Abigail Brady

I saw Iron Man 3 yesterday with doseybat, verazea, oscarhocklee and gool_duck. I liked. I write more about it here, mostly focusing on what it does with the Mandarin.

I committed a piece of Journey Into Mystery fan-art. Well, fan-industrial design (a term that I believe I have coined). I posted it to tumblr last night, and various people reblogged it (including Kieron). Unfortunately when I looked at it again in the morning, I realise I screwed up the font for the bottom part. The actual font that The Hacienda used wasn't Futura, but it was close, so I tried to use that, but somehow didn't get the bottom text in that. Lesson: do not do fan industrial design when tired.

Here it is:



I can't see any way of fixing my original post on tumblr, sadly.

The Manchester Gods arc of Journey Into Mystery (#639-#641) is turning into my single favourite comic read of the year. I'm going to buy in in trade or hardcover and make everyone read it.

I went to the MCM Comic Expo on Sunday. It was fun. Mostly I wandered around aimlessly marvelling at things. Things or people I saw:

• Robot boxing
  
• Gail Simone, who signed my Batgirl #1 and #2
  
• A Torchwood panel
  
• Many cosplayers. Marvel spots included a particularly good Pixie (who apparently was with a Boba Fett who had been getting all the attention), a Loki, a Wiccan, at least two Mystiques (a comics one and a movie one), a Phoenix, a Skrull Ms. Marvel and, a Cap.
  

I should dress up next time, or something.

Well, Messiah Complex and the first arc of Brand New Day have ended now, so I think it's time for another comics post.

Messiah Complex started slowly, but the weekly shipping schedule, combined with its use of four books' regular casts, meant it didn't drag too badly. By about halfway through, stuffs had really started to happen. The ending shakes up the status quo a lot ( spoiler ). But we've seen that sort of thing before, so as to whether the new status quo will stick, or whether they'll get the band back together again in the next few months, we'll see. Uncanny 500 is out soon, which they'll want to do something important for. Overall, it gets my thumbs up. I don't think it would work as a standalone thing though, as it heavily ties into recent X-Men and New X-Men arcs and probably needs them to make sense. One can easily read it without following X-Factor or Uncanny X-Men, though.

Astonishing #24 was also out. This doesn't resolve the current arc, damn him, which will instead be resolved in Giant-Sized Astonishing #1. It looks, given CENSORED, that the second half of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men fits between "Blinded By The Light" and "Messiah Complex", and the curious CENSORED of CENSORED in "Messiah Complex" makes it look much more likely that Joss is going to CENSORED or at least CENSORED CENSORED. The bastard.

Now One More Day has reset the clock on Spider-Man's character growth, Brand New Day has picked up the reins. I can't really put it better than this does (read the wording carefully especially at the bottom).

have to get up early tomorrow to catch a 0840 flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam - going to IBC. at least i'm on the piccadilly line...

i've realised B-Movie is next weekend, not today, so i can go! woot! i am pondering dressing to theme (v for vendetta/generic superheroes) some of these are more complicated than others

[Poll #1051731]


eep: squirrel girl is winning so far... she is utterly awesome, though, having pwned Doctor Doom's ass.

weekend was cool. squirmelia's party on saturday, followed by an adjournment to feeling gloomy. note to self in future, though: either get drunk beforehand or like carling.

then, board games on sunday. i co-won War on Terror as the Terrorists, with timeplease and fluffymormegil, and then mostly sat the games out for the rest of the evening, reading and doing the cryptic crossword from thelondonpaper. i like this crossword because it makes me feel clever : possibly the paper's sole redeeming feature. (the Metro's is Nemi, I have yet to see a point to The London Lite).

i am reading The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. it is nice, but it doesn't scare me! :( i mean, ok, perhaps this has a little to do with the plushie cthulhu which is downstairs and the gradual desensitation of people to horror fiction in the last 80 years, but still. the anthology is a little weighty to read all at once, so i'm lining up The Demolished Man as next read after this novella.

( random reviews of things )

but now i am tired and i should go to bed for i have to be up early tomorrow for a trip to hertfordshire.

A Quantum Murder by Peter F. Hamilton. Didn't like this as much as Mindstar Rising. It had narrative exposition which was pretty clumsy having read the other book immediately beforehand : and it doesn't really offer anything new in terms of speculation. The core mystery/whodunnit was well-executed. I shall read the third book in the trilogy, The Nano Flower at some point. probably leaving a bit longer in between this time.

Spike graphic novel thingy: Three one-shots. First one was good, second one had one particularly jarring section that didn't really work for me. Third one was rather entertaining.

The Difference Engine by Sterling and Gibson. I am reading this at the moment, not very far in. Is good. Amused by pun in title (it's really talking about the analytical engine, but of course it made a difference... or it could just be a mistake). Liked cameo of Disraeli.

Must read more steampunk : it is after all a thematic influence on the mud (the idea being that the mud has what would usually in SF be considered anachronistically early space travel, whilst keeping computers and AI crap, along with colonial empires/Scramble for the Stars et al - 2300 AD does the same setup but in a different way by having a devastating nuclear war in between, and tends towards more cyber stuff which i was trying to avoid. 2300 AD (or its predessor, Traveller, I forget which) was apparently also a major influence on Elite/Frontier, so i am in good company), but I was never well read in it.

In my queue are: Lullaby, Neverwhere, Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. Suggestions welcome.

oh, and i decided what my novel is going to be. i just need to write it now. when is nanowrimo?

fun evening in pub with lots of goffics. hello fuzzygoth person

seem to be in comic book movie mode for the moment. watched Return to the Batcave this afternoon, which is a tv movie made in 2003 which features Adam West and Burt Ward playing themselves but in a kind of distorted reality. they pursue the thieves of the Batmobile. Very very weird indeed. Possibly one to avoid when on drugs.

saw x-men 3 with darkstream and cyniborg, very entertaining. reading about it now, very annoyed didn't stay past credits, since there is a way cool sequence there. drunk. etc.