Cluttered Like My Head

 The second V book was East Coast Crisis, a chunky title set (as the title says) in New York rather than the Californa locale loved by television production companies at the time.  This one says that it was published in September 1984 in the US (by Pinnacle) and then April 1985 in the UK (by NEL)  A co-write between Ann Crispin and Howard Weinstein, at 300 pages, this is the chunks of the spin-off books, and runs simultaneously with the events of the original two mini-series and thus the original book.  It's fair to say therefore that there's little opportunity for surprise. We see a lot of plot points from the original series repeated, only with a New York twist. The visitors are our friends / they're converting people / what's happening to scientists etc etc.  I think its also true to suggest that the characters in this book probably suffer in comparison with the ones from the TV show - we can all visualise Mike Donovan and Juliet Parrish in our heads because ...

 Now we are up to September 1983. There's no sense here of a title that knows its on its last legs and going through the motions. I reckon this is probably one of the best issues of Daredevils - it knows exactly what it's doing and its doing it brilliantly.  Firstly - we've got the instalment of Captain Britain where Moore is literally lining up the chess pieces in the story and bringing them into play. It's a treat to see, and its nice to see supporting characters from the US comics (Shaw and Gyrich) appear - it helps to sustain the conceit that the stories are taking place in one big shared universe.  The art by Alan Davis is immaculate - he really has come on in leaps and bounds since the first issues and the twist on the last page, as the Fury make his return to this universe, is spectacular.  Then we've got Daredevil which this month includes the first appearance of Elektra. It's a marvellous piece of continuity mangling, Miller managing to convince us that...

Yesterday I went down south to see Idlewild at the Wedgewood Rooms. When I lived down that way, we used to see quite a few bands at that venue, and, according to my Setlist stats, the last band I saw there was Idlewild themselves back in 2009.  Roddy himself alluded to this - he said that he reckoned it was their 9th time in Portsmouth as a band, which, as he said, is pretty impressive for a band from Scotland. I reckon they've only been to Northampton 2 or 3 times so Portsmouth has been really lucky.  They were great of course - they mixed up their set with a few tracks from their most recent album, but it was mostly the big songs that you'd expect, and the band, now set as a 6 piece, with Rod Jones and Allan Stewart anchoring the stage with a guitar at each side, muscles through a raucous and energetic set.  It won't come as a great revelation that, as you get older, time seems to be speeding up. I only spent 4 years living down there, and moved back to Northampton in 2...

 And onwards to issue 8. There's a letter in this month's issue bemoaning how the issue is becoming the Alan Moore monthly, and complaining that the 4 page backup strips are a step too far. Well - this time around instead of one of those backup strips with 'The Special Executive', we have a 4 page Daredevil pisstake by Moore with sumptuous art by Mike Collins and Mark Farmer. The strip has moments of quality - I like the intro text panels where it says that "Noo Yawk is grim, and gritty and realistic. There are big black buildings with little white squares on, and water towers, and manholes and lots of other gritty stuff." I think it tails off though and after 4 pages of gags about him not being able to see anybody outstays its welcome.  Before that of course, we have another fantastic Captain Britain instalment. The Fury is getting closer to our heroes and at the end of the episode, Captain UK from the previous issue makes a reappearance and it definitely fee...

  Another issue, another fine Alan Davis cover, and the disappearance of the Marvel Superheroes logo from the front - it lasted all of one issue.  I wonder if they knew that there was pressure on them for sales by this point. There's an excellent Alan Davis poster featuring the cast of Captain Britain, Nightraven and Daredevil. It also has a lot of blurb on the posted explaining what it's all about, and a competition where if you can get your local newsagent to display the poster, they will replace it with a signed copy. It's a shame because it's really firing on all cylinders by this point.  The Captain Britain strip, taking place at the trial of Saturnyne, again features multiple Captains from different universes fighting against the slightly rigged process. There's a prologue and epilogue though which features Linda McQuillan (another alternative Captain Britain I believe) having nightmares - in the prologue she sees the death of Miracleman (at this point, not in...

 In which I track back and actually read issue 5 now, having already read the following issue.  There's a couple of characters in here that do stuff with time - one of the members of the Special Executive (Cobweb) apparently has constant psychic contact with a number of past and future versions of herself, and when Betsy Braddock scans her mind, she will be "plunged into a word where time has no meaning, where past, present and future melt into a terrifying kaleidoscope" which of course, is how I felt reading these issues in the wrong order.  Anyway - this time around we get to see the Special Executive for the first time - there's also a 2 page colour poster and a text page explaining who they are. There's also a piece explaining why the Spider-Man strips have been dropped (basically, they felt out of place), some fanzine reviews focussing on some publications from Ed Hillyer, and as well as the second part of Alan Moore's article on sexism in comics, there...