I’m sad to read about the death of Majel Barrett Roddenberry on the BBC site this morning. Majel, aged 76, was suffering from leukaemia. She spanned every decade of the iconic science fiction series Star Trek, appearing in the very first pilot The Cage as the dark-haired and logical Number One, but the mid-60s studios [...]
Continue reading...19. December 2008
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No, this isn’t the tale of the young heiress to the rubber washing-up gloves fortune but a children’s tale which appeared in Treasure. Steve Holland has been not only looking into these children’s fantasy/fairy tales but has braved microphones and towels over his head (was he hiding from a Ravenous Buglatter Beast?) to put together [...]
Continue reading...19. December 2008
Today’s Best of the Year comes from a good friend of the blog, a writer who I think has shared his faves with us several times now (a Best of the Year without him just wouldn’t be right) and one of the busiest scribes in comics, Mike Carey. Mike has created a diverse array of [...]
Continue reading...19. December 2008
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Anthropomorphism In Action Volume 4 by Howard Hardiman Cute But Sad Comics The main reason I had for picking this up is to see the latest episodes in the life of Badger. I reviewed the collected Badger a little while back and really did find it to be one of the sweetest things I’d read [...]
Continue reading...18. December 2008
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The last Thursday before Christmas falls upon us and Alex is here to update us on the various shows and podcasts he’s involved with; as ever for more links and details check the (newly revamped) Panel Borders site: Strip: Images of Masculinity in gay comics, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM Concluding gay comics month [...]
Continue reading...18. December 2008
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Over on ComicBitsOnline Terry Hooper is asking if anyone can help with scans of some British small press comics from the 1960s and 70s, including some with some fantastic titles such as Wank Fodder Witticisms. My gods, I’m pleased to get a legitimate excuse to write Wank Fodder Witticisms. Yes, I am easily amused, but [...]
Continue reading...18. December 2008
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For today’s Best of the Year we’re taking a more European view as Eva Baillie from the Glasgow Goethe Institut (if you’re not familiar with them, the Goethe Institut promotes German language, learning and culture around the world) talks us through the work of one of her favourite German comics creators, Andreas Michalke: Smalltown Boy, [...]
Continue reading...18. December 2008
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What sort of sick and twisted individual would turn dear old Santa Claus into a brain-munching, shambling, undead zombie? That’ll be that terrible influence on the impressionable mind that is Neill Cameron, a regular corruptor of youth with his MoBot High strip in the DFC. Neill’s trying to post a different Santa each day on [...]
Continue reading...17. December 2008
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Scottish actor Robert Carlyle has been signed to appear in the new Stargate series, Stargate Universe, the third series to be spun off from the original movie after the incredibly popular SG-1 and the later Atlantis. The Trainspotting star and former Bond villain will play Doctor David Rush, who leads a team of soldiers, scientists [...]
Continue reading...17. December 2008
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A day late due to illness but well worth waiting for; it’s all happening now as Darryl moves Super-Sam’s tale towards a dramatic climax with this double helping. Time is running out, decisions will need to be made, urgent course of action followed… But in their haste and pain will our heroes make the right [...]
Continue reading...17. December 2008
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Derek The Sheep by Gary Northfield Bloomsbury Children’s Books When it was published in the Beano, Derek The Sheep was the first creator owned strip to ever appear in that institution of British comicdom. This collection of thirteen of those Beano strips has already had a French release as Norbert Le Mouton and was released [...]
Continue reading...17. December 2008
When I blogged about the recent Cartoon Art Trust Awards ceremony (see here), I realised that what irked me, really irked me, was that the ceremony itself was a kind of metaphor for cartooning. It was largely an anonymous affair, of interest only to those already interested in cartoons. In fact I only discovered the [...]
Continue reading...17. December 2008
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Today’s Best of the Year picks come courtesy of internationally best-selling author Ian Rankin, creator of the incredibly popular Inspector Rebus detective novels set in and around Edinburgh (incidentally he picked the name Rebus from the title of a word puzzle on the funny pages of D.C. Thomson’s Sunday Post, the same section that hosts [...]
Continue reading...16. December 2008
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IO9 has their pick of the top ten worst science fiction remake movies and there certainly are some serious clunkers on there (from the awful and pointless reworking of the Stepford Wives to a Turkish Star Wars rip-off to those who should know better – yes, Tim Burton, we’re looking at you and making chimp [...]
Continue reading...16. December 2008
Ah yes, it is that time of the year when we look back on the past 12 months and reminisce what went and stayed. We put another log on the fire, pour another glass, and start compiling our lists. Because that’s what we men are good at, compiling lists (I’m sure many women make lists [...]
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19. December 2008
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