Singularity 7 - Ben Templesmith

I'll be straight here. I bought this for the art. The story wasn't even a consideration. I'm pretty cynical about artists who decide they are going to be writers. Which was just as well as story wise this was a bit of a non-event. It's an OK idea but there's no real meat to the plot. Nothing essentially happens and then the world ends but doesn't.

The pictures though...gosh! He really is in a league of his own. I really dug his 30 Days of Night art but vampires are never my favourites so I wasn't too into the book. Fell on the other hand was an absolute beaute. Teamed with someone who can write, plot and layout Templesmith absolutely shines. Hopefully there'll be more soon.

Supreme Power: Nighthawk - Daniel Way & Steve Dillon

I'm not really sure what the purpose of these Supreme Power books are but they seem to be particularly violent.

This one is focused on the Kyle Richmond Nighthawk character who seems to have changed colour since I last read anything with him in. He's now an angry black billionaire with a rubber suit fetish and a violent streak.

Nighthawk was always a piss poor Batman riff and this book seems determined to actually dig that hole even deeper by giving him his very own clown faced adversary complete with tank of poisonous gas. The finale takes place in a water filtration site with the character doing something or other to it.

The art, obviously, is Steve Dillon level beautiful. Clean, crisp and natural. As for the story though, I'm not sure what I thought. It wasn't bad but it was depressingly violent. Realistic or voyeuristic? I can't decide.

Rising Stars:Born in Fire - J. Michael Straczynski & others

Straczynski is the creator and (almost) sole writer of Babylon 5 which wasn't a show I ever got into. The few episodes I saw were uninteresting and I think the best thing to come out of it was the line in Spaced.

This comic is his attempt at superheroes. He's going for the big concept aspect here and while Rising Stars certainly doesn't suck it falls way short of what he was aiming for.

The basic plot revolves around a group of 113 people affected by some cosmic energy or other whilst in utero. Focusing on their subsequent travails when one of the costumed meatheads amongst them realises that they all get more powerful whenever one of them dies and so goes on a killing spree.

It was horribly cliched for the most part and some of the plot development was just utterly ridiculous - I'm thinking here of the sudden team up between costumed meathead #1, his so-called arch-enemy (who we'd had next to no previous introduction to) and the god-bothering closeted gay lightbulb and his dad where they immediately convinced the government that the other powery types were eeviillll - bwah-ha-ha!

From that point on things just degenerated into a non-stop plunge into violent absurdity. There was little nuance and even less plot development. Instead it was full steam ahead to the intermission and it's big reveal. The only hint to this came a couple of pages before which left it feeling a lot like an afterthought.

I read this lying in bed, half drunk on cheap lager and even cheaper (but surprisingly tasty) brandy. It passed an hour and that was good. If the second volume turns up in the library I'll borrow it because I'm a completist saddo but on the whole this was pretty damn weak.

Powers vol 9: Psychotic - Brian Bendis & Michael Oeming

Deena goes completely over the edge in this one as she uses her new power Grosse Point Blank style on her obsessed ex-boyfriend.

The main story revolves around the search for a killer and a magic gem. The case is solved quite quickly before the gem goes missing again and we get a flashback to 'little' Deena.

I really dig the back story of Walker teaching Calysta how to use her powers and the interaction between the two is a joy.

I'm not sure where this book is going at the moment but I'm digging it and I've three more volumes sat on top of the speaker in front of me.

Powers vol 8: Legends - Brian Bendis & Michael Oeming

Dealing with the fallout of the events of the previous volume when one of the world's most powerful Powers went nuts and destroyed a few cities this is an odd volume.

There're two distinct threads running through it. One is the arrival of a new Retro-Girl and the other is the return to work of Pilgrim after her not near but actual death experience in the last vol.

The appearance of the new Retro-Girl ignites all the newly retired (by presidential decree) hero powers to return and sort out the new powered up gang warfare that has erupted in their absence.

Deena gets caught up in the war early on and is tortured by one of the players. This torturing brings on Powers of her own and she manages to bust free.

It's a fun volume but a little on the slight side. It didn't seem to take very long to read but I didn't really clock the time. The whole thing feels like a set up for something bigger.

I like this series.

Doctor Who: Peacemaker - James Swallow

I really like Swallow's writing. Some of his 40K books have been cracking, especially 'Flight of the Eisenstein' which was top notch. This one though took a while to get going. The setting didn't help - the wild west - as it's maybe got to be a little passe.

The story itself was a fairly typical piece of Who with the Doctor pitched against a couple (then trio) of sentient and psycotic hand guns called The Clade. The story chugs along until about halfway through when it starts to find it's feet a little and is all the better for it.

One of the main problems of these books I think is no-one really knows what to do with Martha. I didn't mind her in the TV show but in print you can feel the personality vacuum of her character. She sits on the page and sucks away any and all life from the scenes she's in.

A bit of an off day for Mr. Swallow this one though.

Supergirl & the Legion of Superheroes: Adult Education - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson and others

This is the penultimate Mark Waid Legion book. The last is The Dominator War but I've yet to track that one down.

This one continues the bittyness of the last volume but the understory has started to pick up speed and so I'm genuinely intrigued to see how it pans out in the the last volume. Some of the art in this volume is really pretty bad with Kitson being much less involved in the book. It does sport my favourite of all the covers though.

Supergirl & the Legion of Superheroes: Strange Visitor From Another Planet - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

I'm not sure why they felt the need to add S-girl to the title but for the most part this book revolving around her arrival was a little thin.

Pretty much entirely made up of short tales with a small pair of narrative threads detailing the avoidance of a robot uprising and Brainiac 5's attempt to revive Dream Girl.

Waid has a nice effortless writing style. It's warm and friendly but I like a big idea or two in my comics and that's what's missing here. Perhaps it's just warming up for the next volume.

Legion of Superheroes: Death of a Dream - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

The second volume of this Legion re-imagining continues on immediately from where the last volume left off. With the scene setting and re-introductions out of the way this time it's a much slicker story with a lot more focus. The team has finally worked out just who is making a move against the UP and is on the offensive.

There's no real depth to this but it is fun. Lot's of old-school Legion soap-opera in spaceness and a big fight scene. The characters aren't as rounded and developed as they were back under Levitz and Giffen in the old series but they mostly retain their characteristics and Waid can usually be relied on for a readable romp of a tale.

Puppet Master - Joanne Owen

I bought this book in Hay-on-Wye (small Welsh town with many, many bookshops) back in January when we went there on a birthday book-buying jaunt. What originally caught my eye was the solidity of the thing. This copy is a chunkily made hardback that had real presence on the shelf. The cover illustration is utterly abysmal but the art on the inside is beautiful, a real treat for the eyes.

The story concerns a young girl in Prague who is kidnapped by a nefarious Puppeteer who is attempting to acquire the magic powers inherent in the girl as the ancestor of the countries founder. Yeah, I know that's a terrible synopsis but that is essentially what's going on. Throughout the narrative Owen weaves several myths and legends that help situate the novel. It's gothic leanings are clearly on display and allow the novel a period feel without dating it.

It was on the whole a groovy little read with some engaging moments but the end seemed bitty and a little shoddy. Overall, fun but flawed (with hideous cover art).

Legion of Superheroes: Teenage Revolution - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

Back in the late 80s early 90s when I was working in a comic shop in Cardiff I was loaned a large stack of the Paul Levitz Legion comics. With the exception of the dumb as fuck names I loved them. A glorious, big superhero sci-fi extravaganza. I was hooked. Later came the Keith Giffen '5 Years Later' storyline which to this day I still adore and features some of my favourite ever comic art,

End of last year I read, from the library, a Justice League comic called 'The Lightning Saga' which featured various members of the Legion. It got me fancying some 30th century action so I picked up the 2 Mark Waid Legion books from a few years back. They are a complete relaunch from the stuff I know - apparently there was another relaunch before this and another with the Lightning Saga Legion Which has taken everything back to the old time Legion with Levitz back writing too.

Anyway, the Waid Legion is a militantly teenage organisation fighting for the freedom to be unique amidst an oppressively moralistic society. It's very much the angsty emo Legion but luckily it's got a fun little story bubbling at it's core and beautiful Barry Kitson art.

This first volume takes a little while to get into the story as it spends most of it's pages introducing and re-introducing characters. Some old faves are missing - no Mon-El - and others are changed - Element Lad is even wetter and Ultra Boy is a headcase - but it's mostly a fun re-imagining with only a few wtf moments - the Phantom Girl origin is massively naff.

It should be fun seeing where he takes / took this.

Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop - Simon Guerrier

The twentieth of the 10th Doctor books is a strange mix of humour and violence. The Doctor dies twice, as does Martha, Mrs Wingsworth dies many, many times, as does most everyone else.

The story revolvers around a lost spacecraft called 'Brilliant' which is simultaneously caught in a time horse-shoe (like a time-loop but with a bit missing) and being attacked by space pirates badgers.

The three main pirate characters are the stars of the book. Archie is great fun with his new found obsession with canopes. Jocelyn and Dashiel also slowly come around to the light side. Jocelyn's 'I do n'all' was a great line.

The story reminded me of the old multi-part storylines but told at modern break-neck speed. It's got a strong storyline and a solid cast and the nice ambiguous touch at the end was a cool way to go out. One of my favourites of this series so far.

Powers vol 7: Forever - Brian Bendis & Michael Oemng

I thought it was about time I dug into another one of these as there are a stack of them on top of the speaker in front of me. 'Forever' was the story of the Powers. In particular the story of Walker and his equally immortal nemesis Wolfe. We see them tangling all the way through time from the Neanderthal origins a la 2001, through some sort of Robert E. Howard hyperborean wet dream into China around the time of the boxer rebellion before it stops briefly in the 1920s / 30s where Walker is making his first tentative steps at heroing and then into present day.

