Making the wait for lunchtime even harder than normal today is Volume 1 of a brand new graphic novel Yellowman which elegantly swan dived it’s way onto my doormat this morning.

The work of sometime Fringe contributor and all round chap, Justin Quirk, and noted illustrator Warren Holder, Yellowman is the story of an albino man on the run from acquisitive occultists in Victorian East London.

A dazzlingly creative and beautiful book, Holder’s stark, intricate artwork constantly pulls you into the story, his East London one of shadow and mystery, the perfect backdrop to this secret history of magic and science.

Fans of Alan Moore, and indeed anyone who appreciates just how good graphic novels can be should check this out right away.

It’s already been established that if I was a Frenchman I’d spend my days traversing the streets of Paris draped in YSL, sucking on Marlboros and listening to early Kills in an effort to get mistaked for Roman Duris.

Naturally an interest in culture would have to be incorporated into such a identity scam and thanks to the French arm of Red Bull Music Academy and the ever excellent 12 Mail event space I could spend my evenings admiring the photography of Sophie Bramley – one of the first to visually document the nascent hip hop scene exploding out of the Bronx in the early 80s.

More photos and information in French here and also a Facebook event page for fans of social networks

The East Coast multimedia enclave of smart young things known as Doplar descend on the excellently named House Of Yes in Brookyln later this month for Doplar Sensebox.

Doplar is an evolving art form and Sensebox is their plaything – running from 9pm to 4am each area of the House Of Yes will be designated to one of the five sensations experienced by sentient beings with perhaps the pleasant sensation your ears operate for the most relevant to these here pages.

Both Wolf + Lamb and the boy Jaar’s Clown N Sunset imprint are well represented with Voices of Black and Pavla & Noura on the bill and there’s some transatlantic DJ backing in the form of Gallic spinette Clara3000 and NYC fixture DJ Ecks.

Further reason to attend comes in the shape of a free custom made popsicle for the first 200 arrivals as well as food from Funkism’s Sindy! Further details can be found at the Doplar facebook page.

Now that we’re four here at Slutty Fringe, we’ve decided to spread our wings and include the ocassional guest post from some of our favourite writers. First off the blocks is Justin Quirk, the award-winning editor of House magazine, and a regular contributor to Esquire and The Guardian where he writes about everything from gruesome murders to geopolitics and puppets.

And, frequently, heavy metal.

He also DJ’s with Alex Rayner and has been a regular feature at our nights over the years, generally playing obscure Level 42 b-sides. Now sit back, get comfortable and enjoy this heroically epic post on the changing face of Iron Maiden’s mascot.

EDDIE   – A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF METAL’S GREATEST MASCOT.

Unless you’re some sort of hermaphrodite, you’ll doubtless be aware that this Sunday sees Iron Maiden playing at Sonisphere at Knebworth. I followed the band around on the North American leg of their Somewhere Back In Time tour in 2008 and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the greatest experiences of my journalistic career. After enjoying two hours of squaddie metal, involving walls of pyrotechnics, Steve Harris ‘machine-gunning’ the crowd with his bass guitar, an Anubis death mask, giant Union Jacks and a stage shaped like an Egyptian temple, it’s a little difficult to go back to watching some ‘hotly tipped indie band’, I can tell you.

Anyway, even if you’re one of that small minority of Soft Boy Walters who find it difficult to get with Maiden’s music, you could still feel the love for their career-long mascot, EDDIE THE HEAD. First realised as a pantomime blood-spewing head hovering above drummer Clive Burr onstage, Derek Riggs’ zombie creation has been through numerous guises. Here is the Slutty Fringe guide to his finest moments…

RUNNING FREE (1980)

A harrowing snapshot of Broken Britain; the kids, defiant, scrawl the names of their metal heroes (Scorpions, Priest and Zeppelin) on a backstreet wall, as well as giving love to The Hammers. But one unfortunate kid – possibly disturbed mid-graffiti – is threatened by Eddie. This early view of Eddie positions him almost as an emissary of punk (short spiked hair, NY punk clothing), sent to attack the forces of metal. His weapon of choice – a broken bottle – gives the scene a nice air of realism. The fact that he’s apparently chasing the unwitting kid towards another Eddie raises the horrifying possibility that… there’s more than one of them.

SANCTUARY (1980)

At first, this appears a nakedly political assassination. But on closer inspection, what’s sealed Thatcher’s fate isn’t her appeals to xenophobia or championing of free market economics. No – Eddie has caught her ripping down a flyposter for Maiden. Clearly, his sole allegiance is to the band; this raises the possibility that the kid on the front of Running Free sealed his fate by tagging the wall with the names of other metal bands. Dissent will not be tolerated by our zombie pal.

WOMEN IN UNIFORM (1980)

Fired up on his bloodlust, Eddie’s gone out on the town and scored a brace of ‘birds’. Interestingly, they’re a couple of square types – one appears to be a nurse – clearly keen for a walk on the zombie-metal wildside. But tragedy awaits; Thatcher’s reanimated corpse lies in wait in paramilitary garb, poised to deliver a lethal, retributive headshot to Eddie.

KILLERS (1981)

The sickly, washed out tones of the Killers album cover make this one of Riggs’ finest early works. Eddie’s hair is getting longer at this point (almost back-combed into an early hair-metal style) and the switch from broken bottles and knives to axes hints at a more theatrical, macabre element creeping in. The white shirt cuffed-hands of the dying victim grasp desperately at Eddie’s shirt, but to no avail. The message is clear – stay off the streets, sqaures.

THE FLIGHT OF ICARUS (1983)

Just two years later and Eddie has taken a quantum leap; gone are the grimy, realist portraits of Britain’s streets. Eddie now inhabits an epic landscape in which he – not the sun – is responsible for the melting death of Icarus. In the legend, Icarus fell into the sea – here, just for good measure, Eddie has taken the precaution of torching Crete with a flamethrower, thus ensuring that Icarus’ landing is even less pleasant.

PIECE OF MIND (1983)

We find Eddie, trapped in an asylum. Lobotomised, bound, straitjacketed. The ragged state of his clothes suggests that he’s been there for some time. Yet the blazing light in his eyes suggests that he is not yet defeated. As Foucault said: ‘People become anxious about madness, about crime, about themselves…about truth.’ He might also have added ‘time travelling, shape shifting zombies from the NWOBHM’ if he was any kind of real intellectual.

TWO MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (1984)

Sprung from his cell, Eddie enjoys a relaxing smoke in the post-apocalyptic ruins of the UN headquarters. Did Eddie nuke the place himself? Or is he just the only double hard bastard who’s survived the blast? He’s not saying – but we can safely assume that he’s got no love for supranational legislative bodies.

ACES HIGH (1984)

Back into action for the cover of Maiden’s WW2 dogfighting epic. Riddled with bullets, grimacing with concentration and wearing leather flying gloves (do zombies feel the cold?), Eddie recreates Britain’s finest hour. Worryingly, he appears to be flying perpendicular to the ground.

POWERSLAVE (1984)

A return to the grand classical themes of ‘Icarus’ as Eddie is immortalised in sandstone as the sphinx. Egyptologists are generally united in agreement that this temple – zombie faced, with a door under the bollocks and a glowing pyramid on the roof – absolutely shits all over the real ones in Egypt.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1986)

A futuristic leap occurs here, with yellow digital fonts, radioactive underpants and futuristic stun guns mirroring an album that was heavy with Adrian Smith’s synthesised guitar sounds. Eddie has by this point been physically and mechanically rebuilt to the point where his very zombie status is called into question. He has wasted one clown (bottom right) who was perhaps just starting to peel down the Iron Maiden poster, in an echo of his original attack on Thatcher.

FEAR OF THE DARK (1992)

Eddie’s zombie status is fully reaffirmed here, with the addition of absolutely massive great hands and a haircut made of twigs. Grunge is now in full world domination mode; Eddie sits, waiting for Mudhoney or some other unsuspecting Seattle dupes to walk under his tree. At which point he will descend to rip out their throats.

Eschewing the notion that this scribe is an uncultured ingot, I’d recommend a visit to the James Hyman gallery in central London for their La Nouvelle Vague exhibit which contains some iconic photography of the French New Wave Cinema from legendary photographer Raymond Cauchetier.

Staged to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Godard’s A Bout de Souffle it’s a chance to immerse yourself in the essence of this cinematic movement with many stills available for the first time.

