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Richard III Returns
Today in the USA, Thursday in the UK, sees the return of England's best ever King, Richard III, in the pages of Knight and Squire #3. It's been a well known fact for quite a few years now that Richard, despite being portrayed by Shakespeare as a scheming, secretive villain, was actually lovely. So it's a great pleasure for me and artist Jimmy Broxton to bring you 22 pages of him being kind to small children, generous to the poor, and the very model of politeness to our heroes. You can see five pages of this genteel banter here. No, there's no villain in the story, why do you ask? There's no particular battle with anyone. Nor is there an attempt to take over the country by five of Britain's most fiendish cloned superpowered former monarchs by means of social networking. Really.
It's my favourite issue of anything I've written, ever.
I'm interviewed for the latest Word Balloon Podcast about all aspects of my career.
And SF Signal kindly asked me to contribute to their Mind Meld feature about the best SF movies of the last decade. I really must get that biography updated, though.
Until next time, Cheerio!
Labels:
Knight and Squire,
Mind Meld,
Richard III,
SF Signal,
Word Balloon
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Enjoyed the Mind Meld piece. Great choices. I've been meaning to check out Mamoru Oshii for a while so will do so now.
Am I the only person who thinks this year's REPO MEN was a great SF film? Briliant black comedy, the funniest SF movie since Robo Cop.
I've read the preview and he describes the constitution as unwritten which isn't strictly true.
The consituttion is uncodified, which means it isn't collected into one document but that doesn't mean that is it an unwritten constitution and there are many documents that make up the consitution i.e. the magna carter.
Thanks, Philip. Haven't seen Repo Men yet. And thanks for pointing that out, Gareth, but now I'll have to go and find every copy and correct them with a magic marker!
To the editor:
The continued publication of a serial pamphlet – yes, a 'comic book' – named Knight and Squire is a cause for some alarm. Whatever happened to moderation and civility?
The very beginning of the series is a set of exchanges in gutter argot that I am informed is quite filthy, and certainly not suitable for the intended audience of a comic book: children. Nevertheless, I myself had no idea what these words meant, and I am willing to posit that Mr. Paul Cornell did not either, but rather just repeated some words half-heard on the street without understanding them. Still, one should be more careful.
Get past that, however, and what does one see? 'Super-heroes' lifting a pint with the worst element of society, its 'super-villains'! And the entire conflict of the story hinges on how bad it is that the truce between these necessarily opposing sides has been breached! What are our young readers being told? That the distinction between good and evil is not important, or, worse, that it should be made unimportant? Moral relativism, however trendy, is not the answer, Mr. Cornell. Find yourself a church! And someone to explain what's being said in an environment as apparently foreign to you as that one.
And as the series continues we go on to a tract about the evils of morris dance and then a story about genetically reconstituted monarchy! (I imagine some sort of word play was intended.) Yes, I know, these are fashionable topics these days, and introducing them must mean nothing to jaded cosmopolitans like Mr. Cornell, with their easy talk of 'cheese rolling' and 'scrumpy'. Surely, though, this is grim stuff to present to children. Isn't it enough that this sort of reading material these days routinely talks about drug addiction and fatal disease?
And there we come down to the real flaw of this series, its relentless lack of humour. Everything is deadly serious to this Mr. Cornell, isn't it? From the class divisions implied by the origins of 'Squire' (who seems to share Tim Roth's 'super-power') to the depressing omnipresence of 'super-villains', and the grinding hopelessness of constantly opposing them, knowing others will always spring up. And this is a 'comic' book! Where are the talking monkeys so guaranteed to raise a laugh from a young child? Oh, here's one, but he's a villain, too!
Besides, morris dance and genetic engineered villains? These are absurd notions, aren't they, despite the play they get in the popular press. Really, if you need villains, why not The Genetically Modified Food Man?
Yours respectfully,
Richard Plantagenet
Maddy Pryor
Tim Hart
Peter Knight
Bob Johnson
Rick Kemp
(others)
Hi Paul!
Just wanted to say #3 was absolutely hilarious!
Had a total blast reading it - was a perfect meld of 60's Batman (both comic and show) and The Goodies.
(Which took me back to being a kid, as both were constantly repeated on Australian TV in the 80's).
I thought you'd done your best work earlier in the month with the Action Comics Annual, but just a week later, you topped yourself with this one!
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Ben.
Brian: I can only concur. We live in sad times. Ben: thanks very much!
You know. Given that I am still waiting for the first three issues and haven't read it yet.
I can't really make the crack about Richard The III looking kind of like Richard Burton.
Oh well...
On the up side Paul. If you Twitter is anything to go by. You got to write about two Dicks this month. Granted the other is an evil secret agent by name of Richard The III.
Muaahhahahahahhah.
Unlike Ian,I pictured Richard III as Peter Cooke from the first Blackadder series.
Also unlike, SFI, I've got all the issues.
If he's a good boy, I may send him my copies once I get the (hopefully) inevitable trade paperback collecing the series.
:o)
Glad you two have found a way to cooperate!
No worries. Ian's a pal. What's mine is his. IF he pays the postage!
I laughed out loud at the cidermen..
I don't do that...
Hi there Claude from Fan Central lol.
Fancy seeing you around here.
Paul this will make you laugh. Claude and I only clicked that we were both posting here last week when I was hanging out on a friends live podcast kind of doing my thing.
BTW Claude with any luck I will have all of Knight and Squire as well as all of action comics in the next couple of weeks. Though the postage is rubbish at the moment. So fingers and toes crossed.
Thanks for offer anyhow.
BTW Paul: I have seen Repo Men. Pretty good movie. I'll not say no more though. Don't want to run the risk of spoiling it for you.
Thanks, everyone!
You sir, are a geek god. Or at least a Geek Saint.
I can't get the idea that Knight sounds like Graybags or that Squire is actually Tim in a wig and skirt out of my head now.
Also, the Cydermen? My laugh got me strange looks on the train coming home from Brisbane.
Thank you! We have a small but loyal following!