Sunday Spotlight: Romeo Tanghal

After George Perez last week, I thought it made sense to highlight one of his collaborators - Romeo Tanghal. Although not well known, Romeo was the inker on the Teen Titans when Perez was pencilling them. I loved the Titans during this time and hence the picture of Wonder Girl / Donna Troy - one of my favourite Titans during my hormonal teenage years.


Above that is a picture of the Omega Men that Tanghal worked on, which includes my namesake - Nimbus (well, my online name anyway). Ya gotta love the pale, pointy-eared guy.

You can see more of Romeo Tanghal's work at this site.

Watchmen Cartoon

Apparently, Warner Bros is making a Saturday morning cartoon of the Watchmen to cash in of the success of the movie. Here's a screenshot:

Actually, I'm kidding. This is taken from a humourous fake trailer showing what the Watchmen might be like if they made an 80s Saturday morning cartoon of it. Go here and click on "Watch This Movie" to see the trailer. Absolutely hilarious and fantastic.

Friday Night Fights: Double Faceplant!

It's not quite Friday night yet but still... it's time for Spacebooger's One Panel of Pain!

And, as a relative newcomer to Friday Night Fights and blogging in general, I thought it was time to let one of the new(er) students at Xavier's school for young mutants deal out the pain.

So, without further ado, I'll let Armor, and her pounding fists, not logic, explain things in a physical way to Ord and Danger:

...taken from Astonishing X-Men #18, courtesy of Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (art) and Laura Martin (colours).

Happy Watchmen Movie Eve!

To contrast with the link to that Alan Moore interview that I posted yesterday, here's a link to an interview with Dave Gibbons. The bad news is that this interview is much, much shorter than Alan's; the good news is that Dave Gibbons has a much more positive view on things. I prefer Dave's restrained enjoyment to Alan’s dark contempt.

Also, Tom Mason has posted a list of Watchmen links galore! There's a lot of good stuff there - including the Dave Gibbons interview - but one of my favourites is Tom Spurgeon's 10+ Entrance Points Into Watchmen.

Well, what with that bit about Alan Moore yesterday and now this little post, it seems that my Watchmen Week is stretching over 10 days or so. And tomorrow, the movie finally gets released.

Nova: Annihilation Conquest

My friendly neighbourhood library comes to the rescue again! As well as having the Annihilation series of trade paperbacks (which I've read and enjoyed), it's now got Nova: Annihilation Conquest written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) with art by Sean Chen. This collects issues 1 to 7 of the latest Nova ongoing series. And, like the Annihilation crossovers and mini-series before it, it's generally good.

During Annihilation, the Nova Corps (sort of like Marvel's version of DC's Green Lantern Corps) were almost completely wiped out. The only surviving member was Richard Rider, Earth's Nova. Also during that mini-series, Nova had the entire Xandarian Worldmind uploaded into his brain together with the full Nova Force. Together with various other cosmic heroes, the vastly enhanced Nova helped defeat the Annihilation Wave.

This TPB picks up from there. The first issue deals with Nova - the single, lonely member of the Nova Corps - responding to all the emergencies in the galaxy. It effectively establishes both Nova's heroism (his desperation to save people whilst not thinking of himself) and his power level (he destroys powerful enemies with a single blast). Eventually, in the second and third issues, he heads back to Earth for some rest and to catch up on events back home. Of course, those issues are set just after the Civil War fiasco and the outcome and ramifications of that company crossover are, thankfully, explored in a much better and more meaningful way here than in Civil War itself.

The final four issues involve Nova going up against the techno-organic transmode-virus-carrying Phalanx, who have invaded the Kree. Ever since they appeared in the X-Men, I've never really much cared for the Phalanx but at least here their use as enslaving/mind-controlling bad guys is generally clear. During this deadly adventure, a Kree woman is given part of the Nova Force and becomes the first of the new Nova Corps. Unfortunately, her time as a Nova Centurion doesn't last.

DnA's writing is pretty good on this title. Considering I've never been bothered with Nova before, they do a good job of getting me interested in, and making me care for, the character. The stories are well written and zip along, showing the reader how powerful Nova can be. And when the new Nova Corps member Ko-Rel dies, it's quite a shock. It's all very well done.

Sean Chen's artwork is pretty good too, although nothing unusually spectacular. He tells the story well and his art is clear and unmuddied. It fits this book. And the TPB itself contains lovely glossy pages but only a small number of the usual extras, such as the covers and a few sketches from the series cover-artist Adi Granov.

Overall, this is a good TPB containing old-school style stories that has got me interested in Nova and his adventures - though perhaps not enough to actually go out and buy future TPBs (I have a bookshelf full of them already). Still, I'll look out for new Nova books at the library. Grade: Fine.

Alan Moore Knows the Score

...or, perhaps, doesn't.

There's an interesting interview with Alan Moore on the Wired.com website, where Alan talks a little about Watchmen, a bit more about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and plenty about adapting comic books into movies. And, of course, this being Alan Moore, you certainly get your money's worth!

Unfortunately, Alan Moore comes across as a bit of a grumpy old man, knocking down the comic book and film-making industries whilst making out that only he is able to produce great work. You’d think he’d be celebrating the joy that comic books can bring rather than rubbishing them whenever he can.

It doesn't help when he considers all comic books readers to be 40+ years old and calls them, "hopeless nostalgics or... perhaps cases of arrested development who are not prepared to let their childhoods go". To begin with, I think he's confusing the superhero genre with the comic book medium; the two are different. He also seems to think everyone after him has got it wrong and have never been able to place serious adult elements in their compositions.

Saying how stupid and childish comic book readers are isn't really going to help sell your up-and-coming comic book. Actually, it probably won't make a difference. But still, you have to wonder who Alan is aiming his comic book at. Thirteen-year-old kids, who apparently don't read comics any more, or the "40-year-old men who probably should know better"?

Now I'm still not particularly convinced by Alan Moore's reasons why he refuses to be linked to films made of his works. He says, "I really simply don't believe that any of my books could be benefited in any way by being turned into films"

Firstly, I don't think that, when the Hollywood suits decide to create a movie, the idea is to enhance a book. They're there to make money and, to a lesser extent, entertain people (entertaining people actually tends to lead to making more money so it's all linked).

The film can benefit the sales of a book. Those that see the film might decide to go out and buy the original book. Sure, it doesn't change the book itself but it might make the book more successful and might make the creator of the book more money (and, in turn, he can make more books and more pieces of 'art').

Of course, the film can turn out to be awful but this doesn't affect the original book. As Alan notes about Raymond Chandler when "he was asked about what he felt about having his books ruined by Hollywood. ...He led the questioner into his study and showed him all the books there on the bookshelf, and said, Look - there they all are. They're all fine". So it's not like a bad film will ruin his books. So why not agree to have your name place on the credits at the end of a film - and take the money (give it to charity if you want)? It was (loosely) based on your work, after all.

Yes, it's true that it can be difficult to translate a comic book into a movie. They're different mediums so, of course, they'll be different. But you can translate the story, the characters, and the feelings behind the comic book. The Spider-man films kind of managed it. So did many others. It brings a new audience to the story and the characters, which in turn might bring a new appreciation to the original work. That can't be a bad thing, can it?

Perhaps Alan just doesn't like dealing with the Hollywood suits? Perhaps it's easier for him to have nothing to do with it all rather than trying to have a civil, intelligent discussion with them? Or perhaps he doesn't like giving up control of the adaptation to a few dozen other people who all have different ideas to him?

Regarding comic books and films being different, Alan mentions that the comic book medium allows the reader to absorb every image, to read things at their own pace, to flip back and forth between images. And indeed this is a difference between comic books and films (in which you are "dragged through the scenario at a relentless 24 frames a second"). However, with DVDs this isn't quite the case. Films now contain "easter eggs" - little interesting snippets that can only be experienced if you pause the action or slow it down. DVDs allow the viewer to absorb every frame, to watch things at sort of their own pace.

So when Alan says "even the best director in the world... could not possibly get that amount of information into a few frames of a movie. Even if they did, it would have zipped past far too quickly" that's not strictly true any more. The X-Men films had characters appearing on computer screens or in the background that can be seen if you slow down the DVD.

As to comments like "these days I can see half a million Orcs coming over a hill and I am bored", well I think Alan's just being a bit silly. He was awed by Ray Harryhausen's animated skeletons and Willis O'Brien's King Kong. Sure they were (still are!) great. But, for me, I'm also awed by some of the recent CGI, like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the Balrog in Lord of the Rings or Spiderman swinging from the rooftops. I think this is just Alan's nostalgia raising its hairy head again.

In fact, the more I read the interview, the more it seems that Alan Moore is just hankering after the good old days and he's now become somewhat jaded in his old age.

Doesn't 'Near Miss' Mean it Hit?

Apparently there was an asteroid near miss on Monday. The asteroid, called 2009 DD45 (why don’t they give ‘em better names, like they do hurricanes?) passed the moon and came within 40,000 miles of Earth. Although not large, it would’ve done significant damage if it had hit Earth. Unfortunately, due to its smallish size, it seems there was only about two days warning!

Of course, this isn’t the first near miss we’ve had. There seems to be one reported nearly every year.

So, whilst we’re all worrying about the global economy and climate change, it’s reassuring to know that we could all be wiped out one day by a big chunk of space rock. That kinda puts things into perspective.

Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers

Firstly, I'll be upfront and say that this is a review of a book by an online friend of mine, Rob Rogers. As such, it's not entirely unbiased, but I'll try to comment on it fairly. Also, this book has been out for about a year now (and it's been about 6 months since I actually read it) so it's not entirely new or fresh.

Anyway, on with the review...

With an alliterative name like Rob Rogers, it was obvious that he was destined to write a superhero-based novel. And, indeed, that's what Devil's Cape is. It's a thriller about superheroes (with a bit of pirates thrown in) set in the seedy, corrupt city of Devil's Cape, a mix of Batman's gloomy Gotham City and a darker version of New Orleans. Powered villains rule the city until a trio of reluctant heroes step forward to bring a little light and hope into the place.

There aren't many original superhero novels out there; most superhero books seem to be tie-ins to existing comic book properties. Those original stories that do exist tend to be pretty good and this book is certainly no exception.

Like many first superhero movies, this is the origin story. But not just of one or two characters. It's the origin of around ten of them! Those characters are very different, interesting and realistically depicted. And yet they're still firmly in the superhero genre - i.e. they wear costumes and give themselves codenames like 'Doctor Camelot'. The book is dark - evil and corruption are everywhere and people die in horrible ways - and yet not overwhelmingly bleak or too adult to be off-putting. Overall, it's a damned good, gripping read.

It does have its faults though. The pacing and/or rhythm are a little off. There seem to be a few too many characters jostling for space. Also, the beginning half of the book (which contains cameo appearances from a number of my fellow PBeMers) describes 35 years of history of Devil's Cape and is perhaps a little too long. Conversely, the end of the book - with the final showdown between the three main heroes and the villains - seems a little rushed and, thus, perhaps a little underwhelming.

This is Rob's first book but it doesn't read like it. It's engaging and well written. As he continues to write more of these stories (and I really hope he does!), Rob should improve. Not that he needs to improve much - just enough to make a good book like this one into a great book. I'd heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoys unusual thrillers or action stories, especially those with a superhuman theme to them. Very Fine.