Day 766

Aka Thursday 7^th March 2019

Woke up with aches in knee and ankle, so I’m giving the long walk a rest for today…

…and I read some comics:

‘Witchblade’ #12 in which Alex manages to pull a fast one on the bad guys and saves herself, her friends and the Witchblade and all it costs her is a but of time 😊 Caitlin Kittredge (writer), Roberta Ingranata (artist), Bryan Valenze (colourist) and Troy Peteri (letterer) have made a fun issue (and series) that manages to touch on some serious emotional issues (such as PTSD, love, betrayal and friendship) while telling a fun modern superhero tale. 7/10.

‘Cemetery Beach’ #7 which brings Mike and Grace’s story to an end as <SPOILERS> Mike sacrifices his chance to escape so that Grace can, while leaving the door open for a sequel. Warren Ellis (writer), Jason Howard (artist) and Fonografiks (letterer) have made an action-packed entertaining series and #7 caps it perfectly with Mr Howard knocking it out of the park, especially on the first half of the issue. Just beautiful artwork of the spaceship/pursuit ship launching and pursing Mike and Grace. 9/10.

‘Green Lantern’ #5 is the first time I feel truly invested in and part of the story (the previous issues felt a tad like I was reading a summary of what had happened, rather than experiencing first hand), as Hal undergoes a harrowing trial to join the Blackstars. Grant Morrison (writer), Liam Sharp (artist), Steve Oliff (colourist) and Tom Orzechowski (letterer) have made a great Green Lantern tale, which reminds me a little of the horror stories, like ‘The Thirteenth Floor’, published in the ‘80’s in British comics, like ‘2000AD’ and ‘Scream!’, and ‘Swamp Thing’ and the 'Batman' #399 tale about an axe murderer:

In other words, it’s a dark, grizzly story that sucks you in (and yes that is a pun due to the story taking place on a vampire planet!). 8/10.

‘Giant Days’ #48 in which Daisy and Esther stay at Frog Hall (which as an amphibious/froggy theme), so that they can attend a wedding (between a McGraw and Shaw!!!) (the Shaw’s are Susan’s ninth deadliest enemies!) with Susan. And I spotted Desmond Fishman in the background!:

John Allison (writer and illustrated), Whitney Cogar (colours) and Jim Campbell (letters) have made a humour and emotional filled issue that manages to perfectly capture the truth of a British wedding, with all the fun and tears that entails. 10/10.

…and I listened to ‘The Dandy Warhols’ ‘…Earth To The Dandy Warhols…’ album…in which the Dandies sound both louche and druggy and shoegazey, but with a polished, professional edge…it’s an album that draws you in and keeps you at its breast until it ends…a fine album, 7/10, and the standout tracks for me are Talk Radio, Love Song, Mis Amigos, The Legend Of The Last Of The Outlaw Truckers aka The Ballard Of Sheriff Shorty and Valerie Yum.

…and I put together ‘Slave 1’, from the latest ‘Lego Magazine’:

…and I did the G2 Crossword:

…which brings us back to the sunny uplands of competency, as I just had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). It was like a fog had lifted and I could see/get most of the answers without much hassle, except for ‘seraphim’ from ‘angels’ and ‘idiosyncratic’ from ‘quirky’, maybe it’s because the interview pressure is off (for now)? But will it continue for the rest of the week? Let’s see!