DFC Friday- Issue 39

Latest issue of the DFC dropped through the letter box yesterday: yellow and red envelope promising great things as always. However, I've had very little time to look through it so far today, as things have been busy, busy, busy today.

However I did get chance to flick through and read our favourites, which luckily happen to be the quickies. As usual they're all looking great; Lil' Cutie, Bodkin and the Bear, Sausage and Carrots all excellent. Julian Hanshaw's Chicken Caesar Jnr begins to get really interesting, not going for the immediate gag, not going for cute, but trying something far harder; somewhere in-between. So the entire page, of the clumsy chef's son trying to help dad by putting the cherry on the top of the world's biggest trifle, is all about the final panel which doesn't go for the obvious gag but bravely cuts away to a reaction shot after the fact. It's very well done indeed.

Finally a mention about Sarah McIntyre's Vern and Lettuce. Still a favourite for many reasons. But one of the reasons is because it looks nothing like anything else in the comic, with those lush yet muted colours always looking so lovely. And this episode you really notice it with the device of putting a newspaper behind the strip yet having it poke through;



And to think this was meant to be a quick post between getting some stuff sorted.

DFC as usual is available from the website

A bunch of bankers.

Found floating around the Internet (okay, it was from Guido). Obviously not real, but a perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with the situation: £693,000 per year. From the age of 50. £13327 per week. £79 per hour. Well that doesn't stick in the craw at all.

My favourite moment of it all so far: Peter Mandelson (noted beacon of all things good and righteous) on camera saying that Fred Goodwin should "do the right thing". Much spluttering into coffee and shouting at television followed.

Despite it probably being impossible I'd love to see the government just tell Goodwin to naff off, give him a state pension from 65 and tell him to sue. But instead I fear this unrecognisable Labour government will limp along, haemorrhaging support from lifelong Labour supporters like me until the next general election. Louise already has a bet on with me that Cameron's lot will get in (normal house bet rules: takeout as prize). And right now I feel like just admitting defeat here and buying takeout tonight as her winnings.

New U2 album - joint listening in Bruton mansions

Downloaded the U2 album - Louise being a big fan and all. So it's been on over the weekend along with the big love fest on the BBC. Louise is enjoying it and I'm grudgingly thinking a couple of the tracks aren't bad at all. And there's the fun game of trying to name the U2 song from the past that they've ripped off on many of the tracks. Our favourite is Magnificent where we think we've spotted three different songs in the new one.

The one thing we can't work out is why they're so aggresively promoting it. Louise summed it up by saying that the U2 of a few years ago wouldn't have been on Jonathan Ross and the rest. Now, is it a lack of confidence in the album or just the reverse; a feeling of intense pride?

PROPAGANDA @ FPI blog: Graphic Classics - Ambrose Bierce

Who?
Yep, that's what I thought. But despite that I actually rather enjoyed it.

Graphic Classics - Ambrose Bierce.

And now I really am exhausted....

Remember just a few hours ago when I said I was off to bed?
I lied.
Obviously.
More exhaustion tomorrow no doubt.

Just sat up and spent ages continuing with the website transfer. The good news is they take it down for maintainance every night at 1am - so that forces me to stop.

And now I am going to bed. No, really.

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: Twilight Zone

Latest review up at the FPI blog (which was 4 yesterday - happy birthday to it.)

Twilight Zone graphic novels.

But then I sat down and read one. Then another, and another, and another. And you know what? They’re not bad at all, rather entertaining page turners in fact.

Tired, death-like state - didn't I just have a holiday?

Dear all, Richard wants a new body. This current one is far too old, far too decrepit, far too bloody tired.
Especially when one thinks that I've only been back at work for three days. Got in tonight and just physically collapsed into the sofa. Not a good sign at all. Ill or just in need of sleep? Going to bed.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Essential Dykes To Watch Out For

The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For

by Alison Bechdel

published by Random House.

When Fun Home was released to near universal acclaim a few years ago it was easy to overlook that Alison Bechdel had been diligently working away on Dykes To Watch Out For since 1983. Not quite the overnight sensation many had her down as really. Unfortunately, after 25 years of a twice monthly comic strip Bechdel has decided to put Dykes To Watch Out For on hold. Whether it’s a temporary sabbatical while she works on another graphic memoir, a thematic follow up to Fun Home, or whether it’s a permanent end to this much loved strip isn’t sure and it sounds like even Bechdel isn’t sure about the future of the strip.

So the timing of this wonderful collection couldn’t really be better, collecting the majority of the 527 strips (74% of the total according to a post on Bechdel’s blog) including the final couple of hundred, uncollected until now. Personally, I really would like to see her revisit these wonderful characters. Having seen them grow up on the page it seems a terrible shame to not see them grow old as well. I hope Bechdel returns to Dykes. Because I know I’d be returning as well.

(Alison Bechdel demonstrates just how many Dykes To Watch Out For makes up an Essential collection. Via Bechdel’s Flickr stream.)

