SILENCE! #143
May 19th, 2015
I am the traveller. I have…travelled.
Travelled far.
Out into the rocky, jagged cobalt blue terrain of Ferronar, where the sky-narwhals drift by like bloated rain clouds, the luminous krill-spore on their skin igniting their blubbery hides in a neon lightshow, fragmentary fire in the sky. Through the time-wastes of Norgg, where I saw my life spiral out in front and behind me, a chrysalis of confinement. My infant mewl and death cry joined each other in a note of pure harmony, ringing in my ears. The destiny web. Further now, further into the Unknown Territories where time becomes a fragile, lacy thing buffeted by the storms of Un-life, where celestial bodies of unimagined scale frolic and twist together in the heavens, while the Silent Wind blasts the landscape below, a mosaic of broken lands beyond belief. Further..further on…until.
A door. Before me, a door.
I knock.
“Yeah mate?”
“I have…your…pizza”
“Yeah mate, you should’ve been here an hour and a half ago, yeah? Thing’s probably fuckin’ cold now anyway. Take it back mate, not interested. Fuckin’ clown. Do one.”
———————-
Welcome yet, me hail, hairy hearties, to this new edition of the internet’s one and only comics lifestyle magazine show review podcast…SILENCE! With the Statler and Waldorf of comics podcasting, The Beast Must Die and Gary Lactus. Or are they Piggy and Kermit? Or Bunsen and Beaker? Two Pigs in space? The Swedish chef and his favourite chicken? Big Bird and a scared child? The answer is yes.
<ITEM> Let me take you down, cos I’m going to, Spo-oh-ohnsorship. Nothing is free. No superhero busts to get hung about. Spo-oh-ohnsorship with Gary (and The Beast). Lamb chops, Shaky Kane, Tugs O’ War and Tofu!
<ITEM> Reviewniverse Sir? Why yes sir I will! Secret Wars 2, Thor, The Auteur: Sister Bambi, Saga, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, JLI, Ms Marvel, Walking Dead, Zero, Mythic, Injection, Space Riders? Yes please!
<ITEM> One last little bit of Community Season 6 chat (KEITH DAVID!)
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Contact us:
@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 20th, 2015 at 10:57 am
I was just telling my brother that Keith David deserves an Emmy for Community. So funny. I also love that they are focusing more on Gillian Jacobs/Brita this year. She’s a really underrated comedic actress. I think there are 3 episodes left.
Regarding Booster Gold, I was confused too and I’ve been following the character pretty closely. One Booster is the new 52 version and one is the classic post-Crisis version. Speaking of Blue and Gold and Convergence, Convergence: JLI #2 is also Blue Beetle-centric and also features a nice little moment at the end.
What I’ve read of Convergence has been pretty bland, but many of the second issues have featured surprisingly happy endings for some of the post-Crisis versions of the characters, which is ‘nice’ at least. Superman and Lois had a baby, Arsenal’s daughter came back to life, etc. I half expected the new 52 versions to literally murder their old counterparts.
With Warren Ellis, I know at least some of the books, especially the Avatar stuff, stopped due to a hard drive failure. I guess he just never got the strength up to re-write all that was lost.
Anyway, enough from me. I’ll close by saying I share the Beast’s enthusiasm for Mad Max. Can’t remember the last thing I saw that was so singular, fresh and exhilarating.
May 20th, 2015 at 3:39 pm
I think the only Warren Ellis I’ve read since Desolation Jones has been Marvel comics they’ve had in the library. After him not finishing a bunch of things, I just sort of thought “oh maybe I won’t bother with his stuff anymore”. The bleedin’ toerag, get me some coffee you savages etc.
I have been slowly collecting the TPBs of the old JLI stuff, and stalled at book 6, as it is stupidly expensive. I suspect they’ll be the next to go in a comics cull, as I’m not sure I enjoy them, or just find them somewhat charming.
Didn’t realise new Community was oot. Loss of the Troy/Abed dynamic will make it much more palatable, I think. I also hope there are less ‘concept’ episodes, as they tend to sideline the actor’s comedic performances for some rubbish (though I am sure technically impressive) facismile of a cartoon or game or that.
I’m a moany old shit, sorry.
Loved Mad Max, though. I’m sure I’ll hate it next week, as I am a total dougie downer.
Oh, and I cannot wait for that Shaky Kane collection. Is ths the one with his A-Men, etc?
May 20th, 2015 at 4:15 pm
Everyone seems to be using Patreon these days for subscriptions and donations. Maybe that’ll work?
And yes this season of Community has really slid below the Barracuda. I’ve especially enjoyed the bizarre “after scenes”. the very tragic one with the giant wristwatch had me in tears for all the wrong reasons.
May 20th, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Re Silence because My Dinner’s ready, Aren’t we all marinading in time anyway?
May 21st, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Bravo sirs!
‘Pile of Mystery’, if that isn’t a winning title for a new series, what is?
I keep meaning to check out The Auteur (along with 15,000 other titles). Gary’s enthusiasm has pushed it up to the top 200 or so now.
And I just read a load of the Hickman Fantastic Four, and thought the exact same thing about Valeria. Just horrible! In some panels she looks about 12, and others just a tiny woman. SHE’S 3 YEARS OLD!
I quite liked Warren Ellis’ NewUniversal, but when I realised it would never be completed, I sort of purged the memory from my brain.
May 21st, 2015 at 2:07 pm
Poo Universal more like
AM I RIGHT???
May 21st, 2015 at 4:24 pm
I’m sure I liked it! As I said, I’ve completely wiped any remnant of it from my brain, I hated the Salvador Larroca art, and I also got rid of the book. Plenty of evidence for my fondness for it.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:00 pm
I overdosed on Community after it came on the Netflix. The cast dropping out, the rehashed repeated plots, it all just felt done by the end of s5. I should go back and give it another go, as and when s6 makes the service. I watched The US Office S9 again this week, and the artificiality of it distracts a little from the thought that you could lose half the so-called “main” cast and not miss a step, gag-wise. The finale made me do a cry, though, again. No shame.
Fell. Uch: BACKMATTER. Well done making that word popular. Always thought the girlfriend character Mayko was incredibly dodgy, but never saw anybody else say anything. Guess…psychotic physical assaults…plus memey tats…equals love?
The Slimline format didn’t take off so much, did it? Shame. The espresso hit of things like Casanova were real special. I mean, we indy types, hawking our wares in the trestle-forest, can get away with knocking out experimental tracts of any length we can afford to print, but when it comes to the bigger shops, I wonder if the lower price put some off.
Actually, all sarcasm aside, the compressed format is useful-to-essential for us indy types, becuase printing is expensive. Need to do more of those.
Desolation Jones was pretty, obvs., but the raddled old burnout routine was…hhh…familiarity breeds contempt. That’s it.
I read some comics too.
Avengers: Kang is such a ruddy shit. He’s just *so mean* to Havoc. Daniel Acuna’s lush digipainty art is so rich and bombardy.
Young Avengers: I had an awkward conversation with Kate Brown about trying to get a superhero strip into The Phoenix. Why did I stop trying to make that happen (rhetorical)? Kate Brown’s personable art is matched only by the dapply colouring, which recalls that one guy with the superflat animated style you don’t see so much now, Rob Haynes. There’s a grain to the colouring, you see. A texture. Brown’s characters include a kind of a shambling broken-biscuit superhero, and the motion she gives that character – the shamble – is amazing.
Hulk: A story about one of Banner’s…housemates? holding a scalpel to his brain that features not only the most transparent case of Chekov’s Gin ever, but also the first appearance of my new fave character, Buddy S. Tate-Ajen, who stops Maria Hill in the middle of a Hulkwar to call her and SHIELD eight kinds of nerk. And Hulk jumps around with half his head off for most of it, which is fun.
She-Hulk: An excellent comic with charming, well-blocked art by that man Pulido and wordy, worthy script by Cherlie Soule.
The Beano: I was promised ten badges, but I only got nine. Sad face. Some new strips, of which more stick the landing than fluff it. Parkinson’s Gnasher is Best Gnasher.
Yeah, you wouldn’t see Anna Maria Marconi in stockings and a basque ala Larsen’s MJ, would you? She has gotten to be a completely rounded human being as well as a “hero’s girlfriend” though, so we’ll have to call that a win. John Byrne’s Puck would never have been mistaken for a kid, mind, that beautiful hairy bastard. :)
//\Oo/\\
May 23rd, 2015 at 6:01 am
For what it’s worth, Freakangels is a complete work by Ellis, totaling two phone books’ worth of comics in six volumes. It’s the tightest he’s written and certainly the most consistent & complete with none of his usual petering-out. That could be a side-effect of his writing process on the project, as it was serialized in six-page chunks for two years; writing to that time signature meant he couldn’t pad it the way he does so much else. Freakangels does of course contain many of his familiar (to some, annoying) tics & preoccupations, yet at no point did it shit the plot. It remains my favorite of his.
The complete run is available from Avatar.
May 23rd, 2015 at 11:59 am
1) PJ Harvey
2) Thank you so much for making me pick up God Hates Astronauts. It is bloody marvellous and allows me to respond to any work or domestic chore demand with “Craymok kill with hat”
3) I also liked Freakangels, although appreciate Ellis’ tone can grate (also how dare he share his name with the Dirty Three/Bad Seeds beardy bloke – I’m old and confused enough). Freakangels is still up in webcomic form for free (I think the collections are less satisfying than the weekly web pukes that used to flop out the story feels more clunky in paper form for me). Starts here – http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23