Alrightreads: Films IV

Peter Swaab, Bringing Up Baby

2010 / Ebook / 96 pages / UK

**

An uncritical appreciation of a fun film that nevertheless feels the need to ceaselessly cross-reference the screwball canon.

Mark Kermode, Silent Running

2014 / Ebook / 88 pages / UK

***

Having previously attempted to novelise the film in his teens, its biggest fan now turns to summarising its Making-of feature, which is quite the story.

David M. Lubin, Titanic

2000 / Ebook / 144 pages / USA

***

Unexpected academic nostalgia.

Patricia White, Rebecca

2021 / Ebook / 120 pages / USA

****

Irresistible gothic glamour.

Unknown, Mei and the Kittenbus

2002 / Ebook / 24 pages / Japan

***

The biggest little tease in cinema, it's impressive that the museum-incarcerated Totoro sequel has managed to evade piracy all this time, with the exception of a borderline-unwatchable stealth phone recording and this Japanese souvenir artbook. Lovely pictures, anyway.

Ranking the Iced Earth albums

Iced Earth* was my proudest independent comparatively-obscure heavy metal discovery of my teens, so I was delighted that wearing a Horror Show T-shirt to some university rock society events led to me being known as "Iced Earth Guy" to a couple of people.

I don't know if they were ever quite my favourite band. Maybe briefly, but the familiar problem of faded glory that affects many bands' discographies felt particularly frustrating for being on such a compact scale. Never releasing anything really worthwhile ever again and being overtaken by politics and toxic personality didn't help either.

Still, nostalgia and riffs. Here's a retrospective of My Top Few Iced Earth Albums And The Rest.

Actually, I can't be bothered. Here's one of these instead:

* I never noticed how dumb the name sounds.

Babyliography CXXXVI

Smriti Halls and Ali Pye, Who Are You?

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Her random selections aren't constrained by social constructs.

Kes Gray and Jim Field, Oi Cat!

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

*

This series has tons of merchandise, even its own Top Trumps. I don't get it.

Margot Channing, First Experiences: Jim Goes to Hospital

2013 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Goes a bit overboard on the details for recreational reading.

Morena Forza, Seasons & Sounds: Listen to Autumn

2022 / Library book / 14 pages / Italy

*

Crunching leaves and other incredible approximations of the mundane. Just go to the park.

Russell Ayto, The Other Day I Met a Bear

2001 / Preschool book / 32 pages / UK

*

This might be her first story to mention guns. Thanks, nursery!

Babyliography CXXXV

Unknown, My Little Pony Annual 2005

2004 / Hardback / 62 pages / UK

***

Peril-free time-passing with the millennial ponies.

William Bee, Migloo's Weekend

2016 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

Where's Wally with a somewhat intrusive story.

Jon Burgerman, Everybody Has Feelings

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

She found its tedious parade edutaining.

Mark Sperring and Tim Budgen, 20 Dinosaurs at Bedtime

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Atypically complicated names for a preschool bedtime book.

Michael Rosen and Kevin Waldron, Chocolate Cake

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / UK/Ireland

**

Made me feel more sick than peckish.

Babyliography CXXXIV

Sally Grindley and Peter Utton, It's the Troll!

2017 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

A superfluous expansion, but at least it's got flaps.

Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard, The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Princess and the Pea

2016 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Ruining another bedtime story.

Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb, The Everywhere Bear

2016 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

****

A sweet adventure, apart from all the decapitated fish.

Ingela P Arrhenius, Where's Mr Pirate?

2021 / Library book / 12 pages / Sweden

**

Felt flaps rob them of some of their edge.

Katrina Charman and Nick Sharratt, Go, Go, Pirate Boat

2021 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

**

Row, Row Your Boat, but with criminals.

The Gala

Rainbow Dash and Rainy

Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie

Princess Cadance, Princess Celestia, Heart, Princess Rainbow Dash and Egg

Go, Misty, Sweetberry and Little Lise

Yellow, Bluey, Aimee, Bow, Glowy, Fluttershy and Tent

Doma, Sunbright, Minty and Rainbow Dash

Concept and photography © Aimee

Alrightreads: Art Books IV

Peter Jones, Solar Wind

1980 / Ebook / 92 pages / UK

***

Fantastic beasts, impractical space bikinis and other flights of fancy.

Faves: 'By the Pricking of My Thumb,' 'The Killer Mice,' 'The Venus Trap,' 'Telempath'

Michael Whelan, Michael Whelan's Works of Wonder

1987 / Ebook / 109 pages / USA

****

Gorgeous paperback escapism.

Faves: 'The Robots of Dawn,' 'Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern,' 'H.P. Lovecraft Series,' 'Foundation's Edge'

John Harris and Ron Tiner, Mass: The Art of John Harris

2000 / Ebook / 112 pages / UK

****

Vertigo-inducing megastructures and overpromising home computer analogies offset by serene vistas.

Faves: 'Drunkard's Walk,' 'Astropolis,' 'The Age of Pussyfoot,' 'Mass: The Building of FTL1'

Thomas Hodge and artists, VHS Video Cover Art: 1980s to Early 1990s

2015 / Ebook / 264 pages / Various

***

Not as awesome as hoped, but still sometimes funny.

Faves: Gremloids, Berserker, The Death Dealer, The Stuff, The Wailing

Various, Art of Atari Poster Collection

2017 / Ebook / 42 pages / Various

**

A tellingly brief exhibition that unconvincingly attempts to bridge the chasm from sports to D&D.

Faves: Haunted House, Video Pinball, Tempest 2600

Alrightreads: Quickies

Philip Pullman, The Imagination Chamber: Cosmic Rays from Lyra's Universe

2022 / Audiobook / 87 pages / UK

**

Deleted snippets and unwritten sketches jazzed up for desperate completists.

Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing, The Zaucer of Zilk

2012 (collected 2013) / Ebook / 76 pages / UK

****

I'n't Zilk zany?

David Lynch, The Angriest Dog in the World

1983-92 (collected 2020) / Ebook / 34 pages / USA

*

Makes Garfield look like side-splitting high art.

Rhys Hughes, Yee-Haw: Weirdly Western Poems

2022 / Ebook / 121 pages / UK

**

I'm fond of his pun-fixated fiction,

but converted to verse, I am averse.

Various, A1, Book One

1989 / Ecomic / 96 pages / UK

****

Precisely as pretentious as you'd hope a 1989 British art-comic anthology would be.

Faves: John Bolton's 'Bad Bread,' Dave Gibbons & Ted McKeever's 'Survivor,' Alan Moore & Steve Parkhouse's 'Festus: Dawn of the Dead'

Alrightgames: My Little Pony - Pinkie Pie's Party

My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie's Party

2008 / Nintendo DS emulator game

**

Microphone-blowing tasks stumped the tablet emulation, so the celebrations remain anticlimactically incomplete.

Alrightgames: Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper

Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper

2005 / Game Boy Advance emulator game

**

Her first strategy game. Once we're through this, she should be ready for StarCraft.