WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MASTER OF MAGNETISM?
 

 
The other day I started thinking about Magneto. A summary of Magneto’s comics career (as understood by me) illustrates the qualities and perils of a character-led approach to comics, I reckon[…]

Spiderman 2..

is really New York 2 feat. Spiderman (also feat. the return of New York public spirit)
suggests that Spidersman 1-3 will all feature villains with voices in their heads. Which may make it easier to attract the stars, in fairness.
twic[…]

Interview with Brian Higgins, aka Xenomania, that’s an interesting counterpoint to Marcello’s onslaught on pop (see below). Higgins turns out to be like a lot of other pop auteurs, trying to smuggle a bit of the other (other) into the cha[…]

We’ll be putting the totaliser on the front page during the week. Meanwhile the good news is that we’ve raised our first £30 already, with a staff member selling an unwanted Belle And Sebastian ticket to an anonymous benefactor. The[…]

turner prize nomination:
Just 36 words long – good necromantic number that (not inc.three for title) – the Independent’s no-pix cover for its 15 July issue was the best, sparest, most forceful use of a newspaper front page i can re[…]

I’ve been missing wild strawberries.
When I was a kid — a very little kid — there were wild strawberries growing down by the lake where we have our summer place. The houses are all built on a sloping rise crescenting the beach: the[…]

Le Jour Se Leve
Hmm. I went to see this 1939 French noir at the NFT the other day. They give you a two-page review-article on the film, it being a serious arts cinema, on your way in. It’s all about director Marcel Carne and the film’s ex[…]

You Must Remember This – Joyce Carol Oates

I think there is an interesting comparison between this and Don DeLillo’s Underworld, which I reviewed a couple of weeks back. Maybe it says something about a male-female difference in approach[…]