Dykes is / was Bechdel’s masterpiece of relationship comedy where incredibly compelling and involving tales followed the lives and loves of a disparate group of (mostly) lesbian and gay friends. I first discovered it many years ago, as a blessed refuge from the comics of the day when I would find myself complaining long and loud to anyone who would listen that there just wasn’t anything in comics that even went halfway towards mainstream (real mainstream) acceptance. Where was the comic equivalent of a pure serialised drama and soap opera, so popular in the real mainstream but nowhere to be seen in comics?

Not coincidentally as I found myself drifting away from the comics I’d read as a teen, I gravitated towards the growing autobiographical scene best exemplified by Chester Brown, Joe Matt, Seth and many others in the late 80s, early 90s. From here it was but a short stroll into lesbian and gay comics and suddenly I realised that the mainstream soap operas I’d always wanted to see were here all along. They were just hidden behind the counter(culture). Books like Leonard & Larry, Howard Cruse’s beautifully moving Stuck Rubber Baby and Andy Mangel’s excellent Gay Comics anthology became required reading. In all of these incredibly good gay and lesbian comics the comparisons with the soap operas are everywhere. Strong, disparate casts of characters. Everyday events unfolding across the course of many episodes, mostly dealing with the lives and loves of the characters in all shapes and sizes. That the comics tend to set their characters into a rather harsher world of prejudice and hatred didn’t disguise the fact that these were deeply personal stories, usually with a healthy dose of funny in there as well.

(From Bechdel’s 12 page introduction strip in the Essential Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. Published Jonathan Cape)

Such is the case with Bechdel’s Dykes. I never managed to religiously follow it when I got into it around 1991, catching the odd book here and there. So actually sitting down open the book properly over Christmas with the time to properly follow these characters lives over a virtually real time 25 years is a great pleasure.

It starts with a personal introduction from Bechdel, where the lightweight, laugh aloud funny and self mocking realisation of “Good God. ….. I forgot to get a job” from Bechdel followed by an exploration of her early years and the way she rather fell into both cartooning and Dykes To Watch Out For back in ‘83 is knowing and funny, really funny.

Of course, Bechdel is also a thinker, and the questions to the reader start early on in this introduction. If her Dykes is an expression of Lesbian reality rather than Lesbian ideals, of a group of people first and foremost, then what does it mean when, over the years, her Dykes have gone on to become idealised examples of their own. Choking on her own realisation at the end of her introduction, she asks the reader:

“Have I churned out episodes of this comic strip every two weeks for decades merely to prove that we’re the same as everyone else? Here. You decide. Essentially the same? Or essentially different?”

(Essentially the same or essentially different? More from the introduction to the Essential Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel)

It’s a moot question really. Her Dykes are certainly part of a mainstream, just through their longevity and ubiquity but they also exist outside of the mainstream of the redtop newspaper reading, soap opera viewing, top 40 listening populous. The trick is to realise that there are many different mainstreams now; society has fractured, expanded and grown along with Bechdels Dykes. We’re the better for it and so are they, since we’re all now essentially the same and essentially different.

On reading this over the last few weeks - definitely the best way to read the Essential Dykes, small and regular chunks means a continuous development and no chance of overdosing - it’s amazing how quickly Bechdel settled into the strip and introduced us to her cast of characters that would be around for the next 25 years. Her main protagonist, and the glue that bonds all of it together is Mo; neurotic feminist book clerk, desperate for love, yet terrified of failing in love and far too idealistic and committed for her own good.

(Breathe in, breathe out. Mo really ought to learn to calm down. A Dykes strip from 1987 collected in Essential Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel.)

So Mo becomes the perfect foil for Bechdel to set everything around, and as she grows up along with her diverse and eclectic groups of friends we see the Lesbian and Gay movement grow alongside her. The once young, idealistic Mo gradually finds herself part of an accepted mainstream. It’s something that takes place slowly, furtively and it’s as shocking for Mo to discover that she’s suddenly part of the mainstream as one imagines from the introduction that Bechdel herself felt.

The very clever thing about Dykes is that it’s an overtly political and socially aware comic strip that rarely feels preachy. Every other sentiment is in there, from deep joy, happiness, contentment, ennui, sadness, despair and much more. But never preachiness. And despite it’s lightness of tone, it continually manages to cast a serious light on the issues of the day; whether it’s the onset of A.I.D.S., Bush Snr. & the first Gulf War, environmental concerns, the mounting threat of a rising conservative, republican, far right religious fanaticism in the US or any other topic from the last quarter century with any weight. And to the backdrop of all activism and awareness this we see out Dykes slowly grow older, taking on both the responsibilities of age and an increasing adoption of all aspects of mainstream culture. The idealism of youth is washed away by passing years and our Dykes suddenly find themselves as part of the next generation; turning from idealistic protest marchers to career women, from active singles to committed couples and onwards towards marriages, breakups and children.

(Mo reaches that point in her life where she’s suddenly not so young and radical. Although it may be a while before she notices. From a 2006 strip in The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For.)

Children, along with the long-term relationships that went with them changed the dynamic of Dykes To Watch Out For. And did so for the better. The real surprise when Bechdel does relax about a third of the way in is how sentimental she manages to be. Of course, (nearly) every page has it’s kicker of a punchline still, but there’s a mellowing with age, both Bechdel’s and her Dykes. And since everything in Dykes happens not quite in real time but near enough, the passage of time is obvious and welcome as the friends you’ve been reading about all these years are growing older, if not necessarily wiser alongside yourself. Certainly if you’re of an age where you did the majority of your growing up at some point during the last 25 years you’ll identify with so much of what goes on here. Whether it’s reliving the events and attitudes of the day or just relishing the nostalgia of pop culture and fashion reading through Dykes should have you continually catching little things away from the main narrative. And that’s all part of it’s impressive charm.

(Everyday life, in all it’s many and varied forms. Essential Dykes To Watch Out For from 2007.)

With anything like this, serialised and collected newspaper strips, it’s not one to be read in one go. That way lies stagnation and madness. Best to settle down over a few nights and let this magnificent saga unfold gradually. Dykes To Watch Out, just like the quarter century of life it captures, is best enjoyed slowly as the expanding lives of the characters are allowed to unfurl before you. One thing you should notice, partaking of the book this way is the continual evolution and refinement of Bechdel’s art. Just looking at the three examples of artwork from Dykes in this review shows the great changes Bechdel made over the course of the story, yet the style, the substance is still essentially the same. As with her art, so with her story, so with our lives. Essentially the same and essentially different.

I could go on and on about it, picking out this great page or that great page, but all you really need to know is just how wonderfully good it all is. It’s a wonderful gag strip, a great political strip and a perfect social strip. But best of all, you find yourself caring for the characters, sharing every emotion and realising that at the core of it all is a solid sense of values; friendship, family, social responsibility and making a difference in the world however you can. In fact it may well be the perfect soap opera comic. And I say that as a fine compliment in a medium where genuinely dramatic, genuinely funny and genuinely real characters and stories are hard to find, yet Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For is overwhelmed with them.

To end on, here’s a single illo Bechdel did for Christmas 2008 after beginning her sabbatical that gives us all hope that this isn’t the end of our favourite Dykes. Of the piece she says: “I’m finally starting to miss my DTWOF characters a little bit. I checked in to see what they were up to today, and got this skimpy glimpse.”

Richard Bruton.

Website, website, website, website. Oh god it's neverending....

I have the old school website which needs transferring to the new school website. I've done the majority of the school information stuff and have to get all of the pupil pages moved over now. What I thought would be a relatively easy job is now proving to be a bit of a nightmare. I sat down yesterday and worked out page templates and tonight finally got around to starting the job. Three hours to do three pages. Oh hell. There's at least 50 pages to do.

Did I mention there's a deadline as well? The old website expires at the end of March. Oh Damn. Looks like a lot of extra hours in the next month then.

Neil Gaiman on Watchmen July 1987

Fantastic piece of nostalgia journalism before Gaiman became THE Neil Gaiman (Via Lew):

(Click to make it big enough to read).

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: Dragon Heir Volume 1 by Emma Vieceli

Latest Propaganda review at the FPI Blog:

Dragon Heir Volume 1 by Emma Vieceli

"despite the early teething trouble, once Emma has found her voice in the second half of the book, it’s a real page turner to the end."

Back to School, ho hum.....

Back to school after the half term. At least we made it; I met one parent today after school who thought it was a training day and kept their daughter at home - they were mortified to realise.

My day ended rather early as I had a dentist appointment this afternoon - seems my last dentist wasn't really paying attention; either when I told him that my gums looked swollen and had a tendency to bleed or when he had his cursory 6th monthly poke around. New dentist looks at my gums, books me in for intensive cleaning this week and next month and the month after. Seems I'm developing "pockets" where the gums are coming away from the teeth. Intensive cleaning and continual brushing may rectify situation. Okay, maybe not continual brushing, but you get the idea.

Just one more thing to add to my ever increasing list of things that are wrong with me.

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: Drop Dead Monstrous

Latest review is up at the FPI blog:

The Sweatdrop Studios anthology: Drop Dead Monstrous

It’s patchy, all the strips are punchy, truncated things and it has the feel of the artists just throwing their odd little rejected stories onto the anthology pile. Okay, maybe a little harsh, but you know what I mean.

But I did like some of it - click through to find out which.

End of half term post

Tomorrow (Today) marks the last day of half term. Back to school on Monday for Molly and I. Molly's school has finally relented and allowed the girls to wear trousers. But only for winter. Which leads us to the petinent question - when does winter end? (obvious gag in Yorkshire - about 2 weeks before it starts again)

But Molly always goes into summer dresses very early anyway, so we've told her that she can wear the trousers next winter when she's a Year 6. How mean?

