Here Comes The Summer

It's the winter solstice, so we can take our feet off the pedals and freewheel from here.




"Here comes the summer" is also the last thing that King Mob says in the last panel of the last page in issue #5 of volume 3 of The Invisibles.

The Invisibles Volume 3, #5

That particular issue had a... thing on the cover that looked a bit like a Venusian, coincidentally enough. But then, that's The Invisibles for you.

I decided to reread this most sacred 1990's texts on the run up to human race's reintegration with the Supercontext, scheduled to occur, according to the story, on the 22nd December, 2012.

(I know everywhere else seems to be saying that the end of the Mayan 13th Baktun is on the 21st December; but that's probably just disinformation from 333rd Level Anti-Masons or something)

Anyhoo; How does it hold up? It's hard for me to be objective about The Invisibles. The time when it was originally published was such a heady and transitional period for me, personally. It's as ingrained in my own history as Underworld's entire back catalogue.

If you've never read it, it's hard to say what it's about, because pretty much everything gets a look-in at some point. Morrison, at this juncture in his writing career is grabbing the reader by the lapels, violently shaking them and saying; "Don't you see!?"

The countdown to the millennium contributes to the urgency and if you don't like a specific idea that's being presented at any given point, hold on because there'll be another five along in a second.

On this revisit, the barrage of Big Ideas was now further back in the mix; due to familiarity, I suppose. This time, I really noticed the relationships between the characters more. I love how the Dane's animosity towards Fanny slowly changes over time, until they become, probably the closest friends in the team. Sir Miles seemed a far more lost character, more a victim of circumstance than out-an-out 'bad' than before.

It's an interesting experience to view something so militantly of the Now in retrospect.

I feel prepared.

A Very Happy Recontextualization to one and all!

b

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The Difficult Forty Ninth Album

It's the 23rd November, 2012 as I type. Doctor Who is 49 today.

The big five-oh next year, with 2013 promising to be a year of Doctor Who reflection, analysis and celebration like no other. 

I thought I'd get in early before everyone is completely sick of it and (hopefully) come at it from a slightly different angle.

I mean; what? Why? Why is this thing still with me? 

Maybe Harry Hill and William Roache can explain...


"I am Ken Barlow and I am the only constant in your life"

If you are not from the UK you may not understand this reference. In short, Bill Roache has played the character, Ken Barlow, in Britain's longest running soap opera, Coronation Street, since 1960 - a world record for the longest serving actor in the same role.
He was playing Ken Barlow ten years before I was born. My family watched Coronation Street when I was a child. I still watch Coronation Street today.

A thrice weekly ritual, observed by one generation and passed on to the next. 

Doctor Who fits this too. 

So, at least part of my preoccupation is to do with a sense of continuity. The World is in constant flux, but Ken Barlow and Doctor Who remain. Although, Doctor Who has the edge on Ken Barlow, because you can change his location and the period where events take place. You can change the bloke who plays him. You can change the tone, the genre and the medium of the stories.

Doctor Who remains, but, like the World, he too is in flux. 

Look at this.

So Vile A Sin

It's the cover of the book I am currently reading. So Vile A Sin was published in 1997 and co-written by Ben Aaronovitch (latterly the author of the Peter Grant novels) and Kate Orman. 
Aaronovitch started it, suffered a catastrophic PC crash, losing most of what he had written and finding himself unable to pick up the peices, Orman took over and finished it. I have been enjoying the book, despite it reading a bit like a book started by someone, been lost in a catastrophic PC crash and finished by someone else.

It's a Doctor Who book. An official one. Doctor Who is in it. There's a TARDIS and everything.

Where's the Doctor Who logo?

Well, this was published by Virgin Books at the tail end of their licence to produce the ongoing  Doctor Who: The New Adventures from 1992 to 1997 - when there was no TV version.
The BBC took the book series in-house when the US TV movie was made, expecting a television revival that wouldn't happen until they had the bottle to do it themselves in 2005.

When Virgin's licence was revoked, the publisher decided to carry on without the Doctor, the TARDIS or any of the BBC owned properties. They had created their own characters (like Bernice Summerfield, Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester) during the New Adventures run and felt that the series was strong enough to survive on its own merit and removed the Doctor Who logo, five books before the character himself left.

Now, Matt Smith in the current TV version of Doctor Who is great. I love it. My family, my wife, my kids all enjoy watching the show together, much in the same way as I watched it with my parents and siblings when I was a kid.

For me the TV show is sort of like the Greatest Hits of your favourite band. All killer material, for sure. The heavy hitters. The million sellers. The one that even your Grandma knows the words to. The three-minute floor-filling, crowd-pleasers. I love that shit.

But, what I love just as much, and in some cases even more so, is the esoteric stuff. The novels (like sprawling album tracks), the comic strips (genre experimentations), the novelizations (remixes and 'live' versions of old classics) and the spin-offs (solo & side projects).

Maybe I'll do you a compilation of my favourite oddities?

49 and counting.

Happy Birthday.

"Let's put on our Classics and we'll have a little dance shall we?"

