I PAD

OIL

so the US is going to start criminal proceedings against BP - good!

Because as I understand it, there is one thing that has been missing from the anti-BP rhetoric coming out of Washington and that is this...the rig and drill were made by and staffed by, Americans and BP leased the rig and drill from our old friends Haliburton.

KNEEJERK

Whitehaven - I don't know what made him do it, I don't know how the townfolk must be feeling today but I do know one thing-

DO NOT DO THE KNEEJERK GOVERNMENT!

After Dunblane there was a knee-jerk reaction, as a result gun crime has actually gone up - people who want to use a gun, will find one, last report was a Russian handgun at around £40 a pop.

After Dunblane there was a refusal to accept that the laws that were already in place had simply failed to have been deployed, Dumblaine should not have happened. It wasn't about gun clubs and ownership, it was about the local sheriff and police failing to respond to reported concerns about Thomas Hamilton.

This is the perfect opportunity for the Government to start treating us like adults. In relative terms, this sort of thing is fairly rare in this country thank God. Accept this has happened and please think logically and try not to introduce any more ridiculous laws that only punish the innocent.

IRON BABY

FEAR OF HEIGHTS

Potentially disturbing news from over the pond...

It appears that there is some serious powerplay going on at DC where rumours say the Swamp Thing is to return to the DC universe.



At the same time, the China Mieville scripted Vertigo series has been ditched with a kill-fee despite having a couple of issues done already.

Now I know there is not a lot of love for Dan Didio but I really hope that this isn't a case of pinning down, if not removing Vertigo from existence.

Let me briefly explain:


Vertigo is essentially the 'adult' inprint of DC Comics. Started on the back of Alan Moore's success on the DC labelled Swamp Thing, it has spawned such brilliance as Sandman, Preacher,Sandman Mystery Theatre, Fables, rescued Transmetropolitan and continued Hellblazer.

It has shifted between fantasy, science fiction and reality seeing such titles as DMZ and Northlanders.


Now sales in the monthly format have never been brilliant but all the titles above have a long shelf-life in bookstores and I know of people who happily read these titles without ever considering that they came from the same stable as Superman and Wonder Woman.

Conceptually I have no problem with Swampy going back to the DC universe if done right. Hellblazer on the other hand...erm nope, not for me.



I do have a problem of ditching the Mieville Swampy as the crossover market could have been huge and garnered a hell of a lot of media attention.

However, what gets me is that if this is indeed powerplay then what a stupid, idiotic thing to do. Karen Berger has been one of the most innovative publishers in the States and if DC is about to shaft Vertigo then if I were her I would find another publishing company and restart again - after all most of the current titles are creator-owned, which come to think it, maybe what really annoys the paymasters at Warner Brothers.

Vertigo stand alone among mainstream publishing companies for its sheer variety and nerve and I hope the rumours are totally unfounded. If not then someone in Warner Bros should really start looking at the management of DC as a whole because there appears to be some serious retro, backwards-looking, sales-dropping, movements happening at the moment without the kudos that the likes of Vertigo gives the company.

Seriously angry if this is true