Saturday 15 October 2011

Graphic Novel Review : Superman True Brit

Superman: True Brit

John Cleese ( writer).

John Byrne & Mark Farmer(art)

Titan Books Ltd

John Cleese has made some rum Career choices in the last twenty years or so. A string of expensive
divorce settlements have left him a little strapped for cash and so his work has become more diverse
than in the past. Hence we have the kind of sort of nearly logical collaboration between ex-Python
and ex-pat John Byrne.

DC has a comics imprint called “Elseworlds” which allows them to imagine their characters in places
and situations that the constraints of continuity wouldn’t usually allow. It’s a fun little line that has
allowed Batman to take on Jack the Ripper, Superman to have a boxing match with Muhammad Ali,
and Green Lantern to face the aliens out of Aliens. Superman: True Brit imagines a world where the
infant Kal El, last son of the doomed planet Krypton, crash lands not in the wheat fields of Kansas,
but instead in rural Weston-super-Mare! He then grows up to enjoy all the trappings of a life in jolly
old Blighty. So it’s fun and japes as Superman attends a public school and plays cricket. It's fun and
japes as Superman drinks tea and tries to fix the NHS. Its fun and japes as Superman is scandalised in
the tabloids. It's fun and japes as Superman: True Brit is shite.

John Byrne was once a upon a time considered to be a visionary artist with near-legendary runs
on Uncanny X-Men, Alpha Flight and the series which redefined Superman for a new generation
of comics fans, Man of Steel. His once clean, clearly-defined artwork has become scratchy and
cluttered at some point, almost as if he’s trying to emulate Jack Kirby but getting it ever-so-slightly
wrong. There are two main problems at the core of Superman: True Brit. It’s not just that it's bad-
- although it most certainly is bad-- it’s more that it fails so spectacularly to live up to its creative
pedigree. Additionally it would be very easy to jump to the conclusion that the creators had
never even been to England let alone come from there. Every pathetic sub-Austin Powers British
stereotype gag is trotted out and milked for all it's worth. There are issues of The Beano with more
genuine laughs than this bilge. Much more humour would be expected from the writer/artist of the
hilarious Sensational She Hulk, and the man who wrote the FUCKING DEAD PARROT SKETCH.
This is probably the best joke in the book.Really.


If we ever needed a final piece of evidence that the coin of John Cleese’s comedic genius had been
well and truly spent (presumably on yet another divorce), we now have the proverbial smoking gun.
Avoid like the plague. Or the Great Fire Of London. Or the Spanish Inquisition.

Thursday 11 August 2011

You got the fear.

Started this as part of the 2d Fear anthology that we put out for the festival in 09 and it never got finished. Anyway here is the first part......

Thursday 4 August 2011

New Freebirds Wing Strip :WTF?

Latest page from my forthcoming autobiographical strip/egofest. Asking the most important question one can in the year of our lord 2011: What the Fuck ? Art by the fantastic Hayley Gale. One need only click to view in all its glory. Appreciate any feedback

CFX


Wednesday 27 July 2011

The Best Bit Of Work Produced By My Pupils This YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Ten week module on the Holocaust and anti semitism. This is what she got out of it. Im the best teacher ever.

Thursday 21 July 2011

The Amazing Adventures Of The Direct Debit Clipboard Charity Shitbags!!!!

Pleased to announce my forthcoming humor/autobigraphical comic provisionally tittle either " Bastards I Have Known", or more realistically  " The Freebirds Wing". I hope  to upload at least one page or strip per week and aim to have the first issue ready before Christmas.  Heres The first strip by the fantastic Hayly Gale.  Any of you artistic types interested in drawing a strip or three let me know.

Feedback is most appreciated for either the strip or for the comics title. Be well John Spartan
CFX

Thursday 16 June 2011

My take on The Walking Dead





The Walking Dead Compendium One
Publisher: Image Comics

The success of the television version of The Walking Dead seems as good a reason as any to take a look back at the comics that spawned it. Publishers Image Comics seem to agree, as they have just reprinted the first 49 issues in a massive omnibus. For some inexplicable reason zombies are red hot right now, and for some it's difficult to imagine why. It's not as if they have the sex appeal that their counterparts in True Blood and Twilight enjoy (although I can't wait to see the sexy zombie/sexy werewolf love rivalry that somebody HAS to write sooner or later). But those in the know understand that zombie stories are not about pathetic child-friendly vampire/werewolf/moaning bint love triangles. They’re about our own mortality, and sometimes communism. And Aids. And the homeless. AND ZOMBIES!!!!

Even with the high price tag (a wallet-busting £45) this is top value for money. It is a book that will take you an age to read, and not just because it's over 1000 pages long. The Walking Dead is perhaps the most depressing thing I have ever read and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Quite the contrary in fact. It's just that much like Ronald D Moore's reimagined version of Battlestar Galactica, the narrative moves from catastrophe to catastrophe with the frequency of a radio set to alternate every six seconds between Desperate Situation FM and long wave radio Death 252. It's almost impossible to make it through more than two chapters without having to stop, make yourself a cup of tea and make sure that everything is okay.
All the typical zombie story tropes are present and correct: world overrun by corpses? Check. Ragtag bunch of survivors? Check. Opportunist villains trying to exploit the situation to their own benefit? Check. The things that set TWD apart from the other zombie fare are the atmospheric black and white art provided by Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore and the fact that writer Robert Kirkman has an insane gift for making you care very deeply about a diverse cast of characters, and then butchering them in some horrendous fashion within three issues. A typical story sees our heroes trapped in a prison where all the guards have done a runner along with a homicidal maniac, a recovering heroin addict and a psychotic accountant. This is considered a massive improvement in fortunes. Make no mistake, it's no barrel of laughs. Kirkland has stated that there is a very definite conclusion to his narrative, and that comes across every issue as we, much like the titular antagonists, stumble relentlessly and inevitably to the horrific end.
BEST. ZOMBIE COMIC. EVER.