Ronster Munch

We just watched ‘Hunger’, the movie about the Hunger Strikers in the Maze prison in 1981.

I’m kind of at a loss as to what I felt about it. On the one hand it looks amazing, and you can tell that it has been made by someone, ie Steve McQueen, who comes from a visual-arts background. There are lots of long, lingering shots that are very beautifully constructed, any of which are the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a video-installation.

On the other hand, and I may be seeing this through the eyes of someone who wasn’t very old (2) at the time these events occurred, but I never got a sense of the tragedy of the story. It felt like a clinical and cold examination of a time and place, and at no point did the humanity of the characters seem important to the director, with one notable exception. There is a now infamous 17 minute scene at the centre of the film wherein Bobby Sands explains his intent to starve himself to his priest. It’s a brilliant scene, well acted by the participants. The camera is locked down for the duration,and it does feel very stagey, although I don’t mean that in a pejoritative manner. It’s the sort of acting one rarely sees onscreen; unshowy, naturalistic and familiar.

Unfortunately this scene is probably the only point where I felt I was getting to know any character. The rest of the film is concerned with showing the inhumane treatment of the prisoners and the subsequent deterioration of Sands to his eventual death.

I’m sure a more moving depiction of the events could be made, but that’s clearly not the intention of the director here. It’s a unique achievement, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever watch it again. I just felt singularly unmoved by the whole experience. Still, it looks incredible, and perhaps it should be judged more as a piece of art rather than as a motion picture.

As usual, I’m pretty late to the game on these things, but this is the pilot of PG-Porn - porn for those of you who dig the low production values of traditional blue-movies, but without the actual sex.

This one features, in the starring role, Nathan Fillion of Serenity, Firefly fame.

It’s all pretty safe, so no need to fret!

I’m not big into the alleged ‘cinema’ experience, so most of what I watch is from the comfort of my own living room. Needless to say, if I want to watch the newest of new releases it is thanks to less-than-reputable means.

First - The Wrestler

Its probably fair to say that Mickey Rourke hasn’t been known for his astonishing acting of late - Sin City, while a scene-stealing performance, doesn’t seem to be a stretch for him, and his turn in Once Upon A Time In Mexico was similarly facile.

In The Wrestler though, he turns in a muscular, eye-opening performance (all puns intended). Playing a grappler who’s best days are a couple of decades behind him, Rourke completely convinces. Probably because the parallels between his character - Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson - and his own life are startlingly close. Both soar close to the sun, hailed as being at the very top of their respective fields, but then experience rapid decline as the public loses interest in them. Of course, in Randy’s case it’s more to do with ageing than any other reason. Rourke, on the other hand, seemed to have a wilful desire to explode his own celebrity by making poor choices and ultimately turning his back on the whole movie business.

Rourke’s physique is remarkable for a man of his age (52 at the time of writing), but it isn’t the muscles that make his portrayal so moving. He alludes to levels of vulnerability and tenderness that are completely at odds with the expected bravura. Randy, a dinosaur in a profession that is regarded by most of his world as a joke, is stoic about his chosen life. Its only when his health forces him to choose a different life that he realises the importance of being an entertainer. Of course, the same can be applied to Rourke when he gave up acting to become a boxer.

This gets to the heart of why I found the movie so emotionally exhilarating. Both Rourke and The Ram have made the decision to do something courageous - in the hands of a lesser actor, this role could have been unintentionally comedic as opposed to tragic. But Rourke’s career hasn’t exactly been in the ascendent, and this is a real risk for someone of his stature. But for Rourke, at least, its a risk that’s paid off with a well deserved Oscar nomination.

There’s plenty of other good stuff in the film to recommend it - Mareisa Tomei does well in a pretty cliché role (stripper with a heart of gold), and the wrestling scenes themselves have a real sense of claustrophobic danger about them.

