Since David Fury recommended it a couple of years ago I finally dragged myself onto Facebook and now often post (or respond to one) a few times a day.  But though it's a notable socialising site to keep in touch with friends, I've actively avoided most of the various trends and memes that come along out of the blue. Posting the colour of your bra-strap or extolling the graceful virtues of your invisible deity of choice is all well and good if it floats your boat, but they aren't partiular carts...

Almost a month since my last blog post. I will have to add better scheduling to any new year's resolutions I'm strong-armed into making... November has been an interesting and pretty busy month. The major event was the Thought Bubble weekend at which I hosted a panel with the likes of John Romita Jnr, Andy Diggle and Richard Hastings - with all of us discussing the growing relationship between comics and the movie/tv industry.  The Walking Dead once again came up as a favourite viewing...

* I occasionally have a good moan here on my blog. Rarely does it reach a rant status. Buckle up. Tonight there were... fireworks.  Each year Roundhay Park in Leeds (famous for being a public park and also a venue for open-air rock concerts and the like) holds a big bonfire and firework display. Whizzz! Bang! Flash! Etc. It's free and attracts a few thousand people into its vast expanse. It's a good enough venue that there's not tight crowding but merely people standing around...

So, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear just took place in Washington DC. I've seen people passionate about this and also pouring scorn on it.  But whether it's a genuinely wise move for a comedian/commentator to run something as extensive like this or not (and if it's not why can Glenn Beck claim any kind of right ot triumph?) then I admire the spirit in which it has been organised. Because right now 'fact' seems to be a dirty word and 'patriot' seems like carte-blanche. Far too often...

Well, it's Hallowe'en - or technically the day before, but if our friends in the US can make a season out of it, then I think we can claim a weekend.  Most years I've headed down to th FAB Cafe in Leeds or elsewhere to join MillarWorlders for some spooking and frivolity, but this year it's looking as if veryone is spread out and there'll be no significant partying.  Curses! But taking a break from the incessant article writing, I played with my camera and PhotoShop to...

Yes, yes, fine. I know. Lack of posts. Duly noted.  I'd planned to blog a lot more while in Iowa, but deadlines and relaxing etc got in the way and in the end it all got away from me. I got back from Iowa last week and went from 75 degrees + to a maximum of about 50 as we touched down in Manchester. The flights back were impressively on time and largely free of any drama or misfortune. The planes took off on time and arrived early in each case. Baggage also arrived in time and...

Back in Iowa for a few weeks and at first the promised heatwave failed to materialise. In fact, when I arrived it was positively... nippy. The first few days were very up and down temperature-wise, ranging from early 60s to late 80s - as all-over-the-place as British weather but without the sunny respites between the rain. And at the end of last week, the rain did indeed fall... with massive night-long thunderstorms and a huge surge in the water-table. The Big Sioux River floods at 15ft... by today...

I wanted to lighten the regular postings up a bit, but watching the news about Pastor Terry Jones, a Florida man who will, with his congregation, be conducting a public Qu'ran burning is one of tose things begging for comment.  Jones says he's sick and tired of the Bible being disrespected and wants to show those pesky muslims that he can dish it out too. He's been told by Hillary Clinton, the Pope and other religious leaders of the disrespect he's showing to an entire faith and General...

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that over the last few weeks I've felt more poltically aware than ever before.  Actually, I think 'socially-aware' is the more accurate description. It's not so much the subjects themselves as the way that people (news stations and the greater populace) have reacted to the subjects; the way that events and attitudes have almost grown out of proportion to each other, feeding themsleves like an ourboros snake of vitriolic proportions. It's like mainlining...

Unless you've been hiding under a stone for the last few weeks, you're obviously aware that one of the biggest issues is the 'Ground Zero Mosque' debate. Depending on your point of view and attitude to the situation it's been a bad time to be an American patriot, a muslim or a property developer. (Delete as appropriate). But it's sure as hell been a bad time to be a journalist, if the standard of reporting is anything to judge by. Firstly, let me say that I totally get and can  respect the...

According to several of my friends I really have to remember to blog more. Of course they also say I should design more, come out for drinks more and write more novels. I have no real excuse for my tardiness except to say that you can usually find me on Facebook and after a day of writing, sometimes the last thing I want to do is sit down and write more. However. So, what's new? Nothing spectacularly different on Planet Moz. I'm still doing a ton of work and spending a significant proportion of...

