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And The Universe Cried "DOOM!"
Today I have written TWO (2) songs, both in the space of about four hours! That's almost unheard of in the twenty-first century - back in the 1990s when there was NOTHING TO DO I had songs spilling out of me in a quite undignified manner all the time, but these days I can go MONTHS without a glimmer of a tune, so getting two in quick succession like this is Quite Exciting.

Both are for the Data and Doctor Doom show what I am currently a) WRITING b) trying to book shows for. As ever, trying to do the latter is a delicate and intricate process which is progressing gently, but the former is ZOOMING along like nobody's business. It's helping that I'm trying to sit myself down at the desk first thing and do half an hour or so of BASHING OUT THORTS, many of which appear to have magically manifested overnight. It feels like my BRANE is really getting into it, and so, on today's evidence, is THE UNIVERSE.

For LO! Two great SIGNS have appeared to me on this day of double song writing! The first was during the writing of a song tentatively called "If You Want To Know What People Think", which is about the process of doing a SURVEY about Doctor Doom. As I'm sure you will recall, back in 2020 I put out a TWEET (if anyone remembers what those were) asking people to help me by answering some questions about Doctor Doom. It looked like this:



I wanted to include this in the song so copied out the text and thought "OK, how can I move these words around so it SCANS properly and how can I then make it rhyme?" but then, to my astonishment, realised I didn't need to as IT ALREADY FLIPPING WORKED!! THUS:

Have you got 20 minutes to answer some questions
About Doctor Doom for my PhD?
It would be very much appreciated if so
Details here and please RT
Please take my Doctor Doom survey!

All right, I concede that it only SCANS if you sing like what I do, but it definitely RHYMES!

I had JUST finished this, the second song of the day (the first is about Random Stratified Sampling, and yes, THAT RHYMES TOO), and turned on the internet when LO! I saw Mr Paul Cornell announcing that he had a new book out as part of a new series from Bloomsbury. The series is called 'The Marvel Age Of Comics'* which mixes personal narratives with a history of specific characters or teams within Marvel Comics. If anyone is now thinking "Gosh Mark, maybe you could write up some sort of 'pitch document' suggesting something similar for Doctor Doom?" then I would reply "WAY ahead of you chum!" for I wrote EXACTLY that a few months ago and asked my Literary Agent to send it out to various publishers. I am sure it is a matter of DAYS now until they get back to me with a MULTI-POUND deal to write it up!

Even if that doesn't happen (seems unlikely) it does rather feel as if THE COSMOS is calling out for information about superhero characters presented in an accessible, even FUN, way, possibly in the format of SONGS. If so, I am READY for it, The Cosmos, CALL ME!

* Anyone unsure of what 'The Marvel Age Of Comics' means could always read the article Periodizing 'The Marvel Age' Using The Production Of Culture Approach which explains what it means and how it can be precisely defined. It's available for free via Open Access and - OH YES - is written by ME! ALL RIGHT, The Universe, I HEAR YOU!

posted 19/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Catalyst Club
Last night I headed SOUTH for the seaside and BRIGHTON where I was due to spend the evening at Catalyst Club. Before that however I had an ASSIGNATION with a PAL in the very nice indeed Evening Star, which is a LOVELY pub. We discussed some THINGS which will hopefully enter the public domain in a few months, but mostly just had a DELIGHTFUL bit of pub time. It was ACE!

I then TORE myself away from that to head back up the road to Grand Central, above which the night was occurring. It took me a while to work out where the DOOR to the upstairs was, but once I'd got that sorted out I headed up for an evening of EXPLANATIONS. Catalyst Club is a similar sort of idea to stuff like Nerd Nite and so on that I've been to lately, except this one was a lot less science-y based and more General Interesting Stuff.

The VIBE was very much in the Totally Acoustic vein, with a crowd of what appeared to be REGULARS and Dr David Bramwell doing some excellent hosting. It kicked off with Jane Bom-Banes doing a poem called "Aqua Annie" which was a) accompanied by a series of paintings b) funny and c) EXCELLENT. Then Rebecca Stott gave a talk about BARNACLES that was EXTREMELY interesting and, after the break, Chris Roberts talked about the history of some South London parks and included an EXCELLENT joke that I GOT about 0.5 seconds before we were supposed to and inadvertently ROFLED.

It was all brilliant but the most exciting bit was at the end, when Chris Hogg gave an excellent talk about the positive possibilities of AI which had the effect of making people FURIOUS. I really felt for him, as he'd tried to show the good side of how it could be used to create new possibilities, but I think some of the language used ("mundane activities" for instance) inadvertently would people RIGHT up. He dealt with it very well indeed, and I was sad to have to fly off for my train and miss seeing whether it all ended up as a PUNCH-UP or LOVE-IN!

It was, as I say, a GRATE night - I'm really enjoying going to these sort of things, where enthusiastic and interested people explain things they're enthusiastic and interested in to other people of a similar persuasion. To be honest I've been GOING to some of these as GIG-SCOPING to see if I can do some Doctor Doom explaining at them, but I've been really really enjoying just GOING!

posted 14/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Comic Crush
A little while ago I recorded a LENGTHY conversation about Doctor Doom and Doom-related issues with Mr Paul Dunne of The Comic Crush, and it is now ready for you to view HERE:



It's part of their "Script and Pencils" podcast series, so it's also available to listen to (without MY LOVELY FACE tho) on Spotify and everywhere else you get podcasts from.

As you can probably tell, we both had a FINE old time yacking about the then-recent news of Robert Downey Jr's casting and also diving into multiple aspects of my RESEARCH. Paul held it back a bit to coincide with the unleashing of the new One World Under Doom series which came out today. I haven't had a chance to get to the comic shop yet to read it, but I will be doing so as soon as humanly possible!

posted 12/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail
Last night I headed over to distant Edgeware Road to play a GIG for An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail at The Cockpit Theatre. I had a GRATE time but it was VERY different from my usual such outings!

To start with it was in an ACTUAL THEATRE, with lighting rigs, sound systems, backstage areas etc etc. On the rare occasions when I venture into performing in such venues I am always amazed by how many PEOPLE are involved with everything. I'm used to doing things like Totally Acoustic where the entire CREW is ME and/or STEVE, but then that's because there's no tickets, no sound system, and no lights (apart from switching off the ones at the back when things start). Here there were all sorts of people wandering around doing jobs, not least an excellent STAGE MANAGER who very kindly talked me through many aspects, and especially how a RADIO MICROPHONE works.

Cor! I have never used a radio mic before and it was AMAZING. Once it's put on (round the back of your head! Who knew?) and you hear your voice MAGICALLY amplified it's like everyone else is suddenly hearing the voice inside your MIND. I had been practicing my set in Actual Gig Conditions with a microphone stand, but not having to worry about that was FABULOUS.

