Tops and Bottoms – 28th May 2025.

Hey folks. Another one of these. 

I’m getting up there in age and feeling it these days. Almost at the sixty marker on this ride I’ve often of late been saddened by the loss of people I’ve admired the work from. Two left this cosmic treadmill on the same day. 

Alan Yentob was a man of intellect who affected my life in a couple of ways. As a Big Cheddar at the BBC he tried his best to champion and reinvigorate the fading from memory ‘Doctor Who’ of the late eighties and nineties. Later and consistently he supplied my world with a feed of (what is often mistakenly called) ‘the arts’ with intelligence, eloquence and insight. ‘Omnibus’, ‘Arena’ and most recently ‘Imagine’ covered people and subjects with a brilliantly wry sense of situation and a warmth with his subjects of interest. If you get a chance have a look for his Mel Brooks visit and interview from a few years ago.

Whilst recording a future episode of the ACP our buddy Simon Russell messaged me that we lost comics, novels and TV writer Peter David at the weekend. If you tune in to the episode we release on the 2nd of June you can hear me being punched in the bollocks. David was heavily mixed in to a number of areas of mine (and our) free time. His comics work was eminently readable with a great grasp of the medium. Some of my personal comics favs include his runs on ‘X-Factor’, ‘Incredible Hulk’, ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Star Trek’. He managed to write novels for my fav series as well, ‘Star Trek:TNG’, ‘Babylon 5’, ‘Alien Nation’ and more. Unlike Yentob I was fortunate enough to meet David a few times. One time at the New York Comicon doorstepping him outside the Gents after he’d clearly had a big and sweaty turnout. He had a reputation as opinionated and curmudgeonly. And on occasions over the years I found that. We once managed to start an argument in an empty room over the prospects for a B5 revival. We made up when I bought a couple of his novels. But, I’ll miss his writing and his presence. He could tell a great story and his work cheered up mine and others days. I hope somewhere up there in comics heaven he’s grunting agreement at that soapy sentiment, then wandering off to argue with someone else.

These people are leaving us and I’m sad to say, not being replaced anytime soon. If you ever get the chance to meet them just thank them. But try not to interrupt their morning rituals.

Let’s talk some more comics. The last weekend was both Lawless in Bristol and MCM in London’s East End. I managed to miss both with a weekend of catching up on work after a recent extended Spanish holiday. I crammed comics into the me-time gaps.

Tops.

I’m often confused as to why Frank Tieri isn’t a regular on Big Two titles. Last week I picked this up and his Godzilla title ‘Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens’. Both fun but it was this comic that really got me and Vince jazzed. Proving that you can take a regular, some might say ‘overplayed’ trope and inject some twists and personality into it’s bringing it solidly back alive and pushing itself to the top of the read pile. A great first issue and excited to see where it goes. 

Bottoms.

This is the variant cover for Superman Unlimited issue 1. A new Supes title as the movie gets nearer to release. Dan Slott can be a little hit and miss for me but I’d reckoned on Rafael Albuquerque being better than he shows in this issue.

I genuinely thought for a moment that Ben Urich had magically transported to Metropolis! But. That is Clark!!!!

Not everything can be perfect but an editorial overview often feels missing these days.

Thanks for reading and see you in a week.