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.

The Jester Awards 2007 - Part One

By Regie Rigby

Well, a big “HO HO HO!” to all my readers – I hope your Christmas was most excellent! The end of the year is upon us, and that can mean but one thing – it’s time for the annual round up of all that was brilliant in comics (and some bits that were so bad they were funny) in 2007.

Settle down and join me, your foolish host, for the 2007 Jester Awards! Less prestigious than the Eagles, and less entertaining* than the Golden Champagne Glass, the Jesters** are my excuse for chucking around some of the bouquets and brickbats that the people who make your comics so richly deserve. Sit back and relax, my foolish friends – we have a lot to get through…

And we start tonight with the category which causes the most controversy, the What were they thinking? award. This isn’t always a negative prize by the way – last year Marvel won it “for going anywhere near the New Universe concept again” after the last catastrophe they had with it. A strange decision certainly – but given the quality of the result, certainly the right one.

I have to be honest, this has been a poor year for outright comic-book based incredulity. I might well have not liked some of the decisions that have been made by creators and publishers in 2007, but for the most part I understood them. I suppose I understand this one too if I’m honest – but if it’s true, this is a decision I can’t believe they didn’t try harder to find a way around.

I say “if it’s true” because I haven’t been able to verify this with the publishers yet – I guess the news might be all over the internet, but if it is I haven’t been able to find it. My source is a good one though. Anyway. The 2007 “What were they thinking?!” Jester goes to whoever it was that decided there should be a Doctor Who comic that was not available in the UK.

I suspect that if confirmed, this is another rights issue of the kind that has prevented the strangely disappointing League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier from being sold (legally at least) in the UK. The arcane and labyrinthine twists of copyright law are strange indeed – but I can accept them most of the time, even when they don’t make sense.***

But, and this is a big “but”, the whole point of copyright law is that the rights it confers can, by agreement, be reserved whilst not being exercised. Pretty much all of YouTube exists on this basis. Almost everything on there is technically a breach of copyright to some degree, but the rights holders choose not to pursue it. This does not mean that they can’t pursue any other breach of their rights, since these rights are reserved.

I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the copyright issues involved in any Doctor Who comic are several degrees of magnitude more complex than your average Youtube video, but the principle remains the same – copyright issues present no problem that cannot be resolved by people of goodwill. It needs sorting – and then this is one Jester I’ll be happy to take back.

But let’s move on to more positive (and verified) pastures now, with the award for “Most Welcome Return of a Character to their own book”. This year, there are only two nominations: Tank Girl and Dan Dare. Both are characters I’ve known and loved for some time – as long as I’ve been reading comics in fact, and I was equally pleased to see them both back.

They are very different characters of course. Dare is rather serious, heroic and adventurous. A character steeped in noble British traditions and ideals. Tank Girl on the other hand is irreverent, chaotic and, quite frankly, depraved. Dan Dare may have had many adventures fighting the Treen across the solar system, but he never, not once, shagged a talking kangaroo. Not even in the series that Grant Morrison wrote for the late lamented Revolver.

Like her more straight laced co-nominee, Tank Girl is very British though. While Dare is a product of British attitudes in the Fifties that spawned him, Tank Girl most definitely belongs to the Britain of the late eighties. I first discovered her in 1988, I loved her instantly, and it’s not an attraction that’s worn off. This new incarnation is something of a departure, since this is the first time I’ve seen her created by anyone other than Martin and Hewlett, the writer / artist team who created her in the first place. Well, unless you count the 1995 movie version - and their work even featured in that too.

The spirit of the book is pretty much unchanged though. The stories are short, anarchic and pretty damn random, spiced with sex and violence throughout. They are also hugely hugely laugh out loud funny if that’s the way your sense of humour kinks – and mine surely does.

Dare is, well, Dan Dare is what Dan Dare has always been. In many ways he’s Britain’s Captain America, in that he pretty much embodies everything that we’d like to think we are. We’re not superheroes here on this island. But we like to think we’re good at what we do, that we will stand up and fight the right fights, against the right foes. We like to think that we take our responsibilities seriously - that we respect and accept others, and that we lead them well.

Because, pretty much we also like to think that we’re the experienced ones, and that while we might not be in overall charge of a thing, it would be infinatley better if we were.

In short, there are an awful lot of folk here on these islands (certainly on the English bit – because Dare is most definitely English) that would love to be Dan Dare. That’s not why he’s winning the Jester though. He is winning the Jester, but not because of what he represents. He’s winning for the reaction he got.

When I walked into my LCS and saw the promo poster for Tank Girl I said something along the lines of “Oh, Tank Girl – cool! Put me down for that will you?”. When I saw the promo poster for the new Dan Dare I stared at if for about half a minute, and then I actually cheered. This category is called “Most Welcome Return of a Character to their own book”. Welcome as the return of Tank Girl was, I think you can appreciate the clear difference here. Garth Ennis has written a worthy continuance of the Dare legend, and I simply could not be more pleased. I suspect that his Jester will be the first of many awards this incarnation of Frank Hampson’s most famous creation will be picking up.

There will now be a short intermission. Please feel free to nip down to the lobby where ice-cream, pop-corn and other appropriate snack will be available if you thought to bring ‘em. The next instalment of the 2007 Jesters will follow shortly!











*Although considerably more sober.

**Previously known as the FoolBritannia Awards…

***Given that if anyone ever messes with Sunset I’ll be calling on copyright protection myself any other stance would make me something of a hypocrite, wouldn’t it?