Who's Who in the CBU 2008

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

Pro-Found

By Regie Rigby

Yes, I know, Sunday again and still no new Column.

Sorry.

Anyway, I’d like to thank all the people who entered the Warren Ellis competition to win a copy of the excellent Crooked Little Vein. The message board was rather quiet on this – nobody posted an entry there – but there were a fair few entries via e-mail. An honourable mention goes to “Cal” from Idaho, who completed the sentence "Warren Ellis is a literary love god because..." with “his writing made me pregnant with anticipation.” But the winner is “Chris” from Surrey, who sent in “Warren Ellis is a literary love god because he just is – now send me the effing book or I will dispatch diseased squirrels to your door with instructions to gouge out your eyes and fill the sockets with their rabid jism”.

Chris wins not so much because of the threat – although that does indeed sound unpleasant – but because he or she (it’s hard to tell with names like “Chris”) used the word “effing”, which for some reason made me laugh. A copy of the book is on its way to you Chris. I hope you enjoy it, and keep those pesky squirrels under control.

It’s been a while since I ran a contest. Maybe I’ll do another one soon.

In the meantime, back to this week’s column. As a public service I should remind you to place an order for Hope Falls, the latest series from Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood, the dynamic duo responsible for bringing you The Gloom, as well as being the two guys you can rely on to be propping up the bar here at SBC.

Hope Falls #1 hits the stands in November, and you need to trust me – you don’t want to miss it. Not if you want to be in at the start of what looks like an extraordinary comic. While The Gloom was a pastiche – a gloriously over the top romp through every pulp motif you can imagine, Hope Falls is a much more serious piece of work. Themes of revenge and consequences wrap themselves up into a supernatural thriller that examines the meaning of good and evil.

When Tony first explained the concept to me at Bristol I wondered whether Dan’s art style might be too cartoony – that it might jar with the narrative too much. Shows you what I know about art really, doesn’t it? I’ve read the first two issues of the series now, and Dan has done what I can only describe as an astonishing job. Without altering his style in any way a no nothing hack like me can detect, he’s given the book an edge.

As is so often the case, I think the power of Dan’s art lies in the expression and emotion he manages to pack into every line, and the sense of movement in every panel. Like all good comics artists, Dan’s images never give the impression that they’re static. Each and every panel gives the impression that you’re catching it mid movement, and that when you look away, the figures will continue in motion. It’s an amazing thing, and I wish I understood art better so I could understand exactly how it works.

Hope Falls is going to be blindingly good. It may be the best British Comic to be published this year, and frankly you’d be an idiot to miss it. If you haven’t already done so, you really do need to speak to your comics retailer and ask them to get you a copy in. You’ll kick yourself it you don’t, and you won’t be able to say I didn’t warn you.

Of course, there are always comics that slip under your radar. Even internet pundits like me can miss things that we’d really have loved – indeed it happens to me all the time, which is why I make such a fuss about titles I know you’ll like, so that you all don’t have to cope with that same feeling of frustrated disappointment when you know you’re going to have to spend ages trawling on ebay to find that comic you missed.
But, as I said, I’m not perfect, and there are comics that manage to get in under my radar. Sometimes though, the gods of comics smile on us and we get a second chance. So it was with the Garth Ennis and Amanda Conner’s The Pro.
This was a comic I meant to pick up in 2001. Garth Ennis writing about a superpowered prostitute? How was I supposed to resist that? But, somehow events at the end of 2001 sort of distracted me. I didn’t have a local comics store, I was starting a new job, and my eye was well and truly off the ball. So, the Pro came and went, much in the manner of one of her clients. I missed it.
Then, I got a second chance. I have to be honest, I nearly missed it second time around too, but the ever watchful Matt at Destination Venus thrust it in front of me when I called in the other week, and refused to let me leave until I’d bought it. (Subtlety never was his strong point.) What can I say? Thanks Matt!
The Pro is a remarkable book. I agree that the concept itself is perhaps a little purile, but as with so much of Ennis’ work, the obvious schlock factor hides a far more serious message. The titular Pro is a woman with priorities. She does what she does because she has a kid to feed, and she doesn’t see another way of making ends meet. When she is endowed with super powers and inducted into the League of Honor (read, “The Justice League”) she is rather unimpressed by the people whe finds there and asks some pretty awkward questions.
For a start, this comics more than any other is able to question the inherently pervy nature of almost all of the spandex books. I know it’s not a particularly original observation, but there really is something odd about the way most superheroes choose to dress and conduct themselves in comics. Suspension of disbelief is all very well, but almost every Superhero in the history of comics seems to go for the rather fetishistic spandex look. (Jack Knight is an honourable exception here, but I’m genuinely hard pressed to think of another example.)
What The Pro really challenges though is the smug self satisfaction of superhero comics in general. She contravenes almost every “rule”, but in the end demonstrates the pragmatic self sacrificing heroism that all people are capable of, superpowers or no. She is, at the end of the day, an ordinary person prepared to do extraordinary things, not for glory, or for gain, but because there really isn’t any other choice.

If you missed it first time around, don’t, whatever you do, make the mistake of missing it again. It’s an extraordinalry piece of work. Profound, human, and ball-achingly funny. Go and get it now.







Happy Birthday Sputnik!

Last Thursday, the 4th of October, saw the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the little satellite that triggered the start of the space race. It was an inconsequential bit of technology, but it may also have been the single most significant thing our species did in the twentieth century. We’ve come a long way in the last fifty years, but there is still so far to go.

Here’s to the spirit of Sputnik! May we continue to move forwards.





Dorothy Rigby, R.I.P.

You didn’t know my Aunt, the wonderful Dorothy Rigby. Your loss. She was a remarkable woman, patient, kind, and almost unflappable. I remember her from my childhood as a soft and generous voice who gave me cigarette cards and chocolate biscuits.

She lost her battle with cancer on Saturday 6th October 2007. I didn’t have too much to do with her in recent years, something I will regret forever, but I shall miss her. She was an indomitable force, and we are less without her.