American Gods: Shadows #1: Red Pill Reality, or Blue Pill Dreaming?

Writers: Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
Artist: Scott Hampton
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 15th March 2017



Okay then, let’s jump into Neil Gaiman again, and see if he has anything to offer in 2017. Old story condensed: As a messed-up, lost, ostracised, ignored, working in bad jobs, dead man walking, unloved, tax-payer, seat-filler, walking alone, always alone, don’t talk to him, he’s alone, young man in mid to late 1990’s UK, I read the Sandman. In those books I found something to occupy my mind, and make me think that perhaps the world wasn’t as empty and devoid of meaning as the life that I was experiencing. I devoured it all, then departed, back into the world that offered so little, and gave back even less.

A decade later I returned to Gaiman, purchased one of his novels, tried to read it, and couldn’t. I remember sitting on the grass as I waited for my car to be fixed. I remember wanting the book to be good. I remember being disappointed. The book was long-winded, ponderous, boring, didn’t connect with me, and I gave up trying to read it about one hundred pages in. It’s title? I don’t remember. After that time I have occasionally gone back to Gaiman, giving him chance after chance after chance, and the more time that passes, the further I get from being able to connect with his writing.

This is probably a good thing, because when I did connect I was miserable, not really caring if I lived or died, because I had nothing around me worth living for anyway. Dreams were better than reality, because reality really sucked. Now, as I get older, and still don’t connect with the world around me, I feel a lot better about everything.

Why, what changed?

Not the world, that didn’t change, but I did. I’ve been through a process of getting rid of the junk, of cleansing my system of the poison nihilism that almost killed me. Gaiman gave me distractions, but nothing that offered hope of nourishment, of a future, or a rope to safety that would help me get out of the pit that I found myself in.

That pit was my culture by the way. I was a young man growing up during a time period when traditional English culture and identity was being replaced by the love of all things American. I didn’t want to be English. I didn’t even know what being ‘English’ meant. I wanted to be American. I wanted American comics, food, sport, movies, everything. I didn’t even want to live in England. My country was boring, there was nothing here, no future, no pride, nothing, just a wasteland of grey, and over the pond there was America, bigger, brighter, newer, better. I didn’t know anything about my own country, wasn’t taught about it at school, or on my television, or in my movies, or in the music that I listened to. Everything was American. England was nothing, and so was I.

The dream stories of Neil Gaiman placed England in the past, and looked to America as a pathway into the future. The young people of England were being told to look to America, that their homeland was a dream with no future, and so that is exactly what we did.

But America, the amusement arcade, was just another dream, there was no solidity, no meaning there, and as I stood in awe to it’s sparkling neon newness I became adrift in my own land. I looked to America, and saw a reflection of my own face in a plastic façade, whilst all around me the present crumbled into disrepair and decay.

When I look back at that past, my past, I’m hit with a huge sense of pride that I managed to live through that era of awful nihilism to emerge here on the other side. So here I am today, in a present that I almost denied to myself, thriving because I dug myself out of the pit of nihilism, and discovered things of worth, things to fight for, and things to believe in. Now when I go back to the writers of my past, the writers who kept me down in that pit, I look at them anew, see ugliness, cynicism, aimlessness, and the sense of despair that they broadcast, and can identify it immediately.

Let’s jump into ‘American Gods #1’ and explore a small part of that past.

It begins with a thirty-two year old handsome, athletic, intelligent, philosophical, black man in an American prison, and the story is from his point of view. Neil Gaiman is a fifty-six year old Jewish man from Hampshire, England.

The handsome black man, although in jail, is portrayed as intelligent, caring, loving, and in general, a good individual, a victim of ‘the man,’ that man being the spectre of white racism, as can be seen by the casual racism that comes his way from a white prison guard. The insinuation is that America locks up intelligent, handsome, good black men because of white racism. We see the handsome black man’s pretty white wife. He tells us how much he loves her, how he’s looking forward to seeing her again when he is released. What has he done? Why is he in prison? It’s brushed over, it’s unimportant, what is important is that this good man is in jail, he made a mistake, he’s going to get out, and the rest of his life is going to run just fine.

We wait for the bad news to come, it’s inevitable, the character is a vehicle for narrative development, there is no humanity in him, he is not real, he is a shop-window dummy for Gaiman to dress up in story. He needs him imprisoned to service that story, so he’s in jail, and he will be released when the story needs him to be released.

