OVS - COUNTDOWN TO OVS4 BEGINS - The Misfits...

With Omnivistascope issue 4 due soon, it's time to start to give a tantalising glimpse of some of the many wonders we have in store.

First up is The Misfits, a SF action story set in a distant age with mankind guilty of matricide against Mother Nature. Now, at the end of the era of the natural world, a very unnatural menace begins to fight back. And one ordinary man is caught up in the centre of it all. With art by Matt Herbert...

OVS - Omnivistascope Issue 4 Pre-Orders

Well, I've been in touch with the printers and OVS4 should be with me next Tuesday, so I am now taking pre-orders for the comic, which is a full 80 pages of crazy goodness.

I'll have the Wednesday off, so any pre-orders received should go out then, meaning you'll get them the same time as people at the Bristol festival that weekend.

The price is £3 plus £1 postage in the UK (please enquire for Europe and the rest of the World) and you can pay by PayPal or cheque, see the Shop section for e-mail and real world addresses.

All the best

Paul

Film - Diary of the Dead

I've come a bit late to the party with this one. I had intended to see it on my birthday, but nothing really went right on my birthday this year :)

Diary of the Dead is the fifth zombie movie from George Romero, following on from Night of the Living, Dawn, Day and Land of the Dead. None have been strict sequels, no characters follow on, though some themes permeate them all.

George Romero at last got a new lease of cinema life after being kept in limbo for many years by film industry halfwits. Now perhaps the people who have grown up with Romero as a legendary figure, now have power and influence of their own, Romero can at last make films*. He is a many who can say whatever he wants about the world, as long as he does it using the now respected artistic medium of zombies.

Land of the Dead had a muted reaction from those expecting another die hard classic, and I confess I was no different initially, though I've since grown to really appreciate the movie. For looking back, when has Romero ever delivered the expected with his zombie movies? There are some great things about Land of the Dead, the comment on gated communities and the clinging to capitalism and showing zombies to be just another downtrodden class too. A sympathetic lead role for a pro-active zombie is a real first. I never got that excited about the mobile weapon 'Dead Reckoning', but it was probably a really clever metaphor for something! Let's say it's the American Military machine for example and move swiftly on.

Diary of the Dead is a handheld documentary style movie examples of which include Blair Witch Project and the recent Cloverfield. In it a team of film students, making their own horror movie, learn that the dead are returning to life and begin a difficult journey trying to reach their loved ones. It's a zombie road trip movie all filmed by the participants. It starts off feeling a little forced, but definitely grows as a movie as the journey progresses.

In the film Romero comments on the breakdown and divisions of society, the truth and how it's manipulated, as well as the global phenomenon of modern communications which gives everyone a voice, but makes it difficult to hear all but a few. But don't worry, he also gives us some novel and grotesque zombie deaths if you prefer to digest guts rather than brains. It's not what I expected, it'll take me another few watches to appreciate it fully I expect, and for that I salute George Romero.

* I stole this theory and take no credit for it.

The Night of the Living Dead competition is now closed, with 5 people receiving prizes of special edition DVD's. Shamble forth to receive your inedible prizes; Mathew Shepherd, Mark Woodland, Paul Glasswell, Ben Clark and David Dobbs.

OVS - Omnivistascope, 100% Proof

With any luck I should hopefully be getting the proof through for OVS4 from the printers. It's an exciting time, but one that part of me most definitely dreads. For I always make mistakes, some major, some minor. What do I have time to correct, what is possible to correct?

We shall see. It has been a slightly more stressful issue to produce than most and for the moment I am in limbo, the time between producing a comic and the time when it arrives. When it does, it becomes a real object, not just an idea or a concept but a comic book.

And then... well, the work just goes on. Then I have to sell it.

I shall let you know how it all goes :)

TV - Being Human makes a comeback

As one of a series of pilots screened earlier in the year, Being Human seemed doomed to oblivion as one of the other series had supposedly already been selected for production before going to air. But, it seems that audience reaction still can play a roll in what makes it to the screen as Being Human has been commissioned for a six episode series.

