Here's a treat for anyone who enjoys 1970s British comics! Steve "Tharg" MacManus' new novel, set in the publishing offices of Goodenough Publications. Well worth a read
https://cool-stuff-you-will-like.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-sheerglam-conspiracy-by-stave.html
& the comic talked about in the book is now a reality. Blazer! is available to buy. Its a good idea & has an authentic feel but the artwork is appalling.
(https://i0.wp.com/www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-06-at-22.32.58.jpg?w=356)
Quote from: judgeurko on 18 March, 2021, 02:36:36 PM
& the comic talked about in the book is now a reality. Blazer! is available to buy. Its a good idea & has an authentic feel but the artwork is appalling.
(https://i0.wp.com/www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-06-at-22.32.58.jpg?w=356)
I assume aside from Dan Cornwell's stuff which is... well Dan Cornwell???
I enjoyed Blazer but aside from Dan Cornwell the art is pretty bad. Dan Cornwell's art is great, ofc.
Otherwise it's a great concept and I hope we get issue 2.
I've not seen Blazer, and in all honesty I'm not thinking I will pick a copy up. This is from the editorial team that bring* the '77 isn't it?
*and also promote this book as being by -- 'the one true Tharg.' which is a very poor choice of phrasebut I think it sets the stall out very nicely for the bias they present.
It is by them Bolt, and agreed.
It's very much a pastiche of the likes of Action, or at least that's how I read it. For example, one of the stories is called 'Sherrif of Nottingham' about a Texan policeman in the 1973 Midlands with everyone speaking in dialect. I think if the comic were more straight up I'd not have been into it.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 18 March, 2021, 02:58:02 PM
Quote from: judgeurko on 18 March, 2021, 02:36:36 PM
& the comic talked about in the book is now a reality. Blazer! is available to buy. Its a good idea & has an authentic feel but the artwork is appalling.
(https://i0.wp.com/www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-06-at-22.32.58.jpg?w=356)
I assume aside from Dan Cornwell's stuff which is... well Dan Cornwell???
Never been a big fan of Cornwell but his stuff is the best of a bad bunch.
Well, imagine my surprise when the postie rolled up today -- no prog, sadly but instead someone out there has posted me a copy of BLAZER!
I've not had chance to sit and read yet, but I really must say thank you to whomever it was that did this.
Well, that was an experience.
I've mulled it over since I finished it but I think the best thing I can say about Blazer is that if they wanted to make a comic from the '70's they succeeded.
Personally I thought the only strip that landed was 'Godwin's Law' with art by Dan Cornwell. I'd be happy to read more of that, despite the similarity with Darkie's Mob.
I'm torn as I know some of the creators involved, and in all honesty I think that they are better than this. I found it to be borderline racist in places and sexist.
I wish Cosmic Ray were still around to show them how to do this sort of thing.
I'll not be chasing up a second issue.
I really enjoyed it, and appreciate all the art is from people who do NOT make a living from it (except Dan).
As a comic the look and feel is incredible, and the stories are perfect for a "lost" 70s boys thing.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 20 March, 2021, 05:08:20 PM
Well, that was an experience.
I've mulled it over since I finished it but I think the best thing I can say about Blazer is that if they wanted to make a comic from the '70's they succeeded.
Personally I thought the only strip that landed was 'Godwin's Law' with art by Dan Cornwell. I'd be happy to read more of that, despite the similarity with Darkie's Mob.
I'm torn as I know some of the creators involved, and in all honesty I think that they are better than this. I found it to be borderline racist in places and sexist.
I wish Cosmic Ray were still around to show them how to do this sort of thing.
I'll not be chasing up a second issue.
Agree. Recreating a 70s comic can be done well without recreating some of the prejudiced attitudes.
Quote from: judgeurko on 22 March, 2021, 10:16:24 PM
Agree. Recreating a 70s comic can be done well without recreating some of the prejudiced attitudes.
What in the comic did you find problematical? All reads fairly harmless to me.
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 23 March, 2021, 09:15:15 AM
What in the comic did you find problematical? All reads fairly harmless to me.
Ignoring the artwork entirely and focusing on the script, the first things that spring to mind are:
Titling a strip 'Domenica's Ring' is bad enough but the lead character of this strip is a seventeen year old girl with the surname 'Totti'.
Next in 'Boot Room Boy' we have a Mr Pablo Zapata, from Carambia who doesn't speak English very well. In fact his first words are 'I shoot many goalies.'
Am I wrong in thinking these are just bad? Mind your language bad.
I must be made of sterner stuff!
Domenica's Ring is about a girl called Domenica who has a magic ring, so to take anything more seems like a push.
Totti is a standard Italian surname, it's double meaning is really harmles, and she's 21, not 17.
Pablo in Boot Room Boy is a very broad charicature, to be sure, doen to the marching powder in his tea (I don't think you take it like that...)
He is, as you say, a bit Mind Your Language. Apart from that, though, the comic is played very safe.
It seems you want to find fault, and that's your perogative, but it's mine to challenge that. I would have changed Pablo, myself, but nothing else.
You know what BCB, you may well have a point there - when I read it I wanted to like it, especially as I know several of the contributors, but these issues got under my skin.
It could be better, and should be better.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 25 March, 2021, 08:40:41 AM
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 23 March, 2021, 09:15:15 AM
What in the comic did you find problematical? All reads fairly harmless to me.
Ignoring the artwork entirely and focusing on the script, the first things that spring to mind are:
Titling a strip 'Domenica's Ring' is bad enough but the lead character of this strip is a seventeen year old girl with the surname 'Totti'.
