Y the Last Man

Y the Last Man is a comic book by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. It ran for 60 issues and is available as a series of 10 softcover tradepaperbacks. I'm pretty sure that hardcover bookshelf editions will become available in due course. You can buy it on Amazon or in Waterstones.

Y the Last Man is a comic book that might be interesting for people who are bored by the idea of dayglo superheroes. The story revolves around Yorick who is the last living man on earth. A strange disease has killed every male mammal except Yorrick and Ampersand his pet monkey. Yorrick is the only man on a planet of 3 Billion women. Unfortunately his girlfriend is in Australia, on the other side of the world.

Without men, the world descends into anarchy. Everyone wants a piece of Yorick and he is under pressure to continue the human race. This is not really a good thing for him.

I just finished reading the series last week. It's not the best comic I've ever read but it is pretty good. Well worth picking up, even if you don't usually read comics.

Hancock - film review

I like Will Smith. I used to watch the Fresh Prince of Bel Air after school and Men in Black was a great film. He has been in some shit too. Despite being a fan of boxing I've done my best to avoid Ali. I just think it would make me sad.

I'm glad I saw Hancock in the cinema. In many ways it's a big, dumb action blockbuster. Smith plays Hancock, an angry, alcoholic superhero who is hated by the general public. He is hungover and unkempt but he still tries to save people. Unfortunately his heroics always result in a large amount of collateral damage.

The first part of the film is funny with some great special effects. All you want from a big, stupid summer blockbuster. Then Hancock throws you a curveball about 2/3 of the way through and changes into a different sort of film. The end of the film is a bit like Unbreakable.

I liked it and I'm glad I saw it in the cinema. It might not be as much fun if you're not a comic-book nerd but it's still worth seeing.

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda is OK. It's not the best animated film I've ever seen but some of the fight sequences are amazing and I laughed at bits of it. Rent the DVD but don't rush to see it in the cinema.

Trailer for the Watchmen movie

I just saw the trailer for the Watchmen movie on the internet and it looks good. Shitty goth music on the soundtrack.

see http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

It's also kinda funny that Alan Moore is not mentioned anywhere on the website.

Stranger and stranger - The world of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

Steve Ditko should have been a very rich man. He co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee. He also did definitive work on Dr Strange at the same time. He created most of the famous villains that have appeared in Spider-Man stories over the past 45 years and he helped shape the character into the interesting and conflicted personality that has made millions of dollars at cinemas world wide.

Sadly, real life has been less kind to Ditko and he spent much of his career working in bad conditions and being ripped off by the comics industry. He has been very principled in his professional life due to his belief in the right-wing philosophy of objectivism created by Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Foutainhead. Ditko seemed to have a very polarised, black and white view of the world and he would not compromise in his artistic work. This meant that he would often walk away from good jobs and fight with fellow artists.

Strange and Stranger by Blake Bell is a great book. It showcases Ditko's art and tells his story. While I don't agree with many of the ideas that Ditko this biography is a great, quick read. I would love to read some of the original comic strips about Mr A, probably Ditko's ultimate creation. The character was basically a fascist vigilante who saw life in term of pure good and pure evil. Alan Moore has been quoted as saying that Mr A was an influence on the character of Rorschach in the Watchmen book. The human element of Ditko's life and his struggle with ill-health dut to TB is also pretty interesting.

Ditko is a private man and rejects media contact. He is over 80 years old and he may even be dead now. Last year Johnathan Ross made an excellent documentary about Ditko for BBC 4 called In Search of Steve Ditko. Ross (in partnership with Neil Gaiman) managed to track Ditko down and talk to him but Ditko refused to be photographed or interviewed. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsbritannia/ross-ditko.shtml for more of that story.

Strange and Stranger is a great book for comic nerds. It gives a brief picture of a creative artist but we are left with many unanswered questions.

For more try the following websites -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ditko

http://www.ditko.comics.org/

http://www.steveditko.com/

The original art for the first ever Spider-Man comic was recently donated the the Library of Congess in America
http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=290

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-089.html

Read yourself RAW - a website about comics

I just found a pretty good website about the more thought-provoking and interesting comics that are out there.

The address is

www.readyourselfraw.com

worth reading

My Bloody Valentine live at the Glasgow Barrowlands.

The past couple of years have been heaven for lovers of noise rock. All the big names of my teenage years have got back together to play a few gigs and put the kids through private school. My Bloody Valentine have done very little as a group for the past 15 years or so. Their masterwork Loveless came out in 1991 and apart from a handful of tracks we have heard nothing else.

At the first of two nights at the Barrowlands they were supported by another, albiet smaller, indie legend. The Pastels. Steven Pastel, the singer and band leader runs monorail records in kings court, Glasgow. It's the best record shop in Glasgow and you should all go there. It's aslo a concert venue, vegetarian cafe and bar. See http://www.monorailmusic.com/ for a bit more about the shop. The Pastels were ok tonight, but not outstanding. They sound a little like the soundtrack to a French art film. The line-up was filled out by Gerry Love from Teenage Fanclub on Guitar but they were never going to compete with the noise monster that is My Bloody Valentine.

The crowd was a mixed bag. The average punter was probably in their mid-30s. There were plenty of old goths and indie kids. Everybody was too-cool-for-school as you would expect at a gig like this.

From the first note MBV were loud. I made use of my free earplugs. The sound was pretty close to that of the vinyl. The set drew from Isn't Anything, Loveless and the Creation eps. My favourite track was probably soon although you made me realise was amazing. They played the one-note bridge for 21 minutes. It may be the loudest thing that I've ever heard. It was a visceral sensation like standing in a waterfall or being blown about by the wind. The sound felt like how you would imagine being on fire in the sun would be. In a good way. I'm sorry, I'm not toogood with words.

The set finished with You Made Me Realise. Most people were smiling during the 'chord of death' and I loved it although my ears were ringing a bit as I walked home. I'd love to see them again, I'll be buying the upcoming remastered editions of the back catalogue and I hope they do some good music. I like to imagine that I can understand Kevin Shields predicament a bit. How would you follow Loveless? How do you improve on perfection?

http://www.mybloodyvalentine.co.uk/

Wanted - film review

Wanted is an adolescent male revenge fantasy. It has some cool action sequences but the plot is kinda pish. The characters are ok and the cast is good. James McAvoy is always good and I do like to look at Angelina Jolie.

The story is about a bloke called Wesley who is basically at the bottom of the food chain, an omega male. He has a shit job that he hates, he has panic attacks and his best mate is fucking his girlfriend. He meets a beautiful woman who tells him that he has superpowers and that he is the son of the worlds greatest assassin. He is then invited to join the Fraternity, a secret club of assassins. Lots of stuff is blown up and lots of swear-words are used.

I liked the comic so I'm a bit disappointed by the film. The comic was written by Mark Millar who is a good writer and Glaswegian. The comic was pretty extreme and some of the basic plot devices (supervillains and weird powers) were a bit out there but at least the characters had realistic motivations and there was some internal logic to the story.

If you like comics, read the comic first. I'd wait to see the film on TV.

Anywhere I lay my head by Scarlett Johansson

On paper or at least on first thought you would expect an album by a 23 year old movie starlet to be pish. It screams of vanity project like the musical career of Paris Hilton. Albums by actors are usually shite.

Anywhere I lay my head is good which is a surprise. It's good for several reasons. Ms Johansson has made some leftfield choices. There have been signs of her alternative leanings in the past. I didn't really like Lost in translation but I loved the soundtrack. I realise she didn't pick the songs on the soundtrack herself but at least she would have heard them. She also showed amazingly good taste by getting up on stage with East Kilbride musical gods the Jesus and Mary Chain to sing backing vocals on Just like honey.

So now she's made her own album. To be more precise David Andrew Sitek of TV on the Radio has made her an album of Tom Waits songs. It's a good album that sounds like a TVOR record. It also sounds a bit like the Cocteau Twins. My dad even liked it when I played it in the car. David Bowie sings on it. It is a good record.

Listen to it.

Playing with my Ipod shuffle

I was bored a couple of weeks back and I bought myself a new toy - a 2Gb Ipod shuffle. I have a big old 20Gb that has done me no wrong but I wanted something a bit more portable. At 45quid the shuffle doesn't break my bank.

The sound quality seems ok an it's very small. I'm kinda scared that I could step on it or wash it or some shit like that and not notice. It's so light that I can clip it to my belt or to a t-shirt with little trouble.

I don't download much music. I guess that shows my age. I like to buy CDs and look at the boxes. One of my problems is finding enough time to listen to all the CDs I buy. The shuffle is good for that. I just download a bunch of CDs onto it and listen to them at random. It's helped me get into a few albums that I was finding a bit difficult.

There are two main drawbacks with the shuffle. The lack of display makes it impossible to know which song you are listening to and difficult to find a specific song. This can be fun when you are left guessing what a cool song it. Good brain exercise. The other thing that is a major pain in the ass is charging the shuffle. This only seems to be possible when the Ipod is attached to a computer. This can make life difficult if you don't have access to a computer on a daily basis. These flaws are both minor and I can live with them.

I guess I love my Ipod shuffle. It's not perfect and it won't replace my big 20Gb baby but it has its uses.