This dummy character of liberal virtue signalling value has no family, no relatives, no children, no parents, no community, nothing substantial, just a pretty white wife who is killed off halfway through this first issue, because it services the story. After reading this first issue (I have not read the book) I get the same feeling that I get at the start of most books, comic books and movie narratives. That feeling is of emptiness and confusion and annoyance that so much has happened, so much remains unexplained and try as I might, I cannot drain any meaning whatsoever from anything that I have just witnessed.

The entire point of modern narratives is to keep you hanging on the end of a hook, to drag you through a story of no meaning, and get you to the end, thanks for coming, now please depart from this fairground ride of nihilistic emptiness. The ride is the meaning, because there is no meaning other than the fact that the creator got you to pay for the ride in the first place.

I recognise a good fairground dream ride of no meaning, as that was my past, that was my pit, and that is why I was so unhappy. Neil Gaiman is a good writer, of course he is, but do you want to join his new/old ride of no meaning? It’s rusty now, the movements no longer amuse, startle, or thrill. What do I mean? Let’s look at the breakdown of this ride, and the tricks or gimmicks that are used to thrill the passengers.

1- ‘A storm is coming’ cliché immediately.
2- Good man released from prison as the world changes.
3- Casual white racism.
4- Convict observes differences of life outside of prison, in airport setting.
5- Phoning dead wife, listening to her voice on answer phone.
6- Gaiman not understanding the sharing drinks (to create bonding) dating trick/tactic.
7- Dream sequence with strange creatures talking vaguely.
8- Weird stranger meeting on aeroplane after upgrade.
9- Chimp grin, showing teeth as aggressive, BBC 1993 Attenborough observation.
10- Strange old American diner cliché.
11- Freudian sex scene.
12- End.

That is poor sauce. There is nothing that feels new here. Nothing to connect with anything contemporary, it feels so, so old. Thank you for getting on the ride, thanks for your money, you allowed me to live the life of a writer, and I get to wear black, have messy hair and pretend that I’m a gothic teenager from the late 70’s early 80’s. I am fifty-six years old, and my book from 2001 is being made into a new television show. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I admire Neil Gaiman. I admire his cleverness, and ability to prolong his writing career into the fiftieth decade of his life. He is still working, and even though I cannot find anything to take from his work, that work ethic is admirable. I know that ‘American Gods’ is an old book. I know that it’s about modern life killing the old Gods, replacing them with technology, and that the old Gods return to battle against the new Gods of materialism. I understand the idea that our new Gods are celebrities and materialism, but that already feels dated to me. If you want to talk about new and old Gods of 2017 you need to talk about the Gods of mainstream liberal consensus, because they are the Gods that are being challenged ‘right’ now.

Plus, attacking the idea of celebrity, materialism, products, television, and the emptiness of mainstream culture, whilst playing a huge role in propagating that culture yourself? Come on, selling faux-rebellion/revolution to the masses, and in the very instrument (comics, books, and television) that enslaves them to nihilistic materialism? You’re taking the piss, telling your audience that they are dupes, whilst keeping them safely duped/drugged up upon the dream plantation of no-resistance, no reality that is mainstream lefty comic books and television? Come on, look in the mirror, get some reality into your lives.

2001 was sixteen-years ago, that’s a very long time ago now. The questions on people’s mind’s today are not about Odin or Thoth, but globalism and nationalism, that is what truly awakened people are talking about in 2017, not questions about religion and the God’s of old tribes. Why release a comic book that already feels old? Why bother making it into the latest television show? I’ll answer that. It’s being released now because it’s safe, it’s just another ride, it might sell a few tickets, and nobody is going to get upset or feel anything other than mild amusement about it all.

In 2017 Neil Gaiman is still selling his useless old dreams to the masses. It’s what he does, and it’s what he will always do. He’s made a career out of it, so good for him, but I can’t stay with him in dreams of the past. I have to move on.

I am in the fortieth decade of my own life, and have decided to walk past the funfair-ride of television, cinema, books and comic books. It has taken me a while, but nothing worth having will ever come to you quickly, or easily. To gain wisdom you must suffer, but suffering does not last forever. Eventually, and it might take decades, light must finally appear. I see the light now, finally, and that is where I must go.

