Stuff I Like Lately

Comic: We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

A dog, a cat and a rabbit are turned into cybernetic assassins then go on the run when the time comes to pull the plug on the project.  Heartbreaking and cleverly written.  Be warned, "eye-poppingly violent" is not a metaphor in this case.

TV show: Aldnoah.Zero

Giant robots in the finest anime tradition but with equal focus on the soldiers fighting an inherently ridiculous war, elegantly handled political power-plays and some truly spectacular plot twists.  It's kind of daft how the lead character saves the day almost single-handedly pretty much every single time, but the rest of the show is so well done I'll let it off.

Tea

I do like tea.  I'ma go make a mug.

Five great endings

Inspired by the fact that I've just been watching Lost in Translation, here are five great endings to things. Not necessarily the five best, but the fact that they're the first five to pop into my head probably counts for something.

5. Panzer Dragoon Saga

It may be twelve years old, but I still ain't gonna spoil it. It's probably on YouTube or something. What's brilliant is that it takes a staple occurrence of RPG gaming that happened right at the start of the game and that you no doubt forgot about and uses it to turn the entire plot on its head.

4. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

World peace is ushered in through the power of rocking out. Yes.

3. "Not Fade Away", the last episode of Angel

Angel's last series was its best and its last episode was arguably the best of that. I don't read the comic continuation because this episode ends it so wonderfully.

2. Lost in Translation

Well, yeah. It's the use of The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" that does it, really.

1. The last strip of Calvin and Hobbes

Duh.

The question doesn't matter

Dinosaur Comics

Comixxxxxxx

So the Webcomic Thing was top fun for young and old. Personal highlight: meeting John Allison, who seemed far too young for a man who has been doing webcomics for ten years, and buying two books off him which he promptly signed with a little doodle in each (Shelley in one, Des in the other). And he then let me have a badge for free because I didn't have 50p in change. What a nice man.

Also Smithy gave me a jelly baby.

I would, however, like to question the wisdom of placing Sir John A. and Kate Beaton right near each other which resulted in considerable gridlock pretty much all day and prevented me from buying her book (I used the "I'll go later when there's less of a queue" reasoning then discovered she'd sold out).

Ah well. A very fine day anyway. Might have to go next year, hmm, yes, hmm.

Why you should go to the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing 2009

That's right, the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing 2009. The reasons you should go are many!

Reason #1: it's good, probably. I dunno, I haven't been before.
Reason #2: John Allison will be there. So will many other excellent people, admittedly, but John Allison.
Reason #3, a.k.a. The Main Reason: I have combined powers with the much-more-talented-than-me Matthew Smith to unleash The Royal Society for the Preservation of Sub-Literature Presents: A Series of Fragments from Lost Novels upon an unsuspecting planet, and copies of same will be available for your perusal at table 27.

To quote the peerless wisdom of Sanjay Nahasapeemapetilon, "You will be there or kindly be square."

PA in the hizouse

A couple of weeks ago, Penny Arcade celebrated its tenth birthday. I meant to mark the occasion, and forgot. So may I present (through links, as it's a heck of a lot easier), one strip for each year. Not necessarily the best, but good enough for readin'.

1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

Reasons to be cheerful

1. New Wallace and Gromit for Christmas Day
2. Coraline (try "buttoneyes" and "stopmotion" as key words)
3. New series of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
4. Ten years of Penny Arcade. Ten years!

Peanuts

Fifty-eight years ago today, the first ever Peanuts strip was published.

And the world became ninety-three percent more awesome.