Venus In Transit

As mention previously, my e-novella, By The Time I Get To Venus, was published last week by Manleigh Books. It's part of their ongoing series; The Periodic Adventures Of Señor 105.

This is me giving a little context to the story. I am not going to include anything that might be considered a spoiler as such, but one might like to consider my previous blog before reading on.

Señor 105

OK? Right...

Who is Señor 105?

He is the creation of Cody Quijano-Schell and has featured in various short stories published by Obverse Books, both as an associate of the trans-temporal adventuress; Iris Wildthyme and as the central protagonist in his own adventures.

As such, he partially inhabits the stranger fringes of the expanded Doctor Who universe, but that is only one thread of an altogether more elaborate, more psychedelic tapestry.


The character was initially inspired from the Mexican Wrestler movies of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Cody has created an amazing video introduction to the genre here -




When Cody approached me to pitch ideas for the Periodic Adventures, I said pretty early on that I wanted to do an Enter The Dragon type scenario. A tournament or maybe even a flashback to Señor 105's early days, training somewhere. Given the exotic nature of the wrestler's adventures, the location of the training would need to be suitably unusual, on another planet or something.

This chimed with Cody's over-arching plans for the series (he has big, big plans!); other planets in the solar system would be featured prominently.

Then it clicked; Enter The Dragon... on Venus!

Why Venus? Check it out...



What we have here is Doctor Who calming an enraged Aggedor with a Venusian lullaby (roughly translated, the rhyme starts; "Close your eyes, my darling. Well, three of them at least")

Now, during this period of the show; Jon Pertwee's Doctor used martial arts, referred to as "Venusian Akido" or "Venusian Karate". There were a several other allusions to Venus and its inhabitants, mainly as comedic asides. These references eventually disappeared with Pertwee's departure from the role.

Venusian Lullaby 

Twenty years later, Paul Leonard wrote the novel Venusian Lullaby.

In his book, Leonard took the sparse, sometimes quite bizarre information given about Venus in the TV series and imagined what this Venusian civilisation might actually be like.

The result was a novel depicting a compelling, complex and truly alien civilisation; depicted in such a detail as to probably be unique in all of Doctor Who.

I could go on at length about how much I love this book, instead I'll just urge you to track down a copy and see for yourself.

Almost another twenty years later, Cody and I wondered if Paul Leonard would let me borrow his world? Just a small corner of it. It made perfect sense that Señor 105 would have trained in Venusian Martial Arts, had the opportunity arisen.

Paul graciously agreed and I was good to go.

The Enter The Dragon on Venus concept bubbled away in the back of my brain, Lalo Schifrin's iconic theme playing in my head twenty four seven. It occurred to me that Señor 105 would need a sparring partner; someone of equal stature, but a differing motivation. Someone with whom he could forge an uneasy alliance (my absolute favourite sort of alliance!)

Theo Possible

I had just the man.

Theo Possible was a character I had originally created for my short story, Party Kill Accelerator! In that story, he was the mysterious curator of an eerie festival. Possible turned up again, hitching a lift across The City of The Saved in the story; Happily Ever After Is A High Risk Strategy.

Like Señor 105, Possible is a senior character; over fifty at least. Unlike Señor 105, his motivations are unclear, perhaps even dubious. Both characters have mysterious personal histories. It isn't much of a leap to suppose that at least part of their respective mysterious histories might, in fact, be one.

It wasn't until I was half way through writing By The Time I Get To Venus that I remembered in Party Kill Accelerator! that there is a reference to Possible having studied something called "Klatch-Ki" - the ancient Venusian art of style over content!

Clearly, this was all meant to happen!

I hope that that's enough background to inspire you to purchase the book. I haven't even touched on what the story is actually about. You shouldn't need to know anything of the above to enjoy the book.

(Also, it's cheap and quite short)

Let me know what you thought of it and tell your friends!

By The Time I Get To Venus

Stop Making Sense

My ebook, By The Time I Get To Venus, was published this week. This post was going to be a primer for it, but then it got me thinking.

Look at this...




I first saw this video about ten years ago. It blew my mind with its acute strangeness.

I don't speak Japanese and at that time I was unaware of the Kikkoman brand of soy sauce. With no frame of reference, I supplied my own, shifting set of ideas as to what the hell it was going on. It made me laugh, it creeped me out and the tune got stuck in my head.

A decade later, I know about Kikkoman soy sauce. Also, a friend who speaks a bit a Japanese explained that there is some play on words happening with the 'Show you!' bit in the song, which I can't quite remember now. Context has crept into this little animation and although I understand it a bit better, I don't quite enjoy it as much as I did.

The tune still gets stuck in my head, mind.

 Now, look at this (be careful, its absolutely terrifying. It's from The Shining)...





The Shining is one of the scariest films I have ever seen and this scene is without doubt the scariest scene in any film, ever.

Why?

Well, again, I think its to do with its inexplicability. Poor Shelley Duvall is having the most horrid day imaginable and just when she thinks it couldn't possibly get any worse she sees... something... in a room at the end of a corridor.

We have a long shot from her point of view... What the hell am I looking at?
Then, crash zoom; Christ! What the Hell Am I Looking At!?

