Apprehension

" - Crawling Like A Tube Train Up Your Spine"

It's a line from the song "Cymbeline", taken from the album "More" (or the soundtrack thereof) by those jolly japesters Pink Floyd.  I think it's pretty good for an old dog like me to recall them there lyrics since I've not listened to the album for years.  I think if we kick Art awake he can grace these electronic pages with a picture.  Art? <sound of boot hitting butt>

No, I don't know what it's supposed to be, either

     It's not a great album, frankly, although a couple of songs stand out.

     "Completist!" I hear you hiss, which I will take as a badge of honour.  "Is there a point to this?"

     Of course!  Just not the one you're thinking of - Conrad does indeed start his new job in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell tomorrow, HR Services with Sainsbury's.  There.  I'm not being coy about this new employer as, technically, I'm not yet with them.  The aforementioned apprehension isn't about the job, though - that would be too easy, and, besides, these baffling things you humans call "emotions" are a closed book to your humble scribe.

     No, I'm talking "Apprehension" as the noun referring to judicial capture of a perpetrator.  Or "perp", if you will, for Yes!  we are back to Judge Dredd.

Well, are you going to argue with him?

     Conrad used to chortle with delight at the 2000 AD strips, because they were so gleefully nihilistic, and always had subtle puns hidden in the background.

"Every Empire Falls"

Conrad and 2000 AD parted ways about Prog 1,000, when it was being annoyingly didactic and PC.  Just so you know.  On Saturday I popped along to the Travelling Man comic stall at Comic Con, only to find that they didn't have any of Stormwatch, Invincible or The Goon.  Gisp*!  Nor did the actual  shop itself when I dropped in.  Gosp*!  Shades, methinks, of the Monty Python Cheese Shop Sketch.

     Anyway, so as not to leave empty-handed - because that's well-known to bring on terrible bad luck - I bought the above title.  Art?  <sound of boot hitting bottom>

There you go

     This is, frankly, complicated.  There are all sorts of political plots going on in the background, jumping back and forth between The Big Meg (as I am familiarly allowed to call Mega City One), Texas City, Murphyville and Brit Cit.  Indeed, it will take another read to allow the bits to fall back into place**.  The artwork is uniformly good, and Henry Flint appears to morph between the styles of Carlos Ezquerra and Kevin O'Neill, probably intentionally.

See?  Utter proof!

     And now we shall move on.

A Bit Of Number-Crunching For You

Conrad loves him some statistics, and in any other blog you'd probably have a pretty poor joke about statistics <insert humour-free joke> here.

     Not so with BOOJUM! for we value our mission to educate you, the public***.

     If my average daily output of words is 750, with 1,500 each for Saturday and Sunday, then that tallies at 6,750 per week.  Given that We The Editorial Staff^ began this venture just over 4 years ago, that makes

1,404,000 words to date

     Which is something to pause and ponder about.  Good?  Bad?  Only you can tell!

For your sakes, "Bad" is not an option.

For "Exciting" Read "Terrifying"

Whilst walking to and from the Comic Con in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell - and yes, you'd better believe that your humble hack will continue to milk that event for all he can - I noticed a gang of workers dangling perilously from the top of a tall building.  They were still there when I ambled back to Picadilly, so here is the evidence.  Art? <sound of boot hitting backside>

     And now for their close up, Mister De Mille - 

Gusp*!

     It's not clear in either photograph, but they had abseiled down from the top of the building and were dangling from ropes at that window.  I know what you're thinking - "Damn, today's window cleaners have a tough gig!".  Yes, well, consider putting yourself in their place, because they'd been there for almost two hours AT LEAST.  If this image and the thought of putting yourself in their place gives you palpitations, then sorry, you are simply not cut out to be a superhero, since they spend half their work hours hanging off buildings at height.

     Again, if we were a normal blog, or a South Canadian one, there'd be a schmaltzy comment about the real heroes here, but, because this is BOOJUM! here's a picture of a Sorpion flail tank.  Art?  <sound of boot hitting bum>

Yes, there is a man sitting in that little attached box

*  Like a gasp, but with more shock value

**  Oh what a trial.  A trial, I tell you!

***  A bit.

^ Conrad, Oscar, Steve and Art.