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Marvel Essential - Tales of the Zombie Vol. 1

Uh never got around to this one. It looks bloody lovely let us know how you get on with it.

New pictures of the Tardis interior from the Radio Times over at Bleeding Cool.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/03/30/the-new-tardis-interior-like-a-perforated-copper-kettle/

Darth Vader can barely contain his rage as the invasion of the Chocolate Factory is stopped short when the stormtroopers follow Augustus Gloop up the pipe.

Nothing rude! And anything containing the words 'Aren't you a little short' will not be counted!
 

Ok then

"Aren't you a little tall for a Stormtrooper?"

The amorphous, flattened zebra slithered menacingly across the lawn and under the path.

GOLD!

Look Yoda the disguise is fooling no one.

I'm not sure I understand any better in English. Bits are genius bits are... different!

Not wishing to derail the tread (and I'm sure someone will get it back on track when they realsie this is all just piffle) but I don't actually think The Emperor is a real person (has anybody met him?) rather some A.I. comics search engine that's developed sentience.

Its possible...

...no really

I hate it when writers say that 'You just don't get it' when you don't like their story. I've done enough research into the reading experience to understand that writing is a shared experience. If the reader 'Just doesn't get it' its cos the writer 'just ain't told them' in a way that reader can understand. Whatever the writer intends is nothing until a reader has read his work and placed their understanding on it and only then do you have a story. However in the case of 'From Grace'...

...I just don't get it.

Kurt Vonnegut is my favourite author but I always suspect when I've finished one of his books I've missed a whole load of subtext. They're still a joy to read with the bits I do 'get' but I suspect there's more in there. I kinda think that might be the case here.

On my reading this is an incredibly simple story were the title says it all really. Its lush to look at, a pleasure to read and constructed in a really interesting manner that alway kept me interested.

It's just that having finished I felt there must be more to it that I was missing. This didn't hamper my enjoyment of it but left the experience feeling a little empty.

Wow it all looks so much fun. Great that you all had such a fantastic time and I'm really tempted to join in next year if the little un makes it possible?

Anyway the question all this leaves me with is Al Ewing the single most photographed person in history? I'm beginning to think he must have a network of doubles to make sure he can appear in all fan photos????

That's great SuperSurfer (as ever) and don't forget the topic of this months (6 weeks) art comptetion if you feel this needs a home?

Maybe I owe it a reread in light of your enthusiastic view, but I remember it being that rarest of rare things: a truly poor Dredd story from Mr Wagner. I have no problem with the occult popping up in Dredd stories but it just seemed like a cheap way to reset the relationship between Joe and Vienna.

The trouble is in isolation I'd probably revert back to feeling a little uncomfortable about it but having had the luxury of reading it reading all the Dredd building up to it in a compacted time then it really works. So if you're looking for an excuse to read like 50 plus Wagner Dredd's in one go...

The man's a bloody genius? Will that do?

I've read a lot of his stuff and astonishing as his later work is I have to be honest I've got a massive soft spot for this post war 'Spirit' stuff. There's such diversity in that material its bloody lovely.

I'd also recommend this instructional books 'Comics and Sequential Art' and 'Graphic Narrative and Visual Storytelling'. Even if you have no intention to ever be a creator they still provide great insights to readers.

'Tax Dodge' is one of my favourite 'Strontium Dog' stories ever... there not much point saying anymore is there... and yet I'm going too!

Its a great example of how John Wagner, like no other comics writer, can balance comedy, at times boardering on farce, and still have a strip be an exciting action adventure. There were times when I thought it was going to tip head long nto a pure comedy romp but he always pulled it back in the knick of time.

That 'Tax Dodge' and 'Leviathan' can sit together so well in a single comic and each be as good as each other on their own terms is another example of why we are the folk lucky enough to have realised that 2000ad is indeed the greatest comic out there.

Well this is more a question than a review I'd guess. Its that age old debate of do we want more? Well not strictly speaking in the sense of a sequel, actually more of case of could it have been more?

Lets get it said right off the bat that Leviathan was bloody brillant, absolutely superb. It had a fantastic opening with the pan out to show the scale of the ship and from there we get a beginning, middle and end that as it stands needs to be left alone. Its a fantstic thrill and I'm very glad we have it. When people talk about how to package Cradlegrave since its too short for its own trade normally folk discuss adding other John Smith tales for obvious reasons. I think I'd rather see some kind of 2000ad Horror stories trade and have this and Cradlegrave sit together. While they are very different stories they both are so good that they'd sit really nicely together?

Anyway the question. Could Leviathan have been longer? I enjoyed my visit there so much and the characters we meet were so engaging I wanted there to be more and feel there could have been. As I say as it stands it needs to be left alone but if from conception it'd been planned as a longer thrill I'm sure there could have been more tales to tell to allow further exploration of this wonderful world.

Heck in my mind this could have been a four book story, each Chapter set in a different class. 'Leviathan: First Class', 'Leviathan:Second Class', 'Leviathan: Steerage' and 'Leviathan: Engine Room'. Essentially telling the same tale but giving it more time to explore the dark corners of the vessel and the people who inhabit them. As Lament pieces the clues behind the ships mysteries together. Cos lets face it Lament is such a great character he needs to be the glue that'd hold all this fantasy strip together.

Am I being greedy and should I just be grateful to have this fantastic strip as it stands or could we have seen the bolts and girders that constructed this most majestic of tales? Would this have stretched things too far and become a drag?