John Freeman on the Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen DVD

I\’ve always been a huge fan of the classic Doctor Who series, but I\’m one of those die-hards who would prefer to think that the old series actually ended when Peter Davison left the show, and who considers the entire Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy eras, with the exception of a handful of stories, to be a complete abomination. Most of that entire period of Doctor Who\’s history is such a dire and diabolical embarrassment that it should be erased from living memory. Why oh why can\’t crap like this be among the fabled \”missing episodes\”, rather than all of those missing gems from the Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell eras?

Now you certainly won\’t catch me buying any DVDs (with the exception of five or six stories) from this sad period of Doctor Who, but I have to admit that I\’ve just spent a pretty enjoyable evening with a mate, perusing the extra features on his latest Doctor Who DVD acquisition, Delta and the Bannermen. A Sylvester McCoy story it might be, but I have to admit that the extras on the DVD aren\’t half bad, my favourite among these extras being a piece covering the Doctor Who comic strips of the 1980s.

And you\’ll never guess who pops up in the middle of that one. Yes, our very own John Freeman of Downthetubes.net, giving it the old yakkity-yak about his time on Doctor Who Magazine, and the comic strips therein. It\’s nice to see and hear John in living, breathing action for the first time (well, the first time I\’ve seen him), and in the best feature on the entire DVD, no less.

Needless to say (so why am I saying it?), I watched all the features, but didn\’t even bother putting on the main story. Why ruin a perfectly good evening? 🙂

Reborn #1 and Marvel\’s \”Hard Sell\” Tactics – A Step Too Far?

I\’m rarely surprised these days by any of the seemingly ceaseless dirty goings-on in the comics industry, particularly the never-ending merry-go-round of hype and sneaky \”crossover\” tricks that the Big Two (Marvel and DC) use to con us into buying their (mostly rubbish) titles each month. But the latest issue of Marvel Previews contains possibly the newest \”low\” in a long line of questionable tactics employed by Marvel in their eternal attempts to part us from our hard-earned pennies.

It centres around the first issue of a new, upcoming five-part Marvel mini-series, known only as Reborn, which, apparently, is the next Big Event in the Marvel Universe. Leaving aside the fact that I dislike these Big Events intensely, and avoid them like the plague – they\’re so common these days, and mean so little now that they have no real impact or meaning anymore (why the hell can\’t we just have normal, decent stories, without everything having to be Yet Another Boring, Bland and Irrelevant Marvel Big Event or Crossover?) – there\’s something new about this one that disturbs me like none before it has.

There\’s always a certain amount of secrecy involved in the run-ins to these Big Events, as the publishers don\’t want to give away too much, too soon. But there\’s also always some information available, just enough to whet our appetites or to let us know enough about it that we can decide whether or not we want to buy it. But in the case of this new Reborn mini-series, there\’s an incredibly high level of secrecy involved, way beyond anything we\’ve seen before. Marvel won\’t give us any information. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not the slightest clue what it\’s about or who\’s in it.

They\’re messing with our heads. We\’re expected to buy it without knowing anything about it, like we have to take Marvel\’s word that it\’s gonna be great. Like we\’re dumb shits who can\’t be trusted to make up our own minds, mindless sheep who will pay up without question for anything that they throw at us. They regard their customers with total contempt, arrogantly assuming that if they tell us absolutely nothing about this new \”event\”, we\’ll all be so overcome with anticipation that we\’ll rush out in droves to buy it.

Well, guess what Marvel? No thank you. At least from this particular customer. Some of us have enough intelligence to know when we\’re being insulted and manipulated, and I, personally, feel really insulted and irritated when confronted by cynical con-man \”hard sell\” tactics. And this new Marvel selling tactic stinks. It bugs me, I mean REALLY bugs me, extremely, big time, with lashings of cream on top.

The vile stench of cold, hard, cynical manipulation of comics buyers by the marketing department of one of the so-called \”leading lights\” of the comics industry is positively nauseating. As a long-term Marvel junkie – I\’ve been buying their comics for four decades now, and more than 75% of my $400+ monthly comics spending goes into the Marvel coffers – I find this level of sneaky, underhand, taking-for-granted manipulation of their ultra-loyal customer base totally repulsive. At this moment I\’m thoroughly disgusted and ashamed to be a Marvel fan.

And it isn\’t just the lowly customers. Marvel are also keeping comics retailers in the dark about Reborn, a fact that shocks and surprises even me. They\’re being messed around even more than we are, since they\’re expected to pay handsomely and upfront for the honour of stocking a whole bunch of these (non-returnable) Reborn #1 thingies, unseen, and all just on Marvel\’s say-so. Well, at least one of these retailers is really pissed off about it (and good fer him).

Yesterday I received this rather interesting email from my friend and esteemed comics supplier Jack Curtin – http://www.jackcurtin.com (well worth a visit). I\’d urge you to click on the link for Savage Critic and have a read for yourselves:

\”Those of you who became pals with Brian Hibbs back in the CIS days, might appreciate seeing this… http://savagecritic.com/2009/05/on-marvels-reborn-1.html\”

Much of what Brian Hibbs says in his article echoes my own sentiments. I recall Brian from my days on the Compuserve Comics & Animation Forum (known as CAF to long term members and ex-members), although he probably wouldn\’t remember me, and I\’m not one bit surprised he\’s taken this stand. He\’s definitely one of the good guys, and we need more like him in the business.

On the Reborn #1 thing, Marvel is treating both its retailers and customers with astonishing arrogance and contempt, and it\’s absolutely refreshing to see a comics retailer act on his conscience by telling them to sod off, thankyouverymuch, rather than letting greed rule his head. Far too often, single-minded greed is sadly the bottom line for too many retailers out there.

It\’s not a question of whether or not retailers will shift all the copies of Reborn #1 on the shelves. It\’ll probably sell by the truckload. Rather, it\’s the principle of the thing, and we need far more people emulating Brian Hibbs, retailers sacrificing a few sales and customers a refusing en masse to buy this particular title, just to let Marvel know in no uncertain terms that they can\’t treat us all like shit. Most importantly, we have to make darned sure that this despicable new sales tactic they\’ve employed does NOT become accepted industry practice.

Boy, do I hate these Big Companies… Speaking as a customer, I myself will definitely not be buying Reborn on principle, whether or not it might be my cup of tea (probably not, being a Big Event thing), and despite the fact that I usually like the work of both Ed Brubaker and Bryan Hitch. Even if I really, really want to have it, I\’m still sticking to my guns and refusing to buy it, either in comic book or trade paperback form, precisely and solely because of Marvel\’s new selling tactics.

Nor will I buy ANY other Marvel title employing the same approach. And if they adopt it as a general marketing tactic, I will boycott their entire range – and believe me, I do not say this lightly, since I\’m a die-hard Marvel fan and the bulk of my comics spending goes on their products. But I\’m sure there are a lot of deserving indies and small press titles out there who who be glad of a larger chunk of my monthly $400.

In my case, Marvel\’s new \”hard sell\” has backfired, badly, and I reckon (at least I hope) it\’ll also backfire with a sizeable percentage of the customer base. When I read the Reborn entry in the current Marvel Previews, my only thought was \”BASTARDS!!! They can take Reborn and stick it where the sun don\’t shine\”. I make a point of reading Previews each month solely to get information on upcoming releases, so I can make up my own mind on exactly what I\’ll be ordering. Marvel\’s refusal to give any information whatsoever about Reborn prevents me from doing just that, at least in the case of Reborn. So I won\’t be buying it, simple as that.

I really am quite livid at what I see as Marvel\’s latest, and possibly most blatantly cynical and arrogant attempt to hook and reel in the Marvel Faithful. Most of the obsessive Marvel Lemmings will most likely just behave like crack addicts, and buy this thing in droves, so Marvel will see the new approach as being successful, at least in terms of sales. But I\’m sincerely hoping that enough of the more discerning general readership may just see through this cynical marketing ploy, and that there\’ll be some kind of backlash.