The half term's been a lovely relaxing week that seems to have been going on forever. I've done very little actual school work this week, just a little tinkering with the website here and there. But I have managed to get 8 reviews done in just 6 days, which is fantastic work. (Of course, they may be complete rubbish) Oh, there's still a hefty chunk of books left on the review shelf but I can see a time when I'm actually back on top of it fairly soon.

Of course, back to school, back to work, back to being exhausted of an evening and being hugely unproductive await. That might put a dent in the plans.

I miss the old style tuning on televisions....

We've had a really temperamental TV for a long time, with a dodgy power supply which meant it would turn itself off and refuse to come out of standby whenever it deemed fit (usually when I'm watching Battlestar Galactica - I swear it hated me.)

Well yesterday night it turned itself off for good and went to the great big tele heaven in the sky. Luckily we knew this was going to happen and had already got the new one picked out. Ordered at 10 this morning from the local electrical store, delivered and installed at 2 this afternoon and I finally got around to actually sitting down to watch it at 11 this evening. Nice flatscreen thing.

Why, oh why, oh why do these new TVs have so many settings and choices. It's taken me 5 hours to get the picture and sound just right. I remember the first TV I ever owned, this white Ferguson portable TV with 4 settings; volume, brightness, contrast and colour. That was it. No choice at all, take what you're given and cope. Those were the days. This new one has hundreds of settings, all affecting the other settings. I miss the simplicity.

But now that it is set, I'm leaving it alone for a month, Louise has banned me from messing with the settings and may hide the remote if I even try.

PROPAGANDA reviews; The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1-3

The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. Issues 1-3

by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

Dark Horse Comics

I’ve read the first issues of Dark Avengers and Incognito in the last few days and they’ve been okay and good in that order. But Umbrella Academy Dallas #1 is exactly what a first issue should be. It’s practically perfect: introduces the storyline, throws out more questions than it does answers, energises the reader with a desire to read more and makes it a pure delight to close the comic with that final page.

I loved the first book Umbrella Academy: The Apocalypse Suite (review)- it made me feel like I was reading a classic grant Morrison Doom Patrol story, which, as anyone who knows me will testify, is a compliment of the highest order. And on finishing the first issue of the current series I had exactly the same feeling. It really isn’t fair that Gerard Way can do this; he has no right to be such a good writer and a talented and successful musician as well. Next I’ll find out he’s actually a really nice bloke and my misery shall be complete.

Umbrella Academy ticks all the right boxes for me; it’s quirky as anything, yet never so much that it sits wrongly, action packed yet tongue firmly in cheek. It has an action packed lead off issue, but there’s still time to properly re-introduce us to the characters we last saw in The Apocalypse Suite. We learn that they’ve moved on but the questions stack up as we meet them. And unlike Dark Avengers, where the speed and unresolved questions merely grated, here with the Umbrella Academy, those unresolved questions and the relative speed of the book just don’t matter since the experience of reading it is just such a blast.

Halfway through there’s a fight scene that I read and immediately thought of the phrase “orchestra of violence” to describe it. It really is that good.

(How’s that for an opening page? Kennedy and the missiles are all going to be back later. From Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba))

In many ways this is the hardest type of review to write. The bad ones are easy, the so-so books are more difficult but easy to analyse. But when faced with a comic that just had me grinning from ear to ear with the fun of it all, how do you really keep a sense of objectivity when writing about it? Easy answer: you don’t. Sometimes a book makes you just want to stand up and shout about it, proclaim it’s greatness to all who will listen and hit those that wont listen until they get so tired of the beating that they give it a try anyway.

Of course, that was just issue 1. Luckily for me, I had issues 2 and 3 to carry on with. Just as good. All the action, all the quirky off beat humour, all the imagination. It’s all there. It’s not super serious, just thoroughly enjoyable and super fun. Much needed super fun.

In all of this gushing praise, I haven’t yet mentioned Gabriel Ba. He’s a perfect artist for this, with his angular Mike Mignola-esque art serving the story so well. He was good with Umbrella Academy, sublime on Casanova and every bit as good again here. I’m also noticing panels and poses that remind me of Paul Grist as well. Not a bad thing at all.

(The Umbrella Academy. No ice cream, but lots of off beat violence and action adventure a plenty to come.)

You want to know the story you say? Okay; Eccentric inventor Sir Reginald Hargeevees adopts seven gifted and powerful children, telling everyone that they will one day save the world. The children grow up and emerge as the Umbrella Academy. One of them went missing in time, another died and one never developed her powers. Eventually they fractured and drifted apart, only coming together again with the death of Hargeeves where they discovered that not only was the powerless sister actually the most powerful of them all, it was her they had to defeat to fulfill their promise of saving the world. The child who went missing arrived back in their midst, unchanged from his 10 year old self, the all powerful sister was crippled, the team left broken and devastated.

