July 2024: A Summation
This is an experiment
I’ve been umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether I should do one of these monthly wrap-up things for a little while now. I’ve seen others post such articles, but they actually have interesting stuff to talk about. In the end I decided (obviously) to give it a go, so if you’re reading this please leave a comment letting me know if this is at all interesting and if you’d like to see more.
Writing:
My History of SEGA book continues to progress well. The actual text itself is now all but done, with just a few small tweaks needing to be made. For the most part, I’m now sourcing images for inclusion in the book. The whims of copyright law have been a hard thing to get my head around and there have been some great images I’d have loved to use, but sadly can not. Still, I’ve almost sourced all 100 images the publisher requires, so it’s going well.
Somewhat scarier is that I recently found out my 60,000 word count includes the acknowledgements, introduction, notes and references. I must admit this is worrying me as the main text is already over 60K words after cutting sections out. The book is a bit more general than I’d like already, so I’m loath to have to remove more. Guess I’ll have to see what the publisher has to say about it all.
I submitted a short story to a writing competition this month. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. To say I’m nervous about it is an understatement! I was originally going to just post the story here on Substack, but my wife encouraged me to submit. I won’t find out until September if I’ve made the running or not. Hope I at least get short listed.
In more troubling developments, someone stole content from my The Phantom: A Hero Who Influenced the World article and re-posted it as a note making it look like their work. To add insult to injury, their note has gained far more traction on this site than my original article, with people actually praising the note-er for their “fascinating” information.
I of course reported this to Substack and the note was taken down, but apart from that there is no repercussions for the plagiariser, and no renumeration for me. I feel quite weird about the whole thing, as I mention in the following note.
(As an aside; Substack, you really need to make your advice/ info/ rules about how to contact you regarding this kind of thing clearer.)
Reading:
This month, I finished the brilliant Writing on the Wall: Graffiti, Rebellion and the Making of Eighteenth-Century Britain by Maddie Pelling. I discovered Maddie via her podcast After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal which has become one of my favourites. Writing on the Wall was a really interesting and unique way of examining history through the graffiti left behind by those that came long before. The stories behind the various graffiti Maddie looks at are all fascinating. Certainly worth checking the book out if you’re a history buff.
With Maddie’s book done, I re-read one of the greatest comic series to have ever graced store shelves; Jeff Smith’s Bone. I originally read Bone in my 20s, which was many years ago. Re-reading it now, I’m finding I’m picking up on subtitles in both story and art that I missed (or maybe forgot) the first time around.
If you’re unaware of the epic that is Bone, the elevator-pitch description would be “The Hobbit, if made by Disney.” While that description does get across a very general sense of what Bone is, I feel it also does it a disservice. Bone’s Disney-ness is seen in its most basic plot elements; a princess, a vast evil that must be overcome, talking forest animals and three anthropomorphic humanoids that are very cartoony in design. While Bone is an all-ages book, it’s humour and themes skew older than the Disney comparison might suggest. This is where the Hobbit comparison comes in. Like Tolkien’s classic tale, Bone starts off as what seems a fun children’s fantasy story, yet over its 1000-odd pages, it builds into something much deeper, much larger, and much more mature than the early chapters might lead one to believe.
Smith is a master cartoonist, and his art is some of the most beautiful you’ll see. Wonderfully realised characters and locations abound and he’s as adept at depicting humorous scenes as he is those of action or quiet contemplation. While Bone is available in colour, I’m reading the black-and-white edition as this is how Smith originally intended the book to look. While I have nothing against the colour editions per se, I do feel that art that was intended to originally be black-and-white can loose some of its impact when colour is added, especially the bright colours of digitally printed comics. Either way, Smith’s work is beautiful and it’s easy to see why he is so highly regarded.
Also this month I read the Misty 2024 Special. For that who may not be aware, Misty is a UK comics magazine that began in the 1970s which, although a horror series, was aimed towards a female audience. The original Misty ran for 101 issues, ending in January 1980. Since then it has seen several annuals and specials released.
I'm very new to Misty, having first heard about it via an article on the series by Julia Round in the pages of the amazing Hellebore magazine. Intrigued, I looked into the series and quickly made a note of all the collected editions and specials out there. Luckily, I was at a con not too long after and was able to pick up the Misty 45 Years Of Fear hardcover (I've not read it yet, though 😅).
The 2024 special contains three stories written by one of comics’ best, Gail Simone. Each story is connected in some way, building a creepy, unsettling world of embedded horror. The forth story in the magazine, this one by Letty Wilson, is no less creepy and a really nice story to end on. What I loved about these stories is that the horror is subtle. It's the slow build of tension that really makes these stories work, and I had great fun reading them. I have to also give special mention to Aly Fell, whose art for the second story in the magazine is simply astounding!
Playing:
A few months ago I decided that I really need to get through my 200-odd games back catalogue. This list spans across X-Box, Switch and PC. I didn’t even bother including all the retro system games I want to play. I even made a spreadsheet!
