tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76471957484615992692024-02-19T15:59:32.326+00:00Islington Comic ForumIslington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.comBlogger442125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-24362597226095779332014-11-04T11:01:00.003+00:002014-11-04T14:30:44.179+00:00Moved On / Forwarding Address________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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Hi there. </div>
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If you've come here looking for a tasty slice of (ever-so-slightly) deranged comics ramblings then you should know I've moved on to something called the London Graphic Novel Network which you can find here: <a href="http://londongraphicnovelnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/">http://londongraphicnovelnetwork.blogspot.co.uk</a>/<br />
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For real life interactions: there's the monthly Barbican Comic Forum which takes place on the third Thursday of the month at the Barbican Library more details here: <a href="http://londongraphicnovelnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/p/barbican-comic-forum_12.html">http://londongraphicnovelnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/p/barbican-comic-forum_12.html</a><br />
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Peace out. xxx</div>
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Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-42066175589318511262013-10-22T10:19:00.005+01:002013-10-25T12:45:45.711+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/11________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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Hi. How's it going?<br />
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So yeah - this morning I've handed in my notice in at Islington which means that come the end of November I'm out of here which means that (obviously much more importantly) that Tuesday November the 5th is my last Islington Comic Forum. <br />
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At this point I don't know if they're going to try and find another member of staff to take over running it - or if (like the other "more serious" book groups in Islington) they get you guys to run it yourselves - or if they just close it down and scatter it's ashes to the wind but whatever. (Bright sides): there's still the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BarbicanComicForum">Barbican Comic Forum</a> (if you fancy making the trip into the city) and I'm finally moving up the world: seeing how my new job is going to be the guy who hands out the soap in club toilets (exciting!).<br />
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But hey - for me the thing to focus on is making November's Comic Forum the best ever. So I've basically just got all of my favourite comics and gathered them in a pile so you can expect: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/scott-pilgrim.html">Scott Pilgrim</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/filth.html">The Filth</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/asterios-polyp.html">Asterios Polyp</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/01/boys.html">The Boys</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/10/perry-bible-fellowship.html">The Perry Bible Fellowship</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/solanin.html">Solanin</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for.html">The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/mezolith.html">Mezolith</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/saga.html">Saga</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-manhattan-projects.html">The Manhattan Projects</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/logicomix.html">Logicomix</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/superman-all-star-superman.html">Superman: All Star Superman</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/12/complete-future-shocks.html">Complete Future Shocks</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/02/crossed.html">Crossed</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/02/stray-toasters.html">Stray Toasters</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/twelve.html">The Twelve</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/locke-and-key.html">Locke & Key</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-ultimates.html">The Ultimates</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/02/dr-and-quinch.html">D.R. and Quinch</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/01/promethea.html">Promethea</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/11/batman-year-100.html">Batman: Year 100</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/bulletproof-coffin.html">The Bulletproof Coffin</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/umbrella-academy.html">The Umbrella Academy</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/marvel-zombies.html">Marvel Zombies</a> / and I whole bunch more that I haven't decided on yet (and some of the ones I wanted to get are out on loan - stupid libraries!): plus yeah a whole bunch of new titles too: and a few donations from Drew and Tam (thanks guys!) <br />
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So yeah: Tuesday November the 5th. 6:00pm - 7:30pm upstairs @ North Library. <br />
There is (as always) a<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/170486173155285/"> facebook thingie</a> (so show your love). <br />
And of course - the book of the month is: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/joe-barbarian.html">Joe The Barbarian</a> (so if you get a chance please read it blah blah blah). <br />
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But yeah (uh oh the emotional bit): I'l probably say this in person when I see you all: but damnit I've had a really good time doing the Comic Forum with all of you. I will admit that at the start I was worried that it would just be people talking about who would win in a fight between Superman and Spider-Man (and Will knows what I'm talking about): but it's been a total blast and better than I ever could have hoped: good chats, good times, good readings etc and it's been my absolute pleasure to be the guy that talks too much about how awesome Scott Pilgrim is (and: oh my god - have you read Scott Pilgrim yet? Because you really really really should). So yeah: thank you thank you thank you.<br />
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And as for the rest: well - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXjoInekU4">I leave it entirely in your hands</a>. <br />
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Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-56776912578273994072013-10-11T10:51:00.000+01:002013-10-22T19:31:58.884+01:00Events: Battle of Ideas 2013: Graphic novels: Literature for the 21st Century?___________________________________________________________________________<br />
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So.Yes. I've been lucky enough to be asked to participate in the 2013 Battle of Ideas ("Two days of high-level, thought-provoking, public debate organised by the Institute of Ideas at the Barbican."). I'm sitting on a panel that will be grappling with the question: "Graphic novels: literature for the 21st century?" (oh boy) which will be happening in the Hammerson Room on Saturday 19 October. It starts at 5.30pm and goes all the way on to 6:45pm (at which point we'll probably have everything all wrapped up in a neat little bow). You can get a full run down of everything <a href="http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2013/session_detail/7888">here</a> (although gotta say: they do lose points for calling comics a "genre" - but what can you do?): also please try not to laugh at my moody little black and white photo (my girlfriend says it makes me look like an Eastern European hitman: which I have decided to take as a compliment). Tickets are available from <a href="http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2013/tickets">here</a>. I'm going to try my best to be both thought-provoking and entertaining but it's very possible that I'll only end up making a tit of myself - obviously the only way to find out is to come along. And yes - needless to say: any support you'd care to give would be graciously received: but if you heckle me then you're off my Christmas card list forever. See you down the front. <br />
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....................................................................................................................................................Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-72310108059250669422013-10-11T10:14:00.001+01:002013-10-22T19:32:08.729+01:00Books: Daredevil (2012 - 2013)_____________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6LI2ZBNUyrt_GjLppSGLfwCktb9hPdSa3QW0Ma_TjGeg9MmbslbyFYRXflfFp4rswLTFhuP1AE4ZYl7fXahXAenwZx5DqNX1FobzsZcP9wf32x7WukObbnS11l0wzvxxWLEuRnFhRHc/s1600/daredevil+mark+waid+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6LI2ZBNUyrt_GjLppSGLfwCktb9hPdSa3QW0Ma_TjGeg9MmbslbyFYRXflfFp4rswLTFhuP1AE4ZYl7fXahXAenwZx5DqNX1FobzsZcP9wf32x7WukObbnS11l0wzvxxWLEuRnFhRHc/s200/daredevil+mark+waid+1.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<b>Daredevil</b><br />
<b>Vol 1</b><br />
<b>Written by Mark Waid</b><br />
<b>Art by Paolo M Rivera and Marcos Martin</b><br />
2012<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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<b>Daredevil</b><br />
<b>Vol 2</b><br />
<b>Written by Mark Waid</b><br />
<b>Art by Paolo M Rivera and Marcos Martin</b><br />
2013<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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<b>Daredevil</b><br />
<b>Vol 3</b><br />
<b>Written by Mark Waid</b><br />
<b>Art by , Marco Checchetto, Chris Samnee and Khoi Pham</b><br />
2013<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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From Mark Waid - who (to me) is best known as the guy who wrote the (excellent) Astro City [1] - but (going from the members of the Comic Forum at least) is better known now for all the evil and nasty things he got up to with Irredeemable comes a fresh take [2] on everyone's favourite blind superhero with devil horns and a red leather one-piece: who's also a lawyer and who <i>consistently</i> has the type of relationship problems that even Jeremy Kyle would balk at.<br />
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But yes - you know that already from all the glowing reviews and stuff: blah blah blah. What you want is for me to tell you what exactly all the fuss is about with this new-minted-freshly-pressed version of Daredevil (no previous experience necessary - so you can just pick it up and get straight into it)? Well - ok: just take a looks at that cover to Vol 1 - I mean maybe it's a little bit too small on your computer screen (no?) so I'd do a favour and just describe it for you: it's Mr Daredevil all decked out in his fancy red leather jumping around: only what looks like far away like a blank magnolia/vanilla backdrop is actually a cityscape where the building and birds aren't filled in with lines and colours and blah (like a normal thing) but rather they're written in with sounds: so the birds wings all say "flapflapflap" and their heads say "coocoocoo" [3]: all this being the big clue that unlike most of the other Daredevil books that I've encountered on my travels so far [4] is that it's the first Daredevil series to really dig deep into this whole blindness thing [5] and try and represent it on the comic page. </div>
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Of course (and I can't be the only one to ever think this right?) - but it's damn peculiar to have a superhero who seems to have been created as an aspirational figure for the blind seeing how (no duh) comic books are so very much a visual medium [6]. I mean - if you compare it with another differently-abled person [7] anything else would make a lot more sense: like someone whose wheelchair was actually a high powered inspector gadget machine (or whatever), someone whose hyperactivity gave them the ability to walk through walls [8] or (and this is my favourite and someone should make this come true because it so obviously make a really cool comic seeing how it plays to it's strengths): a deaf guy whose has super-developed sense of sight (call him Dareangel or something). Point being if someone is in a wheelchair, or has ADD or is deaf - then they can read and enjoy the comic and (hopefully) feel a bit more empowered. While anyone who's blind it's like: "Oh dude - there's this thing about a blind superhero that you'd really like only - damn - because it's a comic book: you can't - oh well." </div>
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So. Erm. Yeah. Wait. What was I saying? </div>
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Well yeah - so: even tho (for the reasons above) I've got this unshakeable feeling that it's like totally unfair to the blind people out there - it is kind of cool that there's these Daredevil books that take the concept of sightlessness seriously. Previously (from the Daredevil's I read - which I'll be first to admit probably isn't much in the grand scheme of things: but is still probably a dozen more than your general layperson - so) most writers would pay lip-service to the whole blind thing by going in for some detailed description of the sights and sounds of the city (and oh boy - if I had the time I would totally cut and paste all of the grandiose descriptions that have been set down over the years: but come on - you know what I mean right? "I can smell the yellowish chemical tinge of the mustard in their hot dogs from five blocks away." etc): but Waid and his co-conspirators go in for a much more bold "purple vision" which you kinda have to see to really understand: but kind looks like a cool effect from an 80s action movie [9]. </div>
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Compared to the crash and bang of all other superhero comics out there: which (as much as I do end up loving some of them) are a little bit electric guitars and crashing drums (especially the previous versions of Daredevil which have always have a particular tendency to pile on the strings in a doom-laden way) this brand new sprightly version of Daredevil comes across more like a piano sonata - light and breezy and almost delicate in the way it plays upon (and subtly upends) it's well-worn clichés. I mean yeah: you've heard the story of good versus evil a bazillion times: but hey - just because I've eaten cake before that doesn't mean that I'm not going to enjoy a few cheeky slices especially if someone knows how to bake all the right ingredients <i>just right</i>: mixing them all up in a concoction that I'm just going to go ahead and describe as simply devilish (ha!). </div>
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[1] Which I really really really should write a post for: but man - oh well: whatever: maybe in a bit. <br />
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[2] Can I get away with saying "fresh take"? Kinda makes me sound like a voice-over for a cheesy mid 90s film trailer: but maybe that's just a problem that exists only in my head?<br />
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[3] Which always reminds me of that Bill Hicks joke. But yes. </div>
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[4] Most of which I must say are really damn pretty good and is really (have I said this elsewhere on here?) the only real competition Batman's got in terms of mainstream superhero character comic books that people who don't normally read mainstream superhero character comic books can also enjoy and appreciate: only (for whatever social reasons) - Batman is afforded waaaaaaay more respect by the general public than the blind guy with the white cubs all dressed up in a red leather one-piece (which I guess we can probably blame (as with so many things) on Ben "Smugface" Affeck). But yeah (whatever) my point being: if you're looking for a good time: go read a Daredevil comic (especially if it's one written by Mr Frank Miller or Mr Brian Michael Bendis). </div>
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[5] Of course - I'm sure that this is wrong. And hey - if anyone out there wants to do an "well - actually I'll think you'll find…." then go ahead - knock yourself out. </div>
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[6] I mean - writing has braille right - but (as far as I know - and maybe this is like a whole other: "well - actually I'll think you'll find….") there's not a way that you can make comics for the blind - is there? </div>
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[7] That's the proper - not-offending-anyone way to put it - right? </div>
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[8] Ok - so that one is a bit weak and is basically just The Flash - but whatever: leave me alone.<br />
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[9] In fact: it really reminds me of this bit of trivia from John Carpenter's Escape From New York: "The wire-frame computer graphics on the display screens in the glider were not actually computer-generated, as computers capable of 3D wire-frame imaging were too expensive when the film was made. To generate the "wire-frame" images, special effects designers built a model of the city, painted it black, attached bright white tape to the model buildings in an orderly grid, and moved a camera through the model city." But I dunno - maybe that's just me? </div>
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Links: <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/daredevil-4-review/">Comics Alliance Article: Why You Should Be Reading ‘Daredevil’</a>, <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39267">Comic Book Resources Article: PIPELINE: Why "Mark Waid's 'Daredevil'"?</a>, <a href="http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/08/15/would-mark-waids-daredevil-just-be-an-average-superhero-comic-book-back-in-the-old-days/">Comics Should Be Good Article: Would Mark Waid’s Daredevil Just be an Average Superhero Comic Book Back in the Old Days?</a>, <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/feature/173687-mark-waids-narrative-multitasking-in-daredevil/">PopMatters Article: Mark Waid’s Narrative Multitasking in "Daredevil"</a>, <a href="http://sequart.org/magazine/29343/i-once-was-blind-waids-daredevil-how-expectations-can-ruin-even-the-best-of-things/">Sequart Article: I Once Was Blind: Waid’s Daredevil & How Expectations Can Ruin Even the Best of Things…</a>.<br />
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/daredevil-2001-2006.html">Daredevil (2001 - 2006)</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/irredeemable.html">Irredeemable</a>, Astro City, Hawkeye, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/richard-starks-parker.html">Richard Stark's Parker</a>,<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-33131254382631199592013-10-07T12:20:00.000+01:002013-10-22T19:31:42.587+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/10_______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Ok. So you know what? It's kinda hard to describe properly what a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum consists of (relax: - I'm not going to use that hoary old cliché about there's not really any such thing as a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum because - we're better than that - right?) - I mean: in the strict physical sense - it's a big table full of comic books (at a rough guesstimate I'd say there's usually around - what? - 150 books available for people to take home at each session) and a bunch of people (typically we get about a dozen or so people turn up) all from various walks of life and all with different backgrounds (yeah - I know you're thinking that's it probably all nerdy white guys - but seriously - we're as multicultural and diverse as a corporate video - with an age span from 6 to 90) all sitting around and discussing / arguing / sharing their thoughts and ideas about one of the most exciting and diverse mediums on the planet (nowadays if you're talking about something that's just "all about superheroes" my first guess is you're talking about films - but whatever). It's a little bit more chaotic than a book club but with the same sort of relaxed and open friendly atmosphere: all presided over by an excitable librarian (that would be me - hi!) who has pretty much read every comic book out there (even the terrible ones) and is willing to tell you where you're going wrong with whatever you're reading (and is most happy when people disagree with him). If you're curious as to what sort of books we discuss - then take a look around this blog - every book here has been included at one point or another. And if you want to know what sort of things we talk about: - well - it's never really that properly thought out but we touch upon everything from the best way to construct a story, to how far genre limits can go all the way to if Frank Miller was right about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">There's also a book of the month (so that at least we can all talk about something we've all read). This month it's <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/ghost-world.html">Ghost World by Daniel Clowes</a></span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy </span><a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/" style="background-color: white; color: #99cc66; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The next one is: Tuesday the 8th of October / 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX. </span><a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=north+library+manor+gardens&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=north+library+manor+gardens&hnear=Islington&cid=0,0,14799324691437893482&ei=S3Y1TeTUJIKHhQfUutW3Cw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQnwIwAQ" style="background-color: white; color: #99cc66; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Here is a map</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">. Come and join us. It's free. All welcome.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">For more information (or if you have any questions and/or would like to be added to our email list: we send out a reminder a week before with a list of the books that are going to be available) you can email us </span><a href="mailto:islingtoncomicforum@gmail.com" style="background-color: white; color: #99cc66; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">All comments welcome.</span>Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-69963931418500748362013-08-20T14:32:00.000+01:002013-08-20T14:33:05.286+01:00Books: A Wrinkle in Time______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel </b><br />
<b>By Madeleine L'Engle and Hope Larson</b><br />
2012<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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So: the question is - when you're writing a review (or whatever it is you wanna call these - a "post" or blah) about a children's book: should you try and adopt the perspective of a child (which - I dunno - means kinda stunting your brain a little I guess) or - should you approach it the same way that you look at everything else?<br />
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I'd never heard of A Wrinkle in Time until I saw it sitting on the shelf in our Children's Library: but seeing how the back cover has a quote from big-shot James Patterson [1] on the back cover: I figured it must be kind of a big deal. And well - I mean: just the way it kinda announces itself on the cover "A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel" (like that's supposed to mean something important) I got the feeling that maybe this was a like an American thing that had failed to make it's way across the pond [2].<br />
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Speaking to a couple of American friends over the weekend it turns out that - oops: yep: that's exactly what it is. Described as "required reading for bookish teenage girls" it turns out that A Wrinkle in Time is merely the first installment in the "Time Quartet" (which also includes (and I've gotta say - these are some great titles): A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters): so I guess these are like proto-Harry Potter books: mixed with some A Series of Unfortunate Events, a pinch of Enid Blyton and a daub of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: you know - bookish kids have a series of adventures and in doing so come to learn a bit more about themselves and their place in the world: what could be simpler (and more fun) - right?<br />
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Well: yeah. Only for me it turns out things weren't that simple.<br />
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I mean: it's a pretty common cliché at this point that England is the 51st State of America. And speaking as a (relatively) normal citizen of the UK [3] my whole life has been absolutely saturated with every possible form of American media: I mean - I could write you a list of all the books, films and TV shows I've obsessively consumed over the years but we'd probably be here for quite a long time... (and I'm sure we've both got better things to do - yeah?). Point being: it's a little bit weird to come across something like this book (or - well: - and I should keep reminding myself of this - the <i>graphic novel adaptation</i> of a book) that has completely escaped my detection: it's a bit like - I dunno - finding a whole new type of chocolate bar or something you know? I mean: it's not that I want to be eating all the chocolate in the shop: but at the very least I thought I knew what the names of all of them were. But whatever - nevermind.<br />
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So - there's this book - what's it like?<br />
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Most of the famous English children's books are about discovering a secret door to somewhere: Alice and the hole in the ground, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy looking inside their clothing receptacle, Harry messing around in Kings Cross etc [4]: I'm having trouble trying to sum up the right words to explain the feeling - but there's something kind of quaint about the way that the adventures start: small, humble beginnings that aren't really about much more than tottering about the countryside and maybe having a nice picnic somewhere [5]. Walking into the pages of A Wrinkle in Time with no clue as to what awaited me inside I just kind of assumed that it would be about conjuring the same feeling: doing things on a small scale without too much fuss and bother: but if your traditional "English" children's book is a small scone with a small dollop of jam and cream on the side then A Wrinkle in Time is a mountain of ice cream and cake all mixed together and served in an extra large "big gulp" serving: and (for once) I don't mean that in a good way. Nah: it's more to say that instead of treating the world as this big mysterious thing that even if you lived to be 100 years old you'd only be able to really know one really really small part of it [6]: A Wrinkle in Time flips things the other way and ends up - over the course of it's story - making the <i>universe</i> feel small and the main characters feel very very big. I mean - not that's a bad thing in and of itself: but it kind of added up with a lot of other things that left me feeling pretty distasteful with the whole thing by the time I finished it - like a fly had flown into my mouth and I had to scrub my tongue to wash the flavour away (you get what I mean?).<br />
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I mean (well): as this blog has gone on and on - the more I've been interested in stories and what they mean and how the work - and all that kind of stuff goes double (triple!) for stories intended for children. After all - when you're new and fresh-faced your brain is all mushy and easily absorbent - which means that the lessons and ideas that get manage to get purchase at that point will be very much wedged in their for the rest of your life... (I could very much belabor this point and write several mini-articles: but let's keep moving on yeah?).<br />
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Because - yeah: with that kind of stuff in mind - there's a lot in A Wrinkle in Time that is - well: troubling. I mean I don't want to spoil it all for you - but the fact that there's a moment where a character is trying to think of something in order to keep herself from being brainwashed and ends up relying upon reciting the Declaration of Independence is - well - I'd say it's a little bit messed up - no? And further from that (and this is where I'm going to get a little bit liberal and tree-huggy - so you know: apologies): it's damn strange to have the one of the main antagonists be a great massive blob of evil ("The Black Thing"). I mean yeah: it makes things a lot simpler for a story just to have an evil blah and then use that to drive the story forward: but I can't shake the feeling that a way more - well - <i>human</i> - story would show that people aren't just bad because they're born or made that way [7] - but that rather: everyone has their reasons and "evil" is mostly just used as a stick to beat someone into silence when they don't want to take the time to understand them [8]. And then the whole thing ends (and this is very much a spoiler so erm yeah: maybe turn away now): on the idea that love is a finite resource and you shouldn't waste it on people that aren't your family: like - yeah: I think I know understand a little more about why America seems like it's so messed up [10]. <br />
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But hey: even if it's morally wrong (or however you want to phrase it) - I will admit that (for that very reason) it makes pretty interesting reading. And it's whole strange science-fiction fantasy mishmash (so it's not really clear where one ends and the other begins) - not to mention the crazy seeming free-associative leaps in logic - (and - what the hell? - it's called A Wrinkle in Time (and is sold as a time-travel adventure): but there's no damn time-travelling) gives the whole thing a feeling like you're inside someone's head watching them dream. I mean - if (for whatever reason) I'd been reading the book then I would have felt been pretty irate that I'd allowed it to trespass in my mind: but hey - seeing how it's just a comic book (so: in and out in about a hour) there's no proper sense of invasion (a proper book is like a home: a comic is more like a fun place to visit - no?).<br />
