We have a winner...

I sent the following to Strand Books in New York recently:

Hi guys. I'm looking for a copy of this (Ultimate Spider-Man Barnes and Noble exclusive hardcover). I have a friend who is currently living in New York. Could he come and pick up a copy of this from your store? If so, which store? Also, when you say used- is the book damaged in any way. I look forward to your reply.

Thanks

Bat-Mac

and got the following reply very promptly:

Greetings and salutations Bat-Mac.

Relative to your query, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN COLLECTION is in Near Fine condition evincing a slight bump to the head of spine which does not affect interior pages text or art; its dustjacket is in Near Fine condition.

Pursuant to your request, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN COLLECTION will be commended to the custody of the basement information desk of our main store located at 828 Broadway, corner of E12th Street, in NYC. It will be available for retrieval later today and held under your name for 7 days thereafter.

Thank you for your kind patronage.

Sincerely, STRAND BOOK STORE INTERNET DEPARTMENT

I hereby announce that Strand Books are the first recipients of The Blog Cave's "Giant Penny" Awards.

What qualifies them for this ridiculous award, you don't ask? It's patently obvious: any email which starts "Greetings and Salutations", uses the word "evincing" and describes a graphic novel being kept back as "commended to the custody of the basement..." deserves a giant double-headed dollar with one side scratched out, let alone a penny. I don’t even know if Pursuant to your request” is grammatically correct English!

The best I could do in reply was this:

Thank you for this- much appreciated. My associate will appear and gather it at some point over the oncoming week.

… which is absolute rubbish in comparison! Please observe that I think “oncoming” and “associate” are long words. My parents would be proud.

Look out for many more err... prize... give... Blog Cave... to... things...good

(Nibbles - highest thanks go out to you for picking this up for me. Truly legendary.)

Classic DC

While in my hotel room in Edinburgh I’ve been listening to Classic FM to make myself feel colonial and opulent. During my aural perusal, I’ve heard this advert for Classic FM at the Movies:

“We’ve got Superman (cue Superman music by John Williams)…

“We’ve got Batman (cue Batman Begins music by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard)…

“We’ve even got Wonder Woman (cue voice of woman who presents something – I don’t even think it is the presenter of the “Classic FM at the Movies” show, unless Simon Bates has gotten himself a sexy female voice)

Do they even realise the significance of mentioning the DC Holy Trinity? Probably not, but Batman would approve – listening to classical music is meant to make you more intelligent, and self-improvement is one of the main man’s key traits. Take heed, children.

Notice that the advert doesn’t say:

“We’ve got Nova, we’ve got Annex, we’ve even got John Carter – Warlord of Mars…”

Deadheadinburgh

So, my summer in Edinburgh has begun with a visit to a comic shop on my first day!. After work I walked to Deadhead Comics on Candlemaker Row (Sam, was this the place in Grassmarket that you mentioned?). I could have got there quicker, but Edinburgh’s three-dimensional road structure meant I got lost. Like the location of Daredevil and Spiderman’s fight the Surgeon-General on the cover of Daredevil #305, this place really is M.C.Escherland.

It was quite hard to track down the place electronically. They don’t appear to have a website, so I had to rely on Google and various shop databases, and then I called up to check whether they still existed and whether they would be open after work (considering FP Edinburgh shuts at 5:30pm most nights– Shambolic!)

It stayed open until 6:30pm, which would be very handy to pick up new issues from, were it not for the fact that they charge £2.20 for a $2.99 comic (compared to £1.80 at Orbital and £1.60 at FP Manchester (I’m assuming/hoping this will be the same at FP here).

They had a good supply of back issues – about 25 long boxes worth, all priced high (i.e. not 50p an issue! They did however have a few 25p/50p bins, so I picked up two backs for 75p – two issues of the four part “Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman”. At £9.99 for 100 boards (Comicraft), it’s worth bearing in mind as a source of supplies, although I hope FP will be cheaper.

All in all, a nice independent shop and I wish it well. I hope one day I will be able to support shops like this more, but currently my aim is to support the industry while maximising product/pound, so I won’t be heading here regularly unfortunately.

World's UnPienest

The phrase "This is the worst day of my life" is banded about a lot these days, but for once it might be appropriate:

SDCC PIE UPDATE: NO PIE @ THE IMAGE BOOTH

Press Release
Image Comics® is NOT bringing pie to its fans in San Diego.The Ultimate SDCC giveaway hit a snag.

Though the Image Comics giveaway was targeted to fans, the Convention Center's policy about food giveaways on the convention floor made it fiscally impossible to bring the delicious Home Run Pies® to the show."In order to give away free pie to our fans, the Convention Center wanted to charge us $500 a day plus a dollar per pie. And these are pies that retail at four for a dollar," Image publisher, Erik Larsen said. "They wanted to charge us four times the retail price of these pies so that we could give them away. That's $6500 to give away the 4000 pies that we wanted to share with our fans."

"The staff at the San Diego Comic Con has been more than helpful and, considering that these are delicious Home Run Pies®, more than a little enthusiastic about the prospect of sampling some of the pies themselves. We have no reservations about dealing with them or setting up at the show, this is a purely Convention Center issue.

"To keep its end of the bargain with the fans, Image Comics is actively seeking another venue to get the pies out to its loyal readers."We appreciate the understanding and support of our fans and we're making every effort to bring them our favorite taste treat."

Stop by the Image Comics island of booths and check out the finest and most diverse selection of comic books and graphic novels to be had.

The only plus from all this is the brilliantly-plentiful number of times that the word pie has been used in this article. Beautiful in its way...

InCap(lan)able Reporter - Part Four

The trouble is that psychological realism only makes the simple creed of superheroism – one man against manifold evil – look silly.

The concept of one man as the irresistible force against the immoveable object is as old as time itself. It is how many people imagine themselves and their place in the world to a greater or lesser extent.

If anything psychological realism makes the superhero, certainly Batman, seem less “silly”. You can only assume that people going to see this have bought into the concept of a man dressed as a Bat, and his reasons seem perfectly acceptable.

The only reason why you may find the concept of one man standing up for what he believes in, and succeeding in both his internal and external battles, silly is if you lack imagination and have little faith in yourself and the strength of humanity.

Ironically, Caplan both addresses her point and misses it entirely. The operative words in the above paragraph are “psychological realism”, which is different from “realism”. The Batman concept does not intend to be realistic; comic readers do not expect Batman comics to be realistic and film-going norms have the ability to suspend belief for two hours to watch a man use hypersonics as a weapon to distract criminals and the police. What people want, in an age where even Daleks need to self-analyse their worth (Doctor Who Episode 6), is to understand how characters can be driven to do what they do and they want the methods they use to be internally consistent with little use of Deus Ex Machina techniques. Batman Begins achieved all of these, and more.

The second half of Batman Begins asks to be judged on thrills, but Nolan is no action director – even an OJ-style chase in a Bat-tank feels slow.

The chase scene was anything but slow, although the property damage was gratuitous and there were not enough repercussions from the cost of the destruction caused.

“It’s not who you are underneath but what you do that defines you” says sweetheart Rachel (Katie Holmes) primly – which is fine for supermen in masks (and for that matter, actors) but shatters this film’s sophisticated pose.

There is a small prize going for anyone who can explain what this sentence means – that includes Caplan, who I suspect is unsure itself.

InCap(lan)able Reporter - Part Three

Except for Chateau Wayne,

I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.

…where butler Alfred (Michael Caine) resides, Christopher (Memento) Nolan’s Gotham is dark in word and deed - a teeming murk run by mob boss Falcone (Tom Wilkinson, terrific) and wacko psychiatrist Dr Crane (Cillian Murphy).

Tom Wilkinson was not terrific. He was “good” – another error by wacko writer (Nina Caplan).

But the atmosphere evaporates when this intelligent, tortured young man initiates do-goodery by rigging up a cave full of masks and baddie-battering gadgets.

Where to start? Any reader with a non-zero IQ can’t read this without being embarrassed for the writer and its family. No reason is volunteered for the loss of mood. As the film is about a “superhero”, which I hope to God Caplan knew before she saw it, then the atmosphere is generated by the transformation from individual man to incorruptible idea – a symbol that people can believe in. Infact, Bruce wants to make the Bat-symbol mean to the citizens of Gotham what a Police Badge should – trust and faith in the integrity of those who stand behind it and their ability to protect and punish.

To become a vigilante, and to deliver the justice that the corrupt system can’t Bruce adopts an identity which he feels will assist him.

He needs a base of operations, so uses his cave hidden beneath Wayne Manor – which is practical and convenient.

His “baddie-battering gadgets” are to him what a gun and baton are to the police. His costume has been developed for military use and should be issued to the Police, but the system does not value the lives of its agents. He will not use a gun, so fashions shurikens in the shape of the Bat for added effect. He requires a method of getting around the city commensurate with him modus operandi and to develop his mysterious persona, so he “wears” a glider, which double serves as a cape and aids the impression he creates.

This all seems sensible to me.

Alfred excepted, one good cop (Gary Oldman) is his only ally – he doesn’t even get a Robin.

The point of the “Year One” setting for the movie is to examine Batman’s origins. Of course he wouldn’t have a Robin. What possible reason would he have to co-opt a child into his dark world so early in his career. How would Robin have been introduced within the context and atmosphere of this film? By not providing an answer to these question, Caplan loses the right to a fair trail and should be tried as a War Criminal the next time she is caught dropping litter and letter.

InCap(lan)able Reporter - Part Two

Apologies to those who looked forward to more Nina-mination yesterday - I had to return some video tapes...

After all-action therapy from mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson) he returns to his hometown, corruption-riddled Gotham City, for some serious spring-cleaning.

As the teaching that Ducard provided was predominantly ninja-based martial arts training, it was of course “all-action”. Instead of pointing out the obvious- that the film concentrated solely on Bruce’s physical training - and balancing this theoretical stand-point against the difficulty of constructing a montage sequence demonstrating Bruce’s development into a detective, Nina once again shows a lack of the astuteness and observation needed for a good reviewer, and normal, unretarded, human being.

She also refers to "Gotham" as "Gotham City". As far as I can recall, the film deliberately avoided referring to "Gotham" as "Gotham City". This was especially apparent in the fact the “GCPD” are just the “GPD” in the film. I have consulted the official film website, and it refers to “Gotham” as “Gotham”. Why would you refer to a place by the wrong name, unless you were incompetent? It should be sacked immediately and replaced with a chimp, randomly hitting a keyboard and producing material infinitely better than this buffoonery.

World's Pienest

A brief interlude from the abuse to highlight an issue our humble (that's a play on words, btw) community has been awaiting since the Silver Age:

Comics and Pies - together at last (sic):

Image Comics® is bringing something new to its fans.

Something no other comic book company has EVER brought its fans.

PIE.

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=8fabbc6b38af5c4dc6de05c5363ce156&threadid=36058

World's Pienest indeed!

InCap(lan)able Reporter - Part One

Incapable Crusader

This is the worst title to any article I have ever read, in any medium and in any language. I assume (and it is a big assumption, as we do not wish to give Caplan credit for anything) that it is a play on the famous phrase “Caped Crusader”, used to describe the world’s greatest person, Batman. However, it fails because it is purely an attempted wordplay – Caplan offers no arguments for why the film is “Incapable”. Indeed this is not commensurate with the film’s “Good” rating. Some was trying to be a clever little thing, wasn’t she Nina, yes she was, yes she was…

Batman Begins (12A)
Running Time: 139 mins

The running time must be wrong, and I suspect that “it” thought the film was called something other than Batman Begins and had to have this corrected by her editor, so we’re putting this down as another elementary mistake from the queen of chimpery.

In Batman Begins, billionaire orphan Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is a young man as adrift as the Batman franchise – and that’s saying a lot.

What does that even mean? No comparison can be drawn between Bruce’s quest for knowledge and enlightenment to achieve the related goals of dealing with his parent’s death and developing the means to fight injustice where-ever it may rear it’s ugly head, and the unspeakabelness that was the final three Batman films of the 90’s – and yes, I include the farce called “Batman Returns” in this. Immediately the writer proves that it lacks the ability to understand intellectually-taxing storylines whose complexity dwarfs the average man’s comprehension.

More insults tomorrow!

InCap(lan)able Reporter - Prologue

Here's the offending document (see previous post). I actually had to type this up from the dirty rag myself. Over the next few posts, I will demonstrate how every word of this travesty against lexicality is factually, morally and physically incorrect.

Incapable Crusader

Batman Begins (12A)
Running Time: 139 mins

In Batman Begins, billionaire orphan Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is a young man as adrift as the Batman franchise – and that’s saying a lot.

After all-action therapy from mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson) he returns to his hometown, corruption-riddled Gotham City, for some serious spring-cleaning. Except for Chateau Wayne, where butler Alfred (Michael Caine) resides, Christopher (Memnto) Nolan’s Gotham is dark in word and deed - a teeming murk run by mob boss Falcone (Tom Wilkinson, terrific) and wacko psychiatrist Dr Crane (Cillian Murphy). But the atmosphere evaporates when this intelligent, tortured young man initiates do-goodery by rigging up a cave full of masks and baddie-battering gadgets.

Alfred excepted, one good cop (Gary Oldman) is his only ally – he doesn’t even get a Robin. The trouble is that psychological realism only makes the simple creed of superheroism – one man against manifold evil – look silly. The second half of Batman Begins asks to be judged on thrills, but Nolan is no action director – even an OJ-style chase in a Bat-tank feels slow. “It’s not who you are underneath but what you do that defines you” says sweetheart Rachel (Katie Holmes) primly – which is fine for supermen in masks (and for that matter, actors) but shatters this film’s sophisticated pose.

Rating: 3 stars (Good)

Photo caption: Behind the mask: Batman Begins boasts some good acting but its repetition of the one-crusader-against-evil cliché lets down its sophisticated sheen

I feel unclean just posting that. Off to the bathroom to wash, then back to destroy it, letter by letter.

The End of All Knowledge

I've never been one for melodrama (not strictly true), so believe me when I say my life is falling apart around me.

Following on from my embarrassing failure last night in the first round of results, something even worse happened this morning.

I was on the DLR this morning and grabbed a copy of the Metro.

For those of you who may have lived on Earth-2 for a while, let me enlighten you. The Metro is a publishing phenomenon. It is the first urban national newspaper. Metro was launched in March 1999 as a free, colour newspaper for morning commuters. At first it was only available in London, but now commuters in eight of Britain's major cities can pick up a free copy of the Metro as they travel to work in the morning. Every weekday morning some 1,006,821 copies are distributed across the UK making Metro the world's largest free newspaper and the fourth biggest newspaper in the UK.
Metro is a perfect mix of national and international news wrapped around local information - listings, travel and life - our unbeatable guide to the best in going out and entertainment. Metro's news stories are tightly written, so that the reader can take in all the key facts quickly. And Metro has no political axe to grind. Metro has looked at the lives of modern workers and gives them news and tips on travel health, fashion and the Web in our Hot Style, Health Metro, Travel Metro and @Metro sections.
Metro is distributed in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh covering a combined area with a population of more than 18 million.
The Metro was my only supply of news. And it was absolutely brilliant. So dependent was I on picking up a copy of the Metro, left by another commuter on the bus or train ready to be perused by another ratracer, for even the slightest insight into all worldly affairs that I initiated the practice of referring to it as the “source of all knowledge”, and demanding that people say “source of all knowledge” immediately after using the word Metro.

The operative word in the above paragraph is “was” .

Attracted by the banner on the front page (“The Caped Crusader’s back in yet another film. It’s dark and full of gadgets… but is it any good?”) I turned to Page 31 for Nina Caplan’s review, expecting a five-star rating and psycho-linguistic imagery of the woman “enjoying” herself at every thought of the Bat.

This was not what happened. Over the course of the next few days I will be taking the review apart word-by-word to show to the world (Sam) how flawed it is.

In the meantime, the Metro is now the “source of no knowledge”. Please use this title every time you have to use the M-Word

Fail me once...

... shame on you

Fail me twice - shame on ME

World's Loneliest

It's almost one in the morning, and I've just realised that I will always be apart from the rest of humanity.

No other Blogger has listed Annex as one of their favourite books.

I'm still alive, but why?

EDIT: Changed time of this post to reflect the... errr... time it was posted. Hence comments may sound a little surreal.

Y, Y, Y (Y, Y, Y)

It’s hard to conceive for those who know me, but there once was a time when I was ashamed of my nerd heritage.

I can’t remember exactly when that time was though. But I’m pretty sure it existed. I never ever owned up to being an Actuary, or studying Maths and Physics and I'm not sure I even admitted reading comics.

Then, one day, I woke up, and didn’t care. I took pride in being different, and having a worthwhile life. Some people reach this realization through religion, and I realised it under the Shadow of the Bat.

For a while I got quite evangelical, and still am to an extent. I always try and introduce girlfriends (who quickly become ex-es) to Sleeper, Fables or the Giant-Sized Man Thing.

My current attitude is one of arrogance. I portray comic reading as the height of human mental endeavour. In the last three discussions I’ve had with norms, I’ve dropped in the line “Yeah, I don’t blame you for not reading comics. They contain intellectually-taxing storylines whose complexity dwarfs the average man’s comprehension.”

The sad thing is, instead of all of them saying “F*** Off, you arse”, two of these people said “Well, find me a comic that you think I’ll enjoy. I promise to read it and I’ll make up my own mind”.

Shot through the foot by a gun that was loaded by me!

“Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight Returns” are often touted as the sort of books to give to chimps to make them realise what a great medium we love. However, I’ve given Watchmen to people (who I once thought of as being intelligent) and they have struggled. The Dark Knight Returns (and I can’t believe I’m typing this) is still, in the minds of the hoi polloi, a super-hero comic, and the pretentious quasi-intelligentsia I hang out with who are above such childish things.

So, if not the two biggest classics in the history of literature, then what?

Y.

Why?

1) No super-heroes. So inferior people don’t feel stupid reading it.
2) Nice clear art. Nothing complex. No Sienkiewicz inks or crazy Arkham Asylum paint-jobs.
3) No clever page layouts. No one struggling with the reading order of speech bubbles.
4) What lovely, realisitc colours!
5) Everyone loves Yorick. What greater fantasy is there for women than the thought of every last man getting killed off. What greater fantasy for a man than having a world full of women to himself.
6) It takes 90 minutes to read the first trade. This is about the length of an HBO pilot (why I’m describing a program as an HBO pilot when I live in the UK is beyond me.) Even the most stupid of norms can hold their attention for that long, especially when the story is broken up into five separate parts.
7) IMHO BKV understands the concept of the cliff-hanger better than any other writer in comics. His final pages always leave you wishing you were 30 days closer to death.
8) The ongoing nature of the series should entice norms to keep coming back for more… More … MORE!

Y is the absolute number-one best book to give to norms. Discuss (5 marks)

Milky Milky

Newsarama have a Press Release on the Batman Begins "Got Milk?" campaign poster:

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=64d2fb04ab6b27f0ea12920d26adc0f0&threadid=35563

My only familiarity with these comes from comics. Basically, they feature a celebrity (fictional or otherwise), predominantly with a cult-theme tie in; for example Buffy, Lara Croft and The Incredible Hulk (now there's a threesome worth thinking about), posing with a milk moustache and some comment about how good milk is.

However, I'm not here to expound the benefits of cow piss. I'm just wanted to share with you all how pleased I am that Wayne Tower is Canary Wharf!

I knew I spotted Clayface at The Slug and Lettuce last week.

No, that was just the barmaid.

