I was looking up at the sky yesterday evening and it occurred to me that everything that's ever happened on this planet has happened beneath that sky - and with the exception of a few things that have caused humans to clash with each other on a grand scale, you'll never know about any of it. The more I thought about this, the more I considered exactly how much we don't know about it. History has been, gone and remained largely uncatalogued because millions of people didn't die. That's all we've left behind? A legacy of death? I guess we could throw in sporadic moments of inspired engineering, painting and adventuring but you could more or less stuff all of that in a single large volume if you tried hard enough. That's pretty sad don't you think?

And right at that moment, I really wanted to write a spiritual book. I've read enough of them in my time to know what makes a great one. From Coelho to Castaneda to books by people that don't even have names - there's some great material out there. But there's also a lot of wisdom that slips through the cracks because it doesn't come from a 'good enough' source. Take this quote for instance, which is from Michael Connolly's detective, Harry Bosch:

"Either everybody counts or nobody counts"

Maybe I'll work on the idea. Then again, as Denis Leary pointed out: "Fuck it, it was like this when I found it."

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Comic book project approaching completion here... this week I've wrapped up five more interviews with some great people, including one that has come barreling straight out of my teenage days which has been pretty cool to be honest. I'm really appreciative of exactly how much time some of these guys have handed over to me but I'll save the thanks column for somewhere a little more permanent than here.

Anyway - I can see the end from here - of the written part anyway. A couple more things to wrap up and then I'll need to switch to production mode on the design front. This one is going to be very much an all hands on deck (all four of them) if we're going to get it finished in time. Funny how much I still like that 'making' part of the process - I hope it never leaves. It's like having a hand in laying the foundations of a house you're having built.

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A while back, Penguin released some classic books with the covers redesigned by tattoo artists and now they have done the same again with street artists. Here's a couple from the run that I thought stood head and shoulders above the others - which can all be seen here.

Maybe I'm biased, but these two are also the best written amongst the collection. I really like the cover art for What A Carve Up too, but I haven't read that - so will simply have to judge the book by its cover and say it looks great. Will add to list.

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Back to work... accompanied today by Mick Ronson. Good choice Sir...

Picked up a book today by a writer I should have read long ago. His name is Don DeLillo - and as happens sometimes, I found that he's been writing forever, so now I feel cheap that I didn't know this - but it happens. I assume his catalogue has just been given a re-release because there's a whole set of brand new Picador's on the shelf of the local store that certainly weren't there last week. They're damn good covers though (yeah - I judged the books by them. Wanna make something of it?). Even though they all sound like I should buy every single one them and bed down for the next month or so, I settled on a copy of Point Omega that looks like this:

It's not very long at all, but one of his other books - Underworld - is possibly one of the thickest books I've ever seen, and I've seen a few in my time. That looks like this:

Getting the picture now? They're all produced in a matt finish too which makes them even better - for design nerds like me, these have been designed by Noma Bar at the London agency Dutch Uncle. Gonna have to get the whole collection - I can feel it in my bones.

Anyway, while I was eyeballing his collection, I found some quotes from DeLillo who apparently doesn't do interviews too often. This one made me nod wisely to myself:

"I was called a cult writer in the 70s, when that meant that very few people were reading me."

I think that's still true now though isn't it? I really hope that being a cult writer doesn't horrifically mean that you're simply marketed as a cult writer to make sure people who like 'cult writers' will pick you up.

I like that he doesn't do interviews too much. That way, when he does speak, he says incredibly wise things like:

"I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore." and;

"I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version." and, from Point Omega;

“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”

Beautiful. So beautiful that I might have to make myself a peanut butter sandwich...