Being Human relates the lives of three characters, a Ghost, a Werewolf and a Vampire who share a flat and their problems as they try to reclaim normal lives. It manages to avoid falling into the trap of becoming something akin to Abbot and Costello meets the Universal film monsters, the mawkishness of a Neil Gaimen book, the desperate oversexed underthunk nonsense of Torchwood and the hormonally imbalanced Buffy. Quite a feat in modern telly.

Instead it had touches of American Werewolf in London, Withnail & I and a genuine warmth coming from believable relationships between the characters.

For me the pilot had the most potential of a horror genre program since Ultraviolet, which was only shown at a time when vampires were watching, and it presumably wasn't to their taste. Let's hope Being Human fairs better and it's a big hit for 2009.

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/

SF Now - The Doomsday Bureaucracy

There are rules and guidelines for everything these days, with new rules being generated all the time, the people who make them now have to go looking for problems that don't exist just so they can write more guidelines and keep their job. Or, if they are really lucky, they may just have some extra funding to spend on guidelines.

Often or not the guidelines aren't followed, but as long as they can prove they are by placing the right ticks in the right boxes and they have the paperwork to show they've followed the systems, that's fine. There are layers upon layers of regulations designed to make things fairer, simpler and more cost effective.

But instead they just restrict genuine freedom, fail to accommodate the people they are supposed to serve, stifle innovation and produce an expensive and dogmatic viewpoint. While at the same time allowing inefficiency, bias, laziness, and occasionally, sheer plain stupidity to thrive. Because there is always a way round rules for those who know the system.

A good example would be all the increased powers the police have had over the years, through additional laws and increased surveillance in our society, but they can't stop some rowdy kids making everyone's lives a misery. Or the inability to hold anyone to account when you have a problem with a company that holds your bank details.

If people knew what both public and private organisations did behind their backs, frankly, there would be a revolution. But again, there are levels of secrecy to which most of us aren't party to. You might complain about Problem A. and they will shake their heads and say that sadly there isn't an answer. All the time however, not only are they fully aware of Problem A. but it may actually be something they have deliberately created to offset Problem B. Problem B often being money.

Mankind shouldn't fear a possible SkyNet scenario with its nuclear warheads and attack robots, instead they should watch for the day when these organisations, weighed under with ever more fantastic and convoluted bureaucracy, finally become complex enough to become sentient beings in their own right. At that point, automated vehicles will come round every second Tuesday to collect us, strips us to our essential components, send them to the recycling plant where they are sorted, graded and then dumped in a landfill. And then, with all the people gone, at last, they can be truly efficient.

Games - 54 Jones - Something's Coming

The first expansion to the 54 Jones board game is now available on the Yahoo group, via the games section on this site. The original game has turned out to be the best quick board game I've yet devised, fun, with lots of opportunities for the cunning and devious. Plus it works with between 2 and 5 players (yet to try 6), and you can always come back from a poor position to win the game.

Now the first of three planned expansions is out. It is called Something's Coming, and offers some fiendish new tile types and icons to add to the mix with a new end tile that guarantees one player (instead of the chance of everyone not making it in the main game). Favourites include vicious Shunk Flies, Big Cynth, Something's Coming (where the monsters fight back) and Shunk Locks and Flooded Sections.

Of course it is in play testing stage, so things may change a little, but it should be good fun to play and I'll be giving it a whirl later this week and reporting back.

Till then...

72 Scott

TV - Darkly Dreaming Dexter...

Well, ever since I got the freeview digi-box, I have actually been watching some TV again as it replaces my need to have a memory or be in the same place every week, neither of which is very likely.

Of the shows that this device has allowed me to watch are The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which isn't very interesting, spinning off as it does from the not very interesting Terminator 2.

The Bionic Woman, which is a remake of the 70's spin-off show of the six-million dollar man, is considerably more interesting. With a revamp of the concept, modern story arcs, recurring bad guys and subterfuge, deceit and treachery. It's not a fantastic show, but it's by no means bad.

