Return of the Original Scare Bear

Crikey, we're about to close the book on 2010 and I still have'nt posted any of my artwork! Where has the time gone? - sheesh! Well we can't have that, so here we go; the cover and first page of issue 2 of Teddy Krueger. Teddy's an old character of mine which i've decided to bring back for a series of mini comics (4 in all). Issues 1-3 are pretty much finished. I'll be posting details soon on how you can get your eager hands on them. Until then, happy new year!

POW! SMASH!

Loved the piece on old British super heroes in the latest Comic Heroes. I'm very lucky that there's a shop not far from where I work that sells old toys, magazines, vinyl records and comics. I managed to pick up copies of the 1971 Smash! and Pow! annuals featured in this article. So for the last few days I've been engrossed in the short lived adventures of Tri-Man, Aquavenger, Electro - Super Security Agent, Magno - Man of Magnetism, and the ESPer Commandos. I was previously completely unaware of the existence of these characters. I knew about Marvel Man, Zenith and the Marvel UK stuff, but apart from that I just didn't think that us Brits really did super heroes. Out of curiosity I checked on the net to see if I could find out who owns the publishing rights to all these characters. Well, what a typically tangled web that turns out to be. What is it about British comics characters and disputed ownership? Such a shame as these are great characters, ripe for updating or re-imagining. C'mon, who wouldn't want to see Warren Ellis writing the new adventures of Gadget Man and Gimmick Kid? Garth Ennis writing The Purple Hood? Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch Ultimising The Super Security Agency (starring Mini Man, Mr Whizz, Flame man, Electro and ...er...Iron Dog)?

INCEPTION

Got a copy of Inception for Chrimbo (merry xmas and a happy new year btw) and sat down to watch it on Boxing Day. Um... am I the only one that thinks that this film is seriously overrated? I mean, it looks great and I love the idea of a heist movie where the aim is to plant something somewhere instead of stealing something. I just found it really difficult to care about any of the characters. I didn't care about Leo, his two faceless kids or his moody French wife. I wasn't rooting for anybody in this film. I wasn't worried at any point about any character getting killed off. I kept waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me but it didn't happen. There was nothing new here for anyone who has seen the Matrix, Dark City, 13th Floor or even The Truman Show or Fight Club. It's actually quite a pedestrian film. And the ending.....is it real or is it a dream? ....who cares? So disappointed

Granted

So here we have Grant Morrison, a contemporary of Alan Moore, being interviewed in the latest Comic Heroes magazine. Someone who has been through the same kind of crap in the comics industry and had similar fall outs with the Big Two as Alan Moore has. This is his response to Moores' statement that the constant rebooting of characters has has left the comics industry creatively bankrupt;

"....the reason they're recycled is simple: these are primal stories that appeal to human beings in every culture, at any time. They're designed to be told over and over again. If you were an Aboriginal kid or a tribal shaman, that's what you'd do; participate in the recycling of stories..."

Makes sense to me. Why doesn't it make sense to Alan Moore?

CLiNT - A REVIEW

Well, it's got a great cover hasn't it? A heavily bearded Frankie Boyle (so that's what he's been up to since he left Mock The Week) throwing down some kung fu moves, backed up by Kick-Ass and Hit Girl. There's something about the design of this cover that reminds me of the late, great Death Ray magazine. As for the interiors? Well......

The problem I have with this magazine is that I have read most of it already. I've already bought (and enjoyed) Turf#1 and Nemesis #1. Most of the non-comics material has already been done (or something very similar) in Zoo/Bizarre/FHM/Total Film. Frankie Boyle's strip feels like bog standard 2000AD. The only thing I enjoyed was the 8-page intro to Kick Ass 2. Not a good return on £3.99. Now I know that this magazine isn't meant for people who actually read comics (huh?) but I think it would benefit from having more comics related material. Maybe some variation on CBR's Comic Book Legends, Johnathon Ross writing about Manga, Frankie Boyle writing about the comics he loves, features on the British small press scenes, anything really cool or strange about comics that the mainstream may not be aware of. And more comics. I think this mag could make a nice new home for Graham Pearce's Sgt Mike Battle or Martin Eden's O Men.

Now the dilemma. Do I continue to buy something that is not value for money in the hope that it gets better or do I just spend that £3.99 trying out a different comic every month? I do like the idea of Clint, and I would like to see it succeed but I would also like it to be good. There's a lot of talented people in the small press scene that Millar could draw upon to improve the mag.

ABNORMALS

Just checked my Hotmail account for the first time in ages and found this rather cool pic by Grant Springford. It's of his new small press comic "The Abnormals". It's actually an old series of his but he's in the process of creating an updated version. The rather dapper fellow in the background is a character from his last SP series "Pest Control". I'm kinda curious as to why he's there and how he ended up there as things were not looking too good for our heroes in the last issue of PC. It's clear to see how much Grants' art has improved since PC #7 (a few years go). And just look at that perspective work! I don't think I'll ever get my head around perspective, but I'm always glad to see someone else master it. For more info checkout the Abnormals Facebook page.

OI! ALAN! NOOOO!!!

We all know Alan Moore is an exceptionally talented man. His artistic integrity has garnered him the respect of pretty much everybody who has come into contact with the man and/or his work. Marvel Man, V For Vendetta, Watchmen, The Birth Caul, Big Numbers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He's no one hit wonder or flavour of the month. Heck, he even managed, in Supreme, to write a decent Image comic (probably an even greater achievement than Watchmen!). But boy am I tired of his seemingly incessant whinging. I've recently read his interview in SFX's latest Comic Heroes mag and it actually left me feeling quite happy about his supposed retirement from the comics industry. The thing that annoys me about Alan is that every time he vents his spleen at the "comics industry" he's really only talking about two companies - Marvel and DC. Rarely does he ever make that distinction. By all means bash Marvel, demolish DC but please do not tar an entire industry (or art form, if you will) with the same brush. For someone who has done so well for himself as a writer of comics it would be nice to see him stop ranting about how redundant the super hero genre is and start spotlighting all the good stuff out there. What about Seth, Jason, Adrian Tomine and Art Spiegleman? What about the U.K. small press scene? What about Bendis and Maleev and their magnificent Sopranos equalling run on Daredevil? We all know that 90% of everything is shit, Alan. Why not focus on that other 10% for a fucking change.

COMICS!

Saturday was such a lovely day for travelling into London to buy comics. So nice that I decided to sit in Hyde park and read some of the comics I picked up from Forbidden Planet. I didn't purchase as many comics as I thought I would but I did get a few things that I was quite looking forward to reading. Avengers #1, Secret Avengers #1 and Avengers Prime #1 - the beginning of Marvels' Heroic Age. I'm not a "traditional" Avengers fan, I only started reading the book when Brian Bendis took it over and swiftly Disassembled it. I was all about the X-Men as a kid and the Avengers always seemed old fashioned in comparison. Bendis and Finch really gave the book a shot in the arm and in doing so, made the Marvel Universe such an exciting place to hang out. I think before this I was only reading Bendis and Maleevs' Daredevil, Morrison and Quitely's X-Men and Millar and Hitch's Ultimates. I just didn't care at all about what was happening in the larger Marvel U.

Anyway, Avengers #1. With the exception of the usual Bendis funny and that hammer blow ("that would be what it's like to be on the Avengers with Thor") this book seemed to have a lot of that old fashionedness of the pre-Bendis era. I mean, Kang? Another dystopian Marvel future? The Avengers' children? Who cares? Of course, the gorgeous Romita artwork will keep me around for a couple more issues but I suspect that New Avengers (once it's relaunched) will remain "my" Avengers title.

Secret Avengers #1 was a better read, for me. Interesting cast of characters, good interaction and a really intriguing last page (what does that mean?).

I picked up Avengers Prime mainly for the Alan Davis artwork and the great man did not disappoint. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the colour work on this book. I do not know of another artist that has been so ill served by various colourists as Alan. Take a look at his miniseries, Fantastic Four: The End. That's how you colour an Alan Davis book (gawd bless yer, John Kalisz). Strangely, this feels like the most un-Bendis like Bendis book I've ever read. I'm still going to pick up the rest of it, though( it's Alan Davis for goodness sake!).

Right, That'll do for now.

Take care.

THEY KILLED RORY!? YOU BASTARDS!

Er, is it too late to insert a spoiler warning?

Absolutely gutted that Rory has been killed off. Ok, we knew that something bad was going to happen to Amy and Rory. Of course we did. Moffett wouldn't have had the "older" Amy and Rory appear at the beginning of this superb two-parter just for the sake of a throwaway line. It was supposed to lull us into a false sense of security. And it bloody well worked! It's such a shame as I was really, really enjoying the new dynamic with Rory on board the Tardis. I was a bit wary of Amy Pond at first. She seemed a bit too cocksure, a bit too willing to follow the Doctor anywhere and everywhere, regardless of the potential danger. I've always felt that this show was at it's best when there was somebody around to hold the Doctor to account for his actions, to remind the viewer of just what can be at stake whenever the Doctor rushes toward mystery and danger in the name of adventure. That is what Rory brought to the show. He made Amy and the Doctor more interesting.

Oh well, off to Forbidden Planet this weekend with the intention of spending loads of money on comics (Avengers #1, Secret Avengers #1, Avengers Prime #1, Second Coming, and lots more hopefully) so that should cheer me up.

END OF AN ERA

Crikey, so much for posting every sunday! It's not even as if I have been so busy that I just have'nt had the time to update. I just kind of....forgot. Anyway, at least this means the catch up shouldn't take too long.

13th March 2010. That's the date that Neil and Kate closed the doors of thier comic book store after almost 30 years of trading. Not as a result of the recession, just problems with thier landlord and a growing desire to devote more time to their animal rescue farm. It was a weirdly emotional day. I had been buying comics from them for a little over 20yrs (yes, I am that old) so had a deep connection to the people and the place. I can remember the day when me and my dad "discovered" Neil and Kates' store (Escape). I don't think I had realised before that point there were such things as comic book shops. It was like a bloody treasure trove to me back then. I could have happily spent the entire day there (it was a saturday) but I was mindful of the fact that my dad wanted to get home, so I grabbed some comics that seemed familiar to me and promised myself that I wouldn't forget where this shop was, so that I could return the following week. I must have been about 12yrs old at the time, so this was when a week felt like a year. If memory serves me right, I picked up Uncanny X-Men #248, a copy of GI Joe (which I immediately recognised as Action Force under a different name), a copy of Web of Spiderman and ....um...She Hulk #10 (I was 12yrs old!). Most of the X-Men stuff I had read previous to this were from British black & white reprint comics so X-Men #248 made no sense to me whatsoever. But that was okay. Because Escape had back issues! Boy, those were the days, huh?
Anyway, when I went there for the last time it was busier than it had been since the heady, exciting days of the early 1990s. I got the sense that some people wanted to have a good chat with Neil and Kate but were too self concious with all the people around. People were milling around waiting for the others to leave. I had a brief chat with Neil while I paid for my comics, shook his hand and wished him the all the best. And that was that. Onwards and upwards, as they say, so it was off to Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Ave to see what all the fuss was about. Y'know, for a store with that reputation I was expecting something bigger and with a better layout. And no back issue section?! I suppose that's the trade paperback market for you. They really need to sort out the shelving for their comics in that place. It goes right down to the floor! I was practically on my hands and knees trying to see what was on the bottom shelf. And, as we've already established, I'm getting on a bit and these knees of mine cannot take much more of that. Anyway, they do have a great selection of books and comics and now the challenge is going to be to get out of that place without spending an obscene amount of money.



THE DOCTOR IS IN.

Two episodes in to the new series and I'm still quite enjoying it. Smith does'nt command my attention the way Tennant did but he's a curious fellow is'nt he? I think I'm more impressed so far by the little things that Moffett has brought to the show (the fairy tale/Avengers feel of ep 1 was great).


O-MEN-ATHON.

Making my way through the entire run of Martin Edens' fantastic O-Men comic. Check it out on Myebook.com or order copies from Smallzone.co.uk. Then check out his new book, Spandex. Both books have had amazing reviews in all sorts of places that you wouldn't expect to see comic book reviews. Quite an achievement for a small press comics creator.

Right, that's it for now. I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

Cheerio.

Here We Go!

So this is it, my very first Blog (oh, the excitement!). As well as sharing info about my upcoming Small Press comics (more of that in a bit) I will be posting comments about comics in general. Y'know, stuff about which SP comics I like and what I think about what's going on in the mainstream titles that I am reading. That sort of thing.

Now, my first experience of SP comics was waaaaay back in the early 90's, long before I had heard of the term "Small Press". It was an anthology called "The Book Of Manifestations" and was published under the banner of "Searchville Comics". It was a mixture of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and humour strips and boasted some pretty good artwork, especially from my best mates brother, Aaron Pocock. The thing is, I was so caught up in my world of Marvel and Image comics at the time that I failed to fully comprehend what I was holding in my hands. This was a comic book that was written, drawn and published by people in my home town. Not far away across the Atlantic but practically on my front doorstep. What I should have done was insist on meeting all of those guys, offered my assisstance, made the tea, got the Mars bars in, anything to be able to see a comic being put together. The experience would have been invaluable to a kid that spent far too much time daydreaming about drawing the X-Men "when he grew up" (still waiting!). I never saw another issue of TBOM and soon forgot all about it. I've no idea if any of the guys that contrbuted to that issue ever went on to do more work, either in the SP or comics industry. But they were certainly a talented bunch (don't just take my word for it, go to pocockart.com and check out some of Aarons' award winning book illustrations).

The second time I picked up an SP comic was many, many years later at a comic book convention in Bristol. It was a free copy of Grant Springfords Pest Control (if you have'nt checked it out yet please do so. I think you can still order copies from Smallzone.co.uk). It was full of these strange but intriguing characters and felt different to what I had been reading (although I could sense those Moore/Morrison/Ellis influences). It prompted me to seek out other SP comics and I soon found such gems as Sgt Mike Battle, Tales Of the Wonder Kind, Omnivistascope, Future Quake, The O-Men, Mongrel, Solar Wind, Magic Beans Comics and many more (Google them all, you'll be glad you did). I was even reading the small press reviews in Comics International before anything else in that magazine (oh Comics International, how I miss you!).

Anyway, I was enjoying this new world of DIY comics so much that I eventually decided to have a go myself. I've been working on a couple of comics recently and hope to have them "out there" over the summer. so over the coming weeks and months I will be posting "art" for you all to point and laugh at as well as some more details about the comics themselves. I tried including some pages with this post but there seems to be some problem with uploading images from paint shop pro. Hope I can sort it out soon. In the meantime here is what I can give you at the moment;

N!B!C! (NEW! BOLD! COMICS!) is the banner under which I will be publishing my comics. The first comic is called S.C.I (Superhuman Crime Investigations), and is about the Thames Valley branch of a government agency set up to tackle superhuman crime. It is set in a world very much like our own except spandex clad superhumans were a common sight up until the early 90's when a tragic event prompted the government to crack down on those with special abilities. There are still superhumans walking around, they're just not advertising it via colourful spandex costumes. S.C.I is still in the superhero soap opera tradition, though. It features office politics (and romances!), myths and urban legends of the T.V area, twisted takes on super powers, heart break, fisticuffs, betrayal, sex, people making really, really bad decisions and all of those other things you like. Except spandex costumes. S.C.I is intended as an ongoing series.
The second comic is rather cheekily titled Britains Best Comics and is a one off collection of some short comics stories I had swimming around in my brain. Just stuff that worked best over 1 -3 pages. This comic has got super heroes (in spandex this time), zombies (you can't do a comic without them these days. Well, either zombies or Deadpool), ghosts, your favourite reality tv shows and my cat, Fudge (Fudge says "miaow", btw).

Right, I'm going to leave it there for now. It's my intention to post every sunday so hopefully I'll be able to share some art with you next time, as well as give my opinions on what comics I picked up on thursday.

Speak to you soon.