High Velocity Super Disco

Wilmaaaaa!!!!!

2007-02-04T11:33:00.000Z

Sometimes, I just can't resist a good old photoshop challenge, like this one from Mike over at Prog Ruin (...aaaahh, back in the 70s, now then they had blogs).

Laugh? I nearly did... Still I have learnt more about layers, and magic wands.

A spell in the National Service would sort them out, or; Ripped on Facist Ideas

2007-01-15T20:18:00.000Z

So I read this article about filthy hippies, who should get their bloody hair cut, and get a bloody job, and then I realised that it would make a nice counterpoint to the fact that I saw everyone's favourite crypto-facist pre-apocalyptic wardeath fetish film "Who Dares Wins" last night:

In which Lewis Collins (the one out of The Professionals who 9 out of 10 people say they would rather be when asked "Who would you rather be, Bodie or Doyle out of the Professionals?" even though they can't remember which one's Bodie, and which one's Doyle) shoots a load of filthy communist hippies, or something.

And then I realised that it was almost possible to imagine V for Vendetta as a sequel of sorts to this. After all, both were produced at the same time, and both were very much born from the politics of the early 80s - it wasn't therefore much of a stretch of the imagination to picture Alan Moore's dystopian jackbooted vision of the future arising from a present like the one depicted in Who Dares Wins, especially with the triumphalism given to the SAS' defeat of the terrorists. All that would be needed would be a government dedicated to removing the terrorist threat, by declaring a "War on Terror" and then enacting extraordinary measures to control and monitor it's population, and then, ahhh, errr...

We are at war with Eurasia, and we have always been at war with Eurasia anyone?

An open letter on a slow news day

2007-01-12T20:06:00.000Z

Dear The BBC,

I greatly enjoy the daily news digests you send me by email, seeing as how it allows me to keep up to date with goings on in the world, locally, politically and also in the sibling worlds of science and technology.

This however, not only is this is not news I could care less about, but more importantly, while yes, it could be considered to be a news story that is vaguely about technology (and that's being generous - but maybe it would fit better somewhere else), I would like it to be borne in mind that I would mostly like to be kept abreast of cutting edge technological developments that are going to change the shape of our world in years to come, not geeky neo-D&D shit like this.

Thank yor.

Currently listening to?

Specifically; The Flirtations ~ Nothing But a Heartache, and also:

Old CDs I know, but I just dug 'em off the shelf...

Quote of the day

2007-01-09T20:28:00.000Z

Comes courtesy of the one Mr Warren Ellis, from his latest Bad Signal;

"if you honestly think a speculative fiction magazine shouldn't be attracting people interested in new ideas and new art, you're in the wrong business"

Referring of course to this and this.

He has a point of course, why else would Bruce Sterling write a column for Wired?

Or; is this indicative of a (further) split between the written and visual worlds of SF?

Or; is this why more SF and fantasy writers are starting to write comics?

Damn! Knew I should have just let the quote stand on its own...

Whose side are you... oh, just kill me already!

2007-01-05T20:04:00.000Z

In anticipation of the coming war; the resurrection of a stupid idea that's past it's sell by date:

Many knew this day would come, but no-one would have believed the consequences. Prepare for the blogosphere to be torn apart, as the world finds out, who is the True King of Awesome?

Sims

versus

A Man in a Plaid Shirt

You decide...

I'm going to be banned from the internet forever because of this (and for using the word blogosphere) aren't I?

I'll Meme You. I'll Meme You Right in the Face!

2006-11-20T00:28:00.000Z

Two "create your own dialogue" comic panel challenges I couldn't pass up:

One from Brandon
And one from Kevin.

hmmmm, do I do the self promotion thing?

How was everyone's weekend?

...and another (four) things

2006-11-19T16:31:00.000Z

After completing that questionairre the other day, I found it kinda odd that there were no questions about music. Well. I did, I don't know about anyone else.

Bearing that in mind, here's four things I've bought and listened to recently. They are all good. I would advise listening to them all. And by listen I mean go out, find the albums, and purchase them from you local indie record store like I did.

So, what have you been listening to recently?

Four Things I Hate About Memes

2006-11-15T18:03:00.000Z

I can never think of any bastard answers.
I do have other things to do with my time.
Er...
That's it.

No thanks to Mick on this:

a) Four jobs I have had in my life:
Sales Assistant in the Co-Op, Door to Door double glazing "agent" - including the one time we were walking 'round Bedford, and I had to knock on the one house in the street whose windows were all boarded. Seriously, you should have the look on the guy's face as I asked him if he'd ever considered replacing his window's. Spock couldn't have done a better raised eyebrow type look. Also Landscape Gardening Labourer (best. job. ever...) and currently Technical Analyst (my, that's a poncey job title - yeah if only it came with a similarly poncey pay packet.)

b) Four movies I would (have) watch(ed) over and over again:
Star Wars - no brainer really. This one summer, me and my mate Jim did virtually nothing but cycle round the village, go round each others houses, play computer games and watch the Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
Akira - little did I know my teenage brain was about to blown into a series of pieces which I would never again be able to put back together.
For university, I was gonna say The Rock, but then that was mostly Ben anyway, and then I realised it was Fight Club, which I'm just going to let stand on its own.
And finally Super Troopers, 'cos it's just dumb and funny.

c) Four places I have lived:
Cardiff, Bletsoe and Sharnbrook - that's it. There is no four. Seriously, who comes up with these things?

d) Four TV shows I like to watch:
heheheh "I like to watch"...

15 Storeys High, QI, Justice League Unlimited and currently, The State Within - even though I keep missing huge chunks of it, making it difficult to figure exactly what the hell is going on!

e) Four places I have visited:
Germany
France
Spain and, umm the Gower (one of the most beautiful places on Earth)

f) Four websites I visit daily:
Warren Ellis, if you can find a better digest of what' s happening on the web, and in the world, RIGHT NOW! - then let me know. In the meantime there's this.
The ISB - prepare to have to have your mind blown, on an almost daily basis. Also bearfighting, head-kicking, and OMAC.
Myspace - yes, it is very crap, and it is very very ugly, but it is actually one of the best places to seek out and discover new music.
The BBC website - for various reasons, news, recipes, local information, listings etc., and because it is quite possibly the best website ever. In fact, it's the perfect example of the BBC actually fulfilling their remit.

g) Four places I would like to be right now:
Well, I'm not at work - so that's one right there.
At home visiting the folks.
Downstairs in the kitchen making some coffee.
And if I was a bit more awake and dressed, either outside taking photos somewhere, or doing something creative

h) Four of my favourite foods:
Yorkshire Pudding (ah, but of course it comes with a delicious roast beef sunday lunch with a nice glass of red wine).
Steak - medium rare for preference.
Italian - you know pasta and shit.
Curry - at times I am an simple man.

i) Four bloggers I'd like to respond:
Hunter - if he ever gets down to doing another entry, Dan's already done it..., ummm - Spence if he reads this, and YOU...

(ha! see what I did on that last one?)

"Green Lantern's Light!"

2006-11-15T01:25:00.000Z

Halllooo again everybody. Sorry, it’s been so long, again, and man, just when you think you’ve been the only one blogging about Green Lantern; you suddenly find out everyone else has been doing it…

Oh, and while I’m at it – thanks again to Mr Mike Sterling for the link (now there’s an proper blogger) – makes me wonder how much traffic that actually brought my way, anyone know how to check that?

I’ve been working on this entry for a while now, making notes here and there (on the train to London, at work instead of working on fund specs, you know – the usual places), and generally feeling like I’ve actually got something to say. “Feeling Like” of course being very different to “Definitely Having”.

My first post in this series was the result of completing another of those stupid online quizzes that just seem destined to waste our lives, and then thinking that it’d be a good idea to do an entire series of posts on the GLC, sorry The Green Lantern Corps.

And that’s the crux of it, people often ask me (are you looking for the motherlode? Ha! No! No, my child, this is not my desire…) who my favourite GL is, and to be honest, I don’t really have one. Instead, what I really love is the Corps itself. Which is why I’m not writing about Hal Jordan, Alan Scott, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner or even Guy Gardner, but rather the Corps as a whole.

The central idea of Green Lantern is brilliant; an individual capable of overcoming great fear is granted an object of immense power, capable of performing virtually any feat that the wear can think of (a “Wishing Ring” as Daniel of The Endless called it), and is then instructed to patrol their particular sector of the universe. In essence then, a space police force armed with potentially the most powerful weapon in the universe, patrolling their beat.

The relevance if this was recently increased when each sector was given two GLs, i.e. now every beat cop has partner, and also in the first arc of the new Green Lantern Corps, which had Guy Gardner and Soranik Natu buddying up to do detective work like shaking down witnesses, and searching for clues. You know, police work.

