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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 AUGUST 2014 News 5 TEODOR RELJIC TOGETHER with his partner Moira Zahra, MaltaToday cartoonist Mark Scicluna gave birth to a cult online comic book creation a couple of years ago, when the duo launched A Space Boy Dream – a weekly comic strip detailing the life and times of a Mal- tese teenager calling himself Vincent Fournier. Self-styled as an urbane sophisticate – or 'hipster' – Vincent is often wrong- footed by his own social – and musi- cal – aspirations, and is both frustrated and embarrassed by what he perceives to be limitations of the Maltese artistic and musical scene. In short, he's a bit of a pretentious and highly insecure twat, and ripe comedy fodder for Scicluna and Zahra, who set out to parody elements of Maltese 'hip- ster' culture – yet another import from the US and the UK, and cultivated lo- cally in venues such as Valley Road's revamped Coach and Horses. The duo had called it quits on Vin- cent last year however, giving him a touching farewell in a supposedly final weekly instalment fittingly titled 'The End'. But much like other heroes of serial- ised fiction – I'm looking at you, Sher- lock Holmes – it seems as though Vin- cent is not going without a fight. "We had originally set out to create some new A Space Boy Dream mate- rial for a collaboration with Valletta 2018," Scicluna says. "However this project never quite materialised, so then we figured we'd just continue the comic in its weekly format." A Space Boy Dream will return to our screens on 28 September, once again returning to its weekly format, with a new instalment appearing on aspace- boydream.com every Sunday. "As it stands, we plan for this 'second season' of the comic to run until June 2015, but we'll see how we are as we go along," Scicluna says. The duo are tight-lipped on any plot details about Vincent's future adven- tures, though they do reveal – also through a teaser image posted on A Space Boy Dream's Facebook page – that Vincent will be moving to Val- letta. Casting her eye to Scicluna's recent sketches of Vince, Zahra – who will now take on scripting duties for the comic – observes, "He's getting old- er..." "Yes," Scicluna replies. "He was just a bit of a miskin before... now he's start- ing to look a bit crabby..." SEE the video at www.maltatoday. com.mt/arts/art/watch_a_space_boy_ dreams_again__mark_scicluna A Space Boy dreams again MaltaToday cartoonist and illustrator Mark Scicluna talks to us about his creative process, and the return of his satirical hipster creation, Vincent Fournier, as the online comic A Space Boy Dream returns for a second 'season' on September 28 Mark Scicluna. Left: selections from A Space Boy Dream. Bottom: Teaser from the upcoming 'second season' of the webcomic 'Premier was a straightforward deal' CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Accusa- tions that the company was in fi- nancial difficulty and had benefit- ed from government largesse, were amplified this week when shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzo- pardi alleged that the 'bailout' had a "whiff of corruption" about it. "I categorically deny this sugges- tion," Camilleri told MaltaToday when it was put to him that the €210,000 paid to M&A Invest- ments was a 'commission' – as suggested by his former business partner – for securing the deal that cancelled out all the compa- ny's debts. "This was a straightforward deal, and the €210,000 were a business debt due to shareholders' loans." Jason Azzopardi said that in their investigation, the police did not determine why the €210,000 had been paid to M&A Invest- ments when this had been alleged by Curmi to have been a commis- sion. "Cities Entertainment was mak- ing losses," Camilleri said. "But had we sold the lease out to a private company, we would still have had to settle our outstanding government dues and any private debts," he said. Under the conditions of the €4.2 million sale, Cities Entertainment paid back €307,346 to settle out- standing arrears with the gov- ernment property division and €504,000 in capital gains tax owed on the land; €192,748 to the In- land Revenue Department to set- tle income tax and social security payments, €227,058 to the VAT Department on outstanding dues and legal procedures against the company, and €130,963 in energy bills for ARMS; and also €210,000 to the company's own sharehold- ers, M&A Investments, and €3,265 to creditors Golden Harvest. Finally, another €2,560,800 was paid to Banif Bank, in settlement of the outstanding bank loans that Cities Entertainment held with the bank, payable in four instalments. Jason Azzopardi has said that the government also paid €20,000 in notarial consultancy fees to the firm of Labour MP Charles Man- gion, but at the time of the deal Mangion had not been elected to the House of Representatives. The deal was executed by order of a Cabinet directive in late 2013. Speaking to MaltaToday, Mario Camilleri said that he had been negotiating with other entrepre- neurs and food retail chains, and that the property had been valued at some €5 million by his notaries. "We had already offered the property to the previous admin- istration. But there was not inten- tion of taking talks forward be- cause an election was upon us at the time. "After the election, I approached the new administration and it was an opportunity to have the Café Premier, which is located beneath the Biblioteca, back in govern- ment's hands. We then started negotiations with [OPM consult- ant and former Lands Department director] John Sciberras." Camilleri insisted that Cities En- tertainment were entitled to trans- fer the lease to a third party, had the company found a private buy- er ready to take on the operation. "The land belonged to the govern- ment. But the lease belonged to us for the 65 years – and that is why the government paid that money to take it back." He also said that Sciberras was a tough negotiator to deal with. "They were very hard negotiations. Sciberras drove a hard bargain." Camilleri however refuted sug- gestions by the Opposition that the deal was irregular. "It was a legitimate, straight- forward deal. If I had anything to hide, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. This is no bailout: had we sold the lease to a private party, I would have brought in the same creditors into the deal to ensure that they get paid and that we set- tle the debts." The Opposition has asked the Auditor General to investigate the government's ethicality in buying back the 65-year lease from Café Premier, and to see whether public procurement rules were followed. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt