Tagged: British

Review: Three Pieces of Middle

These three books have almost nothing in common – they’re from three different publishers, in entirely different genres, and by very different creators. But they all are middle chapters in long-running series, so they raise similar questions about maintaining interest in a serialized story – when the beginning was years ago, and there’s no real end in sight, either, what makes this piece of the story special? (Besides the fact that it’s printed on nice paper and shoved between cardboard covers.)

exmachina-621-7885143Ex Machina, Vol. 6: Power Down
By Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, and JD Mettler
DC Comics/Wildstorm, 2008, $12.99

Ex Machina gets to go first, since it’s the shortest and it’s also the closest to the beginning of the series. (Both in that it’s volume 6 and because all of the [[[Ex Machina]]] collections are so short – this one collects issues 26 to 29 of the series, so we’re only into the third year of publication.) The premise is still the same – an unknown artifact/item gave then-civil engineer Mitchell Hundred the power to hear and command all kinds of machines, which he used to first become a costumed superhero (stopping the second plane on 9-11, among other things) and then successfully ran for mayor in the delayed election of 2001-2002.

This storyline begins in the summer of 2003, and provides a secret-historical reason for the blackout of that year. (This is too cute a touch for my taste – Hundred’s world is different enough from our own that this “explanation” couldn’t be true in our real world, and so the fact that both worlds had identical-seeming massive blackouts, on the same day, from different causes, stretches suspension of disbelief much too far.)

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Review: ‘Confessions of a Blabbermouth’

Mike Carey is a noted writer of both comics and prose – Lucifer, The X-Men, the “[[[Felix Castor]]]” novels – but, one might ask, what does he know about being a teenage girl? Probably not a lot…but he does have a secret weapon on his side: his daughter Louise is a teenage girl, and she’s the co-writer of this particular project.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth is the most recent publication of DC Comics’ Minx arm, which aims squarely at teenage and tween girls. (You remember: the audience that never, ever would read comics, so it was no use ever trying to get them interested – no, really, it’s just not worth it…until Sailor Moon ignited the manga boom and suddenly American comics companies were sitting on the sidelines watching those girls buy billions of dollars of Japanese comics? That audience.)

I’ve reviewed Minx comics twice before for ComicMix – Re-Gifters and Clubbing last August, and The Plain Janes and Good As Lilly in September. And the book that was most successful out of those four was Re-Gifters, written by one Mike Carey (without any assistance from anyone in the target audience), so I had high hopes for [[[Blabbermouth]]].

 

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Fan Comics Celebrate ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

Pia Guerra may have her work cut out for her.  While Guerra’s first issue of IDW’s Doctor Who comic book series is scheduled to come out in July, fan-drawn strips about the British sci-fi phenomenon and its spinoffs are already well underway.

Pseudonymous LiveJournal bloggers calling themselves spastasmagoria and jigglykat have created Torchwood Babiez, which is so unbearably adorable it could give Cute Overload a run for its money.  So far the ladies are up to Page 10, and they’re just getting rolling.

Meanwhile, Rich Morris is currently up to Page 81 of his wonderful strip The Ten Doctors, which can be enjoyed by casual viewers of the show but is really designed for the more fanatic trivia buff who remembers over a quarter century of Doctors, companions, villains and planets.  Only three of the story pages have been inked and colored so far, but Rich’s art is worthwhile even in pencil form.

Doubtless there are a ton of other fan-based comics making the rounds; we’d be especially interested to see any paying tribute to the kid-friendly "Sarah Jane Chronicles."

Tolkien Estate, Publisher Sue New Line Over ‘Lord of the Rings’

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

Variety reports that publisher HarperCollins and the British charity that oversees the estate of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien have filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema, the studio responsible for the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

The suit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court and alledges that New Line Cinema neglected to provide either plaintiff with contractually obligated "gross profit participation" payment for the phenomenally successful films. The claim seeks $150 million from New Line, as well as a variety of other damages, including the right to terminate New Line’s license to the Tolkien properties.

If the studio loses the Tolkien license, it could end fans’ hopes for a Guillermo del Toro-helmed film based on The Hobbit, a widely speculated possibility.

 

Doctor Who Turns 100

  • News
  • January 8, 2008

Not to encroach on Glenn Hauman’s turf, but, hey, happy 100th birthday, William Hartnell!

The man who created the role of Doctor Who – his first broadcast was transmitted immediately after the BBC announced the death of President Kennedy – and stayed with the role for three years had been performing on stage and in movies for 40 years by the time he was cast, including the classic British comedy Carry On Sergeant.  

Retiring due to ill health, Hartnell returned to the role to film a few scenes in the groundbreaking 10th anniversary episode "The Three Doctors." His role, in which he helped save the Doctor’s next two incarnations, was curtailed somewhat due to his poor health. It was Hartnell’s final performance; he died two years after the show was broadcast.

Law and Order Over There

  • News
  • January 3, 2008

Just when you thought Law and Order was wearing out its welcome, it turns out there are plans for a fourth – no, make it fifth (one flopped) series. But, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it ain’t gonna be set or filmed in New York City.

Kudos Film and Television, producers of the brilliant British shows Hustle and Life On Mars, is in negotiations with NBC Universal and Wolf Films to do a series presently called Law & Order: London. It would emulate the format employed by all those NBC shows.
 
This wouldn’t be a first for Dick Wolf. There are Russian versions of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (a.k.a. The Sex Show) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The latter program also appears in its own unique French version.

Manga Friday: Look! A Mammoth!

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

mammoth-8034044I’ve long harbored a suspicion about the “Mammoth Books” – you’re familiar with them, right? Big fat reprint anthologies, on a wide range of subjects (fiction and nonfiction, photographic and comics) published by Constable and Robinson in the UK and imported to this side of the pond by the now-defunct Carroll & Graf? – were put together somewhat on the cheap. (This was based on my encounters with their historical reprints, which I kept thinking should be called things like The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories That Are Out of Copyright.)

But this book, I hasten to say, is made up of new material, as far as I can tell. All of the works are copyrighted 2007, though the book doesn’t say where, if anywhere, any of this appeared before. Come to think of it, that’s a bit of a problem – if this is the Best New Manga, surely that’s in comparison with other manga, and implies that this stuff was previously published?

These are the kind of problems I always have with the Mammoth Books — they’re generally nice anthologies, but aren’t quite what it says they are on the tin.

OK, so here’s what I think this book is: a collection of all-new stories, in a mostly manga manner, by creators primarily from the UK. It doesn’t actually say that – the introduction, by one-named editor “Ilya,” spends most of its time burbling about how cool manga is and how wonderful the world will be once we can all manage to sell more and more copies of more manga books – but it’s the most likely scenario. (If this really is an anthology of previously published works, and those works are “manga,” then the fact that they’re nearly all British and that none of them are, oh, Japanese, becomes much more puzzling.)

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ELAYNE RIGGS: Nothing common about it

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  • July 18, 2007

elayne200-6762509The older I get, the more Einsteinian I become in my concept of time. It’s like I’m watching a vehicle moving at light-speed, Dopplering like crazy, when it’s all I can do sometimes to make it from point A to point B. I’m just a 20th century gal in a 21st century world.

Which isn’t always a bad thing. I retain a viewpoint that I honestly think is foreign to many around me, one that relies greatly on the ideas of common sense and common courtesy. Don’t spend more on your credit card than you have money to pay it off. When you’re out to dinner, stack your plates in a way that makes them easier for the server to handle. If you’re responsible for someone who can’t care for themselves, their needs supercede yours. Behind the wheel, do everything you can to facilitate traffic flow, don’t do anything that distracts you from driving, and always let aggressive drivers pass you so you’re well rid of them. Don’t do anything in public that will cause discomfort to others around you, unless they’re more politically powerful and intending you physical harm. Listening is more important than talking. (Okay, I don’t have that last one down quite yet, but I’m working on it!)

Two of my conclusions after almost fifty years on this planet come down to "sex is private" and "violence is abhorrent." I don’t know why people who wish to regulate media keep pairing the two, as the former affirms life while the latter negates it. And to tell you the truth, while I’m not that big on regulation myself, sometimes I think it may just be needed in certain circumstances. Because, once again, I see so few people around me any more exercising common sense and common courtesy.

While it’s true that societal mores, like language, are an ever-evolving phenomenon, it’s not that difficult to suss out what might discomfit the majority those around them — if they cared to. But selfishness often wins out over courtesy. So while a kiss on the lips may be quite continental, no matter who’s kissing whom, when that public kiss turns into major gropage or heavy petting it’s time for the participants to think about getting a room. As my mom is fond if saying regarding the romance novels she reads, "I prefer the ones that stop at the bedroom door."

Or the bathroom door, for that matter. Bodily functions are nothing of which to be ashamed; neither are they anything to show off. If you’re planning to go beyond a simple exchange of saliva, do consider a more intimate and less public venue, one with doors between you and the general public. That goes for feeding your baby straight from the source as well. But hey, maybe that’s just me. I see enough fluids around me as it is, I don’t really want to deal with other people’s. It’s beautiful, it’s natural… it’s private, mmmkay?

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Dennis Hopper Is Doing What?

hopperdennis-1922054Approximately several hundred websites are reporting Dennis Hopper might be guest-villaining in Doctor Who next season. ComicMix is now officially number several hundred and one. It’s also being reported by the London Sun and the British magazine TV Times.

Evidently, the one-time Easy Rider star and two-time G. W. Bush supporter is a big Whoer. When the BBC discovered this, they moved with uncommon speed to get at least a cameo out of the noted actor.

Superman’s birthmom to Who

Susannah York, the honored British actress who played Lara in Superman The Movie and Superman II (not to mention such classy movies as They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and The Killing of Sister George), is a featured player in Big Finish’s 96th regular monthly Doctor Who full-cast drama.

Named "Valhalla", the two-hour original full-cast audio drama is another high-energy science-fiction thriller about a planet that is, well, anything but Valhalla. York joins Sylvester McCoy, who of course is playing the seventh Doctor – the last from the original series.

For more information about this and the approximately 150 original Doctor Who audio adventures, check out Big Finish Productions.

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