I'd got there super early to soundcheck so had plenty of time to wander round the corner to The Seashell Of Lissom Grove for a MASSIVE, also DELICIOUS, portion of chips. I then waddled back round to the theatre to read my book for a bit, at which point The Sentences In My Paragraph arrived and we went in, she to the auditorium and me to the DRESSING ROOMS.

For LO! there were actual dressing rooms which, as ever, were Quite Exciting when first encountered but then turn out to be just some rooms, if with lightbulbs around the mirrors. All of us performers were gathered there to take our turn going on, and I must admit I was not highly sociable because i was wracked with NERVES. The whole thing was so very different to my usual gig experience that it made me AFEARED. For instance, usually I'd be sat in the AUDIENCE watching everyone else do their bit, but here I felt like I was HIDING. Unfortunately this meant that I didn't catch much of most of the other acts - you could hear a bit of what was going on but not see much of it, which always makes me TERRIFIED. What if I go on and BLITHELY repeat something that someone else has just said, for instance?

I was thus in a BIT OF A STATE by the time it was nearly my turn and I stood next to the backstage entrance in MORTAL FEAR, but then once I was announced and had strode onto the stage everything felt MUCH better. The microphone worked, the SLIDES functioned correctly and best of all people seemed to LIKE it. Another FEAR FACTOR was that I had a twelve minute SLOT, with a COUNTDOWN appearing in front of me. I knew that my fastest practice so far had been 11 minutes 47 seconds, so I was highly aware that I shouldn't WANDER OFF too much, but I am happy to report that in the end my full set was 12 minutes and 38 seconds, which hopefully was within acceptable parameters. Phew!

I've talked about Doctor Doom before (A LOT) but this was the first time I'd performed any of it in the new MUSICAL format, with two new songs - Like Batman But Better and My Unified Catalogue Of Transmedia Character Components. They both seemed to WORK, which was a relief, but my favourite bit was when I did the section where I asked the audience to suggest a fictional character to use to DEMONSTRATE the unified catalogue. The FIRST character shouted out was Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which I was DELIGHTED by because I had used Buffy as my own example during my final rehearsal the day before, so had half of it already worked out. I guess Buffy is currently in THE ZEITGEIST what with the possible revival (NB NOT A REBOOT), but still it was a nice surprise.

I was the last act in the first half so once I'd de-microphoned it was time for a well-earned BEER before returning to thoroughly enjoy Matt Parker's preview of some of his new material in the second half. After that there was some LURKING AROUND in the bar during which I answered several INCISIVE questions before saying our farewells and heading home. It was, all in all, a pretty FAR OUT evening for me, full of NOVEL experiences on a journey into a whole other world of GIGGING. It was scary but I did enjoy it - I hope I get to do it some more!

posted 11/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Playing for The Internet Archive
On Monday I did my first gig of the year and it was an EXCITING one, for LO! it was a ZOOM gig for the wonderful people of The Internet Archive.

It had all come about because they'd put out a CALL for ARTISTES on Bluesky, explaining that every week they get someone to come in and do a quick ten minute set at the start of their all-staff meeting. This sounded like a fantastic thing to apply for, not least because it would give me the chance to say thanks to them in person (or at least virtual person) for rescuing Rob Manuel's video of Hey Hey 16K and ARCHIVING it. Rob did the original video in FLASH, so when that program was removed from The Internet there were several YEARS when the only way to see it was via some Not Entirely Excellent YouTube videos. Now, however, it is available in all it's original glory, and that is GRATE!

Thus, I got in touch and to my delight they said "YES", and so I began several weeks of PREPARATION. The easier part of this was working out the SET, as OBVIOUSLY I was going to do Hey Hey 16K and then the other two songs (as I was doing ten minutes) were fairly easy to choose. However, the bit that was NOT easy at ALL was getting my laptop set-up sorted out. Last year I bought a "Podcast starter set" with a mixing desk and couple of microphones but had never been able to work out how it all fitted together, but thought that THIS might be the ideal reason to have a proper go at it. Friends, I can confirm that after WEEKS of watching online videos, swearing at cables, crying, plugging things into different USB sockets and general hopelessness I was unable to do so. I DID manage to get another microphone working, but then I had a few hours PANICKING because ZOOM appeared to be too SENSITIVE to manage my VOLUME. Eventually I realised that it has ACTUAL SETTINGS for BELLOWING and MUSIC and calmed down a bit, but it was all a bit stressful!

Come the day of the gig I was in a bit of a STATE, worried about a) the IT and b) ME all working properly. The staff meeting was first thing in the morning for them but as they were mostly in AMERICA it was at the end of the working day for me, so that made for quite a long day of NERVES. However, I did calm down a bit when my Zoom session started properly and the very nice chap who was doing sound came on and talked me through it, followed by another very nice person who explained how it was all going to work. I was still a BAG OF NERVES, but at least now a small bag that you might put a greetings card in, for example, rather than a WHEELY SUITCASE of FEAR.

Soon it was SHOWTIME, and I was introduced via a mention of Tom Lehrer, which felt a bit spooky as his name has come up SEVERAL times in recent discussion. After that I launched into it and shouted THESE across the Atlantic:

AI Guy

It Only Works Because You're here

Hey Hey 16K

I had thought I was being DEAD CLEVER by doing my three computer-y songs, but what I had not realised was how ENGLISH a lot of it was going to be. This always happens when I play songs for non-UK audiences, as suddenly all of my lyrics turn out to be "A cup of tea in WH Smiths and spending ten quid on marmite gor blimey ain't it guvnor?" Still, they were all very nice about it, and I saw messages flash up briefly from people SAYING they liked it, which was much appreciated. There was one scary moment when the sound guy came back on camera, which I think meant it was getting a bit loud, so I quietened down and all was well once more.

Afterwards the Internet Archive FOUNDER came on to say thanks, which enabled me to say thanks to THEM for doing the Hey Hey 16K restoration, which then enabled Jason who'd DONE the Hey Hey 16K restoration to come on and explain it a bit, which was a DELIGHTFUL circle of gratitude! I then left them to have the rest of their meeting, as I'd had enough of my OWN such meetings earlier in the day, but it had been a LOVELY experience, and one I hope to be able to share with everyone else fairly soon when they add it to their Perfomance Archives!

posted 6/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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FCFC In The List
A couple of weeks ago The Funny Comics Fan Club received an EMAIL in our dedicated inbox. We set this up when the show first began, expecting to be DELUGED by comments from listeners but it hasn't quite worked out that way as people tend to contact us on the SOCIALS instead, so an Actual Email is always a source of excitement.

Thus I was already pre-excited when I opened it and discovered that we were going to be in THE LIST! They were getting in touch to ask for a PHOTO to use alongside a REVIEW, which I supplied and then immediately looked for people to SHOW OFF too about it. To my surprise quite a few people didn't know what THE LIST was, and it took me a while to realise that that's because it is very much Glasgow and Edinburgh based, so people in That London might not have heard of it unless, like me, it's one of the main places you send PROMO STUFF to if you're doing the Edinburgh Fringe, in which case it is A Big Deal.

FAST FORWARD to this week and the magazines is OUT, and we are in it! I was hoping for a nice review but I was in no way prepared for the BLOODY GRATE one that we actually GOT, one which made me SO HAPPY that I am going to repeat it in full here, and also THUS:



What I flipping LOVE about this review, by Mr Neil Cooper (thank you!),is that he has clearly listened to quite a few episodes and GOT what we are on about. I was ESPECIALLY pleased that he talks about all of the CLASS WAR stuff that we've been finding, as I've found it ASTONISHING how much class tension there is in so much of the storytelling, and also how differently that's expressed in the IPC and DC Thomson comics. I'm basically just really happy to see it APPRECIATED like this! Thanks, THE LIST!

posted 5/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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A Three Thing Day
Last Thursday I went to distant Crystal Palace to see a Work In Progress performance of Mr Ben Moor's new show A Three Thing Day. Executive summary: it was ACE.

The performance was taking place at The Bookseller Crow bookshop which I have often heard about but never been to, and it turns out that this is in large part due to the fact that it is FLIPPING MILES AWAY. It was all fine getting to Crystal Palace station but then TfL decided to send me on a KRAZY and also SPOOKY route along deserted streets and through a dark and misty abandoned playground what was like something off one of those Eerie Post-Apocalyptic Games that they now make award-winning streaming shows out of, before making me walk up a BASICALLY VERTICAL hill.

I was thus a bit flustered when I arrived and so was grateful of a) a refreshing FREE BEER and b) the company of Mr Dave Green, a fellow survivor of The Early Internt and all-round delightful chap.

Very soon it was time for the show and, like all of Ben's shows, it was a LUXURIOUS hour of WORDS and IDEAS and BEAUTIFUL JUXTOPOSITIONS. As ever there were SO MANY thoughts in it that after a while you have to just resign yourself to not getting all of it first time around - Ben does BOOKS of his shows so that you can get all the bits you missed in the live environment, and they are always entirely excellent. I await the release of this one eagerly!

This was especially the case this time around as there's a section towards the end where another character tells a story AT SPEED so it feels like you are riding down an extremly long LOG FLUME of IDEAS being bashed and splashed by them all the way down. Also, as ever, the ONSLAUGHT of IDEAS tends to rewire the BRANE a bit, so for about an hour afterwards it feels like everyone else is talking in Ben-speak, so you're looking for extra meanings and puns in EVERYTHING, and also trying to do it yourself!

Luckily for me I was still in the company of Dave who did his transformation into Glittering Society Host and went around introducing everyone to each other, and this transferred over the road to a handy PUB where we were able to congratulate Ben on yet another fantastic show. This one is, I think, going to be TOURING around and then going to The Edinburgh Fringe, so if you get a chance to see it I would HIGHLY recommend going at least ONCE, if not more!

posted 4/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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emajendat and The Call
Last weekend myself and The Rooms In My Gallery headed over to distant West London to visit not one but TWO Serpentine Galleries to see some ART. Executive summary: we DID!

The first show was Lauren Halsey: emajendat at Serpentine South. This was a site-specific installation which at first I didn't think much to, as it felt like just walking along past various STUFF. However, that completely changed when we got into the main room in the middle of the gallery, which was, to quote the artist's description, FUNKADELIC.

The walls were coated with CDs, arranged like scales or chainmail, so everything had a RAINBOW GLOW to it, and the floor was GLASS so you could look down and see a huge collage that was repeated all around the exhibition. There was a big statue of a young girl leaning down to do some crayoning in the middle, and an AMAZING statue of another girl playing basketball and grinning. It was all HUGELY life-affirming and positive, and we both felt the need to walk around the whole thing all over again just to take in how LOVELY it was. I would HIGHLY recommend having a look at the image gallery and/or going for a wander through it yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes, which is pretty much the perfect length of time for an exhibition I reckon, and it is GRATE!

After that we wandered down to Serpentine North to see and INTERACT with Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst: The Call. This was an AI project where the artists had built up a database of Choral Sounds by going round various choral societies doing EXERCISES with them, getting them to record some specially written SONGS, and then using that to train AI to respond to people singing into a microphone. The last bit was ALL RIGHT, but in my opinion the best parts were a) the museum guide managing the queue to use the microphone who was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about it all and b) the recordings of choirs singing the exercises. As someone who is SHALL WE SAY skeptical about the business side of Creative AI it was nice to see people USING AI to ACTUALLY make art by thinking through the process rather than churning GLOOP out of ChatGPT, but even nicer to feel that the stuff produced by Actual Humans Working Together was the best bit.

It was, all in all, a thoroughly life-affirming afternoon of ART and BEING DEAD CULTURED. 'The Call' has finished now, but if you happen to be in That London at any point between now and 23 February this year I would very much suggest popping along to see 'emajendat', as it is ACE!

posted 3/2/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doom Show Becomes Terrifyingly Real
I've been going on for the past few weeks about how I'm planning to do a SHOW based on my Doctor Doom book and so far it's all been very light and breezy and full of the optimism of Things That May Or May Not Happen. That has very much CHANGED today, for LO! I have booked AN ACTUAL GIG!

The gig is going to be at The Hen & Chickens in Islington during The Camden Fringe - I've not finished doing the Fringe details yet but I very much HAVE agreed terms for the venue and paid the fee, so that's DEFINITELY happening! This, to me, is a bit TERRIFYING as so far I have only written about ten minutes of the show, and even THAT is more Seeing If It Works rather than Actual Script. It's basically the set I'm planning to do when I perform at An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail in a couple of weeks, where I'll be assessing whether it's A Good Idea to mix EMPIRICAL RESEARCH with COMPLICATED SONGS. I've a feeling it WILL be, but we'll see!

Previously, for the shows with STEVE, we would at LEAST be starting rehearsals by this time of the year, and there would definitely be a whole heap of songs pretty much written, so the fact that there ISN'T is a bit scary. I'm also a bit worried about how it's going to WORK, as there's going to need to be a SLIDE SHOW which I'll have to somehow operate while simultaneously playing guitar, which may force - FORCE - me to buy a Slide Advancement PEDAL.

Thus in order to CALM myself I have found solace in HTML by creating a new site for the show which will hopefully GROW over the coming months as more shows get added. The current plan is to try and get onto two (2) more fringes, three (3) comics/literature festivals and to do at least one (1) preview in That London sometime around the time of the Fantastic Four film's release. The underlying AIMS of all this are to a) let people know that I'm the world's leading (and only) academic expert on Doctor Doom and b) try not to lose any money, so if anyone has any THORTS about how else I can achieve those aims, do let me know!


posted 29/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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AI Guy Streaming In The Mainstream
Let joy be abounding for The Kids and let fear be unleashed for THE MAN, for LO! a couple of weeks after the COOL and UNDERGROUND release of AI Guy on Bandcamp today is the day when it parks it's metaphorical TANKS on the allegorical LAWN of The Mainstream!

