Fanzine of the Month

How COOL! O Men is SFX's Fanzine of the month (in the new issue, Primeval cover). They ran a nice review and a pic of the cover an' all (something i always wished Comics International would have done). That has made my day!
Here is the review:
THE O MEN SEASON 2 #5
The first run of Brit superhero comic The O Men was met with a great deal of praise fro comics websites and various magazines, and the second season, which kicked off in May 2006, has kept the standard high. It sees the O Men team, which had been all but obliterated in the first season, tentatively reformed while the survivors deal with the fallout, and introduces some new characters along the way. Issue five is a peculiar beast, an anthology which combines the backstory for new character Asylum with those of various other characters in a really quite ingenious way. You really do need to read the previous issues – the first three of season two have been collected into a single comic, available from the official site for £5 – but The O Men is a solidly constructed and captivating read that’s well worth the investment.

Interesting Things

Some interesting thngs came out of conversations with 'frolleagues' at lunchtime...
1) You can see clips of the horrible ghost 'Pipes' from that terrifying BBC thing Ghostwatch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmSswG04zvc
Aaargh! (I only spotted him once originally)
2) Apparently there is a ghost in Three Men and a Baby! Check this out - the little boy in the window at about 35 seconds - aaaargh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPEvJrs-1yM
3) And finally, there is a very snarky interview with Keeping Up Appearances' Clive Swift in the Kylie/Tennant cover Doctor Who Mag issue. The interviewer and Swift obviously instantly hated each other, and the interviewer decided to run the transcript as is - showing Swift to be a bit of a twat. All very interesting...!

Covers

Oh, and I'm still getting excited by seeing new Stephen King covers each and every time I go into Smiths! Some are (s)hit, some are miss, but I find it fascinating to see what they come up with...

Heart Shaped Box

Ah, Stephen King. My favourite author - but when I pick up one of his new novels I just know i'm going to be disappointed. Cell started off so, so good, but veered off into really disappointing directions; Blaze just seemed weak; and as for Lisey's Story - the guy just needs an editor. It didn't help that i was reading I Am Legend recently - which is so concise - Lisey's is just such waffle, so much so that it's easy to almost miss something when it actually happens.
So he's got a new novel coming out soon - Duma Key - and I can't say I'm that excited by it...
In the meantime, I'm reading Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill - SK's son - and it really is very good. It's actually very creepy and has the rare honour of actually sending a shiver or two down my spine. I mean, the only drawback is that it's quite a focused novel, featuring just a handful of characters - whereas I like things with a bit more scope (ah, Needful Things, Tommyknockers, The Stand)... That's kind of what puts me off SK's Thinner, to be honest - the narrow scope.
Still - good stuff.

Music to my ears

Music is a big part of my life, but for a long, long, long time, I found it really hard to listen to the radio - it just bored me. All that R and B CRAP! I'm a bit weird when it comes to music - I know what I like, and I tend to follow an artist way beyond when they're popular. I think it's safe to say that most of the stuff I listen to isn't chart music.
But things seem to be changing!! I am really enjoying most of the stuff on the radio at the moment. There's a lot of soundalike bands but I'm liking all of them - the Hoosiers, Maccabees, you know, that lot. Robyn is awesome. Adele. I can't think of anything else at the mo, but it's all good.
Oh, and now I just download rather than buy CDs I don't have to worry about storage, so I have been going a bit crazy hehe. I'm well into Cat Power at the moment.

Nail places

You know those nail places - seemingly staffed by oriental chaps and chapesses, where people get their nails done...?
What the hell is the point of them?

