The Daredevils #8

 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 feels like matters are coming to a head. There's a mention in the letter column as to how Moore and Davis are working together as a team, and it definitely feels like this strip is one where they are both firing on all cylinders. 

The cover is interesting this month - there's another price rice to 65p, and one of the text captions reads "Originated strips this issue - Captain Britain and A Daredevil Satiree!" - I imagine these may be the first and only times that either originated or satire appeared on the covers of a Marvel UK Comic. 

The news article this month mentions that Moore is doing more work for the American publishers, making the way for his eventual departure I suppose, and as well as the Nightraven story and an Elektra poster by Dave Weir, there's a 4 page article on Hong Kong comics which I suspect is appealing by now to a diminishing section of the readership. 

It's still a great title - but I do think the text articles are in a bit of a slump. Let's see what happens in Issue 9.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memories

 As we get older, our memories seem to become more and more important, more precious. Rilo Kiley tickets went on sale today - they’ve not played London since 2007 - I only saw them once a couple of years earlier. Even though I was un fussed about seeing them again in 2007, 19 years later it seems the most important thing ever and so I’ve dutifully queued up (virtually) for tickets.  I once had a blog called “Cluttered Like My Head” - it was one of my better ones until I deleted it in a fit of pique. I’m even nostalgic for that now - which is probably why I’m writing this. 
Read more

Brookie

 Everybody is doing flashbacks now - I think I’ve probably watched something like a dozen episodes of Hollyoaks in my life but word appeared that they were gonna do some sort of Brookside tribute to mark their 30th so of course I watched it. Deep down I know it’s cobblers - they’ve written a few scenes with a few old characters to get a bit of publicity and remind people that Hollyoaks is still going - but goodness me it hits the buttons. Here’s Sheila still with Billy, there’s Bobby collecting for the food bank. Here’s Sinbad, and Mick, and Barry Grant. And oh look, Phil Redmond pops up to say his life is one drama after another. So yeah - it’s cobblers, but it’s nice as well. It allows us to imagine that things will work out alright for these people - which in soapland is something to be proud of.
Read more

Gene

Image
 My relationship with Gene ended up complicated - I first saw them in 1995 at the Roadmender and I loved them instantly. Over the years, I saw them many more times, dragging a variety of pals with me to those gigs - at those gigs, I first encountered amazing bands supporting them like Muse, The Divine Comedy and (British) Sea Power. I saw them in London, Oxford, in Brighton and in Southsea, and I even managed to drag everybody to see them in San Francisco when we were there on holiday in 2002. I occasionally made poor quality recordings of some of those gigs, and put some of tracks up for download on my website devoted to the band. It's fair to say that they were my favourite band.  Despite this, it was pretty clear that they were up against it. Every step forward seemed to be associated with a step back, and their struggles to get their final LP heard meant that nobody was really surprised when they called it a day and played an emotional final gig at the Astoria in 2004. Peo...
Read more