My Tank Girl review wot I did for geeksyndicate.co.uk innit

To say a comic-book or comic-book character is life changing seems a bit bloody melodramatic, but for me this creation didn’t half help me over those awkward teenage moments. This took me right back to my stripey-tight wearing, Marlboro ciggie-smoking, dubious spikey hair-backcombing, Doc Marten-stomping teenage years with a bump – and what a lush nostalgic bump it was

Here’s your formula: one kick arse/crazy/drink-til-you-puke-and-fall-down/koala-hugging/kangaroo-humping AWESOME female + mayhem/intrigue/ridiculous scenarios + tanks, a submarine and a jet = BEST COMIC BOOK CHARACTER OF THE 80s/90s

The long-defunct UK ‘Deadline’ pop-culture magazine was responsible for bringing Tank Girl to the attention of the masses, although ironically TG is blamed for its collapse after the motion picture of the same name tanked (see what I did there?). But its a testament to the uniqueness of the character that TG is still going strong (albeit after a decade of self-imposed exile – again the fault of the movie), and still appeals to thousands across the world. ‘Tank Girl One’ and ‘Tank Girl Two’ gives old and new fans alike the opportunity to see all of TGs ‘Deadline’ strips collected in two luscious volumes, with a whole heap of extra goodies to drool over.

The strips are definitely of their time, with masses of late 80s/early 90s pop-culture references – but that won’t put younger readers off – the artwork alone will bring a smile to anyone’s face, and pretty much every strip is a stand-alone story so you can dip in and out as you like.

Lets’ get this straight right now – TG does not give a flying &^%$. If you are easily offended/have a phobia of mutant kangaroos or camp koalas, this is not the book for you…and if you’re looking for straight-forward plots and finely polished artwork, I’d point you towards the newer Tank Girl work – still written by creator Alan Martin with pencil duties handed to Ashley Wood in ‘The Gifting’ (2007) and the genius Rufus Dayglo in ‘Visions of Booga’ (2008) and ‘Skidmarks’ for the Judge Dredd Megazine (2009).

These books are fascinating from an evolutional (it is a word, I just made it up) perspective of just how TG ‘grew up’ – these are the very first appearances of TG and while all the strips are jam-packed full of the finest detail in each panel, whether its Spunk Beer or Tank Girl’s knickers; as the strips progress (from Oct 88 – April 93) Hewlett’s pencils get subtly sharper and easier to follow, plus the gradual introduction of colour to the strips gives you a real sense of the strip maturing (in age not in content!). not to mention as they found their confidence, copious panels involving TGs boobies and Boogas willy

One and Two are bizarre, frenetic, and action-packed roller-coaster stories, with each panel crammed to the gills with detail and chaos. Read with awe the tale of how Tank Girl seduced Booga the kangeroo, be grossed out by the colostomy bag delivery that goes awry, reel in shock at TG gatecrashing the Second Coming, be even more grossed out by voodoo plastic surgery, and cheer as troublesome mutant ninjas are dismembered – and that’s only book One

Go read this book – to see what crazy and creepy scenarios can be dreamt up by two stoner art students in the 80s, to see what the hell was so good to make the name of Jamie Hewlett famous even before the Gorillaz, and to get a powerful reminder of one of the major players in the UK comic book scene of the early 90s….and then go read everything else Alan Martin has ever written

Australia....what? everyone's reviewing Watchmen so I thought I'd be different

Australia - I'd avoided seeing this for ages, cuz even though it stars High Jackman who frankly I would stalk if I lived anywhere near him (sorry Blue dear), I'd heard it was a bunch of poo.

Luckily 2 of the Geektress girls LOVED it so encouraged me to watch it.

Yes it was very long, but it was stunning looking, well paced and all the accents were in tact (thankfully so was Kidman's English accent). The story was a bit of a potential tear-jerker which is not normally my bag but I abso-bloody-lutely loved it.

It started out as a glossy Western with Kidman travelling to the middle of nowhere, Australia to see her husband who was running a cattle ranch. She captured the terribly English ra-ra Lady very well I thought and slowly changed through the course of the film to a decent bird with a pair of nuts. Although she did get to snog Hugh Jackman a few times which was rather upsetting.

Jackman was bloody great too, playing a common drover who is lumped with this pain-in-the-arse English woman..nice to hear him do his native accent too.

The film changes from Western to War film at 1hr 45 mins and the whole mood shifts with it - wasn't sure if this would work but it was bloody cool. Kudos too to David Wenham who played the baddie - another native Aussie who was just plain nasty.

I've got to say too that even the little kid in it was brill - I usually bloody hate kids in films cuz a lot of them struggle with the whole acting thing....but the little guy that played a helf-white, half-aboriginal kid was cute as a button and acted Kidman off the screen a couple of times :)

Loads of people hate this film and I think it got panned. I have to admit i probably wouldn't have bothered if it didn't have Hugh Jackman in, but I'm glad the girls ordered me to watch it

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

So work sucks balls, the con is taking up all my spare time, and i'm more than a little frazzled - but life's a bowl of cherries right now cuz I just read that FAITH NO MORE are reforming and playing Europe this year - and by 'Europe' they probably mean 'London' but I am so there :D

God I loved this band so much - must have seen them about 14 times.

