My basic critical position on ‘mainstream’ comics (superhero comics, for the purposes of this post) is that they are awful and getting worse. This was based on a) my experiences reading them during the 90s and b) prejudice. Somewhat annoy[…]

Cheat’s Culinary Companion #3: More Mole Vicar?
“Trench arrived to find that his house, still known today as Dean’s Yard, was – according to a grumble from his wife Mary – filled with ‘dead things’ bones&#821[…]

Red Lights had been billed as a taut French psychological thriller. That says to me that plenty of things could go wrong, but the reviews tempted me in. As it happened the film was not bad, but it was not a taut psychological thriller. Based on a Geo[…]

In search of Squirrel – Part two (warning, contains graphic images)

Some of you may remember this article I wrote some time ago about my “failure” as a vegetarian and my quest for the different. Well, I’ve done it. Squirrel[…]

The Bat Tattoo by Russell Hoban
I’m not sure why, but my respect and love for his work is much greater than my memory for him. When I think of my favourite writers, or the best living British writers, he seems not to leap to mind, but he should[…]

Poor Richard

The Camera Always Lies and The Camera Always tells the Truth –
Raymond Neilson
Avedon is dead, and I think now, a special kind of photography will go with him – he was the one that played both ends against the middle. The on[…]

Further to Tom’s note about horror comics. Here is Stephen Grant on why horror comics are not scary (and therefore why horror comics are not horror comics at all.)[…]

Freaky Trigger Top 25 Scariest Things
no. 25: Spiders
I see no dishonour in confessing to a fear of spiders. But let’s get this in proportion: I’m no arachnophobe, and am happy to take on the gentleman’s burden of deporting 8-legged[…]

Weltmeister 2006
The organising committee of the next World Cup have put a selection of posters to a vote in Germany to decide the official poster. Sadly, there’s little to be done about the logo, but my favourite was this one:

but the winner[…]

Woebot on MP3 blogs: I did some thinking about MP3 blogs for that article I wrote earlier in the month. One of the things I thought – which didn’t make it into the piece – was that MP3 blogs don’t post enough tat. It’s l[…]