Mindless Ones

Expect a new Rogue’s Review and some Bat-annotations over the next couple of days (both penned by the Poodle, so you’re guaranteed some original thoughts). And, as if that weren’t enough, TBMD’s gonna review some real live comic book porn for ya!

In part two of our interview with the lovely chaps over at Funnybook Babylon (part 1 here) we find out who the slackers are, fantasise about monetization, consider Jason Todd’s ethnic origins, and ask the question: what would you do if you were the fucking Beyonder!

Jump over the link and get a blog full of funnybook excitement right in yer face!

The great interblog circle jerk continues with this, the first instalment of my interview with the guys at Funnybook Babylon, where-in we discuss TOUGH LOVE FOR COMICS, contemplate how best to help the little bros, and take Tucker Stone’s name in vain*.

*Tucker responds in the comments

Click for interview action

“Green Goblin in the trees”

We were on a steam train, dashing past some woodlands when my son said those words. The sentence struck me as an example of the kind of winsome utterance one might expect from a small child obsessed by Spiderman. But at bedtime, as we were making our way through Each Peach Pear Plum, and I found myself attempting to explain to an anxious boy that the Wicked Witch hidden beneath the bramble bush should be thought of as a nice witch for the duration of the story, I started to reconsider. Later, as I went to turn off the light, T gestured fearfully towards the shadowy corner of the room and whispered “Green Goblin in the brambles!”. A small shiver ran down my spine and I realised that Mysterio would have to wait, I wanted to write about Norman Osborn’s monster.

More rambling thoughts after the jump

Sadistic torture really isn’t very nice. It’s everything that society tries to force under the carpet (unless the situation calls for real men like Jack Bauer). It represents total freedom, action unrestricted by boundaries (read: bodies), total control, total transgression, captured alongside the omega of abjection and suffering. The idealised torture chamber is a space where these limits – which are so very dangerous and threatening and repulsive – can be fully explored, and there will always be people who see the allure in that. It’s the blood red abyss beyond the brink of the acceptable, but like all good acrophobics we can’t help but look down, perhaps we’ll see something we like.

You’ve all seen Hostel, right?

Many more words after the jump

Next week will be better, my friends!

In Poodle’s Perry Bible Fellowship post he tacitly (or not so tacitly, I can’t remember) exhorted us to pay more attention to the small things. To give detail a chance to speak before it’s drowned out by our boorish information culture, and it’s to that end that I want to take a look, over a series of posts, at comic panels that have have a special place in my heart. Tucker Stone, you might want to look away now.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOgTsCkhvik]

More after the jump

“This ride is incredible, Warren. You’re really giving me one?” Says Cyclops, through a smile that punches a hole in the fourth wall. I laugh, imagine it’s not a question, and flick back a few pages.

More after the jump

Written by G. Willow Wilson
Drawn by M.K. Perker
Published by Vertigo

The Yellow Eye comes to G. Willow Wilson entirely fresh, having not read Cairo or any of her other work, which in one way is liberating, in that I have no preconceived notions about her output, and in another is limiting, in that some context can be an aid to critical thinking. Fortunately Air is nothing if not a generous text – there’s a lot here that’s immediately recognisable. The well worn plot holds very little in the way of surprises – a larger world, complete with conflicts in need of resolution, opens up when a mysterious stranger comes to town. What is unusual however, and, judging by the title of the book, what the Vertigo Willow axis think gives the book a distinct identity, is the setting: planes, airports, departure lounges, the sky.

More after the jump