The end of the affair?

This coming Saturday, May 2nd, is Free Comic Book Day. So what better time than this to stop and reflect on my long, sordid relationship with comic books and to make a startling confession....

I'm falling out of love with comics.

But, it wouldn't be the first time.

My on-again, off-again affair with comic books started as many relationships do: I was young, naive and lonely.

Actually, I was probably only about 8 or 9 years old when my brother gave me a stack of his old cast-off 70s DC comics. Mostly Green Lantern (my God, Hal Jordan seemed handsome back then!) and The Flash. Admittedly, I don't think I had any idea what the stories were even actually about but they seemed to open up a strange, new, almost underground kind of world to me. I was intrigued by the bold, colourful artwork; the iconic look of the characters; the inexplicable little melodramas; and those strange advertisements were completely fascinating. (X-ray specs? Sell "Grit"? Keep on Truckin' iron-on t-shirts?) Probably around this same time, our local tv station started airing re-runs of the old "Marvel Super-Heroes" cartoon. It was shown weekdays around 5pm and very early on Saturday morning and I watched it religiously. My favourite was Iron Man, although it seemed like they'd always re-run the Hulk way too much! Say what you like about the animation, I still have a soft place in my heart for those jerky, choppy, traced Kirby panels being dragged across the screen (which seemed archaic even back then!)

Inevitably, as the saying goes when I got a bit older I "put away childish things" and lost interest in comic books. My time was filled with other distractions: I got more heavily into "grown-up" books (like "Interview With the Vampire" and Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy!), music, and of course, chasing boys. At that awkward, self-conscious age I tried to sever all ties to anything childish. Ironically, it was when I started high school, when most kids tend to gravitate toward more mature interests, that I was again seduced by comic books. This time I was hooked-up by a friend.

In high school I struck up a short-lived friendship with a girl in my Art class who collected Spider-Woman comics. (I say "short-lived friendship" because she moved away the following year and we subsequently lost touch). Whenever we'd hang out, we'd walk down to a local used bookstore and flip through old, dog-eared comics. I started buying cheap horror comics, like Charlton's "Ghost Manor". Honestly, they were bad. The artwork and stories were lacking, and the magazines themselves were in terrible condition. To my teenage mind there was nothing childish or immature about horror comics (yeah right!) so by reading them I was somehow being cool & alternative. Such are the delusions of youth! In retrospect, horror comics were my gateway drug: they got me back into comics again. On one of those nights rummaging through the used comic bins I found something interesting. My new drug of choice: The Joker.

Although I've never been much of a "collector", I became smitten with The Joker & sought out any comic that he appeared in -- any I could find and afford, that is! Again, my teenage mind made excuses: The Joker is cool. He's a homicidal lunatic -- there's nothing childish or geeky about collecting Joker comics. Sure. In my quest for more Joker comics, I graduated from the used bookstores to the local comic shop. It was located above another business, on the second floor. Through a poorly marked door, then up a steep staircase: there was the musty smell of paper and all kinds of new and exciting things I'd never even heard of there. And people hung out there all the time, like it was some kind of secret club (like the Masons -- for nerds!). This was very indie and underground, I told myself. It was a good time to be collecting Joker comics though: Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke" was released around that time.

All the money I earned in my part-time job as dishwasher and kitchen bitch went into comic books. I started branching out, collecting Wolverine (OMG! No one does that!) and The Punisher. My best friend at the time starting collecting "Heavy Metal", which we read without a hint of irony and for some reason didn't think were all that smutty. Being the 80s, we inevitably got into grading our collections as "Fine", "Very Good" or "Mint" (we really had no idea!) and putting little price tags as to what each issue was worth. It was around this time that the allure of comics began to fade for me. With variant covers, multi-title crossovers, holographic foil gimmicks, barrel-chested heroes with huge ridiculous guns... my "secret life" with comic books seemed less & less like love's innocent dream and more like a heartless money-sucking burden. So comics & I went our separate ways.

It was an amicable split. I checked in on them from time to time just to see how they were doing. It wasn't until many years later, after I met my husband, that I rekindled the flame with comics. He introduced me to Mike Allred comics, which were a bit like how I remember comics used to be... only updated, and with a bit more heart. Again, I was attracted to non-super powered characters like the meditative Dr. Strange and wise-cracking Hawkeye of the Avengers (although I can't delude myself into thinking they're in any way "indie").

But as everything comes around goes around, so comics too seem to be heading in the direction they were in the early 90s: huge summer "must read" blockbusters, multi-title crossovers, hot-shot creators dictating the "house style", unnecessary "deaths" of beloved characters... and again I feel the romance is drying up for me. I find myself philandering: my roving eye has been checking out "indie" and alternative comics more and more and I find myself getting more satisfaction from the likes of Harvey Pekar and Daniel Clowes than from the superhero set. (Plus I can read graphic novels for free from the library, so there's no commitment or money burden either.)

Of course I plan to take part in Free Comic Book Day, hoping to find the next thing that will captivate my interest. My relationship with comics plays out like a Billie Holiday song. Maybe "This is my Last Affair"...?


http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Drawing Technique - Transferring an Image

I want to share a drawing technique that I picked up many, many years ago from an artist I used to know. By no means am I an "artist", so this isn't exactly a "trade secret" but I've been drawing for most of my life, and this little technique has come in handy on more than a few occasions. This is a great technique if you are lazy, or have a hard time drawing the same thing twice. **Obviously this whole process is simplified and much quicker in the digital age, and can be done much easier if you have a computer tablet/pen. This is an "old school" technique using just pencil & paper so expect it to be a bit cumbersome!**

Scenario: You have a sketch that you want to "transfer" onto another paper, but you don't want to re-draw it. There might be various different scenarios that would require this: Maybe you've done a tracing onto a piece of tracing paper & now want to put it onto a page in your sketchbook. Maybe you've done a masterful doodle on a crappy piece of paper and you want to incorporate it onto a "good" sheet of drawing paper, onto a canvas, etc. Whatever. The basic premise is you need to duplicate the drawing without wanting to start all over again from scratch.


For example, here's not a bad drawing I did on a torn piece of loose leaf (Ok, we'll it's no masterpiece, but let's just pretend for the purposes of the exercise!) Let's say I want to make this cowboy into a clean, inked drawing on proper paper.

So, how am I going to get this sketch onto a different sheet of paper without going through the trouble of trying to exactly re-draw it all over again?

Steps:

1. Flip your original over, so you're working on the back side of the paper. Locate the area of the back of your drawing. (If you bear down hard enough when you draw, you'll easily see it. If your lines are light, just flip the paper over to compare... or simply hold your paper up to the light so you can see it through the paper.)

2. Still on the back of the image: With your pencil, make thick, dark shading lines that will completely cover the entire area of your image. Don't worry if it looks messy -- it's basically going to be a big scribble! It's crucial that your shading is dark & full, leaving no gaps. Criss-crossing your strokes makes the best coverage. Hold your paper up to the light to ensure your shading is covering the back of the image completely. If possible, choose a pencil in the "B" tonal range. Here I'll use a 3B pencil. (Any pencil will do, but you'll find the lighter "H" range pencils don't work very well.)

Once you've completely covered the back of the image, you'll have something that looks like this:

3. Get the paper that you want to transfer the image to... this is going to be your "destination" paper, so to speak. Place your image "face up" onto the new paper, being careful to place it exactly where you want it. Tape it down with a few small bits of masking tape. It's important to secure it because you don't want it to move during the transfer. Believe me: if the image moves even a little during the transfer, this will not work so be sure to anchor it down with the tape!!! (But use the tape sparingly because tape can potentially destroy your original drawing & the paper too!) Be sure to leave at least one edge or corner loose so you can peel back & have a peek.

4. Take a nice, sharp pencil. Any kind of pencil will do as long as it's sharp... but I would recommend an HB or maybe 2H. Now, you're going to re-trace every line of your image. The lines you make will need to be decisive: Any line that you make will transfer onto your "destination" page, so only go over the lines you want to keep! You'll need to bear down fairly hard with your pencil... but not too hard because too much pressure will "indent" your good paper. As you make your lines the "dirt" of the pencil shading on the back will transfer onto the good paper. The result is kind of a colouring book style outline of your image on the new paper. You'll want to peel back that loose corner & peek often to make sure you've retraced all your lines and that nothing is missing. Be careful to always put the top image back in exactly the same spot... if you accidentally move the alignment of the image, the tracing below will be off kilter!

5. When you're done re-tracing every line that you want to transfer, carefully peel off the tape & remove the top image. Underneath you'll have the skeleton of your image. So now you have the same base image, duplicated. You can then start working the details of your final drawing. If there are any shading smudges on the paper around your image, just lightly erase them.


So, what you end up with on the good paper looks like this:

Which you can then fill-in, touch up and turn into something like this...

Yeah ok, this drawing is a bit of a crap-terpiece, but you get the general idea.

I plan to step into the 21st century & play around with my digital tablet/pen, so expect a future post about that.

Magazine Review - "Under the Radar"

Ever since I gave up my campus radio shows a few years ago -- and with it my CD reviewing duties for the programming committee -- I feel completely out of the loop where new music is concerned. Although admittedly most of the CDs I had to review back then were a real chore to listen to, occasionally I'd find a diamond in the rough. Some of the artists I discovered then have stuck with me (notably Jay Jay Johanson, Mum, and Chromeo) but most were completely forgettable or at best marginally interesting. Since then, my exposure to new music comes mainly by word of mouth, recommendation from friends, or sometimes through serendipity on the Internet.

