DC's Green Lanterns are at war once more....with themselves.
Shipping in March, the War Of The Green Lanterns, running in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, is the opening salvo in DC Comics' blockbuster crossover event for summer 2011.
A mysterious force has taken over all the GL power batteries. Only a handul of Lanterns have escaped the threat. These include Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Sinestro.
Can this small band restore the Corps or will they kill each other in the process? The battle begins in Green Lantern 64, out on March 16th, by regular writer Geoff Johns with art by series' stalwarts Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy.
Then the conflict continues in Green Lantern Corps 58 as Kyle fights John Stewart. GLC 58 is by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt, and it ships on March 23rd.
The war spills over into Emerald Warriors 8 as Hal clashes with Guy. Peter J Tomasi scripts this slugfest while art is suupplied by Fernando Pasarin and Cam Smith.
Emerald Warriors 8, the third chapter of the War storyline, is out on March 30th.
Monday, 17 January 2011
THE RETURN OF SAMSON!
Dark Horse unveil the third volume of the Mighty Samson Archives in May.
Reprinted from the 60s and 70s, this 208-page collection, written by the legendary Otto Binder with art by Jack Sparling and Jose Delbo, sees Samson - the superhuman warrior of a devastated future America fighting mutants, man-eating plants, radioactive sea monsters and feudal warlords.
Shipping on May 25th, the collection also features the original issues' covers, re-touched interior artwork, fan art and a new foreword by comics historian Dylan Williams.
Reprinted from the 60s and 70s, this 208-page collection, written by the legendary Otto Binder with art by Jack Sparling and Jose Delbo, sees Samson - the superhuman warrior of a devastated future America fighting mutants, man-eating plants, radioactive sea monsters and feudal warlords.
Shipping on May 25th, the collection also features the original issues' covers, re-touched interior artwork, fan art and a new foreword by comics historian Dylan Williams.
THE SHOOTERVERSE CONTINUES...
Boasting some truly purple prose, Dark Horse's Doctor Solar goes to town on the pseudo-science in March.
Written by Jim Shooter, former supremo at Marvel and Valiant with art by Roger Robinson, Doctor Solar issue seven, out on March 23rd, sees the Man of the Atom facing a cadre of transauranic heavy-metal men as he battles to stop his arch-enemy Nuro from remaking all eternity.
While in the Doctor Solar origin story, Philip Solar exists only as a nimbus of data in a quantum domain.
Written by Jim Shooter, former supremo at Marvel and Valiant with art by Roger Robinson, Doctor Solar issue seven, out on March 23rd, sees the Man of the Atom facing a cadre of transauranic heavy-metal men as he battles to stop his arch-enemy Nuro from remaking all eternity.
While in the Doctor Solar origin story, Philip Solar exists only as a nimbus of data in a quantum domain.
MAGNUS VERSUS THE LEGION
Dark Horse's revival of Magnus Robot Fighter picks up the pace in March.
With the series' sixth issuing, shipping on March 16th, writer Jim Shooter and artist Bill Reinhold pitch Magnus against a horde of robots built by the vengeful rebel leader Jocko.
Announcing his new army, Jocko said: "The only way to kill us is one at a time. And we are legion!"
Jocko plans to use his machine army to readicate all organic life from Earth - ensuring the end of Mankind in the process.
With the series' sixth issuing, shipping on March 16th, writer Jim Shooter and artist Bill Reinhold pitch Magnus against a horde of robots built by the vengeful rebel leader Jocko.
Announcing his new army, Jocko said: "The only way to kill us is one at a time. And we are legion!"
Jocko plans to use his machine army to readicate all organic life from Earth - ensuring the end of Mankind in the process.
FREE COMIC GOODNESS!
Saturday May 7th 2011 sees the tenth Free Comic Book Day taking place in comic shops across the US and Britain.
All the major companies are pitching in with this day of free comic goodness. Dark Horse, itself celebrating 25 years of publishing, presents Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Clone Wars flipbook.
