WANDAVISION

 I spent a lot of my childhood reading Marvel superhero comics.  I think the first one I read was the UK weekly Secret Wars comic although I also read Spiderman and Zoids.  Prior to that I read the Beano and Battle Action Force, Star Wars Weekly and Transformers Weekly.  I loved it all and it was all mind rotting garbage but in a good way.  Comic books and punk rock made me who I am today.

I was always a bit of an obsessive kid, always wanting to read more and know more and understand more. I'm still a bit like that which is good and bad.  I was into Marvel in a big way, I read the official handbook of the marvel universe cover to cover and I learned all about the crazy, colourful minor characters of the Marvel Universe including all of the B listers and the C listers, like the Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

Now the Vision and the Scarlet Witch had a couple of limited series published in America in the early '80s and the stories in those comics were very off the wall.  Some of the weirdest comics out there with a mind bending storyline.  Definitely not mainstream and probably the product of some serious drugs.  Bad hippy drugs.

And it seems that Disney have made that mad shit into a TV series.

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.....

Spiderman - Far From Home

This was the first time I'd been back to the cinema since my film buddy died a few months ago.  He was a big Marvel fan and I'm sure he would have liked this.  I managed to persuade my partner to come along with me but she likes Spiderman and enjoyed the last film so it was OK.  She hasn't seen the last two avengers films so some thing were a bit odd but she did enjoy it.

Far from home features Mysterio, one of my less favoured Spiderman baddies.  Mysterio worked fairly well in the film although the plot was bubblegum, a but dumb.  Spiderman basically goes on a European tour and becomes Night Monkey (a property that should be developed).

There are some nice city scenes and some big fights.  The characters are funny.  It's an 'up', cheery film after the doom and gloom of the last couple of Avengers film.  It's probably the superhero film I needed to see today.

There will be more Spiderman films and they will probably be better but I enjoyed this.

Spider-man - Into the Spider-verse

I first got to know Spider-man through the old cartoons on UK television in the early eighties.  They were a good gateway to the character and Marvel comics.  Over the decades more cartoons have been made, more comic books and also some pretty good live action films.

Into the Spider-verse, is, as far as I can recall, the first animated Spider-man film to make it to UK cinemas.  It's a great film and the cinema is a perfect place to see it.

Spider-verse is knowing and entertaining.  It tells the story of Miles Morales, a Spider-man for the 21st century as well as paying tribute to multiple other versions of Spider-man who have appeared in the past 55 years.  Peter Porker, the spectacular Spider-Ham makes a welcome appearance.

The animation is electric, jumping from style to style.  Kingpin is portrayed in the style of Bill Sienkiewicz, massive with a tiny head and almost photorealistic features, like the Daredevil Love and War graphic novel from the late eighties.  Another character, the Prowler, looks more like a Todd McFarlane drawing.  It's a lively jump cut ride.

There have been a lot of films inspired by Marvel comics over the last decade and Into the Spider-verse is one of the freshest and best.  Worth seeing, even if you would't normally go for a cartoon.  There is also a lovely Stan Lee cameo which provoked a wry smile from me.

I went to see this film with a friend who has been having a difficult time recently and he loved it too.  Marvel characters can certainly brighten up your day sometimes.

Thanks again Stan and Steve.

Stan Lee - RIP

I never met Stan Lee.  I never had a chance.  He did come to Forbidden Planet in Glasgow but somehow I never knew.  Stan Lee did have an impact on my life in many ways.  I've spent a lot of time reading Marvel Comics in the last 40 or so years and Stan Lee was responsible for many of them.

The first american comic that I read/owned was issue number 3 of Super-villain Team Up featuring Namor, the Submariner and Dr Doom fighting some even more evil fish people.  It was a bit crap.  It came from a neighbours house and I read it from cover to cover many, many times.  I still have it somewhere.  I remember all the strange American adverts from the seventies and the slightly yellow paper.  It wasn't brilliant but it was my first comic presented by Stan Lee.

I had probably seen some Spiderman reprints by then.  I was certainly reading the Marvel UK weekly Star Wars comic as a very young child in the early 80s.  The old sixties Marvel cartoons were broadcast as part of Glen Michaels Cartoon Cavalcade in Scotland with Captain america, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Spider-Man.  We also had the seventies Spiderman cartoon as well as Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and the Hulk.

Stan Lee infected every part of our culture.  He reached Scotland from New York and taught us about heroes and trying to be good.  His personality shone through in his Bullpen Bulletin. He had a heart and he tried to do the right thing.  He was cheesy and a bit of a self-promoter.  He didn't give his collaborators enough talent but he changed the dreams of lots of kids.  Like me, those kids are often successful adults and we live in a world that has seen both the Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy on the big screen.  Back in the early eighties this was unimaginable.

My fiancé's niece can name most of the marvel superheroes on a poster in our house and she is 3.  Stan continues to shape young minds.  His imagination lives on in all of us.

RIP

RIP Steve Ditko

Spiderman always existed in my life.  The cartoons were on the TV when I was a kid.  The dodgy live action TV series from the seventies was still on rotation.  The comic books were about.  It's hard to believe that anyone actually designed and created Spiderman.  But Steve Ditko did create Spiderman.

I think I first read some the early Ditko comics reprinted in UK hardcover Spiderman annuals and the piles of old paper Marvel UK comics that they had in the cupboards at my primary school. The drawings were primitive and nervy.  The character did not look too heroic or cool.  He looked like a misfit teenager, a proper target for bullies.

Ditko also created the weird psychedelic visuals of Dr Strange.  This was a bit at odds with what I understand about his personality.  Ditko was the anti-hippy, a devotee of Ayn Rand.  Eventually he fell out with Stan Lee and moved onto new work.

He did work for DC but he also created the remarkable Mr A, a judge, jury and executioner type who took a hard line on crime.  Alan Moore borrowed heavily from Mr A for Rorschach and even wrote a song about the character with the Emperors of Ice Cream.

I've picked up a few Mr A books over the years and I'd love to see a proper collection.  Ditko kept himself to himself and avoided fame and publicity.  He was probably ripped off by Marvel and never got the money he deserved.

He was an interesting man and we will probably never know much about him.

Avengers: Infinity War - film review

Popped into the cinema after work yesterday to catch this film.  I know I was a bit late but it was worth it.  I'm assuming most people will have seen it buy now so this will be a bit spoiler-y so stop reading now if you haven't seen it.

Infinity War is the 19th Marvel Cinematic Universe film and it helps to have seen several, if not all, of the previous films to fully understand and appreciate this film.  It's an epic, both in length and in
the scope of the story.  The action spreads from Waverly Station in Edinburgh to Africa, New York and then across the universe.  Almost every MCU movie character appears (although there was no real sign of the Netflix characters).

The big bad is Thanos, a character familiar to comic book readers.  I've never been a massive fan of the big purple troll.  He's a genocidal necrophiliac.  By this I mean that he is in love with a physical representation of death (at least in the comics).  He is not a corpse fiddler to the best of my knowledge.  In the film, he wants to improve the universe by killing half the population of reality to reduce overcrowding.  He is logical, in a warped way.

To help commit his crazy crime he needs to track down the Infinity Stones, seeded throughout previous Marvel films to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, as featured in the comics when I was a kid.  Thanks needs to kill a lot of people to have the opportunity to kill more people.  The assorted Marvel heroes do their best to stop him.

Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) features in a prominent role as the only intelligent superhero who actually knows what is going on.  He is supported by occasionally useful idiots, Tony Stark, Spiderman, Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Apart from Strange, the other heroes are brave but fairly stupid.  There are funny moments and laugh out loud moments.

The space action is slightly more fun that the moody Captain America led Earth action.  All the heroes on Earth are more serious and intense and a lot of them are wearing black.  It was nice to see Wakanda and the supporting cast from the recent Black Panther film in prominent roles.

The film was actually slightly less apocalyptic that I expected.  I sort of expected that everyone would be wiped out although that would be an end to the franchise.  I'm looking forward to Avengers 4 which I think will be out next year, as well as the intercurrent Ant Man 2 and Captain Marvel films.

I want to watch this again when I get a chance.  It's better than Avengers 2 and it may even be better than Civil War.  Currently, I think the best Marvel film so far has been Dr Strange but I reserve the right to change my mind.

Accident Man - DVD review

In 1991 a very different British comic was published for a brief period of time.  Toxic! was staffed by writers and artists who jumped ship from 2000AD.  Toxic! was full colour and uncensored.  It also featured Marshall Law, a masterpiece by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill.  However, the best strip in the comic was arguably Accident Man, created by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner.

Accident Man is the story of an assassin, who works with a group of fellow hitmen, all of whom commit their crimes in a signature way.  Mike Fallon, the titular Accident Man, specialises in making hits look like accidents.  He is something of an artist in this regard but stuffers from PMT (post murder tension) and has to release the tension with other dangerous activities.  To me at 13 or 14 this comic was amazingly entertaining.  Luckily a nice collection of the strips was published a few years back and rather surprisingly a film based on the strip has been made.

The film is fairly entertaining and true to the comic.  It isn't a great work of art, it is a dumb action film but it is an enjoyable 90 minutes.

I hope Tony Skinner and Pat Mills have both been well paid for this film.  I think I saw Mills playing a victim of Mike Fallon's PMT in one scene.  This film was never going to be a blockbuster but I'm sure it will warm peoples hearts on Netflix.  Well, maybe not warm their hearts, maybe more raise a grim smile but you know what I mean.  It's good.

On the camino by Jason

Jason is a Norwegian comic book artist who lives in France.  I can't remember if I've read any of his books before.  I picked up On the Camino as my partners uncle and aunt have done the walk on a few occasions. Another friend from work did the walk with his brother a few years ago.

I'm not a religious person and I was under the impression that the Camino was a Catholic pilgrimage. Interestingly Jason is not religious and undertakes the Camino for self discovery and personal spiritual reasons.  He details his 800 kilometre walk and the encounters he has over the way.  He identifies himself as a solitary person and he had hoped he would would perhaps open up and talk to others more.  He has been triggered to do the walk by his 50th birthday.

He portrays himself as a talking dog.  He describes the shared dormitories, the discussions about feet and the bedbugs.  He describes the people he met and his day dreams and fantasies along the way.

Jason has a nice clear line art style and this is a good book.  It's a clear read on an interesting topic.

30 years of Danzig

There is a Big Black concert recording that contains the immortal phrase 'no-one in the room may look Danzig in the eye'.  One controversial punk icon making a snide dig at the other.  Both larger than life figures who attracted controversy.  Both wrote songs about horror with humour in their music.  Both often ended up in physical confrontations with detractors.

There is notorious youtube footage of Danzig being knocked out with one punch (look here if you must).  In 1993 Danzig nearly got into a fight with a member of Def Leppard. This was not the one armed drummer as many suggested.  I think a lot of people wanted to beat up Albini too.

Still, I love Danzig.  I've loved his stuff since I first heard Last Caress/Green Hell on the $5.98 e.p. by Metallica when I was at primary school.  The stupid offensive lyrics and the swearing just got me.  After that I got a tape with Bullet on it and I was in love.  Misfits stuff was hard to find but the first Misfits collection LP was well circulated in the west of Scotland in the '80s.

The Misfits were stupid fun horror punk.  Danzig sang with great passion about the emotional struggles of horror film monsters and other gory subjects.  The energy of the music with the lyrics of songs like Bullet or Attitude were just electrifying.  As a 12 year old I had no idea what the lyrics of Bullet meant.  Reading them now, at the age of 40, I'm still bemused.  If I had the chance I'd love to ask Danzig about them.

