Mindless Ones

Art dudes, our pal Ben over at the G-Moz fansite Deep Space Transmissions wants you!

Here’s Ben with the fax:

“You may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve been slowly slogging through Deep Space Transmissions trying to make it look prettier and easier to read. Its pretty slow going but I’m getting there. Now that the Universe B section has embraced readable line-spacing I thought it might be good to get some pictures on there.

Its great to read about all of these comics that only exist in some mixed-up parallel world where Grant Morrison wrote a Fathom movie (?!) but it’d be even better to see them… and that’s where YOU come in.

If any aspiring artists fancy getting their Cosmic Treadmill on and rustling up some Earth-2 covers, pin-ups or character designs for Grant Morrison comics that never were, now’s your chance! Just pick any entry on the Universe B pages and take a stab at drawing something for it. As its all ‘not for profit, just for fun’ there shouldn’t be (God willing) any copyright worries, and all I’m after is a scan of the art, (no originals thanks, unless its awesome) and your consent to host it here on the site. Other than that, no rules, no limits, do whatever you like. This could be your big break into the world of funny books!*

Just attach a scan of whatever you’ve drawn/painted/sculpted/interpretive danced to an email and send it on over to

ds**************@go********.com











.

I’m not expecting a huge slew of responses so anything you do send will probably appear on the site. But spread the word around, let’s get a meme going on.. #universeb will do if you’re Twitter-minded. If a lot of stuff starts coming in I might even offer a prize… Something really good…”

Danny Noble’s cartoon diary of abstinence. You can also read her Monday Morning strip here.

 

Click here to see the rest of the week

Having enjoyed the Attack the Block panel at Kapow! back in April, I finally got round to seeing the film this weekend.

Turns out it’s easily the most enjoyable new movie I’ve seen all year – a creature feature that’s as tight and energetic as Edgar Wright’s cinematic efforts, if less overtly referential.

According to writer/director Joe Cornish, the idea was to take kids who would be described as feral and heartless by the tabloid press and put them up against creatures that actually exemplify these traits. This theme is flagged up in an unsubtle line of dialogue near the start of the movie (courtesy of an obligingly distressed old lady no less!) but judging by some of the reviews this approach wasn’t blatant enough.
Ever wondered what’s wrong with being racy? Click here to find out!

Danny Noble’s cartoon diary of abstinence. You can also read her Monday Morning strip here.

Click here to see the rest of the week

It’s unsurprising that the editors decided to pull the text above out of it’s original introductory caption box and give it’s own page in the anniversary edition of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, transforming it into a full blown preamble.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the closing sentence, Alan’s Moore’s last word on and celebration of Superman:

“This is an Imaginary Story… Aren’t they all?” The legend is a triple entendre:

1. It could be interpreted that the story is non-canonical.
2. It could be interpreted that the story is canonical, since all comic books are “imaginary stories”, so it is as valid as any “official” Superman comic
3. It could be interpreted that the story is canonical, but for this incarnation of Superman, as the upcoming John Byrne reboot would render the earlier series as “imaginary”.[citation needed]
4. It could be interpreted that that the story is the end of the Earth-One Superman had the Crisis on Infinite Earths never happened.

Isn’t that a quadruple entendre? Whatever. There’s something missing from that list. It’s what gives the line it’s awesome fuck yeahness, but as it doesn’t speak directly to comics it doesn’t surprise me that it often goes overlooked. Yes, Moore was quite possibly concerned that the Superman stories of his youth had just been relegated to the bin of history by Crisis on the Infinite Earths, yes he could be railing against the strictures of canon, but personally I’ve always read that line as a celebration, not just of a certain view of Superman or a certain incarnation of Superman, but of the imagination full stop.

After all, isn’t Superman, the guy who can do anything, the superhero who best encapsulates all that’s good and beautiful about the infinite possibilities of the imagination?

It’s unlikely that the Alan Moore of the mid-eighties had quite such well-formed views on the subject of meaning and story as he does today – to the best of my knowledge he didn’t talk much about Idea Space in interviews back then – but to suggest that he put great stock in fiction doesn’t strike me as much of stretch, in fact I see the line above as evidence that his thoughts were heading in the direction that would ultimately bring us From Hell and Promethea.

When Moore writes “aren’t they all” he is putting Superman stories in the same broad category as the Bible, Noddy, personal historical narratives, and the mythology of predatory paedophiles, which isn’t to say that he’s explicitly arguing that all stories are of equal importance, just that stories have the potential to be very powerful indeed, and that, hopefully, this one is amongst the best. This point is reinforced by the juxtaposition of the legend with the opening splash page featuring a memorial statue of Superman.

Memorial statues carry with them connotations of timelessness, of permanence, of stories that cannot and should not be forgotten.

..IS OVER!

He was spotted in Nunhead Cemetery in South London at the weekend.

Here’s the latest Cartoon County chat, preserved for you in pod form.  Here we talk to Mark Buford. Mark is the creator of the daily strip, Scary Gary. We had an entertaining talk about the strip and this tough and overlooked branch of  sequential illustration.  Hope you enjoy it!

[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mark-buford.mp3]

click to download

Click here to see more Scary Gary

First batchat. Then annotations

The Beast Must Die: by the way, this issue…?

Best comic of 2011?

Fuck off. I don’t even want to debate the motherfucker.

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Danny Noble’s cartoon diary of abstinence. You can also read her Monday Morning strip here.

Click here to see the rest of the week