… stirs.

Bloody hell, didn’t think it had been that long since I wrote anything on here. Strange thing happened recently, I met a girl and developed a life, meaning I’ve actually been out doing things rather than sitting at my computer moaning about not doing anything.

After a month I still can’t believe it’s 2009, and after a week I still find it strange hearing the phrase “President Obama” on the news. I’m not gonna gush on about the guy, but it’s great that the “leader of the (so called) free world” is actually someone who can string a sentence together. He may not be perfect but he’s a start to a (hopefully) better world.

Another thing I can’t believe, and this is making me feel old, is that this year marks the 25th Anniversary of not only The Transformers, but also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It also marks 70 years of Marvel Comics! I guess it’s about time I blogged about my love of the Ninja Turtles and how it all started in 1989. There’s plenty of time for that though.

Every now and then I find a new obsession that takes over a part of my life for a while. All my life I’ve been a Marvel Zombie, and I still am. I love everything about the Marvel Universe. However, I’ve become a bit obsessed with the DC Universe and have been reading up on it’s (fictional) history a lot. Aside from some Vertigo and Wildstorm stuff, the only DC that has ever interested me is Batman. I love Batman almost as much as I love Spider-Man, but due to a lack of interest in most other DC stuff I tend to only buy Batman in collections so I get a full story and don’t need to worry about tracking down any possible crossovers. However, last years Secret Invasion crossover at Marvel was terrible, for the most part, and as always I was keeping an eye on what DC were doing, as I keep an eye on most comic companies out of interest. Reading up on Final Crisis makes it sound so interesting, although I’m guessing my lack of continuity knowledge would be a problem for me. Hence my sudden obsession with reading anything and everything I can about the DCU. It hasn’t made me want to rush out and buy Superman every month, but it’s still grabbed my interest and is fascinating stuff. I have however been re-reading old Batman collections and am addicted to Lego Batman on the Wii. Time to go buy some new Batman collections methinks, and maybe dip into some other DCU titles. Any suggestions?

Oh, and all comic fans must check out Captain Britain and MI13 #10, from Marvel Comics this February. It’s a great title which could do with a bit of a sales boost to help keep it alive. More than anything though how can you not want to read a comic that involves Dr Doom and Dracula. ON THE MOON!

(More on Captain Britian soon, us fans are planning a big push for the book…).

I was gonna write a nice big post looking back over the year so that in a years time I can look back and see how different 2009 is (was) to 2008. Sadly strict deadlines and Christmas means I have about 5 minutes spare to write something.

Bad things:
Situation back home with my parents. Hopefully will be amicable on all fronts.
Not getting much comic work done that I’d promised myself. Slap on wrist!
Not going on holiday more!
Deadlines!!!!
Secret Invasion. Worst Marvel crossover in years.
Appearing to lose my muse and not having any creative energy for much of the year.

Good things:
Meeting Mark Millar! (Simple things…).
Dark Knight and Iron Man movies.
Loads of great comics.
Going to Paris (again).
Starting up a new band and re-forming an old band.
Christmas looking crap turning out to be looking like one of the best….
A voice saying “Do it then” that might just be my new muse….
Both of which are due to my new girlfriend, who is the best thing of the year and will make next year the best ever.

Goodbye 2008, roll on 2009.

Some more nonsense before I actually type out something slightly interesting:

If anyone buys me any of these for Christmas I will love them forever: Lego Death Star, R2-D2, Storm Trooper hoodie. Amazing!

Or this will do!

This is about time!

And this is also about time, nice to see comic writers getting proper recognition.

For obvious reasons, already covered in the link, this is totally shocking. Firstly cos I didn’t know Roadrunner actually signed anything half interesting these days, but mainly because I can’t see a “fat” belly at all, what the hell are they talking about? She looks in great shape to me, which shouldn’t matter anyway. However, the good thing is now she can actually look for a deal with a decent record label and not crappy Roadrunner.

Today is a hard day for me, as I say good bye to junk food. We had some good times together, but I’m afraid it’s just not working out for me any more. It’ll be hard, but I’m sure I’ll survive. I hope.

In order: Triptych canvas based on Wolverine, first bit of painting I’ve done in almost 2 years, not 100% sure if I actually like it now it’s on the wall. My desk, tidied up ready for working on my first comic (finally). And my new favourite t-shirt.

This is a pretty cool idea, if I didn’t want to be cremated I’d request something similar.

Nice to see Batman comics getting a bit of coverage instead of just the films, and not a “Pow” or “Blam” in sight. The BBC reported the current story here in a sensible manner and then followed it up here, which for part of the day was both the most read and most e-mailed story on the BBC site. I’m also glad they treated the story, and medium, with respect (the spoiler warning amuses me too). If every time there is a new James Bond or Doctor Who it gets decent coverage then why shouldn’t comics? It really does seem that comics are slowly becoming a more respectable part of mainstream entertainment. Just a shame The Guardian had to ruin it with the “Holy *insert comment here* Batman” cliché. Their follow up article was a bit better, but why use images from the films for both articles? Use images from the comics and show non-readers how good comics can look! Of course, we all know that Bruce Wayne isn’t really dead. Not showing the body has been used in comics for years as a get out clause for bringing characters back from the dead. Mind you, Marvel have done well with Captain America, over 18 months and he’s still dead, and Jean Grey has gone 3 years without coming back, possibly a record .

Scary but edible!

Great little article about rising comic sales amongst kids here in the UK, my childhood wouldn’t have been the same without Transformers weekly and the Beano, so it’s great to see that the internet and computer games haven’t changed things as much as people like to harp about.

Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate, welcomed the rise of comics as “terrific”.

He said: “I don’t know how it is they came to be regarded as simple in this country. They are very complex.”

The main thing was that children enjoyed reading them as “an artform in themselves”, he said. If they graduated to books that was just an added bonus.

Rosen is a living legend, especially for that last line.

Awesome behind the scenes photography of the Iron Man film by Jeff Bridges himself.

Giant squid, this thing is amazing, around 7 metres I believe! Imagine what it’s dad looks like

Lastly today, better hide my copy of Lost Girls and my Sandman collections.

Some stuff that has amused me over the past week or two:

I want this office. Seriously. It’s the greatest single piece of real life architecture I have ever seen, I love it!

Doctor Who with no Tardis? Wouldn’t have been the same, but I love the idea of him having a secret mission to destroy the future. The Doctor is always at his best when he’s at his darkest.

50 Beautiful Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography. Amazing stuff. If you don’t know what Tilt-Shift is then have a look and it will all make sense.

50 Movie titles that got lost in translation. Sadly a lot appear to be fake, but amusing none-the-less.

Spider Money. I’d have let him off just for giving me such amusement!

Saturday 22nd November. Carcass played Leeds. I was there. I was very happy. I am still very happy. And I’ll die happy. If At The Gates tour next year then I’ll never need to ever go to a metal gig again in my life, woo!

In order: French edition of Civil War #1 scribbled on by Mark Millar. Sketch of a Ninja Turtle in a Judge Dredd costume by D’Israeli (Reason being that he has drawn both so thought it would be cool to ask him to mix the two) My “art desk” in my office, frames 1 and 3 from a triptych I’ve nearly finished called “Wolverine”, for obvious reasons. Once that’s hung on my wall the desk will be cleared for my first comic to be started, finally.

This is a great idea, shame they couldn’t get an actual artist to deliver it. Call me cynical but I find myself thinking she did it more to bring herself back into the spotlight than anything else.

Another great idea, this time by someone with some actual talent and who does something interesting, and certainly more accessible to the average person. Can’t applaud this enough.

Appropriately following up my post yesterday. I actually find it really freaky that they posthumously baptise ANYONE, never mind just those from the holocaust. I’m pretty sure the idea is to be baptised before death and thus enabling you to enter heaven, if you believe in that sort of thing (and even if you don’t it seems the Mormons will sort that for you). Scary. (Via Brian Wood on Twitter)

One more reason Obama was best candidate for President of the USA: He collects Spider-Man comics. One of us, one of us!

I don’t know what’s more amazing with this story, the fact they want to sue Nolan or the fact the place actually exists.

Polar Bear Vs Dogs – But it has a happy ending!

Current addiction: Unretrofied by Dillinger Escape Plan. Even those who aren’t a fan of their more spazzy, technical, heavier stuff won’t be able to resist the chorus on this one. (Closely followed by Black Bubblegum from their more recent album, they really are at their best when they go melodic).

Well, after the depressing content of my previous post I feel I need to cheer myself up with a bit of fun:

Fuck Yeah Sharks – Via Warren Ellis.

Real Life “My Name Is Earl”.

Simon Pegg gives a convincing argument for slow zombies.

Charlie Brooker gives a convincing argument for fast zombies (The URL itself is amusing enough).

I’m of the Romero school of thought when it comes to zombies, they are scarier when they are slow moving, lumbering creatures that on their own are no good but en-masse are terryfying. However, I love Brooker’s idea of them starting off fast and getting slower as they decay more. (And props to Brooker for making Dead Set in the first place, one of the bets things I’ve seen on TV in years and a pleasent surprise).

“Genius” and “nutter” are two words often used to describe Cerebus creator Dave Sim. Most “geniuses” throughout history have had a touch of eccentricity about them which is often viewed as “being a bit mad”, and these days it’s no different.

Sim created Cerebus in the 70’s as a tongue-in-cheek parody of the adventure comics of the day, mainly Marvel’s Conan The Barbarian. Rather than try to do work for hire for one of the many comic companies around, Sim decided to self-publish his work, which was almost unheard of at the time outside of the underground “comix” movement. A lot of comics were published with the intention of running as long as sales would last and with a view to becoming pop-culture icons and thus merchandise goldmines. Sim, however, decided that his comic would last exactly 300 issues and chronicle the life of Cerebus, an anthropomorphic Aardvark living n a world of sword and sorcery. 300 issues, one a month, created, written, drawn and produced by one man is a lot of work and nothing to be sniffed at (down the road he hired background artist Gerhard who would draw all the background’s around Sim’s characters). Early on the comic morphed from the fantasy spoof comic it started as and became something much deeper, with Cerebus turning into the voice of Dave Sim himself, be it about politics, religion, relationships or pretty much anything else int he word around us. By the time Cerebus died in #300 his voice was a bitter one.

Along the way Sim gathered a lot of fans but also ended up making a lot of enemies. At some point a lot of views purported as anti-feminist made their way into Cerebus, which angered a lot of fans, yet Sim still denies being a misogynist. This, along with some non-conventional religious views have branded Sim a “nutter” with a loose grip on reality by some people.

Personal views aside, it cannot be denied that the man is a great writer and artist. My experience of Cerebus is limited to a few comics, the above is knowledge I have gained from reading about the man over years mainly because I was fascinated by him rather than his work. One day, however, I do plan to read the full run of Cerebus and see what the real fuss was about.

When it was announced that Sim was releasing a comic about the Holocaust, called Judenhass, a lot of chatter started online with people on message boards imagining a book of questionable politics that would further embarrass Sim in the public eye. Glowing praise from, amongst others, Neil Gaiman helped cement people’s views that people might have jumped to the wrong conclusions.

Intrigued by the man and also this piece of work, I decided to pick up a copy when it came out (Along with Glamourpuss #1 which I may end up writing about if I ever pick up the other issues). Many months later I finally decided to read it this weekend.

Wow.

I read it in around 20-25 minutes, it’s a thicker than usual comic and I spent a lot of time just studying the images, especially one of the entrance to Auschwitz with remarkable detail. Sim’s “photo-realistic” style in this book is achieved by tracing photographs, transferring the image to thicker art board and then referring to the actual photograph to then draw in all the details. The bulk of the comic is simply images of prisoners in the concentration camps with boxes of text overlaid, containing quotes from around the world and from throughout history that refer to Jews. After that 20 minutes or so the book stayed with me all day.

The title of the book, Judenhass, is German and literally translated it means “Jew Hate”. Sim felt this title helped capture something that he was trying to portray with the book, in his own words:

I decided some time ago that the term anti-Semitism (a ‘coined’ term of late nineteenth century origin) is completely inadequate to the abhorrent cultural phenomenon which it attempts to describe. For one thing, Arabs are Semites as well and the prejudice as it is generally understood certainly doesn’t apply equally to Arabs and Jews.

Sim’s own interest in creating a book that helps delve into the Holocaust, and what actually lead to it, comes from the fact that most of his heroes, the “founding fathers” of modern comics, are all Jewish or of Jewish descent. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Bob Kane, amongst others, all being Jewish.

The basic facts we were given about the Holocaust during history lessons at school was that far various reasons Hitler had the Jews rounded up in ghetto’s and eventually moved to concentration camps where they were systematically exterminated. Judenhass takes us back before that, juxtaposing the images of concentration camp prisoners with quotes from Henry Ford, Martin Luther, Voltaire, Mark Twain plus numerous sayings, proverbs and teachings from throughout history, alongside politicians from many countries worldwide, going right up until the second world war, all condemning “the Jew” as being a problem.

After reading it I actually felt a bit shocked as to just how much “Jew hatred” had been fostered in the world prior to the atrocities of the second world war. Knowing this it seems almost inevitable that something like this would happen. It’s not often I will read or watch something that will then weigh heavy on my mind for the rest of the day, but this certainly did.

The conclusion of Sim’s research is, in simple terms, Hitler only did what many people had talked about and wished to happen for hundreds of years previously. People that are seen as respected artists, authors and politicians. Hitler himself even claims to have been inspired by the writings of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. It’s almost as if history has forgiven everyone in the past for their views and laid the whole thing on Hitler. This is in no way to say that Hitler should take less blame, only that others should be mentioned as being an influence upon his actions. And how come Stalin gets off so lightly for his crimes?

This brings up the age old argument of separating the artist from the art. Is it ok to enjoy the works of Twain and Voltaire knowing they held less than complimentary views for an entire race of people?

Ironically this also brings up the question of if it’s ok to enjoy (if that’ the correct word) this book itself knowing some of the less than complimentary views Sim has expressed himself about certain parts of society.

I think, ultimately, with a book like this one has to ignore any other views the creator may or may not have, because this book simply presents facts backed up by in-depth research and presents it in a way that is both easy to read yet hard to digest. I genuinely think that every school should use this book as a way to start teaching about the Holocaust in history lessons.

I can imagine one day someone doing a biographical comic of Sim himself and finding many contradictory points of view. I hope they do cos I can’t wait to read it!

But not living on a prayer.

After months of living here I decided to finally get my office tidied up and have thrown out loads of crap I either no longer needed or forgot I even had. Soon I’ll actually be able to get at my drawing desk and not just my computer desk. It’s slowly getting me back in a creative mood but I’m still finding it hard to get motivated back into drawing daily. I needed more of a muse than just a picture of Audrey Tautou and a card advertising Marvel’s Civil War, so I’ve made my own little “mood board” of pictures and photos I like to help start motivate me further.

This afternoon I watched Two Days In Paris, which has also helped stir the creative juices within. Admittedly I bought the DVD purely because of my obsession with Paris, but I’m so glad I did. The synopsis on the back of the box really doesn’t do the film justice, but then I guess it’s a hard film to sell as nothing really happens, it simply follows a couple as they spend two days in Paris visiting “her” parents before they return to “his” home of New York. The cultural differences are played up a lot, often for laughs, but the main thing that impressed me was the script between the two main characters. They talk and argue like a real couple, it’s scarily realistic. The narration, from “her” point of view, is also spot on. This is certainly up there with Amelie and The Science Of Sleep for me.

So this has helped renew my faith in my own work and helped me steer some of my stories in a certain direction that before I was maybe a bit afraid of going in.

Now, just need to get the other half of the office cleaning finished and I’ll be ready to go!