Originally a reply to yet another Moore v Morrison rammy on the cbr forum board.

Grant Morrison has always maintained that he prefers to tell stories that attempt bring bright colourful superheroes into our corrupt and and morally decaying world, which is more or less in direct contrast to the Alan Moore method of bringing our world to the superheroes in order to see how they would fare. When fans(and Moore himself) then accuse Morrison of some vague type of plagiarism, it somehow reminds me of Stan Lee talking about Marvel comics of the early 60's being alone in reflecting the 60's counter-culture, simply because he added a little depth and pathos to his characters' personal lives. Now,  I'm not disputing Marvel's revival of the comics industry at all, but, in fact, DC's stories had begun to anticipate(whether consciously or not) the weirdness of  sixties youth culture in story elements involving mindbending chemicals, evil conspiracies and mind control and with the late fifties rebooting of characters like Green Lantern and the Flash(among other concept renewals and revivals.), under noted sci-fi fan, Julie Schwartz. To me, expecting a writer to come up with the amount of new concepts to satisfy all, is like asking a rock band to make music entirely with instruments they've invented themselves, while avoiding using any chords that have been used before: Impossible.

 When I compare the documentaries 'The Mindscape Of Alan Moore' with 'Grant Morrison Talking With Gods', although I clearly enjoy both depictions of two singularly talented creators, I personally feel the rolling stone gathers no moss 'argument'(or 'no beard vs all beard' to some) for Grant Morrison's style comes out on top. He puts a lot of himself and his life and travelling experiences into his comics, whereas Alan Moore does seem content to judge, sorry, write about the world, from the relative safety of his admittedly large library and his beloved hometown of Northhampton.

It's interesting to me that the two most revered comic authors, whose tastes and influences are similarly esoteric and occult, of the last 25 years are so heavily divisive in their appreciation by their respective fan bases. For a medium that has slowly been gaining literary validation, this war of trolls makes the 'Beatles Vs Stones' or 'Blur Vs Oasis' ego wars/marketing tools of the pop music industry look positively dignified  and worthy by comparison. 

In general, Grant Morrison's most ardent fans seem to think that Alan Moore's work is over-rated at best and unbearably stagnant at worst; Moore's biggest admirers apparently feel that Morrison is a Johnny-come-lately fopp, whose best work was ripped off from Mr' Moore's good chum, Mike Moorcock(completely ignoring the fact that Morrison was a self-confessed unwordly 17-year old when he wrote those stories for 'Near Myths').  This is an annoying often-raised point that Morrison himself can forget when it comes to the filming of  'The Matrix'(but that's another story). The only thing the trolls seem to agree on is that their least favoured is over-rated. On comic book forums, any praise for one is quickly followed by an infuriating war of words by fans of the other. The sad thing is that none of the endless viewpoints raised are right or wrong-they all just form a depressing part of of the geek landscape.

   For my part, I believe in some form of a shared consciousness, as it helps to explain such occurrences as why the world erupted into war in 1914 & 1939, the hippy/punk/metal/rave generations, the renaissance, the internet explosion, the sixties, the war on terror's impact on western life and much more besides. There can be no theft of ideas if we are all individual working parts of the same whole universal mind. For no real reason, other than having seen the concept in comics ages ago I began thinking about morhphogenetic grafts, then ended up watching those Morrison and Moore films back to back on a Saturday night when I couldn't sleep while yet another Moore v Morison raged on the Comic Book Resources forum. The experience further enhanced my view, from misspent weekends of my youth, that there most definitely is a shared consciousness for humanity(and perhaps more besides) 

Although I respect their individual achievements and ways of thinking, I see them as basically serving the same function, which is to disseminate subversive ideals, memes and ideas to the youth of the day through the refracted lens of an innocuous medium.  They are actually very close in those ideals, even if they arrived there from very different avenues and are so dissimilar personally that even their fans can't get along. Another analogy could be made from comparing them to the two party system prevalent in most systems of western politics, but I'm not going to even begin with who the fuck's who there, cos it's all the same to me now. 

 Finally, to confirm my slight allegiance to on or the other, I'd have to say Grant has definitely outshone Alan in the end, simply through being more gracious towards criticism and working well within the framework of his chosen  medium to its ultimate advantage for all. I consider the ABC line to be Alan's crowning achievement, but even that has been marred by ownership wrangles and demented accusations. That being said, anyone who says that 'Necronomicon', the one bit of 'League Of Extraordinary Gentleman: Century' that came out in 09 and 'Dodgem Logic' are better, or somehow worthier, comics than 'Final Crisis', 'Joe The Barbarian', 'Seaguy: The Slaves Of Mickey Eye', and the latest installments Gmo's Batman epic run clearly hasn't been bothering to read them all.

(Post-Script: I keep coming back to this post, as I feel there is more to say on the subject, so don't be surprised if it is, or will be, changed)

Superhero President Saves well, one campaign promise, anyway.*

It had to happen, didn't it? As soon as I post a blog that reveals there's still a soppy, blinkered hopeful twat somewhere inside me(See my loving rant on the qualities of 'Justice League International' as they apply to me!) that still believes in the basic decency of humanity and justice for all, a black, sorry, special ops team set foot on Middle Eastern soil to murder the world's most wanted man. I'm not saying I don't believe Bin Laden was evil and deserved death,  rather that a fair and impartial trial would have been nice first. Not only might it have laid to rest all the conspiracy theories of true culpability for the 9/11 attacks, and added to the enquiry over what happened that day, it could also have been America's spectacle for the whole world; a sort of darker equivalent to our Royal Wedding, except it would've lasted months and ended with a definite death sentence for one instead of possible life for two.
I don't believe that a 12 man team were incapable of taking the Bin Laden's alive, it was just easier to get it out of the way, as a sort of wish fulfilment thing for the Obama administrations failure to get out of Iraq and close Gitmo as soon as was promised. The glee on the President's coupon was so palpable, and his alluding to his role in the operation so prominent, that I fully expected him to tell the world he'd been controlling the leader of the kill team from his fucking X-Box 360. On the early evening news we were treated to footage of a plain looking albeit blood soaked, room where, we were told, Bin Laden had taken a bullet to either his right, left or maybe even both eyes. Where his son's fatal wounding occurred on his body remained unknown. I've never been more grateful that I don't have kids I'd need to explain some segment of the news to. Apparently, one of three helicopters malfunctioned just prior to landing, which was cool because it gave the team a great excuse to create a massive explosion on the way out, perhaps in tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger's retirement from US politics earlier this year. In hindsight, Obama should have said "I was involved closely in all stages of the operation-except the pre-flight maintenance of the faulty chopper that was, eh, Hilary's job to oversee" its not as if his credibility would have been called into question.

Tearful celebration  and joyful hysteria has broken out since the world found out Bin Laden has died and the US gets to call out "Mission Accomplished" yet again, just like they did in Afghanistan when they drove out the Taliban and in Iraq when they sacked Baghdad. Actually, going by previous accomplished missions, it now seems that Osama Bin Laden is set to rise from the grave with some sort of new masterplan to destroy the west, perhaps as leader of an army of zombies, although as a shambling, brain ravaged monster, they'll probably find him in less than half the time it did before, for sure.  Probably about four years.
Just to clarify, there is not a single doubt in my mind that Bin Laden was responsible for unspeakable atrocities and deaths of innocents in their thousands, I'm just dispirited that he was never made to truly answer from his crimes. What can they be getting out of halfwitted, confused and idiotic British citizens such as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, or other idiots like the one with the weird bomb in his pants, that is of any real use? One might begin to think they were not even remotely interested in interrogating the world's most notorious terrorist. I'm usually just another sad fuck who write about his favourite comics, and it occurs to me now that I'll probably be happier if I can stick to thinking about that stuff in the future. You have no idea how much I wish I was fucking dumb right now.

