TimC

It was the panel of him groping for his pen injector when he starts to feel odd that annoyed me. You don't treat a hypo by taking more insulin: that's the last thing you want to do when that's happening. You treat them by taking sugar.

Besides, if he's far enough gone to start hallucinating, the poor kid's probably already in a coma.

To be fair, it's not clear what he's grasping for there as he returns to 'reality' for the first time. His dialogue implies he's looking for the clock. The appearance of the insulin pen might be intended to confirm his condition, as I don't think it is directly mentioned in the book - his mother reminds him to eat his chocolate at the start, though the chocolate is later stolen from him, which is presumably the cause of this hypo state.

Me making early preparations for the Valentine’s Venetian Masked Ball at Club Noir.

I'll look quite the ladykiller, I fancy.

I really liked 'Joe the Barbarian'. Sure, not much happens in this first part, but it seems to be setting everything up. Reminds me of 'Flex Mentallo' in some ways, as well as the self-conscious neurotic boy outsider of 'St Swithins Day'. And the art was gorgeous - Murphy's much, much better here than in that Hellblazer fill-in.

I decided I wasn't looking at that after seeing the preview pages in Hellblazer. Is doing a little research into how insulin regimes work beyond Morrison's vast mental powers?

What's wrong with it? I'm curious, as I know next to nowt about diabetes. Morrison say he has done research, anyway -

From there, I wondered what real-life illness might be capable of triggering a delirious state which could put my hero in real physical danger while also allowing him to experience his own home as another kind of universe. One of Kristan's relatives has a daughter who suffers from Type 1 Diabetes, so she's had these experiences of going into dissociated states, and not knowing where she is and wandering around and getting lost. It's a precursor of more severe hypoglycemia, which can lead to complete unconsciousness and – in this particular scenario – even death. The illness itself was layered onto the story at the end to provide a kind of real world rationale for what happens to Joe, but when I was researching how teenagers deal with diabetes, I read all these heartbreaking, pragmatic, first-person accounts of how to keep hypo at bay or deal with one when it happens.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?id=24152&page=article

I also read some 'Origins of Siege' promo thing that my friendly local comic shop owner stuck into my bag. Not being a Marvel reader, I was actually surprised at quite how bad it was.

I wonder just how many kids used to sit in front of their parents TVs, hugging themselves in excitement and sotto voce singing along "Dooooooooo do do do DOOOOOOOOOOO de DOOOOOO dummity dumm dummity dumm dunnity dumm dee do" each week?.

Hey, I still do that. Only now I do it in front of my own TV, and not so sotto. I am 37.

We've been watching 'Sapphire & Steel', after getting the DVD set for xmas. Watched the first two 'Assignments' so far, and it's still a very effective exercise in low-budget creepiness - the fact that the plotting often doesn't make any sense at all just makes the whole thing more weirdly disorientating. The wife's had nightmares about ghostly apparitions and creeping darknesses for two nights running now...

The naming of the supposedly elemental characters still offends my chemical sensibilities, though.

Jones is a notorious liberal

I love the idea of being a notorious liberal. It's like being infamously moderate, or ingloriously well-meaning.

In the form of an haiku, could someone please explain to me why the Doctor transforms into other actors periodically?

Because I can't resist a challenge like that -

1.

Defeats Cybermen.

Collapses on Tardis floor.

Body is worn out.

2.

Needs help from Time Lords.

Put on trial, found guilty.

Exiled with new face.

3.

Cave of the Great One

Radiation soaks body

Here we go again.

4.

Falls from telescope.

It's the end but the moment

Has been prepared for.

5.

Pokes some bat droppings.

Gets spectrox toxaemia.

Not much antidote.

6.

Contract is ended

With unconvincing stand-in

Bumping head in crash.

7.

The US version.

Shot by some random gangsters.

Doesn't really count.

8.

No one really knows.

Not many are that bothered.

Time War, probably.

9.

Big snog with Billie

Absorbs vortex energy.

He was fantastic.

10.

Saves Bernard Cribbins.

It's radiation again.

Takes long time to go.

Look what I bought today for just $15!!!

 

I just want to cry.

Wow. That's a truly psychotronic selection of movies - there's a certain magnificent insanity about anything that can class 'The Beast of Yucca Flats' alongside the original 'Nosferatu'. Was there any conscious design in the compilation, or did someone just grab random items from the back catalogues?

There's some brilliant oddities in there though - if you've not seen 'Carnival of Souls', do so early. And Coppola's 'Dementia 13'! Wow.

I loved all of Kauffman's previous work and have huge man-crush on Hoffman so I was expecting to adore it but it was soul-crushingly shit.

Funny, I much preferred Synecdoche to anything else I've seen from Kaufman. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was fun, but not much different to the book. Adaptation was OK, but neither Malkovich nor Eternal Sunshine were half as funny or interesting as they apparently thought they were. Synecdoche just about hit the spot.

Also, I like that there appears to be something "else" going on with Wilf.

 

Could he be a Time Lord in hiding?

