Tooting One's Horn

To be honest, I wasn't very impressed when I heard about this, but Meg was, so she had us go on a hunt for the book in question.



Is that Neil Gaiman and John Romita's new Eternals hardback graphic novel? Yes it is. Is that a quote from me on the back cover? Indeed it is. Is it the only quote on the outside of the book? Why, I believe it is.

It's a queer kind of second-hand fame, but I'm considerably more impressed now.

Even if they did spell "bullet" wrong. Stupid Marvel.

Chronomancy!

From the New York Times:
...more viewers are watching shows delayed rather than live, using TiVo and other DVRs. Research indicates those viewers are more likely to fast-forward through spots than those who watch live TV.

...

"More likely"? I should think so. How many people have the Matrix-esque ability to fast forward through live TV anyway?

Someone got paid, probably vast amounts of money, to "research" that...

Joined a Cult

Yes, I've joined yet another social networking site (although one must ask how much social networking you can do if you're at a computer all day updating umpteen profile pages). This time, it's Facebook.

Lazarus Experimented on a Spider-Man

They drew very obvious parallels between the Time Lord regeneration process and the experiment Mr Saxon was funding. Which is no surprise, as we saw Saxon looking very ill indeed in the trailer immediately following the episode. He's obviously dying, and he apparently knows exactly who the Doctor is.

Of course he's the blinkin' Master isn't he?

Apparently showrunner Russell T Davies gives his writers a list of elements to include in their episodes. This episode's writer, Stephen Greenhorn, was given "Marvel Comics", "mad scientist", "experiment gone wrong", "supervillain", and it definitely showed in the episode. The climax was supposedly a nod to Quatermass, but seeing the Doctor defeat an enemy in a church belltower using sound as a weapon certainly evoked Spider-Man's battle with his alien costume, and not entirely because I'd seen Spider-Man 3 earlier in the day.

Which was excellent, by the by. It's got some mixed reviews, and it's not without some minor problems (Lucy Gordon's turn as an English news reporter (in New York?) was so horrible, I was sure that she had to be some Hollyoaks/girl group offshoot given a cameo rather than an actual actor), but if you don't like this film, you don't have a soul. Not as good as the peerless second film, but quite good nonetheless.

I had to laugh when a character literally blunders into a particle accelerator experiment at one point (are they still using bits of James Cameron's Spidey script?), further exemplifying that "experiment gone wrong" aspect of the Marvel Universe. One scientist unsportingly pointed out that there was someone in the machine, but his colleague was thankfully on hand with a shrug and a suitably irresponsible "it's just a bird". Wouldn't Civil War have been more sensible if the government had registered the scientists, given how 90% of Marvel Universe experiments go so badly wrong and produce all these dangerous freaks in the first place?

Not Sensible

So apparently, a new online version of Sensible World of Soccer is being released to the X-Brick's Live service. Online. Sensi. X-Brick only.

Bloody Micro$oft.

The Brighton Festival Can Go F*ck Itself

They've got David Lloyd and Kate Evans (among others) in to do a talk/workshop thing on the 18th of May. David Lloyd drew V for Vendetta. Kate Evans does political activism comics, like Copse. The Festival organisers have decided that this is part of their "four-day mini festival of writing for children". Because comics are for children, of course, and the speakers they've assembled don't disprove that at all. Cretins.

Undefeatable

And yet, still better than the Matrix sequels.

Overboard

I really like the Wii's Virtual Console feature, where you can download old games and play them on your new shiny bit of kit. There are a lot of features I'd like to see added, however, and one of those is board game support. I quite like the idea of firing up an online game of Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, or Risk, or, as has just been announced, Talisman. Stuff like this is available on X-Box and the Playstation Network, and the technology is already in place on the Wii, so let's have it, Nintendo!

I Say Thee Nay!

No no no no no no, and no.

No.

A Remake I'd Like To See

It's one of my favourite films, but One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing has its problems, most notably the dreadful portrayal of the Chinese characters (ie, they're British actors with dodgy make-up and comedy accents), and a finale which is trying to be a kung fu sequence, but is foiled by producers that don't know how to film martial arts. So let's remake it, tone down the ethnic stereotyping, and up the kung fu action. Get Maggie Smith in to play Hettie, the lead nanny, Pierce Brosnan to play Lord Southmere (if you've seen the original, you'll know why it works to cast a Bond in the role), Chow Yun Fat as Hnup Wan (I think he's got vast reserves of untapped comedy potential), and Tom Baker in a cameo as the blustery Colonel (again, if you've seen the original, you'll know why). Off the top of my head, I reckon Robert Rodriguez or Edgar Wright would be good choices to direct.

Right, who do I write to to get this done?