Mindless Ones

free telly horror special

• Thanks to Andrew (whose hyperposts are becoming increasingly symphonic) for this one – Ghostwatch. Kind of the missing link between Nigel Kneale and Dead Set, and a key point in deciding my tastes in, well, almost everything really. Telly gets a lot of stick, because, very often, it’s shit and it stinks, but sometimes it turns on itself in a glorious burst of auto-deconstruction while simultaneously fulfilling its remit of balls-on-walls entertainment. It may be impossible to separate this artefact from its time and place or to appreciate the shock of watching these scared and screaming children’s TV presenters, but this should remain essential viewing while we welcome in the autumn spooky season.

• Another scary story, this time from Mindless Superfriend Keiron Gillen and artisitic collaborator & 2000AD star PJ Holden. Gillen is disparaging about it on his blog, but he shouldn’t – it’s smart, nasty and a truly huge four pages. It’s basically a Future Shock by any other name, though better than any of those seen for a while, and maybe the fact of it says something about the transatlantic difference in how comics are done – UK writers and artists get schooled in the art of the short story one way or another (whether under Tharg or underground), and learn how to get their endings in on time, make them count. The increasingly thin  Wednesday Comic meanderings, and the endless bathetic mundane collapses of Strange Tales (not counting Mizuno in that) suggest it’s a lesson that’s more difficult to learn when an artist is used to having all the space they want… (b)

• MF Doom and Madlib collaborated on the truly amazing ‘Madvillainy’ album a few years ago. One of the best synergistic team-ups in hip-hop history. I still can’t get enough of ‘All Caps’ and it’s Kirby inspired video. A semi-oldie but goodie! (tbmd)

• ‘The Sound of Drowning’ is a comic produced and published by Paul O’Connell. It’s a deliciously dark and idiosyncratic work that meshes Raymond Carver, David Lynch, Kurt Vonnegut and Spike Milligan into a brilliant comic. It’s funny, strange, brilliantly written  and defiantly singular. And stylish as all hell. His latest work is a ‘reworking’ of some Ladybird children’s book illustrations – check it out here – and while you’re there take a look round the website. O’Connell has generously archived tonnes of his work there, including his ace collaborations with Lawrence Elwick. Treats! (tbmd)

• Did you know that there are semi-private strands of continuity running through Grant Morrison’s work? Wanna know how DC One Million and All Star Superman tie together? Zibarro’s blog, The Gold In Us Will Survive In You, unearths all those half-overlooked connections and throws them into the light of day, making it essential reading for geeky fans of Grant Morrison’s superhero work. I know we like to bemoan continuity around here, but like all superhero genre addicts we do understand its charms. The fact is that most of us Mindless don’t so much want it done away with as relegated in importance: continuity as flavour rather than substance, which, as it turns out appears to be exactly what Morrison is doing with his very own take on superhero history.The bad news: Zibarro seems to have given up on the blog, which is a real bloody shame. (z)

• Fuck you, Hitler! Sean Collins’s review remains the most interesting critical response to Inglourious Basterds that I’ve read. It tackles the thorny political issues but shows how Tarantino’s irreverent take on a very real and very horrific moment in history can be read as joyous and cathartic rather than troublesome and irresponsible. Collins’s conclusions aren’t entirely unproblematic, but the film appears to have affected him in pretty much the same way that it affected me so I’m on his side goddammit!(z)

• Do you ever feel like you’re not annoying enough people?  Watch a bunch of this lady’s expert lessons on how to be a performance artist and soon you can annoy even your closest friends! (gl)

• That last link was drawn to our attention by Robert Popper’s blog.  Robert was one of the people behind Look Around You and his site’s always good for a chuckle. (gl)

• Daniel Kitson’s stand up is nice and good.  The guy’s a charming misanthrop.  He done a podcast of his 2005 Edinburgh show. (gl)

Yeah we got fuck all this week actually, real life in all it grossness and glory, weddings and kidney stones, have kind of got in the way. You know how sometimes you go into a record shop and your mind goes blank, you completely forget what kind of music you like, and end up lookng at Jam best ofs? The internet’s a bit like that sometimes.

• So just Youtube links from me this week: This is the kind of great after-dinner jape that the JLA provide.
• From the fat bag of slime department. When my wife was pregnant, she got quite ill, almost housebound. Steve was playing with his band in the next town over, so I emailed and asked if he’d like to pop in for tea, play his guitar, cheer her up a bit. Fucker’s agent emailed back, said I could have a signed photo if I gave him $12.
• You know how Youtube comments are the best reason for not teaching people how to write? Not always, the ones here are ‘fine’.  (b)

• Oh I know he doesn’ t need any more praise but Bryan Lee O’malley’s Scott Pilgrim site rocks as hard as  do all things SP related. You’ve gotta admire the fact that he’s turned himself into a one man franchise without sacrificing any ofthe comics inherent yumminess. If you haven’t read SP yet I presume you have no eyes, in which case you can’t read this which means you can’t see me sticking my fingers up at you. (tbmd)

• I’ve really been enjoying Hip Hop Isn’t Dead recently. Max’s dedication to slogging through the entire Wu-related back catalogue is particularly rewarding (see: U-God and Cappadonna aka The Cab Driver). I don’t agree with him a lot of the time, but it’s a good site from a man with generally excellent taste in Hip Hop.  (tbmd)

• Bit of a 2000AD flavour to my online reading this week – starting with Garth Ennis’ first contribution to Rich Johnson’s Bleeding Cool, When 2000AD was the Future. It’s an unabashedly nostalgic birthday tribute to the Galaxy’s Greatest, and although it feels a bit hacked-out, if you don’t get a lump in the throat or pants upon reading his list of standout moments, then, brother, you must have no pants. It’s also interesting for several other reasons – Bleeding Cool has been a bit of lame replacement for the much-missed Lying in the Gutters, having somehow managed to bring out a heretofore unimagined boring streak in Warren Ellis’ online columns, so if it’s giving us regular bulletins from Ennis now (the first time he’ll have done this kind of regular editorialising since, what, the Preacher letters page?) then all to the good. Secondly, funny to note the unfortunate truism ‘2000AD was better when I were a lad’ can be heard coming from even the most level headed industry professionals. Thirdly,  the revealing detail that Ennis does not count 2000AD as a significant influence on his career-best Punisher MAX run, although he does with nearly all of his other, far less essential US work. And finally, the general public acknowledgement of the debt he owes to Tharg, which will seem ironic to anyone who read Wagner’s Dredd story last week and noticed how much Jay Doubleyou appears to have been reciprocally influenced by Ennis in recent years. Five pages of unbelievable tension and gravitas balanced effortlessly across three simultaneous scenes, no action but lots of quiet political violence, in an episode of sheer comics storytelling perfection that displays the kind of tough yet elegant narrative engineering that Ennis has lately made his own.

• This has been up for ages but I’ve only just stumbled across it: Cradlegrave, John Smith and Edmund Bagwell’s recently-concluded tale of alien body-horror and kitchen-sink drama on a Northern housing estate is being hailed by some Squaxx as the best story The Mighty One has put out since Halo Jones. A full Mindless report to follow soon, but in a rare move the excellent 2000AD Review site has put Smith’s script for an entire episode up for your perusal. Bloody brilliant.

• Further happy proof that the world you live in is becoming more like Judge Joseph Dredd’s every day! (b)

• Look, 5 posts for the price of one! Andrew Hickey’s hyperpost continues apace. The topics, which he’s attacking from multiple and diverse angles, are canon and continuity and other stuff that concerns those of us of a fannish bent. So far Andrew’s posts have focussed on Morrison’s concept of Hypertime, Cerebus via Oscar Wilde (or should that be the other way round?), and an ‘imaginary’ (in the Alan Moore sense) Dr Who audio story which doesn’t feature too much Dr Who but does feature a dying man. This kind of multi-pronged oblique criticism is exactly the kind of thing we try to do round here, and exactly what Andrew Rilstone did so fantastically in his recent fanzine Who Sent the Sentinels?. Looking forward to seeing what else Andrew can come up with.

• Ah, its been ages since we’ve given some love to the boys at Funnybook Babylon. If you don’t listen to their podcasts you really should as they’re some of best pop-critics out there, and really don’t get the credit they deserve nearly often enough. The standout moment in the latest edition has to be Chris Ekert’s disembowelling of Ultimatum – to call it criticism would be to give Loeb’s writing too much credit, but it sure is funny as shit.

Phonogram Book 2: The Singles Club #4, by Keiron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson

Not, by the way, going to allow this review to be coloured by how annoying those Pipettes at the next table in the cafe on Saturday were. Didn’t really notice myself, to be honest, I was wrapped up thoroughly in my weekly dose of Wednesday wonder (it’s the comic it’s OK to read in public! Best Aquaman ever!), but when I looked up my betrothed had her homicide face on, filled me in on the details later. One Pipette telling off another Pipette for not being Pipettey enough. Read: first rule of Pipette club – do not be a better singer than lead Pipette. Another line-up change on the horizon? How 2006.

Which I think is big of me

• Sean Witzke recently wrote a piece on this, a Dr Strange screenplay written by the odd couple paring of Stan Lee and Alex Cox. For those of you who don’t know, Cox is about as idiosyncratic a creator as cinema has ever seen, known for dirty, profoundly unconventional films like Repo Man, and Walker (director), and his screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and as such is about the unlikeliest candidate for this gig that I can imagine, and yet somehow someone somewhere thought that it might just work. Personally I would love to see what Cox could have done with this material – at worst his weird-ass synthetic approach to storytelling would have produced something very interesting indeed, and at best, well, who knows? What’s for certain is that it wouldn’t look much like the deeply conventional blockbuster pap that we’re served up today. (z)

Linkblogging continues after the jump

or Crisis? What Crisis? (part one)

This one:

Think of him as 2000AD’s awkward cousin. He and Tharg used to get on great for a bit, but while The Mighty One went into his teens still drunk on the heady surge of Thrill Power, Crisis was always a bit serious. Self consciously so, you could say. You know the routine: went veggie. CND badge. Amnesty membership. Morrissey lyrics sung at high volume to that face in the bedroom mirror. Didn’t make friends that easily, and sometimes seemed to try hard not to be noticed at all, but on rare occasions he’d come out with something that would really be worth paying attention to.

You’d get such a shock you’d probably jump in the ocean

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As The Muzak Killer once ranted to his hapless hipster accomplice, ‘Music is only cool when it’s old!’ It’s the same with comics about music, which is why this  review of Phonogram 2.3 is so late that the next one is even out by now.

And I’ve nothing to say about it really, as it happens, so let’s do bullet points. You know, hip young gunslingers! In with a bullet! Peow-peow!

Steven Wells RIP