Random Ravings 16 - Art And Illusion

So, I haven't done one of these for a while, and I thought it was time I caught up with some very brief thoughts on the latest series of what has become one of my all time top TV shows...

Line of Duty Series 4

Not quite reaching the heights of season 3 and the conclusion of the "Caddy" storyline, this was still riveting television. Getting an actress of the calibre of Thandie Newton in as your main antagonist doesn't hurt of course. A slow first couple of episodes had me worried for a while, but I shouldn't have doubted creator Jed Mercurio and his ability to ratchet up the tension and deliver a finale that had several "punch the air" moments. In the end the identity of  "Balaclava Man" was relatively unimportant, just peeling back another layer of this vast conspiracy at the top of the police force.

As Roz Huntely, Thandie Newton was ice cold under pressure, but this did mean that I didn't feel any connection to her or begin to doubt her culpability in the same way as Lindsay Denton from the previous series. However I can't deny her that small moment of redemption when she was able to reveal the extent of lawyer Jimmy Lakewell's corruption. Her last act was to actually do her job as a police officer and save an innocent man from jail.

The real star of the show though continues to be Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings - surely up there with being the best TV cop since...Gene Hunt?. I almost stood up and cheered when he finally got his man and sleazy chief Derek Hilton was revealed at last - twinned with a vague sense of dissatisfaction that his death was off-camera.

There’s still a ton of unanswered questions. Who exactly are the criminal at the top of the chain? How many other “Balaclava men” are still out there, and how many bent coppers? Was Hilton really the so-called “H” in charge? “This is beginning to feel like a life’s work” said Ted Hastings. I can’t have been the only one to think "I bloody well hope so". Here's to series five.

Random Ravings 15 - Questionable Characters

I was a bit late to the party on this one...

Line of Duty series 1 to 3

I can't watch everything. In this modern era there are too many TV shows. Too many choices. So I have to pick and choose my viewing according to personal genre interests, catching a trailer that piques my interest, or word of mouth from friends, family or the minimal number of websites that I trust. But the question still is - how the hell did I miss "Line of Duty" on first transmission?

It's only because of the publicity and glowing recommendations regarding series 4 that I became aware that the show existed at all. Looking back, these same websites had reviewed and commented on all seventeen previous episodes, but it was like I had experienced a televisual blindspot, not seeing what was right in front of me. Perhaps I had been too focused on other things like "Doctor Who" or something like that, and had dismissed it as 'just another police procedural'. The thing is I *do* like police  / detective dramas. I love all the incarnations of Sherlock Holmes."Luther" is one of my favourite TV shows. "Happy Valley" is another. The BBC does this kind of contained, limited-run thing better than almost anyone else in the world. I've got no excuse really.

The one thing that did make me sit up and take notice above everything else though was the name of the creator and writer - Jed Mercurio. I first came across him with the 2004-2006 medical series "Bodies" starring Max Beesley, which concerned the highs and lows of medical registrar Rob Lake as he worked in the obstetrics and gynaecology department of a major hospital. It was graphically explicit, very dark, dealt with negligence, cover-ups and frequent death - and was frankly astounding television. If Mercurio was involved my hopes were high. Looking for something new for my wife and I to share (she doesn't enjoy much of the SF  / fantasy genre television I watch) we decided to give "Line of Duty" a go, and using our streaming service, started at the beginning, not realising that this programme would soon consume our lives for the next week and a half...

The core of "Line of Duty" is the work of an elite police anti-corruption unit designated AC-12. These are the men and women who search out officers who have crossed the line and committed a crime themselves - whether it be murder, cover-ups, falsifying or with-holding evidence, taking bribes - you get the idea. Each series starts with the investigation of a specific person and shows how AC-12 build their case and the events, twists and turns that result. Sounds a pretty normal show doesn't it? The kind of thing we may have seen a hundred times before. But "Line of Duty" is far from your typical drama. Minor spoilers from this point on...

This is a series which is intricately, meticulously plotted and that excels at pulling the rug out from under your feet. Nothing is certain. The plot writhes in unexpected ways and you will be hard pressed to anticipate anything. I think I first realised this with the event at the end of part two of series one. Something happens then which makes you just go "Wow. Okay now all bets are off".  There are other similar scenes throughout the first three seasons which are just as jaw dropping (part one of the second year springs to mind) - and sometimes these surprises make you reconsider what you thought you knew about prior events or even prior runs.

But alongside the roller coaster thrill ride of action , this is also a programme that is not afraid to take it's time. Mercurio has clearly done his research and the procedural elements feel real and as plausible as if you were watching a fly-on-the-wall documentary. AC-12's interview and interrogation scenes are lengthy and detailed, with each new piece of evidence that is revealed helping to move the plot along and slotting another section of the puzzle into place. In the final extended episode of series three there are two interview sequences which are twenty minutes long - each! Forty minutes of characters sitting in a room talking and presenting details on a screen. Far from being dull, these are nail-biting, edge of your seat moments, the ebb and flow of who has the upper hand shifting between AC-12 on one side and the accused on the other. I was holding my breath, tense with anticipation. It's masterful stuff.

At it's core though "Line of Duty" is about character. None of the main leads (Martin Compton as DS Steve Arnott, Vicky McClure as DS Kate Fleming and Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings) are whiter-than-white. They all make mistakes, have complicated personal lives and at times both help progress or hinder the investigations. They are real, flawed human beings. Mercurio's skill as a writer also extends to his "villains" - there are no "black hats" here, only varying shades of grey, and their motives may be in the right place even if their actions are not. In series two AC-12 investigate Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton, following the ambush of a convoy carrying someone in witness protection. As a viewer, your belief of whether she is guilty or innocent changes several times just in the one episode - let alone through the entire arc. It's a sign of quality that even the cops under scrutiny are sympathetic at times.

I'm not one for "binge-watching" of television shows, preferring to enjoy them week by week (I'm currently watching seven different shows in rotation, one a day). But with "Line of Duty", at the end of each sixty minutes my wife and I turned to each other and both said "Put the next one one, now!". It's proof of how much the brilliant drama and superb performances envelope you. Goodness knows what the anticipation must have been like after each cliffhanger on original transmission.

In just a few short days we have gorged ourselves on the first three series and are now ready for the fourth, which concluded just this weekend past. Avoiding spoilers has been hard (with a lot of swift channel changing when trailers came on) but we know it will be worth it. Thandie Newton awaits, which is doubly exciting after her bravura performance in "Westworld" recently.

I simply cannot recommend this television programme highly enough.

Random Ravings 14 - Milfay

Following last time's marathon 2000 AD festival piece, it's back to more short capsule reviews - specifically something that most other science fiction fans saw months ago...

Rogue One

After the huge personal disappointment that was "The Force Awakens" (or "A New Hope Redux"), my personal bar for new "Star Wars" cinematic outings was set very low - so much so that when "Rogue One" was released I didn't bother going to see it. I wasn't going to be caught out wasting my money again. I knew that it was going to end up with those Death Star plans inside R2-D2 and I wasn't really interested in the continuity implant of how they got there. The "Star Wars" franchise seems obsessed with telling variations of the same story about a giant super-weapon and I had no interest in yet another. The movies may have been part of my adolescent years, but I can't say that I was ever really a full blown fan after the first one. I watched the sequels sure, but if we are talking big movie franchises I was always more of a "Star Trek" guy.

But in the months since, I've heard reasonably good things about this particular prequel story - even from those who held similar opinions to me about Episode VII - so when the home media version came out I decided to give it a whirl...

Well that was much better than I expected.

Sure "Rogue One" is not without problems. The pacing feels off in the first half. The main characters are likeable but quite thinly sketched. I'm getting seriously bored of desert-like planets. Forest Whitaker was just appalling. But who doesn't want to see Imperial troopers stomping through the sea while AT-AT walkers prowl in the background and a massive dogfight carries on overhead? This oddly felt like proper "Star Wars" rather than the reheated greatest hits of Episode VII.

It's a pretty dark story and it's a brave choice to have none of the characters make it out alive. It really does hark back to those classic war movies of my youth like "Guns of Navarone" or "The Wild Geese", as our band of "heroes" battle to achieve their goal against overwhelming odds but are picked off one by one. Maybe that's why I liked it - it's riffing on two different parts of my childhood.

I'd obviously heard some noise about a returning character through the use of a computer generated double, but when Grand Moff Tarkin turned up I was pleasantly surprised. The CGI were not perfect but it was certainly good enough to allow the suspension of disbelief (this is a  franchise about spaceships, 'magic' mental powers and sentient robots after all). I'd not mentioned anything to my wife, so she was frankly astonished. Her only real criticism was that the voice could have been "older". It was not the same story with the digital Princess Leia at the end though , which was both unnecessary and of a much poorer quality.

The other callbacks to the previous instalments (and there are a lot) are headlined by the presence of the man in black himself - Darth Vadar. Thankfully he's not overused but restricted to a couple of excellent scenes that are used to empathise what he is truly capable of. A darkened corridor. An ignited lightsaber. A swift violent massacre. This is the Dark Lord of the Sith as I remember him.

All in all it's thoroughly enjoyable, stylish if downbeat film and shows that different directors not slavishly worshipping at the altar of the original trilogy can bring something new to the table.  Now I'd like to see them really go off and tell other, brand new stories within the franchise universe - ones totally unrelated to the core "Skywalker" narrative. The book, comics, and animated series have managed it. It's time for the movies to do the same.

Random Ravings 13 - Gatherings

Back in 1977 I picked up the first issue of a new science fiction weekly comic. A comic that would affect my life in ways that I could not possibly begin to imagine at the tender age of ten. I would also have been unable to conceive that forty years later I would still be reading that same comic - having collected every single issue, annual, special and spin-off - let alone that I would be attending a one day festival celebrating those forty years and the huge number of talented writers and artists that contributed to the success of this British publishing phenomenon. The comic is of course 2000 AD and these are my memories of that very special day...

It's worth mentioning that this was to be my first proper comics event in - unbelievably - 30 years. In the mid 80s, at the height of my comic fandom, I had attended the first two UK Comic Art Conventions (UKCAC) held at the University of London Union. A mere £7.50 gained my friends and I access to two days of panels, dealers rooms, presentations and all night film shows. This was the first opportunity we had to listen to and meet the great and the good of the comics world - not only from the UK (2000 AD creators were richly represented) but also from the more 'exotic' world of the US - including the like of Marv Wolfman, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Sim and Chris Claremont.

Alan Moore was at the peak of his fame and I think this was famously where he was hounded for his autograph wherever he went, even into the men's toilets (no wonder he gave up going to events). These conventions were also where Karen Berger and Dick Giordano began seriously scouting the UK talent to get them to work for DC, in what became known as the 'British invasion'. Everyone mingled together and there was a lively, relaxed atmosphere.

They were exhilarating times and I have lots of good memories of both weekends, even if I was exhausted afterwards through lack of sleep! The big question was - how would the 2000 AD festival measure up ?

One last thing before I begin -  it's important to note that I was accompanied on this journey by good friend, writer and podcaster Al No (of 'No Complications' and "RevNo"  fame), who had flown down all the way from the Arctic especially for this historic event. The second thing to mention is that our pilgrimage actually began the day before...

Friday 10th February 2017

Having collected Al from the airport and fortified ourselves against the Arctic weather that seemed to have descended with him, we decided that there was only one proper way to begin the weekend of 2000 AD hullabaloo  - a visit to the 'Cartoon Museum' to see their exhibition of original artwork from the title. Appropriately titled "Future Shock" it featured over eighty pages of incredible art from every decade of "The Galaxy's Greatest Comic". That may not seem like a lot considering the 50,000+ pages that have been published over the years, but clearly space was limited and one can imagine that it was important to get a good spread of artists, styles, stories and eras.

The displays certainly didn't disappoint on that score. All the classic greats from the comics earliest beginning were there - Dave Gibbons, Mick McMahon, Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, Cam Kennedy, Brett Ewins, Steve Dillon, Ian Gibson - plus the master himself Carlos Ezquerra. Then there were what I would class as the 'second wave' of artists - Mark Harrison, John Higgins, Bryan Talbot, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry, David Roach, John Hinckleton and David Pugh. Lastly and certainly not least there were re the creators from the more modern era - Frazer Irving, Henry Flint, Carl Critchlow, Simon Fraser, Chris Weston, Greg Staples, Dave Taylor, Simon Davis - the list goes on and on.

The various sections were laid out according to character rather than chronology, which meant that you not only got a great view of how different artists interpret the same character or series, but also how a single artists work could change over the decades. Each piece was beautifully framed with a small label next to it detailing the artist, plus the story and issue number it came from. What is more surprising is how much art had survived from those first one hundred or so issues. 

There were a few personal highlights amongst all this jaw dropping work. As much as fans rave about Bolland's precise lines or Fabry's moody cross-hatchings - and it was great to see those represented - I couldn't wait to see the original "Dan Dare" pages from Bellardinelli. I've waxed lyrical about his work before here but being up close to it sent a shiver down my spine. He was an absolute master at drawing weird alien creatures and the first artist I found instantly recognisable, whether it was in the pages of "Flesh", "Inferno" or "Meltdown Man". 

It was also lovely to see the clean futuristic lines of Ron Turner represented. He's most famous for the "Daleks" strips from "TV Century 21" comic (although I bought "Battle Action" and "Speed" which also had some stunning work). He didn't do a lot for 2000 AD, but I really liked his episodes of the Judge Dredd story "Robot Wars" and the various others he contributed to specials and Annuals over the years.

All in all it was a hugely impressive collection of art and a fitting testament to a comic institution that has lasted far, far longer than anyone could have ever predicted. The exhibition runs until 23rd April 2017, so if you are in London it's well worth a couple of hours of your time.

Our thrill-receptors clearly needed recharging after being exposed to so much raw power, so after a brief chat to the lovely people behind the counter of the museum shop, Al and I wended our way home for some well-deserved rest. The main event was almost upon us...

Saturday 11th February 2017

It was an early start when Al and I left the house around 7.15 am to get the train into London. The journey itself was uneventful although once we got outside of Hammersmith tube station it was obvious that Mega-City One Weather Control was on the fritz again, as all the winter sunshine we had ordered had been replaced by cold gusts of wind and a shower of sleet. Finding the hotel where the event was being held was almost a quest worthy of Slaine himself, as we wandered around in vaguely the right direction directed by the app on my phone until we saw a few other hardy adventurers heading the same way. Finally a relatively unassuming revolving door gave us a way out of the weather.

However there was to be one more obstacle before we could make our way to registration. The entranceway presented us with a bare space and the doors to two lifts. A small sign indicated that we should take the lift up to the hotel reception area. I'd come across this kind of thing before in a hotel in Rotterdam, so assured Al that this was the way to go. However a quick press of the button for floor one led to the doors closing and...nothing else. Despite repeating stabbing of the console, all we succeeded in doing was reopening the doors to be greeted by some more bemused looking 2000 AD fans. A stylishly bearded gentleman got in and pressed another button - on an entirely different set of controls on the other side of the lift ! With a smooth motion the lift doors slid shut and we ascended without further delay. I can only assume that this was one of Tharg's tests and if we had not been saved by the other Squaxx Dek Thargo, the floor would have opened up and we would have been dismembered courtesy of Mek-Quake.

Winding our way through the deceptively large insides of the hotel and following the signs down several sets of escalators, we came to the registration hall and the actual process of giving our names and receiving a goody bag and red wrist band was entirely painless. We had to be on our best behaviour though, as when we joined the already lengthy queue waiting to enter the event at 10.00 am, a Judge straight out of the Karl Urban "Dredd" movie was patrolling up and down the line with a severe look on his face.

Eventually the hour was upon us and we were lead to the door of  the main hall itself - wrist bands duly checked while overseen by a blue skinned genetic infantryman - and then we were in!

One small thing to note before we go any further. It was such a busy day and I was so caught up in the whole atmosphere that I neglected to take very many photographs. So some of the images below are my own but others are ones I have borrowed for the purposes of illustration. I acknowledge the copyright of the original photographers bur finding who they are has been difficult. At the very least I will mark out those which I did not take myself.

The entrance to the festival (not my photograph)

The main auditorium was laid out with rows of tables for most of the artists / writers in attendance, so it was possible to start of the left and zig-zag your way up and down the rows to see who was where, and join the appropriate queue for a signature, sketch or to buy anything they may have for sale. There was also large ("Millicom") and small ("Tir Nan Og") panel halls, an area for live art demonstrations, various Lawmasters and props from the "Dredd" movie and of course the obligatory bar.

I'm in there somewhere... (not my photograph)

I was surprised that there was only one dealers' table devoted to the graphic novel collections and just the excellent Orbital Comics selling back issues - although there were plenty of other retailers such as Planet Replicas, threeA Toys and Vice Press with their exquisite ranges of badges, figurines and prints. There were some exclusives from these guys that were in high demand. The merchandise arm might have been my thing back in the 80s when it was small (and I bought a number of T-shirts and wax candles and tiny lead figures), but now it was big business - even for a comic that didn't have the power of a Marvel or DC brand.

As I had hoped, this was a definitely a small scale "festival", nowhere near the size of something like the modern day MCM Expo's or even some of the larger UK comic conventions. At a guess I would say that there were no more than 1,000 attendees, which made it feel small and intimate, but ensured that there was a steady flow of people passed all the artists and writers tables and panels were always well attended, with most full to the brim.

Without a doubt the star of the show was Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra. Practically everyone wanted to meet him and the lines of people were never less than huge the whole day. Some poor fans had to queue up three different times to get to meet the great man, as just as they were approaching the table he was whisked away for a panel or an event elsewhere in the hall. I sincerely hope that someone had a ice cold compress ready for his hand at the end of the day because he was signing and sketching and drawing the entire time with barely a break. I'd met Carlos myself years ago so I thought I would let others have their turn with 2000 AD's greatest ever artist.

Carlos hard at work (not my photograph)

Of course there were other "big hitters" in attendance, all with long queues. Pat Mills and John Wagner both were extremely popular as you can imagine, with Wagner also selling the first few issues of his independently published "Rok of the Reds" comic. The other huge draw was Dave Gibbons, who hardly left his table all day and was never seen without a huge smile on his face.

I'd already decided that my 'autograph book' was going to be my coveted 1985 Judge Dredd Annual (which naturally came out in August 1984). Back in the day I had attended a number of 2000 AD signings organised by Forbidden Planet (then located  in their fondly-remembered store on Denmark Street). The first page of the opening Dredd story featured a Carlos image of an atomic mushroom cloud rising above a sector of Mega-City One. Above this were a number of signatures I had obtained at the signing - Alan Moore, John Wagner, Kevin O'Neill and Brian Bolland.  The intent was to add as many key scrawls as possible to this hall of heroes, time and panels allowing.

The "old school" creators from the early days were obviously high on the list but there were people from all eras of the comics history in attendance. There were actually almost too many people to get round in the time available. At the start with the first rush of enthusiasm some of the queues were long and it was enough to marvel at the original artwork they had on display or for sale, or watch in awe as they did a personal sketch or full commission for another fan. With others it turned out to be easier to be able to pause for a while and chat, especially as the day wore on and the crowds reduced somewhat. I'll come back to this in a bit...

I did have one other book with me for signing  - a copy of the recent collection of "Monster" from the pages of "Scream" comic by Moore, Wagner and Spanish artist Jesus Redondo Roman, who had long been a favorite of mine from the first golden age of 2000 AD, His work on "Mind Wars" in Starlord and "Return To Armageddon" and "Nemesis The Warlock Book Two" for 2000 AD (amongst many, many other pieces) was distinctive and very memorable. After the first walk around all the areas in the hall and deciding with Al which panels we most wanted to attend, I made a bee-line for Redondo's table. Now in his 80s he still has a real fire in his eyes and I happily watched as he did sketches for those ahead of me in the queue with just a few quick strokes of his marker pens until it was my turn. "Just a signature" I stammered, slightly in awe of this real legend of European comics (and being the first creator I met that day). With a smile, he asked me my name and...well you can see the result below:

A prized signature from a comics legend (my photograph obviously)

As Al and I circuited the main hall, two things became very clear - a) there was a *lot* of original art on display and most of it was for sale; and b) just about very artist was happy to do a quick sketch or a more detailed piece for a small fee. I'd long harboured an ambition to own some original artwork, but most of it continued to be well outside my meagre budget. (I do have one cherished page by John Ridgeway from his 1980s Epic series "The Bozz Chronicles", but that was a birthday gift). I would never be able to justify the costs of owning a Bellardinelli "Dan Dare" page for example, to either myself or more importantly my wife !  That's not to say that all pages for sale were expensive. Boo Cook for example was selling his rough design pages for £20 a time and others were in the £50 - £200 price band, but although extremely interesting to look at, nothing really grabbed my attention.

However as I walked around, I began to think that maybe an original commission was the way to go, as something to take home as a memory of this exciting day. The fees for these varied greatly from artist to artist, I guess depending on their popularity. Dave Gibbons was sketching for free and just looking for a donation to his chosen charity. Redondo was asking £25, but others were more (I think the most expensive commission price was £60).

Near the right hand end of the artists' tables we came across cartoonist extraordinaire Roger Langridge. Now I'd been a fan of Roger's work since way back in the early 90s, when he published the absurd adventures of "Art D'Ecco" and "Knuckles The Malevolent Nun" via Fantagraphics Books. He is mainly remembered in 2000 AD circles for the love-it-or-hate-it comedy serial "The Straitjacket Fits" from the early issues of volume one of the "Judge Dredd Magazine". In more recent years Roger had won wide acclaim for his work on "The Muppet Show Comic Book" and been the occasional artist (and almost permanent letterer) on the Doctor Who Magazine strip.

Like others Roger was offering to do sketches and drawings for a small fee. Amazingly his black and white sketches were priced at just £5.00 with full colour commissions at a mere £30.00 - an absolute bargain. Al decided that he was going to get a drawing of his favourite Doctor Who, Tom Baker. In just a few brief minutes Roger had drawn a perfect cartoon-like Baker - google eyes, wide toothy grin, the shock of curly hair - it was just brilliant. Al and I were astonished at his skill. For those wondering, I'm not going to reproduce the sketch here as Al has included it on his blog, alongside his own fascinating, cathartic and frankly moving tribute to the weekend's events and a lifetime of comics reading. You can be stunned at the power of his prose here. I know I was.

As we walked away from the table and Al put his precious piece of art in his bag, an idea started to form in my head. If I was going to get something, I didn't want it necessarily to be a drawing of a character that the artist had illustrated a thousand times. I needed it to be something different. Something special. Something no-one else would have. I mulled the idea over as we went to the first panel - "The Originals", featuring Dave Gibbons, Mick McMahon, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy.

Left to right - Gibbons, Grant, McMahon and Kennedy (a snippet from the video)

At the end of a fun and wide ranging panel we did another circuit of the main hall and once again found ourselves at Roger Langridge's table. Having seen what wonderful things he could do with just five or ten minutes I decided that this was it - Roger was my man. I plonked down my £30 and asked if he could create a full colour commission for me. "Sure" he said "What would you like?".

"Could you do Strontium Dog as a Muppet" I asked. Roger grinned up at me. "No problem. Come back in about an hour or so". We'll see how he got on in a few paragraphs...

Clearly my most cherished moments of the whole day were where I got to meet some of my comics heroes and was able to chat so informally to them. I'm not normally a very gregarious person, and initially I perhaps was a little self conscious just thinking about going up to someone like Cam Kennedy or John Wagner and telling them how much their work meant to me. But as the day wore on, that feeling wore off - predominately because everyone was just *so* approachable and friendly. Every single person just seemed to be happy to be there, enjoying meeting the fans and having the opportunity to talk about their work and the shared love of this classic comics institution.

Highlights? Well Glenn Fabry may look and sound like a bit like John Hurt and appear slightly daunting when you are in the queue but he was actually one of the nicest gents you could ever wish to meet, regaling us with various stories about his long and distinguished career. Matt Brooker  - more commonly known as D'israeli - talked to me enthusiastically for a good ten minutes about his digital art process and how my own daughter was starting to get to grips with this technology. "Anderson Psi Division" artist David Roach was also just lovely - proudly displaying his in-progress pages from a new strip he was working on for 2000 AD and pondering with myself and a couple of other fans exactly what the consistency of the "munce" foodstuff from the Judge Dredd stories really is and why is the factory *so* close to Resyk...

I managed to catch up with former editor Steve McManus again (after meeting him just a few months earlier at the launch of his "The Mighty One" autobiography). Luckily at the time he was also joined by another ex-Tharg, Richard Burton, and I spent an extremely pleasant few minutes talking to him about the non-2000 AD reprints from the early specials and annuals (things like "Phantom Patrol" and "Rick Random") and how he personally preferred it when Carlos Ezquerra did not colour his work digitally.

Cosplay has become a large part of comic conventions in recent years and the 2000 AD festival was no exception. Beyond the plethora of Mega-City One judges patrolling the corridors  - from the comic and the movies - and the aforementioned Nu-Earth GI, there was some real innovation and amazing hard work that went into the various costumes being worn. A Cal-Hab Judge complete with kilt. Dredd's informer, Max Normal the Pinstripe Freak (although I'd always considered him to have a black pinstripe suit not blue...). Vampire Strontium Dog Durham Red. Zenith. There was even a gent who walked round the entire day with a three foot high Hewligan's Haircut. It was a real treat for the eyes. I'm not quite sure why Rorschach or Deadpool were there though...

My favourites were the more complex costumes. An excellent Judge Death,  two ABC Warriors -  Hammerstein and Blackblood - and lastly one brave soul who painted himself white, walked around mostly naked and wore huge horns and wings to carry off a performance as Satan from the "Anderson Psi Division" story of the same name, as illustrated by Arthur Ranson. That takes real dedication.

Judge Death poses for his fans (I took this one)

(Hammerstein and Blackblood relax in the bar (I took this too)

After a spot of lunch, Al and I hung around the live drawing area until the main panel room opened to allow attendees to grab a seat for the  "The Lawmasters" featuring John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. This was jam packed as you would imagine and was made more interesting by Mr Ezquerra's penchant for waving the microphone around as he talked, meaning we could only clearly hear half the conversation!

At this point we decided to go in different directions, and I stepped up my mission to get lots of signatures on the opening page in my 1985 Judge Dredd Annual. When D'sraeli looked at the first few names from that original signing back in 1984, he looked slightly worried. "Are you sure you want me to deface something so special?" he said. Needless to say I gave him the go ahead. Dashing around the hall I flitted from table to table and suddenly noticed in the programme that Carlos was due to move from 'artists alley' to a '2000 AD Nerve Centre' signing along with four other creators. Unable to resist I joined the queue with just a few people in front of me and got him to sign right down the middle of the mushroom cloud. "This was a good story" he said as he flipped through the pages.

As time wore on and we approached 6.30pm, some queues started to get longer again as writers and artists began to think about packing up for the day. I craftily slipped Al the annual as he was already in the Pat Mills queue, which saved me a lot of time. It was the last one I really wanted that day, and for now at least, the 'scrawl wall' was complete:

Returning the favour I saved Al a space in the lengthening queue for the final event of the day (at least for us)  - an advance screening of "Search / Destroy: A Strontium Dog Fan Film". We knew this was going to be immensely popular, so needed to ensure we got a good seat. Speaking of "Strontium Dog", how had Roger Langridge managed with my special commission piece? Let's wind time back a couple of hours to when I had returned to his table...

Roger was just finishing off the colouring. As I approached he looked up and recognised me. Turning the page around  he displayed the completed work and...well see for yourself - it's absolutely bloody superb...

Strontium Frog! How marvellously obvious! I couldn't have been happier. "That was really fun to do" said Roger, as I gingerly took the drawing from him. I shook his hand and thanked him profusely, walking away with a huge smile on my face. This had turned into a really great day...

Back to the queue for the fan film, and excitement was building. We'd all seen the props and stills and promo posters. The young lady dressed as Durham Red. Could it possibly be as good as the creators previous film "Judge Minty"? We duly filed into the room and took our seats. Recruitment posters peppered the stage and a lectern stood waiting for someone to give an introductory speech. But who was that coming from the back of the room?...

Rather than the films director or main stars - who stayed sitting in the front row -  we got Harvey, commander of the Galactic Crime Commission headquarters known as "The Doghouse". He was there to give us a bit of a pep talk (of sorts) since the GCC had to meet their "diversity targets" and were considering letting a few norms into the freak-show that was the Search / Destroy Agency (terms and conditions may apply). Stalking off stage Harvey uttered "Roll this rubbish...".

"Search / Destroy" was clearly made by fans who just "get" it - the love for the characters and the world of "Strontium Dog" shone through from every frame. The casting was spot on (I can't imagine anyone else but Kevin Horsham playing Wulf now) and the CGI was frankly amazing considering the minuscule budget they must have been working with. The land craft were right. The guns were right. The look and sound effects and costumes were right. This is how you make something faithful to a comics property.

The Western influences of the original strip were played up as well, with several scenes in dry dusty environments, guns twitching as villains posed in a stand-off against Johnny Alpha and his Viking partner. Alpha was always Clint Eastwood in a Spaghetti Western with added glowing eyes and mutant abilities - a man of few words - his 'Electronux' doing most of the talking. That mystique was continued here.

The story was perhaps a tad slight, but given that the creators only had 20-odd minutes to play with that's to be expected to a certain extent. It's a lengthy showcase for the talent involved and a taste of what could be, given the right financing. I really need to watch it again to appreciate the full effort involved. I'd love to see more. Hell I *demand* to see more! 

The film is not out officially to watch or download for free until May 2017 but you can see a trailer here. I can't wait.

With the show over, that was the end of our very long day. Yes it's true that there was still a screening of the "Future Shock" documentary to go, but both Al and I had seen it before and the "extended" version will be out on Blu-ray later this year anyway. We were tired and it was time to go home. Like battle-weary troopers, we joined the crowds filing out of the hotel complex and into the darkened streets of Hammersmith. All in all it had been a brilliant, brilliant day. Relaxed, uncrowded, just the right number of panels with everyone in fine form and there to enjoy themselves and celebrate the 40th birthday of the Galaxy's Greatest comic. Could it have been any better?

Well, if I have any issues at all with the whole setup, they were only minuscule ones. The live drawing panels were really interesting but could have done with being in a more dimly lit area so that attendees could see the screen better. For the couple of panels I did attend, I thought the interviewers were quite poor and seemed ill-prepared, mis-informed or brought their own agenda to the table (since when has 2000 AD been "a gateway to satire magazines like "Private Eye" ?!) To be fair I've since seen video of the panels hosted by PR droid Michael Molcher and as you would imagine, those were managed much more professionally.

It's also a shame that I missed out on meeting a few creators because they did not have tables in the main 'artists alley' area and were only doing signings / sketches in the 'Nerve Centre' area. Meeting a talent such as Arthur Ranson would have been incredible, but he was only signing for one brief period across the whole day. As I said though, these are minor gripes - and that second one is probably more to do with my own poor reading of the schedule and shoddy time management.

Oh and one final thing - if you are reading this Rebellion, don't leave it another ten years before the next one !

Random Ravings 12 - That's Lobstertainment

Just time for a second look at the TV adaptation of one of my favourite comics...

Preacher Season 1

I wrote about my first thoughts on this show a few weeks ago, but now I've finished watching the whole of the first season and...well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Spoilers from this point on folks.

So it appears that the entire ten episodes was a mash up of various scenarios into what amounts to a prequel to the "road-trip to find God" main storyline (effectively the first issue of the comic),  The Odin Quincannon "Meat Man" plot, Arseface being trapped in hell and oh...a God impersonator being called up by video phone in Jesse's church are just a few of the changes. All this plus the Saint of Killers *finally* get's his mission (after some lengthy and slightly confusing recaps). It's utterly nuts and goodness knows what the average viewer who doesn't know the comics made of it. After this, I don't want to even try and predict where season two will go. All bets are off.

I can live with the twisted up story and extra invented details. That's all part of the transfer to a different medium. As I've said before, I can accept Jesse with a beard and Tulip as being non-white. It's somewhat odd, but I'll deal with having ten episodes of characterisation for the townsfolk only for them to all be wiped out in a massive methane explosion (the shit literally hitting the fan). I'll even tolerate Joe Gilguin as Cassidy if I have to. These are just cosmetic changes really. What I can't deal with is the fact that everyone is just so damn unpleasant. There is not a single one of the main trio that's at all likeable. Jesse is meant to be a good man, despite everything that was done to him, but he comes across as a complete arse (pun intended). As for Tulip, she just appears to be a self-centered whiny psychopath. There is no sense of the deep love that she and Jesse feel for each other. Trotting out the "til the end of the world" line does not make a relationship.

I actually think there is a worthwhile case for a fan-edit here, paring down the seven or so hours into a tighter more focused story, seeding the Saint of Killers backstory properly throughout the narrative and cutting out the extraneous characters (why should we care about Emily Woodrow and her life if she just gets blown to bits at the end?). It would take some excellent editing skills to rescue the central characters though.

The best thing about that final batshit-crazy episode of the season is the music - including tracks I have never heard of and some superb cover versions.. Starting with a montage undercut by Willy Nelson's "Time of the Preacher" followed by the novelty Country-yodelling  of "Bowling Ball Blues", it's just one excellent musical choice after another. Okay some of it might be a little on the nose, but when Tulip and Jesse (apparently) let the double-crossing Carlos go, who doesn't want to hear Johnny Cash's amazing version of the Depeche Mode classic "Personal Jesus"?

The highlight of the soundtrack though is the song that plays when Annville descends into chaos as the residents reel from the shock that God does exist, but he's missing. Singer / songwriter David Lichens performs a cover of "No Rain" by alternative rock group Blind Melon. Now I've never heard of either the song or the band before, but this sent real shivers down my spine. It fits the mood of the episode perfectly. Sadly there doesn't appear to be an official version available, so I'll have to satisfy myself with a cut from the episode itself - complete with dialogue and sound effects:

Will I be bothering with season two? I guess so, in that I want to see what the writers come up with next, but I think it's clear that I'll need to throw all my expectations out the window and just go with the flow. It's time for the real story of "Preacher" to begin...

Random Ravings 11 - The House of Wellibob

Time for more short randomness...

Pax Britannia  - The Gods Of Manhattan - by Al Ewing

Yes I'm still continuing with this series, in e-book form at least. If you recall, I wasn't that impressed with the last Ulysses Quicksilver volume I read back here, but this is the second in Al Ewing's "El Sombra" trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one and Mr Ewing hasn't let me down with any of his novel or comics writing, so this seemed like a pretty safe bet.

Half-naked and all-crazy sword-wielding Mexican vigilante El Sombra is back, this time stalking the streets of Manhattan in search of those further up the chain in the Ultimate Reich hierarchy (in this world Hitler is still alive  - well his brain is, housed in a gigantic robot body). However the tale of El Sombra's vengeance takes a back seat to that of New York's very own hero - the near superhuman, Doc Thunder.

Thunder is obviously a parallel to the classic Doc Savage character that I wrote about just a few weeks ago, blended with the original less powerful version of the Man of Steel. Possessing extraordinary strength, able to heal from virtually any wound and leap tall buildings at a single bound, he is America's greatest hero. Involved in a scandalous three-way relationship with the immortal Maya, queen of the Leopard Men of Zor-Ek-Narr and his best friend the apelike Monk, Doc puts the world to rights and stands up for decent folk everywhere.

If Doc is the light, then the Blood Spider is the dark, The vicious alter-ego of rich socialite Parker Crane, he's a cross between Batman and The Shadow (double pistols included) with the violence and fractured personality turned up to eleven. Aided by a cadre of informants who are terrified of him and with a steely blonde as his driver, the Blood Spider guns down anyone who gets in his way.

The plot kick starts when Heinrich Donner, the former head of the Nazi-fronted "Untergang" is killed (for the second time) and Doc's lover Monk is violently attacked and hospitalised. As the different worlds of these three men clash in spectacular fashion, mysteries are unravelled and long held secrets revealed - and not everyone will emerge unscathed.

So this is possibly be one of the most enjoyable retro-steam-punky homage to the authors favourite characters novels I've read in a good few years. Heroes and villains ply their trade in a alternative United Socialist States of America where Joe McCarthy started a second Civil War. New York is a steam-powered city where psychedelia rubs shoulders with punk and mad science collides with superheroes.

Ewing displays his influences loud and proud (Doc's nemesis is called Lars Lomax after all), but rather than being a poor mans rip-off, we ends up with a rip-roaring adventure featuring the archetypes of pulp fiction and comics history. It's Philip Jose Farmer's 'Wold Newton' universe via Alan Moore's "Tom Strong" but with an awful lot more violence.

It proves once again that Ewing is capable of taking what might seem to be a well-trodden or dull old idea and breathing new life into it. This is a novel packed with imagination and brimming with confidence. The characters might be familiar but the world-building here is just excellent. To be honest you could remove the "Pax Britannia" strapline and let this world stand on it's own. I'd compare it to the best of the George R.R. Martin edited "Wild Card" novels, which for me is high praise indeed.

Jonathan Green might be happy extolling the moribund adventures of Britain's most cliched super-spy, but Al Ewing is forging ahead with the best kind of alternate-world novel - one that takes existing tropes but still tells an exciting original story. I can't wait for book three, "Pax Omega". Highly recommended !

Random Ravings 10 - I Worship His Shadow

So what media have I consumed recently? Something big...

Black Science Deluxe Edition Volume 1 - The Beginner's Guide To Entropy

As time has moved on and I have got older, my comics purchasing has changed. Sure there is still the regular weekly dose of "2000 AD" and monthly "Judge Dredd Megazine",  but there are almost no US comics where I now purchase individual issues - like many I've shifted to getting the trade paperback collections. Where in the early days these used to be somewhat sporadic and could stop with next to zero notice - leaving readers hanging - it's now a normal occurrence to see entire runs collected in this form as a second revenue stream. I have the entirety of "Astro City", "Fables" and "Ex Machina" sitting on my bookshelf rather than in a long comic box.

What's also become prevalent in recent years is the rise of oversized hardback collections of a particularly notable title. I used to be somewhat dismissive of these thinking "I can just get the trades", but just in the last twelve months or so I've been drawn towards them more as a fantastic way to show off the beauty and skill of the artwork - plus they look great on a shelf.  The huge DC "Absolute" editions are generally excellent but very pricey, so I have splashed out on just two of those so far - the complete "V For Vendetta" and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman Volume 1". There were other similar sized things from independent publishers, but nothing has caught my eye.

More affordable are the Image Comics "Deluxe" versions, originally pioneered by Ed Brubaker across his multiple collaborations with Sean Murphy. Larger that the monthly comics or the trades but no where near the heft of the "Absolute" format, they look incredibly inviting. Image has extended this formula to a number of their other popular series and I've been tempted enough to pick a few up, mainly based on whether I think the story / art is worthy of the extra investment.

The "Judge Dredd" comic is shown over the "Airboy" hardback to illustrate the size difference

However recently having perused a couple of digital editions of the monthlies and liked what I saw, I purchased the first deluxe edition of "Black Science" a creator owned SF series by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera. When it arrived in the post I discovered that this was a different order of magnitude from the other hardbacks:

(Monthly comic vs "normal" Deluxe vs "Black Science"

This is almost the size of the "Absolute" books, which I was not expecting (but much less expensive). It's a weighty tome, containing the first sixteen issues of the comic plus background material. Rather than trying to consume it in one go, I limited myself to a single issue a night, so I had time to absorb the big concepts within...

So the question now is was it any good and does this story justify the larger size?

I can honestly say the answer is a resounding yes...

"Black Science" is like a dark, violent pulp version of the old TV show "Sliders". Anarchistic scientist Grant McKay has spent his life working on the "Pillar" - a device that will allow travel through the infinite alternate worlds of the Eververse. Since everything is possible somewhere in the layers of what he terms the "Onion", Grant and his team plan to trawl the dimensions for the solution to all the planets ills. A cure for cancer, unlimited clean energy, faster than light travel - it's all just a hop away.

While celebrating the completion of the project, the device activates unexpectedly, grabbing McKay and his team plus his two children, a security guard and  Kadir, an old college rival. Flung randomly into the increasingly dangerous worlds of the Eververse, the "Dimensionauts" need to try and find a way back home to their own universe. The problem is something is wrong with the Pillar. The homing beacon and timer have been smashed, maybe sabotaged. They cannot control their destinations and with the Pillar now powering up at unpredictable intervals, on every different world they could be stuck for an hour or a week or forever...

The thing is, the further they get into the Onion, the more they discover that they are not the only ones travelling the dimensions. After all, in an Eververse of infinite possibilities, there must be alternative versions of themselves - alternate version of the Pillar - which means in some places they get there first and in others their alternate selves did - and things did not always end well with the locals. Life may have developed very differently too - in fact their first jump brings them to a layer where intelligent amphibians with electrical energy powers are the dominant species - and they are *not* friendly.

There is much, much more to this, including exactly what all this travel is doing to the Eververse, and Remender keeps the twists and turns coming. It's very fast paced. Anything goes. No one is safe from the terror and violence and characters can die suddenly. A lot of the backstory is also told via flashbacks across multiple chapters, which means that revelations about character relationships or the reasons behind their actions or agendas take time to develop. All of the main characters are flawed in some way. Grant McKay is cynical, obsessed and self-absorbed. Kadir obviously has a big chip on his shoulder. Grant's daughter Pia is not as helpless as she first seems. No one could be called one-dimensional or black and white. What helps with this is that each chapter is narrated by the internal monologue of a different member of the team, so you really get inside their heads, their hopes and fears and so on.

As for the art? Well it's just beautiful, especially on this larger scale. I've not seen any other comics with work by Matteo Scalera, but after reading this I will definitely be looking out for them. Some of the pages are simply stunning. Surreal alien landscapes, bizarre creatures and frantic action - Scalera manages to make it all look effortless. Sometimes the pages are jam-packed with detail and sometimes there is a quiet calm with a huge double splash page of the vast scenery. There is a hint of Jim Cheung in some of his art, but with a more angular pointed style. I also really like the paint splatter effects that occur throughout the book, as if the artist was working so passionately that the brush was flinging ink everywhere. What really makes it work though is the colours by Dean White and others. Sometimes there are more hues on display in one page than in entire issues of other series.

Remender, Scalera, and White have created a universe full of mysteries that are only beginning to be explored in this first collection. What lies at the heart of the "Onion"? How can the team get home and what is the nature of the true threat they face? All extremely interesting questions. As far as I know this storyline is set to run to around a maximum of 40 issues, so answers will be coming. I'll certainly be there for the second volume.

Random Ravings 9 - Swiftnick

Another grab-bag of capsule reviews...

Broadchurch series 3 episode 1

It's hard to imagine a TV series in recent years which fell so far from being the most talked about show of the week to apparently having people switching off in their millions. "Broadchurch" series one was a fine example of today's slow paced TV detective shows which had the nation gripped to find out who killed young Danny Latimer to a degree that hadn't been seen in years. With two damaged yet sympathetic leads played by Olivia Coleman and David Tennant, creator Chris Chibnall breathed new life into the "whodunnit".

It was an almost impossible act to follow and instead of opting for following another case with our two polices officers, the second series chose to focus on the fallout from series one and the subsequent trial of the alleged murderer. The fickle British public wanted more of what they had seen before and were less that impressed with what they got.

For season three Chibnall appears to have gone back to basics and since expectations are not as high, it's a chance to blend the best elements of the previous two series. Dealing incredibly sensitively with the aftermath of a sexual assault, it is already after one episode looking like a return to form. Tennant and Coleman have slipped back into their roles with ease and along with the new investigation we also have the added mystery of why DI Alec Hardy returned to the area to work on the local police force (quite some time seems to have passed since he left at the end of the last episode). It's all heightened by that haunting, heartbeat driven music from Olafur Arnauld. Apaprently there are fifty potential suspects, so its clear we will get lot's of twists and turns over the next few weeks.

It's possible that based on this, "Broadchurch" may quickly return to being ITV's most talked about drama.


Ben-Hur (2016)

I watched this more out of curiosity than anything else, as this is one of those films where you just think "Why on earth would anyone want to remake a stone-cold classic?". Is it possible that Timur Bekmambetov (an interesting if wildly uneven director) could add something new to the well known story? Sadly the answer is no. It was marketed as a "re-telling" of the original novel, but that means it has so many of the same beats as the 1959 Oscar winner that you can't help but make comparisons.

Part of the problem is that this has been cut within an inch of its life. Sometimes good stories need a long running time, but as this is only a little over two hours long, it has to quickly lurch from place to place (utilising a voiceover and sudden "five years later" captions to fill in many of the gaps) all in service of getting to that chariot battle (the entire film is really a flashback as Messala and Ben-Hur are about to race). It means you are just waiting for it to turn up and not invested in the bits in between.

Elsewhere other scenes that could have benefited from modern filming techniques are rendered dull by strange directorial choices  - the naval battle is largely shown from below decks for example, and although one could argue that it gives a claustrophobic sense of the fate of the slaves, it just all feels so...one note. Jack Huston is a decent enough actor but he's no Charlton Heston. You never really feel than Judah Ben-Hur is in any danger (in fact my wife was more bothered about fate of the gorgeous white stallions). Oh and the last ten minutes feel like they were running out of time and had to tack something on to wrap it all up.

Sadly the sandals really are too big to fill. Sometimes you really should just leave things alone.


Judge Dredd: Mega-City Zero

Over the last forty years, many, many writers have tried to put their own stamp on the adventures of Mega-City One's finest lawman. I can guarantee though that you have never seen a Dredd like this before. Waking up in a grassy wilderness, the Judge finds that his city and it's 800 million inhabitants are almost all gone. What Cityblocks remain are overgrown with hundreds of years of vegetation and the few meagre citizens have descended into tribalism. Teaming up with three teenage girls, Dredd must try to find out what on Earth has happened to Mega City One and is there still a place for the word of law in this violent, strange world.

The art by Dan McDaid (from "Jersey Gods") is rough and scratchy but kinetic, with a distinct European feel. There are frequent sections across the run that have no dialogue, and you need a decent artist to be able to communicate visually what is going on. McDaid also draws a  mean Dredd with bushy grey beard! Issue six also has a guest stint by the legendary Jesus Redondo, which was a exciting surprise. I also have to mention the unusual covers to each issue which are very distinctive.

Writers Ulises Farinas And Erick Freitas are clearly going for a "fish out of water" feel along with some strong underlying themes about social behavior and the influence of the internet. Their twelve issue storyline is big on ideas and "out-there" concepts but perhaps lacking in clarity occasionally. At times it can be a confusing read. Just which is the true reality? There are multiple alternates here. Saying that I'm all for comics that make you work a little and maybe I just need to read the whole thing in one go. Some ideas concerning Dark Judge cultists stealing babies to use in their experiments and a "troll" that gets larger the angrier he gets are also interesting - I'm just not sure if this concept would have worked better as a stand-alone post apocalyptic piece with a different lead character. You have to give them kudos for trying something different though and I'm still intrigued enough to pick up the follow-up story "The Blessed Earth".

Random Ravings 8 - Baby Grobags

Just time for a look at a few movies I've seen recently...

Arrival
An intelligent, thoughtful, mysterious, epic yet inmate and wonderfully acted piece of science fiction cinema. It's Amy Adams's film throughout and she doesn't disappoint. It reminded me a little of "Contact", but only in the best possible ways. My wife was less enamoured but still enjoyed it and was the first of us to figure out one of the film's big twists (I worked out the other). Sadly the deception of how nations, governments and the military would respond to an alien visitation is entirely accurate.

Passengers
The trailers seemed to promise an action-packed space movie, but this is so much more than that.  Both Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are on fine form and have a real chemistry - essential as they are basically on their own for 90% of the running time. I really don't understand why it has been so critically mauled  The production design is also just incredible.

Fifty Shades Darker
Look I had to take one for the team and go with my wife okay? All I can say is that it was better than the first one - but that's like saying botulism is better than tuberculosis.

John Wick Chapter 2
I thought the first film was one of the best action movies of the last decade and this sequel is just as much violent, bloody fun. It's rare that an actor gets more than one iconic role is their career, but Keanu Reeves now has two - Neo and Mr John Wick. The film manages to keep up the pace of it's predecessor, while expanding the world of the assassins. I also have to praise the cinematographer as the use of light and colour throughout is exceptional. This film looks amazing. Roll on Chapter 3...

The 9th Life of Louis Drax
Now this is an odd one. A mystery which is one part supernatural, one part domestic drama and two parts is this all in someones head. I couldn't quite work out what it was trying to be and although the final revelation is shocking the parts don't really add up to the whole. It just all felt a bit uneven. However twelve year old Aiden Longworth is uniformly excellent as the "accident prone" boy who ends up in a coma. He's going to be someone to watch.

Random Ravings 7 - Kung Fu Kapers

I was in the midst of writing a piece on a certain 40th birthday party I attended last weekend but, it's turned into a much bigger piece than expected, so that's to come later. I've not watched any new TV series or movies recently and I only part way through my latest novel. What to do?

Well strangely my 87 year old father came to the rescue. I popped in to visit him yesterday morning and he was in the midst of a clear out of the loft space - specifically disposing of a number of old suitcases that he felt he no longer needs. Having helped him bring the cases down from the loft, a couple didn't feel quite so empty as he expected. Opening them up, we discovered that one contained my brothers "Hornby" electric train set. Trains, carriages, tracks - everything was there. The other case contained these:

I took that picture on my phone today. That's the majority of my "Micronauts" action figures from the 1970s - which I thought had been thrown away decades ago !

So I'm kind of breaking my own rules here slightly as this is not going to be a review of something recent, but more about something I've *found* recently - and sharing the giddy excitement that a nearly 50 year old man can still get when he claps eyes on a lost piece of his childhood...

I've written here before about how the "Micronauts" comic was one of the first full colour titles I ever discovered and how that led to a lifetime's interest in US format comics. I keep promising myself that one day I'll do a detailed issue-by issue look back at those stories and try and put into words exactly what they mean to me.

But these simple plastic toys, I'll be honest - I seriously *loved* them. Out of all the games and playthings I had as a child, the "Interchangeable World of the Micronauts" has always been the one I remember with the most happiness. Part was the otherworldly look of them and part was that thanks to the universal connectors and "magno-action" function you could mix almost any combination of parts to design your own creations. Add to that a brothers favourite thing of firing rubber and plastic missiles at his sibling and you had one of the best toy series in the world. Just looking at the names of the various sets and figures sends waves of nostalgia through me. Microtron. Biotron. Time Traveller. Baron Karza. Force Commander. Giant Acroyear. Phobos. the Astro Station. All brilliant.