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[1] You haven't heard of James Patterson? Well - according to most surveys he's the most borrowed authors in English libraries (and probably most other countries too I'd imagine): and every library I've worked in has always had about three or four shelves (at the very least) dedicated to his <i>oeuvre</i>. What bread and milk is to corner shops: James Patterson is to libraries: you know - he's one of the essentials.<br />
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[2] Man: I must say - I love using that expression. There's something so powerful about referring to the Atlantic Ocean (the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions with a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres (41,100,000 square miles) it covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area) as a "pond." (ha).<br />
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[3] Yes. I know that the United Kingdom and England are two different things - but I wanted to avoid the boring repetition of "England, England, England" - ok? And "UK" sounded good - and whatever.<br />
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[4] Although I guess I should admit that my only experience of Harry Potter comes from half-watching the first two movies. But yeah - whatever. You're not going to hold it against me are you?<br />
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[5] Actually - well: I guess with my three examples I was hoping to set a kinda precedent of typically English children's stories - but now I consider it a little bit more I realise that it's only really Alice that fits the template that I was hoping to make: just an average nobody who accidentally falls down into a strange magical world - does some stuff - and then leaves. As opposed to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe where the kids (sure) are nobodies are the start (well to do nobodies - but still nobodies) but then they end of being best buddies with Jesus (which is a bit much I must say): which is a touch too grand and ostentatious - which then leads to Harry Potter - where it turns out (and this is right - right?) that the main character was Jesus from the start and was just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up - right? (Right): which to me seems like small scale Englishness (as I imagine it) and more like - well - something that stems more from an American way of seeing the world ("<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anXKnXVm-Kc">I am so smart! I am so smart!</a>" etc). I guess the things I was thinking of was more: Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin - that kind of stuff. But yeah - whatever. Maybe none of this makes sense (oh well).<br />
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[6] Which reminds me of this cool mini-article <a href="http://vorpalizer.com/post/45431654051/roots-and-beginnings-the-star-wars-trilogy-dir">here</a>: "I think the famous opening shot, seen above, contains the answer. Star Wars was big. As big as I could imagine things being. Maybe to imagine a bigger thing was in fact impossible. Maybe this introduced and thus defined the very concept of bigness in my imaginative life."<br />
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[7] And if you want to say that type of thing isn't possible in a children's story - then I would respond by recommending that you watch pretty much any Studio Ghibli film.<br />
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[8] I mean - I know it's probably not very cool to quote Russell Brand - but <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jun/28/russell-brand-morning-joe-question-time">he wrote a thing in the Guardian</a> recently that basically sums up my current attitude (talking about the Daily Mail columnist [9] Melanie Philips) : "When the audience – who, incidentally, make all the best points – boo her, I think it a shame. The wall of condemnation is an audible confirmation that the world is a fearful and unloving place. Like most of us, Melanie just needs a cuddle."<br />
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[9] Daily Mail columnist being the nearest thing that the world has to being employed as an actual hate-spewing demon. Obviously (but you knew that already - right?).<br />
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[10] Ok yeah: so the actual book was written all the way back between 1959 and 1960: but that ain't no excuse.<br />
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Links: <a href="http://basedonnothing.net/2013/01/17/book-review-a-wrinkle-in-time-the-graphic-novel/">Based on Nothing Review</a>. </div>
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/mercury.html">Mercury</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/war-at-ellsmere.html">The War At Ellsmere</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stardust.html">Stardust</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-hobbit.html">The Hobbit</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/coraline.html">Coraline</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/anyas-ghost.html">Anya's Ghost</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/unwritten.html">The Unwritten</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/promethea.html">Promethea</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arrowsmith-so-smart-in-their-fine.html">Arrowsmith: So Smart In Their Fine Uniforms</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-74338799378349830352013-08-20T09:20:00.001+01:002013-08-20T09:20:44.152+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/09<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ok. So you know what? It's kinda hard to describe properly what a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum consists of (relax: - I'm not going to use that hoary old cliché about there's not really any such thing as a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum because - we're better than that - right?) - I mean: in the strict physical sense - it's a big table full of comic books (at a rough guesstimate I'd say there's usually around - what? - 150 books available for people to take home at each session) and a bunch of people (typically we get about a dozen or so people turn up) all from various walks of life and all with different backgrounds (yeah - I know you're thinking that's it probably all nerdy white guys - but seriously - we're as multicultural and diverse as a corporate video - with an age span from 6 to 90) all sitting around and discussing / arguing / sharing their thoughts and ideas about one of the most exciting and diverse mediums on the planet (nowadays if you're talking about something that's just "all about superheroes" my first guess is you're talking about films - but whatever). It's a little bit more chaotic than a book club but with the same sort of relaxed and open friendly atmosphere: all presided over by an excitable librarian (that would be me - hi!) who has pretty much read every comic book out there (even the terrible ones) and is willing to tell you where you're going wrong with whatever you're reading (and is most happy when people disagree with him). If you're curious as to what sort of books we discuss - then take a look around this blog - every book here has been included at one point or another. And if you want to know what sort of things we talk about: - well - it's never really that properly thought out but we touch upon everything from the best way to construct a story, to how far genre limits can go all the way to if Frank Miller was right about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.<br />
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There's also a book of the month (so that at least we can all talk about something we've all read). This month it's: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/wolverine-best-there-is.html">Wolverine: The Best There Is Vol 1: Contagion</a>. If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy <a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">here</a>. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).<br />
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The next one is: Tuesday the 3rd of September / 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX. <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=north+library+manor+gardens&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=north+library+manor+gardens&hnear=Islington&cid=0,0,14799324691437893482&ei=S3Y1TeTUJIKHhQfUutW3Cw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQnwIwAQ">Here is a map</a>. Come and join us. It's free. All welcome.<br />
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For more information (or if you have any questions and/or would like to be added to our email list: we send out a reminder a week before with a list of the books that are going to be available) you can email us <a href="mailto:islingtoncomicforum@gmail.com">here</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-56420891900413553542013-07-16T19:34:00.006+01:002013-07-23T09:49:06.586+01:00Books: Batman: Batman Incorporated______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Batman Incorporated</b></div>
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<b>Written by Grant Morrison </b><br />
<b>Art by Yanick Paquette, Chris Burnham, Michel Lacombe, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart and Dave Beatty</b><br />
2013<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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Out of all the "outsider artists" Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. is probably the most well known (he's the only one I've ever heard of anyway). Like it says on the good old Wikipedia: "He has become famous for his posthumously-discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story."<br />
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If have you no idea what I'm talking about then - well - "outsider art" is art made by (and I realise that this isn't the most sensitive way to put it - but what the hell): crazy people. That is (and this would be the more delicate way to put it) - people who haven't come up through the proper art school channels but instead exist on the fringes of society: you know - insane-asylum inmates and/or children: that type of thing.<br />
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But yeah - just the thought of Henry Darger's 15,145-page [1] The Story of the Vivian Girls [2] epic is enough to give me spine the shivers. Just the thought / the concept of something that - well - gargantuan (?) monstrous (?) Brobdingnagian [3] (?) - whatever - it's like something knocking up against inside my brain's funny bone: I like my human endeavour to be human-sized: and once we start going past the 1,000 page mark then I think I start getting a little queasy: does that make sense?<br />
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Me and my flatmate where recently talking about this sort of stuff and he mentioned that Milan Kundera (one of his favourite authors) said something about how you should be able to hold a novel in your head [4]: that you know - it shouldn't be too sprawling and crazy or whatever: but rather the whole thing should be neat and tidy with every piece connected in a proper way with every other piece: all of it forming a satisfying compact whole. I think - in my more sober state I would tend to agree with this kind of thinking: everything in it's right place and all that: but (then again) maybe there's more fun to be had in not been so buttoned up all the time.<br />
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But I'm zig-zagging here - as I always tend to when it comes to trying to encapsulate my thoughts about Grant Morrison and especially when it comes to his epic Batman saga. I mean: I guess I shouldn't be such a hypocrite seeing how some of my favourite comics are big, long-running series that take ten or so books to tell the whole story (I would write down some examples: but what the hey - they're scattered all around this blog (and I'd feel bad for praising certain series over others - so will leave it to you to find for yourselves....) but they're always (mostly) a lot calmer and tamer in how they come across.... You know what? Fine: I'll give you an example: Neil Gaiman's Sandman series was years in the telling and stretched out (depending on which books you count) into over a dozen books - each filling out a whole Universe of Universes: with hundreds of characters and very different states of being but (you know what?) reading those books never had me reaching for the Henry Darger parallels: so I guess the question is: why is that?<br />
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Well: the first thing is the way that Morrison's Batman comes across: (no duh) Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego isn't exactly a smaller-than-life character - nah dude: and so really - the only way to properly capture the right Bat-spirit is to go big and always over-the-top: which means there's not much room for calmness and contemplative: not when there's windows to smash and people like Lord Death Man to fight [5].<br />
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Connected to that is the way that he decides to tell the story: still using The Sandman as our base-line: well - even tho that was using all sorts of strange craziness and myths and legends and demons and monsters all mashed together [6]: you can still always make sense of the stuff that's going on - you know? It's clear like a fresh-water lake. Which isn't the way that Grant Morrison plays his Batman (no sir). In fact the feeling I got with reading Batman Incorporated is that it's almost like he's decided to see just how much information he can get into a single unit of space. I mean - one way of thinking about stories that they're all about the careful unloading of information (so: think about how much less The Empire Strikes Back would be if it told you who Luke Skywalker's Dad was in the opening crawl): and while most writer's try their best to unload all small bits at a time: Morrison it seems is on a mission to pack in as much as possible: firing it all in short sharp sweet concentrated laser bursts into the reader's brain so that at time it's like your Marty Mcfly in Back To The Future Part II: watching six TV screens all playing at the same time and yet (somehow) still being able to make sense of them all. <br />
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One of the side effects of that is that (for this hapless reader) the first time you read it a whole lot of stuff is going to be whooshing over your head [7]. Luckily for me (and I would suggest this to everyone who wants to attempt to make sense of this book [8]) the fine people at The Mindless Ones website have written some very helpful / charming / funny / interesting annotations that (for me at least) where a huge heap of help - with excellent piece of advice number one going to: "From now on no one is allowed to utter the words ‘hard to follow’, ‘confusing’, ‘unrelated plots’ or the like without having read the comic three times." [9]<br />
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So far I've only read Batman Incorporated twice [10]: but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up reading a few other dozen times in the future - and yeah: I will say it was much more fun the second time (with lots of cool little details that only pop out once you've been through already: check the poster in front of Catwoman when she's asking "What's the appeal?").<br />
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Not to say that the first time round was a drag: in fact - for the first few dozen pages it comes across as the most exhilarating and (hell yes) <i>fun</i> Batcomic Morrison has written so far: I mean - if you wanted to know what all the fuss was about then I would recommend maybe you start with the first half of this book and then (once you get the taste for it) go back to the beginning (that would be Batman and Son) and work your way from there: for me - it's kinda of like the bright sunshine superhero stuff Morrison was doing when he was running The New X-Men or Marvel Boy: so you know: inventive and wild - but still fun and breezy: like a TV show with a pop song soundtrack and a budget as big as the moon .<br />
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In addition: well yeah ok - I can't be the only one who always found Batman's provincialism a little bit strange - right? [11] The way he restricted himself to Gotham city at the seeming expense of everywhere else. I mean - what gives? So he's chasing the Joker down a street and all of a sudden they're past the city limits (a big sign saying "You're Now Leaving Gotham City") and the fearsome Dark Knight is like: "oh - sorry. That's as far as go. I'll catch you some other time?" [12] So - if for nothing else: thank heavens then for Grant Morrison for confronting my minor niggle by stepping up to the plate and getting that all nice and fixed.<br />
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What else? Well - strangely for a Grant Morrison Batphic Novel that doesn't feature Frank Quitely: the artwork on display here is actually pretty nifty and not at all disappointing and flat: so hooray for that [14] and man - like I said about the compacted information being fired from all directions: there's so much stuff here - Batman does Scalped, Invisible-style fun with secret badges, references to both Borges and Thatcher (amongst others), Invisible robots, motorbikes to the face, carefully manufactured internet conspiracies [15] and a loving attention to detail (I realise that maybe this is old news and something that's probably been the case for years and years: but for me it's the first time I've ever realised that Bruce Wayne's eyebrows are in the shape of a bat: which I've gotta say is such a perfect little touch). And: even tho Batman is always always thinks ahead (Rule one = "Proper Planning and Preparation." after all) so too do the villains (and there's lots of new shiny villains waiting!): which means that when it comes to the crunch it's all very sweaty palms and palpitations.<br />
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The book itself puts it best when it has one character exclaim: "Everything is hyper-mega! Everybody have fun!" - and the joy that seeps through the book is so infectious that even Batman seems to be having a better battime ("Hh"): even the henchmen make an effort (which is always nice to see): and man - the dialogue is as succulent and juicy as a freshly picked peach ("He had a skull for a head and clammy fingers!"). <br />
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So: what you waiting for? Even if there's a chance that you might drown - you should jump in anyway: once you get let the water envelop you and allow yourself to be pulled by it's strange currents then - well: a whole new wild wide world awaits you....<br />
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[1] Ha. Take THAT Infinite Jest.<br />
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[2] A name sadly since co-opted by a middling no-mark indie band (oh well).<br />
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[3] Thank you online thesaurus: best word <i>ever</i>. Am going to be trying to work it into every sentence I can for the rest of the week ("I want my cup of tea Brobdingnagian please.")<br />
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[4] I did do a quick google to see if I could find the exact quote - but nothing came up. Oh well: whatever - maybe my flatmate just made it up trying to sound smart [16]. <br />
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[5] Also (I was going to try and put this later but maybe it goes best here): and yeah I realise that this might be a bit unfair coming from someone who runs a blog about comics (but still): isn't Batman a little... I dunno - silly? (Oh dear now I've said it huh?): I mean - on the one hand it does make sense - if you're going to write a Batman book then - well - it should be about Batman (obviously): but god - Morrison goes in so deep and unpicks everything with such scalpel-like precision - I mean: it's like reading a Phd on who Batman is and what he can do and what he represents: and ok yeah - on one hand it's very cool and interesting (and man: if you think the Nolan Dark Knight films captured what Batman was about then - please please - read some of these Morrison Batbooks so that you realise just how boring and puddle-deep Christian Bale's interpretation is): but on the other - I mean - all this effort and energy and intelligence expended on something so (well - I'll use the same word again seeing how it fits so well): silly. You know: reading Batman Incorporated will give you lots to think about concerning Batman: but not really that much in terms of human beings or anything like that. Which I guess is why (before I step into the books) I get the feeling that they're just a bit - well: outsider arty: a mental cul-de-sac that leads only to itself - a batlabyrinth that's only aim is to draw you ever further in (It is so very telling that when a character says: "If he didn't exist, well... I guess we'd just have to invent him." he isn't talking about God - he's talking about Batman). Which - yeah: is either something to be feared and to run away from or something to cheer and embrace - and I guess my only preference is constantly flipping between the two.<br />
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[6] And - holy moly - if that doesn't pique your interest then let me just come out and say it simply: if you (somehow) haven't read The Sandman in it's entirely already - then you really really really should.<br />
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[7] In fact - I would even go so far as to say: as much as I love reading collected editions of stuff: the ideal way to read Morrison's Batrun is probably a single issue at a time: if only in order to allow the time to properly digest things. I mean: even reading it in book form like this it's pretty obvious that each issue has it's own theme and pace and feel - and trying to take them in all together is a bit like trying to eat a week's worth of meals all in the same setting.<br />
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[8] And - ok yeah: most of the other Morrison Batbooks too.<br />
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[9] Which is taken from <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2011/03/28/batman-incorporated-4-annocommentations/">here</a>: but - hell - just check all the links below (where it says links). Special mention also going to: ""The image of Bruce pushing at the white of the comic page – the ultimate ground upon which the original four colour process echoed in the doors (check them – magenta, cyan, yellow and black), and therefore all comics, rests – represents our hero travelling beyond the confines of the 2D and scattering across the comic Faculty X style. The higgledypiggeldification of Batman." (<a href="http://mindlessones.com/2012/01/28/batman-incorporated-leviathan-strikes-annocommentations-part-2">from here</a>): and also (very much also): "I like to imagine that in reality the Alzheimer’s riddled, amnesiac Dedalus converses in non-sequiteurs which Batman’s powerful mind, resistant to the last, organises into something resembling sense. But it’s a permeable sense. We’re all at sea here. Dedalus completely inhabits his condition, he owns it, and he balances things out by forcing his enemies onto his very un-level playing field. The psychedelic wall effect captures this completely – the way it’s running in two directions at once, uncertain of where it is." (Which - oh boy: was very helpful in helping me understand what exactly was going on: so thanks for that dudes!). <br />
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[10] And just so we have everything nice and clear (in case you want to try and cross-reference with other stuff on the internet or whatever): Islington's version of Batman Incorporated collects Collects Batman Incorporated #1 - 8 and Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! So you know like.<br />
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[11] Yeah yeah yeah: I know - a story about a multimillionaire playboy who dresses up like a giant bat and runs around at night beating up criminals is (like I said above) it's all bit silly (we know we know) - and I'm picking on this relatively minor point and going: "hey - isn't almost insignificant detail like really weird and stuff?" Which is comparable to pointing to a particular spot in the middle of the Pacific and going: "hey - isn't that bit - like - really wet?" But whatever.<br />
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[12] Like (just me?) - isn't it a bit strange in The Dark Knight film when he makes that brief excursion to Hong Kong. I mean - on the one hand it was cool to see him leave the confines of <strike>Chicago</strike> Gotham for a change: but then (when I started to think about it [13]) it's like: but why is he just making an exception for that one guy? You know: I guess the reason they decided to have that scene in the film was to show that there's no escape from the Caped Crusader - but by bringing it up it just made it seem more weird you know? Like someone saying "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvM81TNUHRE">well i take care of my kids</a>": or (putting it another way / making another point) - if the only reason Bats made an exception for the Hong Kong dude was because he did stuff that affected Gotham - then does that mean that if - say - the Penguin set up shop in Las Vegas and keep all his dealings in Nevada then he'd be safe from the Batman? I dunno.... (Maybe I should stop having a go at the Chris Nolan Batfilms: but I just can't help myself!)<br />
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[13] That's probably the best point for you to say: "I think maybe you're over-thinking this stuff." And for me to say: shut your damn face.<br />
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[14] Although it's gotta be said that Chris Burnham: does the best Frank Quitely impression I've ever seen: (Kathy Kane isn't the only one biting someone else's style - ha!)<br />
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[15] Ok - I know I said I'd stop being mean about the Nolan Batflicks - but godamn - I wish he has managed to be as smart as Morrison in balancing the Bruce Wayne / Batman identity stakes instead of - well: instead of doing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUDHcuLnMVc">this</a> (which I've gotta say is probably one of my favourite youtube things of the year: thanks to Sam for sending me the link!)<br />
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[16] (To which he has replied (by email): "I was NOT trying to sound smart! (well, maybe a little...). the full quote is: "In order to make the novel into a polyhistorical illumination of existence, you need to master the technique of ellipsis, the art of condensation. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of endless length. Musil’s The Man Without Qualities is one of the two or three novels that I love most. But don’t ask me to admire its gigantic unfinished expanse! Imagine a castle so huge that the eye cannot take it all in at a glance. Imagine a string quartet that lasts nine hours. There are anthropological limits—human proportions—that should not be breached, such as the limits of memory. When you have finished reading, you should still be able to remember the beginning. If not, the novel loses its shape, its “architectonic clarity” becomes murky". (taken from <a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2977/the-art-of-fiction-no-81-milan-kundera">here</a>) Which I think was basically a parahphrase of where he talks about it in more length in his book 'The Art of the Novel'")<br />
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Links: <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2010/11/26/batman-the-return-batman-inc-alpha-adapter/">Mindless Ones Article Batman the Return + Batman Inc = Alpha Adapter</a>, <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/batman-inc-1-annotations/">Comics Alliance Article: ‘Batman, Inc.’ #1: Mr. Unknown Is Dead [annotations]</a> / <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/resurrector-batman-inc-2-annotations/">Comics Alliance Article: Batman, Inc. #2 Annotations: Resurrector!</a> / <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/batman-incorporated-3-annotations/">Comics Alliance Article: Batman Incorporated #3: “Scorpion Tango” [annotations]</a> / <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2011/03/14/batman-incorporated-3-annocomments-pp1-3/">Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated #3: Annocomments (pp1-3)</a> / <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2011/03/28/batman-incorporated-4-annocommentations/">Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated #4 Annocommentations</a> / <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2011/05/16/mindless-batchat-and-batman-inc-6-annocommentations/">Mindless Ones Mindless Batchat (and Batman Inc #6 Annocommentations)</a> / <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2012/01/22/batman-incorporated-leviathan-strikes-annocommentations-part-1/">Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! Annocommentations Part 1</a> / <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2012/01/28/batman-incorporated-leviathan-strikes-annocommentations-part-2/">Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! Annocommentations Part 2</a>, <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2011/06/12/chris-burnham-cheeky-interview/">Mindless Ones Chris Burnham Cheeky Interview</a>.<br />
