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Just back from the first showing at Vue, Liffey Valley...

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie - it opens beautifully and just keeps getting better. There are some great touches (including some nods to the X-Men canon that they really didn't need to do, so it feels like they were done just for us fans) and it ties in very well with the existing X-Men movies.

Hugh Jackman is - according to my wife - "a GOD!" on screen. This naturally makes me jealous but since it's her birthday I'll indulge her rampaging Jackmania.

-- Mike

Just spotted on MySpace that one of my all-time favourite writers passed away this morning.

He'll be greatly missed.

//http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=236291806&blogId=473035149

- Mike

Anyone else noticed this? Whenever I search for something using Google every link is accompanied by "This site may harm your computer". If I click the link, it takes me to a "Malware Warning" page containing stuff of this nature:

-----------------------------------------
Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!
Suggestions:

    * Return to the previous page and pick another result.
    * Try another search to find what you're looking for.

Or you can continue to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113492/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.

For more information about how to protect yourself from harmful software online, you can visit StopBadware.org.

If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google's Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.
Advisory provided by   Google
-----------------------------------------

When you click the "Safe Browsing diagnostic page" link it brings up a "502 server error" page ("The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds.")

So has Google hacked or have they just gone crazy?

-- Mike

Anyone going to Octocon (//http://www.octocon.com) this coming weekend?

GoH is sf-supremo Ken MacLeod, and comics-related guests include Al Nolan (co-creator of Sancho), Rob Curley (creator of Freakshow) - both of which are Eagle-award nominated comics - and Michael Carroll (legendary 2000 AD & Megazine scribe and creator of the not-entirely-rubbish New Heroes series of young-adult novels).

One of the highlights - apart from meeting me - will be John Vaughan's annual Video Vault of Horror which hilariously rips the pee out of some truly atrocious movies. Trust me, you haven't lived until you've experienced the expression on Mr Vaughan's face when you amble up to him and tell him what a brilliant movie A Sound of Thunder is... (which it is).

It all kicks off this evening (Friday) with the usual pre-con imbibing session in the bar of the hotel - so hopefully we'll see some of you there!

-- Mike

Hi all,

Check out //http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/shs/costumes.htm to see my first ever Flash program (not counting tiny little image-fader things that required no actually programming ability).

There are four hidden buttons that you can locate by just moving the mouse pointer around until the arrow turns into a little hand.

If you find any crashes or anomalies, please let me know (I already know about the one where you can turn on "Damage" when the guy is bare-chested - but it's not a bug, it's a feature).

The site itself is a sort of tie-in with my New Heroes stuff (//http://www.quantumprophecy.com). Plus it's a handy place to show off some of my 3D work just in case anyone wants to pay me money to create 3D models for them.

Cheers,
Mike

//http://www.comic-con.org/cci/
It's only a couple of weeks away now...! So is anyone else going? If so, come along to my panel on Thursday 24th at 16:00 in room 5AB (me, Kevin J. Anderson and a bunch of other writers talking about writing superhero prose).

Rebellion has a stand in the Exhibitors' hall, but I suspect that there otherwise won't be much 2000 AD-related stuff, so I'll be bringing my Termight Replicas Judge Dredd badge to wear at all times.

Should have mentioned this before, but I'm also willing to bring along flyers to leave on the freebie tables, so if you want some free promotion for your comic, convention or whatever, get in touch ASAP!

Cheers,
Mike

I've just heard about this one... It's very early days yet but I reckon it has great potential to build into a useful resource site...

Link: http://www.conceptscifi.com/" target="_blank">Concept Sci-Fi

Yep, it's my birthday! Forty-two years old yet still devastatingly handsome and virile.

Prezzies from my good lady include the recent Judge Dredd action figure (yay!), Family Guy: Blue Harvest DVD, and a great big pile of US Dollars for me to spend in July on our trip to San Diego for the Comic Con.

Plus this morning's post brought - courtesy of everyone's favourite comic editor Paul Von Scott - a set of Beat That! cards, a "Top Trumps" style game designed to encourage kids to read: one of my books is featured in the set.

Cheers,
Mike "Please Buy My Books" Carroll

Link: http://www.quantumprophecy.com" target="_blank">See the News page...

