Greet the new year with Jesus
Said the sign upon the door
But I didn't have enough drink for Him
So I went to buy some more.
The off-license could not advise me
Whether it was Red or White, He'd desire
So I got one of each and a Rose
Just in case he brought the choir.
For some wine goes best with Wedding Cake
And some best with Funeral lillies
So I swapped the Wine of Canaan
For the Wine of Sainsburys.
No-one who's drunk the old wine
Straight away desires the new
Though it comes in new bottles,
It's for when the old wine's through.
So raise a toast to the old year,
In the old wines that it decants
And greet the new one with Jesus
and hope, you've the wine He wants.
I wish, I believed that Jesus
Would share a glass of Wine
So the workers in the vineyard
Wouldn't think they'd wasted time.
The old year is a greybeard
While Jesus's beard is brown
And Judas was a redhead
And passed the wine around.
So Greet the year with Jesus
Who's blood is in the wine
But get the new wine in advance
So you won't wait in line.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Misalliance - a CPi5tweets
I thought you were a cloud of death,
but you were just a misty meaner,
you hung around and stole my breath,
and then you left for Argentina.
You were Astaire cute as you smiled,
with stockings got that day in Brighton,
but I was hirsuit and it riled,
we never ever left the light on.
I smelled the nightshade on your mouth,
but still I longed to end its pain,
but then the far right swayed the South,
You led the evil polls again.
You left me for your nazi clique,
and all that retro femme fatalia,
of silver deaths heads that seemed chic,
was just a vampire's lost regalia.
So now you serve in "the Fourth Reich",
a specialist pub based in Putney,
that does a line in what yobs like,
Hitler's Best Ale Pies 'n Chutney.
I find your irony these days,
as doubtful as your choice in friends,
but oh it's truely said in praise,
you snogged 'til divers got the bends.
but you were just a misty meaner,
you hung around and stole my breath,
and then you left for Argentina.
You were Astaire cute as you smiled,
with stockings got that day in Brighton,
but I was hirsuit and it riled,
we never ever left the light on.
I smelled the nightshade on your mouth,
but still I longed to end its pain,
but then the far right swayed the South,
You led the evil polls again.
You left me for your nazi clique,
and all that retro femme fatalia,
of silver deaths heads that seemed chic,
was just a vampire's lost regalia.
So now you serve in "the Fourth Reich",
a specialist pub based in Putney,
that does a line in what yobs like,
Hitler's Best Ale Pies 'n Chutney.
I find your irony these days,
as doubtful as your choice in friends,
but oh it's truely said in praise,
you snogged 'til divers got the bends.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Pantoum of The Cat
Pantoum of The Cat
Muscled like springs under flesh,
Uncanny eyed, they dart and flash
Where arrogance and neatness mesh,
And the long tail moves, like a lash.
Uncanny eyed, they dart and flash,
They land on feet that rarely slip
And the long tail moves, like a lash
At blood or milk, they like to sip.
They land on feet that rarely slip,
They kneed the ground, they kneed your lap.
At blood or milk, they like to sip.
They do not heed mere puppies' yap.
They kneed the ground, they kneed your lap,
They sniff disdainfully at traces,
They do not heed mere puppies' yap,
And dogs they put through lively paces.
They sniff disdainfully at traces,
Unless something of interest, passed,
And dogs they put through lively paces;
They know they will be first and last.
Unless something of interest, passed,
They gaze the same from tombs of old.
They know they will be first and last.
Beneath the cat's eye who is bold?
They gaze the same from tombs of old,
Bubastis, knew that man was dust.
Beneath the cat's eye who is bold?
It's only dogs, in humans trust.
Bubastis, knew that man was dust -
A lumberly ape, a thing that howls.
It's only dogs, in humans trust.
The priestly cat preserves its scowls.
A lumberly ape, a thing that howls:
Where arrogance and neatness mesh,
The priestly cat preserves its scowls,
Muscled like springs under flesh.
Muscled like springs under flesh,
Uncanny eyed, they dart and flash
Where arrogance and neatness mesh,
And the long tail moves, like a lash.
Uncanny eyed, they dart and flash,
They land on feet that rarely slip
And the long tail moves, like a lash
At blood or milk, they like to sip.
They land on feet that rarely slip,
They kneed the ground, they kneed your lap.
At blood or milk, they like to sip.
They do not heed mere puppies' yap.
They kneed the ground, they kneed your lap,
They sniff disdainfully at traces,
They do not heed mere puppies' yap,
And dogs they put through lively paces.
They sniff disdainfully at traces,
Unless something of interest, passed,
And dogs they put through lively paces;
They know they will be first and last.
Unless something of interest, passed,
They gaze the same from tombs of old.
They know they will be first and last.
Beneath the cat's eye who is bold?
They gaze the same from tombs of old,
Bubastis, knew that man was dust.
Beneath the cat's eye who is bold?
It's only dogs, in humans trust.
Bubastis, knew that man was dust -
A lumberly ape, a thing that howls.
It's only dogs, in humans trust.
The priestly cat preserves its scowls.
A lumberly ape, a thing that howls:
Where arrogance and neatness mesh,
The priestly cat preserves its scowls,
Muscled like springs under flesh.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Broadsword and the Beast (from Twenty Thousand Fathoms)
Bring me a lighthouse and mournful weather
Bring me an iceberg melting in the sun
The sun of the atom, freeing a monster
An ancient monster, lost and alone.
Bring me my broadsword (that's the brig's call-sign)
Bring me my fog-horn that cries like a gull.
So lost and so lonely, so prelapsarian
That lost monsters must hear it and heed its pull.
Lure the beast to the lighthouse
It's my cliff-top dwelling, when the soldiers of Unit
Prepare it's cage. (With comfy pillows)
So that beneath the billows, it will feel at home.
For the monster just needs friends,
Like Sergeant Benton, or Corporal Osgood, or even the Brig.
They have the experience, and the understanding
To look after the creatures be they small or big.
Bring me a lighthouse and mournful weather
Bring me an iceberg melting in the sun
The sun of the atom, freeing a monster
An ancient monster, that at last comes home.
Bring me an iceberg melting in the sun
The sun of the atom, freeing a monster
An ancient monster, lost and alone.
Bring me my broadsword (that's the brig's call-sign)
Bring me my fog-horn that cries like a gull.
So lost and so lonely, so prelapsarian
That lost monsters must hear it and heed its pull.
Lure the beast to the lighthouse
It's my cliff-top dwelling, when the soldiers of Unit
Prepare it's cage. (With comfy pillows)
So that beneath the billows, it will feel at home.
For the monster just needs friends,
Like Sergeant Benton, or Corporal Osgood, or even the Brig.
They have the experience, and the understanding
To look after the creatures be they small or big.
Bring me a lighthouse and mournful weather
Bring me an iceberg melting in the sun
The sun of the atom, freeing a monster
An ancient monster, that at last comes home.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Pantoum of Brittlemasque
Always the final love abides forever?
Boiling at noon, the essence that entrances
Evaporates as scents, departing ever
Loss upon loss, the heat haze tries its dances
Boiling at noon, the essence that entrances
Departs in clouds whose linings are not shown
Loss upon loss, the heat haze tries its dances
Its lights less silver than your lillied gown
Departs in clouds whose linings are not shown
By dusk the heat departs until the mist
Its lights less silver than your lillied gown
Fills in the empty footprints of our tryst
By dusk the heat departs until the mist
Becomes a backdrop, and the rook's harsh cry
Fills in the empty footprints of our tryst
As wheeling Murders fill the darkened sky
Becomes a backdrop, and the rook's harsh cry
In Brittlemasque the dead may leave their clay
As wheeling Murders fill the darkened sky
And walk the verges at the end of day
In Brittlemasque the dead may leave their clay
Ancestral vault ajar, the tomb agap
And walk the verges at the end of day
For some that means there is no last escape.
Ancestral vault ajar, the tomb agap
Hear now, the clatter of the rising bones
For some that means there is no last escape.
No certain ending, silent under stones
Hear now, the clatter of the rising bones
If only, only, it could come by day
No certain ending, silent under stones
But raised to heaven by the golden ray!
If only, only, it could come as day
Evaporates as scents, departing ever
Be raised to heaven by the golden ray!
Always the final love abides forever.
Boiling at noon, the essence that entrances
Evaporates as scents, departing ever
Loss upon loss, the heat haze tries its dances
Boiling at noon, the essence that entrances
Departs in clouds whose linings are not shown
Loss upon loss, the heat haze tries its dances
Its lights less silver than your lillied gown
Departs in clouds whose linings are not shown
By dusk the heat departs until the mist
Its lights less silver than your lillied gown
Fills in the empty footprints of our tryst
By dusk the heat departs until the mist
Becomes a backdrop, and the rook's harsh cry
Fills in the empty footprints of our tryst
As wheeling Murders fill the darkened sky
Becomes a backdrop, and the rook's harsh cry
In Brittlemasque the dead may leave their clay
As wheeling Murders fill the darkened sky
And walk the verges at the end of day
In Brittlemasque the dead may leave their clay
Ancestral vault ajar, the tomb agap
And walk the verges at the end of day
For some that means there is no last escape.
Ancestral vault ajar, the tomb agap
Hear now, the clatter of the rising bones
For some that means there is no last escape.
No certain ending, silent under stones
Hear now, the clatter of the rising bones
If only, only, it could come by day
No certain ending, silent under stones
But raised to heaven by the golden ray!
If only, only, it could come as day
Evaporates as scents, departing ever
Be raised to heaven by the golden ray!
Always the final love abides forever.
Monday, January 23, 2012
True Prophesies
What crawls around the corners of our sight?
But all our endings coming slowly back
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
They come by night because they fear the light
For they have lived in darkness, on the rack.
What crawls around the corners of our sight?
But all the once desired, and things that might
Have been, had we defeated life's attack
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
They seek a sanctuary whose shelves are light
For Vikings long made pillage there and sack.
What crawls around the corners of our sight?
But hopeless hopes, and dreams that end in blight
And all our cries to Gods, when Gods we lack,
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
And we try to appease them, and bind tight
Their wounds which are our foreseen bloody track.
What crawls around the corners of our sight
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright?
But all our endings coming slowly back
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
They come by night because they fear the light
For they have lived in darkness, on the rack.
What crawls around the corners of our sight?
But all the once desired, and things that might
Have been, had we defeated life's attack
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
They seek a sanctuary whose shelves are light
For Vikings long made pillage there and sack.
What crawls around the corners of our sight?
But hopeless hopes, and dreams that end in blight
And all our cries to Gods, when Gods we lack,
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright
And we try to appease them, and bind tight
Their wounds which are our foreseen bloody track.
What crawls around the corners of our sight
Limping, once prodigal, beaten and in fright?
Friday, January 20, 2012
Grail Pantoum
And in the end the Grail again was found
Quite humble, undistinguished, void of stones
Preserved without state, in an ancient mound
Beside a barren scattering of bones
Quite humble, undistinguished, void of stones
Gemless, lack-lustre, dull and yet desired
Beside a barren scattering of bones
We bowed before it, er we all retired
Gemless, lack-lustre, dull and yet desired
How did we know it was the cup we sought?
We bowed before it, er we all retired
For there could be no doubt, no vagrant thought.
How did we know it was the cup we sought?
It spoke within us of the blood it knew
For there could be no doubt, no vagrant thought.
This was the cup of He who made us new.
It spoke within us of the blood it knew
Of hands that held it, of the twelve who wept
This was the cup of He who made us new.
While, one, the thirteenth, off for payment crept.
Of hands that held it, of the twelve who wept
For He wept too, that night when all were still
While, one, the thirteenth, off for payment crept.
And Roman guards came up the olive'd hill.
For He wept too, that night when all were still
And prayed that if God willed the cup should pass
And Roman guards came up the olive'd hill.
And now the cup was here, beneath the grass.
And prayed that if God willed the cup should pass
While we, long after, gave praise for its sight.
And now the cup was here, beneath the grass.
Until, Sir Mordred took it, in the night.
While we, long after, gave praise for it's sight.
Preserved without state, in an ancient mound
Until, Sir Mordred took it, in the night.
And in the end, no Grail again was found.
Quite humble, undistinguished, void of stones
Preserved without state, in an ancient mound
Beside a barren scattering of bones
Quite humble, undistinguished, void of stones
Gemless, lack-lustre, dull and yet desired
Beside a barren scattering of bones
We bowed before it, er we all retired
Gemless, lack-lustre, dull and yet desired
How did we know it was the cup we sought?
We bowed before it, er we all retired
For there could be no doubt, no vagrant thought.
How did we know it was the cup we sought?
It spoke within us of the blood it knew
For there could be no doubt, no vagrant thought.
This was the cup of He who made us new.
It spoke within us of the blood it knew
Of hands that held it, of the twelve who wept
This was the cup of He who made us new.
While, one, the thirteenth, off for payment crept.
Of hands that held it, of the twelve who wept
For He wept too, that night when all were still
While, one, the thirteenth, off for payment crept.
And Roman guards came up the olive'd hill.
For He wept too, that night when all were still
And prayed that if God willed the cup should pass
And Roman guards came up the olive'd hill.
And now the cup was here, beneath the grass.
And prayed that if God willed the cup should pass
While we, long after, gave praise for its sight.
And now the cup was here, beneath the grass.
Until, Sir Mordred took it, in the night.
While we, long after, gave praise for it's sight.
Preserved without state, in an ancient mound
Until, Sir Mordred took it, in the night.
And in the end, no Grail again was found.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Self-pity Song - CSi5M
If you have any time to spare
And any kind words to say
Please say them today
for I am so
very very low.
If you have any love to give
Then send it my way
And send it today
for I am now mostly
pallid, wan, and ghostly.
If you can fix your attention here
Or lend me an ear
I’d better make clear
Don’t wait for next year
For time’s going I fear.
I’m only hangin’ on by a thread
From a worn old spool, from a worn old shed.
And when that thread its fibres shred
If it happens today
Then I’m falling away.
Perhaps further down in the dark is a ledge
But with my luck I’ll just miss the edge
So if you’ve got some time to pledge
Well I’d take some today
(Yi-pe-oh-ki-aye)
And any kind words to say
Please say them today
for I am so
very very low.
If you have any love to give
Then send it my way
And send it today
for I am now mostly
pallid, wan, and ghostly.
If you can fix your attention here
Or lend me an ear
I’d better make clear
Don’t wait for next year
For time’s going I fear.
I’m only hangin’ on by a thread
From a worn old spool, from a worn old shed.
And when that thread its fibres shred
If it happens today
Then I’m falling away.
Perhaps further down in the dark is a ledge
But with my luck I’ll just miss the edge
So if you’ve got some time to pledge
Well I’d take some today
(Yi-pe-oh-ki-aye)
Monday, January 09, 2012
After the Velvet Eon
After the velvet eon, when the fires
at back of the old nebula
had burned,
down to a smattering of shattered suns,
adrift in the old dark:
two travellers came,
to Seven Sisters Inn, and found the place,
(Calamity Station),
where the ship-bones lie,
bleached pale under the dim eon-old light,
but scarlet now, with newer fires,
of murder and of rage.
Bain BeyBalor :
“Poems of The Twenty-Seventh Epoch”
at back of the old nebula
had burned,
down to a smattering of shattered suns,
adrift in the old dark:
two travellers came,
to Seven Sisters Inn, and found the place,
(Calamity Station),
where the ship-bones lie,
bleached pale under the dim eon-old light,
but scarlet now, with newer fires,
of murder and of rage.
Bain BeyBalor :
“Poems of The Twenty-Seventh Epoch”
Friday, December 23, 2011
I can't play the guitar in my slippers.
I can't play the guitar in my slippers
The music is sipping away
Without bovver boots
All my punk-indie roots
Have left me all fluffy today.
I can't play the guitar in my slippers
My folk music's fuzzy and blurred
Without Big Wooden clogs
I've just going to the dogs
And the Mouse in The Windmill's run scared.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
They're just not blue-suede soles you see
And the shuffle you get
Is no rock and roll set
It's more like playing for granny at tea.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
It don't matter how much you all blame me.
And throw fangirl's knickers
Without my winkle-pickers
And string-tie, I've no country to claim me.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
For unless I've got my steel toed badwear
My oiled jet-black quiff
And my fast guitar riff
Is just smothered in comfiest dadwear
I can't play guitar in my slippers
But although this footwear makes me bawl
It's not as bad as the pit
For I have to admit
That I can't play the guitar at all.
Simon BJ
I would be
The music is sipping away
Without bovver boots
All my punk-indie roots
Have left me all fluffy today.
I can't play the guitar in my slippers
My folk music's fuzzy and blurred
Without Big Wooden clogs
I've just going to the dogs
And the Mouse in The Windmill's run scared.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
They're just not blue-suede soles you see
And the shuffle you get
Is no rock and roll set
It's more like playing for granny at tea.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
It don't matter how much you all blame me.
And throw fangirl's knickers
Without my winkle-pickers
And string-tie, I've no country to claim me.
I can't play guitar in my slippers
For unless I've got my steel toed badwear
My oiled jet-black quiff
And my fast guitar riff
Is just smothered in comfiest dadwear
I can't play guitar in my slippers
But although this footwear makes me bawl
It's not as bad as the pit
For I have to admit
That I can't play the guitar at all.
Simon BJ
I would be
Faction Paradox novel announcement!
"Following not terribly protracted negotiations with Lawrence [Miles], Obverse [books] will be taking over the Faction Paradox prose license in its entirety from 2012, as a result of which [they'll] be publishing this lot next year...
Novels
Against Nature - Lawrence Burton
"Goralschai, a first wave veteran of the House Military, returns from the front bearing a death wish the size of creation. The spiral politic, he decides, cannot continue, and on Earth, in the Mexico of 1506, he finds a means to his twisted end; and so, egged on by the Celestis (who find this sort of thing amusing), he lays plans to turn one small corner of history into a weapon."
The Brakespeare Voyage - Simon Bucher-Jones and Jon Dennis
"The Maw, a wound in the fabric of the universe, forms. House Lineacrux claims to have constructed it, but this may be a lie. To exploit it House Lineacrux creates two ships with the intention of harvesting Leviathan biodata from outside the totality of the Spiral politic. The first the San Grael is a scout the second, the Brakespeare..."
Novellas
The Moontree Women - Kelly Hale
"Some people have timelines in their palms instead of lifelines..."
Novels
Against Nature - Lawrence Burton
"Goralschai, a first wave veteran of the House Military, returns from the front bearing a death wish the size of creation. The spiral politic, he decides, cannot continue, and on Earth, in the Mexico of 1506, he finds a means to his twisted end; and so, egged on by the Celestis (who find this sort of thing amusing), he lays plans to turn one small corner of history into a weapon."
The Brakespeare Voyage - Simon Bucher-Jones and Jon Dennis
"The Maw, a wound in the fabric of the universe, forms. House Lineacrux claims to have constructed it, but this may be a lie. To exploit it House Lineacrux creates two ships with the intention of harvesting Leviathan biodata from outside the totality of the Spiral politic. The first the San Grael is a scout the second, the Brakespeare..."
Novellas
The Moontree Women - Kelly Hale
"Some people have timelines in their palms instead of lifelines..."
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Rasputin After Tunguska
It took another eight years to kill me, but it was that battle – not the base and perfidious treachery of humanity, that defeated me.
Do you think poison, and bullets and icy water could kill me? Unless I had been blasted first by power beyond theirs, I would have shrugged.
They called me evil, but mine was the evil of humanity: that stands against the awful emptiness of the Heavens.
But for me, the falling star would have struck Mother Russia in her glittering heart. My magic it was, my power, that drew it to the desolation, to my Siberia, to the empty places of the Earth. There it spent its evil. There its malice was ended.
There are forces that kill the flesh, and forces that kill the mind. The former powers slew eighty million trees to strike at me but I was the tree in the forest that did not fall. The latter powers I could not avoid.
Remember me.
Do you think poison, and bullets and icy water could kill me? Unless I had been blasted first by power beyond theirs, I would have shrugged.
They called me evil, but mine was the evil of humanity: that stands against the awful emptiness of the Heavens.
But for me, the falling star would have struck Mother Russia in her glittering heart. My magic it was, my power, that drew it to the desolation, to my Siberia, to the empty places of the Earth. There it spent its evil. There its malice was ended.
There are forces that kill the flesh, and forces that kill the mind. The former powers slew eighty million trees to strike at me but I was the tree in the forest that did not fall. The latter powers I could not avoid.
Remember me.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Pour Vu
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Que brûle derrière le verre
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Ils montrent le feu de l'enfer dans l'attente
Ils sont en enfer, avec le désir fou et la luxure
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Juste une langue, appuyé contre la vitre désormais
Que la fonte des lèvres de ses baisers amener à passer
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Et le crâne qui les intronise
Et les doigts osseux qui attaquent le loquet
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Rien, mais un vide maintenant, il est ouvert
Je n'ai pas besoin la peur derrière moi
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Ceux doigts sur mon cou
La dureté dans mon dos
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Simon BJ
Que brûle derrière le verre
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Ils montrent le feu de l'enfer dans l'attente
Ils sont en enfer, avec le désir fou et la luxure
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Juste une langue, appuyé contre la vitre désormais
Que la fonte des lèvres de ses baisers amener à passer
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Et le crâne qui les intronise
Et les doigts osseux qui attaquent le loquet
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Rien, mais un vide maintenant, il est ouvert
Je n'ai pas besoin la peur derrière moi
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Ceux doigts sur mon cou
La dureté dans mon dos
Qu'est-ce que, à la fenêtre?
Les yeux de ma maîtresse
Simon BJ
Monday, November 28, 2011
Water-weeds (in memorium Ruth Stone)
Water-weeds
Under the lilies, still more that’s green.
Under the reflection of the emerald sun..
Life, full of other life. Life rich with dartings.
Who knows what a bug sees when its eyes bulge into the sky.
As it bounces on meniscus elasticity,
Like a birthday child in a hired castle of air.
We do not map to those unfathomable simplicities.
Colours pure as pin-pricks.
Tastes brief as seconds.
Reflexes certain as nightfall.
Whirled lives, in the sudden waters.
We have analogue and digital, and art.
And from the mountains of our skulls,
We peer into the pure life. Emptily
Under the lilies, still more that’s green.
Under the reflection of the emerald sun..
Life, full of other life. Life rich with dartings.
Who knows what a bug sees when its eyes bulge into the sky.
As it bounces on meniscus elasticity,
Like a birthday child in a hired castle of air.
We do not map to those unfathomable simplicities.
Colours pure as pin-pricks.
Tastes brief as seconds.
Reflexes certain as nightfall.
Whirled lives, in the sudden waters.
We have analogue and digital, and art.
And from the mountains of our skulls,
We peer into the pure life. Emptily
Friday, November 25, 2011
The Autumn Fires
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
And sparks of red at the horizon's line
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
Ascend to motes that die, as on a pyre
And all the golden light has ceased to shine
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
And burned as grey as hair, as limbs that tire
The dead line grows still closer now, and dire.
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
As middle age sees death in grey attire
Burning the stalks ahead to stubble fine.
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
And hopes long held, combust as they aspire
Only to ashes, burned upon the vine
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
The ancient fire that takes, and claims to sire
(for what it's worth) the new land and the wine.
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre.
And sparks of red at the horizon's line
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
Ascend to motes that die, as on a pyre
And all the golden light has ceased to shine
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
And burned as grey as hair, as limbs that tire
The dead line grows still closer now, and dire.
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
As middle age sees death in grey attire
Burning the stalks ahead to stubble fine.
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
And hopes long held, combust as they aspire
Only to ashes, burned upon the vine
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre
The ancient fire that takes, and claims to sire
(for what it's worth) the new land and the wine.
Suddenly the wheat fields catch afire
Blacken and sear, and catch the wind and gyre.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
DCNu Month 2 Weeks 2-3
Batman & Robin #2 - Moderately okay, but based for me on a clunky and unlikely premise: that the killer in #1 is known to Bruce and, seemingly
on chatty terms with him. It seems a bit odd to carp about psychological believability in superheroic comic books, but I can't accept a Batman whom as Bruce Wayne stands chatting with a killer, and takes no action on the pettifogging grounds that "we both know a face-off is impossible with civilians around"...because Batman/Bruce ought to be able to take a villain down with a pen ina crowded lift unsuspected if need be. Grant Morrison is sorely missed here. This isn't likely to make the cut for month #3. 5/10
Mister Terrific #2 - Better. Some funky action and science and an interesting villain. The awful continual appearance of the "Bat Noel" advert is painful after the better art in the main body of the comic.
