Review: Supernatural Showcase

Supernatural Showcase

Gar Shanley and Cathal Dougan

Review by Ciaran Flanagan

Gar Shanley and Cathal Dougan are two very sick men, and I mean this in the nicest possible way. The team that brought us the top-notch comic satire of Superhero Showcase have teamed up once more to bring us the paranormally-themed Supernatural Showcase, another faux anthology collection from the fine folks at the fictional Windell Comics. And while Superhero Showcase was straight up parody, its successor attempts to go in some different (and more interesting) directions.

 The visuals are presented in stark black and white, which adds to the air of surrealism. Dougan’s artwork, with its shades of LA fanzine artist Raymond Pettibon, is perfect for the (intentional) atmosphere of feeling slightly uncomfortable but not really understanding why. There is a move away from simple parody to the out-and-out grotesque which is delineated clearly in the superb double centre spread (in which we the ever present reader are entreated to colour).

There are several genuinely very funny strips, with “Ghosts! Monsters! Aliens! Robots!” causing me to HOWL with laughter. It’s also fair to say that Supernatural Showcase is not for everyone. I showed it to a couple of like-minded individuals who are very much part of the spandex set , who could barely get past the lack of colour—never mind the David Lynchish black humour. Much like a lot of the sketches in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer (Masterchef) and The League of Gentlemen (Papa Lazaru) it seems that the more surreal elements could be off-putting to some readers. There are also some strips that are unsettling on a whole new level. In particular “Salvos Saturday Car” is one of the most genuinely disturbing things I have ever encountered in any medium. The story of a bizarre kids TV show that the country lives in fear of, it should resonate very strongly with anyone who ever lived ( and suffered ) through an episode of either Fortycoats or Pajos Junk Box (a programme in itself so bizarre, that I am convinced that I dreamed the whole thing up. A knacker punk rat presenting the Muppet Babies from inside a washing machine crate? No sane or rational mind could come up with that surely?)

Next up on RTE the horror of Kenny Live

Having said all that, this is well written and drawn , pleasingly reminiscent of one of Marvels old collected comics thanks to its glossy cover and it’s fair to say that if you like a bit of David Cronenberg, or you got a kick out of old horror strips like The Thirteenth Floor, you’ll find yourself in safe hands here. Well, I say safe…[1]

[1]You should read that last sentence in a Garth Marenghi voice.

Support The Irish Comics Scene . By Order of Rick Daglass MD

Supernatural Showcase can be purchased from WWW.WINDELLCOMICS.COM or Forbidden Planet, Dublin

Feedback ,comments or review suggestions are gratefully received.

2dcast@gmail.com

@the2dcast

@freebirdswing

2dCast Episode Ten : Zombie Special

Things got a bit messy at the 2d Christmas party.

Live from Culture Techs Zombie Night, this episode of the 2dcast is an undead special as Bobby and Ciaran are joined by Kevin Louge and Danny Mc Crossan from Uproar Comics , and local horror writer James Leckey to discuss the finer points of zombie fiction whilst dressed in full zombie make-up as Ving Rhames blows away walking corpses in the background. In celebration of our tenth episode we present two treats . Firstly we have the first of this years 2d Festival panels . Our broadcast colleague Chris Thompson chairs a discussion on Zombie comics featuring Marvels Declan Shalvey , Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard , Chris Ryall of IDW , Team Uproar , and the esteemed Mr Tony Lee. Secondly we have a veritable bounty of undead goodies to give away. In order to win a complete run of Zombies Hi signed by the creative team, a print of the cover Zombies Hi # 6 signed by artist ( and 2d top dog )David Campbell , and a bunch of 2d stuff just answer the ( admittedly lame) question posed during the body of the podcast. Send your answers to 2dcast@gmail.com.

Due to the late evening nature of the recording this is only SEMI SAFE FOR WORK

Big developments afoot for the 2dcast , we thank you for your support and ask you to share this on your social media.

2dcast Episode 9 : Technical Difficulties with guests Mike Lynch and Hilary Lawlor

Straight off the mean streets of Ennis. Mike lynch represent yo.

2dcast Episode 9 : Technical Difficulties

Due to rank stupidity Ciaran flies solo this episode . No reviews. No news . No features . No plugs. No Bobby. We do however talk to Mike Lynch about his work on Nestor, great 2000ad story lines, Irish language comics and The Walking Dead TV show. We are also joined by Hilary Lawlor who talks us through her career in comics, gives her thoughts on BATTLE OF THE PLANETS , and entertains us with her tales of petty theft.