Which brings us up to date. They’re all still recovering. Questions still remain: why is Number 5, the perpetual ten year old so skillful with those guns? If the Rumour’s lost her voice what future does she have without powers? Why is the Kraken still investigating a mass murder where the shooter seemed supernaturally accurate with his guns? And will Spaceboy, head long since grafted onto the body of a gorilla, ever stop watching TV, stop eating cookies, get out of the chair and lose a few pounds?

But despite all of this very deliberate weirdness, there’s no point where the silliness takes over. Not even when the two assassins sent through time to convince Number 5 to carry out the hit on Kennedy that he ducked out of a long time ago are called Hazel and Cha-Cha and have day-glo big-head masks on. It actually makes the cartoon violence and stupid dialogue they come out with a little bit more menacing in fact.

(Hazel and Cha-Cha; time travelling assassins in stupid masks. You really wouldn’t want them to be the last things you see. They’re after Number 5 and are busy taking out the rest of the Umbrella Academy to get him.)

There’s three more issues to go. I see us finding out a lot more about the history of Number 5, lots more spirited and orchestrated violence and perhaps even a few more deaths along the way this time.

I really can’t praise it highly enough. It’s lightweight, yet gloriously so, the quirky characters all serve a great adventure series so well. It still reads like the Grant Morrison comics of old and it certainly owes a debt to the storytelling of all of those great early Marvel and DC comics where the weirdness and wackiness was only just held in check by the great action. Seriously, this will be one of the best superhero comics I read all year.

DFC Friday; Issue 38

It's Friday and the red and yellow bundle dropped through the letterbox earlier. This means it's DFC day. For those of you not up to speed on this, the DFC is a subscription only UK children's comic featuring 36 ad free pages of fantastic comics. Comedy, adventure, single gag strips, continuing series. The DFC has the lot.

Issue 38 sees the start of new sci-fi adventure Spectrum Black. Which looks rather like a Ben 10 cartoon but does so in a good way - not appealing to me, but Molly thought it looked good (and that's the point of a children's comic - to actually appeal to children). There's a preview page here to give you a flavour of the thing.

Elsewhere there's another new series starting without the fanfare of Spectrum Black: Chicken Caesar Junior by Julian Hanshaw. A nice enough comedy about the son of the greatest chef in the world. The only Julian Hanshaw I can find online is the winner of the 2008 Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story prize with Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms but I don't think it's him:


(left: Chicken Caesar Jnr by Julian Hanshaw in the DFC. Right: Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms by Julian Hanshaw, winner of the Observer/Cape 2008 prize.)

Update, merely a couple of hours later: It is the same Julian Hanshaw. Just working in a different style. Thanks to Julian for getting in touch with the info. He also writes that he's:
"currently finishing of a Graphic Novel called 'The Art Of Pho' which is set in Ho Chi Minh City and revolves around the food of Vietnam. To be published by Jonathan Cape"
Sounds very good after the incredible promise of Sonic Booms and Sand Dunes.

As for the rest of the comic, by now you should know what we like! Gary Northfield's Lil' Cutie, Sarah McIntyre's Vern & Lettuce, Simone Lia's Sausage & Carrots, James Turner's Super Animal Adventure Squad, Wilbur Dawbarn's Bodkin and the Bear all got big smiles and chuckles from both of us.

No Mirabilis or Mezolith this issue though, hopefully they'll be back soon. But the best news of the week, one that elicited huge cheers from Molly is the return of Jim Medway's Crab Lane Crew in 2 issues time. A very happy girl indeed.

So, that's this week's DFC. Well worth going and getting a subscription don't you think?

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: Sweatdrop Studio's cute lil' animal comics

More reviews of UK Manga studio: Sweatdrop, this time featuring some of the impossibly cute mini comics they put out.

April Fools Day comes early to Marvel Comics? Or just another reason for despair?

Taking the DC Comics model of how to make stupid ideas go a long way if you just make each character a new colour; we seem to have the Incredible Hulk corps. Maybe it's just Loeb and Liefeld recycling stupid ideas they had circa Heroes Reborn, but the redundancy of ideas is just stunning.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The purple Hulk Smash



(via Laura)

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: more Manga reviews: Nimbus Base

Latest Propaganda review:

Nimbus Base # 1

A strange one this, reviewing anorphan issue of a series that never got past #1.

"The nicest bits in Nimbus Base were definitely the in-between bits, where Hannah dropped the story for a little comedy skit or characterisation."

More homework - Rupert Wood and his Merry Men

Today, the plan was to get up, go out shopping, get home, do homework and have lunch, then play games all afternoon. This didn't take into account the small matter of her homework taking ages and ages and ages to get done. Research myths and legends and write about them and then write a story on Robin Hood using the worksheet provided. Having looked at the sheet and realised how much stress we'd be going through if we did it straight off, we both agreed to play it for laughs. So Robin Hood is now Rupert Wood, a slightly crazy person hanging around Sherwood Park in Nottingham, giving fruit to the poor. The poor would rather have cash. meanwhile Mr Thomas E Sherbert and his friend Marion are taking a walk through the park dressed for the fancy dress party they are going to. Mistaken identity gags follow.....

