Top Five Comics, Week Ending 14/2/99
Duncan
(Thankyou Ted)
• Minimum Wage 10 (Fantagraphics)
[Out last week]
Bob Fingerman, like Richard Corben, has, I think, what used to be called
a ‘polymorphous perverse’ quality to his artwork: somehow his characters
look like human genitals. (It’s no coincidence that Fingerman and Corben
are, along with Arthur Suydam, the only non-mainstream artists to
regularly feature in Penthouse Comix). MW 10 is shorter than usual. It
covers Rob and Sylvia’s wedding but has a several-page-long dream
sequence in which Bob’s friend Jack shoots everyone - much to my relief:
I suudenly realised halfway through this just how revolting Rob’s
friends really are. Then I realised I’ve been harbouring a massive crush
on Sylvia: yes, I want to have sex with a comicbook character. Actually,
I get the impression from this issue that Bob Fingerman might be getting
slightly fed up with the whole thing.
• Human Target 1 (Vertigo)
Yet another old DC character given the Vertigo treatment. The Human
Target is Christopher Chance, a man who is hired to impersonate the
targets of would-be assassins in order to protect them. In so doing
takes over his client’s personality and ‘becomes’ that person. He turns
down a job from one of his previous, unknowing victims who in the
meantime has himself ‘become’ Christopher Chance. And so the Human
Target becomes the target of - the Human Target. Perfect premise for a
four-issue Vertigo mini-series, in other words, and writer Peter
Milligan has done this masked man-losing-identity storyline at least
twice before for Vertigo, in Enigma and The Extremist. The artist,
Edward Bukovic, ought to be ideal for this but he does tend to borrow
too many hackneyed superhero compositions - bodies viewed from several
angles in contorted poses etc. If only DC editors would give all their
new artists a free copy of Jar of Fools or Berlin before they start.
• Nobody 4 (Oni)
The wrap-up to a pretty tight little occult assassin tale, well told
with a pro art job from Charlie Adlard, albeit with a couple of
inconsistencies (why don’t we see the dead rat in the pentagram all the
time?) Exactly who has been behind the series of killings at the heart
of the plot is revealed - the build-up to which I managed to miss at
first - and not too much is made known about Nobody herself, thus
leaving the way open for a possible sequel, although that doesn’t seem
too likely at the moment: partly because of its occult elements this is
unlikely to garner quite as much as praise as Oni’s previous mini,
Whiteout.
I’m assuming, incidentally that writer Sharron Choi is aware - although
it’s not made explicit in the comic - that one of the ancient names for
the devil is Old Nobodaddy.
• Death and Candy 1 (Fantagraphics)
Actually from two or three weeks ago this. Max Andersson was always one
of the better reasons for buying Zero Zero although he never quite made
the medal table along with the other regulars Sala, Cooper and White.
Death and Candy is three stories about child’s toys, car wreckage, dead
parents and rotten meat which nearly, but not quite, put Andersson into
the queasy league of Charles Burns and Renee French. The problem he has
is that each story covers more or less the same psychological ground:
there’s no indication yet that he can expand his peculiar preoccupations
into a sustained narrative, as French and especially Burns have done.
But then arguably, Al Columbia hasn’t either, yet The Biological Show is
still a great little nasty little comic.
• The Adventures Of Chunky Highlights And Rheumy Peepers 1 (Oni)
And speaking of Renee French... Picking up from a short in DHP, these
two stories from larger half of a po-mo telemagic duo, one-time X-Files
cebreguest and writing-&-shaving-stick soundalike Penn Gillette, with
artwork by by comics queen of unease French, seem to be illustrated
excerpts from the life on the road of the aforementioned double act,
Penn and Teller - showing them setting up a couple of musicians with a
simple sting - with a superhero alter-ego sub-plot thrown in, presumably
for comic effect. It doesn’t hang together somehow and although Renee
French comics have to be bought by law (don’t they?) she doesn’t seem to
have enough to work with here (it’s a long way from her seminal Grit
Bath): only the pickled gherkins the card players use for chips have
that faintly disgusting animate look to them she manages, rather like
the cooked chickens in Eraserhead before they start spurting out blood.
(And if anyone should do the adaptation of Eraserhead it’s Renee
French.)
