Not writing for a while didn’t mean not reading for a while; I just didn’t have time to say anything about the books I read, unfortunately. There were things that stayed in my head after reading them, which is always a good sign. Even though these will be out of date, I still wanted to collect them in one place.

One of my last posts was a review of the recent Dr Strange mini-series; I’m not a big fan of the character, which might be why I rather enjoyed this updated treatment. This led to a highlight: being linked to by Neilalien, the leading Dr Strange authority on the net and comic blogging legend. Not only that, he also mocked me – I have truly made it in the blogosphere!

The ever-excellent Jim compared Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising cycle with JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, and why he hasn’t read the latter yet. I grew up on the Cooper books, the first genre ‘proper’ books that I absorbed, yet still enjoy the Potter books for their fun read. Yes, I am a child at heart.

Tom the Dog, who has a similar love of film, television and comics (and was the first person to link to me, poor chap), provided a perfect encapsulation of the magic, and subsequent loss, of Rob Reiner. That Tom knows of where he speaks …

Kevin Smith, who has lapses in his diary blogging nearly as bad as me, tells us all about his anal fissure. Yes, you read that right. I used to compare myself to Smith, in regards to being raised a Catholic, a love of comic books, films and comedy, and being the same age. Unlike him, I’ve never had a recurring problem with piles (he says he suffers from them several times a year – ouch). Sometimes, I am happy not to be a famous writer/director with tons of cash. Also, he shares too much, methinks …

I’ve been meaning to write about my favourite comic book artists for a while. Obviously, Alan Davis will be in the list (it’s not called Clan-Destine for nothing) but, at another end of the spectrum, Bill Sienkiewicz is an artist whose work does good things to my eyes. Dr Sordid posted his Top 10 Bill Sink covers [EDIT: blog is invitation only] a while back, and you can never have too much Sink.

Logan always read my stuff, God bless him, don’t know why, but I always enjoyed reading his posts. It’s not clear if he will be blogging again, even if last post is longer than all of my content for the last three months, but I’m hoping it won’t be permanent. Come back soon, buddy

I wanted to point out the Comic Bloggers’ Poll 2005 [EDIT: site broken] because I think it’s a great thing and I can’t wait for the results. However, I won’t be voting because I don’t consider myself qualified to vote. Apart from not blogging regularly enough to have concrete opinions, I don’t think I’m qualified to come across as an authoritative opinion, which is why you won’t be seeing one of those end-of-year posts from me. Most bloggers do, but I haven’t read nearly enough to have an opinion with weight, and it would only be a list of my favourites, based on my tastes. I am like Paul O’Brien; I enjoy genre, not the medium alone (from this article):

I self-identify as a fan of certain genres of comics. I am predisposed to hunt out and try new products within that area. I recognise the likely quality of many products outside that sphere, but it doesn’t follow in the slightest that I should feel inclined to read them.

Manga, falling outside my existing sphere of interest, does not magically become of interest to me simply because it’s a comic. Instead, it joins the long queue of other activities battling for my leisure time, behind the novels I haven’t got around to reading, the DVDs I haven’t got around to watching, the TV shows I keep meaning to check out, the games I haven’t finished yet …

Talking of Paul, an excellent writer, I’d like to thank him for his recommendation of Jasper Fforde’s books, which are wonderful, and shows how Paul and I have similar appetites for genre material, even if my writing is nowhere near as good as his.

Talking of excellent writing that makes me feel inferior, I have to mention Jog; reading his analysis of, say, Seven Soldiers, makes me feel like I’m an idiot, which is a good thing, honest. Even when he is only reviewing Alan Moore’s worst comics, he is still superb and a joy to read.

I’ll leave you with those links, and the eternal promise of original material here in the future.