A. Heathen

Pooka's photos remind me of

Bolton,

Barnsley,

Nelson,

Colne,

Burnley

Bradford,

Buxton,

Crewe,

Warrington,

Widnes,

Wigan,

Leeds,

Northwich,

Nantwich,

Knutsford,

Hull,

Sale,

Salford,

Southport,

Leigh,

Derby,

Kearsley

Keighley

Maghull,

Harrogate,

Huddersfield,

Oldham, Lancs,

Grimsby,

Glossop,

Hebden Bridge,

Brighouse,

Bootle,

Featherstone,

Speke,

Runcorn,

Rotherham,

Rochdale,

Barrow,

Morecambe,

Macclesfield,

Lytham St. Annes

Clitheroe,

Cleethorpes,

The M62,

Pendlebury,

Prestwich,

Preston,

York,

Skipton,

S[over-used word]horpe,

Scarborough-on-Sea,

Chester,

Chorley,

Cheedle Hulme,

Ormskirk,

Accrington Stanley,

and Leigh,

Ossett,

Otley,

Ikley Moor,

Sheffield,

Manchester,

Castleford,

Skem,

Doncaster,

Dewsbury,

Hali-fax,

Bingley,

Bramall,

It's Grim Up North.

I had such a fine head of hair !

They do.

It's Karen Berger.

Check all the comic conventions in the US (The Uk has apparently ceased to be of interest for them - probably business suits getting in the way of creative ones).

Hurrah for Burton, Tamworth and Nuneaton !

All the little teams holding the big clubs (and Stoke ;-) to replays, and the relief that Birmingham's return to poor performance against Torquay was over-shadowed by four teams above us in the league - special note to the bastards of Fulham ... UP THE Os !

While plucky little Luton were looking unlikely to get an equaliser at 4-3, they should have had a freekick on the edge of Liverpool's penalty area after one of their players was kicked dangerously high ... just before Xabi Alonso went on to score the most delightful 65 yard goal from his own half. (A shot improved by footage of Steven Gerrard having a go at him for not passing only to turn round and see the ball go into the empty net.

And for our Scottish friends, let's hear it for Clyde!

Karen Berger is still in charge of Vertigo, and there are various editors working on the books - Jon Vankin on Hellblazer, Shelley Bond and Will Dennis still around.

However, DC's attitude to Vertigo - which is after all their biggest bridge into The Real World Outside of Comic Shops - seems dismissive. No editorial response unlike the DCU (see below), poor advertisement of potential new books (eg Testament, Denise Mina on Hellblazer) the Vertigo forums all merged into one. The last is a possible attempt at cross-promotion, but no-one from Vertigo takes the lead on the forum and it's a mess. The most recent interaction from Vertigo editors on the DC website seems to be 2003's Vertigo X.

As an aside, I found this while browsing the site!

ASK THE EDITORS » Read the latest column now! 

 

Remember the days of letter columns in the back of your favorite comics? Well, we're bringing 'em back, and taking them online!

 

To send a letter to the editor of your favorite title, click the envelope icon below. Every two weeks, we'll post new replies to your letters in our News Section.

 

For best results, be sure to include the following information in your email:

 

The Title and Issue Number of the comic you are writing about. Your First Name and Last Initial.

 

Please DO NOT include the following:

Your full name, mailing address or age. Artwork or attachments of any kind.

 

 

You will not receive a personal response to your email. Not all letters will be answered in the online letters column.

 

We are not currently taking letters for Vertigo, WildStorm, and MAD.

 

We are not able to answer questions about back-issue values.

http://www.dccomics.com/news/article_displ...letterseditor22

There is no Vertigo Universe, by the way, most of the books are self-contained, and the DCU characters who turn up in Vertigo books are still DCU characters who just don't cross-over into the kiddies' superhero books.

AMERICAN MALE MUTILATION MYSTERY SOLVED

The foreskins torn from the penises of circumcisees are used to make collagen implants (discovered in a recent discussion about Pete Burns)

Check google for neonatal foreskin and what do you get?

http://www.gettingit.com/article/200 (is not rude, honest!)

The cat tshirt lady, Jenika, painted me a lovely picture of Edward Scissorhands and our friends' three daughters for a pressie for Karen.

Go to her website and commission nice paintings from her.

http://www.neptunefactory.com/pages/home.html

Well I'm glad to know this Kennedy dude is the only alcoholic in politics, and the only one who did well at it while drinking to excess for years.  I'm sure politics absolutely does not work as a career for alcoholics, and that there are no pressures in it that would push any of its practicioners into drinking.

 

 

 

8-)

And no, in Parliament they do not have the cheapest bars in the country open 24 hours even before the change in the licensing laws.

Just before Xmas I finally signed up to Friends Reunited and looked up a couple of old mates - who I'd not seen for over ten years (since I moved to London we'd been less and less in touch). One of them has replied, and we seem to have led parallel lives - both still into our music and football, both married no kids.

