1986 / Ebook / 64 pages / UK***
Maybe expecting another impenetrable Masquerade, I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be to much to these themed surrealist dreamscapes, beyond the thousands of things, but I'm not exactly catching them at their best on a laptop PDF. The numbers and enthusiasm dwindle as he approaches the end of his alphabetical odyssey, I know the feeling.
Mike Wilks, The Ultimate Noah's Ark
1994 / Ebook / 80 pages / UK
***
Hieronymus Bosch meets Where's Wally in the lazier but more engaging sequel. Learning from the ultimate pointlessness of the last one, the artist makes things more interesting by promising a prize if you can spot the lone creature travelling solo. If it's going to be his customary self-portrait in the middle, that would be an insult to those who diligently scanned each grid reference. So let's hope that's it. Update: It's not.
Chris Drake, UFO and Space 1999
1994 / Ebook / 95 pages / UK***
Tackling two different series in less than 100 photo-dominated pages, this flimsy guide is true to the over-optimistic spirit of Gerry Anderson's live-action sci-fi shows, but it would've been smarter to stick to one or commit to either the production history or fictional profiles. It still made a decent primer to series I never really watched (and probably saved me from bothering), and his reliably horny descriptions any time a woman cropped up were amusing.
2004 / Audiobook / 117 pages / USA
***
A general biography of the band through regrettable Nazi edginess to dramatic finale, it emphasises the debut album in the middle to gain entry to this album-focused series, but could've been extended to the second without much trouble. It can't help being hogged by Ian Curtis, but the other whatsisnames get fair representation too.
Richard MacLean Smith, Unexplained: Supernatural Stories for Uncertain Times
2018 / Audiobook / 352 pages / UK
***
Presumably a best-of of topics covered on the long-running podcast, that means most of them will already be familiar to anyone who's spent any amount of time with similarly-named podcasts or YouTube channels that all cover exactly the same things. The presentation's more tolerable than most of those, since each X-file is appended with possible rational explanations or philosophical musings about the limits of knowledge, but he's still indulging the suggestion that there might be something otherworldly in blatant mental illness and helping to ensure these tragic victims' meme legacies, so it still belongs with the Top 5 Bizarre Unexplained Mysteries videos with a red arrow in the thumbnail reposting blurry Photoshopped clips that were debunked in 2011. I should really stop watching those.