TimC

So in this recent edition of The Boys, we finally learn what a Jack Kirby/Stan Lee analogue with no feet would look like having sex with a Wonder Woman analogue, and was it everything we wanted?

When you put it like that, you almost make it sound dirty...

Also: Shawn, while I agree that O'Neill's work is glorious and a large part of what I enjoy about League, I'd be downright astonished if any of the background gags/references weren't in the original scripts. Given Moore's well-known tendency towards absurdly detailed panel descriptions, it seems a fair assumption.

Prepare to be flabbergasted!

Kevin puts in all these references that he has to explain to me because he has an incredibly broad field of knowledge about culture. So, there are bits of the League where even I don’t get the references, but hopefully that doesn’t detract from the story that we’re trying to tell.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/alan-moore-loeg-century-1969-2110801.html

Grr, my local comic shop hasn't got the 1969 and is blaming Diamond, saying no one else had it either. Anyone else had a problem? Or is my chap just hopeless?

(it's not often you get to read a comic in Michael Caine's Voice!)

Well, apart from The Boys (Butcher, or so the other characters reckon) or Modesty Blaise (Willie Garvin, modelled on the young actor).

That's unfair. I saw Alan Moore at a wee music festival at Allie Pallie at the weekend, and his performance was barely 20 minutes late, which didn't even seem to be his fault particularly. It did mean that the audience mostly drifted off to see Grinderman instead, though, so if his next comic involves a spindly Australian gitwizard, you'll know why.

In other news, the bumper Alan Moore fun book by that Strangehaven blokey has arrived, and at first flick it's a very fine thing indeed.

The coat -

http://vertigo.blog.dccomics.com/2011/07/21/john-constantine%E2%80%99s-trench-coat-is-missing/

And the most dispiriting sentence in the history of Vertigo, from that CBR piece:

“It came out of wanting to explore the theme of fallen angels in a dark, edgy way I hadn’t seen before”

Why? There's much more alarming stories than that in there...

Apart from the sheer wrongness of the mental image, it's the way he says it almost put him off, but didn't.

Good to see Heresy miniatures are keeping up the standards of the Citadel ones from the 80s.

From the start...

I'm still traumatised by Tom Baker's story about the female fan with her own costume.

On a similar note, Kenneth Anger's 'Hollywood Babylon' will make you feel dirty on a number of levels.

You know when you have an apallingly horrific nightmare about something that has been worrying you in your waking hours, a self tailored nightmare that, because you know as an absolute your own personal fears and phobias, leaves you sobbing with relief when you finally wake and realise it was, oh thank the gods I don't believe in, only a dream . . .

 

Do you horror movie lovers then go " WOW !, I would pay 7 dollars to see THAT one at the multi-plex!"?

Although I don't ever have quite that sort of nightmare, I do often find myself, on awakening from an unusually memorable dream, pondering whether it could form the basis for some sort of original story that anyone else would be interested in. The honest answer, every time, is no.

Then again, I'd go and see some of my dreams on the big screen just for the scenery.

If you're in that line, try Michael Powell's autobiography, 'A life in movies' and 'Million dollar movie'. Fascinating and beautifully written journey through half a century of film-making, from the man responsible for some of the best British films ever made*. And blimey, he was a right shagger and all.

* - if you disagree with this statement, you are dead to me.

Further preview pages for (deep breath) 'Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1'. Featuring our boy and Batman.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=9021

Still not good.

'The Two Towers' was the only one of the three that I much liked, thanks entirely to the battle scenes. The rest was just very dull if you knew the story. I did actually fall asleep in the first one while they were poncing round the caves (this after going to a very pricey cinema on Leicester Square for the opening night).

The first book, and bits of the third, are the only ones I ever enjoyed reading much, with the second a particularly dull experience on the page. Battle scenes are much better when you can see them, rather than when you're reading JRR's deathly prose.

Still, I'd rather watch any of Jackson's earlier films any day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_%28Doctor_Who%29

In other fantastic Who trivia, it's been revealed that Rory's mum was the Why Bird -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13687016

This seems relevant here too -

Other new supernatural/fantasy/horror-themed books that will be announced by DC Comics today and scheduled to publish in September include:

• Justice League Dark, what DC terms “a band of supernatural heroes” — John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu – written by Peter Milligan.

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/06/07/dc-comics-swamp-thing-frankenstein/

Got to say, I'm not feeling it.

Amy's besottedness was more of a girly 'Ooh, he's wonderful' rather than a 'ALL THE UNIVERSE SHALL QUAKE AT HIS NAME!!!' sort of thing. And, given the circumstances, there was no reason to extend that to the rest of reality, so one could have worked it any way.

Of course, it's not like that story made all that much sense however you slice it.

If Moffat wanted to deflate this reputational 'ongoing thing', he had the perfect opportunity to do it at the end of last season. The universe is rebooted without the Doctor; even after he returns at Amy's wedding, the score sheet's wiped clean. Job done. It doesn't even need to be remarked on until the story requires it.

Drawing even more attention to it before deflating it seems self-indulgent, and not particularly interesting.

He is no longer a "healer" or "advisor", he's a "great warrior". That is definitely a development I find striking during the entire last five seasons.

That does go back to the McCoy/Cartmel era, though, and was prominent in the 'New Adventures' books which seem a big influence on Nu Who. The scheming-behind-companions'-backs of the last few episodes and the

were very McCoy.

Moffat's definitely gone heavier on the 'wonderful god-like man!' rhetoric, though. I thought the last few Tennant episodes were meant to knock the wind out of that a bit.

I reread JtB in one sitting the other week, and it works much better like that. It's almost as if it were primarily intended to sell as a big chunky book rather than in monthlies (well, bimonthlies. Quarterlies. Whatever they were by the end).

Phoebe being stalked by her aborted baby made of scabs was pretty nasty, in an icky creepy wrongness sort of way.

One of the best of Moffat's run, I'd say. Solidly good.

BTW, are any of Christopher Priest's other books worth reading?

Pretty much all of them, or at least the ones I've read. Which doesn't include the 'Short Circuit' novelisation and other odds and sods.

'The Separation' or 'The Glamour' would be a good next step.

I'm sure there's something positive to be said about this.

Umm.

The drawings of the Kew glasshouse are quite accurate - exterior and interior!

It's also a passable likeness of Peter Kay as Max.

And the colouring keeps within the lines.

Umm.

Yeah, that's it.

I stick by my previous assessment:

Moffat's basic problem, I think, is that his fondness for structural cleverness isn't matched by his actual cleverness.

It was pretty good, but I'm feeling myself go off it the more people rave about it. It wasn't all that.