H & M 4

I'm going to make this the last instalment of Aitch 'n' Em to be trickled out via the blog for now, for two simple reasons. First, I don't see how anyone will be able to follow what's going on once the frames start getting spread out by regular blog stuff. Second, I'm enjoying this a lot, but I'm aware I'm entering territory with its own well-established "language", one which I barely speak. I can see a visit to Forbidden Planet in my future, and I wish I was in France, where shops specialising in BDs (bandes dessinées) are thicker on the ground, and incredibly well stocked.

In case you haven't twigged – unlikely, if [a] you didn't also grow up in my near neighbourhood, and [b] don't have any interest in Nordic mythology – the basic scenario is that Odin's two ravens, Huginn and Muninn ("thought" and "memory"), have been sent on a mission to [spoiler removed] in the block of council flats where I spent my adolescent years, now sadly demolished (which in architectural terms is the equivalent of being sadly dead). If (a big if) I develop this further, the idea is that these two birds will go on to have further adventures; this may happen quite quickly, as I will shortly run out of flat-related pictures to use.

I may, from time to time, show a choice frame or two on the blog as I learn my trade, and will also make available PDF "books" of any coherent stories that emerge. Meanwhile, here is a rainy Paris seen from the interior of a typical BD shop. Who knows? Maybe Aitch 'n' Em figurines will be on sale there one day (or Ache et Emme, I suppose). Although I must admit I do find these very expensive and purposeless items aimed at adult collectors rather sad, don't you? Even if I were stinking rich, I can't imagine wanting to put my arrested development as a reader on public display like that. Of course, writing the stuff is a very different matter...