Category: comics

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2012 apocalypse moon books comics writers

Five to Doomsday – Day 4: What 3 books would you save from the apocalypse? Featuring Anthony Horowitz and Michael Grant

For today’s special Mayan apocalypse-themed post, I’ll be posing a dilemma faced by one of the characters in APOCALYPSE MOON.

(I won’t say which character, in case you haven’t read the book yet because it’s very spoiler-ish.)

When making a dash from their home to a doomsday-prepped retreat in the hills, this character brings certain books. But along the way they are robbed, have to bargain their way out of trouble etc. Sometimes books are traded for their burn value. In the end , only THREE books can be saved. In APOCALYPSE MOON, those three books turn out to be highly significant to the story.

I put that question to Anthony Horowitz, Michael Grant and Junot Diaz, three authors whose books I admire, and who’ve written (or are writing) novels featuring  post-apocalyptic mayhem.

Junot Diaz replied with a charmingly mis-typed message from the Dominican Republic: Pita. In dr. No email. Typing tid on cel phone. Have to skip. Please forgive. 

Duly forgiven!

So I’m stepping in as the third author to add my selections to Anthony’s and Michael’s. The only rule was this – the books you choose to save must be in your house right now.

Michael Grant

In case you’ve been living on another planet for the past few years, Michael’s fantastic GONE series features a thrilling, paranoid world in which everyone over the age of 15 has simply GONE. The kids of Perdido Beach, CA are left to duke it out amongst themselves. But the phenomenon that spirits away everyone over their 15th birthday has made its impact elsewhere too. Mayhem, action, politics and romance are only part of the result. Think Lord of the Flies meets X-Men.

Hmmm.  Okay.  Has to be a book currently in my house.  I have a lot of my own books, but I’d burn them — they’re available digitally, plus I’ve already them.  There are also a lot of my wife’s books, and I would want to be very careful about saying I’d burn any of them.  Very careful.  My choices are mostly about books that have taught me something and whose particular strengths I cannot match in my own writing.  But the three I would absolutely not burn.
Terribly cliche answer, but The Lord Of The Rings.  It’s not that the prose is particularly wonderful, it’s not.  It’s pretty bad in parts.  It’s the world-building.  No one before, and very few after, touched Tolkien’s deep, erudite, devoted world-building.
Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian.  As with Tolkien, I admire the erudition, the level of knowledge.  But O’Brian is a much better writer of prose than Tolkien.  This is the second in what became a 21 book series, and I learned from O’Brian that there were different ways to bring a satisfying ending to a particular series book.  His characters are absolutely indelible.
The City and the City – China Miéville.  I have a pretty good imagination, if I may be immodest.  But Miéville made me take a step back and say, “Whoa.”  He’s not much for character development, but he’s a good writer with a really first class imagination.
Of course on any given week I’d have a different list.
Thank you Michael! We’re looking forward to the finale of the GONE series: LIGHT, out March 2013.

Anthony Horowitz

Again, for those currently living in the International Space Station, Anthony’s POWER OF FIVE series is a modern-day epic fantasy in which an ancient threat that once dominated the Earth now looms on our horizon. Only five teenagers – the reincarnation of ancient guardians who once banished the evil Old Ones – stand between us and oblivion. But what’s this? – the final book is titled OBLIVION. Which I guess tells us that the Power of Five needs that extra final push. I’ve been saving this one to read over the Christmas/New Year break.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – William Schirer. This is the best history of the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis that I’ve ever read and a vital lesson to future generations. It’s an extraordinary examination of the nature of evil and one we all have to understand if we’re not going to repeat it.