My So-Called Strife

Nibbles, currently in New York, sent this to me today:

"They're getting a new server with no download limits, so no cap on 2GB a day from next week!!"

He is referring to the Essential Mix download site which we use. This follows on from his recent text message, letting me know that instead of downloading three a day like in London he can now go to bed and set 17 going. Happy days, my friends, happy days.

Always thinking no steps ahead, I replied:

"What are we going to do once we get them all?"

It then dawned on me that this situation very much parallels the history of my comic collection:

1. Initially plan is to get what can listen to/read and be very selective.
2. Gradually, with good intentions ("You never know where you may find hidden gems") mixes/comics increase in number.
3. Soon, plan becomes "Eventually I'm going to own them all, so might as well start getting them randomly now" (yes, I did once think that I would own every comic ever published" (!))
4. Speed at which mixes/comics are obtained exceeds speed that they can be consumed.
5. Soon admin issues start - "Where am I going to keep them all?” Space and cost - in time and money - of processing (filing/bagging and boarding) becomes a big concern.
6. The amount of effort/money needed just to maintain the collection reaches a ridiculous limit.
7. You consider "deleting" stuff as you get desperate.
8. When you think about what you want to get rid of, you can’t bring yourself to jettison anything.
9. Acceptance – your life is lame but you love it!

Eat that, Kubler-Ross!

Once I reach a definitive conclusion on how to deal with this, I'll let you all know. The sky will have turned red by then.

Svampbob Fyrkant

Sweden is the second greatest country in the world behind Japan. Here are reäsöns why:

1. Annie lives here
2. The love of my life, Princess Madeleine, lives here (I saw one of her houses today!)
3. They show animated Batman and Superman + Smallville and Desperate Housewives, in English with Swedish subtitles, on terrestrial TV.
4. Sofiero, the world's greatest beer... (well, technically the world's second greatest beer - it was Silver Medalist at the World Beer Cup 2004)
5. ... which tastes great after eight (count 'em McGranty\Eddy G) Hot Dogs...
6. ... polished off with an entire packet of Bilar.
7. They have a massive comic-book library in the centre of town (Sergelstorg, Kulturhuset) in full view of normal people's sight. This place was unbelievable. I was first attracted to it as we walked up from the "Annual Food Festival" at Kungstradgarden and I spotted a massive mural on the front- a beautiful amalgam of The Bat, Olive Oil, Jugde Death and Astro Boy to name a few. We divided in and we were rewarded with somewhere I could happily spend a week - Graphic novels from the US, Japan, England and Continental Europe, in both English and Swedish.
   
   Chatting to the librarian it appears that thisestablishmenttablishement is frequented by norms. 100,000 norms (last year) to be precise. I explained how in England reading comic books in public was prohibited by an Act of Society.
   
   "Not in this town" said the freak book-keeper with the wavy Sartre-esque beard. I didn't really register his confusion. I was still wondering how a library in a foreign country could have an entire run of Judge Dredd books as a small part of its graphic novel collection.
   
   Next door was a cafeteria, undoubtedly selling hot dogs and beer. Like I said, this place is a paradise. I already have a form (in English) to join this crazy "Bibliotek".
8. I'd be committing a cardinal sin if I didn't mention that the women are horrfically more attractive than the Anglo-Irish nastiness we have to put up, but I think that's blatantly obvious to anyone with at least one of the their five senses still intact.
   
   And the one downside:
   
   These "Swedes" don't appear to reprint any DC in a monthly fomat. This is a problem I've had on my preceding five trips to Sweden. I've seen Spider-man, X-Men and Transformers, but no Batman.
   
   NO BATMAN! I HATE SVERIGE! HELVETE!

Stock Taking

In Sweden's capital at the moment being very well looked after by Annie. So well looked after in fact that I've managed to get a round of Bizzaro Comics in. Absolutely hilarious!

Off to the System Bolaget now to get some beers for the Sweden-Malta football match. In Sweden, if you want beer above a certain alcoholic percentage (3.5%) to you have to go to one of these state-run off licenses. Veterans of various Malmö expeditions will be well aware of this.

Check out these crazy Swedish letters: Ö Ä Å ¤

Also crazy: They show Batman And Superman on TV. So much like us.

I LOVE SVERIGE!

And it’s Sin City… Sin City F.C…

Attended advanced screening of Sin City last night with Houghton. That’s right- I saw it 18 hours before the rest of you chimps. That makes me better than you (unless you went to the premiere, or made the film, in which case I want to be you).

In summary, it’s an excellent movie. Morally duplicitous, and at times completely bankrupt of any notions of right or wrong (how the average American copes with that is beyond me!). The acting is edgy, the setting atmospheric and the violence pretty gratuitous. The greatest film called “Sin City” ever made!

I wish I could write more. I could make comments like “this film evokes the atmosphere of early 1940s film-noir crime capers”. But I can’t. I’ve never seen any 1940s film-noir. I would love to make comparisons to the original comic books, but I’ve never read them (not sure how that happened, I was probably too engrossed in issues of Annex or Askani’s Son). (However, I have got “The Hard Goodbye” (signed by Frank Miller and dedicated to yours truly!) and will be reading it on the way to Stockholm this weekend (undoubtedly leading to an assault on Mile High Comic where I clean up the rest of the books).

That’s probably the area that interests me most- the translation from the comic to the film, especially with all the comments I’ve heard about Rodriguez using the comic book as a story board. I read an interesting article in one of the broadsheets which has frighteningly shots of identical looking scenes in the film and panels form the comic book. So, I’m going to find out more about this, read the Sin City Graphic novels, watch the film again in a few weeks and then get back to you. Hopefully with something better than “the film was… err… good. Very… very… good”.

In the mean time go and see it! And, more importantly, read the Sin City Graphic novels. And now normal people can enjoy them, without looking like complete nerds. Similar to the Harry Potter re-covering (look at me, I’m reading a crap, derivative CHILDREN’S book without a crap, derivative children’s cover) Dark Horse have released all the graphic novels in a new format that makes it look like you’re reading a word-book. You too can enjoy comics without the horrific stares of dread I get from my fellow passengers as I unbag a copy of “John Carter, Warlord of Mars” to read on the DLR every morning.

Join us!

O.C./D.C.

Last night, in the build up to the season finale of Desperate Housewives, I passed the time watching "The O.C" with my housemates.

I’ve watched one episode previous to this, and so the only value I could add was repetitive comments of “She’s fit” whenever anything female appeared on screen.

However, although I am a fickle whore, one particular lady caught my eye. A lady who satisfies every facet of the strict criteria I’ve laid down to allow love to enter my life (see later). I have fulfilled the vow I made on the grave of a previous relationship to rid my life of the emptiness that haunts my existence. Those who have known me for the last couple of years will appreciate the significance of this announcement:

I’ve finally found the fit bird in comics.

Her name is Reed, and I love her – scratch that, I’m in love with her. She’s 23 (my lucky number – seriously!) and beautiful, and to quote “thinks Iron Man’s original armour is better than his Ultimate armour”. She also thinks Seth could be “the next Brian Bendis”, and wades in on the “Storm vs. Cyclops” debate.

Let’s snap back to reality (oh, there goes gravity). My bond with Reed is an imaginary story. But there must be an Earth-Prime Equivalent. So, I re-issue the challenge which has dominated every waking hour (all two of them) since Saturday 24th May 2003 when entering the main hall of the UK Comics Festival in Bristol: If you read more than 10 titles a week (preferably D.C), are female, objectively attractive, support Thanagar and live in London (though not exclusively- anywhere in the world would be considered) then please drop me a line.

Many thanks

This is only a test

Feels like there should be something poignant written here. I am, after all, about to join the haloed world of Internet Nerderatti. COME ON!

However, I am instead going to submit this post and then come up with something that people might actually want to read for the next one.

Please be awed by the first blog-decision - a black background to symbolise the darkness of the BlogCave.

Many Thanks