Sunday 30 September 2012
Wednesday 26 September 2012
Marvel Essential Warlock - part 5
The Incredible Hulk #177 to #179
Having lost his own series, Warlock suffers the indignity of having to share his climactic moment with the Hulk. Let’s be honest, if Hulk is even on the A list he’s near the bottom of it. He’s a difficult character, although some writers have managed to find something interesting for him to do, but it takes some effort to wring interesting dramatic goals from his ‘Hulk smash’ persona.
One solution is to drop him into utterly bizarre situations (ie, Planet Hulk), and that’s what’s happening here.
Labels:
comics,
Marvel Essential Warlock,
reading log,
Roy Thomas
Monday 24 September 2012
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
I've reveiwed this novel for The Zone. I enojyed this one quite a bit: it was multi-layered and emotionally complex, and it used the super-natural intelligently. I particularly liked the clever way that sub-plots articulated the theme of the importance of fantasy - that was very cleverly done.
I liked the book and it's a positive review, but there were things I didn't like about the book. The review gently chides Joyce over the fantasy theme (I think the quotations over-egged the pudding) but I didn't end up mentioning my main problem with this book. I wasn't a small thing either - although on the whole I think it's a good book, comfortably 4 stars - and so you might think it would be worth mentioning.
In the end however, I couldn't make it work and the reason why is a small lesson in reviewing.
[THERE ARE SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!]
I liked the book and it's a positive review, but there were things I didn't like about the book. The review gently chides Joyce over the fantasy theme (I think the quotations over-egged the pudding) but I didn't end up mentioning my main problem with this book. I wasn't a small thing either - although on the whole I think it's a good book, comfortably 4 stars - and so you might think it would be worth mentioning.
In the end however, I couldn't make it work and the reason why is a small lesson in reviewing.
[THERE ARE SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!]
Labels:
fantasy,
reading log,
reviews,
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Thursday 20 September 2012
Marvel Essential Warlock - part 4
The
Power of Warlock #3 - #8
So, my plan was to blog
about this issue by issue, maybe every day and have a bit of fun with
it. That was the plan. But as the great Ayrshire poet and chain of
bottle stores in New Zealand reminds us, the best laid plans of mice
and men oft gang aglay, and mine seem to go aglayer and ofter than
most.
Partly this is because
of my busy metropolitan life style that keeps me away from the
keyboard with thrilling man-about-town antics. Partly it’s because
these comics rapidly descend in quality – and let’s face it, the
first few were not a towering achievement of the arts.
Don’t get me
wrong, I love cheesy 70s Marvel – that’s why I read these things
– but this is terrible, even by their standards!
Labels:
comics,
Marvel,
Marvel Essential Warlock,
Roy Thomas
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Marvel Essential Warlock - part 3
The Power of Warlock #1 and #2
I am beginning to see the folly of writing about a comics series without a scanner! In the weekend, I might have another look and see if it can extracted from behind the second-hand kitched cabinets crammed haphazard into the back lounge. On the other hand, Andrew Rilstone manages it - maybe I've just got to grit my teeth and carry on. [Eagle eyed readers will have spotted that the scanner issue has since been resolved. At the time of writing, kitchen cabinets remain uninstalled. - PH 9 October]
Because the splash at page that opens issue sums up everything about this series: The High Evolutionary, seen from a low angle, making him look huge, gazes out of his space-station window. A rocket shoots out of the atmosphere of an Earth-like world, the Counter Earth of his own creation.
I am beginning to see the folly of writing about a comics series without a scanner! In the weekend, I might have another look and see if it can extracted from behind the second-hand kitched cabinets crammed haphazard into the back lounge. On the other hand, Andrew Rilstone manages it - maybe I've just got to grit my teeth and carry on. [Eagle eyed readers will have spotted that the scanner issue has since been resolved. At the time of writing, kitchen cabinets remain uninstalled. - PH 9 October]
Because the splash at page that opens issue sums up everything about this series: The High Evolutionary, seen from a low angle, making him look huge, gazes out of his space-station window. A rocket shoots out of the atmosphere of an Earth-like world, the Counter Earth of his own creation.
Labels:
Marvel,
Marvel Essential Warlock,
reading log,
Roy Thomas
Thursday 6 September 2012
Marvel Essential Warlock - part 2
Marvel Premiere
featuring Warlock #2
The issue starts with
Warlock crashed to the (Counter) Earth like a falling star. He’s
found by four kids who look a lot like kids on our familiar Marvel
Earth and speak like... well, not kids anywhere, but like but 70s era
Roy Thomas hipster kids.
Labels:
comics,
Marvel,
Marvel Essential Warlock,
reading log,
Roy Thomas
Monday 3 September 2012
Marvel Essential Warlock - part 1
I pre-ordered this weeks ago and it's finally arrived! I've been wanting to read this volume for forty years, because an issue of Jim Starlin's Warlock - Stange Tales #180, in fact - was the first actual American comic I ever saw. I'd seen things like the UK reprints, but never an actual small-size
full-colour book. I'm pretty sure my brother Matt bought it - it's the
sort of Heavy Metalish thing he likes.
I never read the rest of the series, although I've read a few other bits and pieces where Warlock plays a part - some of Starlin's other Thanos stories, mostly - so I'm, quite excited about it!
Since we've had a bit of blog lull, I've decided to blog about this issue by issue as I read it. Has this classic Marvel cosmic bollocks still got what it takes? Let's find out!
Labels:
comics,
Gil Kane,
Marvel,
Marvel Essential Warlock,
Roy Thomas
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