John Mortell’s blog

Jonathan Hickman produced one of the best comic books and general pieces of entertainment I saw last year with his book ‘the Nightly News‘. Thankfully he isn’t resting on his laurels and has got several works in the pipeline. The most recent of which being ‘Pax Romana’. Here is a link to the first issue online. It’s very very good, maintaining the impressive design sense that the ‘Nightly News’ had, while still not seeming too derivative of that work. Granted, the story sounds derivative to those of us who have read too much science-fiction but it’s still done better than a lot of those stories. As a final aside, in an era when many 22 page comics take 5 minutes to read a book like ‘Pax Romana’ is very much value for money in terms of time spent:

PAX ROMANA tells the tale of 5000 men sent on an impossible mission to change the past and save the future. It’s the end of the world: Will they succeed, or will they fail?

Also of great interest is his talking about the first issue in depth here. What he says that I’ll pass on in it is that the internet doesn’t really do his art style justice as the two page spreads are designed to be read as one image rather than two seperate pages. Anyway, I really recommend taking a look and if your that impressed there’s a preview of the second issue here

This is a pretty good short story – take a look:

Borislav moved from his booth into the freezing wreck of a warehouse, where the survivors sorted and sold the effects of the dead. Another awful winter. They burned furniture to stay warm. When they coughed, people stared in terror at their handkerchiefs. Food shortages, too, this time: the dizzy edge of famine. Crazy times.
He had nothing left of that former life but his pictures. During the mayhem, he took thousands of photographs. That was something to mark the day, to point a lens, to squeeze a button, when there was nothing else to do, except to hustle, or sit and grieve, or jump from a bridge. He still had all those pictures, every last one of them. Everyday photographs of extraordinary times. His own extraordinary self: he was young, gaunt, wounded, hungry, burning-eyed.

A short audio interview given about ‘hells angels’;

and the problem between the blurring of fantasy and reality:
gonzovision:

But some are better than others – case in point here by Ian Edginton and D’isreali. It seems to serve as a prequel to their ‘Scarlet Traces’ book from a few years back as well as being a proper adaptation in its own right. The two creators are very very good though so I’d suggest to you all to read it – enjoy!

‘Inspired’ by my friend Cethan and his bebo blog on summer reading I decided I’d give the same idea a shot. For those of you who have never been in my room at home (the vast majority of you I hope) there has been a pile of books by the radiator beside my bed for several years – it is a very big pile.
the pile of books 2

Now, I’m not certain that trying this will actually work but what I’m going to do over the summer is try to read as many of these books as possible… Given that I start a new job Monday and will be working all summer (hopefully) whether I’ll even make the halfway mark is open to debate. But I’m going to give it a shot.

The List.
I’m mostly going to be reading these in whatever order I feel like. Let us know if anything is quite good. As an aside (read) beside a book means I have already read it but for some reason (either its very good or I’ve forgotten the bulk of the book) I’m rereading it. (*) beside a book means I started reading it (and didn’t finish it for some reason) or it’s short stories and I’ve only read some of it or its a history/politics book and I only read parts the first time around. As a last bit of list making I’m going to break the list into three – comics, fiction and non-fiction.

Fiction
1) Shadows – edited by Charles L. Grant
2)Right on time – Pauline Mclynn
3)Rumors of the undead – Steve Niles
4)Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
5)Collected ghost stories – M.R. James
6)Modesty Blaise – Peter O’ Donnell
7)Fear and loathing on the campaign trail ‘72 – Hunter S. Thompson (read)
8)Captain Outrageous -Joe R. Landsdale
9The Butcher Boy – Patrick McCabe
10)Earl Aubec – Michael Moorcock (*)
11)Trevayne -Robert Ludlum
12)Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein (read)(also one of the best books ever written)
12)Time enough for love -Robert A. Heinlein (*)

Comics
13)Flash Gordon Vol 1. – Mac Raboy (*)
14)The Spider – King of crooks – Jerry Siegel (he of Superman fame)
15)A distant soil – vol 3. – Colleen Doran
16)Ghost World – Daniel Clowes
17)Buddy go home! – Peter Bagge
18)Buddy’s got three moms – Peter Bagge
19)Buddy bites the bullet -Peter Bagge
20)Excelsior! – Stan Lee (not actually a comic but aimed at comic readers so…)
21)X-men Legends – Stan Lee (editor)
22)The Frightful Four
23)Epileptic -David B.
24)McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern – Issue no.13. – Various
25)Definitive Shi Vol.1 – Billy Tucci
26)Essential Thor Vol.2 – Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (*)(appearently – I don’t remember starting this at all)
27)Essential Incredible Hulk – Stan Lee and Herb Trimpe
28)Showcase Presents Justice League of America – Mike Sekowsky, various.
29)The chickens are restless – Gary Larson (read)
30)Random Acts of management – Scott Adams
31)Essential Astonishing Ant-Man – Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck
32)Micky Parade Geant – Various (this is a French Disney comics collection gotten for me by an ex, oh about 3years ago now.. its actually kind of sickening as a comics fan as its 300 pages in a format about the size of a normal novel and it sold for 3,90€ in France – paying 5€ for some single issues of comics that are 22pages in Ireland these days…)

Fiction
33)The lake house – James Patterson
34)Bad Men – John Connolly
35)Exploring English -Gill and Macmillan
36)Bare Bones – Kathy Reichs
37)The Trojan Women and other Plays – Euripides
38)The Aeneid – Virgil
39)The Odyssey – Homer
40)The War of The Flowers – Tad Williams
41)The Nature of the Beast – Frances Fyfield
42)Resident Evil – Genesis – Paul Anderson and Keith DeCandido
43)V for Vendetta (the book of the film) – Steve Moore
44)Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
45)Harvest Home – Thomas Tryon
46)Alchymist – Ian Irvine
47)Chimaera – Ian Irvine
48)The Soprano Sorceress – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
49)Darkness Rising – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
50)The Shadow Sorceress – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
51)The Devil you know – Mike Carey
52)Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
53)The ‘Caine’ Mutiny – Herman Wouk
53)Sister Alice – Robert Reed
54)I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
55)Isaac Asimov’s Robot City 5 -Rob Chilson
56)Isaac Asimov’s Robot City 6 – William Hu
57)The Garden of Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
58)Cradle – Arthur C. Clarke

Non-Fiction
59)White Mughals – Willaim Darlymple
60)Branded – Alissa Quart (*)
61)Fat Land – Greg Critser
62)The Middle Mind – Curtis White
63)Stalingrad – Joachim Wieder
64)Political Philosophy – Adam Swift
65)Nothing Is Impossible – Christopher Reeve
66)Twentieth Century Ireland – Dermot Keogh
67)Politics in the Republic of Ireland – Coakley and Gallagher
68)The Diary of Ma Yan – Ma Yan
69)This is Paradise! – Hyok Kang
70)Balthasar’s Odyssey – Amin Maalouf
71)After Daybreak – Ben Shephard
72)Secret War Heroes – Marcus Binney
73)The Great Philosophers – Brian Magee
74)In the time of madness – Richard Parry
75)The Longest Battle – Richard Hough
76)The Rise of Western Christendom – Peter Brown
77)An Army at Dawn – Rick Atkinson
78)The First World War – Malcolm Brown
79)World War 1 – Various
80)From Weimar to Wall Street – Various
81)Depression and Dictatorship – Various
82)Europe – a History – Norman Davies (*)
83)The Globalization of World Politics – Baylis & Smith
84)History’s Great Untold Stories – Joseph Cummins
85)Introducing Machiavelli – Patrick Curry (read)
86)U.S Diplomacy since 1900 – Robert Schulzinger
87)The KGB in Europe and the West – Christopher Andrew and Vasli Mitrokhin
88)No Logo – Naomi Klein (*)
89)The Boer War – Thomas Pakenham
90)Concise History of the Modern World – William Woodruff
91)The Bolshevik Revolution – E.H. Carr
92)The War of the World – Niall Furguson
93)American Government and Politics – Robert Singh
94)The Shackled Continent – Robert Guest (*)
95)Unspeak – Steven Poole
96)The Vote – Paul Foot
97)America, Russia and the Cold War – Walter LaFeber

