Comics : Star Wars Omnibus - A Long Time Ago 1

Over the last few weeks and months i have been rereading my sole surviving Marvel Star Wars comic from the early 1980s and also buying another one on Ebay. I did ask if these had been republished in collected form and indeed they have so instead of wasting 5 pounds on a faded tatty comic why not spend just twice that on a big thick (oo-er) volume?

This collection begins with the Marvel comic adaptation of the film of course, but interesting as that is i was more interested in seeing how they continued the storyline after the destruction of the Death Star while waiting to adapt Empire Strikes Back a few years down the line. To be honest the original stories do not begin that well...

The first story is a retelling of the Magnificent Seven in all but name (at least that is kind of apt considering the Kurosawa influence on Star Wars in general) with Han Solo assembling a motley crew of mercenaries to fight off some alien hoards to defend some poor villagers. All seems fine though the story is very unlike Star Wars, apart from Solo and Chewie all the characters seem rather Marvel generic and it just doesn't feel Star Wars...

Things begin to improve later on when Darth Vader makes a reappearance and the Empire in general, an interesting new universe begins to emerge involving the Empire's allies the House of Tagge.

Of course the problem for the comic creators was that they only had the first film to play with for background, nowadays there is a much more expanded universe. Thus some events and characterizations in these stories are a bit off (yes Luke and Leia get lovey dovey a lot!)

Overall a great set of comics and well worth the money.

Eye test

Two years ago i had my first eye test since i was a child, as i used a computer all day and most of the night (I probably stare at screens for about 18 hours a day) i thought it was time that i had another test! I've always had excellent eye sight though i could tell that it wasn't quite as good as it used to be. Well at my test i was found to almost have perfect vision, 20:19.75 or something. So no further action required.

So my next eye test was scheduled for today and i was put through a variety of tests, some involving blowing air into my eye and the other following a light in a dial like some rubbish 1970s video game. My eyesight has deteriorated a bit over the last couple of years though i do not need glasses yet. My distance vision is still perfect though i will need reading glasses in a few years, maybe after my next test in 2 years time. This i am not concerned about, i think i will look good with a pair of specs to be honest.

Getting down with the iCloud

Over the last few days, and after the downloading of many megabytes of operating system updates for my Macbook and iPad, i have started exploring Apple's new cloud based service, iCloud, which is intended to supplement your assorted Apple devices, the cloud becoming a kind of glue?

So the basic premise is this, your "stuff" is available on whatever you use, you don't have to worry about your files being on device A when you want to use device B and if you make changes on device B you can later view and edit them on device A, the cloud makes it all work without you noticing. Well that is the theory anyway, does it actually work?

So far i am pretty impressed, my bookmarks have been seamlessly synchronised between the Safari instances running on both devices, as is my iCal calendar, which i can also view online and edit the calendar there if need be. I installed Pages, Apple's word processor, on both devices though found that only the iPad version can save to the cloud. Yet anyway.

There is still work to be done, especially programs getting iCloud support, but hopefully this will happen over the next few months. The Mac version of Pages able to write to the cloud would be good, especially when i start writing essays again later in the year.

Comics : Blake & Mortimer (8) : The Voronov Plot

The Blake & Mortimer comic series, originally by Edgar Jabobs and now carried onwards by a number of different writers and artists, are among my favourite comic series. Beautifully drawn in the clear line style they are a high point of European comics with their intricate tales of espionage and weird science set in the early postwar world. I am going to start reviewing the comic books i buy on this blog and i might as well start with the latest one i have got...

In this latest volume released by Cinebook Blake & Mortimer are drawn into a taut cold war drama involving extraterrestrial derived biological weapons, renegade scientists and KGB agents and a battle of wits across Moscow, London and ..er.. Liverpool on the eve of the space race.

As with all of the Blake & Mortimer books there is a lot of story squeezed into one volume. At times maybe it may seem the story is a little dense but then again you are definitely getting your money's worth!

• The Voronov Plot: Blake & Mortimer Vol. 8 (Amazon)
• Cinebook website

Oxford

It was my birthday yesterday, and as it was a big one (i.e. the last digit is zero), i decided to have a short break in Oxford with my wife. Now i've never been to the university city before though my roots to Oxfordshire run deep... one branch of my ancestors has been traced back to Oxfordshire in the 1650s. My Mum was also taught to swim in the River Cherwell she claims...

Well Oxford goes into my top 5 of places i want to move to. Endless sleepy spires, wonderful museums, weeping willows and young people in gowns. I took a lot of photos, here you can see them. Also i took some along the canal there. The photos were taken with my new camera, birthday present (natch!) Its my first digital SLR so is a step above the compact i have used before. I do have a film SLR though from an earlier birthday (though not used for about 10 years) so its not totally alien...

Hannover CL IIIa

I completed Project 024 this evening after applying the decals and applying a coat of varnish (well i say completed, the varnish might need a touch up tomorrow, its hard to be sure until its dried). The Hannover CL IIIa has immediately become one of my favourite kits, although the building process wasn't perfect i just love the paintwork so much!