Next in 'Boot Room Boy' we have a Mr Pablo Zapata, from Carambia who doesn't speak English very well. In fact his first words are 'I shoot many goalies.'
Am I wrong in thinking these are just bad? Mind your language bad.
You are not wrong. & the use of the word 'Jap'.
Quote from: judgeurko on 28 March, 2021, 02:57:43 PM
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 25 March, 2021, 08:40:41 AM
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 23 March, 2021, 09:15:15 AM
What in the comic did you find problematical? All reads fairly harmless to me.
Ignoring the artwork entirely and focusing on the script, the first things that spring to mind are:
Titling a strip 'Domenica's Ring' is bad enough but the lead character of this strip is a seventeen year old girl with the surname 'Totti'.
Next in 'Boot Room Boy' we have a Mr Pablo Zapata, from Carambia who doesn't speak English very well. In fact his first words are 'I shoot many goalies.'
Am I wrong in thinking these are just bad? Mind your language bad.
You are not wrong. & the use of the word 'Jap'.
So the foreign footballer and one use in a WW2 strip of the word Jap.
You REALLY are trying to be offended here.
Umm, yeah I found the racism offensive.
I'm not trying to be offended, and think the editorial team should have picked it up.
If you want to downplay it, feel free.
As I said a few posts ago -- it could be better and it 'should' be better.
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 28 March, 2021, 09:53:51 PM
Quote from: judgeurko on 28 March, 2021, 02:57:43 PM
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 25 March, 2021, 08:40:41 AM
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 23 March, 2021, 09:15:15 AM
What in the comic did you find problematical? All reads fairly harmless to me.
Ignoring the artwork entirely and focusing on the script, the first things that spring to mind are:
Titling a strip 'Domenica's Ring' is bad enough but the lead character of this strip is a seventeen year old girl with the surname 'Totti'.
Next in 'Boot Room Boy' we have a Mr Pablo Zapata, from Carambia who doesn't speak English very well. In fact his first words are 'I shoot many goalies.'
Am I wrong in thinking these are just bad? Mind your language bad.
You are not wrong. & the use of the word 'Jap'.
So the foreign footballer and one use in a WW2 strip of the word Jap.
You REALLY are trying to be offended here.
You weren't offended by it, that's fine but don't dismiss the fact that someone else was. I am not REALLY (see I can unnecessarily use caps as well) trying to be offended. I found it offensive.
I wonder if Commando comics uses terms like Japs and Krauts these days.
I don't read them myself, so couldn't say either way.
Bet they don't.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 30 March, 2021, 10:14:49 AM
Bet they don't.
Apparently not, and reprints have such terms edited out.
Blazer is, read on its own, problematic today. But I think its important to consider it in its proper context. These scripts were created as part of Steve's parody novel, The Sheerglam Conspiracy, they were not initially intended to be turned into a comic but were elaborate jokes, pointing out the foibles and problems with the comics many of us read in the seventies. The fact that dreadful sexist names were used for characters (Totti) and that casual racism was endemic, was, I felt, part of the point of the book. Read in that context, Blazer is a different animal. I'm not sure its useful to sanitize parody and ignore the things that were wrong with seventies comics, but I would suggest that it is best read as an honest parody.
Quote from: Splank! on 01 April, 2021, 10:50:13 AM
Blazer is, read on its own, problematic today. But I think its important to consider it in its proper context. These scripts were created as part of Steve's parody novel, The Sheerglam Conspiracy, they were not initially intended to be turned into a comic but were elaborate jokes, pointing out the foibles and problems with the comics many of us read in the seventies. The fact that dreadful sexist names were used for characters (Totti) and that casual racism was endemic, was, I felt, part of the point of the book. Read in that context, Blazer is a different animal. I'm not sure its useful to sanitize parody and ignore the things that were wrong with seventies comics, but I would suggest that it is best read as an honest parody.
Sanitize parody? Simply replicating the sexism & casual racism is not parody.
If you (or indeed anyone) wants to read an affectionate, well made parody of the comics of the '70's, then you cannot go wrong with The Bumper Book Of Solar Wind (https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/paul-scott/the-bumper-book-of-solar-wind-vol1/paperback/product-19w2kj2.html?page=1&pageSize=4)
(https://assets.lulu.com/cover_thumbs/1/9/19w2kj2-front-shortedge-384.jpg)
This was a project that was (IIRC) born on this very message board and involved quite a few folk who are no longer here.
There is a second volume as well and it goes without saying that these lost gems of the UK small press scene should be enjoyed by all.
There has been a good old chat/fight about all this on the Blazer facebook page. As a result, things have been learned and taken notice of. I, myself, have researched many wartime nicknames, their origins and if they are seen as derogatory in the current time. It'svery interesting.
Anyway, here is the official statement.
------------------------------------------------------
In response to a derogatory word appearing in issue 1 of BLAZER!
As publisher the buck stops with me at The77 Publications. I represent both the creators and producers of Blazer! and also have to listen to our readers and the wider public's opinions and concerns over what is printed. In this instance it is necessary to be clear.
The word in question is outdated and shows that comics have moved on from the 70's. It shouldn't have featured in the comic.
I extend an apology for any offence caused.
Addendum: Anyone who has previously purchased a digital or print copy and wishes to receive a redacted edition of BLAZER! please comment below or email The77Publications@gmail.com
This edition will be sent to you at no extra cost.
All future reprints will be edited accordingly.
Ben Conan Cullis CEO: The77 Publications