Hello to anyone who came here from Neil Gaiman’s site. I hope you enjoyed the story I sent him about Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein Punch and Judy puppets. We moan (and laugh) about politically correct decisions made in the US but it embarasses me when it happens in England.

And I hope you have a quick look around my blog too. Its only a month old so don’t expect miracles Its getting there though (although I must make the ‘previous entries’ button at the bottom of this blog much bigger).

But first maybe I should say a little about how I came to know the work of Neil Gaiman seeing as a few of you are probably fans of his.

I grew up reading comics. I think I started on Whizzer and Chips, Whoopie and Wow - good solid UK kids comics - for about 4 years. Then at a strange book shop on Green Street in Upton Park, East London, I stumbled on a comic called Nemesis The Warlock written by Pat Mills and drawn by Kevin O’Neil. The art was amazing and the story really shook this 10 year old kid - set in the future it involved the human race trying to wipe out every alien species. The hero was an alien - the deaths were gruesome. Green Street on a Saturday afternoon was always a dangerous place due to West Ham’s home matches but I must have had my head stuck in that comic as I walked back to my Nan’s block of flats past all the hooligans.

A few weeks later I picked up a second hand run of 2000ADs in Green Street Market. It was about 6 issues and then contained probably one of the most famous Judge Dredd Stories of all time, Judge Death Lives, written by John Wagner and drawn by Brian Bolland. It contained the classic Gaze Into The Fist of Dredd panel and I was hooked. I dont know what else was in those editions but I was now a big fan of 2000AD and soon started picking it up weekly at the local newsagents, starting with issue 375.

I soon realised that Nemesis the Warlock was a 2000AD strip when the Bryan Talbot drawn series started (book 3?) - that was a great surprise! And somewhere in my 11 year old mind I began to fall in love with the twisted comedy and horror and awe of these comic books. In fact I think that John Wagner and Pat Mills (along with the Comic Strip Presents) had a lot to do with my own particulary black shade of humour. Well I suppose any young boy would if he was reading Strontium Dog, ABC Warriors, Judge Dredd and Slaine every week.

We now flick forward past six years of 2000AD and we see a young boy in a newsagents in Margate pick up his first American comic. It was an X-Men comic with a cover by Jim Lee, around number 250 or something. Within two weeks I was reading McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-man, the Rob Liefeld New Mutants, Whilce Portacio on X-Factor and also Peter Milligan’s Shade The Changing Man. Little did I know that this would be one of the most exiting times in American comic book history.

Soon I found a comic shop. Its hard to explain here exactly how it feels to walk into a shop that sells nothing but comics for the first time. I just never know they existed. It was Forever Comics in Canterbury and it became my Mecca. Every two weeks I’d make the pilgrimage to Canterbury to stock up new titles. This was the time that all the X-titles got a reboot and Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 went on to become the biggest selling comic of all time.

But for every 2 fans a reboot brings, one will think its the time to stop and so I decided to read more interesting titles and drop most of the X-books. I continued to read Shade the Changing Man, all the Quality 2000AD reprints and a title that Manny, the shopkeeper, recommended called The Sandman. This was written by some guy called Neil Gaiman.

The first issue I got was Three Septembers and a January which was an amazing one-off story about the real Emperor of America, issue 30 perhaps. I liked the story, the art, and the stuff that went on in mind when I read it. On my next trip I bought up all the Sandman I could get. There wasn’t much though as Manny had sold out most of the back issues, but I think The Dolls House had been collected so I bought that. And that blew my mind. The Sandman was then on my standing order list.

Well then the Vertigo banner came along, I got into Alan Moore too, and the rest of my comic reading habits were pretty much fixed. Nowadays I dont actually buy the single issues, just graphic novels. I get most of the Alan Moore stuff, Daredevil, 100 Bullets and Planetary trade paperbacks when they come out but thats about it. And half of the comics are going on eBay soon. But every two years or so I dig out all the Sandman trades and give the series an entire read through and remember all the characters and fairy tales I’d forgotten about. And for a while I believe.

Well after about two years of selling half of my records on eBay its now time to thin out the comic collection. I chosen a few already which I’ll be putting on eBay this Thursday. Got some good stuff here including lots of Grant Morrison and Vertigo stuff.

I just hope it doesn’t take me more than two years to get rid of them all!

Good to see a candidate I’d vote for running for president.

Walken 2008

Ah, what a great day! First game of our all-new run in the Premier League and we’re already at the top of the table. And knowing West Ham those will be three valuable points at the end of the season. Full match report here.

It seems that Teddy Sherringam, yes he is 39, was the catalyst for today’s goals and I’m glad we kept him in the team. Good to see Reo-Coker on the scoresheet too. An attendance of 33,000 at Upton Park too, and against Blackburn.

Its also a good day for my fantasy football teams as they all contain Darren Bent, who scored two, and Mido (two assists). If Chelski keep a clean sheet tomorrow and Henry or Fabregas knocks one in then I’ll be doing very well.

So I have my new phone now, and its great! The coverage of 3 in my area is fine and I’ve only dropped the signal once, where my previous Orange phone didn’t work either.

So far I’ve uploaded a screensaver, Bust-A-Move, Yahtzee, Minesweeper, mp3s, movies and some file utilities. I can now convert any movie formats to the 3gp format the phone uses.

I’ll be adding a utitity called OggPlayer which will plays music in the ogg format, which is half the size of an mp3.

I’ve also downloaded a game called The Journey II which apparently needs you to leave the house to play it, I’ll explain more if I get it to work.

Finally, I need some help choosing my ringtone. Here are a few I’ve made from tracks off CDs. What one should I use?

Presence - Favour Nothing
Krome and Time - Sounds of the Underground
John Arnold - Respectall
Oliver Ho - Sacred Object

Let me know by clicking on the comments link just below this post. And just right click and ‘Save As’ if you want to use it for your own phone.

Channel 4 begins a new American show tonight called Lost. Its about a group of people who’s plane crashes onto a desert island and they are forced to help each other survive. I’ve heard good things about this series and it should well be worth a look. Apparently there are lots of twist and turns as the series progresses, so it might be one for those 24 fans out there.

Click here to see the trailer. Mark Lawson gives his academic review here. The Sun has its coverage here.

Lost begins tonight at 8:30pm, a second episode will be shown at 10:00pm. Post your comments about the show below.

A big congratulation to Rich and Anna who announced the birth of their first child, Dylan, last month!

The baby and family are looking fine. And what a great place to grow up in, Coogee Bay! Dylan has also become a member of the technorati by having his own website, Dylan’s World.

Good luck guys! Hope the harsh Australian winter isn’t getting you down. And see you when you’re over next, early 2006?

Uppity

adj
1. Taking liberties or assuming airs beyond one’s station

Churlish

adj
1. Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
2. Having a bad disposition; surly
3. Difficult to work with

Well I’m still thinking of using the 3 network. The 3 coverage checker says I’ll be okay in Brighton and if I dont like the phone I have 14 days to take it back for a full refund.

After looking at some more phones and packages I’ve taken a fancy to the Nokia 6630.

I can get a 12 month contract for £10 a month from Carphone Warehouse . It also does mp3s and takes better pictures.

New Update: I’ve been into the Carphone Warehouse in town and they can’t get even close to the deals that their online store can give me. So for future reference I will be ordering online.

Even Newer Update: I’ve ordered this phone from Carphone Warehouse and it’ll turn up on Monday. I’ve been reading about it and all the software I can download for it. The main test will be the reception. If there’s no reception around town then I have 7 days to send it back. I suppose I’ll have to wait and see.

The time has come for me to ditch my battered old Nokia and start afresh with a new mobile. I’ve had a look in various shops and online and the best deal I’ve seen so far was at Phones4U for the Motorola V975 on the 3 network.

And I’m so close to getting it but after reading a review I’ve decided not to get it, yet. The UI is noted as being “typically Motorola” which apparently is a bad thing.

With it being on the ‘3′ network, which for me is an untried network, and it having a so-so camera and bad UI I’m against having this. But if I use no more than 500 minutes a month (and 100 texts) this phone will cost me £324 for 18 months, thats £18 a month, which is less than my pay-as-you-go. And it has an mp3 player. So I’m still torn. Any ideas? I’ll keep on looking for alternatives.