7/10
Demon Knights #2 - Paul Cornell is still writing Vandal Savage as if he were the fat one from The Warriors Three in Thor (which is funny but doesn't do him justice), the rest is hanging together well though, with nice asides, art, and some subtlety in the villains' regret about what their horde must do. 8/10
Frankenstein Agent of SHADE #2 - Likely to justify #3, but a tad under Demon Knights. Hard though to say why, as background and set up is solid, perhaps it's the rather clunky exposition of her past as Mazursky dives :
"Yet I found myself flooded with memories"~ again as Batman and Robin, I'm probably just missing Grant Morrison's deft handling of the characters in Seven Soldiers. 7/10
Batwoman #2 - As with one, astonishing art - although it does make me think Promethia is going to burst into the narrative at any moment. Batwoman's assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of 'Batman International' is refreshingly sane. 8/10
Batgirl #2 - Manages to sidestep what I didn't like about the ending of issue one, with Batgirl facing up to her momentary paralysis of fear as she takes on 'The Mirror' 8/10
Blue Beetle #2 - I'm enjoying this a lot, but I've seen some critiques from people who's opinion I respect to the effect that this reboot is a mere shadow of the former title (which I haven't read). I especially like the Blue Beetle's attempts not to kill, as his suit forces him to select lethal targets, and also throttles any attempt to say who he is. 8/10
Gren Lantern Corp #2 - Good art, and some sense of scope, but I'm starting to cool on the 'Corp did us wrong' implicit revenge narrative, and I just don't buy the 'repair our world by nicking seas/air etc' from others aspects. You can't bioform a world by dropping bits of randomly stripped ecologies on it, they have to actually work together. If the opposing forces are so tough they could rebuild a world in far easier ways. 5/10
Batman # 2 - Better than I'd hoped from my assessment of the plotting of #1, but I'm still worried that an Evil Nightwing(tm) may appear. I'm also not quite sure exactly how having an extra gargoyle saves a falling Batman when its been established that if he hits something its likely to kill him, and the bleeding heart billionaires congratulate each other moments remain cloying. 6/10
Legion of Suoerheroes #2 - A slam down, which meets the needs of action well, but the artist should have considered the shape of those ships in the final page a little more carefully. I still want to warm to this, and Paul Levitz writes the Legion well (as he should having been responsible for some of its heyday stories), but its only 50/50. 5/10
Wonder Woman #2 - good art, but a slight feel of poor gender politics/fumbling with the format. It's implicitly suggested that Wonder Woman's origin might be a "all you know is a lie", perhaps with her parentage being the philandering Zeus and Hypolita - this of course undoes several excellent stories preDCNu. This wouldn't matter if it didn't risk being crass. The Goddess 'Strife' [Eris?] is amusingly portrayed, and the intraA,azon interaction is well set out. Still a hairsbreadth off being a really good comic. Description of Paradise Island by Hera as "That cockless coop..." is surprising and apt. 8.5/10
Deadman #2 - Good set up, character work, and interaction with Club of Monsters. I'm slightly unsure of the value of casting doubt on the motives of Rama - which after all are the facilitators of the character's selling point / unique abilities. If Deadman and all his dropin bodies are foredamned what if anything is the point? 7/10
Justice League #2 - Interesting prose section at back re Wonder Woman, and the fact that I comment on that first says a lot about how uninteresting the main 'conflicted superheros fight on first meeting' main text is. Sketchbook at back just highlights hideousness of Superman's tech nouvre costume. On the plus side The Flash is worth reading here. 4/10
Resurrection Man #2 - the best bit, an old man in a retirement home, who may or may not have been a supervillian, is blunted by wondering when he was - if Superman's only been active for 6 yrs at most, the worst bit the salicious, violent, nonsense of the "Body Double" assassins. These bozos were vaguely toleravle in #1 when there seemed to be a chance they were hell's agents, but if as we now see they're actually intended to be 'real people' then they have all the moral complexity of cardboard anthrax.
3/10
3/4 into Month 2 and its going to be hard to get from 26 titles down to 13, not because all are great - I've still only got 4-5 great comics in the lot, but because the real stinkers have dropped out in month 1. Nevertheless Batman and Robin, Green Lantern Corp, and Resurrection Man are on the verge of falling.
Simon BJ
on chatty terms with him. It seems a bit odd to carp about psychological believability in superheroic comic books, but I can't accept a Batman whom as Bruce Wayne stands chatting with a killer, and takes no action on the pettifogging grounds that "we both know a face-off is impossible with civilians around"...because Batman/Bruce ought to be able to take a villain down with a pen ina crowded lift unsuspected if need be. Grant Morrison is sorely missed here. This isn't likely to make the cut for month #3. 5/10
Mister Terrific #2 - Better. Some funky action and science and an interesting villain. The awful continual appearance of the "Bat Noel" advert is painful after the better art in the main body of the comic.
7/10
Demon Knights #2 - Paul Cornell is still writing Vandal Savage as if he were the fat one from The Warriors Three in Thor (which is funny but doesn't do him justice), the rest is hanging together well though, with nice asides, art, and some subtlety in the villains' regret about what their horde must do. 8/10
Frankenstein Agent of SHADE #2 - Likely to justify #3, but a tad under Demon Knights. Hard though to say why, as background and set up is solid, perhaps it's the rather clunky exposition of her past as Mazursky dives :
"Yet I found myself flooded with memories"~ again as Batman and Robin, I'm probably just missing Grant Morrison's deft handling of the characters in Seven Soldiers. 7/10
Batwoman #2 - As with one, astonishing art - although it does make me think Promethia is going to burst into the narrative at any moment. Batwoman's assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of 'Batman International' is refreshingly sane. 8/10
Batgirl #2 - Manages to sidestep what I didn't like about the ending of issue one, with Batgirl facing up to her momentary paralysis of fear as she takes on 'The Mirror' 8/10
Blue Beetle #2 - I'm enjoying this a lot, but I've seen some critiques from people who's opinion I respect to the effect that this reboot is a mere shadow of the former title (which I haven't read). I especially like the Blue Beetle's attempts not to kill, as his suit forces him to select lethal targets, and also throttles any attempt to say who he is. 8/10
Gren Lantern Corp #2 - Good art, and some sense of scope, but I'm starting to cool on the 'Corp did us wrong' implicit revenge narrative, and I just don't buy the 'repair our world by nicking seas/air etc' from others aspects. You can't bioform a world by dropping bits of randomly stripped ecologies on it, they have to actually work together. If the opposing forces are so tough they could rebuild a world in far easier ways. 5/10
Batman # 2 - Better than I'd hoped from my assessment of the plotting of #1, but I'm still worried that an Evil Nightwing(tm) may appear. I'm also not quite sure exactly how having an extra gargoyle saves a falling Batman when its been established that if he hits something its likely to kill him, and the bleeding heart billionaires congratulate each other moments remain cloying. 6/10
Legion of Suoerheroes #2 - A slam down, which meets the needs of action well, but the artist should have considered the shape of those ships in the final page a little more carefully. I still want to warm to this, and Paul Levitz writes the Legion well (as he should having been responsible for some of its heyday stories), but its only 50/50. 5/10
Wonder Woman #2 - good art, but a slight feel of poor gender politics/fumbling with the format. It's implicitly suggested that Wonder Woman's origin might be a "all you know is a lie", perhaps with her parentage being the philandering Zeus and Hypolita - this of course undoes several excellent stories preDCNu. This wouldn't matter if it didn't risk being crass. The Goddess 'Strife' [Eris?] is amusingly portrayed, and the intraA,azon interaction is well set out. Still a hairsbreadth off being a really good comic. Description of Paradise Island by Hera as "That cockless coop..." is surprising and apt. 8.5/10
Deadman #2 - Good set up, character work, and interaction with Club of Monsters. I'm slightly unsure of the value of casting doubt on the motives of Rama - which after all are the facilitators of the character's selling point / unique abilities. If Deadman and all his dropin bodies are foredamned what if anything is the point? 7/10
Justice League #2 - Interesting prose section at back re Wonder Woman, and the fact that I comment on that first says a lot about how uninteresting the main 'conflicted superheros fight on first meeting' main text is. Sketchbook at back just highlights hideousness of Superman's tech nouvre costume. On the plus side The Flash is worth reading here. 4/10
Resurrection Man #2 - the best bit, an old man in a retirement home, who may or may not have been a supervillian, is blunted by wondering when he was - if Superman's only been active for 6 yrs at most, the worst bit the salicious, violent, nonsense of the "Body Double" assassins. These bozos were vaguely toleravle in #1 when there seemed to be a chance they were hell's agents, but if as we now see they're actually intended to be 'real people' then they have all the moral complexity of cardboard anthrax.
3/10
3/4 into Month 2 and its going to be hard to get from 26 titles down to 13, not because all are great - I've still only got 4-5 great comics in the lot, but because the real stinkers have dropped out in month 1. Nevertheless Batman and Robin, Green Lantern Corp, and Resurrection Man are on the verge of falling.
Simon BJ
Monday, October 10, 2011
A cheerful villanelle, somewhat against the grain of the form...
There is a shimmer in the summer air
A burning on the breeze of sparks alive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
Is pure electric life, spring-driven, dare!
Seeds fly to seek new worlds, bees leave the hive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
Windtossed the trees, as shampoo selling hair
Is shook, as swimmer's hair, wet from a dive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
And on the grass the women's legs are bare
To please the girls, men at their antics strive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
All things are burnished, bronzed, and debonaire
Or green with sap, as green as frog or chive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
The ancient fire that's new, and does not care
If men in black forbid the weeds to thrive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
A burning on the breeze of sparks alive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
Is pure electric life, spring-driven, dare!
Seeds fly to seek new worlds, bees leave the hive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
Windtossed the trees, as shampoo selling hair
Is shook, as swimmer's hair, wet from a dive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
And on the grass the women's legs are bare
To please the girls, men at their antics strive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
All things are burnished, bronzed, and debonaire
Or green with sap, as green as frog or chive
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
The ancient fire that's new, and does not care
If men in black forbid the weeds to thrive
There is a shimmer in the summer air
The sky flung, lift of leaves, the trembling there
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
DCNu Month 2 Week 1
An additional book that, I feel slightly conned by falls into my shopping bag this month but is very unlikely to make it to Month #3.
The Huntress #1 It's my fault of course, I bought this after glancing at DC Comic's All Access the "publicity page" at back of Action #2 (see below), which read quickly made me think that not only is an Earth-2 JSA book on the way, yay! but that the Huntress was back to her daughter of E-2 Batman and Catwoman origin. [This may have been my misreading]. I say may have been because The Huntress in TH#1 is so nondescript and her background so-real world dull, that its impossible to tell if this is E-1 or E-2 or [save one mention of Batman] DCnu at all.
Annoying extra at the back of this month's DC comics a couple of pages of
"Batman Noel" a graphic novel juxtaposing Christmas Carol and Batman in what looks to be a gruntingly macho and stupid way.
I also see in an interview with the writer (Sterling Gates) and artist (Rob Liefield) of Hawk and Dove, that Sterling thinks "when people read issue #3 they'll be crazy shocked". Hm. I'll be crazy shocked *if* people read issue #3. I certainly won't be. I didn't even get to #2.
Action Comics #2 : Best of today's. But some problems are becoming apparent.
Is it viable to make Lois's father, essentially a war criminal? Would Lex Luthor believe that obvious animal was a tool user, even a shape-shifting one? [And what does it mean to say that a shape-shifter even 'has' a natural form.] If Corben's the new mentallo in waiting is it too incestuous if he's Lois's ex? That said, it does what its name promises - it delivers "Action"! and Superman himself remains great! 8/10
Animal Man #2 Creepy art and set up. Ties in nicely with Swamp Thing #2 also out today with which its joint second place. Animal Man
fractionally ahead for not pulling an 'all you know is a lie' approach to past Swamp Thing stories. (7/10 and 6.5/10)
Batgirl : one of my month 1, week 1 successes not available today to me locally. May be out later in month.
Stormwatch #2 Sagging under its own weight of believability against a background of having to be in the DCnu. Is it likely that the Justice league are such saps as to run off after the first supervillain set up to take the blame as per here? Are we supposed to applaud a Martian Manhunter who - in Stormwatch - takes part in lying to his JLA colleagues? And someone who's aged backwards from the big bang...hm...breathing what during the leptonic era... There's "grand operatic" and there's ludicrous and its a traditionally fine line. 5/10
However its not Stormwatch that topples face first into stupidity, but Batman: Detective, which looks like it might not justify a third issue.
Having had the joker lose face in issue #1, he's now out of Arkham but no where in sight (unless he's the gimp in the jester costume in which case he's playing an out of character second-fiddle role), instead we watch as The Dollmaker sets up Batman and procedes to apparently either (a) capture Commissioner Gordon cut off his face and sew bits of other peoples faces back on, or (b) make a Commissioner Gordon alike from bits of other people.
The problems with this are (i) partly the mindless sadism, which worked when the Joker was having it done to himself, (ii) the sheer timing which doesn't work if it's (a) as Gordon's okay on page 19, after Batman left him to go at full speed into [the trap], the Dollmaker has to get Gordon, cross town, perform surgery during the three pages while Batman fights his 'children/underlings' and then reveal his handywork. It just collapses
into internal inconsistancy. Even if its (b) he still has to get Gordon's clothes across town and onto his pre-prepared 'Gordon'. This title also loses points for introducing another Wayne romance, some co-ordination between titles would help here, and since when are business executives all buff-indoor climbing wall he-men. 3/10
Simon BJ
The Huntress #1 It's my fault of course, I bought this after glancing at DC Comic's All Access the "publicity page" at back of Action #2 (see below), which read quickly made me think that not only is an Earth-2 JSA book on the way, yay! but that the Huntress was back to her daughter of E-2 Batman and Catwoman origin. [This may have been my misreading]. I say may have been because The Huntress in TH#1 is so nondescript and her background so-real world dull, that its impossible to tell if this is E-1 or E-2 or [save one mention of Batman] DCnu at all.
Annoying extra at the back of this month's DC comics a couple of pages of
"Batman Noel" a graphic novel juxtaposing Christmas Carol and Batman in what looks to be a gruntingly macho and stupid way.
I also see in an interview with the writer (Sterling Gates) and artist (Rob Liefield) of Hawk and Dove, that Sterling thinks "when people read issue #3 they'll be crazy shocked". Hm. I'll be crazy shocked *if* people read issue #3. I certainly won't be. I didn't even get to #2.
Action Comics #2 : Best of today's. But some problems are becoming apparent.
