Dyslexia Annoys Me Part 2

A couple of days ago I started writing this unsure of where I was going with it other than, knowing that my dyslexia has really been bothering me of late. What I wanted to write was a nice informative piece which went in to details about dyslexia and my thoughts on it. Yet looking back at the first part, I can see my dyslexia in full effect. What I mean by this, if you go back and read the the post I start talking about one subject(Dyslexia) then as I carry on writing I start talking about another subject(my friends). One of the main parts of my dyslexia is struggling to get my point across. Im now going to explain in detail what my Dyslexia is like so that people understand what its like. When I was assessed 2003 I was informed that I have Sever Dyslexia. I knew I was Dyslexic but not to that extent.

The best way I find to summarise my dyslexia is imagine a clock work machine that has been fitted with the wrong sized cogs inside. This means when the machine is instructed to do some thing, it attempts to do it but ultimately cant as the insides don't work correctly.

When attempt to write anything down it is an incredibly hard task for me to complete it. I know with in my mind, how I would like to express my self but for some reason when my brain sends these commands to my hands, what is written down is not necessarily done in the correct manor. Its also the same when I'm talking, I know what I want to say but its difficult for me get across what my point is. There has and always will be moments when I'm talking to people and I just go on a loop and keep repeating my self with out realising, of course people find it funny and have a laugh at me. Its makes it difficult because when I was younger and this happened there were more than a few occasions when I wanted (and did sometimes) lash out people. Luckily as time has gone on I have learned to control this and I realise not every one knows why I cant express myself at times.

Another part of my dyslexia that comes into play is my hand to eye coordination. A lot people probably think I am just incredibly clumsy and whilst that might be true sometimes, but not always. It also one of the main reasons why I still have not learned to drive, as I think I could be a hazard on the roads. Although saying that where ever I go,no matter if its work, home or a foreign country/place, I have to know my way around it. The first time I go to these places, it usually makes me a little bit nervous but as soon as I can find my way around them it makes it easier for me as I memorise where stuff is. I know it sounds seriously intense but its not to bad! I just do not like to be lost so I explore stuff as much as possible so I know what im doing.

The most frustrating part of my dyslexia though is being unable to document the ideas I have knocking about in my brain. It has always bothered me that it take a gargantuan effort for me to write stuff down. I know a few of my newer friends over the last few years have a had a bit of success with their writing efforts, which is fantastic, but it makes me wonder whether I truly have it in me to be able to write to their standard. I still attempt to write but in all honesty it takes a lot out of me. Even when I am at work and I have to document information, I find it incredibly taxing at times and I have to get some one else to read it too to make sure the information is relevant and I know the more I write the more confident I will become.

So I think that's the best summary of my dyslexia. Of course I do also have some of the more common elements too, such as bad grammar,poor handwriting and spelling. Now as this is the last day of April and I have hardly done any posts this months, I am going to get back on track with Comlexia and update it a lot more regularly.

The main reason I started this blog is because if you search books for dyslexics on a lot of book websites, they have a lot of information but its only relevant for the younger readers. I want this blog to detail as much as possibly whether its comics, books, films or whatever,so that if other dyslexics want to know what if its good for them they can find a review on the internet.

Don't get me wrong, Im sure Horrid Henry is a good book for young dyslexics, but what about the adults? And that is what I want to change!

Dyslexia Annoys Me

I realised today I have known for I am dyslexic for roughly about 12 years. I found out when I was at college, enrolled on a GNVQ intermediate Media Course. Prior to this, I had always known/thought that I was not smart and a below average student. Whilst at school I liked to be silly and whilst I did try to get on with my studies I always struggled. For the first few years of secondary school I received help called learning support only it stopped when I got to the last 2 years, which in my opinion was ridiculous as those are probably the most important years of a youngsters school life. Any way like I said whilst at college I was encouraged to take a Dyslexia assessment, which of course revealed that I was/am dyslexic. The thing is though it made me angry, probably more angry than I have ever been in my whole life. I was so damned angry that I became a absolute horrid person. I quit college, worked in a crappy tacky supermarket and spent my wages each week by going to the pub getting pissed and then topping off the night by heading to the classiest(and only)club in Aldershot,Cheeks!. I did this for about 18 months and I found myself being bored of stacking shelves day after day, getting abuse from shop lifters and customers and generally going no where in life.
So I went back to college and started on the GNVQ Intermediate Media course yet again fully intending to complete the course this time. Looking back at it now, I realise actually the course was fairly easy, but back in 1998-1999 it was really hard but I got through it. The one thing I remember more than anything about the course was an assignment I had from a young lecturer called Ian. For 4 months he made me redo an assignment about genres. My assignment was about the Wes Craven film Scream and rather than talking about how the film fitted into the horror genre, I just wrote a rather crappy review about the film. This really was my dyslexia coming into effect, as rather than read the assignment properly, I only read/understood it partly and completely missed the point. Through that year I was incredibly nervous about actually passing the course but eventually I did complete it and then I went onto GNVQ Advanced Media course, which was a 2 year course and would be a lot harder. Again I struggled and eventually prevailed, after this I decided I wanted to go to University and to pursue a career in the film industry. Before I move on to University, I want to talk about my time at college some more.
When I went back to college to retake my GNVQ, I did not know any one on the course, which was kind of weird and really made me nervous. At the time , unknown to me I was falling out with my school friends. Since we had all left school, I started to drift apart from them and the fact that when I found out I was dyslexic, I became rather vile and horrid really did not help matters. So when I eventually fell out with my school friends I felt really alone. I felt no one understood me and how much I struggled with my dyslexia and I think it's safe to say, that if I stayed in and did nothing, it really would not of been good me. Luckily for me , whilst at college I had made a few new friends. As a way to hide how nervous my dyslexia made me feel, I used to be quite loud, attempt to be witty and act extremely rude towards a lot of people, but a lot of my new friends thought this was quite funny, which at times it would be. I would like to think that I never did it to upset any one and only did it to lighten the mood of the class room at time, but looking back now, I cant help but think maybe I was a bit of a bully.
Out of these new friends I made, there are really only 2 that I am still in contact with, and with out a doubt these 2 made my life so much more enjoyable and really helped make me into who I am today. First there is Andrea, who is with out a doubt the first real girl friend I have ever had, not as in boyfriend/girl friend, but just a friend who is a girl. Since I first met her, we have just always got on, whether its to do with music, film , books and even real life, through out the time I have known her she has always wanted to break into the film industry too.
Then there is Ross, who was the first person to speak to me when I joined the GNVQ and since that day we have been friends. He is my best friend and he's been there for me when I have had my highs and my lows. In some respects I feel at times like I have failed him as a friend, especially since moving away from Aldershot. Whilst I still do see Ross, I really don't see enough of him and I do miss the fact that he's not a few miles down the road. If I had not made friends with Ross and Andrea, then I don't think I would of been able to complete the GNVQ. Every assignment was a really difficult, but when ever I needed to get away from the college and unwind they would always be there for me. So whilst my dyslexia often made me feel very angry and annoyed and it made it difficult for me to get my ideas on to paper and often made me regret going back to college, It did enable me to meet my 2 best (and longest known)friends.

I.R.$: Taxing Trails

Writer: Dresberg
Illustrator: Vrancken
Translator: Luke Spear
Publisher: Cinebook

Before I start the review I just want to apologise as I am not 100% sure where I.R.$ was originally published. I believe it was originally published in Brussels but I'm not totally sure that is correct.

Now that's out the way I can move on to my review of I.R.$: Taxing Trails. Last year at the Birmingham Comic Show there was a stand for Cinebook,The 9th Art Publishers and what caught my eye with this stand was that they were selling English translations of European comics. This interested me a lot because for the past few years I had read and heard that a lot of the comic material coming out of Europe was far superior to that which was coming out of the USA and the UK.
So obviously I was interested in being able to check out some of this material first hand. Prior to this the only experience I had with European comics was reading/looking at old Tin-Tin and Asterix books in the Library when I was a kid and in more recent times I had the opportunity to read Blacksad Volume 2: Arctic Nation, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Luckily for me Cinebook's was doing a 3 for 2 on book deals so I was able to get a few titles. The first of these that I have read is I.R.$: Taxing Trails.

Ill be honest here and say that I only picked up the book because of its cover, as I thought it looked quite interesting that the I.R.S would have a special agent with a gun working for them. I really did wonder how they would explain it!

I.R.$: Taxing Trails is collection of 2 stories that follow the missions of Larry B. Max who works as a special agent for the I.R.S. Essentially he is a hardcore accountant version of James Bond. The story follows Larry as he investigates the the murder of an important Swiss citizen who has been assassinated and this leads to the trail of a Jewish-American business man, who it seems has amassed a rather large amount money from his deceased relatives from World War 2. Soon enough Larry discovers there is more to this case than what he originally thought.
Also as a side line through out the book we see Larry start a relationship with a call girl called Gloria,who we never really see but Larry uses her to get answers that he need another perspective on.

I really did not know what to expect with this book as I had never read anything like this before.At first whilst reading it there were a lot facts and figures used in the first part of the book and that made me a bit dubious as to how much I would enjoy it, only because I was worried that if these figures were important that I would forget them or not see their relevance due to my dyslexia. Luckily enough though I was proven wrong and as the story got more involved and developed, I was able to follow the story with ease and enjoyed it throughly. One negative point about the book I would have to add is in the first chapter when Larry is having a gun battle with a hit-woman, there is some awfully tacky dialogue used, although this made me laugh/groan out loud, it really did not distract me from the story.
I really enjoyed the story and I am interested to check up on the future volumes of I.R.$., So I think ill be picking it up very soon. The best way I could describe this book would be a comic book film noir. The book has femme fatals, deception and a protagonist who will stop at nothing to achieve his desired outcome.

The artwork in the book is amazingly detailed and the colours are incredibly vivid. At first I did think the faces looked a little bland but as I read more I found the faces of the characters more detailed and they appeared to display emotion a lot more too. The scenes that I thought looked truly amazing, were the flash-backs to World War 2 and pages that showed Larry talking to Gloria, the call girl. The artwork is really crisp and a pleasure to look at and at times reminds me of the detail that Jean Giraud(Moebius) would put into his work. Although I should point out I am in no way in expert in this subject.
A great book and an interesting new character for me to follow. If you are a fan of Film-Noir it might be worth checking this book out.

Northwest Passage: The Annotated Collection

Writer and Illustrator Scott Chantler
Publisher: Oni Press

For the past 2 years I have been looking for a decent job so I could essentially get on with my life and get my own place to live. As I have detailed before in previous posts, about 5 months ago I got a decent job(which I'm still enjoying) and I have begun saving money to move. Also in the past 2 years I have been building up my collection of Comics/Trade Paperbacks/Graphic Novels. I have brought some trades that I have heard of and others which I have no idea about such as Northwest Passage: The Annotated Collection. I was lucky enough to find the book in my local Oxfam(A Charity Shop)for 99p, which I have to say was an absolute steal!!

The story is set in 1755 in Fort Newcastle, which is based in Rupert's Land which was a territory in British North America,now more commonly known Canada and a small part of the USA. The story revolves around Fort Newcastle which is savagely captured by invading French forces seeking to control the fur trade and the fabled Northwest Passage. Fort Newcastle's governor is Charles Lord, who is intending to retire and possibly discover the Northwest passage. This does not go to plan although because of the invading French forces. Charles Lord is luckily informed of this invasion by his old friend and colleague Eagle Eye (Indian Shaman) although he is unable to make a proper stand against the invading forces of the French. Charles and a band of his surviving soldiers, trackers,explorers and old friends set forth on a mission to claim back Fort Newcastle from the French and his old enemy from the past... Montglave!!

I really enjoyed this book and at first I thought it was based on actual fact but on further reading I have found out that its all fictional but certain elements are based on fact. The cast of characters was great as there was only about 10 main characters that the reader follows and all of them got enough time in the book to show who they are and what they are in the book for. I would love to see the characters earlier adventures at some point but I don't know if we ever will. My favourite character in the book would have to be John Blackmoon, a mysterious man who seems to blend into his surroundings and is detrimental to claiming Fort Newcastle back.


The artwork in this book is what attracted me to buying it. It reminded me of the artwork from the 90s Batman Animated series. Whilst reading the book I started to notice how much hard work Scott Chantler put into the book. The artwork is black and white although im sure at times when reading the book my mind's eye started picturing colours to every thing in the book. The writing in the book is amazing because there are numerous story threads going through out the book and it was great seeing how they all tied together. There is mystery, deception and war featured through out the story. Once I sat down with the book in my hand I could not put it down. It really reminded me of watching old western/war films when I younger but a lot more enjoyable.
Also there is a lot of back up material which is annotations for certain pages with in the book and details where the Scott's inspiration came from. I'm currently in the middle of reading these but so far they have been very insightful.
With certain comics based with in history, I have encountered difficulty before(See the post on Red Prophet) and it has put me off from reading them as there is far too much information contained with in them. Northwest Passage though was a joy to read because, whilst there is a lot information in the book, it is given to you once or twice and goes from there, it does not dwell on it. The artwork while detailed is not not over the top and is very clean cut and easy to define. Although it appears cartoony it works very well with the story.

A great intriguing read and a lot of fun.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volumes 1 & 2

Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Kevin O'Neil
Publisher: Americas Best Comics/DC Comics

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was the first of Alan Moore's work that I read based on his previous work. Prior to this I had only read Watchmen (It was one of the few graphic novels/comic my library had) and the never heard of, often forgotten(With good reason)Spawn/Wild C.A.T.S. But I had heard the Alan Moore was a very accomplished writer and if I wanted to experience the quality of his work first hand, then I should read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen when its released.

Of course when It came out I did love it, thought it was a brilliant well thought out concept and was thoroughly enjoyable. I did not read any of the prose back up stories but in all honesty none of that mattered at that point I just really enjoyed the main story. Which Ill briefly summarise here.

Its 1898 the world is changing and England is now prone to being taken over from within. The British empire needs protection from this and a team of rather unique individuals are tasked to do this. This League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is compromised of Mina Murray,Allan Quatermain,Captain Nemo, Doctor Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde and the Invisible Man Hawley Griffen. This League when formed takes on Fu Manchu and to stop his devious plans for taking over Britain. But behind the league's heroic efforts there are devious plans afoot.

Now I originally read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen back in 1999 and I really did enjoy it. I knew just enough information about the main characters in the league, although I had never read any of the original stories/books they were featured in. Whilst revisiting the book I found I still did enjoy it and this time round I wanted to read the additional prose story featuring Allan Quatermain(Allan and the Sundered Veil)but I was sure it would be a bit of a challenge for me.
I have read books before and at time they can be very difficult for me but I really do enjoy reading. Reading "Allan and the Sundered Veil" was incredibly difficult for me. I knew from reading Watchmen that Alan Moore is a very intelligent writer and he use of language is at times phenomenal and this is what I often struggle with. To read the main (comic) story in the it took me a couple of hours but it took me 2 days to read the prose story. Once I finally read the story I was glad I had as it was highly enjoyable and gave me an insight in to the future of Allan Quaetermain.

All in all though I really enjoyed Volume 1 and Im pleased that I finally read the prose story even though it did feel like gargantuan task. For other dyslexic readers I would strongly suggest that if you are going to read the prose part of the graphic novel, that you read it in you ideal reading conditions. Ideally I would of liked to read the book at home in silence but that was not the case for me, I ended up reading it on a night shift at work so I did not give it 100% of my attention.
Next I started reading League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2. As before I originally read this when it cam out in comic form and I had not read it since. Also I had never read any of the additional material at the back of each issue. I had been informed that the back up material expands on the future of some of the characters so this time round I also wanted to read this.
This book features the league in the War of the worlds storyline. The story develops the characters a little further and their relationships with one another. Allan and Mina become involved whilst Mina also seems to have a calming effect on Edward Hyde. Whilst the previous volume dealt with the formation of the team, this volume see's the team break apart.

Overall I really enjoyed this story much more than the original although I did feel a bit bad that the team broke up essentially. My favourite character in this volume would have to be Mr Hyde. Where in the previous volume I was not bothered about him, I found myself quite intrigued by the relationship he developed with Mina. Whilst absolutely insane I felt that Hyde did have the best(and most brutal)intentions when defending the country from traitors with in and the invading alien horde.
Unfortunately I do have something negative to say about the book, which should not be seen as a mark against Alan Moore. I tried and eventually succeeded reading the additional material "The New Travellers Almanac" but I found it incredibly incomprehensible. I felt at times there was far to much information and a lot of it was just wasted on myself as I am sure there were references to other literaturary characters but I can be totally sure. Although the one part of it I did enjoy was discovering the fate of the few members of the League and it was nice to know what eventually happened to them.

If you are dyslexic and you wish to read "The New Travellers Almanac", then I suggest you spend a good long time reading it as it is a dense read and at times it felt very daunting.

I really enjoyed Volume 2 more so than Volume 1 and its only downfall for me was the back up material. A great piece of work and I cant wait to move on to the Black Dossier next!