Happy (belated) Birthday to The Beano!

70 last Saturday! (Not that I knew)

Anyway, Happy 70th! There's only one way to celebrate...

Nom...Nom...Nom

Quick stuff

• Why isn't EC Archives Weird Science vol 3 available on Amazon or The Book Depository? It's been in the comic shops for a few weeks but no sign online. Please don't tell me that the big e book sellers have given up on Gemstone! I can't be paying full price for my EC Archives.
• Conan the Cimmerian #1 is a fantastic comic. Not only has it got a variant cover by Joe Kubert (drawing Conan for the first time by the way) it's got interiors by the legendary Richard Corben, who draws a fantastic story about Conan's bad-ass grandad! My favourite single issue in ages. Well worth a look.
• IFanboy have a decent little promotion going on with Emusic.com. Simply follow THIS LINK sign up and get 50 free downloads. You have to give your credit/debit card details, but you can cancel your subscription as soon as you've downloaded your 50 freebies. The site doesn't have the most extensive of catalogues, but there's enough on there to keep most people happy. You don't have to download the Ifanboy playlist by the way.
  

Your adventure ends here...extended edition

Regular readers will know that I like nothing more at the end of a hard day's bagging and boarding than kicking off my shoes and relaxing in the warm nostalgic glow of a good fighting fantasy death. The likes of Jackson, Livingstone and Dever sure did know how to warp the imagination of their pre and early teen audiences with their tales of spiked pits and man-eating trolls. Yet these masters of the macabre didn't only open up minds to death, occasionally the discerning Fighting Fantasy fan was forced to confront a different kind of end, an end with no end! Here, for your delectation, are a few of these rare non-fatal FF finishes...






Magic stuff.

Method Man review

Flipping heck, the folk at Hachette Books actually sent me a review copy of Method Man's new comic! This despite my admission HERE that very few people read my blog. The fact that Hachette don't seem bothered by that means that they're either very kind or very desperate; either way I'm in a frenzy of free comic based excitement. So thanks Hachette books, here's what I thought of Method Man...

Let's get this straight, I know next to NOTHING about rap music. I occasionally hear it being played through tiny mobile phones by irritating schoolchildren on my bus to work, but ask me about blunts, bitches or Hennessy and I'm lost.

I was aware of the Wu-Tang Clan, but aside from hearing vague rumours that they ain't nuthin ta fuck wit, I couldn't really tell you very much about their music. Apparently at least one of the Wus is a fan of comics though, and much like Guy Ritchie, Dave Stewart and Jenna Jameson at Virgin, Method Man has put his name to a book. And you know what? It's actually quite a lot of fun.

Honestly, I was sceptical, but the rap star's comic has a sparky energy about it that makes it well worth a read. The concept is gloriously ridiculous. You've got this P.I (the fabulously named Peerless Poe) who also happens to be a renegade member of the Order of the Sacred Method. Now get this, The Order of the Sacred Method are (and I quote) "The direct descendants of Cain, a near-fanatical religious elite order of disciplined murder-priests who use their abilities to attack unholy threats on a global scale."

I may not be up on my rap, but any comic about murder-priests who can trace their family tree all the way back to the world's first killer is alright by me. As for those unholy threats? Well, we're introduced to them early - seven pages in as it happens, when Peerless Poe gets into a ruck with a man-eating sewer dragon...

Rap stars chasing monsters around sewers while calling them bitches. Truly this is comics excellence.

Anyway, we soon find out Peerless has been kicked out of the order, but that his old Sensei needs him to track down some Monster Queen or other called Lilith. They climb in a spaceship and head for Stonehenge (naturally) and all sorts of demon killing ensues.

Writer David Athcison keeps the whole thing zipping along at a frenetic pace while Sanford Greene's pleasing hybrid of comic book action and graffiti style art lends the book a suitably street feel. The fact that the art is in black and white might put some people off, but it works, giving the whole project a rawness that suits it well.

The fight scenes (and there are a lot of those) crackle with energy, using jagged panels and dark slashes to create a speedy blur of movement...

...while the dialogue is punchy and often very funny. Perhaps the supporting cast could have been fleshed out a bit more, but in truth it doesn't matter that we don't really get to know them. Method Man isn't trying to be deep after all, it's a gods-honest beat 'em up book where axe-gun wielding rap ninjas take on flying demons in a fight to the death. If you're up for that kind of thing then I'm sure you'll enjoy Method Man

Wu indeed.

The Wrong Door!

My good friend Mr Wheatley has a telly programme coming out. It looks AWESOME!

SEE FOR YOURSELF

I'm drunk again...

...so you'll not get much sense from me tonight, except to say that War Heroes by Mark Millar is pish. You know, I normally defend the fella, but this really isn't much cop. There you go, Heroes has got a lot to answer for. Never mind, I'm still enjoying Kick-Ass and even the Fantastic Four which everyone else seem to think is a steaming pile of excrement. Mark Millar, you're alright son, but War Heroes?...not so much.

What else? I am saddened to hear that Mr Wheatley failed to write me a trip report on his recent jaunt to the comic shops of LA. Bah, no excuses sir! Also Dave F where is your replacement article for the one I couldn't use! Gah! Get on with it.

As for the rest of you? Psssh. Silent lurkers. Damn your eyes!

And sleeeeeeeeeep.

Hellblazer: Fear Machine

I finally finished Fear Machine, the third Hellblazer graphic novel. It's a trifle flowery and muddled in parts, as all Delano's early stuff is, but overall this is an excellent arc. The story sees John Constantine mixed up with a bunch of new age travellers who attract the attention of a shadowy defence contractor which is keen to get its hands on a young psychic traveller called Mercury. She's kidnapped, Constantine investigates and a plot to raise some nasty old demon is uncovered!

As with the previous two trades, Fear Machine is going to be of most interest to those folks who remember what Britain was like when the book was being written. If you were around at the back end of the 80s then you'll recall that the police were beating the shit out of new age travellers who were doing nothing more threatening than going to festivals, playing the bongos and generally refusing to conform. At the same time, Thatcher and her cronies were pushing through Clause 28 which prohibited the "promotion" of homosexuality, and investigative journalist Duncan Campbell was raising hackles by exposing the existence of a complex surveillance system called ECHELON. Pretty soon Maggie was going to fuck herself by trying to push the Poll Tax through, but at that moment she thought she was invulnerable. It was a depressing time and Fear Machine captures the mood very well.

The good guys in Fear Machine are the travellers and homosexuals, the investigative journalist and the policeman who refuses to give in to corruption. Ranged against them is a shadowy corporation which is seeking to usher in a new age of order through the use of fear and the repression of individuality. There's no doubt whose side Delano is on, or that the corporation represents the repressive right. As their agenda is gradually uncovered, Delano exposes a complex conspiracy involving everyone from government ministers to royalty and the Masons. He's pissed off with the British elite and Fear Machine is his two fingers to them.

Perhaps the message gets in the way of the story. It's a bit loose in the middle and the end feels hurried and rather unsatisfactory. Delano is keen to explore alternative lifestyles, but could have told a tighter tale by spending more time on Constantine and less on the Scottish Pagans whose story takes up much of the second half of the book. His eagerness to explore the dynamics of late '80s Britain is what makes his run on Hellblazer so fascinating, but it does sometimes result in an uneven pace of narrative.

There are also problems with the art in Fear Machine. Mark Buckingham (of Fables fame) handles a lot of it, but this is not the polished Buckingham that we know. The layouts can be confusing, and some of his faces appear oddly distorted. His style and the more photo realistic art of Richard Rayner (who also worked on the book) occasionally jar with each other. All of this lends the art a disconcerting and slightly uneven feel. In some ways that helps create the unsettling mood that Delano is aiming for, but at other times it is slightly distracting.

So, the art isn't brilliant and the story could have done with a good trim, but Fear Machine is an interesting historical piece and as such well worth the effort. It's edgy, uncomfortable horror with a point to make. It's also very British which makes its appearance in an American comic book all the more remarkable. That's true of Delano's entire run. In fact, the more I read of Hellblazer, the more I marvel that it made it past issue 20. You can take it as a straight horror story, but the targets Delano was taking aim at must have seemed very alien to the bulk of the book's American readers. Apparently they enjoyed it well enough though. Fair play to Delano for slipping such a peculiarly political British book under the radar.