Now the idea of Universal Space Police Force is nothing new, but then again neither was Green Lantern – but when you weld the two ideas together…

Thing is, the police in the real world are there to uphold the law, which is all well and good where there are jurisdictional boundaries and clear laws to advocate. But in space, whose laws do the Corps follow?

Enter the Guardians of the Universe (yes, I know, as a title, it is rather pretentious and self-important, but these guys were one of the first races in the universe, but still…). Anyway, while it is the Guardians that would be the ultimate arbiters of justice in the universe, it is never really made clear how or why. It could be perhaps that they still feel some form of moral responsibility for having loosed entropy upon the universe, or that their billions of years of existence and knowledge has given them all the authority they need. See, that’s what I don’t understand, it’s not as if the entire universe decided en masse that it would be the Guardians who would, could and should impose order, they just took it upon themselves to do so. But then again, who said the JLA could do the same on Earth (which I suppose makes the Corps universal vigilantes).

But what are the Guardians? Where do they stand in relation to their Green Lantern Corps, in fact, what is the structure of the Corps? We know the Corps is a group entity, and as such is made up of free thinking individuals. And bearing in mind that, like any society, it consists of individuals as disparate as Kilowog, Guy Gardner, Salaak and G’Nort, then the definition of that society gets harder to pin down.

Kilowog for instance comes from a collective society, and subsequently readily took to Communism. Does this therefore imply that the Corps is itself a communist organisation? Well, everyone within the society could be considered to be an equal, or at least treated equally, each works towards the benefit of the society as a whole, and there is an almost benign dictatorship controlling the interests of that society. Then again, it’s not as if it could in any way be described as a dictatorship of the proletariat. And that’s where the comparison fails, as the means of production (whatever they could considered to be) are not controlled by the proletariat.

So, we have a collective society, controlled by a dictatorship; switching to the other end of the political spectrum, is the Corps fascistic? Again, probably not, as any fascistic order is dependent on a hierarchical form of organisation organised from a single, central leadership. And, within the Corps, there is no defined form of hierarchy, and neither is there the near fanatical subjugation of individual free will that any fascist state requires.

Neither Left Wing nor Right Wing, what then is it? I’m sorry, did someone just ask if it could be considered democratic? Please, don’t make me laugh.

No, what the Guardians most resemble are the Philosopher-Kings of Plato’s ideal city Kallipolis. This would therefore make Oa something akin to an ancient Greek city-state, and the Corps the militia of that city-state. (Although, yes, I do know that the militia would ordinarily been drawn from the population of the sate, but I think we can stretch the analogy a bit here).

You wanna know how well the Philosopher-King parallel works? Both the terms Philosopher-King and Guardian are virtually interchangeable in the text of The Republic.

" Whichever of the two are best able to guard the laws and institutions of our State--let them be our guardians. "

Furthermore, this helps define their status within the universe, and their title, because, if we take them to be what considered the ideal rulers of any state, then it follows that they can impose order (or their will) throughout the universe, via the Corps.

So what is the Corps? Purely and simply, it is a society, and, essentially, a microcosm of the universe, with each GL representing a different aspect of the universe. Which is why the Corps can legitimately represent the universe.

But, like any society, it is, as I said earlier, made up of very different individuals. And here is where we unearth one of the reasons I love the Green Lantern Corps so much. Because, while they are all the same, in that they’re all Green Lanterns (with the same powers, abilities and mission), as individuals they’re all very different. (And yes, I know that’s a rather obvious statement to make, but bear with me). That is, each individual has their own personality and quirks while still being a GL. Which I’m glad to say Geoff Johns is exploring in the Green Lantern solo title, where he tries to explain how each Lantern uses their ring differently.

And obviously, this whole idea of creating a bunch of different individuals leads to more interesting stories. Yes, there are loads of superhero teams where the whole point is that they’re all different (Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League is probably the best example) but not so many where they all have the same power. I’d also like to make to make the distinction here that GLs are not really superheroes per se, and reiterate that they’re policemen. And, as such, they are an elite, as they’ve all be selected and chosen according to certain criteria, chiefly the ability to overcome great fear, and haven’t simply been granted their powers by accident.

Except for Kyle Rayner.

Who is actually the exception that proves the rule, as he has demonstrated all the capabilities of being a Green Lantern, and has clearly shown his ability to overcome great fear. And, when the Corps was reformed, was automatically granted a place. (Indeed, whether he really was chosen at random by Ganthet is up for debate). This is known as Character Development, whereas turning your character into someone with godlike powers is just called a plot device.