We badly need a lot of retailers and readers to do the Right Thing for once, giving Reborn #1 a well-deserved raised middle finger, and sending an emphatic message to Marvel that they really should quit messing around with their customers and retailers, the people who have made them what they are.

If this doesn\’t happen, and, unfortunately, there\’s a strong chance that it won\’t, since most comic fans are mindless sheep – no offense intended to the more intelligent and discerning minority, nor to the younger readers, who haven\’t yet learned about the cynical side of the comics industry – I anticipate lots of bad shit descending upon us down the road a bit if Marvel continues on this path, and DC and others start to follow in line.

It looks like a certain greedy company has forgotten the very stark and costly lesson provided by the implosion of the industry back in the \’90s. But remember this, Marvel. Piss off enough customers, and history might just repeat itself. Biting the hand that feeds you is not a good long-term business practice.

I\’m sincerely hoping that many, many more retailers will follow the brave lead set by Brian Hibbs, and refuse to order Reborn #1. For once, please, think longer term, beyond the extra bit of money you\’ll bring in for the few weeks that Reborn is the new Big Event on the block. Take a stand, \’cos even if it costs a few bucks now, it may just cost a heckuva lot more in the future if you don\’t. Send a loud, clear message to Marvel that the Direct Market should never be abused in this way, and that this kind of behaviour simply will not be tolerated. My most fervent hope is that this cynical, underhanded game-playing blows up completely in Marvel\’s greedy face.

Did I mention that I hate these Big Companies? They\’re a lot like the Ferengi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and DS9. To them, Profit is God, and they\’ll use every low-down trick in the book to bleed us dry. If they\’re allowed to, that is. The Big Guys really do need the occasional swift, hard kick in the nuts to bring them right back down to Planet Earth. Be warned – apathy and mindless subservience to Marvel now on the part of retailers and collectors will reap lots of pain for all of us later on down the road.

It takes guys in the industry like Brian Hibbs to bring this sort of thing to the public\’s attention, to get us all to sit up and take notice, because most people are, lets face it, apathetic and easy-going at the best of times. So a big Thank You to Brian, and, come Friday night, when I\’m in the pub with my mates, enjoying the music of a decent local rock band, and imbibing a few glasses of the old liquid pick me up, I\’ll make sure to take a minute or two out to toast Brian\’s good health.

I wish there were a lot more like him in the comics industry.

The Ninth Gate

Just been watching this movie on TV. It\’s a supernatural thriller starring Johnny Depp and Emmanuelle Seigner. Frank Langella and Lena Olin are quite good as the bad guys.

The movie, overall, is quite interesting and watchable, but what the hell was that ending all about? Beats me. Must watch it again sometime, to see if I can figure it out.

Some New Books

I\’ve built up a new stash of recently acquired books to add to my ever-growing \”To Read\” pile. If I can acquire a couple of extra lifetimes, I might even get to read a few of them.

First up is a large hardback anthology, Machines That Think, edited by Isaac Asimov, Patricia S. Warwick and Martin H. Greenberg. This one contains twenty-nine stories about robots and computers. Next up is The Year\’s Best Fantasy, Second Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I\’m not nearly as big a fan of fantasy as I am of SF, but these two ladies always put together a decent anthology.

Third on our list is 18 Greatest Science Fiction Stories, edited by Laurence M. Janifer, followed by Not the Only Planet – Science Fiction Travel Stories, edited by Damien Broderick. And last up are two novels, which is a rarity for me these days (I tend to read a lot more short fiction than I do novels). The hardback of Mining the Oort, by Frederik Pohl looks very interesting indeed. And the final book is a novel by Edward Eager, The Time Garden, a kid\’s/YA fantasy novel written back in 1958. Looks a bit of an oddity, but interesting.

Also, I must get another chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows under my belt. I\’m about six chapters into it, and enjoying it so far.

Lots of good reading ahead…

SF Fandom and the Internet – Big Disappointment?

One of the things that I enjoyed most about the old SF magazines (the \”Pulps\”) was the letters sent in by readers. Have a look through any magazines from (say) the 1940s or 1950s and you\’ll find missives from fans of all descriptions, including some names that would later become big-name authors in the SF field. But the one thing you\’ll really notice is the feeling of community, of \”togetherness\”.

Those letters pages were a forum, THE place where SF fandom got together and discussed not only the stories from previous issues, but also other things in SF that were important to them. These letters pages were the place where SF fans hung out together in between conventions, and they played a vital part in creating and nurturing SF fandom as we know it.

With the arrival of widespread internet access, we should have expected a similar process to occur online, but on a much greater scale. Huge numbers of fans could potentially get together in a vast online virtual fandom, with near-instantaneous communication provided by online chat facilities, and email and forums allowing fans everywhere to maintain constant contact and discussions on a global scale that would\’ve been impossible in the old magazines.

So why hasn\’t it happened? Sure, fans do maintain contact by email and chats, do talk in forums, and do visit SF websites. But not on the scale we would\’ve expected. And not in any overall cohesive manner. It\’s all fragmented and small-scale, some websites here and there, a few scattered watering holes on Usenet and in forums on the likes of Compuserve, Yahoo and Delphi. Where is the vast global SF fandom that the internet should\’ve spawned, the single huge online SF forum where every SF fan could hang out?

And where is the feeling of \”family\” and \”togetherness\” that so distinguished the letters pages in the SF magazines? It just isn\’t there. Instead of the single collective \”meeting place\” or \”virtual tavern\”, the internet seems to be used more as an enhanced form of snail mail or telephone communication connecting lots of little separate communities and sites run by individuals. It\’s all so long-distance and stand-offish.

It seems that, while the internet provides the potential for this theoretical vast collective global SF fan network, in reality it has turned out to be something else altogether – a disparate collection of small groups and individuals, all doing their own thing, although with the ability to communicate with or visit other such groups. Instead of a single vast collective fandom, everybody together, all of these little groups and individuals keep their distance, setting up their own little patch on the internet, and only commune with the rest of online SF fandom if they feel the need (which most rarely do).

I know that the internet has changed my life, and, like a junkie hooked on heroine, there\’s no way I could survive without my daily fix. But frankly, compared to my fantasy of a single vast virtual SF fandom, I find the reality distinctly disappointing…

Classic Comics – Miracleman (Eclipse Comics)

Some very nice comics arrived from Ebay.co.uk today. A bunch of Miracleman comics, from the classic Eclipse Comics series. Issues 12, 14 , 22, 23, and Miracleman: Apocrypha #3 (of 3), to be exact. Leaves me just #\’s 11, 13, 15 and 24 of the main series to complete the entire run. I was outbid on #24 at the last second (with the previously winning bid from me sitting at £21), something that I was rather pissed off about (to put it very mildly).

This series is a much sought after classic title. And the asking prices reflect that. Certain individual issues will pop up regularly at £30 or more – I expect the hotly demanded #\’s 15 and 24 to cost me a pretty packet at some point. The four trade paperbacks of the main series – A Dream of Flying, The Red King Syndrome, Olympus and The Golden Age (there is also a fifth, covering the Miracleman: Apocrypha 3-part mini-series) – go for exorbitant prices (and only cover up to #22 of the 24 parts).

I still need A Dream of Flying and Olympus, but the high asking prices for the trade paperbacks have forced me to concentrate on the original comics instead. In a way, this is preferable, as the original comics are worth more anyway – the trade paperbacks only have artificially inflated prices only because of the fact that the series is unlikely to be reprinted anytime soon due to the complicated legal situation surrounding the creators rights. But I\’d definitely like to get the other two tpbs, eventually (and at the right price), as this series is structured to fit four \”books\”, and are extremely collectible in this format.

