Tuesday 2 December 2008

Death

Tis a dark day at LLC HQ today chums. Yes, the flag is flying at half mast and the curtains are drawn; for sadly, I have to report that my Sea-Monkeys are dead! 

See the Tank of Doom! Woe, woe! For three days they burned brightly, dancing happily in their watery world. Then I fed them, the tank grew murky and the Sea-Monkeys died. I feel empty chums, empty.

And yet, I know that my undersea pals would have wanted me to carry on. And so, I shall fight back the tears and continue to blather on about comics.  Comics such as Curtis and Terrorist, by Oliver Lambden, an eight-page effort which I picked up at Comiket.

In these days of Interwebbery when punters can read all the online indie comics they want for NOWT, you need to go that extra mile if you want folk like me to pay you for your comics. That's what the boy Lambden has done with this little book, wrapping each copy in a cardboard cover featuring an original drawing. No two copies are the same. Here's my cover...

Very pretty, I'm sure you'll agree. As is the comic itself. No story as such, just a little peek at a silly terrorist as he goes about his business - sort of Mr Men meets Al Qaeda...

I like the art. The jokes made me giggle and you can't beat the unique cardboard cover. Check out more HERE

Elsewhere, I got my hands on some new graphic novels courtesy of my mum and stepdad who made the journey to Gosh! with Christmas wish list in hand (Quote from stepfather: "I thought it'd be full of little kids in there, but they were all grown men"). 

Obviously I wasn't meant to look at any of my new pressies until the 25th, but I'm not very good at waiting, and I've already cracked the seal on a couple of items. Most notably, Mythos by Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera. Man that's a beautiful book! I'd already read the Captain America story in single issue format, so I knew what to expect, but that Rivera lad can paint. 

For those who don't know, the Mythos series retells the origin stories of Hulk, The Fan 4, Ghost Rider, The X-Men, Captain America and Spider-Man. The hardcover collection reprints the lot in oversized format on lovely glossy paper. Jenkins does a stand-up job on the writing, but I think even he'd admit that Rivera is the star of the show here...

I know there are those fans who hate to see painted art in their comics, it doesn't always have the dynamic feel of pencils and inks and can slow a story down, but for these classic origin stories it works because these aren't straight up action stories, they are the most famous moments in the history of Marvel, a series of set pieces and modern day legends that deserve the slavish, reverential paint job which Rivera provides. 

If you like Marvel comics then you really should get this book. If you're absolutely loaded then you should also do some of your money on Rivera's paintings. If I had a spare $10,000 knocking about I'd buy THIS to hang on my toilet wall.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Mythos book is on my Christmas wish list too even though I have the CA and FF floppy ones. I think it must have been you that turned me on to Paolo Rivera but I often look longingly at his original art for sale.

Mr A. P. Salmond, esq. said...

And what lovely folks your folks were!

I do feel your pain on the sea-monkey front. I too, in my time, have looked into the murky depths of aquatic monkey doom.