Additionally it means you can apppreciate Jean Seberg in her swoon inducing pomp before her tragic descent into tramp shagging alcoholic oblivion.

The Guardian wrote some prissy words here and the exhibit runs from this Wednesday until the 28th August – full details here .

Thanks to JimJam Graphics for sending this over, the internet’s premier creator of retina scorching visuals (and scary drawings of elephant cocks).

It’s one of those popular myths that Eskimos (is that a PC term these days???) have something like a billion words for snow. Actually that’s total bollocks, but what I can say for sure is that artist Rudy de Belgeonne has at least 1000 words for ‘Man’.

His new installation ‘Who’s The Man?’ at The Future Gallery is an attempt to define masculinity through the medium of 1000 beautifully hand painted tiles each one carrying one descriptive term or another.

Together create a giant 5m by 4m patchwork of Queers, Cowboys, Yardies, Jocks and Ponces that covers just about every possible facet of  male identity. It could make for a great form of alternative bingo.

Clearly appealing to another mail trait, that of the obsessive collector I have to admit there’s a certain Pokemon-esque ‘gotta catch em all’ quality to it, and if I had a few grand to chuck around, which sadly I dont, I’d be at them like a kid at a pick’n'mix stall.

Still if you do have a bit of spare change and are stumped for a Father’s Day present then head there over now I’m sure you’ll find something to please the old man.

Need to carry home a six pack of Special Brew but worried those gaudy gold tins will ruin your flossy new look. Never fear Garudio Studiage have just the answer with their All London Blue Bag Extravaganza series. The perfect chance to rep your postcode with pride.

In honour of the opening of my beloved ELL, i’ve chosen to illustrate this with the New Cross and Dalston efforts, which is handy as they’re also the best, in your face Notting Hill.

We’ve all been teenagers, hey I’m sure some of you still are, so we can all appreciate just how mindbendingly dumb that sudden rush of hormones and limited freedom makes us.

Thankfully most of us grow out if it and get to experience a fleeting moment of being confident, vaguely clued up and in control of our lives people before the crushing numbness of middle age sets in and we’re packed off to be recycled into food pellets.

This Thursday though you can relive the highs and lows of teenage existence  at an excruciating looking event, Cringe, at the Hoxton Hall. On the night those in attendence will be encouraged to stand up and read from their teenage diaries, baring their adolescent souls for all to marvel at (and mock).

Thankfully a long time ago I found my teenage diaries – packed full as they were with terrible gothic poetry and guilt laden allusions to masturbation – and fed them to the flames, so I can just safely enjoy other people’s humiliation.

The event is part of an ongoing project, Dear Diary, organised in support of the lovely people from youth charity Ctril.Alt.Shift. and as well as getting the public to embarrass themselves at the aforementioned night they’re holding an exhibition at Gallery Seven in Covent Garden.

On display will be a range of diaries from the cult (Kurt Cobain, Anais Nin, Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks) to the political (young journalist Dan Eldon’s visual diaries of his time in Kenya before he was killed in Mogadishu, Somalia at the age of 22), and the historic.

Finally whilst this all sounds great and we’d have probably covered it anyway, full marks must go to the, shall remain nameless, PR person who really went above and beyond the call of duty and sent us a scanned extract from her own diary (click image above for a larger pic). You’re a braver person than I and we hope your clients appreciate your work!

Having just witnessed the dying days of what will probably go down in history as one of the most rotten UK parliaments in recent times, the airwaves are again full of lies and bullshit as the forked tounged scions of Westminster try to convince us that, you know they listen to us and give a shit.

Anyway tonight should be interesting (I say should as I’ll actually be in the pub) as the leaders of the main three parties come together in the first of three historic Britain’s Got Talent style debates.

Of course no one will actually ‘debate’ anything but I’m sure there will be a few vaguely amusing soundbites and hopefully Brown will lose his notorious temper and go on a studio rampage like some wounded tartan Godzilla.

One of our friends Justin Quirk has taken time from his day job of writing about the likes of Iron Maiden and not turning up to any of the DJ gigs I book him for to take, what the papers would call, a satirical sideswipe at the ‘presidential style’ debates.

As is the way with things knocked out on the quick they really are funnier than they have any right to be and will probably eclipse his career for years to come. You can see them all here.