Occasionally I flip through magazines on my weekly visits to Indigo, scanning for anything that might pique my interest. My favourite music mag is "Uncut" because for one thing it's British and my musical tastes tend to be more Euro flavoured than American. Also "Uncut" features a nice, long retrospective of an iconic band from the past. Usually the free sampler CD (another bonus!) features cover versions of that iconic band by current artists. (So, simple logic: If a new band covered a David Bowie song, their sound will likely be Bowie-influenced and ergo as a Bowie fan, I may enjoy this new band too.) But I digress, this isn't about "Uncut"...

"Under The Radar" is a new discovery for me. It's an American alternative music and pop culture magazine, reasonably priced at $4.99. What drew my eye was the cover: though full colour, it is matte finished, not glossy. For some reason that simple feature caught my attention, as if it inexplicably gave it a bit of indie "cred" somehow. I flipped through and it interested me enough to buy it.

Two things I notice about the music scene in general these days. First, there are a LOT of indie bands out there, and they all pretty much strike me as the same. Secondly, the press is almost by it's definition, advertising. The music industry is an "industry", after all. There's really nothing wrong with that. So, I read pretty much every article and review as an advertisement. What is this artist selling? For the most part, it's nothing I'd care to buy. Usually music that is described by phrases like "60s psychedelia", "frequent tempo changes" and "wall of sound guitars" doesn't interest me. Most bands even look the same: take a handful of 20-somethings, poorly groomed, dressed in kitschy thrift shop used clothes, and take a "candid" shot of them holding quirky old props or sitting on worn-out basement furniture. I guess I just miss the package and polish of the 80s. Nevertheless, I'm willing to give anyone points for at least trying to be creative or artistic so I'll try to take a look beyond the packaging & see if the product inside is something I'd like to buy. Usually I scan reviews for clues & catchwords that might tip me off to something I'd like (eg, "electro", "Kraftwerk-inspired", "futuristic", etc.).

Getting back to "Under the Radar" specifically, there were some things in this magazine that I genuinely liked. There's an interview with Depeche Mode about their new album, "Sounds of the Universe". There's a one-page bit from Flight of the Conchords, whom I love and also a short interview with Aziz Ansari from "Human Giant". This issue also had a really fun article called "The Future Ain't What is Used to Be" where they looked at "near future" science fiction movies (eg, the year 1997 in "Escape from New York," "Freejack" in 2009) and compared their vision of the future, technology, etc with what we actually have today. There's also DVD reviews and Comic Book reviews (Hey! Darwyn Cooke did some art in "Jonah Hex vol 5: Bullets Don't Lie". Also, a review of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 3: Century" that I am looking forward to reading.)

There's also a rather superficial piece written by Eddie Argos from Art Brut about his love of DC comics. (I still don't understand his current team-up with Black Box Recorder.) I found out that Karin Dreijer Anderson from The Knife has a new solo album. One interesting feature in the magazine is called "Self Portrait", where artists submit a photo they're taken of themselves and provide a list of personal facts and trivia. As an aside, it appears that the same creative team seem to wear many hats in the making of the magazine: I noticed one of the publishers is also the creative director, designer, and a photographer. The other publisher shares the same last name, and is also an editor of many of the features. So, I'm guessing this is probably a creative labour of love for the people who make this magazine. If so, good for them!

It's also available online so check it out at www.undertheradarmag.com

Have you seen him?

Have you seen him? You know who I'm talking about...


You know, that guy. Looks like a B-movie mad scientist. Skinny. Over sized glasses. Gray hair. Always carrying a briefcase. (Must have blueprints to some top secret doomsday device in that case!) Yeah him. Right. Anyway he takes my bus at night now. Gets on at the mill. So I guess he's some kinda blue collar worker, he's not a scientist at all. The other day he was waiting at my bus stop. (Man! That threw me for a loop!)

Ever see that creepy homeless guy around? The one with the scraggly beard? Looks like he could be Charles Manson's little brother? You know... he wears that winter coat all year 'round. Got oily black stuff all over it? Mumbles to himself all the time. (I heard he goes to the library everyday and listens to the same Led Zeppelin record, like over & over again.)

Ok, well, you must have seen that girl? The teenager? Always wears those jeans with the little belted coat and the impractical shoes. Dresses like a grown up, but when you look closely she's got a face like a little cherub.... I'm sure you've seen her. She's usually with that guy. The one who dresses all like hip-hop style... he wears a patterned hoodie and a ballcap.

Speaking of impractical shoes: Did you notice those 2 women with the spiky heels who just walked past? Did you see how they hold their coffee cups out straight to balance while they walk? You know who I mean, we saw them before at R.W. & Co. Or was it Aeropostale? Or was that them? They could have been sisters. I don't know. Anyway, one of them looks like she has a "baby bump" now.

Do you notice that woman who walks her dogs past here every morning? You know. She's got two of 'em. Identical. (That dog was so nice she bought it twice!) Yeah, the brown dogs. She's always out there early, like when we go to work. We always drive past her right on that block. There she is again. Damn! She's like clockwork!

Here's the weirdest thing: You know that guy that I always see getting coffee? The one who always wears the khaki slacks... looks like someone I went to high school with only balding...(but it couldn't possibly be him because I'm not that old!). Anyway, I saw him at the mall! Yeah! I'm thinking, "Whoa! What's HE doing on THIS side of town?"

Sometimes I wonder when we became "The Sims".

Graphic Novel Reivew - "I Never Liked You" - Chester Brown

Collected from individual issues 26-30 of "Yummy Fur" (Oct 1991 - Apr 1993), "I Never Liked You" is a memoir of Chester Brown's awkward adolescence in Chateauguay, Quebec in the 1970s. And although in the book Brown claims "I never use symbolism," this seemingly simple little book has a lot going on!

Chester Brown is a mild mannered type of guy who never swears. At school he's known as the kid who refuses to say "fuck" and is teased accordingly. He enjoys solitary interests like listening to rock music and drawing. Chester is also a bit of a "chick magnet".... although he has absolutely no clue how to relate to the opposite sex....or to anyone really. Chester is incredibly passive, withdrawn to the point that it seems pathological. Throughout the book we see Chester consistently miss out on opportunities and meaningful moments due to his inability to come out of his shell.

Chester is surrounded by females, all of whom try to elicit some kind of emotional reaction from him. There's Carrie, the girl who lives across the street. Carrie has been infatuated with Chester for years. She even painted "I love Chester" on the Brown family's garage door when she was in 4th grade. Chester knows that Carrie likes him, but just can't seem to bring himself to care.

Then there's Sky, the voluptuous girl next door. With seemingly little provocation, Chester tells Sky that he loves her but the "relationship" fails to develop into anything because that would require that he actually do something. Waiting for Chester to act or react is frustrating. At times you really just want to slap Chester and yell "Carpe Diem, you fool!"

At the core of the book is Chester's relationship with his mother, who apparently suffers from schizophrenia. The interaction -- or lack thereof -- between these two characters is heartbreaking. Chester's emotional paralysis is strongest around his mother. It seems no matter what she asks of him, he fails to respond. Shortly after Chester makes the hollow declaration of love to Sky, the book cuts to a scene of the Brown family: Desperate for love -- perhaps a much needed lifeline in her deteriorating mental state -- the mother begs "I'm your mother -- if you can't love me, who can you love?" Painfully, Chester's answer is silence. Later, when his mother is wasting away in a mental hospital Chester visits her once but never musters the feeling to tell her that he loves her. Upon hearing of her death, Chester forces out a single tear. He doesn't attend the funeral.

The story is episodic, presenting a series of seemingly unrelated events that at the end we realize are all part of the same overall picture. The words and art are minimalist, much like Chester in the story. This awkward little book has a lot of comedic moments and comes across a lot like"Napoleon Dynamite" in theme and geeky style, only with a more serious emotional punch. By the end of the book we see everyone eventually "give up" on Chester. We see Carrie walk past with another boyfriend. Sky invites Chester to go to the Fair but he declines... because the newest Kiss album is out and he'd rather stay home & listen to it. (What did I tell you? Carpe diem, Chester!)

"I Never Liked You" is about that fleeting moment that falls in-between thought and response; between words and action. If we wait too long, that moment passes and can never be reclaimed. It seems that Chester never seems to be in sync -- never seizing the moment, never saying the right thing to the right person at the right time. The book seems to be an apology; Brown's bittersweet way of coming to terms with the past and what he cannot change. Somehow this odd, understated little book uses sparse words and a few incidents to say volumes.

In Praise of the Vespa

Is there any better marriage of form and function than the Vespa? Whether you're thinking of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday" or 60s British Mods, nothing else seems as quintessentially European or as synonymous with cool as a Vespa. For me, my first exposure to the Vespa was probably in Colin MacInnes' Absolute Beginners (at my brother's encouragement I read the novel as a teen, but yes I'm referring to the 80s Julien Temple movie with David Bowie in it that lead us there. As a footnote: A swinging, Vespa-riding freelance photographer who stores jazz albums in his refrigerator... It really doesn't get any more hip than that, does it?)


