More Human Than Human

Replicants, Skin-jobs, Bioroids, Synthetic Personalities. They've had a lot of names, but the appeal of a man-made, intelligent being with human physiology is an enduring one. Why do humans have a penchant for creating machines in our own image (both in fiction and reality), and why are we fascinated by the idea of them turning against us?

You can read the rest of this article at the Sci Fi channel's website HERE.
I'm hoping to contribute regularly to the Sci Fi channel whilst keeping You Look Like A Little Kid With A Beard running.

Thanks for reading!

What Will We Rail Against Now?

If you’re a screaming left-wing, pinko, commie, organic, environment-loving, non-homophobic, pansy, like me, you are of course perhaps wondering ‘who the hell are we going to take the piss out of now?’

Oh, George, we’ll miss you, the most misunderestimated President of the mighty U.S. of A. All us beatnik/ Generation X/ Generation Apathy have got nothing to snipe about. Sure, we’ll band together to pour vitriol on Sarah Palin’s bid for President in three years, we’ll sneer at David Cameron (if he would stop being so Green and liberal for a minute), but gad-zooks! We have a candy-ass liberal, comic-reading, ethnic-type dude in the Whitehouse.

This is science fiction right? I’m dreaming? I’d scream an ‘Hallelujah’ if I wasn’t so bound up with middle-class, agnostic, existentialism.

It seems almost fitting that Battlestar Galactica is coming to a close as the Bush administration shuffles it’s feet and nervously looks off into the distance before the historians write their sins large. For those of you that don’t watch BSG, you’d be hard pressed not see the parallels the show has thrown up – torturing prisoners of war, a nation’s conduct in a time of hostilities, the treatment of those dubbed inferior or ‘under class’ by the ruling majority and so on. The reflections on Bush’s America were there for anyone to see past the spaceships and robots.

And what of the liberal comics who have had such rich fare over the last eight years? The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Have I Got News For You and the majority of any political satirists… surely they’ll fade away, robbed of any real targets, right?

Of course, in an hour of need, humanity always manages to provide a hero to meet the challenge, and I’m sure as some kind of karmic, inverse law of the awful, mankind will breed a new sect of NeoCons and ingrates that will make the very Earth tremble with their righteous indignation, smouldering outrage and seething resentment of the new world order (A.K.A Obamatopia).

But don’t take my word for it (after all, I’m high on a mixture of Lemsip and daytime television) promote your own terrible vision of the world through speculative fiction like these guys did HERE.

January Is Teh Suck

I recent got an email from a friend bemoaning that Tuesdays were pants. He used rather stronger language than that, but you get the idea. Je n'aime pas les mardis?

Mardi indeed.

His argument was that you could celebrate Wednesday as being the halfway point. Thursday is good, proximity to the weekend and all that. Friday is not so good, as it’s either waiting for the weekend, or feverishly trying to do all the work you should have done in the previous four days.

Don’t even get me started on Mondays. Actually, I quite like Mondays, as I can hook up with my chums at work and find out what they got up to at the weekend.

Continuing this stream of consciousness it occurred to me that January is also pretty pants: You’ve overspent at Christmas, utility bills are larger at this time of year, it’s darker, colder and unless you’re mainlining Berocca you’re probably going to get something. Even if you get away with a clean bill of health, your kids are going to go down with something.

Work doesn’t offer much salvation, as you invariably spend the time quietly chewing your arm off as somebody fiddles with the air con for the hundredth time. Then, of course, there is prospect of people spoiling whichever DVD box set of Season ‘X’ you are watching (insert The Wire/ Battlestar Galactica/ 24/ Heroes as appropriate). I don’t think I know anyone who watches TV in a regular fashion anymore, unless it’s Big Brother.

So bring on February, balmy (sort of) month of St. Valentines day and mere 28 days between pay cheques. Huzzah!

Shrapnel Issue #1 - Aristeia Rising – Comics Review

Shrapnel Issue #1 (of 5)
Radical Comics
Creators Mark Long & Nick Sagan.
Writer M. Zachary Sherman
Artist Bagus Hutomo
Colourist Leos “Okita Ng
Lettering Sean Konot
Editor Jim Demonakos







As the brutal and expansionist Solar Alliance sets its sights on the last free colony, Sam Vijaya must stop running from a violent past and take up arms to protect the last bastion of democracy. Can Venus hope to survive in the face of such overwhelming odds?

Shrapnel is a strange beast; it manages to be simultaneously gorgeous to look at when establishing locales, whilst the panel-to-panel visual story telling is maddeningly difficult to follow.

I found myself re-reading some pages three times, just to try and make sense of the action sequences, that don’t come off well at all because of the largely monochromatic and painterly approach to the art. Whilst I applaud the attempt to move away from more traditional ‘pencils, inks and colours’ approach (Photoshop haters beware) the violent clashes become difficult-to-track blurs – but perhaps this is the point. War is a frenetic confusion, shocking and chaotic.

