I’ve been geeking the fuck out lately, much to the amusement of my better half. I haven’t read this many comic books since I was 13. In fact I haven’t read this many comic books EVER, mainly because comic books are now available in much the same fashion as MP3s.

Yes, you can, in this enlightened age, download every comic book that comes out on the day it comes out. Should you so wish to. Me, I download complete runs of Grant Morrison written DC titles, but that is besides the point. The point is, back in the grizzly ole days, the only place you could get a comic book that wasn’t The Beano was a Proper comic Book Shop, and there were only a few of those in the country, and none in North Wales. This one time, when I was, like, eight years old, the hole in the tip of my penis closed up and I had to go to Liverpool Children’s Hospital (yes, I made a mistake in the lyrics of the song Liverpool, keen eared reader). I was pretty happy with this situation, because there were comic book shops in Liverpool, and my Dad got me a pile of small-sized American comic books, including the Todd McFarlane drawn Spider-Man with the lizard in it that was scary as hell, and some awesome Grey Hulk issues, and this really weird and pretty funny Plastic Man book. Oh, and some weird thing I have never seen since called Sleaze Brothers, that seemed to be some kind of Blues Brothers Vs Aliens weirdness. Anyone remember that?

Anyway. Aside from the fact that I got circumcised and no one told me, going to hospital in Liverpool was a great thing for me. My life would have probably been completely different without the influence of American comic books. For good or ill.

By the time I was 13 I had written, drawn, and published my very own book (I got fan mail and everything!), and I’ll be doing another one soon. I am excited about this, but I need to get LP2 finished first, really. Stephen Hague called me last week, and work on that should resume shortly. Anyway. Like I was saying, you can now, if you wish, download any comic you want to. But this isn’t hurting the comic book industry at all - sales are, in fact rising. This is probably because people who don’t live near comic book stores, or people who’d never go in them in the first place, like women, are discovering comics, so when they do go near a store, they can cop a collection of something they actually liked and want to own forever and read on the bog and stuff. That’s what’s happening with me anyway. There are probably lessons for the music industry to be learned here, but I don’t have time to g into all that right now, and anyway, my awesome insight is available for a fee, on a consultancy basis. Speak to my manager.

Yes. So. Watchmen movie cometh. Dave Gibson says its gonna be pretty faithful to the source material. Are we excited about this Or do we not give two craps? I am in the middle. I think comics are a better medium than movies anyway.

Hey kids! A song from album number two has leaked. NOW. It is called I Am Not Dead (Yeah!). Maybe you have seen us do it live. The version that has leaked is not the final version. The final version will have a very special guest singing the chorus. Maybe you can guess who. maybe not.

Read more…

Brand new from Fat Joe there, fucking with that super-latent-homosexual 300 movie. Which is fitting. I really like it, apart from the chorus, which bites. Speaking of which, guess who wrote inspired Crack’s flow? ‘Case you can’t guess, Joey answers for you at the end.

I am listening to Dr Stephen Hague’s work on Video Highway, the super-fast and raucus tune we’ve been doing towards the end of our recent shows.

IT IS AMAZING!

I delved into my MySpace today - it is a rare thing that I do that as the interface upsets me, and it is full of spam and crap bands and rappers trying to get me to listen to their nonsense. But, amongst the nonsense, were peppered scores of beautiful messages. Like this one, from a nice young girl in Korea: (that’s her up there. Hey Jiin!)

Hi ! Akira !!!!!! ♡♥
my name is Jiin !
>_< I like u and I love your musics
I'm korean(south) 18years old .
I love all of yours !
Jiin

How cool is that? I am poor like a church mouse and unsure where next months rent is coming from, but so what? I reached Korea. I WENT THERE.

Non bogus!

So, track two of the Stephen Hague sessions went very well. I did lots of Singing and rattled the tar in my lungs. I don't know how Billie Holiday managed it. Anyway, after that I came home and wrote a pair of songs, interviewed The Bombs of Enduring Freedom for Metal Hammer, and discovered an ace rock act from San Francisco called A Band Called Pain.

We are all enjoying your working title suggestions over here. Right now my favorite is Thriller 2. At the end of the week I’m a do a top 5, and those that get top five will win an avatar. Which means I will draw an avatar for YOU! The winners! It might not look all that much like you. But it will be cool.

Wade tells me it’s gonna be the Obomber VS POW McCain. I thin there’s still time for White Witch Hillary VS Grave Sucking Rudi. What do you lot think? Give a shit, right?

Hello people. I am in Hastings with Dr Stephen Hague recording a song called Jamie. That’s him up there. My Backberry’s phone isn’t as great as I’d hoped. But still. I have a sore throat from singing a great deal. Singing is harder than rapping. I find.

PS - keep the album working titles coming, I am going to compile them all and give them to my manager, he’ll be super glad. Ho ho.

So, I went to Hastings yesterday, to do my first day of record for LP2 with Dr Stephen Hague. We recorded vocals for a song called I Am Not Dead (Yeah!), that a few of you might have caught live at the last few gigs.

Dr Hague lives in a gigantic white house up a hill overlooking the ocean with his fine woman, some cats, and a relatively well behaved greyhound. You can see France from his studio window on clear days. That is how to live! You know what can see out of my window right now? An old man stealing oranges from the Turkish shop over the road that has the rudest female staff I have ever encountered. Actually, it’s not so bad. I realised the other day I spend most of my days in a converted attic. Which is something I really wanted to do when I was about six.

Careful what you wish for, children…

Oh, if you get a sec, vote for my boy Marv The Marsh’s new single over at MTV Bass.

Word, I hate moving houses!

I like unpacking after though. Arranging stuff. I like building shelves. I’m on that right now. Well, right now I’m on break. You dig me!

I got a can of Rio, and that is nice. That shit is still bigger than the other cans - 13.6% Extra Free est. as long as I can remember. When I was like, 8, we’d drive to Safeways in Upper Bangor to do the monthly shop, and if I was lucky I’d get me one of those as a treat.

Who was at that Bizzle show? Damn, that shit banged hard! Marv and Jack’s set was boss, cot DAMN those boys have come on since the Purple Turtle. They did Boom at the end and that Big Dog Westwood was jiving up onstage. Ghetto sprays hard, credit where credit is due. It’s always good to see Skinny, but I could have done with more stuff from his album, that shit was classic. I took Narstie and Littles down, and it was ill to see Narstie bring the house down without even getting onstage. That Brian Harvey-looking cat from N Dubs doing his and Solo’s rhymes was kind of weird.

Me, I never touched that stage and I blew the roof of THREE TIMES, fam. Babylon was straight moshpit, and B had the kids jogging on the spot like Running Man for Police, shit was CRAZY!

So, LP2 is pretty much written - straight ANTHEMS baby - and I’m in pre-production with the legend Stephen Hague. Get to know. That shit won’t be out till second quarter I figure, the way this beast of an industry moves, so what I’m gonna do, oh my good good peoples, is hit you off with, like, a pre-album album/mixtape thing for Xmas. A CD full of shit I can’t clear for mainstream commercial use (samples are a bigger headache by the day) - stuff that missed the last album for reasons of illegality and tone, and stuff I’ve been writing since the last album that just doesn’t fit the vision of the next one. Tear jerkers, bangers, screamers, murderers… Good shit. The record’s gonna be called Thieving - look out for a track with the same name imminently. It goes off to the printers next week, and we’ll start taking pre-orders as soon as the art’s done.

HO HO HO!

Oh, I nearly forgot - I just confirmed a Christmas show. Akira The Don & The Women will support my peoples The Crimea at Bush Hall, London on December 18th. It’s an acoustic show, so I’m getting me a drummer and shit. FIRST!