The Clone Wars section features the violent Savage Opress from the TV series as well as Breakout Squad from the Clone Wars Secret Missions novels.
Marvel have Way Of The Spider from writer Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos in which Madame Web foresees a great battle for Spidey and his only hope comes in the form of Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu.
Boom Studios, who are bringing Clive Barker's Hellraiser back to comics this year, have Elric: The Balance Lost are their offering for the event.
The book, written by Vertigo mainstay Chris Roberson, sees a crisis spanning Michael Moorcock's multiverse and draws in the famous British author's other fantasy heroes Corum and Hawkmoon.
DC have Young Justice/Batman: The Brave And The Bold Super Sampler. This book features two stories from DC's Kids line.
Liquid Comics enter the fray with The Silver Scorpion by Ron Marz and Mukesh Singh. The Silver Scorpion, as seen in the New York Post, USA Today and on FOX News, is the creation of diabled students from the US and Syria.
The character is a disabled teenager who becomes a superhero. The concept has been praised by former US president Bill Clinton, who said: "The comic book will help to establish trust and understanding between cultures and empower young people with disabilities."
Britain's 2000AD is giving away a free Prog for Free Comic Book Day.
For more news and sneak peeks about the event visit http://www.freecomicdookday.com/
All the major companies are pitching in with this day of free comic goodness. Dark Horse, itself celebrating 25 years of publishing, presents Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Clone Wars flipbook.
The Clone Wars section features the violent Savage Opress from the TV series as well as Breakout Squad from the Clone Wars Secret Missions novels.
Marvel have Way Of The Spider from writer Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos in which Madame Web foresees a great battle for Spidey and his only hope comes in the form of Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu.
Boom Studios, who are bringing Clive Barker's Hellraiser back to comics this year, have Elric: The Balance Lost are their offering for the event.
The book, written by Vertigo mainstay Chris Roberson, sees a crisis spanning Michael Moorcock's multiverse and draws in the famous British author's other fantasy heroes Corum and Hawkmoon.
DC have Young Justice/Batman: The Brave And The Bold Super Sampler. This book features two stories from DC's Kids line.
Liquid Comics enter the fray with The Silver Scorpion by Ron Marz and Mukesh Singh. The Silver Scorpion, as seen in the New York Post, USA Today and on FOX News, is the creation of diabled students from the US and Syria.
The character is a disabled teenager who becomes a superhero. The concept has been praised by former US president Bill Clinton, who said: "The comic book will help to establish trust and understanding between cultures and empower young people with disabilities."
Britain's 2000AD is giving away a free Prog for Free Comic Book Day.
For more news and sneak peeks about the event visit http://www.freecomicdookday.com/
Saturday, 11 September 2010
"GORDON'S ALIIIIVVVVEEE!" LOOKING BACK AT THE 1980 SCI-FI CULT CLASSIC FLASH GORDON
New Year's Eve 1980 and my ten-year-old self is sitting in the dark of the Embassy cinema in Waltham Cross awaiting the screening of Flash Gordon.
I'd been excited about seeing this film all through the autumn and into the winter for three reasons.
Firstly, my dad was in it! He was playing one of Vultan's Hawkmen and had been telling me about working alongside Sam Jones and Brian Blessed.
Secondly, I'd been a fan of Flash Gordon since I was seven or so, thanks to the BBC's showing of the 30s chapterplay serials every Christmas holiday and thirdly, Starlog magazine - my then bible of SF facts and knowledge since discovering it on the shelves of my local newsagent that summer - had been covering the film throughout its autumn issues.
Christmas 1980 had been my SF Christmas. I'd received a wad of Star Wars figures and playsets, the action-packed Japanese cartoon show Battle Of The Planets exploded from BBC-1 every morning of the holidays and I'd been plunged into the incredible world of Great Space Battles, a book that showcased sci-fi art by artists such as Angus McKie and Pete Elson tied to a narrative by Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge that related mankind's future in deep space.
I never noticed that the book had authors back then. I bought into the fact that it was subtitled a Terran Trade Authority Handbook - I truly wanted it to have come from the future and not the mundanity of everyday reality.
Although when you're a child Christmas is never mundane. It has its own magic and when coupled to SF especially in the form of the gaudy bauble that was the big screen version of Flash Gordon, well, things can't get much better.
The wait in the cinema although exciting seemed to last forever. Once the bombastic yet yearning theme by Queen blasted out of the screen and panels of Alex Raymond artwork flickered into life, I was transported out of the cinema and was dashing across the stars...
Sam Jones as Flash had the right mix of heroism and can-do attitude, Melody Andeson glowed as Dale Arden with a nice New Yorker feisty riff on Princess Leia, Topol simply was Dr Zarkov just as Max Von Sydow was the personification of Ming.
Brian Blessed boomed and roared as Vultan, clearly having a ball in his panto Hawkman togs. Timothy Dalton was noble and searing as Prince Barin of Aboria. Ornella Muti as Aura, Ming's daughter, was all pout and sizzled with a feline sensuality. Not that I noticed this as a kid, I just wanted to be Flash Gordon.
I was there with Flash every step of his perilous quest to save the Earth in just 14 hours, battling his way across the outre realms of Mongo, from Ming's ornate and Art Deco goes cosmic palace-city; the towering trees, shadowy glades and dangerous swamps of Aboria where former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan dies, to the grand sky-palace of the Hawkmen, where Flash and Barin fight on a dangerously tilting disc that protrudes spikes at random intervals, all under a constantly shifting skyscape of vivid colours - LSD-infused clouds and blancmange-like horizons.
From a script loaded with knowing and risque dialogue by former Batman scribe Lorenzo Semple Jr and directed by Mike Hodges, who had helmed brutal 70s crime classic Get Carter and ponderous SF film The Terminal Man, this new Flash Gordon was the perfect antidote to 1980's other sci-fi offering, The Empire Strikes Back.
Whereas Empire was dark and downbeat Flash Gordon was bravura and bold with an abundance of camp.
Flash Gordon flopped at the box office, however. Director Mike Hodges, looking back, said: "The film got terrific reviews in America and we had amazing previews but they really screwed up on how to sell it."
Due to a falling out between star Sam Jones and the film's always larger than life producer Dino De Laurentiis, the film was marketed around Max Von Sydow's Ming even though it was called Flash Gordon.
Mike Hodges, who had not been first choice as director for the film, that honour had gone to Nic Roeg, recounts: "Without their main star (Sam Jones) doing press rounds they decided to focus on Max as Ming.
"So he was all over the posters and everything - but the film is called Flash Gordon not Ming!"
Hodges enjoyed making the film and sincerely hoped there would be a sequel.
Now with the character being revived by Breck Eisner and a Blu-Ray version of the 1980 version released to coincide with the 30th anniversary, it's time to return to Mongo.
Just wish I still had the Hawkman ray-bazooka prop that my dad got for me from the studio. Unfortunately, I smashed it over the head of a kid during a rather vigourous game of Battlestar Wars Flash Rogers or somesuch...
I'd been excited about seeing this film all through the autumn and into the winter for three reasons.
Firstly, my dad was in it! He was playing one of Vultan's Hawkmen and had been telling me about working alongside Sam Jones and Brian Blessed.
Secondly, I'd been a fan of Flash Gordon since I was seven or so, thanks to the BBC's showing of the 30s chapterplay serials every Christmas holiday and thirdly, Starlog magazine - my then bible of SF facts and knowledge since discovering it on the shelves of my local newsagent that summer - had been covering the film throughout its autumn issues.
Christmas 1980 had been my SF Christmas. I'd received a wad of Star Wars figures and playsets, the action-packed Japanese cartoon show Battle Of The Planets exploded from BBC-1 every morning of the holidays and I'd been plunged into the incredible world of Great Space Battles, a book that showcased sci-fi art by artists such as Angus McKie and Pete Elson tied to a narrative by Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge that related mankind's future in deep space.
I never noticed that the book had authors back then. I bought into the fact that it was subtitled a Terran Trade Authority Handbook - I truly wanted it to have come from the future and not the mundanity of everyday reality.
Although when you're a child Christmas is never mundane. It has its own magic and when coupled to SF especially in the form of the gaudy bauble that was the big screen version of Flash Gordon, well, things can't get much better.
The wait in the cinema although exciting seemed to last forever. Once the bombastic yet yearning theme by Queen blasted out of the screen and panels of Alex Raymond artwork flickered into life, I was transported out of the cinema and was dashing across the stars...
Sam Jones as Flash had the right mix of heroism and can-do attitude, Melody Andeson glowed as Dale Arden with a nice New Yorker feisty riff on Princess Leia, Topol simply was Dr Zarkov just as Max Von Sydow was the personification of Ming.
Brian Blessed boomed and roared as Vultan, clearly having a ball in his panto Hawkman togs. Timothy Dalton was noble and searing as Prince Barin of Aboria. Ornella Muti as Aura, Ming's daughter, was all pout and sizzled with a feline sensuality. Not that I noticed this as a kid, I just wanted to be Flash Gordon.
I was there with Flash every step of his perilous quest to save the Earth in just 14 hours, battling his way across the outre realms of Mongo, from Ming's ornate and Art Deco goes cosmic palace-city; the towering trees, shadowy glades and dangerous swamps of Aboria where former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan dies, to the grand sky-palace of the Hawkmen, where Flash and Barin fight on a dangerously tilting disc that protrudes spikes at random intervals, all under a constantly shifting skyscape of vivid colours - LSD-infused clouds and blancmange-like horizons.
From a script loaded with knowing and risque dialogue by former Batman scribe Lorenzo Semple Jr and directed by Mike Hodges, who had helmed brutal 70s crime classic Get Carter and ponderous SF film The Terminal Man, this new Flash Gordon was the perfect antidote to 1980's other sci-fi offering, The Empire Strikes Back.
Whereas Empire was dark and downbeat Flash Gordon was bravura and bold with an abundance of camp.
Flash Gordon flopped at the box office, however. Director Mike Hodges, looking back, said: "The film got terrific reviews in America and we had amazing previews but they really screwed up on how to sell it."
Due to a falling out between star Sam Jones and the film's always larger than life producer Dino De Laurentiis, the film was marketed around Max Von Sydow's Ming even though it was called Flash Gordon.
Mike Hodges, who had not been first choice as director for the film, that honour had gone to Nic Roeg, recounts: "Without their main star (Sam Jones) doing press rounds they decided to focus on Max as Ming.
"So he was all over the posters and everything - but the film is called Flash Gordon not Ming!"
Hodges enjoyed making the film and sincerely hoped there would be a sequel.
Now with the character being revived by Breck Eisner and a Blu-Ray version of the 1980 version released to coincide with the 30th anniversary, it's time to return to Mongo.
Just wish I still had the Hawkman ray-bazooka prop that my dad got for me from the studio. Unfortunately, I smashed it over the head of a kid during a rather vigourous game of Battlestar Wars Flash Rogers or somesuch...
Saturday, 4 September 2010
COMING SOON - FEEL THE HYPE, BUT DO IT ANYWAY!!!
COMING SOON: Despatches is proud to present THE CHAMPION OF FOREVER - sprawling all-out space opera.
THE QUEST FOR THE OBSIDIAN PRINCESS will also continue in a meta-textural/meta-temporal stylee real soon!
And they'll be more stuff too. In the meantime, let's get all 2004 and sing The Corrs' Summer Sunshine!!! Yeah, The Corrs! Cutting edge, me? No way!!!
THE QUEST FOR THE OBSIDIAN PRINCESS will also continue in a meta-textural/meta-temporal stylee real soon!
And they'll be more stuff too. In the meantime, let's get all 2004 and sing The Corrs' Summer Sunshine!!! Yeah, The Corrs! Cutting edge, me? No way!!!
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