September 2011 Archives

TANK GIRL gets the exclusive poster look, courtesy of artist Rufus Dayglo.

Visitors to next month's MCM Expo London Comic Con will get the chance to snag an exclusive limited edition show poster drawn by ace comic artist Rufus Dayglo. You'll have to get to Comic Con nice and early though - only 100 copies of the poster, featuring the iconic Tank Girl, will be produced.

You'll find Rufus himself in the show's newly-expanded Comic Village alongside including Gail Simone, John McCrea, David Hine and best-selling sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton.

Working alongside co-creator Alan Martin as the main artist on the Tank Girl series, Rufus draws for 2000 AD and Titan Books in the UK as well as IDW Publishing and Image Comics in the United States. He is also currently working on a brand new project, Sold Gold Death Mask.

For more on London MCM Expo visit: www.londonexpo.com

THE MALTA Comic Convention takes place for its third consecutive year on Saturday 26th November and Sunday 27th November from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm at St. James Cavalier.

Tickets cost 7 euros per day or 12 euros for both days, with children under the age of 11 being able to enter free of charge.

Guests include Christopher Malapitan, David Lloyd, Emma Vieceli, Gary Erskine, Lucio Parrillo, Marco Santucci, Michael Golden, Renee Witterstaetter, Sonia Leong, Steve Tanner and Tim Perkins.

DOUG BRAITHWAITE proved to be an amiable, intelligent gentleman, as well as an excellent artist, when I interviewed him at 2011 B.C. in Birmingham.

Matthew James was there and caught some of the on-stage conversation on video. Click on the Youtube link below and you can view it yourselves:

Some more great photographs from last month's event....

I mislaid the photographs from last month's 2011BC. But they have now surfaced again and these are better late than never.

2011BC organiser James Hodgkins and Dave Gibbons

Dave Gibbons giving his stand up routine - jokes about monkeys basically.

THIS MONTH'S comics-related film news courtesy of G.M. Jordan...

Surprise UK Hit

If you were asked to put money on the number one film on the summer, what film would you pick? Captain America? Smurfs? Conan? Or maybe a romantic comedy such as Friends with Benefits? Well it might surprise you to learn that a British spin-off from a Channel 4 comedy is one of the most profitable films of the summers.

Costing next to nothing to make, The Inbetweeners movie saw off the biggest films America could throw at it, including Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Have audiences got tired of sequels or are they tired of the same old hogwash recycled year after year? Probably not, after all Jennifer Aniston still has a career and Tom Cruise continues to have a box office profile. It more likely that the cinema going public just wants to laugh for 90mins without worrying about war and the downturn in the economy.

There is nothing original in The Inbetweeners' movie, its puerile nonsense in the same way that the Porkies and Hot Lemon Popsicle offerings were in the 1980s. When people are surrounded by war and depression do you want to go see The Deer Hunter, The Hurt Locker or The Tree of Life? Nope, they want something that will make them laugh so hard they almost choke on their Minstrels.

After seeing off the colonial summer invasion on this side of the Atlantic it will be interesting to see if the Inbetweeners can do the same in the States, its success in this country means it may well get a countrywide release there. American's do enjoy British productions, hence the success of BBC America, but will they accept that our creative talents (?) can do puerile comedy as well as they do.

Marmite Movie Moments

Conan fans are divided over the relaunch of the barbarian's film career. Standing at one event I heard every comment under the sun, from "The director should be buried up to his neck in an ant hill and covered in honey" to "It was better than I expected, Jason Momoa did a good job, he grunts very well, better than Arnie."

With a budget reportedly over $70m, but with US box office returns just shy of $22m, it is unlikely that Momoa will get the chance to lift the sword again. But never say never, it all really depends on what the international audiences and DVD sales produce as to whether or not the Cimmerian gets to have another shot at big screen success (I think I would put my pocket money on it not happening).

Another marmite moment is the announcement that 1990s surf movie Point Break is about to be remade. The original starred Patrick Swayze as a Zen surfer who pays for his boards and beer by doing bank jobs. It also starred Keanu Reeves as a surf board, sorry FBI agent (although his acting was so wooden at one point he was out acted by one board and two waves).

Fans of the movie, that has gained cult status (primarily amongst those who are afraid of soap and wouldn't recognise real acting if it came up and clouted them with an Oscar), are up in arms about their beloved movie getting a remake. But it has been signed so we shall have to wait and see what awaits us in the darkness and if it was anything like the original it will be 90mins of sleep for me and Devon will have to brace itself for 1000s of wannabees hitting the waves on their parents' ironing boards!

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier... Success!

Who would have thought that a spy film set during the cold war, where the hero is an old man in a crumpled overcoat would be turned into a major movie hit? Sir Alec Guinness (yes, Obi Wan Kenobi himself) took the role of John Le Carre's creation, George Smiley, a retired spy who returns to weed out a high level mole (that is spook speak for traitor in the ranks, i.e. Anthony Blunt or Nick Clegg) in the original BBC television series.

The fabulous Gary Oldman gets to don the specs and the overcoat this time around and is joined by the likes of Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Colin Firth. Rather refreshingly this is a European production with a Scandinavian director and the producers have elected to keep the 1970s setting in place. If this were a Hollywood remake we would probably see it transported to modern day Virginia and instead of a shuffling George Smiley, Tom Cruise would probably play him as Ethan Hunt with a slight limp as a nod to Sir Alec.

Audiences have certainly enjoyed the film and Oldman is being tipped for the top at the Oscars, hopefully it will mean a return to the overcoat for the other Le Carre novels featuring the ageing spy. Oldman himself must feel at home in macs these days as he will soon be seen once again donning one as James Gordon, reprising his Batman role for Christopher Nolan's third and last movie featuring the caped crusader: The Dark Knight Rises.

Coming Soon

Hugh (Wolverine) Jackman goes where Rocky first ran in new boxing movie Real Steel. In the near future robots have taken the place of humans in the boxing arena and Jackman is a trainer. It is an underdog movie and it would be cruel to suggest that the robot Jackman's son persuades him to pull off the scrap pile can out act Stallone as Rocky Balboa. They both seem to share the same vocal dexterity but I doubt the robot would agree to run up some steps being chased by children as cheesy rockers sing "Getting Stronger..."

If the trailer is anything to go by it does look like it could be a good family movie but we all know trailers lie in an effort to get us to let go of our hard earned cash. Meanwhile Jackman has indicated that Wolverine's next outing will take him to Japan. Comic book fans can only close their eyes and hope the producers don't mess it up like they did in the first solo outing for worlds the best known Canadian superhero (go on, you thought he was a Yank didn't you?).

The Three Musketeers are back and this time they get to play in the steampunk sandpit. Just how that is going to work is anyone's guess but coming along for an airship ride will be Orlando Bloom as a baddie, Christoph Waltz as a baddie and Matthew MacFadyen, Luke Evans and Ray Stevenson as the Musketeers. James Corden adds a comedy element in boots previously filled by the late Roy Kinnear. Resident Evil director Paul W.S Anderson is bringing it all to the screen; meaning he had to hire his wife, Milla Jovovich, or he would be sleeping with the dog until the next Resident Evil travesty is released.

Johnny English Reborn

The usually excellent Rowan Atkinson must need a new sports car - a very good reason to make a movie, maybe just not this one. He returns as Johnny English the hapless spy he first took to the silver screens in 2003, at least it was a better spoof than the latter Austin Powers movies. The fantastic Ben Miller is once again sidekick Bough, with Rosalind Pike and Gillian Anderson providing additional acting muscle.

Hot news: Ridley Scott is bringing the Alien prequel to the big screen and (wait for the screens of delight from geeks everywhere) there is going to be another Blade Runner movie, but it won't star Harrison Ford (sorry). Edgar Wright is to direct an Ant-Man movie for Marvel whilst the next hero from the stable that gets a film outing could be Black Panther.

Until next time, keep your popcorn dry!

FANFARE FOR the uncommon man... Carter's Column is here!

Click on the episode below for it to expand to fill your screen with this week's instalment .

Below is a video of the 2011 B.C. convention held in Birmingham made by Matthew James. Among the many events shown are clips of Paul H Birch's on stage interviews with Peter Hogan, Chris Sprouse and Doug Braithwaite:

Birch assisted Martin Tierney in the making of his animation video The Seed. Click on the Youtube link to watch it, and yes that voice narrating it is none other than TV personality Jonathan Ross:

Meanwhile, John Robbins has a new, mainly fiction, collection out titled The Well Below and other stories, that can be ordered through his website and Mats Engesten's latest installment of Bloodstid can be viewed at: http://www.fivesmellcitycomics.com/

For more information on the creators:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Jon Edwards: www.facebook.com/MightyJonE

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten