Mindless Ones

Smellementary my dear

• 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)

Click to receive the secret sartorial message

Gary Lactus’s spaceship is caught in a cosmic vortex, which means, amongst other things, that there will be no Amusing Brothers this week.

The universe sheds a tear

Prepare for crisis times five Batman & Robin reviews, as the Mindless Ones take turns to talk jive about the comic that’s shaking the racks! Five reviews over 5 days, starting TOMORROW NIGHT! Could we be more badass?

Prepare for Seaguy Slave of Mickey Eye #3 annocommentations!

Prepare for Captain Britain hyped!

Prepare for Batman 666 #10!

Be prepared!

Prepare!

Now!

Jack Kirby’s much lauded return to DC comics is best remembered now for his monumental 4th World proto-epic. Its fate and subsequent rescue as a lost classic are now extremely well documented, and Grant Morrison’s recent Final Crisis was pretty much a love letter to Kirby’s grandiose and complex vision. But Kirby’s other later works often get lost in the mix, viewed by many as lacklustre work for hire; contract-fulfilment by a man crushed by the general apathy that greeted his masterwork. Simply not true. Whilst they may have not stemmed from the same visionary core that Darkseid and Co sprung from, it was virtually impossible for Kirby not to infuse even his most meagre creations with a manic, creative energy that still read like nothing else.

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These are my favourite new pants. They bring the total of Hulk pants to five, making the mean green smashing machine a clear winner in the pantularity stakes. (Regular skidophiles will remember that for reasons unclear half the total Hulk pants feature him taking big licks from Iron Man. Technically this is only gamma pant solo mark three.)

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees / Is my destroyer. – Swamp Thing #140

The Mylestones – The Joker

There’s talc on the floor. A bag of ‘blues’ in your pocket, or so you like to think – dexys, mandys, but mainly ripoff caffeine pills. Door receipts are down – times are lean, leaner than the waists. Even the youngest acest faces are deep lined, adorned with feather cuts starting ever further up the head. The tribes have had to pull together and mingle even though the soul boy purists hate it, so for you, in those socks, it’s the basement mate – ska, rocksteady, and, of course, 2tone.

And take your porkpie hat with you, victim.