Cluttered Like My Head

 As I said before, V was a roaring success, and that success meant that tie-ins needed to arrive. The first if these was the adaptation of the two mini-series in the form of a chunky paperback novel by Ann Crispin. At the time, Crispin was presumably seen as a safe pair of hands. She had experienced breakout success with a Star Trek novel and delivered a V novelisation that is engaging throughout and that rockets along at impressive pace.  Released in the US at the same time as the second mini-series, I think it's obvious to see the differences in approach to the two mini series.  Presumably, in the case of the original two parter, which had already aired, Crispin had access to both the scripts and the completed material. Much like that original show, the first half of the book is more thoughtful, takes more time to develop the characters, and indeed expands some of them from their televised version.  I wonder if, for the second series, she only had access to the scr...

  Following on from before, it's another excellent issue of "The Daredevils" - Firstly, Brian Braddock returns to his ancestral home to find himself under attack by a villain called Mastermind. Again, Moore does a neat bit of work here retconning something that happened before without rendering it incoherent. More fine formative work from Alan Davis - at this time Marvel UK wasn't really producing much of its own comics material, so it's a bit rough around the edges but it's great to see.  Following on from this, we've got Bullseye kidnapping Black Widow to lure a trap for Daredevil. More marvellous art from the Miller / Janson team, and its effectively laying subplots about Ben Urich. Top drawer stuff. The Spider-Man strip from years before still pales into comparison, but I note that it's introducing the Kingpin, so maybe they are using that strip as a way of backstory to the wider DD continuity.  There's a two page article about a recent UK Comi...

  Back in 1984, a blockbuster US sci-fi show ran over 5 nights and gripped the nation, It was a short-lived phenomenon,  We didn't really know it at the time, but the original V mini-series was a 2 parter which aired in the US in 1983. It was a big success so the network commissioned a follow-uo but differences of opinion with the shows creator saw him depart and a three parter "V: The Final Battle" which saw the show veer away from being a parable about World War 2 towards standard television soap-opera, with lasers.  The 5 episodes were shown across a Monday-Friday in July 1984 on ITV and they were a huge success. Over in the US a weekly series had been commissioned, but it wasn't and although it dribbled into the ITV regions, it was never networked. The time for V had passed.  But - there were spin-offs. DC Comics started releasing a monthly comic to tie in with the weekly show. When that ground to a halt, the comic continued, their characters in stasis waiting fo...

 I mentioned previously that I had set myself a goal of 600km or November 1st before I could buy a new pair of running trainers, and as both of those milestones have passed, and I had seen a pair that I fancied in the autumn sales, I bit the bullet and ordered them.  In typical Steve-style delayed gratification mode, I am trying to stop myself from actually running in them until I have got past 700km in the current pair - I'm at 647km now so I might get to try them on this side of Christmas.  When I was hunting around for a pair that was reasonably priced, I couldn't find a lot of info about these shoes - I found a write-up or two saying that they were shoes to be comfortable in when you were running lots of miles, and that they're not really shoes to wear if you are chasing a PB. Well, at my age, and with my physical level, I don't think chasing a PB is something that I'm particularly worried about. They seem to fit ok - but I guess the proof is in the running. The...

 I got issues 1-11 of The Daredevils in an auction a few weeks ago, and thought I’d take a look at them here. For the uninitiated, this was a short-lived Marvel UK Monthly title that combined new Captain Britain scripts from Alans Moore and David with the Frank Miller Daredevil. They added a few behind-the-scenes text pieces as well and it’s really quite an interesting curio. I didn’t read it at the time - I think this first issue is from January 1982 and although I was buying comics at this point, I suspect I only had eyes for US Marvels. I distinctly remember seeing an issue of this title on the shelves at Don Staniforths but passing it over for (I think) Uncanny X-Men 194 (Nimrod) - more fool me, I should have bought them both. (I’ve checked the calendar and that issue was 3 years later - so I’m guessing the memory cheats!) The Captain Britain story is great - it serves both as an excellent continuation of the stories that had come before as well as being a great jumping-on-poin...

 My relationship with Gene ended up complicated - I first saw them in 1995 at the Roadmender and I loved them instantly. Over the years, I saw them many more times, dragging a variety of pals with me to those gigs - at those gigs, I first encountered amazing bands supporting them like Muse, The Divine Comedy and (British) Sea Power. I saw them in London, Oxford, in Brighton and in Southsea, and I even managed to drag everybody to see them in San Francisco when we were there on holiday in 2002. I occasionally made poor quality recordings of some of those gigs, and put some of tracks up for download on my website devoted to the band. It's fair to say that they were my favourite band.  Despite this, it was pretty clear that they were up against it. Every step forward seemed to be associated with a step back, and their struggles to get their final LP heard meant that nobody was really surprised when they called it a day and played an emotional final gig at the Astoria in 2004. Peo...