The Letter

So with the job hunt and all, I’ve been finding it hard to find time and focus to write a blog.

Luckily I came across a letter from an old friend that I’ll transcribe for you. I hope you all find it as an engrossing read as I did.

‘Greetings,

I hope the honeymoon went well. I travelled to Italy with my parents a few times and found it to be a beautiful city. Perhaps too many street performers but beautiful nonetheless. I wanted to write this letter regarding a case I worked while you were away as a ‘coming home’ present so to speak. Think of it as a welcome home gift from all that business that people do on their honeymoon.In any case, I was minding my own business as I often do when I got a phone call about a murder. I was soon in an evidence room at a desk with a box with a case that was a week old.

I did not get to view the scene and only had the autopsy report from a body that had already been cremated. Hardly convenient but it presented an interesting challenge to keep me out of trouble whole you were away. Of course, you being away was another disadvantage as I could have used your perspective as always but have no fear, I replaced you temporarily with an odd ceramic rabbit my great Aunt sent me for my 12th birthday. While it does not have your investigative skills, I found it nearly as useful to bounce my own theories against nonetheless.The case was of Gladus Menchankus, a 84 year old woman, never married who was a retired secretary.

She lived alone in a modest sized apartment in a group of four and was found dead by the postman. There had been no forced entry through the door but the wrong window of the apartment had been broken with Gladus’ neck in the same state as she lay dead on her sitting room floor.From the notes and the pictures of the crime scene it was evident that the window to the apartment had been broken from the inside with glass being out rather than in. Whomever our culprit was had seemingly gotten in without issue, killed Gladus and rather than simply leaving through the front door decided to leave through the window instead, most curious.Witness reports of those living in the adjoining apartments say they heard Gladus moving around up until approximately 10PM.

Other apartments were occupied by a young couple with a newborn, a middle aged man living alone in what is undoubtedly somewhere he meets a mistress and a pair of sisters living away from home for the first time.They each give a similar description of Gladus as quiet but pleasant. Our middle aged man, Howard Tweed took out her bin for collection and returned in some likely belief that his good deed would counteract his desecration of his marriage vows.Why did I believe he was using this apartment as a way to cheat on his wife? When interviewed, he stated his witness for the time of the murder was a Wanda but then changed it immediatly to Bertrice. I procured a phone book and using a phone I had requested, rang several individuals with the names Howard, Wanda or the initials H and W tweed and asked for the other person when someone answered. It took me only 5 calls to reach Wanda who did not question my identity as someone attempting to reach her husband on an unrelated business matter.

It turns out on the date of the murder, Howard was away on a business trip and gave me the number of the hotel he was staying at. While I’m sure Howard was indeed booking a room at the mentioned hotel, I knew he was likely residing inside Wanda rather than the hotel room in question. Did perhaps Gladus notice something? Threaten to track down Howard’s wife and suffered for the consequences? I doubt it.While Howard is clearly a horrid man who likely is losing his hair and is pahlluckly challanged, I doubt killing Gladus would have been his first thought if he was confronted by the old woman. He would not have simply wanted the attention and the police digging into a murder next to his apartment brings far too many eyes and likely questions from ‘Wanda’.First initial theory discarded, I focused again on the victim. No family in the reports, it appears Gladus was a quiet woman who was a competent secretary at a local business that distributed fax machines for one of the salesmen there. She attended office functions until her retirement, was well liked by her colleagues but according to the police reports of the people at the office, few were there that still remembered her after she’d retired nearly two decades ago.

Not entirely satisfied with police due diligence I found the number of the man she was secretary for among the evidence and phoned him. Most of what he said corroborated everything the police had gathered. She’d started working at the business out of secondary school and had been secretary for several different people as it evolved and changed over the years. It seemed that the building would frequently have a change in name and purpose several times but Gladus remained. Every time the company was repurposed, Gladus would stay.I spent some time calling her previous employers and what struck me odd was how seemingly bland this woman was. She was a decent typist, loyal and seemingly was worth keeping on a payroll despite upheaval but no one knew much about her. Occasional office functions were all people seemingly saw of her outside working hours. She lived in the same apartment she was murdered in for forty years.In that time, I’m sure Gladus likely had numerous neighbours with equal or worse respite that Howard but she just kept to herself.

The landlord whom I also spoke to said he had kept her rent largely the same the last 15 years because she was a perfect tenant. No complaints, the property was well kept and she always paid on time. This current landlord had heard similar reports from his predecessor and so on and so on. I got the numbers of some of Gladus former neighbours who again reported an unmemorable pleasant woman who now finally had a curiosity in relation to her with regards to how her killer decided to leave her apartment.At this point it was lunch and I decided to get some fresh air. I wondered if you’d been there you may have noticed or asked something I had not considered. Perhaps not as your replacement, the unsettling rabbit was so far of little assistance. Whilst on my walk, I went through all the evidence in my mind exploring it from every angle and began to expand my thinking. If the recent past was not the solution to our crime, what about the distant one? A woman living on her own with no family and one who kept to herself certainly wasn’t completely out of the question but the question is why? Given her stable working environment, there had been the opportunity to develop some significant relationships over time even for the most introverted of people.I started to wonder if this solitifue was self imposed as the victim perhaps hiding from someone and then perhaps considered her isolation as a form of penance or guilt.

