Our first encounter was in Trieste. Back in the days of empire this city port belonged to the Habsburgs and later became the southern pin of the iron curtain. Most of the surrounding coastal towns are Venetian in character, with tall campanile towers[…]

I just started reading Visual Arts In The Twentieth Century by the always good Edward Lucie-Smith. The jacket blurb includes this as one of three bulleted points highlighting this books special features (the others are analysis by decade, and informa[…]

Not that I see myself as some sort of purely cerebral literary analyst at any time, but sometimes a book resonates so much with your current mood that, for better or worse, you struggle for anything resembling a tiny shred of objectivity. I hated thi[…]

Grant Morrison has a rep for being an ideas man but what he’s really good at is creating and sustaining a mood. A Morrison first issue generally presents you with a fully-formed aesthetic and if it hits your particular frequencies you’ll […]

http://www.robotsonstrike.com/motion/ROSnebraskaqt.html
robots on strike has made a short video, with a small ambient soundtrack, black and white, blury scenes of nebraska, hand wound and sped up–sounds almost dull and horribly prententiuos, bu[…]

Unless the search is failing me, I haven’t reviewed anything by him here before. He’s a writer I love, another of that breed of crime writers who isn’t up to much if what you want is a mystery with clues that you can try to solve al[…]

This strikes me as a superb example of bookmaking. The book is taller by about 50% than my next largest books (other large art books, their maximum normal size), but narrow. If you stood the two biggest hardback novels you own, one on top of the othe[…]

I reviewed brother Gilbert’s Palomar volume a while back, and I’ve just read this: a 700-page collection of all Jaime’s Maggie-related strips from Love & Rockets. And I’m struggling with what I want to say.
I adore the fi[…]

And I quote:
“Emo Boy, an outsider who is constantly physically and mentally bulllied, uses his super-human sensitivity to sabotage his own happiness and his unpredictable emo powers to confound his enemies. But they should be warned: There lie[…]

PUKKA’S SPELLCHECK HELL
Unfortunate spellcheck alternatives:
Pukka Pies = Pukes Pies.
THIS IS NOT TRUE, THEY ARE GOD’S OWN FOOD.
He prefers the Steak and Ambrosia pies, mind.
Sort it out Microsoft. Or some Unidentified Flying Pukka Pies m[…]