Its a bird. Its a plane. No , its sausage time.

All feedback gratefully received at 2dcast@gmail.com

Hilarys blog is at http://superhilbo.blogspot.co.uk/

Nestor is available here: http://www.abandonedcomics.com/

2dcast Episode 8 : The Curse Of Doctor Octopus.

Former rock and roller, current holy roller: Tommie Kelly

2dcast Episode 8 : The Curse Of Doctor Octopus.

In this episode we discuss The Foo Fighters recent gig, who owns the rights to Marvels characters for the purpose of film making, Australian Kids TV show Round The Twist and the mighty TRIGGERMAN. We review Garth Ennis's work on The Punisher , IDWS' Locke and Key and Rosarch #1. We also speak with Irish Comics News big dog Tommie Kelly about his work on The Holy Numbers, his life before comics, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, his influences , the cult of Grant Morrison and a whole lot more.

We will be back next week with another episode. We are always grateful; to receive feedback criticism thoughts, plugs competition entries or any other damn thing . Please direct these to 2dcast @gmail.com

Links Mentione in this podcast 

Irish Comics News:

www.irsishcomicsnews.com

Tickets for Bec Hill :

http://www.gildedballoon.co.uk/tickets/performances.php?eventId=14:89

Buy Zombies Hi :

www.uproarcomics.co.uk

Holy Numbers available @:

http://www.theholynumbers.com/

The mighty TRIGGERMAN:

WWW.TRIGGERMAN.CO.UK

Review : Transformers :Last Stand of The Wreckers ( Hardback)

Last Stand of the Wreckers. ( Hardback)
James Roberts and Nick Roche
IDW Publishing

Dont make any plans, rookies!

So it turns out that thanks to the wonders of the digital age, nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be. In the before-time (Pre internet )it was quite possible to look back on your beloved childhood favourites with love and fondness saying thing like “ those were the days “, “ things were better back then”, and  “ Those M.A.S.K cartoons were  really good”.  Of course that was total bollocks. It was just childhood memories playing tricks. Those things don’t exist the way you remember. But at the very least you could bask in the memories of how great they were without fear that the source material would come back to bite you in the backside. Sadly thanks to online communities it is entirely possible to have any possible permeation of Film, comic or song In mere moments allowing it to be proven quite decisively that the thing you remembered, and cherished….was a bit shite. The original run on Marvels Transformers comics are a fantastic example of this phenomenon.

I don’t know what it was about the story of a bloody intergalactic civil war that so captured my imagination as a small boy growing up in the perfectly calm totally terrorist atrocity free state of Northern Ireland. But it left an indelible mark on my psyche. When I think back to the stories from the Marvel Transformers comics, I remember a galaxy spanning saga pitting noble heroes against villainous rebels against a backdrop of colourful alien worlds. This  is  actually due to the aforementioned rose tinted glasses effect . The World Wide Web allows me to access these stories with the greatest of  ease , and what the Transformers comics really  amount to  is: a cassette that turns into a flying  rat is  plotting to take over the planet by hypnotising  people using a rock and roll car wash . A dinosaur who wears a crown wants to stop him. A scantily clad paraplegic wants to stop them both. [1]

At least, that was the case for the US. In the UK and Ireland we got additional material written by the likes of Transformers legend ( and Holly out of Red Dwarf look alike ) Simon Furman who took an altogether more adult approach to the comic that essentially  pitted two sets of toys fighting over who was the best toy . Stories like Target: 2006, and Time Wars which, with hindsight were still not quite what I remembered, but still light-years ahead of their American counterparts. It was  these stories that really made their mark on me. And seemingly On Nick Roche and James Roberts  whose Last Stand Of The Wreckers was released in 2010 to much acclaim and has now been collected in a very tasty little hardback edition collecting the limited series  plus  almost 100 pages of additional material.

One of the chief complaints I hear about modern day transformers comics is that there is too much heavy backstory. This may very well be true. Fortunately in this case it is irrelevant as this book works perfectly well as a standalone once you understand the very simple premise

The Wreckers are an elite group of Autobot warriors famed for both their daring missions, and their ludicrously high membership turnover.  A veritable Suicide Squad, LSOTW introduces us to the four latest recruits and sends them off on a mission from which it is likely they will never return. That’s all you need to know. This isn’t to say that there’s nothing here for hard-core fans. Quite the contrary :as well as cover galleries, sketches and  character profiles, the bonus materials rather annoyingly  include a very detailed list of all the Easter eggs , which allows you a momentary sense of self satisfaction for getting all the ones you spotted and which then evaporates as you see all the ones you missed .  The bastards. Still, it contains one of the most obscure Bret Hart references I’ve ever encountered in a mainstream comic and that can’t be  a bad thing.

In the industry we call this “ Fan Service”.

The closest comparison i can make to LSOTW in comics Terms would be to the Giffen /DeMatteias run on Justice League International with which it shares supper sharp witty dialogue, crisp clean artwork and most tellingly, a real sense of camaraderie between the all too real seeming characters that make up the rag tag bunch. [2] There’s a real sense of loss whenever one of the characters inevitably snuff it. In some regards it feels less like a comic and has   it has more in common with a team up movie like the Dirty Dozen. Actually The Expendables might be the best comparison, given that the 4 doomed red shirt robots are based on characters so obscure that their toys were only released in some European countries long after the heyday of the G1 line.



In truth the new recruits in LSOTW are barely concealed author avatars for Roche and Roberts, ascended fan boys who now have the opportunity to walk amongst the giants whom they once watched from afar. However unlike the doomed newbies in their tale Nick Roche and James Roberts have already managed something that their comic’s predecessors have not: Nick Roche and James Roberts make the transformers comics I remember reading when I was a kid. Well played lads.





 

[1] . This is the actual plot of Issue 31 of The Transformers: Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom, easily one of the dopiest things I have ever read. The mentioned dinosaur and paraplegic do not actually feature in the comic but are part of the overriding story arc. It never hurts to make these things clear.

[2] This was initially speculation on my part. Then I saw the alternative cover to the current on-going “More Than Meets the Eye” series by the same creative team.  That’s one more….for the bad guy.

2dcast Episode 7 ( Gar Shanley Interview)

2dcast Episode : Seven Soldiers of Victory.

DEMONS DWELL WITHIN THIS MAN.

Its a day late and a dollar short but the second ( sorta) weekly 2dcast has arrived. This week we discuss the new 2d Festival venue , the death of Joe Kubert, the ( non) death of The Dandy, and why Marvel need to give the company wide crossovers a bloody rest. We also talk to comics creator and screen writer Gar Shanley . We discuss his comics and film work ( including the splendid Supernatural Showcase) , his influences , The Wonderly Wagon, why the X-men movie is not all its cracked up to be and a whole lot more.  This interview was done via skype so please forgive the quality , measures are in place to improve this.

 We are always grateful; to receive feedback criticism thoughts, plugs or any other damn thing . Please direct these to 2dcast @gmail.com

links mentioned in this podcast:

The Millennium Forum ( 2d Festival 2013 venue):

http://www.millenniumforum.co.uk/

Lew Stringers blog about The Dandy:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/

Gar Shanleys Blog:

http://fugtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/

Deirdre de Barra blog:

http://puredaft-delineavit.blogspot.ie/

Tickets for Bec Hill :

http://www.gildedballoon.co.uk/tickets/performances.php?eventId=14:89

Buy Zombies Hi: 

www.uproarcomics.co.uk/

Holy Numbers available @ :

http://www.theholynumbers.com/

 

 

Meanwhile, back at 2dcast HQ.........

2dcast Number 6

"What do you want?", " Entertainment", "YOU WONT GET IT"

Bobby Best and Ciaran Flanagan return after two months of being held captive by a shadowy government agency in a secret location( Wales) , with a new episode of the NOW WEEKLY 2dcast . Just a short one to get us back into the swing of things, as a full service with guests and interviews and such will kick in next week. In this episode we discuss : the 2012 Festival aftermath, Walking Dead Issue 100 ( sob), The Dark Knight Rises, Optimus and Me , IDW's ongoing transformers series, Bobby’s death defying feats, and a whole lot more. We appreciate any feedback, comments, or plugs . Please like and share this on your social media.

We can be contacted at 2dcast@gmail.com

Gar Shanleys Blog : http://www.fugtheworld.blogspot.com/

Bobby’s Charidee page : http://www.justgiving.com/Bobby-Best

Optimus and Me :http://andy-luke.com/2012/08/04/199/