There are rabbit holes revealing themselves, and they are available to anybody brave enough to take a look. What am I talking about? I’m not going to tell you, because you cannot be told, you must find them for yourself, when you want to find them, and when you are ready to find them.

But, I am a blabbermouth, so I shall hint at the entrances.

Start with nationalism versus globalism. Look at the actions of Longshanks (Edward I) and his edict of expulsion. Tribal identity, multiculturalism, social, global control, money, politics, culture, education, history, who are you allowed to criticise? What are you allowed to question, and more importantly, what are you not allowed to question?

The rabbit holes are open, and you can explore them on your own. Neil Gaiman offers a funfair ride into the world of old dreams. I’ve been there before, it can be fun, but all it really does it take you around and around, and leave you back at the same place where you started. I no longer have time for fairground rides and running around in American dream circles. I took the red pill, explored the rabbit holes, and hey, it’s amazing what you start to find when you truly awake from a blue pill life of slumber.

We all have a choice to make, and the biggest problem that stopped me from progressing was that I didn’t even realise that there was an option. If you are reading this and are still in the same mindset that entrapped me, then I know how it is. In the movie there is a bloke who gives you a red or blue pill option. Real life isn’t as easy as that. In real life you end up reading somebody (flawed as I am) like myself, get angry or confused, and run back to the safety of the blue pill dream. I just want to let you know that you have a choice. What do you want to live for? Do you want a life of red pill reality, or a blue pill Neil Gaiman dream? It’s your life, and the choice, and you do have one, is up to you. Take care, and thanks for reading.

-Mark Anthony Pritchard (17th March 2017)


You can check out my new red pill book here:

Amazon Kindle (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XKRQV2L

Amazon Paperback (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520836678

Amazon Kindle (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKRQV2L

Amazon Paperback (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1520836678

The Sandman Overture #6- Desire, you will lead me to my end

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: J.H Williams III
Publisher: Vertigo (DC)
Released: 30th September 2015



I’m back in the Swindon town centre library, and it has to be that way, as I review a book that takes me back to the days when I was a sweaty student nobody trying to survive days of nothing, but reading, writing and hoping for a better tomorrow.

All of that internal drama was played out in libraries. All of that work, longing, thinking, questioning. It was always in libraries. Now I do it alone, isolated in a room, but for today I’ll go back to the past. I need to feel the past, as the past is writ large all over this book, and that is how I feel about it today.

I’m still a nobody, not so sweaty now, that’s been sorted out, but no longer a student with dreams about doing something interesting, or noticeable, with his life. No, today I’m just as destroyed as everybody else. Going through the routines of living, here I am, alive, barely. The dream died a while back, only remnants remain. The young bloke in the library turned into an old bloke dismissed, a bloke that writes, but does anybody care? The answer is no, and I don’t mind, and so I write these words that flow as urine into the public lavatory of the world, stinking it up, briefly, then down into the sewers of the void.

I used to care about people. I used to dream of feedback, of discussions, of debates and controversies, but now all I care about is the writing. That’s all that matters now, the writing, and the lack of reaction to it, that doesn’t bother me anymore.

That’s what’s changed for me. I read about dreams, used to dream myself, but that’s all gone now. What remains is a dry sweat rash, writing continued, but with zero desire for acknowledgement. Neil Gaiman is a world away from me. People read what he writes, they look forward to it, they demand more, and they interact with him, asking him to do more of that good stuff that he used to do in the past.

That’s what I get from ‘The Sandman Overture #6.’ I get a writer, an insular, selfish, self-indulgent person, writing for his own pleasure, but discovering that he has an audience, winning. The audience enjoys the self indulgence, the world that is created, the characters resonate and when the writer wants to end it all, they shout in loud unison chorus of desire- NO.

Sandman Overture #6 reads like a writer talking to himself. Success destroys the barriers of isolation, forcing reality into the equation, the writer telling himself that it’s all a dream, that dreams must end, but fan desire rears her head, demanding more, the writer relents, and the dream/writing continues. That’s very good news for fans of the dream, so if you are reading this review and don’t know what I’m on about, I’ll make it clear.

The world of the Sandman and the endless cannot end here. There will be more. I’ve read this book and it does not read like an end. There’s no ending here. This ‘final’ book reads very much like a submission to desire.

How do I feel about this? I’m unsure. The Sandman is a comic book very much stuck in it’s time. To me it screams early 1990’s, so how to make it resonate with the now, the world post 9/11? It’s going to be difficult. Sandman Overture is a treat, but it’s a 90’s treat, out of time and existing in a comic book world of 2015 that cannot get to grips with the realities of the modern world.

Dreams come from fragments of reality, and to be a dream of real meaning there needs to be a connection with the now. You can’t hide in Goth, you have to come outside, stare at the sun, look at the wrinkles on your face, and understand that the world has changed.

Can Neil Gaiman do that? Can he say something about the world that has changed so dramatically over the past fourteen years, or does he even want to? Will his world of the Sandman continue, but stay in the past, or will it do that most difficult of things and reinvent itself for this nightmare Orwellian world in which we are now living?

I hope it’s the later. If it’s the former, then perhaps the dream should have died? Perhaps it’s best to ignore desire? I do, but I have to. My lack of success means that a desire for anything will destroy me. I expect nothing, get nothing, and remain free from the jaws of desire.

Neil Gaiman is a successful man, and in Sandman Overture #6 I read a willing submission to desire, to give his readers more of what they want. Will it be any different for him? Will his submission to desire lead to happiness? Will it lead to the happiness of his readers? Reality says no, reality says that satisfaction can never be achieved, but this is a dream we are talking about, and dreams are notoriously immune from the mundane aches, pains, discomforts and disappointments that come with the harsh light of the day. I wish him the best, desire demands, desire wins, and the dream world of the endless, continues.


Rating: 9/10 (Insular and complex, artistically and thematically)

Comic review- Miracleman #2: In this wasteland of the now

Story: Neil Gaiman
Art: Mark Buckingham
Publisher: Marvel
Released: 16th September 2015 


I’ve spent my morning with Neil Gaiman, and he’s led me down the path of yesterday, leaving me drenched in sweet, nostalgic sad, empty, hindsight regret.

Still waiting.....

There’s an initial pleasure to be gained in looking back, but when you get to deep you see yourself as you actually were. You see the stupid mistakes, the missed chances, the should have beens, the almosts, and the never weres. Regret rises to the surface and pleasure soon ebbs into a useless, longing feeling that things should have been better, but they weren’t, and there’s nothing that you can do about it now, because the past is gone, the people are gone, and you yourself, as you used to be, you are gone as well.

Miracleman #2 is split into three individual parts. The later two are probably connected, and are tied into the larger narrative, hinting of a return, of the villain.

The second part is school in the late 80’s/90’s, in England, as I remember it, personally. It’s behind the bike-shed, a pretty girl, spots, being cool, being detached, messing things up, being a silly boy, it’s the things that I remember, and I’m not sure if it will mean anything to kids in their twenties who are reading the book, but for a 80’s/90’s kid, Gaiman is a witness to how things actually were, he gets to the soul of it, and he takes me back to that time, that place of memory and regret, a school uniform and the wish, now, that things had turned out a bit better than they actually did.

The first story, the main story is equally as sad, but in a grown-up sense of deluded expectations, disappointment and waiting for something that isn’t there. The story is about a man holding out for physical perfection, stupidly, rejecting the possibility of love, rejecting reality, and waiting for the return of an impossible Goddess.  It’s a lonely tale, and it reminds me of 90’s libraries, reading Gaiman, walking home in the rain, alone, of course, but with Gaiman in my head, telling me that the world is sad, telling me that I shouldn’t give up, because who knows? Perhaps, some day, somebody will give a s***.

for the girl

Yes, it’s an emotional trip for me to spend time with Neil Gaiman on a September morning in 2015. I have emotional baggage with the dude, old memories, mostly crappy, but they would have been even worse without him. He’s a bloody good writer you know. He’s a craftsmen, and I do appreciate him, and I do admire his work, even the new (old) stuff, with the memories that come with it, stuck in my own past.

I should probably leave Neil Gaiman well alone from now on. I’m too old, and it’s making me painfully aware of my own useless past. I read his work today, and it’s good, very good, but there’s deep sadness there.

When I read Miracleman #2 I feel a sense of time, of wasting it, waiting, too much time waiting, only for nothing to happen and to wake up one day with nothing gained from the wait, just more waiting, more waiting. Reading Gaiman takes me back to the past, my own neglected graveyard, of dashed hopes and an almost tangible feeling of time slipping through my fingertips.

The world outside swirls and changes, and yesterday fades into memory, becoming further, and further away, as new memories fail to materialise, so all that is left, though not worth remembering, is all that there is, in this useless, silent, far too still, wasteland of the now.


