Anthony Morris

There's a lot of Pat Mills' later work that's only been collected in that recent 2000AD partwork series - I think the endings (well, final storylines) of Defoe, Savage and possibly the last ABC Warriors story are only available in book form that way

Oh yeah, the Crunchyroll series. And I think he had something else some way into production that either was folded or he stepped away from

He did four seasons then they rebooted it without him. I'm not sure he's officially done anything animated since then

Yeah, I can't imagine him showing up anywhere in public again, beyond (maybe) book signings or something where his handlers can control the audience. Even if he manages to somehow write a good book, who'd want to be in a room with him?

I can only assume that Gaiman is high on his own supply and thinks that, as the "master of stories", he can create one that will overwrite and erase the reports of what he's been up to. Having read a fair amount of his increasingly bland and hollow output over the years, all I can say is "good luck"

Said obstacles largely being that he was revealed to be an exploitative shit who used his power and influence over a tiny corner of the internet to engage in a seemingly endless series of abusive relationships, which (as we're currently seeing) is not something the general public is supportive of

Anyway, I suspect he knows he has one shot at making a real comeback and he's got to make it count, which is a problem because even before 2020 his output was a bit erratic and often his best work was short and disposable, which isn't going to cut it considering the obstacles in his path

It's almost impressive the way he hasn't tried to shift to the right-wing grift after the revelations about his personal life - he laid low for a year or two and then just went right on back to doing exactly what he was doing before (promoting awful music, torturous films and pulp thrillers mostly)

No doubt he's kept busy doing uncredited script work and other behind-the-scenes jobs (the Netflix series Castlevania, which was all him writing-wise, was a big hit), but the fact he hasn't put anything out with his name on it for over five years suggests a certain wariness about testing the waters

Warren Ellis' newsletter (and associated website) are amazing to read, as they paint a picture of a writer constantly working on new projects at a rapid pace, despite the fact that Ellis hasn't published / been publicly involved in anything (aside from a single dramatic podcast) since 2020

My question is: will Neil Gaiman publish something new under his real name before Warren Ellis does?

Creatively his best days are what, thirty years in the rear-view mirror? Even if his "ordeal" fired him up creatively, his only possible motivation for actually writing anything now is to drown out the accusations, so it's going to be hateful garbage to the core

I mean, it's probably going to be some teen fantasy utterly devoid of sexuality in the hope of severing the link between who he is and what he writes, but he could write a novel about a bag of rocks and it'd still be a big nope

What could said unfinished novel possibly be about that anyone would want to read? Either it ignores what we now know about him (in which case it'd be hollow and empty, a bundle of lies), or it confronts it, and he's made it clear that would just be self-pitying, denial, or attacking his accusers

The most unbelievable thing in Neil Gaiman's latest bullshit outburst is that he's "close" to finishing a new novel

The best part about this book was that I started from a place of "let's slag off the local footy team" and then tried to figure out a stupid but plausible criminal scheme, only to then realise that oh shit, that scheme I just invented was definitely what was really happening here in the 90s

The ABC's still killing it*!

*the residents of Midsomer

Seems when you live in a town largely known for a sporting team, writing a novel about how a town's sporting team is a front for drugs and crime will definitely get you in trouble, especially if a semi-recent coach left "plagued by controversy" while a famous player "gave drugs to a girl who OD'd"

I also had another crime novel worked out that I could (and still can!) write in a month because I'm really excited about it, but it is so defamatory (not intentionally) in ways that really can't be concealed without ruining the whole thing that it's never going to happen

I've got three novels (and a play) stashed around here - the first novel was a parody of a (terrible) illness memoir that even I felt was too mean-spirited, then a formalist office drama that was basically one long subtweet, then a crime novel that became a little *too* topical so I had to drop it

Talking to a friend about this, we figured there's a range of issues with a relatively large consensus that Australia is shit but what can you do? Like, I could see the ABC doing a similar one-off special about sexism / misogyny hosted by The Kates (probably not on housing, too many ABC landlords)

Yeah, I suspect the plan was to keep the initial announcement very vague - IIRC they didn't mention it was going to tie into Jan 26 either

My neighbours delightful son and his early 20s mates went through a phase a year or so ago of getting pre-loaded in the back yard on weekends and drunkenly singing ‘New York, New York’ at the top of their lungs before heading out

Future of public healthcare is at 18 you get given a Predator medkit and anything you can’t fix by pouring some glowing goo on it you have to pay for

Limp endings are hardly uncommon when it comes to this kind of thriller, but when you have a really strong opening that has people thinking "that would be a nightmare, tell me more", you really do need to have more to tell them beyond "yeah, evil chain letter, that's pretty much it"

I was obsessed with THE CHAIN because not only did it have a great hook (someone stole your kid; to get them back, you have to steal someone else's kid) but it was instantly obvious from the way people were talking that the book in no way paid off on that hook and in fact just kind of fizzled out

HBO Orders Damon Lindelof Series ‘The Chain,’ a Thriller Described as “‘Jaws for Parents” The 'Lost' and 'Leftovers' showrunner returns to HBO with a twisty new project based on Adrian McKinty's novel.

The best part of the news that my favourite stupid thriller of the last 7 years - that'd be THE CHAIN - is being made into a streaming series is that "Lindelof is said to be expanding the mythology of McKinty’s thriller", which is code for "new ending"

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/h...

The biggest wake up call I had as far as the immortal nature of creative endeavours was seeing my first published novel on the table by my mother's favourite chair for six months, with a bookmark sticking out three chapters in that didn't move in the slightest during those six months

There's a certain kind of person who says "death is a small price to pay for being creative", and it's not someone who's been confronted with the fact that 99.9999% of all human creativity goes pretty much straight into the bin

I've read two separate people arguing that AI is bad because it's inert data incapable of innovation or creativity and that we should embrace death as the price we pay for creative thought, and whatever the merits of that argument I'm pretty sure "death is good, actually" isn't a great sales pitch