Breaking news on Sky tonight: Arthur C. Clarke has died aged 90. No further details on the bulletins yet.

My older sister Martina just told me about a recent event. Amazing as this story is, I'm even more amazed that today was the first I've heard about it, considering the speed at which news usually travels in our family...

Martina works in a fairly new supermarket in her home town in Co. Wicklow, where she looks after the wages and the ATMs and all that. In recent months it's somehow become part of her job to collect the cash for the ATMs every Friday. Because the supermarket owner apparently models herself on the animated creations of a certain Mr Walt Disney, no security people have been hired to provide any sort of support.

On Friday 22nd of February, Martina and one of the other staff members returned from the bank with somewhere in the region of â?¬50,000 in the boot of the car. As she was getting out of the car a man wearing sunglasses and a ski-mask approached the car.

He was also carrying a handgun.

He pushed the muzzle of the gun into her chest and told her to open the boot. The average person would crumble at this, but my sister is anything but average: she began screaming her head off, yelling for someone to phone the police. The other staff member scarpered, and the gunman again jammed the gun into Martina so she knew she had no choice but to open the boot.

And then... (This it the bit that scared the crap out of me)... When the gunman was leaning in to gather up the money, my dear sister grabbed hold of the lid of the boot and slammed it down on his head.

Unfortunately, this was when his previously-hidden accomplice - also armed - appeared from the shadows to come to his aid. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that Martina would have beaten the living crap out of him, gun or not.

Between the two of them they got most of the money into the getaway car and zoomed away, but later witnesses said that the passenger in the car was looking pretty sick and holding his head.

The police arrived within minutes, but the gunmen were long gone by then. So they got away with it, but with a bit of luck one of them has a fractured skull, or, better still, permanent brain damage.

-- Mike the Proud

Good news, everyone!

1000 copies of my brand-new short-story collection - The New Heroes: Superhuman - have just arrived from the printer!

The book is now available for ordering from the official New Heroes website.

Please buy lots of copies; they make ideal Christmas presents for your loved ones.

Many thanks,
Mike
P.S. The image below is what 1000 copies of the book look like. Ah, self-publishing: the one thing everyone forgets to mention is how much bloody space the books take up!

Link: http://www.quantumprophecy.com" target="_blank">www.quantumprophecy.com

http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/qp/1000superhumans.jpg">

Don't know if this has been posted before...
http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/alan-moore-simpsons.jpg">

Hello all!

I'm currently working on a major update to the bibliography part of
John Higgins' new bibliography

[Slaughter by JohnnyStresshttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/johnnystress/Slaughtersketch.jpg>Dioxin by Thryllseekyrhttp://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/dioxinav2-thryllseekyr.jpg>Brawn by Bolt-01 (coloured by His Lordship Rac)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Bolt-01/SproutBrawnFinalWeb.jpg>Paragon by Krombasherhttp://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd95/smellkebab/paragon2.jpg>Quantum by Bicohttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/theboy/q1.jpg>Paragon by CreamTrumpethttp://fp.transcom.plus.com/images/paragon-concept.jpg>Quantum by Johnny Eyebrowshttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/johnnyeyebrows/quantum2.jpg>Energy by Lord Running Clamhttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/12345clam/artcomp110.jpg?t=1191108580>Ragnarok by Bart Diazhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/Diaz57/rag_colour_72dpi.jpg>]

Only nine entries (aw!), but the overall quality is excellent... Guys, many thanks for your entries. It's fascinating to see how other people interpret my characters.

As usual, please vote in order of preference. Five points will be awarded for the first place, three for second, one for third.

1. All three HarperCollins edition New Heroes books, plus the US hardback edition of the first book.
2. US hardback edition of the first book.
3. HarperCollins edition of the latest book, Absolute Power.

Alternatively, thanks to the generous Bryan Coyle the winner may choose an alternative prize from the following:

Complete run of Ultimates 2 (plus annual)

24: Nightfall #1

Street Fighter: Sakura 1-3

Conan (Dark Horse) 1-35 plus all spinoffs published alongside the books during this run


And here come the nominees... (Thryllseekyr: I had to resize your pic and save it as a jpg to reduce file size / loading times!).