We thus have two aspects of the Corps; one on the individual level, demonstrated through the singular Green Lantern title focussing on Hal, and secondly with the Corps as a single unit, as shown in the Green Lantern Corps title. And, both comics are doing just that, and if any conclusions as to why I love the Corps can be drawn it’s here.

It’s the versatility of the concept. Firstly, you have a singular Green Lantern with a power ring that can do anything within the willpower of that GL. So it’s only real limitation (other than the colour yellow) is the GL’s (or rather the writer’s) imagination. Secondly you then have the Corps as a group of aliens (and already you have scope for epic science fiction space adventures) all armed with a power ring, all doing things differently but the same, and accordingly, you can write different stories with each one. Basically, much like the power ring itself, the concept can be stretched as far as it can go, and the only limit is the imagination.

So yeah, in conclusion, I’d have to say my favourite Green Lantern is G’Nort.

Phew, finished, and I didn’t even get to mention my theory linking Green Lantern to Gaiman’s Sandman…

"Beware my power"

2006-10-22T14:41:00.000Z

Dear Internet*, firstly let me apologise for not having posted for so long, and while I know that no excuse will ever be good enough, I do have my reasons.

Firstly, my decision to do a series of Green Lantern related posts - in reflection, it would be best to perhaps decide on what the actual content of each of those posts was going to be before you start?

Secondly, I have been away to see the folks, which did kinda leave me unable to do anything. However I did take a whole new buncha pictures (and, on a related note, I have apparently reached the 200 photo limit you get with a free flickr account - leaving me in a quandary; do I a) delete a whole load of photos so that I can upload more, b) upgrade to a Pro account, or c) just setup a new account?).

And, it's not like it hasn't been frustrating, missing out on photoshop memes, from the likes of Brandon, and having a whole stack of material that I actually want to post about, knowing that I can't until I've finished the Green Lantern stuff...

Anyway - onto GL post number four (of five - remember to collect the set kiddies!).

Having racked my brains trying to provide original content about Green Lantern, I eventually gave up and decided to just provide a bunch of Green Lantern videos from YouTube.

Originally sparked off by a thought I had about why there hasn't yet been a GL movie, and whether or not that would actually work, or if would just be better as a cartoon (a la JLU and Super-Friends), I decided to see what people had put up on YouTube in the way of Green Lantern type material.

And the answer is? Not a lost (and hands up if you just heard that in a Paul Daniels type voice).

Aside from the usual load of edited JLU footage set to, oh I dunno, whatever the kids are listening to these days (a load of horrible noise mostly - what's wrong with bands like Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, and Gindrinker?), there's nothing much out there. Which, I have to admit, is a bit disappointing, if not downright disheartening.

Seriously, people of the internet! What's wrong with you? Why aren't more of you dressing up as Green Lantern and making fan movies?!?!? Do you really have something better you could be doing with your time?

Soooo, here's the cream of what I found;

First off, here's what a Green Lantern trailer could look like, if you can imagine Hugh Jackman as Hal Jordan. And for mostly edited movie footage, it's not half bad.

Then there's this spoof video, which is relatively, funny first time round, but not by much.

I did find another similar type thing on Google Vids, but no. So here's a method for dealing with Hal Jordan that'll be familiar to Absorbascon readers:

And finally, here's the lantern procession from this year's Green Man festival - oh wait, I see what you've done there YouTube...

Interestingly, both my friends Spencer McGuigan and Kirsten were apparently in this (I'd had to leave to go to stupid work by this point) and I can completely imagine that, and it makes me smile.

Right, that's it for now. I'll probably see you in another couple of month's time, to finish all this off.

*and, yes, when I say "Internet", I mean just the five or so people that read this...

"Let those who worship evil's might"

2006-09-24T18:51:00.000Z

The one problem with doing what could be considered to be a series of themed posts?

Deciding what to do next.

In this case, I've chosen to go back and do another DC character Tarot Card, after the original challenge on 52 Pickup.

The second problem is deciding which card form the Major Arcana best suits Green Lantern.

And, once again, wipdedia provides us with the answer - The Magician.

Why?

Well, the entry itself lists a number of qualities/attributes normally associated with each card, and, for the Magician they are:

Action ----- Consciousness ----- Concentration ----- Personal power

Practicity ----- Energy ----- Creativity ----- Movement

Precision ----- Conviction ----- Manipulation ----- Self confidence

Being objective ----- Focusing ----- Determination ----- Initiative

And, personally, I can't think of anything that could better define the qualities need to be a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Also form the entry we find that the card, "signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought", which, if you ask me, sounds like the very essence of a GL's power, and also that it "represents the potential of a new adventure, chosen or thrust upon one. A journey undertaken in daylight, in the Enlightenment Tradition. He brings things out of the darkness into the light." - In brightest day, in darkest night anyone?

