Don, don-don-don. DON!

In certain circles, I'm gaining notoriety for my reluctance to suck Satan's cock endorse many adaptations of comics into movies, but I'm nowhere near as vitriolic as this guy: Akira The Don's hi-larious review of WATCHMEN! THE MUSICAL.

Ah, the old "cock in the popcorn bucket" trick.

Haven't read one review of the WATCHMEN movie that makes me want to see it, and I've found every clip and trailer hysterical, in every meaning of the word.  But I did like this:

Hey, BLIP is allowing me to embed tracks again! Let's celebrate with this...

And after SCOTT PILGRIM, Michael Cera is THOR!

Why the hell not? Start necking those protein shakes now!

Been Caught Soliciting: Image, May, 2009.

Ian Churchill may not be much of a feminist, but, still... dude! Equal parts National Geographic and Hype Williams.

And yet again, Dan McDaid's alternate cover pips the superstar drawing the regular cover.  And I really didn't mean to post some of Dan's work twice in a row, it just... happened. It's entirely innocent. Honest. But. People will talk!

Random THOR notion.

I've been known to fixate more on the casting of Marvel's movies than they probably deserve. So, as that kind of blogger, I enjoyed reading Brendon Connelly's take on the casting call for THOR. Reading between the lines, it sounds like the storyline is not unlike that of Matt Fraction's recent series of specials - Thor as the heroic-but-petulant young god, humbled by his father for his acts of cruelty, offhandedness and arrogance; learning compassion by being reborn over-and-over since Viking times as a disabled physician; until he's finally learned his lesson in the modern era as Donald Blake. This I can get behind: a Thor story that starts off as a big sword 'n' sorcery epic; and ends up giving a legitimate reason why and how this character can end up in the so-far-so-good Marvel movie universe alongside more science-based characters as Iron Man and The Hulk.

Been Caught Soliciting: DC, May, 2009.

Details here.  Look, I'll run any Bolland Animal Man cover, even one from a Gerry Conway comic.

THE SPIRIT by Paul Rivoche? I'll actually buy that with my own money.

You're not kidding me, Lapham. That's Jarvis Cocker.

DARK KNIGHT RETURNS action figures, just 23 years too late to be any f*cking use to me.

2 Quotes

Here's a couple of quotes that tickled me of late. First, Paul Morley in last Sunday's OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY on the Iggy-advertising-car insurance story that seems to be getting so many people's knickers in a twist (not mine - Jimbo has been singing about selling out since 1977, and cars for at least as long - and seeing him mugging it up between the ad-breaks of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA hasn't grown old for me yet):

"Maybe I can cash the cheque, chew the camera, oil the torso, alarm the purists and wave bye-bye to the decaying concerns of the 20th century with as much self-mocking relish as Iggy Pop now that he has become a godforsaken insurance man. There are those of us who always thought that delightful smile of his was meant to inspire a certain immortal sort of twisted immoral craziness, and we never thought we'd live long enough to discover that the smile in fact represents a practical acceptance of mortality. It represents dented dignity more than credit-crunched integrity. Maybe the more psychedelically astute among us, upon hearing the first two Stooges albums for the first time, anticipated that the only way Iggy would live to see his 60s would be if he ended up organising a pension scheme that involved becoming the cheerleading spokesman for an online insurance company. This would make you Phil K Dick or JG Ballard."

And from Paul Gravett's rather sweet Heroes Of UK Comics piece, it's Brendan McCarthy on his upcoming SPIDER-MAN & DR STRANGE: FEVER comic:

"I can never hope to match the astonishing beauty and oddness of Ditko's visual style, but to pay homage and have a lot of fun was the basic idea!  I'm a bit bored with the 'hard edged' vibe prevalent in the industry, so I prefer to create a comic that owes more to The Wizard of Oz, Yellow Submarine and The Mighty Boosh, a comic that's a bit different."

Funny to hear Reverso namecheck the Boosh, because I always reckoned the first question I'd ask Noel Fielding if I ever bumped into him would be "so, just how much did you want to be Brendan McCarthy as a kid anyway?"

For WJC

Been Caught Soliciting: Marvel, May, 2009.

As ever, I'll be buying approximately three Marvel books that month (INCOGNITO, CAPTAIN BRITAIN's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and THOR if Olivier Coipel's drawing it). But also as ever, there's a couple of nice pieces of cover art worth looking at. First, Big Chief Joe Quesada shows us his technical chops with a cracking bit of graphic design. To quote the Tap: "Perspective? Too much fucking perspective!"

And I like this Destroyer cover by Jason Pearson. Pure comic bookery.

Some comics are destined to be better than others.

First look at Michael Cera as SCOTT PILGRIM.

"C'mon, he's Scott Pilgrim".

 

From Edgar "Too" Wright's Myspace blog.

These Other Bloggers Are Not Very Good.

In a voice like a John Ford film

Spending tonight playing with Spotify and enjoying it.  Enjoying having some time on my hands. Really must do something productive with it. Any ideas? Answers to the usual places.

This is sodding brilliant

Really, Mr Director General. Throw this guy a bucket of lovely license fee money to make an entire hour long version of this.

Mmm, Gorey.

Fancy a look at some nasty pre-code horror comics? Try The Horrors Of It All.

(Link via Ammie)

Panic over.

I received an email from Sir Duncan Fegredo today reassuring me that the hiatus between the first four and last four issues of HELLBOY: THE WILD HUNT was always intended. Phew, I was having nightmarish visions of Duncan gashing his hand open making a ham sandwich, or that he and Mike had a huge bust-up over which line-up of Deep Purple was the rockingest*.





*Mk III, obviously.

More NYCC business.

The news pumping out of the NYCC booze up about the changes to Marvel's Ultimate line made me passingly curious about David LaFuente. Must be tough for anyone stepping into Stuart Immonen's boots, I reckoned, so I googled him.  Found some Spidey pages at his blog: dunno if these are from the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN relaunch or not, but they're rather great. Dynamic as all get out, for starters.  The cartooniness may piss off the zombies, though. *Edit* More of this sequence, actually from the last USM annual at colourist John Rauch's blog.

Also: LOCKJAW AND THE PET AVENGERS, a comic that desperately needed to be made, finally sees the light of day.  Look at his lickle face!

Use it or lose it.

Greg Rucka's and JH Williams III's Batwoman is finally showing up, though now as an arc in DETECTIVE COMICS (covering for Batman while he's stuck in a cave with Anthro). Rucka's not the worst in the world, but part of me thinks Jim Williams deserves better assignments than DCU stuff.

Anyway, preview over at Rucka's livejournal.

In similar news, looks like my theory that DC would resusitate ADVENTURE COMICS as a Legion ongoing, restoring the first incarnation of those characters, with Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham as the creative team, was just a little bit out. Eaglesham's off to Marvel, where he'll be drawing FANTASTIC FOUR.  Francis Manapul will be the artist on ADVENTURE. Here's his teaser for the gig.

Panic on the streets of Carlisle! Dublin! Dundee! Humberside!

Oh shit. Two months solicitations in a row from Dark Horse without any new issues of HELLBOY: THE WILD HUNT listed. Starting to hyperventilate.

Tasty chops.

I like Booker T, The Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young. So yeah, the three playing and recording together, I can get behind. Click for a rather tasty sample of the album.

Freaking out the squares.

Things III.

Haven't been near the aul' computer for a while. So when I come back, I notice a few things. Things like: isn't it funny when Christian Bale's voice dips in and out of his various accents when he lost it at the T4 DP? Or, hey look! More new SCOTT PILGRIM previews!  Or that, thanks to old hand Kev Levell, I've discovered the joys of Boo Cook's blog. Or, hey, must muck around with this and make a True Type Font based on my own handwriting. That sorta stuff.