Thursday, November 16, 2006
Funny stuff...
Least I Could Do is great at little jokes like this. The BSG caricature header is pretty cool too...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Dick Ayers: Most Interesting Writer In Comicdom?
Dick Ayers is by no means a lightweight in the world of comics. He's already garnered himself a place in history for his extensive artwork on almost the entire Marvel lineup of the Silver Age, notably including work on Strange Tales and Rawhide Kid. You name the Marvel character, and he's pencilled it or inked it. Sometimes both.
But what you may not be aware of Mr Ayers' gripping and elegant prose style. It must be said that when you speak of classics of American literature, the name of Dick Ayers springs instantly to mind. If Dick had been writing for Marvel in the sixties, instead of just drawing - well, it may be that comics would be held in higher regard today.
Don't just take my word for it! Sample the loquacious literary genius for yourself! Here's an excerpt from from Dick's introduction to the first Marvel Masterworks edition of Human Torch - the first paragraph, no less:
Refreshing my memory of the Human Torch series I worked on, the first story appearing in Strange Tales #101 and having the inventory number V-846, I received the penciled and lettered art April 10, 1962. Jack Kirby had pencilled it. My assignment: to ink it. I delivered the finished, inked art on April 14th - thirteen pages!
Gripping stuff. I'm on the edge of my seat. Let's cast our eye a little further down the page.
Kirby, when he'd assigned me the inking of his daily and Sunday newspaper adventure strip, Sky Masters, told me to adapt Wally Wood's style of inking as he had once been the strip's inker. That got me to add blacks, clothing patterns, cast shadows and weight to pencilled lines with my #6 Windsor Newton brush.
Oh my god! Not the #6 Windsor Newton! Dick, what were you thinking? Don't worry, he livens things up with some catty comments on the next page. Discussing the artwork of Silver Age veteran George Roussos, he has this to say:
I didn't care for the depiction of The Thing with the chunky block look.
Meow! Hiss! I guess we'd better cut to some of his closing comments.
When I inked stories to conserve time I'd ink over every pencil line so that there would be very little pencil to erase. Erasing over the ink would cause graying in spots and it would have to be corrected, causing loss of valuable time. There are some Rawhide Kids with two handles of six-guns in the holsters because I didn't like the way Kirby drew six-guns. I didn't erase Kirby's penciled handles. I left the erasing for Stan to do. He didn't erase, so sometimes there are two gun handles in each holster!
That is SO funny! Stop it, Dick, you're killing me! *chuckles* Well, that's all I've got time for today. I'm sure you too now agree that Dick Ayers is one of the greatest writers ever born. You're probably longing to find some of his writings, so that you can take them to bed with you and do strange and orgasmic things with them under the bedsheets. I know I am!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Heroes
There's been some buzz about Heroes. Buy pretty much any new comics and you'll be treated to an abundance of ads for this show. It caught my eye and I went about trying to discover whether this was a show worth watching.Heroes is a show about unconnected people with powers. It follows the lives of Claire Bennet, a high school student who is able to heal any injury, Peter Petrelli, who dreams about flying, Niki Sanders, a woman in trouble with the mob and Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese businessman who thinks he can bend the space-time continuum and is obsessed with Star Trek. There are other characters, but I'll try not to give away everything from the first couple of episodes.
Heroes is a superhero show with a bit of thought put into it. Unlike the other heroic offering currently around, Smallville (which I'll admit I can't stand), Heroes doesn't try to shove morality down your throat. These characters, for the most part, are flawed. Only one of them jumps up and screams "I'm a superhero! Must protect the innocent!" All of the characters are interesting in their own way, but the stand outs are Niki, police officer Matt Parkman and my personal favourite, Hiro. NBC are putting up a blog for Hiro, which can be found here.
Writer/Producer Jeph Loeb is attached and has written the third episode so far. While his presence does not necessarily mean gold, it's a good sign.
Heroes has yet to arrive in Australia, but I think it's worth watching when it gets here. NBC.com also offer the most recent episode for viewing at their site.
It may not be a perfect show, but it does satisfy as good heroic tv.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Where were you a year ago?
a month or so Phrancq mentioned The Boys in passing. i haven't really had much time for single issues in the last few months, but since i've been Recovering From A Painful Injury of late he's been piling me up high with comics of all varieties, but the most recent package included the first 3 issues of this new Wildstorm title.
effectively, in creating The Boys, Garth Ennis (famous for, among other things, Preacher) has nabbed Darick Robertson (illustrator of, among other things, Transmetropolitan) and gone out to show that what superheros really need is, among other things, to be insulted, beaten the crap out of and then raped by a very large bulldog. there's more swearing in the first 3 issues than a drunken conversation with Vinnie Jones, a psychopathic Frenchman who looks like Spider Jerusalem (who headbutts people), a sociopathic Female who looks like Yelena Rossini (who rips peoples faces off), a Vaugely Regular Guy (who looks like Simon Pegg from, among other things, Spaced and Shaun of the Dead)... and did i mention the bulldog? no, seriously.
i loved Transmet. it's got me through some bad times of my life and my trades have been so well thumbed i've had to give a few away and replace them (kinda like the last 3 copies of Snow Crash i've owned, but i should stick to the point) and for ages and ages i've been waiting for something else as nasty and brutally self-indulgent to show up, and i think that The Boys is it. it is, right now, exactly what i needed to remember that "people are scum, no matter what they look like" (Spider Jerusalem - Transmetropolitan Book 2).
now, i know that i'm comparing The Boys to Transmet when it's actually written by Ennis and not Ellis... but then that's a lot to do with The Boys having more of the satirical feel of Transmet. Preacher (the only thing i've read by Ennis to date) is more... for want of a better word: serious, and grounded in... reality. Robertson seems to have brought a lot of the jokes along with him which seems to be part of what gives The Boys a feeling of being another Transmet, but in a different time-period, with superheros and an whole new set of Bastards. and a fucking big fucking bulldog called Terror who fucks things on command.
... and no, i'm not joking.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Mark Stephen Johnson almost ruined Daredevil for me...
i didn't like the Daredevil movie. maybe it was Affleck's fault and maybe it wasn't, but one way or another it was just... kinda crap. it was too much like Spiderman without providing enough stylistic differences to set it apart, and who wrote that goddamn script?
"How do you kill a man without fear?"
"You put the fear into the man."
WHAT??? i know it sounds dramatic if you're braindead, but otherwise it's just fucking retarded! a quick look in IMDB identifies one Mark Stephen Johnson as both writer and director. bear in mind here that this man's history shows such unmitigated shite as Jack Frost (meh), Grumpy Old Men and the utter abortion that was Elektra. oh, and he made the new Ghost Rider movie with Nick Cage too. oh dear - i was going to go to see that at the cinema, too. i guess i'll just wait for DVD now. i'm not throwing good money after bad...
anyway, many moons later i found myself in my favourite comic store with a budget surplus, a desire to read more of Frank Miller's work and and a sick curiosity, which is why i picked up the first of the Frank Miller collected trades.
it was odd reading old comics from '79 through to the early 80's. yes, it's retro. yes, it's kinda corny... but it was still a good read. Daredevil actually has some depth - it's not just the movie, although i discovered that the movie drew heavily on Miller's work (remember here that Miller created, and later killed, Elektra... sorry if that's a spoiler for anyone). another week or two and i was back in there having decided to grab some more, but in a desire to keep expanding i picked up the first of the trades written by Kevin Smith. yes, for those who don't already know, Kevin Smith of View Askew (Clerks, Mallrats - the Jay & Silent Bob movies) fame spent some time writing Daredevil, and it's actually really good. as much as i respect Miller's work, it was still a vanilla, monthly serial comic of early 80's era and most of that stuff bores me more than a little. Smith's work has more than a little grit to it, not to mention Quesada's artwork which is really quite special.
i'm going to have to give the movie another go, although it'll be the Director's Cut i'll watch which, i have been assured, is Less Crap than the theatrical release. i'll discuss if i decide it's note-worthy...
Friday, September 22, 2006
300 Trailer
When I first heard that they were making a movie based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, 300, I was intrigued. I like most of Miller's work and was looking forward it the movie.
Then the trailer came out. I watched it a couple of times. Then I showed it to Raven. We are in agreement. It is beyone any of our hopes. This trailer, at least, will go down in history as one of my favourites ever.
Take a look.
Then the trailer came out. I watched it a couple of times. Then I showed it to Raven. We are in agreement. It is beyone any of our hopes. This trailer, at least, will go down in history as one of my favourites ever.
Take a look.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Alias #4 blew my brains...
i'm guessing that i should treat this as something of a learning experience. i have a habit of reading through half or most of something, writing about it, then having what comes next change everything i thought i knew beforehand. Alias was like that - edgy, interesting, a little slow up to volume 3, and then on a trip to Sydney i picked up volume 4 since a store happened to have a copy.
up until #3 i thought i had a decent handle on things. here was a character who Had Issues and got Fucked Up a lot to the degree that you start wondering whether she's just irritatingly disfunctional, or if she's got something going on that made her this way. #4 deals with the Jessica Jones' mysterious past like a slap in the face and explains not just why she got out of the superhero game, but also that she's not just disfunctional - she's Seriously Fucking Damaged.
what makes this even more interesting is that throughout most of the series the art is done in a very ink-heavy, almost unfinished style. the grittiness of the art emphasises the grittiness of the narrative. suddenly we see a very different style as #4 flashbacks to her past - going to high-school in the 80's the art is in a quintesential 80's Marvel style. not long after we start to see flashbacks to her life as a costumed hero in the 90's which is all done in a clean, colourful mid-90's style. the cover (above) shows a little of what of i'm talking about. it's amazing how effective this is at driving the point home that we're barely even looking at the same person here - think how much your life has changed in the last 15 years and you'll understand what i mean.
without resorting to spoilers, i'm going to say only that What Happened To Jessica Jones classifies as not only the Most Disturbing Psychological Depravity i've seen in comics to date, but also justifies dragging yourself through the rest of the series. with this knowledge in mind i'm finding that re-reading what came before makes a LOT more sense.
from what i've been hearing, The Pulse (Bendis, Marvel) is effectively more continuity of the core charaters, except that Jessica has (finally) acheived some closure, and the swearing's been "bleeped" out. i'll get my hands on it and discuss more at that point.