Finally finished it about ten minutes ago. Now having coffee before an afternoon of Disney Trivial Pursuit and marbles (Molly's choice).

And what do I get for my efforts? My great reward for all my help? We're off to see Beverley Hills Chihuahua tonight at 5:30. Oh joy.

Lily Allen redux......

Okay, after the initial post about the Lily Allen album I have to revisit and refresh. A couple of days ago I pointed out that:
You find me a better pop opener this year than the one-two punch of Everyone's At It and The Fear and I shall be amazed. And after that there's at least 5 other good to great songs on the album. Of course that does leave about 5 duds / filler tracks - but that's what the delete key in iTunes is for.

But since then I've been listening to it some more and it's so much better than I gave it credit in those few words:

Tracks 1-7 are all great, especially the aforementioned Everyone's At It and The Fear.

Track 8, the stupid, childish yet surprisingly fun Fuck You has a Carpenters intro and backing that leads into an expletive laden song that is almost unplayable in this household - something like 41 Fuck Yous in 3 minutes 35 in a perfectly sing-a-long style.

Bizarrely track 9: Who'd Have Known is almost exactly the same song as Take That's Shine. I was sat here puzzling over what it reminded me of when Louise popped her head round the door and pointed it out.

It's almost a relief to have track 10 & 11 show a drop in quality (although extra points to Ms Allen for rhyming Suicidal with Creedance Clearwater Revival). But then it's back to one of the best on the album with He Wasn't There, a jazzy, laid back tale of (presumably) parental neglect from old Keith which just rounds it all off so well

PROPGANDA @ the FPI blog: Sweatdrop Studios- Murphy's Law

The first in this run of UK produced Manga from Sweatdrop Studios is up at the FPI blog right now:

Murphy's Law by Faye Yong.

"Murphy’s Law has all of the elements of a good Rom-Com and it nearly, oh so nearly pulls it off. But all the way through I could feel myself almost willing the book to go off in the romantic, sentimental or funny direction it needed to with a little more commitment"

Half Term days out: Malton

Not quite a day out - we had Maths homework to complete first, but today we headed off to Malton for a little trip out. Lunch at a tea shop where I had some lovely Yorkshire Puddings in onion gravy. Except I had to send them back - who knew that traditional onion gravy was made out of the beef sock and still had bits of cow left in it? Oh well.

Took the camera along but didn't get that many shots of Malton, just some of Molly and me in the tea shop, some of the sheep market and some of the gorgeous alleyway of collectible shops we saw...

What a way to start the day: Maths homework....

Molly's, not mine. Normally we do her homework on the day we get it - Thursday. Except last Thursday we were busy and didn't get around to it, so with visitors over the weekend, this is the first time we get to do it.

There's a pattern to homework in our house. Reconvene from lounge to kitchen table. Lay out required paper and writing materials on table, look at maths homework, complain loudly and bitterly, at length that she can't do it, throw a strop about it, get talked down by caring parents, do homework. Repeat with every other question on the worksheet.

Oh we love Maths homework at Bruton mansions. The really annoying thing is that she's really good and knows what to do, but lacks a little confidence in her own abilities to do them. Very, very frustrating. Nearly done now though, probably not helped by me sitting next to her typing this. Ooops.

Neil Gaiman and prose and me and Molly

We started reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman tonight for Molly's bedtime book. We started it a while ago but it was a little too scary for her. But she's ready for it now and we've decided to read it before we see the film in May.

And it's a great book, perfect for reading aloud, just like all of Gaiman's children's books that we've read so far. He writes glorious prose for this age group, scary, creepy stuff but . And I love his comic work. But I just find myself at a bit of a loss when it comes rto reading his adult prose. I keep trying to read his books; the last one was Anansi Boys which was alright but nothing like as good as either his comics or his children's books. So I'll keep enjoying his comics and I'll keep enjoying his books with Molly. But I may lay off his grown up prose for a little while.

PROPAGANDA @ FPI blog: Manga time.......

I received a package of Manga books from the lovely folks at Sweatdrop Studios for review a while back and it made me think about Manga and specifically why I don't really read it.

Over at the FPI blog for the next few days you'll be able to find the fruits of my labours, but here's the intro piece...........

Over the next few days, I’ll be doing something I really didn’t think I’d be doing here on Propaganda: Manga Reviews.

There’s one big problem with me reviewing Manga:
I just don’t really read it.

(It may have taken over the world, but it’s never taken over me I’m afraid. From Manchester’s Urbis exhibition of 2008)

In the way these things work, as I was writing this I came across Katherine’s superb “Explaining The Appeal Of Manga” on her blog. Now Katherine Farmar is smart and writes well; she used to write here on the FPI blog, often about her love of Manga. So hopefully what I say about it isn’t going to annoy her too much. But when she describes Manga as something utterly different to Western comics she rather perfectly sums it all up in both this quote and the entire post:“the fundamental storytelling DNA of manga, as well as the more obvious visual aesthetics, are different from those of Western comics. Oh, there’s variation within both Western comics and manga, and there are places where they nearly touch — but any two randomly-selected Western comics will be closer to each other than they are to any randomly-selected manga, and vice versa.”

