Newsarama has an interesting article on the rights and wrongs of comic book publishers (such as Marvel) putting out material involving a public figure (in this case, Barack Obama).

My question to Marvel would be why they permitted an sequence involving Gordon Brown to appear in Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (which generated a lot of positive coverage for him over here) and blocked a similar sequence in a future issue involving David Cameron.

Now I doubt that anyone at the publisher seriously favours one over the other (I would not presume anyone at Marvel knows anything about UK politics, why would they?) but this lack of equality in coverage essentially boils down to political interference over here. - especially given that it's added to Gordon Brown's personal delusion that he's some sort of superhero, "saving the world" he says, which is doing serious damage to the way he runs the country.

Gordon attempts table tennis

Terry Moore leaves Runaways after only nine issues

"My stint on Runaways is 9 issues. I’m on issue 7 now."

Why did they relaunch it if he's not in it for the long haul? I don't like this - Brian K. Vaughan did a solid 42-issue run, the book needs someone who can stick around for a while, preferably an up-and-comer who's young enough to remember what it means to be a teenager and imaginative enough to create a dynamic take on the characters and develop them over a significant period of time. Its just annoying because the Runaways is the strongest and has the most longevity of any of Marvel's recent creations, and all this stop-start nonsense is just squandering it.

(Although in terms of artists, Humberto Ramos and Takeshi Miyazawa are perfectly suited to the book.)

Boris? Racist? Not this malarkey again...

I was quite appalled to see some moron on BBC's "Most Annoying People of 2008" describe Boris' ping pong remarks at the Olympic Games as "racist" - as though taking pride in the British origins of something is a fundamentally racist thing to do.

Now as for him being ranked 17, I can fully understand why many (particularly on the left) get frustrated with him. But I love him dearly. He is one of those rare politicians intent on making politics a cheerful matter which people should not be afraid to get involved in. And I have to say my confidence in that list was also undermined by the number 1 choice being someone I'd never heard of. Agyness Deyn? Who?

Meanwhile, Boris' Wall Street Journal interview is oodles of fun.