SHORTS

In my rather slapdash guide to the comic shops of London's West End, I named Orbital as my favourite place to buy comics. Well, I have to say that since I wrote that guide, GOSH! has overtaken Orbital as my comic shop of choice. It's cleaner, more welcoming and stocks a wider range of non-spandex comics. Orbital is still worth a visit for the 50p boxes, but GOSH! are better in just about every department EXCEPT for back issues. They even have their own BLOG now.

With all that in mind, I'm planning to go back and do a Stalinist style revision of my original guide to the West End. I'm sorry, I know it's wrong. It'll be up tonight.

*************************************************************************************

From Captain America #35...

Bucky Barnes morphs into a young Mel Gibson.

*************************************************************************************

I've been rereading my copy of The DC Universe stories of Alan Moore over the last day or so and it's clear that Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons were hugely influenced by it when putting together the current run of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

I've banged on at great and unnecessary length about Tygers. But the compendium also features the story "For the man who has everything" which stars Mongul and a plant called Black Mercy. It's a classic which Johns reprises in Green Lantern #7 and #8.

We also get stories featuring The Spider Guild and Bolphunga, both of whom pop up in the Green Lanterns Corps. Then of course there's the first appearance of Mogo and errm, did I mention Tygers?

If you are enjoying Green Lantern then the Moore compendium is a must. Even if you're not, how can you say no to a book which features both Killing Joke AND Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Highly recommended.

*************************************************************************************

Talking of Tygers (again), I'm guessing that Moore was partly inspired to write the story after reading the Ray Bradbury classic "Here there be Tygers".

Even if the similarities aren't immediately obvious, the story was definitely on his mind when he created Mogo. If you don't know the Bradbury classic, then I recommend tracking it down. Failing that, this funky old Russian cartoon adaptation should suffice...