What's Been Going On

Here is what I have been doing lately, in the realm of all that is nerdness. Most of my entertainment time has been devoted to re-reading John Milton's "Paradise Lost." It's a great book, and I am enjoying it even more the second time around. I want to finally finish reading "Paradise Regained," too. I started that one a long, long time ago and never finished it. It kind of sucks, though, because someone told me He dies at the end.
I saw a few decent flicks lately, too. No Country for Old Men was pretty cool, though it kind of crapped out at the end. To tell the truth, I wasn't paying 100% attention by that point, so I missed most of what Johnny Lee Oswald Copman (whatever the fuck his name is) said at the very end. I heard it must have been pretty cool, though.
I got an old Clash bootleg, demos from the "Combat Rock" album. It contains Mick Jones' original mixes, which got rejected. They are pretty cool, and have more of a Sandinista! vibe to them, but they're really not too, too different from the album version. A lot of people hate on Combat Rock, but I always liked it. Still, it's the shittiest Clash album ever (Cut the Crap does not count).

Steve Roper is the Fucking Man

While shifting around a few books on my shelf the other day, I stumbled upon these little gems that I had read about a year ago or so. They're Blackthorne Publishing's 1980's reprintings of some mid-40's Steve Roper and Wahoo strips. At first they were a little off-putting, but after a few pages I really started to get the vibe, and it was non-stop enjoyment from that point on.
Saunders and Woggon, the creators, had a really great style going. The art is reminiscent of both Dick Tracy and, quite anachronistically, Charles Burns. There are thick, solid blacks flowing between curved lines; not necessarily the angular, jutting corners of Gould's work from the same era.
As for the story, it's pretty silly, really. As I said, I read these about a year or so ago, so I really don't remember them too well. There were some twists and turns, and the overall mood was more akin to Smilin' Jack than Terry and the Pirates. If I'm not mistaken, there might even have been a 'evil twin/lookalike' story; one which plagued comic strips from the Golden Era.