Anyway - what else is a Power Ring if not a science-fiction Magic Wand?

As for the image itself, below, the picture is from the gallery of DeviantArtist Tonks - which I found after a little googling (and after I gave up on looking through all my comics for the perfect image), and is very reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier work - which probably would have been perfect if I could be bothered to find my copies, thinking about it...

More GL posts, and as when warrented (i.e. when I can be arsed...)

"No evil shall escape my sight"

2006-09-20T21:13:00.000Z

Heh, nearly wrote "site" in a what would have been an apallingly bad pun.

In the meantime, once again in lieu of anything resembling actual content, here's a picture of a lantern that I took at this year's Green Man festival - just so I could colour it Green...

Oh, and if anyone's starting to sense a theme develop - that's entirely intentional.

"In brightest day, in darkest night.."

2006-09-18T17:22:00.000Z

Thanks Dan...

Your results:You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern		75%
Spider-Man		75%
Hulk		70%
Catwoman		65%
Robin		60%
Superman		60%
Iron Man		55%
The Flash		45%
Supergirl		43%
Batman		40%
Wonder Woman		33%

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Everytime I think I'm over these bloody quizzes, I find a new one to waste my time on.

But of course I'm Green Lantern, who else would I be?

Guess I'll actually have to do proper content now, about how much I love the Green Lantern Corps.

"That's odd, there's only supposed to be one in the pack..."

2006-09-10T17:26:00.000Z

Another day, another Photoshop challenge, this week from Douglas over at 52 Pickup, who's challenged his readers to "design a card for a Rider-Waite-style tarot deck whose image is an unaltered panel, or fragment of a panel, from a DC comic."

Having thus set my brain sparking on the possibilities of what to do (Batman as Justice, Superman as Strength etc.), and after doing a little bit of research (i.e. five minutes pissing around on wikipedia), I decided to follow up on yesterday's post, well, the bit about JLU #25.

That's right, in an amazing leap of creativity, originality and deductive reasoning, I decided to do Blue Devil as the fifteenth card in the Major Arcana, El Diablo (who I could also have done from this week's Jonah Hex if I'd thought about it a bit more...).

ps. A genuine No-Prize will be awarded to the first person to correctly place the quote in the title...

Swings and roundabouts

2006-09-09T17:08:00.000Z

New definition of irony? When the company you work for sends you unsolicited mail, that turns out to be "An invitation to Invest" in the product that you helped test and launch a couple of weeks ago.

Last time this happened, I got really angry, but this morning I just laughed. Out loud. I mean, clearly they are just taking the piss. Because, yeah, maybe I really would feel that I was a "valued member of staff" (actual text from the letter), if they knew I worked on the thing, and, you know, if they then reflected that by fucking paying me more!

Pigfuckers!

*(aaaaaannnnnd, breath out...)*

Sorry, rant over! Now onto nicer things, things that actually made me smile this week.

First off, if you'll kindly glance to the sidebar on the right-hand side, you'll notice a snazzy new picture, created just for me, by the spectacular Hunter McEvoy, whom I cannot thank enough. Seriously, I nearly cried when I saw it, and stopped to consider its awesomeness.

Good work fella!

Secondly, this advert from Agents of Atlas #2 (which, much like The Creeper #2, which also came out his week, I enjoyed even more than the first issue - both series seeming to have hit their stride), in which the advertising world finally recognises the true audience of comics these days.

Finally, this letter from Justice League Unlimited #25 (in which Blue Devil kicks arse!).

No, hang on, let me get this straight (you put the lime in the coconut, and drink 'em bot' up) - you're refusing to kill characters for any sort of dramatic purpose, because "every character is someone's favourite"?!?! Wait, this is published by DC right?

I absolutely love the JLU comic (just as I loved the cartoon), simply for its unabashed love of DC's stock of characters (and there's not a single piece of characterisation that seems out of place) and because, while it is aimed at kids (again, with the bold editorial decisions!) it's exactly what comics should be, a good read. And it still has a letters page (oooh, look, there's another one) that includes pictures sent in by the readers, and, honestly? Seeing as how they have an average age of about nine, that's heartwarming.

