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It's neither new, nor by me, but still...  Any excuse to post PBF pictures.http://www.pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF096-Earth_Disorder.jpg">

UKD --  I think I can say with some confidence that you're definitely not as fed up of it as we are.

God has a serious grudge against us finishing Gutsville, ever, and every time a page is completed it's a minor antimiracle.

All we can really do is apologise to the readers, promise we're trying as hard as we can, and work our hands raw to keep that momentum going.

Plus, y'know...  There's always the TPB.  Eventually.  Probably.  

More self-pimping whorebaggery.  If you don't like it please place your faith in my eternal damnation, and karmic balance shall be swiftly restored.

First: an apology.  I'd expected Gutsville Issue #3 to be out on shelves at least a month ago.  Due to a series of unforseen Real World nastinessess that have befallen my long-suffering Pencil Monkey, delays have mounted with frightening rapidity.

But Be Not Afraid.  The third installment in the official BEST COMIC STORY* EVER should be with us shortly after the birth-pains of 2008 have passed.

To whet your appetites we've prepared a mucus-spattered preview to keep you smiling.  Cherish its gastric ickiness during the long Christmas Drought.

MAKE IT PUKE!







* (set inside a giant stomach)

Link: http://www.gutsville.com/previews.html" target="_blank">ISSUE 3 - SNEAK PEEK

http://www.gutsville.com/previews_files/GUTS003COV.jpg">

More self-pimping whorebaggery.  If you don't like it please place your faith in my eternal damnation, and karmic balance shall be swiftly restored.

First: an apology.  I'd expected Gutsville Issue #3 to be out on shelves at least a month ago.  Due to a series of unforseen Real World nastinessess that have befallen my long-suffering Pencil Monkey, delays have mounted with frightening rapidity.

But Be Not Afraid.  The third installment in the official BEST COMIC STORY* EVER should be with us shortly after the birth-pains of 2008 have passed.

To whet your appetites we've prepared a mucus-spattered preview to keep you smiling.  Cherish its gastric ickiness during the long Christmas Drought.

MAKE IT PUKE!







* (set inside a giant stomach)

Link: http://www.gutsville.com/previews.html" target="_blank">ISSUE 3 - SNEAK PEEK

http://www.gutsville.com/previews_files/GUTS003COV.jpg">

And the bloke with the goggles on his helmet has cunningly got his pet dog to bite on a stick of dynamite.  Which he's now fixing to light.  Sick bastard.

But, yeah, happy crimbles.

Fucking hell... You weren't kidding.

They've chosen the gurniest, silliest shot... then whacked-on a weird contrasty filter to make me look like the bastard offspring of Wayne Rooney and a Wichity Grub.

I've seen some of the other photos.  I even look vaguely presentable in some of them.  Bugger.

This should possibly be in that "Stuff you hate everyone else seems to like" thread, but...

Is it just me or is Peter Jackson a Pretty Average director?

Let me qualify that:

I love the LotR movies.  They're alive with spectacle and great characters and blah blah blah.  But I never once looked at them and thought "wow - these are really well directed!"  If anything the direction is pretty workmanlike: nothing too stylish, nothing too standoutish.  You could argue that's precisely what you need in order to tell a story like LotR, and I'd be tempted to agree .  But I can't help thinking ANY vaguely decent director with a good script and a huge budget could've made LotR the massive hit that it was...  

Which isn't to undermine the enormity of his success.  He deserves it all.  I just wonder at the "he's a directorial genius!" zeitgeist when I don't think I could put a finger on a single moment from LotR which demonstrates anything other than directing-by-numbers.

Sorry...

Gladiator.

(The movie, that is).


The Emperor is NAKED, people.

Heads Up: Resonance FM just put online a little interview  I did at the Birmingham Comic show.  

Not *entirely* self-pluggage, here, 'cos there's plenty of stuff in there about the awesomness of 2000AD, the best ways of Getting In, the difference between writing for the Mighty Organ and working on yankee stuff, etc etc.

Link: http://www.archive.org/details/PanelBordersTheWorkOfSimonSpurrier" target="_blank">Linky linky.

I used to be a biiiig fan of Pratchett's.  Less so now, but even so -- some very sad news:

Link: http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/3689" target="_blank">Early Onset Alzheimers.

If you're looking to buy rather than hire (probably cost about the same, tbh), Portobello Road market is probably a good bet.  There's a stall near the top (at the junction with the walkway beneath the Westway Flyover) that does Army Surplus gear.  Mostly modern stuff, but they've also got a bunch of dress-coats with all the piping and epaulets and whatnot.

That said, all the retro shops that were shifted out of the arches being bulldozed in Camden have relocated to elsewhere in the market (the main one being just next to the beads'n'textiles stall opposite the food-hall), with others spreading across to the two markets on the other side of the main road.

Without going into whether I think the piece has any value or not, a minor point that seems to have been missed:

The replica-tent thing was *not* a direct comment by the artist on the Iraq War.

The replica-tent thing *was* a direct comment by the artist on one man's actions (which happened to be a protest against the Iraq War.)

They overlap in all sorts of ways, of course, but even so: There's a big difference between the two.  

Claiming that the artist owes some sort of debt to the protestor, or is "stealing his thunder", or is simply repeating something that the protestor has said, would be like suggesting that Van Gogh owes a debt to All Sunflowers Everywhere, or that Piccasso should've left all his money to the soldiers who bombed Guernica, or that Andy Warhol should've paid millions to Campbell's Soup.

The "art" (whatever you may think of it) is not restricted to the subject, nor even to the way it's represented, but also lies in the choice to represent it in the first place.

"Sorry, AQA can't find the number of copies of 'Contract' sold in the UK to date.  Simon Spurrier has also worked as a cook, a bookseller & BBC Art Director."

Presumably the number is so big it crashed their computers and they had to resort to glib googlery.

Oh, wait... here's another text.  "6".  Thanks.

Given that I'm completely flummoxed by the one about myself (what's my bloody number, Brunt!?), it doesn't bode well for the rest.

See also: the very very awesome Ian Miller/James Herbert graphic novel "The City".  Which sells for a pretty penny these days.

And no, you can't have mine.  It's too full of Win.