When he woke up he thought he’d dreamed about a movie he’d seen the other day. But everything was different. The characters were black, so the movie in the dream was like a negative of the real movie. And different things happened, too. The plot was the same, what happened was the same, but the ending was different or at some moment things took an unexpected turn and became something completely different. Most terrible of all, though, was that as he was dreaming he knew it didn’t necessarily have to be that way, he noticed the resemblance to the movie, he thought he understood that both were based on the same premise, and that if the movie he’d see was the real movie, then the other one, the one he had dreamed, might be a reasoned response, a reasoned critique, and not necessarily a nightmare. All criticism is ultimately a nightmare, he thought as he washed his face in the apartment where his mother’s body no longer was.
- Roberto Bolaño, ’The part about Fate’, p.234, 2666
This was originally notionally a piece called ‘Justify yr pull-list’, but I can’t seem to think of a more absurd enterprise than that, on reflection.
The very late review
August 4th, 2009
We’re gonna be doing this every Tuesday from now on, Kids. Capsule reviews in the dying light of the comics week.
Mindless slack is officially over
Detective Comics #855
Published by DC Comics
Story - Greg Rucka
Art - J.H. Williams III, Dave Stewart
This time around Batwoman goes toe to toe with Alice, high priestess of crime. In other words, not much happens, but that doesn’t stop this from being one of the richest, most complex superhero reads on the racks. If it were a wine it would would be… well, actually I don’t know anything about wine but it would definitely be red, full bodied and possessed of the jammiest of noses. Williams conjures iconography and atmosphere from the very gutters and, just like the characters, sets them in pitched battle, and it’s a truly marvellous thing to behold. Add to that a well realised and entertaining back-up strip, with just enough story to satisfy, and what you have here is a nigh-on perfect package.
Marky ‘Mark’ Millar & the Maniac Marines
July 17th, 2009
If you’re the type who likes reading, among other things, spurious and ill-reasoned comparisons between 2000AD’s stable of early-mid 1990s writing stars and some of the best American rock bands of the late 1960s, this could be the blog post for you!
Don’t Go! There’s a bit about Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol at the end!
Flashback: Morrison and Millar’s FLASH
April 2nd, 2009
Grant Morrison loves the Flash. That’s a fact. In fact it’s a Flash Fact.
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.
Reviewniverse
November 23rd, 2008
Podcast: Halloween spectacular!
October 30th, 2008
Look at that! That’s The Beast Must Die’s Haunted Mansion. A bunch of us Mindless Ones have just recorded a podcast (NSFW) there where we all talked about scary comics.
We also managed what will be our regular podcast features, Voyage Into The Negative Zone and Touchdown On Paradise Island where we slag things off and praise others respectively.
Superheroes with ISSUES
April 13th, 2008
Having just finished appraising the site in all its mindless glory, I feel slightly churlish contributing yet another miserable rant, bitching on and on about the state of the industry. The Disco Horror post was pure 20jazzfunkgreats, dosed up to the eyeballs with neon and ultra-viole(n)t good times. Anyone would think Qartthqrq, or whatever he’s called, actually enjoyed going clubbing. It’s that convincing. But, if you look a little closer, beneath the surface, I’m sure you’ll understand the poodle’s got hir sights set on a brighter, candy-floss horizon too. Only we’ve got to exterminate a few people on the way. And we all know death and destruction always leads to a brighter tomorrow.
Just ask Dagger.
