Saturday 28 January 2017

2000AD...And The Great Steve Dillon

It's always a treat to get a pile of old 2000ADs in the Little Shop. I have to force myself to actually sell them on, but I always have a nostalgic flip through them first. The various Progs in this batch (currently on eBay at very reasonable prices folks!) form a particularly rich seam: was 2000AD ever better than in the 200s? In the space of just 10 issues (the 220s) they launched both Nemesis and Rogue Trooper, and featured the classic Dark Judges Dredd storyline, with amazing Bolland art. They just don't make 'em like that any more.

Also in the batch are Steve Dillon's never-bettered covers for the Dredd werewolf story... one of the first Dredds I ever read, and still one of the very best.








Tuesday 24 January 2017

Watch Withnail at Uncle Monty's on the 30th Anniversary!


The now-annual 'Withnailer Weekend' at Sleddale Hall, aka Crow Crag, aka Uncle Monty's cottage in the country, is already a legendary event.

It's a chance to watch the film at the very location it was shot: if you want to know more, just click the link above that says 'Watching Withnail at Uncle Monty's' to read/look at a frankly overlong photo-essay I did a few years back.

The event always sells out, but this year the tickets are bound to go super-fast, as 2017 is of course the 30th anniversary of the film's original release.

Picnic Cinema, who organise the whole shindig, have just this minute announced this year's dates:

FRIDAY 21st July 2017
SATURDAY 22nd July 2017

The tickets are not yet on sale, but to be notified as soon as they are, click on

THIS LINK RIGHT HERE

and click subscribe!

Monday 9 January 2017

A year on...

Overheard in New York on 10 January, 2017.
One side of a mobile phone conversation.
Union Square.
So this was weird… I was in the Strand bookstore, just down the block from here, and I was browsing the stacks, you know, and I was looking at an old paperback copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four… No, I’ve never read it. So I was flicking through it, and this guy next to me looks over and says, “Great book, that,” and I look up and nod, and he smiles and says, “Seriously, if you’ve never read it, you should. That’s on my list of the top 100 books.” So I smile back and tell him I’ll buy it for sure, and we talk for a while. He tells me he’s a regular at the Strand, comes here all the time. A real nice guy, you know? …. I don’t know, somewhere in his sixties I guess. Sharp dresser. Anyway, I go to pay for the book, and the guy behind the counter says, “Ah, George Orwell, a classic!” and I say, “Yeah, it was recommended to me by one of your regular customers I just met,” and the guy says, “Oh yeah, who was that?” and I said, “Nice guy, glasses, wearing a cap, and I noticed he was carrying a Greek newspaper, which was strange, because he sounded like a Brit,” and the guy behind the counter just went white as a sheet and looked at me like I came from Mars… I know, right?