Best Five Easy-To-Find Comics, Week Ending 7/2/99
• The Horrible Truth About Comics (Alternative Press)
James Kochalka is the chief exponent of the ‘primitive naturalism’
school of comic art (terrible moniker but I’m stuck with it now) and The
Horrible Truth... reads like a sort of PN manifesto - or at the very
least like Kochalka’s answer to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics
book. In it, one of JK’s strange child-man-critter creatures explains
Kochalka’s views on artistic inspiration and the meaning of comics (no
less). For him, the artistic impulse derives from childhood, beginning
with the sense of wonder a child has as he takes in and understands the
world for the first time. It is “synonymous with play,” useful for
“simplifying the world around us,” a point of view which makes
Kochalka’s deceptively childlike artistic style explicable (although it
leads him to constantly run the risk, as with Howard Cruse’s Barefootz
series, of descending to cuteness.) He componds this, however, by
saying: “Creating a work of art is a means... of making sense... NOT a
way of communicating some understanding of the world,” (my caps) which
is an amazingly solipsistic viewpoint, denying as it does the essential
social function art has had since the first cave paintings communicated
to the world that a fucking great mammoth is coming (and incidentally
contradicts McCloud and his hieroglyphics) and appears to relegate
artistic expression to a form of self-help therapy. On the subject of
technical ability Kochalka says this: “a lack of technical ability can
contribute to the fear that stands between you and greatness... Ignore
your lack of technical ability”! This is surely the heart of the PN
manifesto, that artistic creation is purely a means of self-expression,
its quality measiured by the ‘honesty’ of the artist’s vision - as
measured, that is, by the artist him or herself. Craft is simply a
“matter of personal pride... for one’s medium”, in other words, whatever
the artist thinks works best. So Kochalka not only appears to be denying
a communal understanding of art he seems to be rejecting the notion of
an objective standard of quality. The irony of which is not only is
Kochalka a skilled craftsman he has chosen to express himself that most
communal of artforms, the comicbook.
And The Horrible Truth... IS a comicbook, not the kind of tedious thesis
I’ve probably made it sound, and an entertaining one. It’s also an
important one. It’s a reminder that comic creation is an artform, not
just a form of entertainment, or lucrative career option for Hollywood
player wannabes, and like all artforms it has its movements and pioneers
(if that’s not too pretentious) - something which the original
underground and alternative creators knew all about but which perhaps
has been forgotten since. Anyone who cares about comics needs to buy
this.
• Tongue Lash II 1 (Dark Horse)
A second outing for the Moebius-inspired investigation team, Tongue and
Lash, from the French L’Officier brothers and British artist Dave
Taylor. Essential for Moebius fans (although Taylor - who was presented
as a Moebius protege last time around - owes as much to Manara in his
technique, at least in his rendering of women), this all takes place in
a fantasy Mayan civilization where the Spanish invasion never happened,
full of sex, magic, eroticism, slavery and several people with the heads
of animals. The L’Officiers slightly out-of-kilter English only adds to
the exoticism. The only problem with it is its lack of size (ain’t it
always): a number of pages are taken up with an - albeit interesting -
interview with the artist. There is no grand but meaningless
philosophising or cosmic enlightenment, as is usual with Moebius
stories, but this is more than made up for by plenty of sexy women
walking around in their underwear.
• The Territory 2 (Dark Horse)
More derring-do for Ishmael, as he nearly has his blood sucked dry by a
hallucigenic giant slug; nearly gets eaten by a gang of cannibals; and
nearly has sex with a reincarnation of the sexy redhead he’s unknowingly
pursuing. More clues to the real meaning of the story are given: Ishmael
is trapped in the Mesh, the victim of the Hypercorp, and like the
cartoon dog everyone watches on TV, however close he comes to an answer
(or sex, apparantly) he is always defeated. Behind it all is a
mysterious figure in a bar: it still looks like Ishmael is in some sort
of dream state undergoing a series of tests. And writer Jamie Delano
still manages to make it look like it will shortly all end in tears...
• Aliens Apocalypse: Destroying Angels 1 (Dark Horse)
James Kochalka and Aliens in one posting! Far out. Actually, I have a
soft spot for the ol’ xenomorphs (right here in the middle of my chest):
Aliens is the best of the licenced properties Dark Horse publishes,
mainly, I think, because the original idea had a team of proper genre
artists and writers (Giger, Moebius, Dan O’Bannon) behind it and the
original movie had a proper director. Furthermore, the Dark Horse series
has produced one genuine horror comic classic in Jim Woodring and Kilian
Plunkett’s Aliens: Labyrinth. The series has never reached its potential
of course, they never do, and has lost its way more than once. Aliens
Apocalypse seems to be a relaunch of sorts, with Mark Schultz on board
as writer (who, after Xenozoic Tales, ought to be a natural:
unfortunately, as a writer he makes a damn good artist) and the quite
wonderful Doug Wheately as artist [who’s new to me, I think. What’s he
done before, anyone know?], returning to the fossilised giant aliens of
the first movie and the first three Mark Verheiden-penned mini-series
and introducing a new Ripley-replacement. The result is medium-boiled
horror hokum, but in a thin week for comics and still no Fantagrahics or
Grendel, it’ll do.
• Planetary 1 (Wildtorm/DC)
...and a superhero title! (As if the world needs more of ‘em.) I guess I
wouldn’t normally read this but then it is by Warren Ellis (with John
Cassaday), rec.arts.comics’ very own toyboy pin-up, and well, y’know,
what with those weird habits of his he probably needs the money. It’s
not too bad either: three super-Muldar’nScully-types with the regulation
bad attitudes and terrible clothes save the world yet again (God, why
bother? It couldn’t get any worse) from a bunch of assumed
inter-dimensional nutters, all with the help of a Doc Savage lookalike
who’s managed not to sleep, eat or presumably masturbate for 50 years -
all by the force of his own will, wouldn’t ya know it. Personally, I
meet these sort of people all the time. There’s the usual mastermind
paymaster pulling strings in the shadows who’s obviously going to turn
out to be Bill Gates or Todd McFarlane... But I don’t want to sound too
snotty, this is better than the usual superhero garbage on the stands.
Not sure my budget will stretch to a second issue though...
[Incidentally, are Wildstorm and America’s Best titles now usually
covered by the Vertigo newsgroup?]
Also out: Preacher 48 (Vertigo) with a partial return to form, as Garth
Ennis repudiates some of the John Fordisms his characters have been
spouting recently by blaming it all on the Nazis. As you do. Trenchcoat
Brigade 2 (Vertigo), which has become incomprehensible pretty damn
quickly. Little Red Hot 1 (Image), which is a strange b&w mini about a
beautiful assassin married to the devil with a contract on God. You’d
think something like that would fall flat on its arse - and it almost
seems to - but there’s something about it...
Best Five Easy-To-Find Comics, Week Ending 31/1/99
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1 (America's Best/DC)
Had to be, really. First thing to say about this is the use of unrelated
C19th fictional characters isn't an
original concept, in literature or in comics. I was expecting this to be
similar to Caliber's Searchers series
of a couple of years ago (in which collector of the paranormal Charles
Fort brings alive various characters
from the books of Conan Doyle, Jules Verne etc.); instead, League...
presupposes an 'alternative'
Victorian world in which these people - in Moore's case, Alan
Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mr Hyde
(who gets confused with the giant ape from the Murders In The Rue Morgue
- a nice touch) and the
Invisible Man - already exist. In this, it takes after the Martin Powell
stories Eternity published in the late
80s, like A Case Of Blind Fear (Sherlock Holmes meets Invisible Man),
Ghosts of Dracula (Sherlock
Holmes meets Houdini meets Dracula) etc. (tpbs also on Caliber). There
are also, it seems to me,
elements in the artwork (the best I've seen from Kevin O'Neill - quite a
way away from Marshall Law)
and ...atmosphere (fwoabw) reminiscent of some of the Dark Horse Legend
titles, Monkeyman &
O'Brien, Hellboy and particularly Gary Gianni's stories, but most of all
it reminds me of Alan Moore's
own From Hell. If that series had, arguably, a noticable fault it was
that Moore sometimes tried to cram
too much in; too many emminent Victorians were struggling to make an
appearance: Gull and William
Morris, for example, or Gull and William Blake (becoming Blake's Ghost
of a Flea in the process) didn't
add much to the story. You can't help feeling that League... represents
the leftovers of From Hell - the
characters even Alan Moore couldn't implicate in the Ripper story! But
for all that it's a goddamn
entertaining read, three pages of cod-Victorian classified ads
notwithstanding (he's obviously expecting a
lot of letters), sure to be the foremost example of the genre when it's
finished.
• Sandman Presents: Lucifer 1 (Vertigo/DC)
Just as Alan Moore appears to have used some of his previous work as an
inspiration for his current
projects, Neil Gaiman's Sandman series gave rise to a string of loose
ends for other Vertigo writers to tie
up. (Sometimes reading Sandman would involve a series of double-takes:
eg the elf Cluracan is trying to
escape his nemesis in Morpheus's castle - you have to like this sort of
thing to like this sort of thing -
when he passes a giant rabbit in a morning suit. Two panels later you're
going "Wha...?" What the fuck
was THAT?" It was Lord Ruthven, subject of an upcoming Sandman
Presents.) SP is the seventh
Vertigo title to sift through Neil Gaiman's droppings, so to speak:
possibly, with The Dreaming's drop in
sales they thought this time they'd better keep the progenitor's name in
the masthead.
One of Sandman's loosest of ends was Lucifer, one time Lord of Hell
turned camp ivory tickler and
sleazy niteclub owner, whose career change actually managed to screw up
Vertigo's continuity (in case
anyone pays attention to these things). Writer Mike Carey (who used to
work at Caliber: Kilroy Is Here
artwork, I think) makes a good fist of Lucifer's waspish personality
here: only one word of dialogue - and
the comic's last - is out of place. Artwork is the pro Hampton job you'd
expect. Not a bad start to the
series.
• Replacement God vol.2 6 (Handcraft)
If there's one thing that can confound doubts about a series it's a show
of self-confidence. I'd never been
entirely certain that Replacement God's mix of trad. fantasy and modern
day idioms in worked; what's
more I sometimes felt, what with the Knut's Escapes Neg. Burn reprints,
slightly shortchanged by the
title's Image run. When the Image 'Non-line' dropped it I even wondered
if it'd be back. But Zander
Cannon has come back with a whopping great 64-page self-assured and
self-published job with
explanatory text (making it an ideal jumping-on point for new readers)
and most of the plot's temporal
shifts and the occasional clunky beatnik-barbarian dialogue (you have to
read it) resolved. All of that plus
a knute's Escape competition. Far out.
• Hellblazer 135 (Vertigo/DC)
• Sherlock Holmes Reader 1 (Tome Press/Caliber)
By coincidence, in the same week as League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
the first of Caliber/Tome's
new series of Sherlock Holmes stories. As well as Martin Powell's
adaptation this issue comes with
several pages of background material on the original stories and
characters.
Best Five Easy-To-Find Comics, Week Ending 24/1/99
• Dee Vee (9 &) 10 (Dee Vee)
(No.9 was late arriving). Dee Vee is going back to a monthly schedule
with no.11. If editor Marcus
Moore could bump up the page number a bit, maybe widen the range of
stories (how about some Ashley
Wood?) he could have an Aussie Zero Zero on his hands. There are three
stories in these two issues: A
Lot Like Life I haven't read yet; Montague Hale is improving - looking
more and more like Barron Storey
all the time; the real gem though is Eddie Campbell's Alec. This is some
of the best Alec I've read -
which means some of the best comics currently being published. It's
about Alec's (ie Eddie's) early 80s
invitation to co-represent, with Hunt Emerson, Brian Bolland and others,
Britain in a Euro comicthon in
Geneva (presumably on the strength of his work for Harrier - ironically
including the first two Alec
comics). Eddie's in a benign mood and gives the story a wonderful,
slightly farcial, all-boys-together feel
(making me think of Three Men In A Boat). After the one night the guys
fall out with each other he's
decent enough to put the whole thing down to the bad wine (and you don't
get much more civilized than
that.) As usual, when Alec arrives home (to Brighton. He must have been
living just round the corner
from me at the time) to wifey breastfeeding the kid, he acts like an
errant schoolboy. Great stuff. In a sane
world Alec would have worldwide newspaper syndication. But then in a
sane world I would have won
the bleedin' lottery by now. Mumble grumble.
• Channel Zero 6 (Image)
The final issue?