It occurred to me then the possibility of Gladus possibly both being alone due to guilt and that if she was hiding from anyone it could even be herself. I sought out birth records and given her unusual variation of the first name Gladys, it only took under three hours to discover the truth. Our victim had fallen pregnant at 15, seemingly a victim of coersian under a teacher at her school. Given the time, it was all hushed up, the teacher moved on and Gladus was sent away to ‘boarding school’ with the child given up for adoption.Throughout the pictures of her apartment, I saw only pictures of Gladus and several pets either present or past. This indicated to me some negativity towards her parents who doubtlessly forced her to give up the child who by now would in their late 60’s. Perhaps they wouldn’t pose a threat but if their child or indeed their children became curious about their heritage, DNA testing is still something relatively new so I needed to consider those with access to a lab or perhaps in the police force. I was able to convince the detective on the case to get us a judge to unseal the very hush hush adoption back and the birth certificate was mine.From then it was only a matter of time to discover her grandson in the form of Harrison Newman, someone who assisted in the DNA lab at Scotland Yard. He took a gamble on his professional career, gaining illegal access to bloondbank records and running his DNA out of curiosity knowing that his father was adopted and wanting to know if perhaps his grandparents were in the system.

Both Gladus and her abuser were indeed both blood donors with their latter having died in what I hope was a most painful fashion but his grandmother arrive. He further abused his access to get her address and that leads us back to our murder.After he was arrested, Harrison crumbled. He confessed to searching for roughly 18 months for Gladus and for murdering her for denying him when he visited her unannounced. Such a visceral reaction to Gladus likely being horrified by this stranger confronting her with a distant past she had tried to forget and punish herself for through isolation I find interesting. Perhaps after you have gotten settled from your honeymoon we can interview Harrison together? I believe you would likely be better at probing his deeper motivations than I would.

He even broke the window to make it look like a burglary in a panic, not realizing despite his close proximity to the law that it would be child’s play to determine the glass was broken from the inside rather than out. He left as he went into the home, through the front door after he had murdered his paternal grandmother.

His crime and abuse of the system is going to cause law enforcement significant trouble when it comes to proving that their DNA testing puting other criminals away can now be trusted. I had hoped corruption was a thing of the past for uis Jenna but it seems that crime will continually wear any colour, including blue.I hope you find the case engrossing. We must speak soon, your replacement is now lost to me between my stroll and my solving the case so I will need you soon. I did miss you of course but I hope you had a pleasant time nonetheless.

Take care.

Sincerely yours, Stephanie

P.S.

I neglected to water your plants. They are all dead. I have dutifully replaced them.’

Quite a find eh?Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did. It only took me two weeks to transcribe it. Never got used to reading joint writing.

More soon**

The story above is a complete work of fiction. It is set in my much misfortuned Living With Death series that has gone the way of the dodo. It was done off the top of my head for fun and I realize this likely includes many errors in regards to the setting and terminology used. It is not to be a reflection of anything mentioned in the story, it was merely for fun because I needed to have my brain do something that wasn’t job hunting.

I Can’t Recall The Taste Of Food…

Unemployment and searching for a new job is a lot like climbing Mount Doom with the one ring dragging you down physically and emotionally.You know you got to keep going but dang is it hard.

This is the first time after my diagnosis of being on the spectrum that I am on the job hunt. I believe a form of my ASD is what is referred to as rejection dysmorphia where getting negative feedback or rejection can feel much worse than it actually is.

Not a good combination when you’re on the job hunt and competing against others also looking for work I think the thing that is the worst about this period is not the uncertainty necessarily (although that is rough) but actually it’s the lack of structure. I’ve spoken before about how heavily I depend on routine and familiarity of my working days to just get by. That was all taken away from me through no fault of my own and a mix of greed and lack of concern over my long term mental health.

Anywho, it’s a lot. Going through applications, trying to keep my self worth high and not worry too much. I was given a payout in the form of a bag full of money with a dollar sign on it as my employer gave me a scary glare and stated ‘Don’t be saying nothing to no one.’*

I’ve been trying not to regress in terms of my career. I really enjoyed my last role and I would love to do something similar or even more interesting. I like to think that I’m pretty adaptable because each job I’ve held has been very different and I’ve learned entire new processes, rules and way of doing things each time.

A lot of jobs linked to my degree want experience that I don’t have sadly. I hope that eventually in my job hunt someone will see my potential and give me the opportunity I’m going for. In the meantime, I have to try and continue to keep climbing my own Mount Doom. Without structure and familiarity I am left with uncertainty which in the past has been a severe negative effect on my mental state. I doubt any of this was considered by my previous employer before letting me go which is a shame. I wish big companies took these choices that are monetary first and people second with more care to how it can effect people like myself and even the neurotypical.

I got the phone call about being let go (sorry going through the redundancy process, wink, wink) just over 3 weeks ago and my last official day was just over 2 weeks ago but it feels like I’ve been hunting for years. I miss the structure to my day desperately and I hope to find that sooner rather than later.

I hate not having a purpose but I am enjoying my time with my children. At least that’s something. Sometimes though in my current situation, I feel like they’re taking care of me more than I take care of them.What’s that? Time to keep moving up the mountain? Water? No I”m sorry, I can’t recall what that is.

More soon.

*recollection may not be accurate

Well Crap, Now What?

So looking back at my 2025 in review Blog (the personal one) I wrote about getting a promotion.

A year later I got made redundant and this comes with mixed emotions from myself. I’ve felt my role has had a question mark over it for a while since my team never expanded. There was supposed to be a team of 6 people (and a manager) but only 3 were hired and then 2 people did the work of 6. One was let go and the other seat rotated in and out. The role changed a lot over time in some good ways and some bad ways.

Overall I was pretty happy though. I liked the people I worked with, I was good at it and I was well paid. There were also good perks, some ridiculously good ones. Then in January a whole department not quite the same as mine but similar enough got let go basically at the snap of a finger. Gone in a blink.

At the time I felt lucky. I had kept my job but in other ways I felt my time would be coming. I tried to apply for other roles in the business which were not successful. I stayed where I was and thought if I made myself very good at my role they would keep me. I was wrong.

I gambled on hard work over number crunching and I lost. This isn’t the first time nor the last. I was upset of course but also somewhat relieved. I had REALLY felt the clock starting to clock towards the midnight of my job coming to an end a month and a half or so ago.

I had bad dreams/nightmares about being let go or being back at an old job that I didn’t want to return to. I would often wake up relieved that I was where I was at.

I’ve been here before and I am verly certain everything will be fine but there is of course some really bad things that come with unemployment.

Monetary concerns, the lack of structure to my day, uncertainty, fear that I may never get back what I had at the previous company. It makes me think though that am I doomed to a life where either I burn out of a job or they get rid of me due to number crunching or AI?

I feel I have a lot to offer. I’m creative, smart, adaptable, hardworking and dependable. I feel though that I never found my ‘thing’ the job I’ll do until I retire or drop dead. Even the latest job which by far was the happiest and most content I’ve ever felt even at the best of times never felt like the forever job. I’m sure some people might think ‘oh he’s just saying that’ but no it never felt like ‘Oh yeah, this is the place that’ll give me my gold watch and a pat on the back when I retire’.I couldn’t envision it. So what is that job? What is my future? I’m not sure. At times like this I really miss my writing and my characters.

I’m reminded again, as I often am of my failure to make it as a creative person. Freelancing in writing in comics or any creative endeavour in no picnic as I know some comic creators I greatly admire talk frequently about how hard it is to earn a living in comics.

When I also think of my career I also realize no one has ever really seen anything in me. I have often been overlooked in terms of advancement despite being largely a good high performing consistent employee. I remember someone in university telling me that a problem I had was people don’t really notice me.Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that it’s back to the ol job market and just hoping. A miracle to fall into my lap would be much appreciated but hey, I’ll make do for a steady paycheck and a workplace with good morale.

The things I’ll miss about my old workplace are the people, the free drinks (cans of Pepsi I’ll always love you), treats on Tuesday, Sharebite Wednesday and helping others. I like to be useful and I felt useful at the company.

Things I won’t miss include the uncertainty, ineptitude, unpleasant people, odd processes, quality and heat. Good lord the heat of the floor where I felt I might die at any moment from melting in my chair.

I do want to find my forever job. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe I’ll find it tomorrow? That would be nice. Maybe in the year 2026 jobs for life don’t exist any more. The amount of AI related jobs I see on my employment search certainly doesn’t lead me to confidence as far as that’s concerned.

Two funny stories about my last few days. In my last or penultimate one to one (weekly meeting) with my manager, they asked me to reassure a new hire on the team. This new hire had been told by other members of the team that we’d be let go like I ultimately was. Ol goof head Glenn was like ‘Oh sure, no problem I’ll try to settle their concerns?.Say what are you doing putting that bag over my head.’

Also I was let go on a Monday but my last day (which I wasn’t aware was my last day) was the previous Thursday. On Friday I took the day off to spend with my kids and wife. During that jaunty venture I did something nice for someone. Just a small thing that I felt might help my karma or whatever.

Turns out it helped my Karma getting a call the Monday to let me know I was being shuffled out the door. Stupid karma.

Any good vibes would be much appreciated. Being unemployed is so dull and the job hunt is so demoralizing. Worst part is trying not to think of myself as a failure. All those people who thought I was less than would turn out to be right.

Maybe though that doesn’t batter because being less than in other people’s minds has got me this far. Who knows what it’ll bring me next? I mean, ideally the monopoly man with a cheque but last I saw him led to some awkward talks with a doctor I’d like to avoid again ya know?

Seriously, hire me I’m not crazy.

More soon.

Kickstarter 2: Revenge of The Kicker

A while back, I did an article about my experiences with backed projects on Kickstarter but its been a few years so I thought I’d update with some of the stuff I’ve backed since.I don’t back as many projects as I used to. Backing comics on Kickstarter is more of a premium price point and my funds are limited. I genuinely feel bad about that because there are some from creators I like and even some I’m friends with. I break out the wallet for creators I’ll always support but they have dwindled. Let’s see how they’ve gone including the ones I was waiting on last time!

Catskin and the Rose

This was delivered and has since spawned a sequel. The art was very good but the comic as a whole read like a comic writer still finding their feet. I didn’t check out the sequel but it was fine.

A Thing Called Truth

A Complicated one. People behind the Kickstarter changed what you would receive at the level I backed at due to events outside their control. I asked for the difference of the value and they said no so I asked for a whole refund which was granted.I paid for two physical items but only would receive one so I felt it was fair. The creators might feel different, The duo behind this book are working on an Image book with Gail Simone currently.

Good Omens

Adaption of the novel turned TV show turned graphic novel. After certain allegations were made against one of the writers of the novel (Spoilers: Not Terry Pratchett) a lot of things happened very quickly on the book. Actors from the TV show who were supposed to add an intro and outro to the book backed out and the people behind the book offered refunds to anyone who asked for them.I didn’t as for a refund because I felt the person it would most negatively effect where the people behind the production of the comic itself including the adaptor, Colleen Doran. I wanted to support the people behind this version of the story and the funds were stated to go to the Terry Pratchett estate. I feel as a package it was a lovely book with writer/artist Colleen Doran pulling off a herculean effort as a creator to put as much effort into the book.

She added in extra pages and extra features at the back to make the book more bang for the buck for the people who stuck with it. The book is stunningly gorgeous and I hope that people support Colleen by checking it out even if it does have a negative connotation to it that isn’t her fault.

More Norm Konyu

One of the most unique, best and underrated creators in comics right now. His Kickstarter works continue to be reprinted by Titan. Go get them, they’re likely better than whatever you’re reading now….which is this blog so yeah they are better but you know what I mean.

Don’t Push The Red Button

Comic anthology that I thought looked cool, never received.

Plume Omnibus

Physical collection of an indie book that I adored by a creator K. Lynn Smith. I want to read more of their work and if you can track down this book, I would highly recommend picking it up. The campaign ran perfectly.

Tell Them Of Us

This was a post apocalyptic anthology which had a story in by a close friend. I never received it. Not my friends fault. Backing projects like this and not getting the products is a big reason why I stopped backing projects as much.

More Colin Cracker

More volumes of his Agency Case Files. Always enjoyable stuff that always deliver.

Being Not Okay

A new OGN by Katherine Hemmings who is always brilliant. This OGN is used to talk quite openly about her mental health which is a topic I’m very passionate about. I credit her for delivering as always and to be brave enough to not only discuss her mental state but her strength to be on the road of recovery. Katerine is the real deal and if she’s a t a con, buy her books and ditto if you see them in the wild or go to her website.

Alter Ego

This is an ogn I backed in April 2022. Updates happen…occasionally but the last update in April promised a delivery by May which has not happened.It’s a shame because the book sounded good and looked lovely. The artist Jacob Edgar has gone onto do big things and it seems like his side of things is done. This seems to be another story of a writer who had a lot of things going for them and even has a lot of the project complete but never able to deliver.It happens and the thought of letting people down in a similar way is one of the reasons I never tried another Kickstarter following the failure of the Living With Death one.

I do think the backers deserve answers. At least if I couldn’t deliver, I’d issue refunds.

Oh well.

So as I said, not as many Kickstarters backed. I did recently support a physical release of Empire on a similar backing platform called Zoop. This whole thing looked suspect but had the actual creators Mark Waid and Barry Kitson promoting it so fingers crossed on that because the shipping was PRICEY.

I hope that people who back projects on Kickstarter have more good stories than bad and those that have good intentions and deliver your product find continued success. Despite some ups and downs on my side, I think its a great platform and there are likely more good stories than bad ones but like with any online purchase, you roll a dice in terms of buying something you can’t physically touch. You may get it or you may not. You’ll have better luck and more resources for compensation through the likes of say Amazon but the chance is still there. Backing a project on Kickstarter is rolling the dice every time and hey…at the end of the day I did that of my own free will every time.This is the part where I normally say I wouldnt change a thing but YES. YES I WOULD. SO MUCH LOST MONEY.

Anyway, I’m fine, we’re all fine down here, how are you?

More soon.

Bad Blogger

Sorry it’s been a bit.

i got let go of f my job so I’ve been distracted.

New blog later.

Event Horizon

There’s movies that absolutely fascinate me. Not necessary movies that are my favorite or objectively any good but there’s movies that really capture my interest. Movies that have something extra to them that I can’t explain that draws me in. Whether it be the backstory of the movie, the story of the movie or something inexplicable, there are films I can’t help but want to really deep dive into. One such movie is the 1997 sci-fi horror movie, Event Horizon.I first this movie on video in likely 1998 and 1999 and it scared the crap out of me. I was young and it hit me with a lot of disturbing imagery and concepts. I have strong memories to this day of watching the movie for the first time and didn’t revisit it for many years or discover the larger story behind the movie until then.

