SILENCE! #142
May 12th, 2015
HE REMEMBERS ALL THE PUNKS AND THE HIPPIES TOO, AND HE REMEMBERS ROXY MUSIC IN ’72
GIVE ME BACK MY SON/DAUGHTER/WIIIIIIIIFE!! If you don’t I will go the full ‘Neeson’ on you. Just be glad I don’t go full ‘Gibson’ or you’ll get the full ‘Neeson’ with added homophobia and misogyny. But even then, that wouldn’t be as bad as if I went the full ‘Segal’on you. That way you get ‘Neeson’, plus ‘Gibson’ with added faux-buddhism and additional Putin points! But they all pale in comparison to when I go FULL ‘EDMONDS’ on you… all the above, plus the MYSTERY OF THE BOXES! So just take a moment, take stock of what’s at stake.
And give.
Me back.
MY SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!
<ITEM> I’ve got a brand new pair of podcast hosts, and I’m wearing them like rollerskates, driving their stupid opinion-filled faces into the dirt. That’s right, it’s Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die and they’ve only gawn and done a blahdy great big SILENCE! on the carpet.
<ITEM> Sponsorship, Admin and…DIVERGENCE! Not that one, the real Divergence! the kind where we talk about Street Dancers gone wild, Crossovers, The Warriors, Step Up 2 The Streets, Save The Last Dance, Lambada: The Forbidden Dance, Mad Max 4 and the Urban Teacher film double-bill that exists only in The Beast’s mind…
<ITEM> Oh I suppose we’ll talks about comics if we HAVE to. The jellyfish like surface of the Reviewniverse flickers, ripples and lets the boys in as they tackle Zero, God Hates Astronauts, Convergence: The Atom, Jupiter’s Circle, Uber, Ant Man, SFX Pop and the wonders of Danny Noble’s Monday Morning and Was It Too Much For You?
<ITEM> A very special guest star stops by to review the ONLY EVENT THAT EVER MATTERED, Secret Wars!!
<ITEM> I-TEM, YOU-TEM we all scream for I-TEMS! Well too bad kid, we’ve only got Lemonade Sparkles left!
Click to download SILENCE!#142
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! Comicsof London.
May 13th, 2015 at 6:23 am
Actually, as I discovered the other day, Dan is wrong about the mighty Gnasher not aging or, (gulp!) even worse…
Read this and feel old…
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-05/01/dennis-the-menace-father-the-beano
May 13th, 2015 at 6:56 pm
I listened to the podde on my phone as I walked down to Tesco – no headphones, out loud like a real yun parson, all ripped jeggings and everything. Probably shouldn’t have shouted along with my name as the man in the murderass-looking alley-shop sold me some headphones.
I’ve been reading old Power Man and also Iron Fist comics (Ess. P&I 2). There’s a real, if cartoonishly simplified, sense of effort and struggle to the adventures of these working-class (ish) heroes. Mary Jo Duffy’s scripts, while definitely repetitious (“every comic is somebody’s first,” bien sur) slap along nicely. There are stories by Denny O’Neill, Frank Miller and Kurt Busiek that are equally strong (actually, there’s one supertense O’Neill story in here that’s the best Moon Knight story I’ve ever read, and the bedsheety twonk spends the whole issue in a bin). The art ranges from the efficient to the thuddy – Kerry Gammill is like some kind of artistic aleph, echoing and presaging every Tom Grummett-y-type workhorse you can think of. Ernie Colon, Denys Cowan and Carl Potts fill the pages with a resolutely grounded, 80s-American weight. The cast is well-defined (if shallow), and one or two dodgy un-PC moments aside, I can’t find much fault with it. Rec-o-mended.
Anna Maria’s an interesting character. She’s shifted from being a PhD student-cum-”Science Chef” (Jaysis) giving Otto the meet-cutes (or possibly the meat-cutes, considering she wins his heart with food, and thereby the meat-scoots) to being a real foil for the grossly overcompetent Peter. Maybe they’ve finally found the female best friend character Spidey’s needed for about a Mayan calendar. Aunt Mayan calendar. Whatevr.
My to-read pile is getting big. Had Paul Pope’s Battling Boy since last year but couldn’t bring myself to read it because of the quality, and because I hadn’t done a comic for a while. Found it again the other day, but still can’t quite bring myself to open it. Ditto the Jaime Hernandez Ti-Girls stuff. Too perfect. Too good. Scared I’ll never want to pick up a pen again if I read it.
