SILENCE! #171
January 13th, 2016
(Bowie image courtesy of the wonderful Danny Noble. Go see her stuff here.)
Bit too sad to write a blurb, so I’ll let Danny’s pic do the heavy lifting…
But hark! There’s still a wondrous pod for you to embiggen your mind, body and soul with. When all else fails there will always be SILENCE!
<ITEM> Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die get down to it, whistling through the admin like the 7:39 from Chingford to Liverpool Street.
<ITEM> As is right and proper there’s some proper Sadmin, with news that David Bowie has left the cosmos. The boys try and provide a eulogy and inevitably come up short.
<ITEM> Alan Sane and Pigs Heads? Who could we be talking about?
<ITEM> The Reviewniverse is entered into with a rather less touching Bowie tribute, but there’s scant recompense in the form of a discussion of Rob Liefield’s Deadpool, New Mutants and male pattern balding superheroes. Plus! Vision, Unfollow, Wildcats, Travis Charest, Dr Strange, Thrill Power Overload, Early 2000AD, Grendel Tales, Paul Grist, A1, Carry On Avenging, Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks, Papergirls, A-Force and a hot mess more.
<ITEM> YOu ArE N ItEM!!
click to download SILENCE!#171
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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.
January 13th, 2016 at 5:41 pm
Reporting in from American Brighton: we do call pubic hair “pubes.”
January 13th, 2016 at 6:17 pm
Thanks, PapoCrapo!
January 13th, 2016 at 7:33 pm
How far into this can you get without wanting to punch the screen?
http://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/The_Return_of_the_Thin_White_Duke
January 13th, 2016 at 10:31 pm
Thrills, I got to ‘bitter twinkling clusters and whorls of stars’. It was the word ‘whorls’ that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
January 13th, 2016 at 11:19 pm
The whorls of the Dreame Kinge
January 14th, 2016 at 2:03 am
You mentioned a Patreon exclusive on the pod. Are you ever gonna make a proper Patreon page? I’ve been holding out until there were some kind of reward levels posted.
PS: Sorry for being crass. I will donate to SILENCE! this year in some way. I just want to know how best to do it.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:55 am
Just finished the episode. Some thoughts:
U Talkin U2 To Me is the best! Gary, if you haven’t already, you might want to check out Analyze Phish with Scott Aukerman and Harris Wittels (and occasional cameos from guys like Paul F and Adam Scott). Streaming tears of laughter during both of those shows. The worst side effect of U Talkin U2 To Me is that I can’t hear someone utter the phrase “been a while” without the overwhelming urge to sing it back.
Loved also the New Mutants talk. I had all those comics when I was four years old. One of my favorite action figures was of the post-pube earthquake himself, Richter. He had a little crank in his back, like a wind up toy, and when you wound it up, he would vibrate wildly. In principle, it was supposed to simulate his earthquake powers, but in practice, the figure would just fall over and spin around the floor, like he was having convulsions.
I’m very excited to reread those issues of New Mutants on Marvel Unlimited. They don’t have the Liefeld stuff before #98 either, so I’ll be getting the same perfect, context-free experience that Gary Lactus had.
Finally, STRAY BULLETS. I’ve really been wanting you to talk about this Sunshine and Roses arc, because it’s driving me crazy. I just don’t get it. It’s like one of those DC “what happened during the missing year?????” comics, and it never ends. Lapham is continually playing up how doomed Beth, Orson, and Nina’s plan is, but fuckin… we already know it succeeds!! The craft is unimpeachable, as ever, but my interest wanes. I would like to know why Lapham thought 16 (sixteen!!!) issues of flashback was more worthwhile than picking up Ginny’s story after her pivotal moment in Killers.
January 14th, 2016 at 10:31 am
I have been catching up on my Stray Bullets and will probably talk about it next week.
January 14th, 2016 at 12:39 pm
Touching reminiscing about David Bowie. I was a bit ambivalent about most of his tunes but I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t have a fondness for some of the things he was involved with.
In particular The Man Who Fell to Earth was a wonderfully inventive film and was also clearly a huge influence on Watchmen. Then there’s The Hunger, his equally uneven 80s-tastic Vampire film. I think this creepy title sequence with Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Bauhaus belting out ‘Bela Lugosi’s dead’ might be my favorite Bowie appearance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-o39BJ0Aww
January 14th, 2016 at 6:57 pm
Oh, man! You’ve stirred in me this craving to reread those Grendel Tales stories. Why aren’t people going back to those comics more often? They are great.
January 14th, 2016 at 7:06 pm
Re: Stray Bullets; the current arc is definitely suffering for losing momentum due to overly lengthy pacing. It’s a shame considering it started out so strong. The previous arc was 8 issues, right? I’m not sure what makes this one require twice as many.
January 14th, 2016 at 7:37 pm
Pissing myself on your Rob Liefeld descriptions. My goodness.
