SILENCE! #155
September 7th, 2015
THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE, MY STYLE IS IDENTICAL TO NONE
If you want a vision for the future, imagine a podcast stamping on a babyman’s neckbeard forever! That’s right – Big Blurber is watching you…
WAR IS COMICS
COMICS ARE SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS COMICS
Your mind is not your own. All thoughts of comics are Thoughtcrimes. Not thinking about comics is a Thoughtcrime. Neckbeards are not a Thoughtcrime. Necbeards are a FACECRIME.
Welcome to the only Doublethink podcast, the podcast that gives you a nice cold comforting bellyfeel, the podcast that YOU will hear is doubleplusgood. Those who don’t thinks so will be made unpeople in almost speedful fashion.
Big Blurber is watching you. He is watching your neckbeards. So think the goodthought and come join the joycamp that is..SILENCE!
<ITEM> It’s a mega epixxxxx amazo superblast X-travaganza with special guest Bobsy, joining Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die, and this sucker clears the two-hour mark son! Expect deviations, rambling digressions and wildly speculative theorising just the way you like it!
<ITEM> Admin, sponsorship, a discussion of the Ladybird Illustration exhibition and I Can’t Believe You’re Listening to That Vol 1. Oh and the Galacticats of course, because: the internet.
<ITEM> Trip trap trip trap over the rickety rackety Einstein-Rosen Bridge..into the Reviewniverse! They cover Providence, Material, Plutona, 8 House: Kiem, Garth Ennis’ War Stories, Here, Midnighter, Jem & The Holograms, Anticon, Sole, Daredevil, Safari Honeymoon, Hip Hop Family Tree Vol 3 and a whole lot more.
<ITEM> A world weary Gary Lactus kicks the other two out of his spaceship with a roar of GET ORF MOI SPACESHIP! And the podcast is OVER! BOOM!
Click to download SILENCE!#155
Contact us:
@silencepod
@frasergeesin
@thebeastmustdie
@bobsymindless
You can support us using Patreon if you like.
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.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:58 pm
Nice one. Always good to hear that Bobsy’s along for the ride. I’m digging 8house on the whole as well. Still haven’t read an issue of Island.
As for Graham’s world-building, I might add that I’ve developed the impression via published interviews and general cyberstalking, as well as more familiarity with personal work and interests, that Simon Roy plays a significant motivating role in the hard SF qualities of Prophet, particularly w/r/t the kind of long-range socio-biological reasoning underpinning the series.
Certainly, Graham should be credited (as evidenced by his own personal work and collaborative philosophy) with a talent for creating generative spaces for hand-picked artists, establishing a beguiling milieu, imagining the far-future quotidian, etc. But don’t sleep on Roy. I think that guy’s nerdy obsession with fantastical plausibility is central to what I personally find so compelling about the series that cemented Graham’s well-deserved rep.
As for other stuff, I’m way behind on monthlies like Providence and Material, but I’ve read a few interesting things since last I chimed in:
Melody: Story of a Nude Dancer is pretty damn charming, and keeps you on your toes about what exactly it’s doing, like the best “outsider” art. I’m nowhere near sophisticated enough to defend the term “outsider art,” but I love when people devote themselves to making things in a way that lives somewhat beyond the influence of tradition and institution.
Never read Super Mutant Magic Academy online, but the collection is pretty damn funny and smart. It’s also nice to see Tamaki’s skill (?) develop over the course of the book. Great ending, too.
On Topics by Michael DeForge is one of the slighter works produced thus far by Breakdown. I don’t think DeForge is constitutionally capable of producing work that is not at least interesting, but these books are ‘spensive! Two stories with the usual “unsettling idea run to its logical conclusion.” We could’ve read these first online had we supported his Patreon. (Also picked up Cosse’s “Showtime, pt 1″ which I ain’t read yet.)
The Stormlight Archive, pts 1 & 2. Listened to these dopey fantasy operas, all 80 hours of them, over the course of the summer. Deeply ashamed of myself. Still, all but certain to finish the next 18 scheduled entries.
We Are Nothing and So Can You by Jasper Bernes. Poetry written especially for Bobsy.
Stray Bullets. Finally. I know!
