SO MUCH TO DO – SO LITTLE TIME

Oh dear – seriously I gotta do some stuff about the house before the wife decides a divorce is the best option! But writing and designing keeps getting in the way. I should be able to prioritise the big jobs at least but no – they all need doing right now! Helping out on a few Zuda submissions. Writing my own Zuda submission. Writing Stripper Rippers. Reading and blogging on Ulysses ( a real killer). Updating Panel Peculiar. And the Fantastic Four blog is soon to take a strange and unexpected turn! I got another blog to launch too – if only I could get around to writing and drawing some actual content. More Zuda reviews this weekend honestly – but I gotta paint the ceiling too y’know?!

ONCE UPON A TIME …

… in a land far, far away and long forgotten by the rest of the world …where the bloodthirsty politicians and greedybankers had usurped the powers of a kindly old queen … and forced her to utter wicked untruths and lazy propaganda to her dull subjects …

… a hero didn’t arise … and things carried on pretty much as they always had … and they all lived … ever after. Zzz-zzz.

PANEL PECULIAR & STUPID COMICS

Here’s another opportunity to plug my own blogs while sending you off to read a better one somewhere else. I’ve nabbed this 70’s panel from Stupid Comics who go into hilarious detail roasting this particular Archie gem above – I love it. I’d like to have stolen it for my own blog Panel Peculiar but that wouldn’t be fair at all so here’s my own choice. Click on the pictures to go and read more!

FOREVER4

Thought I’d let everyone know I’ve updated my new blog Forever4 – a new wordpress blog that serves as something of a reader’s guide to Marvel’s first family – THE FANTASTIC FOUR – the world’s greatest comic magazine.

Join me as I take you on a journey from the first issue to the latest as I try to find out what this comic really means to me. I don’t think there’s much I can say about comics that I can’t say through the prism of the adventures of this fabulous foursome’s adventures. Some of these comics achieve the heights of greatness, while others descend the depths of stupidity. Why has Mr Fantastic never given anyone the finger? Is Susan the most powerful member of the FF only once a month? Does The Thing shit orange bricks? Does Johnny Storm really have a hot rod? And the answers to many more juvenile forty-year-old gags! Follow my fantastic fingers as I type and you might just find out.

As usual plenty of fun and stupidity, tears and laughter (Okay maybe not so much those last two). Here I also extend an open invitation to anyone who has a hankering to draw any character from the Mighty World of Marvel with even a vague connection to the FF – send me your pics! I might even try my hand myself

STRIPPER RIPPERS

Hah! Finally fought my way to top of Drunk Duck – well, not really but I got ‘featured’ anyway which is nice. I was actually beginning to wonder how you got featured. I still don’t know – but I guess I could always just ask! Anyhow go there and celebrate my moment of glory – as it is typically likely to be short-lived

Here’s today’s strip miniaturized!!! I’d guess you can’t read the text which is the only real bit I did so you’ll have to click on the image or get on over to DD for real.

By the way. I don’t claim anything much for Stripper Rippers – it’s just my bit of daily fun – I’ve lived a sheltered life. Basically the process is I take an old Golden Age strip and chop it up and daily invent some new text to go with the pictures. I don’t plan it out much as it’s supposed to be improvisational. I use the panels in whatever order I can make them fit to make some new sense and I try and stay away from the point of the original story as much as possible. And I don’t shift the word balloons either (OK, once) so I have to make do with what I’m given – it’s more fun but less sense! Which is the way I like it!

ZUDA: CHILDREN OF THE SEWER

Children of the Sewer by Benito Gallego is drawn in the Mighty Marvel Manner of old, but it looks good for that reminding me of Mystery Jungle with those strong saturated colours and stock action-poses. The main point of contention here  among readers seems to be the use of an unsympathetic lead character – the serial killer Edmund Ratt. It’s an attitude that could be handled seriously or just used for cheap effect and the worrying thing is that I can’t fathom any evidence of the former.Ratt is labelled as such and seems to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever – hardly even enough to suggest anti-hero status – so what we are left with is what? Suffering and torture visited upon the deserving? Sounds like something I could miss and not worry about. Redemption might be an interesting hoop to shoot for considering the opening. If the creator were to try for that I’d like to see how he’d manage it. The synopsis suggests another character will make an appearance, but whether that would give it the moral balance it needs remains to be seen.

Of course, opening out the strip might reduce all those concerns but it has to win to do that. Currently ranked a close second Benito might get the chance. I can’t say I’m keen to read that much more, but I’ve been wrong before so who the hell knows!

ZUDA: BIG-UPS

Big Ups: A Space Adventure by Christina Boyce is an interesting choice for the competition this month. Readers have noted a ‘junior’ vibe across the entries this month, but I don’t think that quite describes precisely what is going on here. I hate to state the obvious but most books/comics/cartoons for children are written by adults – some of them quite clever adults. Pieces for children are not written by children, so we must try at least to discern between the child-like and the childish. Childish pieces usually work better with adults as children tend towards a more straight-forward critical faculty – not often fooled by the adults that look down on them. So for a competition to tend towards the creation of material suitable for children you’d be wanting to see some pretty strong skills at work. More so than in any other competition perhaps. Too often creators think that they may be able to disguise deficiencies in their skill set by proclaiming “it’s only for children”. Imagine the work you’d need to do to get this ready for kids to read it – I suggest quite a lot. Alternatively imagine the work you’d need to do to get it ready for an adult audience? Couple of swear words and some gross-out gags and Bob is your uncle – ready to go! Do you see what I’m getting at?

Whether that has any baring on this entry you’ll make your own minds up I’m sure. It’s happened before that the content has not quite aligned with the approach – and I think that is what has happened here. While you could say any number of positive or negative things about what you can see and read the main problem is one of over-all direction and purpose. What does it mean and who is it for? It strikes me those two questions weren’t addressed properly at the beginning. I’ve seen worse though – much, much worse.

COMIX TALK

While I’m still going to be talking about Zuda around these parts on a regular basis I’m moving my discussion about the nature and process of making webcomics over to Rob Berry’s Ulysses “Seen” website. His comic is such a massive project that the sensible talk of how why what where and when seems to sit better there than it does here.  That’s not to say you have to read his comic or know anything at all about James Joyce or the novel Ulysses – far from it! We’d be happy for you just to come over and talk about comics. I’ve set the ball rolling with the weighty topic of monetization – Rob naturally has plenty to say – but obviously we’d both like to hear what you think. Join us soon – I’m sure I’m going to say something stupid shortly!!!

MY MATE?

As Australians cannot live without Vegemite, at least half of all British born people cannot live with Marmite. According to the rather brave campaign you either love it or you hate it. If only more advertisers took that line eh? Add to the deliciousness the fact that it is also a design classic, well I just thought I’d let you know. By the way I did’t take any money for this product placement – though I am open to offers My mate – Marmite! I’ve never had Vegemite. I wonder …

(MyMate! That was the previous campaign surely?)

I CAN’T GO TO BED NOW!

That’s torn it! I guess everyone must one of these – right? A memory of a film you saw as a kid that frightened the shit out of you – and that probably wouldn’t frighten a six-year-old today! Well, I’ve got about three of them. This one, Ghost Story (1974 - dir. Stephen Weeks), has just been released on DVD. The amazing power these childhood memories still hold can only be broken by seeing them again and realising what a load of old crap they are. It was 1974 – but I still have a morbid fear of dolls. I don’t think I’ll forget that scene until the day I die. In fact there’s a house round the corner that lines the f*ckers up in the window. Bitch!

Of course – it might still scare the shit outta me. Hmm! It’s in my rental cue. I’ll let you know how I get on. Brr.

Memories huh? It’s just popped into my head a blind date I once went on – years ago now. Everything was cool until we went back to her place and she opened the door to the room where she kept her collection of Victorian porcelain dolls – after that things went downhill pretty quickly. That was one of my better blind dates too!