Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • A warm voice in a cold world

    A warm voice in a cold world

    When I wrote down my thoughts in response to La Belle Sauvage, which is the first volume of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust, I noted that certain elements appeared incongruous or tacked-on, but that I would withhold judgement on their value or necessity until I’d read the next volume. When the title of the Read more

  • Radically obnoxious

    Radically obnoxious

    I’ve never before re-read Nemesis the Warlock, unlike most of the other legendary 2000AD strips, so revisiting it in this lavish Rebellion re-issue (the first of two volumes) was both a pleasure and a revelation, and in some respects a disappointment. Having read these stories in my weekly prog I doubtless missed a few chapters, Read more

  • Sweet reasonableness

    Sweet reasonableness

    Having had occasion to excavate some of my East Anglian roots in response to watching The Dig recently, I was well-primed to receive some insights into the history of my family in Norfolk, courtesy of my cousin Simon Gooch. His slim biography of Edwin Gooch is a fascinating account of a pioneer of Labour politics Read more

  • Doing it every day

    Doing it every day

    Watching the second film in our self-selected route through Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, I had in my mind the strengths and shortcomings of Mangrove, the first one we saw. That film is incredibly sharp on the politics, the history, and the drama of the events it depicts, but somewhat weaker on character development and Read more

  • A fairly tail

    A fairly tail

    Well, that’s two ShortBox comics in a row with a cultivated visual naïveté. However, where Núria Martínez’s Outspace is very obviously a digital work, Charlotte Mei’s Pipette & Dudley: Charming Dog Adventure wastes no opportunity to foreground the physicality of its artwork, the texture of Mei’s thick impasto bulging off nearly every page. When I Read more

  • Excavating justice

    Excavating justice

    I don’t come from Suffolk, but I’ve lived here the vast majority of my adult life, and I have family roots across Suffolk and Norfolk. If I feel a sense of belonging to anywhere, it’s here. The green, gentle hills, the un-British lack of rainfall, the distinctive speech patterns of its inhabitants… this place belongs Read more