I really liked this movie, and its all topped off nicely with a Springsteen song (called, naturally enough, ‘The Wrestler’) that manages in 3 minutes to completely sum up the mood of the preceding 110.

See it. And watch the trailer in HD here.

“Watchmen” viral video | Nerdage: “”

(Via Nerdage.)

The hype machine is well on its way now.

I must say the video is pretty slickly done, it looks just like a 70s News broadcast.

However… they already seem to be taking liberties with the story, alluding to a ‘famous’ group of vigilantes that was never in the book. Also, in the trailer, Silk Spectre refers to ‘The Watchmen’ as being ‘years ago’.

The book never calls them that - the title is a catch-all for all authority figures. Its always been a bit of a bug-bear for me when people call the book ‘The Watchmen’, let alone attributing that moniker solely to the core group of characters.

But that’s me. A pedantic wee shit.

I loved Neil Gaiman’s twisted little fairy-tale about a girl and her ‘other-mother’ on the other side of a wall.

It’s been made into a movie by Henry Selick, the director responsible for the majestic Nightmare Before Christmas.

Trailers here, have a look see. I’m really looking forward to it.

Fascinating!!!! Official Prequel STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN Offers Giant Clues Regarding Spock, Nero and J.J. Abrams’ New Movie!! — Ain’t It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.: “”

(Via the typically over-enthusiastic children at AICN - warning, spoilers ahoy!.)

Hmm. One for investigation I think.I’m usually not a fan of movie-prequels in comics form - the ones for the first X-Men movie were dire. Also, comics adaptations of movies that were originally comics are also dodgy - I can’t think of a single Marvel ‘comic of the movie of the comic’ that has been anything less than rubbish.

I guess ultimately I wish each medium would place a stake in the ground, Far And Away style, and stick with it. Crossing over rarely pays off artistically. Financially, its quite often a different story. Although I suppose the fantastic success of some of these adaptations is what makes the producers of drek like Ghost Rider think that there’s every possibility that they’re about to unleash something akin to a license to print money on an unsuspecting world.

Did you see Ghost Rider? How could anyone have thought that was a worthwhile enterprise? I could seriously live without The Dark Knight if it meant they weren’t going to make another horrendous Fantastic Four flick. Well… maybe not. Dark Knight was awesome.

However, going the opposite direction, from movies to comics? I can’t think of a single successful title outside of Star Wars and Buffy, and even those sell miniscule amounts compared to the so-called ‘mainstream’ super-hero stuff.

Anyway, just so we all know where we stand with each other, here follows the definitive Ronster Munch list of Comics Adaptations That I Like list. I’ll take them in the order they appear on Box-Office mojo, as I can’t be bothered to work them out chronologically!

The Dark Knight (goes without saying)
Spider-Man (showed us what we’d all imagined)
Spider-Man 2 (then did it better)
Iron Man (great fun from start to finish, mostly due to RDJr)
Batman (still think Nicholson’s Joker is balls though)
X2-X-Men United (the attack on the mansion is ace, as is the fight with the police)
Batman Begins (nice bit of world building there)
Superman Returns (I think, I might need to watch it again to be sure)
Batman Returns (huh, weird)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (probably the most faithful film on this list)
The Incredible Hulk (but Hulk was better)
Superman (the first comics adaptation? Even if its not, the first hour is just brilliant film-making)
Hulk (more pathos, more conflict, better film than TIH)
Superman 2 (Terence Stamp as Zod makes this)
Road To Perdition (although they crapped up the ending from the book)
Dick Tracy (really, its great - four colour fun!)
Daredevil (the Director’s Cut is like a whole new movie)

(short pause for dramatic effect and fetching some peanuts)