Slaughter by JohnnyStress
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/johnnystress/Slaughtersketch.jpg>

Dioxin by Thryllseekyr
http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/dioxinav2-thryllseekyr.jpg>

Brawn by Bolt-01 (coloured by His Lordship Rac)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Bolt-01/SproutBrawnFinalWeb.jpg>

Paragon by Krombasher
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd95/smellkebab/paragon2.jpg>

Quantum by Bico
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/theboy/q1.jpg>

Paragon by CreamTrumpet
http://fp.transcom.plus.com/images/paragon-concept.jpg>

Quantum by Johnny Eyebrows
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/johnnyeyebrows/quantum2.jpg>

Energy by Lord Running Clam
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/12345clam/artcomp110.jpg?t=1191108580>

Ragnarok by Bart Diaz
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/Diaz57/rag_colour_72dpi.jpg>



Let battle commence!

-- Mike

Does exactly what it says on the tin (suit).

Link: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/" target="_blank">Iron Man teaser trailer

Oh, now this is a bit cheeky! In light of the excellent quality of the most recent art competitions, I thought it might be a nice idea to run an art competition myself. So the topic is: My New Heroes books. Said it was cheeky, didn't I?

Don't worry if you haven't read them yet - there's lots of graphics on the website (see the link below), plus some short stories and sample chapters. Artwork should ideally feature one or more of the characters from the books or stories. You don't have to stick too closely to my costume designs, just as long as the characters are recognisable.

The judging will be done in the usual manner: by everyone voting for their friends. I mean, for the pics they like best.

But there are rules... Well, one rule:

1. First and foremost, keep it clean! No naughty bits or swear words or anything X-rated. I'll be directing my young readers towards this site and I don't want to be swamped with complaints from their parents or teachers.

Prizes:
1. All three HarperCollins edition books, plus the US hardback edition of the first book.
2. US hardback edition of the first book.
3. HarperCollins edition of the latest book, Absolute Power.

Last day of entries is September 30th. The deadline may be extended if the bribes are sufficiently enormous.

Have fun!

-- Mike

Link: http://www.quantumprophecy.com" target="_blank">The New Heroes Website

Just wondering... Did anyone here actually watch this apparently world-wide event? I spent a few minutes watching heretofore unheard-of acts limply performing to a very bored-looking audience in Wembley, then I did my bit for the environment and turned off the TV.

Still, at least now the world will be saved, so that's probably a good thing.

- Mike

Someone, please... Say it ain't so!

Link: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070704a.php" target="_blank">Dark Horizons

Just got back from a special screening* of the third Spidey movie... I won't give any spoilers, but if you really don't want to know anything about the film, then stop reading now!


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Still with me?

Okay... Mike's verdict: spectacular, but long. There were a couple of times when I found myself thinking "Hey, isn't Spider-Man supposed to be in this?"

Plot-wise there are a couple of eyebrow-raising "unlikely coincidences" - the sort of thing that's always acceptable in comics, but less so on the big screen. There's also a few places where the movie looks like it could do with another pass through the hands of a good editor, but I'll leave you to find those out for yourself.

The performances are great, as you'd expect from such a good cast, and the special effects and stunts are absolutely stunning.

On the whole: good - at times even great - but not as good as Spider-Man 2.

-- Mike

*Special screening: I've been invited onto the Ryan Tubridy show tomorrow morning to discuss the movie (and superheroes in general), so the screening was arranged for Ryan, two of the producers, my good lady Leonia and myself. Huge cinema, free entry, free beverages, only five patrons, no ads, luxurious VIP seating area... How cool is that? :)

Those of you in the US should do your thrill-circuits a favour (sorry, "favor") and pick up a copy of my new book, The Awakening, the first in the Quantum Prophecy series.

It really is a great book, and if you don't believe me, here's proof:

It's a great book.

See?

For those of you in the rest of the world: this is the same book as The Quantum Prophecy, the first in the New Heroes series... I know that you all already have that one, so there's no need to buy the US version. Unless of course you're a completist. Or you just love the book so much you want it in hardback too.

Lots more info on the The Awakening over at the official Quantum Prophecy website!

Cheers,
Mike

Link: http://www.quantumprophecy.com" target="_blank">www.quantumprophecy.com