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graveyard of DOOM index < | > Man Bites Dog is being released in the UK this August. Which is nice. Allen & Unwin cut a deal with Orion Books and there are 500 copies of MBD due for release into the British book-buying wild in just over two months. I've been scrabbling around what passes for my network, trying to find a few places that might be interested in reviewing a copy. The kind of places that perhaps publishing companies wouldn't necessarily think of right away. You know - ziney websitey indie-y kind of places that would perhaps think well of a book about a malfeasant minicomic artist and his pals the zinemaker and the spoken worder. I've cobbled together a wee list of about seven names and addresses so far, but if any of the find folk who read this web site have an idea of somewhere or someone that would be up for extolling my virtues, I'd be keen to know your thoughts. That's the contact link right there, just above and to the right of this paragraph. I can't wait to see if people on the other side of the English-speaking world are going to be interested in fictional goings-on in a tiny gentrified Australian inner-city suburb. Will the story come across as universal, or will it be overlooked because of its antipodean origins and strongly Fitzroy-centric overtones? What I really need is someone from Home and Away to hold a copy up, cover facing the camera. Maybe it could be a clue in the current murder investigation episode that my cursory glances at the dinnertime promos have alerted me to. Do any of the characters on Home and Away even read? I know the teen characters get with each other and argue and go upstairs to listen to CDs and go to the milk bar thing where that guy Alf works, but I'm not so sure about reading. I can remember my friend Philippa trying for years to work a book into an onscreen moment on Neigbours, during her tour of duty as storyliner for that great Australian institution. Apparently it wasn't easy. She'd suggest that a scene opened with Toadie feet up on the coffee-table, nose deep in a book, or Dee thumbing thoughtfully through a paperback at the coffee shop, but most of the time the direction was cut from the final script. I think they eventually ended up with a B-level storyline featuring Lynnie rediscovering the joys of reading and passing it on to the other mothers on Ramsay Street, but from what I remember of the bits I saw of it, it all felt strangely insincere and gratuitous. Much like the rest of the show, as a matter of fact.
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