I’ve been busy doing interiors stuff at home, as well as discovering old things in boxes to delight and baffle (blogs on that to follow at some pojnt) but for now here’s a nice new homagey comic cover coming in May:

Oh yeah, it’s X-Men 138 all over again. That was the first issue I ever bought, albeit in a black and white Marvel UK reprint form. This one is from the following release:

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #35
Brad Meltzer (W), Georges Jeanty (P, Cover), Andy Owens (I), Michelle Madsen (C), and Jo Chen (Cover)
On sale May 5
FC, 40 pages
$2.99
Ongoing

Brad Meltzer concludes his blockbuster run on Buffy Season Eight! After last issue’s climactic encounter between Buffy and the unmasked Twilight, the Slayer army’s entire mission has been altered and the true nature of the threat they face has been revealed.
Everyone is in place to confront the Big Bad once and for all as Buffy’s most epic season races toward the final arc, written by Joss Whedon!
• Executive produced by Buffy creator Joss Whedon!
• Final issue of Brad Meltzer’s game-changing arc on Season Eight!

I am such a geek.

Another week, another sales conference. My glamorous job in the world of publishing means I get lovely yummy cnapaes and wine from rather good caterers, unlike the ones those feckin’ Apprentices made this week on the telly:

Mmmmmm lettis!

I am so glad the return of The Inbetweeners lived up to my expectations:

There’ll be complaints from fish people, mark my words.

It’s Comic Catch-Up Weekend. Unless I get horribly addicted to Wii Fit Hula Hoop again, but my muscles (yes I have some) have only just recovered from my last session. I may have a great BMI but my Wii Fit age is sometimes ‘pensioner.’ Anyway, comics:

Peter took his mask off (again but for the first time. Oh don’t ask) and Jessica remembered him from the retcon in Alias. Which was nice, if rather geeky.

Buffy issue 23 was a return to form…

Did I imagine this? No, it is here for all to see:

Fuck me, that makes K9 & Company look good!

Tools of the week are the residents of an ‘affluent’ village formed a human chain to stop the Google car taking pictures of their lovely big houses for Street View as they were concerned about burglaries and then talked to the Daily Mail who published loads of photos of their lovely houses:

“I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime. This is an affluent area. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for burglars to strike. I don’t mind estate agents taking pictures but this shows people how to get in and how to get out. I was determined to make a stand so I called the police.”

Surely somebody should have pointed out their fail at missing the point?

Neil Gaiman’s Batman has arrived! The man Gaiman has been busy with films and shit (lots of Twittering about the Coraline premiere) but he’s done a nice job here:

Also out and about is more of that Buffy stuff. Some more of the old TV writers have been turning up recently but the Harmony issue was quite crappy last month.

Meanwhile, in time and space…

From the publicity: In The Whispering Gallery, the TARDIS lands in a maze-like gallery filled with thousands of talking pictures, and the Doctor and Martha discover they’ve come across a planet where showing emotion has been outlawed. The inhabitants have good reason for their supression, but it wouldn’t be like the Doctor to leave them in fear of truly living.

IDW are getting good at the old Who comics, and Tony Lee (who did the recent miniseries) should be back soon. His Twitterings are fun too, and not just when at a Doctor Who convention that involves a special game of Just A Minute and saying how lovely Nicola Bryant is.

Talking of the Who creators, Paul Cornell is writing a Dark Reign: Young Avengers mini series for Marvel! He’s already doing one of their best titles (Captain Britain and MI:13), proving Marvel are no dunces.

Also making me “oooh”: Manhunter may be dead but the cast have got new jobs: In Streets of Gotham, you’re going to get a chance to see the supporting cast of Batman’s world, meaning that you’re going to see Batgirl and Huntress and also the new DA of Gotham City, Miss Kate Spencer.

&

“The fun part about Escape for me is that you’re going to see a lot of familiar faces in some very unfamiliar situations, and the primary leads of Escape are Nemesis and Cameron Chase, and you’re finding out that they are being held against their will by the Global Peace Agency as they last appeared in Final Crisis.”