All of which is an exciting and modern way of saying that you can now stream AI Guy on Spotify, or any of the other streaming sites what are also available.

My RADICAL plan of releasing the song and video almost a fortnight before you could actually get it on most of the modern sites was not, as it may first appear, a cunning FIRST STRIKE against the corporate music industry, but rather what happens when I get A Little Bit Excited after seeing people going on and on about AI on telly and think "LAWKS! I'd best get MY contribution to The Debate out there as soon as possible!" As I said at the time, I did initially think "Hang on, is this going to damage any chance I have of making MILLIONS through downloads if this goes viral?!?" but then remembered that a) when one is an ARTISTE what is above such tawdry concerns that is not the point and b) a billion streams would make approx 17 new pence so isn't really worth worrying about.

However, I had already set up the release on all of the streaming platforms and thought it CHURLISH to stop it (and also, really difficult) so now the song is out there to be placed on PLAYLISTS or indeed WORK TEAMS CHATS if that is your kind of thing, and hopefully within a couple of weeks the whole debate will be settled and everyone can get on with doing their "Mundane Activites" unfettered by the 21st Century iteration of CLIPPY. I'm pretty sure that's how it's going to go anyway!

posted 26/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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It Was Twenty (two) Years Ago Today
A delightful thing that happened last year was Mr Bob Fischer going through his diary from 1984 every day, posting an image of the page from exactly forty years ago and discussing what had gone on. It was lovely, reminding people of a similar age to him (e.g. ME) exactly what life was really like growing up in very quiet places during the 1970s and 80s i.e. a base level of unending boredom alleviated by books, trips to the shops, telly, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Also, having dinner and tea correctly labelled and lots of "playing out" when you'd just sort of go and hang around bored in a back garden for a bit.

INSPIRED by all this I thought "Hang on, I have been writing something very similar to a daily diary in the shape of the BLOG for YEARS. I wonder how long ago that began?" My great hope was that the answer would be "Exactly 20 years ago and thus perfect for ripping off riffing ON what Bob did." When I checked I was thus slightly disappointed to discover it was actually twenty TWO years ago that it all began, but then thought "Oh sod it, I can do it with something from twenty two years ago as easily as twenty - I will probably get fed up of it within a fortnight anyway".

And so it is that I am happy to unleash today the start of a series of posts/tweets/whatever where I'm going to retweet blog entries from exactly twenty-two years ago on each day it's appropriate, with a little bit of CONTEXT where I can remember them. Regular readers will be aware that sometimes a blog TACTFULLY OMITS some aspects of what ACTUALLY happened (e.g. when another band on a bill have been Slightly Annoying) so I'm going to try and fill some of those in. It might work, or it might be dreary and I'll give up, but for now please venture forth to my Bluesky and/or twitter profiles for THRILLING UPDATES, starting with a tale of NEAR NUDITY and PERIL! What a start!

posted 23/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Ineptitude Unveiled
As regular readers of this blog will know, I do love a bit of ROCK ADMIN. However, as anyone who has dealt with the RESULTS of my ROCK ADMIN will know, I am really not very good at ALL at muultiple aspects of it.

This realisation came upon me for the 17,000th time yesterday when I had a meeting with a Festival Organiser about maybe doing my DOCTOR DOOM SHOW at their event. It was a LOVELY meeting and I think it might actually work out as HAPPENING, but this was not helped in any way by MY efforts which were HAPLESS to say the least. For instance, right at the end we briefly touched on how to publicise it and I said "Oh, well I do have a mailing list of about 800 people, would that help?" That is OF COURSE the sort of thing you are meant to mention AT THE START, or indeed in the original proposal, and certainly NOT 20 minutes after a lengthy description of which nation's athletes* stayed in your flat during the Olympics (*San Marino - all of them).

Even worse is my ability to NEGOTIATE about FEES and suchlike. I have managed to build myself up to the point of nervously saying that I'm happy to do gigs if I don't lose any money - an improvement of my previous stance of saying YES PLEASE and then wondering, several months after the event, whether anyone was supposed to pay me - but the idea of someone e.g. FEEDING me or even PAYING ACTUAL MONEY never really occurs. This often leads - as in this case - to promoters gently talking up the fee FOR me, which is a bit embarrassing to say the least.

In my defence, I am QUITE GOOD at remembering to check that trains are actually running these days (after several years spent on rail replacement bus services), and unlike e.g. Bruce Springsteen I am doing all this alongside a) a day job b) trying to think up rhymes for "unified catalogue of transmedia character coherence"2, but still, you'd think I'd have got better at if over several ACTUAL DECADES.

Still, it's all a learning process, and MUSING upon my manifold failures this morning did remind my brain that - HEY - if I'm going to do an entire SHOW based on a BOOK, it might be an idea to let the people who published the book KNOW about it! OH YEAH! Thanks BRANE!

posted 17/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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You've Got To Have A Plan
Last Friday evening I submitted my first ACADEMIC TEXT of the year - a draft chapter for a book about superheroes, updating the research in my Doctor Doom book (that has now been out in the world for a whole year! amazing!) by doing a NEW survey of texts from 2023/2024 to see if and how he's changed in that time. No SPOILERS obviously, but what I uncovered was, I think, Quite Interesting. I mean, it might not be interesting to anyone else, but it was to me!

Getting that done - or at least done to the first draft stage - was a HUGE relief as I've been spending a LOT of time on it for the past couple of months, and there's other things that I can now be getting one with. The first of these, as discussed yesterday, was UNLEASHING AI Guy as a single. This has involved a FLURRY of activity, not least doing the video, but I don't have to worry about booking PROMOTIONAL GIGS as I've already got a gig booked in Middlewich in February, as well as an online show for the lovely people at the Internet Archive, which will be available for everyone shortly afterwards.

That means that the next BIG thing is to start working on the Doctor Doom SHOW - as mentioned previously I've already written some SONGS for this, but I need to get on with sorting out how it all WORKS. The first step is going to be devising ten minutes of stuff for my forthcoming appearance at An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail, when I shall be DEBUTING a couple of songs, and then working it up into a proper thing. I'm currently taking the first steps towards booking slots at some FESTIVALS, which feels a bit scary. In the past I've at least had a DRAFT of a show written before booking Actual Gigs, so it will be nice to have SOMETHING worked out!

Then there's also the SECRET PROJECT which continues apace - I've just finished recording the final (for the moment) batch DEMOES for my SECRET COLLABORATOR and then hopefully within the next month or two we'll get together to do the SECRET NEXT THING, at which point, all being well, I'll be able to tell you what it SECRETLY IS!

It all feels like quite a lot of different STUFF going on, and that's not even considering various WORK STUFF that's occurring. THUS I find it is very very VERY helpful and reassuring to have a PLAN written down for what I'm doing when. For example, the PLAN has been telling me for a couple of months that I've got to get that there DOOM chapter finished off BEFORE I allow myself the fun of doing the Doom SHOW, lest my BRANE get all confused. As stated earlier, that's done now so it's on to the next thing. I must admit I am feeling slightly a) AFEARED but b) EXCITED about it all. There's a lot to do, but if I just stick to THE PLAN all should be well!

posted 16/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Early Release for AI Guy
Today I am DELIGHTED to announce that you do not need to wait until the end of the month to hear my new single AI Guy, because it is out NOW!

