Spurious Awards

It's Friday again... so who will win our weekly daftly-monickered gongs this time?

PROTEST PLACARDS OF THE WEEK
Heard of the Westboro Baptist Church? They’re the American anti-gay protesters who picket the funerals of US servicemen waving “God Hates Fags” placards on the grounds that.. well, quite frankly we struggle to articulate why, because we’re sane. This week, these loathsome nutjobs turned up at Comic-Con (on the grounds that superheroes are “false idols”, or something), where they were met by a counter-protest of extraordinary style and humour by the good people of the Comics Alliance - see more pics here and here . Ladies and gentlemen, we doff our hats to you.

SPOOKY CYBER-SIMULACRA OF THE WEEK
Have Cybus Industries started a stealth takeover of Britain's electricity supply? You’d be forgiven for thinking so after seeing this photo (sent in by Tom Fenn) which shows some kind of electrical substation-thing across the road from his daughter’s school in Birmingham. Uncanny, isn’t it? We’re surprised no-one’s spraypainted a Cyber-face on it yet ( psst : get to it, Brummie graffiti artists!)

INTRIGUING MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEEK
Goes to American indie-rockers Vampire Weekend, whose lead singer Ezra announced the other day that, "I've just started watching the new TV show True Blood , so maybe we'll go down to Louisiana and record it all there." Expect less Peter Gabriel-style afropop on the third album then, and more sounds of frenetic humping...

And finally...

Deputy Editor, SFX

Ian Berriman has been working for SFX – the world's leading sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – since March 2002. He also writes for Total Film, Electronic Sound and Retro Pop; other publications he's contributed to include Horrorville, When Saturday Comes and What DVD. A life-long Doctor Who fan, he's also a supporter of Hull City, and live-tweets along to BBC Four's Top Of The Pops repeats from his @TOTPFacts account.