Fiction (again)
98)The Reality Dysfunction – Peter F. Hamilton (*)
99)The Neutron Alchemist – Peter F. Hamilton
100)Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
101)Coalescent – Stephen Baxter
102)Phase Space – Stephen Baxter (read)
103)Paycheck – Philip K. Dick
104)Minority Report – Philip K. Dick
105)Stardust -Neil Gaiman
106)Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
107)Accelerando – Charles Stross
108)Thunderball – Ian Fleming
109)Dr. No – Ian Fleming
110)Mars 3 – Fuyumi Soryo
111)Tokyopop sneak peaks 2005 vol 1 – various
112)Tokyopop sneak peaks 2005 vol 2 – various
113)Monument – Ian Graham
114)The Endymion omnibus – Dan Simmons (*)(I’ve not been mad about this – hence its unfinished nature, but The Hyperion Cantos which Simmons did is genius – one of the best books I’ve read in years)
115)Dante’s Equation – Jane Jensen
116)The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction – Mike Ashley(*)
117)Best New Science Fiction 16 – Gardner Dozois
118)Best New Science Fiction 18 – Gardner Dozois
119)Paranoia – Joseph Finder
120)Ken Macleod – Engine City
121)The Cornelius Quartet – Michael Moorcock
122)Heartfire – Orson Scott Card
123)Shadow of the Hegemon- Orson Scott Card
124)Shadow Puppets- Orson Scott Card
125)Shadow of the Giant- Orson Scott Card
126)The Portable Door – Tom Holt
127)In Your Dreams – Tom Holt
128)The Millionaires – Brad Meltzer
129)Congo – Michael Crichton
130)Something Rotten – Jasper Fforde

Non-fiction (Again)
131)Bears Can’t run downhill – Robert Antwood
132)Micro-Nations -lonely planet
133)The paupers cookbook – Jocasta Innes

Update: Right I’ve had quite a while and so far my list has been progressed by seven books, at the rate I’m going this may be finished in two summers time… Possibly. Books I’ve actually gotten off the list are in italics now

Miranda July and her new book. I’ve never even heard of the woman and this site has me considering buying her book, good stuff.

The codex sepaphinianus is an art book from the 70’s thats appearently quite interesting. This is a really interesting article and this is the actual book on flickr. I haven’t read the book yet but the article is well worth a read and is the sort of thing that gets your mind ticking over anyway, nearly to the point where I don’t want to read the book for fear it’ll ruin the article. Anyway, have a look.

Russian history exam today, American government tomorrow. Damn I hate exams. Still though, I went drinking before the exam and after it and it all turned out grand (fairly sure I got full marks in the short questions so I’ve 32% in the bag between that and the other work during the year), also six pages for the essay so….

Saw bits and pieces of the debate last night, going to watch it again to try and get a better idea of the whole thing (especially as I barely saw the end of it) but my impression was that everyone except Gerry Adams and Mark Little were fairly ok.. Everyone else had some good moments and ’twas all quite interesting. Pat Rabbite’s coverage didn’t get me to change my choice to vote for Labour first while Sargent’s behavior has me possibly more likely to vote for them.. Don’t really care about the tonights debate and I’ll probably end up watching the Sopranos…

Also, courtesy of Warrenellis.com a really good Calvin & Hobbes animation

Here’s a link to two episodes of the Superman radio show from the 1940’s – I think it’s episodes 12 and 13 of 16. Can’t remember exactly but it’s at the start. The stories and setup are rather ‘primative’ I suppose but even so they are interesting to listen to as an example of older styles of entertainment.

The episodes are really interesting as an insight to the times. Here’s an explanation of the facts a bit better. Appearently the episodes use actual terms from the KKK which the link I provided will hopefuly explain a bit better.

That, along with the war ads that are injected into the episodes show the way rationing were a factor of life. It’s quite interesting as a history student.

Anyway, sorry this is a bit rambly…

Enjoy.

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