And part of what I enjoyed about Manga, on the rare occasions I did venture into it, was that feeling of it being an alien reading experience. Because when I say that I don’t read Manga, it’s really not because I don’t see it as valid, or worthy. To say that I don’t generally read Manga doesn’t mean that I haven’t. And it doesn’t mean that I refuse to. And it certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t understand it. The little that I have read (carefully chosen for me by colleagues at Nostalgia & Comics who did love Manga) was exceptionally good: Akira, 2001 Nights, Adolf, Eagle, Ghost In The Shell, Lone Wolf & Cub, Maison Ikkoku and Ranma1/2. But that’s about it for my adventures in Manga.

When I say that I don’t read Manga I mean it in the same way in the same way that I don’t watch long form American dramas like the Sopranos, The Wire and countless others. I know that everyone says I really should devote myself to them but I just don’t have time to make the commitment. There’s just not enough time. So watching TV goes way down the list. I can just about commit to QI and Battlestar Galactica. Anything else has proven impossible. Similarly, with Manga, I find that I can’t keep up with the things I’m already interested in when it comes to comics. So the idea of plunging headfirst into what looks like an impossibly deep ocean of Manga, representing a completely new and unknown area of comics, with a huge commitment to read volume after volume to get through the story, is just a step too far at the moment.

I hope that makes sense. I know Manga can be sublime reading. I know I should read more. And just as soon as I work out how to go without the pitifully few hours of sleep I do get I promise I’ll investigate a little more. And, if readers of the blog have any suggestions of an essential Manga reading list please feel free to add it in the comments.

So, given my distinctly underwhelming knowledge of all things Manga, I felt ridiculously unqualified to be the recipient of a lovely package of stuff from Sweatdrop Studios; a UK based collective of over 20 artists who make homegrown Manga. But here at FPI we’re always looking to promote the best of British Small Press and self published works so I’m just going to give it a go.

At the very least you’ll have an interesting look at Manga through the eyes of a complete novice. Wish me luck.

PROPAGANDA @ the FPI blog: Vampire Free Style issue 4

Latest review at the FPI blog:

Vampire Free Style issue 4

Jenicka seems to be able to work the very difficult balancing act of manga hi-jinks and comedy against a backdrop of Gothic romance and supernatural thriller very well indeed. The art is lovely, the stories getting better and better

Reviewing machine, he's just a reviewing machine.

Sunday night 7:45. Household, plus guests from Birmingham downstairs watching E list celebs falling over on ice.

Upstairs locked in his room, rather obsessively listening to the new Lily Allen cd which is getting better and better every time he listens to it is your reviewer and blogger.

Wiping the sweat from his brow he presses save and the third review in two days goes into the ready to be published folder and grabs the next book from the pile. Onwards, ever onwards...... 22 left on the shelf to review. Maybe I can do another tonight?

New Simpsons main title sequence (oh, and HDTV too)

The Simpsons is hitting HDTV (which I still have absolutely no interest in - after all I watch so little TV that it's really not worth it) and for the occasion they've updated the title sequence:



(Click through for You Tube video)

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

You find me a better pop opener this year than the one-two punch of Everyone's At It and The Fear and I shall be amazed. And after that there's at least 5 other good to great songs on the album. Of course that does leave about 5 duds / filler tracks - but that's what the delete key in iTunes is for. I still expect one of the first two tracks to make it onto the best of year list though.

More Molly art and writing

Click to enbiggen.
Worth it for the last paragraph:



Good Catholic girl! Got that morbid appreciation of death.

DFC Friday - Issue 37

It's Friday, so it's DFC day. The red and yellow envelope was waiting for us as we got back from school. Well, neither Molly or I may not really like the strip, but that's one impressive cover featuring Spider Moon (keep wanting to write Sailor Moon!) which starts it's second run in the comic this week.

The other notable newbie / returnee is Gary Northfield's really great Lil' Cutie. (And have you all picked up your copies of his ace Derek The Sheep?) Molly very happy to see it back. Molly had a quick look at it before rushing out of the door for a snowball fight (as great as the DFC may be - there's no way it's going to win over the prospect of a snowball fight - quite right as well). She thought Vern & Lettuce looked "pretty" again with the gorgeous salmon pink colours and that was about it.

I've read it though while she's been outside and it's business as usual, which is no bad thing where business as usual is excellence through most of the pages. Elsewhere in the comic we have more Frontier (which is still suffering from the problem of too little per page - but still entertaining despite that) and another 5 pages of Mirabilis, which appears to be slowing slightly and as it does the art looks a little less polished, a little more rushed. Still keen to see the collection to read it in one go, but hope the quality holds up to the end. Vern & Lettuce, Sausage & Carrots, Bodkin & The Bear, Super Animal Detective Squad all highly enjoyable.

