Coo! Is that the Tuesday review, turning wires blue?
October 20th, 2009
I certainly hope so: I plan on swearing a lot today, in order to emulate my newfound hero: Jamie McDonald, the Crossest Man in Scotland.
Here’s Jamie exemplifying really what, in substitute of wit, insight, that sort of thing we’ll pursue today, Toosday.
Spider-builder? Batbuilder?
I fucken love a swear. Ready, dickheads? Aye, let’s go then
Rooftops (or why I love Daredevil Born Again part 2)
March 17th, 2009
Part 1 here
Daydreaming and trains. A topic I keep coming back to.
Britain has long been in the throes of a difficult and passionate relationship with it’s vast, antique rail network. Delays and overcrowding ride by side in the popular imagination with adventure and freedom, the feeling that the final terminus can still be the Britain of myth, the nation as idyll and possibility. Growing up without a car, a viable and not entirely uncommon experience this side of the Atlantic, I spent more than my fair share of time staring out of train windows watching countryside blur into city blur into countryside. Perhaps the most familiar spectacle, one which has remained a constant over many years, is the view over the rooftops of central London as the South East of England’s railway lines flow together before and beyond Charing Cross.
1985: nostalgia and spandex
March 3rd, 2009
1985 was obviously some kind of cultural watershed for wee Mark Millar. Or at least that’s what can be surmised from his recent Marvel mini series.
Incredible Hulk pants V
February 27th, 2009
These are my favourite new pants. They bring the total of Hulk pants to five, making the mean green smashing machine a clear winner in the pantularity stakes. (Regular skidophiles will remember that for reasons unclear half the total Hulk pants feature him taking big licks from Iron Man. Technically this is only gamma pant solo mark three.)
Gary Lactus’s Vault Of Tymbus #2
January 26th, 2009
This week, Tymbus talked to me about the following very important subjects whilst I punished him:
- Dark Avengers #1
- Simpsons Comics #150
- The Strange Deaths of Batman
- Mr. Terrific
Mindless Ones pulse pounding podcast part 2
September 8th, 2008
In this sexy second section, Tymbus talks more about his big San Diego adventure and actually gets round to talking about the Comicon! Fear not though, fiendish fans of irrelevant invective, for Tymbus manages to produce plenty of pernickety parochial prattle about the food and the cost of the hotel!!!!!! (NSFW, by the way)
And to give you some context, (as well as some eye candy) please enjoy this picture of (L-R) Amy Poodle, Bobsy and The Beast Must Die on my spaceship in space where the magic happens!
HULK!
June 13th, 2008
Critic smash stupid Hulk movie
Those of you who saw the first Hulk movie back in 2003 will no doubt recall how Marvel’s less-than-jolly green giant was developed into a sensitive family drama in which Oedipal conflicts were fought out between an irradiated Bruce Banner and his amazing absorbing Dad who climactically transformed into a large translucent green green jellyfish as if to demonstrate the diffusion of phallocentric power in the face of sensitive new age masculinity. Or something like that.
Iron Brew
May 8th, 2008
What could be more relevant to the pissed up youth of today’s binge Britain than an absurdly over produced reprint of ‘Demon In A Bottle, the story of one billionaire superhero’s descent into alcoholism, collectably timed to coincide with the release of Iron Man (reviewed below, with spoilers aplenty), the first of this summer’s movies to claim the title of blockbuster.
This is how the story ends… The Order #10
May 5th, 2008
I came to praise the Order and to bury them and now it seems neither action was mitigated.
And the dead will rise: Cloak & Dagger meet disco horror part 2
April 17th, 2008
So, I said in part 1 that Cloak & Dagger’s origin needs revisiting, that’s because, like almost everything to do with C & D, it’s undercooked and under-exploited. For a start kids don’t just run away from home, something or someone pushes them. Whether it’s physical or emotional abuse, a catastrophic problem like drug addiction or mental illness, or some other insurmountable situational hurdle, the roots of homelessness usually run dark and deep, but with Cloak & Dagger what’s there on the page doesn’t really add up to much. Tandy was spoilt rotten, and neglected by her rich, socialite mother, so she bought a one way ticket to cardboard city? That doesn’t cut it for me. Not only does it feel inadequate, it lacks drama, and, crucially, fails to tell us anything much about the character. That’s the big crime. This stuff should be at the heart of who C & D are beneath all the eternal darkness and white-hot knives. Their histories unlock them as living breathing people, and, I’ll argue, augment our understanding of their transformation, and consequently open up all kinds of storytelling possibilities.