When I rewatched the film, I expected the horror movie that unsettled me so deeply in the late 90’s but upon a rewatch I found myself confused. It seemed I was a kid visiting Santa or someone at a magic show. I’m bringing the belief which adds a lot to the atmosphere. Like playing a game you think looks great to revisit many years later and discover that your perception of how good games could look or how much you’re bringing to the experience adds to how you digest the material. Such seemingly was the case of Event Horizon which ultimately is not necessary in my view a bad movie but its one that has great ideas, great actors and even elements that other things have ripped from and done better but doesn’t quite come together.

For those that don’t know, Event Horizon is about a vessel (which shares the name of the movie) built with a drive that can tear a hole in reality to get you from one point of space to another. This is their version of warp speed, light speed, ludicrous speed, etc. If you’ve seen Inception (if not, why not) you may remember the bit where they demonstrate this method of large distance space travel by taking a but of paper, folding it and putting a pencil through it. That exact explanation is also in this movie. The sheet is space and the pencil is the titular Event Horizon.

Trouble is, the ship on its maiden voyage went and vanished for seven years but its just popped up again. Sent to explore the ship are the crew of the Lewis and Clark who amongst the crew has the man who designed the drive that makes the pencil go through the sheet, Dr. William Weir. For the Crew of the Lewis and Clark we have some great character actors like Lawrence Fishburn, Sam Neil, Jason Isaacs alongside high quality lesser known actors like Sean Pertwee, Richard T. Jones and Joely Richardson among others who all do a great job even if some don’t get as much screen time or development as others.

When they board the ship, they find the crew very dead, the ship itself seemingly alive after a trip (via sheet of paper) to a nightmare hell dimension. Bored and/or having worn out its previous crew, the ship has come back for new blood to take to a torture nightmare dimension where Pinhead would take his Summer vacations. Using the crew’s personal trauma against them to torture them, the ship begins to kill off members of the Lewis and Clark while turning its creator Doctor Weird to see (or unsee cause he takes out his own eyes) its perspective.Some of the concept of the movie was basically a haunted house in space and it mostly delivers.

It has a decent atmosphere, some creepy visuals and very good performances particularly from Neil, Fishburn and Richardson. Where the movie fails is that it seems to just be lacking…something. It’s trying to pack a lot in for a short time, it doesn’t have the money or particularly strong vision to make the movie all it could be. It needed more money, more studio support and a better director to bring it to its full potential. The studio (paramount) asked for the movie to be toned down for a more marketable/box office friendly rating that stumped some of the boundaries the film could push. They asked for a lot of cuts making the film all too brief and while horror films generally are on the shorter end, a slightly longer more ‘show don’t tell’ version of the movie would have really made it something special. In essence, the film didn’t seem to have the studios support and thus it falls short.Director Paul Anderson (not to be confused with Oscar winner Paul Thomas Anderson) is not a terrible director.

He’s…fine, mostly he comes across as an unfocused director. His films like those he directed in the Resident Evil movie series, Mortal Kombat, Alien Vs Predator and others share a lot of DNA with Event Horizon. Some are ambitious movies that don’t really come together or some others are outright poor. Why? It’s hard to say, I haven’t seen enough of his movies to diagnose the exact issue. It could be that Anderson is someone whose talent doesn’t match his ambition. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I have that problem myself. He seems like a good guy and he doesn’t set out to make a bad movie, he tries hard which is something that puts him far ahead of a lot of others.

However, disjointed his movies are and Ev ent Horizon is no exception. With the studio not letting the movie being what it needed to be and not a stronger hand at the helm, the film flounders. It has moments and good ideas but ultimately fails in a fascinating way that I can’t help but find engaging. I watch Event Horizon, I think about it and all I see is what it could be. Sure, at it’s core some of its better elements are borrowed heavily from Alien but that’s because that movie ruined everything for everyone by delivering the perfect sci-fi horror movie that everyone since has been trying to copy from.

There is elements of Event Horizon that work and I’ve seen other movies borrow little bits and pieces from. Elements of personalized horror (which I’m a huge fan of) in space and ghosts in space or some sort of unseen horror element in space has been done since Event Horizon and either consciously or unconsciously borrowed from it to varying degrees of succcess.In my view the best version of Event Horizon exists in the form of a Doctor Who two parter from 2006 in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit.

This two parter which has a planet orbiting a black hole with creepy possessed squid aliens, great performances, a demon at the centre of a planet and a stunning store is the perfected version of Event Horizon. It’s so creepy, so effective and borrows shamelessly from Event Horizon but delivers the version we always deserved.Seemingly I have not been alone in my fascination with Event Horizon, it has become a cult classic. Others have identified its potential and the good aspects of the movie. It was considered a financial failure at the time but people over time have come to appreciate it despite its flaws.

In 2025, comic company IDW delivered a prequel telling the story of the Event Horizon first crew by Christian Ward and Tristan Jones in the form of the five issue mini, Event Horizon: Dark Descent. Now we have IDW also producing something fans of the movie have wanted since 1997, a follow up in the form of another mini series, Event Horizon: Inferno by Ward and Robert Carey.These two stories (so far) have been excellent. I do think its a mistake to link the horrors aboard the Event Horizon to one specific entity but it works well in the context. Otherwise, Ward has crafted two excellent tales that take the best elements of the movie and raises them up to levels fans have been hungry for since the movie was released. Both artists on each mini have delivered the creepy atmosphere needed to pull off the name on the book would expect and it’s been exciting to see more from this universe.

Could there be more? It’s hard to say. I wonder what a TV show from someone with a really strong horror hand could do. I doubt its something that Paramount would be interested in but they do have a streaming service they like throwing money at so you never know.For now, despite it arguably being not a very good movie I wonder often with Event Horizon what could have been and what we got. I’m very delighted to get the comics we have an given I’ve seen odder unexpected franchises return, perhaps the Event Horizon will come back too.

Perhaps after all, it never truly wanted us to leave.

More soon.

‘Fixing’ Doctor Who

So let me say this right off the bat, I don’t think Doctor Who needs ‘fixed’.

I enjoyed the Chibnell years and the recent RTD2 era. Was there problems? Yes, there was. Overall I think the show was treated overly harsh after Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffatt left for multiple reasons. I don’t want to go over all of that however, I want to look forward because that’s what Doctor Who does. It looks forward to see how the show can evolve to survive.

This show is not cancelled, it is on hiatus for now. How and why we got here is speculative and I have talked about that here and on my podcast. It is all speculative because it’s all rumour and speculation based on the information we have which has been inconsistent. I firmly believe the show will be back and sooner than we might think. I’m optimistic to see the TARDIS back prior to 2030 and that’s where I want to focus on.

.So I don’t think Doctor Who needs ‘fixed’ but there is a lot to address.

Since for one reason or anotherm Russell T. Davis is not returning to resolve his cliffhanger at the end of the Reality War and other dangling plots we need to keep this in mind with moving forward.With the show on hiatus for now, this gives us three distinct possibilities about how these various unresolved plots are addressed.1) Never mentioned again 2) Dealt with right away 3) Dealt with eventually.

Given this is Doctor Who and that stories can be picked up years or decades later, I firmly believe option 3 is the best. When the show returns, I think we’ll see a soft relaunch like we did in 2005. A new Doctor, a new companion with a slow reintroduction to the lore and our favorite villains. What happened to the Doctor played by Paul McGann, the villains from yesteryear and even the fates of Sarah Jane, the Brigadier and other past companions all got addressed in the 2005-2024 era all got addressed eventually.

So a lot of the dangling plot threads can be ignored so new viewers and even some jaded existing viewers can get attached to the show. Past things can be revisited eventually when the idea is right and can either be elaborate or addressed in a sentence.

Everything in Doctor Who is easily waved away but you don’t want to hit the audience (new or existing) with a lot of heavy oplots to digest after an extended break. Keep it simple when it returns ina. year or two or five or ten. There’s a saying in wrestling ‘How can I miss you if you don’t go away?’ I’m very disappointed to see Doctor Who not get the Christmas Special we were told would happen. I’m sad it’ll be off the air for any amount of time but I understand that people and fans get burnt out. People have to have time to miss the show before it comes back better than ever.So I do think that is the most likely scenario. However, I’m a person who likes to speculate and I would like to address each of the dangling plot threads and how I would solve them. I think there is a million ways to address these plot points but let me have my fun.

1. The Master’s tooth: Made a tooth after losing a bet with the Touymaker, the Master’s tooth is the easiest thing to address. Given that he was burnt to ashes in Last Of The Time Lords and brought back using a ring and his wife’s lips in End Of Time Part I, a tooth is nothing. In The Impossible Astronaut, River said a Time lords body is a miracle. I think an entire new body can be generated from a tooth be it in the form of a returning actor or a new form. Time Lord, Cybermen, Dalek or even Sontaran tech is more than capable of bringing the Master back. Easy peasy.

2. The boss is an overall mastermind type villain that was hinted at first in The Star Beast by the Meep and last by Anita in The Reality War. It is purposefully vague but hints on a calculating mastermind that is involved in both illegitimate (The Meep) and legitimate (The Time Hotel) concerns. It really could be anyone from the Master, The Valeyard, The Rani, Davros, The MEddling Monk or even Adam from season one seeking revenge for his little brain doorway. Although it could be anyone, the Boss at this point needs to be a somewhat significant reveal given the length of time its been dangling. I don’t think it needs to be a main villain but someone we know is likely necessary.I think a fun idea would be River Song, bringing Alex Kingston back is always worthwhile and it would be fun to have a problem to have the Doctor try to deal with whatever River is uptoiwithout her seeing them. I think a reveal which would make more sense and be better story wise would be ‘Me’ as played by Maisie Wwilliams in series 9 of the show. Last seen in Hell Bent with Clara in their own stolen TARDIS. After Clara meets her destiny at the hands of a death dealing bird, perhaps ‘Me’ decides to keep an eye on the Doctor from a distance? Not necessarily someone to oppose him but someone perhaps trying to hold them accountable. If done right I think it could make a good episode or two that could easily deal with this dangling plot thread without having to make it linked to a larger villain.

3) Rogue: Just have them show up again for a one off to put a full stop on where they ended up at the end of Rogue and their brief cameo in Wish World. Again, easy enough.

