Aaaaaand we're back!

Welcome back, everyone!

This post is me blowing the metaphorical dust off the cover of an old (and I guess probably also metaphorical) book. 

Its has been 3 months to the day since I last brain-farted a collection of words about comics on to/into the intertubes.

"Why the long wait, asshole?" I hear my legions of devoted fans screaming! 

Well the truth is I guess I wasn't totally satisfied with it....so me and my blog had a trial separation. After extensive couples therapy we hashed out an agreement. The fruits of which will become apparent in the coming weeks (also more on that later, impatient pants!) 

In the months I've been away (training in the ways of the samurai in a secluded dojo, if you must know) I feel my place as a Nerd (capital N)  in this world has changed, allow me to explain using flowery language and annotated pictures...

classy.....

So Avengers came out! or....sorry...Marvel's Avengers Assemble as it was called over here in the UK (fyi: I don't know anyone who called it that and I will administer harsh Chinese burns to anyone that does) 

To say I was excited was an understatement, in fact I think when people ask if I was looking forward to the film my exact response was 'I'm RIGID with excitement'....so, yeah....

The film its self was incredible. Once I got past the fact my actual,god-damn,since childhood obsession with comic books had lead me to the cinema on a rainy Monday in April to watch a film about The mother fucking Avengers. Once I got past the prospect of seeing Robert Downey Jr play Tony Stark AGAIN! Once I got past the fact Joss Whedon had directed and written the whole shebang I was presented with the first few minutes of the film. To be totally honest for about four minutes of the film I was scared I had raised this film on to high a pedestal for it to actually be any good. After the film was over I was straight on the phone trying to find my nearest pedestal extension company. IT WAS INCREDIBLE.

*guttural sex noise*

Avengers is tremendous amounts of fun, usually when people describe a film as fun its used almost as a distraction from the fact the film is awful but this film is not awful, sir! oh no!

Its almost as if the film itself as an entity (stick with me this is going somewhere) is aware of the sort of film it is and has to be. It delivers everything an Avengers film and everything a comic book film should deliver.

 I was reminded of when I first saw the Ang Lee Hulk film (you know the Eric Bana one) and how frustrating it was watching the Hulk actually skulk about in the shadows and mope when all I really wanted to see was Hulk smashing things in glorious, fucking hi-def. In Avengers Hulk smashes things and gets all the best lines. Its like the film has read my mind.

JUST FUCKING SMASH SOMETHING YOU PRICK!

Avengers throws you right in to the action at the start and doesn't take it's foot off the gas for the duration. It squeezes lots of action and cool set pieces (the fight between Cap, Iron Man and Thor is just pure cinematic sex) in but doesn't neglect the character development. 

I'm no massive fan of Joss Whedon but the epsiodes of Buffy and Firefly I have seen are great, he does ensemble casts very well. I always liked the way he twisted character tropes ever-so slightly to create a bunch of misfits in Buffy (and in what I have seen of Firefly) that you can't help but be drawn to. Whedons script for Avengers is funny but also has the feeling that we are listening in genuine conversation. The dynamic between Tony Stark and Bruce banner is beautiful and hilarious.

........

Watching Avengers is like sitting down and reading a big graphic novel (Civil War, maybe) all in one go. It's bright, glossy, satisfying and very very funny. 

Avengers has done two things: It has proved that super hero films don't have to be cheesy and limp (i'm looking at you Green Lantern) and it has exposed a lot of people to characters that have existed for decades. It has made new nerds...FUCK YES!

My good friend Mark described the Avengers as 'fucking bliss' I i totally fucking agree.

The second really cool nerdy thing I did in last few months is go to Kapow Comic con. I had never been to a con and I was very eager to get stuck in. Mark and I ventured down to the Business Design Centre in London for both days. It was awesome for many reasons.

i had an 'alright' time...

Costumed lovelies aside I think both myself and Mark agreed the weekend totally justified our nerdiness. Meeting artists and writers was weird but really exciting, flicking through box after box of comics was bordering on Zen-like and just being in an environment filled with people that are passionate about comics was somehow calming.


Personally I met Frank Quietly, Shaky Kane (who did me an awesome sketch of a Hateful Dead zombie from Bulletproof Coffin), Scott Snyder and Becky Cloonan. I was also in attendance for the 'Audience with Warren Ellis' which was great. Ellis is so sarcastic and belligerent but somehow warm and funny. During his 45 minute talk he consumed 3 Red Bull drinks and continuously pulled on an E-Cigarette. Main piece of advice from Warren Ellis for any writers in the audience was 'if you don't write every day, you aren't a writer'. Pretty clear.


So with my Nerd power now at level over 9000 I left Kapow even more resolute in my love of comics and determined to put more effort into my own projects.

this probably now qualifies as a 'vintage' meme in internet years..

The final part of this nerdy trifecta is a one-two punch of such planet shattering awesomeness you may wish to sit down with a stiff drink. 


Pretty much within a month I attended a free lecture at The Contemporary in Nottingham. The guests were Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie. Very fucking cool. Moore spoke broadly about his career and some of his stuff (Promethea, From Hell etc) and gave his opinions of modern comics as a money making machine. He also stroked his beard a lot and flicked his long, grey hair over his shoulders like some sort of badass, fuckin' warlock.

i repeat: BADASS FUCKIN' WARLOCK

Melinda Gebbie was very warm and reassuring. When taking questions from the assembled masses about how they got into the field of comics they both came across very encouraging and positive. Alans remarked 'all you need to be a writer is a biro and a piece of paper' and Melinda said 'you don't need anyone's permission to be creative'. I walked out of this experience feeling so focussed on my own endeavour (I had attended this talk with Matt, my co-conspirator in the world of comic making) and daunted by the prospectof hammering away at a medium I love for as many years as Moore and Gebbie had.


A few weeks later I was lucky enough to meet Dave Gibbons, He of 'I co-created Watchmen' fame. Gibons was in conversation at Confetti (again, in Nottingham) and he spoke about his career, his involvement in some of the greatest works of sequential art ever committed to paper, his involvement in video games and Hollywood's adaptation of Watchmen.

also: big blue wangs...

Gibbons was very cool, the most interesting parts of it all for me were the little insights in to his professional life, he spoke about converting his garage into a drawing studio and earning $28,000 for basically tracing something for the Watchmen film. It was encouraging to see someone who had been so successful both artistically and financially! 


Gibbons was also kind enough to sign my copy of Watchmen, he scrawled a sketch of Rorschach in the blink of an eye and it is awesome. 




So...a pretty hectic three months nerd-wise (I also built a replica arc reactor and saw Avengers 2 more times). 


Three months ago I was enthusiastic about all things Nerd but now I realise I'm a lifer. I have a lot of opinions and things to say about this niche interest. That's why I started this blog. 


So in the coming weeks I will be welcoming aboard two more regular contributors and co-conspirators, think of them as the Bruce Banner and Thor to my (admittedly shambolic and nowhere near as rich) Tony Stark.


There will be new posts from Mark and Ed in the next week or so and just generally more activity, more guest posts from more contributors and general bullshit!

and not to mention more hilariously captioned pictures..

So, short version; Blog is alive, stay tuned.