• Heart Throbs 3 (Vertigo)
• Age of Bronze 2 (Image)
Paris is revealed to be a member of the royal family. The old story.
(Happened to me last week. No
bloody money in it though.)
• Bulletproof Monk 1 (Flypaper/Image)
Strange one this. Kicks off as a piece of Hellboy-style hokum about
Hitler's minions searching Tibet for
the origins of the Aryan race; building themselves a concentration camp
until being defeated by
semi-legendary Tibetan hero, the Bulletproof Monk. Flash forward to
present day San Francisco and
Tibetan-American kung fu slacker Lung Kai Yun is revealed to be on a
quest for the aforesaid Monk
himself, just as soon as he's shagged the local poor little rich girl
and hung with her snotty pals.
Meanwhile, one of Chairman Mao's assasins is on a quest of her own...
Writer Gotham Chopra (crazy
name, crazy guy) takes it all at manga-pace, with frequent digressions
about Pac Man and air hockey,
kickboxing and msg and all the other Chinese-American clichés, but the
artist, Mike Avon Oeming,
doesn't employ the sort of cheesy manga filmic tricks - full facial
close-ups at key moments, eyeline
cutaways etc. etc. - this sort of thing really needs. He's obviously
been reading Kabuki though, since his
Ship Of Fools (Caliber & Image - tpb also on Flypaper) ran aground a
while back, and there are some
nice artistic touches - and some great colourwork too, though not
consistently. So... not bad. I'll stick with
it for the next issue or two but something's gonna have to happen
soon...
Also out: Psyence Fictions (Abalculus), a so-so sort-of spoof on
Vertigoesque occultisms and the
X-Files featuring Dan 'Lords Of Misrule' Abnett, among others. Abalculus
really need a good going over
from a graphic designer.
Dreaming 34 (Vertigo), in which the recent storyline finally ends (phew)
not all that interestingly but it's
great to see Marc Hempel back.
Aria 1 (Image) which has gorgeous artwork and an interesting digital
colour palette
coupled with some of the lousiest composition I've ever seen (when
things get further away they GET
SMALLER. That's how we know etc.) and a totally unreadable script (yet
more teen witch in peril
nonsense). Goes to show how badly Image need some good editors - the
trouble with this sort of thing is
it could devalue everything else Image publishes.
Best Five Easy-To-Find Comics, Week Ending 17/1/99
• Volcanic Revolver 1 (Oni)
Set in 1920s New York during turf wars between Irish and Italian gangs
this picks up from the Oni
Double Feature no.7 short. Scott Morse is always worth getting and since
this *isn't* part of his earlier
Soulwind series as I originally thought there won't necessarily be any
magical elements to the story, so
less opportunity for Morse to slip into his occasional feyness.
• Transmetropolitan er...21? (Vertigo)
Warren is at his best with the weird sci-fi ideas - that and his
entertaining splenetic take on the world. The
actual plots to his stories I'm slightly less worked up about but I
guess you have to have them. This will
shortly be one of four series he'll be writing for DC. Busy guy.
• Nobody 3 (Oni)
Nobody is captured by the killer and needs to summon a demon to help her
escape, apparantly with
mixed results. Best issue so far, this. Other than the K Smiths, this is
Oni's second mini. It's a goodie too
(Oni haven't put a foot wrong yet) but I don't think it will get the
critical back-patting Whiteout got
because the supernatural elements are bound to invite comparisons with
Vertigo (especially with Caitlin
Kiernan's Girl Who Would Be Death, also set in New Orleans). Unfair, but
I guess death's like that
(couldn't resist...)
• Minx 6 (Vertigo)
• Colonia 1 (Bad Habit)
Actually arrived way late - a reworking of the 'discovery' myth of
America (everyone knows a
Welshman landed there long before Colombus was born).
Best Five Easy-To-Find Comics, Week Ending 10/1/99
• Gifts Of The Night 2 (Vertigo)
The king’s simple-minded son is believed to be gifted when heis
predictions, actually garbled versions of
the stories told to him by his tutor, appear to come true. The tutor,
realising his influence and power,
starts to take risks, and makes enemies in court. Not an original story
then, but subtly told by Paul
Chadwick (putting it in a different league to most other Vertigo
fantasies - DC should be kicking
themselves for not picking up Concrete) and John Bolton’s artwork
manages to combine Mark
Badger-style caricature and naturalism, often in the same panel and all
in his trademark airbrush style.
This guy has to get the vote of best artist in the business.
• The Territory 1 (Dark Horse)
A nameless man wakes on a rock in a rough sea, is rescued by slavers, is
sold to become a gladiator, falls
in love with his master’s mistress, is taken aboard an airship and jumps
with the woman - only to lose
her and ‘awake’ in another part of the Territory... On the face of it
it’s a reworking of the kind of
adventure yarn Warren used to produce in the 60s and which both Jamie
Delano, the writer, and David
Lloyd, the artist, did for Marvel UK and QC in the 80s, but behind the
story a shadowy figure lurks... My
first guess is that the Territory doesn’t actually exist, but however it
turns out something tells me it’s
going to have one of Delano’s typical unhappy endings...
• Father And Son, Like, Special 1
Actually the sixth issue of this series which began on Kitchen Sink and
then switched to Caliber. Most of
this issue should have been the second Caliber one but it was dropped
when a proposed movie deal fell
through. This isn’t as interesting as Jeff Nicholson’s other post-Ultra
Klutz series Thru The Habitrails;
the hook of an ex-hippy dad arguing with his slacker son isn’t strong
enough to hang Nicholson’s
customary stream-of-conciousness weirdness on - but weird it is, all the
same.
• The End 4 (Slab ‘O Concrete mini)
The final episode of Ed ‘Ilya” Hillyer’s pre-apocalypse epic about
London bike messenger Bic and his
slacker pals which actually began as a five panel cycling magazine strip
ten years ago and went through
several reincarnations at Tundra (Skidmarks), in Deadline (End Of The
Century Club), self-published
and now at Slab ‘O Concrete (which is actually based in my hometown,
don’tcha know.)
• Trenchcoat Brigade 1 (Vertigo)
The return of Neil Gaiman’s quarrelsome foursome from the original Books
Of Magic. Vertigo
Universe-by-numbers really, but writer John Ney Rieber can always pack
the odd surprise and it’s good
to see the only other artist (ie than Sean Phillips) to draw John
Constantine properly, John Ridgeway,
back on the case.
Ridgeway was one of the eight main artists at Warrior: now at least four
of them (Ridgeway, Bolton and
Lloyd above, Steve Dillon at Preacher plus Alan Davies doing the X-Men
titles), a half, have comics out
this week and two more (Steve Parkhouse and Brian Bolland) are still in
the business (just leaving Gary
Leach). The boys done good.
Also out: House Of Secrets 25 (Vertigo). Final issue - for now (although
it looks like the damn house
burned down). Mage 10 (Image). More ghoulies and ghosties plague the
heroes. Matt Wagner seems to
have a split personality: Mage is the light Wagner; Grendel the dark...
Dark Minds 6 (Image). Bog
standard cyberShirow sci-fi noir plot, with the dialogue/narration
switches all over the place, but the
visuals, all sea-greens and ultramarine blues, look gorgeous. Like
Bladerunner shot in a fishtank.
Preacher 48(-ish) (Vertigo). Shit-dumb ending to the current arc coming
up. Will Custer get aspecial kind
of vascectomy? Naah, but at least we’ll get to find out what the Ross
Perot-a-like is doing with all that
meat in his garage... Bacchus 40 (ECC). Just two pages (I think) of new
Campbell material,: does this
guy have the easiest job in comics, or what? Jay & Silent Bob 3 (Oni).
Back on schedule. Strangers In
Paradise 20 (Abstract). Can someone please corrupt Terry Moore and get
him to sign up with Eros for a
three-issue mini? That way we might get the hot ‘n wet girl-on-girl
action we’ve been waiting 37 issues
to see...
Duncan
Duncan
Mute
>The best foive easy-to-find comics, sor. Week ending 14/2/99
>(Thankyou Ted)
"Do you...do you like, ah, comics, Ted?"
"I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
"No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
-Mute.
________________________
Duncan
Mute wrote:
> Duncan <dun...@airstream.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >The best foive easy-to-find comics, sor. Week ending 14/2/99
> >(Thankyou Ted)
>
> "Do you...do you like, ah, comics, Ted?"
> "I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
> "No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
This week I shall mostly be reading GRENDEL.(Oh no. The Fast Show virus
has spread to rac.alt!)
Incidentally, I never said thanks for the Dee Vee lettercol. - so
thanks. Interesting stuff. After I mentioned Ashley Wood re. Dee Vee I
got a mail from his missus, wouldja believe (he's the guy who did the
artwork for Garth Ennis's run on Shadowman). Turns out he's long since
left Aus for the States - and didn't know what Dee Vee was (shame!).
He's working on a Shadowman spin-off for Acclaim now: Deadtime, I think;
after that he's doing a bunch of stuff for Todd McFarlane (...)
Anyway, she sent me his web address which I shall now pass on. He's a
good artist, in a McKeany-Storey-Williamsy-type way. Check it out:
Joshua Duffin
> > >(Thankyou Ted)
> >
> > "I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
> > "No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
>
> This week I shall mostly be reading GRENDEL.(Oh no. The Fast Show virus
> has spread to rac.alt!)
>
> Incidentally, I never said thanks for the Dee Vee lettercol. - so
> thanks. Interesting stuff. After I mentioned Ashley Wood re. Dee Vee I
> got a mail from his missus, wouldja believe (he's the guy who did the
> artwork for Garth Ennis's run on Shadowman). Turns out he's long since
> left Aus for the States - and didn't know what Dee Vee was (shame!).
> He's working on a Shadowman spin-off for Acclaim now: Deadtime, I think;
> after that he's doing a bunch of stuff for Todd McFarlane (...)
>
> Anyway, she sent me his web address which I shall now pass on. He's a
> good artist, in a McKeany-Storey-Williamsy-type way. Check it out:
>
> http://www.woodhaus.com
I once said something nice about Ashley (Haselden-)Wood on I think
rac.misc, and he emailed me thanking me for it. I like his art very
much, and I think it's really too bad he's not doing any ongoing comics
these days. Though maybe he's busy doing other stuff, from the looks
of the website.
First time I saw his artwork was back on Ghost Rider 2099 (what was a much
better comic than you might think). He took over after Chris Bachalo left
the book and his style was fairly similar to Bachalo's at the time (boy
was this back in the day). I agree with the McKean comparison too. Kinda
like some of Sienkiewicz's art as well. Oh, and not entirely dissimilar
to Jae Lee's stuff.
Josh
don't read dee vee either though
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Mute
>> >The best foive easy-to-find comics, sor. Week ending 14/2/99
>> >(Thankyou Ted)
>>
>> "Do you...do you like, ah, comics, Ted?"
>> "I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
>> "No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
>This week I shall mostly be reading GRENDEL.(Oh no. The Fast Show virus
>has spread to rac.alt!)
We never got the Ralph and Ted Christmas Special out here. Though
SBS have just started re-running the first series....up against
Friends. Oh, THAT makes sense...
>Incidentally, I never said thanks for the Dee Vee lettercol. - so
>thanks.
Ay. I said sssh.
> Interesting stuff.
Mm-hm. And a whole lot larger than the final version is likely to
be....
> After I mentioned Ashley Wood re. Dee Vee I
>got a mail from his missus, wouldja believe (he's the guy who did the
>artwork for Garth Ennis's run on Shadowman). Turns out he's long since
>left Aus for the States - and didn't know what Dee Vee was (shame!).
Ah well. Marcus doesn't know who Tom Priestley is either.
>He's working on a Shadowman spin-off for Acclaim now: Deadtime, I think;
>after that he's doing a bunch of stuff for Todd McFarlane (...)
Possibly the giant robot gorilla book that Veitch is writing?
>Anyway, she sent me his web address which I shall now pass on. He's a
>good artist, in a McKeany-Storey-Williamsy-type way. Check it out:
Hm. I just remember how super-derivative of Bachalo he was with his
early Australian stuff, so I don't know about those lofty
comparisions...but I'll look at the site.
-Mute.
________________________
Duncan
Mute wrote:
> Duncan <dun...@airstream.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >> >The best foive easy-to-find comics, sor. Week ending 14/2/99
> >> >(Thankyou Ted)
> >>
> >> "Do you...do you like, ah, comics, Ted?"
> >> "I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
> >> "No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
>
> >This week I shall mostly be reading GRENDEL.(Oh no. The Fast Show virus
> >has spread to rac.alt!)
>
> We never got the Ralph and Ted Christmas Special out here.
Strangely unsatisfactory I thought. Should've stuck to the format.
> Though
> SBS have just started re-running the first series....up against
> Friends. Oh, THAT makes sense...
>
> >Incidentally, I never said thanks for the Dee Vee lettercol. - so
> >thanks.
>
> Ay. I said sssh.
>
> > Interesting stuff.
>
> Mm-hm. And a whole lot larger than the final version is likely to
> be....
>
> > After I mentioned Ashley Wood re. Dee Vee I
> >got a mail from his missus, wouldja believe (he's the guy who did the
> >artwork for Garth Ennis's run on Shadowman). Turns out he's long since
> >left Aus for the States - and didn't know what Dee Vee was (shame!).
>
> Ah well. Marcus doesn't know who Tom Priestley is either.
Neither do I...
>
>
> >He's working on a Shadowman spin-off for Acclaim now: Deadtime, I think;
> >after that he's doing a bunch of stuff for Todd McFarlane (...)
>
> Possibly the giant robot gorilla book that Veitch is writing?
Dunno. What's that?
>
>
> >Anyway, she sent me his web address which I shall now pass on. He's a
> >good artist, in a McKeany-Storey-Williamsy-type way. Check it out:
>
> >http://www.woodhaus.com
>
> Hm. I just remember how super-derivative of Bachalo he was with his
> early Australian stuff, so I don't know about those lofty
> comparisions...but I'll look at the site.
As Joshua mentioned, his style is floating somewhere off planet Bill
Seinkiewicz near spaceship Jae Lee and asteroid Dave McKean... man.
Mute
>> >> >The best foive easy-to-find comics, sor. Week ending 14/2/99
>> >> >(Thankyou Ted)
>> >>
>> >> "Do you...do you like, ah, comics, Ted?"
>> >> "I wouldn't know anything about that sor."
>> >> "No, no, of course not, silly of me really..."
>>
>> >This week I shall mostly be reading GRENDEL.(Oh no. The Fast Show virus
>> >has spread to rac.alt!)
>>
>> We never got the Ralph and Ted Christmas Special out here.
>Strangely unsatisfactory I thought. Should've stuck to the format.
Been reading reviews of the stage show lately. Also bedevilled by
the format, it seems.
>> > After I mentioned Ashley Wood re. Dee Vee I
>> >got a mail from his missus, wouldja believe (he's the guy who did the
>> >artwork for Garth Ennis's run on Shadowman). Turns out he's long since
>> >left Aus for the States - and didn't know what Dee Vee was (shame!).
>>
>> Ah well. Marcus doesn't know who Tom Priestley is either.
>Neither do I...
Mad Tasmanian bloke who did, amongst shitloads of vaguely
Howarthesque sci-fi stuff (he was doing squarebound minis for a while,
binding photocopies with thread or something and sticking Con-Tact on
the covers), the coarse, crude and hilarious Inspector Crikey. Started
in anthologies and moved to his own minis (digest size, I guess...A5).
Disappeared along with the rest of the Oz mini scene when the US
market imploded and killed the customers.
>> >He's working on a Shadowman spin-off for Acclaim now: Deadtime, I think;
>> >after that he's doing a bunch of stuff for Todd McFarlane (...)
>>
>> Possibly the giant robot gorilla book that Veitch is writing?
>Dunno. What's that?
Cy-Gor or summat. I guess it's something Spawn once fought or
whatever, but since the artist hasn't been announced, I thought...
>> >Anyway, she sent me his web address which I shall now pass on. He's a
>> >good artist, in a McKeany-Storey-Williamsy-type way. Check it out:
>>
>> >http://www.woodhaus.com
>>
>> Hm. I just remember how super-derivative of Bachalo he was with his
>> early Australian stuff, so I don't know about those lofty
>> comparisions...but I'll look at the site.
>As Joshua mentioned, his style is floating somewhere off planet Bill
>Seinkiewicz near spaceship Jae Lee and asteroid Dave McKean... man.
I took a little look at the site. He does seem to have come on a
lot, but by fuck his early stuff was a collection of Shade swipes.
-Mute.
________________________