A busy week as TLC and I manoeuvre into position for The Big Change. I won’t bore you with the details—yet. For now, enjoy a short sharp shock of Shwipe—er, Swipe. Extreme comics geekery, cookbooks for the people and Klingon Scrabble. Let’s get it on!
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar. An early shot of juicy steampunk from the Central Station author. A little clunky on startup, but the sheer verve of the storytelling and wild cannonades of imagination sweep you up and roll you along. Milady deWinter is an appropriately kick-ass heroine, busted up but never beaten. Plus there’s a rich supporting cast including everyone from the Marquis de Sade to Victor Frankenstein to Tom Thumb. Lots of fun!
Rob is watching…
A perfect example of neatly compressed storytelling which packs an awful lot into twelve seconds. You will have follow-up questions.
Rob is listening…
To Spotify’s Daylists, a clever use of The Algorithm which seem to suit my mood thus far on the morning and afternoon drives. It remains to be seen whether the same songs keep coming up at the same time. If it’s Friday afternoon, it must be Talking Heads…
Rob is eating…
Seafood pizza. Harder to find than it used to be, I’m sure. When in doubt, grab a decent Margarita from your favourite retailer and go nuts with the prawns and tuna. Some hot sauce on top and you’ve got an easy Friday night feast!
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
Not low-key at all. The Honda HR-V in sand khaki. More to come on this.
Max Read helps out if you need to unpick the story beats and twists in the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sand-fi classic. Spoilers, obviously, for a story that’s been around since 1965. I remain disappointed that the murderous toddler Alia Atraides doesn’t make more of an appearance…
I will not apologise for sharing Todd Klein’s exhaustive overview of comics lettering. One of the key elements in the Ninth Art, we should never underestimate how much the humble speech bubble brings to the party. I spent a couple of evenings this week drinking down the huge amount of content on offer. Todd is one of if not the best in the business and his knowledge and enthusiasm for the discipline shine through every word and illustration.
The Art And History Of Lettering Comics
Sundials are cool and all but they’re not the most reliable of timepieces. Meet Windell Oskey, who built a better device from a simple idea. What a bright spark!
Here’s a chat with With Paige Lipari, founder of Archestratus—one of a small but noble tranche of bookshops dedicated to food writing. It’s probably just as well it’s based in Brooklyn. If I was close to a shop like this you’d probably have to set me up with a camp bed. I’d never want to leave.
A new spin on the revered board game. Phil from Funranium Labs proposes a model which upends traditional scoring methods in favour of your ability to convincingly argue the toss over your non-standard word choices. Honour is all!
As the dust settles on the inevitable Oscars drama the time has come to ask: do we deserve better from the Bizarro version, The Razzies? There are few surprises, and the choices are obvious. Of course the Winnie The Pooh horror would sweep the board. Ho hum. Is it time to expand the remit, or get back to the original idea behind the initiative—poking fun at Hollywood excesses and pomposity? Maybe the KLF had the right idea—giving the Turner Prize winner a concurrent nod for Worst Artwork Of The Year. Would Christopher Nolan show up to lift his Oppenheimer Razzie?
Please, take your time with this long Reddit thread of customer demands to poor, overworked retail staff. I believe, and I know I’m not the only one, that a spell working in a client-facing shop environment is incredibly useful for developing interpersonal skills and lateral thinking. Full disclosure, I’ve banked several years in retail, including two Christmases in a record shop. Patience is a virtue in this environment, of course. Take a deep breath…
Last up, let’s look at how the master of the ghost story, M.R. James, casts his spell. A lot of really useful insight here if you feel the urge to send a chill down your reader’s spines.
I vanished down a prog hole this week, listening to early Marillion. They were an obsession for me as a teenager (I was really not cool—I know, shock horror surprise), one of the first bands I embraced as my own away from Mum and Dad’s record collection. The band’s second album, Fugazi, was famously difficult to make as they were forced to follow up a hit record with no songs left in the bank. It oozes with the quiet panic of a freshly-famous group struggling with success. I choose to view the blatant misogyny on display as evidence of lyricist and singer Fish ricocheting around a set of messy breakdowns. Fugazi is very 80’s, very prog and not for everyone. But Marillion remain a bedrock of my musical tastes, and I found I could bellow along with every song. Just as well I commute solo…
See you in seven, fellow travellers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 