Then there is Dexter, adapted from the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, about a forensics expert who is a serial killer of serial killers. I was writing a comic story called Killer of Killers a while back until someone pointed out how ludicrous it was (it was), but the same idea done properly works very well here. Luckily for me Jeff Lindsay got in first and did it much better. Not having read the novel yet (though I think I will) all I can comment on is the TV show, which I find to be genuinely intriguing and entertaining.

Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall (who played the gay funeral director in Six-Feet Under), and does so with such charm and humour it's hard not to like this murdering sociopath. Dexter must hide his lack of emotion as he juggles his job, cover relationship and personal obsessions. But most of all he is locked in a battle with a veritable grand master serial killer, the Ice Box Murderer, who not only knows Dexter's secret, but is playing games with him.

The many exciting twists and turns throughout the series make it quite the treat. And whereas Hannibal Lector generally appalled, Dexter guiltily appeals. Recommended.

OVS - Issue 4 at the Printers

Well, after good deal of work by a good deal of good people (and myself), issue 4 of Omnivistascope is now at the printers, so I now have time to relax a little and try and take stock of the situation.

I feel the comic has improved with each issue, but that with this issue I feel I've managed to create something that starts to go beyond small press into comic strips that stand their own against those that might be found in a professionally published comic. Others may disagree, and I have qualified that statement, but it's a good issue all the same.

It has some fabulous art on the strips and the cover is really something special this time around. Many of your favourite strips appear from before, and those missing are merely on holiday I assure you :). Plus there are more articles about favourite and influential science fiction and fantasy shows and comics. It's also the biggest issue to date.

This issue also features the first guest strip, i.e. one not written by me. I've always felt guilty about not including others work, but putting the comic has always been quite a drain on resources that I haven't felt able to afford to do it on a very practical basis. However, with this issue I've had the chance to include another writer's story which I thought was great and had got criminally overlooked in the past. Hopefully I can do more of this in future.

With the next issue, OVS5, I hope the comic will undergo something of a metamorphosis. A new way of doing things, a new way forward, but remaining very much the same comic at heart.

But for the moment my thoughts still lie firmly with issue 4, hoping all goes well at the printers and the promotion I intend to do at this years Bristol Comic Expo in May. It's the hardest part of putting out an independent comic.

Wish me luck.

Strip - Omigawd Man - This One's for Chuck

OVS - The Long Weekend

Well, it's been a long two weeks of work, having taken on extra hours to pay for the next comic as well as trying to get the last of Omnivistascope 4 finished in my remaining spare time. I'm not quite there yet, I have work today and then the rest of the weekend to put the comic together.

There's still a lot to do, and already tired, I have to be careful not to make any mistakes at this stage. A moment's carelessness will stay in print forever!

Also toiling away, or relaxing post-toil, are the artistic genii who translate my mind gibberings into readable comic pages. My thoughts are with them at this trying time.

It's undoubtedly the best issue to date, I've made some real progress on the writing front with some of the latest material and there is some frankly astonishing art in there as well.

However I've increasingly come to learn that the making of a comic is only half the battle. Promotion, marketing your comic is just as important, if not more so. For someone who wants to remain independent and do comics for the sake of wanting to do comics, it feels wrong that I should have to resort to advertising and self-promotion. Shouldn't the comic sell itself?

But that's not how the world works. Nobody will buy your comic/book/film/novelty egg cup unless they know it exists and they have enough information to decide whether it will be for them. So I'll be struggling, post comic release, with that foul abomination from the most loathsome pits of hell - marketing. I feel ill just thinking about it. Any suggestions on a postcard, please.

The fridge is full of red bull and I'm preparing my mind for the titanic struggle ahead as I wrangle stories, corral files, herd letters and hopefully dispatch Omnivistascope issue 4 to the waiting printers on Monday morning.

Time for me to go to work.

The blog may not be updated for the next few days, unless I get bored or need a break!

Comics - Vote in the Eagle Awards

The Eagle Award Nominations have been picked and now voting for the awards themselves begins. Omnivistascope didn't get a nomination, so we'll have to do better for next year :)

The awards themselves have become increasingly more Americanised over the last few years, though they were born out of UK fandom for US comics, so the bias has always been there. Ken Reid was never going to win an Eagle Award, neither was Leo Baxindale. They created the wrong sort of comics.

