Andy's Blog

The other day I was reminded of some work I did back in the day - this illustration for Walking in Eternity , a charity Doctor Who anthology. I quickly realised that it was not available to view anywhere on the internet, which was a situation that clearly needed to be remedied. So! Here it is, newly pressed and available for purchase as a print. It seems reasonable that any proceeds will go to the original beneficiaries, the  Foundation for the Study of Infant Death .

"Snickers" (still often referred to in my house as "Marathon", no matter how long ago they rebranded) are currently running a competitive promotion. They're producing two variants, named "More Nuts" and "More Caramel"; you can probably take an educated guess at the difference between them. It's probably more apparent from the labels than it is from the contents, both of which taste like ... Well, like a Snickers bar. The "More Caramel" variant is packaged in an easily-identified tan wrapper. "More Nuts", on the other hand, is either the standard Snickers brown or so close as to be indistinguishable. Certainly shop staff appear unable to tell the difference as several times now I've seen them mixed in with the standard bars. At first I had assumed both variants differed from the standard bar. However I'm no longer certain this is the case. It's possible the wrapper colouring is intended to indicate that ...

I've moved house recently and as a result have been sifting through my old comics. And as a result I have been reading a lot of old comics. (Something my shift to digital will rob me of. But I'll treasure the resultant shelf space.) This has reminded me of something I meant to discuss about a year and a half ago. In October 2011, DC Comics rebooted their fictional universe. Some series were restarted from scratch, while other ones carried on more or less unchanged - albeit with minor background modifications or knock-on effects from other, more substantial revisions. (Green Lantern is the most unsettling one, as it carried on without missing a step ... But it soon became apparent that the Superman comics had decided the Death of Superman arc was no longer canon, effectively removing Hal Jordan's tenure as Parallax and Kyle Rayner's entire origin. Sticking-plaster patches are slowly being introduced, though I'm still not sure how Blackest Night played out. But I di...

This question offends me.  Every time I hear it.  It's insulting and insidious, and here is why. It comes from the self-checkout machines at Sainsbury's supermarket, if you try to pay without scanning your Nectar card. The machines at Tesco have a different strategy.  They entreat, "Please scan or swipe your Clubcard."  There is the same intent, the same insistence, the same assumption that I wish to be a part of their covert market research campaign and have simply forgotten.  And this, I don't mind.  Because I am part of the system, I do carry both cards, I will willingly surrender my shopping history in exchange for a minuscule (to the point of being imaginary) discount. But there is a subtle difference between the two.  Both of these only ask for my identification in the event that I have not already tendered it.  And yet J Sainsbury's have decided to phrase their request in the form of a question.  Not "Do you have a Nectar card?" ...

Concept sketch for an Eclipse Phase RPG character, based solely on the art littered around their site. So, that's a thing. via kingandy's gallery on deviantArt

This billboard is positioned on a main road, though it's also fairly busy for pedestrians, being just down the road from a major commute train station.  So I get that it's not such a massive flaw that the text is too small to read while driving quickly past in a car.  (Also, it's Deansgate, down which nothing moves faster than a particularly lethargic sloth.) It's just a shame they didn't know about this roadsign, which completely obscures the text from about 50% of viewing angles.  It's the only text on the board - I don't even know what it's saying, something about how their carry-on limits let you take huge jumpers on holiday - and it's got this honking great thing in the way of anyone actually engaging with it. And even if anyone does have their eye drawn by the bold striking visual, the logo is small and inoffensive up there in the opposite corner where nobody's going to be looking. Overall it's not a very good advert for anythin...

"It's classic.  It's bold.  It's Johnnie Walker.  And you ordered it." What?  No I didn't.  Are you trying to trick me? What is this advert trying to say?  Is it trying to compliment me on my excellent taste, because surely only people with fine reasoning skills would select such a "bold" and "classic" beverage?  Perhaps it is suggesting that, since I have already bought it - apparently by accident - I may as well bite the bullet and try it. It's odd, because without that fanciful last line it would be a fairly standard positive advertising slogan.  With it, the quote seems bizarrely lacking in context, as though it is trying to evoke some sort of scene in which these lines are spoken.  I am genuinely struggling to conjure one. Possibly it is positing a scenario whereby an attractive waitress is approving of my selection and will now come to bed with me. The actress featured is Christina Hendricks, who I had to look up bef...