2000 AD Online Forum

My review of Milligan and McCarthey's Skin is up at The Nexus along with Floyd's new column (which despite what he says is great in my humble opinion) and reviews of Judgement Day and the christmas specials that I forgot to pimp.

Feedback will make me smile.

Link: Skin

Sob...nobody loves me...sob

Will

It's a fair review, and your sentiments upon it echo mine - but the book must be 15 years old now.

So, it would maybe have been interesting to add a historical context eg. is the story still relevant, has the style dated, and/or did the book pave the way for similarly-themed GNs that have appeared in the last decade-and-a-half etc.?

M@

after reading this review i can honestly say i will not even pick a copy of skin  off the shelf or accept it as a gift.

i like my hobby to be a sense of pleasure, not a reminder of the realities of the world.
but a very review and without doubt i shall be placing this site upon my faves book marks.

after reading this review i can honestly say i will not even pick a copy of skin  off the shelf or accept it as a gift.

i like my hobby to be a sense of pleasure, not a reminder of the realities of the world.
but a very review and without doubt i shall be placing this site upon my faves book marks.

good column by floyd. though i did not expect anything less from his penmanship.

Please copy the following into the database chat room



/icon nexus

Max

I remember what it felt like to read Skin for the first time - powerful stuff - and your review made me feel it all over again.  But, as someone else has said, this is a historical artifact now and it would have been nice to see some more on the post-publication history, culutural impact etc of the book.  Otherwise, it's kind of like "what this book means to me".  Which is fine on a blog but not really in a review.

I read the review. I liked it. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd usually read - sounds a bit 'Crisis era'. But even given the age of the book, I found it the review intereseting.

I also read Floyd's column.

so you quite liked it then Wils? :)
I think your review is  good- a few years late but thorough and intersting

I'm not sure about this part though
"Milligan also immerses you in skinhead culture, warts and all. You see the obsession with drink, violence and sex. You see the degradation of women and the incessant demonisation of homosexuality. You see the raw ugliness of their shaved heads, thuggish clothes and leering faces. You see the nihilism."

While this is a fair description of the characters in this story I don't think it was Milligan/McCarthys intention to present this as a defining representation of the sub-culture they belonged to.

It might be a case of your seeing what you want to see, and what you're seeing confirms what you thought "skinheads" are about all along; violent thugs/ugly/homophobic/subhuman.
Who ever said a shaved head is ugly anyway? Sin?ad O Connor?That model, Eve? Buster Bloodvessel?Me? oh...wait

same goes for the "thuggish clothes"- that's just a matter of taste- Ben Shermans- designed and worn by a respected Tennis player, levis'- universally worn- the boots..oh..it's the boots isnt it?

I know many skinheads- most hitting 30+ now. This attribute; "the degradation of women and the incessant demonisation of homosexuality" simply doesn't apply to them.
I know some skinheads are homophobic and misogynist( check out some of cybermaxs net-buddies!)but the world is full of  homophobes and sexists. I also know some skinheads collect stamps, drive taxis, tapdance yadda yadda yadda

The characters in this story are working class teenagers and are expressing juvenile opinions and behaviour. But these ideals and opinions are not much differant than your average chav (burberry ape!) of today.

Maybe I'm rambling a bit or overreacting  but I don't like to see that sterotype every -single-time someone writes anything concerning skinheads.

It's been a while since I've read it but your article has prompted me to go and read it again, so in the end, it's done what it was supposed to(?).

P.S
The "obsession with drink" thing was spot on though!


(cue response form straight edge skinhead)

Link: Oi oi

Skin is excellent, and I'd recommend it to any fan of "out there" comics.

- Trout

Glad you all liked-the historical stuff is good idea although to be honest a) I don't really know what the influence is (as far as I can tell it has had very little influence on mainstream comics) and b) I approach reviews with the intention of answering two question for the reader i) What is it? and ii) Is it any good? I think I answered them good enough.

As to johhnystress; you should bear in mind that I'm approaching this as a middle class, bisexual, student to be who lives in the suburbs. I'm sure Milligan/McCarthy would want someone like myself to find the culture as alien as I did.

And you're right Devon's Daddy Floyd's column(s) are fecking great, which is ironic seeing as I got this one two days late with a handwringing email saying that he couldn't get anything to work for him this week and I could feel free to reject it. Btw, is anyone else loving the Marvel UK bent towards Floyd's columns?, cause I am.

Will

(fingers crossed that my icon works)

Fair enough Will youre probably right about that

That kind of threw me though- I'm a middle class country boy from the bog and I didn't feel that alienation when I first read it all those years ago. This would have been before I ever saw a skinhead in real life

But you might be right in saying that it was Milligans intention to portray these characters as something less than human- I honestly hadnt thought of it from a "us and them" point of view

Actually most of my skin buddies aren't thugs. It's all for show. Thing is, we would still spread your ass across the street if you messed with one of us. Very few of them sleep around, most of them are still virgins (through choice rather than lack of offers).
It's all about unity. We dress the same, have the same hair, etc...

Hooligan Hardcore :-)

I should mention that I am from a middle class family

Max is as middle class as you can get, coming from NOTTING HILL. His next door neighbour is Hugh Grant.

Whereas Krusty comes from Milton Keynes, and has thus never met anybody of any significance.

when IO had hair and before I got my chin people used to say I looked like Hugh Grant. Glad I don't now.

Yeah, great one, now you'll NEVER pull Julia Roberts. Or Andie McDowell. Or Martine Mc Cutcheon. Or Sandra Bullock. On second thoughts...

Yeah, like I want to look like the world worst actor

Interesting review Will. I'll look out for this book. I've had no contact whatsoever with skinhead culture (unless chatting with Max counts) so can't comment on the accuracy.
  This adds to my desire to have an English language manga kissa (comics cafe) one day, since access to one is the only thing that could allow me to read Skin and a lot of other comics.
    Thanks for the kind words re my column! No more hand-wringing.
    I just missed out on Thalidomide. A little known fact about it is that doctors families had a high percentage of the birth defects. This is because new drugs are pimped to doctors famies first and they get all the free samples. Thalidomide was for making birth more comfortable and my mother has a friend, a fellow doctor's wife, who was urging her to take it when I was on the way. She didn't because she's a pharmacist and has a strong  aversion to unneccesary drug taking.

Whayy!! for your mother Floyd.

I think chatting over the net should count (other wise I've had no contact either, except i am skinning my best friend so maybe that should count)

"i am skinning my best friend"

You're not supposed to tell people about it Max. Thats how you get caught!

since Max only became a skin to avoid being sexually harrassed by Julia Roberts, Andie McDowelll,Martine Mc Cutcheon and Sandra Bullock, does he count as a real skin?

yeah yeah. I know. I did see that joke coming. I did mean I'm turning him into a skin head

Did you know that John Wagner used to be a skinhead in his younger days?

"The skinhead, I quite liked that and intend to do it again sometime. It?s interesting, seeing the top of your head and you save a helluva lot of money on shampoo. At the time I was about 18 stone and heavy boots were my footwear of preference. I looked a bit like Buster Bloodvessel without Buster?s genial nature. People used to cross to the other side of the street when I came along."

Link: Interview (at the bottom):

I remember reading that Cereus, remember he's not called "The Beast" for nothing.

Glad you liked it Floyd and congrats on your lucky escape.

Will