And, she's off. Shelley's got homicidal Jack Nicholson shaped problems right now; how can she be expected to deal with this shit too?

I've never read the Stephen King book that the film is based on. I gather it strays quite far from the direction of the novel. But, one day on the internet, I stumbled across someone explaining the context of the bear in reference to the book.

I stopped reading the piece there and then. I didn't want to hear it. Just to know the fact that there was an explainable context to this scene subtly changed it for me. It lost a few degrees of its chill.

The reason why I find it powerful is the lack of context.

So, I'm rethinking the primer for By The Time I Get To Venus. I'll blog about it soon, but it might be as well for those who are intrigued to just to read the book cold. It will provide its own rewards, I promise.

You can never get back a lack of context.

Return To The Source

It's the month of my birth.

Do you know what else happened during the month I was born?

DC Comics published Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133.

Yes, know they published a whole load of other stuff that month too. But, this comic is significant for several reasons. Can you see at the top, above the title? It says 'Kirby Is Here!'

Jack Kirby took over writing and drawing Jimmy Olsen with issue 133. Now, for those who don't know, Jack Kirby is one of the most significant comics creators in the history of the art form, arguably the single most significant.
He created Captain America (with Joe Simon), The Fantastic Four, the Hulk and the X-Men (with Stan Lee) amongst many others. As such, Kirby was the cornerstone of Marvel Comics.

Unfortunately, Marvel at the time didn't hold Kirby in the same regard  and after years of being shafted by the management, Kirby decided enough was enough, and he went work for the Distinguished Competition; DC Comics.

The new deal was that Kirby would create a stable of three, brand new titles and would also take over an ongoing series, already being published by DC. He could choose whichever title he liked. He could have chose anything; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern...

Kirby chose Jimmy Olsen.

Why? There's two versions of the story; One version, is that he said; "Gimme your lowest selling book and I'll make it the highest!" (It was and he did)
The other version is that Kirby, being a working-class grafter, knew the value of steady job and wasn't willing to rob another working comics pro of their livelihood. Jimmy Olsen was the only book which, at the time, had no writer or artist attached.

Anyway, Kirby had big plans and even bigger ideas. It was to be his Magnum Opus; The Fourth World.

I had run into many of Kirby's Fourth World characters down the years. They turn up all over the place. Alan Moore's seminal run on Swamp Thing had a few pop in. Grant Morrison's JLA had a couple on the team and his Final Crisis had the entire pantheon centre stage. They even have a brief cameo in Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

The characters had always intrigued me and when I learned that I shared a birthday with Jimmy Olsen #133, I thought it was about time I got to grips with the original text.

So, a few weeks ago I treated myself to an early birthday present and bought, Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume One. Having now finished reading it, I can safely say that my head is no longer the same shape as when I started.

Whoa.

The collection reproduces the first few issues of The New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle and Kirby's run on Jimmy Olsen in their order of publication. Kirby writes and pencils the whole thing (inks by Vince Colletta) and it's no less than an attempt at a myth for the twentieth century.

Literally, New Gods.

The art is Cosmic Primitivism. The language is Atomic Age Testament. The ideas being generated are relentless and, at times, surprisingly contemporary. In the first few pages of Jimmy Olsen #133 we are introduced to Morgan Edge, a corrupt media mogul and few pages later we see Habitat, an eco-community made of trees and the home of a genetically engineered counter culture called the Hairies. Jimmy himself ends the issue as the leader of a biker gang.

Forever People #1 is like Ken Kesey's version of the X-Men. Teenage New Gods, with names like Big Bear and Beautiful Dreamer, take a road trip to Earth.

The New Gods #1 focuses on the New God, Orion, Who heads from his home, the utopia of New Genesis, to the dystopian Apokolips and then on to Earth on the command of a disembodied hand, scrawling on the Source Wall, the barrier between creation and the infinite.

Mister Miracle #1 is the marginally more straight-forward super-heroics of Scott Free, the World's Greatest Escape Artist. Although, Scott has in his possession a device called 'Mother Box'; a sentient computer, similar to those owned by the Forever People and Orion of the New Gods.

I haven't even mentioned Darkseid yet.

To put all of this in some kind of perspective, Superman turns up now and again, although unlike in other comics, where he is the benevolent, potent demi-god. In the Fourth World books, Superman is our identification figure. He is, by comparison, a mere mortal.

Grant Morrison, in his introduction, calls Kirby; 'the William Blake of the twentieth century'. That's not hyperbole. Kirby had the same outsider thought processes as Blake. A true visionary.

So, I was born at the start of the Fourth World and I am, at last, returning to the original texts to bask in their mind-boggling glory.

I have already invested in Volume Two...

"I remember when all this were fields..."

My name is

Blair (Gaelic, 'blàr' meaning; 'field' or 'plain', most often referring to a 'battlefield') 
Bidmead (Anglo-Saxon, 'bide' meaning, 'by', 'maed' meaning 'meadow'; 'by the meadow')

I am a field by a field.

I am outstanding in my field.

You are welcome here.

b

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