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Post by tingramretro on Apr 5, 2017 10:37:00 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 5, 2017 5:06:14 GMT -5
The Captain Britain stuff was actually slightly earlier, almost his first published work. Davis didn't realize artists drew at a larger size than the printed product, so he actually drew his early stuff at roughly A4 size. I read the first four issues worth last night (the last two parts from Marvel Super-Heroes and the first two from Daredevils) and really enjoyed it. It feels very much like early Alan Moore -- parts of it seem a bit bonkers and very much not like a traditional Marvel superhero comic -- but it's very well written and very enjoyable. Other than the two issues of Marvel Team-Up in which Captain Britain met Spider-Man, I think this is the first Captain Britain stuff I've ever really read. Colour me impressed. One of the things I really liked about Moore's first few issues was how much of the early stuff from the Captain's original run he referenced. It's very non traditional, as you say, but he still leaves us in no doubt that this is the same character in the same continuity as those early tales I've been reviewing lately. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 5, 2017 1:28:40 GMT -5
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it, Confessor. At first glance, the artwork and lettering looks very familiar from Alan Davis's work on stories like "Rust Never Sleeps" or "Dark Knight's Devilry" in The Empire Strikes Back Monthly. The Captain Britain stuff was actually slightly earlier, almost his first published work. Davis didn't realize artists drew at a larger size than the printed product, so he actually drew his early stuff at roughly A4 size. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 4, 2017 2:29:24 GMT -5
Very hard to choose this week, there were some fantastic covers here, but I think I have to go with Stevo.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 4, 2017 2:27:45 GMT -5
Not a cover, so not an entry, but I'd like to add this one to the list of notable rainy splash ages:  That looks so much better in black and white. Colouring Colan's wonderful, moody art was a crime. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 1, 2017 7:49:41 GMT -5
I thought April Fools were supposed to be done before midday? I read that, thought "April fool", then thought "oh Hell, it was posted after 1.00PM and panicked before scrolling down...
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 1, 2017 7:08:47 GMT -5
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it, Confessor.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 31, 2017 10:07:29 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 31, 2017 2:51:42 GMT -5
My top pick would be The Whoniverse... it has Daleks!  A land where I could worship Princess Leia wouldn't be too far behind. While Tolkien's Middle Earth would be cool too, as long as I didn't have big hairy feet! Problem with being in a universe with Dalek's is that except for the Doctor, anybody and everybody else really doesn't fare to well when meeting. At least the Cyber-men convert you and take you into their society whereas Daleks simply EXTERMINATE you. Don't think i want to meet Dalek's. Hang out by the pool with the Silurian's, have a pub run with Sontaran's, work on your sun tan with the Ice Warrior's would all be cool, but Dalek's just aren't known to be the life of the party. People always get the wrong idea about the Daleks, I think, because they only ever see the mindless military drones doing their conquer and destroy bit. I don't think you can really judge an entire society by the actions of a few million individuals. There are probably any number of more moderate Daleks on Skaro, trying their best to just get along. I saw one once, working at the Museum of the Moving Image in London. He wasn't bothering anyone, and he was very good with kids. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 30, 2017 3:55:36 GMT -5
Absholutely ridiculous! Despite his unfortunate ancestry, I believe that Bond is an Englishman at heart, sir! An Englishman through and through! Except when he's Australian. I enjoy the fact that you've "liked" your own Sean Connery impersonation! Oops! Embarrassing mis-click, now corrected. God, that would be deeply un-British! |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 30, 2017 3:22:00 GMT -5
No fair, you got James Bond working for you!!! The French have O.S.S. 117! But if Scotland votes for independence will Bond work for Scotland or England? Scottish father, Swiss mother, he may be anti-Brexit. Absholutely ridiculous! Despite his unfortunate ancestry, I believe that Bond is an Englishman at heart, sir! An Englishman through and through! Except when he's Australian. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 30, 2017 1:45:35 GMT -5
Not disputig that things later went a bit sour with Moore, but as I have always understood it, there were indeed threats of legal action from Marvel, while Moore continued to work for Warrior after Marvelman ended. Also, by the time Eclipse picked up the strip, Alan Davis had, IIRC, fallen out with Moore over a separate (though related) matter, rather than not being available. The reference I read cites a Back Issue, um, issue, which I haven't dug out to verify if the info was accurate or not. Warrior did have a piece about the legal threats and stated that was why it was done. I suspect it was one of the factors; but, I think the second scenario is likely. I need to dig out Kimota, anyway, since I want to cover that; but was kind of saving it for the end of things. I have zero info on whether Davis was even approached. I always assumed, since he was doing work at DC and Marvel, that he was busy. In my book, falling out with the other part of the team pretty much falls under "unavailable," though more willfully. The main falling out I have read was over Marvel wanting to reprint Captain Britain and Moore refusing, since he was still ticked about the Marvelman threats. I tend to fall on Moore's side in a lot of his disputes, on principle; but, I kind of thought he was being a Richard on that one. I seem to recall him saying he gave in