TRIPWIRE IN 2008
Because of the success of the TRIPWIRE Annual, We've been thinking about what to do for next year. The current idea is this: TRIPWIRE presents Heroes special out in May (140 pp look at the first two seasons of the show with interviews with its creator, producers and art team); TRIPWIRE Annual 2008 out at the end of July (132-144 pp including Superman's 70th anniversary, Michael Moorcock and the renaissance of British sci-fi) and TRIPWIRE Presents Hellboy Special out in November, which will include interviews with Mignola and a look at both films, the animated movies and more. It means we should have a bigger presence in the market next year. But TRIPWIRE is definitely back…
Watch this space…

OPEN HOUSE GREENWICH PHOTOS PART TWO AND ROTHERHITHE PIC
Because of blogger's photo restrictions, here are some more photos for you (including another of Charlton's exterior)…

A LONG WEEKEND PART THREE
I've had a very busy weekend writing my Ridley Scott piece for Death Ray so this is the first opportunity I've had to post about the Sunday at Open House. The weather on the second day wasn't quite as nice as it was on the Saturday but still wasn't bad. Following the same plan as the Saturday, myself and Dave decided to go somewhere different, so our first port of call was Charlton House in Southeast London. I'd read that it was a Jacobean house but didn't believe that such a thing could exist in such an incongruous area (Southeast London is very urban, so you would have thought a house wouldn't have survived the rigours of development). But when we get there, we saw that it was indeed a very impressive place. Built in 1607 ny John Thorpe for Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I, it is now used as a language school and for local functions. Its grounds are ordinary compared with somewhere like Ham House but the house itself is very unique and so worth a visit…
We were planning to go and visit the Rangers House in Greenwich but decided, because it sounded like it had been remodelled on the inside, to grab lunch in Greenwich instead and then go to Rotherhithe to visit the Brunel Museum, which sounded more interesting. Greenwich was stunning: by this point, the weather had improved so it was a bright and beautiful day. I hadn't been there since I went to the National Maritime Museum as a kid and it was a truly glorious place. The only downside is that, when I got back to my car, I found that I had got a ticket (on a single yellow line on a Sunday). So I am appealing against it…
Once we left Greenwich, we headed west towards Rotherhithe to the Brunel Museum. On the site of the first Thames tunnel built by Marc Brunel and his son, the more famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel, I picked up a great book about the buidling of the tunnel. Then we went on the Tube between Rotherhithe and Wapping, where they slowed the tube down so that the guide could shwo us the arches on the walls which used to be shop fronts. In fact, it was the first underwater shopping arcade and it got millions of visitors. It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment and you couldn't capture it with the camera (although I did get a shot of the tunnel, not that you can really tell). But it was worth visiting and capped Open House off nicely…
So I shall definitely be going back to Walpole Park and Pitzhanger Manor and I may even visit the Hanwell canals again…
So here are some photos of Charlton House, Greenwich in the sunshine and a shot of the tube tunnel which now exists where the first Thames Tunnel was built (in two parts again like before)…

PITZHANGER AND HANWELL PICS FROM OPEN HOUSE
So here are the other pics from the Saturday of Open House…

A VERY LONG WEEKEND PART TWO
So I promised I would talk about Open House last weekend so here is what we did on Saturday. In the past, I have usually gone for places in the West End or the City but this year I thought I'd go for somewhere different. So with Dave Morris up, myself and Andy headed for the quiet North London suburb of Pinner to check out Headstone Manor. And it was a very strange building: a mixture of 14th century, 16th century and 19th century architecture, it has been in its time a council flat, a country manor and an unoccupied building in need of serious repair. Half of it has been lost to history unfortunately but it was the most unique building I've seen during Open House with its mix of time periods. It's surrounded by a moat with ducks so worth a visit…
The next place we went to was a church in Northolt, St Marys, attracted to it because it was listed as a medieval church, something unusual in London. So the church was set in a very striking churchyard at the top of a hill with a very decent view but it was very small so we didn't spend long there. So the exterior was more appealing that the inside, which is often the way. We did see these huge hills opposite the church, which are manmade and called Northala Fields and in fact are currently being built from waste from Wembley Stadium…
So after Northolt, we made our way to Ealing to Pitzhanger House which was much more intriguing. Designed by John Soane, who created the original Bank of England, Pitzhanger is a stunning house set in the equally gorgeous surroundings of Walpole Park. What was really refreshing is that they allowed us to take photos inside the house, which made a change. It was a fantastic day and all we wanted to do was spend a number of hours in the park and the house but we wanted to pack a fourth location in, so we left Ealing but with the intention of coming back for a proper look around…
The final place we visited on Saturday was in Hanwell. We rushed to join this canal walk that went past where Brunel designed some of the locks in West London but the organised walk was very dull so we decided to walk on ourselves and we spotted an old asylum behind Ealing Hospital. The weather was fabulous, beautiful sunshine and we even saw a swan on the canal…
So I got to see parts of London I have never been to before and again it reminded me what I love about this city. My next post will deal with Sunday at Open House…
By the way, because of the annoying way that Blogger only allows you to put up five pictures with one post, here are five photos (of Headstone and St Mary's) and then there'll be a second post with the pics from Pitzhanger and Hanwell…

A VERY LONG WEEKEND PART ONE
Over the weekend, Dave Morris came out from Taunton. On Friday we spent time discussing Hidden City which we'll hopefully be getting moving in the next few months. We met at Paddington and then took a wander along one of my favourite parts of the river by Hammersmith Bridge. We had lunch at the Dove, a great pub, and then walked across to Barnes and then back to Hammersmith. It was a very pleasant day. My next two posts will talk about Open house weekend, which we did on Saturday and Sunday but in the meantime here's a few photos around Hammersmith and Barnes and a nice photo of a house in Highgate in the late summer sunshine…

SALES UPDATE
Just a progress report about the Annual. Things have been going amazingly well: we have had reorders of around 100% of our original orders from Diamond and we have already broken even. So it's been a fantastic few weeks. You can still order it (although for how long I don't know since it could sell out) from Diamond or your local retailer. Don't forget the item code: MAY073980 F…

FOSTERING ATTRACTION?

The Brave One is the latest film from Neil Jordan, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard. I went to see a press screening just over a week before it opens properly over here. Director by Neil Jordan, this film casts Jodie Foster as Erica Bain, a New York radio DJ for an independent radio station who has a happy relationship with David, played by Naveen Andrews (from TV's Lost). But the relationship is shattered through a chance encounter with a trio of Hispanic gangbangers they encounter in Central Park one night. So David doesn't survive their onslaught, which leaves Erica to get on with her life and she does this the only way she can, by becoming a vigilante, walking the streets in an attempt to get justice. Foster is very good here and she still does intense very well and there is a good chemistry between her and New York copper Mercer, played likeably by Terrence Howard. Jordan has set Bain up almost as the spirit of New York and it is shot and edited in a very distinctive manner. Although it is basically an update of Death Wish for the 21st Century, it held my attention sufficiently while it was on and so I would recommend it as a decent two hours at the movie with some nice flourishes…

ROUND-UP

September has started very well: I'll have news on Studio Space's new publisher next week, which is looking good, and I've landed some more commissions from Death Ray and Comics International (Brian Aldiss and Ridley Scott for Death Ray and Stardust for CI to add to the other pieces for the magazine). The Annual is still selling well (sold another six at Gosh over the weekend). It's my last week on contract at Time but I may be doing freelance work there in the future…
Here are photos of the Brunel statue on Victoria Embankment, Cleopatras Needle in the sunshine and shade, the view to St Pauls on the Millennium Bridge and an extreme view of the side of the Unilever building on New Bridge Street …