Mince Pie Fest 2023: COOP

Hang on! What's this? COOP does a budget range of mince pies? I don't remember that happening in previous years.

(It may have happened. I am old.)

Oh. It did happen.

Hmm!

The pastry is soft and almost chewy, which I thought I would dislike but it's quite a pleasant texture. It is VERY sweet, to the point that it overpowers the filling completely, and makes my teeth tingle. 2.5 out of 5. #MincePieFest2023 #MincePieADay

The Judge Who Laughs

The Batman Who Laughs, an evil version of Batman from an alternate universe, introduced in 2017:

Judge Death, an evil counterpart of Judge Dredd, from an alternate universe, introduced in 1980:

Hm.

(And yes, I know I'm years late on this.)

We Don't Talk About Bruno, but We Do Talk to Him

The other day I was interviewed about games design! It's a bit rambling and incoherent because it was 4am for me, and then Bruno's power cut out in the middle, so I interviewed myself for a few minutes, and I don't know if that's been edited out because I hate the sound of my voice and the look of my stupid long face so I haven't watched the video.

Anyway.

Mince Pie Fest 2023: Asda Yummy

Asda!

These minceys feel tiny! They are about a centimetre smaller than the Sainsbos pies, and yes, readers, I checked.

The pastry has a nice firm texture but there's a hint of saltiness that turns me off; the inexplicable popularity of salted caramel (yuck) suggests I'm an outlier there. On the other hand, the filling is lovely, packed full of flavour and zing. It's light on spice and has zero booze, but the fruity flavours work well without either.

The size of these pies feels a bit miserly, but otherwise these are good. 3.5 out of 5, but if size doesn't matter to you (fnar), you could bump that to 4.

#MincePieADay #MincePieFest2023

Mince Pie Fest 2023: Sainsbury's

And so it begins.

Picked first simply because it's closest to the Top Secret Mince Pie Testing Centre™, we have Sainsbos!

The pastry is a bit too dry and a bit too sweet, but it has a pleasant crumbly texture. The filling is quite tasty, with a bit of zest and a waft of festive spice, but there is far too little of it. Compare the stuffed pies on the box with the contents of the actual pie!

This is an improvement on last year's Sainsbos pie, but the stingy filling and wonky pastry hold it back. Still, a good mid-range pie. Probably. 3 out of 5.

#MincePieADay #MincePieFest2023

"Whoniverse" Is Probably the Pun I Would Have Gone For Anyway

The Whoniverse launched today. It's the BBC's term for the larger Doctor Who "cinematic" universe, which has (almost) all been added to the iPlayer service, to celebrate the programme's 60th anniversary year. And it has an ident!



Hang on...



Wait a minute...



Hmmmm...

I wonder, does this go even earlier than 2016?

Tech Support

Are you having trouble commenting on blogs, going into an infinite loop of logging in and not being recognised and being asked to log in? Are you getting something like "Unable to sign in to comment. Please check your browser configurations to allow sign-in. To leave a comment, click the button below to sign in with Google."? It seems to be an issue with cross-site cookies, and here is a solution if you are using Firefox.

Click on the little shield icon in the url bar. You should see an option for "Enhanced Tracking Protection". Turn this off.

That should fix the problem!

Don't get used to this; tech support is not going to be a regular feature of the blog. I'm far too old and stupid for that. I'm sharing this "hack" -- as the kids call it -- because it's been annoying me and I thought it would be useful to have it written down somewhere so the Google Bots could find it and help someone else.

(Also, if you don't use Firefox, then it's of little use. Sorry.)

(Also also, Firefox will undoubtedly do some sort of update very soon that will break this and make all of the above irrelevant and useless.)

Dragons of Disgust

This new(ish) Dragonlance novel is utter filth.

Nice(r) Belt Buckle

Prompted by the recap at House to Astonish -- in particular the glowing praise of George Perez's last hurrah as penciller on the Avengers main title -- I dug out my copies of "The Nefaria Protocols" and noticed something a bit odd.

Remember Captain America's rather insulting response to Hawkeye's new costume?

Well, in the reprint in Marvel UK/Panini's Avengers United #27, the exchange is different.

That's a bit odd, no? Unless some editor at Panini also found the lettering a little suspect and decided to remove the "offending" bubble(s).

Où est la Bibliography?

This is as much for me as anyone else, as I've sort of lost track of what I've done over the years.

I am the main artist or writer on underlined titles; everything else is a contribution as part of a group of artists and writers.

If you think of anything I've forgotten, or got wrong, then please let me know.

2001 The Girly Comic #1 - "The Wait" (art)
2005 Solar Wind #6 - "Donny Darto" (art)
2005 Sunny For Girls #2 - "Team Spirit" (art)
2007 Paragon #3 - "More Than You Can Chew" (art and writing)
2007 The O Men #2.5 - "Fluke" (art and writing)
2008 PJANG #1 - "Rooms for Writers" (art)

2009 B/X Companion (art)
2009 Fight On! #4 (art)
2009 Fight On! #6 (art)
2009 Fight On! #7 (art and writing)
2009 Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer (art)

2010 Fight On! #8 (art)
2010 Fight On! #9 (art and writing)
2010 Fight On! #10 (art)
2010 PJANG #5 - "The Ex-Men" (art)
2010 Old Dragon: Módulo Básico (art)

2011 Advanced Fighting Fantasy (one small drawing on one page. Other editions were released in 2012 and 2016)
2011 Carcosa (uncredited; one teeny tiny blink-and-you'll-miss-it bit of art)
2011 Fight On! #11 (art)
2011 Fight On! #12 (art)
2011 Fight On! #13 (art)
2011 Lands of Ara Compendium 2011 (art)
2011 Too Much Sex & Violence #1 (art)

2012 Caverns of Slime (I have no memory of this! I think I probably did some art)
2012 The Complete B/X Adventurer (art)
2012 Death Love Doom (art)
2012 Fight On! #14 (art)
2012 The Girly Comic Book 1 (reprints "The Wait")
2012 Theorems & Thaumaturgy (art)
2012 Too Much Sex & Violence #3 (art)

2013 Old Dragon: Regras para Jogos Clássicos de Fantasia (art)
2013 Too Much Sex & Violence #5 (art)

2014 Dwimmermount (art)
2014 Dwimmermount Illustration Book (art)
2014 Forgive Us (art, maps, and writing)
2014 Petty Gods (art)
2014 The Secrets of Cats (art)
2014 Thulian Echoes (art)
2014 Zombre: An Undead Anthology (art)

2015 From the Vats (art)
2015 Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition (art)
2015 The Secrets of Cats: Animals & Threats (art)
2015 The Squid, The Cabal, and The Old Man (art and maps)

2016 The Secrets of Cats: Feline Magic (art)
2016 Slugs! (art and a tiny bit of writing)
2016 Wormskin #4 (maps)

2017 Death is the New Pink (art)
2017 The Weird That Befell Drigbolton (art and maps)
2017 Wormskin #6 (maps)
2017 Wormskin #7 (art)

2018 Fish Fuckers (art, maps, and writing)

2019 Midvinter (art, maps, and writing)
2019 More Than Meets the Eye (art, maps, and writing)
2019 Adventure Anthology: Fire (new art for The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children)
2019 Adventure Anthology: Death (reprints Death Love Doom)
2019 Barbarians of Orange Boiling Seas (art)

2020 Adventure Anthology: Blood (literally hundreds of pictures)
2020 Barbarians of the Ruined Earth (art)
2020 The Seed (art, maps, and writing)

2021 Comes Chaos (art)
2021 Green Messiah (art, maps, and writing)
2021 Oakfell Vale (art)
2021 The Excellent Travelling Volume #13 (I think I did a picture for this, but I'm not sure if it got printed)
2021 The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible (art)
2021 Terror in the Streets (art, maps, and writing)
2021 Terror in the Streets: Huguenauts and Other Distractions (art, maps, and writing)

2022 The Curious Conundrum of the Conflagrated Condottiero (art, maps, and writing)
2022 The Expiration of Barrington Peake (art, maps, and writing)
2022 Strict Time Records Must Be Kept (art, maps, and writing)

2023 BEE-WARE! (art, maps, and writing)
2023 Big Bee's Pamphlet of Spells (art and writing)
2023 In the Hall of the Third Blue Wizard (art and maps)
2023 Magic Eater (art, maps, and writing)
2023 Winnie-the-Shit (art, maps, and writing)

2024 Fight On! #15 (art)

2025 Fight On! #16 (art)
2025 Altar of Madness (cover art)
2025 The Music of Ericha Zann (art)