Stop Spring Hunting on Malta

You may have seen articles in the news about how Malta has a big hunting problem - in the Springtime they shoot the migrating birds. All the migrating birds, including those that are critically endangered. Species like the Turtle Dove are protected in the UK (and across Europe) but the Maltese hunting lobby is pretty powerful and shoots them anyway.  UK turtle dove numbers have dropped by something like 93% since the 1970s, partly due to the shooting, partly due to UK habitat loss (see here: http://operationturtledove.org/).

You can read an RSPB blog here about the shooting:  http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2014/04/24/migrants-on-my-mind-3.aspx

Birdlife Malta (similar to the RSPB but more focus on birds), have started an indiegogo campaign to raise funds to equip their volunteers with recording equipment (videos etc to show the damage) and campaign for a referendum to ban the Spring hunting season.

They need €50,000 to start. Chris Packham just tweeted that 58 thousand people have looked at the funding page. If everyone gave €1 they would reach their goalhttp://tinyurl.com/kb6vlzn 

Please have a look at it and consider donating something, however small. You can use your paypal account to donate.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stop-spring-hunting-on-malta

Writing up comics

In the last week I have got a lot of comics.  I promised that I'd write up everything I read, so I am going to do so, but as the pile looks like this...

...and is four and a half inches high I can't promise I'll be writing anything substantial.  I also have a lot of comixology purchases to mention too...

On the plus side all this spending will give me lots of blog fodder!

So, to start, let's have a look at a few odd bits and pieces:

Spandex is about a group of gay superheroes living in Brighton. In this first issue they confront a 50 foot lesbian who is destroying Brighton Pier.  For those of you not aware of Brighton, it's the gay capital of the UK and the pier seems ot get burnt down with alarming regularity.  In fact I do believe they now have two piers.
The art isn't great, but something about the story shines through.  It's a tongue in cheek, campy repsentation of gay culture, and I suspect that is why I liked it.  I'm now quite gutted I didn't buy all seven issues at the con.
You can visit the website and buy copies here: http://spandexcomic.wordpress.com/

The two books at the bottom of the above picture are sketchbooks by Mahmud Asrar.  From Fallout Weekly (on the right) this beuatiful picture is included, which I hadn't seen before:

 From Blowing off Steam this Cloak and Dagger picture is included, which reminded me I must try his X-Men title:

 If you like his art do try and find his sketchbooks.  They are well worth the money.

I also got a copy of MarineMan, by Ian Churchill.  It was written and drawn by him and is very different from his work on Supergirl.  It's far more cartoony than his Supergirl - more of the classic superhero jaw on the hero and more curves on the women.  I am intrigued by it and would like to check out more, mostly because the art interests me.  It's such a big change from his Supergirl work.  Looking on Churchill's blog (and from meeting him at LSCC - he was asking fans to sign a petition for shark protection) he does seem to be very passionate about the marine environment and conservation.  For which I respect him even more.