Now it's not just superhero-centric fans from the UK voting it's US superhero-centric fans as well. I think if the awards were marketed at a more diverse crowd, we might get more diverse awards, but the bias may shift in other ways. 30,000 Beano readers voting would make the awards look like Beano Town of course. So perhaps we should accept them as a largely Superhero based awards that occasionally recognises other notable comics.

Of course this didn't affect my nomination bid for best Black and White British comic book, where there are no US or Superhero competitors, OVS just didn't get enough votes :)

Be sure to make your vote count!

http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nominate.asp

Competition - Night of the Living Dead Special Edition

There's probably little I could say about Night of the Living Dead that hasn't already been said. A brooding intelligent horror film that created a new sub-genre of horror film. Zombies. Any movie that is as well hailed by serious critics as splatter fans is obviously something special. The appeal of the film comes in its stark portrayal of an incomprehensibly frightening scenario and the strong characterisation of those hoping to survive the night in a besieged house.

Omnivistascope has 5 copies of the 'Special Collector's Edition' (no, don't ask me what that really means anymore) to giveaway, which feature two commentaries, one by the man himself as well as a host of extras in addition to the remastered feature. To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question.

What does the A stand for in George A. Romero?

A. Aardvark
B. Anton
C. Andrew

E-mails or Post to the usual address. You can find the details in the Shop or Arcana (Contact). The competition winner will be picked on May 1st. Please include your name and address with entry. I delete all addresses after the competition closes and no contact details are passed on or used for other means. All winners are picked randomly, and anyone may enter, though be aware these are Region 2 (European) DVDs.

Best of luck, hope they don't get you first.

Books - Mazes & Monsters

Well, having watched the film, and grown to love it, I thought I'd read the book. Luckily my local council has a good library service (of which I am but a tiny overlooked cog), so they had it in their bookstore. Mazes & Monsters was written by Rhona Jaffe, a successful novelist who wrote some 15 novels across a career spanning almost half a century and seems to have pre-empted the Sex and The City culture with her books, especially her breakthrough novel 'The Best of Everything' from 1958 which was her first book to became a movie. Rhona Jaffe died in 2005.

Mazes and Monsters the novel follows the basic plot of the film quite closely (or rather the film follows the book), with the characters very recognisable by name and personality. Where the book diverges is during the vacation, where for the middle of the book, the characters return home and we explore their home lives, and then each of their mothers gets a chapter where we learn about their dashed hopes and missed opportunities. A good third of the book has nothing much to do with the real story, but then this book wasn't aimed at students and gamers, it was aimed at their mothers. So let's give her credit for appealing to her target audience by providing them with a look at the different lives of these women in addition to the mess their children get into with 'the game'. And of course their parents' life decisions have a big impact on their children and are just about relevant to the story.

The book slightly sensationalises role-playing, but Ms Jaffe has done her homework. We do learn a little more about the characters, but much of what is in the book makes it to the screen. And I think that's what surprises me most, is that the TV film was a very good adaptation. It skipped a lot of the darker elements such as Kate's incident in the Laundry Room and Robbie stabbing a man who is trying to procure him for favours while thinking he is the Holy Man Pardieu. It also greatly cuts down the vacation scenes and is a little less hysterical and a touch more warm. But it's almost all in the book.

The book remains an interesting curio, but we should be grateful Rhona Jaffe wrote it. It was written to be popular, and there haven't been many novels about role-players (I imagine most of the fear of the game has gone in all but the most die hard religious groups) so Mazes & Monsters remains an important book in the history of gaming. Overall I would recommend the film over the book, the film tells the main story more clearly and uses the detail from the novel well.

As you can see, the book's best years were in the eighties and I was the first person to get it out for 7 years.

SF - Charlton Heston, The Last Man on Earth

Charlton Heston (1924-2008) died yesterday at his family home, with his wife of 64 years by his side.

He will be remembered by many for his performances in epic movies such as Ben Hur and the Ten Commandments and rightly so. But for science fiction fans, he brought credibility and his undeniable charisma to three of the best science fiction movies ever made, all adapted from well respected novels.

