Just before I woke up this morning I was reading this great comic by Andi Watson about Wolverine. It was really beautiful, done in black and a soft grey, smooth lines that suggested springtime, holidays, renewal. Wolvie was undercover, posing as a newsman there to report on some conference or other (I never got far enough into it to get down to details) but there were other things on his mind. He wandered into a cafe, thinking about an ex-girlfriend who lived nearby, and the parrot sat above the counter said "What-ho! King's penman! Come to write a story!" and he exchanged a knowing look with the bird before buying an expensive soft drink and walking out into the garden, drinking it from the bottle as he went. He closed his eyes againt the sunshine and thought about her, and when he opened them again, she was there, with her two kids, just walked into the same cafe, fancy that. They talked awkwardly for a bit, and then she had to go, leaving him brooding in the sunshine.

At this point I realised I might not have time to finish the comic and flipped forward, just to see the artwork, really, and came across an advert for Ralph Steadman's amazing new graphic novel, In a Rush. Wow. The size was strange and I wondered where the comic had been printed originally (it was a reprint). Oh yes, I thought, Crisis.*

And then I woke up.

I also finally got round to watching Open Your Eyes and have to admit that after all the enthusiastic recommendations, well, hmm. I wasn't helped by finding the two leads ugly, tedious and unpleasant -- the sort of rich gits I'd never talk to in real life (and vice-versa of course) but the story was straightforward and predictable and contained too many cheap cheats ("it was a dream"). Just another in the line of many Philip K Dick-ish films from recent years -- the plot is Jacob's Ladder meets Cold Lazarus, the final reveal the one you dismissed early in the film for being too obvious/equating science with magic. Some great creepy moments, a very nice lady in the femme fatal role and some great make-up effects, but balanced against the noticeably uneven camera work and the sheer overwhelming anticharisma from the lead players and oh, no, not for me. In fact, come to think of it, the denouement was a cheap cheat. But I won't tell you which one.

However, your mileage may vary.

*As if!