"I'm so happy you liked this version. I actually didn't know the play at all before I started work on the book (not one I've studied before, unfortunately), so I was coming at it from a completely neutral view and very much learning it as I went along. For all the Manga Shakespeare books, the setting for the plays are modern or futuristic. For Midsummer, I decided to have the "bookends" of the play (those within Athens) with a technological feel, which I felt would off-set the wild and chaotic parts within the forest."
- Artist Kate Brown on Emily's review of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
n e w b o o k s
"Hi Mom. Are you ok?"
"Oh sure! I'm fine. I just love to move. It's such a thrill! Oh yeah, I'm just fine and dandy."
"Gee Mom, I wish I could just somehow make you happy."
"Yeah. I wish you could, too. I've wished it about a million times."
Following the recent comic art exhibition up at The Castle here, this was the single most requested work, and it's easy to see why: it is harrowing. Brave, candid and affectingly delivered, this is a reprint of Drechsler's account of the sexual abuse she suffered from a very early age, then through into her teens, at the hands of her Father. There's no softening cushion (nor should there be), so I warn you now that the very second page is explicit and horrific. Some mothers are blissfully ignorant of what's happening under the family roof, some are complicit. It's unclear which of these applies to Debbie's mother, but it's perfectly clear that her total disregard for any meaningful form of care or communication made it impossible for her daughter to confide, which itself makes her culpable of its continuation. She asks no questions and fails to listen; she's a nasty, cruel, insensitive, judgemental, selfish and dismissive dragon, belittling her child at every opportunity, and undermining any self-confidence Debbie might have clung to. Of an early boyfriend:
"I can't even imagine what would possess you to do such a thing! You're much too young to tie yourself down this way. How could you be so stupid? ... Well, young lady, are you going to answer me or not? Well?!"
"Do I have to?"
"Yes!!"
"Uhh... well... we love each other?"
""Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what do you know about love?"
What indeed, with parents like these? If I read this right, it looks as though her father killed or at least fatally crippled Debbie's pet dog - the sole consoling element to her life - and as to her next boyfriend, any chance of a healthy physical relationship is wrecked by associations with the sexual degradation and incestuous rape at the hands of the very man supposed to care for her most.
"My Dad said it's my fault he did it to me. He said I made him lose control. He always says that.
"He said they must've gone wrong somewhere for me to become such a slut when I'm still so young.
"He said he knew I liked it when he did it to me. He said he could tell by the way I act, and by how I look at him.
"I wish I could figure out what I do so I could stop doing it."
It's a tight narrative distilled to the moments most pertinent to its execution, just as her mother, for example, is distilled to the elements most associated with her nature - angry eyebrow, narrowed, glaring eyes, crooked teeth. It's a highly stylised affair, with some of faces looking like they were made out of bangers on mash, whilst their surroundings are hewn from a suffocating range of textures. All of which, I would imagine, is deliberate.
Unlike Talbot's TALE OF ONE BAD RAT, there is no way that this could be taught in schools. However it may, one hopes, prove an equally cathartic read (to whatever small extent) for those who've also suffered such monstrous assaults, and, like Penfold's DRAGONSLIPPERS, should be illuminating to others on how such vile abuse and manipulative control leads some vulnerable individuals to suffer in silence.
The Facts Of The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch h/c (£8-99, Dark Horse) by Neil Gaiman & Mike Zulli. Good lord, Neil has a beard here! And it is most definitely Neil, just as it's Jonathan Ross (and a certain Jane whom I can't identify) sitting down with him over sushi to recall the events leading up to the strange disappearance of Miss (not her real name) Finch. No one would believe them if they recounted them, but recount them Gaiman does. It all begins when Neil holes himself up in a London hotel to finish off a script that's been eluding him. No one should have known he was there, but Jonathan Ross has his means and ways, and invites him out to the theatre with Jane and Miss Finch, if only to dilute the horror that is Miss Finch. And she is a horror, as becomes immediately apparent when she arrives at Jonathan's door (he has a very... elaborate home!). An austere and pedantic biogeologist, Miss Finch is an abrupt, humourless, superciliously and sanctimonious cow. What then, will they make as a party of the pseudo-phantasmagorical freak-show down in the warren of cellars that stretches under the train tracks of London's rainy night? Is it really a fake? And what becomes of the stone-cold-hearted Miss Finch? It's quite the transformation.
Neil keeps the tension racked, whilst Zulli (PUMA BLUES, SANDMAN: THE WAKE, CREATURES OF THE NIGHT etc.) provides rich watercoloured art with the lushest of light in the final tropical jungle scenes. Oh, and Ross is depicted as a slim Oscar Wilde, which I imagine will go down well with the fop! There's a preview at that link, by the way.
The Dangerous Alphabet h/c (£11-99, Harper Collins) by Neil Gaiman & Gris Grimly. One mad and monstrous dash through the sewers of somewhere (a long way away from where you live, let's hope!) littered with death-traps and populated by a procession of grotesques (tentacles most definitely de rigueur) as a bewildered girl and a determined boy, along with their miniature, doe-eyed gazelle, venture where perhaps they shouldn't have, and find themselves gotten by all that is rotten, and carted away like a big bail of hay. Neil puns his way through the proceedings ("C is the way that we find and we look...") but it's Grimly who's most fiendish here, his elaborate landscapes as macabre as you like but daft at the same time. A slim read for a price like that, but the sort of entertainment you can leave on your coffee table to amuse your guests while you make them a hot tot of infused deadly nightshade.
Absolute Sandman vol 3 over-sized slipcased hardcover (£65-00, Vertigo/DC) by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell, Bryan Talbot, Mike Zulli, Kent Williams, Jill Thompson, John Watkiss, Mike Allred etc. Extras this time include the full script for "Ramadan" introduced by Neil, an extensive gallery and merchandise feature, and the VERTIGO: WINTERS EDGE story drawn by Zulli.
Thoreau At Walden HC (£10-99, Hyperion) by John Porcellino ~ "On Independence Day in 1845, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau moved into a small cabin, built by his own hands, on the shore of Walden Pond outside Concord Massachusetts. He lived there for two years, two months and two days, and wrote a book about his experience called Walden, which has gone on to become one of the most influential philosophical works in the world. Walden's message of self-reliance, self-reflection, social criticism, and harmony with nature has resonated with readers for over 150 years. Thoreau at Walden is an impression of Thoreau's time at the pond, with text taken directly from Thoreau's own published writings. Henry David Thoreau is one of my biggest inspirations as an artist and human being, so this project was very near and dear to my heart." - John Porcellino (from the King-Cat website).
New original book from the KING-CAT scribe! For those who've followed Porcellino's KING-CAT comics and know of his passion for philosophy, and adapting various moral tales to comics, this should be something of a treat. Set over the course of four seasons, John has taken choice quotes from Thoreau's book, Walden, and paired them with his own visual musings. Effectively John is developing within comics a style akin to the works of the philosophers he learns from therefore creating his own ethical code. And although he seems too modest and humble to admit it, with his King-Cat Comics he also teaches as he learns. A quiet confidence enables John to break away from Thoreau's powerful words and reflect upon the man and his surroundings in moments of silent wonder which often last many pages. Most artists would inadvertently detract from any deeper meaning here with stylized visual monologues serving to placate their ego rather than play homage to one of Americas great thinkers. John, however, perfectly complements the original text with his own branch of visual philosophy, making this not just a fascinating introduction to Henry David Thoreau but also to the unique work of John Porcellino. Two great minds for the price of one.
We Can Still Be Friends (£7-99, Blank Slate) by Mawil. There's little more entertaining than an automatically translated website (this one from German), although I have been guffawing a lot at the myspace satire at the Grand Theft Auto 4 internet cafe. BEACH SAFARI was the other Mawil comic we've had in, which Tom reviewed favourably in 2003. This is a very different bunny, being a catalogue of unrequited love stories told by the creator to his (sometimes!) sympathetic mates. Jeffrey Brown writes, "If only Mawil was as good with the girls as he is a cartoonist, then we wouldn't have these fun stories about how he isn't good with the girls." And he's not, so we do. I don't know whether you can relate to this, but Mawil isn't one to get his hopes up. Quite the reverse: it doesn't matter how many of "the signs" are there, he won't delude himself that any given girl truly has the hots for him. In fact it's only when his friends make encouraging noises that he reluctantly, hesitantly perhaps comes to believe that maybe there's some hope that this one new girl finally feels the same way about him as he does about her. Will she? Will Mawil's devoted optimism ever be rewarded, or will she sweetly and tenderly but ultimately crushingly say that she simply doesn't feel that way about him. "We can still be friends, right?" Right. Except I'm too embarrassed to ever want to see you again. Ring true? Find some solace here!
Haunted h/c (£16-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Philippe Dupuy. Dreams and reflections, as Dupuy sets out to jog. His memory gets a work-out too. Dupuy certainly doesn't mind bearing his soul (see also MAYBE LATER with Berberian), and here he comes to terms with himself, working his way through what has obviously been an overwhelming time for him, in a series of hallucinatory dreamscapes and recollections. Some are deeply disturbing, like the dog, caught in a man-trap, gnawing off its own paw to be free, then freezing to death only to have its eye plucked out by a bird. Others are very revealing, as when he falls down a hole in an art gallery, and lies trapped under his own empty art show. Others are more reassuring, as a blind woman helps him look within to what matters and teaches him life lessons:
"Learn to lose yourself. You'll stop wondering where you are. And you'll never feel lost again..."
It's a bit like Anders' DOGS AND WATERS, only with some actual answers!
