WHAT'S OPERA DOC?

ht: Cartoon Brew

Wonderpants

So Wonder Woman has a new costume, no more buttock slicing thongs for that Amazon princess.

Of course, the web is ablaze with irate fans about the change - but hey this is comics, it won't last.

In the meantime here's a poster I found on Byrne Robotics...

TALKING CAT

Something to distract you from events yesterday



ht: Jimmy

DOCTOR WHO - Glasto style

Here you go, Matt Smith and Orbital at Glastonbury yesterday

DEFENCE

As with all departments there is going to be a lot of tension in the MoD over cuts to its budget.

What worries me though is that despite promises otherwise it will be the frontline that will bear the brunt as always.

The MoD has a history of cocking up and protecting the suits in Whitehall rather than those whose job is the physical defence of this nation.

To get the cuts, all desk pilots will have to be reviewed - is there a reason why they are there? If not, out you go.

Secondly, start buying off-the-shelf rather than costly "projects". If a UK firm is good enough then they will compete. Military industry is one of our major exports after all.

Thirdly, those projects already on the go - the Eurofighter, Aircraft carriers etc. Enforce non-closure penalties if there are actually any. If not, warn the manufacturers that you consider it a breach of contract if the projects go further over budget/over-time.

HITCHHIKERS...

Rich is bigging this up and I wholeheartedly agree

The HitchHikers Guide to: The Daleks

PAC MAN

Wakka wakka wakka

Do you remember Pac Man, that crazy little yellow sprite eating pills and gobbling ghosts.

Well the creator of Pac Man Toru Iwatani was at the NLGD Festival of Games in Holland earlier this month and with him came two original sketches of the game.

How cool?




ht: 1up

AKIRA

One gorgeous, seminal piece of manga/anime that I love is Akira.

It's viscarel language - both in art and story - was an eye-opener to me, things that hit me round the head and beat me up senseless in a darken alleyway.

And it's going to be a live action film...

Yay


From Hollywood....

Oh

PG13...

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

RULE BRITANNIA

Dan Hannan talks about his countrymen:

"yes, we can be a difficult people: morose, drunk, bellicose; awkward neighbours when times are good. Still, in a crisis, there is no one else I’d rather have around me."

Indeed!

NEARLY THERE

Good luck England, you need it

Pic HT: Rantin Rab

DOCTOR WHO - POSS SPOILERS

The last episode is on Saturday and there is a clip out right now...

If you haven't seen The Pandorica Opens, look away now...


you gone?



Honestly?


OK...

You were warned...




And a stone dalek






HT: the good Blogtor

A DISGRACE

Manu Tuilagi is 19, he came over here with his family six years ago. He plays for Leicester Tigers and is a capped, under-18's England International.

In its wisdom the Home Office has refused a working visa and he is now under threat of deportation to Samoa, somewhere that he considers the ancestral home, England is his home.

Although his five brothers have, and for two still do, ply their rugby in this country that is because they played international rugby for Samoa. Manu wants to play international rugby too - but for England.

I really don't know what the Home Office is doing. This isn't the first time that they have wanted to deport someone who grew up here and wants to contribute to Britain, yet there are immigrants who get in here via family and promptly jump onto benefits.

Despite the support his club, the Premiership, and the RFU, the Home Office refused and because of this, he doesn't even have the right to appeal.

Quoted in The Rugby Paper, UK Border Agency deputy director Simon Excell, pompously commented: "[Manu] has never applied for permission to work. Clubs that wish to employ skilled sportsmen or women from overseas must check that they have the right to live and work in the UK."

Now, Ok Manu came in on a visitor's visa when he was a kid and it should have been sorted out but isn't he precisely the type of person we should be welcoming to our shores?

Head of the Tigers rugby operations Simon Cohen commented: "...they will presumably serve a deportation order on him...if they are going to come to the training ground and take him I would suggest they bring a lot of people!"

Indeed

AWE

Just beautiful and awe-inspiring - a trip round the known universe

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM RIP

Here

WHERE'S MY TRAIN?

This is good!

A live map of the tube!

ht: Theo

NEW LOOK

So like many others, I have used the new settings on blogger to vamp the site -

what do you think?

SPORT

Well sport in general really.

It's Wimbledon time again and the papers will be full of rubbish about how the Scot could win.

Nah, he won't. he can't. He's part of that spoilt, over-paid, breed that is tipified by the English football team.

This breed thinks itself apart from its support-group, the fans. They are overpaid, underacheive and have a go at those who spend thousands, travelling in hope that this time the team/player will actually have the nerve to go for it and win.

