Hello your eyes. Here’s the almighty first episode of Screencleaner with LOADS on MP media interests, a gaming and then a bad film review; lots of fun edutainment. These are going out every Wednesday at 10pm for the next six weeks.
13 in September on Patreon: micro-reviewing Always Sunny, weekly for 82 weeks now, go me. Press Gang video essays, which is turning up some odd links and as I finish Series 2 is painting a picture of a show marrying reliable industry veterans with fresh new talent. The project of reading all of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld for the first time continues. On top of that I’m rolling out videos from the Caption Comics Festival on a Friday. Today a great piece on Sustaining Safe Spaces which was supremely enriching to chair, perhaps my favourite panel at the event. That joins a Broken Frontier creators to watch panel, a presentation by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey on the Herts MA in Digital Comics, and on Saturday, my own lightning talk on Absence: A comic about epilepsy.
On October 29th I debut an experimental passion project of a few years thought. Screencleaner aims to be a weekly current affairs magazine show, hosted by me, aiming to burst with attitude, humour, knowledge and authenticity… Emphasis will be on news and politics but I will be including TV, comics, music, games, films, whatever else floats my boats.
Charlie Brooker’s various Wipe series might be a good comparison to hang it on. Like those I’ll be bringing in a half dozen guests to help me. Not sure who I can announce until its done but I feel secure in saying David ‘Indytruckdavy’ McGuinness will be there, he of omnipotent Scots politics YouTubery with morning newspaper reviews and twice weekly ‘The Two Davies’ show. I also have the support of Jenny and Alex of Random Scottish History. With Screencleaner ep. 1 going out around Halloween Jenny will be talking about horror films she loves. Alex has turned in the show’s theme music and is designing the series logo which I hope to show off soon. All this makes me feel better about the terrifying prospect of the venture.
Anyhue, here’s a list of the videos I’ve published across September for your interest,
Caption Comics Fest has happened and everyone enjoyed it and James Kochalka said he wished he could have been there. A Work Capability Assessment was a trial and a verdict was good. New gerbil babies were born, some died. The Gen 1 gerb Abed died, and I am remembering I can’t feed him. RIP Abed 2022-2025. Goodbye old buddy.
I found Abed night Friday 29th, around 10. Cold but not stone-cold. On Thursday I called him for his favourite foods. When he didn’t come I left them out. A ‘special’, (a large white seed), and a ‘Nibblot’ (healthy & costly treats) are placed with his body on a bed of woodchip in a plastic tub in the freezer. When the rain goes off I’ll dig a hole in the back garden. Abed, and his late bro Troy, were my first gen gerbils. We’d a unique friendship, the sort that can only happen over time. He was slow and nonchalant and stubborn. He could be mistrustful and delighted in trolling me. But every so often he’d reach out a wee paw of love. Sit still and let himself be stroked. Randomly jump into the pocket of my hoodie and out the other side. He didn’t escape often but when he did he liked to go far to see the sunroom. On Wednesday he managed the difficult feat of climbing over the ledge of his tank onto the bookshelf. When I put him back he did it again. Yeah I’ve been crying and I will again. He seems to have gone peacefully. 3 and a half is an okay age for a gerbil. He would have lived longer if he hadn’t spent the last nine months alone. But I did what I could. He was loved and he knew it.
Hello. I thought it was about right for a check-in as to were I’m going with life and Patreon and YouTube. My Universal Credit issues were resolved around three weeks ago, or at least a respite around them for the Summer. It all feels unstable as to after that. For now I can pay my rent and other essential bills with some left over for unforeseen expenses and things like funeral outfits and an afternoon at the cafe here and there. I will be going to Caption, a great comics art networking opportunity and community friendship event. If you’d like to attend, tickets are available at caption.sumupstore.com
My “deal” with Universal Credit means I can keep making weekly videos, previewed first on Patreon. But my “ordeal” with Universal Credit has left me psychologically beaten up and physically fatigued. I’ve had to think carefully about what I’m capable of. And I also want to ask, what do you want to see in this channel? Knowing me like you do, what will you watch?
If I earned anything approaching a living wage I could put out more. It’s a moebius loop. I’ve got so many plans, wants for content. But for the summer I need to heal and that means shorter pieces. The Always Sunny videos, while not everyone’s bag are a labour of love and badge of pride, and it takes about 3 hours to make one. I was really glad to see a recent gerbil video leap to triple digit viewing figures. These are quick and easy to make and I enjoy doing them. With footage catalogued to re-work they also don’t take long. I think I’ll put out one each for two weeks followed by something more ambitious inbetween. These will be – not to break me – remasters from audio. My talk at the Scribes and Scibblers Online Convention of 2021 on Sociological Narrative and my interview with Bronagh Lawson. Bronagh’s artistic journey, City of Light, saw her visit a different church in Belfast each week for years and years. There’s like 600 churches in the relatively small city.
