Month: October 2014
Happy Hallowe’en! Norman’s A Scream!
ARTIST: Stan Silas
FORMAT: 64pp – HC – FC – 8” x 11.1”
PRICE: $10.99/$12.99 CAN/£9.99 UK
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I’m Gonna Be Rich! Honest….
Dear Friend,
I am Prince Fayad Bolkiah, the eldest son of Prince Jefri
Bolkiah, former Finance Minister of Brunei , the tiny
oil-rich sultanate on the Gulf Island . I will save your
time by not amplifying my extended royal family history, as
you may know from the international media; the Sultan had
accused my father of financial mismanagement and
impropriety. This was as a result of the Asian financial
crisis that made my father's company Amedeo Development
Company and government owned Brunei Investment Company to be
declared bankrupt during his tenure in office. Visit
webpage.
In addition, before my incarceration, I went ahead to
dispatch some cash under special arrangement into the
custody of different private security and Trustee Companies
for safe keeping abroad. The money was splited and kept in
the following countries in different proportions in UK,
Canada and the balance in United States of America .
Hence I seek your good assistance to invest these funds into
profitable investment in your country to facilitate future
survival for my family abroad. Please I count on your
absolute confidentiality, transparency and trust, while
looking forward to your prompt reply towards a swift
conclusion of this transaction.
Regards,
Prince Fayad Bolkiah
Bwahahahaha -I'm gonna be rich!!!!
Ahmindagoreth -A Work In Progress
Suzy had just put a Smartie in her mouth and looked up. A big black spot the size of a bumble bee began appearing before them. “Look, Bobby!” cried Suzy.
Bit-by-bit the black spot grew until it filled the woodland path. Then there came a colour. Then another. The siblings looked on in wonderment at what became of this oddity.
“Golly. What on earth can it be, Bobby?” asked Suzy.
“I am the cold blackness come to wrap you in my arms” replied Ahmindagoreth.
Below: Ahmindagoreth a work in progress. Stage 1 and a variant but much, much more work to do!
Ahmindagoreth, Suzy and Bobby (whoever they are) (c) Terry Hooper-Scharf
Blogger -Google+
Maybe everything ought to shift over to Google+ then?
Where are all the British superheroes? Here Is My Angry, Naked (its a theme -roll with it) Response
Above: Me “back in the day” as The Red Dragon. Honest.
I mentioned in yesterdays Where are all the British superheroes? asked The Journalist. “They All Live Here With Me” Was My Reply! that journalists who write these items have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Well, I hinted at that. No so much a hint as a bottle of tabasco sauce in the eye -which the postman assures me: “Hurts mightily!” And I responded: “Well, Crispian, do not sneak up behind me and prod me when I am nude gardening then!” No come-back to that.
“Knight
Britain’s first superpowered blueblood. Created in the Fifties with his sidekick Squire as a homegrown competitor to Batman, Knight was initially the alter ego of Percy Sheldrake, Earl of ‘Wordenshire’, and could be summoned by ringing the bell of his local church. By the time Grant Morrison briefly revived the character at the end of the Nineties, the new Knight was seen to have piddled away his inheritance and acquired a drug habit, and had to be rescued from the gutter to restart his crimefighting career from someone’s garage. Now there’s Broken Britain for you.”
Right. Percival Sheldrake debuted as the Knight in Batman #62 (December 1950), and was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang. We are talking about a period when a lot of Americans, particularly kids, thought England still had knights in armour. Yes, “armour” and not “armor”. Now, Cyril Sheldrake debuted as the Knight in JLA #26 (February 1999), and was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. Or “rebooted” is probably the better term -change a first name blah blah blah.
Oh, he’d lost all his money and had a drug habit and had to be kicked out of it? Well, Morrison really is turning into Moore’s rival for lack of originality. In Zenith the Red Dragon character had to be dragged out of his alcohol addiction. And….sigh. I bet it really hurt Morrison not to be able to use the “C” word in JLA. Get feckin real. I’ve met “landed gentry” whose families lost money and were working as aircraft and even rail engineers and even dirtier jobs. One even threatened to kill me but, to be fair, I was skipping through his rose garden naked.
Have you noticed how I keep slipping into constructing sentences like a German? Over 50 years ago I went to that school and it’s still in my brain. As my mother once said while choking me: “You are ours, bitch!” Funny woman.