Well, it's not out on streaming services yet as I only decided to do this last night, but it IS very much available on bandcamp and also on YouTube, THUS:



Good eh? What happened was that I was watching the NEWS last night with everyone going on and on about AI and thought "Curses, I wish my single was coming out THIS week rather than in a fortnight, because then I could WEIGH IN on this GRATE DEBATE with the song!" A still small voice within me said "So why not release it now then eh?" and the more I thought about it the more sense it made. All right, unleashing it NOW means it won't be on Spotify etc straight away, but who cares about that? It's not like that's going to significantly hinder my REVENUE STREAM is it? And this way the song can be out and about in the THICK of the THORT, rather than rolling up a fortnight later like a television comedian telling a joke that everyone's already told each other on a panel show OR SOMESUCH.

So I consulted with my Internal Communications team, who said "DO IT", so do it I have! As ever with this sort of thing I would be extremely grateful for any SHARES or TWEETS (if anyone still does that) or POSTS or especially Mentioning To Colleagues On Internal Channels, which I think is where it will gain most of its POWER. Most of all though I hope it becomes a useful tool for lumping onto internet discussions like a two-minute-long "HA!" for those in THE KNOW!

posted 14/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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New Year! New Series! Old Comics!
Let joy be unconfined amongst all those who like listening to podcasts in which me and John Dredge talk about old comics, for LO! a new series of The Funny Comics Fan Club is upon us!

To be honest, we're only calling it a new series because that gave us an excuse to a) have an extra week off and b) send out press releases to various Media Organisations saying "we've got a new series, please mention it in your outlets", but the general idea remains pretty much the same i.e. we look at a specific issue of an old British kids' humour comic and talk about it, utilising a mixture of INSIGHT, vague memory, and occasional OUTRAGE at the other person's opinions. Obviously I am biased but I think it is QUITE GOOD - you can judge for yourself though by having a listen to tge latest episode HERE:



This first episode of the new series (AKA the eleventh episode overall) is about "Cheeky Weekly", which turned out to be a surprising and REVOLUTIONARY comic entirely unlike anything else we've looked at so far. As you will hear if you listen in, Cheeky Weekly is literally about what the character Cheeky does over a week, with his wanderings around his local town linking directly into each of the other strips, so it's sort of like one continuous story. I don't think there's ever been another British comic that does this - I do remember 2000AD doing something similar in Trifecta a few years ago, and I understand the recent Beano Christmas Special had lots of linked stories, but Cheeky did it every single week for months and months.

On top of that it was absolutely RAMMED with jokes, with them crammed into pretty much every panel and feature. As you'll know if you've listened to some of our previous episodes, that was not the NORM for a lot of British kids' comics, some (though not all) of which often felt like they were just going through the motions. Cheeky Weekly is a whole THUNDERSTORM of invention and extra LARFS!

I could go on but then you wouldn't need to listen to the podcast, so I will simply say TUNE IN and also READ ALONG on our various SOCIALS (e.g. BlueSky, Facebook, instagram or twitter) where you can also see some of the strips we're on about. It's dead good, honest!

posted 13/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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New single on the way
Put on your Unleashment Hats and hang up the Engagement Bunting, for LO! I am here to tell you that there is a new single by ME on the way! SOON!

The single is called "AI Guy" and it is one of the songs what emerged in the recent song flood I have been experiencing. It was prompted by attending a CONFERENCE and sitting next to someone who talked about AI with the zeal of an evangelist but without any apparent knowledge of what it was, how it worked, and why people kept wanting to punch him when he told them their jobs were "mundane activity".

I played it live last month in Rainham, Kent and it went down pretty well, then afterwards Helen from Sassyhiya asked if/when it was going to be released. Up until that point I hadn't got any further than thinking about PLAYING it, to be honest, and thought "Oh yeah, releasing it would be a good idea."

Since then that THORT has grown and grown in my BRANE as I keep on seeing stuff about AI online and thinking "HA! I should post the video to my song AI Guy here because it would be ENTIRELY APPOSITE so to do". The world seems to be being taken over by MONEYED TWERPS who have never actually read a science fiction novel in their life but are entirely happy with the idea that there will be NO PROBLEM AT ALL with robots taking control of everything. This is then commented on by PILLOCKS who also have no idea how anything works and think that a CALCULATOR being able to spell "BOOBS" upside down is the same as HAL.

Over Christmas these ideas all coalesced and I realised that the only thing stopping me from UNLEASHING the song upon a needy world was the fact that I hadn't recorded it yet, so I DID that, checked the MIX with The Validators' in-house MIXOLOGIST Mr F A Machine, and then was about to punt it off to Emubands for streaming services when I remembered that online singles need cover images. There followed a day of piddling about with all sorts of daft ideas before I thought "Oh sod it" and went for the very straightforward image BELOW.



With that done and a tenner handed over for en-Spotify-cation all that remains for me to do is make a video, log it with MCPS, PPL and so forth, write a press release and sort out a mailing list, all ready for release on Monday 27 January. That's still quite a bit on the to-do list, but at least I've already got some tour dates sorted out!

More news as and/or/if it happens!

posted 9/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The First Otway Of The Year
On Sunday evening I headed to London's fashionable Islington area of Islington, there to meet with my friend and colleague Mr S Hewitt for attendance at a ROCK SHOW!

For LO! we were off to see Mr John Otway playing at The Lexington. Otway is almost definitely the person I have PAID to see the most often out of anybody EVER - there are probably PALS I've seen more often, but that's usually been when I've been playing WITH them, whereas I've been paying CA$H MONEY to see John Otway for about 35 years now. I think the first time I ever saw him do a gig was at The Princess Charlotte around 1989 or 1990 and he was SO AMAZING cthat I have been to see him at least once a year on average ever since.

On that first evening I was surprised to see him hanging around in the bar of the Charlotte and asked him why he wasn't Chilling Out in The Dressing Room. He told me that he COULD do that, but then he'd be sat all on his own, whereas if he stood in the bar then people would come up to him and tell him he was brilliant and buy him drinks. This was one of those moments when you can FEEL your life changing around you, and I have followed this guidance ever since.

Thus when we arrived at The Lexington I was DELIGHTED to see him still following his own advice and sitting downstairs in the bar, this time with his BAND. The Otway Big Band has been together for about THIRTY of the 35 years I have been going to see him, and amazingly they have NEVER had a line-up change, which makes The Validators' mere quarter century without a personnel change seem PALTRY by comparison!