Okay, someone stop me before I start getting soppy.

Oh, I also got round to finally buying Fugazi's In On The Killtaker on CD, which I've had on tape since I first bought it when I was about thirteen, and subsequently haven't listened to in ages, and it's still sounds awesome, and ahead of it's time, and, I still know the words to all the songs.

(Electric) Wizard did it

2006-09-05T23:21:00.000Z

Here's a little tip; if you are going to add some feta to your Spinach, Ricotta and Sundried Tomato Tagliatelle, make sure it's not the feta that's been lying at the back of the fridge for a while, as it doesn't quite add the right sort of "zesty tang" you were after...

So, as I'm eating this and watching Notting Hill again (yes, I know - I can't help myself!), I notice something startling.

About ten minutes into the film, after Hugh Grant's met Julia Roberts, he literally bumps into her again. And, as Hugh Grant bumbles about making stuttery apologies as only he can, I swear I see Grant Morrison squeeze into the shot behind them, and then disappear.

Seriously.

It was one of those, "did I really just see that?" kinda moments.

I don't know why, maybe he was making some sort of anti-fourth wall chaos magic type statements, but watch it yourself if you don't believe me. Like I say, about ten minutes in, a tall bald man, wearing sungalsses and a furry coat (exactly like you might expect Grant to wear) stalks onto the screen behind them.

Maybe he's just been on my thoughts a lot recently, but that doesn't explain why he feels the need to invade my television screen. Unless he's trying to tell me something, but..., what?

Also just realised this is the kind of thing Mason would have come up with in volume 2 of The Invisibles.

Environmentalist Comic Book Geeks of the World Unite!

2006-08-31T19:25:00.000Z

I bought this album today:

I like it a lot. I probably like it a lot more than could be considered good for me. It is the aural definition of fucking awesome.

Anyway, I was browsing through Tescos earlier, leafing throught The Independent, wondering whether to buy it or not (I didn't, I'd already bought The Wire and Viz earlier) when I noticed that the main article was about a bunch of environmentalist protesting against a power station in Yorkshire called Drax. And, not only that, but that also some wag had nicknamed it "Drax the Destroyer", after well, Drax the Destroyer.

This, kinda blew my mind for a few seconds. Not only is there a power station called Drax, there's also the fact that everyone agreed to go along with the (admittedly awesome) suggestion from the Marvel Zombie in the corner. Genius!

As a postscript, if you visit the BBC's coverage of the story, you can watch a video of "lively protests at Drax power station". Wonder if that means it involves swearing?

Dial "M" for "Metafiction"

2006-08-29T19:17:00.000Z

What is wrong with me? I've an idea. Why don't I join in with something that's bound to cause my arm to cramp, and my eyes to bleed?!?! Just to bring the funny!?! (And, trust me, it's better than my original idea).

This blog would have been impossible without the work of SpeedSpeedSpeed and Hydronaut.

I have often walked, down this street before.

2006-08-28T16:01:00.000Z

Bank Holiday Monday! And so, with nothing better to do, I took to the back alleys of Pontcanna, armed only with my camera, my walkman and a selection of ambient CDs.

And, as I'm taking these photos

I began thinking about how each of the little tags of graffiti

were like little magical sigils, protecting against evil

and then, in a weird act of synchronicity, as I'm loading them onto my computer - I stumble across this article, which is kinda riffing on the same themes, but in a much more poncey manner.

But remember kids, graffiti is vandalism, and is not condoned by the HVSD in any way.

Except for this:

Phun with photoshop

2006-08-27T19:19:00.000Z

Can you really believe this took me ages?
No, me either...

God I'm bored.

Not so Secret Origins

2006-08-26T13:02:00.000Z

Erik was a simple record store clerk when the bombs fell.

Suddenly flung into a Post-Apocalyptic Warzone, he found he had no option but to fight for the future of Punk Rock, when Neo-Nazi Skinhead Disco Mutants began taking over the underground club scene.

Grievously wounded in a moshpit frenzy, Erik's life was saved by the mysterious Dr Clock, who, using his patented method of arcane magicks and radical tecknologies, fused wonderful and bizarre cybernetic implants onto Erik's body, granting him abilities far beyond those of ordinary punks.

Thus rejuvenated, Erik continued to fight for, "like, whatever, y'know?", through the power of his new band - Super M.O.H.A.W.K. Crocodile Avenger Force 9! Who've had a couple of gigs on the local scene, and are currently putting together a demo to sell at their shows and stuff. You should totally check them out man, they're pretty awesome. They supported Die Tödliche Eismädchen that one time at Club Embargo...

For Brandon, and yes, I know, it's kinda riffing on The Creeper's origin, but I don't care. Ditko can sue me, I always liked Giffen's take on it anyway.

Here we go again...

2006-08-21T20:43:00.000Z

Never wishing to miss out on anything:

And also this, which I defy anyone, ANYONE, to not watch and suddenly find themselves laughing out loud, or at least smiling.

I did have proper content planned, but ran out of time... honest.

It's only going to get worse...

2006-08-16T18:10:00.000Z

Bollocks! Mind you, I'm probably a few months from getting anything together myself, and it's kinda comforting to know that there's thousands of people out there who'd really rather be doing something else.

Yeah, I might have had a shit day at work - so now my head currently sounds like this -

Still, Green Man on the weekend!

The Ironing Is Delicious

2006-08-14T12:59:00.000Z

Sorry, a bit late I know - but I've only just realised the irony of having a comic where Cable and Deadpool are the main characters...

Saturday Night's Alright Like

2006-08-12T19:15:00.000Z

Yeah - it's a Saturday evening, so in a bit I'll be chilling back, and relaxin' with some TV, a beer and a take-away (maybe chinese...) - so just thought I'd through out some links to some stuff that's taken my interest recently.

First off, Rocket Pirates from the one Warren Ellis - a new web collective dedicated for new webcomics offering up its services for free. At first when I read this I was interested, but then remembered my complete lack of drawing ability (kinda like how I really want to form a rock band, but can't due to my complete lack of musical ability - well, exactly like) and it slipped outta my head. A couple of days later my mate Al emailed me about it, basically saying, "You bastard! Why didn't you tell me about this? We should do this!" So, I sat there in work thinking about it, and a couple of hours later, I'd filled several pages of a brand new notebook with thoughts and ideas of how to do this, including how to get over the non-drawing thing and a title for "The Project" (that's not the title by the way, that's just me being pretentious). Anyway, I hope it gets your brain firing as much as it did mine (seriously, besides that I got sooo much else done that day - it was like creativity through osmosis).

Secondly, a couple of news articles on the BBC News website that caught my eye:

This one on reverse evolutionary genetic engineering on mice that really doesn't make any sense; viz. "It gives a real example of how evolution works because we can reverse it", ummmmm how? No, really - you fucking what?!? Also, shouldn't genetic engineering, and indeed evolution, be about progression and advancement? And, couldn't the BBC find a better picture of a mouse than one that looks like it's been half flattened by a truck?
And this one about gamers being able to create and control environments and scenarios in an online RPG, which while I think about it sounds awfully familiar...

Will someone remind me to read this wikipedia article on the German Resistance in World War II, because I don't have the time right now, and I'm bound to forget by tomorrow.

And finally, now that I've bought myself a digital camera - does this mean I now have to setup a flickr account?

tara fer now.

In sunken Apokolips, Darkseid lies dreaming.

2006-08-04T10:17:00.000Z

Having a rather wandering imagination (and clearly too much time on my hands, and an apathy towards doing anything work related today), I often find my mind keeps going back to the same hypothetical question.

Who would win in a fight between HP Lovecraft's Elder Gods and Jack Kirby's New Gods?

See what I did there? See how clever I am - because it's like new versus old?

The problem now though, is that I've been twisting it round in my head for so long, that I'd actually like to see it happen. So much so in fact, that I'm half tempted to write it as fan-fiction - and that's just plain wrong.

I've almost got the beginning worked out too, where, in his eternal search for the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid finds the Necronomicon (as transcribed by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred) and proceeds to summon the Old Ones (yeah, I know - actual big difference between the Elder Gods and the Old Ones...). And thus begins an epic struggle as the New Gods of New Genesis struggle to save the Fourth World from the crawling metaphysical horror from beyond space that is Azathoth - the Blind Idiot God (and all the others with far too many n's, p's, r's and th's than should be contained in one word).

Who will win?

Nyarlathotep

Lightray?

You decide...

This is the news!

2006-07-27T22:42:00.000Z

Gleefully stolen from Mick's Secret Identity (cheers fella!) -

'What" will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

and bizarrely accurate...