And there's a little preview of a new strip beginning next week: Spectrum Black. Looks lovely and has the required "lots of stuff on each page" factor that seems to be essential for the serious adventure strips to really work. More on that next week.

But in the meantime - get off and subscribe!

Latest Molly art

She is now a comics artist!

Dear Windows Update: F Off.

If I wanted to restart the computer I bloody well would. Is it possible you could stop popping up every couple of bloody minutes while I'm writing? Because sometimes I go a few minutes without actually looking at the screen (touch typer I am not) and it's rather annoying to find that all I've been doing is futilely clicking on your dumb windows message.

Wiped out

Got in from the snowy wastes of Pocklington tonight after a good few snowball fights with Molly on the way home and crashed. Spent all night practically comatose on the sofas downstairs and have only just woken up and been conscious enough to actually write anything. Thank God it's half term tomorrow. Thank God it's my half day as well. No hanging around at lunchtime tomorrow, straight home and rest. Then sleep for a weekend probably.

But for now; wide awake and raring to go. Tons of things to get done before bedtime to try and clear the decks before half term.

Mark Thomas at Pocklington Arts Centre.

It's rare we get out for the night, even rarer that we get to see great comedy and even rarer that both arrive on our doorstep. But tonight it was Mark Thomas at Pocklington Arts Centre.

Just got in and really tired, so only a quick blog about it, but it was, as expected, a thoroughly great evening. The best bits; a description of Pocklington as the heterosexual Hebden Bridge, and the frankly brilliant idea of a new national maximum wage based on a percentage of the average wage. The more we thought about it, the better the idea got - for the highest paid to get even more money would mean the lowest paid had to see an increase as well.

That and much more in a really long, really great show

PROPAGANDA Reviews @ the FPI blog: Umbrella Academy Dallas 1-3

Yet another review at the FPI blog. This time it's the second Umbrella Academy series:

Umbrella Academy: Dallas issues 1-3

Halfway through there’s a fight scene that I read and immediately thought of the phrase “orchestra of violence” to describe it. It really is that good.

PROPAGANDA Review: Mark Kalesniko's Alex

Alex

by Mark Kalesniko

Fantagraphics

Alex is an incredibly depressing, utterly miserable book with a central character you should find uttely deplorable and without a single redeeming feature, whose existence is a pointless, alcohol fuelled waste and whose relationships are, without exception, toxic.

But it’s also one of my favourite books and never, ever fails to make me amazed at how good a writer and artist Mark Kalesniko is as he makes me care deeply about this utter trainwreck of a person.

(This is Alex. Alex’s life is not going like he planned. From Alex by Mark Kalesniko)

Alex is a frankly mesmerising read. It’s said that the dog faced central character of Alex Kalienka is Mark Kalesniko’s alter ego. I really hope not, for his sake.

Because Alex is a mess. Alcoholic, at war with himself, everything and everyone, desperately unhappy with how his life has gone and back in his home town of Bandini after fifteen years in LA living his dream of working for Mickey Walt Studios, only to discover he couldn’t cope with that either. He’s home, without hope, angry at life and trying his best to crawl into a bottle and immunise himself against the world.

“Reminding me that I have no future, no present and a past I detest” - Alex on old friends and his hometown.

As the story opens Alex wakes up on a park bench after another night on a bender, wondering what the hell he did to get there and why the hell he’s carrying his old high school yearbook.

Through the course of the book he is presented with the answers to both of these as he stumbles through his shattered life, bumping into old school-mates, friends, teachers, enemies and unrequited loves. Each meeting only makes Alex’s situation worse and he spirals down to what must be his inevitable self-destruction. Yet, just as all seems without hope he suddenly rediscovers his art and starts to slowly draw some hope from that. But alas, life isn’t done kicking Alex when he’s down.

I adore Alex. In the same way that the most miserable, depressing music can profoundly affect you when your not in the best of moods, the misery and torment of Alex has a strangely edifying effect upon me. I read it for the first time when it came out over ten years ago and instantly got it. It’s a difficult read, but hugely rewarding. Not to mention very funny. That’s right. Funny. Kalesniko isn’t afraid to milk Alex’s disaster of a life to comic effect and has a powerful command of slapstick that he uses so well throughout.

And his art. Wow, his art. Look at the three examples on the page here. The linework is incredibly spare but there’s not a wasted line on any picture of Alex and everything tells you just what you need to know about his utter psychological breakdown. But then you look at that final page and notice the incredible detailing and the wonderful layout. That happens time and time again. A page will just amaze you, first with it’s structure, then with the emotional intensity of his character work and finally with the level of detailing.

So, if you are going to get just one book on an alcoholic dog make sure you choose Alex. Then again, if you want a book that will utterly absorb and involve you as it drags you as far down into someone’s depression and failure as you can really bear and yet also manages to make you laugh then you also need to buy a copy of Alex. It’s stunning.