Excelsior! Happy Birthday Stan Lee

December 29th, 2009 by Riff

Ok so it’s a day late but better late than never!

Yesterday was the great “Stan the Man” Lee’s birthday – a sparkling 87 years young.

If you don’t know exactly who Stanley Martin Lieber is, then I’m wondering what you’re doing reading this, but welcome anyhow. For those who aren’t in the know, Stan Lee, along side comicbook giants such as Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Romita and “Gentleman” Gene Colan created some of the greatest mythologies of the modern age: The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, The X-Men, Iron Man and of course the Amazing Spider-man – there’s more too but this isn’t just a list.

It wasn’t just heroes Stan created either – Doc Ock, Dr Doom, Magneto, The Skrulls are some of the best villains in comicdom; dastardly, dangerous, demented and deadly and they’ve all stood the test of time.

Stan and his collaborators also created some of the best stories, and grey areas: Thunderbolt Ross & the Inhumans walk a fine line between hero and villain – and in that Stan was a decade or more ahead of his time. We could go on, but let’s just celebrate the man who has brought so much pleasure to generations of kids across the planet.

I once heard that more people have read something by Stan Lee than have read Shakespear and bloody good job too if that’s true because Stan is relevant! His stories, fantastic as they may be, speak to people in the modern age unlike the (not so) immortal bard.

Stan, we wish you many more years of health wealth and happiness! Enjoy and Excelsior! We are all of us, True Believers

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Update

December 14th, 2009 by Riff

Things are moving apace.

I figure it’s time to give you all a clue as to my latest project: ICBMDB

There you go, make of that what you will ;-)

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Silence Abounds

December 4th, 2009 by Riff

I know… things have been very quiet around here. But just so you know, I’ve not forgotten about either of you, dearest readers.

I’ve been working hard on a secret project that soon I will hope to be able to reveal a bit more about in due course, and also I’m actually in a place where (I hope) I can start reading comics again and blogging a bit more frequently. No promises, the black dog still has a fierce bite, but, well… let’s hope.

I’ve also got a treatise I’m mulling over here that I hope some of you will find interesting. I’ll start work on that shortly with luck

Til then, toodles.

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Back in Action!

November 18th, 2009 by Riff

Ok we’ve been through a host move and some other extraneous crap – but now I’m very pleased to tell you we’re back and raring to go!

What’s more, I’ve got an exciting new project I’m working on that you, dear reader, will be invited to take part in in due course. An exciting, interactive comic project! So stay tuned and I’ll update you in due course!

Meanwhile I’ve got a few other blogs to get down here so there’ll be more to come and I’ve also got a couple of other sites to work on too. It’s tough at the top I tell ya!

Don’t be a stranger!

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Hooving Most

November 8th, 2009 by Riff

Looks like I’m going to have to find myself a new web host for here, and for my other sites – my current host seems to have lost the plot (and several servers.)

But the good news is I have a cunnning plan and I’m even kind of managing to dip into comics again ever so slightly.

Stay tuned Folks!

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Time for a Rethink?

October 7th, 2009 by Riff

As many of you know, I’ve been struggling with health issues over the last couple of years or so – and it’s often very tough to come up with cool and interesting subject matter to make this blog an interesting read. It’s also very hard work maintaining enthusiasm for it at times. It was especially tough when we were hacked recently due to some arsehole exploing some bad code.

When I kicked this blog off, I was doing so in partnership with my buddy Eblison. He’s sadly had to get involved in other things, and so it’s inevitably fallen to me as a one-man band to keep things going and with no budget to even keep abreast of the latest news, that’s sometimes a bit tough.

I hope sincerely that in the last year or so, Crucial Comicbooks has given you all some great insights into the world of comics – but I’m really not sure if I can keep the site going much longer, at least in its current format. It may be that I shall suddenly get inspired by some other thought for it and it will rise, phoenix-like from the Ashes of this blog to be something new and exciting (but as it stands I have no idea what that idea might be.)

Nothing is written in stone, and I’d welcome any and all feedback on this – but it seems to me that the only thing I can realistically bring to the comicbook world is opinion. I’m not able to bring breaking news, or exclusives or anything of that nature – there are many sites better connected to the comic industry than this, so it becomes purely my thoughts and opinion and it was never meant to be about me.

It’s not a done deal, yet. I’m chewing it over, so let me know what you think, assuming you have any opinion at all and I’ll take it from there.

Toodles for now x

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Marv Wolfman on Collecting

September 12th, 2009 by Riff

Marv Wolfman’s been a name I’ve known almost all my life, from when I first discovered Marvel’s comicbooks. Marvel at that time was unique: I knew Batman and Robin from TV, not comics, but somehow, Marvel’s characters – or rather, Stan Lee’s creations – were much more real. Thus I was hooked.

Marv’s name has been synonymous with comics for me almost ever since. I seem to recall his name from way back, as author, editor and general commentator. Recently he suffered a tragic (but thankfully no serious hurt or injury) but reading that made me realise I’d not seen him in action for a while. Probably because he works mostly for DC and they somehow have never managed to grab me like Marvel or many of the independants have.

However he’s worth listening to, and I often dip into his blog over at http://marvwolfman.com/todaysviews.html – he brings some good sstuff to bear, be it parodies of Kaspar or thoughts on how comics will adjust to the new technologies. He’s getting to that stage where he’s an elder statesman of comics and the guy that helped create Wolverine, the most popular comicbook character ever is worth listening to.

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…. annnnnnnd we’re back!

September 10th, 2009 by Riff

Ok well that was traumatic.

For those of you who don’t know, WordPress recently announced a vulnerability and patched it but it was too late for many of us and some slimy little shits of hackers got in under the radar and took our sites offline.

Not a pleasant experience, and something that I’ve not really had to deal with in the past. It did actually make me wonder what the point of this is, but I’m not one to act in haste.

It did however focus the mind. What is the main value of this website? It’s hard to get exclusive news relating to comics, and interviews are also somewhat rare, limited in no small part by geographical location, as well as time etc. So I shall use this as an opportunity to cogitate and reflect and decide on the best direction for the site. If you, dearest reader have any suggestions, I’d welcome them. Let me know by dropping me a comment or something

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Oh no! Disney Acquire Marvel!

August 31st, 2009 by Riff

Disney Acquires Marvel is some of the hottest comics news for an age.

friendlyneighbourhood...

friendlyneighbourhood...

Personally I dread it. I think if Disney do anything more than a very light touch they will fuck Marvel irreparably. That said, it’s easy to see why they’ve done it. Bruce Banner & Reed Richards, Tony Stark and Victor von Doom are they only people capable of defrosting Walt’s head and giving him back some form of non-cryogenic existence, so that he can continue his lifelong ambition of global domination (remember “Victory through Airpower” anyone?)

Seriously this could seriously fuck all our favourite characters. But there are some interesting crossovers – The Amazing Spider-Mouse, Moon Duck, The Punisher vs Uncle Scrooge, Howard & Donald’s Excellent adventure, Dr Pluto (hmmmm) Snow White and the Seven X-Men, and best of all (thanks to Fed for the pic) Winnie the Pooh, Agent of Shield.

Winnie the Pooh, Agent of Shield

Winnie the Pooh, Agent of Shield

Of course there are some things that neither will go near but have interesting potential: Marvel Team-up: Namor & The Little Mermaid and The Fantastic Four featuring Goofy, or Marvel Zombies vs Hewie Dewy and Lewie, and that’s even before we get to Marvel Pets… but something tells me this is going to go horribly horribly wrong: Peter Pan is probably now an Inhuman, and the Sentry will be teaming with Alladin. Let’s just hope that Disney (who haven’t made the best decisions in recent years) understand what they’ve got their hands on.

Thanks once again to Federico of www.bloodysugar.com for his stunning sketches

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Comicbook Experiment: Calling all Artists

August 16th, 2009 by Riff

Here’s an idea that came to me the other day and I thought I’d share it with you all dearest reader.

Many of us in comicbook fandom land aspire to be a comicbooks writer or artist – we love comics so much we want to be involved in their creation – and frankly I’m no different. However I know my limitations and whilst once I dreamed of wielding the pencils and showing John Byrne how it’s done (don’t forget – once he won just about every art award going!) realistically that was never going to happen.

I do like to think that I’m ok with putting words sequentially on a page however, and telling the odd story. So I wrote a short plot/script that I’d like to see illustrated and turned into an online comic. There’s no commercial imperative – just for kicks and to see my work up there.

Then I got to thinking – which can be dangerous! But, if you’re a regular reader here, you’ll already know that one aspects of comics I find incredibly exciting is the creative process. So the germ of an idea came to me and over recent weeks as my interest in things cricket has gone from edge-of-seat-excitement to flabergasted-resignation I’ve fleshed this little idea out into something tangible and I would like a few of you to help me with an experiment.

Here’s the plan: I want maybe 5 or 6 artists to illustrate my script. I’ve kept it fairly loose, with little or no directorial control – and I would like to see how differently it gets interpreted by some of you talented people out there in comicbook land. How will you each take this short story I’ve created and turn it into an artistic masterpiece? I’m already fascinated by the potential outcomes – the differences and similarities and ways that it can be interpreted could be amazing. I hope you guys are seeing that too.

So, to take part you need to send me an email to riff@crucialcomicbooks.com with a page of work you have already drawn. (It doesn’t have to be published – you can be brand new to the game, but I do need to have an inkling that you can actually produce a finished page.) Also you don’t have to be a single person. You might, for example have a team of artist, ink, colourist and letterer. I don’t mind… so long as you’re capable of taking my words and producing a finished page. There’s no financial reward of course, this place is just a fan site, but I’ll take the best 5 or 6 and publish them here, so that the world can see them – and I hope we’ll get some exposure elsewhere too – that is my plan.

You’ll need to be able to commit to delivery by a given date (I’m currently thinking 31st of October – so you’ve got 10 weeks from now to get it.) There will be rules of course, and the contents will be subject to a non-disclosure agreement so that we’re not seeing pages and the story posted all over the web. Once it’s up and they are all posted you’re welcome to post it to your own sites if you have one as well as on here, and of course I get to decide who gets to take part – at my discretion.

This is a lot of fun. It’s exciting because I’m really looking forward to seeing how you guys can interpret things differently so to take part whizz me through an email to riff@crucialcomicbooks.com and let’s get things moving.

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