Tops and Bottoms – 4th November 2025. – Never Iron Anything

Another seven day rotation (almost, I’m a little early!)

This week I managed to get a rucksack to the face and a fractured tooth. A trip to the dentist and the pain involved gives you perspective. Pain always does. You use that sharp shock effect to momentarily see the world for what it is. Lying in the chair looking up at the smoke monitor is a crap place for anyone. I do manage to find the humour in any given situation by asking myself a single question.

“I wonder if this is how I finally die?”

Trust me as a repeated mantra it helps. It’s hard to chuckle when someone is looking down into your North and South (aka mouth) but it certainly lends further perspective, an inner smile and an added relaxation effect. Try it. Although the true pain comes later when you pay.

I read a lot of comics this past weekend. The cataloguing continues a pace. Well, except when I pause to read something I’d totally forgotten about. I worked through a lot of modern Spidey on Sunday and so many of the connecting series and minis had left my brain. There’s a lot of good craft in there and so many characters and narratives that have been long sidelined.

On the ACP this week we discussed God. All/Many of them in fact. I first became an atheist in my mid-teens. The violent discouragement given to me by Catholic schools, violent religious orders and ridiculous sermons pushed me out of that particular door. Long before it was trendy I might add. But the use of mythical and religious figures is something I’ve pretty much always enjoyed reading about in comics. Later obsessions with the narcissism of Cult Leaders also added to some reading experiences. How can people possibly believe this crap? (I refer back to my pain perspective). Incredible isn’t it. Yet here I am day by day reading about people who can fly.

Release the canned laughter.

Can I also add a quick recommend to Season 12 of Red Dwarf. A genuine return to form for a series that I loved in the nineties. There’s an episode that had me howling where the boys board a ship where criticism is outlawed. A ship I might add that is also out of control and about to crash into a planet. Give it a watch, it’s on iPlayer.

Onwards.

Small Press Comic of the Week.

Another cracking issue from the Black Ink Comix gang.

Highlights include Mick Jagger fucking a large foot, Men replacing their sexual organs with machines, nerds getting a kicking, sex in an ice cream van and much more! Highly recommended for those with a funny bone.

Tops.

I’m a JMS mark. I have been for years but reading his autobiography recently cemented my respect for his abilities as a writer. Saying that, this is a little wordy but you get the message halfway in that it’s more than meant to be. Solid Detective/Cyberpunk work by a man who understands dialogue. The cover did remind me of ‘Tek War’ which is either good or bad depending on your muscle memory. It begins a story that deals with memory, identity and the end of the world (so … now then really?)

Bottoms.