kiev4am

I've been trying to get it together to write a proper entry about films and stuff, and then another one about writing, because I'm aware my shiny new LJ with its shiny new good intentions has gone a bit quiet already. But I still don't have those entries finished and I'm getting stupidly, regressively hung up on writing issues so here, randomly, is my current desktop picture. It's been my desktop picture for a while now, because I really struggle to find something to look at so regularly that makes me feel as instinctively happy as this does, for no intelligent reason. I mostly think it's the joyous pitch at which it shouts COMICS! in your face; but it also seems to work as a visual antidote to dithering, colourlessness and nerves when I sit at the laptop. Sliding Albion, in the house.

( Big noisy pretty comic page )

Okay, this is kind of a cheap win on the 'yes, I will write some entries' front. Below is a sheaf of reviews I posted on Comixology, ComicVine and iFanboy during the World's End era of WildStorm comics, i.e. the last ongoings before DC canned the imprint last year. I started these in response to a call to arms from Authority uberfan Chris Striker on his very excellent Clark's Bar message board; sales on the World's End books were tanking and he posted a challenge to us fans to raise the profile through reviews and stuff. WildStorm pimping aside, I found that producing these things - the discipline of reading the issue and then turning around a half-decent review as quickly as possible, keeping to the word limit imposed by the sites - was a really tight writing exercise.

Anyway, if you read the issues at the time you might like these write-ups. If you didn't, and you're a fan of the Authority, I really can't recommend the Abnett, Lanning and Coleby series highly enough. The relevant trades are Authority: World's End and Authority: Rule Britannia.

A lot has changed since these reviews were first written, not least the death of WildStorm as a separate imprint and the absorption of various WS fragments into the DC universe in time for the ambitious 'New 52' shakeup going on at DC. As much as I abhor DC's wastage of WildStorm, I am hugely psyched for the potential awesomeness that is Paul Cornell's Stormwatch, so I may start reviewing it when it hits the stands.

( Authority #8 )

( Authority #9 )

( Authority #10 )

( Authority #11 )

( Authority #12 )

( Authority #13 )

( Authority #14 )

( Authority #17 )

( Authority World's End Volume 1 TPB )