Day 573

Today I read ‘Savage Town’:

...which is a modern crime noir story set in Limerick City, focusing on Jimmy Savage. Jimmy is a low-level gang boss and the story is about him being in hock to the gang bosses above him and how he tries to turn a bad situation around to his advantage. It’s a great story, written by Declan Shalvey and edited by Sebastian Girner, that is full of black humour, straight out comedy, blood curdling violence and family ties, that is beautiful illustrated by Philip Barrett, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles and packaged/designed by Emma Price. Hugely recommended.

One of my favourite parts of the book are the cover and the very first page, on the cover Jimmy’s face is obscured by tiger stripes, but it’s there on the very first page, just the face (and title), shadowed with piercing, tiger like eyes. It’s a surprise and shows Jimmy as a savage being, which we don’t see in action until much later in the story.

The only thing I’d change/add is a glossary, it’s a minor thing, but it would be nice to know how to pronounce some of the names, such as Saoria and Padraig 😊

 

…and I watched ‘The Avengers’ – ‘The Murder Market’, ‘A Surfeit of H2O’, ‘The Hour That Never Was’, ‘Dial A Deadly Number’, ‘Man-Eater Of Surrey Green’, ‘Two’s A Crowd’.

Day 572

Another visit from the postman today when he delivered Lucy Sullivan’s A4/mini-comics arrived:

 

…and as you can see they are just beautiful, both as objects and as comics, in a weird messy, but intentional messy art style, which really suits a story about mental health, with touches of Bill Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean, when he did the interior art for Hellblazer. These mini-comics are a great taster for ‘Barking’ (which can be funded here). 

I also did the G2 crossword:

…and watched ‘Tru Calling’ S1 ep19

Day 571

Popped into Town for my weekly food shop, the 2.75 mile round trip is one of my ‘exercise’ mainstays, and listened to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Spirit in the Dark’ album (following its recommendation in the recent Mojo Primal Scream article). 

This is a good album (what do you expect from Aretha Franklin!) and there are a couple of really nice songs on the album that jump out, like the title track, with the rest of the album feeling like a slow burn, releasing their goodness over a number of listens (not sure if that makes 100% sense, but what I’m trying to say is that the more you listen to the album the more you like it. That you could come back to it in a months’ time and be like “damn, why did I not notice how good ‘Pullin’ is”).

When I got back from Town the postman had delivered this:

…Modern Toss’s ‘Tossary of Terms’, with some examples:

…also check out the special packing/parcel tape!:

…then I did the G2 crossword:

…and watched ‘Tru Calling’ S1 ep16-18 (which I’ll write about when I finish the boxset) and ‘24 Hours To Live’:

…which is more less what I expected, a fun action movie with lots of shooting and explosions, but it does have a surprising amount of emotion in the storyline (around betrayal, the death of loved ones and doing the right things), because normally there is none (a just a little to get the story started). Ethan Hawke does a good job of playing the skilled mercenary taking his revenge and trying to make up for past sins. I know that makes it sound like all the other ‘Taken’ style actioners, but ‘24 Hours To Live’ s a little above the pack and is a solid flick.