Posts
The Return of Meggan, Comics and Who
Those of you who are comic readers of a sufficiently ancient vintage may well recognise the young lady appearing with Brian Braddock in the picture below:
Her name is Meggan, and for the longest time she and Brian were one of the most stable couples of the Marvel Universe. Then he lost her, but now she's... well, is she back or isn't she? The above is from the cover to issue nine of Captain Britain and MI-13, but her first appearance is on the last page of our current mag, issue six, and she's a major part of this new arc, 'Hell Comes to Birmingham'. Just wanted to make a noise about it. Because I do adore her. And aren't they cute together?
I was delighted to be part of last weekend's Doctor Who in comics event in the Lass O'Gowrie pub in Manchester. It was actually something of a new idea: close off a pub for the day, and devote the whole downstairs space to a very focussed event about a specific fan topic. The cosy venue, the joy of the participants, and the novel nature of what they were all talking about, plus the fact that the panels had been arranged in roughly chronological order with just about everyone involved present (although we maybe could have used someone who was around in the Tides of Time era), meant that it felt like a very thorough and celebratory day. Slides coming up onscreen to illustrate the panels helped a great deal. And where else could you pop into the snug of a pub and find Lee Sullivan and D'Israeli sketching away? And hey, my old mucker Scott Gray and the highly talented Roger Langridge have just brought their Fin Fang Four series to Marvel's digital comics:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/100821-Landrdge-FFF-online.html
The Lass, judging from the Friday night, is also a very successful mainstream pub, the eccentricities of which (a room devoted to the art of Adrian Salmon, the Salmon Room as it's called) only add to its charm. Too many old friends to note, but huge thanks for the hospitality (and the pies!) to Gareth Kavanagh, the, erm, Doctor Who fan who owns a pub. Who would have thought it? He's planning other themed events, and I think they'll be very successful. If you're in the area, do pop along, it'll be worth your while any night.
I'm working all hours at the moment, but I tell you what, I'm having a great time. Just signed off on the lettering for the final issue of Fantastic Four: True Story, the TV work is highly satisfying, the novel's bubbling along and the extremely gracious and charming Michael Moorcock just gave me permission to use Jerry Cornelius in a short story. (And would like to emphasise: yes, you do need such permission, Jerry isn't open source, no matter what may have seemed to be the case in the last few years.) I'm really happy today. I hope you are too, and that we'll be able to bounce around together in Calgary next week. Until then, Cheerio!
Her name is Meggan, and for the longest time she and Brian were one of the most stable couples of the Marvel Universe. Then he lost her, but now she's... well, is she back or isn't she? The above is from the cover to issue nine of Captain Britain and MI-13, but her first appearance is on the last page of our current mag, issue six, and she's a major part of this new arc, 'Hell Comes to Birmingham'. Just wanted to make a noise about it. Because I do adore her. And aren't they cute together?
I was delighted to be part of last weekend's Doctor Who in comics event in the Lass O'Gowrie pub in Manchester. It was actually something of a new idea: close off a pub for the day, and devote the whole downstairs space to a very focussed event about a specific fan topic. The cosy venue, the joy of the participants, and the novel nature of what they were all talking about, plus the fact that the panels had been arranged in roughly chronological order with just about everyone involved present (although we maybe could have used someone who was around in the Tides of Time era), meant that it felt like a very thorough and celebratory day. Slides coming up onscreen to illustrate the panels helped a great deal. And where else could you pop into the snug of a pub and find Lee Sullivan and D'Israeli sketching away? And hey, my old mucker Scott Gray and the highly talented Roger Langridge have just brought their Fin Fang Four series to Marvel's digital comics:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/100821-Landrdge-FFF-online.html
The Lass, judging from the Friday night, is also a very successful mainstream pub, the eccentricities of which (a room devoted to the art of Adrian Salmon, the Salmon Room as it's called) only add to its charm. Too many old friends to note, but huge thanks for the hospitality (and the pies!) to Gareth Kavanagh, the, erm, Doctor Who fan who owns a pub. Who would have thought it? He's planning other themed events, and I think they'll be very successful. If you're in the area, do pop along, it'll be worth your while any night.