The leap from consumer to creator of comics can be a real abyssal one. I gave up TV for Lent back in 2000 and was casting around for things to do to fill the long lonely hours. I tried listening to the radio. I tried doing extra Karate (whupa). I found myself going a bit doolally, but I also found myself doodling lots of little pics of Spidey, etc. Faux covers, notes and ideas, so forth. But despite having worked at UKCAC and been around self-pub comics like X-Flies, etc.., despite having read and knowing about things like L&R, American Splendor, Cerebus, and so on, and despite seeing ads for UK small press in Comics International, going from reading comics to making them just seemed like emigrating to Cybertron. Until the time was right, I guess.
//\Oo/\\
May 13th, 2015 at 7:30 pm
I fully understand the disillusionment that comes from making comics, then seeing someone else’s comics and thinking “OH WHAT IS THE POINT IN CARRYING ON”. The piles of my own comics in my room do not help with this, taunting me with their unsoldness. But still, there are days of immense satisfaction when you get an image roughly like it looks in your head, or when you actually finish the thing. MAYBE I’LL WRITE A WHIMSICAL COMIC ABOUT THAT.
Maybe I fucking winnae.
Was it Too Much For You is excellent, as you mention in this podcast, and does indeed have a wide appeal. It’s currently replaced Calvin and Hobbes as the toilet book, so anyone that visits and uses the facilities can have and has had a nice read.
PS good to hear Doctor Doom’s getting some time away from Latveria. It’ll do him good to see some of the world he wants to conquer. It’s always nice to get back home, though, so hope he had a pleasant journey!
May 13th, 2015 at 9:52 pm
I remember the perpetually unshaven action-star nadir Lorenzo Lamas was originally a dance film headliner, but his career suffered due to his inability to dance. Or sing. Or…act, for that matter.
May 15th, 2015 at 5:50 am
Whilst I appreciated his review of Secret Wars #1, given his occasional use of ‘I’ I fear that the person staying at Gary’s Spaceship in space is actually a Doombot, with some faulty neuro-linguistics in it’s electric brain.
May 15th, 2015 at 7:55 am
This raises an interesting point. I saw Ex Machina yesterday and enjoyed it. A slight spoiler follows:
A guy meets an AI that’s so convincing that he starts doubting whether he himself is human and cuts himself open for a bloody confirmation. It did a number on me. What if my wife is a robot? What if I am a robot?! How would I know?! Then I did a fart and remembered. The guy in Ex Machina should have just let a little chuff fly rather than doing all that self harm.
I definitely smelt Victor.
May 15th, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Good work, sirs. I wonder how many different iterations I can congratulate you on assembling your radio show? Well, you keep doing the good ones and I’ll keep trying.
So glad God Hates Astronauts got a shout, it’s a masterpiece. I backed the GHA kickstarter a while ago, having been a cyber-fan, and it certainly delivered. I also (on some insane midlife whim) went to Chicago’s C2E2 this year, and was lucky enough to meet Mr Ryan Browne* what a lovely man! I will add to your recommendation, everyone should read it. Comics I wish I could make…
I do try to make comics, but then I realise I don’t try hard enough, as they just never materialise. And looking at the work of your contemporaries can be disheartening. Even the SILENCE! team, your human counterparts are both producing work at a level I wish I could attain.
>SNAP< that was the sound of me snapping my paintbrushes (a la Neighbours' Helen Daniels).
If anyone reading has the ability to introduce Doomcat into the Marvel Universe, please make it so.
*I also had the pleasure of briefly meeting Mr. Al Ewing, which was weird, as I've never properly met him here in Englandsville. Also a gentleman I might add.
May 16th, 2015 at 7:49 am
Sounds like C2E2 was a good nice fun adventure. I hear it’s the best comics con now that San Diego is the thing it is.
May 17th, 2015 at 3:06 pm
Mr. Lactus and Mr. Must Die:
My name is Sean D. Daily, and I’ve tried to reach you regarding the recurring monthly donation that I set up (and that you’ve talked about on the podcast, which jazzed me up to hear). I’ve tried reaching you at your e-mail address mindlessones (at) hotmail (dot) uk (dot) co twice regarding that, the second one just a few minutes ago. I guess you didn’t get my first, so I decided to let you know about them here.
Thank you for your podcast.
Sean D. Daily
May 18th, 2015 at 10:32 am
Currently having trouble accessing the [email protected] address. MSN is asking for an access code from an account i don’t have access to. Our site being a group of people with no one in charge means no one checks the email. For SILENCE! related stuff, you’re better off using [email protected]. Apologies for all of our pointless idiotic shamblings.