SILENCE! #205
December 6th, 2016
I KNOW IT MIGHT SOUND STRANGE BUT I BELIEVE IN THE COMING BACK BEFORE TOO LONG
In this latest pulse-shredding, nerve-shredding, skin-shredding, heart-shredding, mind-shredding, soul-shredding, bed-shredding, wedding-shredding, shred-shredding episode of SILENCE! you will two, count them two grown men discussing comics. On the internet. I know. Can you believe it? Into the brave new world we go, with pioneering hosts Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die guiding the way.
<ITEM> Listen! That’s the sound of admin in it’s natural habitat. And look! There goes a herd of Sponsorship pass by us. MR James adaptations, mince pies, and decorating the tree? It’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas…Oh and plenty of cat-chat just the way you like it.
<ITEM> There’s a whole lot of wheel-spinning and flim-flam as Gary Lactus talks about some modern comics such as the Batman Annual, Deadly Class and Great Lake Avengers while TBMD tries to derail at every turn. But it’s okay, as he’s here to talk about Batman: Son of the Demon and Devlin Waugh: Chasing Herod. That’s the Reviewniverse for you. Always different, always the same.
<ITEM> Bit of chat about DC: Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash and the death-pall of Dawson’s Creek.
Then it’s out like trout (that’s a thing kids say, right?) after some shameless hucksterism and a bit of the old toodle pip.
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.
December 9th, 2016 at 10:05 pm
Even if there are no comments, be aware that we are all listening intently… Had to catch up a couple of episodes, as my work has involved thinking with words, so couldn’t concentrate, but now back to silly drawing so can listen again!
I remember reading a few issues of Avengers West Coast with the Great Lakes Avengers, they were great because they were so weird, but now I fear may have been pigeonholed into that ‘we have to be a comedy’ format now. Oh well.
I also felt a bit naughty reading Son of the Demon as a kid. That scene in the boudoir seemed to last about 8 pages in my memory. Just a topless Bruce and loads of veiled curtains and things.
December 10th, 2016 at 10:45 am
Feel like I should defend the class of white males whose names are made up of a series of white male names. But I can’t really, it just means endless “No, Bryan is my second name” conversations with receptionists.
I also loved that Batman/Bathound Christmas story. I think Tom King’s Alfred might be my favourite thing in superhero comics recently. Surprised how much David Finch’s art on this series has worked for me too, I agreed with the collective internet eyeroll when he was announced, but I’m really enjoying it.
December 11th, 2016 at 11:46 am
My wife also names our Xmas trees, but when it’s all over cuts a chunk off the trunk to burn in the fire next year. Not sure where this takes us.
By coincidence I watched ‘Whistle and I’ll come to you’ Friday night, alone, in the dark. Soundscape in the dream sequences is deeply unsettling and photography is stunning. Horden’s performance of a man barely there is quite something. Cliche but you couldn’t make it like that today.
So I got drunk and brought almost everything you reviewed in 203 plus Plutona because Emi Lennox was so funny on Silence to Astonish and you have to respect the work of the 2016 Thought Bubble Speedcock champion.
Shade is my fave so far, I like how it’s in the Shadeverse but, so far, doing it’s own thing and I like the central mystery of who she’s possessed.
Speaking of 20+ year old comics, as respect to the man I’ve been revisiting the Steve Dillon/Garth Ennis Hellblazer run in all it’s bold clumsy brilliance. The rise of the BNP stuff is trebly depressing given the way of it. I’m gonna stick on Ich Bin Ein Auslander and pretend we won.
December 11th, 2016 at 9:05 pm
#203 was a classic episode. Don’t feel bad for letting the potent charm seduce you.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:18 pm
I have a soft spot for pointless anachronisms so thrilled to hear that commenting on blogs like this is becoming a thing of the past.
That Kyle Baker Batman page is fantastic. It manages to be funny, believable and true to the character. Here’s a link to it. Like the Beast says, it’s one of the very few pieces of superhero art that I’d want to put up on a wall.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kyle+baker+batman&biw=1920&bih=946&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZz7q5lO3QAhVZdlAKHcimAb8Q_AUIBygC#imgrc=ojdq9fpAgSmyqM%3A
December 12th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
What hasn’t the silver space tongue enticed me to?
Cheers for that link Tam, that is a great image, love the way he’s hunched.
That link throws up the Further Adventures of… prose short story collections which I know I owned in 199x but can remember nothing about except they were by proper writers, it were patchy, and a bit SERIOUS. Anyone have any ideas on whether they are worth relooking at or should I leave forgotten?
Yeah, now I know that comments are over I’m bang on them.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Love love LOVE Devlin Waugh, but reckon Yeowell totally messes up drawing him as he makes him not enough of a roided-up musclemonster. Gets the foppish dandy bit right, but jeez that Devlin needs to pack on some mass.
The text stories in the collections are pretty great, like his text bits in New Statesmen. I’d totally read a John Smith book, aye. Purple magic.