Holiday this year.

From Wiki:

In Chapter 18 of his book Palm Sunday "The Sexual Revolution," Vonnegut grades his own works. He states that the grades "do not place me in literary history" and that he is comparing "myself with myself." The grades are as follows:

* Player Piano: B
* The Sirens of Titan: A
* Mother Night: A
* Cat's Cradle: A-plus
* God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A
* Slaughterhouse-Five: A-plus
* Welcome to the Monkey House: B-minus
* Happy Birthday, Wanda June: D
* Breakfast of Champions: C
* Slapstick: D
* Jailbird: A
* Palm Sunday: C

Pavlov vs Scientist

Reality goes round in weird little circles sometimes, doesn't it? Here, Aimee Mann does the backwards boogie singing about psychologist Ivan Pavlov, while Coldplay perform the same trick in 'The Scientist'. Aimee Mann then completes the circle, covering 'The Scientist' on the special edition of 'Lost In Space'.




Incidently, I sang 'The Scientist' at karaoke a week last Friday, possibly at the same time, I'd hear later, that events were transpiring that would impact my personal relationships, and prompt me to look up an old Aimee Mann song about a psychologist. Funny old world, isn't it?

Common People

Jamie Hewlett illustrates Pulp's "Common People". Fantastic.

Did you know...

...The plural of 'Database' is 'Databese'.

This has been a public service announcement.

Tagging Madness

I've been adding tags to some of my older posts, which may do odd things to peoples RSS feeds, if they are using them.

The upside is, that you can now click on tags to bring up, for example, all my Fish1000 Comics entries.

I don't plan to tag all the old stuff, so don't get overexcited.

Important Stuff

I created a 5-page strip in Colour for the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing Anthology 2007. I was chuffed that a leading small-presser emailed me to say:

...your contribution to the thing programme was truly beautiful, was very moved by it, incredible stuff. I showed it to all my friends... I can safely say it was the best thing in there...

The credit should go to the inspiration for the story though, my Grandparents. During WWII, whilst serving in Italy, my grandad would write letters to my gran, which is where I got the thing in the story about Orions belt. Both have had a big influence on me and my life.

The anthology can be purchased here, and is also currently available as a free download. You can see a few other pages here. My story is on page 42. I may make it available here on its own at some point.


## UPDATE ##
The story is now available to read online HERE:

Please feel free to let me know if you like it!