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Preceded by: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/batman-batman-and-son.html">Batman: Batman and Son</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/batman-black-glove.html">Batman: The Black Glove</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/batman-batman-rip.html">Batman: R.I.P.</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/final-crisis.html">Final Crisis</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/batman-batman-and-robin.html">Batman: Batman and Robin</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/batman-return-of-bruce-wayne.html">Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/batman-time-and-batman.html">Batman: Time and the Batman</a>.</div>
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/invisibles.html">The Invisibles</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/scalped.html">Scalped</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/authority.html">The Authority</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/flex-mentallo.html">Flex Mentallo</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/seaguy.html">Seaguy</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/nemesis.html">Nemesis</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/x-men-new-x-men.html">X-Men: New X-Men</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/marvel-boy.html">Marvel Boy</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/sandman.html">The Sandman</a>.<br />
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Profiles: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/grant-morrison.html">Grant Morrison</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.</div>
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Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-56749850079704926132013-07-09T18:56:00.001+01:002013-07-23T15:08:47.557+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/08_________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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Ok. So you know what? It's kinda hard to describe properly what a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum consists of (relax: - I'm not going to use that hoary old cliché about there's not really any such thing as a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum because - we're better than that - right?) - I mean: in the strict physical sense - it's a big table full of comic books (at a rough guesstimate I'd say there's usually around - what? - 150 books available for people to take home at each session) and a bunch of people (typically we get about a dozen or so people turn up) all from various walks of life and all with different backgrounds (yeah - I know you're thinking that's it probably all nerdy white guys - but seriously - we're as multicultural and diverse as a corporate video - with an age span from 6 to 90) all sitting around and discussing / arguing / sharing their thoughts and ideas about one of the most exciting and diverse mediums on the planet (nowadays if you're talking about something that's just "all about superheroes" my first guess is you're talking about films - but whatever). It's a little bit more chaotic than a book club but with the same sort of relaxed and open friendly atmosphere: all presided over by an excitable librarian (that would be me - hi!) who has pretty much read every comic book out there (even the terrible ones) and is willing to tell you where you're going wrong with whatever you're reading (and is most happy when people disagree with him). If you're curious as to what sort of books we discuss - then take a look around this blog - every book here has been included at one point or another. And if you want to know what sort of things we talk about: - well - it's never really that properly thought out but we touch upon everything from the best way to construct a story, to how far genre limits can go all the way to if Frank Miller was right about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.<br /><br />
Books we got for you will include: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/twelve.html">The Twelve</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/signal-to-noise.html">Signal to Noise</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/crecy.html">Crécy</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/08/marvel-universe-vs-punisher.html">Punisher: Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/road-to-perdition.html">The Road to Perdition</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/batman-batman-and-robin.html">Batman: Batman and Robin</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-shadow.html">The Shadow</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for.html">The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/official-lloyd-llewellyn-collection.html">#$@&!: The Official Lloyd Llewellyn Collection</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/11/marvel-1602.html">Marvel 1602</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/daredevil-2001-2006.html">Daredevil (2001 - 2006)</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/mazeworld.html">Mazeworld</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/sleeper.html">Sleeper</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/batman-batman-rip.html">Batman: Batman: R.I.P.</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/red.html">Red</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/marvel-zombies.html">Marvel Zombies</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/batman-batman-and-son.html">Batman: Batman and Son</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/exterminators.html">The Exterminators</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/01/elektra-assassin.html">Elektra: Assassin</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/distant-neighbourhood.html">A Distant Neighbourhood</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/08/final-crisis.html">Final Crisis</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-hell.html">From Hell</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/habibi.html">Habibi</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/chicken-with-plums.html">Chicken with Plums</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-ultimates.html">The Ultimates</a> etc etc etc<br /><br />There's also a book of the month (so that at least we can all talk about something we've all read). This month it's: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/superman-red-son.html">Superman: Red Son written by Mark Millar art by Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett</a>. If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy <a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">here</a>. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).<br />
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The next one is: Tuesday the 30th of July / 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX. <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=north+library+manor+gardens&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=north+library+manor+gardens&hnear=Islington&cid=0,0,14799324691437893482&ei=S3Y1TeTUJIKHhQfUutW3Cw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQnwIwAQ">Here is a map</a>. Come and join us. It's free. All welcome.<br />
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For more information (or if you have any questions and/or would like to be added to our email list: we send out a reminder a week before with a list of the books that are going to be available) you can email us <a href="mailto:islingtoncomicforum@gmail.com">here</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-54397271334417789222013-06-28T09:40:00.003+01:002013-06-28T09:52:07.738+01:00Events: Barbican Comic Forum 2013/07________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>18th of July / 6:00pm - 7:00pm</b><br />
Barbican Children's Library, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS<br />
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From the creators of the Islington Comic Forum: a fun, informal and invigorating book group dedicated to the understanding and enjoyment of the multifaceted medium of comic books and graphic novels. Come and join the conversations: make friends, get recommendations on cool and stimulating titles and choose from a selection of hand-picked books. From novices to experts: open to all. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BarbicanComicForum">JOIN US ON FACEBOOK</a>.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-43456981548947502272013-06-25T19:46:00.001+01:002013-06-25T19:50:25.979+01:00Books: Superior______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Superior</b><br />
<b>Written by Mark Millar</b><br />
<b>Art by Leinil Francis Yu</b><br />
2013<br />
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<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
"I always liked the fact that Superior doesn't kill people. Being a nice guy is what makes him different to Wolverine and all that stuff."<br />
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So: yeah. I'll admit it - ever since I saw Man of Steel last week I haven't been able to stop thinking about it - if you're one of the unfortunate few who follow the Islington Comic Forum on facebook then you can probably tell from all the links and stuff I've posted up there (sorry guys) that it's kinda wormed itself into my mind like one of those worms-things from The Wrath of Khan [1] (only - you know: not in a good way).<br />
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I don't wanna be mean and end up spoiling it for those of you who haven't had a chance to watch it yet (although - come on! - it's been out for like two weeks already: and what? You telling me that you're life is so fulfilled that you don't have the time to watch a mindlessly violent blockbuster superhero film? HA! I don't believe you...): but I guess if you had to narrow it down to like a single sentence then that sentence would be: Superman isn't supposed to act like that. And another sentence (what the hey) would be: he's supposed to be <i>better </i>(that's what makes him Super silly).<br />
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(And - god I know yes - it is incredibly boring to hear a comic book geek bitch and moan in a nasally voice about how "that's not what happened in the comics. <i>That's not what happened in the comics</i>." But there's a difference between making whatever changes to the story and adding blah and taking away the things etc and: well - let me put it this way: how would you feel if you went to see film called Traffic Safety Man and it was all just him running red lights and driving with a mobile phone in one hand and a beer in the other? It's like: damn - if that's what they wanted to do: then why bother making it about Traffic Safety Man? As the end product is pretty much completely antithetical to what the character is supposed to be all about).<br />
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Of course - I hashed out a lot of these feelings in the thing that I wrote for Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu's [2] Superman: Birthright (link below): although looking back now - the stuff I wrote is pretty much all over the place like a seasick donkey and never really pulls itself together enough to make a cogent point and (man) I am very much temped to go back over and re-write the whole thing [3]: but part of the whole structure of this here blog (which I'm pretty much completely committed to at this point) is that I can't really write follow-ups to stuff I've written before [4]: everything has to be on a book-by-book basis you know?<br />
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Except - well - we got a big batch of new comics that came into today and sitting on top of the pile was this book: Superior. And - well - it's like someone pecked inside my brain and decided to make a comic book version of the Man of Steel that gets it all exactly right. <br />
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Now. The thing that's so amazing (to me) isn't the fact that someone could make a superhero comic that perfectly managed to distill all the the qualities that make Superman so gross-darn super (I mean - come on: how hard can that be?) but that such a book would come from (like it says on the cover): "From the Writer of Kick Ass" - that is to say: Mark Millar.<br />
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For those of you that don't know: Mark Millar is (at this point) the comic book world's version of the Anti-Christ: dirty, depraved and responsible for some of the most heinous comics of the 21st Century so far. I mean - yeah: we all know that comic books are supposed to be slightly seedy and disreputable (that's all part of the allure right?) - but Mr Millar (for the past decade or so) has been pushing those limits further into the ground than anyone has really dared [5]. I mean - read Kick-Ass 2 if you're curious to see how squalid a mainstream comic book can get [6].<br />
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Picking up to read Superior was only really to satisfy my curiosity as to just what level of bad Mr Millar was currently operating on: which I guess explains how it managed to sneak in behind me and grab me by the heart.<br />
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Make no mistake: I spent the entirety of my first read through of Superior constantly expecting the utter-most worst. Any second now (I told myself) someone is going to say "bring out the gimp" and this whole book is going to descend into some-sort of messed-up torture porn vibe with ball gags and things being shoved into uncomfortable orifices: so I just kind of sat there bracing myself for a massive car-crash of awfulness and so sort of "dude - that is so messed up" that has become Mr Millar's stock-in-trade. But - hey - if you take away anything from all this stuff that I'm writing down - then take this: I don't know how it happened but this book might just be the most palatable book that Mr Millar has gifted the world since his Superman: Red Son all those many years ago [7]. <br />
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I mean - seeing how Superior first appeared in Mr Millar's "Clint" magazine I guess I just assumed that it going to do for Superman what Nemesis did to Batman (i.e. make him all messed up and awful and mean): but instead - well: it's almost as if with all the other books he's produced lately - he's managed to flush out his venom and ever-constant-need to show the world that he's no softie [8] and instead crafted a hymn to the power of goodness: truth, justice and all the rest. <br />
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Which basically means: that even if you've hated everything Mark Millar has done in the past whatever years - I'd still say you should give this book a shot: and if you want a glimpse into the mind of someone who knows exactly how and why the legend of an all powerful man who can fly has managed to endure across multiple cultures for 75 years - then same thing: pick up and read Superior: it's the best refutation of the Man of Steel I've read all week.<br />
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[1] Looking it up - they're called <a href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ceti_eel">Ceti-eels</a> "Ceti eels incubate their larvae within the plates of their jointed carapace. Upon emergence, the eel larvae can enter the ear of a larger animal, where it wraps itself around the cerebral cortex. This causes the host extreme pain and renders them extremely susceptible to outside suggestion. Over time, as the larva matures, the subject suffers from madness and eventual death." So know you know.</div>
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[2] Who - (yes) check it out - is the exact same Leinil Francis Yu who did the art on Superior. </div>
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[3] And - D'oh - maybe put in something about how The Man of Steel actually borrowed quite a few little plot points and lines of dialogue from Birthright (which is the whole reason why I decided to write about them both together): but - no matter, no matter. Publish and be damned or whatever.<br />
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[4] If I did go back and write more stuff then the first thing I'd include would be <a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/06/21/man-of-steel-moral-superman-review-zack-snyder-david-goyer/">this article</a> from Comic Alliance (Choice And The Moral Universe Of 'Man Of Steel' [Opinion]) which 1. If you've seen Man of Steel you should totally read and 2. Includes this: "I noticed that every choice Clark Kent made was one a hero like Wolverine might make. Wolverine is the guy who gets to be misanthropic and petty and grim and make it all look cool. But Wolverine is not messianic. Wolverine is not a paragon. Jesus Christ would never wear a "What Would Wolverine Do?" bracelet." Which - well - check the first line of this post and gasp in awe at how I'm making this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pTPKzNmSCQ">all join up</a>.<br />
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[5] With the only notable exception being Frank Miller (no relation) who (with his book Holy Terror) managed to pip Mark Millar past the post to take home the prize of "Most Morally Repugnant Comic" of - like - the past ten years. Bully for him.<br />
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[6] On second thought: urg - don't read Kick-Ass 2. It's rubbish. <br />
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[7] And if you don't really know what that means: well - maybe click the link below and read the stuff I wrote about Superman: Red Son or (even better) track down a copy and read it yourself.<br />
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[8] I always think of <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/mark-millar,40126/">this AV Club Interview</a> when I read any Mark Millar mainly because of this: "I remember a friend of mine saying to me, “Oh, I wonder if you’ll, now that you’ve had a baby, you’ll go all Ian McEwan.” I don’t know if you’re familiar with Ian McEwan—his work used to be very, very harsh, and then he had a baby, and he went quite gentle. “So I wonder if that will happen to you, if you’ll lose your edge.” I was, “Oh my God, no.” So I think I purposefully went the other way, because the next thing I did was The Authority, which turned out to be my breakout project, but also the harshest thing I’ve ever written. I think since then, maybe subconsciously, I’ve always been aware of, “Don’t go soft.” I probably push it a little too much sometimes, so that I don’t seem as if I’ve gone soft."<br />
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Links: <a href="http://alternativemagazineonline.co.uk/2012/03/20/book-review-superior-by-mark-millar-and-leinil-yu-graphic-novel/">Alternative Magazine Review</a>.<br />
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/superman-birthright.html">Superman: Birthright</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/kick-ass.html">Kick-Ass</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/kick-ass-2.html">Kiss-Ass 2</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/superman-red-son.html">Superman: Red Son</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/nemesis.html">Nemesis</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/ultimate-comics-avengers.html">Ultimate Comics: Avengers</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/ultimate-comics-avengers-vs-new.html">Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/irredeemable.html">Irredeemable</a>.<br />
<br />
Profiles: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/mark-millar.html">Mark Millar</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-17482722637161741162013-06-21T12:26:00.001+01:002013-06-21T12:26:47.094+01:00Books: Freeway_______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Freeway</b><br />
<b>By Mark Kalesniko</b><br />
2011<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
There's this theory (I don't know if you know it) that says that the reason that films based on comic books are so very much popular - or at the very least why there are so many of them - is because (to the untrained eye at least) a comic book and a storyboard look exactly the same: you know - pictures of things one happening after the other: you could swap them over and no one would even notice - right? Except - oops: no - wrong. Mainly because of the old chestnut (and I never get bored of saying this) that film is about management of time while comics are about the management of space (so true).<br />
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Which is why reading Mark Kalesniko's Freeway is such a strange experience: here it seems is a comic that seems to wish that it had been born as an animated movie instead. Like: you know how most comics bounce around from different point of view shots from panel to panel and leisurely let the minutes pass by as a scene unfolds - mainly honing in only on the moments of most interest? Well - Freeway isn't really like that: here the gaps between panels seems to be measured in milliseconds- with the same perspective held for successive panels: so much so that if you wanted [1] you could cut out the pages and make a pretty effective little flip-book [2].<br />
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Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I mean - I think when I started I was a little bit undecided (and I guess I still am now really). Like: it is a bit weird when you have a story that's about one medium that you tell in another? Like: making a film about the benefits of opera; a song about how great literature is; a dance about your favourite building [3]: like - the thought that kinda just always sits at the back of my head when I encounter that type of thing is: hell - if you like that medium so much - then why aren't you using it? (To use an awful analogy: it'd be like using fruit to explain why you like meat or something). But then again: maybe that's part of the challenge you know? Like how in Ratatouille [4] there's those moments when they try and encapsulate the sensation of taste and flavor only using sound and images: so - well yeah - I'm torn [5].<br />
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But whatever - probably I'm over-thinking things - right? And maybe (you know) we should just talk about the story or whatever instead - right?<br />
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Well: for those of you who like their graphic entertainment a little bit middle-brow (you know: you prefer calling them "graphic novels" rather than "comic books"): then Freeway is going to be right up your street [7]. Yeah - it does star an anthropomorphic dog (whose facial expression is set (seemingly permanently) to "exasperated") but - hey: seeing how it's about animation and all that - that's like appropriate - right? (I can imagine someone saying at a dinner party: "I mean - it's like the story we're reading could be one of the films they're making." And someone else shaking their head going: "Wow man - that's so <i>deep</i>.") But I've got to say that even tho it's well crafted [8] and very good at capturing the minute changes from panel to panel that I mentioned above (so much so that there are bits - particularly when it's just the car speeding down the Freeway - that it's almost as if the images are moving) ultimately the sensation of reading was like watching a glossy ITV feature-length drama that so very badly wants to be taken seriously - I mean: the ambition is there but the actual "oh my god that was totally amazing" artistry just felt (I dunno) somewhat lacking (sorry Mark Kalesniko): as if it's main goal was just respect and nothing else and - well - for me: I'd prefer having a comic that can do more than just acting prestigious (but I realise that maybe it's just me).<br />
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[1] Note: please don't obviously.<br />
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[2] You all know what a flip-book is right? You know: the type of thing that you used to draw at the bottom hand corner of your exercise book in school? Mainly of stuff exploding, cars crashing into each other and stuff like that... (Fun fact: the German word for flip book is "Daumenkino" which translates as "thumb cinema" - which I'd say is a pretty cool name for it: "Hey - check out my thumb cinema!").<br />
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[3] Yes: <a href="http://www.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm">intentional reference</a>.<br />
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[4] And - hell yes: if I'm mentioning Ratatouille then I've just got to link to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7dpXSdWGI">this</a> (you're welcome). And - as we're talking about animation then I've just got to include a link to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk3eAR6HfDQ">this</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H86wnMr3lRs">this</a>.<br />
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[5] And if I'm being totally honest: I guess also that it just makes me feel (suspect) that maybe Mark Kalesniko's has his heart set more on animation than he does on comics - like he tried to break into Disney and couldn't get in and so this is his second choice or something - which (as a comic book reader) just kinda makes me (I dunno) unappreciated on something: like this is just second best an well - ok: will this do? kinda thing (but I'm guessing that's just all in my sick twisted mind - so whatever I guess) [6].<br />
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[6] Actually - oops: it turns out that he's a <i>former</i> animator (with his credits included The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Mulan, and Atlantis) so yeah: what do I know? (Answer: not much).<br />
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[7] Is that a car pun? I'm not sure...<br />
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[8] Well - mostly: it starts out very strong but then - as it goes on - and maybe this is natural for any massive book (it is 416 pages long!) - the quality of the artwork does start to dip ever-so-(almost)-imperceptibility: so that it just kind of feels a little rushed (am I being too harsh?).<br />
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Links: <a href="http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/02/creator-qa-hop-on-mark-kalesnikos-freeway/">Robot 6: Creator Q&A: Hop on Mark Kalesniko’s ‘Freeway’</a>,</div>
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/are-you-my-mother.html">Are You My Mother?</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-nao-of-brown.html">The Nao of Brown</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/asterios-polyp.html">Asterios Polyp</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/im-never-coming-back.html">I'm Never Coming Back</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/black-hole.html">Black Hole</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/david-boring.html">David Boring</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/its-good-life-if-you-dont-weaken.html">It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/jar-of-fools.html">Jar of Fools</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-19260024361539827372013-06-18T19:39:00.000+01:002013-06-25T19:48:32.061+01:00Books: Superman: Birthright________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Superman: Birthright</b><br />
<b>Written by Mark Waid</b><br />
<b>Art by Leinil Francis Yu</b><br />
2005<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
So yeah: last night I went to the IMAX and saw Man of Steel on the biggest of big screens and then today I read this book: Superman: Birthright which is (for those of us who know) one of the very few actually pretty good Superman comics out there: you know - one of the ones you can read without feeling like it's sapping a IQ point for every page you read - or at least (oh dear): that's how I liked to remember it...<br />
<br />
I mean: everyone knows that the only good Superman comics out there [1] are: Superman: Red Son, Superman: Secret Identity and Superman: All Star Superman - right? Those are the three that you can comfortably hand to any one and not feel like you have to make some kind of excuse as you do it "Or yeah - maybe just ignore the cheesy dialogue" or "I realise that the story doesn't quite hang together" or whatever.<br />
<br />
And for me the very telling detail here is that the first two books aren't really "proper" Superman stories - (in that - technically speaking you know: they're not really about the Superman that everyone knows) Superman: Red Son telling the story of what would have happened if Superman's baby rocket ship thingie had crash-landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas and Superman: Secret Identity telling the story of a whole different Clark Kent (it's kinda complicated to spell it all out and I don't want to spoil it any - so you know: just go read it). And the third on the list - Superman: All Star Superman - whilst being the closet thing to the Superman everyone knows - kinda exists in it's own (beautifully constructed) unique little space. Or - to put it another way - it's not really Grant Morrison telling a Superman story - it's more Superman being used to tell a Grant Morrison one (I don't know if that's the best way to put it - but it's hard to go into detail without falling into talking about pocket universes and parallel worlds and stuff: so maybe I should just leave it).<br />
<br />
But yeah - point being: if you're looking for some pure unadulterated Superman comic fun there's not really that many places to turn to [2] and so (or so you would think) thank heavens for the delights of Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu and this little book called Superman: Birthright [5].<br />
<br />
Except - well.<br />
<br />
Well: let me digress (just a little)....<br />
<br />
So I realise that this might be a little bit contentious (and yeah - maybe I should do a little bit more research before I occidentally put my foot in anything - but what the hey: this ain't a scholarly text or something like that - it's is a blog right? Which I'd say puts it only one one step above someone chatting nonsense in a pub: so just pretend you're sipping on a pint sitting across from me and roll with me a little here...) but the notion of a god of light isn't exactly a new one: you know - there's Horus, Sol Invictus and - yeah - Jesus - sent from above, powered by the sun, pretty much invincible and all very big on the notions of forgiveness etc.<br />
<br />
Now I'm saying this in order to score any cheap shots - (although god knows I sure do love scoring a good cheap shot now and again) - but more to say that if you care to look at things in a certain way [6] there's loads of stuff embedded in the Superman myth that's centuries old and that just to go with a "hey - isn't Superman a lot like Jesus?" thing which Man of Steel traffics in an awful<i> awful</i> lot [7] is kind of setting your sights a little bit too low: like you're only referring to Oasis when you could be referring to The Beatles or something.<br />
<br />
Because yeah Superman is old. I mean - this is the month that he celebrates his (goddamn it) 75th anniversary (and my brain is struggling to come up something else that's been around for that long and coming up with nothing so yeah) and - yet - the go to idea with both Birthright and Man of Steel (I'm going to try and bring both of them together a little bit in order to make sure that I can somehow finish writing about this today with it all fresh in my head) is how do we re-invent Superman for a modern audience? How do we make him fresh and dynamic and sexy and new? And I guess that my feeling (having ingested both the film and the comic in the same 24 hour period) is that you can't. I mean - you don't dress up other 75 year olds in revealing-skin-tight outfits because let's face it (sorry 75 year olds) that kind of thing just ain't right. And it's the same thing with stories. You know: when they're done right it's because they're products of their environment and social blah and whatever and trying to retell the same story with a fresh spin when the original people who told it are long since dead seems a little - I dunno - dumb.<br />
<br />
I mean - I'm not saying it can't be done: but like I said at the start - all the best Superman stories comics has (at the moment at least) are the ones that approach the issue sideways and don't just keep retreading the basics [8]. I mean - one thought which crossed my mind as a watched Man of Steel was - wouldn't it be easier (and maybe more interesting?) to make a Superman story that was set in 1938? Or would that be a step too far? I mean - at least it would (maybe?) make us feel like we're seeing something that we hadn't already seen before?<br />
<br />
Which I guess is what would have made Birthright and Man of Steel feel a little bit - I dunno - significant. So instead of having the legend bend to our circumstances - we should bend to its. And instead of thinking in terms of Jesus (which yeah - I realise for a lot of people is the be all and end all of everything) - it set it's sights more towards the epicness of - yeah: human's worship of the sun (or something) [9]. I don't know.<br />
<br />
And I guess what this misses is that - hell - Man of Steel (albeit unintentionally) ends up saying quite a bit about our present head-space as like a global society - namely (I mean - if you want to go there) that life is over-rated and - hey - if someone needs to die in order to make a point about something then: oh well. I guess that's the way it has to be [10]: which (damn) isn't exactly the hopeful message I was expecting to be left with when I left the warm comfort of the IMAX [11].<br />
<br />
But - then again: maybe the real problem isn't that enough is being made to properly ground the story (or whatever it is I'm trying to say) and more that - well yeah: it's 2013 and we're all still sitting around and watching multi-million dollar films based on the same story that our grandparents used to read? I mean - I'm not saying that everything needs to be new, new, new all of the time: but yeah - Man of Steel in lots of ways is pretty much the perfect superhero film: it does just about everything that you could want: there's lots of fightings and explosions and large-scale destructions and blah - but to what end? I mean: I felt like this was a film that got to grips with who Superman is much more than the Nolan Batman films - but God: does any of that really matter? I mean: the way that all of us fans react to these blockbuster superhero films is: well - how faithful did it manage to stay to to what has happened before in the comics and the canon and the blah blah blah - when instead it feels like maybe we should be asking: well - did this film do anything to me as a human being? Did it make me appreciate the world in a new way? Did it make me see or feel things in a way that I hadn't before? I mean yeah - ok - I can believe that a man can fly [12] but so what? Why should I care? You know....?<br />
<br />
Instead it feels like that the attitude of the people telling these Superman stories is that we're already invested in things and really we're just supposed to admire the small little personal touches that they can to the overall legend - like The Aristocrats [13] but with less swear words and a cape or something. And - man (another totally obvious point yeah): but it's just a bit depressing to realise how much of a male fantasy Superman is. Because we know that every guy harbors the twin feelings of being an outcast and a freak and an alien at the exact same time that they think that (given the right chance) the could be superheroic and all powerful and better and kinder and more good than everyone else around - but (come on) could they not at least try and give things a bit more of a feminine touch so that it doesn't feel like a total sausage fest? (Or - let me put it like this: everyone knows who Jor-El is - but what's Superman's Kryptonian mum called?).<br />
<br />
Because - yeah: even tho (having read Birthright a few years back) I remembered it as being a hot and delicious slice of Superman pie - rereading it in the cold light of day (having placed it in my head as "oh yeah - that really cool Superman story that makes it all feel fun and brand-new") I was dis-hearted to realise that it was all just a little bit stale and tasteless.<br />
<br />
I mean - maybe part of the reason is that I do get Mark Waid confused (for some reason?) with Kurt Busiek (I have no idea why [14]) so I was thinking that I was going to get something a little bit more canny: I mean - yeah - Mark Waid did write Kingdom Come and the (at times brilliant) Irredeemable - but I guess one of the points I've been circling around is that: if you want to write a Superman story that actually sings (instead of just grunting in a semi-tuneful fashion) - you need someone who's willing to mess around with things a little and - well - Mark Waid doesn't really seem to be that type of writer.<br />
<br />
And Leinil Francis Yu (who some of you will recognise from his work on the Ultimate Avengers books) has a very snappy art style with loads of foreshortening happening everywhere at once (so everyone's limbs looks like they're pointing away in triangles) - but - well: it feels like something that's maybe best for short sharp bursts rather than something made to be sustainable over time (and man - I don't know what it is: but there's something about the way he draws that makes me feel like I'm not getting my full recommended daily dose of iron or something. It's like having something at McDonalds: half an hour later and I'm still hungry).<br />
<br />
So - well: yeah - after all that - what have we got? I mean - I'm pleased that I saw Man of Steel because it meant I could entertain myself with some interesting internet reading afterwards [15] and yeah: it's actually pretty impressive how superhero films have finally got to the point where they can wreck some serious devastation and make the end of the world seem like a real possibility (I mean - as much as I love the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films - in terms of action - they felt more like expensive television rather than an epic wide-screen no holds bared <i>film</i>: but maybe that's just me?) and - as an aficionado of what I'd like to call the "cinema of transcendentalism" [16] I did get a kick by the climax that basically got just a little bit abstract with all the white light and all: because - yeah: that's something that I feel film does really well (and that I never really get to see enough of).<br />
<br />
But at the end of the day: I guess what I'm trying to say is that - it's the 21st Century and we need some new myths and we're not going to get anywhere if we keep going back to wells that are already long since dry.<br />
<br />
And saying that: when the sequel comes out I'm probably going to be first in line at the IMAX again because I'm a stupid idiot.<br />
<br />
Oh well.<br />
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[1] I mean - (well yeah) - some people out there might try and argue that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman for All Seasons is not a colossal waste of time: but those people would be wrong.<br />
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[2] I should admit that actually All Star Superman is probably the best place to turn to for a really good Superman story and that I've kinda stacked the deck a little by saying it's not really a "proper" or whatever and saying that it doesn't really count. But I guess thinking about it - it's more that it's too refined or something maybe? It's like a burger, chips and a milkshake [3] as prepared by a gourmet chef - I mean: yeah - it's refined and tasty and delicious and I've never had a milkshake so finely blended or chips so crisp and a burger so juicy and succulent- but it's cooked so well that it's almost too much you know? Like: sometimes you want a burger, chips and milkshake that's just a little bit cheap and nasty: and that's part of the fun of it? So yeah: All Star Superman is where you should go if you want something upper class and distinctive and something to hold up as one of the pinnacles of what comics can achieve as actual - (oh fine let's just say it) <i>art </i>while - Superman: Birthright is what you want if you just want something that's going to show you a good time and leave you with a smile on your face: or what we tend to call - just plain old entertainment [4]. Yeah?<br />
<br />
[3] My go-to metaphor for superhero comics / films for all the obvious reasons.<br />
<br />
[4] Although I wrote that when I was only still a few pages in: and - well yeah: by the time I'd waded all the way in up to my waist I kinda realised that maybe "entertainment" is maybe stretching it just a little bit.... But yeah: let me try and sum up my feeling somewhere up above instead of down in a footnote.<br />
<br />
[5] Or - if you're looking for it on the Islington library catalogue "Superman: Birth Right." which makes it sound a little more dogmatic or something somehow.<br />
<br />
[6] Reading <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_in_comparative_mythology">this</a> Wikipedia page (Jesus Christ in comparative mythology: "For over a century, various authors have drawn a number of parallels between the Christian views of Jesus and other religious or mythical domains. These include Greco-Roman mysteries, ancient Egyptian myths, and more general analogies involving cross-cultural patterns of dying and rising gods in the context of Jesus myth theory.") I discovered the marvellous word "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelomania">Parallelomania</a>" which basically translates as: "Just coz you see - doesn't mean it's there."<br />
<br />
[7] As pretty much everyone else on the internet has already pointed out (there's a reason that <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9380037/man-steel-flies-our-sins">this</a> Grantland article is called Jesus Christ Superman) - there's a moment when he steps out of a spaceship and seemingly for no other reason than to be like "oh - hey - check me out I'm just like Jesus" he turns around and does an arms-outstretched Christ pose because - erm - because (?) - because of the wonderful things he does? I don't know. Personally I preferred things when they were a little bit more subtle and referred the whole being tested by the devil in the wilderness thing and having his standing on a Terminator-style <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cta8KBPAjE">desert of skulls</a>. But what can you do?<br />
<br />
[8] Although - yeah - credit where it's due: Man of Steel does manage to dole out the basics in a pretty nice way (even if it does end up making itself feel just a little bit like a particularly glossy episode of Lost).<br />
<br />
[9] Or in other words Superman that's less Passion of The Christ and more Sunshine crossed with 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's the Superman film that I would like to see.<br />
<br />
[10] And oops - <a href="http://thrillbent.com/blog/man-of-steel-since-you-asked/">Mark Waid is not a fan</a>: "Seriously, back in Metropolis, entire skyscrapers are toppling in slo-mo and the city is a smoking, gray ruin for miles in every direction, it’s Hiroshima, and Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich are somewhere muttering “Too far, man, too far”…"<br />
<br />
[11] Also (am I reading too much into this?) - but did they set Superman up as - like - the standard bearer of the forces of Creationism? Check it out: at one point one of the bad guys says "And if there's one thing that History teaches us it's that Evolution always wins." which (seeing how it's a bad guy who says it) kinda lines up Evolution as being boo-worthy and - if that's the case - then: hell yeah - let's hear if for Intelligent Design! (Or in other words: I would not have been at all surprised if Superman had responded with a punch to the face and a quip like: "Evolution <i>that.</i>")<br />
<br />
[12] Although I've got to ask: how exactly does that work exactly? Like is it a physical thing or a mental thing that propels him through the air or what?<br />
<br />
[13] ""<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats">The Aristocrats</a>" (also known as "The Debonaires" or "The Sophisticates" in some tellings) is an exceptionally transgressive (taboo-defying) dirty joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians since the vaudeville era. Over time it has evolved from a clichéd staple of vaudevillian humor into a postmodern anti-joke. Steven Wright has likened it to a secret handshake among comedians, and it is seen as something of a game in which those who tell it try to top each other in terms of shock value. It is thought of as a badge of honor among expert comedians and is notoriously hard to perform successfully. It is rarely told the same way twice, often improvised."<br />
<br />
[14] And gosh - looking through who's written what - it's pretty clear that Kurt Busiek (Marvels, Arrowsmith, Astro City and - oh yeah - Superman: Secret Identity) is much more the more talented one: but I guess that doesn't answer why I get them mixed up: maybe it's because they're both kinda B-list when it comes to comic book writing or something? Like - you know: the directors whose names no one ever really remembers (like Andrew Niccol or Peter Weir). </div>
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[15] And if you're the same as me then I would recommend you read <a href="http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/munchausen-weekend-man-of-steel-short.html">this</a>, <a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/06/17/man-of-steel-on-my-planet-the-s-is-for-sucks-spoilers-review/">this</a> and <a href="http://www.comicscube.com/2013/06/man-of-steel-pros-and-cons-with-spoilers.html">this</a>.<br />
<br />
[16] Which - yes - is a term I have just made up now: but basically means - films which stop trying to portray physical reality and instead try to portray mental states (as in: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328258/">this</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/">this</a> and - yeah ok - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086393/">this</a>).<br />
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Links: <a href="http://www.grovel.org.uk/superman-birthright/">Grovel Review</a>, <a href="http://sentinelalanscott.tumblr.com/post/23961862086/superman-birthright-review">The Place Where Things You Love Die Review</a>, <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=3256">Comic Book Resources Article: Super-stars (part 1): Mark Waid's "birthright," The Official Origin</a>.<br />
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/superman-all-star-superman.html">Superman: All Star Superman</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/superman-secret-identity.html">Superman: Secret Identity</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/superman-red-son.html">Superman: Red Son</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/superior.html">Superior</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/irredeemable.html">Irredeemable</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/kingdom-come.html">Kingdom Come</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/ultimate-comics-avengers.html">Ultimate Comics: Avengers</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/dc-universe-stories-of-alan-moore_1097.html">DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-4817908737414286742013-06-11T10:45:00.001+01:002013-06-14T10:42:50.696+01:00Books: The One______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>The One</b><br />
<b>By Rick Veitch</b><br />
2003<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
I wish I could somehow make it so that you could read this entire post as if it was being read out in the slightly-stoned, slightly-spaced out, slightly-altogether-strange voice of Keanu Reeves. That voice that seems like it's best suited for a character that calls you up at 2am in the morning and lays you with a few carefully chosen semi-profundities: "Dude - did you realise that we're like: all made of <i>stars</i>?" Because it's that whole kind of view-point that seeps through the pages of this comic like the smell of illicit substances coming from the room next door: you want your cosmic enlightenments mixed with some hardcore superhero punching extravaganzas? Well: if the fact that the book opens with the legend "for the cosmic traveller" doesn't tip you off maybe the Alan Moore introduction will (quote: "a realistic, if satirical appraisal of our global psychosis next to an extravagent utopian fantasy that Timothy Leary and Max Yasgur [1] would have been proud of") [2].<br />
<br />
But maybe I should cue you in with some history: as I'm hoping most of you guys already know the big two splashes of modern comic history occurred with the publication of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns in the second half of the eighties. I mean - yeah yeah: at this point it's a big fat cliché that they're the ones that gave birth to the idea that "comics weren't just for kids anymore" - but hey: I'd say this is one of those times that the reason it's a cliché is because it's true. But - just because Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons were the first to the world that it was possible to be a little bit more serious with your sequential art storytelling that doesn't mean that there weren't those who managed to make inroads before it all got paved over by the three-headed juggernaut.<br />
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Not that I'm saying that The One is as good or as careful composed as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns because (- sorry Rick Veitch): it's not. But (for you film fans out there) it's kinda like the Easy Rider to the Jaws and Star Wars that came after: a bit of a trailblazer or something I guess (although in comic terms The One is a little bit more obscure than Easy Rider: but no matter [3]).<br />
<br />
But yeah: first distributed by Epic Comics back in 1985–1986 (which technically I guess means that it wasn't really early to inspire Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns in any major way: but early enough for Rick Veitch [4] to say (I mean: if he ever wanted) that he got there first) The One (as you should be able to tell from that washing machine detergent style cover up there) has much more on it's mind that your typical superhero comic of the period [5].<br />
<br />
(To give you some idea of what you may be getting yourself in for here's a whole bunch of dialogue that caught my eye: "The nuclear bomb is the ultimate information medium." "Mommy? Are they really going to blow up the world?" "His theory is that atomic weapons represent a new universal myth." "The conflict between the higher and lower natures in man. And evolving planetary consciousness and sixties stuff like that.")<br />
<br />
But in fact - as weird and as twisted as it can get (and make no mistake: this is a comic that gets plenty weird and twisted) it actually takes the idea of superheroes with a lot more respect and consideration than most other stories of this type: namely in the way that - well: you know how it's always a bit strange how in long running superhero stories the appearance of a being with god-like powers (or if we're talking of the DC and Marvel universes: the appearance of several hundred beings with god-like powers) completely fails to change society in any significant way [6]? What's great about The One is the way that it (not at all subtly) links the notion of superheroes to nuclear weapons and then proclaims (in giant capital letters): what? you think that the advert of a higher power on Earth would somehow leave us physically and psychically un-scarred? HA! <br />
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Of course all of this philosophising isn't as strictly high-brow as it is in modern comics (see in particular Warren Ellis' little unofficial superhero trilogy of Black Summer, No Hero and Supergod) as - well - all of this was all pretty untrodden ground at the point it was made: and so it never manages to feel quite as solid as one would hope and yet (on the other hand) that kind of adds to it's charm. I don't know if this is just me: but the whole book as this kind of rough and ready quality that makes it feel like it was made by a talented sixth former (which is the kind of thing I normally say as a criticism - but here I guess I just mean it more descriptively): there's a fascination with old style rock as the medium through which all our souls will be saved and the superhero fight dialogue (and man I love the way that Veitch draws trains raining from the sky) is peppered with lines like: "Marx tells us to quietly observe the technological advances your greed and avarice drive you to... then to pick out the few ideas that actually hold merit and apply them correctly!" which is (of course) brilliant but also - well - a little precocious. Let me put it this way: everytime I read it I can kinda smell that damp musty odour that you'd get in a bedsit in Brixton which isn't meant so much said to turn you off than to make sure that you should know that you need to be a particular type of person in order to have this turn you on: a little bit crusty, a little bit intellectual and a little bit lefty. And for me: well - that's one of my favourite type of people: but results will differ according to taste.<br />
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[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary">Timothy Leary</a> I already knew about (the type of person prone to making such remarks as: "I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.") Max Yasgur on the other hand I had to google: turns out he was a simple dairy farmer who, in 1969, let his land be used for the Woodstock festival so the American version of Michael Eavis basically.<br />
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[2] Of course - maybe the fact that the book is called The One means that my brain is tuned to Matrix frequencies but yeah: still - whatever - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkFyGNjaQ8k">Keanu Reeves</a>.<br />
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[3] In fact - I'm not too sure that I ever would have heard of it without coming across it on the shelves on one of our branches. But then I'm not exactly a comic book historian or anything (I'd never heard of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright until - well: I came across it on the shelves on one of our branches: so yeah -so what do I know?).<br />
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[4] Who - funnily enough was working with Alan Moore on Swamp Thing at around the same time as he was doing The One: so maybe he was stealing his brainpowers or something.<br />
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[5] Or - hell: let's be honest: more on it's mind that the typical superhero comic now: but oh well.<br />
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[6] Of course for those of you who've read it (and I'm assuming that you've all read it): this is one of the many reasons why Watchmen - with it's zeppelins, electric powered cars and crooked President with the oh-so-distinctive nose [7] - feels so "realistic." A world with superheroes is a world that wouldn't look like ours.<br />
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[7] Fun fact: if you google "Nixon's nose" you get this IGN article (<a href="http://uk.ign.com/articles/2009/03/05/watchmen-what-went-wrong?page=2">Watchmen: What Went Wrong</a>): "That's another of the film's downfalls - it reduces a lot of the material into high camp. And what the f**k was going on with Nixon's nose? That should be a new meme, like jumping the shark or nuking the fridge. 'Oh s**t, it's gone Nixon's nose.'"<br />
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Links: <a href="http://shapescapes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/what-i-think-about-stuff-one-by-rick.html">Shapescapes Review</a>. </div>
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Further reading: The Programme, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/irredeemable.html">Irredeemable</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/black-summer.html">Black Summer</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/no-hero.html">No Hero</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/supergod.html">Supergod</a>, Supreme Power, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/boys.html">The Boys</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/swamp-thing.html">Swamp Thing</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/adventures-of-luther-arkwright.html">The Adventures of Luther Arkwright</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/ex-machina.html">Ex Machina</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/neil-gaimans-midnight-days.html">Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/watchmen.html">Watchmen</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/batman-dark-knight-returns.html">Batman: The Dark Knight Returns</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/superman-red-son.html">Superman: Red Son</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-34979573691372435332013-06-07T09:48:00.003+01:002013-06-28T10:15:51.981+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/07________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Ok. So you know what? It's kinda hard to describe properly what a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum consists of (relax: - I'm not going to use that hoary old cliché about there's not really any such thing as a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum because - we're better than that - right?) - I mean: in the strict physical sense - it's a big table full of comic books (at a rough guesstimate I'd say there's usually around - what? - 150 books available for people to take home at each session) and a bunch of people (typically we get about a dozen or so people turn up) all from various walks of life and all with different backgrounds (yeah - I know you're thinking that's it probably all nerdy white guys - but seriously - we're as multicultural and diverse as a corporate video - with an age span from 6 to 90) all sitting around and discussing / arguing / sharing their thoughts and ideas about one of the most exciting and diverse mediums on the planet (nowadays if you're talking about something that's just "all about superheroes" my first guess is you're talking about films - but whatever). It's a little bit more chaotic than a book club but with the same sort of relaxed and open friendly atmosphere: all presided over by an excitable librarian (that would be me - hi!) who has pretty much read every comic book out there (even the terrible ones) and is willing to tell you where </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">you're going wrong with whatever you're reading (and is most happy when people disagree with him). </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">If you're curious as to what sort of books we discuss - then take a look around this blog - every book here has been included</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> at one po</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">int or another. And if you want to know what sort of things we talk about: - well - it's never really that properly thought out but we touch upon everything from the best way to construct a story, to how far genre limits can go all the way to if Frank Miller was right about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Books available this month will include (unless - of course - they are reserved by other people): <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/quimby-mouse.html" target="_blank">Quimby The Mouse</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/marzi.html" target="_blank">Marzi</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/04/scalped.html" target="_blank">Scalped</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/logicomix.html" target="_blank">Logi<wbr></wbr>comix</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-nao-of-brown.html" target="_blank">The Nao of Brown</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/superior.html" target="_blank">Superior</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-blonde.html" target="_blank">Summer Blonde</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/men-of-tomorrow-geeks-gangsters-and.html" target="_blank">Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/09/slaine-horned-god.html%20%20%20" target="_blank">Sláine: The Horned God</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/11/goldfish.html" target="_blank">Goldfish</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/10/cages.html" target="_blank">Cages</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/12/abc-warriors-black-hole.html" target="_blank">ABC Warriors: The Black Hole</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-fabulous-furry-freak-brothers.html" target="_blank">The Fablous Furry Freak Brothers</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/understanding-comics.html" target="_blank">Understanding Comics</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/wilson.html" target="_blank">Wilson</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/all-star-batman-and-robin.html" target="_blank">Batman: All Star Batman and Robin</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/dilbert-principle.html" target="_blank">The Dilbert Principle</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/arrowsmith-so-smart-in-their-fine.html" target="_blank">Arrowsmith: So Smart In Their Fine Uniforms</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/freeway.html" target="_blank">Freeway</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/superman-all-star-superman.html" target="_blank">Superman: All Star Superman</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/superman-birthright.html" target="_blank">Superman: Birthright</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/superman-red-son.html" target="_blank">Superman: Red Son</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/superman-secret-identity.html" target="_blank">Superman: Secret Identity</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-one.html" target="_blank">The One</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/american-splendor-presents-bob-and.html" target="_blank">American Splendor presents: Bob and Harv's Comics</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-manhattan-projects.html" target="_blank">The Manhattan Projects</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-03.html" target="_blank">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-05.html" target="_blank">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-06.html" target="_blank">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 06</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/jar-of-fools.html" target="_blank">Jar of Fools</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/doom-patrol.html" target="_blank">Doom Patrol</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html" target="_blank">Prophet</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-playwright.html" target="_blank">The Playwright</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/gonzo-graphic-biography-of-hunter-s.html" target="_blank">Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-hobbit.html" target="_blank">The Hobbit</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/you-really-dont-look-50-charlie-brown.html" target="_blank">You Really Don't Look 50 Charlie Brown</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/11/zomnibus.html" target="_blank">Zomnibus</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stardust.html" target="_blank">Stardust</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/justice.html" target="_blank"><wbr></wbr>Justice</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/06/worlds-greatest-super-heroes.html" target="_blank">Worlds Greatest Superheroes</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-living-and-dead.html" target="_blank">The Living and the Dead</a> / plus many, many, many (many!) more.