Friday 31 August 2007

Black Cape #17

Tuesday 28 August 2007

Understanding Comics

Here's a rare thing, it's a comic post by me. I spent a large chunk of yesterday at the library, when I was supposed to be writing, reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

Published in 1993 it's as the title says a book about understanding comics, presented by McCloud and written in the form of a comic. Kind of like Kramer's coffee table book about coffee tables it's a comic book about comics. It's both educational and entertaining.

McCloud himself is a man who never seems to stop thinking and has a number of projects ongoing at any one time. He came up with the idea for The 24-Hour Comic, which led to The 24 Hour Play.

I think 'Pish's regular comics guru will agree when I say he's a guy who's worth checking out.

Katie in the Evening Times

Here is the feature from today's Evening Times on Katie. Be warned though. There is a picture of me as well.

Black Cape #16

Monday 27 August 2007

Black Cape #15

Jack Lemmon on The Charlie Rose Show

Jack Lemmon was one of my favourite actors. Here he is on The Charlie Rose Show. This is the whole show, just under an hour. It begins with Lemmon talking about the time Ving Rhames handed his Golden Globes award to him. There are thousands more complete Charlie Rose shows available for viewing if you click through the links.

The Evening Times' New Columnist

Meet the Evening Times' newest columnist. Or look at a picture of her at least. Our pal and former colleague Katie starts writing a column on Wednesday. If you pick up an Evening Times on Tuesday you should see a feature introducing her to the readers.

Katie writes a blog linked over there on the left called Long Ayelander. All about her experiences as an American living in Glasgow it's her writing on there that's landed the new job. Plus I helped a bit.

So be sure to get the Evening Times Tuesday and Wednesday this week then every Wednesday to see what Katie's on about.

In Demand Fizzy


Its fairly common knowledge that I am to good looks what pro wrestling is to genuine sporting endeavour, and that may well be why despite being married, I’ve never really experienced the heightened attraction that is supposed to come from being hitched and unavailable.

But I’m starting to get the picture from a different perspective.

As you may have read on this very blog, I recently managed to land a job, after about 12 weeks of fairly relentless trying.

During those weeks, I barely got a sniff at a job and managed two interviews in the entire time, and that includes the one for the job I'm about to embark upon.

Weirdly though, since accepting the position I have been phoned up and invited to no less than four interviews in the space of a week and offered one job.

I can’t help but think that if I needed the work, these folk wouldn’t be calling, that there is maybe some pheromone you exude when you’re no longer desperate for cash to pay the bills.

Who knows? All I know is that after weeks of being flung the deafy from what seems like every employer in the Western hemisphere, the chance to stick two fingers up to a few of them is predictably gratifying.

Sunday 26 August 2007

Black Cape #14

Friday 24 August 2007

Black Cape #13

Thursday 23 August 2007

Black Cape #12

Black Cape #11

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Thatcher's Children

Again from The Guardian, Ken Loach, has had a go at Andrew Marr over the broadcaster's apparent 'swallowing of the whole Thatcher ideology'.

"Even Andrew Marr talked about the mighty unions and praised the fact that their power was undermined," Mr Loach told journalists.

"That idea about the unions has passed into the liberal consensus but it is the very thing that created the situation we see in this film.

"Does he really think it was a good thing, given the way people have been exploited as a result, working on the minimum wage? If Andrew Marr says that, he's happy with what we see happens in this film."

Steve Coogan on Tony Wilson

This is from yesterday's Guardian. It's Steve Coogan's tribute to Tony Wilson on the day of his funeral.

"Tony was the apotheosis of those baby boomers who wanted to reach beyond their background and find the poetry in this post-industrial landscape. He gave confidence and legitimacy to an army of haltingly insecure men.

Put simply, he showed it wasn't poofy to wear nice clothes and use long words.

But above all he was a true civic champion, who found excitement and creativity on his own doorstep. Under his stewardship, Manchester became, and still is, an alternative metropolis. That is his legacy."

Crisis at Ibrox

First we highlighted the desperation of Man U. now it looks like Rangers are in financial bother, as they start a firesale.

Or more accurately what used to be the Rangers Shop on Sauchiehall Street has become a pound shop. Only it looks like they cannae be bothered doing anything about the previous decoration.

Black Cape #10

Monday 20 August 2007

Breaking into Comics

Since 'Pish has become a hotbed of comics and comic discussion recently I thought I would post this. This is from David at Vicious Imagery.

It's a brief guide to breaking into comics that he has just reposted. He originally wrote it in December 2005.

The Bridge

Over the weekend I saw The Bridge, a documentary about The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. More accurately it’s a documentary about the suicides that occur on the bridge.

There was some
controversy about how the film was made. The filmmakers set up numerous cameras at various points across the bridge and recorded all the activity there for a year. They told the authorities that they were making a film about a year in the life of the bridge, but didn't tell them they would be focusing solely on those people who chose to jump from there.

It captures many people jumping to their death and it’s quite a haunting and affecting film. It’s such a picturesque scene it can’t help but look great visually.

There are interviews with friends and family of those who jumped. There’s footage of someone who was rescued by a passer-by and there’s an interview with
Kevin Hines. Kevin jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, but survived.

It offers no solutions for the people in the film wondering why their loved one chose to kill themselves. It also provides no suggestions for how San Francisco can stop the bridge staying the World’s no. 1 suicide hotspot.

Early on there’s a fascinating contrast that the location provides. One of the jumpers was found by two guys who were on the water
water kiting. They commented on the fact that they used the water as a celebration of life doing something they loved on it, while someone else used it to end their life.

It’s certainly not the easiest film to watch but it’s powerful, moving and totally compelling.

Here's a
review of the film from Paste magazine.

Black Cape #9

Sunday 19 August 2007

Desperation at Old Trafford

I know Man Utd are having problems up front at the moment, but surely, as this text update from the Manchester derby shows, recruiting from You Owe Me Glue is just out and out desperation.

Cloverfield

Apparently the trailer for the new JJ Abrams (creator of Lost) film is creating a wow in the States.

The film has no name, or plot, only a release date has been announced. Rumours are that it's going to be a monster movie 'America's Godzilla', which doesn't sound all that great. It features his best bud Greg Grunberg, who by now you should all be loving as Parkman in Heroes.

The official website.

Wikipedia page.

An article from today's Observer.

The trailer is below.

Friday 17 August 2007

Black Cape #8

Black Cape#7

Thursday 16 August 2007

Black Cape#6

Black Cape #5

Wednesday 15 August 2007

Black Cape #4

Embra 2007

Last year I was at the Edinburgh Festival so much I started a separate blog. Not this year. Although I have all the time in the world I have nae money. But yesterday I went over anyway. I started off my day at The Stand with Devlin’s Daily. This is a good start for two reasons. One. It’s free. Two. There are a handful of acts on so it’s a good taster.

The highlights of the show were Tommy Sheridan, who seemed quite keen to talk about his recent court case. God’s Pottery were the funniest act on. A parody of a Christian folk group they played a couple of songs and went down really well with the crowd.

Michelle McManus finished the show off. Really she was pretty boring, talking about how successful she was. “My ma and da have got a guid hoose noo. My mammy says it’s Bailleston, but it’s Easterhoose really.” Aye hooray for your ma and da. “I’ve goat nothing tae say against Simon Cowell. If it wisnae for Pop Idol…I’m working wi the BBC noo and the new album’s comin oot an this show I’m in‘s transferring tae the west end. So I’m really happy”. However she was quite amusing when she got onto the subject of Gillian McKeith, who was apparently appalled by how much she eats.

Come 4.05pm I joined a sell-out crowd to see
Limmy’s Show. It’s easily one of the most inventive shows you’ll see at the Festival. Mixing videos and character comedy it’s packed with laughs and there’s always something happening. He never lets it go stale as he moves from one off the wall topic to the next.

There’s probably too many highlights to list, but I’ll give it a go anyway. The sketch ‘Double Take’ seemed to be the big hit of his show at Blackfriars in March, but it doesn’t even make my top 5 for this one.

Of the video sketches simply banging his head on a door was hilarious, a parody of Cillia Black’s Surprise Surprise was a big laugh, ‘Swings’ a sketch about growing up was great and there was a clever 5 minute piece on Reporting Scotland, and no it’s not what you would think. There’s no one else who would watch Reporting Scotland and come up with this.

Of the live stuff he had some good sketches about a money lender, what kitchen implements are the hardest and a ‘guy on a permo’. The best bit for me though was Jacqueline McCafferty’s Big Brother audition tape. I literally had tears running down my face as her audition turns into a rant against Davina McCall.

If we’re handing out stars it would get five. Aye there’s probably some stuff that could be tightened but you’ll struggle to find a show that you’ll laugh harder at this festival.

After that I went for a vanilla latte with the man himself as he waved his bundles of bank notes in my unemployed face.

The rain pished down in the evening as I headed up to the book festival. I don’t think I went near the book festival last year, but I enjoyed hanging about it yesterday. I went to see Iain Banks read from and discuss his new book, The Steep Approach to Garbadale.

I’ve always liked Banks when I’ve seen him do interviews on the telly. He seems to have a childlike enthusiasm about him when he discusses his work. He took questions from the crowd for a while as the rain battered down on the tent roof.

In the queue I spoke to a woman who had been to see Norman Mailer there. He even signed her book. Not really that remarkable until you realise he was in America at the time. His appearance at the book festival, where he also took questions from the Edinburgh audience, was via a video link up and he signed books using Long Pen.

Long Pen was invented by Margaret Atwood. ‘The world’s first long distance, real-time, real pen and ink autographing service.’ The woman’s friend asked her, “Does that really count as an autograph?” The woman seemed unsure. I’d go for no. It’s an odd concept, but the woman’s friend speculated on whether or not that would make the book more valuable or less so.

Fot That is What it Means to be Scottish

It's away down the page now but I didn't want anyone to miss the comment on Fraser's ' Mon the Gers ' post from a couple of weeks ago.

Dwarves

I should mention that I went to see The Dwarves at King Tut’s on Friday night. The Dwarves are bone fide punk legends and they provided an eye-opening and entertaining show. It’s not really my kind of thing but I quite enjoyed the gig. It always felt that something was about to happen, although it never quite exploded despite a mild fight with the crowd. With a naked guitarist I won’t put all the photographs up here. I’ll stick them on Flickr soon.

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Even More Black Cape

Thanks to Iain, BC even has its own spot on the blogosphere now.

As for todays episode, you must be 18!

Monday 13 August 2007

More Black Cape

You loved Black Cape didn't you? Well, it's your lucky day.

Black Cape

Rather than do any actual work today, Iain "One Neck" Laurie and I have collaborated on a new ongoing cartoon strip we're calling "Black Cape".

There will be more as and when.

I look forward to talking to big shots about syndication.

Tony Wilson 1950-2007

I was sad to hear of the death of Manchester music legend Tony Wilson. I always admired him as a man who tread his own path. I think I first came across Wilson in the late 80s when he was presenting the music and arts show The Other Side of Midnight. I think this was around the time he was flirting with the moniker Anthony H. Wilson.

Wilson is of course credited with breaking bands such as Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays. He was always a man who had something to say and Fraser was quoting him to me only the other day.

As much as he was nicknamed 'twat' by all in Manchester he was always a guy who wanted to promote and get the best out of other people. Steve Coogan's portrayal of him in Michael Winterbottom's film 24 Hour Party People may have been cartoonish, but all in all it's a hugely entertaining film and Wilson himself provides an amusing commentary on the DVD.

Here's the obituary by Paul Morley from today's Guardian.

Below is the two part tribute to him from Friday night's edition of Newsnight. It features an interview with him when he knew he was dying and an upbeat panel who all worked with him including Paul Morley, Peter Saville and Richard Madley.

Below that he introduces The Stone Roses on TOSM in 1989.






Friday 10 August 2007

The Hoax

The Hoax is the story of struggling author Clifford Irving, who, after his latest book is shelved, in a fit of bravado tells his erstwhile publishers that he has ‘the book of the century’. While thinking what that book might be, he remembers an article on the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Hughes, an eccentric, hasn’t spoken in public for 15 years and communicates only by hand written memos. Hand written memos that are published in the media. Memos that Irving feels confident that he can forge.

So he tells the publisher that he’s been collaborating with Hughes on his autobiography. As no one could contact Hughes, no one could prove Irving wrong. The more ludicrous Irving’s supposed instructions from Hughes, the more plausible they sound.

It’s a true story (for the most part) and you can read about it at
Clifford Irving’s website. Although Irving says that really it's a hoax about a hoax.

The film directed by ABBA the Movie director Lasse Hallstrom is one of the best I’ve seen this year. Richard reminds us that actually he is a very good actor. Alfred Molina gives able support as his right hand man.

Every time the heat gets too much Irving cranks it up a notch. The greed though is all over the place as everyone involved gets excited about landing a book that would ‘sell more copies than The Bible’.

The film sags a little bit as Irving descends into paranoia and madness, but it’s never less than a fascinating study of greed, obsession and arrogance.

You can
download some chapters of the hoax autobiography in PDF format from Irving's website.

The Crime Library has a good article on the story of how the hoax autobiography came into being.

There's also an article on the saga at Time magazine.

Wednesday 8 August 2007

Comics, Comics, Comics

When it comes to recommending which comics people might like, it’s a bit like telling them about stuff to watch on the tele.

