Zombies, metaphorical hangovers and Weekender excitement in this week’s journey through SFX Towers
If the SFX Office were a walkin’, talkin’ sentient being there’s no doubt it would be laid up in bed with officially the World’s Worst Hangover right now. The reason? Yesterday we sent issue 214 to the printers. Huzzah! As you can imagine then it’s mostly been a case of heads down, fingers on fire this week as the team created word magic for your monthly(ish) consumption.
“Mostly” because we’ve also been working hard signing up guests for the SFX Weekender. In the past seven days alone we’ve confirmed that the lovely Eve Myles, Sylvester McCoy, Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Mark Buckingham, Tony Lee, Dan Boultwood, the guys from 2000AD and more (phew!) will be attending. This very morning in fact the SFX team relocated approximately 10 feet west to the swanky meeting room next to our desks and brainstormed panel ideas. Five months to go and already there’s not a finger nail left in the office.
Rich has been catching up on The Walking Dead this week – one episode to go, and he likes it without loving it (though he’s not really a zombie person). Otherwise, he’s working through a massive to do list before he goes on holiday, getting sucked into lengthy debates about this year's Hot 50, and trying to work out if he’s looking forward to tonight's Torchwood episode or not. There's potential, but it's running out of time to find it.
Jordan on the other hand loves everything about the rotting, braindead ghouls. No, not the X-Factor contestants, zombies. So much so in fact he spent the best part of his weekend writing reviews for Ian’s imminent zombie special. But that wasn’t half as exciting as his Monday when he hopped on a train down to the big city to visit Batman: Arkham City developers Rocksteady Studios. He’s sworn to secrecy on pain of a batarang to the head till next week, but here’s a sneaky peek at Rocksteady’s rather excellent front entrance, with a guest appearance from Studio Director Jamie Walker.
Roughly ten minutes after sending the last page of issue 214 Russell bid adieu to the SFX office for a whole two weeks and jetted off on holiday to the East. The team are already missing his peculiar fruit eating habits and Tyneside idioms; though we can’t say we’re sad to see the back of his soggy swimshorts, which he’s taken to airing on the back of a spare chair after his lunchtime swim. Before skipping the country for a bit Russell was able to catch a preview of this Saturday’s Doctor Who , “The Girl Who Waited” which has done the rounds in the office to near unanimous thumbs up. You’ll have to wait till Saturday for the full verdict, but take our advice, you’ll want to watch this one on the biggest, nicest TV possible.
Rob and Comic Heroes editor Jes are chuffed after picking up several of DC’s 52 re-launch titles in Bath's local comic store, including Superman #1, and discovering they're actually quite good. Rob’s double plus chuffed in fact after a breakout appearance on Bristol Community Radio this weekend to talk about his one-man-band Rob And The Rules. Listen here and sing your praises below.
It’s Ian’s final day of frantic labours on SFX ’s next special issue, Zombies: The Ultimate Guide , after which he plans to collapse into a nice, relaxing coma. We have two images to share from you relating to this. Firstly, the cover of the wallet in which all the zombie-related goodness comes packaged. Secondly: we’ve got a new, exclusive SFX t-shirt design to unveil! Featuring a useful reminder of how to deal with the undead in the style of a war-time propaganda poster, it’s the work of artist Matt Talbot (check out his portfolio here ). This art also features on the double-sided poster which will come free with the special when it’s released on 26 September. In the meantime, you can pre-order your SFX zombie t-shirt (price £14.99, and available in sizes from S to XXL) now by clicking on this here link .
Speaking of the undead Ade had a meeting this week entitled “zombies”. Well, you don’t get one every day. Unless you work in the SFX office of course.
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Random Quote Of The Week : “Oh no, it sounds like Highway To Heaven!”
Whose T-shirt? (Last week’s answer: it was Dave G’s mug (as in coffee mug, not his face)!)
