Ben T Copper

Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked is based on the continuing work of Ben T Copper.

After retiring from the force on health grounds, Ben was a freelance writer for The Daily Scum, practising the dark art of hacking.

A four-year sabbatical at Ford Open Prison has not damped his enthusiasm for his work. He now takes advantage in a little known legal loophole that states that the hacking of fictional characters is not a criminal act.

Ben lives in Slough with no wife, no children and no cat.

Twitter @Ben_T_Copper

Meet Woodie

MyMates Profile

Woodie
Age: 16
Likes: Girls, video games, curry.

Friends with Red Riding Hood.

Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked  Available from AMAZON

Meet Mum

The smoking new book from Simon Bor
Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked
Available from Amazon now.

Meet Goldilox

The smoking new book from Simon Bor
Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked
Available from Amazon now.

Meet Gran

The smoking new book from Simon Bor
Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked
Available from Amazon now.

Through the Portal: The Twins Paradox

A single fact from scientific theory can legitimize the far-fetched. Take the nature of time. We move forward in time at twenty-four hours a day and sixty minutes an hour. ‘We are all time travellers… We are all stuck on the same train, and for practical purposes, it never speeds up, slows down, or goes backwards’ (Time Travel in Theory and Practice, Love (2013) from The Time Traveller’s Almanac.) Or does it? Absolute time is a theory of the past; gravity slows down time’s progress and travelling at high-speed triggers the contrary. 

Part 3 of Through the Portal looks at The Twins Paradox and Robert Heinlein's 1956 novel, Time for the Stars.

Cider with Tovey

‘You are invited to a book launch,’ said the message on Facebook. I was looking forward to canapés and prosecco in some swanky Bloomsbury office, when the penny dropped; this was an online party with the publisher and author on hand for live chat. Unperturbed, I put on a clean sweatshirt, opened a can of cider, opened a pack of falafels and jar of olives and logged on.

Through the Portal: The Time Machine

In PART 1, I looked at how the idea of time travel was used in literature before H G Wells wrote The Time Machine. Here I take a closer look at Well's novella. 

Forgotten Dare returns with the Mekon

Good to see the 'forgotten era' of Dan Dare will be back in print next month in 'Dan Dare: The 2000 AD Years Vol 1'. The first issue of 2000 AD came out when I was a humble art student and it became cult reading in the common room. Dan Dare had become a hero for the seventies, a more violent testosterone driven man than the old school Brit of the original Eagle comic.

Then came the return of dare's arch enemy,The Mekon, and a stunning cover by the late Mike Western. A few years later, I worked with Mike's son Pete Western, who got his dad to draw me my very own Mekon (see above).

Although the later Dan Dare 2000 AD strips by Dave Gibbons have been reprinted, this new graphic novel from 2000 AD will feature the first two stories for the first time since the seventies.


http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2015/upcoming-dan-dare-the-2000-ad-years/

Through the Portal: The Birth of Time Travel

I was brought up on a diet of portal travelling stories such as the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian Chronicles. From Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, the successful children’s and young adult fantasy fiction novel often focuses on contemporary protagonist with access to another world. Often theses are parallel or alternative dimensions, such as Narnia in C S Lewis’s The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, or time travel as with Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. Recent books such as The Multiverse of Max Tovey can be a blend of both genres; Alistair Swinnerton takes a contemporary character into the past, into a parallel dimension where the Roman Empire still rules and to the underworld of the Awin of Welsh legend. It's the portal through time I want to look at here, and how the concept has evolved.

Time Travel

A bit of time travelling here. Looking back at myself outside the cottage my parents rented in Bont Goch near Aberystwyth.

Waffles on show @ the Southwest Academy Open

Anyone living in Cambridge in the 70's will remember Waffles. It was pulled down, along with most of the area known as 'the Kite' to make way for the dreary Grafton Centre.

Waffles - Cambridge  Lino cut 2015

One of two prints by Simon Bor on show at The Southwest Academy Open Exhibition   29th September to 3rd October 2015 at St Stephen's Church, High Street, Exeter

Doctor Who for a tanner a time

In the week that the new trailer for Doctor Who included Peter Capaldi in cool shades, here is the original cool Doctor, Jon Pertwee at a school summer fate in Cambridge in 1970. 

CMC 2015

Links to reports by Simon Bor from The Children's Media Conference 2015, held in Sheffield from July 1st -3rd.

Tom and Jerry try to upstage Dick and Dom at the "It Takes Two" session.


Opening Keynote: Michael Stevens- All Change?
YouTube video star Michael Stevens, creator of the hugely successful Vsauce educational channels entertained and challenged a 750 strong audience of children’s media makers with his views on engagement, authenticity and the YouTube “revolution”.

Masterclass: Industrial Light & Magic

“TV is not dead,” says top Vlogger.

The visual effects industry in Soho has grown from 1,000 people in 2003 to 6,000.

Is Xlab the future of interactive storytelling?

The verdict on that new Star Wars film.

It Takes Two

Dick and Dom. “A Double act is like a separate marriage.”

Tom and Jerry are enemies who can’t live without each other.

Danger Mouse retains his DNA for the new series.

There maybe more male double acts because girls are more prone to falling out.

Licensed to Thrill

It’s all about eye-balls.

License owners should think like a consumer thinks.

Disney have 80% of the US market, after companies like Nickelodeon, there’s not much left for the rest of us.

It is now more respectable for adults to buy licensed product.

The new Thunderbirds works for today’s kids because of the writing.

Changing Platforms

ITV needed to find a way to monetise their content after their SuBo moment.

Big music companies were turning away acts with ready-made fan bases.

PopShack appeals to 9 – 16 year–olds.

It has been death by a 1,000 cuts for traditional creative communities.

Creating content for YouTube brings new freedoms.

Changing Platforms: Conversations with Publishers

Reading agents’ Tweets is a good way of identifying the right agent for your book.

A ‘packager’ is the publishing equivalent of a TV production company.

Marketing departments matter. If publishers don’t make money, they close.

Late TV scheduling decisions get in the way of many deals.

TV/book tie-ins are usually part of a much larger licensing programme.

Tokenism to Truthful

 50% of the regular cast of ‘The Dumping Ground’ are diverse.

‘Katie Morag’ has the kind of authenticity that is lacking from other minority portrayals.

A new passport is a great moment for a Trans person.

The world of fine art can be elitist and exclusive.

The Exeter Art Show

'The Old Gaol: Topsham' a photo-etching, will be shown for the first time at The Exeter Art Show, 4th & 5th July 2015 at The Maynard School in Exeter.

I'm in The Big Colyton Art Show

Five of my prints are to be exhibited at The Big Colyton Art Show this month. Colyton Grammar School's first Big Art Show is a two-day fundraising event featuring artworks by more than 50 of the finest artists, jewellers, ceramicists and glassmakers from across the region. Click here to view the online catalogue  thebigcolytonartshow. Details of the event are below.

Internationally acclaimed artist Charlie O'Sullivan is our enthusiastic Patron and esteemed artist Alan Cotton is supporting and exhibiting in the show. Marine House at Beer and the Steam Gallery at Beer have a range of their best selling artists exhibiting work together with many other professional artists from the South West.

This event is being organised by the Colyton Grammar School Parents' Association to help raise funds to provide additional science facilities at the school.

We hope you enjoy this new and exciting art event, you are supporting science in education and you have an opportunity to invest in some great art.

In conjunction with the Show, work by Colyton Grammar School’s excellent Art Department will be on display and there will be an opportunity to purchase imaginative and innovative artwork from GCSE and A-level students.