The Misfits are not the whole story.  The band Danzig, fronted by Danzig, were superb.  The first album I heard was Danzig II: Lucifuge.  I've been listening to it today.  It's still fucking great.  I'm not sure why they had to lose the original Doors homage cover.  It was a bit homoerotic.  They probably got sued.

Danzig was Danzig trying to be Jim Morrison with a dash of Elvis.  It was metal but blues.  The songs were still fucking ridiculous with Danzig worrying about being a werewolf or some shit like that but it rocked.  It rocked like little else.  It really wasn't cool but it didn't suck.

At this point I must make it clear that I had little access to MTV as a kid.  I've only seen the video for She Rides recently and as a fairly PC, hardcore punk morally puritanical teenager I might have been put off by the blatant sexism and exploitation of this video.  As an adult I just shake my head and sigh.  Danzig was trying to be sexy.  I'm not really convinced he was.

I'm really excited that I've got tickets to see Danzig when he plays Glasgow later this year.  He last played in 1991 when I was just a bit too young to see him.  I did see the Danzig-less Misfits a few times but they could never top the real deal.

When Danzig was young he wanted be a comic book artist.  Indeed, he did have his own line of horror/soft core porn comics called Verotik at one point.  They were kind of stupid, like many of his songs.  My University flat mate was an even bigger Misfits fan than me and he had a few.  Danzig also got famous comic artists like Simon Bisley to do covers for his records and draw his comics.  I used to like Bisley till I met him and he proved himself to be an objectionable twat.  I think I asked him if he knew Danzig.

I met the band Slint once.  I love Spiderland.  I got to talk to David Pajo who actually recorded a solo album of Misfits stuff and all I could ask him was 'you know Danzig, don't you?';  I was a bit drunk.  But Danzig is interesting.

Musically I sort of lost touch with Danzig after Black Acid Devil.  He tried to become Nine Inch Nails or Ministry and he failed.  He has made a few decent records since then but he doesn't get much exposure anymore.  He has also starred in a few slash-fiction comic books focusing about his fictional romantic partnership with Henry Rollins.  Rollins enjoys these comics.  I suspect that Danzig does not.

I love Danzig but it's a complicated relationship.

I just wish he would re-issue the Samhain box set.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - DVD review

I finally managed to catch this film on DVD, having missed it in the cinema.  I've been aware of the Valerian comics for a few years and I've read a few of the recent hardback reissues.  The comics were exceptionally influential and their presence was felt in Star Wars and many other science fiction blockbusters over the past 40 years.  I've loved some Luc Besson stuff over the years, especially The Fifth Element so this film was a bit of a no brainer for me.

Having now watched the film on DVD I do wish that I had seen it in the cinema.  It's visually stunning, as one would expect from Besson.  It has cute aliens, humour and a decent plot as well as some big names.  It hasn't been universally loved by reviewers but I certainly enjoyed it.

Worth a couple of hours of your time.

Podcasts

Over the past few years I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts.  I always liked listening to the radio although I didn't always find the broadcast shows to be very exciting.  Podcasts are homemade radio shows that you can download and listen to at a time that suits you.  They also often cover more offbeat or esoteric subjects that appeal to me.

Mostly I listen to real life mystery podcasts, American political podcasts (mainly ones about Trump), Twin Peaks related podcasts and comic book podcasts.  And the Private Eye podcasts.

One of the first mystery style I started to listen to was Thinking Sideways - in this podcast three presenters take turns to present a mystery every week and discuss various theories on what went on.  The first episode that I listened to was on the 'Glasgow effect'.

Another slightly more fantastical podcast that I enjoy is Astonishing Legends - this podcast goes into strange tales in a great degree of detail.  They exude an X-Files type vibe and they are often rather credulous but the production values are good and I enjoy the shows.

From a comic book point of view Fatman on Batman produced by Clerks director Kevin Smith as part of his Smodcast empire is a good starting point (if you like Batman).  The early episodes in the archive are great, often focusing on individual comic book writers or artists and Batman related stuff. More recently the podcast has developed into a general forum for discussion of sic-fi, superheroes and anything Smith wants to talk about.

The Stuff You Should Know network has several good podcasts including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know and Stuff to Blow Your Mind (both of which have a sort of counterculture vibe) as well as the more mainstream, flagship Stuff You Should Know series.  All of these are fairly interesting.

In terms of Trump bashing Trumpcast is fairly funny and a good place to start.  The Pod Save America team have more White House connections and often have serious guests on to interview although they are often pretty funny too.

No Such Thing As A Fish  was one of the first podcasts I listened to, a spin off from the BBC QI series, where strange facts are discussed in an amusing manner every week.  It's good for a smile every now and again.

There are many more podcasts to check out - a few more are below
Page 94 - The Private Eye Podcast
The 2000AD Progcast - some great 2000AD chat
The Politico Nerdcast
A Twin Peaks Podcast

Enjoy

Frank Quitely at Glasgow Kelvingrove

I visited the Frank Quitely exhibition at the Glasgow Kelvingrove Museum for the second time today.  I'd been lucky enough to be invited to the opening night a few months ago and I wanted to have a slower walk around the show when it was a bit quieter.  The show finishes on the 1st of October so a bonus Friday off work gave me the perfect opportunity to visit the show.

Quitely is the pen name for Scottish artist Vincent Deighan, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art who has ended up being one of the most admired comic book artists in the world.  He seems to have fallen into comic book art after trying to find work as a commercial artist in Glasgow in the late 1980s.  His first published work was in the first issue of Scottish underground comic/Viz rip off Electric Soup.  I actually bought that comic when it came out and I really liked his strip The Greens although the actual comic was quickly confiscated and disposed of by my dad.

The Greens was a parody of the Broons, a perennial Scottish comic strip favourite initially drawn by Dudley D Watkins for DC Thompson in Dundee.  Watkins also created Oor Wullie and Desperate Dan amongst others.  The exhibition showcases some of Quitely's early Green's art as well as original Watkins art from the 30's, 40's and 50's.  I was particularly impressed by the painted cover art from one of the first Broons annuals.

On this visit I made full use of the audiovisual parts of the exhibition.  There were interviews with Quitely as well as his most famous (and fellow Glaswegian) collaborators Grant Morrison and Mark Millar.  It was interesting to hear them talk about developing story lines, character design and art techniques.  Quitely also highlights his own artistic development, highlighting art from a rejected Lobo comic as well as the rejection letter from the DC editor that helped him to re-evaluate his artistic approach to comic book storytelling.

The exhibition highlights the working methods of a comic book artist, often starting with doodles and thumbnail sketches on a comic script then developing through progressively more polished drafts until the final coloured and polished art appears in the printed book.

Morrison and several of the other talking heads in the films talk about how good he is.  At one point, after starting to work on the X-Men comic at the start of the century, a lot of comic book fans were expressing their dislike for Quietly's art.  A concerned editor asked him if it was hurting his feelings.  Quitely, was impressive self knowledge as well as self confidence, said that he knew more about art than these fanboys and he knew he was good so he didn't care.  He was right.

I've met Quitely a few times over the years.  He's a nice bloke.  He's drawn sketches for me and he has signed my books.  He has produced many pages of beautiful comic book art and he has worked with some great writers.  He deserved this show at one of Glasgow's finest buildings as he is one of Glasgow's finest modern artists.

I'd love to visit it again but it's finishing pretty soon.

Updates and maintenance of the blog

I've been doing a bit of updating of the blog, I was considering a new theme but I'm going to keep this one for now.

