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The Twelve Blogs of Christmas: Three
Ten Things for Christmas.
Batman and Robin #18 and Soldier Zero #3 are both in US comic stores today. You can find a three page preview of the former here. Meet The Absence! I'm interviewed at Thought Bubble by the Sidekickcast here. And I should say how proud I am that Action Comics netted IGN's Best Series Revamp in their Best of 2010.
I thought it only fitting in the Twelve Blogs this year to include our regular Ten Things feature. But first up, look who's back! It's Laurie Pink's Paul and Mike!
So, to the Ten!
1: Our favourite electronica outfit Golau Glau have a festive offering out now, in the form of a free EP Myrrh & Myth. You can hear the haunting 'Oak Moon' here. That's one of my favourite seasonal flavours, dark and brooding, but somehow warm at the same time.
2: Emerald Isle is a fanzine featuring 2000AD characters like Sinister Dexter, Judge Joyce and Harlem Heroes in Ireland, put together by tons of Irish writer and artist talent. It costs £3 plus postage, and the print run is limited to 100. Go on, treat yourself!
2: Emerald Isle is a fanzine featuring 2000AD characters like Sinister Dexter, Judge Joyce and Harlem Heroes in Ireland, put together by tons of Irish writer and artist talent. It costs £3 plus postage, and the print run is limited to 100. Go on, treat yourself!
3: I may have mentioned that I've got a story in the forthcoming Wild Cards anthology edited by George R.R. Martin, which is out next year. The very first volume in the series, Wild Cards I, has just been reissued, and is in all good book shops now, with added new stories from David Levine, Michael Cassutt and Carrie Vaughn.
Wild Cards was the first 'real world superheroes' shared world, and this is very much the right place to get onboard.
4: Tomorrow Revisited by Alastair Crompton is a new book about Frank Hampson and the creation of Dan Dare, and it's accompanied by this exhibition of Hampson's art from the strip at the Chris Beetles Art Gallery in London, which runs until January 8th. I'm a huge fan of Hampson, and will definitely be going along.
5: My friend Christopher Jones gave Scott McDaniel an art assist on this issue of Batman and Robin, and offers us this, in an entirely different vein. You can find more of his art here.
6: There Goes the Day is a range of t-shirts, clothing, mugs, etc., designed by a friend of mine, with 'the discerning pop culture/action genre fan' in mind. Do take a look.
7: The lovely Piers Beckley is producing The Just So Stories at the King's Head Theatre in London, suitable for everyone over the age of five. It runs until January 3rd. Do tell him I said hello.
8: December Lights is an online short story project, with a range of authors putting up Christmas-themed fiction, for free. It all seems very charming and festive. They promise happy endings!
9: Talented UK comicker Neil Cameron is drawing A Santa a Day in a range of different styles, until Christmas. I particularly like the Kirbyesque one. And today's, I'm told, is going to be akin to Davros.
10: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards are a new award scheme, designed to reward works of speculative fiction translated into English from foreign languages. They aim to raise enough money to present cash prizes to the first winners in two categories, long and short form, next year. You can read more about them here and about the items they've been given, which they intend to pass on to randomly selected donors as an incentive here. It's a very good cause to bung a few quid in the direction of, encouraging as it does the work of translators and of authors working in languages other than English.
Tomorrow I'll be back with an essay, and hopefully some more interesting things to share. Ho ho ho and Cheerio!
Labels:
2000AD,
Action Comics,
Batman and Robin,
Dan Dare,
Doctor Who,
George R.R. Martin,
Laurie Pink,
soldier zero,
Wild Cards
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Does that means they are re-relasing all the Wild Cards books? I've got the first 6 from WAY back and would love to get the rest.
Like the look and sound of the George R.R. Martin book. Seen a bit of his stuff but often been put off by not knowing where to jump on. So I'm probably going to try and get that book once have read the current pile I have.
BTW here's our list of Christmas gift ideas. I've included you picks. Only for the Bond game I was unsure on if you meant the new updated version of Goldeneye for the Wii or James Bond Bloodstone on PC, PS3 and X-Box 360. So I put you down for both:)
I'm going to keep this sticky'd til Saturday.
http://scifipulse.net/?p=38109
Paul and Mike, hurray! I've missed their pastel cat-and-rabbit antics.
That Ten/Eleven pic is hilarious!
I LOVE The Absence. :) Just read B&R 18 and think it's just great. I have to say that I love how you've created a female villain who seems REAL to me. I don't know if men overthink and analyze again and again in the same way as women do when the object of their affection loses interest in them, but you're really good at tapping into things that are specifically female without glorifying them or villifying them. I read this and actually RELATED to Absence just wanting Bruce to acknowledge that HE MISSED HER. I thought, "Wow. I've totally fantasized about doing stuff like this to several people, but never had a gaping hole in my head that made me smart enough to do it!" :)
Seriously, though, great work. She's a great antagonist in that I'm sort of rooting for her too.
One thing: what is it with you and oversized utensils and tools? You give Gorilla Grodd a big-ass spoon, you give Absence a big-ass pair of scissors...? ;)
Simon: I think that's the plan, depending on sales of this first one. Ian: I was after Blood Stone. Brian: me too! Ter: thanks, that's the reaction I was after. I'm boggled that some forum-ites have seen it as 'silver age hijinks'. How much more bloodthirsty do I have to get?
Thanks Paul: I put down both. But the main one have put is Bloodstone anyway:)
I've asked for it for Christmas because have fancied it since seeing the advert. So if you get it too. Perhaps we can trade notes:)
Didn't get to review Soldier Zero, but I DID get to Batman & Robin. Here it is!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/best-shots-rapid-reviews-101216.html
I also review Amazing Spider-Man and The Unwritten, for those who are interested. :)
Thank you for that, you really get it!
Paul, thankd very much for the mention of Emerald Isle, you have fair increased my traffic.
Cheers, have a Baileys and Brandy on me, Merry Christmas!
Glad to be of service!
Oh, I loved those Wild Cards books, there was even a comics version, wasn't there? I'll have to check out the newer stuff.
Batman & Robin #18? What Teresa said, fantastic. Here's my blether on the subject:
http://dangermart.blogspot.com/2010/12/batman-and-robin-18-review.html
There was indeed a comic too. Thanks for that review, much appreciated!
I'm a bit sorry to see Teresa's comment up there saying that she thinks Absence is a "real" female villain. She's actually quite stereotypical and I'm unimpressed by her portrayal. From the beginning, it is suggested that her success in business comes from her ability to act "like a man," and that her doing so means that nobody mourns at her funeral. With no one to call her out on the fact that her villainy is solely motivated by her desperation, she's just another psychotic chick moaning "why didn't he CALL ME?" There are plenty of characters like that in fiction who don't turn into villains; we really could have used a better motivation for this one.
I was also heartily dismayed by your misuse of the word "mansplain." The word refers to a tendency by some men to dictate women's experiences and motivations to them. In this issue, Batman is attempting to inform Uma of something she couldn't have known. I'm very afraid that if comic fans learn your definition for this word, they'll further dismiss women who call them out for actual mansplaining.
I'm a big fan of your work, but this character in particular is very disheartening.
I'm really sorry to hear that. I feel that I've let you down. I would ask, because there's a big revelation about the character coming in the last issue, that you reserve judgement until you've seen, as the title, puts it, the sum of her parts. All is not what it seems, not by a long way. The main focus of your complaint is about to turn out not to be the case(although the whole bait and switch of the story is to suggest that it is). And I would say that you're assigning, slightly, the sexism of the world Una inhabits (or rather how that society has warped her perception of it post trauma) to me. (I don't think a woman has to act like a man to be successful in business, but it's a sexist perception that Una will surely have encountered, or, more likely, that pushes at her unconsciously. I think any of us would be disappointed, even horrified by, our own funerals.) But in the end a character is what she is on paper, not what a writer says about her. I've seen so many instances, this year, of Roger Zelazny's point that all kinds of institutional 'isms' are continued by people with the best intentions, and it'd be ironic if I'd now joined their ranks. As I wrote in the pitch document for the story, featuring a villain who initially *appears* to be 'gynophobia made flesh', all that sexist men fear, runs the risk of making the creator either appear to be, or actually be, sexist himself. This may be the case. I'd appreciate it if you'd get back to me after you've read the third issue. If you're still angry, then I have indeed failed, and will learn from that. As for 'mansplain', I have heard it, particularly on Twitter, used in a wider context than that. I suspect that word may be out in the wild and evolving, but otherwise, sorry, guilty as chaged.