Everything Under the Sun

Quiet round here, innit? I was thinking about making my obligatory Christmas Humbug posting, but I can’t be bothered. Haven’t felt much like blogging since moving to the Big Smoke. It’s been a rollercoaster of change and adjustment. Still don’t have a house sharer, and actually have to decide after the holidays whether or not I should move somewhere else, a little smaller and cheaper. This is far too large and expensive for just me. (Of course, it being just me wasn’t the plan at all, but things often don’t go to plan, right?)

Some interesting things have happened. I found a local framer who does frames and mounts very cheaply, so thus far I have eight pieces of art done with a few more to sort out after the hols.

Speaking of art, last week I received the Freedom* cover art from Gene Colan (as well as a sketch of Bowie as a bonus). He’s done a fantastic job on the cover. The actual contents of the book is progressing in fits and starts, but certainly there’s some nice stuff lined up. Might put some preview material online soonish, but that’s all for now.

(*The new comics anthology Paul and I are putting together.)

Recently I’ve been talking with Herb Trimpe about doing the cover of #2. If you’re familiar with his name, it won’t surprise you that a huge, green-skinned guy will be involved.

I guess the news is fast becoming common knowledge, amongst those who care, that Dez has sold Comics International to concentrate on other projects. Mixed feelings for me. It was two years ago I started dummying-up a new site for Dez, and I’ve been working on the magazine itself for a year. I don’t know how long that will continue. I hope to be working with Dez on other things, and for now, at least, I’m still on the CI team, but who knows what happens next?

After months of various delays and hitches (not all of them my fault, actually!), David V for Vendetta Lloyd’s official Web site, as put together by Yours Truly, recently went live at www.lforlloyd.com. It was strangely cathartic to get it done, as preliminary work had started back in early April, during the time mom was starting to get really ill, so this project kind of dogged that whole period and all the turmoil/change since then. I feel I’ve turned a positive corner. During the worst times, David was never less than understanding and compassionate and I’m very grateful. I’m hoping to see him for a drink on the 28th—we must raise a glass to better times in 2007!

I haven’t had a housewarming yet, and I rather think calling it such at this point would be really loopy. But I do plan to have a party of some kind after the holidays. Last Saturday, I had a quiet get-together instead. Paul and Sarah came over, a couple of others couldn’t make it. Still, it was a nice time, though I got more drunk than I’d have preferred.

We’re having monthly London Comics meet-ups, by the way. If this interests you, go here to sign up to the mailing list.

I’ve just been watching episodes from the first season of Boston Legal. I picked up the boxset cheap a while ago. I have to say, considering it comes from the team who gave us the merely okay Ally McBeal, it’s ten times better than it perhaps ought to be. Maybe it lies in the strength of the cast. James Spader is superb as Alan Shore, managing to mix nauseating smarm with genuine charm quite effortlessly, but it’s William Tiberius Shatner’s Denny Crane who (as all the reviews said—the main reason I decided to take a look) steals it by a mile. He’s brilliant. I love the whole show. Well worth a look if you ain’t seen it yet.

Well, now, anyhoo, I’ll need a lot to watch. The first Xmas without mom will be really hard. Last year was so subdued as she was not well at all, just a couple of weeks out of hospital and, as it turned out, much more gravely ill than anyone realised. It’s not like we were over-burdened, in spite of her failing health, with attention from what passes for our family. I think they condescended to spare about an hour of their precious time. We had a very low-key time. I wish I had tried to make it a bit more special for her. One of many things I still feel bad about, but that’s life.

So, of course, I will be alone over Xmas. I guess you could say I effectively don’t have a family anymore. What little time they had for mom, they had even less for me, but after their reprehensible behaviour over mom’s funeral, I’m not sorry about that. If I ever saw the slightest trace of a conscience, maybe I’d feel differently. Go figure.

I will be seeing Paul tomorrow, at least. He has to make sure his own mother (now 79 years old) has a pleasant Christmas, and I can certainly appreciate the value of that. It’ll be a time for thinking of my mother a lot, missing her, mulling over regrets, cursing what a pathetic excuse of a non-family we both were lumbered with, but… looking forward to 2007. I think this year’s been my worst-ever, on the whole, but the new year has a lot to offer.

Just wish I could avoid the Lonely Xmas syndrome, really. *sigh*