I don\’t usually pay this kind of inflated collector\’s prices for comics – I have better things to do with my money – but, for a series like Miracleman (originally known as Marvelman, an infinitely better title, at least in my opinion), it\’s well worth paying out over the odds. The original modern incarnation of Marvelman first appeared as a black and white strip in the classic British comic, Warrior, at the start of the 1980s. It was written by a then relatively unknown Alan Moore (later an equally relatively unknown Neil Gaiman – this comic has some serious creator pedigree) and drawn by Garry Leach (later Alan Davis and others), and totally redefined the stagnant superhero genre. It blew me away. It was, and remains, my favourite superhero strip of all time. By a huge margin. When you rate something as highly as that, you\’ll pay what it takes to get it.

I\’ve been following the Gaiman vs McFarlane legal squabble over Miracleman copyrights with interest. Apparently Gaiman says that issue 25 was mostly completed before Eclipse went under, and that he\’d get it finished, and the Miracleman story finally wrapped up, if the legal situation ever gets resolved in his favour.

Lets hope that\’s how it turns out, and sooner rather than later.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I\’ve just recently bought the hardback of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It\’s been sitting in front of me for about a week now, and I\’m trying to get up the nerve to actually read it. And it\’s proving more difficult than even I\’d imagined it would be.

My son, Philip, died on 19th April 2006, at the tender age of only 14 years and 9 months, from complications caused by terminal cancer. He was a huge Harry Potter fan. I had read the first three Potter novels to him when he was younger, at one chapter a night – he loved his latest bedtime installment of Potter – and read books 4, 5 and 6 to him as he lay ill in hospital. We hung on, hoping against hope that the final HP novel would be released, in time for him to reach the end of the story. But it wasn\’t to be. He died before the final book was published, and one of my most poignant regrets is that he never got to find out how it all ended.

I made a promise to myself, and to my son, the day he died. I swore that, when the final HP book was released, I\’d read it out aloud, one chapter per night, in the hope that he might just finally hear the end of the story \”up there\”, or wherever else he may be. I\’ve avoided all spoilers like the plague. I haven\’t even glanced at the back of the dust jacket. I know absolutely nothing about the story, other than the nebulous \”somebody dies\” that I\’ve seen floating around the internet. So whatever happens, it\’ll come as a complete surprise.

But now that I\’ve finally got the book, I\’m finding it very difficult to carry out my promise. There\’s something, an internal fear holding me back. It\’s like an invisible forcefield, a mountain I have to climb before I can open the book for the first time. It\’s incredible how something as untouchable, as unsolid as the mind, the emotions, can feel so physically real, like a giant pair of hands, holding me back. I really need my kid right now, both in person and to give me a much-needed metaphysical push in the back.

Well, I\’ve made up my mind. By the time the coming weekend is out, come hell or high water, I\’ll have broken the ice, the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be well and truly behind me, and I\’ll be moving through the book at a regular chapter per night.

And at last, if there\’s any justice at all, and any such place as an afterlife, my son (and I) will find some sort of closure with the end of the Harry Potter saga.

Collecting Old Comics Stuff

I\’ve been going through a bit of a crazy phase recently. Almost a reversion to my youth, or, at least, my youthful collecting habits. I\’ve been spending a lot of money on Ebay, trying to pick up some of the rare relics of my early-to-mid teenage years, when I was an obsessive collector of British comics, as opposed to the more easily found US comics that I became a collector of from my later teens onwards.

Over the last couple of weeks I\’ve been buying a lot of old issues of my favourite British comics from the 1960s and 1970s, mainly Lion, Valiant and Thunder. I would dearly love to be able to buy a whole bunch of Countdown and TV Century 21 (aka TV21), but these are a lot harder to find and a heckuva lot more expensive than the Lion, Valiant and Thunder. Maybe someday, when I\’m rich.

