Avoiding the World Cup: Day One

By John Freeman on June 8, 2006

Well, actually, that’s a lie, I’ve been trying to avoid it for weeks. But really, what’s all the fuss about? If I hear any more about Wayne ‘Shrek’ Rooney’s bloody meta tarsel I swear I’ll put a brick through the telly and no, that won’t be an excuse to race out and buy a 42″ replacement and couch to match.

As my wife said when the dreaded injury occurred, ‘get up, you’re not dead’, which perhaps wasn’t very charitable but you really would think Rooney was going to play every position on the field for England and there weren’t another, um, 20 + players in the squad.

One of my friends works in a nursing home and some of the little old ladies in there have gotten themselves in a right state, wondering if they’re missing something and why the World Cup is suddenly so important… and thinking that it really must be important and perhaps they should join in somehow. is there a senior citizens version of the tournament?

Today’s attempt to avoid the world cup may involve pouring cold water over passers by wearing England shirts and talking loudly about baseball. Since very few British people know anything about baseball — including me — no-one will dare challenge me and I will insist it is far more important than anything going on in Germany.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.