Three and a half years ago now I opened the store and introduced a group of four characters - a superhero team of our very own. The characters were named by customers and I promised an ongoing series of adventures one day.
Then - due to the manic nature of running a business - nothing happened. But they are still there, lurking in the shadows.
I'm happy to announce that that day is nearly upon us. I've found a local artist who will be collaborating with me to bring you a monthly slice of superheroics. With a silly twist!
So here's Ian Blakeman's initial take on the Proud Lion team, originally drawn by Josh Howard (Dead @ 17, Lost Books Of Eve). Ian and I will be bringing you a monthly new Proud Lion webcomic on the final Sunday of the month.
And finally, who is this on the right? A new character perhaps? Another hero? A villain? A sulky teenager? Stay tuned to find out more!
Mirage, Garrison, Inferno and Frank Mono are limbering up and raring to go. Join us at the end of August for our first comic strip.
Ben Fardon and Ian Blakeman are corresponding using the language of the Hive from Dark Skies. It's one way to keep things classified.
For anyone who has recently followed Shadowlands and then subsequently Andy Diggle’s for part miniseries Daredevil: Reborn, then Mark Waid’s new beginning will have been an anticipated and expected title. For anyone who hasn’t been following Daredevil - however, then Mark Waid’s new beginning is a nifty new comic.
To give a quick recap, Shadowlands depicted the fall of Daredevil and then Reborn was Matt Murdock’s path to redemption; culminating in his decision to return to Hell’s Kitchen. For the fan base this will have piled a large amount of pressure on Waid to write a credible story which also held continuity and I’m happy to say that he carried it, and carried it well.
It was impressive that regardless of how much or little you knew then you could still easily pick this issue up and hit the floor running.
I’ve also really enjoyed the fact that Waid has not dived in with a face off against Bullseye, The Kingpin or any other adversary but instead, has chosen a far greater but faceless foe; the perception of the common man.
Ever since before storylines such as The Devil: Inside and Out, one of the biggest ideas that Matt Murdock has struggled to fight against is that the mild mannered blind lawyer is in fact Daredevil, something he has refuted time and time again. Previously, all manner of tricks have been applied to contain the secret but now this “fact” is being used against his life in court and slowly breaking it apart.
Falling back to the traditional DD, following up in his own fashion on cases, we see a contradictory cliff hanger to keep us waiting for the next issue.
One criticism I would have is that it felt a little short. I accept that it is necessary to have adverts in a comic to fund them but having a 10 page bonus tale, also by Waid, made me feel a little disappointed as that’s 10 pages that could have been used on the current opening.
Paolo Rivera has teamed with Waid to create the artwork behind the story. Combined with the cover art by Javier Rodriguez it gives a retro feel, almost as if it was an homage to the original Daredevil that Stan Lee and Bill Everett created, which if honest isn’t my favourite. One aspect I did enjoy though was the way in that some of the frames are through Matt’s 'eyes' and give an interpretation of how he sees through his radar. This came into its own for me later on with the chaff scene. This is also a different approach to the cover which is a cleverly worked piece.
There is one thing that bugged me on the cover though. The use of the words within the picture to make all the images was great and it fitted with the artwork within the cover - BUT - it didn't push hard enough. Neal Adams has pencilled the variant cover which is glorious and vibrant. It’s a far more dangerous and energetic pose which I have loved but sadly also know I would have felt let down by the artwork inside if I’d had it and seen it.
Overall I have really enjoyed the comic and will be following the new title but I am hoping for an artist change as I really think that Waid has carried Rivera on this one. I’m hoping that this new angle in writing has got the legs to keep running and Waid keeps pushing this further.
Matt Puddy isn't Daredevil. Or Foggy Nelson. But he might be Ben Urich...
If you’re reading this, you know the score. Harry Knowles is gushing, SFX have rated it 4½ stars, and we’re mere hours away from our first glimpse of the First Avenger, as ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ storms onto our screens on Friday 29th July 2011. As the last member of the big screen Avengers steps up to the plate, Marvel Studios seem almost unstoppable.
But Cap has certainly paid his dues on the road to big screen glory. Arriving in 1940, the first issue of Timely Comics ‘Captain America’ was a bold statement of intent to the pre-war USA, featuring the star spangled hero punching out none other than Adolf Hitler. Creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby wanted to show the world how an average Joe, empowered by nothing more than an unwavering moral compass (and some performance enhancing drugs) could, and should, fight evil.
And lo, a pop culture icon was born. The true blue Yin to the dark and powerful Yang of DC’s Batman and Superman, Captain America has become one of the world's most enduring superheroes, blazing a path for others to follow for seventy years. And as with any true pop culture icon, TV and movie execs have long sought a slice of Cap’s sweet, sweet American pie.
Like most self respecting heroes of the 1940s, Captain America was first the subject of a black and white movie serial. In the age where audiences thrilled to the likes of Flash Gordon and Zorro, the character seems almost tailor made for a weekly adventure serial. Nazi hordes! Astonishing feats of daring-do! Death-defying cliffhangers! Last minute rescues! Its no wonder this age of filmmaking inspired the likes of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Its just a shame all the filmmakers had to go on at the time was barely a single page of the comic, let alone a whole issue. And so the titular Republic Serial features not U.S. Army private Steve Rogers battling the very real Nazi menace, but a slightly overweight District Attorney named Grant Gardner fighting the domestic threat of the terrifying Scarab, who seeks to wreak ‘purple death’ on middle America. More of a "What if... Ray Charles made a Captain America Movie?".
But while the ‘real’ Captain America fled the critics and took a little Arctic snooze through the 1950s, he was reborn proper as a member of the Avengers in the 1960s, and pretty soon, cartoon glory beckoned. And why not? It worked for Spider-Man right? All he needed was a catchy tune. And based on the sample below, I’m quite frankly astounded that this enterprise didn’t propel him into the pop-culture stratosphere like a Hydra Rocket.
Slowly, ever so slowly, though, Marvel were starting to get their act together, licensing their properties for TV and starting to exercise some quality control. So while the Seventies brought pretty faithful TV adaptations of Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, we were also treated to two Captain America TV movies. Okay, so the producers took one or two tiny liberties. Steve Rogers? Check. Super Soldier Serum? Check. Gnarly biker dude, intent on fighting wrong doers because they used to take the mick out of his dad? Er... check. Like almost all TV from the Seventies however, this version does have an irresistible kitsch charm when taken in small doses. Plus, with the second movie guest starring none other than Sir Christopher Lee as the dastardly ‘Miguel’, its got to be quality right? See for yourself!
Luckily, by the late 80s, the likes of Richard Donner ('Superman' (1978)) and Tim Burton ('Batman' (1989)) had finally cracked the secret formula of how superhero movies should be made. And so finally, we got ‘Captain America’ (1990), the adaptation True Believers had been waiting for. All the elements are there. The World War II origin is present and correct, Steve Rogers is the working class boy made good, frozen in the Arctic for fifty years, battling the Red Skull through the ages. Based on a little known Captain America story from the 1970s, ‘Captain America’ (1990) is an even more faithful adaptation of the source material than Zack Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’ (2009). In the absence of a decent clip, however, I’ve reproduced the original story below. Lovely artwork, good lettering.
Of course, Friday is the day, and we will finally get to see ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ in all its red white and blue glory, safe in the knowledge the character is in safe hands. As I mentioned above, Marvel Studios are currently in unbeatable form at the box office. With director Joe Johnston, no stranger to rip roaring adventure with ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ (1981) and ‘Rocketeer’ (1991), a strong cast headed up by Chris Evans ('Fantastic Four', 'Sunshine'), all lovingly presented in that patented Marvel Studios Shiney-Vision, it looks like Captain America can finally stand up and be counted. Welcome to the 21st Century Steve, you’re gonna love it.
Robert Barton-Ancliffe is looking forward to Matt Puddy’s review of the all new Captain America #1.
Endings. I’m a bit rubbish with them really. Present me with a goodbye or a closure or a case of people going their separate ways and you’ll find me immediately tearing up and in certain severe cases clinging limpet-like to the leg of the departing. (Luckily the exception to this impulse seems to be break-ups where I’m an awful lot better at treating ‘em mean.) This is a problem when you work in education, since every July means the inevitable goodbye to year six, the end of their particular era, and the chance for teachers like me, who should really be old enough to know better, to get all emotional about the passing of time and the inevitability of things reaching their natural conclusion.
If the reference to school life means you’re currently struggling with the image of me as an upright pillar of the community, peering sternly over my non-existant glasses and waxing lyrical about ‘riting, reading and ‘rithmetic then it may help you to learn that I only teach part time. I spend the rest of my working life locked away in my garret spewing forth words of wisdom to the masses. Or at least to the readers of some fairly niche magazines...
I've always been this way though. As a child I used to get weepy at the end of holidays, the end of term, the end of my birthday parties and the end of the box of chocolates. Aside from annoying my long-suffering mother, this has also had a knock on impact in adult life, since an obsession with stories means that you pretty much have to get used to endings, like them or not. The problem is, a really good narrative *needs* a satisfying conclusion; even the NeverEnding Story had its ending of sorts, and very often an unremitting, horror movie cavalcade of increasingly zombified sequels spells the loss of all credibility to a book or movie franchise. As unpalatable as it is to me, sometimes ‘The End’ really is the thing that makes the beginning and the middle worthwhile.
And of course, if you get endings right, they can be spectacular, life affirming and transcendent. I’ve never been a huge fan of Star Trek (it’s a shimmy too far down the slippery slope of geekery) but even I can see the worth of the Next Generation finale ‘All the Good Things.’ In it, mankind* is juxtaposed with the god-like Q-Continuum, and past, present and future are melded into cryptic crossword puzzle-esque musings on evolution and the nature of what it means to be human. “All good things must come to an end,” as Q tells Piccard, and this is an example of how an ending really can be good. (We’ll gloss over the Next Generation films that followed it...)
Similarly, although it seems to elicit a bit of a marmite response from the series’ many fans, nobody could ever accuse the Lost finale of failing to go out with a bang. It’s an ending about endings in many ways, dealing directly with our fears about the permanence of death and separation and the feelings we may never get to resolve. It’s complex, and mind twisting and ok, a little bit of a crowd pleaser perhaps, but maybe that’s ok. When I think about it carefully it’s not so much endings that I’m suspicious of, more the fact that there is never any guarantee of happy ones. We all yearn for endings that render fear and doubt and removal from our loved ones as irrelevant and impossible. The Lost finale gives us that, almost as a reward for the passion with which we wish for it.
If you cast your mind back through the mists of time, you may remember me talking about my first, striking contact with the idea that comic books might have something to say to me too. The Sandman series drew me in, entangled me in its world, but equally importantly, at the end of it all, it sent me on my way with the satisfying glow that you only get from a really good finale. With its usual eclecticism ‘The Wake’ parallels the death of Dream with another double layer of fiction... a man at the end of his career, Shakespeare contemplates writing The Tempest in which, famously, an ageing magician seeks to make sense of his life and provide for his daughter. This trio contemplate their own endings in their respective universes as the entirety of creation turns up to Morpheus’ wake, to pay their respects and share their memories. And in this sense, Sandman reminds us of the importance of marking our endings as the milestones they are. Endings give us the chance to make sense of it all, even when it seems as though there is very little sense to be made.
Of course, every ending also leaves an empty space. And where there is an empty space, there’s always the chance of a new beginning. Watch this empty space for a new beginning coming soon...
* Yes I used the word ‘mankind’. Ultimately I couldn’t bear to repeat ‘humanity’ more than once, and in this lone scenario my desire for the words to sound good trumped my feminist sensibilities!
This week, Kate is actually quite glad that it’s the end of term, since she might get to have a few lie-ins.
