Sunday, May 31, 2009

Super Comics!



Hi All,




Longstone Comics 2nd Anthology was released this week:


Check out the lovely cover art by Dee! It is available from Forbidden Planet , Crow Street and Sub City, or from us throught the Longstone Comics website. Everyone in the group has contributed to this one, and we see it as a great step forward!





Our second release, Downpour, will be in shops from next Wednesday. It is a kind of psychic vampire story, where individual histories take the place of blood. I will be very proud to stand beside Dee next week at the 2D Festival in Derry and tell you more about it!

Superhilbo has also released her first collection - check out her blog for more details. It is cheeky, great fun that will have you laughing out loud.

In these days of gloom and recession our stories and artwork serve as an escape and an outlet for all of the Longstone Crew. We hope you enjoy them and that they serve you in the same way.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Agadoo (Blue and Flickery... A Corollary).

(You should probably read 'The Future is Not Orange, It is Blue and Flickery' before you read this one, since this is a follow on of sorts).

So we know that communications are going to suck in the future. Sound becomes video becomes hologram, and nobody has ever seen that working properly.

If we follow the same evolutionary line of thinking for personal portable music players we run into the same kind of trouble. The sound part has been done many different ways; cassette, CD, Mini Disc (glad I never got one of those!) and now MPeg3. Once we introduce the sound and visuals, we move on to MPeg4. Many of you already have devices with this capacity.

But what about sound and hologram technology?Wouldn't that be MPeg5? Now where have I seen a portable device that can play sound and holograms? Mmm, let me think....
I know! R2 D2! That's it! R2 D2 is an MP5 player!

Compared to an iPod Classic, R2 D2 is a little on the bulky size. You couldn't wrestle him to the top of a 56A bus. Granted, he has to be that size so that Kenny Baker could fit inside, but still...

Things look even bleaker when we think about how much holodata R2 D2 could actually store.

Help me Obi Wan... You're my only hope is about the same length as Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple, shake the tree. You'd have to really like the song to bother. At least you could loop it...

Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple, shake the tree.

Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple, shake...

Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple...

Agadoo doo doo, push...

Agadoo doo doo...

Agadoo.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv-3yIPSWc
Check out the drums at 0.24!

The Future is Not Orange. It is Blue and Flickery...

Greetings all!

I am writing over my concern about the future of communications technology. We have seen in numerous sci-fi movies how the humble voice method will be supplanted by video technology. Yep, picture screens where you can see the caller's face. Wow! High tech! Star Trek have had that system since 1966!

So what comes next? Hologram communication! Even wower! I can't wait to use that to ring in sick to work. But wait! Have you ever seen it in operation? Of course you have! Star Wars uses it all the time!

Nute Gunray (Trade Federation Viceroy): What's that? Darth Sidious wants to reverse the charges on a call from Naboo? Naboo? that means he's really...

Can anybody think of one single instance in any movie when the teleholo (is that what it's called? If not, I call dibs on the name) caller didn't appear blue and flickery and the image didn't keep breaking up? Nope, didn't think so.

So communications in the future are going to suck even more than they do now. You'll have a hand-held unit with GPS version XXV so the government can track you to the millimetre and sellers know everything you buy or consume. Your boss/friends/partner will be able to Google where you are in realtime, on real maps, via satellite. No more sneaking out for overpriced coffee! No more ' I'm just staying in with the missus', when you are out with your real friends and no more furtive visits to 'Abrakebabra'. The shame!

You'll have the Internet, of course, so everybody can look stuff up, which will save them the bother of actually knowing or learning anything. Say goodbye to pub table quizzes. They have already gone. The unit will also be an access key to all information about your life - from school reports to when you last took a dump and what the fibre rating of said excreta was. So next time you lose your phone, you'll become a social, financial and political non-entity and have to go on the run with Sandra Bullock. Luckily she's nicer in real life than her films would have you think. Worst of all... as you try your best to fall asleep on the maglev to work, you'll be sitting next to a trio of school girls giggling over a tinny, flickering hologram of High School Musical 43 'Krump Off Uranus'.

Bugger.