* At the time of writing this article, I was unaware that Mr. Obama had just recently signed his healthcare bill, and was more focused on promises made such as:- More transparency in White House goings on, as well as the closure of Gitmo and withdrawal from Iraq. I did not, do not, and will not ever, care if he was born in Hawaii or not. Also, I was a bit concerned and, yes, even offended at apparent slights to the UK such as the return of the Churchill Bust and his insistence on re-naming the multi-national oil company, BP, as British Petroleum(it's original, and long since discarded name) during lengthy press conferences during the oil spill last year. Kudos to Mr. Obama for listening to & implementing Ms. Clinton's long sought after health care reform. But Bin Laden should have been arrested, questioned, tried and sentenced to death on US soil. The End.

complaints about people #6,000,003- Folk too ready too agree with anything.

people who agree with everything you say

Being a total fucking  misanthrope, I see the reasons for this bizarre phenomenon being one or more of the following:-

a they want something
b they're pretending they're so smart they already know what you're saying
c they're thick
d they have nothing to say for themselves, so are agreeing to deflect conversation from themselves
e they're wishing they were having another conversation, with someone else, or else they'd contribute something
f  they're waiting for their chance to talk, so agree in order to pint out that everything you're saying is utterly superfluous
g they think you're a wank, so only enter into the minimal conversational requirement!

I'm aware many of these reasons totally contradict others, but they are all equal in the eyes of an attempted conversationalist who has ended up annoyed orator. Sometimes I disagree just for the sake of not having to repeat the other person by proxy, like the time I found myself arguing that Eminem was more of a true representative of the feelings of his generation than Bob Dylan had been, based purely on Dylan's tendency to go off on pretentious stream of consciousness rambles about Spanish leather boots, bloody traintracks or John Wesley Harding's beard or whatever. It wasn't how i felt for real, but it sure as fuck stirred the pot, like any conversation worth remembering usually does.

A conversation without even a tiny degree of opposition is pointless, like 5 word emails are. what's the point of bothering to switch a pc on, go online, type in your passwords, open up a mate's profile to say - "I'm oK, how are u?", its fuckin daft, man. Like "LOL", I hate fucking "LOL", whether it means Loads of Love of Laugh Out Loud, which is more often the case, because some people type it meaning that so often that if they'd been laughing out loud as much as they typed it in a similarly mundane real world conversation, they'd find themselves in Carstairs in twice the time it would take to punch them in the mouth for it.

 Some couples have so little to say that they boast about being able to finish each other's sentences, like that's a good thing and if they're married it always makes me think, "well, that may be so but d'ye think ye'll finish the fuckin the life sentences ye handed each other in the church ya borin fuckin bastards?"

On the other hand, i can't stand people who need to be agreed with at all times, and occasionally take to reasonable debate like a spoiled child being told santa has them on the naughty list:- moaning like fuck despite the knowledge that they'll still get the moon on a stick come the 25/12 and bloody santa doesn't even exist anyhow. This need for vague approval through obedient agreement is so fucking annoying I'd rather tell a drunken copper I'd fucked his wife than an attention seeking model she was gorgeous.

Takin a Licking; taking time to reflect before resuming the ticking.

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OK, I'm Obsessed- War Of The Green Lanterns Week 3(parts 4 & 5)

