dovka

Cover Spotlight of the Week::

Blue Beetle #14
Cover by by Cully Hamner

The old phrase "a picture tells a thousand words" comes into play here for me. It's very "newspaper panel comic" one single panel that you get just by looking at it - like Gary Larson (The Far Side) style comics. The cover also sets the tone for the rest of the book and shoes classic characters in a budyd team-up. Guy chauvinistic, beer drinking man's man. Jaime stuck in Guys terriroty underage and the butt of the jokes.
Annoyingly Cully Hamner is off the books internal art but he still sticks around for covers which is fantastic. He has such a talent with subtleties and especially facial expressions and this shines through here; to let an audience know exactly what a character is saying or thinking without having them read any words is an absolute bonafied talent. Kevin Maguire (JLI) is the supreme master of this but Cully Hamner obviously is encroaching in on his mastery of the talent.
Plus I loved the fact the barman looks exactly like Kyle Rayners' Coffee shop owning friend Radu - I'm going to presume that's intential because it makes me happy.

Comics Spotlight of the Week::

JSA Classified #25
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Dennis Calero
Cover by Steve Uy

My secret is that I constantly love the stories in JSA Classified. I don't pick up every one, just when the character that is being spotlighted interests me. I think it has been consistently better than its sister title JLA Classified, where as they approach the ideas in different ways (JSA focus' on character spotlights where as JLA focuses on untold stories from the past) JSA Classified just seems so much more well rounded.
This issue focuses on Alan Scott, who everyone knows is the original Green Lantern and the still the best - as it says on the front cover and there is something I love about seeing the old Green Lantern logo on the book despite never seeing it when it was originally published. The story is about Alan having to break an agreement with an ex-villain of his (Johnny Mimic) and contact him to find out how the HERO dial was stolen from S.H.A.D.E. Y'see Johnny Mimic is able to perfectly recreate crime scenes by just going to their location.
The story all winds up in one issue which is something of an almost lost art - Fell, Jonah Hex, The Spirit all successfully run on a one issue basis and it works so well. The story ends up being a tale of Alan Scott getting a timely reminder of his place in the world "even the hoodlums looked up to Green Lantern. You were the super-man before there was a Superman" and that he and people like him need to set the standard not be dragged down to the lower levels. Johnny looses his mind a little bit and ends up forcing Alan to kill him and break the H.E.R.O. dial because he doesn't want Father Time and S.H.A.D.E. to have such a powerful device. Kind of ironic that Alan kills someone considering the story it seems like an accident and it still seems to work in context.
For a one issue spotlight it's great, the art work is stunningly good (even if they have forgotten Alan's eyepatch - although not that we really want it) and they story ties in nicely to current events and sets a nice reminder for the JSA's role in the world. Successfully incorporated things from the DCU like the H.E.R.O dial and Johnny Mimic who I believe appear a grand total times of once before and I like things like that. All together great issue and worth checking out.

Blue Beetle #14
Written by John Rogers
Art by Rafael Albuquerque
Cover by by Cully Hamner