Excellent.

Talking of Manhunter…

The Shield’s Michael Chiklis and writer Anny Beck have teamed up to bring “Olympus” to IDW Publishing later this year. The new series is set for 6 or 7 issues with Marc Andreyko writing and an as yet unnamed artistic team, to be edited by IDW Special Projects editor Scott Dunbier. “Olympus” is a classic battle between father and son. In a world similar to ours, in the not too distant future, the human race is struggling and looking for answers to all the problems that plague them. The world finds their answer when the Greek god Cronus returns. The once failing world’s fortunes change with Cronus guiding their way to a life of prosperity and relative peace. However, that turn of events is not long-lived as Cronus grows mad with power and the world suffers as a consequence. It’s at this point that his son Zeus returns, to challenge his Father and save the world from his growing evil.

Hmm….

And in a alt-maneouvre of the above method:

Writer Brian Michael Bendis has confirmed that the Powers television series is in active development as a pilot for FX. Bendis had teased in September that the adaptation might be bound for the cable network, home to such dramas as The Shield, Rescue Me and Damages.
“I just handed in a draft to the network and we’re getting our notes from the network as soon as this thing is over,” Bendis told MTV’s Splash Page today. “So next week I’ll get the notes, and as long as they don’t involve sock puppets and some sort of orgy scene that I’m not interested in, then hopefully it will go in the right direction.”

There’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the comics and the teevee this year.

Not off the telly:

Terry Moore’s run on Runaways is almost over. Shame, but there’s still Echo to buy. And you should.

Keith Giffen is doing Doom Patrol! “I’m a freak. You are a freak. OK, then why don’t you go live in a cave? If I thought I was a freak I wouldn’t put on a costume and go fight crime. There has got to be a rationale to that. It’s like the leap between superpowers and wearing spandex. I can’t cover it in my head. I’d probably do the Spider-Man thing and get my uncle killed. But he was wearing spandex. It’s trying to connect a couple of dots there from you think you are a freak and you are reclusive by nature. And because you are in Doom Patrol, you’re not necessarily going to all the superhero mixers. So why are you doing this at all?”

Next: Will Whedon’s (no not Wil Wheaton) Dollhouse be any good? Word on the street is that episode 1 is a bit “meh” but 2 is better. We shall see, I hope for the best… even with the Fox connection.

It’s the weekend. Thank generic chocolate honeycomb. Or not, it rots yer teef.

Week 3 of Publishers’ Rep’s Office Manager was very nice. I visited a branch of my old bookshop chain and chipped in with the selling points on stuff we wanted the depressed buyer to buy. Depressed buyers don’t like buying stuff though. I resisted tidying the shop and nobody said “do you work here?” to me, which was nice. And I was wearing a suit so I felt immortal. Or was it immoral?

While oot and aboot I bumped into Superfriend in Forbidden Planet and he produced a care package of cake from the sorely-missed local bookshop area sandwich shop. God I miss that cake, the new local sandwich shop is a health catastrophe waiting to happen so I mostly make my own or buy strage baked ogods from Spar. Arrr…

My other adventures included going to my first meeting, in my suit, with a publishing company. Sitting staring at different book jacket designs and picking them apart was nice, as was knowing what I was talking about and dealing with grownups. They were v v posh as the place was in Fancy Fancy Chelsea. There’s a chav exclusion zone around the place, apparently.

I wish there was one on my local bus route as it is infested by Stella-drinking can-chucking morons who love to listen to loud cacoponies of shite with their “bitches.” The men are bitches too, I am not a seximsist. Today’s bus stop characters included Grinning Pissed Smoking Rollups Man, Scary Feist Old Lady and Stroppy screamy Children Woman. I love them all.

New issue of Buffy Season Eight is out.

As is new issue of Captain Britain & MI13. Both are smashing good fun.

The new Torchwood season/story’s name has been revealed. I could tell you…

… but here’s a plastic Captain Spike From Buffy John instead.*

I am excited about this:

The True Blood pilot has been slightly tweaked and here is a new trailer.

Phil from Worapalava is quite right about Solange. But how do I say her name? MP3 here. I like it.

Heroes is almost back in a new trailer …

… and it’s going to be shown on BBC2 close to the US transmission dates. How considerate!

In other news, Ben and Darrell have been exploring an arse in their new Roadshow Week video extravagamza at TATP. So go there. Please.

*It’s called Children Of Earth.

It’s Great Comics Week, what with the new issue Of Buffy Season Eight (issue 15) and the long-awaited return of my other favourite strong woman character…

Manhunter is back! Kate does more than just phonecalls in the first part of a new story (issue 31)… but I am not spoilering anything. Unlike with Buffy where something bad happened last month…

…awww shit.

Some crazy fun things happen this time, especially with Dawn still being giant-sized, and the romantic complications of recent times are kind of resolved…

Oh those crazy magical lesbians.

Rocksellout has an mp3 of that Kleerup & Neneh Cherry collaboration that I have been liking very much this week, although the album it comes from is as imaginative as perxide blondes dying their skin orange with fake tan.

As I am not blogging about Big Brother this year I have decided to blog about bloggers blogging about Big Brother instead. So here are some snippets of Thom from A Boy Like Thom doing a live blog during the first episode:

“He looks like Sly Stallone. She looks horrendous. They appear to be a couple. Oh god he’s wearing a t shirt that says ‘The Man’ pointing upwards and ‘The Legend’ pointing downwards…

If there’s any fanny in there he is going to nail it. Not my words. He thinks he’s absolutely gorgeous, but I’d like to disagree. He is however, a gigantic nob…

She’s always having to do things. She’s got a baby, commitments. Life is hard. Thank goodness that Big Brother has come along to relieve her of these burdens. Who cares about the baby, go and sunbath on telly love. You’ve earned it. Oh and she’s got opinions. Ridiculous, moronic, awful opinions… “

So now you don’t need to moan about not wanting to see me blog about not watching it. Sorted! More Bloggers Blogging About Big Brother That I Am Not Actually Watching may feature here soon. Or not. Who cares? You decide. Or not. I have more episodes of season 19 Doctor Who from 1982 to watch. I love plastic snakes.

Oh…. cool!

(the trailer will be taken down by YooHooTube quicker than a reailty show star’s smalls at a showbiz partay but here it is anyway) .

Dollhouse is almost here and the trailer has FaithFromBuffy doing kicky fighting and dancing, HeloFromGalactica doing beefcake suit acting, ThatGuyFromWelcomeToTheCaptain being a geek (meh) , WalidFrom24Season6 being all serious and KatyaFromNeighbours pouting. But it’s Joss Whedon! Come on!

It was a momentous occasion last night when the end of an era was reached down the pub: We only went and won the Final Pub Quiz Ever (probably)! The pub in question, where we have been regulars since drinking was invented, is closing down before it opens again in one of those ‘under new management’ stylees. So no more smuttiest pub quiz in London, no more rubbish vegetarian option menu that I secretly like, no more leaky urinals, no more most overflowing toilet bin, no more regular team member falling asleep by round four (but still answering questions correctly), no more chance of stroppiest team member from the past ever doing a surprise return to have tantrums during the music round, no more horror at the scary elderly singles club team who just expand rather than ever cop off with each other (oh the horror) and no more me getting annoyed by the blind lady’s dog randomly licking my leg and making me sneeze. It went out in classic form with the filthiest pub quiz mistress inserting a swear word between every word of the final ever question until she ran out of rude things to say, and they had no food so we had to go to Tesco for sandwiches. The fact that we won was unrelated to being the only team that bought her a present, honest.

Imagine that logo on a mug with a Shatner face and you’ll have the present.

I do not approve of cheating. Now what will we do as our semi-weekly social life trip out? Answers on a postcard please.

Buffy Season Eight issue 14 is out now and is as good as usual. See?


Angel (season six in all but name) issue 7 is also out but is once again not all that spectacular, which is a shame.

Something has been bothering me about The Actor James Nesbitt for a while now and not just my jealousy at his marvellous range of accents. Now what could it be?

Hmmmm… I suspect magic was involved. Another one kicked out of the Bald Pride Club. Oh well…

I started the day with confusion:

What does that mean? I tried looking on The World’s Gretest Newspaer website but all the stories were little red Xs in boxes. How great. Make your own minds up.

For some reason there was a lot of dog poo in inconvenient places on the pavement today. Not that poop in the street is in any way convenient, unless you’re one of them perverts. There were also a lot more chavs in the bookshop than usual due to the schools being off. This implies that they go to school when they are supposed to but seeing as most of them just huddle around the gift section shelf that houses such classic ‘hilarious’ titles as How To Swear In Foreign, How To Chat Up Wimmin In Foreign, How To Flirt and How 2 Txt Flrt (not in foreign) and read out the most hilarious bits in the delivery of a baffled Hollyoaks actress who hasn’t got the range then I am not convinced they’re attending those 3 Rs lessons. Maybe the Daily Mail is right and it’s all compulsary lessons in being gay these days.

Reasons you should be reading the Buffy Season Eight comic, parts 45 to 48:

and

and

and

Has that convinced you yet? Issue 13 is out now. The first collected volume is still out in bookshops and the second collected volume is due any day now.

I’m horrible addicted to The Apprentice. And this version too:

Memo to self: Employ a Dame Margaret lookielikey for when I do the appraisals.

It’s the weekend. Phew. I worked today, aka Saturday, and faced the extra level of oddness that is yer weekend shopper (there are always some who insist we are Waters****s when we are blatantly not and never have been, plus the usual chucking out of chavs who think running around a bookshop yelping nonsense constitutes appropriate behaviour). Still, it was nice to actually assist some people who wanted help buying books, and a lady who decided to not buy the first book in a series for her 80 year old friend because “she’ll probably be dead before she finishes them” made me laugh. But in a friendly way, not an evil one. We sold quite a few of our lovely Easter Bunnies thanks to one enthusiastic salesperson, and I don’t know if a child was humouring me or not when I promised her bunny would not suffocate in the carrier bag I put it in. Now don’t get me started on plastic bags again…

Comic Nerd Moment 1:

Wanted trailer seems alright. I am ignoring the differences from the comics and just thinking it looks quite fun.

Comic Nerd Moment 2:

Terry ‘Strangers In Paradise’ Moore has just released the first issue of his brank spanking new series, Echo. Not to be confused with Echo from Marvel’s New Avengers series. So far so odd but good. See?

That above picture reminds me of my ‘special’ moments with technology and puny human failure .

Comic Nerd Moment 3:

Still loving Buffy Season Eight.

Comic Nerd Moment 4:

Kick-Ass issue 1 is out now, by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. You might have heard of these people. Clue: One of them wrote Wanted and one of them has drawn bloody well everything. It’s one of those ‘what if someone in the real world tried to be a superhero?’ things and so far it’s everything I expected. Which is nice.

My Captain John Barrowman action figure has been getting some action…

I should have kept him in the box. Those poor Daleks’ plungers will never be the same again.

Highlight of my day was an incredibly jittery customer asking for The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx. I thought she said ‘heron’ so I was a bit baffled as I wasn’t aware that gangly birds kept journals. Then she described it as Stevie Nicks which baffled me even further as I thought Stevie Nicks was more cocainey. Steve Nicks? Nikki Sixx! All rather Harry Hill…

But what would this Heroin Diaries book be like?
Monday: Did heroin.
Tuesday: Did some more heroin.
Wednesday: This heroin is rather more-ish.
Thursday: Had some cake. With heroin sprinkles.
Friday: Heroin again!

Angel issue 4 is out now…

I go onto an unashamedly geeky place whenever I read it.

Sam Sparro (one of my Music 2008 tips, yeah I know) has made a new video for the same old song: the video it deserves. So watch it, not on YooHooTube as it is not there yet but at this rinky dink link.

That was a photograph.

The end.

Truffle, please.