Planet of the Apes (1968) was the first and most celebrated of them, adapted from the occasionally more thoughtful novel by Pierre Boulle. Heston played Colonel George Taylor, a misanthropic and disillusioned astronaut who is all to happy to leave the Earth behind and head for the stars. When his craft and crew crash land on an arid planet, they find their only female crew member was already dead, her suspended animation capsule having malfunctioned. They set off across the desert of this new world, only to encounter mute humans and a dominant civilisation of apes. Taylor finds himself thrown into this mad world and he fights to maintain his dignity, identity and freedom. Only to ultimately find on a deserted beach, the remains of the Statue of Liberty and confirmation that this is the Earth and those crazy fools really did blow it all up. It has become an iconic moment in cinema, as much due to Heston's wails of anguish as the revelation itself.

Heston, suitably athletic and good looking, brings a commanding presence to the roll. With a perfect performance as the cynical outsider, forced to care about his fellow man and become involved in the human race once more.

The Ωmega Man was a loose adaptation of Richard Mathesson's I am Legend, the story of the last man on Earth, who hunts vampires by day and is hunted in turn by night. Released in 1971, it has Heston as a determined, if somewhat haunted figure, Robert Neville. Heston plays a man determined not to let his mind unravel, and survive both physically and mentally from then End of Civilisation. He survives by making his goal the destruction of the survivors of a biological warfare attack who have become photophobic and lost their skin pigmentation and marbles. But finally, he sacrifices himself to bring about a new world.

Heston puts in a great performance as a strong man who is struggling against his weaknesses in a world where one mistake will be fatal. It has Heston at his most vulnerable of the three films.

Then came Soylent Green in 1973, adapted from Harry Harrison's eco-thriller Make Room! Make Room! in which Heston plays New York cop Robert Thorn opposite Edward G. Robinson's Sol Roth. It was the last role for Robinson, who was originally set to play Dr Zaius in Planet of the Apes. The movie is a bleak detective story in a world that has become overpopulated and suffering from severe ecological problems. Thorn is just out to survive, but becomes embroiled in a deadly conspiracy when he investigates the murder of a Soylent Corporation executive.

The final revelation that "Soylent Green is people!" has again passed into movie legend, but really that's just a side-effect of the real and more terrifying revelation, that the oceans are dead. Heston gives his cop an almost callous approach to everyday life, but shows a desperate compassion for his aged partner.

All of these movies are unthinkable without Heston who stands firm as a rock in each of them. Indeed, remakes of Planet of the Apes and Omega Man have both floundered without someone of his stature in the lead roll. Of course, Charlton Heston did so much more in his life and in his films. But we should be grateful that he brought his towering presence to three truly great SF Films, all of which shall live on for a long time, powered as they are by his exceptional performances.

Comics - Who Would Be a Fan?

It's something I've been thinking about for a while now, that anybody who enjoys anything more than the norm, a fan (or the attempt to be less spodderish, but actually more spodderish 'enthusiast') is setting themselves up for an endless line of disappointments in life. The mockery they can live with, but disappointment, that's tough to bear.

A man has recently given up his Doctor Who collection for god. He hasn't done the decent thing and burned it in a big pyre, while screaming insanely. Oh no, he's e-baying it. Despite Doctor Who getting him through depression and alcoholism, he's no match for the Omnipotent One™ it seems. God may have less merchandise (and the memorabilia trade hasn't been the same since the middle ages), but he's obviously filling a necessary gap for stories and mythology in this man's life. It's perhaps an attempt to avoid the real issues in life, but then, we all need a little time out from reality.

I first realised fans had a raw deal from the Alien franchise. Knowing someone who was really into it, collected everything they could find, watched the movies endlessly. And all he got was a gradual erosion of all the faith he'd placed in the films as they got increasingly shoddy. They started well with an interesting premise, a good story (courtesy of O'Bannon and Shusett) and the design interests of Ridley Scott (who had the same art teacher as me, with wildly differing results). They'd ended with some sort of living poo running around a ship calling out for its mother, Ripley. With Geiger claiming they literally turned his creature into shit. Once that had been spent and tossed aside, they moved onto Aliens versus Predator. This had been an alien fan's wet dream since the Predator 2 movie featured an alien skull and the Dark Horse range of comics which were often thought better of than the films. But that was rubbish too, this was the dog end of a franchise.

