Charlie Brooker

[Ferris]

It was only quite recently I discovered that 1) CEX is the old Tottenham Court Road Exchange and 2) Charlie Brooker co-founded it.

What?!

[Video Game Fan 2000]

He drew those violent xxxtreme comic strips CEX used to advertise with in the 90s.

[neveragain]

Is that the general consensus on Black Mirror?

Just my opinion. I love the series, in both gritty British and slick Hollywood mode, and there are very few episodes that I find less effective. They would probably be Be Right Back (acting, production is great, it just drags a bit), Men Against Fire (too obvious but again well produced) and the last three (harder to define what's missing, although it seems I like the Miley Cyrus one more than most people do).

Edit: And yes, I do like The Waldo Moment. A bit small-scale and silly but still very watchable.

[mjwilson]

He drew those violent xxxtreme comic strips CEX used to advertise with in the 90s.

He also drew comics and had them published in CRASH magazine when he was a teenager.

[popcorn]

In this interview, he describes prank-calling Edge when they refused to run his CeX cartoons:

"Because of working for PC Zone, I did a sort of prank call thing where I rang game helplines." And you prank-called Edge, I say. "Yeah, although that wasn't for them, that was just for my own bitterness," he says. "It was really petty as well. Really petty. They refused to print the comics that were adverts for Computer Exchange, which in retrospect they were absolutely right not to do," Brooker laughs. "It had a child shooting a dog, lots of blood in it... They were well within their rights to refuse it. I was pointlessly snarky and they caught me."

I'd quite like to hear it but can't find it anywhere. Google did produce an ancient CaB thread with his old prank calls, but all the links were dead (and the consensus seemed to be that they were shit).

[popcorn]

CeX logo was designed by Brooker supposedly, but I don't know if that's correct. Bet it's true though.

It's odd to think back on - I remember CeX being this exciting den of imports and goodies in the 90s, it was very odd seeing it metastasize into the pit of desolation it is today.

[j_u_d_a_s]

It was only quite recently I discovered that 1) CEX is the old Tottenham Court Road Exchange and 2) Charlie Brooker co-founded it.

The Rathbone place branch has an old sign of Toby painted by Brooker in its window and still has the original shop sign designed by him too. Toby also appeared in alternative kids comic Acne, complete with his original address and a note not to publish it in the finished magazine. They've all been collected along with the first chunk of Horny Estelle in his self published comic Superkaylo - available here.

[retsuza]

Tried to buy Shin Megami Tensei V in CeX this weekend and they gave me Shin Megami Tensei III HD Remaster Nocturne

Brooker's fault, surely.