Blade 2 (Del Toro can do no wrong in my book)
Hellboy 2 (hated it first time, loved it second time - confused me too!)
Sin City (looks amazing, acting is all a bit hokey though)
Blade (improved upon in the sequel, but this is nice horror based stuff)
Hellboy (really love this now, was uncertain first time)
The Crow (but by god the angst levels of this film are adolescentastic)
Popeye (I’ve always loved this Altman oddity)
The Rocketeer (seriously, seek this out. Its up there with Indiana Jones for me)
The Punisher (controversial, but I feel the good outweighs the bad. Just)
A History of Violence (maybe the best film on this list, it’s brilliant)
Mystery Men (funny, satirical and mostly on the money)
Josie and the Pussycats (just about the most damning indictment of ‘teen’ culture out there)
Ghost World (one of those flicks you put on when you don’t know what to watch)
American Splendor (part documentary, part drama, Harvey Pekar is a fascinating man)

Its probably worth pointing out that Dark Knight notwithstanding, my favourite super-hero movie is Pixar’s The Incredibles. Brad Bird does everything right in that film. If you haven’t seen it and are at all into action-comedy or super-heroics, you could do a lot worse than check it out.

Anyhoo, if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the Star Trek trailer - 

In the early ’90s Alan Moore declared that he was no longer going to work in mainstream comics. However, after a decade that saw a couple of semi-aborted self publishing attempts (the tragically abandoned Big Numbers and the ultimately completed Lost Girls), and the occasional foray into working with marginal publishers in the US, he set up shop at Wildstorm Comics - an independent studio. It was 1999, and Moore’s own imprint was christened ABC - America’s Best Comics.

The first comic to come out of this was Moore’s excellent The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (previously mentioned by me here). However, alongside this critically acclaimed series he was also building a whole ABC Universe, featuring a whole host of characters in loosely connected comics series.

Tom Strong

One of two books featuring Moore’s ‘Science-Heroes’, Tom Strong features the adventures of an idealised ’super-man’. Raised in a gravity chamber on an island, Tom is a gigantic hulk of a man who is both genius and hero, protecting the inhabitants of Millennium City. He’s the chap in the red T-Shirt with the white triangle on it in the above picture.

Based in large part on the pulp heroes of the 1930s, such as Doc Savage, Strong seems to be the perfect man. Indeed, Moore has used his creation to convey his ideals, imbueing him with the characteristics that thinks a hero should have. Artwork was handled mostly by Tom’s co-creator, Chris Sprouse. As with most of the ABC books, the art is worthy of every superlative you could heap upon it. His pencil work is incredibly clean, and the colours are dynamic. Oh, and he did the pic above, so you get the idea.

Tom is married to a black woman, a native of the island he was raised on, called Dhalua. Their relationship is portrayed as perfect, yet anachronistic, as the stories in the book range from Tom’s birth at the start of the 20th Century all the way through to the present day, passing through eras when mixed marriages were seen as highly inappropriate. 

The rest of the Strong family is composed of Tesla, their daughter, Pneuman, a robotic butler, and Solomon, a very vocal Gorilla who speaks in much the same manner as the ape John Cleese voiced in George of the Jungle. 

All of this sounds hokey, and on some level that’s the idea. Moore has taken the conventions of the strong-man American super-hero and turned them on their heads. This isn’t a hero that solves conflict with muscle (although there is plenty of action) - he is an exceptionally intelligent individual for whom logic, reason and diplomacy are always the first stop.

There is also much humour in the stories - Moore isn’t often credited as being a very funny writer, but in my opinion he is more capable of comedy than just about any other comics-writer out there.

Towards the end of the series guest writers and artists were hired, and it would be lying to say that the book didn’t suffer as a result, although there were moments where the fill-in teams did some great work.

There were a couple of spin-off series, Terra Obscura and Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales. Terra Obscura was set up in an issue of Tom Strong, and isn’t really essential as it isn’t really about Tom himself, nor is it written by Moore. However Terrific Tales was a fun anthology series that explored more about Tom’s background. Each issue featured a Tom Strong tale, a story about Young Tom Strong, and a third story featuring the very sexy Jonni Future. Young Tom Strong and Jonni Future were written by Steve Moore, a man who’s permanent addendum seems to be ‘No Relation’, but he’s a damn fine writer in his own right - he was in fact the man who showed Alan Moore how to write a comics script in the first place. Art on Jonni Future was by comics legend Arthur Adams, and I think its probably his best work.

Jonni Future - she’s not big into fashion.

All told there were 6 paperbacks of the Tom Strong series that comprised all 36 issues, and 2 paperbacks of Terrific Tales with all 12 issues of that. There were also 2 paperbacks of Terra Obscura, but its really only for the completists I think.

Oh, and there was a spin off story featuring Tom’s daughter Tesla, called The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong - it was actually really good, and can be found in the paperback simply called America’s Best Comics, which also featured a story Moore wrote to introduce all the comics in the ABC line. Tom Strong is a really fun ride, like a smart Indiana Jones (a character with the same influences) coupled with a great re-imagining of what comics would have been like through-out the century, if they had been written with Moore’s very liberal views instead of the reactionary politics of most super-hero literature.

Get them all at Amazon here, and use my Associates link so that a brutha get’s paid!

Promethea

Promethea is probably my favourite of the ABC line, although that can change depending on what I’m reading at the time! 

At its heart, its a story about magic. However, Moore has very nicely decided to be as vague as possible about the nature of what magic is, so the whole thing can be easily interpreted as a story all about creativity itself. 

The main character is a girl called Sophie Bangs, who inadvertently becomes host to an ancient goddess of the imagination called Promethea. Guided by the previous hosts, who all live together in a paradise-like world called The Immateria, she becomes a warrior against those who would attempt to stop the people of the world from reaching enlightenment.

Co-creator on this series is the incomparable J.H.Williams III, an artist of such supreme ability that I would go as far to say that he has created the most awe-inspiring comics pages I’ve ever seen. Quite simply, his art is breath-taking. Seemingly able to imitate any style and possessed of the ability to draw the most outlandish images from Moore’s imagination, I can’t think of another artist who could have achieved what he has done here.

The first story arc is relatively conventional, in that its your basic warrior’s tale - young warrior learns their craft and fights the forces of evil. However, this is all done using the iconography of the Tarot, and Moore goes to great lengths to draw parallels between Sophie’s journey and the suits of the cards. Following this is a deeper exploration of the nature of magic, and it soon becomes clear that what Moore is getting at is a larger metaphor. He sees the essence of humanity, our self-awareness and imagination, as something entirely magical that should be celebrated.

And celebrate he does, with issue after issue of interesting concepts, fascinating conversations between the characters, and getting JHW3 to draw some amazing stuff. As a showcase for how remarkable and imaginative humans can be, its a roaring success.

Its probably the most experimental comic Moore has done. Issues 13-25 feature an extended trip through the different aspects of the Qabalah, each issue having a different, and highly creative, visual style. Issue 12 was probably the cleverest comic I’ve ever read, wherein they create essentially one large 24-page-long panel that has 3 separate threads running through it, combined with an anagram on each page from the same 9 letters: ‘PROMETHEA’ - that Moore manages to make sense in each context. Its ingenuity and sheer bloody smart-arsedness are only eclipsed by the final issue, which could be read in a number of ways (and still make sense). Its pages could be separated from the staples and composed into a large poster, which, when you laid it out to read the panels again, still made sense. It was, to say the least, creepy.

Again with the humour though. In amongst all the ‘magic’ lesson - and it is a lesson, make no mistake about it - Moore still manages to fit in a few laughs, most notably from Sophie’s sarcastic friend Stacia, and the ubiquity of a billboard phenomenon called Weeping Gorilla. A satire on comics, or a satire on self-pity, I’m not sure, but it always made me laugh:

There are 5 Promethea paperbacks containing all 32 issues (I think the last one actually has a fold out version of the poster so that you can read issue 32 that way). I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the concept of imagination and ideas, although to characterise it solely as a ‘think-piece’ would be doing it a disservice.