4) Susan returns: Just bring her back again. Have Carol Anne Ford pick up the plot of her popping into the Doctor’s mind at a later time or have a new actress play her if needed. Just because Carol Anne Ford is who Susan looked like when she reached out to The Doctor doesn’t mean she looks like that now. Just using a familiar image makes it easier for her to get his attention. I assume that Susan is a time lord and can regenerate so a recasting is beyond the easiest thing in the world and her looking like Carol Ann Ford towards the end of series 15 (I’ll be cold in the ground before I call it series 2) is easily explainable.

4) Rose is The Doctor?! Okay, here’s the hard one. Last image we saw on Doctor Who is The Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa regenerating into Billie Piper but not introduced as ‘The Doctor’ as has been tradition since Christopher Eccleson regenerated into David Tennant in ‘Parting Of The Ways’. Loophole! I think the most sensible thing here is that this is a mixture of the Bad Wolf/heart of the TARDIS, the moment and the Doctor’s fob watch.

Bear with me. So I believe because Rose absorbed the heart of the TARDIS (which was then absorbed by the Doctor and fed back in) that it has retained some of her essence. We did see The Moment in Day Of The Doctor acting a lot like Samara Jones Idris from The Doctor’s Wife so ther could be a link there and all the Doctor’s memories prior to their ‘first incarnation’ was sank deep into the TARDIS in the Flux finale ‘The Vanquishers’. Mix all this with the Doctor once again interacting with the heart of the TARDIS to shift reaiirty to save Poppy and you have this combination being this figure we have at the end of The Reality War. We have the Moment/Bad Wolf being given physical form as ‘Rose’ a previous body inhabited and the Doctor is trapped in their new incarnation inside the fob watch. ‘The Moment’ rescues the Doctor who has some of their memories restored from being trapped in the Fob Watch (similar to the Confession Dial) and they can have an interaction and eventually after an adventure perhaps the heart of the TARDIS goes back ‘home’ since we know a physical body can’t hold it.

Perhaps in the fob watch we can see some previous incarnations we’ve never seen and use this as a base for the 70th anniversary?

Get some big names in to interact with the current Doctor as previous incarnations along with Jo Martin and Billie Piper as the heart of the TARDIS and you could have a pretty compelling episode where the main character explores the past they can’t remember. I wouldn’t show all the cards here, mystery is at the heart of the show but I think a little bit of knowledge would be fun.That’s what I would do anywho. The 70th anniversary of the show is in 2033 so plenty of time to bring it back, lull us in gently and then do a big exploration of the cliffhangers mentioned above and more.

Of course this is just one idea and it could be a longer time before any of the events we currently have to be addressed. Some plot holes and backstories on Doctor Who take decades to address. A tradition of the show is having big moments and cliffhangers seemingly being ignored or explained with a line of dialogue and we all shrug and move on.I do not think the show needs ‘fixing’ like any long running property it will have its stumbling blocks but it will always survive. I firmly believe the show will return sooner rather than later and all these things will be addressed….eventually even if it’s maybe not in my lifetime.

We’ll hear the sound of the TARDIS once more and all will be well again. It’ll be worth the wait Im sure.

More soon.

The Truth

It time to admin it is the end

Thinking otherwise is rather round the bend.

It stopped with a grim meeting.

Truth can be brutal and can leave you bleeding.

I once had a dream of creating panels aplenty

Perhaps in another time and place, the world will be ready

But not now, on no. The time for writing is done.

Although my blog will hopefully still be at least enjoyed by some.

I do not make this decision lightly. I no longer know what my future holds.

I know the truth though for when life comes to a fold.

It will not be my health nor accident nor circumstance or even anything atomic.

When it is my time to pass, the coroner will say. My goodness, it was the comics.

New York Comic Con 2026

It is funny how time works. I find especially after having my kids that time seems to be passing at the blink of an eye. It seemed like only yesterday I brought home a baby boy who was only a few days old. Now the baby is nearly 10 and there’s this little 7 year old girl who has appeared out of nowhere.

Years seem to zoom past and it can mean that things that seemed to happen only a little bit ago actually happened longer ago that I first thought. I went to New York Comic Con in 2023 but I thought it was 2024 and became quite sad when I realized it will be 3 years since this trip when it rolls around to October this year.It makes me sad because I love the atmosphere. I enjoy cons in Belfast or Dublin but it isn’t the same. New York is so big that I would say it is impossible to do everything you want even over the four days that it takes place. You can spend hours wondering the floor seeing stuff you didn’t see before, speak to creators, see great costumes, meet new friends and greet ones you know the one.

This is what weigh’s on my heart the most. I miss my American friends. I spent some great time’s just hanging around people who I mostly talk to online in 2023. They were all so lovely and I hope they enjoyed my company half as much as I enjoyed theirs. So three years has passed in a blink of an eye but it also feels like an eternity.

This led to a very crazy thought…could I go this year? In truth, I probably could. It is not too late to start saving, I could get the time off and yeah…it’s possible. It would be hard but doable.So why won’t I? Well there’s a few reasons. Chief among them is the circumstances around travel in America. I’ve heard a lot of stories about people having issues going through immigration the last 18 months or so that it makes me super anxious about going. Traveling s a big strain on me mentally and the worry that I could be led to a room or whatever just makes me far too terrified to even try. Given my anxiety and fear, I could very well end up confessing to every crime from the Kennedy Assassination to helping Goldfinger try to infiltrate Fort Knox.

While the cost is possible, it would mean a lot of scaling back in spending. It would essentially make a lot of the rest year miserable expenses wise. Just because you CAN afford something doesn’t always mean you should.

Given that I’m very much doubting I want to go to Dublin which only costs a fraction of price and time compared to NYCC due to both these aspects, it’s insane to think that somehow me thinking travelling over 10 hours or so feesible for me when two is making me go ‘eh, is it worth it?”

Want to travel by train for two hours?

”Ew no, but I will go in the air on a death machine for 8 hours”

Yes I know statistically planes are safer. I don’t care.So no…NYCC is not happening this year or sadly likely for the foreseeable future. I hope one day I can go again but at the moment there’s just too many mental obstacles as well as financial ones to overcome.

I do miss my friends dearly though. I hope when they are there this year and they see a Spider-Man or Doctor Who piece of merch, they maybe think of me and know a little piece of me is there with them.Not the same as the guy who did his business on the floor of the con but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.

More soon.

Bendis Board

Once, a very long time ago I spent a lot of my time on the internet on a message board called Jinxworld. Before social media platforms became the standard way to communicate online, message boards where how people found each other to discuss their various interests. I can’t remember how exactly I discovered Jinxworld, the website for comic writer Brian Michael Bendis and it had a message board.

It had message boards for several creators but by far the busiest was known as the ‘Bendis board.’ At the time, Bendis was my favorite comic writer at the time. I was adoring Ultimate Spider-Man and discovering his other word slowly but surely. I started on the board as a ‘lurker’, someone who read posts but didn’t post themselves. I started posting here and there but it became a heavy part of my daily routing to post in threads with groups of people that were talking about anything and everything.Through the board I made a lot of good memories, read comics that I never would have read otherwise (which led to other comics, which led to others, which led to…), became familiar with creators I wasn’t aware of and made some of the best friends I ever had.

Much like you see on a lot of social media now though, there was a deep ugly side to the board. Creators would be unpleasant, rude and say things I wish I could purge my memory of. Most of them were lovely but there were a few who were names then and became names later that didn’t exactly show themselves in the best of lights.

There was a toxic environment at times. Judgements of what you liked and didn’t like over frivolous things. If you think people arguing over petty things is a social media creation, it absolutely isn’t. I remember specifically a wrestling thread I chose to stop posting in because the other posters were so toxic towards me. I kept inside my known ‘safe’ places with people I felt I could trust and seemed to like me.It was through the Board I got to make some comics, I got to have a hand in a very small publisher I’ve spoken about here before. It is because of the board that I have a podcast with two of my closest friends that I met there that is coming up on it’s 560th episode in its second iteration. There are people I enjoyed speaking to on the board that I lost touch with that I miss talking with. I often think about what happened to poster’s I felt close to that vanished.Sadly some of the people I considered friends ended up letting me down. In my better moments, I forgive them, in my darkest moments I wish pain on them that would make demon’s shudder.

When I was posting on the board regularly and at the peak of my involvement in a particular megathread I had a lot of people I considered friends. Over time they went on their way and I went on mine or they let me down. Perhaps I let them down, I’m sure they have a much different view of what happened between them and me than I do. We are the heroes of our own stories after all and if some of them have tales where I let them down or did wrong by them, I can honestly say I cannot defend myself entirely. I was a lot younger, I wasn’t well mentally and I was unaware of my autism. I let myself be put into certain positions and my eventual breaking free of these toxic elements meant there was some damage and shrapnel that fell upon people I did care for and I do regret.

Now I have far fewer friends but nI really count on them. Growing up partly is realizing what a friend is and what that really means. Especially so for someone who didn’t grow up with a social circle and was grateful to meet someone nay ANYONE that would talk about their geeky interests with them. There is a lot of bad times I have associated with the board but I think given the comics exposure both in terms of reading and creation I was allowed due to being there and the good times I did have far outweigh the bad times. Like most of us, it is the past and those are times that are filled with some bad, some good but because we ended up where we are overall we can’t change any of it because you risk losing what you did gain from it.

That being said, the reason I decided to write this particular blog was i saw that the Jinxworld message board lives on through discord. Knowing I wouldn’t change my time on the board, I can definitely say that I wouldn’t go back. I don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to it any more and it would be like going back to a club you used to go to but got shut down but then reopened but it has been a good long while and you’re not sure if it’s your jam anymore.I hope there are new people in the community.

Discovering comics, meeting friends (good ones) and getting the opportunity to talk with creators. There’s a young version of myself that was grateful of all that and I wish that positive experience to now fall upon others and that perhaps over time the negative aspects have either lessoned or perhaps vanished entirely.For those out there reading this that have good memories of talking to G101 or The Doctor, feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear from you if it’s been a while.

Unless you were a git. Then you can go sit on Bendis Board Survivor Isolation Island with only a Chinchilla to eat.

Special shout out to Pat. A genuine good egg who I hope found peace.

More Soon.