January 15th, 2016 at 12:05 am
Gristy’s currently doing “Demon Nic” in the Megazine and it features a very well-drawn sacred hammer and some great page design. Definite standout strip in that comic.
When I read Thrillpower Overload, I was not keen on Dave Bishop, but after seeing that recent 2000ad documentary, I have come to appreciate him as someone who isn’t just part of the “2000AD is great, it’s all great, great! Punks, yeah, we were punks” gang. He has a pleasing bitterness.
I’d take him over Diggle any day.
Gotta look up that Twin Peaks oral history, it sounds ideal!
I plan on getting on yourr Silence! patreon once I become slightly more solvent. But perhaps only if you supply erotic Mindless fan art of yourselves.
January 15th, 2016 at 1:12 am
I’m another big U Talkin U2 to Me fan. I’ve been thinking about listening through the whole thing again. I must admit that their infectious enthusiasm eventually got to me though, and I now have a dangerously unhip semi-fondness for the four lads from Liverpoool. Do you listen to Aukerman’s Comedy Bang Bang, Mr. Lactus? It’s a bit more hit and miss but the best episodes are amazing. Any ep with Paul F. Thompkins would be a good place to start.
I wish Marvel would also reprint the first appearance of Cable. I think then I could read through all of Liefeld’s New Mutants in order. As a kid, I think I jumped in just as it changed over to X-Force. I was at a perfect age for his particular brand of insanity then. I too had the aforementioned vibrating Rictor action figure. They even made a toy of Gideon, though I believe they failed to translate the magnificence of his ponytail into plastic.
January 15th, 2016 at 8:37 am
I did Comedy Bang Bang for a while but it wore me down. I may yet go back to it because it was good when it was good.
January 15th, 2016 at 12:00 pm
My brother and I had a good laugh about the “post-pube earthquake” line when that issue appeared back in the whatever the hell decade that was. We were mid-pube ourselves, and even we recognized that this was some seriously bad writing. It’s kind of amazing to think that books like Doom Patrol were hitting the shelf at the same time. Doom Force anyone? The best of times, the worst of times, etc.
Speaking of Doom Force, I’m pretty sure one of the characters was a big mountain. Isn’t that what they did with the Thing in this latest iteration of Secret Wars? Why didn’t somebody with the patience to read that shit make the connection? Why can’t I like comics more? I can’t want this!
January 15th, 2016 at 12:22 pm
Good call from TBMD on that fantastic Grendel : Devil in Our Midst series!
Grendel’s such a visionary acheivement that I really wish I could get into Matt Magner’s comics but they never quite seem to click for me,(aside from the Batman crossovers which ARE great) and I’ve found the Grendel stuff done by other creators more accessable.
The Devil in our Midst is far and away the best one I’ve read, mostly on account of Grist’s art which seems a bit out of place to begin with but its primal simplicity is just right for the story.
January 15th, 2016 at 3:39 pm
Having read that and watched Hateful Eight this week, the shadow of Carpenter’s The Thing looms large over my pop cultural consumption
January 15th, 2016 at 5:31 pm
Good Friday afternoon listening there, gents!
Loving the Lactus rage, will try and drop ‘dead pig fucker’ into conversation tonight.
Ah, Deadpool. Liefeld. I was buying New Mutants then, and enjoying it. The gang were in Asgard at the time, and one month the cover was done by McFarlane (who I thought was pretty good back then) and Leifeld (who I was unfamiliar with). I thought it was alright, but the next issue when Liefeld took over, I found it…. disagreeable. Still kept buying it though.
Towards the end of last year I read all four Grendel Omnibus editions, and enjoyed it immensely. I had read some bits and pieces but I think it might seem impenetrable to a newcomer. Well worth the time though. Also worth checking out the two (mainly the first series) 2-part Grendel/Batman crossovers. Top stuff.
I found a Twin Peaks board game at a car boot sale last year, it’s indecipherable!
That Carry On X-Men poster is by Chris Weston!
Hands off that A1 #6 you buggers! That’s the last one I need!
January 18th, 2016 at 2:24 pm
Because I am a cultural masochist I read the whole of that Gaiman Sandman-becomes-Bowie story. It really is an insufferable piece of shit, isn’t it? Speaking of tenuous Bowie and comics connections, the button-eyes look in the Backstair video immediately reminded me of thishttp://2000adonline.tumblr.com/post/52961617774/daily-zenith-cover-prog-630steve-yeowell-an#.Vpz0srTfZRU
January 18th, 2016 at 2:25 pm
Oh dear, I didn’t do that very well, did I? This: http://2000adonline.tumblr.com/post/52961617774/daily-zenith-cover-prog-630steve-yeowell-an#.Vpz0srTfZRU
January 18th, 2016 at 6:48 pm
Yeah I absolutely got a Maximan vibe from the Blackstar vid
January 26th, 2016 at 2:23 pm
Suck it out yo ass, I can draw just fine y’all *click click.