It was good fun if a little inconsistent with some of what's gone before but not in any major way.

The art as ever was very nice but I wish he'd sort his layouts out. There're many occasions in each book where you're just not sure whether you're meant to go down the page or across the staples. It does get to be a little frustrating.

B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth and Other Stories - Mike Mignola & others

I'd already read one of the later BPRD books so I was intrigued to check out this original one. It turns out to be an anthology book of five (maybe six) short tales.

The first, 'Hollow Earth', is a nice introduction to Johann Krauss - the disembodied astral projection in a rubber suit. The story sees him and the team rescuing Liz (the firestarter) from a subterranean monster type thingy waving a staff / sword doohickey similar to the one in the Witchfinder book I mentioned in an earlier post. It's a fine intro to the team - taking some other origin story sideroads along the way - and proved to be excellent fun.

The Lobster Johnson story - again his first - was also a bit of fun but was there ever a more naffly named character.

The only real low point came with the final story about the boats, drums & sharks which apart from being fairly mawkish had some of the ugliest art I've seen in a long long time.

I'm slowly building up my exposure to Hellboy and his assorted spin-offs. So far I'm very favourably impressed.

Ratcatcher - James McGee

Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood is to all intents and purposes a Sharpe clone. McGee has even given him a backstory as a 'chosen man' at Talavera. I read up on this and he said that it was important but this importance rings a little false in the final pages of the novel and really could have taken a variety of other forms.

The story was solid enough though with Hawkwood assigned to trace the whereabouts of a stolen dispatch case containing plans for a secret weapon of which I'll say no more apart from there is some factual evidence towards this device having been attempted at the time - who'd have thunk it?

The book takes us on a whistle-stop tour of London at the beginning of the 19th century, in particular down the many inhospitable back streets where Hawkwood's ex-Sergeant, Harper - oops! sorry - ex-Sergeant Jago rules the roost.

It was an OK read. It cost bugger all from Lidls and passed a couple of hours in a hassle free manner.

Runaways: Homeschooling - Kathryn Immonen & Sara Pichelli

Truthfully I have absolutely no idea what this book was burbling on about. Some kids, a dinosaur, a crashed plane and an uncle who did something and then some funny looking flying machine.

It left me confused and bored but mostly confused.

Oh, and the back up story about 'What if they became the young avengers?' was even worse.

X-Men: Original Sin - Daniel Way & Mike Deodato, Mike Carey & Scot Eaton

A team written effort to bring Wolverine and his estranged psychotic son Daken together. It's a typical X-book. Full of flashbacks and Wolvie soul searching but it's not the worst of them but equally it's not the best of them either.

Both writers are in tune and it's hard to tell one from t'other and the artists are more of the same.

Lot's of hacking and slashing with only the peripheral characters not getting up again in the usual tedious nothing ever really changes X-world kinda way.

Ultimate Spider-man: Chameleons - Brian Bendis, David Lafuente & Takeshi Miyazawa

Gosh this comic has changed. A few years ago I borrowed a load of the original Ultimate Spidey run and was really impressed with them. A solid re-invention of the character. They hadn't tried to remake the wheel they'd just carefully updated all the parts that needed it and left the rest all alone. It was solidly written and the art was clean and slick. So, I had high hopes when I borrowed this one from the library this morning. Same writer, different artist combining to make a pretty poor comic all things told.

The writing is still pretty solid but do young people really speak like that? The ones I teach certainly don't. Some of the plotting was a bit off too. The dark Kitty (Pryde) thing was unlikely but the Chameleon and Chamelia (I kid you not) was just weak.

I'm not impressed with this artist either. His layouts are ridiculously hard to follow as half the time you're not sure whether you're meant to be reading across the staples or not. His faces are lifted straight from the Big Bumper Fun Book of Shitty Manga Cliches and it all generally looks ugly.

It's a real shame this book (along with the rest of the Ultimate line) was allowed to go to the dogs quite this badly.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft - Mac Carter & Tony Salmons

What an absolute mess of a book, it's all over the place.

The story is an attempt to link old Howard into his own stories and drag his cosmology kicking and screaming into his biography. It's in trouble right from the off as it assumes too much familiarity on the part of the reader with HPL's life whilst not really giving one the chance to experience the mundane before the chaotic intrudes. It all boils down to some haunted book related twaddle and the demon who needs Howie-P to be the 'gate' into our world. It's a load of hackneyed piffle filled with characters who are paper thin and cliched to the level of a soap opera.

The art is OK. nothing particularly eye-catching but diverting enough from the script.

I've never been a HPL fan but thought I'd give this a shot. I'm now a fan of neither.

Doctor Who: Wishing Well - Trevor Baxendale

Another of the 10th Doctor books from the BBC. I've got hold of the entire set of these and am about halfway through - actually I think i've passed the halfway point. Yay me.

