Let’s have a work update, then, as I’ve got a few things to link to/post about since getting back from That America…
– First off, a new piece for Channel 4 Film / Film4 (er, whichever it’s called, now) to tie in to the upcoming release of Avatar – a rundown of the previous films of James Cameron.
– Secondly, turn to page 56 of the current issue of UK Wired and you’ll see a daft little sidebar thing on the mortality rate of Bond girls, collated by yours truly. Strangely, it seems to be drawing a bit of attention, including people saying that the Daniel Craig entry was WRONG. Well, it isn’t, so there. There’s a specific criterion for which characters are included (otherwise you could debate various characters’ eligibility until the cows come home), which should be fairly obvious from looking at it. Nice that something so throwaway should inspire debate, though (also nice to see a couple of letters in the last WSC making reference to my squad numbers article, too).
– And, I rarely link to Comics Daily articles on here (since the site updates every day anyway), but we’ve just kicked off our end-of-decade musings, and here’s what I had to say about what I reckon is the best comic of the 2000s. Of course, for anyone who knows me (or reads the site), it’s hardly a massive surprise.
What? Surely not some actual work news to report on my workblog? Yup, that’s right. This last week has been a pretty good one for my writing, as it turns out, so hopefully LJ readers will forgive this crossposted bit of indulgence as I plug Stuff What I Now Have In The Shops.
First off, the new issue of the UK edition of Wired (cover right) contains something I did a little while back: a short interview with Rantz Hoseley, the creator of LongBox – a digital comics distribution platform that has been, predictably enough, described as a potential “iTunes of comics” (including, er, in my article). It’s a short piece, just half a page (page 67, to be precise), but it’s half a page of Wired, and that feels like a pretty big deal.
However, it must be said that although getting in Wired is probably the most high-profile thing I’ve done (apart from an uncredited “Classic Scene” in Empire once), it doesn’t feel like quite so big a deal as the other article I’ve got out at the moment – in the current issue of When Saturday Comes (left), page 33 is given over to my tediously rambling about football shirt numbers. It may not be the biggest magazine in the world (although, for its scale of production, it does alright – you can nearly always find it in nationwide outlets of WH Smiths) but I’ve been reading it for as long as I can remember (no, really – my Dad had loads of old copies kicking around that I used to pore over as a kid), and to me it’s an important publication that serves an important role, maintaining high standards of insightful and intelligent (as well as far-reaching in scope) football journalism that’s rarely matched elsewhere. As such, even though they may not have the stringent pitching and submissions process of a Conde Nast magazine, getting something in there feels like an honour; and I hope it won’t be the last time. And just to sate my ego further, the piece was spotlighted in the “In the current issue” section of the mag’s weekly email, and is also highlighted with an image on the contents page. Nice.
So yes. Things rolling along quite well at the moment, with a couple of other bits in the pipeline as well. Both mags should be on sale for the next three weeks or so, so feel free to check ’em out.