Myspace

One of the things playing on my mind at the moment, is whether to join Myspace or not. There is only one 'pro' involved in joining Myspace (and Comicspace) and that is the fact that it will be good for the O Men, good publicity.
The main problem is that there are tons of 'cons'. First up, I don't understand it. I cannot see the point of it. What does it do? I can barely decipher most people's pages. People just seem to love putting photos of themselves on there that you can just tell look nothing like them in real life. I hate the way some people have their music set up so loudly (really embarrassing in the office). I can't see myself having time to respond to 'friends'.
Mind you, I never intended to set up a Blog, and I must say I'm quite enjoying it.
So the myspace jury is out. Of course, the other scary thing is the feeling that you're the 'odd one out' by not having a page. Will I become the final person on the planet not to get a Myspace page? Hmm.

O Men 2.5

O Men 2.5 is going to be an Anthology type issue, sort of. It's the origin issue for one of the characters, and approx 10 of the pages will be drawn by other artists - so that's one page each. I'm trying to think who to use. I've already got Sean Azzopardi down (www.phatcatz.org.uk) and my mate Springy (Pest Control).
It's got to be a small presser, as I can't pay and I want someone that can do it in time.
If anyone has any ideas, please post a comment!

Most Haunted (LIve)

I must tell you about this weekend's Most Haunted (Live from Transylvania!). It is a programme I normally don't (can't) watch on my own, but I 'made the effort on Sunday night'. Hehe. Fat gay medium (extra-large) David Wells was terrified and refused to enter the 'castle dungeons'. Funny how, after they entered, Yvette caught a waft of the most terrible 'sewer smells' from David's direction. Psychic phenomenon indeed!
The funniest bit was when fat gay medium David was in mid-conversation and then let out a hysterical 'BWA HA HAAAAAA', as if he'd been possessed by Dracula!
But needless to say, as soon as I turned my light off I was terrified.

Frustrating

The other frustrating thing is that I really want to crack on with Spandex, my O Men spin-off (set in Brighton lol). I see it as being a Scott Pilgrim style digest book. Not enough time, eh? MInd you, my ideas aren't quite all there on that, so it can wait. Still, will be nice to see old characters like Liberty and Diva, and new ones like Mr Muscle, Butch and Glitter.

O Men Excitement

I am so excited about The O Men.
It's funny, because whereas Season One of The O Men was all planned out, Season Two was really uncharted territory. I didn't really know where I was heading with it and wasn't even sure I was going to be able to fill the issues - and I have to admit, I did think about throwing the towel in at some point (especially when it took me so long to get to grips with Photoshop). But now - wow - I'm not even sure that 12 issues is going to be enough to fit everything is (it was gonna either be 10 or 12, but now there's no way it can be 10. And I don't want to go beyond 12 as I don't want to be doing O Men into my 40s!). I'm also kind of worried that I will forget to wrap everything up, or have no room to address certain things... But we'll see.
I'm absolutely dying to get my teeth into the next issue, part one of three (part two being an origin issue), and after that there is a huuuuuge Kelly issue, and I can't say anything beyond that. It's going to be absolutely explosive.
Season Three is also very exciting. I feel like I will be able to do something a bit more abstract for that. The story won't be as urgent and crazy, a lot of the pressing issues will have been dealt with, so you'll be seeing something very different. Three extra-sized issues, three different characters, and one of the issues will cover a period of 10 years.
So I shouldn't say any more, as I know a lot of people hate spoilers and I've probably said too much already - but let's just say I'm having a ball.

2.3 cover

Spent the weekend tinkering with a potential O Men cover. I already had a go at one, just featuring Grace, but I need one with STu on too. So I did a small thumbnail and really liked it, and then just used that and blew it up on Photoshop (the original is about the size of a small post-it note) and I think it's okay... Not 100% convinced but we'll see. I have a month to think about it - I really want to get O Men 2.3 done by the end of March.
So anyway, here is the original, the thumbnail and the 'final' version...