The Oxford Book of Poetry (2008). I suppose this is a bit obvious but I love reading poetry and this one book contains so much genius, so many great poets. If you want to read what humans were like – what they loved, what they thought –  before the apocalypse, read their poetry.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens. I’d save the complete Dickens if I could but if you’re only going to allow me a measly three books, I’ll keep this one, the greatest novel ever written (in my opinion).
Thanks Anthony! 
Finally – my own choices.
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Would be my own candidate for the best novel ever written except for the fact that it doesn’t tell the story of one main character but rather of a whole village. I usually admit that this is my favourite book when asked and have written more about it here.
Labyrinths – Jorge Luis Borges. A collection of amazing short stories that has influenced authors including Thomas Pynchon, Umberto Eco and me. There’s more plot in many of these than in many novels, which is one reason I’d save them. Each story or essay takes the reader into a world of erudition, imagination and wonder.
The Arabian Nights – translated by Sir Richard Burton, Easton Press edition. One of several books my father let me choose from his library of leather-bound Easton Press books. (Oh the woe of not being able to save them all!) The tale of Scheherazade and her incredibly story-telling skills has always been one of my favourites. Surely the best short story collection ever?!
HOWEVER! If I also owned my father’s leather-bound collection of Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge stories, however, one of the three books above would not be coming along for the apocalypse. My sister Adriana is going to have to save that one for posterity.
In another Mayan apocalypse themed post, I’m interviewed over at The Kooky Bookworm‘s blog.
Categories
comics writers

Remembering Vincent

There’s a friend of mine that I’ve blogged about before, Christian Pattison, who writes as Christian David. He’s been stomping around Summertown lately in his leather jacket, putting together his latest scripts and the novel and also The Vincent Fund.

It’s a memorial to the man he worked with for twenty years, good as: Vincent John McKeown, an incredible project that deserves wide support: a fund to help disabled people and their carers to enjoy the arts.

Christian is telling stories inspired by Vincent’s life, which ended abruptly last year after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis. Christian has spent most of life since graduating as a carer for the disabled, whilst also producing an amazing variety of artistic works (novels, plays, musicals, poems, as well as literary underground art/poetry/pop magazine, The Illustrated Ape.)

The web comic (gorgeously illustrated by Charles Cutting) is a series that begins with Vincent eschewing the afterlife (upstairs it’s Sunday every day and there’s a lot of Kum-bye-ahh; downstairs it’s always Monday morning and full of venial misery, as well as horned-ones in suits). Instead, Vincent chooses another, purely poetic route…

Vincent was a poet and a lecturer before the MS made work impossible. Christian used to accompany Vincent to as many arts events as possible. (They became experts on all the churches of Oxford too…) But it often took effort – try using the London Underground if you’re disabled…

So now the idea is to raise money so that other disabled people and carers can enjoy something that they don’t get as much chance to do as they might like. You can give money via the website to help for transport, or donate tickets. (Hint – putting on a show? Know any theatre producers? Tell them about The Vincent Fund!)

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comics

My favourite Batman books

Continuing on the theme of Batman…

I have been thinking of getting out my old Batman comics and re-reading them. And then I thought, no, why not buy some new ones?

Thing is, I don’t think the seminal 1980s/90s Batman graphic novels have been bettered.

Lookit: here’s my list of the top 5.


1. Batman: the Killing Joke by Alan Moore, art by Brian Bolland

The great Alan Moore takes on Bruce Wayne and the Joker. It’s short, violent, disturbing and the best Joker origin story ever. The Joker as a struggling comedian who gets into petty crime for his girl? Woo. It was the first time I’d ever read anything remotely sympathetic about the Joker. The climactic scenes where Joker menaces Commissioner Gordon’s daughter in an abandoned fairground stunned me with their violence and realism.

This was my introduction to graphic novels. Some of the images are still with me now, even though I haven’t read it for over 10 years.


2. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, art by Dave Mazzuchelli

Between them, Frank Miller and Alan Moore just about reinvented the tired superhero genre in the 1990s. Miller tackled Batman and Daredevil; Moore did Swamp Thing, Miracleman and CK himself – Superman.

Miller took Batman back beyond the camp 1960s TV show which gloried in the daftness of costumed vigilantes, and took Batman closer to Bob Kane’s original vision which was more film noir and pulpish. I’m also a big fan of The Shadow and The Spirit, both had their heydays in the 1940s and featured crime fighters who operated in the claustrophic world of the high-rise metropolis.

Batman Year One has been the inspiration for the latest movie visualization of Batman. Bruce Wayne is a difficult character to understand. He’s so multifaceted – playboy, businessman, vigilante, technophile. And as badly as we might want him to pair up with a girl, it’s fitting that he’s single. No man can do all that and also have time for a proper love life.


3. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

The thing you need to know about this book is that strictly it exists outside of the Batman canon; i.e. it takes place long after the Batman most of us know and love. Batman is in his 50s and ostensibly, retired. Something bad has happened to the latest Robin (and this was pre-A Death In The Family) – something that prompted Bruce’s retirement.

But of course, One Last Thing drags him back into the costume. And that is the Joker – of course, Batman’s greatest enemy.

The artwork here begins to depart from the very literalistic interpretations we’ve seen in Batman up to now, becoming more filmic and manga-influenced.

Apart from Alan Moore’s Watchmen, this may be the single most influential comic book in the last 25 years.


4. Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison, art by Dave McKean

A typically multilayered and somewhat crazy narrative conveys the world of Arkham’s most disturbing institution – the asylum where inevitably, most of Batman’s enemies wind up.

After an era in which most Batman books concluded with the unrepentant criminal – the Joker, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, Penguin etc heading for the imposing gates of Arkham Asylum, Morrison asks the question that’s on all our lips: how close is Brucie to being in there with these guys?

Cos lets face it – he isn’t normal. Not what you and I would call normal. Think about it for a minute. Brucie’s life is way, way out there on the scale of most caped crusaders. Spiderman and Daredevil for example, are ordinary guys – a photographer, a lawyer – with extraordinary abilities. They live in small apartments; they worry about paying the rent.

Bruce Wayne is an extraordinary guy with nothing but cash and the will to power – power that in his case manifests as his one-man anti-crime spree.

Arkham Asylum explores the whole sanity thing in the context of Batman’s world. And Dave McKean’s artwork is outstanding.


5. Mad Love by Paul Dini, art by Bruce Timm

Now this choice may be controversial, because I’m putting this higher than most Batman fans would, above such (in my opinion) over-rated books as The Cult. I choose it because of the humour – which is always going to score big with me. Dark humour and a crazy love story as psychiatrist-turned-psycho, Harley Quinn takes on Batman in order to win the heart of her former patient, the Joker. Not many Batman books make me laugh out loud, which is why this is a stand-out for me.

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comics mexico nostalgia

From Mexican masked wrestlers to Batman


On the left: my sister (in the pretty dress) and I (in the Batman costume) dine out with clowns at Mexico City’s Mauna Loa restaurant. I’m probably 7 years old here.

On the right: our six-year old daughter as Mistico, the masked wrestler, taken a few weeks ago by new friend via Flickr, Alejandro.

Our six-year old daughter has a thing for Mexican masked wrestlers. I’ve seen it all before and I know where it leads.

I became fascinated with Batman via a fascination with the masked wrestlers who were and are still such big heroes in Mexico. When I was little it was Blue Demon and El Santo. These days there are others, like Mistico.

Truthfully I had no idea that the costumes I saw being sold all over gaudy stalls in Mexico’s Chapultepec park were anything to do with wrestling. I thought they were caped crusaders. And that was cool. So when our little daughter begged us to buy her a Mistico mask in Playa del Carmen recently, I knew just how she felt.

Somehow that fascination turned into a full-on obsession with Batman (that I’m not really over to be honest…). My Uncle Johny, a childhood pal of my father’s was always crazy for comic books and ‘pulps’. So naturally his boy, my cousin Juan Fernando, had the best batman suit money could buy. How I envied Juan Fernando that suit. I coveted it something rotten, so when Juan grew out of it, my uncle and aunt kindly gave it to me. The true owner! Only I truly loved that suit.

I wore it everywhere and all the time. I wore it to the university where my grandfather worked and the students would ask ‘Hey Batman, where’s Robin?’ until I actually got fed up.

There wasn’t always a Robin, yanno…

I wore it to restaurants. There was no point arguing with me on this. Thank goodness there were no family weddings or christenings that summer or I’d have worn it to them too.

My Uncle Johny had a library that was to me, basically like a temple. It was full of book shelves and cases of precious sci-fi books, adventure stories, comic books and collectibles. He used to lend me his Ellery Queen books and his Batman paperback versions of the comics. It was in Johny’s library that I first read the Batman origin story, the most impressive one, I believe, for any caped crusader. A rich, privileged boy sees his beloved parents murdered in an alleyway by some thug, all for a string of pearls. And that’s it: over. His life of privilege and all his riches can never replace what he loses right there – his childhood. Bruce Wayne spends his whole life trying to put back something that can never be fixed. And he’s never content – how can he be? No bereavement counselling for Bruce – just a premonition in a bat cave and a life of violence and vendetta against the breed of scumbag who destroyed his life.

Gosh it’s cool.

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comics movies top 10

Top Ten Superhero Films Part 2

It turns out that I’m an idiot who can’t count. I forgot one key superhero movie which is awesome, easily in the top 5, and when I looked at the other 4, none could in all good conscience be thrown out in favour of Spiderman 3, which I loved even if everyone says it’s bad.

The one I forgot is now at number 4. I think it’s that good.

5. X2
You know the X-Men franchise takes itself pretty seriously – at least this far in its run – from the fact that it opens in Auschwitz. Ooer, dark; Frank Miller, Alan Moore territory here we come. After that it comes together very nicely as one of only 2 successful multi-protag superhero movies. A raft of terrific actors have a great time with a good screenplay.

4. The Incredibles
I remember watching this at the cinema with my daughters and being impressed at a film which could hugely entertain a pre-school child, a teen and an adult. The story structure is terrific, the pace never lets up, the humour sections are genuinely funny and not just saddo cheese-fests (I particularly loved the costume fitting). It’s not easy to write a great story that has pace, humour, always with an eye on the video game opportunity. I think The Incredibles really pulls it off. My only teentsy concern is the self-referential nature of the movie, with its commentary on the nature and perception a world in which superheroes exist. It seemed a very original twist on the superhero mythology when Alan Moore did it in ‘Watchmen’, but now seems a bit passe. Then again most people haven’t read ‘Watchmen’.

3. Spiderman
I love Tobey Maquire and have always loved Peter Parker. Green Goblin was a great villain to pick for the Spidey movie. Peter’s growing delight with his powers and the way that, despite being a superhero he only slowly dispels his nerdy-boy persona, are the stand-out bits for me. Yes, the swinging is all very good too, love the swinging and the wall-crawling.Everyone in this movie is just great, but Jonah Jameson is a special delight.

2. Superman II
I almost put this top. It’s not top of anyone else’s list, as far as I know, which makes me think; where were you people in 1980? Don’t you realise the significance to those of us who were lovelorn teens, of the moment when Clark tells Lois that he’s Superman? Their first kiss is up there with Han Solo’s kiss with Princess Leia as one of the defining movie smooches for people my age! We also get to learn more about Supe’s homeworld, see the camp wonderfulness of the exiled Kryptonians and actually worry that Superman may not win the day. The end somewhat spoils it, with Clark being allowed to get his powers again. I see that it’s called for, but basically, it’s a deus ex machina.

1. Spiderman II
It’s unusual for a sequel to be better than the first, but not uncommon in Superhero films. Why? Because the first superhero film necessarily serves up the Origin Story. We all know more or less what such a story will give us. Ordinary guy becomes extraordinary and finds that he must use his extraordinariness to help people. Big Baddie threatens the world, superhero to the rescue, problem solved. Not very interesting, so far. The surprises, threats and complications really arise in stories further along the line. Jaded superhero; superhero tempted to evil; superhero in love, etc. Spiderman II goes for an early foray into Jaded Superhero. It’s probably not a bad time for that story. You can’t really roll that one out again until the superhero is supposedly ‘past it’, as in “The Dark Knight Returns”. Doc Ock is great, ripping chunks out of walls and hurling them at people. So many classic moments of the genre, so well executed.

Didn’t make the list:
Daredevil – one of my greater movie disappointments. How was this not wonderful? Why didn’t they get Frank Miller to write it? What was with the stupid, pumping rock soundtrack? Why was Matt Murdoch not blond??? I love MM but Daredevil was baaad, and not in the good way.

Elektra – not as dreadful as people say, actually. Better than Daredevil. But again…why didn’t Frank Miller write? Why didn’t they at least use one of his Elektra stories?

Constantine – (based on Hellblazer) really good. Would put it at twelve.

Spidey 3 – cos I can’t count, but I’d put it at 7 probably, in a rejig.

Superhero Movies I’d Like To See:
The Spirit, Watchmen, a good Daredevil movie, Groo the Wanderer, The Trouble With Girls. Technically neither The Spirit, Groo nor Lester Girls have superpowers. But then neither does Batman, so fair is fair.