London Super Comic-Con Day 1 - other signings

In amongst the excitement of meeting Stan Lee and some 2000AD thrill power I also met some other creators. Paul Cornell wrote a fantastic run on Captain Britain and MI-13. He has also written for Doctor Who and is currently going great guns on Demon Knights and Stormwatch, as well as having an interesting new book called Saucer Country coming up. I met him at the Big Finish day but didn't have anything for him to sign then. This time I was prepared and he kindly signed my variant cover of Cap and MI-13 #1, as well as my rather battered copy of Human Nature. And I've only just found out that he co-wrote my favourite book about the X-Files, X-Treme Possibilities. I'll have to get that one signed next time.

I managed to get Howard Chaykin, the writer and artist of American Flagg, to sign the first issue in-between him doing sketches and having a discussion about musical theatre with another guest. Somehow I found that rather incongruous for the creator of Reuben Flagg and Black Kiss but he is clearly an enthusiast about several subjects.

I missed the Bernie Wrightson signing while I was in the Brian Bolland queue but fortunately he was happy to sign books at his table in Artists' Alley. This is the first issue of the original Len Wein and Wrightson Swamp Thing from 1972. Swamp Thing was the character that got me back into American comics so getting this key issue signed was very important to me. And Mr Wrightson was absolutely charming. It's fantastic to meet these great creators and kudos to the organisers of the convention for getting so many of them to come over.

Next up is day 2 and more Stan Lee!

Day 18 - Best use of SFX on the small screen

CGI special effects on the small screen are still a bit dodgy, and very hard, and expensive, to get right. There are other effects that are very impressive. It's still hard for me to believe that the Weeping Angels in Blink were actually actors in silver paint. Classic Doctor Who. But I am trying hard to look beyond the British Invaders universe.

Let's go back to a classic. I love picking holes in Fringe but it is no X-Files. And if we're talking classic X-Files we have to be talking about the scary episode Squeeze. Eugene Tombs was a splendidly creepy bad guy and the scenes when he distorts his body to climb through a narrow chimney is really impressive. The special effects guys did a great job and, along with some thoroughly nasty sounds, it makes for a terrific episode.

Fringe Binge

Fringe season three has arrived on DVD and it's time for me to drift away from British televison for a short while and get back to the world of parallel universes, bad medicine and a cheerful mad scientist in this X-Files clone.

Spoiler alert. If you haven't watched the end of season two and you plan to then probably best if you don't read the rest of this because I'm going to give the game away.You have been warned.

So here's the problem for the Fringe writers. At the end of season two they have established that the two parallel universes are at war and they've swapped the two Olivias. Getting from there back to the freak-of-the-week episodes is difficult but so far they have got round this by having the evil Olivia, or Faux-livia, masquerading as her blonde goodie version so that the original team can continue their investigations. Meanwhile over in the other world they have given our Olivia memory implants so that she thinks and acts like Faux-livia. The rest of her Fringe team don't know about the switch so they carry on doing their thing and we get alternating episodes of Fringe cases from each universe. Clever!

Actually it's all very neat and we get to watch more X-Files type mysteries while at the same time noting the differences between the two universes. The parallel world has much better technology, although strangely they still use Penny Farthing bicycles. And their Fringe team seem much better at their jobs than our eccentric versions of Walter and Astrid. Plus the Red universe team includes a character who is dead over here in our (blue) universe.

Quite how long they can keep this up remains to be seen, especially as Olivia seems to be rejecting her memory grafts and starting to remember who she really is. But at least they have got us back to monster of the week shows. Watch this space for more from beyond the Fringe.

Bad movie bingo strikes back

I was home alone again last night and so it was time to play bad movie bingo again. And it was Pierce Brosnan time again! In fact I am thinking of sticking with Brosnan for my bad movie nights, there is a fair selection. This time Amazon took my £2.79 and sent me Butterfly on a Wheel from 2007.

Also starring Gerard Butler one year after "This is Sparta!" and Maria Bello, after A History of Violence.

Meh. I know, I know we are supposed to stop using that internet expression of boredom and indifference but really ... Meh.

Butler and Bello have the perfect life, the perfect marriage and the perfect poppet of a child. Do you think that something might be going to change all that? You would be right. And that something comes along in the shape of Brosnan who kidnaps their daughter and plays a cat and mouse game with them over 24 hours. There are twists and turns and nothing is what it seems. It's almost like someone listened to Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime and thought the chorus might make a good movie pitch. "This is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife. My God. What have I done?" (Yes I'm paraphrasing).

Brosnan playing a baddie is interesting I suppose, something he has done more of in recent years (Seraphim Falls, The Ghost) but here he is doing an accent. An "Oirish" accent, and would you believe he can't do a very good one? Stick to your normal voice, Pierce. Anything else is distracting.

Anyway, Pierce's terrible accent is not the problem with this film The problem is I just didn't care. None of the characters are likable, none of them. I didn't care what happened to any of them and because I didn't care all the twists and reverses were dull. Give us someone we can empathise with or don't bother at all.

One plus note: Nicholas Lea who played Krycek in the X-Files turned up briefly at the start and I got all excited but he doesn't stick around. Shame. If you get the choice between this and Death Train pick Death Train every time.

Meh. 1 out of 5 Joe Bob stars. Now on to Taffin

Vancouver

To hammer home the similarities between Fringe and the X-Files the production team moved to Vancouver for the second season. Much of the X-Files was shot there as well and certain locations crop up in both shows.

About 5 or 6 years ago we took a family holiday to Vancouver and had a good time there. We wanted to do a city tour of some description, possibly something a little different than the standard tour. When we were in Toronto we did the Hippo bus tour which is an amphibious bus ride! So when I read in the Vancouver guide book about a company that offered "X-Tours" of the city I booked us up.

We were promised a limousine ride so were a bit disappointed when a guy turned up at the hotel driving a small family car and told us the limo was being repaired. He then drove us round the city to see all the major sights including Stanley park as well as stopping every now and then to point out an alley way that Mulder and Scully had run down. We saw the famous Ovaltine diner which has now been used in both shows. For some reason he also pointed out where his bank was and the gym he went to. It was a bit weird!

The slightly spooky nature of the tour was confirmed when he took us back to his apartment, the exterior of which was used as Scully's home in the series. Feeling a little bit uncomfortable we were shown in to his lounge where he moved his mother off the sofa so we could sit down and watch DVD clips of his building turning up in the X-Files!

It was entirely innocent and charming in a way, but Susan and Jenny have never quite forgiven me!