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Hmm, nicely done.  Like the way the Strontium Dog collections play out when set in a row - the decision not to call it Casefiles 5 allows the conceptual space to slip current Wagner tales into the gap!

The Vort itself is a rewarding setting to explore - a body made entirely of water with an inexplicable and probably artificial polar vortex (said spinning effect presumably generating the same odd electromagnetic field that once affected the Tower King's London), and 'dry land' restricted to floating islands of foam-stuff.  It's not a new idea in SF (even Star Trek did a 'water world'), but it is intriguingly handled.  It's refreshingly Baxterian!

Wait, wait... Synnamon was supposed to be a riff on the Culture's Special Circumstances operatives?  How the hell did I miss that, seeing as she has a drone companion and everything.  That's a pretty clever idea, now I feel the urge to re-read it in that light - that can't be a good idea, surely.  Sorry, sorry, please resume yer artistic rumblings.

....maybe G Powell is Warren Ellis and Crispy is Lazarus Churchyard.

Genius!

Bought the first four, enjoyed them (the art in particular is to my taste), but it's very much written for the inevitable trade - very slow moving, so budget restraint led me to drop it.  Certainly not a mistake to dip your toe in the water with Issue 1.  Bit of  a Bernard Cornwell vibe, rather than Kirk Douglas.

Wasn't a monstrous Hedley one of the main characters in the excellent London's Falling too?  Our Mr. S a bit of a fan, maybe?

S'a good mystery, no doubt!

I had an idea about writing a sitcom like the office but set on a building site with a firm of cowboy builders who do various jobs which result in chaos but i never got it together.[copyrighted].

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet?

My money is still on D'izzy himself as the writer

Mine too.  The lady doth protest too much!  Presentation of a script and page layout from an unknown with no first name, no mention of collaboration in design despite the otherwise relatively prescriptive detail of the panel descriptions, the interplay between scripter/artist in the drawing uniforms vs. rain discussions... all smells of D'Israeli documenting his own process.  

And yeah, if it isn't Dizzy, it could well be Spurrier - in which case I'm still sure that Crispy is Lobster Random, in his own personal sexual hell.

'Course, this is all probably conspiracy theory rubbish - the only certainty is that G. Powell and M. Brooker are both kicking bottom with this one.

Peter m'man, you're worth your weight in pixels.  A good belly laugh at the close of a hard day is not to be sneezed at!

Simple answer:  If Psi-powers are coded for on a gene that is inherited from either parent (whether the parents 'expressed' similar powers or not), then they aren't mutants.  If it is the result of a mutation in the DNA of the individual, they are.

I share Jim's inability to so much as look at Gervais, but in my case it may be linked to the gnawing fear that David Brent and I have too much in common.  

Black Books is by far my favourite SitCom of the comparatively-recent past, a small necklace of glittering jewels that wisely bowed out after three near-perfect series.  It helps that I want to be Bernard Black when I grow up.

Heh, I'd give Morris the benefit of the doubt, he's earned it - this could be great.  Except I'm not sure it's actually the Nazis that Dad's Army lampoons - they don't show up very often at all, unlike the stalwarts of the British middle classes that headline each week.  

And yes, watching Kosovo unfold after watching Wag the Dog was indeed a bizarre experience.

He could surely have just said "Well what can I do, there's thousands of crates in here!" rather than coming up with an inventive way of locating it.

I felt the same way while watching it, but having thought about it and its predecessors for a while, I think his actions make perfect sense.  He's actually more interested in finding out what the Russians are up to with the Roswell body, than actually frustrating them.  He didn't find out much about it last time he saw it, now here comes another chance.  This is the essence of Indy - he's on the side of the angels (literally), but he can't help himself chasing a puzzle or a mystery.  Just like his father, giddy as a schoolboy.

Interesting insight there, Alec, thanks.  Also interesting to hear buttonman's experiences of "critic-pirated" stuff, which I haven't encountered.

For the record, I enjoy the Meg reviews because" (a). I don't buy any other SF or Film magazines due to budgetary constraints; (b). While I used to be a fairly serious cinema-botherer, as the co-owner/operator of a small child I get to go maybe three times a year now, so they generally work like very early DVD reviews for me; (c). They're entertainingly written.  So keep it up, squire.