'Virgin Media'

I'm not normally one to talk about consumer issues but I will...
Ever since my parents got Sky, I've always wanted it to get it - all those music channels - MTV2!!! So when I got my own place last year, I got Telewest, and I loved it. Not too expensive!
A couple of weeks ago, these adverts kept popping up about Virgin Media and I'm like, what's that then, ah well doesn't concern me.
So yesterday I get an email - 'Welcome to Virgin Media - here is your new online bill'. So apparently I'm now in Virgin Media! I used to get sick of all the stupid mail-outs I'd get from Telewest, but I thought it might have been a common courtesy for maybe one little letter to inform me that I'm now a member of a whole new scheme.
And now apparently some deals have fallen through and we are losing Sky One from our package!? So that means I will lose Simpsons and Lost (hmm maybe for the best) but also my beloved Project Catwalk!!! And Battlestar Galactica!!!???
That explains the advert I saw a while ago, asking people to sign this Sky petition not to lose their shows - shame I didn't realise it affected me!
So...thanks guys... Maybe I'll just get Freeview.

Burned out

Oops, last weekend I burned myself on O Men. First up on Sunday I had one of my 'sleepless nights' where my brain is being creative and I just cannot get to sleep. Ah well, at least it was constructive lol. And then on Monday (a day off) I think I was O Men-ing from about 11am til 10pm - way too much, and I had to take the week off from drawing to recover. Think I'll take it a bit easier this weekend hehe - although I am desperate to finish the issue and move onto the next one.
You know, I think I actually work harder on O Men than I do at my day job...

Regina

I didn't tell you about the Regina concert, did I.
It was cool! Bit of an odd venue - the Astoria in London - which is a bit of a nightclub/pub type place - odd for a pianist! But she was cool, it was quite a varied concert, the band were a bit wasted - just standing there! Made me want to listen to her again.
Two things related to the concert to mention:
1. I was so happy to get the London Lite on the way home and see that Regina was the 'featured concert' of the day - I normally look at the 'featured concert' of the day and it's normally one of my top faves and I'm like, 'oh shit, missed another one!"
2. In a tragic case of instant karma, I ended up, after the concert, with chewing gum on my bag and coat - instant karma because I think it was my own chewing gum. In fact, this morning I found a huge splodge of chewing gum on my coat - which I've been wearing all week...

Bankrupt

You do not want to know how much money I just spent on Tori concert tickets...
Seem a bit pricier this year...
Ah well, not often I go to concerts...
Thank goodness I'm a bit 'flush' before payday. Everyone else seems to be on their last tenner (spookily enough, three people have said that exact same quote to me...

Young at heart

I'm 32 years old, 33 next month, and yet I'm sitting here at work in my Spider-Man 'villains' t-shirt and my 'Silver Surfer' underpants (they're very comfortable). It doesn't seem right somehow.
(I am wearing trousers of course)

Caribbean

My parents are in the Caribbean. I just thought that needed to be said, so we can all reflect on the fact that it would be nice to be in the Caribbean. Did I spell Caribbean right?

Look!

Look at this thing of beauty!

Oh my god

(martin has exploded with shock and amazement and excitement - normal service will be resumed shortly, but please check this automated message for now)

TORI AMOS TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM
AMERICAN DOLL POSSE

(check out the amaaazing artwork here: www.toriamos.com)

Tori has finished her 9th studio album entitled
American Doll Posse.
It will be released on May 1, 2007 on Epic Records.

TORI ANNOUNCES WORLD TOUR
LAUNCHING MAY 2007!

Vertigo

I was flicking through the latest Y the Last Man collection this morning and thinking how sad it is that it’s the only Vertigo comic I read these days. There was a stage where I only read Vertigo - Sandman, Doom Patrol, Preacher, Invisibles etc - but those days are long gone. They seem to have tried their best to go into more diverse types of comics - Westerns, War stuff, Vietnam - but they really don’t interest me. In fact, in their attempts to diversify, they’ve actually come up with an output that’s quite samey and dull. The loss of the letters pages hasn’t helped either.
So with Y the Last Man drawing to a conclusion, they badly need to come up with something worth reading (O Men?). Y is a great read by the way. Not one of my favourites, but a good quality title, with some nice twists and turns.

American Idol

I was watching American Idol the other day on mute, while I was drawing and listening to music (I am good at multi-tasking) and this guy came on with the weirdest name - captioned ‘Hollywood Week’. Fair enough, I thought. Then, 10 minutes later, the caption came up again. Fair enough, I thought, young Hollywood (he must have had very ambitious parents) looks a bit different but I guess that happens. And then, 10 minutes later, another ‘Hollywood Week’ turned up. Oops, it was actually ‘Hollywood Week’ of the auditions.
I wouldn’t mind watching American Idol, but it just seems to be on for ages on tv. Like, last year, I remember it being on from 7 til 1am or something stupid. So, maybe I’ll watch it, but I dunno if I have time for all that.

TV

I’ve finally got back into Shipwrecked after a really dull few episodes, and it’s made me think about the TV shows I’m watching regularly at the moment.
Battlestar - Not quite enjoying this as much as I did last season (which was phenomenal) but it’s still really good, and I’ll definitely stick with it.
Prison Break - I never have high expectations of this show, but as soon as it starts it’s just a mind-blowingly good show. Great characters, great twists, great show. Hope it gets a third season. Not quite sure what they’ll do in a third season, exactly, but ah well.
24 - I gave up on this show in season one, like everyone else, when Teri got amnesia. But then, when all the other shows started getting cancelled - X-Files, Buffy, Angel - I decided to give it another go, as everyone else seemed to be into it. It really is good - totally daft, but really good. Season six has been a bit...silly so far, but I’m hoping it will pick up soon. I’m a bit worried that it’s a bit predictable at the moment - it’s a show that succeeds on the writers being so far ahead of the audience.
The Search - This is a nice little gem which I guess isn’t doing very well, since it was demoted from prime-time to late afternoon. It’s all very silly, as 10 or so incompetent contestants try and decipher very simple clues all across the world, but it is quite gripping. Saskia to win!
Shipwrecked - This was a phenomenal show last year, utterly compulsive viewing, and actually quite stressful to watch!! It was hilarious how my younger friends all were rooting for the silly old Tigers, while people my ages rooted for the older Sharks (yay, they won!). This year it got off to a slow start, and splitting the islands into boys and girls has made things a little dull, plus some of the contestants don’t actually seem to have personalities - but it’s picking up now.
Deal or No Deal - Still watching this, and enjoying it, altho Noel is getting more and more annoying and the contestants just don’t seem to be as interesting these days. Quite scarily, I’ve started watching the Weakest Link again too.
Lost - Oh dear. I really want this show to succeed and do well, but I think it’s going down the plughole quite quickly. They need to focus on the main characters and not keep shining the spotlight on people like Juliet (last week) and Desmond (this week). This week’s Desmond episode was abysmal - really frustrating. Nothing happened. I think this show needs to reveal what it’s about and then take it from there. There are way too many unanswered questions now.
America’s Next Top Model - This show has such a great formula, however much Tyra tries to irritate us all into not watching it. It’s always really tempting to look up who has won each season on the internet - but somehow I manage to resist.
Project Catwalk - Another great show. It sounds shit on paper - fashion designers have to design to different briefs each week, and then someone gets eliminated - but it’s really good. And all this season’s contestants are great fun.
Heroes - Another cool show, altho I haven’t seen a new episode for ages. And I’m definitely not watching any of those spoiler-littered trailers any more!!

3 things about Music

1) What is up with bands whose names are just 'the something' or 'insert plural'. the klaxons, the long blondes, the gossip, the view. there are a lot of them, but for some reason i can't think of any more. just listen to XFM and you'll hear 100 of them in a half-hour. it just seems lazy and unoriginal and instantly turns me off.
2) I hate the new Take That. I never had a problem with them in the 90s, but now they are just repulsive. They all look like tramps with their horrible lanky hair, and Gary Barlow makes me laugh, now that he's turned into Mr Blobby. Each new video becomes a case of 'how fat has Gary got now?'. I saw their new video this morning and Gary is nowhere to be seen - apparently he was too fat to fit into his video suit. And that bloody Patience song! Honestly, I've never heard a single more bloody boring song in my whole life! Take that, Take That.
3) I am going to a concert tonight - my first one in aaaages. I am seeing Regina Spektor. I'm not that excited really, I haven't listened to her in aaaaages. I am kind of excited about going to a concert though. I do find them a bit boring - lots of hanging around - but the thing is, I've missed out on so many concerts recently, purely because by the time I heard they were on, they were all sold out. Was gutted to miss Kristin Hersh the other week and Nina Nastasia too. Mind you, I have no one to go with anyway, as my partner and i don't share many of the same musical interests!

O Men preview

Oh look, I worked out how to post a picture. It wasn't difficult. So here is a sneak preview of O Men 2.3.

O Men

Issue 2.3 is coming along quite well. It's an interesting issue, it's literally very 'dark' and I've used light at specific points for emphasis. Of course, this means that there is a lot of 'colouring-in' to do on Photoshop.
The script has been in constant flux, with pages being dropped and then added at all sorts of different points. A letter saying that a reader didn't think I'd introduced the characters well enough made me add an extra page on Asylum.
So still on course for a late-March release I think. A good issue for Grace and Stu, Mary and Kelly, with some madness from Molly, Strange and Aslyum.
Issue 2.4 will be mental. absolutely mental. i can't wait. I want to reveal stuff but I won't. Scenes on tubes, motorways, conference rooms - hmm, that doesn't sound very exciting, but it will be!
Then Issue 2.5 will feature work from other artists who I haven't talked to yet. It'll hopefully make up for the Anthology falling through.
Anyway, good times. If I could figure out how to post more pictures in my writings, I'd pop preview pages on.

The Dark Tower

There's a new comic out at the moment, based on Stephen King's Dark Tower books. As many people know, I love Kingy - in fact it goes beyond simple love - he is the only author whose books I know I will enjoy and I normally devour them in about 2 or 3 days (well, except Lisey's Story).
It crossed my mind to get the Dark Tower comic, but I don't think I will. Partly because they are based on elements of the novels, and I want to read them again at some point, and I hate having things visualised for me. It's kind of a strange idea for a comic. I think the old Roland stuff is a bit dull, and I'd much rather have seen comic adaptations of It etc (cos most of the screen adaptations SUCKED).
In general, I thought the Dark Tower books were quite poor. For a supposed seven-part epic, they were nowhere near as epic as The Stand. I'd like to read them again at some point, but I think it's too close to my previous read at the moment. Plus if I tried to read them again, I'd want to read the other tie-in novels first, like Salem's Lot and Insomina. I do find the DT books really slow though. I dunno, maybe I'll get more out of them the second time, like with Cell.
Shame though, Jae Lee, the Dark Tower comic artist, is one of my fave artists.

ER

It's sad when you fall out of love with a programme. I missed the classic early years of ER, and joined it in around Season Four or Five, and I absolutely loved it. One of my earliest memories was of Lucy being stabbed to death :-o
My Monday, and then Wednesday, nights all revolved around ER. Everything stopped for it - it was great. And then, suddenly I realised that I wasn't enjoying it any more, and that nothing actually had seemed to happen for the past five or six years. It annoyed me how most of the characters in the opening credits barely seemed to pop up and actually do anything (Dr Chen, Alex Kingston, Sherry Stringfield). And it got even worse when I started to realise that I was actually starting to HATE Abbie and Neela - formerly two of my favourite characters. They just went from being flawed and likeable, to irritating and know-it-all and men-hating and stroppy.
Even Dr Weaver - once such an unbelievably amazing, well-written character - was sidelined and went up into management. She's back now, but she's lost the old magic.
I think the final straw was when they 'jumped the shark', when speccy Dr Debenko turned up to work as a robot (no word of a lie) as he was recovering from cancer.
So no, I can't face Morris any more (a two-episode character at best), whatserface the nurse (who played velma in the Scooby Doo movie) is unbearable, and I know where the off switch is!
Still better than Grey's though.

Heroes

I'm up to Episode 14 of Heroes. It's good stuff. Kinda lost it for me a bit, in recent episodes, and nothing has been as cool as future Hiro in Ep 5 (or 6 or whatever). Anyway, here are some random comments:
- They killed off my favourite character booooo
- Mohinder - worst character ever
- Niki in prison - zzzzzzzzzz
- Prophecy guy - so he paints these paintings, it takes him ages and he comes up with...comic strip panels? That's not painting! Dur. Why doesn't he save time and just sketch?
- Oh, and finally, I'm never gonna watch another episode trailer again! The 24 ones are bad enough with their spoilers, but I guessed loads of stuff in these recent eps, especially the Clare's family stuff. Boooo.

