Tops and Bottoms – 29th October 2025. – Never Iron Anything

Next Stop Uranus!

We reach a hump in the week with zero relevance or meaning once again. Isn’t comics just a person and a page? Isn’t comic collecting the person and the Longbox? I’m having a week where I’ve gone back to the source. The collection that spreads from my young years, unbroken until now. As I near my sixth decade I feel a need to slow down and assess. That includes working out what issues of the ‘Omega Men’ or Marvel’s ‘Godzilla’ I’m missing.

“I’ve become a man of flexible principles.” – Hanif Kureishi.

Bit of a quieter week for me sadly/thankfully. The excitement of Baltimore Comic Con (recounted here in the latest episode of the Awesome Comics Podcast) feels like something from the distant past. Like crocs or porn mags.

I’ve now settled back at home as the winter creeps in with the intention of cataloguing the collection using the CLZ app (no I don’t know what that stands for – look it up yourself you lazy fuck). I’m pretty impressed with it so far and am aiming to manage about a thousand a week into the program. It allows you to scan covers, list manually or use a barcode to add issues in the database. Here’s a little example of how it looks.

As with everything I have a few little rules I’ve set myself. I only add comics I have in front of me. I don’t log doubles, they get put aside. I also don’t have time to grade them, honestly, I don’t care. As long as they are there to read that’s enough for me. I also allow myself time to read through issues that take my fancy. This labour should be treated as fun. It’s amazing how the hours zip by. I’d forgotten I owned so many different issues. (I think I may have overdone it on Dynamite’s ‘Vampirella’ series however).

I’m hoping to complete this process sometime before I die. But who knows.

Tops.

I finally caught up on this. Easily one of my books of the year and a gift from a dear friend. It’s gratifying to see that it’s being talked about in all the right places.

Precise, strange and beautifully crafted with an eye to something maybe a little more Metal Hurlant. It plays with a widescreen vision that adds unexpected urgency to moments of drama and existentialism to a wide open landscape and sky. This dude will be winning all the awards next year!

Bottoms.