SILENCE! #90
January 21st, 2014
I TRAVELLED TO A MYSTICAL TIME-ZONE, BUT I MISSED MY BED, SO I SOON CAME HOME…
*GGRRRRR*
Let’s fight! Disembodied Aggrobot X-15735 has had enough of the crushing misery and epic ennui of January. Disembodied Aggrobot X-15735 refuses to be beaten down, just because all New Year’s resolutions are broken and nothing changes EVER??!!!
Disembodied Aggrobot X-15735 will turn to Sun Tzu in order to combat 2014.
“If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him”
Not a problem.
“One defends when his strength is inadequate, he attacks when it is abundant.”
YES! These are the best Fortune cookies ever! Disembodied Aggrobot X-15735 has strength + 10 x
“When the enemy is at ease, be able to weary him; when well fed, to starve him; when at rest, to make him move. Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.”
Hmm. That sounds tiring. Perhaps Disembodied Aggrobot X-15735 will rest awhile and join you as you listen to latest podgasm from Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die.
<ITEM> Some spectacuarly divergent admin this episode, managing to incorporate Harmontown, Marc Marron, longboxes, comics as Totems/fetish objects, Neil Innes, Frankie Boyle and Chain Reaction, in amongst the usual sponsorshizzle…
<ITEM> A singing song is sung as we trip-trap over the bridge into the Reviewniverse. Talky-talk ’bout: The Watchmen RPG, Thor, Seekers Of THE Weird, Disney Imagineers, Avengers, Avengers: World, and Avengers: Avenge Thyself, Rover, Red & Charlie, Marvel UK, Death’s Head, Revolutionary War: Alpha, Daredevil, Superior Spiderman, Astro City, Baby Watcher, Velvet and Miracleman.
So let’s SILENCE! And then return to the war against 2014 reinforced!
Contact us:
[email protected]
@silencepod
@frasergeesin
@thebeastmustdie
@bobsymindless
This edition of SILENCE! is proudly sponsored by the greatest comics shop on the planet, DAVE’S COMICS of Brighton.
It’s also sponsored the greatest comics shop on the planet GOSH! Comics of London.
January 22nd, 2014 at 12:48 am
Twilight of the Gods pitch had stuff about RPGS and whatnot. Moore used to be cool with ancillary properties. Before he got screwed in his beardy bum.
January 22nd, 2014 at 2:45 am
-1 ★ for not liking MotorMouth And KillPower:
SWEARING!
AND TRAINERS!
Best of all the Tank Girl wannabes. Proper ’90′s, with Gary Frank’s softcore-Jim Lee art putting the NOx to the superbly Liefeldesque KillPower. Overkill indeed! I’d read that comic again. Hell, I’d WRITE that comic. Seriously: my dream Marvel job, even above and beyond The New Adventures Of Ravage 2099.
MiracleMan 1 failed to include the advertised digicomic code because of Liz Moran’s honking bum cleft, which was my main reason for buying it (er, the code, I mean). At that price, I don’t know if I want to keep up with it otherwise. It’s good, especially with the original Anglo/Lawrence stories, but ideally I’d rather read it in a big collection. I’d happily double-dip down the line, but not without the digital copy reyt nao. They’re offering a bowdlerised edition on the ‘Ology as well, which is pure vomitous wrongosity.
I didn’t really like the other MUK characters, though. I went from Dragon’s Claws etc. back to American Marvel and left the Mys-TECH stuff more or less where it was. I do find Dark Angel’s overdesigned overpanties costume really funny, though. I hadn’t seen a side-shaved hair do for over a decade (although I saw one on a girl in the cinema yesterday). As someone with a certain bias in this regard, it bothers me a little that people would rather read reheated old MUK stuff like this than something more modern, but which is less likely to feature Wolverine. Hey ho.
//\Oo/\\
January 22nd, 2014 at 4:36 am
Neat to hear Gary’s a fellow Harmontown fan. I’ve listened to every episode and it’s been quite a trip from the early, insanely awkward (though no less amusing) shows to the relatively well oiled comedy machine it is today. That’s not to say they still don’t have the occasional episode where people argue and everyone comes off sounding like complete jerks. It’s a fascinating, hilarious show. Harmontown and Mindless Ones are actually two of the four podcasts I never miss, so you guys are in great company!
Now I’m off to listen to/read that Morrison interview. I didn’t know such a thing existed until this evening.
January 22nd, 2014 at 1:54 pm
It’s a shame that was the last Silence! as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’ve a ludicrous amount of fondness for the agreeably shite Marvel UK 90s lunkheads (my comics formative years blah blah), so I gambled some funds and bought myself Revolutionary War: Alpha and the Dark Angel one-shot.
Alpha was pretty forgetable, but the clunking dialogue and generic-but-decent art did accurately reflect my memory of what those comics were like, which is a shame as I was hoping for a bit more?
I enjoyed Kieron Gillen’s Dark Angel, though. I’m glad the character’s back to the cosmic 90s Cybo-Rave look (it all seems pretty zeitgeisty), but was a bit let down that they’re going for boring devil-faced Mephisto, and not properly hideous 90s beak-faced fatso string-nipples Mephisto (as seen in seminal shitcore spikesploitation miniseries ‘Hearts of Darkness).
I quite like the set-up: woman lives in a science-castle, has a middle-aged smalltown psychic pal, and has to perform deeds for the devil to pay off her dad’s debts. It was amiable and charmingly parochial (in a good way).
Could do without the boring “Oh no, the baddies have created an army of cyborgs” ‘Revolutionary War’ storyline, but, once again, I suppose it does tie in with memories of the Marvel UK stuff.
A bit annoyed that comics are so expensive now and I could have bought a second-hand copy of Pluto book 4 instead, but I’m going to try and ignore that thought process.
January 22nd, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I am now terrified that the manga website I sent Gary Lactus to never worked or broke or something, or you guys are just humans and that request was too close to a con and then the holidays.
January 22nd, 2014 at 10:07 pm
My favorite part of the Moore interview was when he referred to the creative brilliance on display at the first Image Expo. I must admit, I was originally unimpressed. But on reflection, I must agree with Moore. Where I saw competence and the occasional gleam of personality, Moore, in his critical wisdom, saw the future. And what a future it was! This played out at the most recent Image Expo. Last time, I was “meh” on Ody-C! Now? Awesome-sauce!
That said, his praise for DC seemed weird given his admission just months earlier that he was a “Marvel Zombie.” I must assume that while a committed member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, he still receives comps from the (D)istinguished (C)ompetition. Mayhaps said box spilled forth its contents upon the floor to reveal the rainbow of line-wide integration and branding saavy that is the new 52, and felt compelled to comment. Do I get a “No Prize” Mr. Didio?
January 22nd, 2014 at 11:14 pm
Rick, I never got the manga working and then time passed. Sorry.
January 23rd, 2014 at 9:37 am
Rover Red Charlie is probably my favourite title at the moment (despite the horrible art), combining the spirit of Gary Larson with an obvious affection for mutta. My favourite bit of the latest issue is when the cat furiously accuses one of the hounds of being a ‘son of a bitch’ and the dog politely agrees, not even realising he’s been insulted.
My favourite bit of Alan Moore is a toss up between ‘This Is Information’ in the 9/11 book which remains the single best thing I’ve read about the affair, (and the film version which you can find on youtube is probably the best Moore adaptation to date) and Top 10, which has a more relaxed vibe than most of his writing, while also being very moving at points, like the story about the dying god.
January 23rd, 2014 at 10:06 am
Ahh yes. Top 10 was a class act.
The Birth Caul is probably his best piece of comics writing, but Swamp Thing, Watchmen V et al have more fighting.
Miracleman in all it’s ragged glory though, is just a really brilliant take on superheroes. I can’t help but love that, and I feel that Moore was pushing himself as a writer and learning his craft as he went. It’s a hugely enjoyable trip to join him on.
Incidentally, we like to call him The All-Beard round these part.
January 23rd, 2014 at 4:40 pm
I think there’s a crucial distinction between ‘best’ and ‘favorite’.
I remember one movie critic mentioning years ago while that ‘Harold and Kumar go to White Castle’ couldn’t really be described as the ‘best’ film of the year, it was nevertheless his favorite one. Moore’s best is probably Miracleman (for the reasons you mention, as well as its massive influence) and From Hell, but I have more affection for the ones I mentioned above!
January 23rd, 2014 at 11:19 pm
The Watchman RPG supplement is available to download if you know where to look. Surprised that DC hasn’t included it in any of the editions of Watchmen they’ve released so far. Quite frankly I’d have preferred they put it out in some format out officially along with the scripts as a way of milking the property for all they can rather than the Watchmen 2: Watch Harder guff they published.
January 24th, 2014 at 2:43 pm
Marvel UK. I remember at the time of the Death’s Head first series bemoaning continuity, as when Death’s Head visited the FF, it was spikey Thing, She-Thing era, yet they were portrayed as the ‘default’ team. I’m just about over it now.
That new wave of them, everybody was ‘cyber’ this and ‘death’ that. Death’s Head 2 vs Killpower: Battletide II. Was that a title? That Death’s Head 2, Minion mess thing had a load of assimilated personalities who obviously started getting their own series. Die-Cut? What the hell was that? Also I seem to recall some nonsensical legal issues with some half-arsed piece of shit creation ‘Plasmer’ and Jim Shooter’s ‘Warriors of Plasm’. What sort of age of comics was that anyway?
RUB THE BLOOD!
FUCKING RUB IT!!!
January 24th, 2014 at 4:03 pm
There was some miniseries about Death’s Head and other versions of him (Death Wreck and Death Metal, or something?) that I totally hankered after as a kid. Bad times. I really should have been into 2000AD instead.
Plus, Overkill, in its later days when I was reading it, was pretty unsatisfying as an anthology magazine.
It just reprinted US-sized comics, but about 6 pages at a time, meaning that it’d take about four months to get through one issue of story. This didn’t bother me as a kid as I didn’t know it was reprints, until it got cancelled and all the stories ended mid-tale.
Grumble.
I’m still stupidly fond of the Marvel UK chumps, though. I suppose I’m some ‘bronze age’ UK version of a Jeff Johnsian nostalgio-creep. Nnngh.
January 27th, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Great, now I’m addicted to the D&D section of Harmontown. Thanks a lot, Gary! (no really, thanks!)
January 28th, 2014 at 12:26 pm
It’s actually made me want to play D&D and hug and nuzzle Dungeon Master Spencer and let him know how special he is.
January 28th, 2014 at 4:09 pm
Super Hot Comics Jot
January 28th, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Yes, to play D&D and – AND – to have Spencer as my Dungeon Master is my ultimate goal!