However, Shrapnel does have what most comics sadly lack; a solid background, a Universe with it’s own history, upheavals and struggles, and we even get a new spin on that eternal bete noir, racism. In fact I couldn’t help think the story might have been better served as being an illustrated science fiction novel.

The story rests on the shoulders of Sam Vijaya, a retired marine who is keeping a low profile as miner on the planet Venus. Sam is a largely taciturn character who shares her inner most thoughts with a hologram that provides psychoanalysis during their conversations. In this way the creators have created a ‘reluctant gunslinger’ but have furnished her with real depth. Sam’s friends, unaware of her violent past, are two well-meaning and idealistic (non-genetically altered) humans, who get in over their head by signing up with the defence volunteers.

Shrapnel is at best a tour de force of science fiction, and at worst a confusion of sequential storytelling. Issue #1 ably introduces us to the Universe and characters in what looks to be a capably told five-issue mini series.

7/ 10

Wizard People, Dear Reader

Here are some more figures from Privateer Press' excellent HORDES table top wargame, painted by yours truly.

The wizard character goes by the name of Orin Midwinter and can dish out lightning bolts and stop enemy spell casters in their tracks. The monster is the Skorne Krea, a magical beast that has a host of odd abilities, including sheltering friendly troops from ranged fire.

More Painting!

Here is my second Ancestral Guardian and a unit of Paingivers, for the Privateer Press table top wargame HORDES. I'd been procrastinating about the Paingivers forever, however the Ancestral Guardian was fun to convert. The glowing blue ball is supposed depict a soul, just in case it's not immediately obvious.







Click on the pictures for a larger image.

Forbidden Planet Mass Signing

Forbidden Planet, the Cult Megastore and purveyors of geek gubbins and esoteric pop culture ephemera bar none, are having a total author fest (Jesus, that was a mental sentence).

David Devereux is launching his latest novel Eagle Rising. However, rather than keep all the glory to himself he’s invited over a whole plethora of writer types including His Sweariness, Joe ‘excessive use of the word fuck’ Abercrombie, and the incredibly personable and talented Jon Courtney Grimwood.

I reviewed Jon’s novel 9Tail Fox and End of The World Blues elsewhere on this blog. It was Jon who inspired me to write two short stories, you can find them HERE and HERE









Likewise you can find my musings on Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself, Before They Were Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings. Did I mention he swears a lot? Seriously, this is a fine, fine trilogy that deftly sidesteps any nonsensical high fantasy niceness and breaks open the blood, sweat and tears in equal measures.


The full line up for this author fest is here:

• Joe Abercrombie
• Alex Bell
• Mark Chadbourn
• David Devereux
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Tom Lloyd
• Suzanne McLeod
• Steven Savile
• James Swallow

Now I look at the list I realise I’ve also reviewed Alex Bell’s The Ninth Circle too.

If you’d like to come this meeting of minds (and wordsmiths) make sure you are at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London on 22 January 2009, 17:00 - 19:00. See you there.

Got To Keep On

After a distinctly quiet Christmas I am feeling rather under whelmed by 2009. I did have half a mind to stop writing You Look Like A Little Kid With A Beard as I‘ve found it increasingly more difficult to find things to write about.

However, I realised that it’s not so much I don’t have anything to write about (for there is indeed a world of comics, film and other geek ephemera) but that I was just feeling a bit flat and disinterested. Still I recently gained a new follower (which flattered my fragile ego), and I also had an upsurge in traffic after Danie at Musings and Marketeerings linked to me. So, I shall endeavour to keep on keeping on.

One thing I have taken to doing is starting a novella. Now, it’s dangerous to talk about such things. And as a good friend of mine recently summarised – ‘The more people you tell about it, the less you actually write it.’ So I shall take his comment seriously and not let on about my pet project.

Not a word.

So there!

Gaming
I have managed to get some more painting done over the Christmas break. I now have a small, fully painted force of Skorne ready for Privateer Press’ HORDES game. I’ve even instituted a regular night for gaming at my humble abode, whether I manage to score any victories is yet to be seen.

You can see my earlier painting efforts for the Skorne faction HERE, HERE and HERE.

More Gaming
I also started role-playing again, no not that role-playing, but role-playing games. I recently wrote a solo adventure for the Dame, so she could experience this particular brand of geekery for herself. I’m pleased to say she enjoyed herself, and I enjoyed writing and running an adventure, something I haven’t done for a while now.

That Job Thing
Alas, things have become somewhat dull at work and it seems that any one who owns a licence for a property is incredibly fussy. With that in mind I won’t be talking about any of the properties I work on in any great depth, for fear of bringing down a scourge of lawyers or worse!

And on a related note, if you like what you see here and think you could use my talents then drop me a line and I’ll send you my CV.