The law of diminishing returns with movie sequels applies. With each subsequent film there is a need to provide what is familiar, more of the same thing which made it successful in the first place. And the desire to add new elements usually results in some odd deviation. In Aliens (which is a good example) one alien is now not enough, so it becomes many. But that diminishes the horror so a new Queen alien is introduced. For later films the aliens change with their hosts and then finally (as if this wouldn't have happened the first time if they swap DNA) become human/alien hybrids with nonsensical results. Eventually the films are almost entirely divorced from their ancestors.

The problem is that many a great film as conceived as a one off, to try and graft on an unplanned sequel by different writers and directors is always going to create something that, in its soul, isn't continuous. While movies filmed back-to-back are without a doubt one of the greatest blights of the modern movie age. There is only so much soul (creative craft) to spread about and if you split it between two or more movies, all you have is something that hasn't had a full breath of life pumped into it. A staggering zombie cash cow.

Ongoing dramas such as a radio serial, TV series or comic strip manage to deal with these problems much more seamlessly, but still suffer with problems once there has been a break in continuity. But any fan of a movie franchise is in trouble and it's the very word 'franchise' that is the problem. Once you have a franchise, then you may as well just nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure this crap won't multiply. Because by then it's become 'product' to be spun out into endlessly shitty forms to be sold back to the fan or 'devoted consumer'. Fans will watch a rubbish sequel to get a small scrap of joy from it. A small morsel of background information on a world can keep them going for a while.

We all want to buy into these worlds on some level, these mythologies, but when they are sold back to us all it really gives us is a hefty credit card bill. The truth is we're clutching at rainbows. A great one off film might make you want to know more, but that's the intangible magic, the product of your own imagination. We all have different thoughts of what might happen after a good movie, so why can't we just keep them to ourselves where they will forever remain vital and unsullied. Instead of saying 'What if?' and expecting someone to present us with an answer, why not just take the 'What if?' as our reward?

What you can do is rise up, retain your imagination and your desire for new things by staying a healthy distance from these things. Sure, buy yourself a little bit of tat if you want, but keep it in proportion. If you want to build a Tardis in your garden, fine. But does it have to be a full-sized one and what the hell are you going to do with it? Sit it and hum the Doctor Who theme in the dark? Remember, your loyalty to Aliens isn't respected by 20th Century Fox, it's exploited.

This doesn't of course just apply to aliens, it's something fans of The Matrix, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes and an endless array of 'marketable properties' will be familiar with. Recently I was told of a grown man with a family who bought a three-foot long Lego Star Destroyer. That's not something that can really bring pleasure, it's a placebo, something that at best reminds us what we once enjoyed about an old movie, long long ago...

Comics - Doing it Yourself

It's been quite an amazing experience to reprint all of the Solar Wind comics in two professional looking volumes and I have to say I'm only sorry I didn't do it sooner. Perhaps if the 250-page collections had come about earlier I might have continued. But that's a big perhaps :)

However I can't help but think that companies like Lulu.com represent a real revolution for people putting out their own comics. No longer hindered by problems of low print runs and able to put out books as professional looking as any publisher. It makes the creative process democratic, which is probably going to make many publishers increasingly nervous about their 'meritocracy' as time goes on.

Yes, there will be a lot of rubbish produced as a result, but then, there already is a lot of rubbish in the professional arena, even if it is higher than average quality (and nicely edited) rubbish. When J K Rowling can be driven into depression by seemingly endless rejection notes before going on to become one of the most successful novelists of our age, then you have to start wondering how much chance has played in giving us or depriving us of many great untold stories as well as the whims and prejudices of publishers.

I hope to put an small article on the site in due course (once OVS4 is in the can) about self publishing on lulu. In fact I hope to put a few articles about my experiences of putting out my own comics as I get a few enquires about this from time to time, and do my best to answer them (please let me know if my comments are of any use).

It's going to be interesting to see where we end up in five years time. Chaos, strangeness and madness in all likelihood. Excellent...

Comics - The Bumper Book of Solar Wind!

Solar Wind is a comic that ran for eleven issues (including spin-offs), 5 years, won a National Comic Award and was nominated for an Eagle Award. It's had countless contributors who have helped create a fitting homage to the British adventure comics of yesterday.

Though most of the issues are well out of print (a few are left in the shop), I have spent the last few months on a backbreaking project to remaster the pages and produce a compilation of the comics. This has resulted in The Bumper Book of Solar Wind, a two-volume softback set, each of over 250 pages, featuring all of the issues produced and with contents and introductions to each. Volume 1 reprints Solar Wind issues 1-5, while Volume 2 covers issues 6-8, Big War and Sunny for Girls. Two volumes were necessary due to the file sizes involved, and except in rare instances where original files weren't available, this is the best reproduction the comic has had. With help from Ben Clark it also has 'Less typos than ever before!".

All of this has been made possible due to the power of the internet, and specifically Lulu.com, an on-demand publisher. The books have been set to zero-profit on the site which means Lulu makes some money from publishing them, but I receive nothing. This keeps the books as cheap as possible for contributors, fans and people who missed them the first time round. But hopefully it also is in keeping with the ethos of the comic, that it was never for personal gain. Any royalties wouldn't go far between all the many contributors, and I'm not looking to profit from it. Solar Wind was its own reward.

To buy both books from Lulu, with economy postage will cost approximately £15. Quite a bargain seeing as though the originals would have come to £33 plus postage.

Looking through the collections, I think all of the contributors can be justifiably proud of their work on the comics. I think it's fantastic that we can have a memento of the fun times we've had and again I'd like to thank everyone who worked on the comics. These are for you!

http://stores.lulu.com/omnivistascope

Games - White Dwarf

Once gaming was a major hobby in this country, largely centred around Games Workshop which which sold its own games and others in specialist stores. It even had its own in-house magazine, White Dwarf which reviewed games of the day and had articles/features on the new hobby of role-playing. Looking back at these magazines, it's amazing to see what an industry had built up around gaming. This is most vividly shown in the adverts for countless companies selling their own games.

Sure, most of these might have been cottage industries, but I find that exciting in itself. A bit like the small press scene for comics here in Britain, but much more popular! Sadly all good things must come to an end, and one game to rule them all was the deciding factor.

Support of the world of Warhammer, meant that support for other games was destined to come to an end and with it the window of opportunity for many people to sell their wares and find out about new games. Perhaps times were changing as well, either way the golden age of gaming had come to an end. That's if 'Golden Ages' aren't just the fuzzy memories of old people.

But that's not to say that there isn't lots of good stuff out there now! And with access to the internet you can now trawl the best of the modern and the old. The internet I think is already allowing lots of people to do their own thing, create new scenes and find people to play their games and read their comics. And I think it can only grow in power and appeal. Whether like comics; role playing, board and wargames will reach a new young audience again is hard to say.

Anyway, that leads me shamelessly to a plug, as I'm parting with some of my goods on e-bay. If I'm honest, a part of me doesn't want them to sell, so I can keep them on the old dragon's horde. But this is my annual clear out of games stuff to help pay for my comic and sacrifices have to be made. This year it might be the last of the big clear outs, as a lot of stuff has gone over the last few years. Still, more to come for the next few weeks :)

UPDATE: They didn't sell. Some might go to Prestonpans this year, or I'll hang on till them till I want the space and send them to a good home.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZpaulvonscott

Weather - Here Comes the Sun

Hurrah, the clock have been moved forward. So now when I leave work, it's light! At last we can start to say goodbye to six months of darkness and look forward to a time when we don't have to wear a woolly hat indoors.

While I'm not really designed for the heat (my brain begins to melt slightly above room temperature), I do love long summer evenings. I'd happily leave Britain for the winter months and go to New Zealand or Australia if I could (I can't).

Anyway, as my favourite Beatle would say, here comes the sun...

http://www.joanjett.com/Lyrics/lyrics/HereComesTheSun.htm