Green Lantern #65 & Green Lantern Corps #59

 To the casual observer, it may appear I've decided to give up writing on a variety of subjects and become, instead, the David Coleman of an imaginary science fiction war in comics. In actual fact, I am just very excited    and surprised by how much fun this inter-title series has been, and had expected 'Blackest Night/Brightest Day' would leave us a bit tired of the multi-coloured Lantern antics. Apart from minor quibbles over how easily Hal & Guy escaped an ice planet and some of Tyler Kirkham's art in this month's GLC, I have to say I haven't been this excited by this franchise since the frenzied anticipation for 'Blackest Night' two years back very nearly led me to buy my first action figure as an adult. Ironically the story really gets going just as we are deprived of Doug Mahnke's absolutely astounding art, and the reaction to Krona's hijacking of the Green Lantern Corps, Oa and the Source Battery is much less cliched than I guessed as I took my first clue from 'GLC 59''s cover, and the ads telling me this storyline will run through June seem to imply the best is yet to come. The scenes with Ganthet, Krona, Kilowog and even Mogo are amazing; the Earth based lanterns first strike against their former Corpsmen are fraught with genuine excitement and peril. The whole thing is just col as fuck, and leaves me wondering if Geoff Johns will ever conceive of  something that isn't completely epic in scale agai, the guy's becoming the David Lean of DC Comics arcs. I want to say more, but the truth is, I've been having having big problems with my notebook and only by using Stickykeys am I even able to gush about these latest two episodes of my favourite comics of the moment.   I'm going to be well pissed off if they decide to separate these two books before the start of July, I'm getting used to these double whammys of the Green, so I am.

Green Lantern movie is gonna do Gangbusters in the cinema, you wait n see!

If the above statement is untrue, I swear I will eat my hat. The footage from Wondercon couldn't have been more impressive than what we had previously watched with slight disappointment during the Superbowl(and after, on Youtube, for us non-Americans). My singular complaint is now the look of Hal Jordan's mask, allegedly a fitting cover for his true identity, but really it seems like someone's went for his face with a green marker during an all-night drink and drugs bender(hardly the image  any superhero would wish to project into  the public consciousness. One thing also seems apparent in the trailer; Parallax in not simply a far off concept in the movie; in fact, it seems to be the very thing to grant Hector Hammond his swollen head, heightened awareness, creepy telekinesis and Carol Ferris obsession!
 Anyway, having only witnessed 4 mins of absolutely thrilling and fun footage, it seems churlish to say much more until I get the chance to review the film proper sometime soon!  Whatever happens, this movie will truly be an indelible part of this sumner's busiest season.

Beware The Power



(2nd February 2012 Post-script:                      Shit.   I still don't think it was as bad as the media made it out  to be, but, boy, was I wrong. The only good thing to come from the movie's abysmal performance is I can use the incredibly inaccurate prediction of this post as an excuse for the lack of activity on my blog, rather than my laziness, which is the actual reason!)

Undervalued Classics- Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Clever comedy about dreadful drama.

Some people may be surprised by the choice of director of the new British film, "Submarine", but  Richard Ayoade was always a lot more than just the geek with a lop-sided afro in 'The IT Crowd'.  In 2004, he was responsible for co-writing and directing the excellent 'Garth Marenghi's Dark Place', which is my favourite UK comedy of the noughties(this week), just eclipsing  'Nathan Barley', 'The Mighty Boosh'(both of which featured Ayoade, coincidentally, or not) and 'Peep Show'. The cast are excellent, and the 'show-within-a-show' concept works so beautifully that I'm beginning to wonder if its the reason we haven't seen much from the rest of the cast, cameos from Graham Linehan, Stephen Merchant and Julian Barret aside.
     The central conceit of the show is that it was too much for TV back then, as the dreamchild of horror writer extraordinaire, Garth Marenghi(played by Matthew Holness, also co- writer) and his publisher, the 'flamboyant' Dean Learner(Ayoade). Marenghi Himself had played Dr. Rick Dagless, chief surgeon with a dark and tragic past, along side his best friend, Dr. Lucien Sanchez, played by the would-be singer, Todd Rivers(Matt Berry in reality). As legend would have it, the show remained in the vault, save for a brief run in Peru, until the world and Channel 4's executives caught up with the dangerous and subversive vision of Garth Marenghi, who is presented as having wrote, directed, starred in all six episodes. Even the theme music is presented as being 'based on tunes originally whistled by Garth Marenghi', brilliantly sending up the sense of  inflated self-importance attached to many vanity projects of the time.
     I remember as a kid watching newsreel footage of the early twentieth century, along with 50's sitcoms and 60's sci-fi, wondering how tv from the 80's would look to me as an adult, and now I know for sure it is every bit as hilarious as Harry Enfield's 'Mr Chorlmondley-Warner and Grayson' was in the late 80's, and then some. The series evokes those times perfectly, using the camera, sound and editing techniques, lighting, and peculiar speech patterns that conjure up images of shows such as 'Tales Of The Unexpected', 'Dempsey and Makepeace', 'Doctor Who' and 'The Professionals'. Even the running gag that sees Thornton Reede having to fend of calls from random sex cases (arranged, of course, by Dagless and Sanchez) is a straight lift from 'Starsky and Hutch', proving that the key to really capturing that 80's feel is to bring in elements from just before and after that period. In fact, by the second time the oddly comforting original Channel 4 station ident card and tune was used, I had almost forgotten that  twenty years had elapsed  since last I heard it.
      I can't tell for sure if the character of Marenghi is based on Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert in particular, or any of the legions of horror writers that arose around that time. I probably can't see him as a pisstake of Stephen King specifically because I do actually love King's books, but can't help but notice the series did come out not long after King's 'Kingdom Hospital', in which he also starred in am minor role. The inspirations for a character such as Marenghi were probably all too easy to find in the many writers of a genre in which the line between macabre masterpiece and ridiculous rubbish is so thin.
 Part of the shows brilliance is in the little touches; I actually watched the series a few times before i realised the fog swept, late night driving scenes were actually meant to be Dr Rick Dagless driving through the hospital grounds in a golf buggy. The series itself looks and feels like it was made by an unholy alliance between Ed Wood, Aaron Spelling and the unknowable forces of the ITC media group. The made up stories of  the fates of various actors, crew and 'techies' are well thought out, wickedly amusing, and probably ring true for anyone who has read 'Hollywood Babylon' or spent even five minutes researching the internet on the types of character who floated around the c-class showbiz set in those days.
  Another theme of the show was to send up of the type of bullshit, chummy talking head interview and somnambulant  voiceover track DVD extra which seemed to be attached to every release in 2004.  The actual dvd commentary for Dark Place proved that you can actually make a second audio track worth listening to, as long as you stay in character when you record it, like Spinal Tap or Alan Partridge and Lynne in the Series 1 DVD of " I'm Alan Partridge".
 One thing that put a couple of my friends off the series at the time was the character of Dean Learner, who was the most obviously gay-despite-being-married man since Freddie Mercury, although they were more offended by 'Man to Man with Dean Learner', a sort of follow-up with some of the same characters. Although I didn't enjoy this show as much as Dark Place, I believe the homophobia complaints on both are unjustified, as they merely poke fun at the closeted/in denial and thus bizarrely predatory figures who hid their  sexuality behind a disdain for women in general, and the series as a whole is simply holding a mirror up to that most naively futuristic of decades, the 80's; a period when many were shocked to find men with names like Rock Hudson, Liberace and Tyrone Power had been gay all along.  The episode 'Scotch Mist' was also a brilliant comment that, despite Dean Learner's Thornton Reede(Ayoade), being a black man in a position of authority, racism on TV, particularly concerning relations between England and Scotland, wasn't entirely off the agenda. Similarly, the fake cast's treatment of the character Liz/Madeleine Wool(Alice Lowe), are hilariously contemptuous of feminist values and seem to indicate that the makers were ready to embrace anything, except the idea that women are men's equal.  Another thing I now find ironic is that the parody of a show with borderline racist/chauvinistic tones fits so well with early Channel 4, a station that seemed to be pushing the boundaries of acceptance at the time, but is now probably better remembered for the ill-judged paedo-fest that was 'mini-pops'.
 All in all, 'Garth Mareghi's Dark Place' was brilliantly conceived, perfectly produced and ultimately deserved a lot more than the single Bafta  nomination it got (for its music),  which is why I am even now ranting about it in this blog. The show isn't particularly hard to pick up, either in the shops, or the internet somewhere, as it had an extended run on US cable station, Adult Swim, showing episodes 1 to 6, then simply going back to the beginning again for almost two years straight. That's how good it is.

Watch this for an idea of the show,

Visit the official website of the show