Then we have…this:
“Captain Britain
Another super-aristo who failed to move with the times. Raised in a posh family fallen on hard times — Wikipedia amusingly describes him as “too proud to fraternise with lower classes” — Brian Braddock has the good fortune to be around when Merlin turns up brandishing a superpowered Amulet of Right. Subsequent exploits made for a wearisome parade of victories over Arthurian villains, Nazis and other gestures towards Britain’s storied past, while successive attempts to rename him as ‘Excalibur’ and ‘Brittanic’ took the franchise even farther towards swivel-eye territory.”
Yes, some ass on Wikipedia did write that. Braddock went to university and had friends and worked with colleagues who were not “landed gentry” and in the Jasper World saga CB even pops into a “commoners” house for a cup of tea and a chat. Maybe I missed all the snobbery…or maybe it was not there?
Captain Britain, as you all ought to know by now, was created by Chris (“Primadonna”) Claremont and the wondrous Herb Trimpe and first appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, #1 (October 13, 1976). The character has been used in stories -some quite bad ones- by various creative teams over the years and I last read ‘his’ adventures in Captain Britain And MI13. Now, despite what they tell you, MI 13 is only a fictional version in this series. In fact, as I know, there really WAS an MI 13(Eastern Europe) “folded into” Military Intelligence.
INEVERSAWTHEUFOINEVERSAWTHEUFOINEVERSAWTHEUFOINEVERSAWTHEUFO
The “silly flag-wearing” well, let Alan Davis describe how he came up with the design:
“I decided to base his costume on military uniforms. If you’ve ever seen the mounted guards outside Buckingham Place, you’ll recognize the components. The white leggings and the tall boots with the flaps over the knees were easy. The headgear took a bit more time because I wanted it to look like a helmet rather than a mask. The stripes across his chest started as two crossed sashes and underwent numerous changes.”
As for taking the character into more “swivel-eye territory”…what is the ass writing about? Super heroes fighting aliens, other dimensional beings, monsters, vampires…that’s “regular”…but that is also what Captain Britain does..more swivel eyed journalism.
“Miracleman
The best homegrown superhero writing draws more on British satirical tradition than it does on Blitz-spirit cliché and poshos with funny names. Years before Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Northampton magus Alan Moore began sniping at superhero tropes with Miracleman, imagining a knackered freelance journalist able to swap bodies with a glittering blond super-being at the whisper of a magic word. Under Neil Gaiman’s subsequent stewardship, the series became a queasy meditation on the moral demands of supreme power in a super-utopia. Last year’s resolution of a long-running rights dispute holds out hope for a reprint, too.”
Now that is really showing total ignorance of the character that was created when Fawcett/National stopped the Captain Marvel reprints and so Mick Anglo created Marvel Man -over a decade before Timely changed its name to “Marvel”. A character to star in a childrens weekly comic. “Blitz-spirit cliché and poshos with funny names” -what an utter feckin arse -an arse that probably never grew up at a time of no internet, nothing but three TV channels, rationing (that didn’t stop totally until 1959 on most things) and when kids had to entertain themselves -usually in parks or on bomb sites!
The more I think about it the more I really hate journalists who write this crap.
Anyway, Di$ney own the character now so he’s dead as far as being British goes.
“Union Jack
Originally Lord Falsworth, military man and scourge of His Majesty’s enemies during the Second World War. Loses his legs in combat with the evil Baron Blood, so his son takes up the mantle, subsequently becoming one of the very few gay superheroes. He bites the dust in turn, however, and it falls to a working-class Mancunian to take up the cudgels in Jack’s most recent incarnation. It’s an interesting trajectory for a British character, if you overlook the temporary possession by Sir Lancelot’s ghost, but perhaps of more use as a sociological document than a Hollywood adaptation.”
I really do think that there are a great many uneducated morons out there. Some go to college to just booze, get addle-brained and study journalism. Study “journalism”???
nakedintherosesnakedintherosesnakedintheroses…..
Erm. Firstly, if you are going to have a secret identity of any kind then you need a good secure base that people cannot just walk in and out of. Secondly, you need cash. Thirdly, you need to be able to have the time to dash off and do your work. Fourthly, you need to have friends in high places who will help you cover up any potential scandal or rumours. Police Commissioners, Home Secretary, owners of newspapers -all well off and many landed gentry or lords “back in the day”. “What we do is of no concern to the great unwashed”
I quote the great Lady Bracknell from a book entitled The Importance Of Being Earnest, by some newbie called Oscar Wilde:
Lady Bracknell: “I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
Why was it theorised that Jack the Ripper and Spring-heeled Jack (not to mention various others) were aristocrats? For reasons 1-4, above, and the attitude as voiced by Lady Bracknell. Only the rich can afford the time and money and exert the influence to go about this business. Anyone recall some bloke who was named “The Scarlet Pimpernel”? You don’t know your social history or literature then do not write short sentenced crap.
nakedintherosesnakedintherosesnakedintheroseswithcrispiannakedintheroses….
The Boys. Read it. Left me completely cold. Hate it.
Now, in 2013, a journalist cannot rummage through his sources (Wikipedia and the internet in the main) and come up with Captain Hornet, The Leopard From Lime Street, Billy and Katy the Cat, Danger Man, Thunderbolt Jaxon, Black Archer, Captain Miracle, The Cat Girl, Garth, Iron Master, Johnny Future, Tim (Kelly’s Eye) Kelly, Leaping Phantom, Spring Heeled Jack (various), Fishboy, The Phantom Viking, Purple Hood, The Spider, Q Bikes, Smoke Man, Robot Archie, Naked In The Roses, The Steel Claw, Tri-Man, Thunderbolt the Avenger, The Avenger (from The Eagle)….I could go on for ages here but you are getting my point?
“Comics =movies” seems to be the writers main reference. None of the above British characters have been in Hollywood movies therefore do not exist. “What I found on Wikipedia and chopped up into a mess for a space filler =my facts” appears to be the case here.
Where is the mention of British creator Paul Grists marvellous Jack Staff? Published by Grists own Dancing Elephant Press until Image grabbed it -but British created, written, drawn and BASED super hero. Then we have Grists other similar UK based character Mud Man -again published by Image but far more British in pedigree than some our journalistic friend cites as “British super heroes”!
Please do not get me wrong -I am not trying to write that the Telegraph item was a bunch of space filling, ill researched arse water. I am writing that.
How to annoy me in a short internet item.
Now, sun is out and it’s a bit nippy so I’m off for some naked gardening (google it).
Where are all the British superheroes? asked The Journalist. "They All Live Here With Me" Was My Reply!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10201861/Where-are-all-the-British-superheroes.html
How did the Telegraph respond -remember I was very polite and not “Angry of Bristol!”- to this?
“Sorry but your comment is not suitable”
*****!!!
So here is that article by Tim Martin -you lot out there fill in all the gaps -this is DIY know your British super heroes test no. 1!
Where are all the British superheroes?
As Wolverine opens in cinemas, Tim Martin looks at the best – and worst – of our homegrown superheroes.
Knight
Britain’s first superpowered blueblood. Created in the Fifties with his sidekick Squire as a homegrown competitor to Batman, Knight was initially the alter ego of Percy Sheldrake, Earl of ‘Wordenshire’, and could be summoned by ringing the bell of his local church. By the time Grant Morrison briefly revived the character at the end of the Nineties, the new Knight was seen to have piddled away his inheritance and acquired a drug habit, and had to be rescued from the gutter to restart his crimefighting career from someone’s garage. Now there’s Broken Britain for you.
Blueblooded crimefighter: ‘Knight’ with his sidekick ‘Squire’ (DC Entertainment)
Captain Britain
Another super-aristo who failed to move with the times. Raised in a posh family fallen on hard times — Wikipedia amusingly describes him as “too proud to fraternise with lower classes” — Brian Braddock has the good fortune to be around when Merlin turns up brandishing a superpowered Amulet of Right. Subsequent exploits made for a wearisome parade of victories over Arthurian villains, Nazis and other gestures towards Britain’s storied past, while successive attempts to rename him as ‘Excalibur’ and ‘Brittanic’ took the franchise even farther towards swivel-eye territory.
Miracleman
The best homegrown superhero writing draws more on British satirical tradition than it does on Blitz-spirit cliché and poshos with funny names. Years before Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Northampton magus Alan Moore began sniping at superhero tropes with Miracleman, imagining a knackered freelance journalist able to swap bodies with a glittering blond super-being at the whisper of a magic word. Under Neil Gaiman’s subsequent stewardship, the series became a queasy meditation on the moral demands of supreme power in a super-utopia. Last year’s resolution of a long-running rights dispute holds out hope for a reprint, too.
Union Jack
Originally Lord Falsworth, military man and scourge of His Majesty’s enemies during the Second World War. Loses his legs in combat with the evil Baron Blood, so his son takes up the mantle, subsequently becoming one of the very few gay superheroes. He bites the dust in turn, however, and it falls to a working-class Mancunian to take up the cudgels in Jack’s most recent incarnation. It’s an interesting trajectory for a British character, if you overlook the temporary possession by Sir Lancelot’s ghost, but perhaps of more use as a sociological document than a Hollywood adaptation.
