We used to converse, so long ago

[alexsarll]

Mike Carey - whom some of you ie the goths will know from Lucifer - is an obscurely maddening writer. He has written some extremely good comics: Lucifer began and ended brilliantly, his Lyta Hall story was wonderful, and My Faith In Frankie is probably one of my favourite comics. And I don't think I can ever recall him doing an actively bad one. But an awful lot of the time, his comics are just...less exciting than they should be. I don't know why the middle sections of Lucifer dragged so, only that they did; his Hellblazer run likewise. And now he's doing the Wetworks relaunch. This has many advantages over other Wildstorm titles - for instance, it actually comes out more than once a quarter, and it hasn't been yanked from the shelves for daring to diss DC central. Its subject matter is unassailably brilliant - a dimension-hopping ruck between vampires and cyborgs. So how come it's almost always the last thing I read when I get my new comics? I honestly don't know, and this annoys me not just because I'm disappointed in my search for entertainment, but because if there's one thing I'm good at it's anatomising failings.

"Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Catholics in England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Some legislation, however well intended, in fact does create a new kind of morality, a new kind of norm - as this does."" Yes, a new morality in which nobody is above the law simply because the voices in their head said they should be, and in which people who cover for paedophiles, or have a background in the Hitler Youth, don't get to call the shots anymore. And about time too.

I think London's rearranging herself again; there've been a couple of minor ripples already this week, and today I saw what was clearly a long-established Conservative Club where there wasn't one last week.

Note to self: don't read books about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on public transport, people might get the wrong idea and take offence. Or worse - given where I live, people might get the wrong idea and approve.

Comments

[peacockpunk.livejournal.com]

Meh, the wiki entry on it doesn't inspire. I've just ordered that Peter Milligan thing, by the way.

Roughly how many comics do you get per month at the moment? I have to get trades; can't deal with crappy little comics and their adverts at all.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The Wiki on Wetworks, you mean? I've never read any of the earlier incarnations, apparently they were dreadful.

I think you'll like Milligan.

I have about 30 comics on my pull list, but given the delays on so many of them, it'd be a rare month when anything like that many turn up.

Waiting for the trade - well, yeah, tell me when you get Flex Mentallo, Aztek and Egypt through, eh?

[peacockpunk.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes I will.

Checks Amazon...

[peacockpunk.livejournal.com]

F### me sideways! £187 for Mentallo??? Oh, to have a stockpile in my pantry...

Re: Checks Amazon...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

And that is why I consider ads the lesser evil. Even with something more recent, trade-waiters are going to have quite some wait for The Boys, and that had been solicited!

Re: Checks Amazon...

[peacockpunk.livejournal.com]

You have quite sold me on The Boys, actually. And I do buy some comics, you know...

Re: Checks Amazon...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's not like I just decided to stereotype you out of the blue - you were the one said you "can't deal with crappy little comics and their adverts at all"!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, said slippery slope is a real danger, and that's why it was such a pleasant surprise that Blair didn't back down.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Best. Note-to-self. Ever.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Bah, you removed the other! I wanted to say it was especially amusing given all the Emirates sponsorship. Just a pity Osama doesn't attend the matches anymore, really.
All I'm hoping now is that dear old Mahmoud and chums get confused by this and end up annihilating Arsenal instead of Israel. Win-win-tastic!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_moggy_/]

Have you read Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels? (I am not a goth)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

No, tbh the concept looked a bit surplus to requirements given the comics I'd already read him on covered fairly similar ground. Any good?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_moggy_/]

The second one is better than the first. I'm definitely going to get the third though, the character isn't a carbon-copy Constantine although fairly similar. They're well written enough to make me want to read more but he's no Neil Gaiman.

he's no Neil Gaiman.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I fear that shall forever be his tragedy. But then, once we all thought Millar was just the Lidl Morrison.

It's not just Constantine - he used to do a 2000AD demons and gangsters thing with a chap called Carver Hale, and Castor seems like the midpoint between him and JC.