Vespa, which is the Latin word for "wasp", was given the name after the buzzing sound the engine makes and because of its bottom-heavy body shape. Inspired by an American scooter, the Vespa was developed by Piaggio & Co of Pontedare, Italy in 1946. The basic design (a "spar- frame" with gear shifts on the handlebars and the engine mounted on the rear wheel) was the brainchild of engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, who wanted to build a better alternative to the motorcycle. His vision was a bike that needed to be easy to handle and appeal to both men and women: a woman wearing a skirt could easily climb on with the open leg space design with footboard, as opposed to a motorcycle which requires one to mount. The design was highly practical and made with the rider's comfort and aesthetic sense in mind. The ample seat can easily accommodate a passenger. The engine is completely encased, keeping all the greasy components out of sight, and the pressed steel body is usually painted brightly giving it an overall clean and polished look. The flat footboard and frontal shielding protect the rider from wind and dirt, so of course riders don't have to be afraid to wear fashionable Italian clothing... no crass leather chaps required!



Even Salvadore Dali loved the Vespa, and customized one in 1962. (Pictured here.)





Piaggio & Co. sought to make a means of transportation that would appeal to the masses and be an affordable alternative to the automobile in the post-WWII economy. Given the current state of the auto industry and the present world economy, doesn't this sound like exactly what we need again?

Someday I will own one.


http://vespacanada.com/index.cfm

Living on the Ceiling: A History of Blancmange

(This article I wrote originally appeared in Nightwaves issue 13 in February 2003, but Blancmange has recently crept back into my life again, so I thought I'd revisit it here. Many thanks to Gary for originally publishing this.)

"Blancmange were born with the intention of making weird noises and wearing weirder clothes." - Neil Arthur, "This is Lancashire", 8 April 1998

Ambitiously eclectic, refreshingly experimental, and too short-lived is how one could describe 1980s electronic sound organizers Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, better known as Blancmange. Blancmange were one of the most exciting and unpredictable bands of the new wave era, using strong experimental elements within the commercial synthpop formula. Here is their all too brief story.

Prior to their musical pairing, Luscombe, an accomplished musician who once played for the Portsmouth Symphonia, played keyboards for an avant guard art band called MIRU, while Arthur was experimenting with punk in The Viewfinders. Of his brief flirtation with punk, Arthur says : "I remember ripping up my dad's band jacket and sticking toothpaste tubes to it. My hair looked like it had a bad case of mange... I'd go home wearing all this stuff and wonder why I kept getting beaten up." Brought together by the Harrow School of Art and a shared interest in Kraftwerk, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe formed their musical partnership in 1978 under the name L360. After recording a few rough demos L360 split, only to re-form in January of the following year re-christened as Blancmange (after the bland, unpalatable puddings - a commentary on the state of pop music at the time). Reunited, they recorded a tape of a Kraftwerk-inspired instrumental piece entitled "Sad Day" and sent the tape to club DJ Stevo. Impressed by what he heard, Steve included the track on his "Some Bizarre Album", a compilation of songs by various up and coming "Futurist" bands. Released in 1981, the "Some Bizarre Album" became a phenomenal success and launched the careers of many of the bands we now associate with synthpop, including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and The The.

In the meantime, Blancmange briefly became a trio with the addition of Laurence Stevens on drums. Stevens was quickly replaced by a drum machine and they played their first gig opening for prag Vec. They were seen by David Hill, who was so enthusiastic about the band he offered to finance their first EP. Recorded on a cassette deck and a Teac 4-track, the result was the highly eccentric 6 song EP "Irene & Mavis" on the Blaah Music lable. The enigmatic record doesn't identify Arthur and Luscombe by their real names but rather as Mavis Seascostas and Irene "Disco" Sinden. To add to the confusion, the label on the record identifies the band as The Dave Clark Five. (Included on the EP is a hilarious mocking cover of "Concentration Baby" by The Dave Clark Five.)

In 1981 Blancmange participated in a tour in support of the "Some Bizarre Album" compilation. The unusual stage presence of gangling, reluctant front man Arthur and diminutive Luscombe behind the keyboards attracted a lot of attention for the band, as did their outrageous audio/visuals, where the projection screen was often placed in front of the group rather than behind. Among their early followers was Martyn Ware (Human League/Heaven 17) who helped Blancmange record a demo which led to their signing a contract with London records.

On February 23, 1982 Blancmange were invited by John Peel to record 4 songs for his BBC radio program. This would be their first recording experience, apart from their basement sessions. The Peel Session gave the band national exposure. The 4 songs recorded were "I Would", "Living on the Ceiling", "Waves" and "Running Thin". Shortly afterwards, their first single "God's Kitchen" with "I've Seen the Word" was released on March 15, 1982.

