Okay- as part of the ongoing upgrade and 'filling in the blanks' of my website (http://thecolin1.com) I just added three Alan Moore Interviews in the comics interviews section for your perusal. Even if you're not a fan or are unfamiliar with the great man, it's well worth a read as Moore's thoughts are always worth listening to on a wide range of topics. Plus, it took me a good few hours to get it all together and add some pictures and so on so reward my work with at least a cursory glance.

http://thecolin1.com/moore_interview.htm

Turn off the lights, shut the doors, nail the eviction notices up. The house of ideas has lost it's spark. Tired sad pathetically awful plots and stilted dialogue now roam the corridors of the X-Mansion. I wrote a piece on here a few weeks ago concerning Chris Claremont being put back onto the X-Books and what a dreadful error of judgement on Joe Quesada's part it was.

But I misunderestimated how badly the books would deteriorate in the trusty hands of Mr.C. and his cohort, the always reliably mediocre Chuck Austen. The dismantling of the best run on X-Men since the Age of Apocalypse continues apace; Claremont so far has managed to reverse Morrison's ongoing death of the human genome subplot, suddenly declared that GM's Magneto from the ' Planet X' Storyline was an imposter ( ??!!) and Chuck Austen has resurrected Xorn over in the companion 'uncanny' less title...sigh...and again, sigh...


How can Marvel even pretend for one minute that a return to tired scripting, cliched and hackneyed plots and apalling beyond belief dialogue will appeal to anyon besides the most anal-retentive fanboy hardcore lives in their room reader? Didn't we get away from this in the fan-closet approach a few years ago?

And how long will they let this puerile series of quality-less periodicals continue?

I'm voting with my wallet. Joss Wheedon's 'Astonishing' book is the only x-title worth reading right now.

Leafing thru Newsarama:

”Marvel has been good to me, and I’m very happy to continue the relationships I’ve enjoyed for thirty years,” the writer said in a press release. “Now, if I may shamelessly plug my own collaborator – wait ‘til you see the work Alan’s done on Uncanny! Lightning in a bottle! Wow!”


.... Claremont's scripts I have seen so far have been tired, stale, full of cliches and plot by numbers X-plotting and even the uber-talented Alan Davis's art looks rushed and the product of a weary jaundiced eye......



Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada, said in the same release: “I can’t imagine an X-Men Universe without Chris. The mark he’s made with his quality and longevity is awe-inspiring. To coin a phrase, he’s the best there is at what he does!”

....This is the same Joe Quesada who personally took Claremont off two x-books some four years ago as the readership complained so badly and claremont's plots were so behind the times; Claremont was great thirty years ago, now it's a sad spectacle of watching a once-innovative writer rehash plots that were old when he was at his peak and sadly pale by today's standards.


Dan Buckley said, “Chris is a symbol of stability, quality, talent and vision. He brings a continuity and style to the table that is unparalleled, and it was important to us that we make sure he’s welcome and comfortable as a valued member of the team we’re trying to build.”

...Stability- perhaps; Quality, not for a long time has his name been synonymous with anything remotely resembling quality; talent was once there but has been reported missing for some time now ; His continuity is hideously convoluted, his style is best described as stilted dialogue heavy with cardboard cutout characterizations and his vision only works in one direction: backwards. ...

And the thought of Claremont coming in after Morrison is just the worst idea I have ever heard. To make matters worse is Claremont making oblique references to some of the groundwork Morrison laid during his three year tenure on ' New X-Men' by dismissing them ...as in his comments in his first issue back on ' Uncanny X-Men' when he casts doubt upon the humanity dying out in the next few generations plot-line Morrison introduced.

Marvel has managed to get many things right in the last few years, but Claremont needs to go ASAP and let some fresh innovative writer come on board to keep the titles going in the right direction.

Grant always has something interesting to say...Here's a recent interview with the man himself.

http://newsarama.com/forums/ showthread.php?s=&thread

( Preface: comics piece ,for those of you who couldn't give a monkeys damn about comics,just skip to the next bit)



For every step forward, take three steps backwards.

Marvel has just launched it's new much hyped ' Reload' for the mutant family of books ( i.e, X-Men related). The reload mainly came about as Grant Morrisson left a few months ago and Joss Wheedon agreed to do a monthly book for at least a limited run. So Marvel decides to relaunch the franchise with a whole new look and new approach and a change in the amount of titles and in some cases, the actual titles themselves.

What Quesada and co. have authorised is essentially giving the core book ( Uncanny X-men) back to Chris Claremont ( initially accompanied by Alan Davis) and spinning off satellite books such as Claremont's own relaunch of Excalibur as a sideline book concerning Prof.Xavier's post-X-men efforts to get things achieved on his integration agenda. They have also relaunched The New Mutants ( vol II) as New X-men: X-men Academy ( ???).

Now, with the exceptions of Joss Wheedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-men title, the relaunch has been pretty dreadful so far. The two main problems so far are giving Claremont two titles and the overall backwards direction that the x- family titles have taken in the reload.

When Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely revamped the X-Universe a few years ago with New X-men, it was a huge change; in both story content, characterization and an overall new organically evolving approach to both story-telling and comic-books per se. Morrison took the X-men out of costumes and changed teh whole environment they were in. He revitalised the school outlook, did more work on characters than had been done since Scott Lobdell held the reins on Uncanny some years back , boosted sales through the roof and provided exciting, literate and forward thinking stories.

Now, for anyone coming after such a creator, it would be problematic. But to put Chris Claremont back on the titles is nothing short of disastrous. Claremont was a legned back in the 1970's when he brought the X-Men up from being second stringers to make them the stars of the Marvel show. But Claremont lost it somewhere around 1986 in terms of writing ability and/or enthusiasm. When Joe Quesada came on board as EIC, he gave Claremont another shot at writing the core X-titles, and ended up having to pull him off of them as Sales were slumping badly and readers were confused by Claremont's windy prose, dangling plotlines, limp characters and overall muddy writing. Quesada made up Xtreme-X-men to keep Claremont in the fold and to keep the audience who still enjoyed Claremont's horrendously lukewarm scripts.

And now, Claremont has been given two titles again. With no explanation from Quesada as to why it should be different this time. I tried the first issue of each of his titles and I got deja-vu. Suddenly I was back in the early- mid 1980's reading bland, recycled, unrealistic stilted and yawn-inducing pap. Horrible beyond belief. And the X-men have new costumes, explained in the story as necessary to show the general public that they're heroes. Hmmmm

If this is the best Marvel can come up with for their flagship franchise, then I fear that the house of ideas is rapidly becoming the shack of desperation. It will be interesting to see how long Claremont lasts on both titles and how long it will be before the X-line implodes upon itself again and the powers that be realize how quality writing is more important than several different titles.

So, my personal advice is to try Astonishing X-men by Wheedon and Cassady- excellent first issue and the always superb New X-Men: Academy ( could the title have been any more ugly and unwieldy? ) but as for the rest of the titles, send a message to marvel by not buying sub-standard crap. They'll soon learn when sales figures drop off so badly that they will try to buy Blue Devil off of DC to get some visibility.

Summer, for some bizarre reason, seems to be the time that all the glossy magazines make ' lists' so I thought that since my lj is pretty damn glossy in it's own sad tawdry way, that therefore I should make some really useful lists of my own.

list # 1: Things you should be reading this summer

1) WARREN ELLIS: Transmet, Orbiter, his collected Essays from avatar, stormwatch, the authority, misistry of space- pretty much anything from Warren; he's a great writer, he's funny, intelligent and he writes about things that matter.

2) GLOSSY MEN'S MAGAZINES: Esquire, Vanity Fair, GQ are the leaders of the pack- Jack is also making a name for itself of late and is available in a handy small glossy size. Forget about those Godawaful ' Pseudo-porn' girlie/men's monthlies like Maxim or Blender- they're tired, last century, ick. Esquire, V Fair and co. are smart, well-written and feature a wide range of relevant issues, articles, fiction and excellent interviews. And yes, women should also be reading these publications as the vast majority of women's magazines are appalling- stuck in a rut they established in the post 1960's fervor; it's not sexist, its just sad when most women I know are more intelligent than most males I know yet they're targeted with such blandness as to make a whole new flavor of vanilla.

3) THE KINDNESS OF WOMEN: great book by J G Ballard, it's the second autobiographical book by him, following on from events in EMPIRE OF THE SUN. It's a great read and one that is funny, smart and ultimately very very human. You will laugh, you will cry and you will definitely think.

4) STEPHEN KING: yeah yeah, don't give me that. He's a magnificent writer, one of America's best ever and far more than the stereotypical perception of him as a horror writer or a genre hack. Shawshank Redemption? Yep, Stephen King. Stand by me? Yep, Stephen King. Take a look at some of his lesser known books like ' Ballad of the Flexible Bullet' , his excellent critique of horror and semi-autobiographical tome ' Danse Macabre'; and read the two superb tie-ins to each other, the classic ' Talisman' With Peter Straub and the excellent sequel' Black House' also with Mr.Straub on board as co-writer.

5) HISTORY: Get one of the Dummies series of history books- they're great, informative, entertaining and it's always good to learn from history.

And of course, as ever, words of wisdom from Mr.Warren Ellis, as posted today by him on the bad signal mailing list.

' In conversation with Slinka last
night, I determined to write a book
on raising children. It will be called
EAT THE FUCKING KOALA BEAR. I
will be very rich.'

Of all the cultures in the world, the Japanese just confuse me. SO polite on the one hand yet with some of the weirdest perversions anywhere. Check out some of these gems below, from a list of bizarre manga published in Japan.

1) Tatakae! Dainippon Teikoku (The Japanese Imperial, Go!) by Shintaro Kago. This story is an alternate history of WWII by one of the artists who appeared in Secret Comics Japan. The Japanese army have perfected a technique that turns human beings into giants, but for some reason they can only enlarge females. Patriot girls dedicate themselves to their great emperor and become giant weapons against the inhuman Allies. The girls are customized for each purpose. Some girls are made into tanks and some girls are made into battleships. Their guns are their asses and their bullets are their hard constipated shits.

2) This is the Art! by Jun Hayami. This collection of short stories is the most notorious nightmare in Japanese comics history. We see a pretty and innocent teenage girl's happy and healthy daily life, such as talking and laughing with her friend, writing a poem to her platonic boyfriend, and practicing cheerleading, all rendered in beautiful and romantic shojo manga style. Suddenly though the story is interrupted by a picture of her face being crushed by a dropping concrete block. We realize that all that had come before was her memory flashback in the moment that she was raped and killed by a psycho killer. Another story is about sissy narcissist boy who loves himself. He cuts his belly and put his penis in the slit in order to fuck himself! Readers thought Jun Hayami must be mentally ill until the reclusive artist was discovered two years ago.

3) The World is Mine by Hideki Arai. It's Clockwork Orange meets Natural Born Killers. The hero is Mon, a monster of free will. For no reason and with no emotion, he kills people. He doesn't talk much, so no one knows what's on his mind. His sidekick is Toshi, who's always expressing his hatred against humankind. Toshi and Mon start their killing spree in Hokkaido, the north end of Japan, and kill their way to Tokyo. Japanese police hunt desperately for them, but no one can stop them on their way to the capital. Meanwhile, as if following them, is Higumadon, a Godzilla-like gigantic red bear from Hokkaido. It stomps everything in its way. Finally Toshi-Mon blackmails the prime minister into doing a striptease broadcast on national television. This story sounds really stupid and meaningless, but The World is Mine is meticulously rendered in detailed super-realism. The art is elaborate, bullets tear off an innocent pedestrian's head, eyeballs pop out, brain splatters. Toshi mercilessly stabs a mother who tries to protect her baby and stomps the little one to death. To get through this comic is a challenge to your humanity.

Planetary: an ongoing excavation into the history of weirdness and wonder; a comic book series that explores the classic icons of fantasy and pulp literature

Where else will you see, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Doc Savage sharing center stage with Tarzan myths, Quantum mechanics, Fictionauts sent into an artificially created reality to retrieve that which didnt exist in the first place.


Transmetropolitan: Spider Jerusalem- outlaw in a futuristic city, dealing with political corruption and wonderful extrapolations of sci-fi staples. Superb writing, wonderful characters, great dialogue and just bloody good stories overall.


Warren Ellis writes, you should read.

Go google both titles.

Now.

When the aliens arrive, and kill our leaders
I will write them a letter
that says
'what about their kids?'

heh....

Check out Warren Ellis ( writer of much good stuff in general) on

http://www.diepunyhumans.com or his mailing list at bad signal


The above is one of the many quirky items that comes thru on the daily mailing list at bad signal.

Some people you can just talk to and feel like you're on the same planet. When you can be yourself weith someone, absolutely brutally honest and have them do the same back at you, that's something special. It's quite disarming and amazing when you can be totally upfront and say what is on your mind. Cynicism is the easy way out. Living in Ireland and England, it's more accepted to be cynical, sarcastic, mocking and to take a dim view of people who warble on about thier feelings, their thoughts and themselves. Living in the US, its somewhat different. There's just as many cynics- its a big f**king country, after all- but there are also plenty of people who haven't given in to cynicism and won't let themselves give up on people and ideals. Some of them are tossers and need to get over themselves- but if you close yourself off- you also keep the goosd stuff out. The world is changing fast. Terrence McKenna, Grant Morrisson, Warren Ellis, Alsn Moore, they all have theories about the world changing at a faster rate- about time speeding up. It's all changing dramatically, whatever you believe. But where does that leave us. Where do we fit ourselves in to a world changing so much and so fast.

Keep the faith indeed.