STOOL PIGEON

Whilst out and about last week I picked up a free music paper called Stool Pigeon in a FOPP store. It turned out to have an eight page comics section in the middle...

























Here are excerpts from all the strips in the section. They're reproduced very large, and the stuff is good...







































































Pick up a copy if you see one, it's well worth it. Further details on Stool Pigeon can be found here.

BERSERKOTRON Page 31 at WEBCOMICS NATION












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GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL

At the weekend I usually stick up a new page of Berserkotron at Webcomics Nation. My scanner is not working today, so here's something else...

Over at the Backlash website, they've posted an article called The Dangerous Cartoons Act. It's concerns new laws which have come into effect. Have a look here.

From what I can tell, it appears if you have "images" of underage characters engaged in sexual situations you can be fined, put in jail and stuck on the sex offenders list. By "images" it does not necessarily mean photos, it includes drawings - lines on paper. By underage it means "can be construed as underage" by an ignoramus with power.

This applies to England and Wales, so if you have copies of those excellent Robert Crumb comics or Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, you better keep them well hidden.

Very worrying.

COMICS STAMPEDE 2

Tintin and Snowy have a run on this French stamp from 2000.

Tintin has been on loads of stamps from across the world throughout the years. I have another one from Belgium that I’ll post here one of these days.

BERSERKOTRON page 30 at WEBCOMICS NATION













It's online now. Have a look here.

DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES

For those of you not in the know, every few years the lead character in the British TV science fiction series Doctor Who changes. The physiological change is part of the narrative, in that the Doctor has 13 “lives”. This aspect of the story was brought in when William Hartnell, the first actor to play the role, wanted to leave in 1966.

During the final minutes of January 1^st 2010’s episode, the 10^th version of the Doctor (David Tennant) changed into the 11^th (Matt Smith). After a few months recess, the series returned last weekend with the first full episode featuring the 11^th.

Now, concurrent to all this, there is a weekly magazine called Doctor Who Adventures. It runs a 4 page comic strip drawn in a neat way by John Ross. Here’s his take on the interior of The Doctor’s TARDIS time machine...

As the strip runs alongside the series and then continues while it is off air, it has to follow the events of the show. So, while Catherine Tate’s Donna was his companion onscreen, so was she in the comic too...

Lavender Hill Blob, funny. After the TV series dispensed with Donna and the Doctor spent most of 2009 without a regular companion, the comic created its own characters to keep him company, Heather and Wolfgang...

After New Year’s Day and the 11^th Doctor's 2 minute TV debut showed that the character no longer looked like Tennant, the comic still had to run for four months before Smith established himself. So the continuing tales now had to be subtitled “The Tenth Doctor’s Untold Stories”...

Nice idea, going back to the millennium celebration. Going into 2000 still seems like the future somehow.

These “untold stories” lasted until 2 weeks ago when the comic presented an enigmatic goodbye to Heather and Wolfgang, in much the same way as the TV Doctor had done with his onscreen companions...

Note at the bottom right: “NEXT WEEK: New comic action with the Eleventh Doctor”. This struck me as odd, in that it meant the 11^th Doctor’s 1^st comic story was going to appear before his 1^st TV one.

I looked forward to seeing how John Ross drew the 11^th Doctor. I also hoped they kept Ross on – they may well decide now was a good time for a change.

I keenly perused the next week’s issue, flicked through the opening 3 pages detailing an alien invasion in London, then turned the page to see this...

“NEXT WEEK: Find out what happens when Stephen meets the Doctor and Amy!” What a tease. They got me! I was on the edge of my seat reading this weekly comic, just like a ten year old boy! Good job!

Matt Smith’s first story appeared on TV last Saturday, and this week he’s up and running in the comic. It’s still Ross and here he is...

BERSERKOTRON page 29 at WEBCOMICS NATION












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MEDIA SCANS: MARCH 2010

Here's what I spotted last month.

The Herald on 6th March ran an interview with Mark Millar, who is busily plugging the Kick-Ass movie...



















































































What a nice surprise on the cover of The Times Playlist magazine for 13th March - Jack Kirby greatness...

















However the article had nothing to do with Kirby and was another piece on the Kick-Ass movie...


















































TV prankster Dom Joly fronted a show wherein he dressed up as Tin Tin and visited locations from The Black Island. The Guardian 20th March ran a review...

















The Times 26th March on manga reflecting the social climate in Japan...






















Money! The Times on how a copy of Action Comics hidden inside a magazine for half a century sold for a million pounds...