Interludes…

This week, if you’ll indulge me a little, we’re going to have a brief float around an entirely liminal state. The Reluctant Geek in its previous incarnation is finished (boo!), but your new (and fingers crossed improved) Saturday morning read is on its way.

In the meantime we’re in a rather lovely no man’s* land. Let’s imagine tiny fluffy clouds, and beautiful stars, and maybe the soothing sound of running water or whale song or something in the background.

Actually, I could really do with some soothing sounds currently, not least because I am recently returned from the Proud Lion Blog Night Out. I’d very much like to talk to you about motorboating, Thundercat slash and the excessive sassiness of some of my fellow bloggers, but it’s all a little bit like Fight Club - The first rule of Blog night out is that you do not talk about Blog night out. Sufficeth to say there were a few drinks involved...

Anyway, all of this floaty, inbetweeny stuff means that I am even more prone to wandering off track than usual, so let’s drag ourselves back to business. I would like you to imagine for a moment that you have a friend. (There’s more, don’t worry, this isn’t some carte blanche attack on your social skills…) This friend has never picked up a comic, switches the channel when anything vaguely sci-fi comes on to the television and thinks that ‘roleplaying’ is best confined to the bedroom. Perhaps they had a bad experience dressed as Batman as a child, involving paddling pools and public humiliation. Perhaps an air of carefully cultivated ‘cool’ prevents them from showing any kind of interest when you start discussing the relative merits of the tenth and eleventh doctors. Whatever the reason, you would be afraid to take this friend into Proud Lion for fear of triggering a fully blown panic attack.

Still with me on the whole visualisation thing? Excellent! Now I would like you to imagine that you awake one morning filled with evangelical zeal. You *will* convert your friend or else die trying! And rather than some kind of namby pamby, incremental , starting-off-with-the-soft-stuff approach you’re going straight in at the deep end.

The question then, is what comic/graphic novel/tv show or movie would you offer to aforementioned ignoramus to change their mind? If you had to pick just one thing that encapsulates everything you love about the world of comics and sci fi and fantasy, what would it be?

Now I don’t want you to think that all of my questions involve ulterior motives. There may come a point in the future where we all close our eyes and imagine ourselves in beautiful, flower filled gardens just for the hell of it. But I’ll ‘fess up now that this is not one of those occasions. Leave a comment detailing your own personal favourite, or pop into the shop in the next week or so and chat to Ben about those seminal, defining pieces of art, and I promise I’ll be gentle with your selections...

Unless of course they really need a firm hand. In which case all bets are off.

*Note: No man’s land. Even though a part of me still wants to say person’s, I’m too afraid of the combined wrath of Ben Fardon and Robert Barton-Ancliffe!

This week, Kate is fantasising about log cabins in the woods, swimming in the sea and Captain Jack Harkness. Not necessarily simultaneously.