The gig itself was a thing of JOY. There's something really rather WONDERFUL about seeing a band who have been together for so long, as there's a RICHNESS and DEEP LOVE there that comes rolling out around the room. In Otway's case though there's also a) the AUDIENCE and b) the SET that has stayed constant too, so it feels like you're taking part in a RITUAL what SURPASSES normal one-off gigs and becomes part of a long LINE of them. During the gig Murray pointed out that this was Otway's 5,250th gig (again making my mere 1,014 so far seem LIGHTWEIGHT), and it's amazing to think of SO MANY performances stretching back through time, often with not only the same SONGS but an awful lot of the same JOKES as well!

A great part of the fun of an Otway gig is hearing these same jokes and the same PATTER done as if they were new each time, and it's even more exciting when you hear something NEW slide in as well. This time there was not only a whole actual SONG that I don't remember hearing before ("My body is making me") but a whole BIT about how they were going to be playing songs from the new album... which is a live album called (RATHER BRILLIANTLY) The Set Remains The Same. I of course purchased one at the first opportunity

It was a hugely delightful evening out, although possibly a rather high bar to set for OTHER gigs this year!

posted 6/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
On New Year's Eve I went with The Lines In My Script to THE THEATRE, specifically to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Barbican. Executive Summary: it was AMAZING.

The amazingness was very much helped into being by the fact that The Barbican is a LOVELY theate, with VERY comfy seating which is roomy enough for you to put your legs out a bit, and also for people to GET BY without you needing to stand up. The show is pretty much sold out for the rest of the run as it has had RAVE REVIEWS, but we very handily managed to find two seats together near the middle in the sixth row which were FANTASTIC, although having been there before pretty much EVERYWHERE is a GRATE place to sit. The Barbican is, in this way at least, similar to The Bridge Theatre where we went to see Guys And Dolls last year and - unblogged but somehow also true - again a few weeks ago (as it was SO BRILLO) in that it has been designed to make going to The Theatre PLEASANT. Some of the older theatres in That London go out of their way to make it difficult with horrible cramped seats, loads of things in the way so you can't see, an average 0.3 toilets per 1,000 customers (0.1 for women) and terrible bars where you can't get served, but in the more "modern" (i.e. built in the last 50 years or so) places you get the impression that they'd like you to have a a) nice time b) drink c) wee at your leisure.

We were thus all set to have a nice time and BY GOLLY we did as the production was AMAAAZING. I have seen quite a lot of Shakespeare plays in my life, what with having done O Levels etc, but I have never ever LARFED quite as much as I did for this one. Usually when you go and see a Professional Production of The Shakespeare the "comedy" bits are APPALLING and unpleasant to sit through, but here they were ACTUALLY FUNNY. I mean, usually actors stick in extra bits of larking about (usually RUDE larking about) to get a laugh, but in this the ACTUAL SCRIPT had some jokes in it! I've never seen Midsummer Night's Dream before so maybe that is always the way with this one, but CRUMBS I wasn't expecting that.

Most of the publicity for the play has focused on Matthew Baynton From Out Of Ghosts playing Bottom, and to be honest you can see why because he was EXCELLENT and very very funny indeed, but the whole cast was great and especially the Rude Mechanicals. As I say, I've never seen or read this one before (i.e. I have never had to do so for an EXAM) so the whole AM DRAM bit came as a Rather Delightful SURPRISE to me, and it was ACE!

Having said that we did do SOME revision beforehand, so it all made SENSE (pretty much), which again is not always the case. Also the aforesaid Sound From My Speakers listened to the Creative Audio Description where members of the cast described what was going on for you with added jokes, which I am reliably informed was DEAD GOOD. I had some headphones too, but I couldn't get mine to work properly!

The set was AMAAAZING (I am using the word "AMAAAZING" a lot I know but that is because it WAS) with everything looking exciting ALL of the time and some astonishing EFFECTS. The one thing I wasn't quite sure of was the way that the EXTRA FAIRIES were done with ... er... well, FAIRY LIGHTS I guess you would call them, with the associated actors speaking their lines over the PA. It made it slightly confusing at times, for me at least, but did look Very Clever Indeed.

OH, and also also there was a LIVE BAND playing all the music, which was ALSO also also AMAAAAZING. There were positioned on TWO (2) balconies, one on each side of the stage, which worried me a bit but appeared to work all right. The last time I'd seen something like that was about 1,000,000 years ago when I went to see Belle & Sebastian in Manchester and they were split across two stages on either side of the room, which did not work AT ALL, but I guess TECHNOLOGY has come quite a long way since then!

At the end of it all I genuinely felt myself WELLING UP a bit, as it had been SO INCREDIBLE. It was, I think, one of the BEST EVER plays what I have ever seen at The Theatre, and was a pretty wonderful thing to do at the end of the year, especially going on a MATINEE as we did, so we had plenty of time to get home for New Year's Actual. It was a GRATE, and, in case I haven't mentioned it before, AMAAAAAAZING, experience, and one I would HIGHLY recommend!

posted 6/1/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Out Of Office
"So this is Christmas", observed Mr J Lennon once long ago, before asking "so what have you done then eh?"

It's a pertinent question, which this year I would answer by saying "quite a lot actually John, thanks for asking". My 2024 activity log includes more ACTUAL GIGS than I've done for several years, putting out my book about Doctor Doom, releasing a compilation album that turned out to be a lot more fun to listen to (for me anyway) than I'd expected, and of course the commencement of The Funny Comics Fan Club. There's also been a late surge in SONGWRITING, a talk about HATS, articles about The Beano, Dennis The Menace and Doctor Doom (in The Radio Times!!), and even MORE chapters, posters and conference presentations various. All that and a new social media network too!

Put together it looks like quite a lot of ACTION, which is surprising as I thought it'd been quite quiet this year. That may partly be because NEXT year is looking like it's going to be BUSY, with a bunch of gigs already booked, a SHOW about Doctor Doom very much in the planning stages, and that other SECRET PROJECT set to get underway very soon too. There'll also be a load more episodes of The Funny Comics Fan Club, maybe some more WRITING and hopefully some of those Exciting Surprises that tend to come along.

Crumbs, just writing all of this down is exhausting, so I think I'm going to put the Out of Office on and head towards the sofa for a few days. I'll be back in the new year, but in the meantime thanks VERY much one and all for listening to me DRONE on here throughout the calendar, and I hope you have a BLOODY GRATE Festive Season, wherever and however you're spending it! Merry Christmas everybody!

posted 24/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Funny Comics Festive Finale
Today we are unleashing the FESTIVE FINALE of The Funny Comics Fan Club into the world and it is - IF YOU WILL PARDON THE PUN - a bit of a "cracker".

