Hi,
Bit late this week as it has been a day of travel and long work hours. Sitting here having just finished at 1am I notice that the clock has flipped over to another day of UK Election argumentarianism and shallow and transparent self-promotion. As a man in his now late fifties I wonder if it’s just the cynicism of later life that makes the choices at the upcoming ballot box slim pickings or that they really are a mess of similar sounding bellends in this years competition. I’m guessing that it is a little of the old and a little of the new. Comical in a tragic way.
So back to comics.
Over at the ACP it was nice to be back at the home desk and recording with the lads. We had Pete Duncan from Sector 13 comics on for an interview and heard all about his growing empire. We talked about what he has learned from building a series of small press anthologies and what are his own personal influences. Nice to see Rupert come up again. He and I also jammed in some Moorcock enthusiasm. Have a listen here as we also recommend a long box full of comics.
For my own tastes and since the sad demise of Martin Amis this multi-faceted novelist, musician and philosopher is the greatest living man/personof this ilk. Pete makes a comment on the show that had me nodding with agreement that we arguably would not have the likes of Alan Moore, Bryan Talbot and Neil Gaiman without Moorcock. I make a more cock-handed reference about us not having that drama about dragons with that bloke who was Doctor Who without Moorcock’s Eternal Champion Elric. We hopefully made our point nevertheless. There’s a wealth of material, both novels and comics adaptions, easily available at the touch of a phone screen. Dive in. I pursue this rant yearly, watch out for more soon.
It has been a slimmer week in my comics reading this week. Even though I’ve ingested around 105 issues this week most have been old back issues and reprints. many of which came back in a suitcase with me from Heroes Con.
Tops.
I’m still on a nostalgia trip with the Legion of Superheroes. I managed to track down some missing gaps in my Silver Age collection this week, reread most of the second Five Years Later omnibus and also reread the New 52 regular series. A genuine mixed bag of quality right there but it did bring back memories of some classics and a genuine surprise that they haven’t pulled off a good version in well over a decade.
With the wealth of bullshit out there what is stopping DC Comics giving us some decent Legion of Superheroes stories again? Karate Kid at least must be deserving of a 12 issues style series at the very least.
Bottoms.
Bad Karma.
Written by Alex de Campi with art by Ryan Howe and Dee Cunniffe.
Fortunately I read this series on Global Comix and it came as part of my monthly subscription. I did not have to shell out for the trade or single issues fortunately. Couple of reasons for this one being an easy choice for the worst thing I personally read this week.
1. The cover is massively misleading. That painted paperback novel style leads you to believe that there is something inside that is a genuine dark thriller about real people. I did not find that the case at all. (Plus, that’s Jessica Chastain on the left isn’t it?)
2. The interiors are drawn in a simplistic cartooning style and a style that genuinely I usually have no problems with reading. But the characters lack grit or grounding in a thriller, personal story setting. Just take a look at the above interior cover (above and on the right). Soldiers shouldn’t look like that all clean cut and clear-eyed, certainly not within the realm of the drama that is being reached for, yet never touched, in this story. (And why can’t they shut their mouthes? Influences of the so-called selfie generation?)
3. Ignore for a second the newish (or older) drama/dramas that floats around the writer Alex de Campi for the moment. (If you can find that possible) Although, honestly, if I had bothered to look at who wrote it when I started I wouldn’t have bothered. What she writes here lacks any comparison to the way that people really talk or behave. I have a lot of ex-military/vet friends and they 100% do not talk like this. In fact few people actually talk like this anywhere. The language comes straight from a scroll through Twitter/X. This lack of any genuine personality takes away from the jeopardy of the minimal action inside.
Avoid at all costs.
Many thanks for reading.
Some obvious but timely advice. Get off social media. If you are on there right now then press close and delete. As a friend said to me this week, “if you’re still posting you are likely a wanker”. Never a truer word said.
See you in a week.
Never Iron Anything - The Comics Review Website 