Chris Hazeldine

The cover art for the latest Gorillaz album "The Mountain". The band stands on a peak looking out over a misty valley.

I'm somewhat of a lapsed Gorillaz listener but I was coaxed back after checking out the short film. There are some moments of this album I genuinely felt a weight lifting from me. Wonderful stuff.

Fedora Zero. The cursed relic of the mid 2000s that, when tipped, tumbled us all into this shadow timeline.

But you try explaining that to young folk these days and they look at you like you're talking nonsense.

I remember fatsquirting data paks over the TelUnit mainframe. Trying to get some bithits under the detector pulses on there was the best part of my childhood. If a SecSkimmer jacked in to the gigs while you were extracting you only had five seconds of digitime to unplug and burn the tensemap.

I died to a mini boss in act 2, I was to greedy and took all the shiny new cards without an idea of a build. This game is going to be a problem for me, I can already tell

I nearly was on GMTV in the early 00s because they wanted funny kids and I did a good Tony Blair (and an okay Ozzy Osbourne) impression. But I missed the call back because I was using dial-up to download NES roms on the PC. They left a message but we were too late.

God, my life has been uneventful.

37?

Aw, I'm currently re reading Hyperion! The Shrike and the cruciform are two of the best inventions of sci-fi horror I can recall.

A tired middle aged man looking annoyed. From Come Dine With Me's infamous "sore loser" episode

"You won, Hannah. Enjoy Gorton and Denton, I hope it makes you very happy."

I want your algorithm. I want to be among the fey folk, watching Ian Anderson play flute while perched on a tree stump.

A page from my 2016 indie comic Templars of the Shifting Verse. A soldier shoots at a ghostly figure who then attacks him, much to the anger of an unarmed man who has a go at the ghost. The ghost looks indifferent

A page from my 2016 small press comic, Templars of the Shifting Verse. The main character is trapped underground in a tomb, until he discovers a magical stone that whisks him away, leaving a ghostly skeleton.

I often go back to look at my small press comics I made when I was in my 20s and it feels like someone else made them. Someone with a lot more energy and drive, but also someone who "went for it", challenging himself and being weird and clumsy. I miss him and will try and coax him back with red bull

I think Scriptorium might be the best demo on Steam Next Fest

Hard to believe that's a coincidence! There's a librarian living around Figges Marsh doing fantastic work to keep comics alive.

Don't suppose it was Mitcham Library? Someone in there knew their stuff, although the years had put a few holes in the number of volumes.

Is this not Alan Moore's Captain Britain run? I remember finding a 90s TPB of it in a South London library ten years ago and feeling like I'd struck gold.

Yep. It's expecting people to bother to pay/read something you couldn't be bothered to make.

But to be honest, I can't imagine these books sell any real numbers as any parents who are okay with AI will just use it themselves to churn out a new bedtime story every night. "We have slop at home."

It's the same cynical mindset behind a thousand shoddy Christmas Villages with three snowflake decorations and a (similarly swindled and put-upon) teenager dressed as an elf. Extract the cash from tired parents, hope the kids don't notice how naff it all is.

I think people who use AI to write/illustrate kid's books are some of the most cynical people imaginable. They're often not doing it for any reason other than they believe kids are an easy mark and aren't discerning enough to care. Churn 'em out, throw in some buzzwords, stick 'em on Amazon.

I did a similar approach (thinking of it in terms of hue, saturation and lightness) but on nearly all of them I remembered the colour being more vivid than the sample. Fun warm up game!

a close up of a purple and red cartoon character with green eyes Alt: Eva Unit 01 doing a scream

But which robot containing the soul of a dead relative is better? There's only one way to find out...

Robot in an 80s kids film: "If grandma has ceased operating, we should reboot her."
Grieving child delivering the message of the movie: "*sniff* It doesn't work like that, Medabot. We only have our memories now."
Medabot, about to dive into the harrowing final act: "Memories... I understand."

Where is all this happening so I know never to go there?

Pure Reason Revolution playing a gig in London. The drummer is out of shot, but there is a man on guitar, a woman on keyboards, a woman singing and a man on keyboard. All are singing

Saw Pure Reason Revolution tonight! A band I feel deserves more fans (though turnout was good!) Musically they're a harmony focused band with industrial and progressive flourishes. Kinda like an industrial Fleetwood Mac. Bullits Dominae + Ghosts & Typhoons are quintessential tracks

Absolute Martian Manhunter fanart 👽

I remember this the first time everyone threw their toys out of the bad-faith pram! It's a classic!

A screenshot of BlueSky map showing that I'm adrift from the comics community

🎵 I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see 'em posting'
Talking X-Men on those, what do you call 'em?
Oh, skeets! 🎵

CSP has a million little handy tricks that became indispensable once I actually found them.

I'm currently reading New X-Men. She's very cool but MAN do they put these kids through the wringer after House of M.

Oh look! It's a building block of my childhood.