Monday, October 10, 2005

What to read, what to read?

Right, I’ve finished the books I had on my little pile over the week off (The Little Gentlemen was fantastic) and now I’m stuck as to what to read next. My usual technique is to pull out a stack of books from my unread bit of the bookcase try a few pages and see if any of them grab me. This time is no exception. I could pick one of a bunch of kids proofs (A Dog for Life, A Suspicion of Toads, A Single Shard (Philip Pullman likes this one), or Malvolio’s Revenge) that I could read nice and quickly or maybe one of classics I’ve been eyeing up recently (hard Times and Pride and Prejudice). Or maybe I should read Framed as Frank Cottrell Boyce’s last book was so good or maybe, perhaps, possibly.... Ah, I suppose I could read some comics whilst I make up my mind.
Hulk Comic, a blast from the past. Back in the 70’s Marvel UK decided to cash in on the Hulk TV show and released a tie in comic that was rather unique for Marvel UK, it had all new material. Up till then us Brits had mostly had to settle for US reprints, but now we had something new, and very good it was too. Nightraven was a gem of a strip set in 30’s (I think) America and featuring a very pulp-ish vigilante who branded villains on the head when he caught them. The Black Night was an interesting reworking of myths and superheroes (it featured the return of Captain Britain who up till that point was a best forgotten embarrassment) And of course there was the Hulk stories which took there cue from the kind of tales told in the TV show making them far superior to a lot of the US stuff at the time (who doesn’t get misty eyed when they hear that closing music on the TV show) The original stories didn’t last unfortunately and within a few months it was mostly reprints (The Black Night managed to last a lot longer) due to the lack of budget afforded Marvel UK, but almost all the names involved in Hulk Comic went on to become incredible well known, names like Steve Dillon (Preacher, beloved by students everywhere), Dave Gibbons and David Lloyd (both working on seminal comics Watchmen and V For Vendetta (one the best comics ever written IMHO) to mention a few. End of another comic history lesson.
Of course I really should be reading ‘proper’ books shouldn’t I? There was a very good article in The Comics Journal about this, whenever faced with a crisis, depression or a problem the average comic reader will start to trawl through their old comics and breath in the musty smell of safe warm nostalgia. And I’m supposed to getting over that depression stuff aren’t I? Hmmm.

14 comments:

Danny said...

I remember Hulk Comic, and Nightraven (vaguely). It's a bastard that Marvel UK is now just an arm of the folk who make the football stickers (although they still publish Doctor Who Magazine)...

Nimiwey said...

I read imported Viz comics, is that not proper?

paulhd said...

Are you talking about the Viz manga comics or Viz the UK humour comic? Either way, yeah, they're proper. I do like managa even though I'm not that familiar with a lot of it - I di pick up Sexy Voice and Robo recently which is great.
Nightraven was pure class. It is weird the Painini own Marvel UK, at least some of the reprints actually use the descent Marvel stuff, ie the 60's stuff.

Nimiwey said...

I think it's the UK humor comic...Bottom Inspectors, Big Fat Slags and other high-brow humor that thoroughly entertains me...

paulhd said...

Yeah, I've still got a soft spot for Viz, not sure how the humour translates out of the UK seeing as it's so entrenched in UK kid's comics from the 70's. Nice to see fart based jokes cross cultural boundaries.

Gopher said...

I find it hard to find it amusing in the UK... used to, but grew out of it.

Nimiwey said...

Well la-ti-da gopher. Hmph.

paulhd said...

Growing out of Viz sort of means you didn't really get it in the first place!

Nimiwey said...

LOL, yeah! Over your head, or under for that matter...

Gopher said...

Meh... could just be a different sense of humour. At 17 they were funny... at 22 the one I actually read was simply boring. Seeing my cousins finding them extremely amusing whilst completely out of it smoking dope put me off.

Nimiwey said...

Yeah, drugs are bad. By the way Paul, how's the heroin addiction coming along?

Or did you decide that it's "inspiration" wasn't necessary cause you're too good? Hmmmmm?

paulhd said...

Must admit I hate being around people how are stoned.
Viz does tend to appeal to a certain age bracket but it's not actually designed for them. Basically Viz is a meant to be purile it's also designed to be repetitive, that's the point, it's a homage to a kind of comic that was incredibly repetitive. The fact that Viz started out as a zine that caught on with a bigger market constant amazes me.
Decided not to bother with the heroin Nimiwey and stick with high I get from my shining halo of purity.

Nimiwey said...

I get a high when I mouth off to my neighbors passive aggressively, like telling brainmarket really loudly, "GOD I HATE CIGARETTE SMOKE COMING THROUGH OUR WINDOWS AND THE HACKING COUGHING AND DYING OF OUR NEIGHBORS". What pure, simple joy.

Gopher said...

Wow I do that. Usually stood on the balcony...

I've gotten a little less passive... as in sweeping a guy on the tube for pushing me, and my most regretable action of punching a guy off of a tube train because he was blocking the doorway for others...

Yes I'm a pacifist... just a really bad one sometimes.