Jonathan Ross finally reveals some of his conversation with Steve Ditko

It starts at about 30 minutes into this rather excellent podcast. Here's a little excerpt where Ross starts talking about Steve Ditko's interpretation of a Spider-Man that thrives as a teenage boy, and diverging into his own opinion about a certain controversial topic:

Jonathan Ross: "If you look at what Marvel's doing with Spider-Man now of course, in the long run, he was proved right, because as soon as he became an adult - kids, and that's primarily who those books were aimed at, couldn't associate with him in any way. Y'know, I don't think any teenagers wanted to pick up Spider-Man and read about the problems he was having with his wife Mary Jane! Why do you want to read about a married superhero? Why did they let him get married, it was about the dumbest thing they ever did! Y'know, obviously I'm saying that with the benefit of hindsight, but it was stupid. I remember seeing the cover, Spider-Man gets married, I thought - oh please, for god's sake what's wrong with you."

He also says Ditko told him Spider-Man was meant to be purple and orange, instead of red and blue! I wonder if the character would still have taken off the way it did.

Re: #welovetheNHS

Just to dispel a myth: this isn't a Labour initiative, this was started by Graham Linehan, an Irish-born comedy writer who is fed up with all three parties over here and felt that the British public's view of the NHS was being misrepresented by people who should know better over there. (the hilarious Stephen Hawking gaffe, for example) It's disappointing that most of the right-of-centre blogs haven't acknowledged this because in my mind it creates yet another falsehood in a struggle that has too many falsehoods already.

However for UK political purposes it has been hijacked by Labour, indeed it features on their front page. Linehan is also unhappy about this and has started a #makelabourapologiseforiraq trend in revenge. (Not the most pointed kind of attack he could make, admittedly.)

An apology from the Sun

The original article, published on the 27th of January 2005 (now removed from their web site):

Gollum Joker Rail Horror
By JAMIE PYATT

LORD Of The Rings fan Julian Brooker was electrocuted on a rail line while imitating his favourite character Gollum.

The 23-year-old scampered about on all fours like the 4ft hobbit and then pretended to touch a live track to impress his boozy friends.

But Julian accidentally DID touch the 750-volt third rail.

His horrified pals watched as a bolt of electricity blew him 15ft in the air and turned into a fireball.

Tragedy struck after he and pals spent a night drinking on the beach near his Brighton home on October 23 last year.
Friend Eva Natasha wept as she told an inquest how they went to London Road station at 4am and began playing “the Gollum game”.

She described how sales assistant Julian clambered from the platform on to the line.

She said: “He touched a rail and pretended to be electrocuted. I didn’t find it funny, but assumed he knew what he was doing.

“Then he touched the live rail once. He wouldn’t have touched it if he had known it was live.”

Locals heard Julian’s pals screaming and dialled 999 but he was certified dead at the scene.

Yesterday’s hearing was told Julian often got on all fours and pretended he was the evil character from the hit movie trilogy.

Tragic … Julian

Mum Vivienne Chauhan said: “It was a game from Lord Of The Rings. He was always larking about. He’d do it in the house and say he was ‘off creeping’.”

East Sussex coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley was also told Brooker was a keen numerologist obsessed with the number 23 and went drinking on that date every month.

Verdict: Accidental death.

But apparently this wasn't entirely accurate...

IN an article published on The Sun website on January 27 under the headline ?Gollum joker killed in live rail horror’ we incorrectly stated that Julian Brooker, 23, of Brighton, was blown 15ft into the air after accidentally touching a live railway line. His parents have asked us to make clear he was not turned into a fireball, was not obsessed with the number 23 and didn’t go drinking on that date every month.

Julian’s mother did not say, during or after the inquest, her son often got on all fours creeping around their house pretending to be Gollum.
Also, quotes from a witness should have been attributed to Gemma Costin not Eva Natasha. We apologise for the distress this has caused Julian’s family and friends

Alan Moore talking about Marvel's acquisition of Marvelman in May 2009

PÓM: OK. The only other thing about your previous work is, do you keep up with what’s going on with the Marvelman Miracleman debacle?

AM: Nah. I mean, other than the fact that I was happy to do everything that I could to help Mick Anglo, who is the person who has always owned all of the rights to Marvelman, as far as I now understand it, that we never had the rights to do those stories, even though Mick really liked the stories that we did. We didn’t understand at the time that Mick Anglo was the sole owner of the rights. We were misled. So I’ve done everything that I can to clear all that up. I’ve said that, they talked about the possibility – what they want is money quickly, because Mick’s a very old man, he’s got a sick wife to look after, and they could use some dosh quite quickly.

I mean, I believe that the Todd McFarlane thing, his ridiculous claims to the character have now been dropped, so it can move on. I believe that they’re going to be reprinting some of my stuff, but I’m not sure of all the details, I’ve just said, “Yeah, go ahead,” and all the money from the first book, from the first printing of the book, should go to Mick Anglo. They’ve also said that what if there’s a possibility of some animated Marvelman cartoons, and I’ve said, again, “Don’t put me name on them, and give all the money to Mick Anglo.” So I hope that some of it turns up in time to do Mick some good, because he’s a great artist, you know, the British comics scene would be poorer without him...

Courtesy of Forbidden Planet Blog.