I'm working all hours at the moment, but I tell you what, I'm having a great time. Just signed off on the lettering for the final issue of Fantastic Four: True Story, the TV work is highly satisfying, the novel's bubbling along and the extremely gracious and charming Michael Moorcock just gave me permission to use Jerry Cornelius in a short story. (And would like to emphasise: yes, you do need such permission, Jerry isn't open source, no matter what may have seemed to be the case in the last few years.) I'm really happy today. I hope you are too, and that we'll be able to bounce around together in Calgary next week. Until then, Cheerio!
Labels:
Captain Britain,
Doctor Who,
Fantastic Four,
Fin Fang Four,
Jerry Cornelius,
Lass O'Gowrie,
Meggan,
Michael Moorcock,
World Fantasy Convention
|
I'm just thrilled to see Stuart Immonen on covers. He might not be British but the man is a star. I take it Leonard Kirk's superb imitation of his style has not gone unnoticed. :)
Love the artwork. Still waiting on issue 4,5 and six:(
Basically one lot was sent and got lost in the mail. I have a pretty big backlog of reading to do.
Order your Wisdom Trade. Reading Stickleback right now. There some bloody stonking dialogue in that trade lol.
So right now I'm looking forward to Wisdom off of your recommendation along with Rocko's.
I've decided not to read the old CB trades. I kind of like what you've done, so for now would rather keep your interpretation as my gateway in. I may get the others at a later date.
I wanted to say that talk of Meggan made my day. She's certainly a favorite character of mine.
Thank you very much!
Just a quick addition to my last post on this. Pitty you can't merge them.
But I concur that any event at the Lass is worth a look in. I don't really know massive amounts about Doctor Who in comics, but still enjoyed the event a great deal.
I also enjoyed our brief introduction, just sorry we never managed to find that time to chat and share a few stories.
I'm more of a Television Convention guy. So Vworp Vworp was not just my first Doctor Who event. It was also my first comics event.
Money permitting. I hope to try and do one of the big UK comic events next year.
I never had that many comics growing as a kid. I got Marvel comics on Holidays, and the Look - In every week. Doctor Who Magazine I got early on for a few weeks. Somewhere along the line I just lost touch. Plus the show was still on the air when I got those issues. So it was before John Freeman took over as editor and changed it all. I missed out on all that.
I know John via his time with Star Trek Magazine, and he has been a great source of encouragment to me since that time. So Vworp Vworp was interesting for me, because I learned a bit more about his era.
I also laughed a little, in a kind of knowing way at you explaining us about some of the things you did for DWM that John sent back with notes, because have gone through a similar process with him. So when we do manage to hook up. I'd love to know about some of the stuff you had sent back, and what the issues were with those things that just missed out.
It was great to meet you, and hope to we get another chance sometime.
Ian
New issue was loads of fun.
Funny anecdote: I recently reread the Pryde and Wisdom mini-series and that Pete Wisdom and the current Pete Wisdom don't even seem like the same person.
I bet that's not really her or something.
Going by what Plotka said (about "this is how I would have tempted you") then she's probably a temptation like all the others.
Which is a little sad IMO.
What's not to love about a bare-foot, blonde shape-changing babe?
Great to see Meggan back. I was always more interested in Brian and Meggan's relationship than I ever was Cyclops/Jean Grey or Reed Richards/Sue Storm. Here's hoping she hangs around awhile, but I'm not holding my breath.
of course, if it is a fake-out re:Meggan, you do realise you're going to get hunted down by a large portion of the Excalibur fanbase.
scans_daily's response to that last page last week was 'MEGGANSQUEEEEE!' for 50+ comments
Thanks, all. Odessa: but *is* that a funny anecdote? And is that you in the icon? Burnt: I'm sure Scans Daily will be fine. After all, we all know that comics fans tend to read through to the very end of the storyline before declaring whether or not something is to their liking or not. And then it's often hard to tell what they think.
But, has anyone asked Meggan if she want to return? I wouldn't want to show up in Birmingham with what's happening there.
With New Warriors ending, is there now a greater chance that Chamber...sorry I mean Decibel...might show up in Cap?
I guess it's funny to me that you've managed to take a character I strongly disliked (when it seemed that Ellis' version was just a Constantine knock-off) and make him a worthy protagonist, even if he isn't still completely likable.
Ellis is great. Anyone who hasn't read nextwave should go read Nextwave.
I hadn't been a fan of Pete before he was written by Paul. I always resented that the comic I wanted to be about Captain Britain was instead about this jerk in a wrinkled suit. A cigarette and a bad attitude. I get it. Where's the stubble and trenchcoat? The 90's called, they want their stereotypical gritty character back.
Now I'm a fan. I like where he's at now. But it doesn't hurt that he's now the supporting character in the book about Captain Britain, like many other background government dudes in CB's past.
Just a quick followup on that post, here's one of those UK secret agent type dudes in the Captain's past:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/gabrielrcx.htm
That site's so comprehensive, I had to give it a plug.
Wonder what Gabriel's up to these days...
Great to see her back. Will have to pick this up.
I swear sir I think you guys should scrap the comic (well not really because I love it) and make this a live action series...love it.
I've asked Meggan, and she says yeah. But she would. I think this works as best as the Brian & Pete show, and I'm looking forward to showing them doing mate-type things soon. In a pub, I should think. I'd love to bring this to telly, but can you imagine the budget?
Hey,
I finally got my copies of MI13 issues 4 and 5 - no thanks to Royal Mail having lost one package of comics, which was sent my way earlier in the month.
Anyway just read issue 4 and 5 back to back, which was kind of naughty of me. I should really have been writing updates for my website and working on my own comic which feels like its coming along great guns, but have a gut feeling a few things need to be changed before am completely happy. I started and got first 8 pages scripted, then read through it didn't like it and started again. Not the most logical way to work through it hey?
Back to MI13. I was quite happy with how issue 4 ended. I think it was time for john to die. I mean his smart arse remarks were always going to get him killed by such an uncompromising foe anyway - so that made sense to me. Though I did like the character.
Issue fives ending was a bit of a shock, but only because i've been deliberately been avoiding reading to many spoilers here. That said though it rings very true of Blades Character to lash out fast and hard and not waste time. I only hope that Stingray comes back in issue five, because I like her, and I really feel that she should feel compelled to teach blade a lesson in bloody mannors.
I'm reet upset I am. Sorry slipping into a bit of a yorkshire thing there, or listening to to much reet petite heheh. Mr Cornell you hurt Stingray, I'm terribly upset now.
Who's Stingray?
Oops I meant spitfire lol. Sorry about that. Stringray was on the TV while I was writing lol.
Hey Ian, glad that my wordy faraway influence got you to pick up Wisdom, I'm sure you'll like it. But please reconsider getting at the very least Alan Moore's Captain Britain trade at some point down the line. You're missing out if you don't!
Brian and Pete getting equal time is fine by me and I'm preaching the gospel. At my LCS last week I was grilling everybody. "Do you read Captain Britain? If not, why not? Yes, I am a huge pain in the ass, thank you very much. Buy the book or I'll kill you."
Meggan would absolutely want to be wherever Brian is, no matter where or what. She has a passion for Brian that as a kid read like special grownup love, but as an adult it can strike a bit like scary codependant lunacy. We project on fiction from our own experiences, they say.
I know this is a few weeks ago now, but I'd just like to say thanks Paul for being a great panellist at the Lass, and taking time out to chat with me during the day. Cheers!
Thanks Adam, and all.
Is this story going to be set exclusively in Hodge Hill? Or are you going to move out into other parts of Birmingham?
We're staying on that estate, and into other dimensions.
I think the character of Meggan would be a huge addition to the current books team. She was always under developed in the original series and was just getting interesting by the end. Her powers were more magic than mutant, and this would fit the current scheme of fighting the forces of darkness. What do you think?