GHOSTWATCH BACK ON DVD

Ah, Ghostwatch. One of the most controversial British TV shows of all time. In fact, I think it might still hold the record for most number of viewer complaints (over 30,000 calls to the Beeb), which, when you consider that it was a show that had no sex, violence or profanity is quite an achievement.

Despite being a pre-recorded drama it was "sold" as a live TV event in 1992. A studio host (chatshow lege Michael Parkinson) and a team of outside broadcasters investigate poltergeist activity in a house in Greater London, before inevitably being possessed by said ghost. It caused almost an entire nation to collectively shit it's pants as most people tuned in to it believing it to be real (bit like that whole Orson Welles-War-of-the-Worlds-radio-play-malarkey). It was pretty ballsy and innovative programme- making at the time and pretty influential (although it probably gave birth to such tripe as Most Haunted). In fact, Parky and the Ghostwatch team even turned up in issue 2 & 3 of Teddy Scarebear! I remember it being really good (and scary!) and am looking forward to watching it again this Halloween. Ghostwatch is on Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube and I think the shows creator Stephen Volk has a blog dedicated to it. Check it out.

BRAND NEW FORMAT, SAME GREAT TASTE!

Actually, I wouldn't recommend eating Teddy Scarebear; It'll leave you with terrible wind (well he is evil). TSB has been reformatted and is now printed on nice, shiny 160gm paper with colour covers. Even though it's still pretty cute at A5 it's actually now 4 times the size of the original version (back when it was called Teddy Krueger). Can't believe I drew the whole thing at that size! So now that TSB is bigger and shinier than ever before it would make an awesome gift this Halloween (just sayin').

FAN ART: THE HUMAN WONDER

Here we have my rendition of Gary Ochiltrees' time displaced golden-age superhero - The Human Wonder! Gary owns the Krypton Komics & Books store in Tottenham and has self-published 3 issues of "Tales of the Wonder Kind". Each 44 page issue features a main story, back-ups and (on the back) brilliant mock-up covers that look like genuine golden age comics. Issues can be ordered from the Kryptonkomics.com website.

I've also recently treated myself to a copy of Manga Studio Debut and the image above is the result of my first try-out of the software. I started off with a rough pencil image which I then scanned into MSD and inked on the computer. I've never inked anything in this way before so I wasn't too concerned with getting a nice, consistent, smooth line. If I can get a decent result after a lot of practice then I think this may be the way to go. It would certainly save a lot of time cleaning up my scans.

FAN ART: THE O-MEN

Came across this pic in one of my folders this morning. It's of some of the characters from Martin Edens' O-Men series. I started it ages ago but kinda forgot all about it. I went down the Greg Land route and based all the characters on real people. Miss Scarlett was based on the actress Jemima Rooper, Rob was based on David Beckham and Vixen was based on Becky from Corrie (yeah, I know, they're not great likenesses are they?). The others were based on random fasion/glamour models; I just changed the hair, clothes, accessories etc.

Some of it came out ok; I quite like Strange and Grace in the second panel. Some of it makes me cringe (Molly Valentine, Vixen's broad shoulders). Anyway, finishing off this piece has put me in the mood to do some more fan art. Watch out small pressers!

SHUT UP, SUPER!

Just recently watched James Gunn's SUPER on DVD and was really disappointed by it. It wasn't the ridiculous reviews that got me initially excited about this film (5 stars from Little White Lies, 4 stars from Empire - really?) or the fact that it supposedly went down really well at Kapow. It was the director's previous movie- the gloriously silly monster horror comedy SLITHER that had me anticipating this films release more than others.

I wouldn't say that this is a particularly bad movie, it just doesn't quite work. Rainn Wilson can't do the Man-Child thing anywhere near as well as Will Ferrell, so the comedy moments aren't that funny. The crazy bits just aren't WTF! enough and the violence just does not sit well alongside everything else. Also, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Liv Tyler and Ellen Page. Both deserve better than this. Not even the great Kevin Bacon (the best thing here) can save this movie. For a much more interesting alternative to KICK-ASS check out SPECIAL, starring Michael Rappaport. It actually pre-dates Matthew Vaughan's' movie by a couple of years and, unlike SUPER, is actually quite good.

FIXED UP, LOOKIN' SHARP

Gotta new look. check it out.

WHERE ARE THE WATCHMEN?

So, after a week of rioting, looting and vandalising we're all left asking a very important question; Where are all the real life super hero vigilantes? What happened to The Statesman? Vague? Swift? Black Arrow? Lionheart? Terrorvision? (er..maybe not Terrorvision). Where were they when the terrified masses needed them most? Surely this would have been the time for them to step up and "represent" (is that the word young people use these days?)

Just kidding! I'm sure those crazy cats are involved in the clean up in some way.

Speaking of disappointing superheroes......