Comics: The Li'l Depressed Boy

The Li'l Depressed Boy: A Uniquely Appealing Comic

The Li'l Depressed Boy: "A comic with a lot of charm."

When I first discovered The Li’l Depressed Boy, I was immediately curious about the title, but at the same time it was a title which also almost put me off reading it.  I wondered if maybe this was a downbeat depressing comic where the main character just mopes about feeling sorry for himself.  Thankfully, I was wrong and The Li'l Depressed Boy is just a regular dude who likes doing regular things, trying to deal with regular life.

It’s hard to really describe why I enjoyed the opening issue so much, as all that happens is that the Li’l Depressed Boy meets a girl and does ordinary stuff like going to gigs (and playing laser quest!).  Whatever the reason though, the opening issue left me feeling excited at having discovered a cool new comic, but also confused as to why exactly I had enjoyed this comic so much.

Maybe part of the appeal is the fact that writer S. Steven Struble has created story-lines about everyday real-life, rather than fantastical adventures, and therefore many readers will find it easy to relate to.  And without doubt another of the reasons why I instantly made a connection with this comic is the cool stylised way in which The Li’l Depressed Boy is depicted.

TV: Celebrity Bedlam

Celebrity Bedlam: It's got celebrities in it and it's bedlam.

Lee Kern, the presenter and creator of Celebrity Bedlam.

In the words of Lee Kern, "Celebrity Bedlam is the show where we explore the hot topics of the day by playing pranks on fame-hungry celebs and getting them to take part in fake TV shows."  In reality there’s very little exploration of hot topics going on and the focus of the show is pretty much entirely based around ridiculing celebrities through crazy and sometimes bizarre jokes and tricks.

Each episode of Celebrity Bedlam features sketches and pranks of a similar general theme, such as the environment, travel and adventure, or health and lifestyle, but in truth it’s all just a big excuse to have a laugh at celebrities’ expense.

Website: Thrilling Tales Of The Downright Unusual

Thrilling Tales: An interactive website featuring gorgeous retro inspired illustrations.

Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual is a cool website featuring various pages and gadgets, but as the name suggests the main spotlight of the website is a series of lightly interactive retro sci-fi stories written and illustrated by Bradley W. Schenck.

Some of the Thrilling Tales you can read include The Lair Of The Clockwork Book and Trapped In The Tower Of The Brain Thieves and as you can probably guess from the nature of the titles, the stories are set in a sci-fi retro future in the city of Retropolis.  The stories are free to read on the internet and are accompanied by gorgeous artwork which captures the retro sci-fi vibe of decades gone by absolutely perfectly.

Books: How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy by Charles Fudgemuffin

"...an entertaining humorous read."

How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy
by Charles Fudgemuffin.

On Worthy Of A Bigger Audience I usually feature music, movies, TV shows, books, etc which in my opinion more people need to know about.  However, I'm not really qualified to make an unbiased decision as to whether the book featured this week is worthy of a bigger audience, because I wrote it.

The book in question is How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy which is the first book in the 'How To Save The World' saga.  You can sample the first three chapters for free on amazon's website, so any Kindle owners (or Kindle app users) who enjoy sci-fi comedy have nothing to lose by downloading the first three chapters for free and giving it a read:
US: How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy
UK: How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy

Here's a quote from a review of the book on amazon.com from Todd A. Fonseca (member of Amazon Vine™ Voice):

"How to Save The World by Charles Fudgemuffin, is funny.  Think Monty Python meets Saturday Night Live funny...  ...this is an entertaining humorous read.  The style of humor is likely one that will not resonate with everyone, so grab a sample from Amazon or Charles' website and find out.  If you like the sample, you'll enjoy the rest."

Music: Six Beautiful Tunes Worth Checking Out

Some of my favorite beautiful tunes...

 

From time to time on Worthy Of A Bigger Audience I collect together six tunes of a similar category, such as cover versions or remixes, and today it’s the turn of songs which in my opinion are totally beautiful tunes. 

Moments Of Pleasure from Kate Bush's The Red Shoes album.

1) Moments Of Pleasure
by Kate Bush
This is quite a big statement to make, but Moments Of Pleasure is one of my all time favourite tunes and in my opinion deserves to be recognised alongside some of Kate’s more well known classics such as Wuthering Heights or Running Up That Hill.  It maybe doesn’t have quite the widespread commercial appeal as those two tracks but the maturity and the power of this tune is immense.  As well as a hauntingly beautiful piano track, it also features some very personal lyrics from Kate which fit the music perfectly.
Find it on Kate’s The Red Shoes album.

Travel: Helvellyn, The Lake District, Northern England

Helvellyn: A satisfying and rewarding challenge.

 

Two hillwalkers about to start their ascent of Helvellyn.

Compared to some of the mountains in the world it almost seems a bit inappropriate to describe Helvellyn as a mountain, given that its peak is only 950 metres high.  However, don’t let its comparative lack of height fool you, as Helvellyn nevertheless provides a challenging but satisfying ascent for beginners and experienced hillwalkers alike.

When I made the trek a few years ago I considered myself reasonably fit and yet before very long at all I still found myself having to stop every fifteen minutes or so to catch my breath, so take plenty fluids and be prepared for a day of tough physical exertion.

It’s most definitely worth the effort though, as Helvellyn presents an interesting and varied ascent, and an impressive panoramic view of the Lake District from the peak.  The first few hundred metres are pretty much a regular incline until you get to Red Tarn, a pool containing trout and herring which you pass on the way to Striding Edge, but once you reach Red Tarn this is where things start to get interesting as the climb suddenly become a lot more tricky.

Books: The Hoax by Clifford Irving

The Hoax: An engrossing read which gathers momentum as the hoax develops.

The Hoax by Clifford Irving

The Hoax tells the true story of Clifford Irving, a writer who one day came up with the ambitious idea of writing the authorised biography of Howard Hughes, an eccentric and reclusive American billionaire.  The only problem was that Clifford had never even met Howard and so he and his co-conspirator, Richard Suskind, set about concocting a scam whereby they would write a fictional biography and then attempt to convince McGraw-Hill Publishing House this biography was the real deal.

To convince McGraw-Hill, Clifford originally wrote up three fake letters allegedly from Howard Hughes explaining that Hughes wanted Clifford to write his official biography in order to tell the world the truth about some of the media misconceptions about him.  From there on in the hoax quickly developed until in very little time at all Clifford Irving and Richard Suskind had been given the go ahead and were researching the information they would need to create their ‘autobiography’.

In the very early stages of the hoax it becomes apparent that Clifford is out of his depth and doesn’t really know the ‘dos’ and don’ts’ to follow when you’re trying to trick someone.  In fact on a couple of occasions it’s only really a mixture of luck and the fact that McGraw-Hill desperately wanted it to be true that allowed him to avoid getting found out, but as the scam progresses so Clifford’s deceptive side develops and he gradually begins to become more accomplished in the art of illusion.