I checked some of the old school chums and included a couple of updates on ex-girlfriends just out of interest. No intention to contact anyone else, although there's one good friend who does not appear on the internet that'd like to catch up with.

Then there's that Emo Phillips routine about meeting an old school bully and giving him a piece of his mind and making the bully cry ...

the one that finishes "and then I realised he wouldn't still be a fourteen year old boy".

You know, folks, Mike just liked the film.

and he's the kind of guy who will comment on the mote of enjoyment rather than the beam of criticism.

Sorry, I meant that they other way round, but it's too late to edit now.

Missy and Tim Bradstreet's LYDIA !

(Featuring her Daddy)

Merle Haggard

There's a circle of people where I'm no longer welcome

I'm ashamed to say that I'm no longer fit

I could sober up tomorrow and face my friends again

But I've got no reason to quit

No I've got no reason for living right and there's no other way to forget

I could sober up tomorrow and face my friends again

But I've got no reason to quit

[ guitar - mandolin ]

I've got no reason for living right and there's no other way to forget

I know down deep inside me I'm man enough to change

But I've got no reason to quit

Cracker (in response to Merle Haggard actually)

Reasons to quit:

Smoke and booze don't do me like before

And I'm hardly ever sober

And my old friends don't come 'round much anymore

Reasons to quit:

The low is always lower than the high

And the reasons to quit

Don't outnumber all the reasons why

So we keep smoking, and we keep drinking,

Having fun, and never thinking,

Laughing at the price tag that we paid

And we keep rolling down that fast lane

Like two young men, feeling no pain

And the reasons for quittin', getting bigger each day

Reasons to quit:

I can't afford the habit all the time

I need to be sober,

Need to write some new songs that will rhyme

Reasons to quit:

I have no rhyme or reason when I'm high

And the reasons to quit

Don't outnumber all the reasons why

Only if it affects his ability to lead, which it apparently does - he's arrived late for meetings or skipped them altogether because he's been too busy getting pissed.

That's the key thing.

Those hypocrites could have asked him to resign on that basis rather than letting ITV do the work and then jumping on The Wagon. Pretty much all of those are what are known as enablers and they should avoid the kind of glib comments that some of them have made.

There are many reasons why someone becomes addicted, and on the whole, Charles Kennedy has been a damn sight more successful at his job than any other liberal leader - even the Great Paddy Ashdown.

"Hellboy" you want I should introduce you to some "weaklings" with similar conditions ? It's a worthless attitude I'm afraid, and unless you're holding personal experiences to generate those opinions, I suggest you look into things a bit more.

If anyone is experiencing alcoholism - own or family or friends - I would suggest they look into other ways to helping themselves than scapegoating someone.

Ade -

Could you let folks know that I have been delayed with the prints because my new baby was born right before Christmas? I'm trying to catch up all over the place and will get these prints done as soon as possible but it may be another week before I can get this stuff shipped out.

 

Mucho sorry to all for the delay.

We had a healthy baby girl named Lydia Marie (our first). I'll send a pic when you touch base back. Mother and daughter are doing great (though mom is VERY tired

HURRAH FOR TIM and MRS TIM !

James means you dropped a name.

You know what these people who do not know famous people are like whenever you mention your friends they have heard of.

Get a fucking life, Long Hair !

The FBI keep them on file.

To accompany the annotations.

and a bonus

http://members.aol.com/adeheathen/londonsburning214manco.jpg

Today, football is marginally less rubbish, although the fact that four teams above us won is a bugger. The Harrod's Hamper syndrome has seen Fulham win again.

Good show !

London annual rainfall 24 inches

San Francisco 20.4 inches

New York 44 inches

Circumcised when I was about 8 or so for medical reasons (foreskin lacking elasticity - potential to tear in the event of an erection). I'm happy.

I've torn my frenulum - to use my newly-learned technical term for that thing that holds the foreskin at the underside of the penis - twice when I was at what sexologists call my "most sexually active" episode. It was sore for some weeks afterwards, but I never considered having the old pink polo neck removed.

It was of course quite disturbing to find blood on our nether-regions not related to the lady "having the decorators in". I like to think that it was an egalitarian gesture on the part of my part. (I've also had nosebleeds while giving head, that'll learn them !)

I am quite attached to it now, and solved the ancient problem of "smegma" by the even older cure of "washing".

Schools have sports teams, though not really in the US Highschool mentality.

All schools used to have decent playing fields, but I know the bastards in local councils sold them off for development which makes it harder for some city schools to run teams. There was a period where "competitive" sports were frowned on, and there may still be a sense that all kids must "win" even if they are crap at sports.

In winter there's usually a class-based football/rugby split (my school was proper football) and cricket/not-cricket in the summer.

School sports tended to be more civilised (several of the teams I now play against in the veterans football are Old Boys' teams) than the local sports rivalry - don't forget the shorter distances to travel mean that footer and rugger have the kinds of following you are thinking of from US Highschools.

Other sports are available - My school had a very good basketball team, before it had really taken root as a sport here.

If we have cheerleaders for our school teams then our education system has really gone to the fucking dogs.