I’m slowly getting through them and have so far managed to knock over Armikrog, The Neverhood, Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series, Rare Replay, Battle Axe, Doom, Doom II, Spiritfarer and Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. That might seem like a lot of games for one month, but honestly I didn’t finish most of the games in Rare Replay as I found them frustrating or boring (they really don’t hold up after all these years). Battle Axe was incredibly short (four levels), Spiritfarer I grew tired of the grind, Momodora was just terrible so I quit after one level, and the rest were relatively short. Of these the pick was easily The Neverhood; my short review of it over on Grouvee reads as follows;
Troublesome creator aside, The Neverhood is an absolutely brilliant game. From the surrealist claymation to the weird, quirky music, the very British-style humour (so much so that I was surprised to learn it was an American team who worked on this) to the mostly great puzzles, there is a lot to love in this game. I don't think it'll be for everyone, but if you enjoy quirky humour and really original design it's well worth checking out.
I’ve decided to re-play Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, a brilliant action/puzzle game originally released for the DS, which recently received a HD edition on Switch. I didn’t really want to pay the £15 for the re-release, even with improved graphics and voice acting, so am playing the original on my old 2DS and having a great time!
I'm also rather enjoying the latest update to No Man's Sky. It might have been a week late hitting the X-Box, but it was worth the wait. The new additions they have added really improve the visuals of the game, with the already beautiful worlds looking even better. I never thought I'd get excited about the water in a video game, but what Hello Games has done here has to be some of the most impressive digital water I've seen. The new Expedition mission, too, is quite fun. I've found the Expeditions to be somewhat hit and miss since they started, but Liquidators is shaping up to be one of the better ones.
Collecting:
In the process of researching for my History of SEGA book, I discovered the Master System Evolution console from TecToy. An officially licenced product, it holds 132 built-in games and looks absolutely epic! Unfortunately, it turns out you need something called a CPF number to purchase stuff from Brazil.
While disappointing, I figured it just means I can use the money I would have spent on the Evolution to purchase a “real” Master System. I’ve long had a dream of having a little SEGA shrine with each of the consoles, so it makes more sense to buy an actual Master System rather than a clone. I jumped on eBay and was quickly reminded how annoying snipers are, so I’ll probably end up getting the consoles for specialty retro stores. I might have to pay more, but at least I won’t be waiting for a week or two only to loose the auction by £1.
Something I've been pondering about for a while was whether to buy all the Doctor Strange Epic Collection volumes. You see, I've been collecting the back issues of the various Doctor Strange series for the better part of a decade, and I'm very close to having a complete run from his second volume onward.
The Epic Collections collect these classic issues. Volumes one to three collect issues from Strange Tales, Vol. 1 and Doctor Strange, Vol. 1, issues that are simply beyond my means for the real thing. The rest of the Epic Collections, Vols 4 to (currently) 13, collect the issues from Strange’s second and third series. Originally, I thought the Epic Collections could be the “reader” copies so that the actual issues, the oldest of which released in the 70s, could remain safe. But….I actually already have digital copies of them all, so would it not make more sense for those to be the reader copies? It would save me a tone of money (which I could put towards Asterix omnibuses).
I do like having a physical book over digital, but is there any point is buying a collection containing issues I already have, especially when there is a free alternative to reading them if I don't want to risk damaging the actual issues? This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night!
In other collectables news, I picked up several new Sonic figures. I nabbed the new Neo Metal Sonic which sees Jakks continue to release figures based on some of the more obscure Sonic characters. I also picked up figures of Batten Rouge and Black Rose from Sonic Prime. I couldn't believe that each of the Prime figures were £15 when they first released, especially as some, like Black Rose, don't come with accessories. The figures of Sonic himself in the Prime line aren't much more than repaints, with only the subtlest of changes in the moulding of his hands and feet. Given Jakks regular Sonic line is only £10 a figure, £15 for the Prime figures seems much too steep, even if they are slightly bigger (by about 3cm).
Well, it seems the prices of the Prime figures have started to come down as I picked up Rouge and Amy for £8 each from Smyths. So far only the female character figures have been reduced (guess people still aren't buying “girl toys”) but hopefully the others will follow. Sadly, the other Rouge and Amy figures in the line weren't available for delivery, so as there's no Smyths store near me I'll have to hope I can find those for a decent price elsewhere.
Welp, that's all for the June wrap up. As I said at the start of the article, please let me know if you would like to see more of this kind of post. Also let me know if you found it boring (I doubt there is anyone else on here who wants to talk about the details of Sonic collecting).
Regardless of how you felt about the article, thanks for reading!
TTFN
This is a great post. Your detailed progress on the SEGA book was engaging and so well-written. I especially liked the challenges with copyright law. Also, your reflections on re-reading Bone provided a nostalgic and insightful perspective on this. Great work.
I had a Master System!
"Unfortunately, it turns out you need something called a CPF number to purchase stuff from Brazil."
Yes, I'm afraid that's true... our system here is very antiquated!
By the way, I like this monthly round up. It's a great way to see what you've been up to, and it's good to hear about the Sega book's progress.