I spent most of the last week in Paris, which  - let's face it - is not bad work if you can get it.  Primarily it was to meet up with Carmel, Annie and Victoria who are on HLWW duty and lend a hand as we looked after the likes of Adrian, Peter, Lizzie, Jim and David Abramowitz who were doing panels at the Paris Comic Con. I arrived on Wed afternoon and made my way to the apartment which was just around the corner from the Louvre. The ladies were out but after about thirty minutes...

Well, so far the two projects and possibilities that might each have brought in a pretty (useful) penny have proven somewhat unuseful.  The work is there, the money not so much. Looks like I'll have to be more creative and more forthright in the future.That is the way of the world, I guess, but it would be nice to have some nice financial surprises for a change instead of the usual bad-surprise bills. However, I've kept out of trouble by stepping in to help with a couple of article designs...

Firstly, what’s happening in the Gulf is an environmental disaster. Man's eagerness to maximise profits trumping risk to the environment. On that we're all mostly agreed. Another 9/11 as President Obama equated it to, today? Well, that's debatable but there's no doubt people are angry and it may affect attitudes on the country's domestic attitiude. Quite right too. Oil and water don’t mix and when they do it’s never a good thing. When they don’t mix on the scale they are (aren’t) at the moment,...

The last week or so has felt very much like a holding-pattern on many fronts - there's plenty of things to be done but several decisions to be made before most of them go forward at any pace. In some cases the ball's in my court, but in most I'm waiting on others for the nod or shake.  As any reasonably creative person will tell you, that means an air of frustration... it tends to lead to the feast or famine situation where there's not a lot to do and then suddenly a lot to fit into a...

I spent last weekend up in the Yorkshire Dales with Simon Hopkinson, Glenn Hewitt, Sally Warr and other P365ers. The reason was a chance to do some landscape photography, but it was just as good a reason to have a change of scene and socialise a bit more.   We all stayed at the Ecobarn which was a great base of operations - it's a fully-converted barn near Dent which was originally started by entertainer Mike Harding as a recording studio and more lately as a place that can sleep...

It was completely my intention to keep regular blog postings coming while I was away in Iowa, but amid some urgent DVD sleeve designing and tearing my hair out over Impact stuff (you'd think I'd learn) and wanting to make the most of what was generally *supposed* to be a break, I just never got around to sitting down and creating more entries. I know. You're devastated. You can recall the search parties now... The trip was a good one. Three weeks instead of four and starting a week later due...

So. Hopefully - after hours on the phone, I'll now be on my way to Iowa on Sunday. Technically I'll leave here Saturday night and train across to Manchester and wait through the early hours until my flight leaves (first via Paris CDG) just after 6:00am Sunday. Right now, it all looks good with 95% + of all flights now back in operation, but given recent events I'm not counting on anything until I'm en route to Iowa. Even then I'll be keeping an eye out for mavericky plumes and getting...

After accumulating around 2hrs on a 10p a minute line to Expedia, I tried the old fallback postion of simply hitting the unmentioned '0' at every option and almost instantly got through to someone.  Take that, Mount St Unpronouncable... The news is not great - and as expected, no flights for the next few days at least, though they say conditions are slowly improving ever so slightly (So....I guess BBC, SKY, CNN and NATS are wrong that it's actually getting worse and could last months...)....

On what is, ironically, an absolutely lovely sunny day in Leeds, what really irks is that my long-laid travel plans have actually been scuppered by a smouldering mountain with a name that's halfway between a great hand at Scrablle and a particularly bad Bjork lyric ( Eyjafjallajoekull - say it fast three times). Yes, as some of you know I'm supposed to be flying off to the US early next week - however that's all in flux at the moment due to... and I can't believe I'm actually typing this......

Wow. Is it me or are we all getting just a bit angrier, just a bit more literally outraged, a little less tolerant? Or too tolerant? Or less tolerant at more tolerance or... well... there you are. It's that kind of time. Doesn't it make you want to scream? In recent months there's been a ton of controversies in the press. Some relatively small scale stoies, some decidedly bigger, some totally manufactured, some more organic. But in a lot of cases it feels like rather than the issues being debated,...

Last night Amerca voted  and - with a few votes to spare - passed the Health Care bill.  It's been a controversial issue but I have to say I think this is a hugely important and significant change for the better. Here's the thing. I know there's a rational debate to be had on health and perhaps a solid argument that the current bill is flawed. But that rational debate has not been happening. In fact, it's not been happening for about seventy years. I'm told by Fox News etc that...