1937 (collected 1938) / Ecomics / 62 pages / Belgium****
Non-stop action, slapstick and horror as Tintin recklessly pursues trigger-happy counterfeiters from Belgium to remotest Scotland. With him, as always, is Snowy, who's alternately reliable or a liability depending on how pissed he's got. I thought I must have been reading an updated reprint when a television showed up, but it turns out they're older than I thought.
1988 / Ebook / 78 pages / UK
****
Part bemused boast from the duo not best known for their novelty Doctor Who single, part temporarily useful guide for achieving your own shallow success, but mainly a gonzo exposé of a stupid system at the end of taste.
1993 / Ebook / 132 pages / USA
**
A few passes over Junior Beethoven's precocious trilogy picked out some nice features of the faux-Scottish landscape, but didn't inspire me to visit again.
2004 / Ebook / 132 pages / UK
***
A short but interesting summary of the baggy, premature swan song. With chapters devoted to specific aspects of production, performance and reception before the track-by-track listen-along, it's everything I want from these books structurally, but so brief that it felt like I was only getting the preview.
Mike W. Barr and Tom Sutton, Star Trek Comics Classics: To Boldly Go
1984 (collected 2005) / Ecomics / 160 pages / USA***
You wouldn't read Star Trek comics for the quality of the stories, but they sometimes make charming time capsules of a very specific vintage. This new series extrapolating a post-Wrath of Khan status quo was outdated and consigned to the alternate universe bin by Search for Spock around the time the first issues hit the shelves. The stories themselves are mainly interesting for their general predictions of future 'Trek, amid all the repetitive throwbacks.