(because it's Christmas, see, when you have Christmas crackers)

For those who are blissfully unaware, The Funny Comics Fan Club is a podcast where Mr John Dredge and I talk about British kids' comics, reading through a single issue of a specific comic in every issue and offering THORTS and also REMARKS. For the first nine issues we talked about old comics from our respective childhoods in days long ago, but for this SEASON FINALE* (*we're having an extra week gap over Christmas but will be back in January for more) we thought it might be fun to talk about a comic or comic-associated item that is out RIGHT NOW, and so we alighted on this year's Beano Annual. You can find out what we thought by listening to the BELOW (or by streaming it from wherever you get your podcasts):



One is of course LOATH to give spoilers, but I think it's fair to say that we LIKED it. Personally i liked it a LOT as I am a big fan of the modern Beano, which I think manages to be very much a) MODERN and also b) THE ACTUAL BEANO. DC Thomson do a GRATE job of creating a comic that is recognisably the one that most of us grew up with, but which has also kept up with the world as it is lived now (which The Beano that I read in the 1970s and 1980s usually completely failed to do). Also it is ACTUALLY FUNNY, which I NEVER remember The Beano being in my day, and that especially is something I salute it for!

That's not to say we liked EVERYTHING about it, and there was one strip in particular where John and I had a heated disagreement, but you'll have to listen to it yourself to find out which!

posted 23/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Song Flooding Continues Unabated
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was undergoing a song flood, with a total of FOUR new songs having been written. At the time that seemed like a big deal but I can now report that it was as NOTHING compared to the DELUGE that has continued since then, leading to the New Songs Total now standing at a mighty TEN SONGS! And counting!

THREE of these (or 30% if you prefer) are Doctor Doom songs, which are being lined up for next year's Doctor Doom SHOW. It's not going to be an Actual Musical or anything, as that would be complicated in terms of a) writing b) performing c) COPYRIGHT LAW. The plan though is to follow The Rule Of When Songs Happen In Musicals i.e. do them at moments when the emotions are so strong that it's impossible NOT to burst into song. As anyone who's READ my Doctor Doom book will know, there are moments when the emotions are SO STRONG that it's almost too much delight to cope with, so hopefully this will make it easier for everyone!

The rest of the songs so far (70%, fact fans) are a bit of a mixture. The PROJECT which has excited me into doing all this writing was originally meant to be concentrating on some of my old songs, and specifically the more "grown-up" ones, and so I HAVE written several like that, but I've also ended up doing a few that are ROCK BANGERS that will probably go into the BANK OF BANGERS for future Validators releases. I'm also wondering whether it might be a good idea to record a solo version of AI Guy for release early next year so that it's out in the world BEFORE The Terminators come and get us!

It's all VERY exciting for me, as it's been a reminder of how much FUN it is writing songs, especially when you've got one NEARLY finished and then have to spend three days trying to work out the last knotty rhymes. It's then possibly even MORE brilliant when you get one finished and can then spend the next week or so SINGING it to yourself all the time and giggling at your own COLOSSAL GENIUS!

Perhaps the BEST bit of all this is that it's reminded me of WHERE song ideas come from. Several decades ago when I first started writing songs I seemed to have ideas ALL the time - not necessarily GOOD ideas, but ideas nonetheless, and I had notebooks FULL of THORTS for things to write about. In the past decade or so that dried up a bit, as a) my BRANE was full of things like PhDs and so forth but also because b) I had lost track of where those ideas come from. For LO! it turns out that The Rule Of When Songs Happen In Musicals ALSO applies to when songs happen in real life i.e. when the emotions are so strong that it's impossible NOT to ... er... get a guitar out and spend hours and hours trying to think of a rhyme for "perceptible". Or to put it another way, when a THORT occurs to me and starts rattling around my BRANE I would previously just go and TELL someone about it, either in-house, in-pub, in-work or on THE SOCIALS. Now, however, I have remembered that if you let the idea MARINATE in your MIND for a little while it can start to RHYME and grow CHORUSES and so on and become an ACTUAL SONG. That's how I always USED to write songs, and now after many years it is how I am writing them again, and it's all rather lovely.

So yes, the total of new songs currently stands at TEN, but I am hopeful that it will grow significantly higher over the next few weeks. Stand by for further updates!

posted 19/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Cambridgeshire And Kent In One Day
Flipping heck I had a REALLY busy day on Saturday. It began, as many Saturdays do, with a trip to Peterborough for the football. The talk before the game was all about how rubbish it was going to be and so, of course, it ended up being an explosion of SEVEN GOALS with Posh winning 4-3 after a great deal of running about, hoofing, indelicate passing and shouting. Pretty much THE USUAL for this season, in fact.

Normally that would have been enough for one day, but this time I was also booked to head down to deepest KENT to play a gig for the lovely chaps of Careful Now Promotions at The Oasthouse in Rainham. THUS once the football had finished I nipped back to the nearby Premier Inn Peterborough where I had STASHED my guitar (using an APP to book it, for I am dead modern like that), did my usual trip back to old London Town, and then hopped on a High Speed train down South. I had spent AGES planning the whole thing out to make sure I could get there at a reasonable time but in the end I got different trains for pretty much every leg of the trip, just getting whatever was available. To my surprise this all WORKED!

Once in Rainham Kent (it feels wrong just sating "Rainham" as there's ALSO a Rainham in Essex and everyone seems to say "Rainham Kent" like that's the full name) I made the 2 minute journey round to the Oasthouase and said hello, did a quick soundcheck, and then wandered back out to the chip shop which, last time I was there, did HUGE portions of chips. They did again!

Back at the venue I was VERY SENSIBLE, as is my WONT these days, and stuck to alcohol-free beer before going on, and watched the EXCELLENT Sassyhiya who were on first. One of the many things I liked about them were that they LOOKED and SOUNDED like a band i.e. always looking round at each other, INTERACTING, and clearly having a GRATE time of it. I thought they sounded a bit like PO! but that may be due to my somewhat limited mental library of bands who sound a bit like that, but either way they were GRATE.

Then it was my turn to go on, and I did THIS:

Bad Back

AI Guy

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

Clubbing In The Week

I'm Doing The Ironing

In The North Stand

Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

As you can see I was VERY BRAVE and committed myself to doing a new song, AI Guy, which went down pretty well. I was not, however, sufficiently brave to debut a live version of Moshi Twistmas, as heard on the Joyzine Advent Calendar. I'd practiced it a few times, and had stuck the KEYWORDS to my guitar to remind me of the order, but I was a bit too NERVOUS to try it out. Maybe next year!

I think I might have slightly MISJUDGED the setlist too. Usually these days I find it's better to do the SLOWER songs and so did - including a somewhat slowed down version of The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B) - but this time I think more FAST ones might have been better. Still, it all seemed to go all right and I might even say that, once we'd all got past my terrible whistling solo during In The North Stand, it built up to a pretty good finish!

After that it was time for some ACTUAL BEER before settling back into watching Swansea Sound, who are not only an INDIEPOP SUPERGROUP but also a group who are... er... SUPER at indiepop (they can use that on posters if they like)! They sounded fantastically PUNCHY and POPPY and generally ACE, and it made me think once again what a difference today's modern PA systems make. Back in the dark days of the 1980s when this sort of music first emerged it was played through RUBBISH systems managed by generally unenthusiastic and/or inept soundmen, but nowadays we can hear what it was always SUPPOSED to sound like, which is GRATE!