On July 9, 1982, the second single "Feel Me", with an instrumental of the same as B-side, was released and selected by Sounds magazine as "Single of the Week". Sounds stated that "Blancmange stand out a mile as a life-saving raft of pure pop pizzazz on a dark sea of sludge. This is what good dance records are supposed to sound like." By September 24 the debut album Happy Families was released, and was met with unanimous critical approval. The NME said the album "...betrays no beginner's awkwardness... the flaws are minor and the merits are major 'Happy Families' is worth a piece of anyone's time." Sounds claimed "Blancmange set alight the dull skies of popular music... roundly delightful and as soundly devastating..." The album established Blancmange's unique style of combining East Indian and electro-pop/disco influences, as well as their tendency for strong visual imagery (the album cover of Happy Families features a cartoon of a cat's tea party, and all future sleeves and picture discs sport bold, colourful artwork.) The album produced two more highly successful singles: the Eastern-flavoured "Living on the Ceiling" (censored at the time for its use of the word "bloody"!) which peaked at #7 on the charts, followed by the sensitive, heavily orchestrated "Waves" which reached #10 on the charts.

By 1983/early 1984 Blancmange had 3 more hit singles with "Blind Vision" (charted at #10), "That's Love That It Is" with B-side "Vishnu" (#33) and "Don't Tell Me" with the bizarre B-side "Get Out of That" (peaked at #8 on the charts). At the height of their career, Blancmange were able to remain innovative and maintain their commercial appeal without becoming too self-indulgent. They were, however, quick to reject being labeled or compared to other artists of the time. An infamous quote by Stephen Luscombe from 1983 stated: "I do refute the idea that we're just another electronic duo. That's so facile... we tend to think of two people who organise sounds. Neil and I can't write music -- we tend to see it in blocks of colour..."

In the spring of 1984 the second LP Mange Tout was released. Recorded with American remix/dance producer John Luongo, Mange Tout saw the East Indian influence emerge more fully with the addition of Pandit Dinesh on tablas and Deepak Khazauchi on sitar and santour. The album rocketed to #8 on the charts but was less well received by the critics than their previous effort. Sounds maintained "Nowhere does their humour lapse, or their altruism falter", while Record Mirror called Blancmange "...excellent technicians, if not great tunesmiths". Mange Tout did produce one more hit for the band: an unlikely cover of ABBA's "The Day Before You Came", which reached #22 on the charts.

Blancmange went on a year's hiatus, during which time Stephen Luscombe worked on the West India Company project, a collaboration with Pandit Dinesh and famous Indian singer Asha Bhosie on an album of East Indian style music. Blancmange's absence from the charts caused their popularity to suffer. Their next single, "What's Your Problem?", released in September 1985, barely reached the top 40. Their third album Believe You Me was released the following month, peaking at #54 then quickly disappearing from the album charts. The next two singles "Lose Your Love" and "I Can See It" (known on the album as "Why Don't They Leave Things Alone?") went largely unnoticed.

By May 1986 Neil Arthur and Stepehen Luscombe felt the Blancmange experiment had effectively run its course and decided to call it quits. Life after Blancmange has seen both Arthur and Luscombe individually writing music for various TV and movie projects. (Some of Arthur's work can be heard in the documentary "Finest Hour" as well as in the BBC drama "Alice and Ted".) In February 1994 Neil Arthur released a solo album Suitcase, which featured a top 50 hit "I Love, I Hate". He continues to record dance music under the name Stoppa and Knobby. ***

On the subject of Blancmange's supremacy during the synthpop era, Arthur earnestly stated: "The 80s don't seem that long ago, although I can't remember all of it now. I had a fantastic time doing it, if I'd only the opportunity to get one record out I would have been pleased. But I managed to have a few and even a gold record, so it was great." (This is Lancashire, September 10, 2001).

...Indeed, it was great.

*** Update: Blancmange reunited in 2006 and are currently working on a new album. More of that to come in a future article I'm working on!

(Image is copyright of Blancmange, of course!)

Graphic Novel review - “Life Sucks” - Jessica Abel / Gabe Soria / Warren Pleece

As DJ Bobo so bafflingly said "Vampires are alive!"

Well, they're supposed to be "undead" really.... but they are EVERYWHERE these days! Twilight, Anne Rice novels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Underworld, the Camarilla. It seems bloodsuckers have never been more popular. What is it about the vampire mystique that people find so attractive? Is it the prospect of an eternity stalking crowded nightclubs dressed in leather and lacy frills in some sort of Goth fantasy afterlife? The notion that vampires lead a sort of alternative lifestyle of sexual fetishism? Is it their duplicitous nature, lurking along in a forever life with impunity from old age and disease? Or maybe it's just their physical prowess and the control they have over life and death? "Life Sucks" presents a different take on vampires altogether. Being a vampire actually kinda sucks. (Groan!)

Meet Dave, an ordinary twenty-something who takes a job in a convenience store to pay his way through college. Unfortunately for Dave the manager of the store is Lord Radu Arisztidescu, an overbearing Romanian vampire who "converts" his employees to the dark side to ensure their perpetual servitude. Otherwise, Dave is pretty much like you and me. He's broke. He's trapped in a dead end job he hates. He has a small circle of geeky friends. He's a couch potato who is hooked on Mexican soap operas. Oh, and he has super strength, hypnotic powers and frequently breaks in blood banks to steal sustenance (which he drinks out of V8 juice bottles). Dave's a nice guy so he refuses to kill. Dave's a bit of a schmuck. In short, the vampire lifestyle is not all it's cracked up to be.

Dave also has a secret crush: a cute Goth girl named Rosa. Predictably, as a Goth Rosa is fascinated by the allure of the fictional vampire lifestyle while oblivious to the fact that Dave is actually one. Naturally Dave also has a rival: Wes, a rich surfer dude who is also an employee of Lord Radu. Wes is a typical bully with seemingly little motivation, engaged in a constant war of "anything you can do I can do better" with Dave. So when Wes discovers Dave's crush on Rosa he uses all the powers at his disposal to try to woo her. Eventually this builds to a climax of the story that I won't say much about other than it left me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Life Sucks' is one part "Twilight", one part "Clerks". If you like that sort of thing, it's worth checking out. As for me, my interest in vampire peaked at the age of twelve when I considered Anne Rice's "Interview With a Vampire" to be a great novel. The artwork in "Life Sucks" is decent, particularly the colouring which is suitably dark without feeling oppressive. Everyone and everything in it looks suitably ordinary and completely relatable much like the characters and situations themselves, so in that sense Pleece nailed it. The story is cute and nice...so much so that it didn't really leave a lasting impression on me. I felt open to the premise and enjoyed the concept at first but the ending felt awkward , shifting quickly from something ugly back to cozy and nice again. Personally, if it's vampire comedy you want: just take a good, honest look at pretty much any of the "serious" vampire material out there. It's good for a laugh.

(Cover image is copyright of it's owner and used here solely for the purposes of review, natch!)

Book Review - “Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko” - Blake Bell

Typically I try to avoid biographies, no matter whether they are “auto”, “official” or “unauthorized”. My reason is basically this: the less I know about a personality, the less that knowledge interferes with my enjoyment of their work. The more I know about the creator the less I can focus on the creation “in and of itself“ without having my opinion coloured by the personality of the artist, the behind the scenes anecdotes, mundane bits of trivia, and so on.
Add to that, when we know the subject of a biography is protective of their privacy, it just seems a bit too voyeuristic prying into that which they do not wish to share. And being one of the most reclusive figures in pop culture, it’s more than likely that Steve Ditko would rather this book didn’t exist.


Steve Ditko is best known as the co-creator of Spider-Man, as well as other iconic Marvel comics characters such as Dr. Strange, as well as DC & Charlton’s The Creeper, Hawk & Dove, The Question, etc. Creation and ownership being contentious issues in the silver age of comics, he likely had a hand in the design and/or development of many more. Naturally, the struggle for proper credit & fair compensation is central to any story of comic artists of the period. The story of Ditko adds another more interesting wrinkle: Objectivism.


Without delving too much into the complicated philosophy of Ayn Rand, suffice to say at it’s core Objectivism emphasizes the individual over the collective; the importance of human intellect, productive work and art to the human existence, and applies the standard of rational choice to ethics. One principle of Objectivism is the “Law of Identity”, that is: a thing “is what it is”, there cannot be duplicity. As Rand states, “A is A”. For adherents to Objectivism, morality is black and white (in a nutshell: good cannot be evil, nor vice versa… so a thing must be one or the other, it cannot be both.). The Law of Identity weighs most heavily on the career of Ditko, becoming the basis of his most controversial creation, Mr. A.


Getting back to the book, you can see how the Objectivist line of thinking might appeal to a shy, withdrawn artistic type: especially to one who feels he and his work are being exploited by his corporate employer. It’s not a stretch to see how that situation might be aggravated into a vicious circle: the growing immersion in a philosophy / the worsening of bitterness at his perceived exploiters / the stronger his adherence to his moral code, and so on. Blake Bell effectively shows us the widening gyre. Disputes with comics insiders over ownership and accusations of theft. Alienation from comics fans. A declining work ethic for anything other than his personal projects leads to declining quality and dwindling output. A staunch moral code encroaches on his creativity, fuelling a need to “enlighten” rather than “entertain“. Ultimately, the story is tragic. We’re left feeling outraged on behalf of Ditko, but at the same time frustrated by him (eg. Why would he turn down an opportunity to illustrate “The Fountainhead”?)

Bell creates a compelling profile, interspersed nicely with artwork to illustrate how changes in attitude affected changes in output. The book provides an ample sampling of Ditko art, from early material and the heyday of Marvel to his more current works like Static & Avenging World. The most appealing are his signature psychedelic mindscapes and some stand out inks & washes for 60s horror publisher Warren. The most heartbreaking are the colouring books, toy packaging and fast food restaurant promos from the 80s & 90s.

As far as biographies go, this one spends little time on the personal life of its subject; there are few details available anyhow. (Is it just me, or do the few existing photos of Ditko bear an uncanny resemblance to young Peter Parker?) “Strange and Stranger” presents something more interesting than simple biography: the epic story of an uncompromising hero assailed by corporate greed; his unwillingness to compromise in his staunch moral code and how his principles may have contributed to his eventual downfall. A secret pleasure of mine is to imagine Steve Ditko cast in the role of Number 6 in the tv show “The Prisoner”: Uncompromising, unmutual, a lone voice crying out for the right to be individual, desperately protecting his intellectual property (information) from the grabbing hands of the comics industry Village. (Can’t you just hear Stan Lee’s familiar voice as the taunting Number 2...? “By hook or by crook, we will!”). Well, a girl can dream, can't she?



Steve Ditko reminds you to "THINK".






(Naturally, all images are copyright of their respective owners and are used here solely for the purposes of review!)

CD Review - “Years of Refusal” (2009) - Morrissey

Since I've started off this blog with Morrissey, might as well continue in the same vein!

“Years of Refusal” is an appropriate title for me, since I largely boycotted 2006‘s “Ringleader of the Tormentors”. Admittedly I never really gave it a fair shake. This new effort is what I’d describe as “more”. It’s got more of the things we’ve come to expect from Morrissey lately…. only a bit more cozy, a bit more raw in sound, a bit more strained (especially the vocals). And, it seems as Moz grows more at ease (see “That‘s How People Grow Up“), more immersed in his American/Mexican fan base (see Latin guitar & brass on “When Last I Spoke to Carol”), and perhaps more comfortable sexually (see “It‘s Not Your Birthday Anymore”), he seems to be falling into complacency. And he’s ok with that. But as T.S. Eliot once said, “Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity”, thus contentment brings artistic sterility. A lot of Morrissey’s lyrical themes & imagery repeat from previous albums (geez, again about the taxman?) and things start feeling a bit stale. But then, that’s what we’re all here for, right? Would anyone who is not a long-time fan even look at a Morrissey album now? The track “All You Need Is Me” presents a poignant comment upon his fans and detractors:

“I was a small fat child in a welfare house,
there was only one thing I ever dreamed about
and fate has just handed it to me,
Whoopee!
You don’t like me but you love me
Either way, you’re wrong
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone.”

A common criticism of Moz of late is that he’s gotten “too happy”, comparing The Smiths and his initial solo efforts to what he’s doing today. That is a bit unfair and we should try to think of the two as completely separate entities. I mean, the man turns 50 this year; can we really expect him to sustain the angst of a 20 year old forever? In the aptly named track “You Were Good in Your Time”, he succinctly sums up my feelings about his early career :

“You made me feel less alone
You made me feel not quite so
deformed, uninformed and hunchbacked…
You said more in one day
than most people say
in a lifetime,
it was our time
and we thank you.”

So, judging “Years of Refusal” purely on it’s own merits, my favourite tracks are “Something is Squeezing My Skull”(which includes a nice litany of the various medications he has been taking), “All You Need is Me” and “One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell”.

(The image and all lyrics quoted for the purposes of review are copyright of Morrissey, naturally!)

Well come

"Download something
Useful, or useless
Because I'm lying here
Wide to receive
Almost anything
You'd care to give.
And I don't
Get along with myself
And I'm not too keen on
Anyone else.
Turn on, plug in
Then just walk away
Unlock, process
And then just go
And I've never felt quite so alone
As I do right now.
I'm lying here
Wide to receive
Almost anything
You'd care to leave.
Wide, wide, wide"

"Wide to Receive" (c) Morrissey 1997 (from the album "Maladjusted")

Welcome to the first post of Wide to Receive, a blog about.... well, whatever I feel like ranting & writing about. As the title suggests the format here is open. My main points of interest are comics and electronic/alternative music, so I'll likely be doing a lot of CD & book reviews, opinion pieces, sketches, etc. I'll also be highlighting any creative projects that might be going on around me. This is an opportunity for me to keep up with writing as well as to share what's on my mind these days. I welcome & encourage you to add your comments here.