Gordon

Will Chas continue to be somewhat set apart from Constantine (as he was in the closing parts of Carey’s run) or will he revert to amiable sidekick? ;)

 

 

Gordon.

Get. The. Fuck. In!!!!!!

 

 

Indeed.

 

Any word on the artist?

 

The Artist is Antonio Fuso.

 

Here’s the content information from Mina’s website:

 

<<This story came out of King Lear and rollicking house prices in Britain.

Nothing divides families as completely as a legacy squabbled over. Good kind friends can become avaricious and spiteful when confronted with money to divide among themselves. For lots of families their inheritance comes from their parent’s houses, their tiny kingdoms and I thought how like Lear it all was, how avarice brings out an ugly, unfamiliar sides in all of us. The fact that property prices are rising so fast in parts of the UK ups the stakes, literally. Enormous, unthinkable amount of money can be involved and families can be ripped apart by the house they grew up in, the houses that their parents worked hard to buy so that they would have something to leave.

It could have been called ‘Legacy’ but that doesn’t connote stabbing and decay and inexplicable fires just as well, does it?>>

... frankly, even I struggle to get passed the purple prose that (Delano's) captions have a tendency to be filled with.

Fair point. His Hellblazer was very wordy. It was also very worthy. :)

 

I also think that, on occasion, he has allowed his stories to become polemics.

I'll take that over disposable entertainment, or franchise-fodder, any day.

 

You know, entertaining and serious pieces of work needn’t be mutually exclusive propositions.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Jamie Delano’s writing. (In point of fact I probably wouldn’t be reading comics today if it weren’t for Delano, as his Hellblazer was the first comic I found truly impressive.)

 

I also think that the way he approaches the issues you mentioned is done in a fairly dated way and, frankly, even I struggle to get passed the purple prose that his captions have a tendency to be filled with.

 

I also think that, on occasion, he has allowed his stories to become polemics.

Polite understatement, there. It's a fucking terrible cover.

 

I diden't like to say. :cool:

 

Oh, I bought the ‘No Direction Home’ documentary, by the way. I think I liked the first disc more (mainly because it contextualised the sixties a little.) but both were fairly interesting and had me scrambling to note down artists I quite liked. (Most notably Odetta.)

 

Is there any word on when the second volume of Chronicles is to be released?

I’m reading a curious mixture of fiction and non-fiction at the moment.

 

Fiction: re-reading Richard K Morgan’s ‘Altered Carbon’, Denise Mina’s ‘Field Of Blood’, Greg Rucka’s ‘Finder’ (yes, we are keeping it pulpy.)

 

Non-Fiction: Bob Woodward’s ‘Veil’, Peter Wright’s ‘Spycatcher’ (which was co-written by Paul Greengrass, apparently.) and a book on the FBI-CIA-Police response to 9/11.

 

All of which are somewhat for my political science degree and somewhat for me.

 

 

Only a month to go.

 

Obviously, I'd be tremendously excited

Regardless, but in light of the fact that his

Last two albums are among the best he's ever

Made, and advance reviews are

Suggesting that this is a more-than-worthy successor,

This has the potential to be something

Really rather special.

 

It’s Dylan, so I’m sure it will have merit but that covers fairly rank.

Recently I’ve bought The Stills’ ‘Without Feathers’ (which is very good) and The Walkmen’s ‘A Hundred Miles Off’ (which has impressed me less than the bands previous efforts, but is good nonetheless.)

 

I’m also listening to a lot of Thelonouis Monk again and hammering my copy of ‘Endtroducing’ in anticipation of DJ Shadow’s ‘The Outsider’ next month.

yeah, the premature cancellation burned his ass so he's a bit mad, i think.

I'd be bloody furious, myself.

As for bad miniseries: 2020 Visions was rather good, Cruel And Unusual was hilarious, Hell Eternal wasn't half bad and his work for 2000AD is vastly superior to any of Gaiman's.

 

Why?

 

Comics are a commercial enterprise. If something isn’t selling, it isn’t selling.

 

And not only did he have an 18 month run, he knew about the cancellation as early as September 2001. (Which I know because I was interviewing him at the time.)

 

Don’t get me wrong, I respect him greatly as a writer, but his concerns (as have been expressed elsewhere on this thread) are very locked into the 1980s and therefore don’t have the same ethos as 2006.

Like many here, I suspect that ‘literary comics’ have been light on the ground over this particular twelve month block.

 

However, the novelist Denise Mina is currently writing a particularly good 13 issue Hellblazer story, that your doubtless aware of. (And seriously, it may be the best comic book I’ve read by someone who is primarily a prose novelist.)

 

Also of note would be Richard K Morgan’s black widow series available in the TPB’s ‘Homecoming’ and ‘The Thing’s They Say About Her’. Morgan’s a gifted science fiction writer who went into some amount of detail about the latter series http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb....c;f=36;t=004507.

 

The latter series, in particular, is an interesting look at the morality of both spies and superheroes.

 

It may also be worth looking at what tools someone like Mike Carey, he of Hellblazer and Lucifer fame does on his x-men run. (I’ve read the first issue and it certainly seems to be a more cerebral take on a fairly adolescent concept.)

 

And congratulations on the opportunity to study this for three years, by the way.

please tell me this is a joke: did Moebius aka Jean Giraud aka one of the most awesome comic book artists in the world really work on the Halo GN from marvel instead of doing some worthwhile stuff? :o

 

 

Nope, not a joke.

 

It’s only one of several strips and Moebius did his in collaboration with Brett Lewis, the writer of Wintermen.

 

I doubt that he’s going to be involved with the just announced ongoing series.

..That no one's discussing this:

 

From the Interview:

It's about crime. It's about standing in the bank and thinking about how you'd rob it if you could. It's about growing up on the wrong side of the law and yet still having a moral code. It's basically about all the things that fascinate me and most of the reading and TV viewing public.

Now giving The Life Pursuit by Belle and Sebastian another listen.  I highly reccomend this one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I kick-started an ex-girlfriend’s Belle and Sebastian obsession by buying her ‘If Your Feeling Sinister’ when that came out.

 

Of course she got me into The Smiths, who I’d successfully resisted up until that point…)

‘The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society’ by, well, The Kinks.

On the book front, I’m reading the latest Denise Mina paperback, ‘Field of Blood’ (which if anything, I’m enjoying more than the ‘Garnethill’ books if only because of my keen interest in Journalism.)

 

Whilst over in comics, I’m reading V for Vendetta (because I don’t have the money to go see the film, because I bought the new Denise Mina paperback.)

 

I think I’m reading Michael Connolly’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ next…

I have to say, I dropped Hellblazer for awhile towards the end of Carey’s Run (well, not really dropped. More like missed an issue and didn’t go back to it) and although I’ll be catching up with the ever-more-frequent trades, I’m absolutely loving Denise Mina’s run, what some people seem to think of a slow burn, I find portentous.

Like Mark I'm pretty much burned out on Bendis' Daredevil, though the last trade (with the demon baby thing) marked a slight uptick in form.  Ed's nil for two with me on his Marvel work so I reckon I'll be giving this a miss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I cooled to Bendis’ Daredevil awhile back, deciding the the second half of his Run (following his becoming the Kingpin) sagged a little, just didn’t have the same momentum.

 

But I’m currently re-reading the trades and having a whale of a time, you have to admire the internal consistency of the book, with things like the MGH subplot or The White Tiger trial constantly popping up in the narrative.

 

The most impressive thing about the Bendis/Maleev exit, really, is that it’s happening at just the right time, another year of this would be too much.

 

I look forward to the Brubaker/Lark run.

Currently...

 

 

 

I’ve been staving off the weird post-exams, pre-essay blues by reading this Stephen King novel, basically because it came out under the ‘Hard Case Crime’ imprint which I’m a big fan of, and also because I used to love King’s work and it’s been many years since I read any.

 

A very pleasing 'B movie' kind of read, nothing special, but edifying in its own way.

 

 

Gordon.

Am I the only person round here who's seriously enjoying DMZ? Seems like everyone else is kind of undecided on it, but I'm delighted with it, personally.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ade’s fairly unequivocal in his appreciation of DMZ, as was I, before I started writing a lengthy review of it. hopefully I’ll be back to enthusiastically appreciating it soon.

 

Gordon.

The Writer (Daniel Way) has been very forthcoming about the fact that Wolverine (or Wolverine: Origins, as the new book will be entitled) needs to be an action book, and that component  has been neglected with the more philosophical approach that both Greg Rucka and Mark Millar (!) took with the book.

 

The fuck? Millar's whole run was one long action set-piece. Daniel Way is either Captain Disingenuous, utterly deluded, or taking the piss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Exactly, I vividly recall an entire issue of Mark Millar’s Wolverine run that was Matt Murdock beating the fuck out of Logan and a Cadre of The Hand in a spectacularly one sided fashion.

 

Back on topic, the first Loveless trade has been scheduled for April, which is fast even by Vertigo/Azzerello standards.

What? Whose idea was that? Unless it's Logan sitting around chatting with people, they're hardly playing to Dillon's strengths.

Okay, so Until the End of the World-era Dillon did some solid fight scenes, but he's gone rapidly downhill since then.



The Writer (Daniel Way) has been very forthcoming about the fact that Wolverine (or Wolverine: Origins, as the new book will be entitled) needs to be an action book, and that component has been neglected with the more philosophical approach that both Greg Rucka and Mark Millar (!) took with the book.

His approach seems to be more in the ‘After regaining all his memories at once, James Logan takes issues with anybody who even looked at him wrong, whilst occasionally having flashbacks’ school of thought.

Not the strongest or fastest or prettiest, but who gets you going at night, when the lights are off and...oh, sorry, went to my private place.

 

I'm thinking of doing a series of these, just 'cuz I likes me some poll action.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It really depends on the creative team.

 

For example, I loved both of Joe Casey’s permutations of Wildcats, but don’t enjoy Grant Morrison, so it’s unlikely that I’ll buy his Version of Wildcats.

 

On the otherhand, I’ve always quite liked the concept behind Judd Winick’s revamp of ‘The Outsiders’ but, having read a handful of issues, the execution tends to leave me cold.

I have but it feels like there are too many sub-forums as is!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, if you rebranded the current ‘comics in other media’ forum as ‘Movies and TV’ (or whatever) you wouldn’t be adding any!

I have spent the afternoon revising for a cursed Sociology exam that i have come the morning and bobbing my head, albiet in a restrained and moody way, to the Miles Davis album ‘In a Silent Way’. I like Miles Davis.

Thanks.

 

I hope some of you guys will check Castor out.  There's a certan Constantine-ish quality about the main character, at least in some of his moods.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Mike,

 

Was the backdrop of the Castor novel’s (the dead having risen and what not) partly inspired by the event’s leading up to and portrayed in ‘Starring at The Wall’?

 

Very much looking forward to the first Castor book, by the way.

 

Gordon.