Here it is then: Jamie Hewlett's first strip in donkey's ages. Nine panel grid, baby!

Today was Jamie Hewlett day 'round at Chez BL, as THE CREAM OF TANK GIRL and the new TIME OUT both landed on the welcome mat. Here's some scans from Lahvly Lahndan's premier listings magazine. F*ck the lawyers. Three pages from a 162-page magazine? That's like yer dictionary definition of fair use, matey.

Also, Roger Langridge fans! Chris Weston fan(s?)! They're in the new TIME OUT, too.

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Ah, the inevitable David Tennant leaving DOCTOR WHO announcement. Most surprising thing tonight? Warren Ellis backing my punt on Idris Elba to play the role next. 'Kin hell. I've already come to see this blog as some sort of experiment in cosmic ordering: if I can somehow influence the casting of the next Doctor, then god knows how far I can push my new powers. But what to wish for next?

Just noticed these: Kev O'Neill video interviews...

...at GOSH! Comics' rather exemplary blog. Part one, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen; part two, Nemesis The Warlock. Check out the League one for some preview art from Vol 3: CENTURY. And there's another two of these to come, too.

From the set of ANGEL OF DEATH.

Love this photo of Zoe Bell and Ed Brubaker. Watched DEATH PROOF last Saturday, and surprised myself by loving it, and Bell was utterly charming in it. As for Brubaker: how can a man so gormless looking be such a great writer? How?

Recent Bond fixation finally goes too far.

Maybe I've cracked. I'm going to buy a Baron Samedi themed watch from these guys. Though good taste suggests the Emilio Largo one just might be the saner bet. It's like the watch you might be given for long service with SPECTRE. In SPECTRE's case, long service being what? About three months?

Phil Bond does Jazzy John.

As Tony might say, grrrreat.

Sod Halloween, it's now Neil Young night.

Just a reminder to readers in the UK that Friday night is Neil Young night on BBC4, and that anyone in the Norn Iron region is welcome chez Bad Librarian for a few fancy artisan beers, some Chilli Heatwave Doritos, and a spot of Ragged Glory. That should put the shits right up any passing trick-or-treaters.

Monkey Bee: a short film by Jamie Hewlett.

In which Hewlett gets to direct real people for a change.

Would you like some Mike on a Monday night?

Mike Mignola interviewed about his return to drawing Hellboy, IN THE CHAPEL OF MOLOCH, out this week; plus some preview pages, and a little on the future of the blossoming franchise. This Mignola guy's alright, but he's no Duncan Fegredo.

How'd I miss this?

Here's a nasty little story from the UK comic scene for ya: the saga of writer Tony Lee, terrorized by a deranged "critic" in the most obnoxious way. I've experienced some weird comic fan zealotry myself, but shit in the post? This is as low as it can get, surely. Well, until someone pulls a Mark Chapman.

Jamie Hewlett to do first strip in donkey's ages.

Hewlett fans rejoice! Out November 30th, TIME OUT # 1993 features a new Monkey-themed cover, a new strip (his first since when? 1998?) and a free iTunes voucher for readers to download a track from the album. The comic strip feature’s Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy & Tripitaka as they meet the White Skeleton Demon. Non-thieving Cockney bastards can get their copy here.

Now that's a ticket I could get behind.

(Via Mike Cho's blog)

Soapbox fury.

A quick couple of ITEMS!, as Stan might have put it in his heyday. First, Daniel Craig turned down the lead in Thor. Not terribly surprising, of itself, but interesting in that the actor I'm endorsing for the role, Kevin McKidd, is something of a chip off the Daniel Craig block. That is to say, from the UK, blonde, and rather Steve McQueenish. And unlike Craig, McKidd has something of a history with costume drama and hair extensions. But would the Marvel producers consider him as being able to hold his own in an ensemble that included scenery chewers like Robert Downey Jr, Ed Norton and Samuel Jackson?

Next: in the Marvel solicitations, THE CAPTAIN BRITAIN OMNIBUS: "Written by ALAN MOORE, ALAN DAVIS, DAVE THORPE, PAUL NEARY, MICHAEL CARLIN, STEVE CRADDOCK, MIKE COLLINS, JAMIE DELANO & CHRIS CLAREMONT. Penciled by ALAN DAVIS & PAUL NEARY. Covers by ALAN DAVIS. One of the Marvel Universe's most staggering sagas from two of Britain's most remarkable writers, reprinted in total for the first time! Captain Britain fights to save a universe...and fails! But a single reality is small change in the game Merlyn's playing against Mad Jim Jaspers, who's rewriting reality so he's the center of the universe! Worlds collide, heroes and villains die, and Captain Britain's beside himself - except when he's fighting himself...to the death! Featuring the first appearances of the metamorphic Meggan, Opal Luna Saturnyne, the Captain Britain Corps, and more! Plus: Psylocke joins the X-Men, and the X-Men join Captain Britain on a cosmic quest into the secrets of life and death! The fiendish Fury, the horrific Horde and the malevolent Mojo are only a few of the adversaries who await within! Also guest-starring the New Mutants and Captain America! Collecting MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (UK) #377-388, THE DAREDEVILS (UK) #1-11, CAPTAIN AMERICA #305-306, MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (UK) #7-16, CAPTAIN BRITAIN (UK) #1-14, NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #2 and UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #11."
That's a helluvalot of Captain Britain, including some bits and pieces that have evaded reprinting before. I may well be tempted.

Bowing to the inevitable.

As soon as you heard Paul Pope was doing a HAUNTED TANK cover, you knew I'd post the finished version eventually, right?

Bullet points.

1. Have loved Chip Zdarsky since the PRISON FUNNIES, but this latest wheeze made me hurt myself a little. Please click on it.

2. Today I learnt (via Twitter) that Mike Moorcock has given Paul Cornell permission to use Jerry Cornelius in a story. Not in a Marvel comic, surely?

3. Something else I learnt via Twitter, (because of PJ this time)? Eighties UK comics leg end Jerry Paris has a blog. Well, two blogs. Noticed his work on some Anthony Horowitz paperbacks at work a few months ago, 'cus I stopped and took a second to check if they were by another BL favourite, Simon Gane. Since then, I've noticed his work everywhere. The guy's became an illustrative chameleon.

4. And on that Simon Gane note: do try the trades of Vertigo's VINYL UNDERGROUND. It won't change your life, but it's good. It's pretty much what you'd expect - HELLBLAZER as re-imagined by an EASTENDERS scriptwriter - all the current UK Zeitgeist is thrown together in there, often painfully so. The obsession with C-list celebrity, footballers, soapstars, gangsters. Political correctness. Tokenism. Then with a dollop of typical Vertigo urban horror and occultism. But the art's f*cken great.

5. I'll just keep going, will I? Mike Mignola in a suit. Don't think I've ever seen him in anything other than a denim shirt and jeans before.

6. I love the way Dave Johnson draws the Punisher's skull logo. And I'm not just saying that because he might still be reading. Graphitti should make a T-shirt of it soon.

SNORT!! GRR!! ROARR!! HRNGH!!

Paul Pope releases a page from the upcoming (but don't ask when) BATTLING BOY: in this, the eponymous hero's father fights "The Dragosaur". It's from a fifty page fight scene apparently: how's that for decompression?

Sunday morning stuff.

1. Warwick Johnson Cadwell is crediting me with giving him the idea for this portfolio piece. Fair enough. I'll take any reflected glory going, I'm not proud. But bloody good, innit?



2. Yeah, like Alan Martin, I noticed this rather cretinous bit of sub-editing in yesterday's Guardian Guide, too. I shouldn't be too harsh, because The Guardian/Observer remains the mainstream media outlet that takes comics the most seriously in the UK. But really. Baaaad show.

As a child, I literally would have killed you for this.

Lee Bermejo: turns out he's quite good.

I remember being just a little bit more jubilant than I should have been when Sir Duncan Fegredo got the Hellboy gig. This was because I'd previously been so underwhelmed by the news that Lee Bermejo was the artist originally chosen to be Mignola's full-time replacement on art duties. So imagine my surprise when I saw this preview of DC's new JOKER original graphic novel, and was bowled over by his work. It's got something of a J.H. Williams III vibe, possibly caused by the presence of Jim's former collaborator Mick Gray on inks. Anyway, I'm popping over to Amazon now to preorder it, on the strength of these few pages.


*UPDATE!* Eddie Campbell liked Bermejo's work considerably less on these samples than I did. I'm getting used to this: every time I announce I'll be giving some artist a second chance, another pro pops up to tell me why I'm wrong.

WJC saw it comin'.

Rich Johnston ran a rumour yesterday that Paterson Joseph could be in the frame to play The Doctor after Dave Tennant. In case you've forgotten, I thought I'd remind everyone where that rumour started. Ah, the power of suggestion.

I've already seen a few borderline racist comments elsewhere by idiots petrified that a black actor could be cast in the role. Twats. My only problem with Joseph getting the job is that he's the actor who played Johnson, the human embodiment of uncool, in PEEP SHOW. Surely the Doctor can't be the upwardly mobile middle manager from hell?

D'yeh Ken?

Ken Branagh is looking ever more likely as the director of the THOR movie. There's definitely a weird irony there, cinema's leading advocate of Shakespeare taking a stab at adapting Stan Lee's awful cod-Shakespearean dialogue. But never mind the "who-should-Brian Blessed-play, Odin-or-Volstagg?" debate, I've thought of the perfect role in the movie for Branagh to essay himself: Fandral The Dashing. Seems obvious when you say it out loud, doesn't it?

Frontal Loeb-otomy.

And while I'm browsing CBR: the part of me that's forever an eight year old obsessed with the Shooter/Michelinie AVENGERS digs this - Ed McGuinness' Ultimate Yellowjacket. But don't worry kids! It's not like I'm going to buy it!

DARK HORSE solicits out again.

Kev Nowlan graduates to full B.P.R.D. covers. The guy just doesn't do bad work. I'd guess it's either from a Mignola rough, or just a very Mignola-esque design.


Speaking of Mignola: here's the cover to THE WILD HUNT #2. I starting to reckon Mignola doesn't use ink anymore: he just bashes this stuff out straight into a copper plate with a hammer and chisel. Glorious.

JONAH HEX casting rumour.

Apparently, Josh Brolin's name is doing the rounds as a potential Jonah Hex. That is a great choice. Makes so much more sense than the last wacky rumour I heard for that part: Jason Statham (but then, Statham's name seems to get connected to every comic book movie going - he's like the British Nic Cage, in that respect). Hex is one of those perfect comics for adaptation, like Blade: the mythos is known and fondly remembered, but doesn't have a unified, rabid, vocal fanbase to offend, unlike, say, The Fantastic Four.

I'm sure evidence will eventually arise to contradict that belief, but what the hey.

More Brum sketches.

This time, check out the multitude of lovely convention sketches from Rufus Dayglo and Roger Langridge. Wish I'd been there to get some more stuff in my Kirby/Ditko sketchbook, instead of Stupid Stevie's Stupid Wedding. Bah!

PINUPS

PINUPS, originally uploaded by ernest.borg9.

Paul Pope pays tribute to the November 1978 PLAYBOY centrefold that inspired his latest vinyl toy from Kid Robot. The guy should release this as a litho for us, ahem, art lovers. The pink dot wasn't my idea.

We aim to shock, we hope your knees will knock, here at RENTADRUNK.

Here's Timothy Claypole (left) and Miss Popov (right) from much-missed 70s kid show RENTADRUNK. Some bloggers are narcissists who only allow themselves to appear in a glamorous, flattering light. I'm the other kind. I'm the kind who makes up weight at parties and drinks Jameson's until his nose turns red and his eyes look like pissholes in snow.

D'izzy Gillespie.

Make Clicky for a whole gallery of D'Israeli's sketches from Spain Birmingham, alongside proud owners. Cute.

Smash it up.

Just watched the first part of Alan Yentob's Imagine: The Story Of The Guitar on t'BBC, which is why I'm currently downloading some Hot Club Of France as we speak. It was really very good. And try that website, it's got loads of groovy content. And the entire first episode has hit the iPlayer already, if you missed it. And if you're allowed to watch it: maybe not some of you shifty colonial types - you'll have to illegally download it, which should come naturally enough.

Bingo!

The Belfast Beer & Cider Festival: urgently looking for volunteers. I really should, shouldn't I?

Good news for fans of randomness.

And yay! Sean's got his computer fixed. 'Bout time.

Another delightful link for the librarian contingent.

This sort of thing mightn't be that interesting for the majority of you, but there's a few who hang about here who'll dig it.

There ain't no place like Birmingham.

Yer British comics blogosphere: very slow right now, but should accelerate nicely as more people make it home from Brum. Feel free to email me with all the stories unfit for print, mpegs of Chris Weston rapping, etc.

Oktoberfest.

Ah, the first of October! A new month, and it's a whole new dawn for the blog! I've got heaps planned for the next...

...ah, who am I kidding? I've got nuthin'. Fu*k. But here's a decent link, at least: The Forbidden Planet International blog on Hugo Pratt, along with some rumour mongering that someone may be about to do an English language translation of the Casterman editions. Christ, I hope so.