What would you like to see on this channel? Where’s my audience at? Pop it in the comments. There’s all likelihood I’m sitting on something that’s not dissimilar to what you’d like to see.
I’m thinking over two longer form series for the second half of 2025. The Press Gang Readers Commentaries, my documentary series on a mass recommended yet ridiculously under-looked at comedy-drama. I have seven episodes to close out Series 2. The BAFTA winning child abuse two parter, great character episodes, like N.V. Gillespie, and some great thriller-chillers of cinematic proportions. It’s a phenomenal run of television but my reviews about it are labour intensive. However I am very excited by conversations with a few well-known names about our love for the show. I don’t want to tell you who but watch this space you will.
My other idea is for a pre-recorded magazine show. An idea that I’ve been unable to remove for years and years. Essentially it’ll contain humour, news, opinion, education and entertainment. It’ll cover books, comics, TV, film, social media and politics. And theoretically it will help the practice of composing short-form content going out at 25 minutes. Or thereabouts. In eight weekly episodes.
My model for this is Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe. An old idea which I feel still has legs. And like Screenwipe I want to be drafting in a few friends to educate and entertain me. And so you’re not stuck with my mug for all of it. I’m tentatively working with the unimaginative name of ScreenClean. ScreenCleaner? If you’ve something better in mind, let me know. I’ll get a desk in. And a shirt and tie. And some fancy graphics.
But this isn’t set in stone. I need to know I’ve enough finances coming in so I’m not fearing sitting with a begging bowl outside the Ayn Rand Institute.
What do you think? A terrible idea?
Do you want more Doctor Who, is that it? Or Always Sunny? This could be a straight Always Sunny channel, wall to wall, shoving it in your face. That’s a reference to Always Sunny. Should I be taking up reaction videos for you? Ooh, I’ve not seen Babylon 5: Crusade, GAVIN.
What could I do that’ll get a thousand views while I sleep? Please leave all suggestions in the comments. Oh but make the silly outlandish ones really outlandish because tone can be lost on the internet and my mum is pretty sure I’m autistic anyway. And a big thank you to all my patrons. They’re a small group, giving variant amounts. (Read aloud all names) It helps me to know that they’re there, giving whatever. And people who comment and like regularly. Community support is such a sustainable thing. I try to comment on YouTube videos I enjoy whenever I can and I wish I could comment a whole lot more because it is a signature of respect and gratitude and it feeds with fuel.
And that’s all from me. I don’t have anything more on the autocue. I can only guess. The gerbils are circling. Shotcut video editor is booting up. Subscribe, like, comment and share. Whatever you do, share.
This horror-comedy is careful not to exploit the cruelty of its dicey theme, favouring consistent light wit over crash-bang punchlines.
The word count is economical in this adventure of key protagonist Humphrey Hardly, himself a masterclass in writing the outsider. The tortured soul is deftly contrasted in public settings and interactions, but author Robbins gives Humphrey no pass in showing his culpability with vulnerability. The character performs brutal acts yet for the most its meandering pondering and uncertain tangents and doubts creating an undue sympathy, and centrally, a desire for him to succeed in his villain’s journey. Unsettling.
In a cast of wrong ‘uns there’s a danger-addict unprepared for normalising Humphrey, given she is his normal; a duo of sharp on menace and high on comedy enforcers; a looming big mob boss; a cluster of feral children, and a mouthy pub bore. Humphrey’s parents round out the cast and offer (shaky) grounding. The characters run the story with a common familiarity leaving me wondering if the author isn’t on real crime reporting here. Plenty of absurdity too. From home-life domestic to highway criminal, this here’s a mad journey.
Having honed his craft over decades of short stories, Robbins gives us a high-powered novella. It’s great to join him as he stretches his legs with longer-form prose. I’m left excited for the next thing.
This blog has been vacant a while but 2023 has been one of my most productive. I began the year finishing my commentaries on Occupied, the comedic protest novel set in Belfast.
In January, a poll went out on what readers wanted to see. They chose activist art, like the 5-track poetry EP…
Fun with MS Paint…
And a film about my life as an activist.
From a visual standpoint it makes the grade.
The poll set me to making Coastlines: After Dark, a series of short stories based on everything from Baywatch Nights to Garth Mahrengi’s Darkplace. The book is 2/3 done. Look out for the published collection in Autumn 2024, with a big-name introduction!
In April I began Half Baked Alaska. It’s the tale of a deepsea fishermen getting closer to an unusually large sea monster, which is in turn getting closer to them.
Oh, Discworld, Discworld! 2023 began with a look at ‘Sourcery’, and ended with ‘Witches Abroad’. Scriptwriter PJ Hart has read a lot of Discworld and I haven’t read much. We manage a near-monthly podcast (and videocast) talking about the books.
January of this year was extra special. You see, PJ and I have been in contact over 20 years but had never met. So you can see that meeting and an interview with Pratchett biographer Marc Burrows over here.
One of my goals for 2024 is to re-launch on YouTube with 200 seconds reviews on Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There are twenty episodes behind the Patreon paywall, a public debut on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/andrewluke. Please. I’m so lonely. In April I’ll be posting reviews of the new Doctor Who.
And now, I’m off to work on Another Time, a YA novel by Holly Miles about life in an anti-choice Ireland. That’s scheduled for a January 2025 release. I hope we’ll talk before then.
If you’d like to sign up to Patreon, all content is shared at the ridiculously cheap £1 per month.
If you want a sample, there is no charge until the 1st of the month. If its not your flavour, or finance woes hit, unsubscribe before then; no hard feelings. Though do say hello. It’s mostly nice to hear back from the world wide sphere. Or if you’re on a space station.
Patreon.com/andyluke is my home most of these days. Got to look after the paying customers first. And some times that finds its way to audiences.
Half Baked Alaska is my new novel, a thriller-comedy set in the Aleutians range circa 1950s. Serialisation is just beginning.
200 Seconds Sunny. A series of capsule audio-video reviews of Always Sunny in Philadelphia. We’re just beginning series 2. Good reception.
I’ve Never Read Discworld is a quite popular podcast series. We’ve previewed The Colour of Magic to Moving Pictures on Patreon. The series is free to listen (or watch) at anchor.fm/iveneverreaddiscworld
Coastlines: After Dark are short stories inspired by Baywatch Nights, and badly made 80s/90s TV thrillers. Ten of them are published and they’ll be collected early in 2024 with a celebrity introduction!
Politics Aloud is an irregular podcast, seemingly salacious government inquiry documents read aloud for the busy political student. Scrutiny of Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and cronies of vitriol are at anchor.fm/politics-aloud
Patreon is also first where I disclose side projects:
Executive producer on Milvian Bridge: A one-hour audio play about the war of the emperors of Rome and the proliferation of memes. We have a star cast and a fabulous crew and we enter full production next week.
Co-editor on Holly Miles’ Another Time: An unsettling novel about Irish students’ struggles with women’s rights. At a guess, for a late 2023/early 2024 release.
Gerb Vids: Ongoing video series documenting my new baby gerbils, Troy and Abed. Shenanigans afoot!
123go! Comics’ Shootout at the Sugar Skull: There’s an epic western thriller coming to Sidereal Apogee comic, drawn by Jorge Luis Gabotto aka Hiroshi. Art previews up on there!
I’d really appreciate subscribers from $1 up, or people who can spread the word. My health has been poorly of late with epilepsy, flu and depression, so if you can pep me up where I need it most that’s the place to be. https://patreon.com/andyluke
Comedy-drama Press Gang was widely hailed as one of the best YA telly series ever, attracting critical acclaim and industry awards. As well as featuring some of the best names in the business it launched a dozen careers including those of Stephen Moffat, Julia Sawalha, Dexter Fletcher, Lee Ross, Paul Reynolds, Gabrielle Anwar and Lucy Benjamin.
Occupied author Andy Luke’s feature presentation includes character studies and reviews of ten episodes from Series 1-2. You’ll also hear from roving reporters Ian Lawther, author Tristan Shephard and comics artists Simon Hodgkiss-Rogers and Peter Bangs.
In which we celebrate two anniversaries of James Roberts game-changing Lost Light stories: a hard SF epic of post-conflict rehabilitation and redemption, romance and loss, identity, gender, labour, philosophy, crime and punishment; but mostly relationships, all told with wit and poignancy and Transformers.
Occupied author and host Andy Luke talks about his favourite storylines and characters. A reader’s cherry is broken as Simon Hodgkiss-Rodgers extols the virtues of the story’s ease of access and freshness and Ciaran Flanagan talks musical direction. There’s also an exclusive update from James towards the end, so look out for that!
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