dogpoet

As far as the middle east goes, equating all jews with israel is every bit as offensive as the wankers insisting that the muslims have a mass mind and want to turn the whole world into a theocracy, imo.

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Tom Frame (?-2006), UK comics letterer whose speech balloons appeared in most of the Judge Dredd strips and many other 2000 AD stories since 1977, died on 14 July. Gary Wilkinson writes: `an unsung hero of British comics, he was the main letterer of 2000 AD throughout its history.'

Actually, I pretty much agree with point 2 there. The holocaust was an appalling thing, but it was only part of an even wider program of extermination by the Nazis, which tends to be forgotten about by too many people. The overwhelming majority of school education and TV/media coverage would give the average person the impression that the Nazi genocides were almost exclusively targetted at jews - something which simply isn't true.

Mind you, if the media and state didn't insist on that, they'd possibly have to admit that their own attitude towards the mentally ill, the homosexual and the politically undesirable was a bit out of order, so you can see why it gets ignored.

I too have a soft spot in my heart for the Eddie Campbell four parter but I don't think that one fits in the perimeters of Ade's rules.

I don't see why not: I don't have the issues to hand, but I think they're before #150.

I said "pretty much".

 

Didnt he do the one with Shatner and the fortunetelling machine in a diner...?

 

And who can forget that THERE IS A GREMLIN ON THE WING!!!

Now those two I have no problem with.

Well, wonder no more - this way you shell out for the first few trades all over again (Gaiman?).

Three (expensive) hardbacks reprinting all of it, apparently.

Israel != All Jews.

Obviously, but try telling that to the sort of slightly dim protestant who can't grasp that the majority of muslims don't regard Osama Bin Laden as a role model: the idiots are only capable of thinking in terms of stereotype because they and their whole peer group are identical. The fact that people who think any differently make their flesh crawl is the root of their xenophobia, probably.

Also, I just got a phonecall from a mate who told me he accomplished his lifelong dream, and shagged an irish girl last night.

It's good to have ambitions, and better still to fulfill them.

Matheson's episodes are pretty much all memorable and classics.

I dunno about that: the one with the bunch who are fleeing to Earth in order to escape the encroaching nuclear holocaust on their own world was a bit corny.

I'll try pretty much anything published through Vertigo, though the sheen on that particular brand has become more than a little tarnished over the last few years.

Have you heard about this latest repackaging of the Sandman they're doing? One wonders why the devil they didn't fix the colouring back when they first started collecting the series: I know for a fact that they corrected some of the lettering for the first couple of collections.

There's no reason not to, Tony. Give it a go.

landsdale that's who wrote it,thanks for the assist lou.it's the only comic from that company i have ever read(not including that one shot gaiman wrote about tulips,if that too was avatar)and i say track it down,fun stuff.

The horror writer? I liked his Jonah Hex stuff, but Blood And Shadows was appalling.

Could it be Dark Horse you're thinking of Christian? They've published a fair bit of Gaiman.

Now this is a helpful suggestion.

i like your idea for the cover jon,with j.c.laughing at someone else crushed by the car then at the end of the story we realize it's his ghost on the cover laughing at his own dead body.

Stylish! That's a fine riff on the idea.

'Night, Spider.

I still say by year end, Wildstorm will be the bomb. I'm sticking by my choice as the one person who picked WS.

They no longer have Moore, though, and Morrison and Ennis are both capable of churning out crap when the mood takes them.

Invisibles.

Bad art or bad story?

It isn't just Keeyah: I've been reading more Marvel of late than I have since I was in primary school, to be honest.

Writing B-grade porn has made Manara one of the richest comic book writers alive; I don't see him changing in a foreseeable future.

 

But don't lose hope: George Lucas, after six mega-productions that've consummed almost 30 years of his life and have made him a billionaire, said that after Episode III he wanted to start making more artsy and personal movies... who knows if Mr Manara won't have such a change of heart one day too

 

I must admit, though, I've enjoyed his collaborations with Hugo Pratt.

I've not read any of the Hugo Pratt things, are they worth investigating?

I can't really see the problem with Manara spending the bulk of his career on soft porn: I'd much sooner him than Mike Manning or whoever, and it must be admitted that he draws incredibly desirable women. (One wonders if Ian Gibson will ever turn his attention to B Grade porn, now that this cask has been broached...)

Nothing wrong with those two being on anyones list .

I'm with you there: Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably the best thing Spielberg's ever done.

It's funny thaf I found that very story in a collection of art and writing called Ariel, the Book of Fantasy. Along the Scenic Route was done in comic form with art by Al Williamson.

Strange they'd go for that one rather than Adrift Off The Islets Of Langerhaal... or something. Even the stuff in there that uses SF rationalisations comes across more as fantasy than anything else.

Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't buy the issue of Heavy Metal featuring Milo Manara's "Gullivera" because I thought the dialogue and the plot would crackle with wit, insight and tension so that's one instance of the art taking precedence at least.

 

 

That's another example I could have mentioned, actually - most of Manara's stories are fucking awful, but a good few of them are well worth reading just for his superb art.

 

I do wish he'd get together with a decent writer more often, though. And possibly do something other than B-grade porn on occasion.

The same applies to Guido Crepax as well, now I think about it.

I think the art really, really let down the story — okay, it's a no-brainer to say better art = better comic, but in this case I suspect the art really broke what Jamie was trying to say.

 

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. :D

 

How about Paul Jenkins' 2-parter Widdershins, from issues 116 & 117?

I enjoyed that one, but Jenkins did better elsewhere.

Now I think about it, can I be the first in this thread to speak up in defense of the Eddie Campbell story? I really enjoyed that one, to the extent that I was a trifle peeved on finding out that was all he was going to be doing for it...

His early pre-sci-fi work isn't very well known.

"Along The Scenic Route" while a good story, seems completely misplaced in that Deathbird Stories collection.

How 'bout "Sundays are Different"? I'd like to hear what folks make of it.

I loved that one: Delano's take on the poll tax riots, a hatchet job on the misappropiation of hippy bullshit by monetarist bullshitters, about as close as Delano ever got to revealing the softer side of Constantine Ellis based his entire run on Hellblazer dwelling on...

There's nothing here not to like, apart from the art.