• 07 Thursday July 2005

After London's Olympic-fuelled euphoria yesterday comes the tragedy of today's terrorist attack on England's capital city. Aldgate and Russell Square are places I know very well indeed. My heart goes out to all those involved in the disaster. Terrorism must not win. We must carry on as usual.

• 06 Wednesday July 2005

Obviously you've all been wondering how I spent my birthday yesterday (apart from initiating this new-fangled weblog thingy).
Well, I enjoyed a visit from my longtime pal Dave W who presented me with the superb complete animated Tintin DVD box set and as usual, some interesting comic curios.
Mandy bought me some groovy new threads in a forlorn attempt to enhance my sartorial elegance and the promise of goodies from www.play.com still to come.
I donned my spiffy new attire and enjoyed an evening at the Rendezvous Casino with Mandy, frittering away all the profit from the latest issue of Strangehaven - well, ten quid of it anyway - at the roulette table. I doubled our stake on black, but then Mandy lost it all on red. Should have quit while we were ahead.
We ate at the Casino's own Ice Cafe, a globe-circumambulating feast combining a Chinese platter, Mexican fajitas and chocolate fudgecake for dessert. We finished off the evening with cocktails, culminating with my first experience of a shooter called Nutty Apple Pie. Nice, but not as good as a Butterball.
Further celebrations are planned for Saturday night, while Mandy took me out window shopping this morning.

I've spent the rest of today trying to get my Internet access back, after an intermittent service since Saturday morning ("upstream router renewals" apparently) and no service since yesterday afternoon. Finally, after four calls to my Service Provider, several reboots of my ADSL modem and two hours of my time, all is well, and I'm back online. Hurrah!

For a moment, I thought that billionaire Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich was attempting to buy me a very expensive birthday gift in the shape of Steven Gerrard (not that I ever really wanted him you understand), waking up to the news that Gerrard was certain to be joining Chelsea in a 35 million pound deal, then hearing ten minutes later that, er, no he's changed his mind again and will be staying at Liverpool. You can count me among those who believe that Gerrard is overrated and I think that Chelsea are well catered for in the central midfield role anyway.
Shaun Wright-Phillips may be a different story as cover is required for the injury-prone wide-men Robben and Duff. And even though Hernan Crespo appears to on his way back, all Chelsea fans will be hoping for a big-name striker to be signed soon to complete the picture.

Congratulations to London, named Olympic city for 2012, beating off stiff competition from Paris in particular. It's hoped that it will regenerate the East End of London which, being a mere 45 minute train ride away, and also the place of my birth, is welcome news. Now all that Great Britain has to do is to find some half decent athletes within the next seven years.

One final note, actually related to comics, is that I received a phone call from Jeff at Bedford's Close Encounters comic shop, to say that my proposed signing next month has been moved to October to accommodate Daves Gibbons and Lloyd who will be signing DC's new ultimate editions of their Alan Moore scripted Watchmen and V For Vendetta volumes respectively.

Some pictures from the London Film & Comic Con 2005:

• Tuesday 05 July 2005

Ultimately, I've been unable to resist the temptation of polluting the Internet with yet another entirely unnecessary blog, so I have finally succumbed, the day after the highly significant anniversary of American Independence and, more importantly, on the anniversary my own (only slightly less significant) date of birth, which may give undeserved credibility to my decision.
It seems to me that a more informal and immediate blog may be a useful tool in certain circumstances for communicating time sensitive news, updates and information while simultaneously providing a platform for an assortment of unsolicited views and opinions on a variety of subjects. How often I'll get to update this is another matter, but in the meantime, here we go...

The latest is that a lengthy new interview with yours truly conducted by Rich Watson of the Comic World News website has just been posted, and it's an interesting one:
Chicks & Romance: People Are Strange

Insomnia, the mini-comic I produced late last year in a limited edition of just 100 signed and numbered copies have now all sold out.
In all, I think it was a worthwhile experiment, with the quantity/price ratio just about right I think, allowing everyone who wanted a cool, collectible Millidge mini the time to get a copy of their very own.
A nice little review of said Insomnia was spotted on the web by my old pal smoky man and can be found here (scroll about halfway down the page):
Jog - The Blog

One last thing that I'd like to mention is that the weekend before last, I received a last-minute invitation to attend the London Film & Comic Con as a guest. The event ran over the weekend of 25 & 26 June and was great fun. I have dismissed these types of events (like Memorabilia and Collectorama) as almost wholly autograph and merchandise driven, with a total lack of actual comics. The organisers of this London event, to their credit, have recognised this and are making efforts to expand the event comics-wise.
This year, last-minute guests besides myself included Leah Moore & John Reppion, David Lloyd, Mike Carey, Duncan Fegredo, Al Davison, Phil Winslade, Shane Oakley, Pat Mills (who appears to be turning into Jon Pertwee) and Brendan McCarthy (who was promoting his fabulous-looking forthcoming retrospective Swimini Purpose).
It was particularly nice to be treated as a proper 'guest' with everything from food and drink to parking laid on (like I was Lou Ferringo or someone), but the best thing was that I met David Dixon, aka TV's Ford Prefect!
The usual comic festival punter was conspicuous by his absence, but I suspect this will be put right next year when the organisers and creators both have time to properly promote the event to the right people. The date has already been set for 1 & 2 July 2006.
London Film & Comic Con