Amongst the many recurring themes: physical handicaps like blindness; overcoming them, forging on; collapsing buildings; the battle against entropy and bodily decay and injury; a feeling of being trapped; and a fear of falling, including, I suspect, in love. That would certainly make sense in the context of Philippe's half of MAYBE LATER, and may (may!) explain sequence here in which a macho, all-conquering Lucha Libre wrestler returns home after his bouts to dance to his gramophone... very much alone. The one challenge he refuses to take up is that from a girl - the challenge, I think, of love. Here's one of the forest friends (an anthropomorphic moose) from the, err, "Forest Friends" segment:
"The hardest thing is being willing to love, period. Even though you know it's going to be difficult, with hard times, disappointments, mistakes. That's what's tough: being ready to love in spite of it all."
I can't say I quite understand the emphasis on the stress of needing to pee - though I should imagine we've all gone through that! - and perhaps you should all erase all of my own suppositions from your minds before embarking on this yourself, because it is, like Woodring's work, something you can interpret for yourselves depending on what you bring to the table. The art is far looser than usual, sketched in sometimes borderless panels, propelling the journey ever onwards as Dupuy tries to escape being bogged down by his past and his present and his future.
Life Sucks (£12-99, First Second) by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece. To those of you/us who've fantasised about being a vampire and remaining young for ever more: imagine being bitten whilst too young to legally drink - you'd be I.D.d for the rest of your very long life! A vampire comedy, this, highly recommended to Buffy fans in particular but everyone else as well on account of it being the antithesis of everything I expected from it. For starters, the vampires aren't going to be who you'd expect; for the main course, they aren't going to do what you'd expect them to do; and for dessert, there's just no justice in life, is there? Gawky, vegetarian night-shift store attendant Dave Miller falls in love with a young, gothic designer whose friends are utter poseurs. But not all of his own acquaintances are above shallow practices, either, and when one of them discovers Dave's infatuation he uses his considerable resources (money, looks, and what he considers charm) to get the girl first. Dave also has to contend with his miserly boss with a strong Eastern European accent, his friends' constant jibes, and his addiction to soap opera. I know it doesn't sound too prepossessing, but it's "sharper than a serpent's tooth" and I really don't want to give too much more away because the creators themselves intend the surprises, except that Pleece keeps it real/mundane (in a very good way), and you're not exactly going to be expecting a shoddy script from Jessica Abel, creator of ART BABE and LA PERDIDA, are you? Here's Dave's mate at the bar of the venue for a goth fashion show:
"Can I get you anything?"
"Yes, I'd like to buy everybody in the house a sense of humour and a better wardrobe."
Rex (£6-50, Optimum Wounds) by Danijel Zezelj. From the artist on DESOLATION JONES, LOVELESS, EL DIABLO etc., comes a fierce, lyrical thunderstorm of anger. Bill Orlowski was a decorated police officer dedicated to ridding the streets of crime, but with the drug trade under the direct control of his Chief of Department, it was a race between the two men as to which could uncover or smear the other first. Bill came second in a contest where there is no runner-up prize except jail - jail with beatings from all the low-lifes Bill sent there, and rape courtesy of the rooster ruling the hellish hen-house. Orlowski died in there. Now there's only Rex, a king of a beast who will not be caged, with a ravenous appetite for revenge. Layouts, lettering, form and texture all contribute to a swifter, less bloated, black and white form of Corben (DEN, HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, CAGE, HELLBOY: MAKOMA etc.), only more jagged yet softer at the same time. His buildings are monumental, his bridges frighteningly high in the sky, so that when a car comes careering off one, you know just how far it has to fall. Revenge stories are nothing new, of course, but its originality lies in the intense, furious lyricism capped off with an exhausted, slumbering post-script.
Trains Are... Mint h/c (£12-99, Blank Slate) by Oliver East. Collects the first three issues of the series whose very first issue was only pipped at the post for Page 45's Comicbook Of The Month by Nabiel Kanan's THE DROWNERS. In compensation, therefore - and as reward for how startlingly Oliver's just upped his ante - #5 has just made it, and over Dave Sim's glamourpuss which you should be buying anyway. See Comic Section: Page 45 CBOTM. What impressed me so much about the first issue? Read on...
Brilliant! This is what I'm talking about - this is what comics can do. Oliver East decides to follow the train track - obstructions permitting - from Manchester Oxford Road station to Blackpool North, and records what he finds along the way. Now, that might not make him Michael Palin, but still, it's quite the distance. And before you wonder: no, this isn't a train-spotting expedition, it's a people-watching meander-thon:
"I pop into The Ship for a half and a toilet break as some traffic wardens stare longingly at a police car, wishing they were a tad taller or slimmer."
Oliver himself comes under certain scrutiny, and I've had this one myself:
"Sign o Times - can text on bus, but write, people stare."
East often incorporates the text into the environments he depicts, so that some bits are written as drinks labels or crisp packet blurb, whilst his comments on the local graffiti appear... as bits of graffiti:
"It's all THINGIE'S WELL FIT or SO + SO'S A LEZZER. There was a badly drawn bong, but it's slim pickings so far."
Snap-shots of English life, then, in pen and full-colour washes on quality stock paper, under a beautiful, beige card cover.
Graphic Witness (£19-99, Firefly) by Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Giacomo Patri, Laurence Hyde. "Four rare wordless novels by some of the greatest woodcut artists from the first half of the 20th century." You might recognise the last name because I reviewed Hyde's contribution as below, and that cost a whopping £16-99! For another three quid you get four times the amount of genius: "The Passion Of A Man" from 1918, "Wild Pilgrimage" from 1932, and "White Collar" from 1938, all put into context by George Walker. The collection's been praised by Neil Gaiman and Seth, and Bryan Talbot ordered a copy from us just the other day. So yes, here's how I reviewed a mere quarter of this doorstop of a book...
Southern Cross h/c (£16-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Laurence Hyde. Nothing I write could match either the eloquence or the precision of words from the heart-felt introductions by Laurence Hyde or fellow artist Rockwell Kent, but that link will take you to the interior images which speak volumes about the South Sea island, South Sea islanders and the South Sea bounty of oceanic beauty destroyed by America's insistence on testing Atomic weapons in their midst. This is a facsimile of the 1951 edition of this silent story printed from intricate wood engravings (there's a difference between wood engraving and woodcuts I had no idea about until I read Hyde's notes), with a distinct South Seas style to them. The story follows the islanders' quiet, idyllic lives until being unceremoniously evacuated by a naval vessel of drunken sailors, except for the woman one of them attempts to rape, her husband who comes to her rescue, and their child. They're still on the island when the bomb is lowered into the ocean, a finger closes on the detonation button, and the human race's determined capacity to destroy all it can is once more unleashed, during peace time, on a healthy ecosystem whose creatures fall broken from the sky or sink slowly to the bottom of the poisoned sea. It is to weep. If you're a fan of BLOOD SONG, then one look at this will tell you that Eric Drooker must have long been a fan of this, and it's easy to see why.
BPRD vol 8: Killing Ground (£11-99, Dark Horse) by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis. Have you noticed Guy's art changing over the course of these series? Thicker features and more visual shorthand propelling the story forward. More bloody mayhem featuring Hellboy's cohorts in the Bureau For Paranormal Research and Defence with a "c".
The Starman Omnibus h/c vol 1 (£32-99, DC) by James Robinson & Tony Harris ##
What I considered to be my finest hour in comic collecting happened during a change in coaches at Birmingham. Having impatiently wandered away from the bus station I stumbled across a second hand book store. It was in here that I came across, more or less, the first fifteen issues of Starman (which in the long term was a real find as back issues were a bitch to get hold of!).
What drew me to the title were the stunning painted covers by Tony Harris, something quite unusual for a monthly super hero title, especially from DC. But the main thing was the hero himself. Instead of being covered in head to toe in primary coloured spandex, or protected by some kind of futuristic armour, he was very, very different. He was a young goateed man in a leather jacket complete with sheriff’s badge and World War II goggles. Apart from that his trousers, vest or shirt changed with every issue. Finally a super-hero who looked really cool!
Often likened to Sandman, James Robinson had set out from day one with a grand plan with an end in sight from the moment the series was commissioned. This was to be a series which resurrected a Golden Age character and would see our hero from his very beginnings through to the end.
Following "Zero Hour", the mantle of Starman had been passed from the original Starman, Ted Knight, now an old man, to his eldest son David. "Sins of the Father" begins with a crime spree master-minded by Ted’s former nemesis, The Mist, also an old man. It was to be a spree which would ransack his home in Opal City and target the former member of the JSA and his two sons.
During this spree David is shot by a sniper and killed before he can really get going as Starman. That was to be James Robinson’s moment of genius. Having narrowly escaped with his life, Jack Knight is forced into action to save not only his own life but that of his father. Having grown up mocking the world of super-heroes Jack has no respect, know-how or background in being a hero and sets about it badly.
We all know Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider. We all know Bruce Wayne became Batman after his parents were murdered. But we weren’t there. Apart from titles like "Year One" we only saw them as who we were told they were. What makes Starman a joy to read is having been there from the start. Having spent his time running his antique shop and immersing himself in the past, Jack reluctantly becomes the hero in an agreement that would see his father put his scientific research of the stars into a good use for humanity. But the best thing is that Jack is actually really, really bad at it. He doesn’t know how to use his Cosmic Rod (I’ll forgive that snigger), and he knows nothing about fighting crime other than a few nifty Jui-Juitso moves. In the early days he bumbles about regularly taking beatings.
Starman is a title like no other. It is both a celebration and education in the history of the character. Owing to Robinson’s fantastic knowledge of ancient DC, we are treated to glimpses of everyone who has taken the mantle, even if it was just a cancelled ten issue series. It is also an amalgamation of the Golden Age and modern DC universe. Old favourites like The Shade and Solomon Grundy adorn the pages, and other less popular DC characters like Elongated Man and Black Condor are given a new home in Opal City. Even the now geriatric Sandman, Wesley Dodds, gets to pull on his gas mask for one last adventure.
The series is completely unique as a regular monthly super-hero title as it stopped every year to tell the story of Ted Knight and the splendour of the Golden Age in "Times Past". "Talking with David" was the highlight of every year when we temporarily left Jack as a would-be hero and explored the failed relationship between him and his brother.
"Sins of the Father" is a brilliant introduction to Jack Knight and Opal City. Now collected in this pristine luxury edition it is a must-read for anyone who grew bored, lost faith or just grew out of super-hero comics. Quite simply James Robinson and Tony Harris created a magnificent and unique opus which is an absolute joy to read. So go on ..... Reach for the Stars.
JLA Presents: Aztek - The Ultimate Man (£12-99, DC) by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar & N. Steven Harris > Oh, now this is a frustrating one. You can tell, reading these first halting steps, that Aztek was going to be a great series. It has an unusual, engaging hero in the lead; he's not the heir to any of the DC Universe legacies, but nor is he a gimmick. He can interact with Batman, the Joker, the JLA, without the stories feeling overbalanced by their guest stars. The set-up has all sorts of intriguing mysteries - who are the Q Foundation, who've trained Aztek to face the return of an ancient evil? What is the ancient evil? And what does all this have to do with the city of Vanity, a psychogeographical nightmare built to a madman's designs, which seems to have a distressing knack of perverting its protectors? Which last detail is particularly well realised, the story standing alongside Alan Moore's Supreme as a turn away from the 'dark', 'kewl' turn nineties comics took, and back towards a certain innocence. The problem is, the marketplace and the industry being what they are, Aztek never got chance to get past this warming-up and show us how good a comic it could be. So you're left unsatisfied, reading ten pretty good issues and then thinking 'is this it?' Because sadly, it is. From about the third trade on, Aztek would have been a truly wonderful comic. But there is no third trade, not even a second, at least not in this particular benighted strand of the multiverse. There's just this one, and a few appearances in Morrison's peerless JLA run. A glimmer of what could have been.
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul h/c (£19-99, DC) by Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Paul Dini, Fabian Nicieza, Keith Champagne & Tony S. Daniel, Don Kramer, Freddie E. Williams II, David López, Jason Pearson. ROBIN, NIGHTWING, DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN cross-over tumbling out of Morrison's main run on BATMAN into a untidy jumble with an entirely arbitrary ending leaving just one page for self-congratulations. Also, there was one decaying hand too many that didn't make sense given that the monk wasn't poisoned like Ra's' (I have no idea about that last apostrophe, by the way - stupid bloody name) original substitute body. See, Ra's's back from the dead (I'm going to keep messing about until he seeks a deed poll) and finds he has a grandson, Damian, via his daughter and Bruce bonk 'em Wayne. A particularly snotty grandson, to be sure, who's got constant beef with Robin, but still, it's hardly the act of a kindly poppa to demand your grandson's body be handed over so you can inhabit it. Ra's' new body has been poisoned, and he's running out of time so it's one turgid rush to find some hocus pocus solution before -- oh who the hell cares? Variable art.
X-Men: Messiah Complex h/c (£26-99, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Peter David, Craig Kyle, Chris Yoist & Billy Tan, Scott Eaton, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, Marc Silvestri. Talk about clearing the decks! Recent blow-out blockbuster and mutant crossover, this could so easily have been crowded cauldron of spoiled broth, but instead the multiple cooks have worked in close cooperation to deliver a consistent consommé, with the multiple threads carried through each title rather leap-frogging over each other. You won't be able to predict which big reveals will happen when; and there are major reveals, multiple deaths, and one almighty piece of treachery which - after fifteen years of dithering - makes perfect sense in this context. On the subject of which, the dramatic irony after readers experience the shock is satisfyingly sustained until right at the end.
Let me put this into context (whilst reassuring you that with just a little level of mutant knowledge over the last few years, you can read this free from any knowledge of recent events - you'll catch up - probably!): I hate most crossovers, especially with multiple writers and artists on board; until recently, Mike's style of writing just wasn't for me; although I love almost everything else Brubaker has done (THE FALL with Jason Lutes, COMPLETE LOWLIFE, SCENE OF THE CRIME, CRIMINAL, GOTHAM CENTRAL, DAREDEVIL and the current CAPTAIN AMERICA series... err, etc.), I've been as disinterested in his UNCANNY X-MEN as I have in Mike's X-MEN; I've never read NEW X-MEN. But I enjoyed this so much for what it is (lots of fights, snappy banter and a series of large-scale turning points), that I've just finished re-reading this as a book in sun-soaked garden. It works, and it's mostly very pretty, particularly Tan's pages.
So: after an extended period in which the mutant gene in so many has been eliminated, and those who still possess it have been effectively neutered (HOUSE OF M: "No more mutants!"), a sudden spike indicating the birth of the first mutant in ages is so off the scale that its feedback blows up Xavier's mutant-tracking device, Cerebro. The X-Men follow its lead only to discover a town obliterated, its inhabitants incinerated, and the baby missing. At the same time Forge's GPS for time and space finally locates two future time lines in which mutants do still exist, and dispatches one of Jamie Madrox's Multiple Men into each, with Layla Miller (she knows stuff) unexpectedly hopping on board for one of these one-way tickets. Who has the baby? The Purifier's - the band of religious zealots who believe mutant kind to be an aberration of God's creation? Mr. Sinister and his Marauders, who'd want to control the baby and its enormous potential? Or a third party they'd never suspect? (Umm, I think I've just told you!!!) What further threats (and there are several) will surface to steal the day -- and maybe the baby? What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slathers towards Westchester to slaughter everything in sight? Where is Mystique? And who is the baby? Who could it possibly be? Female, red hair, green eyes... You don't think...? Mmmmm. Also: ever wondered why Bishop had a big M tattooed across his face? Thirteen issues, big fat gallery at the back, and the original story summit notes. Délicieux!
Ultimate Human h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Warren Ellis & Cary Nord.
"Bring me my future. So that I can drink its blood." Hmmm. Wonder who that is...
Tony Stark, born of wealthy technocrat parents, with his cell structure rendered into biological computronium in the womb: nano-tech genius, inventor of the Iron Man suit, and billionaire boozer, he's an incorrigible flirt. Bruce Banner, failed lover, and failed scientist in a failing body riddled with Super-Soldier stacks gone wrong which, under pressure, transform him into the Hulk: the Hulk eats people. Throw into the mix another failed experiment born of political frustration (Ellis fans will be very pleased at the identity of the Ultimate universe's Leader), and you won't want to set your garden paving with the result. Hell, you won't have much in the way of a garden left. Bruce wants Tony's help to rid him of his alter ego, and Tony thinks he's got it all figured out at his Chihuahuan Desert Ironworks Laboratories: an unbreakable tank to contain The Hulk when they attempt to establish comparative metabolic baselines, and an antidote in case it can't. It can't because each Hulk Event - each transformation - is different. The creature adapts to trauma and compensates, and when that happens...
"What do we do, Mr. Stark?"
"Run away, I'd think. Quite fast."
The dialogue is a joy, pared down to facts, figures and fun reflecting Stark's efficiency, expertise and iconoclastic sense of humour, whilst there's some compelling arguments about the Britain's own Enhancile Programme which make for some very intelligent background to the relevant chapters of Millar and Hitch's ULTIMATES run. The art's full of space as well (you might know Nord from Dark Horse's successful relaunch of the CONAN license under Kurt Busiek), and looks like it's been painted with gouache. Something else, then, that we can sell with confidence to new readers who've enjoyed the Iron Man film - and I haven't heard of anyone who hasn't. Make sure you stay past the credits, by the way. I'm told you'll be Furious if you don't.
Thor vol 1 h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Straczynski & Olivier Coipel. Oh yeah, colours by Laura Martin.
Loki Be A Lady Tonight!
Never has the title been so animated, so personal or so surprising. It's been more Norse, for sure, most notably on Walt Simonson's run (and now Fraction's top take - see Comic Section), but this is by no means without its legend and lore as Thor rebuilds Asgard outside a small town in America, floating above the wide open plains of Oklahoma, and starts searching for its former inhabitants trapped in human bodies. But best not wake them all up, eh? Straczynski comically juxtaposes the provincial, the practical and the mundane with the legendary, the lofty and the blithely unconcerned, bravely building the series step by well weighted step, while Coipel and Martin fill the ancient halls with evening shadow and the skies above with light.
But the pièce de résistance comes when Thor visits New Orleans which, while he was dead, drowned as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina and the negligence of America's heroes as they fought each other during their CIVIL WAR. Fitting then, that this is where Iron Man, responsible let's not forget for surreptitiously stealing samples of Thor's DNA and using them to build a perversion, a clone of the Thunder God which killed Bill Foster (I would imagine to a god, that's waaaaay beyond blasphemy), catches up with his old friend and discovers - Superhuman Registration Act or no - that there are limits to what he can impose on others. Coipel and Straczynski play that simmering scene beautifully before bringing it to the most almighty boil, and I personally found the result very cathartic. You don't dictate to a god.
In volume two: a devastating sequence in which Thor - in his human guise of Dr. Donald Blake - attempts to find his Lady Sif, encounters Blake's old girlfriend Dr. Jane Foster, and fails to spot what's right under his nose: unconditional love and Lady Sif herself, trapped in the most awful way imaginable. Instead he walks away...
Hulk: WWH - X-Men (£16-99, Marvel) by Gage, Slott, Kirkman, Way & Divito, Caselli, Hester, Salteres, Guice. You're being miss-sold an item here, for yes, there be X-MEN (WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN to be precise), but the majority of this comes from AVENGERS INITIATIVE #4-5, IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #10, GHOST RIDER #12-13 and IRON MAN #19-20. Now, I haven't read more than a few pages because I was offered the alternative of a couple of hours stabbing myself in the neck with a garden fork, but I have just stumbled across a rather good couple of lines from Dr. Strange to Reed Richards after they witness the Ghost Rider confronting (but not fighting) The Hulk face to face, then turning around and riding off in the opposite direction. "The Ghost Rider avenges only the innocent. Which we... all of us... are not." Super-duper art from Guice on the IRON MAN issues (bodes well for ULTIMATE ORIGINS written by Bendis next month), otherwise most ugly indeed.