A Brief History of Time(lords)

2006-07-22T19:12:00.000Z

See, this is why I love having a laptop and wireless internet - surfing the intarwub while watching The 'burbs - thus being able to blog and watch a fantastic movie (is that Corey Feldman?). Because, when that thought you had while vaguely drunk and watching the penultimate episode of the last series of Doctor Who pops back into your head, you can tell people about it - in the hope that they might be interested (that, and search for a pizza dough recipe)...

So, anyway - the second before last episode of Doctor Who, where Russell T. Davies, keeps ramping up the tension - until that sudden suprise climatic release at the end (YES! YES! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! - "It's like Stephen Hawkings against the speaking clock.")

*ahem*

Yeah, the episode that finally introduces Torchwood in all it's glory (and, yes, I know we'd seen it before - but this is the one where it's all finally explained etc.) - and, in my slightly inebriated state, this got me thinking about something I'd said a few days earlier to a couple of mates while watching a bunch of old Dr Who episodes;

"How come Torchwood has never bumped into U.N.I.T.?"

Now, I know the real reason, Torchwood was ultra secret, and only answered to one government, while UNIT was a United Nations taskforce openly attached to the military, and both had very different agendas. But still, in all that time that the Pertwee Doctor was messing around on Earth with The Brigadier, they never thought to try and at least contact the Doctor, who was considered to be their mortal enemy?

Mind you, who's to say that they hadn't? It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to consider the idea that Torchwood sneaked a double agent into UNIT's ranks, or, as my mate Paul pointed out, that they were sneaking around in the background pouring over the remains of a robotic yeti, or the corpse of a Zygon.

Yet, the idea that two relatively secret organisations dedicated to fighting threats from outer space, had never even bumped into each other still rankled.

And then it hit me (four pints in remember?) - the reason the Doctor (and subsequently UNIT) had never met before was that, until the Tennant Doctor went back and met Queen Victoria and fought the Werewolf, Torchwood had neverf existed! Of course, this all depends on the concept of subjective time. According to the Doctor's subjective timeline, the circumstances surrounding Torchwood's creation did not occur until the Tenth Doctor went and created them, so the Doctor had never bumped into Torchwood before, because it wouldn't have been possible to.

(This all made perfect sense at the time - did I mention I'd been drinking?)

Then I remembered that time is also a constant and I realised I was back at the start, and that I'd gotten absolutely nowhere. (And that, in fact, I'd created a sort of paradox for myself).

Then I read this and my brain began to melt.

The moral of this then? Fuck knows. Probably something like, stay in school and treat your mother right.

And, yes - stuff actually on comics tomorrow probably...

And so it begins... (or, justify your existence)

2006-07-09T20:00:00.000Z

You know, I often get asked by people how I, a twenty-something male, can still be reading and buying comics on weekly basis. And you know, I really have no answer to that. Nor can I answer why I spend vast quantities of my time reading about comics on the internet.

Let's just take it as read that I do. And that I spend a similar amount of time (and money) on music, and that these are pretty much the main twin loves of my life (weirdly, films used to figure quite highly in that list too - wonder what happened there).

Now it stands to reason that, being an intelligent young man, I might have formed opinions about said forms of entertainment.

Oh yes I have.

And do I wish to inflict them upon the internet, like every other fucker?

Oh yes I do.

And that's what leads us here, where, having read and admired the content of internet comic blog giants like Chris Sims, Mike Sterling, Kevin Church, Dave Campbell, Devon Sanders and Scipio, I felt the burning desire to add my voice to the maddening crowd.

But why now? Why not earlier? Why not during the heady days of Infinite Crisis, or House of M, when the world and his mother was spouting off?

That I also don't know, apart from the fact that I didn't really have anything to say or add back then. Or maybe I just couldn't be arsed. Or maybe I just couldn't think up a name for the blog (and believe me, this title was the best I could come up with). Or maybe I just hadn't been bitten by the blog bug.

See, much like everyone else I've signed up to MySpace (yeah, I know - don't lecture me, I originally did it to look at my mate's pictures, and mostly use it for music - okay? like it's supposed to be?) and it's there that I developed a taste for blogging (and it was while listening to Aswad that I developed a taste for bogling). And I have to admit that there was something liberating about just writing down my feelings and thoughts about stuff (God that sounds pathetically emo).

However, there was one thing that I refused to let myself blog about - Comics (mostly because I didn't want people to reailse how geeky I could be, which, now I think about it just sounds stupid). So I thought I'd wait until I had a proper grown-up blog until I did that (yeeeeaaaah, because that makes perfect sense).

And this is it. For better or worse. For no good reason. But mostly for the hell of it. And for the fact that I can't access MySpace from work...