Take Rugby. It used to be the most honest sport ever but for over a year we have had the manager who use to encapsulate all that we thought good in Rugby, spouting rubbish about taking the right steps, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah they won at the weekend but it doesn't hide the innate problem, which is in all sport.

As England/british supporters, all we want is to see a team give its all. If it loses then as gutting it maybe, at least the team/player, gave everything to the cause.

Not as we have seen in the last couple of weeks, two national teams who gave nothing but incompetence and a lackluster display.

That Mr Rooney is why they booed you. If you were beaten after busting a gut then fair enough. To gift Algeria a point when they should have been given a battering, is why!

Oh and while I'm at it - any chance of the papers apologising to Rob Green? Yeah he made an error but as my football-hating wife put it:

"So they are having a go at a goalkeeper for making a mistake. Why aren't they have a go at the team for failing to score more goals than America?"

Exactly!

Al Williamson RIP

It was with great sadness that I heard that Al Williamson had passed away.

For a certain fan, he was the Star Wars artist.

Way back then, we didn't have simul-release dates for films and it could take a good few months for them to get over from the States so for us narly kids who wanted to know what happened next in The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, we had no choice but to buy the comic adaptation or the book.

For TESB and TROJ, these adaptations were masterfully realised by Williamson and no matter how many great artists have drawn Star Wars comics, he was the Star Wars artist.

RIP

FANTASTIC NEW RADIO STATION

Gwan, it's great


HT: Obo

WORLD CUP WOES

Heh!


HT: Obo

AH!

Perhaps a lesson for Obama and BP


ht: Dale

EDUCASHUN

Now THIS is how to deal with parents



HT: Got

ERM...

OKAAAYY...



ht: Rich

I PAD

OIL

so the US is going to start criminal proceedings against BP - good!

Because as I understand it, there is one thing that has been missing from the anti-BP rhetoric coming out of Washington and that is this...the rig and drill were made by and staffed by, Americans and BP leased the rig and drill from our old friends Haliburton.

KNEEJERK

Whitehaven - I don't know what made him do it, I don't know how the townfolk must be feeling today but I do know one thing-

DO NOT DO THE KNEEJERK GOVERNMENT!

After Dunblane there was a knee-jerk reaction, as a result gun crime has actually gone up - people who want to use a gun, will find one, last report was a Russian handgun at around £40 a pop.

After Dunblane there was a refusal to accept that the laws that were already in place had simply failed to have been deployed, Dumblaine should not have happened. It wasn't about gun clubs and ownership, it was about the local sheriff and police failing to respond to reported concerns about Thomas Hamilton.

This is the perfect opportunity for the Government to start treating us like adults. In relative terms, this sort of thing is fairly rare in this country thank God. Accept this has happened and please think logically and try not to introduce any more ridiculous laws that only punish the innocent.

IRON BABY

FEAR OF HEIGHTS

Potentially disturbing news from over the pond...

It appears that there is some serious powerplay going on at DC where rumours say the Swamp Thing is to return to the DC universe.



At the same time, the China Mieville scripted Vertigo series has been ditched with a kill-fee despite having a couple of issues done already.

Now I know there is not a lot of love for Dan Didio but I really hope that this isn't a case of pinning down, if not removing Vertigo from existence.

Let me briefly explain:


Vertigo is essentially the 'adult' inprint of DC Comics. Started on the back of Alan Moore's success on the DC labelled Swamp Thing, it has spawned such brilliance as Sandman, Preacher,Sandman Mystery Theatre, Fables, rescued Transmetropolitan and continued Hellblazer.

It has shifted between fantasy, science fiction and reality seeing such titles as DMZ and Northlanders.


Now sales in the monthly format have never been brilliant but all the titles above have a long shelf-life in bookstores and I know of people who happily read these titles without ever considering that they came from the same stable as Superman and Wonder Woman.

Conceptually I have no problem with Swampy going back to the DC universe if done right. Hellblazer on the other hand...erm nope, not for me.



I do have a problem of ditching the Mieville Swampy as the crossover market could have been huge and garnered a hell of a lot of media attention.

However, what gets me is that if this is indeed powerplay then what a stupid, idiotic thing to do. Karen Berger has been one of the most innovative publishers in the States and if DC is about to shaft Vertigo then if I were her I would find another publishing company and restart again - after all most of the current titles are creator-owned, which come to think it, maybe what really annoys the paymasters at Warner Brothers.

Vertigo stand alone among mainstream publishing companies for its sheer variety and nerve and I hope the rumours are totally unfounded. If not then someone in Warner Bros should really start looking at the management of DC as a whole because there appears to be some serious retro, backwards-looking, sales-dropping, movements happening at the moment without the kudos that the likes of Vertigo gives the company.

Seriously angry if this is true