They can all be bought here - help me pay my bills!

Top Ten, Smax and ‘49ers

Imagine a city where everyone has super-powers. Now imagine the police force you’d need for that city. That’s Top 10, the story of Inter-Dimensional Police Precinct 10, in the city of Neopolis. 

Out of all the ABC books, its possible that this may be the most fun to read. It is, at its very essence, Hill Street Blues meets the Justice League of America. The cops have to deal with all manner of super-powered related cases (and every other type of ’super’ being - Vampires, Norse Gods, Robots; the works) while at the same time trying not to fall out with each other due to personal politics.

Just like any good cop show, we are introduced to the characters via the rookie cop, in this case Robyn “Toybox” Slinger, who is teamed up with the invulnerable Jeff Smax, an almost godlike, blue-skinned officer. Through this pair we get the lay of the land as they go on call-outs and investigate cases together. These range from domestics and rows amongst gods, to a full blown serial killer.

Aside from the central partnership there are a wealth of characters, each and every one well-rounded and sympathetic. From Irma-Geddon, the go-to-work-wife with the nuke-powered battle-suit; her partner, the bio-engineered Girl-One; Shock-Headed-Peter, robot racist; Hyperdog, the Seargeant who just happens to be a dog in a bipedal exo-suit - there are literally dozens of great characters floating around.

The book is full of visual jokes - nearly every panel seems to have a little gag in the background (such as Wallace and Gromit riding their motorcycle and side-car), as well as subtle nods to the conventions of TV Cop-Shows as well. Its a completely compelling series, one that most who read it wish had continued well beyond its 12 issues. 

There was a sequel, of sorts, featuring Slinger and Smax as they travel to his home dimension to settle some unfinished business. It basically does for the fantasy genre what the parent title did for police procedurals and is just as entertaining.

There was actually a ‘proper’ Top 10 sequel called Beyond The Farthest Precinct, by Paul Di Filippo. But it was, quite frankly, crap. Really rubbish in fact, and really not work seeking out.

Currently the original art-team of Gene Ha and Zander Cannon are working on their own sequel, which should be a serious improvement on the efforts of Paul Di Filippo. Their artwork on the original series was exemplary, especially with regards to the level of detail in each panel.

One more thing: The ‘49ers. A standalone graphic novel that tells the tale of the first days of Neopolis through the eyes of Steve Traynor, AKA JetLad, as he goes there to help set up a police force there. Its a fantastic book, with terrific art by Ha, and Moore throws loads of great ideas and emotion into a story that in other hands would have been an excuse to milk the same idea again. 

You can get all the Top 10 books at Amazon. You know the drill!

Tomorrow Stories

Lastly we come to the anthology series, Tomorrow Stories. Unlike most anthology comics which combine the combine of many writers and artists, in this case all the stories are written by Moore. His artists include such luminaries as Rick Veitch, Hilary Barta, Jim Baikie, Kevin Nowlan and, last but not least, then-future-wife Melinda Gebbie.

The stories are varied in theme and style - in fact its hard to believe that it all comes from the one mind. 

Greyshirt, with Rick Veitch, is a tribute to Will Eisner’s The Spirit, in which the titular character foils crime in Indigo City. On the face of it a run-of-the-mill crime story, Moore packs in a fascinating array of experimental story techniques. The ideas come thick and fast, plus every issue adds more to the overall narrative of the re-animated hoodlum. 

Incidentally, Greyshirt went on to star in a 6-issue mini-series of his own - Indigo Sunset, with Veitch handling both script and art duties. It was excellent stuff, and is well worth seeking out.

Jack B. Quick is a boy genius who’s enthusiasm is regularly dangerous. Kevin Nowlan is the artist, and does an amazing job of characterising the lead role. Set in rural America, JBQ is Moore’s satire on the Mid-West and small-town values. Jack’s experiments are often based on home-spun wisdom rather than scientific fact, and he seems to have a knack for driving his Norman Rockwell-esque parents to the brink of suicide.

One of the funniest and wittiest things Moore has ever written.

Cobweb, in which Moore partners up with future life-partner Melinda Gebbie, is best described as a bit of a lark featuring lesbians, bondage and domino-masks.

The stories are mainly a vehicle for Gebbie’s feminist erotic art, and in that regard they work pretty well. There is usually some sort of mystery that leads to Cobweb, a barely dressed lady-adventurer, and her lover/chauffeur Clarice having to investigate a dark warehouse or abandoned basement, where one or other (or both) will be strapped to a chair. 

Oh, and for the sake of clarity, its worth pointing out that Cobweb’s adventures take place in the same Indigo City as Greyshirt, who she occasionally teams up with and seduces.

Gebbie experiments with styles and form, but while I appreciated the artwork, I never really felt the stories were for me. I suspect this may have been the case for many of the readers, simply because finding a decently large resolution image of Cobweb online proved to be very tricky.

First American, with Jim Baikie, is basically a parody of the All-American super-hero and his buxom side-kick. Its pretty heavy satire of politics, celebrity, comics origins and whatever else Moore can think of to poke a stick at.

Its more hit than miss, but definitely one of the weaker facets of Tomorrow Stories, and again nearly impossible to find decent images from. In fact, I couldn’t find anything useable at all.

I wonder how I’ll fare with…

Splash Brannigan. Another comedy strip, this one parodies the comics industry, and is drawn by Hilary Barta. Its a pretty throwaway read, with a lot of decent gags, but nothing that will make you fall in love with it. The art is pretty dynamic though, since Splash the character is, essentially, a sentient blob of Indian Ink. He is able to change shape to fit the situation (or story), which usually revolves around him sexually harassing Ms. Daisy Screensaver, the person who freed him from his prison, an ink bottle.

To be honest, Splash is a bit of a dick, but the stories are entertaining enough to make them worth re-reading every so often.

Tomorrow Stories seems to be falling out of print, so off to Amazon you go!

Aaaaannnd that wraps it up, more or less, for Moore’s ABC output. There was the odd wee thing here and there, but you’ll never find it now, so don’t worry about it!

Right, I’ll probably do another one of these in while for other Moore stuff that I want to recommend, but for now, this is all I can be bothered to do.

Cheers for reading! 

I’ve been looking for a decent iPhone blogging tool for a while, so discovering that iBlogger was discounted down to 59p was all I needed to read.

It latched onto my Squarespace account easily, which I was worried would be a problem as they are apparently making their own app. However, aside from giving you access to user stats and the like I can’t see what extra stuff they could add that iBlogger doesn’t do.

This means that I’ll be able to add my meager thoughts to this blog from anywhere. Somehow I find that very satisfying.

You’ve heard it many times, and it’s cliche, but sometimes the setting is a character in a story.

Back on the Road is an anthology of comics centred around the Ballynafeigh area of Belfast, and produced by Ballynafeigh Community Development Association. Ballynafeigh is a very mixed area of the Ormeau Road, and as such doesn’t seem to have the same problems with ‘interface’ fighting that other locales of the city do.

The construction of the novel is familiar to anyone who has seen movies like Linklater’s Slackers - the narrative starts from a central thread, but as other characters are encountered we get short stories that feature them, with a different artist portraying each one. Many different styles of writing and art are employed, from comedy to horror, from noir to romance and ghost-stories. It’s a testament to the writing by Stephan McAnena that nothing feels crow-barred in, and the language used feels authentic, with every attempt being made to convey dialect - not an easy task, but necessary to convey the personalities of the protagonists.

The main story - “The New Summer” -  that snakes through the book is a tale of a man returning to the area after a long time in England. Its a clever thematic device that allows both the writer and reader to experience what has changed in the area in the intervening years. Art duties for this are undertaken by Will Simpson, who was also involved in editing the book as a whole. Simpson was the original artist on Garth Ennis’ Hellblazer stories, and I’ve missed seeing his pencils. Certainly I did a small double-take when I saw the front cover - I’d forgotten how much I liked his painted art.

There has been a concerted effort to add in visual reference points for those that are aware of the area to latch onto. Local landmarks such as The Parador Hotel, The Pavilion, The Curzon (RIP), Ormeau Park and the Ormeau Bakery all get their moments in the sun as the narrative stops off at each point. As an avid reader of comics, its hard to convey how much I enjoyed watching the two main characters walk down Sunnyside Street and turn down Kimberly Street - this is a path that goes right past my front door, and was instantly recognisable without the need to draw in any street signs. In one story in particular I was quite unnerved to see a character who I am absolutely convinced lives across the road from me. 

Along the way the book attempts to put into context many of these landmarks, and what they mean to people living in the area now. There is much humour and typical Belfast banter between characters, both important and incidental. It also isn’t afraid to show the darker side of life here, with a story focusing on a man who is, I’m presuming, a drug dealer. Nods are also made to the high level of racism and ignorance of other cultures in the area.

Not every story is a success, and it would not be unreasonable to point out that some of the artists’ inexperience in the comics form is only high-lighted by being alongside someone with the ability of Simpson, but in the long run I don’t think it affects the book in a negative way. In fact, I think its marvellous that fledgling comics artists are getting the chance to display their work in such a high quality book. Most comics-artist starting out usually end up working in the illustrious A5 Photocopy format, and struggle to be seen. This should be an excellent opportunity for all presented within.

However, there were some points were I felt more stringent editing was necessary - there are a smattering of spelling errors, misplaced or erroneous word-balloons and inconsistent colouring in one or two places. None of these hampered my enjoyment of the book though, but just niggled at me. 

It’s worth adding that the print quality of the book is outstanding, easily as good or better than many of the books I’ve bought in the last year or so. Its a 128 page hardback, and is easily well worth the £7.99 asking price.

I’d be really interested to see if other areas of Belfast (or beyond) follow this initiative and make similar books. Certainly the medium of comics is the perfect way to convey what an area looks like, but the immediacy of the form makes it an ideal way to portray the way a community feels.

A really, really noble effort from BCDA - if only more community groups were as progressive, perhaps we’d witness something of a comics revolution in Belfast. For now though, we’ll have to be content with Back On The Road, which isn’t difficult.

You can purchase the book from some shops on the Ormeau Road, such as the Centra, or you could contact Ballynafeigh Community Development Association at this page. I urge you to buy a copy, if only to show groups like this that its worthwhile trying new things and encouraging new talent.

Today I’ve kind of fallen in love with young Davey here. He’s a 28 year old New York film-maker who has, just for the sheer hell of it, made a load of videos of him dancing to music he likes. In public.

In the world we live in today there is a lot of what people would refer to as ’shameless exhibitionism’, and I think Davey qualifies, but in the truest sense of the words. 

He is completely without shame in what he does, and why shouldn’t he be? And he is most certainly an exhibitionist, and a damn good one at that. That’s to say, he can actually dance and he clearly is really enjoying what he’s doing. Lord only knows when I was a skinny as Davey there was nothing I enjoyed more than dancing around like a loon in the Limelight or Auntie Annie’s. Weirdly, Davey’s dancing style reminds me a bit of my own, except a lot less… aggressive?

So much of the internet is taken up with people complaining about movies, music, technology, politics… whatever folks can find to bitch about, they do. Its just nice to know there are little corners of them there intertubes that are more concerned with making people smile than pissing them off. Of course, there’s nothing people like to complain about more than young folks having fun…

You can find Davey’s main site here, which hosts some clips of his short films (which look pretty interesting, especially Exquisite Corpse).

All of the dance clips can be found at Davey’s Dance Blog - go visit them. They’re fun. Especially this one: