So as you will (or won’t) have noticed (or not noticed), I have been absent from the internet and life for at least a week. I was struck down with a terrible illness known in the medical community as ‘fucked’, which left me dilapidated and at best, awful. But hooray – I have re-emerged from my cocoon of telekinetic energy (a reference to the worst line in X-Men: The Last Stand, and possibly the worst explanation ever given for anything in the history of shit explanations) a new man. Due to the nature of that long section of parentheses, that whole ‘a new man’ bit may confuse you (as it did me), as it had literally been ages since I started that sentence. To reiterate – I have re-emerged from my cocoon of telekinetic energy (CoTE for short) a new man. I sort of did it again there, further confusing things. Basically I’m fine.
Laurie was going to do loads of Blogshambles posts whilst I was fucked in the CoTE, but he didn’t. He has a pretty good reason though, as he totally caught whatever I had because we share food and baths and long walks on the beach and the soft crunch of autumn leaves underfoot as we frolic through the avenues of our mind/London. Laurie went a bright shade of red for about seventy hours, and I became antisocial and afraid of light – a terrible combination I will assure you. I also had to cancel everything so am now very behind on existing. Which is annoying. Laurie is also mending – do not panic geese.
So what else is there. Um.
Oh! The official release/press and PR whatnot push is on Monday but I might as well tell you now that my comedy band Jonny & The Baptists have just released our new single and music video! It’s called UKIP. I will post a link imminently:
There you go. For those of you who don’t know (and why would you) Jonny & The Baptists is the thing I spend 95% of my time doing with the marvellous Jonny Donahoe. Do check it out if you haven’t already at www.jonnyandthebaptists.co.uk. Laurie gigs with us sometimes on the big-violin or smaller version of a baritone saxophone. Also we really need to Stop UKIP so…get involved.
What else what else what else…eurgh sorry I’ve become a bit slow over the past week. What I HAVE been doing is reading a lot of graphic novels, primarily Fables, From Hell, and The Unwritten. I will explain:
Fables is a phenomenally brilliant ongoing graphic novel (final issue ETA 2015 I think?) by Bill Willingham about all the fairytales and fables being forced out of their kingdoms and setting up camp in New York. It sounds odd but is just stunning, beautifully written and well worth all of the time you have.
Likewise From Hell. Ignore everything you know about Jack the Ripper or the From Hell movie because this is so much better than both of those things. Written by Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, this is something really special. It’s much grittier in it’s premise and design than Fables, and the artwork totally reflects that, but it will suck you in and take over your life (until it ends – which it will because it’s just one big book and then you’re done). Buy that. Or borrow it. You can borrow mine if you live right near me and know me already and it isn’t weird.
Finally The Unwritten – by Mark Carey with art by Peter Gross. I think this really is the best of the bunch (at least so far). I don’t even want to tell you anything about it because it is so mind-blowing and so hard to explain. It’s the story of stories. I genuinely urge you to go and get a copy of it. Buy Volume 1 (5 issues, about a tenner?) and see what you think because it’s a real game-changer for me.
So yes. That is that. I’m working early tomorrow so must to bed, but here is me getting the Blogshambles back on course. Havelock will be joining us shortly and helping me make the rest of the website work because I’ve somehow made it not work as it should. Joy joy.
Big love xx
how baked are you guys?