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">There's also a book of the month (so that at least w</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">e can all talk about something</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> we've a</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">ll read). This month it's: </span><a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/judge-dredd-cursed-earth-saga.html" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">. If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy </span><a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">The next one is: Tuesday the 2nd of July / 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX. </span><a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=north+library+manor+gardens&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=north+library+manor+gardens&hnear=Islington&cid=0,0,14799324691437893482&ei=S3Y1TeTUJIKHhQfUutW3Cw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQnwIwAQ" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Here is a map</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">. Come and join us. It's free. All welcome.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">For more information (or if you have any questions and/or would like to be added to our email list: we send out a reminder a week before with a list of the books that are going to be available) you can email us </span><a href="mailto:islingtoncomicforum@gmail.com" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">All comments welcome.</span>Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-75507071365064874692013-06-04T10:08:00.003+01:002013-06-04T10:11:43.744+01:00Books: American Splendor presents: Bob and Harv's Comics_______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38gk7sDot41LN1F_XqmyPYb1-h2f4cJ9469wueQDnh0XvrvXltXu1ophltksvwPmjl4ZuvuRP-Tq0LwHbrIrqs3mI_Q9BMnR1_FxSwjd2bcze3zsNZyGk0lO-_zkTe06z5WJT0jcdF70/s1600/BobAndHarvsComics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38gk7sDot41LN1F_XqmyPYb1-h2f4cJ9469wueQDnh0XvrvXltXu1ophltksvwPmjl4ZuvuRP-Tq0LwHbrIrqs3mI_Q9BMnR1_FxSwjd2bcze3zsNZyGk0lO-_zkTe06z5WJT0jcdF70/s200/BobAndHarvsComics.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<b>American Splendor presents: Bob and Harv's Comics</b><br />
<b>Written by Harvey Pekar</b><br />
<b>Art by Robert Crumb</b><br />
1996<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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Growing up is - well - it's a strange thing: that's for sure and it changes you in ways that you don't expect.<br />
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I'm in no way a fresh-faced visitor to the world of Harvey Pekar and American Splendor: if you check those links below in the further readings section - you'll see that I'm previously written a few words about the American Splendor best of collection as well as The Quitter (which is I guess would be best described as being like an extended American Splendor episode) and the book under consideration here: the charmingly (almost rustically) named "Bob and Harv's Comics" - well - I think that I must have tried reading it about three of four times over the past few years I've been working for Islington. It was on the shelf at the first ever library I worked at (that would be South Library for those keeping score at the back): and - hey: I liked comics - I knew that both Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb are (in their own off-beat and idiosyncratic ways) comic book heavy-weights that you know: are a big deal - the graphic novel versions of Kerouac and Picasso (or whoever).<br />
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And - man: that cover (have you seen the cover?). I mean: it's really really good. The way that the composition snaps you about: bouncing your eyes from the women's head on the upper left side: with her thought balloon ("Eat your hearts out, creeps!") popping out like a punch to the jaw and that sneer dripping off the side of her face leading you down to the sight of Robert Crumb - shivering like a leaf in a blizzard: racked with sexual inadequacy: and whose whole character is summed up completely by his pathetically avaricious eyes and <i>his</i> thought balloon: "I can never have her..." [1] and both of these figures (and - come on - it would have been a great cover with just them: I mean who needs more that really?) offset by louche [2] looking Harvey Pekar - purposelessly oblivious to the private hell unfolding in front of him: much more concerned with the idea of getting a comic out with both their names on ("You like money, don'tcha?").<br />
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And - well: yeah (short version) - I like the cover. I think it's good.<br />
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Of course - the problem is (at least for this reader) is that it sets the bar so high that when you step into the rest of the book: well - there's a real sense of deflation: for those expecting the same sort of knockabout humour and general sillyness - well: you're going to need to re-calibrate your expectations.<br />
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Thankfully the introduction by Robert Crumb [3] is perfectly placed to help disabuse the hapless reader of any strange notions that they might have got into their head (like maybe this book is gonna be an Odd Couple / buddie-comedy: like Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Rush Hour or whatever [4]?): for those of us thinking they're about to ride a fun little rollercoaster - his is the voice that comes over the intercom saying: "Oops. Sorry. Actually - this is just going to be a pleasant little bimbling [5] ride in the countryside instead. You don't need any seatbelts and you wave your arms and legs in any which way you want - because it's not going to make any difference seeing how our top speed is only going to be about five miles per hour...." (Ha!) Or - as he puts it (in a bit more of a downbeat kinda way): "Mostly it's just people talking, or Harvey himself, panel after panel, haranging the hapless reader. There's not much in the way of heroic struggle, the triumph of good over evil, resolution of conflict, people overcoming great odds, stuff like that... It's kinda sorta more like real life... A population raised on mass media spoonfed a constant diet of sensational, formalized story-telling, they're gonna be impatient with Pekar's comics."<br />
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Now - I vaguely remember the first time I read that intro and the kinda thoughts that it made me have (mainly because they're pretty much the same sort of feelings that I still have today): the first thought is that Robert Crumb sounds a bit like a snob (I mean the stuff he says he's basically just: "Oh yeah - all that stuff that everyone else likes is rubbish and the only stuff that's good is this small subset of stuff that I like." - I mean: oh my god - what is he? A teenage boy?) and also - well - as a proud consumer of mass media I've got to say: I think it's pretty churlish to dismiss it all out of hand. I mean - yeah: ok the large majority of it is pretty rubbish but then - the large majority of <i>everything</i> is rubbish (I think I read something somewhere recently where someone called this the 90% rule? As in - it's only the 10% of stuff that's really worth your time: but whatever) - I mean - mass media sensational, formalized story-telling (when it's done<i> right</i>) can give us things like Jurassic Park, Toy Story and Star Wars which - hell - I'll take anyday over some mumbley black-and-white art-house kitchen sink drama about how poor poor people are [5]. <br />
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Also - as an argument for why something is worth your time: I've always found it to be kinda limiting and unconvincing. I remember as I was growing up I could never quite understand the appeal of David Lynch films [6] and when I tried to find out the reasons why everyone else seemed to rate him so much all I got was a variation of the line: "Oh - you know: it's so much better than that usual Hollywood rubbish." Maybe there's a fancy Latin name for this sort of thing [7]: but all I know is that it's not much of a glowing recommendation to say what something's not ("Say - why did you like that carrot?" "Oh - you know: it's not a dog. Man - I hate dogs.") especially when in the case of Lynch versus Hollywood or Pekar verses mainstream comics: the aims are so vastly different and the methods so contrary - that really all you're doing is making yourself sound like an idiot (sorry - is that a little bit too harsh? Sorry) [8]. <br />
<br />
But let's put aside this (frankly) puritan notion that it's only the difficult, non-mainstreamy stuff that's actually any good (oh - if only life were that simple) and instead try and talk about (and hopefully capture) what it is that actually makes American Splendor worth reading... (yeah?) because - like I've said: when reading it before I could never quite get to the point where I could get my head around what everyone was raving about: but now - with the benefit of all my advancing years: I think I might just be starting to get the hang of it.<br />
<br />
Of course - what this all boils down to is stories (bear with me). <br />
<br />
There was a line that I could have sworn I saw written somewhere on MaryAnn Johanson's Flickfilosopher website [9] (but which I now can't find) which said something like this (I'm going to paraphrase it a lot to make it sound more like me - ok?): growing up I used to identify myself as a film fan and as someone who liked reading books and - well - since starting running the Islington Comic Forum: someone who likes a good comic too. But more and more I've come to realise that actually the thing that really interests me (and is at the root of all three of these) is story. The way we tell them, how they work, (how they don't work), the way they can make us feel, the way they make us think, what they mean: stories are my obsession and (yeah) there are very few things that I enjoy more than a good story well told [10].<br />
<br />
Now: one of the things that I've noticed recently is the many ways that stories end up serving / reinforcing ideologies (I mean - yeah: ok - no duh right? But whatever).<br />
<br />
Of course this is something that we're all conditioned to notice when we're kids. I mean - oh my god: working in a children's library I see this in seemingly every single children's book out there: all of them geared to deliver an important life lesson like: Make Sure You Always Say Please (The Elephant and The Bad Baby). Don't Be Stinky and Gross (Dirty Bertie). If You Can Talk A Good Game Then People Will Respect and Fear You (The Gruffalo). Your Parents Are Not Paying Attention To You - Deal With It (Not Now, Bernard). Change Is Inevitable, Relationships Are All About Compromise and Sex Is Death (Tadpole's Promise) [11] And - yeah - it's one of the mainstays of when you've just finished reading a book to a child to ask them: "Now - what do you think the message was there then?"<br />
<br />
For me - one of the many barriers to cross to get to adulthood was being able to read a book that didn't have a stupid moral tucked away at the end and instead was just about you know - having fun, laughing at crazy stuff and enjoying the ride. What I didn't realise (and what has taken me years to fully come to grips with) is that - even if a story doesn't present itself as being moralistic - that doesn't mean that it doesn't have loads of twisted little ideologies (yes - that word again) buried all the way on the inside.<br />
<br />
You want some examples of what I mean? Ok then: the latest season of Doctor Who (and probably all the seasons before that maybe [12] - but this is the first time I've only really noticed it) seemed to be operating on the assumption that ugly monsters = bad people and cute girls = good people [13]: and yeah - I guess it's unfair to pick on Doctor Who especially when everything else everywhere also operates on the same assumption: but whatever - the fact that it's pretty much all prevailing (and unquestioned) means that - while you think you're just enjoying the exciting adventures of a crazy man and his magical blue box - what's seeping into your head is a bunch of fluff about how looks are morally important (which I would have thought is a message that kids get enough of anyway - but oh well). <br />
<br />
Another one (that's still fresh in my mind [14]) would be the new Star Trek Into Darkness film which - although everyone says it's "about" 9/11 [15] would be much more accurately described as being about the idea that it's wrong to kill people without a trail (which is kinda strange / kinda cool - seeing how every other mainstream action movie ever seems to think that the best way for people to deal with bad guys is just to shoot them in the head: preferably just after you've said something really <i>cool</i>). <br />
<br />
Is what I'm saying starting to make sense? (Maybe I'm just babbling like a loon here: I dunno: but what the hey - let me stick with it a little more and see how much further I can get...).<br />
<br />
If I had a point here then I guess that point would be this: stories are attached to ideas and in the giant majority of cases - the type of story people tell will end up revealing an awful lot about how they see the world: their beliefs, their motivations - and etc etc etc. And - don't get me wrong: I don't mean that as a pejorative: in fact one of the reasons that I tend to love the genre of science-fiction so much is that it's one of the best genres for fixing a story to an idea and seeing how that plays out [16].<br />
<br />
Which (oh my god finally) brings us all the way back round to American Splendor and what it is that makes it worthwhile reading: because - basically - if the all the other types of stories out there are bogged down and laden with all these signifies and whatnot then what's refreshing and special about the stories that Harvey Pekar tells is that mostly - they're free of these sort of concerns. And compared to the hustle and bustle of these sorts of interpretative - whatever - traffic jams with all the screaming and hollering and honking and noise blah blah blah: a Pekar joint is like a nice quiet walk through the countryside allowing this reader at least - the chance to enjoy the roses - that is: the small and delicate grace notes of stories untethered from their usual moorings.<br />
<br />
I realise that - ok - that maybe sounds like a big heap of nonsense: so let me try and be a little bit more specific: first of all I guess I should say (for those of you who have never even heard of Harvey Pekar or Robert Crumb and have just been sitting patiently at the back hoping that I would get around to explaining) what exactly this comic book is.<br />
<br />
Ok - yeah: it's called Bob and Harv's Comics and it's a collection of (mostly pretty small - like 3 or 4 page) strips written by professional curmudgeon [17] Harvey Pekar (who writes about the small daily events of his own life [18]) and illustrated by Robert Crumb (who is one of the best names to drop into a conversation if you want to sound like you're like sophisticated about what kind of comics you like "What do I like to read? Oh - you know: this and that: I read a lot of Robert Crumb - so yeah: you know.").<br />
<br />
And in terms of what this book (and - well - pretty much everything Harvey Pekar wrote) is: or at least maybe the best way to think about it - and yes I realise that this might sound a little bit silly to say - but one of the reoccurring thoughts that struck me as I read this book for the third/fourth/whatever time is that - well - this is what people did before youtube. By which I mean: if you wanted to capture life as it was lived and freeze it in amber for future generations - then a mighty fine way of doing that was to get in down in story. And once I realised that - then Bob and Harv's Comics became less of a fruitless pursuit for all the typical story goodness that I normally look for (the thrills, spills and chills or whatever): and much more like listening to a record of old tape recordings and appreciating not the story structure (which is kinda all over the place: with some stories (I'm thinking particularly of Hustlin' Sides here - a tale about the perils of selling records at work) ending just at the point as they start to seem like they're going somewhere) or architecture (which is what normally holds my interest [19]) but rather: zooming into the detail and admiring the way that the individual rooms are furnished: the weave of the carpet, the smell of the wood, the way that the light streams in through the windows: that kind of thing - you know? Which - if you want to try and translate that means - the way that Pekar can capture a character in a few chosen words or squeeze the messiness of human life into the space of just a few pages: with all the awkward pauses and poorly chosen words that propel us forward: you know - that kind of thing [20].<br />
<br />
Which I guess is what (spinning around back to where we sorta started) makes that Robert Crumb introduction kinda - well - wrong. As what (I would say) he doesn't quite understand (and so can't quite sell to those of us not already primed to buy) is what makes this book worth the effort. I mean - ok: it is true that "a population raised on mass media spoonfed a constant diet of sensational, formalized story-telling, they're gonna be impatient with Pekar's comics." but the reason isn't because Pekar is offering a better version of the same dish - it's that he's offering a different animal altogether (dogs and carrots again - which yes - is a pretty lousy metaphor I know - but what can you do?). <br />
<br />
So yeah: the first story in the book ("The Harvey Pekar Name Story") is just Pekar spoint blank staring straight at the reader: like the only suspect at a police line-up: or a comic without a microphone manages to cover a whole heap of ground in only a few pages - connection, loneilness, bullying, humour, death and idle philosophy all just floating above his seemingly random tossed off musings: but the joy of it really resides in the way that Pekar manages to affix his own self into the page so that by the end of - it doesn't feel like you've been taken on a ride in the way that most stories do (which is a good thing: because who doesn't like rides - right?) it's more like you've just had a brief snatch of conversation with a random passerby.<br />
<br />
At one point describes his writing style (half-jokingly - I think) as "New neo-realist" but I'd prefer to think of it more as just a guy talking about his life and sharing selected moments with any readers who venture in. And yeah: there's not much real action or adventure or (at least not in this book - maybe elsewhere?) much in the way of romance even: but still - when you leave: you'll feel like you've got to know another life a little better: and even if it's a bit musty smelling in places - I guess (growing up) that's the kind of thing you start to appreciate as being important.<br />
<br />
But - like I said: I'm obviously just getting old.<br />
<br />
................................................................................................................................................<br />
[1] And - damnit: I can perfectly hear the way he says that in my head: but can't quite place who is reminds me of: it's somewhere in the neighbourhood of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droopy">Droopy Dog</a> mixed with a small tinge of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Quagmire">Glenn Quagmire</a>: but somehow that's not quite the full mixture - dagnamit: I wish I could put my finger on it (oh well). <br />
<br />
[2] Is that the right word? I dunno - it seems right: but maybe not?<br />
<br />
[3] There's another introduction (at least in my copy) by Harvey Pekar - but we're gonna let that one slip by the wayside. Because - well - I don't want to be writing this thing forever and - hell - we'll be getting on to some other stuff Pekar says in a bit...<br />
<br />
[4] I was incredibly temped to make this list go on forever - but decided that I would just write down the first two that popped into my head and just leave it at that: LUCKY FOR YOU.<br />
<br />
[5] And just to clarify: my point here isn't that art house cinema is rubbish (I'll admit now that I can find myself partial to a cheeky little bit of something intellectual or whatever now and again) - it's just that mainstream stuff isn't bad just because it's mainstream and that obscure stuff isn't good just because it's obscure - both can be good and both can be bad: but it depends on the thing itself - right? And you shouldn't just write things off without giving them a chance or exploring further (I mean - when I put it like that it sounds so obvious that how can you even bring yourself to disagree I know...): I mean - maybe this isn't true - but the way he presents himself leads me to think that Robert Crumb is the kind of guy who'd refuse to watch E.T. because - "all mass produced stuff is rubbish" - which (for me) just kinda makes him a chump.<br />
<br />
[6] Which - strangely - didn't stop me from watching most of them. But then I've always been slightly perverse like that... And (and I think this was around the time I watched Inland Empire whilst half asleep and/or reading a magazine profile he did about his paintings) I finally came round to understanding what it is that makes him worthwhile: and yeah - while I could go into detail about what I think that is - maybe that's something that I should leave for another time...<br />
<br />
[7] One of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies">these</a> maybe? I dunno... (I was going to check - but (man) that list is <i>long</i>).<br />
<br />
[8] And it's not just Robert Crumb who thinks this way. Whilst I was writing this I stumbled across <a href="http://www.tcj.com/blood-and-thunder-harvey-pekar-and-r-fiore/">this</a> Comics Journal feature (Blood and Thunder: Harvey Pekar and R. Fiore) which reprints letters written by Pekar back in 1989-1990. (Normally I would recommend reading the whole thing: but - man - it's kinda long: so maybe not this time). Interesting highlights include: "...most comics critics and fans have low standards. They like escapist, pulp-derived stuff that will transport them from “mundane” reality into what they believe is a more exciting, glamorous world of the imagination. They crave adventure stories in which life is at risk, where great fame and fortune can be won." (omg - that's me!) "Many comic book fans don’t like to read about everyday experience; they say such writing is “bo-o-o-oring.” It may also be painful to them; they’d rather fantasize than contemplate their own world. When they become comics critics, too often even the most well-read among them praise and overrate flawed, escapist work." (Yes yes and yes: I totally love myself some good escapism) "Genre novels rely for their appeal on contrived, tricky plots, sensational adventures in which lives, power, and wealth are at stake, idealized protagonists, too-good-to-be-true heroines, and other stereotyped characters. Obviously, they’re very popular. People who don’t take art seriously, who just want superficial entertainment, enjoy genre literature, TV, and movies." (Ha! It's like my whole outlook summed up in a few choice sentences).<br />
<br />
[9] Which is pretty good and you can read for yourself <a href="http://www.flickfilosopher.com/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
[10] The only bit on the Flickfilosopher website I could find that relates to this was <a href="http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2011/11/critics-minifesto-3-its-all-about-story.html">this bit</a>: "There’s one thing I care about most when I approach a movie: the story. Is the story engaging? Is the story interesting? Is the story something that will keep me diverted or entertained or provoked for two hours? This means that a film that does not tell a story that appeals to me on some level has, in my reckoning, failed as a movie. I don’t care how gorgeous the cinematography is if I don’t like the story. I don’t care what a technical marvel the FX are if I don’t like the story. I don’t care what an amazing performance the marquee cast turned in if I don’t like the story. This is an analogy I like to use. There are two restaurants: One serves the best meal you have ever had in your life. The service is perfunctory. The ambiance is forgettable. But the food is the amazing. In the other restaurant, the service is impeccable and supremely attentive. The atmosphere is spectacular. But the food is shit. I would rather eat at the first restaurant. Every time. The second restaurant does not interest me in the slightest. Of course, ideally, I would choose, if I could, to eat in a restaurant where the food is to die for, the service is slavish, and the setting is magnificent. But this is not always what is on offer. Movies are the same way. I will take a great story that is not technically distinguished over a beautifully presented story that does not speak to me." (and - well yeah: what she said).<br />
<br />
[11] Sorry - like I said - I work in a children's library and this is one of my rare opportunities to vent some of this stuff out.<br />
<br />
[12] I mean - obviously yes: seeing how Doctor Who always has a monster-of-the-week it needs to have ugly evil beings doing bad stuff to people. But I could have sworn that one of the messages it used to deliver was that "it's not what you look like - it's what's inside that counts" which I would say is something that gets violated most notable in that Rings of Akhaten episode where The Doctor and Clara work out that the bad people are bad because they look bad and the good people are good because they look good.<br />
<br />
[13] One of the few exceptions to that was the episode Hide - which most people seemed to think had a bit of a cop-out ending but (for me anyway) actually managed to reverse a lot of the "all ugly things are bad" propaganda that the rest of the season had been espousing. Of course the way it did this was to make everything as sappy as humanly possible - what the hell: it's a child's show which means that it gets away with making you feel a little bit gooey on the inside.<br />
<br />
[14] Mainly - it must be said - due to the heated back-and-forth discussions me and my esteemed literary flatmate have had on this very subject.<br />
<br />
[15] I'm looking at you <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/17/star_trek_into_darkness_political_allegory_latest_movie_takes_on_terrorism.html">Forrest Wickman</a> (and also - yeah: every other film reviewer in the world all of whom have seemed almost contractually obliged to say something like: "oh yeah - this film is totally about 9/11") . And - ok yeah: while I can see why you would be confused seeing how - as he points out - seemingly everyone attached to the film has something along the lines of "oh yeah - this film is totally about 9/11" and the fact that there is loads and loads of 9/11-style imagery scattered throughout the film (flying things crashing into buildings and people running around screaming etc) - but then (and I think this is an important distinction to make): there is a big difference between what a film (or any story really I guess) <i>shows</i> us (or tells us about whatever) and what it <i>tells</i> us. So the Star Trek Film is a story about people in space - it shows us lots of explosions and stuff (in a kind of 9/11 reminiscent way) but it's not really <i>about</i> 9/11 seeing how it doesn't really have anything to <i>say</i> about it (compare and contrast: George Orwell's 1984 says that Totalitarianism is bad for the human spirit, Catch 22 says that war is messed up and - what? - Star Trek Into Darkness says that - what? - 9/11? (What does that even mean?) It references the event - but doesn't have anything substantive to say about it - yeah?) - but anyway: this is all completely beside the point (although I'd like to make a final reference to some Slavoj Žižek (obviously) who provides one of the best examples between what a story <i>shows</i> us and what it<i> tells</i> us by demonstrating in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiTum8eQ51E">clip</a> how and why The Sound of Music is racist). So... yeah. Enough of this.<br />
<br />
[16] Or as <a href="http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/Intro/intro1.html">Philip K Dick</a> puts it (much better than I could): "I will define science fiction, first, by saying what science fiction is not. It cannot be defined as 'a story set in the future,' [nor does it require] untra-advanced technology. It must have a fictitious world, a society that does not in fact exist, but is predicated on our known society... that comes out of our world, the one we know: This world must be different from the given one in at least one way, and this one way must be sufficient to give rise to events that could not occur in our society… There must be a coherent idea involved in this dislocation…so that as a result a new society is generated in the author's mind, transferred to paper, and from paper it occurs as a convulsive shock in the reader's mind, the shock of dysrecognition. [In] good science fiction, the conceptual dislocation---the new idea, in other words---must be truly new and it must be intellectually stimulating to the reader…[so] it sets off a chain-reaction of ramification, ideas in the mind of the reader; it so-to-speak unlocks the reader's mind so that that mind, like the author's, begins to create…. The very best science fiction ultimately winds up being a collaboration between author and reader, in which both create---and enjoy doing it, [experiencing] the joy of discovery of newness."<br />
<br />
[17] A word which - it feels like - was especially minted for him.<br />
<br />
[18] "Anyway that was one of he most interesting incidents that's ever happened to me in a super-market."<br />
<br />
[19] With - well - a particular fondness for ones that look like they were built by M.C. Escher (if that's not stretching the metaphor too far: but you know what I mean right? Twisty time-travel or whatever. Jake Gyllenhaal sitting in a cinema next to a guy in rabbit suit or whatevers.<br />
<br />
[20] With a large smattering - and I guess this is another thing about growing up: the more you experience you more you can find yourself relating to - of "oh my god - yes: that's so true!" my favourite being: "But that's one nice thing about working for the government. The government has more tolerance for diversity "<br />
<br />
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<div>
Links: <a href="http://warren-peace.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/harvey-pekar-master-of-silent-panel.html">Warren Peace Sings the Blues Article: Harvey Pekar: Master of the Silent Panel</a>, <a href="http://www.comicsgrid.com/2011/06/harvey-pekar-everyday/">The Comics Grid Article: Harvey Pekar’s Anti-epiphanic Everyday</a>, <a href="http://comicscomicsmag.com/2010/08/a-pekar-notebook.html">Comics Comics Article: A Pekar Notebook</a></div>
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/american-splendor-best-of-american.html">American Splendor: The Best of American Splendor</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/quitter.html">The Quitter</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/breakdowns.html">Breakdowns</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/i-never-liked-you.html">I Never Liked You</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/hicksville.html">Hicksville</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/david-boring.html">David Boring</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/black-hole.html">Black Hole</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/jimmy-corrigan-smartest-kid-on-earth.html">Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/beats-graphic-history.html">The Beats: A Graphic History</a>.<br />
<br />
All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-24833564544836997002013-05-10T16:21:00.001+01:002013-05-10T16:21:52.644+01:00Books: The Shadow________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>The Shadow</b><br />
<b>Vol 1: The Fires Of Creation</b><br />
<b>Written by Garth Ennis</b><br />
<b>Art by Aaron Campbell</b><br />
2013<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
All I know about the Shadow is the 1994 film starring <strike>Jack Donaghy</strike> Alec Baldwin - which I'm guessing I must have seen on it's TV Premier on ITV or BBC1 or whatever (back when it took untold millennia for films to make the journey from the big screen to the small one). Of course - as we all know - nowadays superhero films are basically American's number one export: but all the way back then they were viewed with the same sort of wary eye as films based on computer games [1]: mainly I guess because - one: special effects hadn't really got to the place where you could realistic depict the larger-than-life action scenes that are the lifeblood of the genre and two: well - because they were total rubbish. <br />
<br />
And so yeah: if you asked for the sum total of my knowledge about The Shadow I guess I would have mumbled something the evil that lurks in the heart of men (?) said something about the rubbish <strike>Jack Donaghy</strike> Alec Baldwin film (which in my mind is kinda intermingled with The Rocketeer and the Dick Tracy film: so much so that when I try to picture them I can see <strike>Jack Donaghy</strike> Alec Baldwin playing all three roles: but what the hey) and then made a "what more do you want from me" kinda shurg and then beckoned you to leave me alone.<br />
<br />
So why I am even bothering to write up about this comic? I mean - this is a character who first appeared in 1930 on the<i> radio </i>which - in my mind - means that he's about as ancient as the Greeks, Egyptians and dinosaurs. I mean - at the end of each episode (of the radio thingie) there would be a bit where the Shadow would remind his listeners that "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay... The Shadow knows!" which - for this 21st Century kid is about as lame as "Remember kids - winner's don't do drugs!" or whatever it is Captain Planet that used to say [2].<br />
<br />
Well - this shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone paying attention: but obviously the thing that makes things worth reading or not (nine times out of ten) is the writing - and in the case of this book: it's one of my first comic book crushes [3]: Mr "Sweary war-obessed Irishman" aka Garth Ennis.<br />
<br />
If you've read any of Garth Ennis' recent work (he started off kinda like a lighted-hearted, young, care-free frat boy with a scatological sense of humour but then slowly grew into a much more bleak, bitter and serious ballader of war stories: namely the first and second world wars - scraping off the bright and shiny paint of the legends and fairytales to expose the hard leaden realities underneath) then you will not be at all surprised to find that the very first line of this supposedly fun, light hearted pulp adventure is: "Between Nineteen thirty-one and nineteen forty-five, Japanese occupation forces killed fifteen million Chinese people."<br />
<br />
Wow. Major bummer dude. That's kind of like turning on to watch an episode of Colombo or something - only to see someone being stabbed in horrific close-up and then to see the traumatising effect it has on the victim's friends and family: it's like - yeah: sure - that's the kinda basis of all the genre-fun that we want - but we don't (normally) want to have to confront the actual reality of the situation: we just want the <i>mystery</i> without so much of the <i>murder</i> - you know? The escapist excitement without the awful grisly details. But - of course: what makes Ennis such a gripping read is the way that he likes to mix up his thrills and spills with grit and grime - a gourmet sandwhich with all the trimmings embedded with dirt and bugs <br />
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The strange thing is that - from that stark and brutal opening - the book that switches into a much recognisable pattern of early 20th Century adventure - like an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles [4] almost: blah blah exposition and same-old same-old and a bunch of situations you've seen a million times before. It's at this point that I started to get concerned: was Garth Ennis phoning it in? Was this just going to be as crappy as what you would normally expect a Shadow comic to be? (Like I think I said: if it wasn't for Ennis' name on the cover - I really don't think I would have bothered to even pick this book up....). <br />
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But there wasn't any real need to worry: the first third of the book is just about setting the scene and getting things into place for the mayhem and awfulness that happens later: where one cliché after another is over-turned (or set on fire) and what you thought was merely going to be rip-roaring mutates into something else entirely: and - dotted around here and there - a few typical Ennis touches (one character in particular plays like an ancestor of Cal “a cop on the edge” Hicks from the Jody and T.C one off special The Good Old Boys (as collected in Preacher: Ancient History): which is all to the good).<br />
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So yeah - for a superhero whose powers are way way less than super [5]: this is actual a pretty solid reading experience. All of which goes to show - that even the lamest worn-out character can - in the right hands - be grafted on to a story that's well worth your time.<br />
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[1] And for more on that subject I would recommend this fantastic Grantland article: <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9123782/the-strange-case-super-mario-bros-movie">Hollywood Archaeology: The Super Mario Bros. Movie Unearthing a major disaster to learn the lessons held within</a>. </div>
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[2] Oh my god: having a quick look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Planet_and_the_Planeteers">Captain Planet and the Planeteers</a> wikipedia page and it sounds <i>amazing </i>(plus: it gets bonus points for the non-ironic use of the word: "edutainment") and I now kinda want to re-watch the special episodes: "The episode titled "Mind Pollution" (1991) was notable in that it did not deal with the environment, but rather with the issue of drug abuse. This was explained by the fact that the characters thought of drug addiction as "pollution of the mind." The episode revolved around an epidemic of a designer drug known as "Bliss" created by Verminous Skumm (which is such a brillant name for a villain: it's like Dickens on an off day going - "yeah fine whatever: we'll just call him <i>Verminous Skumm.</i>"). It was also known for being quite a dark episode in the Captain Planet series, as it allowed a scene of Linka's cousin Boris bleeding from his arms (!?!) after jumping through a window and dying from an overdose of the drug." (Note: and on the subject of Captain Planet - for anyone who hasn't seen it already - check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJaELXadKo">Don Cheadle's take</a>). </div>
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[3] Like I think I may have already said: I first read Preacher at <i>exactly</i> the right age.<br />
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[4] Yeah - in the early 1990s they made a TV show of Indiana Jones and - yes - it is almost exactly as awful and boring and bland as can probably imagine.<br />
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[5] According to his wikipedia page: "Skilled marksman and martial artist" "Master of disguise" "Master of stealth" "Able to make himself nearly invisible to the naked eye" "Can alter and control a person's thoughts and perceptions" = YAWN.<br />
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Links: <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=4656">Comic Book Resources Review of The Shadow #1</a>, <a href="http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/06/21/comic-review-the-shadow-3">Geeks of Doom Review of The Shadow #3</a> / <a href="http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/08/01/comic-review-the-shadow-4">The Shadow #4</a>, <a href="http://comicsbeat.com/the-shadow-and-garth-ennis-a-review-of-the-first-script/">Comics Beat Article: The Shadow and Garth Ennis – A Review of the First Script</a>.<br />
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/battlefields.html">Battlefields</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/war-stories.html">War Stories</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/marvels-project.html">The Marvels Project</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/twelve.html">The Twelve</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/alans-war-memories-of-gi-alan-cope.html">Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/preacher.html">Preacher</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/turf.html">Turf</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/tom-strong.html">Tom Strong</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ministry-of-space.html">Ministry of Space</a>.<br />
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Profiles: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/garth-ennis.html">Garth Ennis</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-20156240698158149552013-05-10T09:28:00.003+01:002013-05-31T11:23:20.196+01:00Events: Islington Comic Forum 2013/06_____________________________________________________________________________<br />
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Ok. So you know what? It's kinda hard to describe properly what a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum consists of (relax: - I'm not going to use that hoary old cliché about there's not really any such thing as a typical meeting of the Islington Comic Forum because - we're better than that - right?) - I mean: in the strict physical sense - it's a big table full of comic books (at a rough guesstimate I'd say there's usually around - what? - 150 books available for people to take home at each session) and a bunch of people (typically we get about a dozen or so people turn up) all from various walks of life and all with different backgrounds (yeah - I know you're thinking that's it probably all nerdy white guys - but seriously - we're as multicultural and diverse as a corporate video - with an age span from 6 to 90) all sitting around and discussing / arguing / sharing their thoughts and ideas about one of the most exciting and diverse mediums on the planet (nowadays if you're talking about something that's just "all about superheroes" my first guess is you're talking about films - but whatever). It's a little bit more chaotic than a book club but with the same sort of relaxed and open friendly atmosphere: all presided over by an excitable librarian (that would be me - hi!) who has pretty much read every comic book out there (even the terrible ones) and is willing to tell you where you're going wrong with whatever you're reading (and is most happy when people disagree with him). If you're curious as to what sort of books we discuss - then take a look around this blog - every book here has been included at one point or another. And if you want to know what sort of things we talk about: - well - it's never really that properly thought out but we touch upon everything from the best way to construct a story, to how far genre limits can go all the way to if Frank Miller was right about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.<br /><br />Books available this month will include (unless - of course - they are reserved by other people): <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/blackgas.html">Blackgas</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hector-umbra.html">Hector Umbra</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-shadow.html">The Shadow</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/judge-anderson-satan.html">Judge Anderson: Satan</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/10/planetary.html">Planetary</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/turf.html">Turf</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/03/locke-and-key.html">Locke & Key</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/jerusalem-chronicles-from-holy-city.html">Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/hewligans-haircut.html">Hewligan's Haircut</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/04/alans-war-memories-of-gi-alan-cope.html">Alan's War</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/manara-library.html">The Manara Library</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pride-and-prejudice.html">Pride and Prejudice</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/dan-and-larry-in-dont-do-that.html">Dan and Larry in Don't Do That!</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/top-10.html">Top 10</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/top-10-forty-niners.html">Top 10: The Forty-Niners</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-05.html">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/cradlegrave.html">Cradlegrave</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/special-forces.html">Special Forces</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for.html">The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/saga.html">Saga</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/09/kingdom-come.html">Kingdom Come</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/superman-all-star-superman.html">Superman: All Star Superman</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/superman-secret-identity.html">Superman: Secret Identity</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2011/07/blacksad-somewhere-between-shadows.html">Blacksad: Somewhere Between The Shadows</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/elks-run.html">Elk's Run</a> / <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/im-never-coming-back.html">I'm Never Coming Back</a> plus many, many, many (many!) more.<br /><br />
There's also a book of the month (so that at least we can all talk about something we've all read). This month it's: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/couch-fiction.html">Couch Fiction written by Philippa Perry art by Junko Graat</a>. If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy <a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">here</a>. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).<br />
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The next one is: Tuesday the 4th of June / 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX. <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=north+library+manor+gardens&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=north+library+manor+gardens&hnear=Islington&cid=0,0,14799324691437893482&ei=S3Y1TeTUJIKHhQfUutW3Cw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQnwIwAQ">Here is a map</a>. Come and join us. It's free. All welcome.<br />
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For more information (or if you have any questions and/or would like to be added to our email list: we send out a reminder a week before with a list of the books that are going to be available) you can email us <a href="mailto:islingtoncomicforum@gmail.com">here</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-33557115460614460052013-05-07T16:27:00.002+01:002013-06-11T12:24:29.368+01:00Books: The Manhattan Projects________________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>The Manhattan Projects</b><br />
<b>Vol. 1</b><br />
<b>Written by Jonathan Hickman</b><br />
<b>Art by Nick Pitarra</b><br />
2012<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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Would it not be enough for me to just say: "you should really read this comic - it's really actually just totally great" and just leave it at that? No? You want me to say more? Pad it out a little? Well - ok then.<br />
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I came to The Manhattan Projects pretty much totally cold. The only name that meant anything to me - Jonathan Hickman - has been responsible for books of such varying qualities [1] that at this point<br />
you could pretty much replace his name with a question mark and I'd had just as much of a clue as to what exactly I was letting myself in for.... I mean: I guess it would have some sort of gee-wiz attitude to science (like one of the kids from Tom Strong grown to semi-maturity) but without the need to obfuscate that you sometimes get with Grant Morrison or (at a push) Warren Ellis: nah - Hickman is always so to the point that I doubt that "obfuscate" is even in his vocabulary: he's more like the guy who cuts all his big epic concepts into small bite-sized pieces and then serves them with some salad and extra mayo in a tasty white bun. And as for the artist - Nick Pitarra - well I'd never heard of him - so I didn't even know what the book was going to look like [2].<br />
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So when I got a copy of Vol 1 in my hand I opened it up with a pair of tweezers - ready for anything: prepared for the worst (while hoping for the best) and - well - boom. I don't know how exactly - but somehow it managed to get behind and whack my brain from an angle that I wasn't quite expecting: which (in case you couldn't work this out yourself) is almost exactly the kind of thing I<i> love</i>.<br />
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And in terms of Hickman-ology: well - I think that I'm starting to get a grip on him - the way I see it - it's like this: with some authors - even when doing work-for-hire stuff so that they can just do some blah and cash a big fat cheque at the end of it (am thinking mainly of Alan Moore and Warren Ellis here - but hell: it's not even like that kind of attitude is just restricted to the world of comic books [3]) the stuff that's put out without that much passion is still well worth a read: but Hickman - well for this reader at least: I can really tell when he's faking it - and (well gee) - it's kind of embarrassing when he does [4]. The flip-side of that tho is that when he's doing something that he really believes in and is willing to commit to (and isn't bound by the restrictions of mainstream comics [5]) well - then you get the good stuff. <br />
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Or - to put it another way: it's like that friend with the varying moods. Some days he's awful, irritable and grumpy like a camel with twisted bowels: other times he's polite and socially respectable - but just kind of hangs there like magnolia wallpaper and then - somedays (every once in a while) - they're like a beautiful sunny day where there's not a cloud in the sky and every traffic light you get to turns green.<br />
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If you still want more: well - the thing it made me think of (in a very roundabout sort of way) is the story of Syd Barrett after he was kicked out of Pink Floyd: (I don't know if this is true or not) but it's been said that he used to spend all day in bed - not because he was lazy - but because he believed that from that starting point it was possible for him to get up and do absolutely anything: he could start a new band, become a painter, king of the world - anything anything <i>anything</i>. Only (his thinking went) as soon as he got out of bed all of those possibilities would collapse into one: and no matter how great that single possibility would be - it wasn't worth sacrificing all the other ones: and so - he stayed in bed, lying completely still - keeping all those possibilities alive.<br />
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And if you want to know why The Manhattan Projects reminds me of that - well: you're going to have to read it to find out. Sorry. <br />
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[1] All the way from the sickingly lows of his stint on the Fantastic Four (which I'd say is one of the very worst comics I've read in recent years) to the middling middle of The Red Wing and his science-fictional take on The Ultimates all the way up to his very splendid S.H.I.E.L.D. which left me with a warm all-over glow that I still treasure today.<br />
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[2] Except: oops - when I tagged this post - his name popped up already loaded: which is how I discovered that he was actually the artist on another Hickman book called: The Red Wing (which is also good - but (for me): not as good as The Manhattan Projects - which (I guess) I'd mostly put down to The Red Wing (because it's just one book) seemed kinda rushed and squeezed in - while Manhattan Projects has a lot more space to kind of take things slow and roll out it's (many splendored) ideas one at a time. And as for what his like art looks like - well: it's like Geoff Darrow: only it's like ketchup instead of mustard (hope that helps).<br />
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[3] Steven Soderbergh famously has a "one for them, one for me" approach to film-making that seems to suit him down to the ground (which is only confused by the fact that a lot of the time his "one for them" films are much better than the "one for him" ones: but go figure).<br />
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[4] Meg Ryan he is not.<br />
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[5] And - well yeah: I guess that's my point - some people do really well when you give them somesort of restriction to work within: but Hickman's wings and sense of imagination are too unwieldy to be contained in a small box - so when you put him in a small space: the stuff he comes out with feels stifled and (dur) boxed in <i>but</i> if you set him free and leave him to his own nutty devices - well - then (not always - but mostly) then he starts to get some altitude and starts to really let loose and (goddamnit) he spreads his wings and <i>soars</i>. <br />
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Links: <a href="http://patientcomicaddict.tumblr.com/post/33797537571/review-the-manhattan-projects-vol-1">Patient Comic Addict Review</a>,<br />
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/shield.html">S.H.I.E.L.D.</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/red-wing.html">The Red Wing</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/feynman.html">Feynman</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/bprd.html">B.P.R.D.</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/planetary.html">Planetary</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/invisibles.html">The Invisibles</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-ultimates.html">The Ultimates</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hard-boiled.html">Hard Boiled</a>.<br />
<br />Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-62714603781220391882013-05-03T12:44:00.002+01:002013-05-03T12:44:46.742+01:00Books: Hellblazer: The Family Man _______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Hellblazer: The Family Man</b><br />
<b>Written by Jamie Delano</b><br />
<b>Art by Ron Tiner, Sean Phillips, Steve Pugh, and Dean Motter</b><br />
2008<br />
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Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
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Most of you out there probably already know all the Hellblazer trivia already - but for those who don't - let's just do it all at once (yeah? Cool):<br />
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John Constantine was created by beardy comics grandmaster Alan Moore all the back in the mid 1980s when he was writing Swamp Thing. Legend has it that his sole reason for existing was that the Swamp Thing artists (Steve Bissette and John Totleben) wanted to draw a character who looked like Sting [1] (hey - it was the 1980s ok? Totally different time). I couldn't say for sure whether it was the Stingness of the way the character looked or (more probably) because everyone loves a good anti-hero in a trenchcoat who wields magic less like some airy-fairy mystical delicacy and more like a dirty, greasy hammer to throw at someone's face - but the character made such a big splash that the bigwigs at DC thought it would be a good idea to give him his own series: and thus was born a comic called Hellraiser (or at least - that's what it was going to be called until Clive Barker's film came out a few months before the first issue hit the stands and thus - well: we got the sightly less apt: Hellblazer [2]). <br />
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Yes - the world at large probably knows him best (if they know him at all) from the Keanu Reeves film [3] which committed the outrageous crime of recasting a blonde Liverpudlian as - well - Keanu Reeves (who is - breaking news - neither blonde nor from Liverpool) but somehow still (speaking personally) did have a small hint of the same rugged charm (there's a moment towards the end that I particularly liked that involved a well-placed middle finger that seemed pretty spot on: but - then again - I've only ever seen it once and ain't in a particular rush to ever do it again so maybe it wasn't that good after all? [4]): even if every "true" Hellblazer fan regards it in the same way as you would an ugly boil on the back of your hand that leads you to wearing long sleeves in the hope that it'll cover it up so you won't have to talk about it (which - when you consider how amazing a Hellblazer film <i>could</i> be [5] makes a certain sense I guess). <br />
