Writing comics as a second job

Starting out in the comic book industry from a regular 9 to 5 job must be difficult, no one expects to get the top tier books immediately and so for some the comic gig is probably the night time and weekend job while waiting for that chance at a big shot title. Khoi Pham artist of The Mighty Avengers was a lawyer by day and an artist by night (although he has since quit being a lawyer to be a full time artist) but what about those not in the regular jobs what about those who work in the entertainment biz?

Being famous or working on something famous carries a certain stigma, everyone either demands high quality from the products they make, create etc or they are berated for being money grabbing bastards taking away from the professionals. When it comes to comics it is a little of column A and column B. In recent years there has been an influx of Hollywood writers writing for comics, mainly Marvel, writers such as Lost’s Damon Lindelof, Grey’s Anatomy’s Allen Heinberg and Clerks’ Kevin Smith have all had moderate, if not cult success with their titles in Marvel for pretty much the same reason, their projects have been delayed.

In Heinberg’s case it was a few months delay between issues of Young Avengers, with fans awaiting the ‘second season’ of it while he gets enough scripts written before it gets solicited. In the case of Lindelof, his Ultimate Wolverine v Hulk had been delayed a few years and is only now getting finished, and the less said about Smith’s Daredevil: Target the better, issue 2 hasn’t even seen the light of day and never will. Heck even X-Men director Bryan Singer was meant to write an arc of Ultimate X-Men, which will never see print even if there were scripts as the series ended fairly recently and yet fans still demand it.

Obviously having a TV/Movie writer, taking a crack at comic book characters is very appealing to both a comic company and to fans of the TV series and movies that these writers have been involved in however for TV writers the demands of rewrites during rehearsals and on shooting days can often mean the demands for something which for them is more of a personal project than a career/job is put on the back burner leading to delays.

There are some such as Paul Cornell, J Michael Straczynski and Jeph Loeb who are able to work two lives of movie/TV writer (or in Jeph Loeb’s case executive producer) and comic book writer without many delays to their projects however since gaining some critical acclaim for his script for Changeling, Straczynski’s comic work (Marvel’s Thor and DC’s Brave and the Bold) has suffered some delays and in the case of the latter the project has yet to start, at least until there are a sufficient number of scripts for the book to run without delays I should imagine.

There have been some stars who have worked on comics in the past, Nic Cage worked with his son on a comic book series for Virgin Comics called Voodoo Child, entrepreneur and occasional rock star Gene Simmons has his own line of books as well as the KISS comics and even porn star Jenna Jameson created a comic book for Virgin Comics (which sounds ironic doesn’t it) called Shadow Hunter, although none has been as popular as My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy published by Dark Horse. Way has been smart with his title, while keeping the same creative team, Way writes his Umbrella Academy in seasons rather than as an ongoing, a method which is proving to be successful so far.

Why are we watching The Wire?

The BBC is showing the critically acclaimed show The Wire in its entirety over 60 days (five nights a week) the series ran of 5 seasons with 60 episodes made. It shows a street level view of Baltimore, examining two sides of a very similar coin, the cops and the gangs, both sets of people have a bleak outlook on the state of things in the city perhaps even the world.

This is my first time watching The Wire so if my description of the show is grossly inaccurate please forgive me, and it is also a genre of television I am slowly getting into. Before tonight my idea of 'a cop show' was Bones and Dexter although they're more grouped with the forensic shows I guess.

Anyway, tonight saw the first screening of episode 1 series 1 of The Wire and it was quite good, there are times where it felt that the camera was more of a fly on the wall watching the events unfold on the streets of Baltimore where the kids sell drugs within the tight neighbourhood, giving a sense that those who have to sell drugs are confined or condemned to just spend the rest of their lives there.

On the otherside of the fence with the cops theres a real intrigue over the identitiy of Avon Barksdale, who is the 'man' who is overseeing the drugs polluting the streets of Baltimore.

The show boasts quite a large cast so at times it's often difficult to know who's who but hopefully after this intial opening episode the cast will be smallish every episode so that the characters shine a bit more as often the large amount of characters to follow seemed to detract from the show, but you haveto remember this is a show that seems to pride itself on the street level realism so of course there will be more players and I should imagine the cast will grow.

Overall it is a solid first episode, and it will take a few episodes to get into as the story unfolds.

The seven films I really can't wait to see this year that haven't been released yet

Dragonball Evolution: Based on Akira Toriyama's 42 volumed manga series Dragonball, which was the first manga series I read, the characters don't look quite right but from the stuff I've seen from trailers it looks quite good and has the feel of the manga to it.
Iron Maiden: Flight 666:A documentary on Maiden's latest World Tour, hopefully there'll be a few full live tracks within the documentary, though its only on for one night only it may be easier to catch it on DVD but how could you pass on the opportunity to see one of the biggest metal bands on the big screen.
Star Trek: I'm not that much of a trekkie anymore and I wasn't that big of a fan of the original series but I'm interested in seeing what J.J. Abrams has done with the film.
Terminator: Salvation: I'm liking this take of the Terminator franchise, it's nice to see that despite that all was done, the future that everyone tried to prevent, happened.
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: There looks like theres alot going on in this film with bigger villains and more explosions than all of Michael Bay's films put together, it'll definetly be the film of the summer.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Don't really remembering seeing this as a kid but it looks good, since I don't remember seeing it I have a feeling I won't have a high expectation of this.
Astro Boy: Another manga adaptation this time done in CGI Animation, while the animation does look rather Americanised, Astro Boy himself looks closely to the way he was drawn by Osamu Tezuka, while it is animation it'll be aimed at kids but I'll be going because I really like the story Tezuka crafted

so much (world) music the world has to offer, If only we would/could listen to it all

Music is very much like a prescription drug for me, I need to hear something with a beat at least once a day otherwise the day feels empty somehow, although there are times when I feel that music gets a bit samey. Broadening my tastes to other genres is pretty easy having presented shows where there is a good mix of different genres helps immensely but there comes a time (for me at least) when the music scene which populates the UK market becomes slightly stale with its overpopulation of similar acts and manufactured pop acts.

It’d make a change for something outside the ordinary to enter the play lists of big name ‘chart’ radio stations to reach the ears of the listeners but instead end up on stations with a smaller demographic of listeners or as featured artists on the likes of Later with Jools Holland. However with the internet and a wider selection of digital television and radio channels the music's there, if you’re willing to find it.

I’m slowly becoming more and more comfortable listening to music from other countries, despite the difficulties understanding the language, but music is better when you have to work out the message and the meaning behind it, and when faced with a foreign language it adds a hint of mystery to the song, often having to sense the feel of the song from the tone and the tempo of the track.

At the moment my preferred world music of choice is J-Pop and J-Rock thanks to the amount of actual J-Pop songs that get used as intro or ending songs for Anime series and films. The only problem is getting to listen to the full version of songs.

Websites such as Last Fm and YouTube make it easier to look for songs from different countries, however while there are some CD’s available to buy from music stores like iTunes or HMV I have yet to find a J-Pop CD which is less than £30 often only being just a full album and in some cases a DVD is featured. Even artists like Hikaru Utada who record albums in English barely get an eye bat or even a CD in the shop and yet Russian group t.A.T.u can bring out an English version of their first album and get in the charts (ok admittedly the video for their song All The Things She Said did have them snogging each other which probably boosted sales somewhat) perhaps this may change after all Dragonball Evolution which is out in April has a J-Pop song as its main theme is Ayumi Hamasaki's Rule.

Well one can dream for now until then I'm going to try and find more world music to listen to.

Come back TV

Tonight I watched an old show that I hadn't seen in quite a while on DVD with a few friends. The show was Dinosaurs* and after laughing at the numerous jokes in each episode I got thinking why the show only ran for 4 seasons? OK in fairness I only watched season 1 and a third of season 2 tonight so I couldn't comment on whether the quality of jokes got bad or not. I also started thinking 'wouldn't it be cool if the show was brought back' I wasn't alone in my thoughts.

However with the advancement of technology an animatronic based show probably wouldn't do as well unless it was specifically aimed at young children (which this show wasn't really, more of an all ages thing) and I don't think I could sit and watch a CGI Dinosaurs show, it just wouldn't be as funny. But give Jim Henson's production company the chance to give the show a second chance at creating new stories, I think it'd be a hit.

But what else could come back to the small screens? Revamped shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who and Gladiators have proved to be just as popular as they were when they originally aired and Sci-Fi/Comedy show Red Dwarf is returning to the TV for a one off even though the show got to conclude naturally. Could a show like the Young One's be brought back with perhaps a new cast and one of the originals in the Alexei Sayle role (or even Alexei Sayle himself?) or how about a show like Cheers or Taxi revamped but set elsewhere? Who knows but with some of the revamps that have been cropping up recently perhaps TV execs are probably raiding the vaults to see what shows they could mine for ratings.

