Splinters

Irregular Fries

I've just been pondering whether I should subscribe to the London Review Of Books, the fortnightly UK magazine of literary essays. The only problem is whether I could actually manage to read it within the space of two weeks before the next one came along. The LRB site is a good introduction. I just wish it was a bit more... rock'n'roll. Both they and the TLS seem a bit staid. It would be good to have a books magazine that operated along the lines of Empire - intelligent but not suffused in academia or afraid of populism.

For now, I'll stick with the likes of Deep Fried, a new comic book anthology from the twisted brain of Jason Yungbluth. It's on its first issue and it's like a 21st century Robert Crumb - except minus the tittie obsession. As the man says "each issue plays up drug addiction, child abuse and urban violence for all the laughs they are worth! Regular features include Beepo and Roadkill (it's like Garfield, only co-dependent and with more homicides); A Peanut Scorned, an apocalyptic send-up of Charlie Brown; and Clarissa, a loveable little girl with...issues." Personally, anyone who comes up with a line like "Look, some of these ransom demands are going to be hard to meet. The members of Dokken have all moved onto other projects, for chrissakes" has my vote. You can see previews online and (shock horror) even buy issue one online too.