when he understood how it meant significant money (or at least the potential) for Davis. Then again, why he couldn't see that before is beyond me. Dez Skinn is one about whom I'd like to read more. He did an interview for Kimota; but, others paint him as rather shady (a comic publisher? That's unusual!) Still, I haven't seen much about Marvel UK, 2000 AD and Warrior, in the fan press in the US. Most of it has been about individual properties, rather than publishing and creative history. The only book I ever encountered about British comics was one of Denis Gifford's, mostly about stuff from the 50s (and a little early 60s). Apart from what appeared in History of the Comics, the 9th Art ( a documentary series, released in 4 vhs volumes in the US, by White Star Video), which was mostly the Eagle stuff (primarily Dan Dare) and general stuff about Judge Dredd and Alan Moore (almost exclusively the American stuff), as well as earlier stuff, like Alley Sloper, Andy Capp, some Modesty Blaise and Romeo Brown and Jeff Hawke. I suspect it simply comes down to Moore not having been able to see past the point he was trying to make and acknowledge Davis's point of view; Moore has never seemed terribly motivated by money and, in any case, was very much in demand at the time so e didn't need Marvel, and possibly jut couldn't see why Davis didn't feel the same way? Pure speculation, of course, but at this stage that's all we have. As for the cessation of Marvelman, I've read a lot about what happene over the years, and have also spoken to people involved, and I have never heard any suggestion that it was about anything other than Marvel's threats of legal action. Certainly, Moore was still working for Warrior on other strips right up until the end, months after Marvelman ended. I'm aware Dez Skinn is regarded as "shady" in some circles, but I've crossed paths with him several times over the years and he's never struck me that way; back in about 2002, when I was still trying to get into writing with a self published fanzine, Dez helped me a lot in small ways, giving my 'zine free advertising in Cmics International and even designing a new and better logo for it, unasked and purely because he wanted to encourage me. I ended up writing and editing articles and reviews about comics for various magazines and websites, including Comics International in its later issues, for several years after that, a good time for me, and that would not have happened without Dez's encouragement, so I tend to take a lot of what people say about him with a pinch of salt. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 29, 2017 17:16:19 GMT -5
The Doctor Who universe, the Bronze Age Marvel Universe, or pre-Crisis Earth Two.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 29, 2017 17:13:41 GMT -5
This is where Marvelman ended, in Warrior, in issue #21, in 1984. Within the magazine, Dez Skinn claimed that it was due to legal threats over the Marvelman Special they published, with reprints of old stories. Marvel sent letters about the name, threatening legal action. It later came out that a dispute between Skinn and Moore was the more likely cause. Readers were left hanging until Eclipse began publishing the series and reached this issue. Unfortunately, Alan Davis was not available to continue, nor, I assume, was Gary Leach. Not disputing that things later went a bit sour with Moore, but as I have always understood it, there were indeed threats of legal action from Marvel, while Moore continued to work for Warrior after Marvelman ended. Also, by the time Eclipse picked up the strip, Alan Davis had, IIRC, fallen out with Moore over a separate (though related) matter, rather than not being available. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 29, 2017 17:04:07 GMT -5
Theresa May says not. She met with Nicola Sturgeon on Monday to discuss Scotland's position and it did not go well, it seems. Little Jimmy Krankie...sorry, I mean Nicola Krankie...dammit! I mean Nicola Sturgeon and the "lying Scotsman" Alex Salmond are both deluded, power hungry bulls****ers, spewing meaningless "Braveheart" rhetoric for little more reason than their own over-inflated sense of self-importance. Make no mistake, they don't really give a damn about the people of Scotland. They have their eyes firmly fixed on the hall of fame and desperately want to impose the will of the Scottish National Party on Scotland, which is a very different thing from acquiescing to the will of the Scottish. I find it laughable that Sturgeon wants the Scots to forget the excellent trading relations that have existed between Scotland and the rest of the UK for hundreds of years, and instead isolate itself -- with no trading agreement with the UK or the EU in place, if the people of Scotland were to vote to leave -- and just hope for the best. Pure idiocy! From Scots that I've talked to and reports I've seen on the BBC, I don't believe for a second that the Scottish people even want a second referendum and I especially don't believe that they want one until all the Brexit negotiating has been finished. To have a second referendum now, with things so up in the air, would be lunacy and I think most Scottish people realise that, regardless of which way they voted back in 2014. It's not often that I agree with a Tory Prime Minister, but Theresa May was spot on when she said that Sturgeon had "tunnel vision" when it comes to a second referendum. On a related note, I think May's letter triggering article 50 struck exactly the right tone. She avoided any hint of triumphalism and instead expressed her desire for a "deep and special partnership" with the EU. However, it just goes to show what a shower of s**t the EU is that the European Parliament has already said that security cooperation between the EU and the UK is off the table. Now, putting aside for a moment the fact that our security services are by far and away the best in Europe, and consequently the EU are cutting off their nose to spite their face, what a way for Brussels to put ordinary citizen's security at risk. I tell you, leaving the the EU is the best political decision this country has made in my lifetime. Couldn't agree more. |
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