*The Dinosaurs DVD was a US import which had to be ordered from there just in case you start looking for it.

Who Listens to the Watchmen

This is the final part of my look at the Watchmen, (part one is here http://toomanyfandoms.blogspot.com/2009/03/who-reads-watchmen.html and part two is here http://toomanyfandoms.blogspot.com/2009/03/who-watches-watchmen.html)

When I reviewed the Watchmen film I neglected to mention the soundtrack (and the Bowie/Jagger/Village People cameo's although they were by actors not the real musicians themselves) so what makes the soundtrack good for this film? Well how about the simple factthat every track sounds like it is a part of the story, in fact some of the tracks tell abit of the story, solets go through the tracklist of the Watchmen Soundtrack and see whats in there.

BEWARE there may be spoilery parts below

1. My Chemical Romance- Desolation Row: This punky offering from MCR is the only modern band to appear on the soundtrack, covering the Bob Dylan classic. My Chemical Romance's sound sounds like it fits the 80's punk vibe and is probably what Pale Rider's* music would have sounded like.
*fictional band whose concert is teased in the graphic novel.
2. Nat King Cole- Unforgettable: An odd choice of song for a fight sequence but it's not just the soundtrack for the fight, it's the last performance of the Comedian, his last dance if you will as he remembers his past and grieves for the good old days.
3. Bob Dylan- The Times They Are A-Changin': The perfect song to capture the history of the Watchmen from the 40's to the time that the Watchmen takes place, showing the growing darkness that happens as the times get further away from the golden age of colourful costumes and descends into the public turning their heroes into outlaw vigilantes
4. Simon & Garfunkel- The Sound Of Silence: A fitting eulogy to the man known as The Comedian, a man who probably viewed the darkness as his friend or at the very least saw it as a companion.
5. Janis Joplin- Me And My Bobby McGee: A song that sounds perfect for the bar scene in the film and yet is such a polar opposite to what is going on onscreen.
6. K.C. & The Sunshine Band- I'm Your Boogie Man: This song is featured in a flashback set in the late 70's where this disco influenced song would have populated the clubs and seen every man struting his way to the next dance, which is pretty much how this scene feels except it's more about extreme crowd control than dancing.
7. Billie Holiday- You're My Thrill: Originally used in the graphic novel as a soothing song to play to survivors of a burning building it shows Silk Spectre's love for Dr Manhattan and the fascination that comes with loving a strange being.
8. The Philip Glass Ensemble- Pruit Igoe & Prophecies: This is basically Dr Manhattan's theme tune, rthymic and also it feels fitting to a being with god like abilities with the chants and the gradual build on the strings. The song sounds very at home on Mars with Dr Manhattan as he reflects on how he came to be.
9. Leonard Cohen- Hallelujah: The song sounds really fitting for the scene it is in in the film, for so many reasons, all I can really say about this is I'm betting this is what Nite Owl was thinking.
10. Jimi Hendrix- All Along The Watchtower: This song has some of the story of the Watchmen in it already and as a song that sets up the third act, it really sets the scene up especially the third verse which is synched perfectly with the action perfectly it is almost like Hendrix wrote and performed this song specifically for the film.
11. Budapest Symphony Orchestra- Ride Of The Valkyres: A homage to Apocalypse Now, if it had included a giant semi naked blue guy who could blow people up just by pointing at them. This sounds like the perfect song for a walking Deus ex machina.
12. Nina Simone- Pirate Jenny: This song didn't feature in the film but does feature in the Black Freighter DVD, this song is about the approach of the Black Freighter and the only person who knows of its impending arrival is a maid, could it be the same Black Freighter that appears in the story in the Watchmen? Who knows, but this haunting song sends shivers up my spine.

Who Watches the Watchmen

Creator Alan Moore said it was unfilmable, Terry Gilliam said that restricting The Watchmen to a two and a half hour film would take away the essence of what The Watchmen is, and yet to a large extent Zac Snyder has managed to keep the core essence of the story (well OK The Black Freighter material isn't in the film but it is coming out on dvd though it will be in an extended version of The Watchmen DVD but I don't really like that part of the story).

I feel that the film is probably the most accurate retelling of the graphic novel that can be achieved at this time in terms of scope, effects and direction. The question is, is it worth watching? Well, yes although only if you were truly interested in seeing the movie twice. See you have to watch the film twice (a)because it is long and there aren't any ad breaks or pause buttons in the movie screens and (b) there's a lot to take in.

Although to be fair the two hour forty plus minutes of The Watchmen didn't feel overly long at all, at no point did I feel the need to reach for my watch, its paced very well. The sets have this great feel of the comic book come to life,it's very evident that Snyder and his production team poured alot of effort in recreating the 1985 world The Watchmen are in.

The acting is really great, Rorschach sounds exactly how he should sound, in contrast Dr Manhattan doesn't really sound that 'godlike' often he sounds to soft and caring which doesn't really fit the 'uncaring Superman' character Moore intended him to be. Ozymandias is the only living 'Watchman' who gets little screentime so it is often hard to get behind this character, perhaps its intentional if you know the role Ozy plays in the film.

Now every film has it's flaws and without being too spoilery here are what I thought were The Watchmen's flaws, firstly Nixon's presence in the film was a bit excessive, I realise he was in it a lot so that it reminded everyone that this was an alternate 1985 and not the modern day (though the appearance of the World Trade Center buildings may have been a clue to that too), music that was relevant to Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II's trip out in Archie was used earlier in the film which kinda irked me slightly and finally in one instance Rorschach calls his mask his mask when he refers to it as his face.

One of the biggest worries for the film is the climax, while the movie ending was fantastically orchestrated, I preferred the far fetched climax of the comic but that's just me.

There are some funny moments that aren't that intentional but nevertheless can 'raise' a smile, you wouldn't find something like that in a traditional superhero movie and traditional superhero movie this isn't and I think if you go to see this film with that in mind it may be more enjoyable.

Who Reads the Watchmen

Welcome to part one of my look at Watchmen the phenomena that's currently going on, starting with the Graphic Novel (or 12 part mini series depending on how you perceive it).

For those of you who don't know Watchmen is written by Alan Moore who has written V for Vendetta, Batman: Killing Joke and much more and is drawn by Dave Gibbons who has worked on Superman, Batman and Green Lantern (and was also the writer of Green Lantern Corps) it was first published in 1986 and is the only graphic novel named as Time Magazine's 100 Best English Language Novels since 1923.

Now what many people don't know is that The Watchmen was supposed to feature established characters and not the ones featured in the book,however since DC had just acquired the Charlton Comics characters and knowing what Alan Moore wanted to do with them, they decided not to let him have a crack at The Charlton characters (if you look closely there is a reference to Charlton in the book) the characters in Watchmen are actually loosely based on some of the Charlton characters.

I'll admit that the first time I read Watchmen, I had a hard time getting into the story, because the story can feel dense at times, and at first read the back up material can often feel unnecessary, but rereading it, it's inclusion provides an insight into this alternate world where Richard Nixon is still president in 1985. Although I still can't really see the point of The Black Freighter material inside, though I can guess why it's in there.

Each chapter of Watchmen is around 28 pages long, 6 pages longer than the average comic as well as back up material (except for chapter 12) and it is a slow read, even if you are a fast reader as Moore writes quite a bit of dialogue and uses alot of captions. This makes the book hard to get into at first especially if your brain is trained to read a modern comic book which often lacks captions and such wordy dialogue (unless it's a Brian Michael Bendis comic, but Bendis is nowhere near a masterful wordsmith as Moore) but the thing about the dialogue is that it really defines the characters, especially Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan.

The art is quite stylish from Rorschach's entrance into The Comedian's apartment to Dr Manhattan's appearance as just a nervous system to the horrific opening four pages of chapter 12. The only problem with the art is that it often feels constrained at times, Gibbon's mainly conforms himself to about 9 panels a page (although there are a lot of instances where he breaks his 9 panels per page to expand a scene).

Watchmen was one of the few comics that helped redefine the way fans and creators look at the comic book narrative, any trace of the happy-go-lucky era of comics slowly faded giving fans something more gritty, mature and realistic. If your thinking of picking up the graphic novel after seeing the film, my advice is to take your time reading it and once you've finished it put it away for a while before rereading it again. The book is difficult to get your head around at first but once you get further into it, it does become more enjoyable, because it isn't as predictable.

If you've read Watchmen before: did you find it hard to read at first? What's your favourite moment in the graphic novel (or issues if you got it back in the 80's)? and who is your favourite character?

Mine is Ozymandias.

Talking Comics 2

The great thing about being a comic book fan now is the fact that lots of comics are availably ten, twenty even seventy years after it first saw print thanks to trade paperback collections. There was a time when you’d have to scour long boxes to find the comic you wanted or that comic run that was from time gone by, ok not everything is collected, and there aren’t enough trees in the world for that task. But some of the important stuff from the past has been collected and most comic book companies will now reprint current runs after a few months (well DC is a bit fussy when it comes to that) in some instances having everything in one collected kinda works out cheaper than buying it in a single format and like I mentioned you can get stuff from years ago without going through musky old comics to find what you want, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anyway there is a point to this, I’ve been getting more and more trade paperbacks (mostly old runs or completed runs that I didn’t start at the time for whatever reason) and I wanna write a quick thing about them.

Batman: Child of Dreams- it’s basically Batman as a manga, it’s very intriguing Kia Asamiya (who has worked on Martian Successor Nadesico as well as Uncanny X-Men) crafts a very basic Batman tale bringing a Japanese reporter over to Gotham to cover Batman while some of Batman’s best villains are acting strange. The story is basically about fandom and how it can lead to obsession. It’s a shame that the book has been flipped from the traditional Japanese manga style to the western way of reading a comic.

Batman Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat and Part Two: Who Rules The Night- during the 90’s DC replaced many of its core characters with newer characters Batman was no exception, but it’s the way they did it in part one of Knightfall which is fantastic, over the course of the book Batman is fighting one villain after another while new villain Bane watches and waits for the moment when physically and emotionally drained he delivers a crushing blow. Part two deals with the new and more violent Batman taking to the streets in an effort to make sure no one knows that the real Batman is now wheelchair bound both of these books just add excitement to the last chapter when the payoff is really worth it.

Captain Britain and MI13 Secret Invasion- A tie in to the latest Marvel event which is dull boring and has been done to death. This tie in is ten times more fun, interesting, exciting, brilliant and shocking than the event it tied itself into. Paul Cornell (writer of Father’s Day on Doctor Who) crafts a story of alien invasion while simultaneously instilling British pride and patriotism, making this an untypical superhero book. Plus John Lennon’s in it, ok he’s an alien who was originally supposed to replace the real Lennon but decided not to.

Green Lantern: In Brightest Day: The current writer of Green Lantern (Geoff Johns) picks some of his favourite tales from Green Lantern’s past, many of the stories focus on the Silver Age Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) but also looks at tales from the other earthbound Green Lanterns and some of the known alien Lanterns, most of the stories show the mythology of the characters some are just interesting tales, it’s a good read for someone who is interested in checking out Green Lantern.

Heroes: volume 2: every week NBC publishes a webcomic to accompany the TV series about 8 pages long, sometimes reading comics online is very easy because the formats designed that way but some don’t which is why I wait until these comics are collected. Some of the comics featured in this volume are good because they add to the story however some of them don’t and they can just feel out of place and there is one comic that is the end of a multi part story which doesn’t really make any sense.

Watchmen: Ok I haven’t only just read this I read it months ago but because the film is out I decided to reread it and I enjoyed it alot better the second time round and I think it’s because I knew what to expect from the narrative and the story within the story. I'll do a more indepth look at this book very soon

Wisdom- The Rudiments of Wisdom: Written by Paul Cornell this is a mature look at the British mutant known as Pete Wisdom, from shagging fairies (the Tinkerbelle kind) to getting abit frisky with a fellow agent while on a stakeout mission, the six issues in the mini feel pretty stand alone as well as feeding into a larger narrative but its affective, and the supporting cast help to make the stories enjoyable, from a geriatric version of Captain America to a Goth fairy. Still it’s the shape shifter John the Skrull who comes out with some cracking lines, such as referring to Liverpool on a Friday night as a collective unconscious which just made me laugh.

Y The Last Man- Deluxe Edition: Collecting the first 10 issues of this book with such an amazing concept; Imagine there was only one man left after every man and animal with a Y chromosome died along with every sperm cell leaving one man (and his male monkey Ampersand) and an entire planet of women. What I like about this is that you don’t know why all but one man died or why this one guy survived. The thing that also makes it interesting is that most of the women are quite content with a maleless world going back to Amazonian ways (i.e. removing their left breast) at the end of this book there is an interesting cliff-hanger which has got me intrigued to read on. This is probably one of the most interesting comics I’ve read and there are no superheroes involved.