Except of course, pretty much everyone has a fair working knowledge about what’s already out there in TV land.

I mention TV because so many people make the mistake of thinking about comics as if they are a genre rather than a medium.

Mention comics to some normally intelligent people and you’ll often get daft remarks about children’s entertainment, or a form restricted to the exploits of spandex encased super heroes.

Comics are wide open - that’s the first thing to get across. There are comics about pretty much everything.

There are those who don’t buy superhero books and those who wont buy anything else, but I’ll read anything as long as its well done and there is tons of extremely good stuff of all kinds out there.

And that’s the other thing to get across. The general standard of writing is extremely high.

Your appreciation of the artwork in a comic book will be swayed by subjectivity, but you are highly unlikely to be reading something that isn’t at least well developed and executed.

Anyway, onto what I’ve found most enjoyable since returning to the medium.

For beginners:

If you’re just starting out reading comics, you should pick up “Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and “The Dark Knight Returns”. By Frank Miller. I would describe these two books as the pillars on which modern age superhero comics are built.

If these tales of caped crusaders leave you cold, you may still enjoy the slice-of-life humour of Peter Bagge’s “Hate”, the dark surrealism of Daniel Clowes’ “Eightball” and the gorgeously observed romanticism of “Love and Rockets” by Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez.

What I would say to anyone coming to comics for the first time is try a lot of stuff out.

You can do so at no expense by visiting your library, which will have a bunch of trade paperbacks or “Graphic Novels” are they are contentiously known in chattering circles. I discovered a bunch of things I liked by just picking up stuff on spec and trying it out.

If you know comics but haven’t read anything in a while, here are some recommendations:

Note that some of these titles will be ongoing, and some will be no longer running but available in collected editions.

I’ll make a note regarding genre next to each title as well, if that helps.

Preacher - Supernatural thriller

The Invisibles – Action Adventure/intellectual intertexual mind fuck

Ex Machina – Superman meets the West Wing

Y - The Last Man – high concept adventure about the last man on earth

Runaways – very fun teen superhero romp

Top Ten – a world where everyone has superpowers

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – a "super-team" of pre-existing fictional characters such as Jekyll and Hyde and Captain Nemo band together to fight the good fight for jolly old Blighty.

Daredevil – superhero adventure

Criminal – crime thriller

The Ultimates – revamped version of the Avengers

The Goon – zombie humour

Scalped – crime thriller set on a Native American reservation

Welcome To Tranquility – what could possibly go wrong in a retirement village for elderly super heroes?

The Other Side – The Vietnam war from both sides of the conflict

Street Angel – the adventures of 12 year old vigilantess Street Angel, martial artist and worlds greatest homeless skateboarder

Rising Stars – If you like “Heroes”, see where they nicked most of the story from.

Truth Serum – dark idiosyncratic humour

Ultimate Spiderman – Sort of like Spiderman 90210 – lightweight but bubbly fun

Powers – following a police unit who deal with superhero related crime

The Nightly News – featuring a very striking and original design and layout style, this has a very “fight club” tone to it.

Scott Pilgrim – Slice of life romantic humour meets Magna? Mmm, yes. Yes sir.


There are just a few of the titles I’ve been enjoying lately.

To close, it’s pretty safe to say that while we’ll all have our ideas about who the best artists are you can’t really go wrong with any of the following writers:

Grant Morrison
Alan Moore
Garth Ennis
Mark Millar

You’re highly unlikely to go wrong with:

Brian K Vaughan
Brian Michael Bendis
Ed Bruebaker
Greg Rucka
Peter Milligan


As for who to avoid – we all have our own ideas on what sucks – if you are unsure about something, try to get it out the library before buying it.

Tuesday 7 August 2007

The Man who Tries to Catch Two Chickens Will Catch Neither

Pal of Glue, Limmy is now doing his debut Edinburgh Festival show. I think I'll probably get over to see it next week sometime. In the meantime here's an interview with him from last week's Scotland on Sunday. It's quite a dark interview in places.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Reaper


Kevin Smith has directed a newish TV pilot called Reaper, and having watched it I can tell you it's pretty funny.

Basically, a slacker finds out that his parents sold his soul to the Devil and when Satan comes for him on his 21st birthday, he hires him as a bounty hunter, chasing down souls that have escaped from Hell.

Sounds silly, it is and that's the fun.

It's kind of Quantum Leap meets Clerks meets Ghostbusters. And the "best mate" character is obviously based on the casting note "Jack Black Type Required".

As far as I'm aware, its looking good for being picked up as a series and should start in the States in September.

You can find out more about it
here.

And here's a trailer.