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Post by tingramretro on Apr 27, 2017 9:43:52 GMT -5
Dave Gibbons remains, for me, the definitive fourth Doctor artist. It's weird-the character he drew looks absolutely nothing like Tom Baker, but is somehow still instantly recognizable as the fourth Doctor...
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 27, 2017 3:54:52 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 27, 2017 3:05:24 GMT -5
Yikes. How is it possible to be a fan of the X-Men without being a fan of Claremont? His dialogue was terrible. I prefer Grant Morrison or Joss Whedon over the overwritten pages that Claremont produced. He wanders in, to be confronted by dialogue out of a nightmare. Purple prose, relentless and unyielding, hammering deep into his mind, crushing his critical sensibilities. It chills him, heart and soul... |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 27, 2017 1:57:52 GMT -5
Good article (I really need to catch up on all things Frobrisher). I think you raise an interesting point about Sharon Davies though. I first encountered her in the Marvel US title in #3:  Like you mentioned, it took the TV show 20 years or more before giving him a black companion. But back then, her race didn't factor at all into how well I liked her character. In fact, it was almost a non-issue as I was more amazed by the notion he had someone different from the show. I may be wrong on this matter but I find it interesting to ponder that BBC executives may have had qualms about casting a black actor(actress) for such a role back then when the youth of their audience may not have even cared about such a detail. (Though it's odd, no black person yet let the white girl run around in the loin-cloth type outfit.) The readers allmost certainy wouldn't have cared about such a detail-but the TV executives of the day, particularly on the BBC, belonged to a very different generation and were far from in touch with the younger members of their audience at the time. South London, where I grew up, was already pretty much a multicultural society by the early eighties, yet the BBC were still broadcasting shows like It Ain't Half Hot, Mum into that decade, and even The Black & White Minstrel Show ran until 1978! I suspect Leela, who was unashamedly included "for the dads", was very much inspired by Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 15:54:48 GMT -5
Thanks guys!  |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 13:25:31 GMT -5
I think we could probably have done without all the Clara/Danny Pink stuff in series eight, to be honest.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 8:30:52 GMT -5
I'm torn between the Dark Phoenix storyline and the Sauron/Savage Land/Magneto storyline from the end of the original sixties run. I think on reflection, though, I'd probably have to go with Thomas and Adams over Claremont and Byrne.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 4:42:17 GMT -5
Marvelman actually was sold to Pacific; but, their bankruptcy led to Eclipse buying it up, along with the other Pacific titles they snapped up. Eclipse then went on to secure a portion of the rights, eventually buying out Skinn and Gary Leach. In interviews, Alan Davis claims he was never paid for the reprint of his work. Gary Leach was also not paid, until they were doing the trade, and he got money to do the cover. Mick Austin did not get paid for reusing his cover on the 3-D Miracleman special. Mick Anglo was not paid for the reprints. cat yronwode, in Miracleman 24 stated that Dez absconded with the money and pretty much maintains that in her interview. Skinn claims that is false and the others point fingers at Eclipse. Skinn says he had a later conversation with yronwode where she blames Dean Mullaney for feeding the story to her and that he filled her head with similar things. She denies this in her interview. She does paint Dean as a mess, as the end looms for the company and says she contacted Neil Gaiman to return the art to issue 25, to keep Dean from selling it elsewhere. What comes out of this is very "he said, she said;" but, it is clear that Eclipse reneged on many things and had questionable business dealings. Similar charges were made over the manga reprints and by David Campitti, who acted as agent for Mike Deodato, on Miracleman Triumphant. Dez Skinn tells a story of withholding material, after Eclipse failed to make payments, and meeting with Jan Mullaney, in a seedy New York bar, who slipped him an envelope with $2000 cash. yronwode, blames others and Dean Mullaney and says that lateness on issues was due to the creators. Moore and Chuck Austen tell stories of cat attacking loved ones (Moore's then-wife and Austen's grandmother) on the phone, looking for delayed work. Moore talks of Eclipse reneging on providing documentation of some of the rights claims they made and says th relationship soured pretty quickly, with Eclipse. Olympus almost didn't come about, due to the problems. yronwode accuses Neil gaiman of having personal issues that were affecting turning in work; but, Gaiman claims that he and Buckingham withheld work due to non-payment for the previous issue, especially with The Silver Age, citing it as the reason for the year between #23 and 24. Aside from the behind-the-scenes gossip, the book is an excellent resource for the creation and evolution of the series. It features art from the unreleased works and some sketches from John Totleben. It also includes Moore's complete script for the first story and Moore and Totleben's "Lux Brevis", a story intended for an anthology at First Comics, put together by Tim Truman. The anthology was never published. There is also Moore's original pitch for the series, his and Steve Moore's chronology of the Quality Communications Universe (combining Marvelman, V, Lazer Eraser, Warpsmiths, and more), a checklist of all of the material, and more. beau Smith is interviewed about Todd McFarlane's purchase of Eclipse's assets and Miracleman and his plans for it. It also speaks of the then-ongoing legal battle. Kimota is a fascinating read, but the whole legal situation remains murky despite Khoury's best efforts. I've talked to Dez Skinn about Marvelman a couple of times over the years, and the claim that it was the falling out between the two Alans that led to the strip's cessation rather than Marvel's threats seems to be pretty much the opposite of what he and others have been saying happened for the last thirty years! Dez has also stated at least once that Eclipse never actually owned the rights to Marvelman so Todd McFarlane could never have acquired them. And personally, I'm still not convinced that Mick Anglo would ever have owned the rights to begin with-that's just not how comics publishing worked in the UK back in the 1950s. It seems far more likely that L. Miller & Son owned the rights until the company was dissolved, after which nobody would have owned them. But, of course, Marvel say that he did, and that they bought the rights, and Marvel have very good lawyers, so... |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 3:46:51 GMT -5
There is one other piece of apocrypha I wanted to cover; the story from Warrior #4.   This is a glimpse at the far future, where Marvelman and Aza Chorn have left the fight with Bates and have come to Silence, MM's Fortress of Solitude. They hope to use time-travelling equipment to alter things. The equipment was built by BlacK Warpsmiths. They warp trough time and arrive in 1963. The Marvels are having a snowball fight and MM puts a stop to it, reminding them they are supposed to be investigating Gargunza's Sky Fortress. A rip in space occurs and streaking out comes the future MM, who slams into his past self. Aza Chorn breaks off their fight, as he has collected the energy.  They move forward in time to 1982, and we see the reborn Marvelman. he has flown to the moon, in joy and runs smack dab into his future self. Again they battle and again Aza breaks it off when they have enough energy. We return to the future, where Kid Marvelman is killing Marvelman...  Kid Marvelman turns to Aza Chorn and the energy is released, witnessed in a flash, in the past. Our story ends, with Marvelman returning to Liz, in 1982, and a scene of destruction, at Silence. This is a very intriguing tale, especially when you consider that this is the 4th issue of Warrior. Marvelman had only recently been reborn. In issue 3, he has his meeting with the adult Johnny Bates and realizes that he has grown up as Kid Marvelman, not Johny, and that the power has corrupted him. We know nothing of Gargunza and his experiment, or that Kid Marvelman will be locked away, for a time, only to be released at the worst moment. At the time, Johnny was about to attack Mike Moran, in 1982, and we wondered about Johnny's greater power. here, we see that he is far more powerful than Marvelman and the key to defeating him lies in the past and fights between future and past Marvelman. The art is provided, on separate pages, by Steve Dillon, Paul Neary and Alan Davis. One can only imagine how readers were affected by this, at the time. First, marvelman is reborn and his past is a lie. Then, Kid Miracleman is alive and he is twisted. Now, we see that they will battle in the future, and Kid Marvelman is far more powerful than Marvelman and the alien Warpsmith. Can he be defeated? What lies ahead? How does this future happen? We are also left to wonder if this was the originally conceived ending and that the publication circumstances of Marvelman led to some alterations and sidetrips, both at the end of Red King Syndrome and throughout Olympus. The basic confrontation is there, though we see in Miracleman #15 that this story is now an apocrypha, one of several, as the basic plot is recounted, after the Firedrake attacks Johnny. Then, we see other apocrypha, including the chess match between Miracleman and Johnny. I will have to consult Kimota to see if Alan Moore mentions revising the ending. So, next up The Silver Age, which ends up more than a little tarnished, as well as tardy. I can do more than imagine, as I was one of those readers at the time. This was actually the first issue of Warrior that I picked up, though I obtained the first three soon after, and it struck me as pretty powerful stuff. In fact, it's the reason I became hooked on the magazine! I think it's pretty obvious that this was originally intended to be a part of the actual narratve but Moore went in a different direction after the series was prematurely halted in Warrior and then took an extended break before being restarted. His style of writing had developed a lot in the meantime, in directions I don't think he'd necessarily have been contemplating in 1982 when this was published. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 3:05:09 GMT -5
"Good" is subjective when it comes to TV drama, it's all down to personal taste. As a fan for over forty years, for me, the last series was probably the most consistently well written in years, one of the best since in the show's history. It certainly had some great episodes, the one about the parable of the bird and the mountain was amazing, but over all I thought it got too bogged down with the Clara story I know a lot of people agree with you, but I liked the Clara story. i thought it did a good job of warning that actions have consequences, which was the basic theme of the entire series. Clara's demise was signposted fairly early on, when it became clear she was getting too confident, so there was a wonderful undercurrent of impending doom until it happened, and then, after the most amazingly well done lowest point for the Doctor in Heaven Sent, a surprising turn around in the finale which I actually found quite satisfying. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 26, 2017 2:59:56 GMT -5
Ran across this from Titan:  On the one hand, this handily falls within Titan's publishing venture. They acquired the DW license and have just run wild with it. The wallet may not like it but this seems like a bit of an unusual stretch though. On the other hand, I quite liked that Christmas special, the Ghost was a cool, clever examination of the classic Clark-Lois-Superman synergy. So I may check this out after all. Is this still digital only? I'd buy it, but I don't do digital, I need a physical copy. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 25, 2017 3:57:09 GMT -5
Current gossip is that actor Kris Marshall (perhaps best known as DCI Humphrey Goodman in Death in Paradise) is the front runner to become the next Doctor. So it's possible the next Doctor might very well be ginger. He did always want to be a ginger  I really liked the second episode as well, man why couldn't they have episodes this good to start with? "Good" is subjective when it comes to TV drama, it's all down to personal taste. As a fan for over forty years, for me, the last series was probably the most consistently well written in years, one of the best since in the show's history. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 25, 2017 3:43:07 GMT -5
MDG
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 22, 2017 10:41:59 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 20, 2017 8:32:52 GMT -5
It would. It would drag it out far beyond the already overly optimistic two year timescale they keep talking about, at the very least, and I wouldn't be surprised at this point if the Libs tried to reverse the whole damn thing, which could have catastrophic consequences. BTW ting, I didn't realise that you were an old Lib Dem supporter. So, I apologise if I've ever said anything on here about the party that has offended you. I don't recall anything specific, but I can be fairly scathing towards them on occasion. So, if I was, it certainly wasn't a reflection on you or aimed at you. I don't think I've ever heard you say anything that could have remotely offended anybody, to be honest. |
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