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Ok: with all of that purged - let's get down to business:<br />
<br />
So. I kinda got it in my head that it would be a good idea to go through the Hellblazer comics and write a separate thingie on here for each one [6]. I mean - why not right? Everyone likes a little bit of John Constantine now and again ("a working-class magician, occult detective, and con man stationed in London. He is known for his endless cynicism, deadpan snarking, ruthless cunning, and constant chain smoking" - I mean - what's not to like?) and seeing how he's been going since the late 1980s and attracted a whole host of comics writing talent [7] along the way - it's not like there's a lack of fun, weird and strange comics to choose from. Only - well - (and this has been a sticking point for a while now): the comic that started the whole thing off (Hellblazer: Original Sins) - there's only one copy available in the whole of Islington and - last year - someone took it out and (I mean - so far) hasn't brought it back (but - what the hey: I live in hope).<br />
<br />
Having been waiting a while to start off at Part One I finally decided - oh well: let's take things from Part Two instead and maybe we can double-back on our tracks some other time. Plus - you know: mostly it doesn't make any real difference what order you read your Hellblazer's in: John Constantine is always going to be his bitter old moany self - falling head first into a whole mess of trouble and - for me anyway: the only way I've ever really experienced Hellblazer is by reading random trades here and there so I guess it's somewhat apt that things aren't completely plain sailing (and I'm sure John wouldn't want it any other way).<br />
<br />
But I should probably just quit it with all this prancing around and blah blah blah and actually get down to it and write a few words about the book we have in question: The Family Man.<br />
<br />
Of course (wouldn't you know it: just my luck) as opposed to the clean fresh start I was hoping for The Family Man begins in medias res with the events of Original Sins still hanging around like the smell from the party the night before - it doesn't really matter tho - it's just that seeing how Hellblazer was still just starting out: it's acting as if it was all telling the same story rather than (which I guess happened slowly over time) different installments of a seemingly never-ending franchise: I realise that I may have mentioned the X-files quite a few times on this blog (hey: what can I say? It was one of my must-watch TV shows when I was growing up) but it's like the difference between the first seasons when Mulder and Scully would be seriously affected by the stuff that they saw [8] and the later seasons (when me (and everyone else) stopped watching) when their encounters with the strange and paranormal would be treated as common-place and just part of their daily routine. The reason for this (obviously) is that when they were just starting out they had no idea / no real hope that anyone would be paying that much attention or that they would have to keep spinning out the same form of stories year-in year-out which lead them to be much more reckless with their characters and their situations (and the way that the situations impact upon the characters) which leads to the sort of unexpected storytelling that you get in: well - like you get in The Family Man. Of course - as time goes on: things start to solidify - and because people have certain exceptions - well: it becomes much harder to mess with the status quo and be adventurous with who the characters are [9]: yeah?<br />
<br />
So: yeah - even tho the artwork is pretty much of that kinda scrappy 1980s style (these issues were originally published between 1989 - 1990): that those of you of a delicate disposition might have a tough time getting used to it [10]: but there are still places here and there where they manage to do some cool stuff (I liked the scene where they're sitting in front of the fire and the colours are all yellow and orange: I mean - yeah - maybe they just did it because they couldn't be bothered to mix up their palette at all - but still: I think it's pretty effective nonetheless). Plus (oh man) you will have to be willing to give Jamie Delano's purple prose a pass [11] or at least just hold your nose during the most particularly repungent parts. But - damnit: I'd say that it's worth the effort: there's a quote from Delano that I've seen reprinted a lot in quite a few places that lays down his motivation for writing Hellblazer to be: "...generally I was interested in commenting on 1980s Britain. That was where I was living, it was shit, and I wanted to tell everybody." [12]: and - man: that kinda of attitude and determination to wipe the reader's nose in some of the most depressing aspects of the period certainly comes through on every page: not that it's practically preachy (except for maybe the last episode in the book: but that's so surreal that I'm even sure if I could tell you what it's about apart from the fact that - you know: everything is rubbish and all people everywhere are awful) the first story in the collection (Larger than Life) is like a B-side from The Unwritten and is of a certain sort of flavour that (and I'd say thankfully to this) John Constantine never really returned to: and the main bit in the middle (The Family Man) is constructed like a really good 1980s Thriller - the type best watched on VHS: like something directed by Brian De Palma - dirty, nasty and cheap - yet still completely mesmerizing.<br />
<br />
And - of course: the best bit about all of this - is that this is only still just the beginning.<br />
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<div>
<br />
[1] Alan Moore from this <a href="http://www.qusoor.com/hellblazer/Sting.htm">here</a>: "I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. Having been given that challenge, how could I fit Sting into Swamp Thing? I have an idea that most of the mystics in comics are generally older people, very austere, very proper, very middle class in a lot of ways. They are not at all functional on the street. It struck me that it might be interesting for once to do an almost blue-collar warlock. Somebody who was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that"</div>
<br />
[2] Which - and is this just me? - always just kinda makes me think of a particularly devilish piece of a school uniform....<br />
<br />
[3] Which - confusingly - was titled not Hellblazer - but "Constantine" (which - if you ask me: is a pretty boring/shoddy title for a film - but what do I know: it earned nearly $30 million at the North American box office on its opening weekend so it must have been doing something right I guess): which lead to the comics (hoping to get themselves a few pieces of that sweet and tasty money-pie) to redo the "John Constantine" above the title from thin little slender letters into big chunky bold ones.<br />
<br />
[4] Of course the question is: who would have been better cast? <a href="http://stopsmokinghownotto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/daniel_craig_smoking_cigarettes.jpg">Daniel Craig</a>? <a href="http://handson.provocateuse.com/images/photos/paul_bettany_02.jpg">Paul Bettany</a>? <a href="http://www.ozzienews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/John-Lydon-is-right-about-stupid-reality-talentless-shows-on-TV.jpg">John Lydon</a>? Or - if you wanted to get meta about it - <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Sting_2009_portrait.jpg/220px-Sting_2009_portrait.jpg">Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner</a>?<br />
<br />
[5] Although - if you ask me: if you really wanted to make an adaptation: the best thing would be to make a Hellblazer TV show: I mean - looking back at the twenty years plus of comics it's not like you would have any trouble finding a decent story-line to sustain you. But whatever.<br />
<br />
[6] Of course - if you look on the right hand side under "Books" - you will notice that there's already entries for Hellblazer: City of Demons and Hellblazer: Pandemonium: but (for the moment at least) they're barely fleshed out - seeing how they were written all the way back when my intention was just to create a big fat Hellblazer entry and stick all the books together in the same place (City of Demons and Pandemonium are both kind of one-off specials - (if you check the wikipedia page on the List of Hellblazer publications - they're listed under "Other collections" and "original graphic novels") so I figured it didn't matter that I had them buttoned off separate): but - blah blah - whatever. <br />
<br />
[7] Including (amongst others) Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Brian Azzarello, Mike Carey and at one point - Ian Ranken (but we'll get to all of those - hopefully - in time).<br />
<br />
[8] Most notably I'd say in an episode called Darkness Falls which ends (spoiler alert I guess) with Mulder and Scully held up in a quarantine facility: which is the kind of thing that - as things went on and the creators realised that they were going to be able to get more than one season out of this - the show just didn't have much time for anymore.<br />
<br />
[9] Then again: things are a bit more complicated than I might be making them out to be: because - even tho it may become harder to wreck violence upon your characters: it does allow you to be a little bit more exciting with the types of stories you tell (which is why a lot of the best X-Files episodes (Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Small Potatoes and Bad Blood) happened in the mid-Seasons: as the set-up was solid enough that you could start to shift things around in a cool way.<br />
<br />
[10] But then - my feeling is: that if you're reading or watching anything that's a little old-fashioned then you kinda of need to be willing to adjust your perspective just a little: it's my friends who can't take the first Terminator film seriously because the special effects are a little - well - ropey and argue that it's a problem with the movie itself - while I'm much more of the thought that you just need to be willing to relax a little and not try to hold everything up to modern standards (well: in most cases at least).<br />
<br />
[11] I did write down some of the most toe-curling examples as I went along - but now I can't find the piece of paper I wrote them on and I don't have the book to hand: so you'll just have to venture in yourself and find the most egregious lines on your lonesome. (Sorry).<br />
<br />
[12] You can find the original interview (with also includes Garth Ennis): <a href="http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusComics/Hellblazers.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
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Links: <a href="http://www.comicsreview.co.uk/nowreadthis/2011/07/03/john-constantine-hellblazer-the-family-man/">Now Read This Review</a>.<br />
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/hellblazer-city-of-demons.html">Hellblazer: City of Demons</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/hellblazer-pandemonium.html">Hellblazer: Pandemonium</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/unwritten.html">The Unwritten</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/swamp-thing.html">Swamp Thing</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/cradlegrave.html">Cradlegrave</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/neil-gaimans-midnight-days.html">Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/signal-to-noise.html">Signal to Noise</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/sandman.html">The Sandman</a>.<br />
<br />
All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-29141456557891959042013-05-03T09:41:00.001+01:002013-05-03T10:00:09.847+01:00Events: Word Festival Talk: Who Is Afraid of Comics?_______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnEiGcERyCkoXcR2_zjoQ5Uo_2qtL5OSu-OFU4IAYqHTudTyCW7DTYJyjq8GCUMp_C87xbLYJwz_Z0Z4ZS-FacUMUYYnnpsXqTQgQ8-HmI9XJ028w1Syic66EBx30ix9HEmKyfcIAPew/s1600/ChrisWestonTwelve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnEiGcERyCkoXcR2_zjoQ5Uo_2qtL5OSu-OFU4IAYqHTudTyCW7DTYJyjq8GCUMp_C87xbLYJwz_Z0Z4ZS-FacUMUYYnnpsXqTQgQ8-HmI9XJ028w1Syic66EBx30ix9HEmKyfcIAPew/s320/ChrisWestonTwelve.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>
<div>
<b>Wednesday 15 May / </b><b>6.30pm - 8:00pm </b></div>
<div>
Central Library 2 Fieldway Crescent, N5 1PF</div>
<div>
<br />
What lies behind the moral panics. media scares and strict censorship that have besieged comics in Britain and around the world? Why have they been repeatedly the targets of campaigns and censorship? Is there something inherently dangerous, or radicalising, about the form's weaving of words and pictures?</div>
<div>
<br />
From their 19th century precursors in Penny Dreadfuls to the Fifties Horror Comics, from the taboo-smashing Undergrounds to Manga and Graphic Novels today, Paul Gravett explores the controversies behind the comic medium’s often fraught maturing process and the continuing issues of political correctness and the right to offend.</div>
Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-78978967067943555212013-04-23T19:45:00.001+01:002013-05-03T11:24:20.831+01:00Books: Saga______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwY0x2x8K4qqNa4QFRykVTRrRft2JfaaLeZqfMRIN2GCG4kj_czrBpni76T054TMsAFCtPhUalF79xNa9dzF9SfB9hEEge_Dce972Jk6Z2XtFvtuMfzP3cRcYfdsaSzUE-FcyJW0w3sI/s1600/saga+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwY0x2x8K4qqNa4QFRykVTRrRft2JfaaLeZqfMRIN2GCG4kj_czrBpni76T054TMsAFCtPhUalF79xNa9dzF9SfB9hEEge_Dce972Jk6Z2XtFvtuMfzP3cRcYfdsaSzUE-FcyJW0w3sI/s200/saga+1.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<b>Saga </b><br />
<b>Vol 1</b><br />
<b>Written by Brian K. Vaughan</b><br />
<b>Art by Fiona Staples</b><br />
2012<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Comics can do anything.<br />
<br />
Yeah - ok: sure - they can't make you a cup of tea (etc) - but facetiousness aside - (and trying my best not to sound too much like Scott McCloud) the potential of types of stories you can use them to tell is (pretty much) limitless: you know - words and pictures working together and all that: I mean - yeah - (ok) maybe there are a few stories out there that only work in terms of sound (although the only one I can think of would be Orson Welles' infamous War of the Worlds broadcast): but at least in this point of human history [1] - telling a story with pictures is the thing that we all respond best to. Which I guess is why I always end up feeling a little bit (hell - a<i> lot</i>) let down by a book that (on the one hand) is all real world locations and people talking in kitchens or (on the other hand) opts for the usual superheroes having fights with supervillains fare ("Take that! Evildoer!"). Like - come on! Give me something I haven't seen before. Something that pushes up against a few limits - or jumps over a few boundaries - (do I need to break out the caps lock?): GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW. <br />
<br />
As basically (as far as I see it) - if you're a comic book writer or artist or whatever then (well) for all intents and purposes you basically have the power of god. Why then are you merely content with serving up more the same? With the entire spectrum to choose from - why is everyone seemingly content to serve up the same shade of <i>brown</i>?<br />
<br />
In fact - I recently stumbled across an introduction that Alan Moore wrote a book called The Vorrh [2] that (talking about the fantasy genre) managed to hit the nail precisely on the head: "By definition, surely every fantasy should be unique and individual, the product of a single vision and a single mind, with all of that mind’s idiosyncrasies informing every atom of the narrative." Except I don't think that this is just a problem with fantasy - I think it's a problem with all stories everywhere: with not enough storytellers willing to take risks or stretch themselves past the point of the people who came before them. I don't know if any of you saw that Patton Oswalt Parks and Recreation Star Wars speech that was making the rounds on the internet last week [3]: but - if they ever made it (and hell the way things are going - I really wouldn't be that surprised if it did happen) - it would be the omega point/singularity of nerd/geek culture (and after it finished - I guess we could all pack up our bags and go home): but that's the (imaginary yeah) culmination of what I'm talking about I guess - where the greatest creative act isn't to make something new - but to join up the parts and pieces of the stories that came before (and maybe this is all just a roundabout way of moaning about the never-ending proliferation of sequels and reboots: but whatever): that's not my point.<br />
<br />
My point is - (like I said at the start): comics can do anything.<br />
<br />
I'm guessing that most of the people reading this have already heard of Brian K. Vaughan. In all the pictures I've ever seen of him he's wearing a black shirt and a red tie and an impish grin on his face that looks just a little (if you lean in just a bit) like he's trying too hard. But - what the hey: it looks like it's working for him seeing how he's basically one of the only (that I can think of anyway) success stories of 21st Century mainstream comicdom (and by success I mean - he's not trailed by bitter fans complaining that his early work was much much better: and he's sold out all the things he used to stand for etc etc etc). He first broke big with Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina (amongst others)- then followed that up by landing a job working as a Lost writer (jumping ship before the final season [4]) - and (after his movie projects stalled) has now returned to the comics world in a big way with Saga.<br />
<br />
The artist - Fiona Staples - is more of an unknown quantity. Nosing around her wikipedia page it seems that before Saga she was existing on the out-skirts of the industry: doing the colours on Book IV of Button Man, doing one shots of minor superhero characters ("The Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor") and series that no one really mentions anymore (sorry Northlanders: but you know it's true): but having treated my eyes to the beauty of the artwork in Saga - all of that seems more like people not being able to spot the treasure right beneath their noses rather than some sort of lack on her part: putting it bluntly - the artwork in Saga is spine-tingling fantastic. At the outset I'll admit that I was a little non-plussed - it all seemed a little bit too round on the edges - like a pair of child's safety scissors wrapped up in candyfloss: but it only took a few issues before either my defenses melted or her technique improved for me to fall into her arms. The grace and simplicity she manages to capture her characters with - I mean: well - it's cool. And: in places - kinda reminds me of Sean Philips: only if he's a dog - she's more like a cat (and I don't care if that only makes sense to me). And - in fact - comparing the art in Saga to Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina - it's seems like Brian K. Vaughan has managed to find the perfect person to split the difference between the rough and ready lines of Pia Guerra (of Y: The Last Man) and the hyper-stylized / frozen in amber look of Tony Harris (who did Ex Machina [5]): Fiona Staples manages to draw characters who feel alive and dynamic whilst at the same time - capturing them at the moment in which they're most beautiful.<br />
<br />
And - together: well - right at the start there's this bit about what a great thing it can be when two people join forces to create something new and even tho (being English and all) it made me cringe like I was having a spasm: I've got to (begrudgingly) admit - there is magic in these pages. With both Vaughan and Staples coming together to create something that - well - feels new. <br />
<br />
Of course - yeah yeah yeah: the basic building blocks of story is as old as time - but then what isn't you know? What's exciting tho is the way that they decide to tell that story and the fabulous creatures they cook up to make it run (my favourite so far being The Stalk): there's a feeling that only a few comic books have managed to give me - that everything is kinda floating on air and absolutely anything can happen and - hell - you know what? - I don't think I've seen such an interesting blend of science-fiction and fantasy since Star Wars (which I realise might be setting the bar a little high - but there you go).<br />
<br />
Yes: there is more sex and violence than what you'd get from an average Game of Thrones episode [6]: but it's done with such a cheeky smile on it's face that it never really feels like a cheap shot. Instead - it feels more like a fairy-tale that never feels the need to keep things sanitized - Neil Gaiman with a few drinks inside him: holding forth whilst dressed up in a Boba Fett costume (if that helps: I'm guessing not - but what the hey). <br />
<br />
But - yeah: totally worth the price of admission: when you've got a comic like this the only thing you need to worry out is how to get your hands on the next volume.<br />
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<div>
[1] I remember learning back at school that people used to say that they were going to "go hear a play" as opposed to go see on: as there used to be a much greater emphasis on aural rather than the visual (which is apparently why Shakespeare could be so virtuosic with his dialogue): but I don't know if that's true or not.</div>
<br />
[2] You can read the introduction <a href="http://www.honestpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The_Vorrh_Vorrhword.pdf">here</a> (and - oh - hat tip to <a href="http://mindlessones.com/2013/04/19/poor-ideology/">Mindless Ones</a>): the book itself is by someone called B. Catling and unfortunately - sad face - it's not currently available from Islington libraries (oh well).<br />
<br />
[3] I'd include the link here - but I can't find it (the one that everyone else has been using is only available to view in America). And - damnit - I can't find a transcript (oh well): summing up then - it's his crazy pitch for the next Star Wars film and how it could bring in The Avengers, Thanos and the X-Men (in fact - just look at the poster someone made:<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/04/19/patton-oswalt-parks-and-recreation-star-wars-marvel-poster/"> that should give you the right idea</a>).<br />
<br />
[4] Which obviously you could interpret in a number of ways.<br />
<br />
[5] And - which - I would mostly put down to the fact that his technique seems to consist of taking photographers of people posing in various positions and then coping them into his drawing: with the result that - well - a lot of his artwork looks like people posing in various positions (as opposed to actually just - you know: being natural).<br />
<br />
[6] True story: one of my friends was on an aeroplane - watching Game of Thrones on his laptop when the stewardess came around and asked if he'd like anything to drink - he looked up as he paused the DVD and said that he was alright when he noticed a strange look on her face: and as she walked away he looked back at his laptop and realised that he'd paused the screen so that all you could see was a pair of boobs. Such is the dangers of watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1w4CRMQVtY">Game of Thrones</a>. <br />
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Links: <a href="http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/10/saga-volume-1-shadowhawk/">The Founding Fields Review</a>, <a href="http://whatwouldellenripleydo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/review-of-saga-vol-1-brian-k-vaughan.html">What Would Ellen Ripley Do Review</a>, <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/saga-and-y-the-last-man-writer-brian-k-vaughan-tal,72230/">AVClub Interview with Brian K. Vaughan</a>.<br />
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/y-last-man_11.html">Y: The Last Man</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/ex-machina.html">Ex Machina</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arrowsmith-so-smart-in-their-fine.html">Arrowsmith: So Smart In Their Fine Uniforms</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/orc-stain.html">Orc Stain</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/nikolai-dante-romanov-dynasty.html">Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/umbrella-academy.html">The Umbrella Academy</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/joe-barbarian.html">Joe The Barbarian</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/button-man.html">Button Man</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/northlanders.html">Northlanders</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stardust.html">Stardust</a>.<br />
<br />
All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-50313729690451510932013-04-23T15:55:00.000+01:002013-04-23T18:12:43.186+01:00Books: The Avengers: Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World_______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJiSm7q_oAKLvXCEjsnFbfABx2L-jNC_JF-yW9JzvbcsXZI0Ms5ihXKs2N4f06KanwlTSQJtCNr05QZ9sxY7BOlcJOnxHMsjU-FrQpf12toPkzLuu1Llv0Y7_1vsa_WzmSejGuSzyIAw/s1600/secret+avengers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJiSm7q_oAKLvXCEjsnFbfABx2L-jNC_JF-yW9JzvbcsXZI0Ms5ihXKs2N4f06KanwlTSQJtCNr05QZ9sxY7BOlcJOnxHMsjU-FrQpf12toPkzLuu1Llv0Y7_1vsa_WzmSejGuSzyIAw/s200/secret+avengers.JPG" width="127" /></a></div>
<b>Secret Avengers: </b><b>Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World</b><br />
<b>Written by Warren Ellis</b><br />
<b>Art by Jamie McKelvie, Kev Walker, David Aja, Michael Lark, Alex Maleev, Stuart Immonen</b><br />
2012<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Even before I had even started one single word (or image) of Secret Avengers I opened up a new document so I could note down the stuff that came to me as I read it [1] and wrote down: "Good old Warren Ellis." At this point - that's how confident I am that having his name of the front cover of a comic means that - <i>at the very least</i> - it's a book that will be worth the time it takes to read: and - hell - if he's on form: then the sky is much less than the limit.<br />
<br />
Of course: seeing how this is a mainstream marvel book (and not even a proper stand-alone one: I mean: at the start I was confused by the fact that it started at issue 16 and wondered if I was missing important story-stuff by starting at the middle [2]: but after deciding: "what the hey" I jumped in and realised that none of this was even an issue: and that the Vol 3 thing is a bit of a misnomer: seeing how it reads as a collection of short stories more than anything else: but we'll get to that in a bit) it's Ellis working for a (what I assume is a fat) paycheck more than trying to set the world on fire: but there's enough here to keep your brain (well - my brain at least) ticking over and twisted in knots: plus the fact that the artwork is (at points) pretty cool (I'd classify it as B-list [3] - which is several letters above the type of thing you normally get in your typical mainstream superhero comics so - you know: that's something at least): or - to put it another way: ok - yeah: it's basically just bubblegum - but it's <i>well made</i> bubblegum: with a lot of interesting flavours.<br />
<br />
What that means: it's got a robust vocabulary (which means that you get lots of lovely words like "stellify" and "indubitably." [4]), Ellis' typical gonzo dialogue (with "Where is your Bluddy Steve Jobs Tricknology now, rich yankee pigs with your tight pants?" on one side and "People always forget that a time machine is also a space machine." on the other) with a healthy smattering of ideas (including: how to use city as a bomb) and a deft touch with superhero characterization (with basically just means everyone gets to say one cool line at some point): like it says in the book: "it's clever and insane at the same time." <br />
<br />
What's even better is that (taking a cue from Planetary): each issue is it's own self-contained little story: which means that it's really easy to dip in-and-out (because - you know: reading a whole comic can be <i>such</i> a major chore). In fact - forget Planetary: a much better example would be the short-lived Global Frequency: I mean - all you need to do is swap Miranda Zero for Steve Rogers and it's practically the same - only with the science-fictional volume turned all the way up (hey: I mean - it's superheroes so that's expected - right?): compact little action-adventure tales poking holes in the fabric of the world: short stories that are all quips and teeth.<br />
<br />
I mean: for me - if you wanted to know what would make it better then I'd suggest that it cut down on the fighting (and: man - there is a lot of fighting) and ramped up the M C Escher style craziness: but that's just niggles. But like I said at the start: it's Warren Ellis - so (at this point) you should know exactly what it is you're going to get. And - hell: I'm always game for whatever good time he has to show me: even if the next day I can barley recall what it was that we got up to: but that's bubblegum for you. <br />
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[1] Here's my tip for anyone out there thinking of reviewing stuff - it helps <i>a lot</i> if you write down your thoughts are you read it / watch it: trying to remember the things you were thinking of afterwards isn't really a viable option.<br />
<br />
[2] And nosing around I discovered that there are two volumes of Secret Avengers that came before this (courtesy of Ed Brubaker): plus a tie-in to the Fear Itself blah: not to mention the Rick Remender series that comes directly after. However: I don't think I'm gonna bother to read either of them (let alone write them up on the blog - so (for the time being) this is as much Secret Avengers insight you're going to get from me: so enjoy it while it lasts.<br />
<br />
[3] Notable artists (for me anyway) include: Kev Walker (a 2000AD graduate done good), Michael Lark (best known for his work on Gotham Central: and his lean, mean drawing style), Alex Maleev (the guy who did all the heavy lifting on Bendis' Daredevil run: who's even better at that realism feeling: and messing around with different drawing old-fashioned styles) and Stuart Immonen (who worked on the tail-end Ultimate Spider-man: and whose artwork looks like it would bounce if you threw it up against a wall).<br />
<br />
