I was a big fan of Deadline magazine, and used to own every single issue*. Well, now it’s being resurrected, as Missed Deadline.
If this happens, I’ll skip meals if that’s what it takes to be able to afford it.
*They all went to charity shops, after years of following me around, move after move.
Matt Brooker, AKA D’Israeli, has collected his Timulo strips from Deadline, added other work featuring the character and released it as a collection called Timularo.
Remember Deadline magazine? Remember that weird strip with the writing round the edge of the page? That’s Timulo. When glum Esperantist Mateo Timulo quits reality and goes off to live in a world of his own, he isn’t prepared for the complications that follow. First he’s abandoned by his male power fantasy, Mark E D’Sade, then he finds himself stalked by those cubist Yuppie nightmares, The Nietzche Bros. And as for D’Israeli, necromancer, polymath, and zombie of England’s greatest statesman, just whose side is he on? Collecting the entire run of Timulo, the 1998 sequel Consequences, and more than 20 pages of previously unseen material, Timularo is wilder than a bucketful of killer haddock, and stranger than even the enigmatic Curse of Kong… 168 pages, black & white.
Damn you D’Emon! I’m supposed to be clearing my bookshelves!
I’ve spent over twelve of the last twenty four hours trawling through the archives of webcomic Questionable Content, working my way from the very first episode right up to date. Such total immersion is probably akin to brainwashing, so I love the strip.
QC is about indie kid Marten, his anthropomorphic PC Pintsize and flatmate Faye and their complicated and ever evolving relationships with each other and a growing cast. (I don’t want to tell you the current status of those relationships, because I don’t want to spoil it for you if you start from the beginning. Though even if you go into it knowing some of the details, as I did, finding out how everyone got there is still fun.) It blends romantic drama and comedy with geeky humour and philosophical silliness and has had some excellent slow burning storylines. For example, some key revelations that were seeded very early on weren’t fully explained until the strips were into the 500s and are still affecting things now it’s in the 1200s. Whilst the writing has always been sharp, the art started out quite simple but has improved steadily until it’s now gorgeous and reminds me a lot of Philip Bond‘s Wired World from Deadline.
I found Questionable Content through an article on Wired 10 Great Webcomics You Should Not Share With Your Kids. Of their list I already read xkcd and Sinfest regularly and I’ve never really taken to Penny Arcade, so I opened the others and gave them their 5 most recent strips to impress me. 20 or so back through the QC archives I figured I was doing it all wrong and skipped all the way back to number 1 to start working forwards. I may not have got much else done since then, but I’m happy about it.
In the ongoing, if sporadic, effort to get rid of as much of my clutter as possible I just dug out an almost complete collection of Deadline magazines, which shall soon be heading to one of the local charity shops. Deadline ran from 1988 to 1995 (or ’96 depending upon which site’s history you read) and I remember picking up the first issue in the Gateshead Metro centre, after which I was hooked. It was the “lifestyle magazine for slackers” and the only publication I’d ever buy which used the word lifestyle about itself. The short, nasty, brilliant and surreal comic strips were the draw for me, but I stayed for the indie music and politics. There were a number of striking characters introduced over the seven year run, but the one everyone remembers is Tank Girl
Why am I mentioning all this? Just because I’ve flicked through a few issues (if I’m not careful, I’m going to lose the rest of the night to them) and I really think there should be some sort of Deadline for the noughties. It won’t happen, it’s too hard a concept to frame in terms of target demographic etc., but I can hope.
In amongst the big box o’ stuff I had delivered from home were several copies of Deadline. The one from June 1993 had a questionnaire in it. I thought I’d go back over it and do a then and now (on the non Deadline ones, seeing as it’s not around any more)-
1 Are you
Then- Male
Now- Still Male (who’d have thought?)
2 How old are you?
T- 18-24
N- Old enough to know better
3 Are You?
T- Desperate
N- Still Desperate
4 Currently
T- Employed full time- University sabbatical officer
N- Employed full time (for the next fortnight)- IT thingummy
5 Where do you live?
T- Manchester
N- Manchester
6 Where do you live?
T- Rented house/ flat
N- Rented house/ flat (but this one’s not a share)
7 Who would you prefer to sleep with? (from a list of Glyn Dillon/ Keanu Reeves/ Our sad ad manager/ Winona Ryder/ Neither- my girlfriend, boyfriend, dog would freak)
T- Winona Ryder
N- Winona Ryder
8 How often do you go to the following-
T- Cinema (sometimes), Pub (once a week or more), Club (once a week or more), comic shop (once a month), record shop (once a month)
N- Cinema (once a month), Pub (once a week or less), Club (sometimes), Restaurant (sometimes), Comic shop (once a week), Record shop (once a week)
9 Which magazines do you read? (from a list)
T- Cosmo
N- NME, 2000AD, Judge Dredd megazine, Fortean Times
10 What do you own?
T- Stereo, Walkman, Bicycle, Deadline T-shirt
N- Stereo, Discman, Video, DVD player, Bicycle (*2), Console (PS2), PC
11 Average monthly spend on-
T- Singles (nowt), Albums (under �10), CDs (nothing), Blank tapes (�5-10), Clothes (under �25), Shoes (something), Comics (Under �5), Computer games (nothing), Alcohol (�25-50),
N- Singles [CD](�10+), Albums (nothing), CDs (�12-25), Blank tapes (nothing), Clothes (under �25), Shoes (something), Comics (face it, I’m a sad bastard), Computer games (�40+), Alcohol (�25-50)
12 What do you drink?
T- Bitter, Cocktails, Soft Drinks
N- Bitter, Lager, Spirits, Mineral Water, Soft Drinks
13 Do you smoke?
T- No
N- No
So, nine years on and it looks like things haven’t changed much, or they’ve just come full circle. I have more to spend, don’t go out as much and Winon Ryder is still cute.