At last, I picked up some stuff from Frank Santoro’s auction:
http://franksantoro.tumblr.com/post/127460595665
He’s raising money to buy the house next door and turn it into a residency type program thingie for his school. You should consider supporting his work by snatching up one of the many personal treasures he’s put up for auction before somebody else does. Pretty sure he’ll ship overseas, and I think the US dollar is still relatively weak against the pound. There’s a public and private version of the auction. Send him a request to get access to the private auction, if only to goggle.
PS: Beast, please don’t buy in to the STEM myth:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth
September 9th, 2015 at 11:26 am
Providence is shaping up to be something really special. I can’t think of anything recent that’s affected me like the syringe scene. I didn’t want to turn the page, especially since I was reading on the train.
September 9th, 2015 at 11:32 am
où sont les gifs de chat ?
September 9th, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Dans l’arbre, avec le sange.
September 9th, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Wrote a long comment earlier that is apparently awaiting moderation? What gives? Is this what life is like for other Nigerian princes caught in desperate financial straits?
September 9th, 2015 at 2:54 pm
I wish the Providence ‘backmatter’ (‘backmatter’ sounds like a euphemism for bits of poo trapped in the bumhair) had the same effect on me that it does on Bobsy and The Beast Must Die! You both make it sound fantastic, but for me it just serves to repeat what has already been shown in the comic, the nuances already inferred from the body language and facial expressions in the art.
I mean, there’s the odd bit that tickles me, but it mostly feels redundant, the repetition not adding anything to my enjoyment or understanding. I’m guessing this is my failing, and I need a reread and to check annotations etc, eh. Other than that, I’m really enjoying the comic proper, though it could do with some good covers. Avatar-wide problem, that.
Oh aye, that person who draws Garth Ennis War Stories is certainly something, but what that is I cannot say as I draw pictures and want to support other people who draw pictures.
Let’s just say the over-rendered modern colouring does it no favours. And it needs favours, yes.
September 9th, 2015 at 5:49 pm
The backmatter to Providence is the least boring mountain of Moore-speak I’ve found at the back of a comic in ages.
September 10th, 2015 at 11:02 am
Alex Ross always struck me as very similar to Ladybird artists.
September 10th, 2015 at 1:20 pm
Picked up Head Lopper yesterday. 5.99, and BIG. First of a four-issue thing. Nice-looking cartooning, but I’d like to hear what you guys think about the storytelling. Heavy riffs, just somewhat incoherent at times?
The Cosse from Breakdown is excellent. The energy of his work reminds me of Christophe Blain, an all-time fave, but he has a much less trad approach to narrative.
September 10th, 2015 at 1:45 pm
I had never heard of Christophe Blain until your comment, Derek, but have looked at his work and by jove it is some great looking stuff.
September 10th, 2015 at 3:34 pm
He’s such a lively talent! The Speed Abater is my favourite, but Gus & His Gang is a close second. I’ve heard that Isaac the Pirate will never get an ending, tho I’m too lazy to follow up on that and there’s pleasure enough to be had in what exists. I haven’t read his Dungeon entry yet, but the local library has many of those books, so I’ll get around to it sooner or later. Also haven’t read Weapons of Mass Diplomacy, which is unappealing to me for some reason and unavailable from my otherwise quite well-stocked public lending institution.
September 10th, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Christophe Blain! The only thing I have of his is the Dungeon stuff. Someone I need to read more of definitely. But those Dungeon books… man, I cannot get enough of them. So good! I’d recommend those to anyone who likes anything. They’re so much fun.
September 10th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
Personally I’m enjoying Prez, Black Canary & Martian Manhunter from DC, however I can’t help but feel that the annoucement from DC that Prez is going to be split into two 6 part mini-series is a stealth way of avoiding the hassle of going back on the guarantee that all the titles will get 12 issues and we won’t get to see the back half, which will be a crying shame because the art’s fantastic and it’s the kind of writing that needs to be seen in mainstream comics.
The thing is that no one knows what to make of digital comics – Comixology & the iPhone (Not the first smart phone but the one that made them a must have product for all the resource-grabbing-pollution-making-human-disconnecting joy they’ve brought the world) both launched after Marvel’s last really massive event (Civil War) so the big two just seem to have been waiting for the other shoe to fall for the past 8 years.
January 11th, 2016 at 12:32 am
[...] has some worthwhile episodes discussing Providence: #4 (starts at minute 26) and #6 (Moore mentions start at minute 40, after some false [...]