How CYE is changing my life

A friend has been lending me Curb Your Enthusiasm DVDS - a show I've never even known about before - and I'm completely hooked. In case you didn't know, it's a kind of docu-comedy about the creator of Seinfeld (another show I never watched) and the complete and utter series of mishaps in his life.
In fact, I think this show is slowly transforming my life. The good ways: It's nice to watch a show where you know your favourite character isn't going to get murdered or there's no nasty twist around the corner. And I find myself making silly sit-com style conversations with my friends and family all day, instead of being quiet and sullen. In the car with my dad yesterday, it was comedy gold.
But the negative ways - you suddenly get a heightened awareness of your own mishaps. Like discussing a colleague's IBS problems in the staff toilet and not realising someone else is in the cubicle. Like making inappropriate comments about a friend's uncle - and discovering he has died. You know, simple stuff like that.
But it's okay - if it happens, I can just hum that addictive CYE theme tune to myself...

The News

So 24 hours after the death of Heath, and I've just finished watching the 10 o clock news ....no mention of Heath??? I thought it'd be the main news item?? Wow, priorities...
And of course this new picture of 'life on Mars' gets relegated to the 'And finally' bit and treated as a joke. 'Take me to your leader' jokes Trevor McDonald. I love how things like the discovery of new planets are treated as an after-thought, whereas mind-numbingly tedious and no-win-situation things like politics are the priority.
Maybe I'm an alien.

So shocking

Gosh. Was about to go to bed but just turned my computer on to read about the death of Heath Ledger. What a shock. Total shock.
Just looking at Facebook and everyone's 'status' seems to mention it - it just goes to show how he was one of our generation and I think it all affects us and makes us think...
Rest in peace.
:-(

O Men 2.6

I'd say I'm about three-quarters of the way there with O Men 2.6! I added a page to the script and did it all at the weekend (I'm very proud of it!). This issue may not have a letters page - mainly because I am too damn LAZY!!! I fancy an issue off - and it's not as if I'm inundated with letters these days.
So there is my O Men news (which is, after all, supposed to be the whole point of this blog lol)

MJ

Okay, how long have Peter Parker and Mary Jane been married. Have a guess.
Apparently it's 20 years!!! 20 years! I can't believe it!
Lots of controversy recently about the whole PP/MJ thing - altho I don't really read Spidey any more so I can't really comment (in case you didn't know - the Devil has wiped MJ from PP's life, so that Aunt May can live). All I can say is that the guys kind of do belong together - but also Peter really should be single and unhappy - that's the whole point! So it's a tough call. Here's maybe where comics should join the real-time and we could now be reading the adventures of PP's teenage son.
Real-time comics eh? What would happen to Power Pack. The whole idea of them is that they are kids, but they can't stay kids forever (and Julie seemed pretty grown up in The Losers).
Oh god what am I talking about.

Boring Evil

I'm playing Resident Evil Outbreak 2 at the moment. My god, it's rubbish. So boring, barely any zombies in it. Has anyone else played it? Maybe it's better if you play it 'online' (which is something I don't do).
Honestly though, so slow - and I'm now stuck on a level where I'm just walking round and round a brown corridor. I'm actually playing it with a walk-through, because I just want to finish it!
I'm sad that I had to give up on a few other games because I just got totally stuck - He Man (stuck and no walk-throughs are available), Gun (got stuck on a hard bit and ran out of 'ammo') and Ghost Hunter (I made a mistake and I can't be arsed going back to sort it out - it'll take ages).

Death of a fave

(Don't read this if you don't want New X-Men 46 spoiled. And try not to look at the pictures)
Is it wrong to feel a bit sad when a character you quite like, dies?! I've always had a soft spot for Vertigo in the Marauders - even though I've always wondered how she can survive with fairly useless powers - and she seems to have bit the dust in New X-men 46. :-(
Lady Mastermind also seems to have gone - and she was a character who had good potential.
I dunno though - it seemed a really horrible death! I'm a bit sad!
Maybe she didn't really die... Just got maimed... Or maybe she'll come back, since the maruaders seem to be some kind of clones.
Oh dear.

Battlestar season three

Fiiinally seen the BSG season three finale (3-episode marathon tonight). Don't worry, no spoilers (spoiling BSG should be made a criminal offence).
Must say, I was disappointed by the season, and looking online, I'm not the only one. Very weak run of episodes, making it a real struggle to get through.
Great to have four more Cylons revealed (I'd been spoiled on one of them, but 2 were pleasant surprises, the other is meh), but it was pretty obvious what was going on very early on in the story, and why these 4 were acting in a certain way.
So re the four Cylons - **** should make for some interesting storylines, ***** is an okay choice - let's hope he kills his annoying wife, love love love the female revelation - she rocks (although instead of having her as a bewildered new Cylon, I'd have preferred her to be totally evil!), and the other guy is meh, altho I guess he is hooked up with someone who will not be happy!
So their identities totally blew my theories out of the water. I thought they might have been a couple of people who died early in the season - and some of the new faces that popped up over recent episodes.
All in all though, seriously, what the frak are they doing with all the Earthly-origin stuff? We're now expected to believe they have a legal system exactly like ours? They have pop songs from Earth? THEY HAVE A GUY WITH AN IRISH ACCENT??? I just don't get it.
Pretty exciting that there is one more Cylon to reveal. Personally, I think it might be Felix or Duala.
But anyway, glad that ******** turned up in the final moments. Thank frak! They had me worried.

Martin Hijack

My friends will know that I am a huge Big Brother fan - well, sort of - I wasn't really fussed by the last series. I wasn't going to watch the new series - Big Bro Celebrity Hijack... but guess what, I'm hooked.
Because of last year's racism controvery, they decided not to do a normal Celebrity Big Bro this year - and have instead gone for a series featuring lots of 18-21 year olds and a different celebrity being Big Bro each day.
So far it's been really impressive, despite a bit of an over-rated misfire of a first night with Matt Lucas (he made the first housemate wear an earpiece and carry out his silly instructions, and I don't think it really worked). Alan Cumming - not my fave person - was lovely and ratty with them, Russell Brand was very funny, and Kelly Osbourne really connected with them.
There's one unsettling thing about all this though. The celebs come in for a whirlwind Big Bro shift, full of energy and fresh - and they essentially pick on a housemate or tell them what they really think of them. For these housemates who are cut off from reality it must be such a shock, and I think it's a bit cruel. For instance, contestant Jade (no, not that one) asked Kelly Osbourne what she thought of her, and Kelly said 'a bit irritating'. Jade was really upset, and it must really have made her think about how she was being perceived. Russell Brand decided to pick on Jeremy all day - and yeah, funny etc, but poor guy, what's he supposed to do? I heard Chris Moyles discuss his evil plans to mess with their minds - and I just though, don't!!!

And another thing

And another thing - it's pretty daft that there are so many human/Earth references in BSG - why would they have basketball? Do they speak English? Why did Baltar suddenly start speaking in a Yorkshire accent? And I just saw a cigarette! Why would they have cigarettes?
In other related matters - Boomer is a boring Cylon. Adama and the Prez need to get a room. The doctor is a truly bad actor.
But I still love it!

What the frak??

Currently watching the third season of the amazing Battlestar Galactica (no spoilers don't worry). Except it's suddenly gone not so amazing. Episodes about miners' strikes and boxing? Episodes about people we don't give a frak about (Kat and that dude from Alias)? Episodes where the best characters are nowhere to be seen, and the focus goes to people like Helo or one of those anonymous people who work for Chief.
So I understand that the 'network' probably ordered extra episodes and they had to make stuff up, but jeeeeez - that miners' strike/trade union episode almost sent me into a coma. What next - the President cross-stitching? And if I didn't kinow that there was some really cool stuff on the way, I probably would have ditched the show completely. I'm sorry, but you can't go from brilliant plot twists and stunning developments to crappy stand-alone episodes (with no Cylons!)
And in related news, to celebrate the usual brilliance of BSG, our entire office spent the afternoon finding rude pics of the cast-members. Guys, you might want to image-google Grace Park and Tricia Helfer, and ladeez, go for Jamie Bamber lol!

350 days of the year

Today, I forgot how many days there are in the year. Do you ever get that? A total brain-blank? I couldn't decide if it was 350 or 352. Of course, as a friend helped me out, it's 365...
Also, I had trouble with the question 'what's heavier, a ton of rocks or a ton of feathers' (as featured on America's Dumbest Model). I've since been asking my friends this question, hoping that they'd get this wrong just like me...
And finally, I turn 34 in just under 3 months time. How bloody scary is that? 33 is such a nice age.
So perhaps it's all related and I'm just going senile.

Telepathic

Am I telepathic or what? Eduardo Risso is to draw a new Wolverine mini-series (I mentioned wanting him to do some X-stuff elsewhere). I should run Marvel!!

The O Men 2008

So what’s in store for The O Men in 2008?
First, let’s look at 2007.
What a disaster!!! I think I managed a grand total of two issues, and the final issue there completely burned me out and I wasn’t even gonna do any drawing for the rest of the year because of it. However, the creative urge proved too strong and I’m currently getting on well with issue 2.6 - in fact there are only 11 pages left to finish off (mostly boring backgrounds to sort out, my favourite, lol). So I reckon that’ll be out in Feb, maybe. Issue 2.6 finishes off the three-part ‘Team-Building’ storyline, with a traitor revealed, a very nasty falling out, and at least one team-member leaving...
Then the plan is to release the second Volume Two collection and issue 2.7 at Bristol 2008 - yes, I’m gonna be at Bristol this year, after a year off! So lord knows how I’ll get the second collection together (it has that very awkward double-page spread issue in it), but issue 2.7 will be a really landmark issue, with some major, major developments. I’m really looking forward to this one - have been for ages - and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
And after that...there’ll be another O-break - the plan being to focus on Spandex for a year, all being well, releasing the project at Bristol 2009 (although I’m not gonna pressure myself too much - I want to enjoy it). Anyway, Spandex should be a lot of fun and a unique read - the plan is to release it as a 120-page digest graphic novel.
And after that, it’s the final storyline of O Men season two (which should consist of five issues), heading into the series finale, season three, which should be two or three large issues.
And that should really be it.

Christmas

Well I just got back from my Christmas break. It completely flew by - but I didn’t expect anything else. Had a great time and saw loads of my family, including my 7 month old nephew Harry. It’s also a good time to do tons of drawing while watching loads of tv I don’t normally watch on my own - stuff that my mom watches. Eastenders - a daily treat of Celebrity Masterchef and Identity lol - blimey, I even watched Midsomer Murders - a programme I normally loathe - and I actually enjoyed it.
But now I’m looking forward to watching tons of DVDS now I’m back - including Battlestar Galactica season three and Deadwood ;-)

Disappointing comics

This Christmas I really indulged in vegging out and reading comics (well, there wasn’t much else to do with a bad cold!). You’ll have seen my 100 Bullets thoughts - I also read the complete Alan Moore WildCATS collection - which I’d been saving up for months and was dying to get into. Er, was this really written by Alan Moore? It’s got none of his style and none of that ‘x-factor’ that makes you realise what a genius Moore is. Maybe it’s the ropey art that doesn’t help.
Also reading the first Age of Apocalypse X-Men trade - bloody hell. I know my X-Men inside out, but I really had to concentrate to follow this. I never read this originally as it was in my X-Men wildnerness years - I abandoned the X-books when they started doing too many crossovers and when Joe Madieura started doing the art. It’s interesting that a few more things make sense now - like the relevance of having an Astonishing X-Men team, the look of Sunfire, and the importance of Blink.
These disappointments remind me of when I bought the huge Bone collection - and was soooo bored reading it.

100 Bullshits

I was round a mate’s house the other day and managed to borrow the first 11 volumes of 100 Bullets (it’s cool having graphic novel-reading friends). It’s one of those series that is supposed to be good but I’ve never got into.
Well I’m on book 11 now and I can’t really see what all the fuss is about whatsoever! It hasn’t gripped me in any way, and I don’t understand how the series has lasted so long or why it’s so popular.
I think one of the series’ problems, and this is why I can’t understand why people like it, is it just doesn’t work issue by issue. It works better collected (although it’s still dull).
Another problem is that most of the characters are indistinguishable from each other, and then there’s the problem that it’s just so slooooow, and the emphasis seems more on indecipherable dialogue than anything actually happening.
Am I in the minority?
Having said that, the art is really spectacular, and I’d love to see the guy working on some kind of mainstream title - that’s what we need now I think, a fresh take on things. He’d work wonders on an X-book.
Like many comics though, maybe I’ll go back to the series in a few years time and prefer it more.

Bank card

Did I regale you with the story of my bank card? No? Well settle back, it‘s a long one.
It was due to expire Nov ‘07, and I took this to mean the start of November. So at the start of October I went to the bank to check everything was okay - cos past experience was that they sent the new cards pretty sharpish and there was no sign. So that time they told me not to worry, it didn’t expire until the end of Nov.
Couple of weeks into November, no new cash card. Trip to the bank - ‘one’s been ordered Mr Eden, but we don’t have access to courier records so can’t tell you where it is’.
3 days before cashcard due to expire, still no new cashcard, trip to bank - nothing they can do ‘it’s on its way’.
Phone up bank day before cashcard due to expire. ‘Hello, Mr Eden here, not very happy, no new cashcard.’ ‘Sorry Mr Eden, it went out 15 Nov and obviously didn’t get to you - we’ll cancel it and order you a new one.’ ‘Great, thanks...’
So cashcard expires, and I end up taking hundreds of pounds out of the bank to tide me over. Not ideal, but shouldn’t last long...
Few days later, Tuesday, courier note turns up - please contact us and rearrange redelivery of your cashcard. Yay - get cashcard next day. Coooool! Phone Natwest, ‘hello, Mr Eden here, can I just check, is this cashcard you sent me the new one or the one I got you to cancel?’ ‘it’s the cancelled one, Mr Eden’ ‘Oh. Oh dear...’ ‘You say a new one has been ordered? There’s no record of that....’ ‘Oh dear. Can you order one then please. Now. I really could do with it. Thanks.’
And this is where it starts to get annoying. Not only do you end up carrying 100s of pounds around with you, plus permanently carry your passport and a cheque so you can get cash out if you need it, there are a lot of things you take for granted that you can’t do without a cashcard - you can’t top up your phone, you can’t buy from Amazon, you can’t buy a travelcard the night before work from the machine, thereby avoiding the morning queues, etc, etc, etc. Very annoying, and I don’t know how people coped before holes in the wall.
So anyway, the cashcard finally turns up the following Monday, just dropped through the door, not recorded delivery as it should have been - but let‘s not worry too much about that. One snag though...no new pin number. Since I’m still surviving on my withdrawn money, I don’t even realise I need the new pin number until I try to use it later that week and almost get the card cancelled by entering my normal number twice. Oh dear... Another phone call ‘hello, I need a pin number don’t i’ ‘yes mr eden’ ‘can you send me one then...’ So this doesn’t turn up until the following Tuesday...
So I’m not normally one to moan about banks etc, and I’ve never had trouble with Natwest before, but they really dicked me around this time, and i had to last almost 3 weeks without a cashcard. towards the end, i saw an ad in the paper saying how people who’d had their cards stolen could get an emergency card straight away - wish they’d told me that earlier...
So anyway, I just thought I’d tell you, cos it’s interesting how you take these things for granted, and what a pain they are when you don’t have ‘em.
Still awake? Hello? Oops...