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Great news. My daughter loves their Lost Tales book and, in fact, was reading it this morning when she should have been getting ready for school.

Has there been a better comic creation than George Costanza?

Frank Costanza.

Thanks for that. I've just ordered in from A Place in Space, along with the Spider-Man/Venom book which, annoyingly, seems to be the start of the next Spider-Man run.

[Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I meant to see The Northman, but we turned up at the wrong cinema. Oops. This was on, though, so we saw it instead.

This was a load of fun. It's very recognisably a Sam Raimi film, and he plays up the horror aspects. Bruce Campbell's cameo even references Evil Dead 2.

There are the usual bits of MCU lore and "surprise" characters, which all add to it.

Well worth an evening out. But I still need to see The Northman.

Based on this I ordered Rogues and I'm glad I did, its a fun read... until the end when we are left to remember that while this was all been fun hi-jinks and played for laughs these folks are pretty terrible people. Art is just lush. The fact that the main heist is due to be in Gorilla City and we'll (I assume) get Grood soon as well.

So over all a bit of a triumph so thank you Calhab for the heads up.

One question though is Angel really going out with Detective Chimp?!?

Issue 2 of Rogues is pretty good- not quite hitting the high notes of 1, but some interesting character development.

[Once Upon a Time in the West]

A weekend trip to Edinburgh meant I got to return to the wonderful Filmhouse and catch their screening of Once Upon a Time in the West, part of their Morricone season. I'd only seen this on a tv before, and this was an entirely different experience. The pacing is slow, almost to the point of parody, but it is absolutely riveting throughout. The soundtrack, and the matching of the visuals to it (it was made before the film) might well be unmatched in cinema.

Anyway. Well worth seeing if it appears on a big screen near you.

Relying on comic art buyers being nice people? Oh dear. Minefield.

Its telling that I immediately could think of a couple of names about who the likely "owner" is who is unwilling to return the art.

Original comic art seems to attract some absolute bellends (and some some good people who are only interested in the art, of course).

[The Earthsea Quartet]

The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get round to this. Possibly because I'd bought the collected edition and the prospect of a 600+ page book is often not very appealing? Anyway, I should have read it years ago. It's easy to see the influences of the first book, A Wizard of Earthsea, on lots of subsequent fantasy. None seem to capture the same sense of a rich and strange world in the same way. The Tombs of Atuan, the second novel, takes a far more character driven approach and is all the better for it. The Farthest Shore is, on the face of it, a conventional quest story but manages to subvert it in interesting ways. Tehanu returns to the characters and shows them in a new light, in a changed world.

All great stuff. I think I'll reread this in a couple of years or so.

[Brigand Doom]

Brigand Doom

Tribute to Garry Leach from 2000AD:

https://2000ad.com/news/garry-leach-1954-2022/

That's a lovely piece.

Just read on Twitter that art droid, and Marvel/Miracleman artist, Garry Leach has passed away.

[Rogues]

Rogues #1 (Williamson, Leomacs, Lopes, Otsmane-Elhaou). I picked this up on a whim on the basis of the striking cover, and I'm very glad I did. This is a tale of super-villains trying to go straight and starts off with a great humorous tone (and a wonderful cameo from Ape of Angel & the Ape) before taking some serious and dark turns. This could go badly wrong, but the creators pull it off. Full marks for the art, and particularly the colouring, on this. Well worth picking up.

2000AD is unfortunately plagued by fans* who are covered by this.

_{*Someone who bought the prog in the 80s and now proudly and regularly declares on Facebook that they haven't read it in years.}

This is an interesting article, covering topics which have come up on the board:
https://www.brokenfrontier.com/toxic-fandom-comicsgate-uk-comics/

His commentary looks pretty accurate to me.

[Rogue Trooper (Friday)]

Rogue Trooper (Friday). War Machine was great, the rest.....was not. I didn't really enjoy Dead Meat, although I haven't read it in thirty years.