I also really enjoyed some of the Advanced Stagecraft which went on, including getting the Careful Now chaps to REENACT the video for Marking It Down. Excellent work one and all!

Soon however it was time for me to dash off and get my train back to London, and then onto the Not Yet Officially The Night Tube version of the tube and home, seeing a) a Pearly King and Queen and b) the local Actual Fox on the way. I had a fab day but this final bit of the journey did remind me how I used to do gigs like this ALL THE TIME, sometimes 60-70 times a year, and I must admit that I was glad I don't do that anymore. I had had a lovely time, but I was flipping knackered by the end of it!

posted 15/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Moshi Twistmas
As you may or may not have noticed, to paraphrase N Holder, "It Is Christmas!" Or Advent at least, which means it's time for Christmas SONGS!

Regular pals will be EXTREMELY aware that there is a grand tradition of recording and releasing Christmas Songs around these parts, many of which were collected a few years ago on the album Christmas Selection Box. This contains 19 Christmas BANGERS (20 on the Bandcamp version!) recorded over the years as singles, requests, and very often for the Joyzine advent calendar.

Six years ago I thought that putting all the tracks onto an Actual Album (Actually Available on Spotify and similar streaming-type places) would mean my annual festive recordings would cease. However I have since been part of at least TWO more Christmas bangers - Christmas Time Is Here by John Dredge & The Plinths and Is It Too Soon For Christmas? by Jane and John - and now have ANOTHER, done under my own name, to unleash upon you.

For LO! I have recorded a version of Moshi Twistmas by the Moshi Monsters for this year's Joyzine Advent Calendar! This is a song that my late brother-in-law used to put on his MAMMOTH compilations of Christmas songs because it is AMAZING. It does not in any way NEED to be any good - they could have just stuck out a carol or something - but no, The Moshi Corporation seems to have thought "sod it, let's do a MASSIVE CHRISTMAS BANGER" and this is the result. I would like to apologise in advance for you getting it your head but I cannot because it is a WONDERFUL thing to have rattling round your brain. MERRY TWISTMAS everybody!.

posted 9/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Finishing Beginning Theory
For the past eight years or so - ever since I started doing my PhD (which I don't like to go on about) in fact - I have been struggling with Literary Theory. Every time I've been to a conference, or read a book, or talked to academical types it's been all Foucault this, Derrida that and structuralism the other, and I have not had a single clue what anyone was on about.

Well, I say not a SINGLE clue - I did do a bit of due diligence and looked some of the most often used words up, but even then I felt like I was missing the point. I distinctly remember, right at the start of it all, hearing people bang on about Michel Foucault all the time with regards to comics, and yet I could not for the life of me find anything he'd ever actually SAID about them. It was the same with Roland Barthes and all of them lot, while the only Philosopher I could find who ever DID say something about comics - Umberto Eco - wrote a paper RIDDLED with factual errors, in which he claimed for instance that the Marvel comics of the 1960s and 1970s (featuring that famous superhero "Devil", without the "Dare") were examples of the "oneiric climate" where all stories existed in a haze of present with little relation to any past or future. Er... don't think that's quite right Umberto!

Frustrated by my lack of understanding I signed up for a series of PHILOSOPHY SEMINARS at UAL. I thought this would sort me out but it was not great and I ended up not going to any after the first, very annoying, session. I then tried BOOKS, YouTube Videos, and all sorts of things like that but never ever got any closer to understanding what the heck was going on.

I was still moaning about this during the summer this year when I met esteemed colleague and pal Dr Martin Flanagan for a drink. He took this all very calmly and said "We usually recommend students get Beginning Theory" and later sent me details of the book he was on about - "Beginning Theory" by Professor Peter Barry.



COR! This was an EXCELLENT recommendation, for LO! it was EXACTLY what I was after. I started reading it around October and have spent the past couple of months up to my EARS in structuralism, post-structuralism, marxism, queer theory, feminism - THE LOT, basically. It's really really nicely written, with the tone of an ACE Professor explaining it all in a kindly way to a group of undergraduates who he will then take to the PUB once a term and get all the beers in for. In fact, it very much FELT like the dream ideal of what going to college should have been like, and indeed what I THORT it was going to be like when I set off for Leicester Polytechnic all those decades ago.

I had high hopes of LOFTY IDEAS and INTELLECTUAL VISTAS but it actually turned out to be like a not very good sixth form college, and reading this book now I see that that's pretty much what it was! I remember one day we had a lecture where the lecturer said "Oh, and you can also do Marxist critiques or feminist critiques" but didn't explain it properly, or follow it up, or do anything at all. I mean, I know it was Leicester Poly rather than BRIDESHEAD UNIVERSITY or whatever, but looking back now I do feel mildly AGGRIEVED that we were fobbed off with pretty much O Level English again. Think of what I could have WROUGHT if I'd known all this stuff thirty years earlier!

I was also slightly gobsmacked to read the chapter on Marxist Theory and realise that, GOR BLIMEY, that appears to be ME. I keep writing all this stuff about how Comics Studies being ashamed to talk about The Beano is due to class snobbery, or how the culture of production of art is key to understanding it (especially with regards to Marvel comics), but hadn't realised that this is a big chunk of Marxist Theory. All this time and I have been DENIED the Donkey Jacket and annoying little cap that should have been mine all along!

So, three cheers for Martin and Professor Barry, no cheers to the Combined Arts faculty at Leicester Poly as was, and full steam ahead for the literary revolution. Let's go COMRADES!

posted 3/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Hibbett's Three Laws Of Robotics
On Sunday I carried out the ancient ritual of going through my recently filled up IDEAS BOOK and checking to see if any of the idea contained within are GOOD and therefore worth carrying on to the NEXT one. It's always quite an interesting job, for me at least, as it means looking back on LOADS of THORTS what I had urgently scribbled down over the past couple of years, thinking they might be VITAL, but which now often make no sense at all. Sometimes this is because they were written in the middle of the night EITHER in the dark AND/OR when I'd not put my glasses on, but sometimes it's because they just don't make any sense!

In amongst the deranged scrawls there were a few good ideas, like some ideas for songs, a few GAGS I'd forgotten about for the Doctor Doom Show, and a LOT of plans and schemes for a massive science fiction opus about a SPACE TREE that I should really get around to writing up properly one day. There was also something called "Hibbett's Three Laws Of Robotics" which I quite liked but have no real use for... except of course to delight you with today, dear reader. Here they are!

Hibbett's Three Laws Of Robotics

1. It's not going to look or act like a robot on the telly.
2. If it does then it's not actually going to be intelligent.
3. If it is then DO NOT SWITCH IT ON.

Clearly these were written after watching a LOT of TV shows where people who have never seen a science fiction film or read a book of any kind talk confidently and entirely wrongly about Artificiial Intelligence. I hope these rules will be useful to future generations - especially the third one!

posted 1/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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