This one was about a haunted well in Derbyshire that turned out to be home to a big alien weed thing. It was a little more violent than the norm for these books and reminded me very much of the old Pertwee episodes. A bit slight on plot but good dumb fun.

The Horus Heresy: Prospero Burns - Dan Abnett

As much fun as the other writers in the the HH series are - and some are real fun - Abnett is streets ahead. This is his third contribution to the series and it's another absolute corker.

This is the follow up to 'A Thousand Sons' which was the story of the downfall of the Thousand Sons Legion along with their Primarch Magnus. This tells the tale of the Wolves of Fenris and their eventual role as the Emperors executioners to punish that downfall.

The story unfolds from the perspective of a 'skjald' (a storyteller / historian) from Earth called Kasper who arrives on Fenris to study the wolves but ends up as their remembrancer and storyteller.

The book is subtle and nuanced throughout - not a common occurrence in pulp and particularly not in Warhammer - and the story unfolds at it's own pace without ever feeling rushed or incomplete. The moment when the book absolutely burst into life though was with the arrival of Russ, the Wolf King. The interplay between him and Constantin Valdor is wonderful. This is the moment you truly realise that Abnett intends to do way more interesting things with the Wolves than you expected.

I liked the William King Space Wolf books. They are easy, mindless fun - I didn't absolutely hate the Lee Lightner ones either. They are in a far lower league than Abnett's new version though. King's Wolves are comedy vikings punctuating their scraps with beer and banter. Abnett's are the prime military fore in the galaxy. Bezerkers yes but focussed, disciplined and utterly consumed by their calling. Their world seems real and their lives seem truthful.

It's an absolute blast from start to finish. I'm generally loving the HH series and pretty much each new installment is a cracking read but here's hoping it's not too long before there's another Abnett episode.

Warhammer 40k: Helion Rain - George Mann

Another Black Library audiobook, this time detailing the Raven Guard trying to dispatch an invading Tyranid Swarm.

Mann is the author of a few cracking pulpy steampunk books so it was interesting to see what he would do with space marines. It wasn't awful by a long shot but to be perfectly honest it wasn't too good either. I suppose the main problem with it was that it was a little cliched. It used all the same sort of overblown phrasing that usually appears - 'stentorian gaze', that sort of thing. I find it all a little forced and more than a little hackneyed. He'll be 'girding his loins' next.

Still it was big and violent and silly with lots of action and it helped make the drive back from dropping a friend off the other night a lot less arduous.

Sin City vol 1: The Hard Goodbye - Frank Miller

It's been ages since I read this and I'd forgotten just how good it was. The entire book is Marv's quest to avenge Goldie. It's beautifully noir in both text and imagery and Marv is exquisitely realised. His mix of barbarism and deep understanding of his own nature is a joy to behold.

With Miller the art is always going to be something special but here it's utterly wondrous. The scene in the rain after Marv's escaped from Kevin the Cannibal and the cops is beautiful. I just don't even understand how you would go about drawing something like that. Marv's face in the panel on page 134 is defined by the rain as opposed to it raining on him.

I've read a few of these Sin City collections but obviously not enough. Hopefully the library will get some more in.

Zombo - Al Ewing & Henry Flint

A nice little 2000AD obscurity that I'd never heard of until a friend handed it to me on my birthday. Zombo is a genetically engineered zombie built to kill the other zombies created by the sentient worlds that humans are attempting to colonise - yes you did read that right.

Both the creators are names I'm familiar with but the only thing I can think of by either of them that I've read is Ewings 'El Sombra' steampunk novel that he did for the Pax Britannia series.

Zombo is typical 2000AD - completely gonzo and full of uber-violence. The book features several stories starting with Zombo and the passengers of a government flight crashing onto a deathworld. Most barely make it past the fifth page with the survivors soon being picked off by the local fauna and, strangely, a clan of mutated hillbillies and their game of Twister.

The second story is a silly little Xmas story with the third and final one being an all out zombie romp across an entertainment satellite (a la 5th Element) that riffs on Disney, the Rat Pack and Ocean's Eleven amongst others along the way.

All three tales are a laugh but it's the final one that was the winner for me. I was unsure of the book at first glance but I ended up thoroughly enjoying. Not vintage 2000AD but a good approximation.

Usagi Yojimbo vol 24: Return of the Black Soul - Stan Sakai

Obviously volume 24 of a series was always going to be a problematic jumping on point. I'd known abut Usagi Yojimbo for years but the opportunity to read anything had never materialised until now when this volume turned up in the library.

Usagi is a roaming samurai rabbit who through these volumes is stalking the demon Jei. There's an obvious Lone Wolf & Cub vibe going on but UY is a much lighter affair. The art is nice, clean and b&W with a lovely fluidity of movement between panels. Too many of the books characters look alike though and the brutal jump cuts between, especially perspective but also, to a lesser extent, between characters is disconcerting and kicks you out of the narrative.

I'm glad I finally got the chance to check some of this stuff out. It wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm intrigued enough to rent another should one appear.

