At one point, the London party scene was a depressingly divided place. The punks would be in one club listening to The Cramps and The Strokes , while hip-hop kids would be in another club listening to Biggie Smalls and Dipset. “So, what happens if you like the Strokes and Biggie?” you ask. Well, to put it bluntly, you were fucked. You’d have to pay to go to two different clubs, and that sucked, because if you were just about to get lucky with a hot chick/dude, you’d have to cut your conversation short and risk going home alone.

Luckily, a whole swarm of ‘new-school’ DJs were determined to fuck with the rules and play whatever they wanted. Alax and Seb from Tapedeck were amongst the movement, and they now head their own label Meal Deal Records and do remixes for artists from Kate Nash to Klaxons. psychoPEDIA caught up with Tapedeck’s Alax who filled us in on his obsession with comics:

When did you first get into comics?
I think I was about 5 years old when my Dad bought me a massive comics annual for my birthday. I was also really into Calvin & Hobbes as a kid.

Where do you get yours from?
There's this place in Harrow called Calamity. I get them there because that’s where I live. There's also a comic book fair that happens every now and then in some hotel in London, which is pretty cool for picking up cheap stuff.

How many do you own?
Loads. To be honest, I’m more of a graphic-novel kind of dude these days, so I've got hundreds of those.

What do you like so much about them?
Any form of media which can have spin-off action figures is cool.

Favorite character and why?
I have to be really obvious and say Batman. I just relate to him being a depressive person with a father who is a popular on the property scene.

Can you remember the worst you've ever read?
Man, I read some Batman comic the other day called Arkham Asylum. It was really bad. I don't want some Charlotte Bronte-esque backstory about the asylum's history ruining my comic-reading high. Also, the art really sucked. It was like Batman as rewritten by a Lacuna Coil fan..

What’s your favorite movie adaptation of a comic book?
I really liked the first Spiderman film. I liked it so much that I even went and saw it again in France when it was dubbed into French. The worst is easily the recent Punisher movie. Why did it suck so bad? I think it was because he didn't violently annihilate enough people's lives.

Have you ever dressed up as a comic book character during sex?
I dressed up as the The Flash once. It was over in a second.

Do you think Spiderman could ever take Batman?
No way. A little self-doubt, schoolwork, relationship problems, and he's scared of heights? All Batman would need to do is Photoshop a picture of Bruce Wayne boning Mary Jane, and Peter Parker would lose the ability to climb walls and shoot webs. Have you not seen the movies?

What character do you think is the biggest pussy?
I really don't have much time for Superman. I don't think you can call him a pussy in the conventional sense of the word, because he is pretty brave and does have the strength to move planets. But there's just something about his face. No matter which artist renders it, that screams “pussy!" The biggest pussies are emotional pussies. Think about it.

Have you ever been sexually attracted to a character from a comic?
There some chick with a tail in Black Hole by Charles Burns who is really fit, but I think she only goes for guys who can remove their skin like a lizard.

What’s Tapedeck up to this year?
We both hate the fucking shit out of bulls, so we're training ourselves to become matadors. The music is just a way for us to fund all the bull-killing.

~Donald Crunk @ Styleslut


Go There:
Calamity, 17-19 Springfield Road, Harrow, HA1 1QF, UK. +44 20 8427 3831