Dreamgirls

I took Mikey to see Dreamgirls on Saturday - wow, not bad! Not the sort of film I'd normally touch with a barge-pole, but I was very impressed. Mikey is a huge Jennifer Hudson fan and I was like "is that her?", "no, that's Beyonce". Oops.
Not sure Beyonce did herself any favours by appearing in this film though...
All in all, 8 out of 10!

Friends Reunited

I've had a lot of people tell me about old school-friends getting in touch thru Friends Reunited - and I must say, I always get very jealous! However, it has now happened to me!
(Well actually, 'Sarah Thurlby', a girl I gave a Blue Peter valentine's card to in infant school, got in touch a couple of years back, but that was only a brief encounter!)
But no, one of my best friends from school has got in touch - James. There was a group of us that were pretty much best mates at school - James, 'Moomin', 'Bowl', 'Willy' (erm) - and we were all into T'pau and Moonlighting and really silly stuff. But it all went weird towards the end. I think it's safe to say that it all really fell apart. One of the catalysts was James joining the 'cool crowd' and leaving the 'Saddos' (I can't think why!).
So anyway, James has got in touch and it's so surreal. We're actually having really fun email sessions, and it's all come flooding back and we're getting on really well. He explained why he drifted off and says he has felt bad about that - all these years (16?) - and even explained why he did.
And he has filled me in on ALL the gossip - the scandals that were going on while I was there. I cannot believe it. Honestly, I must have been so naive. I must have been walking round with a blindfold on. Maybe it's the best way to be...
Bizarre.

Snow 2

Yesterday it snowed quite a lot, and after the last snow-travel debacle (slight covering = trains at a stand-still) I decided to work from home.
I did go for a very early morning walk and my trains seemed to actually be running smoothly. In fact, my 8.13 turned up on time - which is the FIRST TIME it has done that so far this year! So I might have been fine lol. But then I'm guessing that those on-time trains fell apart at some point, as the rest of the morning apparently saw loads of cancellations, and a lot of people who live near me didn't get in til about 11.
Anyway, I got so much work done at home - I did stuff in a day that would have taken me a week or more in the office.
And I came to work today and apparently HR are docking a day's holiday from everyone who couldn't make it in - hardly seems fair (but I'm covered lol!)
I think I will try to 'struggle in' next time tho - it is quite fun in a weird way, when it snows.

Snow

Apparently it's going to snow tomorrow. I have got mixed feelings about this. Everyone loves snow. But it snowed the other week (leaving a small covering, nothing major, but enough to disrupt the entire train network) and the first reaction was 'yes!' and then, when I got to my train station and my train was around half an hour late, the reaction was 'no!'.
So secretly I'm hoping I will get snowed in tomorrow. I have taken a bit of work home to do... (along with Heroes Episodes 7-12...).
When I was a kid, we used to tune into the snow reports on local radio, to see if our school was closed. My school, Queen Mary's Grammar School, never closed. The announcement would come along... "and finally, Queen Mary's...Girls School is closed", and I would then throw my radio into the snow.
Of course, we'd struggle into school and then it would have to close at about 1pm when the blizzard really got worse.

Pearcey UPDATE

HE WON! Pearcey won!!! Wow! £2500! Maybe I will go to Bristol after all...

Pearcey

My friend Graham 'Pearcey' Pearce was on the Weakest Link last night. I'm just watching it now at work. He wouldn't tell me how well he did, but he said 'make sure you don't miss the start'. He seems to be doing quite well at the moment. I dunno though, you can earn a lot more on other shows, like my beloved Deal or No Deal.
Poor Pearcey - we all met him for the first time at the Bristol Comic Con last May, and now my usual team of Bristol cronies (Mikey, Gary and Springy) have all decided not to go to Bristol again this year. I hope he doesn't take it personally.
Pearcey shared a table with me at the comic con. He had all these cut-out laminates on his side of the table, while I had my usual creased posters. In previous years, my friend Springy has described my side of the stand as 'like a teenager's bedroom wall'.

Scared

I am playing Silent Hill 2 at the moment, and it is terrifying me. It's like when I play Resident Evil - I always have to glance up at my dark stairwell just to make sure there isn't some decaying zombie standing there waiting to pounce on me. Horrible. Why do I put myself through this. Bloody 'Pyramid Head'.