Daredevil: Hell To Pay vol 2 (£10-50, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark. Previously on DAREDEVIL: Matt Murdock was outed, hounded, got married, went mad, got separated, returned to wife Milla, was imprisoned, went on the run, then cleared his name with a load of outright lies. Now someone is after Milla. Someone goes after Milla, forces her to commit murder (I don't mean coerce even at gunpoint, I mean "forces her"), gets her locked up and then drives her mad.
Sorry, Matt - that's what you get for being a ginger.
Alternatively: absolutely devastating. Cleverly composed, superbly orchestrated, and poignantly performed, all without recourse to extrinsic extended metaphors.
Captain America: The Death Of Captain America vol 2 h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Brubaker & Epting. Possibly the cleverest and most fortuitously timed pages of the exceptional run so far as The Red Skull goes after America through its economy. Mortgage foreclosures? They're the headlines today. Guest-stars The Black Widow, the black Falcon, America's own Black Wednesday, and Iron Man.
also shipped:
Booster Gold: 52 Pick Up (£16-99, DC) by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz & Dan Jurgens
Superman/Batman vol 6: Torment h/c (£12-99, DC) by Alan Burnett & Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs
Batman: The Joker's Last Laugh (£11-99, DC) by Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty & various
A lot of packing chips.
m a n g a a a a !
"Don't keep you thumb inside your fingers. That means you have a boss, okay? We're not slaves anymore. We're free, with no one above us." Well, that's not quite true.
1783: a terrified panic as a mutiny of manacled men frantically struggle with their bonds in sea-filled slave-hold in the bowels of a sinking ship. That's how the book kicks off before two slaves thrust themselves to the surface as a new dawn rises over a glorious Eastern coastline. I suspect the opening sequences of each chapter were originally in watercolour, so it's a bit of a shame this is all black and white, but never mind. Koike you may know from LONEWOLF & CUB, PATH OF THE ASSASSIN, SAMURAI EXECUTIONER and LADY SNOWBLOOD, and the majority of the art's not too dissimilar to Kojima's work there, with more of an Ikegami feel (CRYING FREEMAN etc.) as inked by Ernie Colon (INCREDIBLE HULK thirty-odd years ago). Anyway, King and George are the names of these freshly freed slaves, and they're given to a little madness themselves when they encounter corruption, treachery, injustice and the misuse of power - and they do so in each and every episode here as they wander a land riddled with conflict as starvation compels the peasants to flee or revolt against their feudal masters, either crime punishable by summary execution. The population has never encountered Africans, which makes King stand out a mile. Fortunately pragmatist George is Japanese, and as they travel he teaches King as much of the local codes and customs as he can, without which they stand no hope of survival, whilst idealist and people's champion King reminds George that it's meaningless to be free if you don't use your freedom to speak up, stand up and be true to yourself even at the risk of your own life. The work is admittedly thick with overdramatic proclamations and, like CRYING FREEMAN - though to a lesser extent thankfully, because I find some of that series very distasteful - it's marred with a slight bent towards what Dark Horse call a "chauvinistic violence". You can't fault the rest of its moral core, though, and I found a lot of the etiquette George explains fascinating:
"Don't look back until we walk thirty steps! The Jinba Oyabun is is watching us from hiding. By not looking around, we are showing our trust - that we entrust our backs to him.
"Entrust our backs?"
"It signifies our trust that no one will attack us and that they'll protect us within thirty steps of the house. That's the code."
Dororo vol. 1 (£8-99, Vertical Inc) by Osamu Tezuka ~ Supernatural fantasy set during the "Warring Sates Period" (5th Century BC). Daigo Kagemitsu, a Samurai aspiring for total dominance over Japan offers parts of his unborn child to 48 demons for the realisation of his selfish dream. Discarding the "deficient" newborn into a river, Daigo soon forgets about his terrible acts. But somehow the boy survives. Calling himself Hyakkimaru he roams the country looking for the 48 demons and his missing body parts, aided by incredible prosthetics, telepathic powers (as he has yet to find his eyes/ears/mouth) and an irritating boy-thief named Dororo who wants the blade hidden in Hyakkimaru's arm. Not quite as epic or deep as Buddha or Phoenix, this is non-the-less excellent Tezuka and the relationship between Hyakkimaru being a man physically in pieces and Dororo a boy whose mind is in a similar state is fascinating.
Hamlet (£6.99, SelfMadeHero) written by William Shakespeare, illustrated by Emma Vieceli: Part of the Manga Shakespeare series, attempting to combine his original texts with the distinctive manga style without losing any meaning along the way - and in this case succeeding! The imaginative and varying layout (not un-similar to that of other action-manga series like Bleach or Deathnote) makes the story fairly easy to follow even if you just didn’t get it school. This is definitely for all manga fans, left-to-right-reading theatre lovers and even school libraries - so it’s not all tragic! Oh wait… yes it is.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (£6.99, SelfMadeHero) written by William Shakespeare, illustrated by Kate Brown: Another, more light-hearted, one from the Manga Shakespeare series; where as well as thanking William for the witty and delightful dialogue, we also have Kate to thank for communicating everything else! She allows all the laughable moments experienced on the stage to be enjoyed on paper. Again, a brilliant tool for schools lucky enough to get this and not A View from a Bridge <sigh>.
Macbeth (£9-99 for each of the three versions, Classical Comics) by William Shakespeare & John Haward, with John McDonald on abridgement. First things first and none of these Shakespeare adaptations should be in the manga section, but it's how SelfMadeHero (not Classical Comics) have decided to market the books to kids, using the word they most associate with their favourite comics: "manga". Eminently sensible if confusing to adults who actually know what they're talking about. On the one hand (that'll be cut off by Ilya for even mentioning this), the word "manga" is used in Britain and America to refer to comics of Japanese origin, and there is nothing remotely Japanese about these. On the other hand (which may survive Ed's wrath), "manga" is simply the Japanese word for comics, so everything in this Mailshot is, truly speaking, manga. On the hand I hope to grow back later on (because otherwise these Mailshots will take forever to type), Tom tells me that regardless of whether "manga" is the Japanese word for comics, the Japanese actually call comics "comics". I should also mention that unlike SelfMadeHero, Classical Comics give you the classic as is, without changing its time or place.
So now we may begin, with Macbeth discovering a little too late that he doesn't have the stomach for murder, and has not only killed King Duncan, but his own chances of a decent night's sleep...
Whence is that knocking? -
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
[Re-enter Lady Macbeth, having returned the daggers to the two dupes they're framing] Lady M:
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Hold on a damned spot, sweetheart - you are so going to change your mind about that.
There's gallons of blood in Macbeth - mentioned several times a scene in places. Shakespeare was such a massive Nick Cave fan that he often tried trouncing him in the body-count department,* and this is truly the play for boys, being full of horrific imagery, superstition and the supernatural. Also it contains one of my favourite words in the English language: "incarnadine". Not one I can slip comfortably into every conversation, but fantastic when you're about to add a drop or two of Angostura bitters into your rum punch.
The three versions of this book on offer are 1) Full and unabridged, 2) Full story but fewer words for a fast-paced read, and 3) Full story in slang ("Eh, turn it down will you, I is totally off my 'ead, and me metaphorical sleeves is mucky, innit?"). I'm joking. Full story translated into plain English. The second version of the passage quoted above reads, ""Every little noise frightens me -- and all the waters of the ocean won't wash the blood off these hands." "My hands are just as red, but my heart's not as cowardly!" Which is still rather poetic, and yet far easier to comprehend. Version three, however, reads, ""Where's that knocking coming from? What's wrong with me? ... Every noise frightens me! Whose hands are these? They're blinding me with their guilt. Can all the waters of the oceans wash away the blood? No, these hands would turn all the seas red." "My hands are the same colour as yours, but I'd be ashamed to have a heart as white."" Again, great. As long as you know that white feathers used to be associated with cowardice (because the current colour of choice is to describe someone as "yellow"), you're fine. No, I mention this because I'd assumed that version three would be the most simplified one, but it's version two, so please be careful when you order. The art's more than serviceable here, being a blunter sort of mid-Talbot, and do remember that Shakespeare's plays were never designed to be read cold in the classroom in black and white print: they were written to be watched. That's exactly what anyone picking these up will be experiencing, only you can proceed at your own pace rather than be dictated to be the actors - very useful when the language grows more complex. I've decided that Page 45 is going to get more and more behind Classical Comics. Indeed in the next twelve months you're going to see a whole new focus here on early literacy which will go way beyond supplying all the school libraries we're lucky enough to have on board at the moment. Not only has the same publisher just won a silver medal at the 2008 Independent Publisher Awards for HENRY V, but Patrick Stewart's on the back of these praising their approach, and he doesn't half know his Shakespeare so I'd say you were in very good hands.
* [Are you sure about this? - ed.]
n e w c o m i c s
Trains Are... Mint #5 (£4-99, Rolling Stock Press) by Oliver East. COMICBOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB MEMBERS: £4-00
"I worry about what to write on stretches like this.
"I could meditate on some demon or issue. But I'm not ready to let you in yet.
"Or I could research the birds that frequent this here reserve.
"Yeah, I could use the bird watching book my dad bought me when I was a kid. He'd written inside: "To Oliver, who watches birds and dreams of flying. x"
"How the hell would he know? He barely knew me.
"Sorry, let the mask slip there. Better reign it in. So. Birds are nice..."
Everyone in the comicbook industry gets a thank-you in the back except me, which wounds my egomaniacal pride to the core. What's rubbish old Paul Gravett done for this series that I haven't? Who even is this Paul Gravett he speaks of? Ah well, no worries! You'll perhaps have seen me rave about this series before, in which anorak East strolls out onto the train tracks and simply takes his leisurely time in documenting his perambulations, observations and silliness he sees there. Brilliant. But now... now in this self-contained little ticket the man has achieved poetry: visual and literary poetry, and I don't mean that in the mock-denigratory way I usually refer to that particular medium. I mean that he has elevated his craft from the ridiculous to the sublime. It is beautiful, with a grace that few can muster. There's the ghost of cat which slinks its way through a series of perfect panels, floating through their borders; the train tracks which curl their serpentine way round the high-rise office blocks like an industrialised boa constrictor; the canal that makes an island of a warehouse; and the colours... the colours are... that's what I mean by "grace". As to the writing, I have no other option but to quote and quote again:
"I vaguely chastise myself for being disappointed that there's no tramps under the arches between Sackville Street and Princess Street.
"It's a good thing no one's sleeping there. Good for them.
"They would have been nice to draw, though.
"I feel shame's hand pulling me on."
For regular followers of this series, I should mention that #4 doesn't exist. Well, it does: it's an original piece of art - a one-off one-shot that only one of you can buy for a very large sum of money. As Neil Curtis said with a big, broad grin, "Bloody artists, eh?" Perhaps it's gone by now, and I am a twit for not being that one patron that could and should have bought it himself. I never said I was perfect. This, however, is and it just beat Dave fucking Sim to Comicbook Of The Month. I think I may have to send an advance copy to Clan Chief Campbell. This is everything Eddie originally set out to achieve with his own autobiography, and Oliver seems to be not only a natural successor, but a very worthy one at that. Keep going, Oliver!
[Please note: Paul Gravett is neither old nor rubbish. Nor is Kenny Penman of Blank Slate Books, who publish the collected edition of #1-3 in the Book Section. Blank Slate Books is an offshoot of Forbidden Planet, but Kenny phoned ahead to make sure we'd have our copies as exactly the same time as F.P.. How honourable is that?]
glamourpuss #1 (£2-10, Aardvark-Vanaheim) by Dave Sim. I really don't think I need remind you that (in my view) this man is the most talented creator this medium has ever seen, so I imagine every single person on this mailshot has already reserved their copy somewhere or other. No point, then in making this Comicbook Of The Month, surely. Meanwhile I did promise you some exclusives from my interview with Dave Sim, and here they are in the form of an out-take from COMICS INTERNATIONAL editor Mike Conroy's questions for Dave (all of mine went into the COMICS INTERNATIONAL feature now due out in #206 and Dave was on top, mischievous form) two of which Glamourpuss herself took on before flouncing out of the room to do something fabulous with her hair:
Mike Conroy: What's the "high-concept pitch" for Glamourpuss?
Glamourpuss: Really. Don't be impertinent.
Mike: What is the main thread that draws the reader from issue to issue?
Glamourpuss: People have always found me fascinating and I thought it was time to share my worldview with the world.
[Glamourpuss leaves]
Mike Conroy: What are the main players' motives?
Dave Sim: Self-rationalization alternating with profound existential despair. Oh, those wacky atheists!
We now return you to the regular schedule of me just regurgitating previews....
"glamourpuss is all about the way you live now!
glamourpuss is all about bright colours!
glamourpuss is all about bold prints and plaids!
glamourpuss is smart and sassy!
glamourpuss is all about over-paying for ghost-written copy that a chimp could write!
Honestly, if glamourpuss didn't have to to pick up her dry-cleaning in the next ten minutes, glamourpuss would be tempted to re-write this whole thing herself: à bientôt for now!
Yrs. 5 ever! Glamourpuss"
Seriously, do yourselves a favour and visit the Glamourpuss website. It is hilarious. Even the bits you wouldn't imagine - like "Selling Yourself" - are enough to keep you chuckling until bedtime. It's a warren of pages within pages - there's even a new bit I wrote in the retailer section under Page 45, though obviously that's not the highlight! I can't think of anyone who has put so much time, wit and lateral thinking into promoting a project as thoroughly as this. All credit to Jeff Tundis as well for a remarkable job as webmaster and cheers for all the help with the platinum-member registration, mate. As to the project itself, if you've yet to visit our myspace, I promise you the interior images will make you swoon.
So what is GLAMOURPUSS really about? It's part-satire of the fashion industry, part-parody of fashion magazines and wicked wink at those who edit, inhabit and buy them. It's also an extended show-and-tell exploration of photo-realism in comics as Dave Sim studies the work of Al Williamson, Neal Adams et al, works out how they achieved certain effects, then emulates and adapts their techniques within the comic he's creating. He's rolling out some of the most sublimely beautiful comicbook pages this medium has ever seen, easily surpassing his passive teachers in doing so. In addition, there are "bonus featurettes" as you'd find in any fashion mag, like "Skanko's Dating Guide: 5 Signs You've Found Mr. Right!" which focuses its disdain on male and female superficiality:
"3. He tells his buddies about how hot you are and suggests they should call you sometime. Dumbfounded? Chill out. Men can be such children sometimes, showing off their new "toy". If one of them does call you, let him know in no uncertain terms that you're a One-Man Woman (after you find out what kind of car he drives)."
As an art lesson to any student or professional out there, whether you're involved in comics or not, it is invaluable. As an object of beauty to anyone who loves women, it is a gift from the gods. As a comic of extraordinary craft it is going to be a wonder to all who love this medium, and for anyone who just likes to laugh out loud with the likes of LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, you are in for a treat.
Ellerbisms vol one (£2-99, self-published) by Mar Ellerby. If you follow the link you'll find this on-line, but you want one for your coffee table as well, right? To amuse your friends while you fall drunkenly into your prized shrubbery. This is an equally confessional series of diary strips, only much funnier - even the excruciatingly painful trip to the Sexual Health Clinic (your eyes will water, boys). Lots of music and lusting and self-deprecation, Marc is effortlessly charming throughout. You really need to see his refreshingly clear and engaging cartooning as well, but if this helps send you back to that link, so be it.
"Oh man!
"What?"
"I've well done this Sudoku wrong! Now I've gotta tear it out so no one sees it and thinks I'm a giant prick."
"I just don't "get" Art, y'know."
"Oh, there's not much to "get" really. Just associate different things with certain aspects. Apart from this... This is shit."
House Of Mystery #1 (£2-10, Vertigo/DC) by Matthew Sturges & Luca Rossi; tale within a tale by Bill Willingham & Ross Campbell.
"Even though all mysteries contain secrets, not all secrets contain mysteries."
There appear to be an awful lot of both in this new title, so that I don't know where to start. Perhaps at the beginning in a corner of The Dreaming, where Cain is sat down to tea with his brother Abel in The House of Secrets. Decaffeinated tea and sugar-free cakes: it looks like Abel's trying to lose weight, become more healthy, live a longer life. Well, we know how that story always ends with those two siblings. And yet I'd forgotten, so that first joke made me smile, and page two was equally unexpected. Someone's just stolen Cain's house - The House of Mystery. Years later and it's been populated by strangers from throughout time, trapped save for the occasional random release into the care of the Coachman. We don't yet know why they're there, what merits release, or what fate awaits them in the horse-pulled stage coach. In the meantime to alleviate the ennui they tell each other stories - they're the only currency in town. This month's story is a particularly grim affair written by Willingham and drawn by Campbell (WET MOON), and a fine example of the word belying the picture in which you'll find new meaning in the term "bar-fly". Lastly for now, there's a new arrival whose home has been destroyed, and who's being pursued by a man and woman joined (almost figuratively) at the hip, and who has in her hands architectural drawings. Architectural drawings she's been compelled to complete from every conceivable angle, over and over again. It's a house that appeared to her in her sleep: The House of Mystery.
24 x 2 (£3-50, Top Shelf) by David Chelsea. Two 24-hour comics (comics completed within 24 hours) which delve into dreams and examine the argument that almost all autobiography in comics is a fiction of sorts, given that events are never witnessed as depicted on account of you don't see yourself in your own life. You see your hands, your feet, and your nose when you go cross-eyed, but on the whole those of you who don't spend your entire life staring into the mirror will experience life differently from the way that the likes of Jeffrey Brown, John Porcellino or Eddie Campbell convey theirs. In the case of Jeffrey, his girlfriends weren't all one-inch tall; in the case of John, most of his life was experienced in colour; and in the case of Eddie, he hasn't been dead. Oh wait, that wasn't autobiography at all. Aaaanyway, the second story here is one long, extended dream sequence which successfully captures the confusion and the illogical and uncharacteristic risk-taking some dreams have us embark upon (here, scaling a block of flats using a rope tied to a batarang), told in monochromatic grain-o-vision.
Do You Want To Kiss It Better #1 (£2-50) by various. Published in support of the World Land Trust - and printed on recycled paper using vegetable oil-based inks on presses run on 100% local wind power by people eating dandelions and non-dairy buttercups grown free-range in their gardens - this is, like many a worthy endeavour, a mixed bag of Quorn. "Cause And Effect" by Shiro (not Matsumune) may well be lifted from - sorry inspired by - USAGI YOJIMBO or some other Buddhist tract but even if so, elevated it has been into a wonderfully fluid series of panels with some fabulous curves, superb brush flourishes and unusual and dynamic camera angles. It's an anthropomorphic life lesson whose figures Mike Kunkel (HEROBEAR AND THE KID) wouldn't have been disappointed in. "Introducing The Opossum Shrimp" by Leonie O'Moore was commendable succinct and bang on-target, whilst the rest... the rest of the people mean well and are therefore saved from my usual range of heartless, caustic witherisms. Details of how to make your purchase can be found at the link.
The Invincible Iron Man #1 (£2-10, Marvel) by Matt Fraction & Greg Larroca. Nicotine, genocide and suicide bombers. These things are real, current and far more deserving of discussion than whatever forms the basis of 99% of superhero comics' output. To do so this intelligently and entertainingly puts Fraction in an IRON MAN camp that has - after over 40 years of publication - only ever included one other man: Warren Ellis. It is packed: packed with ideas: with tech, with humour and with authority - plus he's given Quesada everything he ever wanted in terms of an anti-smoking campaign.* Pepper Potts is finally sexy and sharp. Plus Larroca's art has evolved still further since NEW UNIVERSAL into something approaching Steve Epting. You can forget the old IRON MAN series: this is the real one - the one that will endure and the one you need to follow, so well done those who took note of my preview, and oh dear me to those who've just missed this.
* My own abstention in 2007 lasted all of fifteen days. I quit quite successfully, I think. Then I quit quitting and that's gone remarkable well too. I've quite some willpower when I put my mind to it. When I was sixteen I gave up religion for Lent. Never looked back.
Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #1 of 4 (£2-60, Marvel) by John Favreau & Adi Granov. Swoon, swoon, swoon-swoon-swoon. Glorious art! Absolutely majestic, whether it's the lizards scampering their way from the dessert to clog the Las Vegas strips, hotels and swimming pools in their millions, or the golden dragon statue sleeping under the banks of the rising Yangtze river above the hydroelectric damn before being stolen away to crown the casino, it's all as breathtakingly beautiful as you'd expect from Ellis' cohort on IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. If you do not love this, then you have never been a boy. Under Favreau Stark is more charming than ever. Shame Marvel ruined the punchline with a ludicrously placed ad for IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF D.E.B.R.I.S..
X-Men: At Cost Comicbook Day (15p, Marvel) by Mike Carey & Greg Land.
"That was Barry Gwynn's girl. Flying from what I could see."
"Well she went to that America, didn't she?"
Easily the most entertaining script I've read by Carey for this self-contained adventure in Wales, beautifully drawn by Land. Like all the students at the Xavier Academy for Gifted Mutants, Megan Gwynn aka Pixie has been sent home. The mansion had been attacked and destroyed, its classrooms now looking like they'd housed Hadden School's finest (a little joke for our local teachers there). So here she is in Abergylid, a quiet old mining town in rural Wales. Only, it's not so quiet, on account of all the disappearances recently. She calls home to Scott, Emma and Logan; she reports what she knows to the local constabulary; but she's on her own with the N'Garai emerge to rip her to pieces. After that they take the fight down into the warren of abandoned coal mines, where Megan's Da died in the two-mile seam...
Oh, if only Mike made his regular X-MEN series this clutter-free and witty. Lovely Welsh accents too - not overwrought, but full of charm and character.
Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (£2-10, Marvel) by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk. I know Tom buzzed off this so I may have read it in the wrong mood, but this is a SECRET INVASION tie-in whose first issue I found surprisingly weak and messy for a writer of Cornell's talents. Lennon-lookalike John The Skrull (see WISDOM tpb) is internally investigated by MI13, found guilty of collaboration and sentenced to death. After that it's time for a full scale invasion of Britain and an attack on The Siege Perilous (the stone circle gateway to Avalon that transformed British aristo-berk Brian Braddock into the worst dressed tit on the planet, Captain Britain) to destroy Britain's magic - or at least what's left of it post-Gordon Brown. Meanwhile Pete Wisdom is hearing some excruciatingly corny words in his head, and I suspect we're about to see another transformation in the life/costume of Captain Gaudypants. Guest-stars the Black Knight, unrecognisably, and Spitfire. One decent line, from John in response to the Skrulls' new catchphrase, "He Loves You": "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I have a horrible feeling that this entire series' existence is based on that quip. The art is no more attractive than the script, by the way.
Avengers/Invaders #1 of 12 (£2-10, Marvel) by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger & Steve Sadowski. The scruffy art's even worse here beneath the Alex Ross cover, which is an enormous shame since it's surprisingly well written. Powerfully written, even, and wittily too as Bucky Barnes and the rest of the Invaders stray from their World War II battlefield into New York City and our present, rendering them some 60-odd years out of their depth as they witness the Thunderbolts attempting to arrest Spider-Man. while Tony Stark watches his monitors and realises what he's effectively witnessing: the return of Steve Rogers. Really, though, the art is grotesque.
Thor: Ages Of Damp And Gentle Drizzle - Outlook Mild To Middling #1 (£2-60, Marvel) by Matt Fraction & Patrick Zircher, Khari Evans. Actually it's called THOR: AGES OF THUNDER, and it's better written than even Straczynski's sterling work on the current regular title (see Book section). It's moving. It's monumental. It's... Asgardian. It feels like mythology and it looks like Barry Windsor-Smith on some of Zircher's pages, which is just what the title demands. So back we go to the early years of the gods, and that's, like, millions of years or something - long before i-pods were invented, anyway. Loki's being a prat as ever and always, and Freyja (or as you might know her, The Enchantress) pays the price. You've never seen her like this before, and it certainly begins to explain how she turned out, being sold into sexual slavery to a Frost Giant. Likewise Thor: unforgiving and defiantly self-righteous.
DC Universe #0 (40p, DC) by Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns & George Perez, Doug Mahnke, Tony S. Daniel, Ivan Reis, Aaron Lopresti, Philip Tan, Ed Benes, Carlos Pacheco, J.G. Jones. Grant Morrison's FINAL CRISIS begins here! As does Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." (first issue in that sequence out now), Geoff and George's interminably titled FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS "Prime Evil", Gail Simone and Aaron's WONDER WOMAN "Whom The God Slightly Dither About", Geoff and Ivan's GREEN LANTERN "Blackest Night Prelude", and Greg Rucka and Philip Tan's FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS. Brilliant marketing: well written, well drawn, well timed, well priced, well I'm just about done with this section.
n e w m e r c h a n d i s e
You know, I think we're going to do away with the larger glass cabinet. Comics were always our priority, and we could fit an awful lot of graphic novels on shelves there. In the meantime...
The Mindscape Of Alan Moore DVD (£19-99, Shadowsnake Films). I was hoping to watch this before today's deadline, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until June unless you simply want to trust in Alan's hypnotic command of the English language, his charm, wit and imagination, and his unfailing ability to communicate the most complex ideas in the most enlightening and entertaining ways. What do you get here? With Moore as your guide, you get an entire life-story from childhood through the evolution of his career to his current endeavours like JERUSALEM. It's as double disc set including over three hours of bonus material including an introduction to Moore's work by equally erudite Paul Gravett and interviews with collaborators Melinda Gebbie (LOST GIRLS), Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN), David Lloyd (V FOR VENDETTA), Kevin O'Neill (LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN) and José Villarubia (MIRROR OF LOVE, and the current edition of VOICE OF THE FIRE).
* * *
UK Postage (overseas at cost):
£1-00 for the first comic or t-shirt (unless there's a book included in the package in which case it's just 25 pence), and 25 pence thereafter...
£1-00 each for of the pocket-sized manga books, £1-50 each for all other books except...
Complete Calvin & Hobbes slipcased edition and Little Nemo will cost a flat £5-00 postage, but anything ordered on top of it will of course be postage free, because.....
Maximum postage for all this lot in whatever quantities is £5-00.
Posters and prints are sent separately @ £1-50 for as many as we can fit in a single tube.
Standing Orders:
To ensure that you never miss a single issue of a title you read, Page 45 provides a free standing order service either for personal collection or sending by post. All you have to do is tell us which titles you want, and we'll save them for you as they come out. You can visit or phone or even email as often as you want, but we must hear from you at least once every three months, please. Single orders and reservations just as gratefully received as any others.
Page 45 gift vouchers available in denominations of £5-00. You get: a free card and envelope. We get: to see your friends, later on.
Removal instructions: there is no way out. Oh, okay, just type 'remove' in the subject heading, and feel our desolation.
Page 45 is a comic shop.
We are:
Stephen L. Holland
Tom Rosin
with Emily Hubbard
Page 45 was in 1994 created by Mark Simpson (1968-2005) and Stephen L. Holland (1703- ),
then kick-started with more than a little help from the glorious Dominique Kidd.
Page 45
9 Market Street
Nottingham
NG1 6HY
Tel: (0115) 9508045
Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm.
Sunday 3rd August 2008, 1.30pm to 3.30pm for the Eddie Campbell signing.
Page 45 Mailshots jotted in joined-up handwriting by Stephen and Thomas, then transferred into text you can actually read.
HAMLET and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM knighted by Emily, AZTEK mourned by Alex Sarll. STARMAN OMNIBUS comes courtesy of the stellar Phil Yates. Phil was one of the party I joined in Bratislava last year. He's a mate of my good friend David Hanks and a long-term friend of customer John Saunders. He's also - and you will never believe this from reading his exceptional review - an accountant. But then so is the maestro behind Read Yourself Raw, and if you're the sort of person who signed yourself up to this mailshot, you will thank yourselves beyond belief for signing up to that monthly newsletter, full of links to the latest Alan Moore news and interviews, comicbook previews and so forth. Kind of makes me redundant, eh?
l e t t e r s
Confession: We've talked about this before, but every year Page 45 singularly fails to join in with Free Comicbook Day. I've told you why in the past. We find it far more constructive to participate in our own thang which is At Cost Comicbook Month. This effectively means you only have to pay from 15 to 25 pence for some very cool comics and that you can do so for an extended period of time without having to walk through our door on a random day in the year you might easily forget.
Groovy!
["Groovy!" Now you know Stephen's a Skrull. Or a retard. Hmm. He is actually, isn't he? - ed.]
However, every year that we've done this, I do worry in advance that Diamond or the individual publishers will take issue with what I truly believe to be our own individualised but wholeheartedly constructive approach. So far, so good. All parties have seen fit to supply us with the comics they don't necessarily need to on the terms we've asked. Equally, however, each year I don't want to rock the boat, so I don't preview them here.