Rating: 9/10 (Taking me back, as Gaiman always does)

Comic review: Miracleman #1- Neil Gaiman and the Perpetual 80’s

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Mark Buckingham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Released: 2nd September 2015



I didn’t read Alan Moore’s Miracleman series when it was first released in 1982. I was around at the time, but doing something else, probably obsessed with American football, or just plain old football, I expect. I was reading 2000AD though, irregularly, and this new Miracleman #1 by Neil Gaiman very much reminds me of that time period in my life.

This new book has a narrative starting date of 1987. It’s a future parallel world 1987 with a God like superhero and a destroyed, then rebuilt London, but it’s a very familiar 1987. It’s a 1987 that is very, very 1980’s. It’s a 1987 that could have been written in 1985, at least, that’s how it reads.

Perhaps it’s just me, but whenever I read anything by Neil Gaiman it has that 1980’s feel about it. I get the sense that he doesn’t really care about the contemporary neoliberal world. His narrative universe is the late 1980’s, and so he is the perfect choice to be the writer on a book that is set in a parallel universe 1987. He doesn’t have to deal with anything that has actually happened in the real world for the past twenty eight or so years, he can build his cocoon in the late 80’s and he can go back to the past, a place where he very evidentially feels most at home.

The narrative itself in Miracleman #1 is instantly accessible. It’s easy to follow and brings the reader straight into the world, telling a story from the point of view of a man with hope, seeing him through a difficult journey, and concluding with a revelation of either hope realised, or hope destroyed. I won’t spoil it. The story is okay, it’s enjoyable, and I think that it’s worthwhile you getting the book to enjoy it for yourself.

The art has a bit of a Watchman feel about it, mixed with some of the recent stuff I’ve seen in Jeff Lemiere’s Trillium, and in the art by Matteo Scalera in Rick Remender’s Black Science. The faces are a bit sharp, very pointy noses and high cheekbones, and very blonde, and the colouring has an unreality to it that screams ‘sci-fi comic’ of the 1980’s, but in colour. I don’t have any problem with it. I’d term it as ‘old fashioned new’ if that makes any sense, and it’s perfect for this kind of book.

Let’s sum things up then. Do I have a problem with Neil Gaiman being stuck in a perpetual 1987 world? No, of course not. He’s a successful, talented man, and his work is always enjoyable.

However, I’m the self-appointed (self-important) post 9/11 false flag/ NWO/Neo-liberal/Globalist comic book reviewer. So what I am after is never going to come from somebody like Neil Gaiman who doesn’t want to get out of the late 80’s, well at least from what I’ve read of his work anyway.

That’s cool man.

Miracleman#1 is a good book. I enjoyed it. The very last part confused me a bit, but I’ll be back for issue #2, and hopefully it will make some sense there.

Get the book if you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s late 80’s worlds, and yes I know he’s just continuing a series left off in the 80’s, so he has a good excuse for doing it here. If all you’re after is a decent comic book with a 1980’s nostalgia feel about it, then this one is a lot better than most of the other mainstream junk that’s being pushed onto the masses today. Check it out, put on those old 80’s records, and go back to a time when the Internet didn’t exist, Thatcher was killing off all working-class resistance and the BBC still had an aura of truth and respectability about it.


Rating: 7/10 (Back to the late 80’s with Gaiman, and why not?)

Comic Review: Sandman Overture #5- “Hey Barry, get out of your bedroom, it’s lovely outside.”

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: J.H. Williams III
Colours: Dave Stewart
Publisher: Vertigo (DC)
Released: 27th May 2015


Sandman has returned, belatedly, and I enjoyed wallowing in the slow, bedroom depressed, self questioning, unsure about activity or inactivity world of 90’s gloom once again.

The art works perfectly with the mindset on display within the book. There’s a cat, the Goth King (Dream) mopes, he’s unsure about everything, a war is going on, a battle against the blackness of staying in his bedroom, and the difficult world outside, where everything is being destroyed anyway.

Why not settle down with a nice woman, asks his Mum? Goth bloke mopes, back to his bedroom again. Who is to save him? A text message, destiny forces him out, and his cat has a nice surprise for him in the kitty litter.

The delay on this title has been so long, but it works, because when the book finally does turn up, the narrative itself is all about themes of delay, being static, thinking about destiny, and time, and dreams.

‘I did not need rescuing. I was doing perfectly well on my own.’

Of course, he wasn’t, and as he falls reluctantly back into reality would it be so hard for him to mumble a small word of thanks?

Kids, 90’s Goth kids at that, what are you going to do? They just need a bit of sunlight, to go to the park with their younger siblings, to play on the swings and have a laugh, swings always cheer them up.

Yeah, I enjoyed Sandman Overture #5. The art is beautiful, the story is as Goth as Goth gets, and although Dream doesn’t smile, there’s hope in the litter tray, sunshine on the swings, and it’s nice to see him getting out of his 90’s bedroom, at least for a short time.



Rating: 9/10 (Enjoyable 90’s Gothness)

Defender (CBLDF)- Spring 2015: You don’t need a censor when writers are already censoring themselves.

Produced by: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Released: April 1st 2015
Facebook page: 
https://www.facebook.com/CBLDF/timeline



Free speech in a 2015 western context is not about complaining that books that feature gross acts of torture are not available at your local primary school. It’s not about the Comics Code problems of the 1950’s, and it’s not about individual (rare) examples of censorship in New Mexico either. No, in my far from humble opinion, free speech in a 2015 western context is about fighting back against the fascist, communist, Marxist, liberal drip left and their insidious mind control tactic called POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

This debut issue of ‘Defender’ features an interview with Neil Gaiman, a man with one single example of his work being censored by government. The example is from Sweden, and happened to this great champion of free speech TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO. In the end nothing happened, nobody went to jail, nobody got fined, nobody got censored. That’s it, that’s his battle with censors, well, that and one teacher in New Mexico not liking one of his books. That issue was easily solved without any censorship or prosecutions either.

Why are they interviewing this man? I’ve read his stuff, and he’s about as safe as you can get. His work is neither edgy nor controversial in the slightest. He says nothing about the world, nothing about politics and nothing that anybody could possibly get even slightly upset about. That one teacher in New Mexico that didn’t like his Goth teenager stuff didn’t have anything valid to complain about, and that’s why her complaints were dismissed. Seriously, if I were publishing my own pamphlet about comic book censorship then the last person in the world that I would want to interview would be Neil bloody Gaiman.

So who would I interview then? How about somebody who is actually fighting against political correctness (real censorship) in comic books today, or at least somebody who is putting some real world analysis into his comic books?

Here’s the problem. It’s very difficult to think of any individual working in mainstream comic books today that actually fits that bill. The closest you would get is Sergio Aragones, and his work in ‘Groo- The Hogs of Horder’ where he talks about things that other comic books wouldn’t even dare to mention. But he’s rare, very rare.

There’s always Frank Miller and his excellent work in ‘Holy Terror’ of course. Why not interview him? You might not agree with his views, but he put his neck out and went somewhere that everybody else working in mainstream comic books today still refuses to go. What did he do that was so controversial? He criticised Islam, an act that is completely absent in mainstream comic books today, even as suicide bombs and school massacres now become a daily occurrence all over the world. Criticise Christians as much as you like in your comic books, but never, ever, ever criticise Muslims. Well, you can do, just don’t bother coming into work the next morning. That’s censorship. That’s real censorship, and that’s exactly how it works. You have certain ‘topics’ that you cannot discuss, and if you do discuss them, career over.

‘Defender #1’ does discuss the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but there’s only one short paragraph that briefly touches on the real issue that is at the heart of what happened there. The issue is not censorship, or free speech when it comes to discussing issues related to religion. No, the ONLY issue is whether or not Islam can be discussed without some nutjob threatening to murder everybody who dared to mention his satanic death cult. That’s the issue in 2015, not free speech, but ISLAM, the violent religion with legions of cult members who will threaten to chop your head off or machine gun your children if you dare even question ANYTHING about it.

Liberal comic book writers will do somersaults to make excuses for this death cult, and go out of their way to not offend them. Suicide bombings and massacres don’t appear to matter at all as they preach ‘tolerance’ and respect, protecting the very people who would gladly massacre every single last (tolerant) one of them. This is not tolerance, it’s cowardice, and the murdered cartoonists that worked for Charlie Hebdo are the inevitable price we are currently paying for our liberal tolerance/cowardice in the west.

When one person says something that needs to be said he becomes a target, but if everybody is saying it then the truth of what is being said can be properly understood and acted upon. I read so many comic books, and whenever religion comes up it always has a Christian slant. 99% of the time that slant is negative, with the Christians portrayed as a mad/dangerous cult with a crazy leader and brainwashed followers. That’s the norm in my comic books, but what isn’t the norm is the actually truth of what is happening today in the religion of Islam with violent psychopaths murdering non-believers all of the time, and with the PC liberal prat crowd too bloody cowardly to say anything about it. Well, I’m sticking my own head up here and saying it loud. If you want to portray violent extremist religious cults in my comic books then get with reality and start making them Muslim, not Christian. Be like Charlie. Stop being cowardly. Stop self-censoring.

Mainstream comic books in 2015 are extremely tame, and you’d be hard pressed to find anything controversial in ANY of them. The writers are so liberal, so drippy, and so politically correct, that they are actually censoring themselves. Here’s a true statement:

MAINSTREAM WESTERN COMIC BOOKS DO NOT NEED TO BE CENSORED BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY CENSORING THEMSELVES.

I buy a lot of comic books, too many actually, I need to cut down. Do you know how many of them say something that I would consider genuinely controversial? Hardly any of them, and that’s why I’m well known for slagging them all off. I have to. I’m not good at keeping quiet. I have a big mouth, and when I’m confronted with wave after wave of nonsense I have to say something about it.

There are so many ‘controversial’ topics that you won’t find being discussed in contemporary, mainstream comic books. DC and Marvel are the worst, they don’t discuss anything that’s not corporate approved, but don’t expect anything revolutionary or genuinely rebellious coming from the rest of the comic book publishers either. Expect a tonne of nostalgia and a million variant covers, but truth? That’s a depressing rarity in comic books today.

Here’s just a few of the subjects that the mainstream comic book genre is terrified of discussing:

1- The problems with Israel.
2- Mainstream media manipulation.
3- The problems with Islam.
4- The men’s rights movement.
5- Third wave feminism and how it has been used to destroy families and make females more dependent upon government as a substitute ‘Daddy’ figure in the lives of their children.
6- Saudi Arabia, and the west’s ties to this murderous regime.
7- China owning US debt, and having all of it’s ‘outsourced’ jobs.
8- US wars of aggression based on acknowledged lies.
9- Late stage democracy, and how your vote no longer even matters.
10- Anarchy or freedom from centralised control systems (Government).
11- The poisons in your food and water.
12- The poisons in vaccines.
13- Big pharma, suicide pills and the pink ribbon cancer con.
14- Guns, and how an unarmed population is an enslaved population.
15- Muslim suicide bombers (they never appear in comics).
16- Sunni/Shiaa, what is the difference between the two? You’ll never know if you keep on reading comics.
17- False flag attacks like 9/11 and the London tube bombing and how they are used to justify the Police state.
18- How the ‘race’ ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ cards are manipulated by the powers that shouldn’t be (government) in a process of thought control and censorship wrapped up as ‘tolerance.’
19- Public schooling as government indoctrination camps, turning children into order following slaves to the corporate/fascist state.
20- International privately owned banking, including the concept of fractional reserve lending, designed to enslave the masses under waves of unpayable debt.


This list could go on and on, and on. Seriously, I could get to 100 without even thinking about it, and if I gave it some serious thought the list would probably get closer to 500. So when I read a book like this one (Defender) I react in the only way that I can. I go to my computer, write up some truth, and stick it on my blog. That truth is simple. I said it earlier on in this article, but it needs to be repeated ad nauseum:

MAINSTREAM WESTERN COMIC BOOKS DO NOT NEED TO BE CENSORED BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY CENSORING THEMSELVES.

That’s a sad state of affairs, but that’s what’s happening right now, and that’s why I continue to write my ‘controversial’ reviews here on my blog. I applaud SOME of the work being done by the 'Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’ (not the stuff where they try to get sick books put in school libraries) but they need to look a bit closer to home.

Censorship in liberal fantasyland works not by having censors, but by having the politically correct, feminist liberal ‘tolerant’writers subconsciously censoring themselves. They can talk about gay rights or women’s rights as much as they like, but genuinely controversial subject matters like Islamic terrorism are a no-go area.

Defender Issue #1 has the laudable goal of standing up for free speech, but what it is really about is protecting PC liberal free speech. The freedoms we really need to protect are the freedoms to say what is NOT politically correct, and I don’t see that debate being raised in this comic book. I’m not enjoying writing up this article where I’m criticising a comic book that has been designed to protect free speech, but the fact of the matter right now is that mainstream western comic books don’t even need to be censored, as the writers are already censoring themselves.

Review: The Sandman Overture #4- Nothing is happening here

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: J.H. Williams III
Publisher: Vertigo (DC)
Released: 17th December 2014


I could never completely lose myself in this new version of the Sandman, mainly because the allegorical/metaphorical wall being created by writer Neil Gaiman is a little too thin, too flimsy, too see-through to allow any real emotional engagement or exploration of deeper spiritual/moral truths.

The problem here is that writer Neil Gaiman’s meaning is all too clear, and it’s not very interesting at all. In ‘The Sandman Overture #4 the writer looks at what he has created, at the doors it has opened for him, talks about access to ‘stars’ and decides that his creation will not be killed off, rather he will put it into permanent stasis.

This means that Neil Gaiman is going to write other stuff, and leave his Sandman book in the past, where it probably, and most certainly safely, belongs. There is no deeper meaning here. There are no deeper spiritual or moral truths being explored. This is a book about a writing career. It really is as self-indulgent as that.

Issue #4 of this six issue series feels like the end. It’s strange, because there’s two issues left. If Neil Gaiman is trying to make his readers lose interest in the Sandman character and the universe he inhabits then he’s doing a great job here.

Perhaps that’s the entire point? Perhaps he’s just fed up of it, and this book is a final squeeze of the lemon before a final discard?

It hasn’t been as bad as those instantly forgettable Watchmen prequels of 2012, but after reading this particular issue I got pretty much the same feeling. It’s a book that’s tapping into old memories, but not creating new ones of it’s own.

Give it a few years and Sandman Overture will be regarded as a needless full stop to something that had already ended. It's not bad, but it’s not particularly good either. It’s that awful middle, the lukewarm curse of the world called indifference. If you are new to the Sandman universe then don’t start here. Read and enjoy the old books. Nothing is happening here.

Rating: 4/10

Comic book review: Sandman Overture #3: Reader meet author

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: J.H. Williams III
Publisher: Vertigo (DC)
Released: 30th July 2014

Morrissey knows- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCR8T5YFHg4

It’s been a long wait, but we expected that, and now after reading the third instalment of The Sandman Overture I’m more certain than ever that what Neil Gaiman is doing here is working through his career as a writer, and the success that his most famous creation has given to him. 

I don’t know anything about Neil Gaiman’s life story, and I’ve only attempted to read one of his novels (it was boring and I stopped reading one third of the way through), so I’m not a fanboy. I enjoyed reading his Sandman comic books in the 1990’s, and I left it there, in the past. 

This new Sandman book has a nostalgic quality, and that’s why I’m reading it. It reminds me of some horrible times in my own life when I didn’t have much to look forward to apart from a good book.

Sandman was a good book, it opened a door to something better, something more interesting than my own lead weight life of predictable reality, routine and sleepwalking through crowds of horrifyingly indifferent people. 

I welcome its return, but everything has changed. Not just in my own life of course, but in the wider world as well. Read my other reviews, as that’s where I’ll detail the changes, this review is going to be simple, precise and short.

Sandman Overture #2 is heavy in text, and some of the background art looks wonderful. It has that mythical, mystical, intergalactic, otherworldly, spaced out quality that makes you think of larger, weightier concepts than everyday concerns on planet Earth. You can get lost in this world, and that’s exactly what the Sandman books used to do so very well when they were new, different and special.

The fanboys will appreciate that. They can pretend it’s still 1996. They do love to do that. I however read nothing in this script other than a writer talking about being a celebrity (a ‘star’) and how to deal with killing off the character that made him a star in the first place. Is it a subconscious thing? I think so. Gaiman is sitting down and writing his reality into the world of the Sandman. 

It’s not a bad book. It’s a book with a famous author revisiting the character that has allowed him to live a life as a celebrity writer. If you want to know how Neil Gaiman really feels about the character that made his name, then buy this book.  I can’t get anything else out of it.

I’m 100% positive that I would have loved this book if I read it back in 1996 as a bored and alienated young man. However, in 2014, and as the man that I am today, I read it, put it aside and think, man, life has really changed me. That’s all. 

Rating: 7/10