dogpoet

Started in on Agent Of Evolution (a biography of Bill Hicks that doesn't seem any great improvement on the other one I've read thus far.)

the idea of talking about Watchmen with Ziggy Stardust

That would be so cool.

Getting him drunk and then drawing a zigzag on his face with a marker pen would be cooler, though.

I've always assumed that he was going to end fairly miserably: anything else would be out of character, surely?

Bro, you gotta take up drawing again - that way you won't be at the mercy of artists/publishers, etc.

[isaac Hayes]Damn straight.[/isaac Hayes]

I've had a few small press things fall through because some twat's been taking their deportment tips from Jim Lee rather than Jack Kirby.

Right now it's on Bob Markey's Redemption Song.

"How long will they kill our prophets..."

Rather less classy in my case: The Pipettes' album.

Meh! I loved the Rings books, disliked the movies (I know, I know). Lately, I've been reading this David Gemmell Legend and thinking it'd make a better movie than Rings.

I was very intrigued to hear about an Elric film being in preproduction, but apparently it's drifted into the sort of development hell from which it may not escape, which is rather a pity.

Yes, that's the best way to tell them apart.

Nobody in the Invisibles wears bandages or is made out of metal?

Plus with the early stuff, if you tended to get a suited geezer in the late eighties then you tended to regard them as a yuppie until otherwise proven, so Constantine's early image was flying in the face of the greed associated with Thatcher.

That's an interesting point, I'd not considered that, but you're dead right.

How the hell was there any social commentary shown with the King of Vampires in the issues where John was living on the street? The only thing Ennis showed there was a patent lack of understanding of the condition of the alcoholic, and he threw in the stupid vampire just so Hellblazer would continue to have horror elements. The story would've worked a hell of a lot better without the vampire.

I was thinking more of Damnation's Flame, to be honest: he didn't just crawl around gutters in the UK, did he?

Just acquired one of the Xxxenophile collections: Phil Foglio is a fine cartoonist, but it seems to be the same story six or seven times with different faces and names on the protagonists each time.

It was Jurassic Park without the lecture about genetics, cloning, and chaos theory....and Yul Brenner instead of Jeff Goldblum.

These aren't bad things, Christian.

He doesn't say what the originial script described though.

lesbian sex, probably: he was sending up Vertigo, after all.

Ellis was also having a dab at social (and political) commentary with Shoot and in some parts of Haunted.

My argument is that besides Ellis' run, I wouldn't even call Hellblazer a horror title since Ennis' tenure.

And I don't feel that Ennis' use of horror was particularly well-suited as social/political commentary. Ennis usually used scary demons and blood and gore.

A far remove from the psychological horrors of Jamie Delano.

I remember seeing an interview with Ennis where he stated that any use of political or social arguments was just another avenue by which a monster could be shoehorned into his stories.

No ideas what the problem with Carey or Mina is though: Carey had quite a lot to say about colonialism, among other things, and that last issue of Mina's everybody hated had certain undercurrents to it about events in London last year.

I don't think the souls thing just reboots every time a Demon dies.

You would expect them to still have their claim after returning from the dead, true enough.

More than the "occasional trace", I would have said.

Royal Blood and most of the stories where he was crawling around in the gutter, for a start.

Oh shit! I just saw Grinning Fellow's post. He must've replied while I was typing. I saw Mark's response that he felt Guardian #3 was his least favourite issue. That's what I was replying to.

 

So, yes, it was totally on topic, as it was my critique of Guardian #3 which was just being discussed.

 

It's really synchronistic that Grinning mentioned "Wild West justice" in his post while I was thinking about West World....

It does look like some sort of oft-kilter joke about Grinning's comment.

What on earth is the problem with Westworld? It's a wonderful film from back when they making SF flicks that weren't devoted primarily to flashy special effects and providing big name non-actors with a star vehicle.

Ridgway's a bit of an acquired taste, but like a lot of those is well worth the effort.

 

Kim Newman made an interesting observation in an interview shortly before the turn of the millenium (I think it was ostensibly plugging Dracula Cha Cha Cha) that over the course of the '80s and '90s horror as a genre had pretty much given up on social factors and turned instead towards narcissism, monsters and monstrous characters no longer having anything to say about or any particular connection to society as a whole, and instead concerning themselves with solipsism and conceit. Hellblazer has long been an exception to this tendency.

 

Not really since Delano's run, Dog.

It's highly arguable whether you can even call Hellblazer a horror book after Ennis' run, and Ennis' run usually fell prey to exactly the solipsism, conceit, and nihilism that the article was referring to.

I disagree with that. There were no social undercurrents to Paul Jenkins' run? Come off it. There was even the occasional trace of social commentary in Ennis' work.

Finished the Tanith Lee and started in on Who made Stevie Crye by Michael Bishop. Looks interesting.

Ridgway's a bit of an acquired taste, but like a lot of those is well worth the effort.

Kim Newman made an interesting observation in an interview shortly before the turn of the millenium (I think it was ostensibly plugging Dracula Cha Cha Cha) that over the course of the '80s and '90s horror as a genre had pretty much given up on social factors and turned instead towards narcissism, monsters and monstrous characters no longer having anything to say about or any particular connection to society as a whole, and instead concerning themselves with solipsism and conceit. Hellblazer has long been an exception to this tendency.

(I could do without the reference to Liz Fraser though: nice enough voice, but she's hardly Alison Shaw or Diamanda Galas, is she?)

WISDOM #1 (of 6)

Written by PAUL CORNELL

Pencils and Cover by TREVOR HAIRSINE

I'm there. Some of Cornell's prose is amazing; one of his Doctor Who novels is a contender for my favourite book evah. He's a better writer than Warren Ellis.

 

 

EDIT: Cornell is quoted by Newsarama:

"The artist is the wonderful Trev Hairsine, and I've never worked with anyone who's so professional, so adaptable. He's doing some very photo-realistic stuff that kicks arse (not ass, no) in action sequences, communicates human relationships through expression, and tells the story. It's a lovely situation to know that I can let the pictures do the talking. He loves drawing helicopters, so as often as I can I've tried to give him a big splash with an enormous chopper."

Yep, looking forward to this one.

I thought Hairsine drew a lot like Cam Kennedy. When did he change his approach?

Isn't that Tom Cruise and Katie Holme's kid? She's flipping adorable!

 

She is incredibly adorable, but as neither Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes are Asian, as far as I'm aware, I'd like to know why the kid is clearly at least part Asian. :)

It's probably the only one the $cientologists could find at short notice.

That Katie Holmes is going to have one hell of a story when she spills all to the Tabloids, isn't she?

Despite the awesome reviews it gets, I wouldn't hold it up as a grand example of his genius. Or lack thereof, according to this thread.

It's probably the best he's managed though: I admit I have read all of either, but it's a lot more impressive than Transmetropolitan.

Well, I loved the Newsboy Army and the Subway Pirates.

How about the theme park full of killer robots?

I for one, loved the Newsboy Legion. I thought it was so much fun.

I thought that about the Subway pirates, to be honest.

The Guardian was just a bit too much in the way-out concept dept (Pirates of the subway? C'mon)

I loved that business: in fact I preferred it to the business with the Newsboy Legion from the '40s everybody else is raving about.

Holy Shit it (Extra Stout) comes in 22's (that's a pint and a half for ye non-Mericans)! So I bought a bunch of those. Even more fun!

It does? The bastards sell it in these teeny little bottles that hold about 2/3 of the contents of a tin of beer over here.