Mindless Ones

Aww, fuck. Might as well start off with a quote from Millar, the Instigator:

“But I love that Kapow! is sold out. I want people to turn up, find that out and think: ‘Damn, I’m definitely going to get my ticket next year.’ There is something cool about that.”

(Kapow! Superheroes come to Britian – man, this even willingly leans in to those Zap! Pow! punches, eh?)

Ok so one of the weird things about Mark Millar, as a figure in popular culture, is that I’m predisposed to disbelieve almost everything he says in interviews. He’s like Tony Blair that way for me, only, you know, Millar’s not actually irredeemably evil.

He is the king of the obvious idea, apparently, and as such the first person to write a comic where a supervillain is the main character. The book in question? Nemesis (Icon Comics, 2010), except… that’s not quite right.  You see, the weird thing about this particular boast is that Millar actually beat himself to the punch on this one, with Wanted (Top Cow, 2003). Or maybe the pluralisation invalidates that example, in which case all I have to say is: Zodiac (Marvel, 2009). Or maybe: Irredeemable (Boom Studios, 2009). If plural supervillains count then maybe I’d be saying Empire (Gorilla Comics, 2000)  instead, but the point is that it’s a silly boast, one that’s easily proved to be untrue.

Still, at least it’s still a relatively new idea, eh?

Oh. Okay. Maybe not. Well… there probably weren’t any gay incestuous womb-bombs in those old Joker comics, but maybe that’s just because it’s a shit idea?

More fear and self loathing at the comics convention after the cut!!

UPDATE: PLOK’S ESSAY IS NOW FIXED!

Finally, here it is. The Prism is the first and possibly the last (but by no means the least) Mindless Zine, beautifully designed by our Dan White.

We have:

Sean Witzke on Casanova
Amypoodle, Bobsy and Zom on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century
Go Robo 4, a new strip by Dan White
David Allison on Brian Chppendale’s Ninja and Maggots
Andrew Hickey on comics and Christmas (that’s how late this little project is)
Plok on Kirby’s celestial dreams
The Satrap rogue reviews Kang

It’s a big file, 19 megabytes of non-stop, comics oriented, PDF action, but it’s worth it, because you’re worth it. Download from Mediafire here.

If you have any problems getting hold of the file let us know!

Wowzers!  We sure had a lot to talk about last time I visited Tymbus in my vault.  I’ve decided to give it to you in seven handy-dandy sections in the vain hope that it might make the whole experience less tedious.

vault-of-tymbus-12-1 (Fantastic Four # 570)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-1.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-02 (Archie Comics # 600)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-02.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-03 (Jack Kirby’s Captain Victory)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-03.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-04 (Lion)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-04.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-05 (Asterios Polyp)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-05.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-06 (Blackest Night)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-06.mp3]

vault-of-tymbus-12-07 (2000AD # 1650)
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vault-of-tymbus-12-07.mp3]

LOOK AND LEARN! Click here for images relevant to the above audio…

Everyone loves Jack Kirby, right?  Come listen now as I, Gary Lactus discuss with that corpulent comic critic, Tymbus, The Losers from DC Comics.  Originally published in Our Fighting Forces, this podcast deals with the recently collected hardback.  We also try an experiment in which I use the sound effects from the book to generate some Dadaist sound poetry.

Click to download Vault of Tymbus #7

[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/vaultoftymbus7.mp3]

There it is! Let’s look inside!

 

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, Lactus here. I’m just sitting at home enjoying an Excelsior lager and thinking about The King’s Crowns.

More after the jump