PROPAGANDA - this weeks reviews.....

A real mixed bag this week, the most high profile of which is the new book from Jonathan Cape; Walking The Dog. Paul Gravett described it as "it will be one of the greatest graphic novels of 2010". I disagree. A lot.

Two anthology books - both very anthology like - hit and miss. Of the two I preferred New British Comics since it gave me at least two new artists to look and and follow in Lawrence Elwick and Paul O’Connell.

And to round it out, new stuff (and rather good stuff) from Matthew Craig and a bizarre little creeping horror tale. All in all a strange week.

More on that reviewing bet....... a glorious failure

Louise and I always have little bets with each other and they always have the same wager - always a takeway, loser buys.

The latest bet was all about the reviews that were sitting on my shelf just waiting to be read and written about. A simple bet - the next deadline I had for SFX magazine was 25th January, and Louise simply wagered that I couldn't review everything on the shelf by then.

Well, I failed. But at 11:50pm 25th January I had just one more book to review. And that's really not that bad at all. Hopefully this means I can keep going now and read and review as the books come in. A little less stressful than seeing them build up and build up and never seeming to catch up.
So, a failure. But a pretty wonderful, glorious one. Who knows, I might even get some spare time to get some more writing done on here.

This weeks PROPAGANDA Reviews on the FPI blog

Not a colour I ever want to see again..............

It's watermelon pink. Not something I'd choose to have on a wall perhaps, but in the right place I'm sure it's lovely.

The right place is not, however, the toilet bowl. Especially not when it's Molly projectile vomiting this into the bowl. Nothing particularly to worry about in the end, the lovely colour was brought about by a mixture of lots of summer fruits squash and raspberries (curse this bloody 5 a day fruit and veg lark) but it wasn't nice at the time - and the sickly sweet fruity smell will last in my olfactory memory for quite a while.

As kids do, Molly immediately felt better and went straight to sleep. And in the morning she was right as rain.

As for me, I keep smelling that damn sickly fruity raspberry smell.

Reviews At The FPI Blog this week....

You know, one day I'm actually going to run out of reviews.....

Nope, still nothing.....

God, it's quiet round here.

Quiet on the blog, but busy, busy, busy elsewhere. I'm desperately trying to win a bet with Louise that says I can't clear the review shelf by the next deadline for the SFX reviews I have - 25th January. This means I have 13 days to do 11 reviews. Touch and go.

Louise and my bets are always for the standard currency of a takeaway of our choice. So far this year we already have bets on:
My review shelf (close, but I think Lou is going to win)
The general election (and Louise looks good on this, with a tory landslide being her call)
The world cup (I said England to the semis but so did Louise - so I yielded and said final - fingers crossed eh?)

But the reviewing, plus busy at school, plus trying to go to bed a little earlier, plus ongoing mental health issues elsewhere (not me, Lou or Molly, don't worry, but not something I feel like publically talking about yet) have meant that Fictions has been the thing that's really suffered. Apologies.

Tell you what, we'll see how the reviewing goes for January and then see where we are eh?
Until then, I've got reviews to do and a takeaway to win....
x

This week at the FPI blog...

The reviews this week include:

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me [sob]

Oh I do not like this getting old lark.
I do not like it one little bit.

This week in reviews at the FPI blog....

Want List - January 2010

All the things I've thought - ooooh, that looks interesting in the coming months.
Hmmm, looking a little sparse really, surely there must be more than this coming out?
Any ideas?

Jan 2010



February 2010



March 2010



April 2010



Later in 2010...






sometime ..... but when? WHEN!!!!?




And for 2011: