Daily archives: May 1, 2003


Election worries

I’m worried about the elections. Not the actual politics but the TV coverage. So far I’ve not seen any indication that Peter Snow will be on the election coverage on the BBC tonight. British elections don’t seem right with out Peter leaping around in front of giant video screens or projected into virtual maps of the country. Britain leads the world in over the top election graphics. Who can forget the ‘prime ministers from recent history trying to climb out of holes in the ground’ graph or the ‘John Major being buried under a landslide’ graph from the ’97 election. Without Peter it may all seem a little dull and clinical.


Zenith

this started off as a comment in reply to one of Ian’s posts but it got too long
Ian will be waiting a long time. Zenith books 1-5 (actually the first 3 parts of the story, parts 2 and 3 were split into 2 books each due to length) were released through Titan (like most of 2000AD’s stories) from ’88 to ’90 but have never been re-published. However, as far as I know, the fourth and final part (which I’m guessing is what Ian has been reading) has never been released in a collected form. The only way to get any of the books is via e-bay and it ain’t cheap.

It’s a shame because it was one of the first attempts at subverting the superhero genre in a mainstream publication. It was also the first major collaboration between Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell who went on to create The Invisibles. However our evil webmaster is welcome to borrow book one (it’s the only one I’ve got).


Killer Mail

Tim forwarded on a warning about a bizarre and rather disturbing e-mail chain letter.

(Tangentially-

The article mentions the Isle of Sheppey. Way back when, while Johnny O and I were working for The Gas in Staines, we’d have bored weekends. Saturday morning on one such weekend John came into the living room brandishing the Motoring Atlas. “Let’s go to Sheppay.” he says.

“Sheppey.”

“Yeah Sheppay.”

“Sheppey.”

“C’mon dude, let’s go.”

What a truly depressing place.)


Telling Tales

William Gibson on blogging.

I spotted Pattern Recognition in the bookshop yesterday. Must buy it soon.

For now, because I’m EBaying a load of 2000ADs, I’ve been re-reading Zenith. I’m still waiting for reprints of the series, but they seem to be trapped in some sort of legal dispute. The thudding great Akira volumes have been calling to me as well, I’ve managed volumes one, two, three and four.


News Update:

Reuters (AP) – Spinneyhead Fails to Rally The Internet Faithful:

The stock market took a small plunge today based mainly on fears Spinneyhead Inc. has lost its touch. Unison in a statement released today said, “We refuse to work for an organization devoted to fat cat payouts in a post war environment”. The loss in readership is not only affecting stock holder share price, but may reflect a deeper rift within the Spinneyhead organization. Institutional investors reacted angrily to suggestions the Spinneyhead franchise might be losing flavour, but several analysts changed recommendations from “buy” to “hold”. during heavy trading. What remains to be seen is a strong senior management commitment to content driven blogging on a regular basis.

One senior Wall Street analyst stated the only way Spinneyhead could regain its previous stock high was to invest in quality staffing. It remains to be seen if short term staff layoffs or management change will yield a positive pay out on the web. Charles Schwaab, the largest US brokerage, is on the record stating Spinneyhead is definitely a “hold” position, but they await a general share holders meeting to raise lack of hit concerns.Spinneyhead CEO, The Evil One, is expected to make a statement about content contributions over the next few days. Although this will not reduce market expectations of record making profits during Q2/03 for the Spinneyhead brand, institutional investors may be lured back. One never knows.