Day 13 - A book you’ve read more than five times.

Watchmen.
A book that repays repeat readings as it reveals more and more of the intricate, clock like design that went in to every facet of the world created by Moore, Gibbon & Higgins.
If you haven't read it yet then put this at number 2 on your list after Maus.

Day 12 - A comic everyone should read

Still without internet (well without mine, borrowing this from a neighbour) anyway this is an easy one. The comic everyone should read is Maus.

The true story of Art Spiegelman's father, an Auschwitz survivor. The comic book twist used is that the Jewish characters are portrayed as mice and the Germans are cats. It's like a terrible, dark version of Tom and Jerry. It sounds trite but it is one of the most powerful comic books ever written. In 2008 it ranked at number 7 on a list of 100 new classics published since 1983, and that's for all books - not just graphic novels. If ever there was a piece of graphic fiction that showed what the format can do then this is it.

The 30 day British Invaders challenge

Here is another challenge that we came up with on the British Invaders Facebook page. It's a British science fiction TV challenge.

British Invaders 30 day challenge

1. Your first programme/earliest memory
2. Your favourite Doctor
3. Your favourite companion
4. Your favourite character (non Doctor Who)
5. Your favourite show
6. Your worst show
7. The show that really needs to be released on DVD
8. The best DVD set you own
9. The most underrated show
10. The show you don’t get but everybody else seems to love
11. Your favourite Gerry Anderson show
12. Your favourite spin off from a TV show
13. Which missing Doctor Who story would you really like to be found intact?
14. Your favourite audio drama
15. Your favourite writer
16. Who was the best Professor Quatermass?
17. The show that should be rebooted/remade
18. The show that should not have been rebooted/remade
19. Favourite adaptation of a novel
20. Favourite title sequence
21. Favourite theme music
22. Favourite villain
23. Sexiest character
24. The scariest or spookiest show
25. Favourite SF comedy show
26. Favourite children/family show
27. Best spaceship
28. Which missing show would you most like to see restored to the archives?
29. Favourite alien race or planet
30. Who would you like to play the 12th Doctor?

I'll start this one myself soon, but if you start it then post a link to your blog either here or on the Facebook page.

Day 11 - Favourite comic book cartoon series.

OK, this is cheating but I'm moving house tomorrow and unlikely to have internet. Like some of these categories I don't really have a favourite comic cartoon series but if I did it would be this one.

Day 10 - Dream vs match.

I can't really get in to the fanboy idea of coming up with fantasy match ups between characters from different comic books. Instead I'm going back to the classic conflict which Marvel comics used, and over-used, when I started reading their comics in the 70s.

It's clobbering time!

Day 09 - Most touching comic book/comic book scene

Here's one I read recently. I Kill Giants by J.M. Ken Nimura and Joe Kelly is a strange little indie comic book about a young girl who has retreated into a fantasy world to avoid dealing with a real world issue. I won't give the twist away although it is fairly easy to see what is coming, but this is a sweet and touching little book. Very moving and no superheroes in sight.

Day 08 - Best series being published right now

I don't actually read many current comic series so my field is narrow. I could pick the Walking Dead but that is getting stuck in a rather depressing pattern as previously discussed. So that leaves me to chose something from 2000AD and far and away the best series they are currently publishing is still Judge Dredd.

Dredd is getting more interesting as he ages in real time. Despite the various rejuvenation treatments the character has supposed to have he is pushing 60 now, and there are some hints that he may be replaced at some point in the future. There is at least one younger clone of him on duty on the streets of Mega-city one at the moment, although they have tried replacing him with a younger clone once with disastrous results for the city. It did set up one of my favourite Dredd stories though:: The Dead Man.

 The older Dredd is a more conflicted character than his younger self. He doesn't see things as black and white as he used to. His sympathies for the cause of the Mutants outside the walls of his city have provided some interesting stories recently, not least the one where Dredd saved some imprisoned Mutant children and almost revealed a kinder, softer side of his nature.

The main writer John Wagner has just returned for a new major story line involving the serial killer P.J. Maybe and it just might be the end of Dredd. Who knows?