(Posted somewhat early).
Welcome to the future. I never thought in all honesty that I would make it to the science fiction year of 2025 but here we are. It’s a time of uncertainty by the intelligent and certainty by everyone else. A group of dunderheads so in love with their own opinion to be confident in their ability to know everything. And as the geo-political world turns, so does comics. Jumping from one drama to another hushed up powder keg. (…a Gaimanesque powder keg that seems forgotten by most).
I have also restarted a Substack this week. I’ve added some extra content for subscribers that you may also like. Have a look here.
The older I get the more that moments from my past occur to me and arrive unbidden in the grey matter. One memory appeared this cold morning while running (and slipping). I taught a number of times in Moscow. Years ago as the millennium turned. A sea of meatheads intent on getting through a morning session so they could hit the vodka. And then as twelve struck they toasted my input with unexpected vigour, insisting I join them. Honestly, I’ve never felt so drunk and so unsafe – all at the same moment. And isn’t that just the world at the moment? We rush into selfish entertainment while the bombs go off around us.
I have not been drinking today. I’m saving that particular treat for 2026.
So…let’s take another dive into my own egomaniacal corner of my own self-obsessed Universe. No diatribes about toast here. But a short and pithy conversation of the highs and lows of this boneheaded hobby we call comics.
I have been hammering EBay of late like it was mid-pandemic. Impulse buying and then waiting for the buzz of the PapyPal email notification. I’ll feature a few in the upcoming weeks but these should get your (he)art throbbing. (And just look at those prices.)
Over at the ACP podcast this week we started off the new thing with a series of wishes. What are we hoping for in the next twelve months. We go pretty deep/introspective for a few of them. Then I wax on about how I REALLY wish there was a decent Legion of Superheroes comic series again. It was fun to have a three amigos round the pub table chat. Sometimes that’s all we need.
So, for the new folks. What I do here every week is say what has been at the top of my reading pile and what is on the bottom. A kind of favs. I also like, if possible and available, to pick out my favourite small press book of the week. Your choices will inevitable differ. And you’re likely partly right but mostly wrong.
Here goes.
Small Press Book of the Week.
Le French Ninja: A True Story by Guz.
Sent through to the pod by Guz (aka Gorky Uztarroz). This is a quirky newspaper style story of the growing pains of a couple of nineties Parisian kids whilst simultaneously training to be Ninjas. A lovely surprise and well worth seeking out here.
Tops.
I’m reading this on the DC app so am an issue behind. But after a recent Infinity Inc reread and a love for all these characters it is really punching my comics button.
Bottoms.
This really is such dogshit. And why do these covers look so similar. I genuinely don’t think that Spidey has ever been written this badly!
Again, I am in your debt. Thanks for reading.
It’ll soon be Christmas.
(Toast is only right with Marmite or Marmalade).
Ciao.
Never Iron Anything - The Comics Review Website 