I\’ve also started collecting old annuals, those hardback, once-yearly collections of strips and other goodies from our favourite comics. Again, mainly Valiant, Lion and Thunder, although I did also pick up a nice Countdown Annual from 1972. I remember from when I was a kid – these were the Holy Grail, usually too expensive for me to buy (I didn\’t have a lot of pocket money back in the \’60s and \’70s, and annuals cost on average ten times the price of the weekly comic), and usually confined to Christmas presents from my Dad or other relatives.

Well, I\’ve made a really good start on picking up many annuals from the \’60s and \’70s period, and I\’m starting to develop a real knack for picking them up dirt cheap, or, at least, relatively cheap. (I\’ve just won two more as I\’m typing – Lion Annual 1973 and Thunder Annual 1973). I often look at this ever-growing stack of annuals beside me, and wonder \”Am I going mental? Why am I collecting all of this old stuff? What the hell am I going to do with it?\” And then I open an annual and feel the tidal wave of nostagia wash over me, all the old memories boring up from the depths of my moth-eaten excuse for a brain. And I feel good. Really good. Maybe nostalgia is the narcotic of the 40-somethings (I\’m 46). If it is, I\’m a complete addict. Since my son died in April 2006, I have little else left in my life.

At least nostalgia is a much safer and more productive addiction than cigarettes, booze and drugs. And we all need our little hobbies to spend our money on, or life would be unbearable, all bills and shopping and crappy Real Life nonsense. The thought makes me shudder…

Children of Dune Mini-Series

A while back I talked about the Sci-Fi Channel\’s excellent Dune mini-series, and said how much I enjoyed it. Well, tonight, we watched the first part of the three-part DVD release of the sequel mini-series, The Children of Dune.

The verdict? So far so good. This first part moves a few years ahead to a point where Maud\’dib and his Feydakin armies have swept across human space, defeating the old Imperial forces and sending the former Emperor and his family into exile. But there is great unrest among the Fremen, and a major conspiracy among the Imperial family, the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. Maud\’dib has to deal with all of this, two attempts on his life, the birth of his two children and the death of his beloved Chani. Quite a lot to cram into only the first part!

While the first Dune mini-series covered the first Dune novel, The Children of Dune covers the next two novels, completing the classic Dune Trilogy. This perhaps explains the more hectic pace of the sequel mini-series, but The Children of Dune is none the less enjoyable despite that.

Overall, and so far, this is an excellent sequel to the original Dune mini-series. Well worth a look, and many kudos to the Sci-Fi Channel for producing these two excellent mini-series. I wish they\’d keep up the good record of adapting classic SF to mini-series.

Hominids in the House: Distant Relatives

There was a nice article in Nature recently relating a few interesting facts about some startling hominid fossil finds in Kenya, finds which challenge some long-held views on human evolution.

There were two fossils – a broken upper jawbone and an intact skull – nothing too startling in that. But what was startling is that these finds challenge the standard theory that Homo Habilis evolved into the more advanced Homo Erectus, who later evolved into us. Now it appears that they were \”sister species\”, that they overlapped in time, and lived side by side at some point. Another long-held standard theory bites the dust?

This brings back memories of an article which I read in Scientific American two or three years back. This article stated that, at one point in the past (can\’t recall exactly how long ago), no less than thirteen separate species of hominids existed side by side on this planet, each occupying their own little niche. Hard to believe, isn\’t it?

It\’s even harder to believe that all of them, bar our own direct ancestors, died out solely through natural selection. Methinks our ancestors were just as handy with the old \”ethnic cleansing\” as many of their dishonorable descendants. Maybe some kind of evolutionary or biological imperative built into us that we\’ll have to overcome before we can consider ourselves really \”civilized\”.

Reminds me of an early episode of Babylon 5, in which a drunken Londo was bragging that the Centauri used to exist alongside another intelligent species on their homeworld, but eventually exterminated them. Londo\’s views on this awful genocide? \”Good riddance!\”

Sounds just like us. The Centauri and Earthers are descended from a common ancestor, if you ask me.