Many years ago when I left my parents home to make my own way in the world I had rescued the evil Baron Karza from the clutches of my brother before he claimed ownership - but he had no box and was missing many of his pieces including his hands (which fired from his wrists) and most of the other accessories. Now here in this rediscovered treasure trove are all the lost elements, along with Karza's nemesis, the white clad Force Commander:

Looking across the items  laid out on the table it's clear to see that the cardboard containers have seen far, far better days. These were toys that were lovingly played with - not kept pristine in a sealed box. A few small pieces are missing or glued together and Phobos seems to have lost his cow-like silver head (that's Acroyear's head on the black body on the right of the picture) and one hand. But a bit of internet detective work proved that 99% of Acroyear and the Astro Station is there and Biotron still has his Time Traveller sitting in his chest compartment. I'm not sure I have the guts to try and find batteries to fit the compartments and see if either of the giant robots can still walk or travel on the rubber tank tracks attached to their backs. Microtron also looks a little dusty and worse for wear but nothing a little TLC won't cure.
 

There were a couple of other Micronaut toys that I remember we had at some point - in particular two vehicles called Hydra and the Photon Sled which you could wind up and make shoot across the floor. There was no sign of them in that suitcase so I have to assume that they were broken and thrown away. Still there is always a chance that they are laying abandoned in some other dusty corner of the loft...

These were the only ones that we ever were bought. There were many more released in the UK - including a whole range of vehicles - Crater Cruncher, Hydro Copter, Betatron, Gammatron, Aquatron and the Ultronic Scooter are the few I can remember - plus the huge looking Battle Cruiser and Star Defender and a 14 inch tall "Mobile Exploration Lab" There were also amazing looking "horses" for Baron Karza and Force Commander - called Andromeda and Oberon - that you could combine to turn the two leaders into centaur-people.

But you'll notice that the logo on these boxes is "Airfix" and not "Mego". That's because Airfix licensed the toys for the UK market from the US company. The problem with that is that the leaflets that accompanied the toys were the original Mego ones, and that meant British kids saw pictures of a vast number of weird and wonderful Micronauts that they had no chance of ever getting because they were just not released in the UK. Some of the smaller pieces didn't matter so much but who didn't want the simply mega-tastic "Stratastation" or the exotic Terraphant, Pharoid or Hornetroid. I know I did!

A quick look on eBay shows that good condition copies of these vintage toys can sell for quite a lot of money - one of the reason that I abandoned trying to rebuild the collection a long, long time ago. Even spares and odd parts seem to be popular. I'm so happy that they have turned up now. Maybe I can persuade my wife to let me buy just a couple more...

Random Ravings 6 - Thank God it's Friday, Again

I'm trying to catch up on a number of other TV shows that I have unfortunately missed over the last year. Here's some quick thoughts on what I have seen so far.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 3 (completed)
The biggest problem with this show is that there are too many episodes per season. If they cut down to say thirteen a year it would make the storylines more focused, the characters have more urgency and the padding less obvious. The Inhuman plot has been going on way too long and Grant Ward / Hive turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Let's hope he's dead once and for all. I'll keep persevering though if only for Clark Gregg, who is entertaining no matter what he's doing.

Stranger Things Season 1 (four episodes in)
Yes I know I'm well past the zenith of the popularity and water-cooler chat for this show but I have to say - the hype was right. It's brilliantly acted, impeccably plotted, well paced and feels like I am mainlining every great 80s movie at once. I'm struggling to only watch one a week. The wife gave up when it started to become a bit scary (she's a real horror-phobe) but I'm loving every second.

Mr. Robot Season 1 (six episodes in)
This is a difficult one because for every great episode so far there has been one where is seemed to be going nowhere. The last one I saw with the shock twist regarding Shayla was excellent though. Thankfully Tyrell continues to be the oddest, most deviant corporate villain in recent memory, Christian Slater plays Christian Slater as if he's never been away but Eliot is at turns fantastically clever and frustratingly stupid. It does raise some interesting questions about big business and globalisation and I want to like the show but I'm not 'feeling it'' really. Still with only four episodes left of season one hopefully the pace will start to pick up.

Suits Season 6 (six episodes in)
I used to adore "Suits". After the end of "Boston Legal" it was the smartest, funniest legal drama on television and in Gabriel Macht they found a genuine star. The problem is, they wrote themselves into a corner with the plot about Mike being a fake lawyer, so they had to bite the bullet and get him found out and put in prison at the end of season five. It was a bold choice to start season six as an exact follow on from that moment rather than jumping forward in time, but I'm not convinced it was the right one.

Now the show has become even more insular with everything serving the attempt to get Mike out of jail quicker. It feels like all the characters do is argue with each other, Harvey Spector jumps through ever more elaborate hoops and seemingly can break the law whenever he feels like it and the once lovable Louis Litt has become a parody of himself to almost cartoon-like proportions. There is no way I am giving up on the show yet, but it's beginning to feel like it's best days are behind it.

Legends Of Tomorrow Season 2 (six episodes in)
It's cheesy. It's lightweight. It's characters are paper-thin. But ultimately it's just fun. This is super-heroics that harken back to more innocent, less cynical age. It was a shame they lost Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold, as his dry slow delivery of  every line was a highlight of season one and the lack of Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter so far this year hasn't helped (although I know he'll be back at some point). I doubt I'll ever want watch it again, but it's harmless 'comfort food' television - and sometimes we all need that.

Daredevil Season 1 (five episodes in)
I'd really been looking forward to watching this and so far it hasn't let me down one bit. For me, Charlie Cox is perfect casting as Matt Murdoch and Vincent D'Onofrio makes a chillingly amoral Wilson Fisk. The fight scenes are extremely well choreographed and while there is a lot of violence (that 'head in the car door' sequence in episode four was brutal) it's not gone over the top. If I have one criticism it's that I'd like to actually see Matt use his 'powers'  more but maybe that will come with time. Thankfully they have not gone down the full Frank Miller route but seem to be combining the best of the various comic book runs across the decades. A straight tie with "Stranger Things" as my favourite of  this crop of shows.

Preacher Season 1 (five episodes in)
This is not the classic comic book. It may have the name. It may have the characters. It may even use some elements of the plots. But an awful lot has been changed. It's definitely only "inspired by the work of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon". Some of it is fine - I have no problem with Tulip as a black woman for example or the changing of the timeline of certain events, but other parts - I'm not so sure. Odin Quincannon should not appear this early, nor was he a resident of Anville. Where is Jesse Custer's tragic backstory relating to his hideous grandmother? (at the moment we seem to just have something about his dad also being a preacher). Oh and Joe Gilguin as Cassidy? He ruined "Misfits" for me and his hapless mugging is only just about tolerable here.

It's agonisingly slow in places. The Saint of Killers story in the Old West should be in every episode but only seems to pop up intermittently so you forget what happened previously. It feels like this is a six episode season stretched out to fill ten hours. Before you think it's all griping from me, there are positives. The scenery is stunning. There is a good mix of gore and weirdness and comedy. The fallout from Jesse telling Quincannon to serve God were brutally shocking. I have hopes that these first few episodes were all just scene-setting and the real story is going to start soon. Fingers crossed.