Is it viable to make Lois's father, essentially a war criminal? Would Lex Luthor believe that obvious animal was a tool user, even a shape-shifting one? [And what does it mean to say that a shape-shifter even 'has' a natural form.] If Corben's the new mentallo in waiting is it too incestuous if he's Lois's ex? That said, it does what its name promises - it delivers "Action"! and Superman himself remains great! 8/10
Animal Man #2 Creepy art and set up. Ties in nicely with Swamp Thing #2 also out today with which its joint second place. Animal Man
fractionally ahead for not pulling an 'all you know is a lie' approach to past Swamp Thing stories. (7/10 and 6.5/10)
Batgirl : one of my month 1, week 1 successes not available today to me locally. May be out later in month.
Stormwatch #2 Sagging under its own weight of believability against a background of having to be in the DCnu. Is it likely that the Justice league are such saps as to run off after the first supervillain set up to take the blame as per here? Are we supposed to applaud a Martian Manhunter who - in Stormwatch - takes part in lying to his JLA colleagues? And someone who's aged backwards from the big bang...hm...breathing what during the leptonic era... There's "grand operatic" and there's ludicrous and its a traditionally fine line. 5/10
However its not Stormwatch that topples face first into stupidity, but Batman: Detective, which looks like it might not justify a third issue.
Having had the joker lose face in issue #1, he's now out of Arkham but no where in sight (unless he's the gimp in the jester costume in which case he's playing an out of character second-fiddle role), instead we watch as The Dollmaker sets up Batman and procedes to apparently either (a) capture Commissioner Gordon cut off his face and sew bits of other peoples faces back on, or (b) make a Commissioner Gordon alike from bits of other people.
The problems with this are (i) partly the mindless sadism, which worked when the Joker was having it done to himself, (ii) the sheer timing which doesn't work if it's (a) as Gordon's okay on page 19, after Batman left him to go at full speed into [the trap], the Dollmaker has to get Gordon, cross town, perform surgery during the three pages while Batman fights his 'children/underlings' and then reveal his handywork. It just collapses
into internal inconsistancy. Even if its (b) he still has to get Gordon's clothes across town and onto his pre-prepared 'Gordon'. This title also loses points for introducing another Wayne romance, some co-ordination between titles would help here, and since when are business executives all buff-indoor climbing wall he-men. 3/10
Simon BJ
DCNu Month 1 summary.
DCNu Round Up Weeks 1-4 summary
Surviving to issue #2 at present, 26 comics. Mark shows 1(highest) to 26
lowest, in my estimation. Some comics tie. Oddly the best and worst of the twenty six, I can afford to buy in month 2 are both Superman titles.
Action Comics (1)
Justice League : Dark (2)
Deadman (3)
Wonder Woman (4)
All Star Western (4)
Animal Man (6)
Swamp Thing (6)
Frankenstein Agent of SHADE (8)
Demon Knights (8)
Stormwatch (8)
Batwoman (11)
The Flash (11)
Detective Comics (13)
Batgirl (13)
The Savage Hawkman (13)
Batman & Robin(13)
Mr Terrific(17)
Resurrection Man(17)
Batman(17)
Blue Beetle(17)
Green Lantern Corp(21)
Green Lantern: New Guardians(21)
Legion of Superheros(21)
The Fury of Firestorm(23)
Justice League(25)
Suoerman(26).
Surviving to issue #2 at present, 26 comics. Mark shows 1(highest) to 26
lowest, in my estimation. Some comics tie. Oddly the best and worst of the twenty six, I can afford to buy in month 2 are both Superman titles.
Action Comics (1)
Justice League : Dark (2)
Deadman (3)
Wonder Woman (4)
All Star Western (4)
Animal Man (6)
Swamp Thing (6)
Frankenstein Agent of SHADE (8)
Demon Knights (8)
Stormwatch (8)
Batwoman (11)
The Flash (11)
Detective Comics (13)
Batgirl (13)
The Savage Hawkman (13)
Batman & Robin(13)
Mr Terrific(17)
Resurrection Man(17)
Batman(17)
Blue Beetle(17)
Green Lantern Corp(21)
Green Lantern: New Guardians(21)
Legion of Superheros(21)
The Fury of Firestorm(23)
Justice League(25)
Suoerman(26).
Books read since 29th September part 3 of 30 books on Kindle
L. Sprague du Camp "The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales". I quite like du Camp, but this wasn't one of his best. It's light-hearted sword and sorcery, against a background of pre-sinkage Atlantis and bickering Gods.
It passed an agreeable hour or two, but it doesn't actually engage any emotions or complex thought. Best bit tamed medusi as weapons of war. Worst bit (remember this was written in 1953) a reference to female attractiveness as raising thoughts of rape in a male assembly. 3/10
E.C.Tubb "Galaxy of the Lost" [Cap Kennedy vol 1]
Read this as a child, so pleased to have chance to return to it (first 6 of these were reprinted by NEL when I was younger). This is as straight forward an sf adventure as the above is a s&s one, but it gains on the former by the sheer brutal survival / torments the author puts his 'pulled into another universe' starship survivors through, and this is conveyed ablely by Tubb's 'punch' sentence structure. Better than I remembered.
6/10
[Tally 6 out of 30 read, 2 non-30 read.]
It passed an agreeable hour or two, but it doesn't actually engage any emotions or complex thought. Best bit tamed medusi as weapons of war. Worst bit (remember this was written in 1953) a reference to female attractiveness as raising thoughts of rape in a male assembly. 3/10
E.C.Tubb "Galaxy of the Lost" [Cap Kennedy vol 1]
Read this as a child, so pleased to have chance to return to it (first 6 of these were reprinted by NEL when I was younger). This is as straight forward an sf adventure as the above is a s&s one, but it gains on the former by the sheer brutal survival / torments the author puts his 'pulled into another universe' starship survivors through, and this is conveyed ablely by Tubb's 'punch' sentence structure. Better than I remembered.
6/10
[Tally 6 out of 30 read, 2 non-30 read.]
Monday, October 03, 2011
Books read since 29th September Part 2 of 30 Books On Kindle
E E "Doc" Smith & Stephen Goldin "The Imperial Stars" pure nostalgic adventure this. I first read these in the 70s in the Panther paper back
box set of vols 1-6. Written late in 'Doc''s life its not the Lensmen, but then again what is. The latter volumes are almost complete Goldin (so much so
that with cucial name changes he's also released them with a different vol 1 and character names on Kindle under the "Tsar Wars" heading), but this enables me to see what was Smith and in volume 1 its actually quite a bit.
The liberal feudalism imposed by force by a post-communist Imperium is his, as is the French/English background of the Circus of the Galaxy. Future pulp spy action that does all it claims. 7/10
Philip High "Speaking of Dinosaurs" Bought on spec as I enjoyed the wild flights of "Come Hunt An Earthman" (more about this anon when I reach it in the re-read). Not as good. This is the tale of why evolution was faked by aliens, of how humanity is of two kinds (not male and female, but PRINT and STRAIN) and the courtcase against our alien overlords. Put that way it sounds exciting and it has a WTF energy but it doesn't quite gell (even when the the hero and heroine are reduced to amoeba like gell creatures as their hidden genetic powers take hold before their rewritten as....) 5/10
Not part of the 30, another bonus 86p spend "The Black Goat of The Hundred Acre Wood" a Winnie the Pooh / H P Lovecraft's dreamlands mass-up. Quite affecting though it doesn't behoove a writer of pastiche/mashups to snip at Lovecraft's style within their text, also I certainly have no problem with both sets of dreams co-existing non-destructively, and would have preferred a less bleak take on this. 5/10
Simon BJ
box set of vols 1-6. Written late in 'Doc''s life its not the Lensmen, but then again what is. The latter volumes are almost complete Goldin (so much so
that with cucial name changes he's also released them with a different vol 1 and character names on Kindle under the "Tsar Wars" heading), but this enables me to see what was Smith and in volume 1 its actually quite a bit.
The liberal feudalism imposed by force by a post-communist Imperium is his, as is the French/English background of the Circus of the Galaxy. Future pulp spy action that does all it claims. 7/10
Philip High "Speaking of Dinosaurs" Bought on spec as I enjoyed the wild flights of "Come Hunt An Earthman" (more about this anon when I reach it in the re-read). Not as good. This is the tale of why evolution was faked by aliens, of how humanity is of two kinds (not male and female, but PRINT and STRAIN) and the courtcase against our alien overlords. Put that way it sounds exciting and it has a WTF energy but it doesn't quite gell (even when the the hero and heroine are reduced to amoeba like gell creatures as their hidden genetic powers take hold before their rewritten as....) 5/10
Not part of the 30, another bonus 86p spend "The Black Goat of The Hundred Acre Wood" a Winnie the Pooh / H P Lovecraft's dreamlands mass-up. Quite affecting though it doesn't behoove a writer of pastiche/mashups to snip at Lovecraft's style within their text, also I certainly have no problem with both sets of dreams co-existing non-destructively, and would have preferred a less bleak take on this. 5/10
Simon BJ
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Books read since 29th Sept part 1 of 30 books on Kindle
Frank Herbert "The Green Brain"
A companion piece to 'Hellstrom's Hive' thematically, this is about ecology and humanity's connection with / difference to insects. Like HH it uses the co-option of attributes of one by the other to cast light on them both: here it's insects in South America facing a concerted attach by mankind (well the South Americans and the Chinese) co-opting human brain structures to learn how to make humanity stop. Do they do so? Well the end is beyond the scope of the novel as with HH, but equally as there sympathy is rapidly gained even for the most 'inhuman' of insectoid hive societies by its counterpoint with the inhumanities of our own. 8/10
John w. Campbell Jr "Cloak of Aesir"
Stories written under the Don Stuart pseudonym. Solid pulp stuff, if perhaps not quite so innovative as its author's own introduction thinks. By contrast Asimov's intro strives 'man'fully to defuse Campbell'S humancentric and sexist basis. Nevertheless while "The Machine" sequence is so obvious as to cast doubt on the Machines supposed logic [it's smashed one civilisation by being over helpful so it comes to earth and....] the two Aesir stories with their sympathetic (or see insects above maybe this is just me) immortal Sarn Mother, as distanced from her own race as from the humans her race conquerered, whom one suspects will part with power more willingly to the human revolt idc than to the Mothers of the Cities, generations removed from her immortal perspective, are well worth reading. Both are also in the old "Best of.." collection which can still be found in paperback 2nd hand. 6/10
Alan Ryker "When Cthulhu Met Atlach-Nacha"
A rom com / sex relationship / faith relationship play set against the backdrop of the End of Days, when Old Ones contend for the living souls and bodies of humanity and the stars are right. Only 86p on Kindle at present and in that context this is a sprightly, funny, piece. Perhaps it might not repay a higher cost, but as it is I was very glad to stumble over it: while answering my daughter questions re Spider Gods. (Technically this wasn't one of my 30 gollancz gateway/kindle purchases.] 9/10 at 86p otherwise 6/10
Simon BJ
A companion piece to 'Hellstrom's Hive' thematically, this is about ecology and humanity's connection with / difference to insects. Like HH it uses the co-option of attributes of one by the other to cast light on them both: here it's insects in South America facing a concerted attach by mankind (well the South Americans and the Chinese) co-opting human brain structures to learn how to make humanity stop. Do they do so? Well the end is beyond the scope of the novel as with HH, but equally as there sympathy is rapidly gained even for the most 'inhuman' of insectoid hive societies by its counterpoint with the inhumanities of our own. 8/10
John w. Campbell Jr "Cloak of Aesir"
Stories written under the Don Stuart pseudonym. Solid pulp stuff, if perhaps not quite so innovative as its author's own introduction thinks. By contrast Asimov's intro strives 'man'fully to defuse Campbell'S humancentric and sexist basis. Nevertheless while "The Machine" sequence is so obvious as to cast doubt on the Machines supposed logic [it's smashed one civilisation by being over helpful so it comes to earth and....] the two Aesir stories with their sympathetic (or see insects above maybe this is just me) immortal Sarn Mother, as distanced from her own race as from the humans her race conquerered, whom one suspects will part with power more willingly to the human revolt idc than to the Mothers of the Cities, generations removed from her immortal perspective, are well worth reading. Both are also in the old "Best of.." collection which can still be found in paperback 2nd hand. 6/10
Alan Ryker "When Cthulhu Met Atlach-Nacha"
A rom com / sex relationship / faith relationship play set against the backdrop of the End of Days, when Old Ones contend for the living souls and bodies of humanity and the stars are right. Only 86p on Kindle at present and in that context this is a sprightly, funny, piece. Perhaps it might not repay a higher cost, but as it is I was very glad to stumble over it: while answering my daughter questions re Spider Gods. (Technically this wasn't one of my 30 gollancz gateway/kindle purchases.] 9/10 at 86p otherwise 6/10
Simon BJ
Thursday, September 29, 2011
DCNu Week 4 part 3
The Savage Hawkman
Of all the DC characters, the worst served by previous reboots was Hawkman. Now provided those earlier misteps are avoided this is - like the Flash - a light clean action adventure opening. If there are bad notes they're minor -seeing Hawkman give up the nth metal adventurer life would be better after two or three issues of the adventures, and the name of the main villain isn't especially euphonious, but Hawkman's 'rebirth' with a new connection to the nth metal he doesn't yet understand is good. 7/10
Superman
And now we hit the worst three of week 4 in the remaining titles, and I wouldn't have guessed this would be one, but it is. It's wordy (half told as pretentious post facto 'newspaper text') it takes the dynamic late 30s early 40s Superman of Action Comics and serves up 5 years+ late a 'current' version based in the mid 70s "Morgan Edge, global communications' model of Superman's supporting cast. The action is lumpen, and the comic both cluttered and substanceless, and we see that in 5 years Superman's got nowhere with the retro Lois, here overly taken with blonde himbos. 3/10 and retroactively a lead anchor of -1 to Action too.
Teen Titans
The removal of kid sidekicks (except for the 4 Robins [or is it 5?] from history, leaves the whole rationale of this title flapping: so now we have the labourious gsthering under Red Robin, of Teen supers who all seem based on the adult DC heros without any 'legacy' or the conscious historical mentoring that was the only workable excuse for it. These are dangerous rogue Teens, or wouldbe if they weren't laughably ludicrous. Kid Flash has a stupid home made costume and a stupid character (goodbye heroic Wally West). 'Don't call me Wonder Girl' - a character who was in the old DCU a gawky believable teen who'd wangled magic artefacts from Zeus himself during a Wonder Woman adventure only to be kicked up 4-5 years of age and mammorial development by other authors/artists, here is glossed as a sassy, titty, unpleasant Teen thief, whom excuse me Red Robin, you should be arresting - or is it only a crime if its in Gotham? [and TOPTIP Wonder Girl if you don't want to be called Wonder Girl, don't dress like Wonder Woman in the first place] The Teen Titans is, as set out here, a heartless staggering zombi book, without any reason for it. Heroes who've be in action 5 years or less, don't need teen sidekicks yet (except Batman, and that's because they wanted to keep them, but just keeping the Robins risks making Batman : Child Endangerer a valid criticism). DC should have either kept sidekicks widely, or rolled back the Robins to just one. 2/10
Voodoo the 1/10 of week 4. Like Deathstroke a title with no rasion detre except salicious vicarious porn: here scantily clad strippers rather than there violence, except oh wait our heroine also kills someone. Way to go with the making me want to buy this, and btw I started the 52 comics with Action (alphabetically and in week 1) thinking I could share these comics with my 15 and 12 year old daughters and get their take on which ones to buy. Well this and Red Hood and certain others (I'd include Teen Titans) shows me how well DCnu cares about whether it hawks works that a family, or children, or girls mights stand a chance of enjoying.
Tomorrow I sum up week 4 and which titles I'll buy next month and look at the position of the new DC as a whole.
Simon BJ
Of all the DC characters, the worst served by previous reboots was Hawkman. Now provided those earlier misteps are avoided this is - like the Flash - a light clean action adventure opening. If there are bad notes they're minor -seeing Hawkman give up the nth metal adventurer life would be better after two or three issues of the adventures, and the name of the main villain isn't especially euphonious, but Hawkman's 'rebirth' with a new connection to the nth metal he doesn't yet understand is good. 7/10
Superman
And now we hit the worst three of week 4 in the remaining titles, and I wouldn't have guessed this would be one, but it is. It's wordy (half told as pretentious post facto 'newspaper text') it takes the dynamic late 30s early 40s Superman of Action Comics and serves up 5 years+ late a 'current' version based in the mid 70s "Morgan Edge, global communications' model of Superman's supporting cast. The action is lumpen, and the comic both cluttered and substanceless, and we see that in 5 years Superman's got nowhere with the retro Lois, here overly taken with blonde himbos. 3/10 and retroactively a lead anchor of -1 to Action too.
Teen Titans
The removal of kid sidekicks (except for the 4 Robins [or is it 5?] from history, leaves the whole rationale of this title flapping: so now we have the labourious gsthering under Red Robin, of Teen supers who all seem based on the adult DC heros without any 'legacy' or the conscious historical mentoring that was the only workable excuse for it. These are dangerous rogue Teens, or wouldbe if they weren't laughably ludicrous. Kid Flash has a stupid home made costume and a stupid character (goodbye heroic Wally West). 'Don't call me Wonder Girl' - a character who was in the old DCU a gawky believable teen who'd wangled magic artefacts from Zeus himself during a Wonder Woman adventure only to be kicked up 4-5 years of age and mammorial development by other authors/artists, here is glossed as a sassy, titty, unpleasant Teen thief, whom excuse me Red Robin, you should be arresting - or is it only a crime if its in Gotham? [and TOPTIP Wonder Girl if you don't want to be called Wonder Girl, don't dress like Wonder Woman in the first place] The Teen Titans is, as set out here, a heartless staggering zombi book, without any reason for it. Heroes who've be in action 5 years or less, don't need teen sidekicks yet (except Batman, and that's because they wanted to keep them, but just keeping the Robins risks making Batman : Child Endangerer a valid criticism). DC should have either kept sidekicks widely, or rolled back the Robins to just one. 2/10
Voodoo the 1/10 of week 4. Like Deathstroke a title with no rasion detre except salicious vicarious porn: here scantily clad strippers rather than there violence, except oh wait our heroine also kills someone. Way to go with the making me want to buy this, and btw I started the 52 comics with Action (alphabetically and in week 1) thinking I could share these comics with my 15 and 12 year old daughters and get their take on which ones to buy. Well this and Red Hood and certain others (I'd include Teen Titans) shows me how well DCnu cares about whether it hawks works that a family, or children, or girls mights stand a chance of enjoying.
Tomorrow I sum up week 4 and which titles I'll buy next month and look at the position of the new DC as a whole.
Simon BJ
DCNu Week 4 part 2
The Flash
I enjoyed this, its well drawn and nicely set up. The Flash's history is practically a clean slate which could be good or bad (seen Teen Titans for bad) but here is a refreshing cleaning of the palate. The central plot is intriguing and Flash Fact! Iris West may have competition. 7/10 definite issue #2 purchase.
The Fury of Firestorm
A strong possible 6/10 marred only by a slight overplaying of the evil corporation card (they're so evil I thought they *had* to be the government), and the tub-thumpingness of the worthy but clunky antiracism/politics. This may all end in tears, but its got a solid grounding in basic exciting comics: and in passing it makes Captain Atom utterly redundant by covering anything he might do - twice!
Green Lantern New Guardians
In s quandary here. Kyle is rebooted from start which is good, and this started out looking as if it might pip "Green Lantern Corp" for my GL choice for #2 but this title seems to have kept the 'bequeathed the ring by Ganthet after all other Guardians are dead' intro, which rather begs the questions (a) what killed them, this time [wasn't it a big cross-over event last time that turned out not to be true?] and (b) is all the work rightly or wrongly that went into resetting up the Corp, just going to be undone here, and (c) never mind that why is Kyle being chosen by one of all the different spectrum rings. It ought to be possible not to have to invent half the back story. and this just seems non-commensurate with the other GL titles, so some #2s are going to suddenly be 'omg their all dead' or this is going to be 'omg they're not dead' : isn't it a bit early in the DCNu to hit this sort of disjunction whiplash? 5/10
I, Vampire
The moody art, vampires title - and the art is atmospheric if a little indistinct at crucial moments (is the final panel/page dead vampires or dead
vampire victims? However this plonkingly 'message from freds' its crucial believability problem, in a superhero universe a massive vampire war isn't a viable title, its a plot problem in someone elses title, at best a 6 issue one. This would be an adequate to poor first issue for an old Vertigo title, but as a mainline DCnu one its fighting agains the tide of the whole ocean.
Justice League Dark
The best of week 4, an excellent supernatural threat set up that doesn't require superheros to be ignorant of (say) vampires. Pat Milligan writes but
is clearly wearing a different Worsel writing head from his one on Red Lanterns. 9/10 very definitely a #2 and this takes my great comics in the relaunch count up to 3.5 (Action Comics, Batman Detective, Wonder Woman (.5), and this.
Simon BJ
I enjoyed this, its well drawn and nicely set up. The Flash's history is practically a clean slate which could be good or bad (seen Teen Titans for bad) but here is a refreshing cleaning of the palate. The central plot is intriguing and Flash Fact! Iris West may have competition. 7/10 definite issue #2 purchase.
The Fury of Firestorm
A strong possible 6/10 marred only by a slight overplaying of the evil corporation card (they're so evil I thought they *had* to be the government), and the tub-thumpingness of the worthy but clunky antiracism/politics. This may all end in tears, but its got a solid grounding in basic exciting comics: and in passing it makes Captain Atom utterly redundant by covering anything he might do - twice!
Green Lantern New Guardians
In s quandary here. Kyle is rebooted from start which is good, and this started out looking as if it might pip "Green Lantern Corp" for my GL choice for #2 but this title seems to have kept the 'bequeathed the ring by Ganthet after all other Guardians are dead' intro, which rather begs the questions (a) what killed them, this time [wasn't it a big cross-over event last time that turned out not to be true?] and (b) is all the work rightly or wrongly that went into resetting up the Corp, just going to be undone here, and (c) never mind that why is Kyle being chosen by one of all the different spectrum rings. It ought to be possible not to have to invent half the back story. and this just seems non-commensurate with the other GL titles, so some #2s are going to suddenly be 'omg their all dead' or this is going to be 'omg they're not dead' : isn't it a bit early in the DCNu to hit this sort of disjunction whiplash? 5/10
I, Vampire
The moody art, vampires title - and the art is atmospheric if a little indistinct at crucial moments (is the final panel/page dead vampires or dead
vampire victims? However this plonkingly 'message from freds' its crucial believability problem, in a superhero universe a massive vampire war isn't a viable title, its a plot problem in someone elses title, at best a 6 issue one. This would be an adequate to poor first issue for an old Vertigo title, but as a mainline DCnu one its fighting agains the tide of the whole ocean.
Justice League Dark
The best of week 4, an excellent supernatural threat set up that doesn't require superheros to be ignorant of (say) vampires. Pat Milligan writes but
is clearly wearing a different Worsel writing head from his one on Red Lanterns. 9/10 very definitely a #2 and this takes my great comics in the relaunch count up to 3.5 (Action Comics, Batman Detective, Wonder Woman (.5), and this.
Simon BJ
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
DCNu Week 4
Into the observation room mill the following:
All Star Western
Suprisingly good given that I don't like cowboys and of the cowboys I don't like I don't like grizzled bounty hunters the most. This is paced, almost literary and if it had fewer dead whores it would have been my pick of the week. 7/10 and a definite #2 buy.
Aquaman
There's a right way and a wrong way to redeem a character that's become a joke. Here we see the wrong way (For the right way see Rob Shearman's "Dalek" in Doctor Who, its to show the thing unconcerned that its a joke, doing its 'job' in the narrative with such panache that the jokes drop away even as people try to make them.) The wrong way is very similar but its to have the thing/person glowering at being a joke, being aware of it and basically whining, and its built on a false premise. That
premise being that in the DCNu Aquaman has in (at most 5 years) already become a joke. It's mot helped by the writer (Geoff Johns) thinking that
the opposite of joke is jerk. This is almost lifeless and only the fact that
Aquaman's quite hot wife loves him, pulls it up to 4/10. This is straight into the 'only buy if there's nothing better' slot.
Batman: The Dark Knight
A problem has developed here with the Bat titles there are too many of them and they're too alike. This is Batman Detective plus Batman, with one possible love interest and one different cliffhanger difference. This title coming last in the month needs its own unique identity, and its absolutely not got it. Again while some of my readers disagree with prejudging plots, this looks like a not very interesting thing to do with [spoiler] turning him into a muscle bound hulk figure. 4/10 as with Aquaman (but 3.5 because there aren't three better Aquaman comics running in parallel.
Blackhawks
Fictional planes are dull. This needed state of the art "real world" research and cutting edge design. Instead the Blackhawks have got a lot of star trek a like alien flying tech that might do anything, and is thus inchoate. Nanotech rewriting people also makes their eyes go all mangary.
And the 'writing' of people's no more believable. I can believe that the
Blackhawks believe they need to explain the idea of nicknames at length,
I'm surprised they're not explaining them to each other. 3/10
Still to come...
The Flash
The Fury of Firestorm
Green Lantern New Guardians
I, Vampire
Justice League Dark
The Savage Hawkman
Superman
Teen Titans
Voodoo
On previous weeks showing 6 of these will be good to potentially great, with only one or two really good. 4 will be essentially an affront to God and Man alike, and 3 will be also rans. We shall see.
Simon BJ
All Star Western
Suprisingly good given that I don't like cowboys and of the cowboys I don't like I don't like grizzled bounty hunters the most. This is paced, almost literary and if it had fewer dead whores it would have been my pick of the week. 7/10 and a definite #2 buy.