'Wilfred Mott' is an anagram of 'Time Lord WTF'.

Just saying.

I thought

If no one mashes that near-final sequence with

, I'll eat my scarf.

Also, I found a copy of Denise Mina's The Dead Hour at the local library. Not unlike most fiction I read, has been delayed far too long. I've heard good things from people here about her novels (unlike her stint on Hellblazer) so I'm reading this in between Kings short stories. I was kind of bummed they didn't have the previous book before this one as it is the second of three novels featuring the character Paddy. I don't think it'll matter much, but so far it's reading like one of Denise Lehane's detective novels which I enjoyed when I read those a couple years back.

The 'Garnethill' trilogy would definitely be spoilt if you read them in the wrong order, but you should be OK with the Paddy Meehans - each is a self-contained story, though there might be references to the earlier book which might spoil things a bit if you recall them when you get round to reading the first. They're all cracking reads, anyway.

I'm rereading David Peace's 'Red Riding' novels over xmas. They definitely make more sense when you read them in order (which I didn't first time round, 7 or 8 years ago). Halfway through now - reading 1974 after watching the TV adaptations this year was interesting, as you can't help but see the actors in the roles, and notice all the plotting changes, including some pretty major points (Sean Bean's character in the film was basically an amalgam of three entirely different characters from the book). And, on reflection, I can understand why 1977 was the one they dropped.

Speaking of Gibbons, I got given the complete Martha Washington for xmas, it smells amazing, more soon....

Smell's very important in comics. Titan's first Hellblazer collections smelt inescapably of vomit. I'm wondering whether I should go and give them a sniff to see if they still do.

Just gone through the first of IDW's collections of those turn of the '80s Bolland Dr Who strips. Some rather nice stories, but it's a very thin book. Are the Titan black and white collections any fatter?

Think you might mean Gibbons, not Bolland. The Titan collections are a fair bit chunkier, as well as being closer to the original size and uncoloured.

I probably know most of those early strips by heart, though. Fab stuff.

Quite. Last Of The Timelords and Evolution Of The Daleks were vastly better than any of that terrible shit from the '70s.

 

WHAT?!

I assume Dogpoet was being sarcastic, but I'd sort of agree with half of the statement. Last Of The Timelords rocked the cock. Evolution less so, but it's probably better than about half the 70s Dalek stories.

'The Boys' 37 - the secret origin of The Frenchman.

M. Ennis has, in some of his previous works, often presented a rather malign or mocking image of le Francais. So, c'est bon that he has at last written a serious portrayal of the lives, customs and deep moral philosophies of the noble Franglais people.

Ah haw hee haw hee haw hee haw.

I'm enjoying 'Cowboy Ninja Viking'. Daft fun, rather reminiscent of 'Casanova'. Anyone else getting this?

Michael Moorcock's writing a Who novel -

http://www.multiverse.org/?q=node/144&

I think the phrase is: Squeeeeeee!

The first story I saw was 'Destiny of the Daleks', and I still became a fan.

The eighth Doctor still doesn't count, though. Sorry.

'Jennifer's Body' - fun, but it's no 'Heathers'.

 

 

Is it a "Teeth" ?

About on a par, I'd say. 'Teeth' had the more interesting concept, but was maybe a bit trite. 'Jennifer's Body' has better jokes, but doesn't really do anything you've not seen before. There's definite similarities i the stories, but the subtexts are quite different (well, I say 'subtext', but neither are very sub) - Like 'Heathers', 'Body' is about growing apart from childhood friends, while 'Teeth' was very much in the classic 'I was a Teenage Werewolf' school of adolescent sex angst.

'Jennifer's Body' - fun, but it's no 'Heathers'.

The way of the 14-day timer and - whisper it - the vido recorder. All hail the vido.

It's vi-DAY-o!

Our vido only got unplugged to make room for the digital recorder and all its cables, but it's still sat there under the telly. It may live again.

I'm also somewhat irked at the stuff on the hard disk that I've probably lost - not just the last two Who specials which I was planning to rewatch before the new one, but a bunch of stuff I'd not watched yet including four episodes of 'Generation Kill' that I was saving up for a wet weekend.

Still, at least I can knock off early and watch Sarah Jane.

This is a fact which I had somehow forgotten. Planet Of The Dead went out on Easter Sunday, didn't it? Is that the only time since 2005 (excluding Christmas specials)?

I think PotD went out on the Saturday of easter weekend, but the first xmas special (2005) was on a Sunday. I do think Saturday would be better (not least because I'll still be at home then), but understand the reasoning behind the move.

But, most importantly, I won't be here on the Sunday and my digital recorder's just gone titsup. THIS WILL NOT STAND!

OK, I'll only be in London and can go round a friend's, but still.

Doctor Who on a Sunday? What kind of fuckery is this?

I guess it avoids whatever talent-show wank is clogging up the beeb on a Saturday evening at present. And 'Merlin'.

Besides, it's not the first time it's gone out on a Sunday.

Sunday 15 November confirmed for 'The Waters of Mars'.

I'll be away then. Bah.