I did update the Cool Stuff section a bit click here to read the updated cool stuff page

Life is busy and I always have a lot going on but I do enjoy playing about with this blog at times.

art classes

learned how to paint over a photo in art class today.  much politically motivated fun ensued

Drawing

I used to draw a lot when I was a kid.  I guess this was because I was an only child and I didn't always have much to do where I grew up.  I was also a massive comic book fan so I drew my own comic books as a kid.  I was never any good but I did it a lot.  It was always something enjoyed but I knew I did not have the ability to make a career out of it.  I always fancied myself more as a writer but life eventually got in the way and I put my dreams away in a box and got a real job.

Bills need to be paid and I have expensive tastes.

Recently I saw an advert for a course on creating digital comics at a local college and I decided to give it a whirl.  It's on the night when my partner has her yoga class so it gets me out of the house and it doesn't interfere with joint plans.  I had the first class this week and it was great fun.  I still enjoy drawing, just for my own pleasure and I don't mind if anyone else is interested.

The class was an interesting mix.  There are young kids, still at school, who seem to be into manga and pinky stuff as well as older blokes, some in their mid 40s, who are comic book nerds just like me.  The class is run by a bloke who has an art school degree and used to play drums in a sort of Godflesh style metal band.

We did stuff on basic drawing techniques as well as an exercise where we had to create a comic against the clock.  It was fun.

I'm looking forward to next week.  I'm not going to be Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko or anyone like that but I will have fun.  And hopefully draw some angry and bitter comic strips.....

The Road to Civil War: Marvel Renaissance - International premiere hosted by Mark Millar.

I don't think I've ever been to a film premiere before. This was the first international screening of an excellent French documentary on one of my favourite topics, Marvel comics. I am something of a comics history buff and this film focuses on a particularly dramatic period in the Marvel comics story.

Philippe Guedj and Philippe Roure, the creative writer/director duo have told an exciting story on the screen. They grew up reading French translations of Marvel comics and as adults they decided to tell the story of the financial crisis that nearly destroyed the entire American comics industry in the late 1990's.

Many people assume that French comics were all Asterix and Moebius but there was a big Marvel comics market in the 1980s. I remember buying French copies of Serval (Wolverine) when I was a kid on holiday. I remember seeing more Marvel titles available in French newsagents than you could ever buy in a normal British newsagent. I'm not too surprised that these guys have made this film. The film was actually shown on Canal+, the French TV station who make Spiral and The Revenants. Canal+ is a top quality outfit.

So, we have a good quality French film and luckily we have a great story. Nowadays, everyone knows Marvel. Spiderman is an intellectual property that we can all easily believe to be worth a billion dollars. Deadpool has just made a lot of money at the box office. The Avengers are world famous. It is easy to believe that this was all predestined but it nearly didn't happen due to some intricate financial manoeuvres. Marvel were really close to the brink 20 years ago and they were saved by a few slightly maverick creative decisions and some suits who actually understood the comics.

The comic creator talking heads are fun and the financial dealing comes across like Wall Street. Greed was good back then. In some ways the Wall Street philosophy was actually present in the direct sales comics market where speculators would buy multiple copies of unexciting comic books believing that they would gain value and make them rich. It was a bubble and it burst. 

This film, about an interesting period in comic book history where everything could have been lost, deserves a wider audience. Comic book fans in America and the wider world deserve a chance to see this documentary and hear this story. I understand that the team are looking into ways to do this. This would make a perfect Kickstarter DVD project. 

Mark Millar is clearly supportive of these guys and with him onside a Kickstarter could do very well indeed. I understand (from the Q+A session after the film) that they have some longer interview footage that would be ideal for DVD extras. I am sure that some friendly comic creators could be called upon to provide extra rewards for enthusiastic Kickstarter backers. Having enjoyed tonights events they could even offer bespoke screenings at venues in other countries as part of the reward scheme. 

A great film and a great evening! Track down the film if you can.

The return of the Forbidden Planet Glasgow Book group - Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehimann and Kerascoet

The Forbidden Planet book group has been resurrected, much like this blog.  I'm glad the book group is back as it's great to have a chance to discuss comic books with other people.

Beautiful Darkness was an interesting choice. It's a French book, a sort of twisted fairytale.  The art looks great but I didn't really enjoy it.  The story revolves around some fairytale characters who come to live in and around the dead body of a young girl, lost in the woods.  We don't know how she died or if anyone is looking for her.  She is the elephant in the room.  The fairytale characters gradually turn feral, meeting horrible fates or dispatching each other in senseless and cruel ways.  It has a "lord of the flies' feel to it.

This comic book is like a cipher.  The reader can project his or her own ideas onto the story with no real confirmation of anything from the creators.  I guess it would qualify as art and many of the others in the group really liked it.  I felt it was needlessly unpleasant at times even though it looked great.  I don't think I'll rush to re-read it.

Interestingly, the writer Fabien Vehimann has also written some Spirou books.  They are much more wholesome and enjoyable to my mind.  I would like to see other work by these talented creators but Beautiful Darkness just didn't float my boat.

Check it out if you want a really twisted fairy tale but this is not a book for children.

Fantagraphics Kickstarter Project

Fantagraphics are one of the best comic book publishers in the world.  They publish intelligent books by intelligent people.  They make comic books that are art.  Their books are often beautiful.

The first Fantagraphics comic that I remember buying was Hate number 1 by Pete Bagge.  I actually bought it from Bagge himself at the Glasgow Comic Convention in 1989 (or around then).  He signed it for me.  I was really too young for the comic at the time.  I must have been 12 or 13 but I became a massive fan.

Fantagraphics also publish Robert Crumb, Love & Rockets, Castle Waiting, The Comics Journal, beautiful reprint collections of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, English language translations of the works of Tardi, collections of Pogo by Walt Kelly.  All amazing comic art that fights for space on my cramped book shelves.  They don't really publish potboiler superhero rubbish.  I am glad that they exist and I hope they continue to exist.

So, I've pledged for a couple of things on their Kickstarter and I hope that some other people do the same.  They have had a bad year in 2013 with the death of Kim Thompson, Fantagraphics co-founder, and the subsequent disruption of their publishing schedule.  They are raising money to stay independent and stay afloat.  I'm happy to give them cash directly instead of buying from Amazon.  I see it as a donation to an art gallery or a museum. It's just that I get to have this art at home with me.

Anyway, check it out.

Netflix

I've finally fully entered the internet era.  I've set up broad band internet in my flat and I've got a fancy new TV that lets me stream Netflix.  Netflix is a great service.

I was sucked in by Breaking Bad.  I'd caught the first series on the UK channel 5 a few years back and more recently got up to date on DVD.  I was desperate to see how the series would end so I decided to go for Netflix.  Now I think I'm addicted.

Netflix has thousands of hours of TV shows and films instantly available.  Breaking Bad is the crown jewels but it also has South Park, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, Portlandia, It's always sunny in Philadelphia.  The list goes on.  Netflix also has a big pile of films that I want to see, the sort of things that I would pick up in Asda for £3.  Usually I would watch these films once and then put them in a pile.  Now I will hopefully save money and space.

I've found some good documentaries too.  I'd been wanting to see the Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet documentary for some time and I was pleasantly surprised to find it here.

I strongly urge anyone who likes good cinema to check this service out.

Glasgow comic convention 2013

It was a warm weekend for the Glasgow comic convention now in a new venue at the CCA on sauchiehall street. The venue was an improvement on last year with more space and nicer surroundings.

I really enjoyed most of the weekend apart from Simon Bisley who I have to say is one of the most disappointing individuals I have ever had the misfortune to meet. I don't think I'll ever buy anything with his name on it again. By the time I met him late on the Saturday afternoon he had reached a confrontational stage of maudlin drunkeness and he was being abusive to everyone he encountered. Many people were saying that he is a total arsehole although I couldn't possible comment.

Anyway, enough toxic ranting. On to good stuff, and there was a lot of good stuff The first thing I did was stand in line to meet John Wagner (the man who came up with the name Judge Dredd) and Carlos Ezquerra (the man who designed Judge Dredd). I was lucky enough to get a sketch of Dredd and their autographs on a copy of 2000ad number 2 (the first Dredd comic strip).

Wagner and Ezquerra were very, very nice and indulgent. True gentlemen.





After that I met John Higgins, an all round great artist and famously the colourist on Watchmen. He's a great artist and a bought a small book illustration from him. He also drew a quick Judge Dredd sketch for me.










I then had a look at some of the local Glasweigan indie comics. I picked up the new comic by Jim Devlin, an up and coming writer/artist who won the awards for best writer and best artist. I also bought the new books by John Lees and Neil Slorance, all of which are very nice and well worth investigating.

Finally I sat in on a panel of artists including Alan Davis, Cam Kennedy and Yishan Li talking about working as comic artists. They all had rather different career paths and interesting tales to tell. Kennedy, a native Glasweigan has some great chat and was given free reign to talk for nearly an hour about his long and varied career on the Sumday. In the panel we heard about the differences in the industry in the UK, America, Europe and Asia. I am not familiar with the work of Yishan Li but I am told that she is a successful manga artist. The art that I saw her produce looks good anyway.




On Sunday my main objective was to meet Alan Davis, my favourite comic book artist. I had to wait in line for about 90 minutes to meet him but it was worth it. He's a really modest, normal, down to earth bloke who still lives in Corby. I spent some time in Kettering and Corby about 10 or 11 years back and I think he was interested to hear that I knew the place. It is always nice to be treated well by a childhood hero and he drew me a great sketch of Captain Britain.










I had lunch with one of the guys from the book group I attend after getting my sketches. I bought a couple of books and some old comics and then I spent most of the rest of the afternoon listening to talks.

I did make one interesting comic book discovery (well, a discovery for me anyway). I met Glasweigan comic book artist Lorna Miller and picked up some of her Witch comics, published about a decade ago by Slave Labour Comix. I had never heard of her but she has collaborated with Peter Bagge. She has a style similar to Bagge with a geography that I can relate to personally. One strip is based in a carry out shop on Great Western Road. I need to get more of her work and I hope she continues to publish.





To close the Sunday I sat and listened to a series of talks. I have already mentioned the quality chat of Cam Kennedy and his solo session was very interesting. He had trained in commercial art in Glasgow doing early work on Commando comics for DC Thompson before heading off round Europe. You often hear criticism of DC Thompson but Kennedy told us the other side of the story detailing the various perks of working for the Dundee publishers. Cam has a healthy indifference to his career and sounds like he enjoyed himself without becoming big headed. He worked hard in his time and produced some great stuff. His tales of interactions with American publishers and Lucasfilm were brilliant and I would gladly have listened to him for a day. Sadly problems with his eyes mean that he can no longer work but he certainly can talk.

After that there was a panel chaired by John McShane discussing the differences between working in the American industry and the UK industry. Alan Grant, Mike Ploog and Alan Davis have all been successful internationally and raised some interesting points. Grant made enough money from writing Batman in the late '80s to buy a house that his friends call Wayne Manor. Davis continues to do high selling books for Marvel comics. A common theme was issues with editors. A good editor can make a job great whilst a bad editor can make your life hell. Ploog has a great story about why he never worked for DC after unintentionally insulting a famous editor.

The weekend ended with Alan Davis discussing his career. As I have already mentioned he is a modest man who feels lucky to have had a career as a comic artist. He no longer reads modern comics as he has become disillusioned with the violence that is often present in stories. He chooses not to write because he feels that his stories would not sell. This is a shame because he has written some good stuff over the years. Davis stands as an example of professionalism and decent blokeness. Most of the people I met over the weekend were the same, with one sadly obvious exception.

To end on a good note though here's a picture by Mike Ploog:-