I'm spreading my interweb wings

Well, kinda.

My forum buddy The Boneman asked me if I fancied contributing to his website - The Sidekickcast site which plays host to his podcast, blog and a load of other top articles etc. So even tho I don't keep up with this one as much as I'd like, I'm going to give it a go :) I might try doing stuff aimed at girls for a while..unless Bones tells me to pack it in...dunno I'll wait and see.

The podcast is well worth a listen to by the way, whether you're an old hand at the comic-book thing or just getting started. The Boneman and assorted co-hosts get really enthused about their comic books, and cover a whole range of stuff from the old classics, to spotlights on one of the 1,000,000 X Men titles, or explanations/reviews of recent big events (I almost understood Final Crisis after listening to #11)

Go check em out :)

Check me out reading a real book with no pictures!!

If you know any bird that isn't a geek but is thinking of joining us in the whole geek/nerd sandpit..or is dating a geek/nerd and doesn't know what the hell their other half is talking about half the time - then I Love Geeks by Carrie Tucker is the book you should tell them about.

My buddy Stace makes a valid point in that it's not a book for those already firmly wedged into the scene cuz the book covers a lot of ground that is basic Geek/Nerd 101....but it's still a bloody cool read even if you do know your Watchmen's from your Y the Last Man's...and is laid out really nicely - easy to follow/easy to skip sections with sound bites peppered throughout the book.

Talking of which, me and Stace were very kindly asked to contribute our 'how we got into being a geek' stories via our buddy Jimmy Aquino, to Carrie..so for being absolutley no help whatsoever (me anyway), Carrie (a self-confessed geek herself) was lovely and gives us an acknowledgement in the book, and young Stace even has her own little case study quoted (*quietly seethes with jealousy*)...

So the book is out now, well worth a look, and can be ordered from all the usual outlets - the ISBN # is 1605500232. Pass it on - if I'd had this book handy when I was dipping my toe into the comic-book world I'd have done it all a bit quicker :)

Another thing, Carrie's website is updated regularly so if you want to see what else she's up to - go clicky the linky.

New York Comic Con 2009 - Sunday

last day - booooooo :(

I decided to get in line early for the Sunday Conversation with Dan DiDio..and he walked along the queue with about 10 minutes to go saying 'you know you're not going to get free stuff don't you?' and laughing....a few fanboys muttered their annoyance but i said something terribly polite and British as he walked past and he kinda stopped as the guy in front of me caught his eye, and there he was chatting to a bunch of us (i have no idea who anyone else was) for like 15 minutes.... I did my very best 'stay calm mate it's only Dan Di frickin Dio stood next to you'....I was quietly chuffed with myself cuz I'd decided to wear my Comic racks t-shirt that day, and Mr DiDio glanced at the logo like once for about 2 seconds - which technically makes me and Stace famous :D

Before i could ask him to sign gail Simone to a life time contract at DC, or at the very least make her Queen of the USA, he was gone but the panel was great, I know a lot of people hate on him but he seems to really give a shit about what people think...and he is extremely funny, and i want him to be my dad :)

More later x
Oh i got the best non-Rufus Tank Girl sketch EVER from Mike Norton (see above)

New York Comic Con 2009 - Saturday

Ok running out of time to finish these before I record tonight so highlights (to be filled in later, if I remember)

I met so many more people on the Saturday from the forums , and went to a Wildstorm panel which Neil Googe was on God i loved that man's work on Welcome to Tranquility - and whopped inappropriately when it was mentioned. Twice.

I also met Amanda Connor early in the morning and had a brief chat with her - she is proper lush. I tried really hard to get her to do a Harley sketch for my boy but she had stopped taking commissions already :( She is still proper lush tho :)

I met up with Luke from the forums who was my con buddy for most of the day - very glad he was with me when I saw Garth Ennis with his coat on about to f*ck off 2 hours early from his signing gig at the Avatar press booth....I practically elbowed people out of the way to dribble and mumble incoherently in his general direction and he was dead nice, said it sounded like I'd come a long way and looked slightly nervous when i grabbed his hand and pumped it a bit too enthusiastically :/

....Um, saw the chap that played C3PO from a distance, Paul Cornell blanked me for the third time and I caught up with more buddies back at the podcast arena.

I'm sure more happened but I'm rushing this a bit now......onto the evening:

The 'Podcast dinner' was not really just for podcasters but organised by Joe, with around 50 people showing up to a private room in a really nice restaurant - they brewed their own lager - which i was a fan of...then we went drinking at an Irish bar for an hour or so - then i got dragged home :( ..which was probably for the best..