America's Got Powers by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch

[Alski]

Now THIS has started off well. The art is beautiful, of course, with Ross taking all that was wrong with the overlong, stuffy "Turf" and chucking it out of the window.

This is spandex territory, and uses a mysterious space crystal to set up the story that a batch of babies born in San Franciso on a certain day (from forced labours) ALL have powers, except one kid. Things got a little out of control, and the powers are kept under control by being put in a camp and trained, coming out to compete in the titular show to earn a place on the world's only official super team. WHilst it doesn't throw up any real susprises it's a great read, with issue #1 setting things up perfectly.

Highly reccommended.

[Evil Pants]

I tried this digitally....Unfortunately I hated it quite a bit. Really thought it was as poorly written as Turf was. Ok concept I guess, but Rising Stars and other titles did it much better.

My opinion of course.

[The Adventurer]

I liked this idea better when it was called Wildguard: Casting Call by Todd Nauck

[Evil Pants]

I liked this idea better when it was called Wildguard: Casting Call by Todd Nauck

 

[M.I.K.]

The title's crap.

[Mudcrab]

The title's crap.

Heh, yeah. Have they got like, Austin Powers?

So is that THE Jonathon Ross?  I don't think I'll even be considering thinking about that.

[Evil Pants]

The title's crap.

Heh, yeah. Have they got like, Austin Powers?

So is that THE Jonathon Ross?  I don't think I'll even be considering thinking about that.

Yeah...I have to say I thought it was terrible. I'm glad other people are enjoying it though. My LCS sold out immediately on day one.

[SmallBlueThing]

I hope it's better than Ross's last effort, the seemingly never-ending Turf, over in CLIiNT. My immediate reaction to these celeb-written comics (which may not be entirely fair) is to run very fast in the opposite direction and hope that my local comic shop doesnt soon become a mirror of the books aisle in tescos. But hey, maybe Tharg should get Katie Price or Peter Andre to write something, plastering their names all over the cover. Id give up six pages a week to that if it brought in an extra 40,000 readers. OR woUlD i?

SBT

[TordelBack]

...Katie Price or Peter Andre...

Grabbing the zeitgeist by the jugular, that's our Steev!  Why stop there in our search for celebrities torn from today's headlines, why not commission Future Shocks from Lord Lucan and Wallis Simpson!

Gawwwd, SBT, yurr soooo last decade....   

(Not that I myself recognise more than a handful (and they usually do have more than a handful) of the "celebs" that the service station "goss" tabloid section appears to assume I am on first-name terms with...)

(He claimed, snootily...)

[SmallBlueThing]

I understand, mr back, from those in the know, that price and andre still guarantee sales. But yes, youre probably right- perhaps that halfwit off 'the voice' and that 'micky minge' singer-girl?

SBT

[Evil Pants]

To be fair, Ross' passion for comics is well documented, even for us in North America who barely know who Ross is.

But just because you love something doesn't mean you should be doing it professionally. And he shouldn't.

[TordelBack]

perhaps that halfwit off 'the voice' and that 'micky minge' singer-girl?

You write the words, all I read is 'noise, shite, vacuity and still more noise'. 

I'm now so old and bitter I take actual pride in my complete ignorance of these poor media-tossed halfwits and their ruttings, squawkings and squabblings. I've reached a point in my life where the (hilarious) economics of manorial life in 1980's role-playing modules, webcomics about homicidal bears and a new translation of Tacitus' Histories mean more to me than just about anything in the broadcast* or tabloid media. 

*Apart from BBC Radio 4, obviously, where light comedies about angst-ridden social workers and really good documentaries about glass-blowing in the Cotswolds are still de rigeur**. 

** Pass me my slippers, I have a mldewy copy of October 1989's Private Eye to read.  It's got Thatcher and Ted Heath on the cover, I just know it's going to be good.

EDIT: Inspired by this thread I cast an illegal eye over the comic in question.  It looked nice, but was largely unpalatable to me.

[Emperor]

To be fair, Ross' passion for comics is well documented, even for us in North America who barely know who Ross is.

But just because you love something doesn't mean you should be doing it professionally. And he shouldn't.

Most comics creators get to do their growing up out of the public eye, so you get to sort out your schoolboy errors before too many people read your work. Being a celebrity (and one of Britain's biggest geeks) means you are straight out in the spotlight and going creator-owned means there is less likely to be someone objective looking over his shoulder. We have a mutual friend, so if you're reading this Rossy get Sasha to give you my email address, I'm sure we can sort your out

[Evil Pants]

To be fair, Ross' passion for comics is well documented, even for us in North America who barely know who Ross is.

But just because you love something doesn't mean you should be doing it professionally. And he shouldn't.

Most comics creators get to do their growing up out of the public eye, so you get to sort out your schoolboy errors before too many people read your work. Being a celebrity (and one of Britain's biggest geeks) means you are straight out in the spotlight and going creator-owned means there is less likely to be someone objective looking over his shoulder. We have a mutual friend, so if you're reading this Rossy get Sasha to give you my email address, I'm sure we can sort your out

Good point. And I feel bad in dismissing the work...he obviously loves the medium as much as any of us, which you can't always say about some of these celebrities that dabble in comics. Hopefully he keeps trying, and eventually knocks it out of the park. In the meantime, AGP is selling well. That's something, at least.

[Alski]

Well, I liked it. I guess Bryan Hitch must like it as well, as I'm sure he can pick and choose his jobs there days.

I was initially dubious because it was Ross, as Turf was not that good, but this is right up my street.

having an illegal look is a good way of trying before you buy these days.