If you want to take advantage of our particular initiative each year, now sounds like a good a time as any to send out the signal and for you to reply. We'll keep a list of anyone who writes in and says, "Yes, save me a copy of each of your wares when this time comes around" and we'll do as we're told. We'll save you copies of our rock-bottom-priced but top-notch selections each year (we ignore the rubbish which is one of the reasons we'd never officially qualify). Or if you spy mention of particular comics amongst those offered, by all means single them out. Sometimes there'll even be a startling surprise, like Marvel's last two efforts being well worth the tiny price of admission. It's just that you'll have to look out around March for mention of them elsewhere because, as I say, we don't want to risk previewing them.
Also, before I forge on, I've just found a quote I'd set aside for the FAKER review but failed to refer to (see April 2008 part B): "Everything comes back to haunt you. That's what it does." Mike Carey really can distil stuff sometimes.
Now then...
It is just me or did the introduction of the term hoi polloi in the Page 45 Mailshot sparked others to go google.
How are you doing with "Angostura bitters"?
I haven't heard it used in the last few years - I don't recall ever seeing in written down - but I can see that I've been missing out:
A Scottish punk group
a three stooges film
a race of extra terrestrial invaders
how was I to know?
I now have an overwhelming urge to incorporate the term over breakfast with my kids
P.S. - as ever. your reviews are priceless
Do you think I should charge?
- keep the faith!
Steve Page
Your kids won't thank you for teaching them Ancient Greek. Did me no good whatsoever except being able to show off in my review of LONEWOLF AND CUB. Great email, though - bless you!
"Moon Knight vol 3: God & Country h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Mike Benson, Charlie Huston & Mark Texeira, Javier Saltares. I'm told this has held onto some of its clout, but I'm reading it as collections now."
The script is still dandy (though I think Huston's contribution is plot at most), but dear heavens, the art... Apparently Texeira is gone as of next arc. Thank Khonshu for that.
Having just completed my collection of Ellis' Excalibur (I take your point about back issues, but I'm glad there are still a fair few shops down here who haven't), I was wondering why Marvel had never got round to any reprints - ditto his Hellstorm, given they've just put out a trade of a recent Max version of that which made no impact whatsoever so far as I could tell. Glad they're making at least a gesture towards sorting that, though as you say the art was at best wildly variable.
Great piece on Dave Sim, too.
[Alex Sarll]
Again, thank you. We do have more on this coming up, but if you've seen references to a waxwork effigy of me being impaled on the subject, or would like to take such a hobby up for yourself, please do write in. We don't edit stuff out here.
Hi Stephen,
I don’t seem to have been added to your mailshot yet!
I noticed when someone posted to the Cerebus yahoo group your defence of Dave Sim taken I believe from your latest mailshot, and I thought to myself (immediately AFTER having pondered on how much I agree with the thoughts you expressed) "how come I didn’t receive a copy of that in my email?".
Also please remember to inform me as soon as Judenhass comes in.
All the best from sunny coastal Italy!
Billy [Beach]
And all the best from drizzly Nottingham.
Stephen (and everyone else at Page 45)
First off a big thank you for your words on Dave Sim. It’s nice to hear from somebody who actually knows the person as opposed to people who only know him through his work and (more likely) the opinions that are put across on certain comic message boards.
The main problem with most of these "discussions" is that their level of debate is significantly lower than Dave’s. His essays can be difficult to read because you have to think your way through them. It is hard work but all writing on philosophy is difficult – this isn’t like reading the News of the World. Personally I’ve felt the initial discomfort with the knee-jerk reaction of "bloody hell he’s a right wing reactionary". That’s the initial emotional response that we all experience when reading a text, before the thought processes kick in and we start to analyse what is being said, mentally putting forward our own thoughts and arguments and weighing each against the other. As opposed to this:
"To be honest, I kind of skimmed around in there. I wanted to devote some time to this but not TOO much."
How do you justify assassinating somebody’s character by skimming the evidence you’re using? I wonder why people think Dave has a persecution complex? The really unfair thing about this is that he is perfectly willing to engage in debate (for evidence of this we only need to look at the exchange of essays printed in Cerebus with Alan Moore and the recent debate with Gary Groth towards the end of 2007) but the level of debate has to be of a higher level than that provided by people who won’t even use their own name on message boards but hide behind a bloody super-villain name; and doesn’t it speak volumes that Dave has never tried to defend himself with the old "I can’t be homophobic – some of my friends are gay"?
Anyway the comic world could do with more people like Dave Sim who are willing to enter into intellectual discussion about much more adult subjects than whether Joe Quesada has ruined Spider-Man and rendered your comic collection useless. So thank you again for articulating some of the thoughts I have had on the subject so effectively. I could go on and on but that’s probably for a different forum. If when you see Dave Sim you could pass on my support (I’m sure you’ll get loads of these) I’d be most appreciative.
Thanks for listening to my endless mutterings.
Cheers
Marcus (Nyahoe)
Always delighted to hear them, mate. Always.
It does indeed speak volumes that Dave Sim has never pulled out the "I can't be homophobic - some of my friends are gay" card.
In fact, although this wasn't intended for publication, I hope Dave won't mind in this instance if I do take the liberty, because it speaks volumes about his sense of honour. I sent Dave a reply around the beginning of May in response to his form letter asking each of his correspondents if they individually did or did not believe he was a misogynist. As you can imagine my reply was forthright, but since the form letter mentioned nothing about homophobia I restricted myself to the issue in question. This was before I'd read the piece by Heidi which provoked my... vent in the last Mailshot. Dave hadn't seen that vent (he doesn't do "on-line") and was merely replying to what I'd written to him personally:
Dear Stephen:
Thanks for the great vote of confidence. Just a quick note since I do want to get back to glamourpuss No.3.
I faxed your letter to Rick Sharer and was momentarily tempted to jot at the bottom "by the way, he's gay". And I just couldn't do it. It's one of the core conundrums of this whole things that the world has been reduced to identity politics. The 70 or so men on my petition are meaningless (since presumed white and straight) when compared with the 4 women. Likewise if those men who are gay identified themselves as such their signing would weigh far more heavily in the balance. And that's just plain wrong.
So, thank you Stephen Holland, brilliant retailer, stand-up guy PERIOD for being who you are.
Sincerely,
Dave [Sim]
In spite of the fact that it would do him an enormous service to identify me as gay - which I wouldn't have minded in the slightest - Dave declined to do it, even though it would be descending no further than to a level playing field given the terms on which the debate about and around him is being discussed.
Entertainingly, when Dan Pawley posted my actual vent from the last Mailshot on the Cerebus Yahoo group here, someone responded:
The Page 45 guys are gay? Man, I never guessed that. I feel so naive.
Have had no luck trying to get GLAMOURPUSS in Glasgow so I may have to give you guys a call.
ryan
It's not naive, Ryan! Neither Mark nor I were ever given to having sex on the shop floor during opening hours, so I can't quite see how you'd be expected to know unless we'd engaged in a discussion on - I don't know - the year I'd received minus one Valentine cards. Usually conversation here revolves around comics instead.
In fact some of my reviews have been so mischievous I've been waiting for someone to write in and accuse me of being homophobic. Alas, I've never had the opportunity to use the line, "Some of my best boyfriends have been gay" -- but I guess I just did.
Given Ryan's response, I should perhaps clarify that 1) Mark and I were business partners and friends, not boyfriends! and 2) Tom is straight. (ish.)
No, no, he's straight!
I honestly can't believe I'm writing any of this! Let's return to comics, and r.e. said vent, Craig Johnson wrote:
I couldn't argue with a single word. You took Heidi to task admirably, and - to me - succeeded totally. Unfortunately what we're dealing with does not respond to well-reasoned argument...and this is I think what Dave has finally realised. Much as I hate the "my team" and "your team" phrases he uses, he's pretty much spot on that "their team" has a whole tsunami of obfuscation, delaying tactics and changing the subject skills, which mean we just get swamped...or ignored. However, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't stand up and be counted...and the very fact you've done this so publicly, and so coherently...good work, fella.
Dave Sim is no misogynist. He doesn't hate women. What he does do is acknowledge that there are clear differences between men and women, and that it is vastly unfair to bias matters to level the playing field. My wife is superb at giving birth - I am totally crap at it. However, I do not demand equal rights in the matter, I do not demand that time and money is spent giving me the right to give birth. Women are - on the whole - more in touch with their feelings that men are. This makes women - on the whole - absolutely more suitable than men for feeling-type professions, for caring professions. However, this shouldn't and mustn't preclude those rare men also in touch with their feelings from participating. Men are - on the whole - more physically suited to cutting down trees. However, this shouldn't and mustn't preclude those women who are suited for it, from becoming lumberjacks. But just because there are more female nurses than male nurses, this doesn't mean that the next nurse hired should be male, regardless of ability - the job should go to the person best suited. And just because there are more male lumberjacks than female lumberjacks, this doesn't mean that the next lumberjack hired should be female, regardless of ability - the job should do the person best suited.
In each and every case - politicians - university - teaching - nurses - and, yes, lumberjacks - fulfilling quotas for gender balance rather than hiring based on ability regardless of gender, is madness. And yet Dave Sim is called a misogynist for pointing this out? One of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books features a character called Wonko The Sane, who could quite possibly be the only sane man in a world of madness...Dave Sim might feel entitled to change his name.
Any of these three paragraphs you can run as a letter in your next column.....in fact, any of this really - Dave Sim is not a misogynist. Dave Sim is not a sexist. And before anyone is tempted to glibly call him either of these, take a good look in the mirror first. Let he or she who is without sin cast the first stone, if you want to see clearly enough to take the speck out of your neighbour's eye, remove the plank from yours first. It's very easy to throw insults, to trade in abuse and to pander to sycophants - it's far harder to tell it like it is, and give real, in-depth consideration to alternative viewpoints.
Yeah, you know, only the other day Bettie Page 45 and I were talking about some of the differences between men and women in relationships, and Bettie herself would have been called a misogynist for what she came up with had she written it in the back of CEREBUS. Same goes for my legal friend Claire on the bus the other day. It is to weep.
And you're right: your wife is exceptionally good at giving birth. I'm surprised you can even afford comics, mate.
Parenthetically, since our Craig has connections with Bristol and its British Eagle Awards, did any of you notice that Talbot's ALICE IN SUNDERLAND won zilch, but Alan Moore's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN: BLACK DOSSIER ran away with Best Book? That sends out alllllll the right signals to Paul Levitz, doesn't it? I wonder if DC will have the gall to use that accolade? Next year they should have a category for Best British Book You Weren't Allowed To Buy In Britain Because Some Man-Child Had A Fucking Temper Tantrum But You Just Went And Rolled Over Anyway.
Sorry - what were you saying about insults?
Here's the publisher of the forthcoming LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN volume 3, who will be releasing it in the UK...
*******************************************************
TOP SHELF 2.0
THE NEW WEBCOMICS LAUNCH on MAY 16!
*******************************************************
Announcing a new phase in the internet age of comics: Top Shelf 2.0!
Launching this Friday, May 16, Top Shelf 2.0 is a new webcomics site and digital anthology, bringing together great cartoonists both familiar and new. We'll update with a new story every weekday! Sometimes a standalone short story, sometimes a new chapter in an ongoing serial, sometimes a great story from the Top Shelf Webcomics archive... but always something different! It's all free and all on TopShelfComix.com!
What kind of material can you expect? Well, just for starters, there's:
-- The haunting avant-garde imagery of Bart Johnson and Ben Constantine,
-- The globe-spanning high-kicking funkadelic fury of Kagan McCloud, serializing his indie classic Infinite Kung-Fu in preparation for the collected edition to be published by Top Shelf in 2009,
-- A really stunning painted fable by John C. Ralston,
-- Jed McGowen working his color wizardry with a beautifully limited palette,
-- The freewheelin' mythic imagination of the inimitable Bernie McGovern,
-- A couple young artists whose energy and charm practically shines from every panel of their cartoony adventures, Chris "Elio" Eliopoulos and Michael DeForge,
-- The monumental TENTH 24-hour comic by the master of the form, David Chelsea (his new book 24x2 is on sale now from Top Shelf),
-- An inky poetic parable from young Slovenian prodigy Domen Finzgar,
-- A Japan-flavored short from Belgian brush-master Stedho,
-- The brilliant wit and charm of notable webcomickers Jessica McLeod and Edward J Grug III,
-- Plus Aaron Navrady, Jeff Zwirek, Steve Lafler, Lizz Luney, Sean T. Collins, Matt Wiegle, Matt Rota, Nik Daum, Will Dinski, Willow Dawson, Emily Block, and many more to be revealed as we keep rolling!
Join us on Friday, May 16 for the big launch, and every weekday thereafter! Viva la future!
At the other end of the spectrum - and rainbows are cool:
no, nothing to worry about -
anyway, i have managed to avoid all of the big "events" in comicdom over the last few years, and am concerned that i might be missing something. annnnnyway, i'm stuck at work on this dreary bank holiday, and thought i'd mither you for a bit of advice on which ones i should investigate, and which i shouldn't.
i guess i am more of a marvel chap, than a dc chap, when it comes to the "big two", but am open to suggestions - so, can you help? should i start back at something like "house of m"? start at "civil war"? "world war hulk"? what about one of these "superendlessinfinity crisis" things that dc always seem to be parping about?
i bow to your better knowledge,
thanks all,
[Craig Dawson]
"Mither"! I've never heard of "mither" before. New word: "mither". I love new words.
I've been bigging up Bendis' four-year storyline over the last two dozen Page 45 mailshots something chronic. Starts with Avengers Disassembled, kicks into gear with New Avengers, then a couple of books in it moves to House of M, a few more New Avengers and Secret War with Pulse volumes 2 and 3, takes a brief Mark Millar detour with Civil War, continues into New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and New Avengers Illuminati, at which point the whole thing explodes in this summer's Secret Invasion. It's one long story, but boy is it all paying off.
Let me guess, you're not down for our Mailshots?!?!?!
WW Hulk was... a lot of fighting.
Craig replied:
in fact, your mail shots have a separate little folder on my email account!
What's it called - "Deleted"?
its just all so...bewildering!
You try reading PREVIEWS, mate. Bewildering and depressing. Part A is a ruthlessly pruned version.
i don't know where to start, really...perhaps i do now! so, in your opinion, should i just stick to the central strand, or are the tie-ins worth getting as well?
Central strand as outlined above. It's quite a big strand in itself without extraneous tie-ins! Stick to Bendis on the whole, I reckon.
or does it just depend on whether you like the character/writer?
if you don't like the writer, you won't like the character - because he won't have any.
ok - so i have some serious saving up to do. again.
Wellllll, more spending than saving, I'd say.
you'll recognise me as the slightly out-of-puff fella who pops in every few months and torques his back into odd angles heaving boxes out to the car.
Another new word: "torque".
i think dc can wait until next decade. they always seem to be counting down to something.
Quality...?
Do let me knew if they ever get there.
Final announcement, and quite an important one for us: Pat Sullivan is leaving Diamond Distributors as of this weekend. When Page 45 opened Diamond was a such a shambolic mess that receiving reorders of books from the likes of Dark Horse was barely conceivable. I had to send them an Excel spreadsheet at one point showing how we catered for customer orders and how they could do the same: a step-by-step dum-dum's approach. Made not one jot of difference.
And then along came Pat Sullivan, and whilst I'm sure that others contributed substatiantially, I've always credited Pat with the lion's share of making Diamond possible and even pleasurable to deal with. Admittedly things went a little wonky over the last year, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Pat made a huge amount of difference, was great fun to work with, and bloody annoying at conventions. We raise our glasses here to Pat Sullivan and his Bruce Willis fixation. One of them will be sorely missed.
Okay, we're off the hook for another part B, but I promised to pass on the following list/treasure trove of war comics, for those who do want back issues. Page 45 accepts no responsibility etc. so caveat emptor but he is a regular here and seems a thoroughly straight-up chap, wot?
hi stephen,
sorry it's taken me a few weeks to email this to you, i've been ridiculously busy on a bunch of projects. anyway, please find below an inventory of the comics we discussed that i came into the possession of recently. all are in pretty good condition (well as good condition as you can get for comics that where printed socheaply) apart from minor wear and tear. i'll put relevant notes at the bottom of each list.
VICTOR
numbers: 999, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1007, 1008, 1011, 1013, 1014, 1029, 1034, 1035, 1036, 1037, 1038, 1064, 1113, 1114, 1115, 1116, 1134, 1135, 1136, 1138, 1139, 1141.
notes: issues span april 1980 to jan 1983
HORNET
numbers: 584, 606, 607, 614, 616, 624-626, 628, 632, 636, 647.
notes: issues spanning nov. 1974 to jan 1976. not great quality.
BATTLE
issue dates: 29/03/80, 05/04/80, 10/05/80, 28/06/80, 19/07/80, 26/07/80, 06/09/80, 13/09/80, 29/11/80 , 06/12/80, 13/12/80, 20/12/80, 27/12/80, 03/01/81, 10/01/81, 24/01/81, 31/02/81, 07/02/81, 11/07/81, 18/07/81, 25/07/81, 03/10/81, 10/10/81/24/10/81, 24/10/81, 31/10/81, 07/11/81, 14/11/81, 21/11/81, 28/11/81, 05/12/81, 26/06/82, 20/11/82, 27/11/82, 25/12/82, 01/01/83.
notes: all good quality apart from yellowing. all issues contain the original printings of charley's war.
WARLORD
issues: 274, 278, 279, 293, 294, 296, 297, 300, 316, 318, 319, 321, 3222, 323, 324, 326, 329, 331, 332, 333, 352, 354, 355, 356, 367, 372, 378, 426, 427, 428.
notes: generally good condition apart from yellowing. some slightly dog eared. some have been written on in pen by newsagent.
BUDDY
issue: 41.
TIGER & SPEED
issue date: 28/11/81
HOTSPUR
issue numbers: 1062, 1063, 1064, 1072, 1074, 1075, 1076, 1077, 1079, 1080, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1088, 1094, 1097, 1100, 1103, 1108, 1110.
notes: again, relatively good condition apart from yellowing. one or two slightly dog eared. some discoloured due to damp.
WAR PICTURE LIBRARY
issue numbers: 30, 341, 424, 445, 455, 469, 492, 538, 562, 487, 540, 576, 589, 591, 594, 781, 720, 726.
notes: varying quality. some damaged by damp at spine.
AIR ACE PICTURE LIBRARY
issue numbers: 394, 429, 481, 501.
notes: good quality, although some creased at spine.
BATTLE PICTURE LIBRARY
issue numbers: 371, 381, 481, 522, 522, 525, 527.
notes: good quality, although some creased at spine.
COMBAT PICTURE LIBRARY
issue number: 426
notes: slightly dog eared. creased at spine.
SECTET AGENT SUPER LIBRARY
issue number: 8
notes: cover creased at spine.
VALIANT PICTURE LIBRARY
issue numbers: 103, 109, 133, 140, 144.
notes: generally good quality. one creased at spine. one slightly dog eared.
LION PICTURE LIBRARY
issue numbers: 120, 131, 136
notes: good quality
COMMANDO
issue numbers: 384, 395, 396, 400, 482, 505, 522, 611.
notes: good quality.
that's pretty much the lot. there are a bunch of issues of buster as well, although i wouldn't think they'd be of much interest to anyone. that said, there are also a stack of original captain scarlet and land of the giants trading cards......
anyway, thanks for your help on this.
.michael.
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