I think if DC do one thing better than Marvel or even any of their rivals with a shared universe it is that they can do legacy characters very well. Most of the time they get over rather well and end up building a successful fanbase for themselves and sticking around adding to the universe. From recent times Kyle Rayner, Wally West, Connor Hawke, Tim Drake have been very successful in their own right - Connor Hawke's recent mini which was much better than Green Arrow has been for a while, Kyle Rayner is arguably as popular as Hal Jordan ever was and his maxi-series Ion also just finished and it looks like he will play a huge role in the Countdown weekly which is starting just over a week. Of course these legacy characters aren't even the first wave; before them we had Silver Age characters taking over from their Golden Age counterparts; Barry Allen taking over from Jay Garrick, Hal Jordan taking over from Alan Scott, Ray Plamer taking over from Al Pratt, etc - and that's not even scratching the surface. Now after Infinite Crisis we are having a brand new wave of legacy heroes. Ryan Choi taking over from Ray Palmer with the Atom, Arthur Curry Jr. taking over from Orin in Aquaman, Bart Allen taking over from Wally West in the Flash. Of course where we had Ted Kord taking over from Dan Garrett in the 60s now with Ted Kord's death we have Jaime Reyes taking up the mantle of Blue Beetle.
Sometimes legacy characters don't hit the mark, they fail to capture something unique that the original did. But when they work well they add the whole universe, making the DCU seem much more well rounded and whole. Where as passage of time is hard to get across in a comic legacy characters provide a nice way of moving the world along. For me Blue Beetle has managed to incorporate the legacy aspects of the character while not bogging down the title. So new readers can enjoy the story and older readers can appreciate how Jaime fits into the world. The title took a while to get going and to find it's feet but now it has explained where the Scarab that powers Jaime (and before him Dan Garrett) came from and now we know who the big baddies are in the Reach (who created the scarab and like to take over planets) the title has hit it's stride. It has strong supporting characters in Jaime's parents, friends and the Peacemaker and Jaime provides a unique voice in the DCU - he's someone who doesn't know much about the world he's incredibly normal.
In this issue Jaime meets Guy Gardner again - after each other fought each other in issue 1. We've since learnt why they both freaked out (a old rivalry between the Reach - who created the Scarabs and the Guardians - who created the Green Lantern rings). Jaime asks Guy for help against the Reach and they end up fighting the Ultra-Humanitie and someone Robot Attack Penguins - Tim Burton ain't got nothing on this. Guy is written in his usually cocky buffoon persona - but with the underlying moments that he always cares more than he shows. They fight the Ultra Humanite and Guy promises to help Jaime out with the Reach in future. The best bit of the issue though, is the final page. Guy talks to Jaime about his predecessor and Guy's friend Ted Kord. Saying how he never had powers and he was always outmatches in every situation but he never backed down (makes a nice reference to Starbreaker) and always won. Guy gives him a book on Strategy which Ted had originally given to him. And with this act finally fans of Ted Kord get the legacy aspects from this character they have been waiting for. Jaime is no longer a kid in a powersuit - he is becoming the Blue Beetle. I personally love it.
Roger's wonderful witty comedic writing mixed with Albuquerque's action packed sequences give this book such a good feeling supercharged with energy which makes reading it even more fun. Over it's last year the book has been a good read, nothing stunning but a solid fun read which is important for a new book. As it is now approaching it's second year it's tying itself into the wider picture of the DCU. Jaime is no longer just a new hero on the block he is now becoming the rightful bearer of the title of Blue Beetle and if John Rogers continues on in this fashion he's going to have a very good and long lasting character in his hands. Plus I cannot wait for the first Blue and Gold team-up.

With an addition to a previous Dovka:



That is 3:15am so set your VHS' or more modern recording equipment if you are not a nocturnal geek like some of us… ahem. Also the odd time is nothing to be concerned about apparently BBC just want to show it before the end of the financial year so later on we will have a more normal repeating of the pilot.

Edit on 26/03/07:

Courtesy of a nice Youtuber I present Biffovision in Youtube format.



Excellent-o.

And so the PS3 has finally been released in Europe and the UK after what seems like years of waiting for it and it has met a quiet hum of excitement. When the X-Box 360 was released there was a huge excitement in the air people at gaming shops talking about it and happily taking them home. The Wii release beat this you couldn't move for people wanting Wii's - I was working in a music shop at the time and we had people queuing up outside despite the fact we weren't even stocking them, unless you had ordered about 12 months in advance you were very stuck for getting one.

I went into town today and I was offered a PS3 at every shop I went too. Is this Sony shipping millions of PS3's to UK shops? (Nope they shipped 200,000) or is it the fact that at £425… in March. No-one can be bothered. People are still recovering from Christmas/New Year on their Credit Cards, even Valentines Day which has become nearly as expensive as Christmas for a lot of people. March isn't the best time of the year to ask people to spend more money and I think most people in the world who want a console already shelled out the money for a 360 or a Wii. Or is it that people are really not that interested I know I'm not, I don't know anyone who is and no chance I'm spending that much money on it to play Medal of Honour, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (seriously way to be new and exciting), whatever NBA/NFL games there is or the plethora of Tom Clancy games that I'm sure will roll out. At least the Wii had Zelda on release there is nothing on the PS3 till Metal Gear 4 is released sometime in Q4 of 2007.

Of course Sony knows this this is why; "At the London launch everyone who bought a PS3 also received a free 46-inch HD television and a taxi home." Beg more Sony?

I'm not saying the PS3 will fail because it obviously won't (you have brand loyalty and because of franchise games and rich bastards with money to spend). I'm not even saying it's a bad console, you're an idiot if you say the technology is bad. But with all the mistakes Sony have made from E3's and it's other "worldwide" launch to all the cutbacks with the sup-par European PS3 this is another bump. I think it's surprising that something which is meant to be the most amazing console has been released to such a yawn or is it a culmination of their mistakes? In my opinion, the FFXII launch was much more exciting and that was a game not hardware.

You probably won't be down and out for long, so we'll give it a year or so. But in the meantime we'll all be in mourning. Maybe.

Birmingham was hit by rather one hell of a lot of snow which kind of snowed me in for a few days, when I eventually got to the comic shop, I bought rather a lot of comics; 52 #40, Action Comics Annual #10, Detective Comics #828, Fell #7, Irredeemable Ant-Man #5, Jonah Hex #16, Mystery in Space #6, Shazam: Monster Society of Evil #1 and Spider-Man Reign #3. All were good especially Reign which had a great Fanboy moment when Peter put on the Red and Blues singing his theme from the cartoon show. However, I chose to focus my reviews on two vastly different comics.

As it is kind of comic related, I would like to point out for anyone that didn't know PBF is back and I'm very much looking forward to his hardback with Dark Horse comics.

Cover Spotlight of the Week::

Action Comics Annual #10
Cover by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert

I may not enjoy what Johns and co are doing in Action Comics at the moment and yes it pretty much goes in the complete opposite to what I like in Superman. But this isn't a review of the insides and gladly this Annual doesn't touch too much on the Donnerification of Superman (not surprisingly the story I liked the least in the annual was the one about the "three Kryptonian villains" - not sure if it me blinded by bias or not) so all added up I really love this cover it just screams fun. Also to add that Joe Kubert despite being 80 years old is still a phenomenal artist and could actually still teach his sons Andy and Adam something about comic art it's a joy to look at. The cover is just so haughtily comic book which now and again is just excellent and exactly what you want out of a comic and it's not trying to be cool and or trying hard to express it's just fun. This is where I think quite a few artists fall down especially in the 90s - creators were just so bothered about trying to be cool. Not to constantly pick on him (he's a nice guy) but people like Rob Leifeld and even Jim Lee can come across like a geek at high school trying to impress the "cool kids" with his drawings of women with huge tits. This cover to me represents the complete opposite it's just geeks enjoying childhood memories; I get annoyed at how the Silver Age is being forced on modern comics but I can accept a fair share of it and this I like.

Comics Spotlight of the Week::

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #1
Written and Drawn by: Jeff Smith

I'm going to mention it now and not come back to it again during this review. Whatever the hell DC are doing with the Captain Marvel legacy in "Trials of Shazam" is so wrong and so backwards to the character that I can't wait for it to be over just to be retconed. It's ill-conceived and stinks of what I was on about earlier "people trying to hard to be cool" (tattoos, piercings, guns, modern hair/clothes, language - Freddy might as well go sit in his room cutting himself to My Chemical Romance) and they are cutting and blunting Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. into a very bad comic. The series shows nothing of why people love Captain Marvel it shows no love of it's past and I can't imagine why they would try to do this - when all what Captain Marvel needs to be is this comic - Monster Society of Evil.
Written and drawn by Jeff Smith who if the name is unfamiliar to you seriously go out and buy "Bone One Volume Edition". Bone was fantastic a book that transcends genres and speaks directly to the heart of everyone. It was arguably the only independent comic that really ran with the mainstream - apart from maybe Cerebus or Usagi Yojimbo. Bone is simply one of the best stories of our time because of this Jeff Smith didn't really need to work again but thank God he is.
After working on Bone for eleven years in 2002 Jeff Smith was read to move on and DC approached him to relaunch their Captain Marvel property, Bone ended up taking two years longer to finished. So in 2004 Jeff Smith finally sat down to work on Captain Marvel. His inspiration went straight back to the Golden Age - where Captain Marvel dominated the sales he easily outsold Superman and Batman. The idea of a down and out child who was able the transform into an all powerful adult by saying a magic word was amazingly whimsical and spoke to the public and most importantly it spoke to children. Jeff's main influence is to go back to what is considered the first long running story in comics "Captain Marvel and the Monster Society of Evil" Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46 (March 1943 to May 1945). About Captain Marvel battling his main villains who have all banded together under the control of Mr. Mind - the mind controlling worm.
There is a lot in this issue; introduction, an origin, explanation of powers, dive quickly into back story for Captain Marvel, some action, then crocodile men and a search for family to continue the story. All drawn beautifully by Jeff Smith and coloured by Steve Hamaker who just seem to capture again the emotions and the feeling of the comics. I've not read a comic in a long time which was just felt so special and so loved.
Jeff does take some liberty with the ideas of Captain Marvel. Him and Billy are truly separate beings like Billy Batson is more of a host for Captain Marvel, something which in my time has never been an issue apparently this was more clear in Golden Age (and I also have a feeling we'll see the separate beings grow together and combine as they stay together longer - example Captain Marvel already says "Holy Moley" which is obviously more Billy than the Captain). He has also chosen to make people much younger than the have previously been shown, he harks back to the Golden Age by killing the Wizard Shazam and even decided to use the original names of the 7 Deadly Sins of Man. This feels odd just because it's never been the Captain Marvel I've read but it doesn't feel wrong.
Problems? Price at $5.99 it's rather expensive especially when considering DC should be trying to get children to read this. Although, prestige format, no adds and 48 pages. It nearly makes up for it. I find the idea of Billy being a host to Captain Marvel a little creepy but I can't help feeling I'm nitpicking to find criticism. This was exactly what I wanted to read out of Captain Marvel and I don't see how if DC ran with this idea of the Captain they couldn't have a bonafied success on their hands. It saddens me that people reading Captain Marvel for the first time and wanting to read more about the Captain will have to make do with Trials of Shazam.
We often forget that comics should be for kids and I really think it takes a master of his art like Jeff Smith to remind us that you can write something adults enjoy but kids will also love. His managed to capture the essence of Captain Marvel while not patronising anyone who is reading. This is what Captain Marvel should be not shoehorned into depressing comics and I'm glad everyone has been reminded of this.

Fell #7
Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Ben Templesmith

I'm not sure I could pick a complete opposite to Shazam: Monster Society of Evil as my other favourite this week but Fell is an amazing book. While Shazam: Monster Society of Evil reminds us that comics should be for children. Fell reminds us that thank God they all aren't geared towards them and it's great that we can go into a comic shop and enjoy two titles it shows to me such diversity towards comic books. Comic books are really dominated in the market by Superheroes and I would say the huge majority of stuff I read is superheroes but again thank God there are alternatives and out of the mainstream comic book market Fell is one of the best non-superhero books on the market and behind Invincible the best book Image is publishing. In another direct opposite to Shazam: Monster Society of Evil this book costs only $1.99. Warren Ellis went into the title wanting to write a comic that people could walk into a comic shop and spend pocket change on and actually have a good interesting read. He achieved his brief, it works very, very well.
Fell is a comic about a detective Richard Fell who in the first issue was moved to Snowtown - it's the place where no-one wants to live (endless violence, poverty of a third world country, urban decay on a grand scale) and for a Detective it's a no hoper. But Richard Fell is out there with endless hope that he can save this town and really make a name for himself as a detective. It saves space by using 9 panel pages which just could not be achieved without Ben Templesmith's pencils. Who draws an almost hallucinatory hell when he is depicting the action. He manages to make absolutely nothing feels safe or innocent. Everyone has a motive, everyone is evil in some way and it works very, very well.
Fell's issues stands alone and is designed to be read alone. But as each issues runs through you learn more about Richard Fell and learn more about the world he is in. In this issue Fell has captured a man who is guilty about killing a woman - actually much worse but I'll save you the details. He is presenting the case to the defendant, his lawyer and an optimistic young D.A who has been provided by the city. Fell presents the whole story to the room but gets carried away with trying to see the guy burn for his misdeeds that it all goes horribly wrong he gives the case away. It's not a happy ending and you don't feel good at the end of the comic.
It may sound clichéd but it never plays out like that because you end up thinking about subjects like drugs, the criminal system, law enforcement, the processes involved and the grey line with right and wrong. The comic stories may stand alone but you drag these issues and feelings to comic and comic it all builds up a very satisfying and interesting read.
Usually the issues end with a some sort of extended letter column by Warren Ellis where he talks about why he chose the particular story or answers questions. It's a great thing to read after the comic and I wish more people would actually do that but this one had a preview of Cassanova a new series by Image, which I have to say looks very interesting. Fell is a great book and #7 showcases it. If you have the pocket change go pick it up next time you pass a shop.

This is real? I just don't understand.

I haven't had chance to sit down and write about comics the last two weeks. The week before I was ill and didn't manage to pick up comics to read them and then this week after picking up 16 comics, I still have about 10 to read. It was my birthday weekend so I didn't have a lot of time to sit down and read through.

Except for one thing. Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters has been a constantly awesome miniseries from DC written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and art by Daniel Acuña. #7 was an insanely great issue for a lot a different reasons but stand out for me because it herald the return of Ray Terrill. Which allowed me to geek the hell out. Fanboy moment of the year for me.



This week will see the release of the eagerly awaited Jeff's Smith's Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil to say I'm excited is a huge understatement. It should be a stunning book.

You even have a decoder with the book to read certain parts in a secret code.

Mld sld xllo rh gszg?

I doubt anyone under the age of 18 and anyone outside the UK has heard of Teletext when I was young it was the hip thing - like the internet except the only way to respond to it was by post or phoning a premium rate number. It was full of bright pixels of colour and information aplenty just by dialing a three digit number on your TV after locating the secret broadcast sent down the TV signal. It was what the reveal button was invented for and the reason kids it is on your TV remote - it's not for clearing censors on porn as I swear some kid had said on a forum recently.

OK I know Teletext still exists at a button press and I know people know it is there but I can't imagine that with the Internet existing and with Digital TV it's get the same traffic it used to when I was young - especially considering digital TV gives you subtitles at a button and now and next on command. Which must have been the most popular uses for Teletext. I'm so old I remember when Fasttext was introduced, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a TV that could do that imagine going to my favourite Teletext pages with only one push of a button - think of how much easier it made Bamboozle. My most fond memory of Teletext was Digitiser which I read every morning for about 10 years while eating Pop Tarts and watching Big Breakfast.

Digitiser or Digi as I will probably type a few times, for those who don't know, was a computer game "magazine" on Teletext which was updated daily. The presented computer game news in a hilarious, offbeat, satirical, surreal way that was so unique it's kind of hard to describe it to people who didn't read it. News stories were hosted by a range of characters, one such was a Zombie (Zombie Dave) that spoke in a code that once you decrypted it because obviously clear he was speaking some pretty crude things - which of course was hilarious. There would be cartoons scattered all over the pages, especially the letter pages, which were usually the highlight of the update. You can never forget the Snakes or the Man and I'm sure they pre-empted the Internet's love for Mr. T by a number of years. Actually they got in trouble quite regularly with the Channel 4 Directors and people in charge of Teletext for being too crude and pushing the limit too far and everyone loves a rebel.

It's pretty clear now that where now we have Internet Memes from 4chan, ytmnd, b3ta, fark, et al. Digitiser was doing the exactly same thing just in a more confined environment. I know at the time out of my friends the ones that read Digitiser would almost talk in a secret code to each other about the recent updates from "reversible sledgewicks", describing something as "huss" to "moc-moc-a-moc" or adding -uss, -O, -ston, -Oh! and -me-do to any word and then ending passages with just "And!" it would leave the rest of my friends in complete confusion. Their loss. And!

There is far too much stuff for me to ever go through and the good thing is I don't have too because the Internet has achieved it all for me:

• Super Page 58
• Digi-Me-Do
• Digitiser Eulogy

The point is; it was awesome and played a big part in why I got into computer games and also made me feel part of an incredibly elite (read pathetic) club. If you got a letter printed it was amazing, hell me and friend got them to draw Yoda once and I remember trying to record it onto VHS and actually just got some of Brookside.

And, I started to ramble on again. The reason I decided to write this was because even though Digi maybe dead the people who created it and ran the thing are not. Mr. Biffo and Mr. Hairs were the two people who started it however after a time it was just Mr. Biffo. Who after a while realised he was a good writer (with a tiny space for text he managed to fill it with humour and subject matter effectively - me being a history student means I do the opposite - I just keep writing on and on with no humour - so being concise is a talent) so he has moved onto TV writing in the past he contributed a lot to kids TV specifically My Parents are Aliens which was wonderful. He also writes a monthly column for Edge magazine.

He has a blog like most people in the world and what started all this is I was catching up on my bookmarked blogs that I haven't read for a while. I knew he was working on a sitcom "Now The Weather" for Channel 4 and I wanted to see where it was going. But I was hit upon with wonderful news. BBC3 have commissioned a pilot for a TV show written by Mr. Biffo and Mr. Hairs called "Biffovision" which is some sort of odd sketch show which sounds like it's more or less a live action version of Digitiser without Computer Games… which is just exactly what I want out of TV. So I'm very excited and I hope someone else is too. He has constantly updated his blog about this and I'm sure he will keep doing that so go over there keep checking it, also the pilot is scheduled for March. So woo!

He also has a book coming out about his conversations in chatrooms with men when he was pretending to be a woman called Confessions of a Chatroom Freak or you can get it from Amazon but it doesn't have a picture so I didn't want to link that one. I'll definitely buy it when it's released I also hope other people will and I hope everyone enjoys.

And so ends an impromptu ramble about Teletext, Digi and beyond.

A really rare shark called the Frilled Shark has been spotted off the shores of Japan as reported on Reuters.



I thought it was bizzare and interesting enough to post here also a Youtube video of the CNN report.



In a kind of related thing, well not related at all. Except it is weird and amusing. A dog that walks on two legs. Look at it go!



Dovka'd!