Heroes

One of the most important life lessons I've learned over the years is this: when people rave on about a TV show, you should take notice (in a reverse way to when a film gets universally panned, you just shouldn’t go and see it – I learned that lesson with Batman and Robin when I was in my teens - the movie, that is).
So while there are some popular shows that I never really got into - like Grey’s Anatomy (I hate that music that plays throughout each episode - so irritating) and West Wing (politicszzzz), and shows that I never got the chance to see (like The Sopranos), I’ve been catching up with Heroes lately, and I have to say it ROCKS.
It didn’t really grab my attention from the start - the storylines seemed too random, the acting a bit ‘meh’ - but something happened in episode 5 (I think) which really made me realise this is a show worth watching (it involves Hiro on a subway train). Brilliant.
Is it original? A show like this is a natural choice really, and a lot of the storylines have origins in comic books - but hey, it’s worth watching, definitely.

Falling off the wagon

I fell spectacularly off the wagon this weekend on one of my Resolutions - CD-buying. I don’t want to buy many CDs this year, but I knew these albums were coming along, so I guess I had some warning.
I got the new Kristin Hersh - I’ve kind of fallen out of love with Kristin over the years (rather like my relationship with Love and Rockets), but this one seems like a good one. I also got the new Madonna Confessions Live DVD - this was shown on TV before Christmas and it was unbelievable. Every song was like watching some kind of weird otherworldly, superhero pop video - amazing. It really inspires me on O Men, actually.
Got Bloc Party today - I’ve read a lot of disappointed reviews, but it sounds good to me so far. Loving the song that just launches into a minute or so of ‘let’s go to Brighton for the weekend’ - I agree!
Sadly, I fell into my old habit of buying an album that I’ll probably never listen to - the new Evanesence one. It was cheap, and the lead singer is a big Tori fan, so I thought why not. I’ve never really been into them though, so I’m not quite sure why I bought it. In fact, I think I actually hate Evanesence.

I've done some O Men!

Can you believe it? I did some O Men. I had a nice three-day weekend, where I generally chilled out and spoiled myself rotten, but somehow in all that, I managed to do quite a bit of O Men. I managed to get 10 more pages of it on my computer, all ready for Photoshopping, so that makes about 16 or 17 pages which are almost there, and 5 or 6 left to work on. So I reckon I’m going to aim for the end of March as the on-sale date.
Of course, I do feel a bit like a cheat, as a lot of the illustration is quite basic and lacking in backgrounds - it’s the nature of the story - but maybe it’ll all work out okay. I also need to decide on the cover, which, as usual, is bugging me.
So it’s going surprisingly well. Considering I don’t get much time to do a lot of O Men during the week, and mainly get onto it on Sunday afternoon, I’m surprised it gets itself done at all, to be honest.
As always, while I’m working on the latest issue, I am dying to dive into the next one. And I’m really pleased how it’s working out - it’s gonna be a three-part story which will eventually all go into one collection (I do three issues to a collection) - I didn’t actually work that out, but I love it when a 'plan' comes together.
So all in all, looking good.

Pervert

More than one person has pointed out that, if you look to the left of this Blog, it looks like I'm looking up the skirt of Molly Valentine (even tho she's not wearing a skirt, but I didn't quite know how to phrase that).
I just want to assure everyone that I'm not a pervert, but interestingly enough there was actually a hooker standing across the road from me when the photo was taken.

DOND

Good game last night. lovely Peg - she reminded me of my mom. Glad she did well after a shit start.

Deal or No Deal UPDATE

'Leanne' on Tuesday. Oops she dealt at 26,000 and could have ended up between boxes 100,000 and 250,000, with an offer of 175,000. Oops again. She was crying (but not quite weeping like a contestant in a similar position did the other month) and Noel really was rubbing it in. He can be such a twat sometimes.
Last night was 'Bunny', who was hilarious, very gay indeed. I thought it would all go horribly wrong, but surprisingly, he ended up between 20,000 and 250,000, but dealt at 110,000. He had played the DVD game and if he'd followed the DVD's scenario, he would have won the big one. However, they had this spooky psychic woman on a couple of weeks ago, and she foretold that he should do something different, which confused him.

And yet again, last night, I did no O Men. I don't feel very guilty though, because work is stressing me out and I needed to just veg out.