Aquaman
There's a right way and a wrong way to redeem a character that's become a joke. Here we see the wrong way (For the right way see Rob Shearman's "Dalek" in Doctor Who, its to show the thing unconcerned that its a joke, doing its 'job' in the narrative with such panache that the jokes drop away even as people try to make them.) The wrong way is very similar but its to have the thing/person glowering at being a joke, being aware of it and basically whining, and its built on a false premise. That
premise being that in the DCNu Aquaman has in (at most 5 years) already become a joke. It's mot helped by the writer (Geoff Johns) thinking that
the opposite of joke is jerk. This is almost lifeless and only the fact that
Aquaman's quite hot wife loves him, pulls it up to 4/10. This is straight into the 'only buy if there's nothing better' slot.
Batman: The Dark Knight
A problem has developed here with the Bat titles there are too many of them and they're too alike. This is Batman Detective plus Batman, with one possible love interest and one different cliffhanger difference. This title coming last in the month needs its own unique identity, and its absolutely not got it. Again while some of my readers disagree with prejudging plots, this looks like a not very interesting thing to do with [spoiler] turning him into a muscle bound hulk figure. 4/10 as with Aquaman (but 3.5 because there aren't three better Aquaman comics running in parallel.
Blackhawks
Fictional planes are dull. This needed state of the art "real world" research and cutting edge design. Instead the Blackhawks have got a lot of star trek a like alien flying tech that might do anything, and is thus inchoate. Nanotech rewriting people also makes their eyes go all mangary.
And the 'writing' of people's no more believable. I can believe that the
Blackhawks believe they need to explain the idea of nicknames at length,
I'm surprised they're not explaining them to each other. 3/10
Still to come...
The Flash
The Fury of Firestorm
Green Lantern New Guardians
I, Vampire
Justice League Dark
The Savage Hawkman
Superman
Teen Titans
Voodoo
On previous weeks showing 6 of these will be good to potentially great, with only one or two really good. 4 will be essentially an affront to God and Man alike, and 3 will be also rans. We shall see.
Simon BJ
DCNu Round Up Weeks 1-3 summary
As we enter week 4. Here are my survivors from weeks 1-3. I've selected 19 comics so far which range from tolerable to excellent, and I've discarded 12 as having squandered any potential good will on my part. A small huddled mass of 7 subpar titles could still theoretically make it into my issue #2 buying pile if week 4 proves worse than the 50/50 split I've observed to date. (Bracketted number is order in week). All titles have now been read twice so bracketted number may differ from my first "immediate reaction" out of 10 score.
Surviving to issue #2 at present
Week 0 : Justice League
Week 1 : Action Comics(1)
Animal Man(3)
Batgirl(6)
Detective Comics(2)
Stormwatch(5)
Swamp Thing(4)
Week 2 : Batman & Robin(6)
Batwoman(2)
Demon Knights(3)
Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E(1)
Mr Terrific(5)
Resurrection Man(4)
Week 3 : Batman(4)
Blue Beetle(3)
DC Universe Presents: Deadman(1)
Green Lantern Corp(5)
Legion of Superheros(6)
Wonder Woman(2)
Reserves/Possibles if week 4's comics are all hopeless!
Week 1 Batwing(7)
OMAC(9)
Static Shock(8)
Week 2 Green Lantern(8)
Superboy(7)
Week 3 Birds of Prey(7)
Supergirl(8)
Out of the race. Even if I end up with less than 26 comics through to month #2 I am not buying any of these...
Week 1 Green Arrow(12)
Hawk and Dove(13)
Justice League International(10)
Men of War(11)
Week 2 Deathstroke(12)
Grifter(11)
Legion Lost(9)
Suicide Squad(10)
Week 3 Captain Atom(10)
Catwoman(9)
Nightwing(11)
Red Hood & The Outlaws(12)
Surviving to issue #2 at present
Week 0 : Justice League
Week 1 : Action Comics(1)
Animal Man(3)
Batgirl(6)
Detective Comics(2)
Stormwatch(5)
Swamp Thing(4)
Week 2 : Batman & Robin(6)
Batwoman(2)
Demon Knights(3)
Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E(1)
Mr Terrific(5)
Resurrection Man(4)
Week 3 : Batman(4)
Blue Beetle(3)
DC Universe Presents: Deadman(1)
Green Lantern Corp(5)
Legion of Superheros(6)
Wonder Woman(2)
Reserves/Possibles if week 4's comics are all hopeless!
Week 1 Batwing(7)
OMAC(9)
Static Shock(8)
Week 2 Green Lantern(8)
Superboy(7)
Week 3 Birds of Prey(7)
Supergirl(8)
Out of the race. Even if I end up with less than 26 comics through to month #2 I am not buying any of these...
Week 1 Green Arrow(12)
Hawk and Dove(13)
Justice League International(10)
Men of War(11)
Week 2 Deathstroke(12)
Grifter(11)
Legion Lost(9)
Suicide Squad(10)
Week 3 Captain Atom(10)
Catwoman(9)
Nightwing(11)
Red Hood & The Outlaws(12)
Friday, September 23, 2011
DC Reboot part 2 and 3
A combined review set for weeks 2 & 3. I've been less enthusiastic about these because without a single stand out like Action #1, the balance has been around 50/50 okay-to-good vs drivel. To be far, this isn't in itself bad but I was hoping for perhaps 4 really good comics, and so far I'm running at 2.5.
Here goes:
Grifter #1. Utterly uninteresting. A rogue ex super something or other whose costume is basically a scarlet bag over his head is uninteresting pursued for no apparent reason and falls out of a plane with a hat on. An odd nothing of an issue. 2/10
Legion Lost #1. The arts okay, and there's some potential in time lost future legion of superhero characters in the present day. But characterisation is patchy and if you don't already care for the cast there's little to make you. 4/10
Green Lantern #1 Interesting art, an artist I liked on Superman's 3D escapades, but it does make Hal Jordan look deranged. Sadly the plot helps with this and once again the intellect of the Guardians of the Universe and the social skills of Hal prove wonky in the extreme. 3/10
Frankenstein Agent of Shade #1. Good but essentially Seven Soldiers repeated with marginally less flare. Still a definite #2 sale, to me. 7/10
Demon Knights #1 Oh I really wanted to like this more than I did, but Vandal Savage as potentially good hearted rogue? Sir Justin as peevish racist? Medieval Amazons as literal men-castrators? Etrigan the romantic? It's certainly true as Paul Cornell has said in interview that these are exciting disparate characters, but I'm suffering here the inverse problem to Legion Lost. There I was lost because I didn't know the characters enough to care. Here I'm distanced because they seem so oddly acharacteristic. Nevertheless it does have pace and nice villainy. Worth a #2 : 6/10
Deathstroke #1 Odious villain kills people and then his allies. I honestly don't see any reason for this title. 1/10
Batman & Robin #1 A lesser title now its not Dick Grayson & Damian. Bruce here lacks chemistry as a father and frankly I still think it'll be revealed eventually that Damian is literally the Devil. Still readable 6/10
I like the line "why not it's my boat." though.
Red Lanterns #1 So take my review for Deathstroke imagine it painted Red and in space. Yes. 1/10 I'd say something favourable about the art, but the artist chose to take this gig, so I won't.
Batman #1 A quandary this one. Good art, well characterised, pacy. Dialogue has a bit of a zing. But and its a big but [SPOILER] as the possible [SPOILER] after he's just spent a year being [SPOILER]? oh [SPOILER OFF].
Its not big and its not remotely plausible. I predict an Evil Twin. 5/10
Birds of Prey #1 Another comic that like Demon Knights, I wanted to like more than I did. Its basic solid intro, with no genuine depth but a reasonable patina. May suffer from loss of Oracle / Batgirl, I don't know because I didn't follow the title pre DCNU. 4/10
Blue Beetle #1 Now this is the good new, young exciting hero action that Static Shock wasn't. I like this a lot. 8/10
Captain Atom #1 Strange painted art that hopes to be impressive but is merely distracting while the main character whose blue and naked aka Doctor Manhatten but without the intellect, introspection, or novelty, suffers a disassociation. Some numbers that may mean something appear annoyingly from time to time. 250:08:52:31 over a backwashed 6574. I've wracked my brains over it and I'm not stupid, but what is it intended to convey? 3/10
Catwoman #1 Many people have complained about the porny art, the cat & bat sex etc. I'm more incensed by the casual re-booting of Catwoman as ex-abused woman and murderer. Right *that's empowerment". Okay it maybe the
Frank Miller Year One origin, but if so this would have been an excellent chance to simply forget it. 4/10
DC Universe Presents Deadman #1 The best of its week. Well drawn, and intriguingly set out. The only worry here is why isn't this an on-going Deadman title, and Deathstroke say not a one-off issue of DC Presents.
This cleanly and effectively resets Deadman and makes his problems visible.
9/10
Green Lantern Corps #1 Better than any other of the GL family titles thus far, and GL New Guardians I'd hazard isn't going to o'er top it. Unfortunately that's still only a 5/10. The art's nice, Gardiner's nearly human, Stewart seems to have forgotten how to interact with people but
is still passionate, but once again alien non-human GIs are stupid slice and dice fodder. I'd have liked to see a #52 issue month in which if only as a novelty and to stake out clear-water from Marvel, no one got brutally killed. [And yes I can square that with my liking of Detective, because it
wasn't the killings I thought worked]. The aquatic aliens are very badly designed, but I accept that's a critism only I would make.
Legion of Superheros #1. Around the level of Legion Lost +/-1 and for the same reason. If you don;t know the legion, why would you care. The threat is the Dominators but we never see a Dominator or an assessment of what the threat is, we're assumed to know it. At the end a figure crashed through a wall as a threat, the tag line its a Daxamite! Now I know what a Daxamite is, but nothing in the comic tells me, and the art makes it look like a giant, rather than a superman-level power entity. 5/10
Nightwing #1 Unclear art leaves it open if Dick is now a casual killer or not. This may be meant to tie-in with Batman #1 but see my comment there.
It's stupid and it doesn't work. 3/10
Supergirl #1 The new [current] Superman costume is no more appealing on Supergirl here. Her introduction is sparce in a bad way, and needs to be the backdrop to a really thought through character study, that it simply isn't. 3/10
Batwoman #1 Astomishing art, and worth the cost and time, but will need to
run for a bit to see if there's actually a story that merits the gloss. 7/10
Superboy #1 A return to the origin of the post-crisis Superboy, but while reasonably drawn, and written lacks spark. I've seen Scott Lobdell write better than this (but cf Red Hood...) 4/10
Mister Terrific #1 The daring tale of a man who dares to doubt God and who will therefore be implicitly put in the wrong, and explicitly be brainwashed. A bit of a waste. 5/10 Also since when are brain transplants / mind transfers impossible - I suppose the retroannulment of the JSA means we've lost The Ultrahumanite and his / her / its bodyswapping in the 1940s. Bother, I liked that.
Resurrection Man #1. Grifter done right sounds like faint praise and it is.
Even so this reaches a 5/10.
Suicide Squad #1 Again this has been the target for attacks for the sexing up of Harlequin, and the slimming of Amanda Waller. While noting that : lets add the utter inanity of the Squads supposed psychological testing and the dull dull art which doesn't even aspire to functionally excitement.
3/10
Red Hood and the Outlaws. And I thought Deathstroke was purposeless drivel.
At least he was always a stupid macho assassinating bore, at least one character in this book was once a kind, loving thoughtful and yet thoroughly alive and sexual woman, with an alien eroticism. Sadly now the character has been rendered incapable of telling two humans she's sleeping with apart (which their characterisation admittedly services)or remembering seemingly her former lover and friends, and what was once a person becomes basically a sexthing. To be fair this may be part of the plot with stepford-wifette-starfire being revealed as this-way-for-a-reason, but even so : too little too unpleasent. Imagine a Superman comic that rebooted him as optimally pleasuring Lana Lang and Lena Lemoris while being unable to tell them apart and having forgotten Lois at all. Respectful character usage?
Wonder Woman #1 My .5 hit. Lots of potential, interesting art: things I didn't expect the dead horses becoming [SPOILERS]. But on the weaker side.
I don't see Diana as the grab people in her room by the throat type, and
is the art re [SPOILER] intended to convey how he is actually seen by people because....TOPTIPS attractive women in superhero filled universe do not go up to penthouse with glistening blue/black skinned man in a suit whose eyes are empty pits of yellow fire because its bound to end in tears.
9/10 to silly silly supermodels 2/10.
Summary best DEADMAN, BLUE BEETLE middling WONDER WOMAN / FRANKENSTEIN, a fraction lower DEMON KNIGHTS, awful awful DEATHSTROKE, RED LANTERNS, RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS.
Simon BJ
Here goes:
Grifter #1. Utterly uninteresting. A rogue ex super something or other whose costume is basically a scarlet bag over his head is uninteresting pursued for no apparent reason and falls out of a plane with a hat on. An odd nothing of an issue. 2/10
Legion Lost #1. The arts okay, and there's some potential in time lost future legion of superhero characters in the present day. But characterisation is patchy and if you don't already care for the cast there's little to make you. 4/10
Green Lantern #1 Interesting art, an artist I liked on Superman's 3D escapades, but it does make Hal Jordan look deranged. Sadly the plot helps with this and once again the intellect of the Guardians of the Universe and the social skills of Hal prove wonky in the extreme. 3/10
Frankenstein Agent of Shade #1. Good but essentially Seven Soldiers repeated with marginally less flare. Still a definite #2 sale, to me. 7/10
Demon Knights #1 Oh I really wanted to like this more than I did, but Vandal Savage as potentially good hearted rogue? Sir Justin as peevish racist? Medieval Amazons as literal men-castrators? Etrigan the romantic? It's certainly true as Paul Cornell has said in interview that these are exciting disparate characters, but I'm suffering here the inverse problem to Legion Lost. There I was lost because I didn't know the characters enough to care. Here I'm distanced because they seem so oddly acharacteristic. Nevertheless it does have pace and nice villainy. Worth a #2 : 6/10
Deathstroke #1 Odious villain kills people and then his allies. I honestly don't see any reason for this title. 1/10
Batman & Robin #1 A lesser title now its not Dick Grayson & Damian. Bruce here lacks chemistry as a father and frankly I still think it'll be revealed eventually that Damian is literally the Devil. Still readable 6/10
I like the line "why not it's my boat." though.
Red Lanterns #1 So take my review for Deathstroke imagine it painted Red and in space. Yes. 1/10 I'd say something favourable about the art, but the artist chose to take this gig, so I won't.
Batman #1 A quandary this one. Good art, well characterised, pacy. Dialogue has a bit of a zing. But and its a big but [SPOILER] as the possible [SPOILER] after he's just spent a year being [SPOILER]? oh [SPOILER OFF].
Its not big and its not remotely plausible. I predict an Evil Twin. 5/10
Birds of Prey #1 Another comic that like Demon Knights, I wanted to like more than I did. Its basic solid intro, with no genuine depth but a reasonable patina. May suffer from loss of Oracle / Batgirl, I don't know because I didn't follow the title pre DCNU. 4/10
Blue Beetle #1 Now this is the good new, young exciting hero action that Static Shock wasn't. I like this a lot. 8/10
Captain Atom #1 Strange painted art that hopes to be impressive but is merely distracting while the main character whose blue and naked aka Doctor Manhatten but without the intellect, introspection, or novelty, suffers a disassociation. Some numbers that may mean something appear annoyingly from time to time. 250:08:52:31 over a backwashed 6574. I've wracked my brains over it and I'm not stupid, but what is it intended to convey? 3/10
Catwoman #1 Many people have complained about the porny art, the cat & bat sex etc. I'm more incensed by the casual re-booting of Catwoman as ex-abused woman and murderer. Right *that's empowerment". Okay it maybe the
Frank Miller Year One origin, but if so this would have been an excellent chance to simply forget it. 4/10
DC Universe Presents Deadman #1 The best of its week. Well drawn, and intriguingly set out. The only worry here is why isn't this an on-going Deadman title, and Deathstroke say not a one-off issue of DC Presents.
This cleanly and effectively resets Deadman and makes his problems visible.
9/10
Green Lantern Corps #1 Better than any other of the GL family titles thus far, and GL New Guardians I'd hazard isn't going to o'er top it. Unfortunately that's still only a 5/10. The art's nice, Gardiner's nearly human, Stewart seems to have forgotten how to interact with people but
is still passionate, but once again alien non-human GIs are stupid slice and dice fodder. I'd have liked to see a #52 issue month in which if only as a novelty and to stake out clear-water from Marvel, no one got brutally killed. [And yes I can square that with my liking of Detective, because it
wasn't the killings I thought worked]. The aquatic aliens are very badly designed, but I accept that's a critism only I would make.
Legion of Superheros #1. Around the level of Legion Lost +/-1 and for the same reason. If you don;t know the legion, why would you care. The threat is the Dominators but we never see a Dominator or an assessment of what the threat is, we're assumed to know it. At the end a figure crashed through a wall as a threat, the tag line its a Daxamite! Now I know what a Daxamite is, but nothing in the comic tells me, and the art makes it look like a giant, rather than a superman-level power entity. 5/10
Nightwing #1 Unclear art leaves it open if Dick is now a casual killer or not. This may be meant to tie-in with Batman #1 but see my comment there.
It's stupid and it doesn't work. 3/10
Supergirl #1 The new [current] Superman costume is no more appealing on Supergirl here. Her introduction is sparce in a bad way, and needs to be the backdrop to a really thought through character study, that it simply isn't. 3/10
Batwoman #1 Astomishing art, and worth the cost and time, but will need to
run for a bit to see if there's actually a story that merits the gloss. 7/10
Superboy #1 A return to the origin of the post-crisis Superboy, but while reasonably drawn, and written lacks spark. I've seen Scott Lobdell write better than this (but cf Red Hood...) 4/10
Mister Terrific #1 The daring tale of a man who dares to doubt God and who will therefore be implicitly put in the wrong, and explicitly be brainwashed. A bit of a waste. 5/10 Also since when are brain transplants / mind transfers impossible - I suppose the retroannulment of the JSA means we've lost The Ultrahumanite and his / her / its bodyswapping in the 1940s. Bother, I liked that.
Resurrection Man #1. Grifter done right sounds like faint praise and it is.
Even so this reaches a 5/10.
Suicide Squad #1 Again this has been the target for attacks for the sexing up of Harlequin, and the slimming of Amanda Waller. While noting that : lets add the utter inanity of the Squads supposed psychological testing and the dull dull art which doesn't even aspire to functionally excitement.
3/10
Red Hood and the Outlaws. And I thought Deathstroke was purposeless drivel.
At least he was always a stupid macho assassinating bore, at least one character in this book was once a kind, loving thoughtful and yet thoroughly alive and sexual woman, with an alien eroticism. Sadly now the character has been rendered incapable of telling two humans she's sleeping with apart (which their characterisation admittedly services)or remembering seemingly her former lover and friends, and what was once a person becomes basically a sexthing. To be fair this may be part of the plot with stepford-wifette-starfire being revealed as this-way-for-a-reason, but even so : too little too unpleasent. Imagine a Superman comic that rebooted him as optimally pleasuring Lana Lang and Lena Lemoris while being unable to tell them apart and having forgotten Lois at all. Respectful character usage?
Wonder Woman #1 My .5 hit. Lots of potential, interesting art: things I didn't expect the dead horses becoming [SPOILERS]. But on the weaker side.
I don't see Diana as the grab people in her room by the throat type, and
is the art re [SPOILER] intended to convey how he is actually seen by people because....TOPTIPS attractive women in superhero filled universe do not go up to penthouse with glistening blue/black skinned man in a suit whose eyes are empty pits of yellow fire because its bound to end in tears.
9/10 to silly silly supermodels 2/10.
Summary best DEADMAN, BLUE BEETLE middling WONDER WOMAN / FRANKENSTEIN, a fraction lower DEMON KNIGHTS, awful awful DEATHSTROKE, RED LANTERNS, RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS.
Simon BJ
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Revenge ABC
A is for Arsenic best in a bun
B is for bloody dismembering fun
C is for clicking the catch on a gun
D is Deadly and Venomous Snakes
E for Erasing my early mistakes
F for First Finding Five Fathomless Lakes
G is for Grinding my teeth til they bleed
H is for hanging which may spill dark seed
I is Insanity (the plea I may need)
J is for Jettisoning you from a plane
K's for Killing quite simply and plain
L's for living leeches let into your brain
M is for mutagens left in the stew
N is for Nuclear overkill too
O is for oxygen without which you're blue
P's pretty poisons in purple and pink
Q is the quizzical pause on the brink
R is the razor in the treacherous rink
S is the sorrow I'll fake when you're dead
T is the tears I'll be careful to shed
U's the umbella 'tip' sheathed now in lead
V is vile vengence, the viler the better
Ws for water, the drowningest letter
X for X-ray laser (techno-go-getter)
Y is for yoghurt, that's really plague treats
Z is for zealously hiding these tweets.....oops
Simon BJ
B is for bloody dismembering fun
C is for clicking the catch on a gun
D is Deadly and Venomous Snakes
E for Erasing my early mistakes
F for First Finding Five Fathomless Lakes
G is for Grinding my teeth til they bleed
H is for hanging which may spill dark seed
I is Insanity (the plea I may need)
J is for Jettisoning you from a plane
K's for Killing quite simply and plain
L's for living leeches let into your brain
M is for mutagens left in the stew
N is for Nuclear overkill too
O is for oxygen without which you're blue
P's pretty poisons in purple and pink
Q is the quizzical pause on the brink
R is the razor in the treacherous rink
S is the sorrow I'll fake when you're dead
T is the tears I'll be careful to shed
U's the umbella 'tip' sheathed now in lead
V is vile vengence, the viler the better
Ws for water, the drowningest letter
X for X-ray laser (techno-go-getter)
Y is for yoghurt, that's really plague treats
Z is for zealously hiding these tweets.....oops
Simon BJ
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
DC Reboot part 1
In my madness I intend to buy and read all 52 of the DC Comics#1 relaunches. Here's a brief SBJ guide to the ones I've read so far.
Justice League. Set 5 years ago, a hunted by the GCPD Batman encounters Green Lantern and faces off with a young Superman. Flimsy. The Batman / GL interaction is out of the Millar 'Batman and Robin' school but less funny. Superman's costume redesign is crass. And yet it does have some pace and reasonable art aside from the designs. 7/10
Action Comics. Best of these so far, by Grant Morrison. Set - implicitly - more than 5 years ago (6?) a young Superman not yet in the risible costume from JL#1 battles street level social crime and unfairness, while Lex Luthor sets a remarkably visual trap. Tons of nice touches. 10/10
Animal Man. A semi-retired Animal Man, is faced by horrors out of the animal kingdom. Interesting family background and appealing art. Still implicitly mining Moore's Swamp Thing (cf Swamp Thing #1 later).
8/10
Batman: Detective Comics. Neobrutal depiction of the Joker, and reasonable characterisation of the Batman and art. I wasn't expecting how this comic ends, but I'm not sure this is a viable long term approach. However I'd buy #2. 8/10 Setting 'current' Bat-continuity, I think, but Gotham politics re Batman murky.
Batgirl: Good art, and initially good characterisation, but I don't buy the cliff-hanger, and dislike the weakness it reads into Barbara. [Policewomen seems about to shoot Batgirl as a murder for letting real murder escape while frozen with fear]. 7/10
Batwing: Batman of Africa. Art glossy, writing poor, which is a pity as this could have been an interesting pitch. However I'd be surprised if this gets past issue #6, oh and its written by Judd Winick. 5/10
Green Arrow: A younger unbearded Olie, with nothing to distinguish him at all. Even duller than Judd Winick. Jurgens art is functional without creating any sort of verisimilitude. 4/10
Hawk and Dove, drawn by Rob Liefield and might as well have been written by him. Crass nonsense and jingistic posturing makes sense for Hawk, but Dove has no rebutals and Rob still can't draw feet or people. 1/10
Justice League International. The comedy version of the JL sanctioned by the UN (deeply and unpleasently portrayed as wingeing stereotypes). Utterly obvious with none of the charm of the old Keith Giffen JLI. 4/10
Men of War. Everything wrong with Hawk and Dove except the art, in this tale of why US soldiers are top notch, against a background of unexplained superpower action. 3/10
OMAC. Not awful but in a way the worst disappointment of this batch. Kirby's One Man Army Corp was so far ahead of its day that its first story still shocks, this bulked up rubbishy version can't even be bothered to sell its main character with what O.M.A.C. stands for unexplained in #1 and Giffen's art wasted. 4/10
Static Shock. Okay standard DC comics second rate comic, in both story and art. 6/10
Stormwatch. Paul Cornell manages fine, but Stormwatch is a mixed mashup of Stormwatch and The Authority restarted from scratch with the Martian Manhunter added in, and its an unsympathetic setup within the DC universe unless the reader has affection for the old Authority, and if they do, well this isn't quite them. Still the younger Apollo and Midnighter characters are set up, and this may yet gell. The 'horniest' joke and the Clawed Moon are worth a point in themselves though. 8/10
Swamp Thing. Like all the post Moore Swamp Things this verges on the unecessary, but it has at least set up a reasonable central mystery. and the art is sufficient. 7/10
Best so far : Action Comics, Stormwatch, Batman Detective, Swamp Thing.
Animal Man. Worst: Hawk & Dove, Men of War, potentially O.M.A.C.
Justice League. Set 5 years ago, a hunted by the GCPD Batman encounters Green Lantern and faces off with a young Superman. Flimsy. The Batman / GL interaction is out of the Millar 'Batman and Robin' school but less funny. Superman's costume redesign is crass. And yet it does have some pace and reasonable art aside from the designs. 7/10
Action Comics. Best of these so far, by Grant Morrison. Set - implicitly - more than 5 years ago (6?) a young Superman not yet in the risible costume from JL#1 battles street level social crime and unfairness, while Lex Luthor sets a remarkably visual trap. Tons of nice touches. 10/10
Animal Man. A semi-retired Animal Man, is faced by horrors out of the animal kingdom. Interesting family background and appealing art. Still implicitly mining Moore's Swamp Thing (cf Swamp Thing #1 later).
8/10
Batman: Detective Comics. Neobrutal depiction of the Joker, and reasonable characterisation of the Batman and art. I wasn't expecting how this comic ends, but I'm not sure this is a viable long term approach. However I'd buy #2. 8/10 Setting 'current' Bat-continuity, I think, but Gotham politics re Batman murky.
Batgirl: Good art, and initially good characterisation, but I don't buy the cliff-hanger, and dislike the weakness it reads into Barbara. [Policewomen seems about to shoot Batgirl as a murder for letting real murder escape while frozen with fear]. 7/10
Batwing: Batman of Africa. Art glossy, writing poor, which is a pity as this could have been an interesting pitch. However I'd be surprised if this gets past issue #6, oh and its written by Judd Winick. 5/10
Green Arrow: A younger unbearded Olie, with nothing to distinguish him at all. Even duller than Judd Winick. Jurgens art is functional without creating any sort of verisimilitude. 4/10
Hawk and Dove, drawn by Rob Liefield and might as well have been written by him. Crass nonsense and jingistic posturing makes sense for Hawk, but Dove has no rebutals and Rob still can't draw feet or people. 1/10
Justice League International. The comedy version of the JL sanctioned by the UN (deeply and unpleasently portrayed as wingeing stereotypes). Utterly obvious with none of the charm of the old Keith Giffen JLI. 4/10
Men of War. Everything wrong with Hawk and Dove except the art, in this tale of why US soldiers are top notch, against a background of unexplained superpower action. 3/10
OMAC. Not awful but in a way the worst disappointment of this batch. Kirby's One Man Army Corp was so far ahead of its day that its first story still shocks, this bulked up rubbishy version can't even be bothered to sell its main character with what O.M.A.C. stands for unexplained in #1 and Giffen's art wasted. 4/10
Static Shock. Okay standard DC comics second rate comic, in both story and art. 6/10
Stormwatch. Paul Cornell manages fine, but Stormwatch is a mixed mashup of Stormwatch and The Authority restarted from scratch with the Martian Manhunter added in, and its an unsympathetic setup within the DC universe unless the reader has affection for the old Authority, and if they do, well this isn't quite them. Still the younger Apollo and Midnighter characters are set up, and this may yet gell. The 'horniest' joke and the Clawed Moon are worth a point in themselves though. 8/10
Swamp Thing. Like all the post Moore Swamp Things this verges on the unecessary, but it has at least set up a reasonable central mystery. and the art is sufficient. 7/10
Best so far : Action Comics, Stormwatch, Batman Detective, Swamp Thing.
Animal Man. Worst: Hawk & Dove, Men of War, potentially O.M.A.C.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Angel: Second glance
Terzangelle: "The Angel"
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Each Angel that you walk passed it is standing there alone
Angelic yes, but yet again, its empty face’s mood
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Endlessly varied by the fall of night’s abyssal rain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes.
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Has nothing left to tell, the world, but all the ages’ lies,
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes,
There almost seems a living will inside that carved disdain
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of many many moods, that only stone can take.
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Each Angel that you walk passed. It is standing. They’re all one.
Simon BJ
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Each Angel that you walk passed it is standing there alone
Angelic yes, but yet again, its empty face’s mood
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Endlessly varied by the fall of night’s abyssal rain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes.
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Has nothing left to tell, the world, but all the ages’ lies,
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes,
There almost seems a living will inside that carved disdain
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of many many moods, that only stone can take.
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Each Angel that you walk passed. It is standing. They’re all one.
Simon BJ
Thursday, July 07, 2011
The Angel
Terzangelle: "The Angel"
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Each window that you walk passed it is standing there alone
Angelic yes, but yet again, its empty face’s mood
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Endlessly varied by the fall of night’s abyssal rain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes.
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Has nothing left to tell, the world, but all the ages’ lies,
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes,
There almost seems a living will inside that carved disdain
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of many many moods, that only stone can take.
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Each window that you walk passed. It is standing. They’re alone.
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Each window that you walk passed it is standing there alone
Angelic yes, but yet again, its empty face’s mood
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Half smiling, half frowning, framed by ancient wood
Endlessly varied by the fall of night’s abyssal rain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes.
The Angel disavows, adrift, its image’s refrain
Has nothing left to tell, the world, but all the ages’ lies,
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of the Darkness, watch us with your softening eyes,
There almost seems a living will inside that carved disdain
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Endlessly repeated in the patois of old pain
Angel of many many moods, that only stone can take.
The angel at the window has a face of polished stone
Heartlessly, hearing all the cries that living human’s make
Each window that you walk passed. It is standing. They’re alone.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Terzanelle: "The Merry Maying"
The banners of the golden sun, are spread athwart the cloud
King Arthur's knights are stirring in their sleep
And all along the cobbled streets the hooves are sounding loud
And the Naiads bask where water willows weep
Can we not rise with Arthur, when England's in its drear?
King Arthur's knights are stirring in their sleep
Can they not wake for just a month, in play and not in fear
Why must it be our greatest need that brings them wide-awake
Can we not rise with Arthur, when England's in its drear?
Let all have picnics by the spring, their sleepborn thirsts to slake
And at the springs let Pegaiai, bear wonders on their brows
Why must it be our greatest need that brings them wide-awake
And the Krenaiai rise from fountains, with all that joy allows
Let Romance bear its shining swords, although our backs are bent
And at the springs let Pegaiai, bear wonders on their brows
Let all forget that fairy gold will very soon be spent
The banners of the golden sun, are spread athwart the cloud
Let Romance bear its shining swords, although our backs are bent
And all along the cobbled streets the hooves are sounding loud
Simon BJ
King Arthur's knights are stirring in their sleep
And all along the cobbled streets the hooves are sounding loud
And the Naiads bask where water willows weep
Can we not rise with Arthur, when England's in its drear?
King Arthur's knights are stirring in their sleep
Can they not wake for just a month, in play and not in fear
Why must it be our greatest need that brings them wide-awake
Can we not rise with Arthur, when England's in its drear?
Let all have picnics by the spring, their sleepborn thirsts to slake
And at the springs let Pegaiai, bear wonders on their brows
Why must it be our greatest need that brings them wide-awake
And the Krenaiai rise from fountains, with all that joy allows
Let Romance bear its shining swords, although our backs are bent
And at the springs let Pegaiai, bear wonders on their brows
Let all forget that fairy gold will very soon be spent
The banners of the golden sun, are spread athwart the cloud
Let Romance bear its shining swords, although our backs are bent
And all along the cobbled streets the hooves are sounding loud
Simon BJ
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Simile And The World Similes With You.
Like the arrow that Robin's arrow splits
Like the spitton that just avoids the spits
Like the hawk that dives and misses every chicken
Like the child at the smallpox party who won't sicken
Like the explorer who's lost parallel to the trail
Like the alleged japanese scientist with no whale
Like the cornered character who's thumb hasn't a pie
Like the pig who doesn't return to his sty.
Like the man who sees true love alight on others
Like the eighth gal stood up by the seven brothers
Like the spiral downward circle to the drain
Like the fear that something's gone wrong with my brain
Like the patagonian skin that cheered up Chatwin
Like the worry that they killed her for a hat pin
Like the dreadful dying stutter of the coldfish in the gutter
Like the mutter that you utter when the toast is out of butter
Like the thing that is exactly how I feel.
Simon BJ
Like the spitton that just avoids the spits
Like the hawk that dives and misses every chicken
Like the child at the smallpox party who won't sicken
Like the explorer who's lost parallel to the trail
Like the alleged japanese scientist with no whale
Like the cornered character who's thumb hasn't a pie
Like the pig who doesn't return to his sty.
Like the man who sees true love alight on others
Like the eighth gal stood up by the seven brothers
Like the spiral downward circle to the drain
Like the fear that something's gone wrong with my brain
Like the patagonian skin that cheered up Chatwin
Like the worry that they killed her for a hat pin
Like the dreadful dying stutter of the coldfish in the gutter
Like the mutter that you utter when the toast is out of butter
Like the thing that is exactly how I feel.
Simon BJ
Terzanelle: "Cthulhu"
Beneath dark ocean currents, silted spires
That Twist and embody strange geometries
Like fruiting fungi, like refined desires
Like things wrought weirdly from corpse-candle trees
That House whose Windows look in, into Sights
That Twist and embody strange geometries
Outside of time, where otherworldly nights
Fall like black infinite dominoes away
That House whose Windows look in, into Sights
Quite unsuspected by the surface day
Is what it contains, evil? All our rules
Fall like black infinite dominoes away
No moral utilitarians or their schools
Can confine Him, who is Housed in Drowned R'yleh
Is what it contains, evil? All our rules
Are but a sheen we fein, that's passed in play
Beneath dark ocean currents. Silted spires,
Can confine Him? Who is Housed in Drowned R'yleh
Like fruiting fungi, like refined desires.
Simon BJ
That Twist and embody strange geometries
Like fruiting fungi, like refined desires
Like things wrought weirdly from corpse-candle trees
That House whose Windows look in, into Sights
That Twist and embody strange geometries
Outside of time, where otherworldly nights
Fall like black infinite dominoes away
That House whose Windows look in, into Sights
Quite unsuspected by the surface day
Is what it contains, evil? All our rules
Fall like black infinite dominoes away
No moral utilitarians or their schools
Can confine Him, who is Housed in Drowned R'yleh
Is what it contains, evil? All our rules
Are but a sheen we fein, that's passed in play
Beneath dark ocean currents. Silted spires,
Can confine Him? Who is Housed in Drowned R'yleh
Like fruiting fungi, like refined desires.
Simon BJ
Villanelle "Wolftracks"
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur
Up close, and shuddered at its powerful reek
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
We must not start, at tremble of a hair
Nor spread vile rumour when we try to speak
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur.
We should take care, lest we have too much care
Turn everything to Watching, as we seek
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
Sometimes, the wolves will sleep within their lair
Life will be joyful, and none harm the weak
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur
And yet, without a wolf, what spice is there?
What scent will thrill, tuned senses at their peak?
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air?
Wolfless, and loveless, under grey despair
We do not seek to die, or court the bleak.
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
Simon BJ
Up close, and shuddered at its powerful reek
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
We must not start, at tremble of a hair
Nor spread vile rumour when we try to speak
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur.
We should take care, lest we have too much care
Turn everything to Watching, as we seek
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
Sometimes, the wolves will sleep within their lair
Life will be joyful, and none harm the weak
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur
And yet, without a wolf, what spice is there?
What scent will thrill, tuned senses at their peak?
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air?
Wolfless, and loveless, under grey despair
We do not seek to die, or court the bleak.
Let none cry wolf, who have not seen its fur
The breath from out its teeth, upon the air.
Simon BJ
Monday, May 09, 2011
Recent Tweets Archived
Hello, Atlantic Books? Do you have "Instances of Human Predation By Great Whites"? You Do! Thanks! My name? It's Sharkley: G. W. Sharkley.
After a period of managing alternate-slovakian empires, Cadet Thomas Spindle was cashiered out of the Time Patrol with a czech-herd history.
Effusive: prone to swearing. #UED
Transformative : Like a giant robot #UED
#cablenowandnext Through The Wormhoke Bear Gyrlls : Born Survivor (Discovery Channel+1) Survive nanospagettifation Mr Smug. 07 May 2011 00:32:56
Subsistance: Diagnosis of Formicidae beneath a closed tissue sac. #UED
Of course in those days it wasn't about marketing. It was all subsistance in those days!
Endorse: last stallion in the parade. #UED
#computershakespear
King P2P
The Matrex Wives Of Winsor
Intello
Alls Well That E-mails Well
"Titus Android OS" [Paul Ebbs]
Peripherals Prince of Tyre
A Midsummer Night's Stream
RAMlet
iMacbeth
#cablenowandnext Primeval Jonathan Creek "Ug, go in hollow tree and Ug killed by bear on hill, Ug Twins!" (Watch) 12:29 AM May 6th
Semantics: Observe masculine involuntary spasms #UED
Simon BJ
After a period of managing alternate-slovakian empires, Cadet Thomas Spindle was cashiered out of the Time Patrol with a czech-herd history.
Effusive: prone to swearing. #UED
Transformative : Like a giant robot #UED
#cablenowandnext Through The Wormhoke Bear Gyrlls : Born Survivor (Discovery Channel+1) Survive nanospagettifation Mr Smug. 07 May 2011 00:32:56
Subsistance: Diagnosis of Formicidae beneath a closed tissue sac. #UED
Of course in those days it wasn't about marketing. It was all subsistance in those days!
Endorse: last stallion in the parade. #UED
#computershakespear
King P2P
The Matrex Wives Of Winsor
Intello
Alls Well That E-mails Well
"Titus Android OS" [Paul Ebbs]
Peripherals Prince of Tyre
A Midsummer Night's Stream
RAMlet
iMacbeth
#cablenowandnext Primeval Jonathan Creek "Ug, go in hollow tree and Ug killed by bear on hill, Ug Twins!" (Watch) 12:29 AM May 6th
Semantics: Observe masculine involuntary spasms #UED
Simon BJ
Friday, May 06, 2011
News from D'nalgne
People who think dragon is good for the country, still mad. Peasant
who claimed he could tame dragon, now unpopular. Towns on fire, many.
Simon BJ
who claimed he could tame dragon, now unpopular. Towns on fire, many.
Simon BJ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)