[4] Which - obviously - reminds me of <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2z0ul7QBP1qar39fo1_500.jpg">this</a>. </div>
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Links: <a href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/how-do-you-like-your-superhero-comics-clever-and-stylish-or-fighty-fighty-fighty/">Forbidden Planet Blog Review</a>.<br />
<br />
Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/global-frequency.html">Global Frequency</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/thunderbolts-faith-in-monsters-caged.html">Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters / Caged Angels</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/avengers-the-new-avengers-illuminati.html">The Avengers: The New Avengers: Illuminati</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/ultimate-comics-iron-man-armor-wars.html">Ultimate Comics: Iron Man: Armor Wars</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/gotham-central.html">Gotham Central</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/daredevil-2001-2006.html">Daredevil (2001 - 2006)</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/ultimate-spider-man.html">Ultimate Spider-Man</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/planetary.html">Planetary</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/shield.html">S.H.I.E.L.D.</a>.<br />
<br />
Profiles: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/warren-ellis.html">Warren Ellis</a>.<br />
<br />
All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-69400142793973260602013-04-23T15:50:00.003+01:002013-04-23T15:54:57.943+01:00Books: Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga</b><br />
<b>Written by Pat Mills and John Wagner</b><br />
<b>Art by Mick McMahon and Brian Bolland</b><br />
2012<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
"I play with a ball... Dick and Jane play with a ball... Judge Dredd will not play with a ball."<br />
<br />
At the last meeting of the Comic Forum someone (I forget who and I forget why) mentioned Judge Dredd: to which someone else responded - with a snort (I think it was Wayne but I can't be sure): "Judge Dredd? That's for children isn't it?" [1]<br />
<br />
I mean: ok yeah - strictly speaking it's true: Judge Joseph Dredd: born and raised on the pages of 2000AD was created as something to keep young boys entertained and away from the evil grasps of punk rock or whatever back in the late 1970s: since then tho he's ascended through the ranks to the upper tiers of society and there attained the heady status of cultural icon: I mean - even if you've never read a comic (or seen the two film adaptations) you still know who Judge Dredd is and what he stands for - right [2]?<br />
<br />
But - <i>man</i> - dismissing it as just being that is like thinking that adults can't enjoy fireworks: it's just - well: it's just <i>silly </i>(sorry Wayne). Because even though - yeah: it's been calibrated for the brains of teenage boys: when it reaches it's proper sweet spot and has all the right elements in place (namely: concept, plot and the proper artists) then: well (oh boy) - it becomes (pardon me) <i>transcendent</i>.<br />
<br />
Which brings us to The Cursed Earth Saga: and - well - basically (not that I want to build it up too much or anything) one of the best comics of it's era (1978 - a whole decade before all your Watchmens and Dark Knight Returns): I mean - yeah yeah - it is fantastic that Judge Dredd has managed to keep going and going and going well past the point that anyone ever thought that he would and that is obviously part of the reason why he's still such a thing and people are still making movie and whatever - but (and seriously I have no problem at all in saying this) even if 2000AD had been cancelled after this story was completed [3] - people would still be talking about it today and referring to it as a high-bench mark of - well - the science-fictional comic genre (I realise that maybe that sounds like faint praise - but it's not supposed to be).<br />
<br />
(And - just so no one there gets too confused: I should point out that - this is a story that's been collected in the Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 02: only Islington currently doesn't have a copy of that - so we'll have to make do with this mini-sized copy instead [4]).<br />
<br />
But - whatever - what makes it so good then?<br />
<br />
Well - like it says on the back cover ("A road trip through hell") this is an epic that takes Dredd outside from the comforting clutches of Mega City One and subjects him to the berserker craziness outside the walls: I mean - at this point it's pretty much a genre staple to have your heroic figure venture through an unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland [5] - but mostly (in film terms at least) that kind of thing is done because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to go and shoot in desert and pretend it's the year 2100 rather than: you know - build a future city with flying cars and whatever - of course - seeing that Judge Dredd doesn't have to worry about anything as niggling as a special effects budget - the writers are free to go as crazy as they want: and - hell yes: having an entire landmass to fill means that they give full rein to all of their sick and fevered imaginings - which means that it's total jackpot time for all the lucky readers out there. <br />
<br />
Because - like I said: it's all basically written for the short attention spans of teenage boys (who we all know need constant stimulus or else their heads explode in a big fat sticky mess) the barrage of cool things is non-stop right from the get-go: as you should know - 2000AD is a weekly anthology comic and so all the Judge Dredd stories come out in 5 or 6 page installments [6]: over time the writers have got a lot more self-assured with spreading things out and not making things feel too crammed - but at this early point in time there's this great feeling of having nothing to lose and everything to play for and this amazing frantic energy that means that it feels like you're reading the entire thing on fast-forward with all the best bits jammed next to each other: with anything deemed unnecessary left on the cutting room floor ("Never a dull moment when you're a Twenty-Second Century cop!"). <br />
<br />
But - as it's all welded to a story that's timeless in it's simplicity (I've never read The Odyssey - but I'm guessing the story structure is exactly the same - get to the place and try not to get killed by all the monsters you meet on the way) it free to luxuriant in it's many splendid diversions: you know that phrase - it's not about the destination - it's about the journey? Well - it's in full effect here: with a feast of freaks and otherworldly sights and smells to enjoy: safe in the knowledge that if there's any of it that starts to drag - well: it won't be long until you're on to the next thing. <br />
<br />
What also makes it such a great trip is the company. I've remarked before (I'm sure) that Dredd isn't much of a character with interesting nuances or hidden depths (but I'd argue he's not really supposed to be) and as much fun as it is to watch him punch people - after a whole epic his one-noteness would (I'd fear) start to get a little bit worn out - thankfully then - he gets a lot of support from elsewhere (in fact - towards the end there's a massive double-page spread of everyone featured in the Cursed Earth that makes you realise just how populated a barren wasteland can be): number one mention has got to go to Spikes Harvey Rotten: a 22nd Century man who cribs all of his moves (and fashion-sense) from 20th Century punks (who were all the rage back in 1978): I mean - yes - on the one hand he's a bit of a stereotype: with dialogue full of "dis" and "dat" and not much in the way of subtlety - but then again: there's a reason why if you play Anarchy in the UK everyone in the vicinity will get up and start to jump around like their neck's on fire: it's loud and it's noisy and that's what makes it fun. <br />
<br />
The artwork by Mick McMahon [7] is fantastic. The best way I can describe it - is that it's like Moebius woke up in a bad mood and a shaky hand: it's detailed and feels like you're only ever seeing a small part of a fully realised world - but conveyed in such a way that it's always "BAM!" and on to the next thing: like he was so excited to get this stuff down that he didn't want to get too bogged down in making things look too pretty: and it's absolutely perfect for the story.<br />
<br />
And - yeah - the story: full of proclamations like "It was not a nice way to die." and "sometimes the human race makes me sick!" - it's beautifully stark and ugly in the world that it depicts. Unlike the majority of kid's stories nowadays where it seems that most of the muck and danger gets cleared away and put into tidy little boxes - The Cursed Earth is a sprawling, teeming mess of muties, criminals and - ah yes - dinosaurs.<br />
<br />
I mean: I really hate giving plot points away - but I feel like I should briefly touch upon the dinosaur aspect of The Cursed Earth - especially seeing how (oh my god) it bears striking similarities to a well known 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg. I'm not accusing anyone of deliberately ripping anyone off: I mean - we all know the story of how two people invented the light bulb at the same time right? And - (if you don't mind sounding like a hippy) Idea Space and all the rest of it [8]: well - yeah - I guess it just means that Pat Mills was the first person to stumble upon something and then - years later - Michael Crichton came (independently) to exactly the same place [9]: and - hell - if I was Pat Mills I don't think that I would ever ever shut up about this - but what can you do huh? (and if you think that maybe I'm over-selling this or whatever - then pick up a copy of this book and read pages 85 - 88 and we'll talk - ok?).<br />
<br />
(And - also: yeah - to be fair - I should point out that there is a strange understanding of cloning happening - namely that clones have the memories of the subject that they were cloned from ("For a moment, memories of his first life flashed through his tiny brain"): but then - that's a mistake that tends to get repeating in a lot of films [10] - so I can't really blame Pat Mills too much)<br />
<br />
But that's really the only niggle. And - hell - there's so much style and wit infused throughout this whole comic (as my literary flatmate put it so succinctly: "Satanus is a great name for a dinosaur.") that it seems churlish to complain about - well - anything really. I mean - it's all just for kids right? So - just strap yourself you: marvel at the construction and the pulsating thrill power and get ready for the ride of your life.<br />
<br />
"Oooh! I get so excited just looking at it's multi-level kill power."<br />
<br />
"Calm down, McArthur. This is unseemly behaviour for a Judge... and kindly remove your hand from my uniform."<br />
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[1] <a href="http://www.authorstevemitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/the_hudsucker_proxy_Tim_Robbins_you_know_for_kids1.jpg">You know, for kids</a>.<br />
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[2] Or is this assuming too much? I don't know: people who don't read comics or watch science-fictiony films are a mystery to me: so maybe don't listen to anything that I have to say. In fact: I rewatched Dredd (Karl Urban version) with my girlfriend and it took her a while (until his "I am the law" speech in fact) to get into the swing of things: for the first hour or so she was screaming out in horror things like "This is horrible!" "These people are being brutalised!" and "The reason there's so much crime is because the system is corrupt." Still: eventually she acclimatised and towards the end was cheering along with the skull-smashing: which I guess goes to show that even if people have heard of Judge Dredd - they don't really know what it's actually <i>about</i>: it's like if people thought that that Doctor Who was a medical drama or something...<br />
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[3] And - holy moly - this was just progs 61 to 85 (progs = issues: with one per week) - which - to give you some perspective: last year was prog 1800: so - you know - this is practically (in 2000AD terms) the Jurassic period or something. <br />
<br />
[4] For some reason (maybe they're aiming it at kids or something?) - unlike the Complete Case Files - this book is published at half the size of the original comics. As my literary flatmate put it best: "it's annoying small." - but what the hey - the story is so good that by the time it's sucked you in - you won't even notice. Me - I was just happy to get a chance to <i>finally</i> read the whole thing. Back when I was a kid I used to have <a href="http://www.taint-the-meat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/cursed2.jpg">Book Two</a> but never managed to get my grubby mitts on a copy of <a href="http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1138159.jpg">Book One</a> (and - shockingly - even tho it's been - what? - 15 years? - I can actually say that it was worth the wait - wooo!).<br />
<br />
[5] The example that springs to mind first is Mad Max but - surprisingly for me - that didn't come out until 1979 - the year after The Cursed Earth came out: which I guess is just one of the many things that puts it ahead of the curve (see also: Jurassic Park - which we'll come to in a bit...).<br />
<br />
[6] Yes yes - there's also the Judge Dredd Megazine which allows for much longer chunks of stories - but that didn't come out until 1990 - so at this point it doesn't really count.<br />
<br />
[7] Ok - yes - and Brian Bolland as well: but (and I think this is due to the fact that Bolland is famously slow when it comes to turning in pages - a side-effect of the fact that his art always looks so squeaky clean and freshly polished) nowhere near (in percentage of pages or whatever) as much as Mike McMahon.<br />
<br />
[8] I thought that Idea Space was a common concept - but looking it up - I realise it's something from Alan Moore and so (I dunno) maybe not in common usage? So - here's him talking about it (to help you realise what it is I'm talking about): "A space in which mental events can be said to occur, an idea space which is perhaps universal. Our individual consciousnesses have access to this vast universal space, just as we have individual houses, but the street outside the front door belongs to everybody. It's almost as if ideas are pre-existing forms within this space… The landmasses that might exist in this mind space would be composed entirely of ideas, of concepts, that instead of continents and islands you might have large belief systems, philosophies, Marxism might be one, Judeo-Christian religions might make up another."<br />
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[9] There's a good <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7155904/the-cult-jurassic-park">Grantland</a> article that goes into the ins-and-outs (that - I would say - should (if life was fair) include a reference to the Cursed Earth - but what can you do?): "When was Jurassic Park hatched? We could start in 1924, when the American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote about an "alert, swift-moving carnivorous dinosaur" — Velociraptor mongoliensis. We could start in 1970, when Steven, a young movie director, and Michael, a young novelist, had a chance meeting on the lot at Universal Studios. But I'm thinking we should probably start in 1983. Entomologist George O. Poinar and his wife, Roberta, had begun taking DNA from insects trapped in prehistoric amber. They'd published an article about it in Science. One afternoon, a stranger dropped by their office in Berkeley, Calif. "Tall, pleasant guy," Poinar recalls now. "Really lanky." The man quizzed the Poinars about their work. He asked about amber mines in the Dominican Republic. Then, with his notebook filled, the man left. He never mentioned anything about a dinosaur novel. Michael Crichton, in fact, was already trying to bring dinosaurs back to life. But he'd gotten stuck. "It is always a problem for me to believe in the stories that I am writing," Crichton later wrote to Poinar, "and a dinosaur story especially strains my own credence." When Crichton discovered the Poinars and their bugs-in-amber, he stumbled onto the foundation of a billion-dollar enterprise. It was a beautiful premise for a thriller, in that it both contained cutting-edge science and was ridiculously easy to understand."<br />
<br />
[10] (from <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GeneticMemory">TV Tropes</a>) "While probably impossible, the popularity of this trope can be attributed to the Rule Of Cool, and how in Real Life biology, DNA acts like a form of advanced memory storage (containing massive amounts of data for production and assembly of various complex proteins). However, this won't become a fully Discredited Trope until and unless someone succeeds in creating a viable clone of an adult human being."<br />
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Links: <a href="http://judgetutorsemple.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/judge-dredd-the-cursed-earth-saga-graphic-novel-by-pat-mills-john-wagner-mick-mcmahon-brian-bolland-light-spoilers/">Judge-Tutor Semple Review</a>, <a href="http://www.grovel.org.uk/reviews/judged02/judged02.htm">Grovel Review</a>.<br />
<br />
Further reading: Judge Dredd: The Day The Law Died, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-03.html">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/judge-dredd-complete-case-files-05.html">Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.com/2012/01/orc-stain.html">Orc Stain</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/prophet.html">Prophet</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/crossed.html">Crossed</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/wasteland.html">Wasteland</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/just-pilgrim_13.html">Just a Pilgrim</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647195748461599269.post-53739291504024646022013-04-16T15:18:00.000+01:002013-04-16T15:19:06.542+01:00Books: The Nao of Brown______________________________________________________________________________<br />
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<b>The Nao of Brown</b><br />
<b>By Glyn Dillon</b><br />
2012<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
Available now from Islington Libraries<br />
You can reserve this item for free here:<br />
<a href="http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/">http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Nick - one of the Comic Forumers regulars - has been going on about this book for ages and ages and <i>ages</i>. I mean - I've moaned about this before on here (I know): but Islington isn't exactly the quickest when it comes to getting copies of whatever the hot new thing is [1] and so - finally having this book in my hands after months and months of hearing Nick sing it's praises and seeing that washing machine head cover appear across the internet (and on the tops of seemingly every comics blogger's best comics of 2012 lists [2]) made me feel a little bit - I dunno - like I was the guy who only saw Inception when it came out on DVD: like I'm several steps behind the rest of humanity: still wearing flares while everyone else has already moved on to giant shoulder pads.<br />
<br />
The good thing is tho is that - thanks to successful diverting of eyes and ears and lots of strategic instances of "no spoilers please!" I'd managed to make it all the way to my first read with no idea about what the book was actually you know - about: other than the fact that it was about someone with a washing machine for a head [3]. <br />
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Now - of course I'm not going to blab anything about what the book is really about (but if you're looking for something like that then check out some of the links below and I'm sure that they can give you a précis): it's not really my style and after I went to so much trouble to keep myself ignorant I hardly want to go and spoil things for someone else - but what I will say is this: you know that type of mid-brow indie film where everything looks like it's been filmed with handheld cameras and everything rests upon the acting and stolen glances and all the things that the characters never get around to actually saying? Well - the Nao of Brown (in most respects) is the comics version of that. If you're expecting a machine with giant sledgehammers connected to a roaring 5000 horsepower engine built like a skyscraper with monster-truck wheels and designed to pummel you to the ground with it's over-whelming, bombastic <i>might</i> then (sorry) you're going to leave unsated. The Nao of Brown is more like a delicately pieced together musical instrument half-origami half-wind chime where the point isn't to have your breathe taken away - but more to lean in and admire the beauty (and make no mistake: (in terms of the water-coloured artwork [4]) it is frequently quite beautiful in the way it captures (to pluck two random examples from the air) submerged facial expressions [5] and the way a body balances on a bike as it swerves around a corner). The thing with that tho is that it makes things a lot more precarious: if you just want to bludgeon your readers - well: all you need to rely on is brute force: but if your aim is to make their hearts sing - well - then in that case: you need the steady hand and careful eye of a surgeon. And (oh dear) if I'm going to be completely honest here (and maybe I should whisper this next part): Glyn Dillon [6] whilst being totally aces at the whole drawing, arting, painting thing kinda lets himself down (just a bit) when it comes to the writing side: at least for my tastes (I should try and flesh this out a bit shouldn't I?).<br />
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I'm sure I've briefly touched this idea before - but what the hey: let's go again: in terms of my entertainment products (films, books, comics, whatever) my predilections always tend towards things which work towards exploding the fullest possibilities of the whatever format in comes in: or (to put it another way less convoluted way): I like films which do stuff that only films can do [7], I like books which do clever things you can only really do with printed words on a page [8] and with comics - well: my brain feel into Alan Moore's clutches at a pretty impressionable age and (as all those who've come to a meeting of the Comic Forum will attest) Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim is my always ready to-go as the answer to: "So - what's your favourite comic ever?"<br />
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The point of me saying all that is so you have some idea as to why - for me - the Nao of Brown feels a little bit of a disappointment and why I'd classify it as a weakness that you translate the whole thing in a "proper book novel" and not really miss too much (apart from: you know - the lack of pretty pictures). With only a few small exceptions here and there (and for me: those exceptions are the best part) most of the storytelling is done with the words rather than just relying on the interplay between the two: at one part a character talks about turning into a flower and the illustration right next to it is the character in flower-form: which (I dunno) seems a little bit lacking in imagination: both the art and the writing are delivering the same message and (for me) comics are at their best when they're combining to create an effect that neither one could accomplish alone. And - well yeah - strangely (and this seems to be the curse of lots of modern day comic book creators [9]): and this is maybe the way to put it first - the overall feeling I got when I finished it was that Glyn Dillon is more enamored with words than he is with images: like he wants to be writing Booker Prize fiction and it's just the comics holding him back: while I'd say: his strengths and abilities lie the other way and that really: he should be cutting out the words and focusing more on expanding the limits of his artwork.<br />
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But - hey: that's just me.<br />
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For the rest of you: I dunno - I mean: it's not as if the book is <i>bad</i>: the artwork (as I do believe I've already said) is - what's the right word? - resplendent. So much so that at times I felt guilty letting the story carry me on when it felt like I should have been taking the time to properly study each panel on each page. And yeah - well: (like I said) - it's like an indie film: it takes this issue and explores it - so that when you've done with it you can feel like you've learnt something and had some-sort of insight into a different world (wow - I never realised homeless people lived like that / or whatever) but it does so with a light enough touch that you don't need to worry about being too emotionally shaken or anything like that (I mean - while I was reading it - it seemed like strong stuff: but having finished it: it didn't really linger with me or anything like that). <br />
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I mean - Jessica Hynes (who as Daisy Steiner [10] will always hold a special secret place in my heart) wrote the introduction: so it gets bonus points for that.<br />
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[1] I don't know if we have an official mascot: but if we ever decided to get one - then my vote would be for <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slowpoke">Slowpoke</a> ("Hey guys did you hear? There's this great Slowpoke meme.")<br />
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[2] This <a href="http://goodokbad.com/index.php/about/2012comics">one</a> by Good Ok Bad was actually posted on the Comic Forum's facebook page back in March <i>by</i> Nick: so you know I'm not just making stuff up.<br />
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[3] (although - actually - turns out that's not the case at all: <i>oh well</i>).<br />
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[4] My source here is Nick (yet again) who went to a thing with Glyn Dillon who did some live-drawing thing and who said (if I'm remembering this right?) that it was done with water-colours. So. Yes.<br />
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[5] Submerged as in: when someone's trying hard not to smile and they push it down underwater - but you can still see the faint outline on the side of their mouth. Trust me: you'll know it when you see it.<br />
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[6] Fun geeky comics fact: he's the younger brother of Steve Dillon: who most of you (should) know from his collaborations with Garth Ennis - namely the blasphemous brilliance of Preacher (speaking of: did anyone else notice the major similarity in the endings of Preacher and the Nao of Brown? I mean: I don't want to give things away for people that haven't read one of the other (or both) - but they both do the same thing and - in both cases - it's a major cop out).<br />
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[7] Examples? Well - my favourite two (and the ones which spring to mind the quickest) are: Speed Racer and Cloverfield. But if that's too low-brow for you then - 2001: A Space Odyssey is a good example. I mean - yeah: there is a book version - but (and I think we can all agree on this point) Dave Bowman going through the Stargate makes much more of an impact when you see it (rather than when you read it): which I guess is kinda my whole point. <br />
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[8] See: Alasdair Gray, B. S. Johnson. would be the best two examples of that - also (I guess) David Foster Wallace: although I prefer his non-fiction to his fiction - and haven't got round to reading Infinite Jest yet (oh well).<br />
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[9] Best example of this: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/alison-bechdel.html">Alison Bechdel</a>.<br />
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[10] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghMNNEwu4ek">I would put a Spaced quote here - but my brain can't decide which one to use</a> (if you haven't seen Spaced ever at all - well then: you really should: especially as (although it's a TV show) it's also a really good example of - you know: using moving images to tell stories that you couldn't tell any other way).<br />
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Links: <a href="http://www.tcj.com/reviews/the-nao-of-brown/">The Comics Journal Review</a>, <a href="http://timemachinego.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/the-nao-of-brown-by-glyn-dillon/">Time Machine Go Review</a>, <a href="http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/01/22/review-time-with-the-nao-of-brown/">Comic Book Resources Review</a>, <a href="http://goodokbad.com/index.php/reviews/nao_of_brown_review">Good Ok Bad Review</a>, <a href="http://www.tcj.com/the-now-of-glyn-an-interview-with-glyn-dillon/">The Comics Journal Interview</a>, <a href="http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/10/glyn-dillon-on-the-past-the-future-and-the-nao-of-brown/">Robot 6 Interview</a>.</div>
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Further reading: <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/solanin.html">Solanin</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-playwright.html">The Playwright</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/im-never-coming-back.html">I'm Never Coming Back</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/phonogram.html">Phonogram</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/lost-at-sea.html">Lost at Sea</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/ghost-world.html">Ghost World</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/buddha.html">Buddha</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/american-born-chinese.html">American Born Chinese</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/shortcomings.html">Shortcomings</a>, <a href="http://islingtoncomic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/are-you-my-mother.html">Are You My Mother?</a>.<br />
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All comments welcome.Islington Comic Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654481844004506004noreply@blogger.com0