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hmpfI've been very nearly completely offline for... weeks (pretty much since I made my last post here, exactly), and only partly online again for... a week or so. My laptop died. Completely. Not even the "power on" diode is working anymore. My ancient desktop, after a three-day period of trying and failing again and again, turned out to be incompatible with Linux (which I tried to put on it so as to have at least *some* sort of working computer again with which to go online and look for computer advice as well as start shopping for a new laptop). I'm now on a borrowed eight-year-old laptop (which was also broken/heavily infected with something, and which has an extraordinarily crappy keyboard), on which I installed Linux and which is therefore, now, somewhat safe to use for going online again. I've also finally ordered a new laptop, which should be delivered sometime this week. Pheew.
The novel is now at 1,500 words, roughly, btw. Have been somewhat stuck/blocked for a while though, mainly because I have some trouble developing the setting in my mind - seems like I can't really write unless I can imagine the world my protagonists live in. I've started borrowing lots of geography books from the local library; maybe that will help.
I've finally started reading comics again! I sort of fell off that particular wagon a year or two ago, mainly because I switched to reading more novels again. I've started reading Saga now (which had been brought to my attention a couple of times before, but I wasn't in comic buying mode then, so it never stuck). It's good, but not as weird as I feel I'd been promised. I think reading Finder and Donna Barr's stuff and assorted Manga has forever ruined me for finding any comic coming out of the mainstream weird. The world also doesn't feel quite as fully realised to me yet as reviews had led me to expect. Again, I'm probably spoiled by Finder. Still, it's promising - and it's definitely a flavour that you don't get much in comics, so I'll support it for that, too. Mind you, I only have the first volume, so far.
Prince Robot is totally modelled on The One Electronic, though.
One thing that's kind of interesting is that what Saga tries to do - telling a love story about an established relationship, against a background of large-scale conflict - is *sort of* what I'm trying to do in my novel. Huh.
As for weirder comics: Finder: Third World, the story that was serialised in Dark Horse Presents, is finally getting a trade paperback release in August. This is making me very, very, very, very happy.
Also, it seems there will be a Hellblazer, pardon, Constantine (pronounced wrong, though, ugh) tv show? Not sure how I feel about that, but it's reminded me of the fact that my Hellblazer collection is sadly incomplete. Turns out that now they're finally collecting the whole shebang from the beginning and without gaps. Well, hooray. Only I've already bought about a third of the entire run in various other forms. I doubt the new collections will neatly fill the gaps in my stack of issues and trades, so I suppose I'll end up with lots of spares. Meh.
I also still haven't read the actual ending of the actual comic (stopped reading for money reasons, a while before it ended). Was it okay? Or is it better to just... not read it, ever?
Aaaand speaking of London magicians, I also recently read Rivers of London and enjoyed it quite a lot. What I didn't enjoy quite as much were some of the spoilers I read online about Lesley's future. Fingers crossed that those were misinterpretations or something. Now waiting for the second volume to be delivered... which should have arrived last week already, so I'm getting antsy.
Right, well, gotta get off this thing now as it's getting late and I have to get up early tomorrow...
The novel is now at 1,500 words, roughly, btw. Have been somewhat stuck/blocked for a while though, mainly because I have some trouble developing the setting in my mind - seems like I can't really write unless I can imagine the world my protagonists live in. I've started borrowing lots of geography books from the local library; maybe that will help.
I've finally started reading comics again! I sort of fell off that particular wagon a year or two ago, mainly because I switched to reading more novels again. I've started reading Saga now (which had been brought to my attention a couple of times before, but I wasn't in comic buying mode then, so it never stuck). It's good, but not as weird as I feel I'd been promised. I think reading Finder and Donna Barr's stuff and assorted Manga has forever ruined me for finding any comic coming out of the mainstream weird. The world also doesn't feel quite as fully realised to me yet as reviews had led me to expect. Again, I'm probably spoiled by Finder. Still, it's promising - and it's definitely a flavour that you don't get much in comics, so I'll support it for that, too. Mind you, I only have the first volume, so far.
Prince Robot is totally modelled on The One Electronic, though.
One thing that's kind of interesting is that what Saga tries to do - telling a love story about an established relationship, against a background of large-scale conflict - is *sort of* what I'm trying to do in my novel. Huh.
As for weirder comics: Finder: Third World, the story that was serialised in Dark Horse Presents, is finally getting a trade paperback release in August. This is making me very, very, very, very happy.
Also, it seems there will be a Hellblazer, pardon, Constantine (pronounced wrong, though, ugh) tv show? Not sure how I feel about that, but it's reminded me of the fact that my Hellblazer collection is sadly incomplete. Turns out that now they're finally collecting the whole shebang from the beginning and without gaps. Well, hooray. Only I've already bought about a third of the entire run in various other forms. I doubt the new collections will neatly fill the gaps in my stack of issues and trades, so I suppose I'll end up with lots of spares. Meh.
I also still haven't read the actual ending of the actual comic (stopped reading for money reasons, a while before it ended). Was it okay? Or is it better to just... not read it, ever?
Aaaand speaking of London magicians, I also recently read Rivers of London and enjoyed it quite a lot. What I didn't enjoy quite as much were some of the spoilers I read online about Lesley's future. Fingers crossed that those were misinterpretations or something. Now waiting for the second volume to be delivered... which should have arrived last week already, so I'm getting antsy.
Right, well, gotta get off this thing now as it's getting late and I have to get up early tomorrow...
*vomits HB feelings into your inbox*
Date: 2014-06-11 07:33 pm (UTC)I haven't read the end of the comic, either. But given my feelings about Epiphany, I don't think I'll be doing that for a looooooong time yet.
Re: *vomits HB feelings into your inbox*
Date: 2014-06-11 09:12 pm (UTC)Oh man, this all brings back my HB love in vivid detail. Ugh.
How ridiculous is it, btw, that I'm kind of pissed off that tv John Constantine is so young? I'm kind of invested in John being an ageing (and seriously ageing!) former punk, deeply rooted in the seventies and eighties. Those just feel like his decades.
I don't think I remember Epiphany, that must have been after I dropped the book. I feel kind of lukewarm about most of the later runs, though.
Re: *vomits HB feelings into your inbox*
Date: 2014-06-14 06:21 pm (UTC)I hope they do get to his run because I'm sick of him being shafted (as I'm sure he is).
Oh man, this all brings back my HB love in vivid detail. Ugh.
Same. I just love these comics so, so much.
I don't think it's ridiculous - I'm used to him being a cynical old man (literally because he was 59 and a half when killed off) so yeah. Smooth flawless baby John is...I know it exists but I don't want it? Also that guy playing him doesn't look like he spent time in a mental institution or had suffered half as much as John by that point.
Oh, Epiphany. She is his ~WIFE~. She is in her EARLY TWENTIES (which screams all sorts of wrong things at me for a start, even though I know it's possible and hey I'm in my early thirties and fancy men twice my age SO). She can magically fix things via ALCHEMY. She is, like, ~super special~ and man does she sound like a Mary Sue. I haven't read any of the comics she's in, but reading about her is enough to make me vomit. I'll get to it eventually but yeah. I was hoping, because it was Peter Milligan that created her, that it might be some kind of twist or weird plot at work but NO SUCH LUCK. I just. My biggest problem with it is that I can't see John being domesticated by ANYONE, least of all a twenty year old girl.
(I once ranted about her on the HB comm I run, which wasn't very modly of me, but it helped me work out why she bugs me so much).