Spider-man: Secret Wars - Paul Tobin & Patrick Scherberger

I remember getting to finally read the Secret War saga in my late teens and not really digging it too much. I was never much of a Marvel fan which didn't help but it all seemed just too clunky daft for words - which is going some for comics at that time.

This re-look at that story is by the writer and artist of the Marvel Adventures line but unlike those others from that line it hasn't been made specifically for kids. It is pretty much of that ilk though and probably should have been.

Scherbergers art is nice. Bold, striking, cartoony and with a logical flow to it. Tobin's writing is functional although the story is barely so as it relies far too much on prior knowledge of the Secret Wars narrative. He's got a good way with dialogue though and the decision to write it from Spidey's perspective was an astute move as you're guaranteed an everyman take on proceedings. There's not a lot else going for it though.

Indiana Jones & the Tomb of the Gods - Rob Williams

A light and fluffy Indy comic. Very much of the flavour of the films with some spot on dialogue - you can hear Ford's voice at times.

There's nothing really of note here story or art wise. It's competent at best but I've read worse and it passed an idle 30 minutes without too much complaint.

Powers vol 6: The Sellouts - Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming

Now this was great fun. After the fairly low-key fifth volume this was a real change of pace.

When a member of a famous powers team is caught with his pants down and killed. Walker and Pilgrim's investigation leads them to New York to the groups headquarters and an encounter with several ex-members. At this point all hell breaks loose as one of the most powerful heroes in the world finally starts believing that he's god and takes the world by the throat. The book suddenly takes on a global perspective but we remain with W & P and experience events from where they are without the usual comic book god's eye view of events.

The book is beautifully paced with as much happening off the page as does on. It's nice to see Cutter get a chance to do something good and his vice cop friend was fun. There's a lovely little reference to a teeny little event of few volumes ago too in the big bad's stilted speech patterns. The ending opens up a whole new dimension of shit for the next few books.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks - Terrance Dicks

A novelisaton of one of the 3rd Doctor series from 1972 read by Jon Pertwee in 1995 which meant that on the whole this was a pretty strange experience. Pertwee easily slips into the Doctor's shoes again but sounds really odd when he does a dalek voice.

The book itself was quite poorly written and often came across as sounding like a schoolkids essay. This aside, the plot was a giggle and moved along at a cracking pace as the Doctor and Jo bump into a group of Thals out to destroy a massive Dalek army on the planet Spiridon.

Powers vol 5: Anarchy - Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming

Set a year after the bean spilling of vol 4 and Walker is called back to talk to a cape killer. It turns out to be a ruse to find out where he is so the killers can get to him. He survives, some cop brutality ensues and he's back on the force.

There's another little teaser line dropped in - 'No-one walks away' - to keep the suspense up in terms of the unfolding big picture. The book itself is a very light entrant into the series but certainly not a bad one.

Powers vol 4: Supergroup - Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming

I'm going to say up front here that I think the Brit writers (Moore / Millar / Ellis / Ennis / Morrison) do superheroes way, way, way better than the Americans. I know I'm biased but I'm of a similar age with most of these guys, grew up reading the same sort of stuff and so share some of the aesthetic. For the most part I think American superhero comics are crap, regardless of who their written by but the ones these fellas do are generally (not always) worth searching out.

Obviously there are exceptions to my pocket theory and right at the top of that exceptions list is Brian Bendis. I first (deliberately) read his stuff - New Avengers: Breakout - having snuck it into the Starbucks upstairs in the Borders store here in Swansea and thoroughly enjoyed it. It had the feel of supe stuff I read as a kid but the story had a bit of presence. There was none of the glorious irreverence or the disdain you get from the Brits. It was pure supes but done with heart and with style. I later realised that this was the same guy who had written the Ultimate Spidey book that I'd been lent a couple of years before and been impressed with. Following on from this I picked up a couple of his Avengers trades and his Goldfish collection which I really dug.

I'd been planning to dip into Powers for a while. I'd tried reading it online but the reader frustrated me so I stopped. The other month I found someone selling the set on eBay pretty cheap and so I grabbed them. I was outbid on vols 4 & 10 but got the rest. I read the initial three and pretty much enjoyed them but it took a few months to finally track down a number 4. It was well worth the wait. Walker is a great character and it's great to see him finally come out from the background in this volume. The previous ones really did have Deena as the focus - which was cool, she's great fun - but it was good to see Walker finally step into the spotlight. The story is obviously both and ending and a beginning as it sends Walker off into the great unknown whilst also dropping a giant teaser right at the end.

I'm going to be working my way through the next five volumes over the next couple of days so expect a few entries along this theme.

The Murder of King Tut - James Patterson

A graphic novel adaption of Patterson's 'non-fiction thriller' tells the stories of both Tutankhamen and Howard Carter. It was a light and pretty fast read that gives a very vague version of both stories with the Tut aspect of the book being simplified to the point of idiocy.

Tut's tale tells of his father - Akhenaten - and his (non-biological) mother - Nefertiti - who both preceded him as Pharaoh. Tut's rule is short and it's not long before Patterson makes the claim that the royal scribe - Ay - was responsible for Tut's death, after he had fallen from his horse and broken his leg, by suffocating him. His evidence for this seems to be that Tut's broken leg and cracked skull were neither serious enough to cause his death and suffocation was undetectable. It all seems a bit to pat for my mind.

The Carter sections deal with his employment as an artist in Egypt before becoming a tomb-hunter himself. Everything else is glossed over and ignored so really you don't get to know anything about the man other than his obsession with finding tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

There are two artists involved. Christopher Mitten has a lovely unorthodox style which is used to great effect on the Tut sequences. The Carter section is by Ron Randall and is less pretty, certainly not bad but nothing to get you wet. The nicest surprise on the art front was the discovery on the back of several Darwyn Cooke pieces that look an awful lot like Samurai Jack.

Deeply flawed but it passed some time.

Doctor Who Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil - Jonathan Clements

A way beyond canon Doctor story starring David Warner as the Doctor and Mark Gatiss as the Master. The tale describes the arrival of a very different 3rd Doctor arriving on earth some thirty years later for his exile on Earth and finding a world that was very different from what was expected. The world has been changed irrevocably by the Doctor's absence during events such as the Auton invasion that he wasn't there to stop.

The Brigadier is living in disgrace after having been drummed out of UNIT and has bought a pub in Hong Kong. The Doctor arrives on the verge of the handover to China and just in time to foil the Master's plan to make use of some sort of mind control parasite (from the 'Mind of Evil' episode).

The story was excellent and both Warner and Gatiss are perfectly cast. It's fun to hear the Brigadier again as he must be a fair old age by now (and indeed has since passed on between the time I wrote this and now). One of the strangest things here though is the presence of David Tennant as the new head of UNIT. He's in full scenery chewing mode here with Scottish accent fully intact as a very gung-ho colonel.

The only problem I had with the whole thing was the ambiguous ending which seemed to have the Doctor behaving against type by leaving quite a major loose end behind by not knowing whether or not the parasites had gone for ever in the Chinese nuke tests or whether or not the Masters newly unbrainwashed minions had gone nuts or not - they had.

A poor ending to a fairly cracking listen and I fully intend to track down some more of these.

Battlefields: Happy Valley - Garth Ennis & P.J. Holden

This is the fourth volume of the series but the first I've read. Wierdly I only found out it existed about a fortnight before I found this copy on New Years eve in Cheltenham.

I can't comment on the other volumes but this one pretty much carries on where his 'War Stories' books left off. It's very much in the tradition of the British war comics I used to love as a kid but with the swearing and the futility left in.

'Happy Valley' concerns the crew of a Wellington bomber who have just received their hot shot new kiddie pilot with only 3 sorties of their stint remaining. It's pretty formulaic stuff plot-wise but Ennis is always readable even when, like here, he's not firing on all cylinders (horrible cliche there - shame on me).

The art is nice - nothing amazing but I really don't dig the colouring - everyone's exactly the same colour. It's not going to stop me keeping an eye out for the others though.

The Horus Heresy: Garro - Oath of Moment - James Swallow

The Black Library seems to have gotten bang into audiobooks of late. This is the most recent and also one of the better ones.

Garro is the Death Guard marine who escaped from Istvaan on board the Eisentstein to warn the Emperor of Horus' rebellion.

I loved Swallow's Flight of the Eisenstein. It was a proper sci-fi romp full of ott battles and ridiculosly huge guns and it's good to see them bringing Garro back. Here he seems to be on a recruiting mission - probably for the Grey Knights - and finds himself on Calth looking for an Ultramarine Librarian. It's a short listen but fun nonetheless. The writing is solid and the dialogue is, as ever, stilted and pompous but that's part of the appeal. I've read a few of Swallow's books now and he usually delivers the goods.

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland - Patton Oswalt

I don't get the appeal of this fella at all. I know he's a big(ish) deal in the states but his fame hasn't spread over here and to me he's just not funny.

This book managed to contain not even a single solitary smile let alone a laugh. His tales are self-indulgent and inane. They go nowhere and provide nothing more than a tedious ego wank and a large empty space where some trees once lived.

Doctor Who: Sick Buildings - Paul Magrs

The 10th Doctor & Martha head for Tiermann's World to warn the inhabitants about the approaching Voracious Craw which intends to eat the planet - which is pretty voracious. Once there he meets the egotistical and bonkersProfessor Tiermann and his wife and son along with a whole menagerie of household appliance robots all controlled by the equally bonkers computer in the basement called the Domovoi.

This really wasn't one of the better Who books. It wasn't badly written and the basic concept was ok but it just didn't fly. I really can't put my finger on what it was that was wrong - if there even was anything - it just didn't grab me and I found myself quite looking forward to finishing it.

Fallen Angel: Reborn - Peter David & J.K. Woodward

A couple of months ago I read the first of the IDK Fallen Angel omnibuses (or should that be omnibi?). It was a competent but unremarkable read concerning the guardian angel of a city called Bete Noire, which apparently is a mirror to the world. Whatever happens in the city is reflected in the real world. The angel was a fairly typical angsty superheroine and the books tracked her travails against the hierarchy that ran the place.

This new book is obviously from much later in the run and is an excuse for a pointless crossover with a character from the Angel (as in Buffy) comic.

I can't really be bothered to go into the 'plot' but suffice it to say there were too many be-tentacled gods and way too many Lovecraft style apostrophe riddled names. In all it was p'rett'y mu'ch c'om'ple'te shi't. '

The Ultimates: Tomorrow Men - Michael Jan Friedman

This is the first of these Marvel spin-off books I've read although I've checked out a couple from other publishers like Hellboy.

It was pretty much what I expected it to be. Mark Millar's original run on the Ultimates was a revelation. A subtle and invigorating reinvention of an outmoded concept. This novel is an attempt to cash in on that success but unfortunately has been written by someone too straitjacketed by their knowledge and familiarity with the old Avengers and also perhaps by their own lack of imagination.

It didn't suck, which is the best I can say. It provided a passable distraction between work responsibilities but that's all it was. It read like a typical 80s / 90s Avengers storyline. It didn't go anywhere and nothing particularly interesting, exciting or even fun happened along the way to help to pass the time.

Jennifer Love Hewitt's Music Box - Jennifer Love-Hewitt & Scott Lobdell

I got this on the same library run as that last waste of paper. This one wasn't anywhere near as bad but was to all (and I do mean all) intents and purposes a straight Twilight Zone and Hellraiser rip. Here though the puzzle box is replaced with a music box (see what she did there? Clever yeah? Yeah? No!) that gives you your hearts desire but takes your sanity.

The first story about the cop was probably my favourite and the art by Michael Gaydos was lovely - kinda reminded me of Ed Brubaker's Criminal series but with hints of Bill Sienkewicz. Most of the others were piss poor 'freaky' tales.

I'm glad I didn't buy it.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge - Geoff Johns & Dave Gibbons

Look I knew this was going to be awful when I got it out of the library but oh dear god but it's bad. Gibbons really is a shocking writer and I'm not sure about Johns either but I've not read much by him.

How in the second decade of the 21st century can people - so called professional writer type people - be writing lines like, 'Let's stay bright out there' and feature characters called Bolphunga the Unrelenting!

Anyway, the plot was shit, the characters were hackneyed, the dialogue was mediocre (at best) and the whole thing was generally a massive bring down. Companies like DC should be making better comics than this. I know I'm not in their target demographic but c'mon, this was dreadful.

Gus & his Gang - Chris Blain

A nifty little cowboy graphic novel with absolutely none of the cliches you usually get.

Gus is a long nosed outlaw & lothario - he's very successful at the former, less so at the latter - who also has a soft spot for interior decoration and an eventual hankering to be a writer. His gang consist of the hapless but loyal Gratt who is Gus' foil for most of the book. The majority of the narrative though is concerned with the life of Clem who bounces back and forth between his authoress wife Aja and his daughter Jaime and his photographer girlfriend Isabella and her rampant ways.

The storytelling is spacious and the characters human. Each chapter is a tiny snapshot and often manages to be both funny and a little teeny bit sad sometimes too. Clem is a fabulous creation though, as is Isabella and her reaction to her bank robbery was very funny indeed. I loved how Blain managed to find the balance with wife and mistress. Both are good people and you wish and hope that Clem will continue to love them both equally.

It's never going to be top of my comic list but this was a great fun read. First Second press are producing so much good stuff with two Eddie Campbell books so far and now this too.

Revenge of the Lawn - Richard Brautigan

62 small tales of giant stature take root in fertile soil and bloom.

The Three Doctors - Terrance Dicks

The first audiobook to make an appearance in these pages but certainly not the last.

This is the dramatisation of the episode featuring the first, second and third doctors.

The three have been drawn into conflict against the rogue Callifraean Omega in his anti-matter universe where he has been trapped since he kick started the whole Time Lord dealy.

It really was great fun and the second and third Doctors make a great double act. Hartnell is hardly in it as he was too ill to appear in anything more than a cameo but he is perfectly portrayed and is treated with great reverence.

It's a 70s Doctor Who so it's not overly concerned with complexity of plot or depth of characterisation but it's hugely entertaining nonetheless. Top book. A good way to pass a couple of hours while driving and cooking.

The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read The Newspaper - Aaron McGruder

I'd read most of the strips that make up this anthology online a year or so ago but it was good to see they stood up well to a re-read.

It's a solid compilation of the first couple of years worth of newspaper strips and is full of slick characterisation that you just slip right into. The art is beautiful and it's good to see how much they kept of his design when they transferred it to TV.

There's and extra character in these books. A white girl called Cindy who begins the book being a friend to Jazmine but soon transitions into an annoyance for Huey. The mains are all as expected with Huey very much taking centre stage for most stories.

Originally published in 1999 it is getting a little old now but happily it isn't even slightly dated.

ps - the first series of the cartoon is amongst the funniest and best written TV it's ever been my pleasure to watch. Do yourself a favour and hunt it down post haste.

Technicolour Time Machine - Harry Harrison

It's been decades since I read this book for the first time, I was a young teenager I think. It's strange how your memory plays tricks on you too. I remembered it as a comedy but it isn't. It's quietly amusing in parts and mildly frivolous in it's treatment of the film industry but not particularly funny.

I think because I was expecting laughs I didn't really enjoy this as much as I could have done. It was a good solid tale though and sitting here all insomnia'd up at 2:10am it was suitable companionship as I got to read the last 80 pages.

I'm glad I took another look at it as it'd been a while since I'd read any H.H. books (Deathworld 1 about 10 years ago was the last). Not as good as I remembered but a nice way to while away some time.

Inferno #30: Gaunts Ghosts Special - Dan Abnett

I don't intend to put magazines in here - not that I read very many - but this one is an exception. One issue crammed with Ghost stories. Two short stories, one interview with Abnett, a background of the Tanith First's battles and a run through of all the Ghosts.

The first short story was repeated in the 1st Ghost anthology and I'd read it before whilst leaning against a bookshelf in Borders before it went bust - presumably from too many people reading their books lening against their bookshelves. It tells the story of a sculptor visiting the Ghosts in the ruin of Vervunhive. It's a nifty little tale that I enjoyed second time around as much as I did the first.

The interview and the background info is ok but nothing that ever needs re-reading.

The comic was fun. A quick romp through the different characters as they attacka chaos base. It's got no content to speak of and the art is slightly too macho with none of the characters looking anything like they do in my head but thast was always going to be the case.

The second short astory was the previously unpublished short that was grown into the first of the novels. It really was like reading a synopsis of half the novel. I've not read First & Only for a while now though so it was a fun little nostalgia trip.

Tales of the Dead Man - John Wagner & John Ridgway

I was completely taken in by this when I first read it years ago. This time all the clues are there, the 'Have you seen his eyes?' part in particular. It's beautifully written and paced to perfection. More happens in one two page Wagner spread than in most writers entire issues. He is the master of the 5 page 2000ad format. There's just no-one to touch him, Pat Mills included.

It's also good to be able to say that after all thease years since it was published Wagner is still nailing it. I've picked uip a few Dredds lately and they've all been good. The only slightly duff one was vol 14 (I think) of the Complete Dredd books. It had the first Ennis stories in it and it was pretty poor in places.

Ridgway I have a strange relationship with. At first glance I find his style quite a turn-off but once I'm into the story his artwork is the perfect place to be.

I'm so glad I picked this up. I remembered it as being proper good and 20 odd years later it's still a real fucking ride.

Death Will Have Your Eyes - James Sallis

I can probably count the number of spy novels I've ever read on the fingers of one hand. In fact, I can probably count the number of spy novels I've read on the index finger of one hand. I know nothing about them except exploding pens, ejector seats and butlers with killer-frisbee bowler hats. To be fair, to both myself and the genre, the tagline of this book is, 'A novel about spies', not '...about spying' you notice. This is a very important distinction. Sallis' book is primarily about the people not the situations they find themselves in. The protagonist, David, is a re-activated sleeper agent fighting against the comfort of his current life and the demands and duties his former life is now making of him. James Bond this isn't. David is an utterly human character. Sure, he can do 'spy' type things but that really isn't the point here, the point is what's happening inside his head more than outside it.

Sallis cut his teeth writing science fiction in the 1960's for 'New Worlds' magazine but is deservedly noted for his 4 (to my knowledge) Lew Griffin pulp-noir novels. Evidence of both of these can be found here. His theories on spying (given voice here by David's memories of his training) are pure sci fi (so much so they're probably true) whereas his noir roots show in a writing style that is slow and meandering through a plot that is airtight and beautifully paced, peopled with characters that you become genuinely fond of.

Starman vol 1: Sins of the Father - James Robinson

I was given this as a Xmas present by a friend. I'd read it a few years ago when another friend had leant me the set. I remembered quite enjoying it at the time. I think though it must have got better as it went along because this first volume was pretty feeble.

It really felt like a first volume. Too much clearing out of old mythos and too much clumsy world building. Also, and rather annoyingly, he still keeps too much of the backstory like retaining a couple of the clunky old characters such as The Shade, who appears all spooky-like, says something enigmatic before fading back into the shadows.

The main character is personable enough but I'm not feeling much desire to pick up the others after reading this one as I really didn't connect with him or the horribly cliched O'Dare family of cops.

It was an interesting place to go back to revisit - if only to see how much my tastes had changed - but probably not again.