Avengers Prequel

On the day that the first pics of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers are revealed (looking pretty authentic too), thought I'd post this link to a fanfilm showing a vintage 1950s Avengers team: not convinced by the Iron Man but the rest works well...

There are 18 Marvel characters depicted, so I'll list who I think they are in a reply to this thread...



Coming soon, more posts!!

Wildstorm RIP

Interesting news that Wildstorm is being closed down by DC following their recent bi coastal realignment. To be honest, they lasted under DC a lot longer than I thought they would. Although DC have a long history of buying other properties and absorbing them into their line, Wildstorm was always kept distant and never really felt part of the DC group. The only real effect of the acquisition was bringing Jim Lee into the fold.

While far from my favourite line ever, the Wildstorm brand seemed the best of the original Image set. Superior colouring and production values helped elevate commercial but less than stellar art above its limits, though the stories were never much to write home about. Having said that, Chris Sprouse, JH Williams, Art Adams, the Gaijin Studio, Adam Warren, Kevin Nowlan, John Cassaday, Travis Charest, Brian K Vaughn and Alan Moore all pooled their efforts at one time or another, so it was never entirely creatively corrupt. However, the constant rotation of creative teams on largely interchangeable titles usually failed to inspire even the most fleeting of interest.

DC say they will be resting the characters before they eventually return, but I hope they are kept as part of a separate continuity rather than being integrated into the main line. Much as the JLA and Teen Titans have suffered from poor rosters in recent years, I really don't want to see Deathspoon, Killbum, Razordark and Booble* joining the DC iconography...

*(OK, those are made up names, but I bet they were considered at some point!)

Return of the PC (Not the Mac)

Last week saw me picking up a brand spanking new PC...and boy, was it ever heavy (nyuk nyuk nyuk).

Regular blog posts will hopefully resume if I can retrieve files from my old hard drive but in the meantime, here are some cartoony illos for a book project. I'm not over fond of cartoony art but the lack of attention to accuracy made these almost fun...two more to go but one involves a bus, so I doubt that'll materialise too soon (bloody vehicles!)...

If I Was A Religious Zealot...

Now, if I WERE to believe in angels and demons or black magic, I'd be prett sure I'm bedevilled, cursed or both at the moment as over the past three weeks:

* My washing machine stopped heating, resulting in two visits from an engineer, two weeks of trudging to my sister's and back to do my washing and a wallet that was £100+ lighter.

* Bubblegum on a bus ruining my work trousers, incurring another £20+ being liberated from my account.

* The above expenditure was impacted further by shelling out £30 for a Spamalot ticket and again £100+ on utilities bills, meaning I've overreached my income this month and have had to borrow to get through as my online banking refused to accept my CORRECT details and has locked me out until I receive a new passcode.

* Finally thought things were getting back on track when a power cut seems to have blown my computer. I don't know if it's a memory, motherboard or on switch but it's more expense that could result in a 6-month loan to get a new system at a time when I don't know if I'll even be working in six months. What annoys me more is the loss of alot of stuff on the PC that I hadn't got around to backing up: art files, art from the net, personal pictures, music, Word and stuff.

(I'm not sure if I'd be able to retrieve any of those somehow: if I could just boot my system up once, I could retrieve everything!)

With only a few unread graphic novels and no online distractions, I'm forced to endure bloody awful weekend TV now so I'm just about expecting my head to drop off at any minute now...

PS Proving my point, the system at work was jamming me from saving this post, dammit!!

Scottest Night!

I'm at work on my lunch break so you'll have to forgive the lack of illustrations, you will, you will!!

Saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night. I've only read the first graphic novel, which was OK despite Scott being a royal git. Michael Cera managed to instill the character with a vulnerability that made the character more sympathetic than the print version. Most of the cast are great, especially Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh and the film is tirelessly inventive, lifting computer game iconography to transform cinematic visual storytelling. Of course, the whole thing is fantasy and bears less and less resemblance to real life as the film progresses.

Quirky and certainly unique, the film is great fun but may date itself fairly quickly...

The other piece of triumphant fiction I've devoured lately was the Blackest Night hardcover. This is the exact treatment I like to see in collections: a consistent creative team throughout and with the titles and credits removed from the individual issues to create a greater sense of a cohesive story rather than a staggered grab bag of issues. Following the disastrous Infinite Crisis series, I was cautious about this but the buzz and leaked news around BN made me hopeful and that chance really paid off.

Characters were wiped out, other popular ones resurrected (why bring Captain Boomerang and Osiris back but not Ted Kord or Tempest?) and an overpowering menace to defeat. The characterisations were spot on, the art atmospheric and spectacular (double page followed awesome double page spread filled with bazillions of characters) and there were a few nice extras at the back, although the commentary wasn't as informative as I'd expected, resorting to backslapping self congratulations at any given moment. Still, as superhero epics go, this one really does live up to the hype and tells a great redemptive story...