Motley crew: ‘The Boys’ is laced with sex, swearing and gore (Spitfire Productions Ltd and Darick Robertson)
The Boys
A take on the superhero myth from a Northern Irish writer, garlanded with the kind of swearing, sex and gore that would make Tarantino blench. The Boys chronicles the efforts of a band of trenchcoated enforcers, led by a musclebound ex-SAS titan and a wimpy Scot called Hughie, to control with extreme prejudice the Spandex super-puppets of an American military-industrial complex. Both funnier and more offensive than Mark Millar’s later Kick-Ass, this has a bilious charm all its own.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That’s it. Now if you try to think of British super heroes and you do not come up with a single Black Tower character….you need to become a journalist!!
Oh. And suck on this from 2011…
http://downthetubes.net/?p=1597
My Excess: Dave -A Cosmic Oddity
http://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-gordon/dave-cosmic-oddity/paperback/product-21852269.html
I got this book handed to me by the postman (mailman if you are American) at 1300 hrs and by 1500 hrs I had read it through.
This is David Gordon -the UKs very own Milo Manara- telling his story. From his birth and adoption three days later through family life, school, university, work and later trying to contact his birth mother -the outcome of which is still currently open.
Dave takes us through his life and troubled relationships with himself (2014) narrating and flashback images and sequences of events. The style he uses in this book, being honest here, I saw at a glance and thought “not sure about this”. However, I realised the clever way the art had been designed and drawn -photos, etc.- actually worked. Even the cartoony flashback-to-situation pages (see below).
What can I write about this? Gritty -yes. Factual and being brutally honest and to be equally honest here I do not think I’d have the guts to quite literally open up my chest and let some of these experiences out. Being pushed away by his adopted family is bad enough but then having to go through his (adoption) father dying of cancer -bad enough. But we then learn about the abusive relationships (physical and emotional).
There is still the matter of his birth mother and how that might end. However, Dave is now happily in a relationship with Lesley (I’ve met her and she seems quite nice for a prison officer -not even a moustache!) and that gives us a sort of happy ending. But, oh boy, what happened before.
Let me tell you something. For years I was also an agent for comic creators. You see good art, you know the writers or artists are reliable so, as an agent you put a spin on things to sell the work. I’ve read and reviewed comics and graphic novels for publications and online now for over 30 years. I see a couple hundred books of one sort or another a year -the crammed bookshelves and floors attest to that.
I cannot think of one book where a creator has taken us through his personal life and things have been so dark and gut-wrenching -even preparing for suicide- that I have said out loud “F***!” so many times. My sister even said “What are you swearing at?”
If this were an independent film it would be getting some award. A publisher should be paying Gordon to allow them to publish this! This is superbly written -and it must have taken a lot of thought to put this together without going over the top or exaggerating. To make it a sequential story interspersed with illustrated text pieces….this is truly what Will Eisner described what graphic novels should be: telling a true and honest story that grabs the reader and pulls them in.
You people out there deciding who gets nominated for an Eagle Award should read this book.
This book should NOT be ignored. If you think “I’ll buy just one Independent book….” then PLEASE make it this.
The book has surprised and shocked me – I have heard some snippets over the years but never the whole story. In fact, you really need to read it yourself because nothing I write here can even adequately do it justice.
Hexagon Comics -It Might Be A French Company But You OUGHT To Be Paying Close Attention!
Now for a while I’ve wondered what happened to Hexagon and Wanga comics. If you are new here you may wish to check out my interview with Jean Marc Lofficer -naturally our French readers will want to!
http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/jean-marc-lofficier-man-who-created.html
And on the bus home from shopping, delayed by roadworks I wondered again. So, turn on my computer and there is an email from Jean Marc!!
Wow. And has he been busy. So rather that hack and slash his email I’ll reproduce it here with some added artwork.
PLEASE check the links because there is some incredible stuff!
Anyway, over to Jean-Marc:
Hi Terry,
I’ve had a quick look at the site and must admit I got very excited. I think I’m going to have to start saving those pennies now!
You See WHY You Should Read What I Post Properly?
You see? You see?!!!
Now I’m getting hyper. Note to self -do not get too hyper after working on comics.
WHY am I hyper? Well, I could be dumbfounded or even sarcastic. All the movie news I keep posting? Everyone seemingly ignores it and months later everyone “finds out” and ki8ck up a big fuss. Borrrr-ing!
So, someone says “go check out Bleeding Cool Comics!” I do and see this headline: