[Andrew999]

Seeing all the great publicity generated for John Lees new horror title:

https://awastudios.net/series/hotell/

I love the idea that you have to sign a waiver before being able to purchase a copy in case you have a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

It made me wonder how come Scotland produces so many great comic book writers - Mark Miller, Grant Morrison, Alan Grant, John Wagner, David Baillie, Gerry Finley-Day, Eddie Campbell, Denise Mina and I've probably missed a few

Is it something in the water? (other than whisky that is)

[misappear]

I

[The Australian Panther]

I love the idea that you have to sign a waiver before being able to purchase a copy in case you have a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

This kind of publicity stunt goes back to the 50's when there were warnings with horror films and sometimes ambulances standing by.

It made me wonder how come Scotland produces so many great comic book writers 

With tongue partly in cheek, maybe because they come from a climate where self-isloation comes naturally and you have to do something intellectually stimulating.
They also produce over their weight category in Crime and Noir book authors.
Then go back and look at Scotland's renaissance when they produced Robert Louis Stevenson, Conan Doyle and many others at the time.       

[Andrew999]

One Man Scottish Comic Industry Mark Miller appears to be on the verge of taking over Netflix with a slew of products from his Millerworld Universe about to appear:

Jupiter's Legacy appears to be of most interest to Golden Age fans with its Watchman / Supreme like references. I bet Alan Moore is already calling foul. Due next year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E3JxqTpcFM&list=PLHWUC85Z4f47eXVrLfHJpWwz6oxRIB3mz&index=8&t=0s

American Jesus is described as an action comedy which has an exciting premise - that Jesus was reborn in the States about thirty years ago and is just about to turn water into wine (I always liked him for that!)

The Magic Order has a darker, more gothic, feel so I am already hooked. Five families have developed magic powers - will they stick together or fall out.

Sharkey the Bounty Hunter looks like it has Strontium Dog/Galaxy Quest type influences - an intergalactic bounty hunter in a cowboy hat

We are promised many more to come including Huck, Prodigy and Empress.

We should all create our own universe (psychologists say that we already do) - mine would begin with Cryo Lords, a team of superheroes frozen in time by an evil villain, who suddenly find themselves awakening in the bodies of old men and women scattered across the world - how will they escape their predicament and achieve their revenge?

[paw broon]

You ARE trying to wind me up First Mr. Morrison, now Mr Miller. 
Mark is as nice a bloke as you could ever hope to meetand his work is incredibly popular - and I use "incredibly" deliberately. I dislike his comic book work, nor would I consider him one of Scotland's great comic book writers, apart from quantity. He's perfectly charming.

[Andrew999]

Do you think he's so charming his fans are enchanted? Just a thought.

By the way, I want to say mucho to all our Mexican members - I know it means a lot to them.

[Andrew999]

Today marks the 57th anniversary of the debut of Fred Basset, that four-legged quintessential chronicler of British home counties life - odd to think it was created by a Scotsman, Alex Graham, and is continued by his daughter Arran.

Fred may not be as well known as Snoopy but he provides a lot more laughs and his stripping away of middle-class pretensions can be piercingly spot on (should be taken alongside the Gambols twice a day!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Basset

[Andrew999]

At the risk of winding up Paw even further, Grant Morrison is about to spearhead the launch of NBC Universal into comic books:

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/nbcuniversal-launches-comics-company-with-grant-morrison-on-first-title/

The first title, Proctor Valley, does look interesting with a dark tone - and of course could lend itself easily to a TV series, further inflating Morrison's bank balance.

Could NBCU end up rivalling DCU and MCU? Doubtful - but it could chip away a few percentage points putting the big two under pressure.

[Robb_K]

Seeing all the great publicity generated for John Lees new horror title:

https://awastudios.net/series/hotell/

I love the idea that you have to sign a waiver before being able to purchase a copy in case you have a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

It made me wonder how come Scotland produces so many great comic book writers - Mark Miller, Grant Morrison, Alan Grant, John Wagner, David Baillie, Gerry Finley-Day, Eddie Campbell, Denise Mina and I've probably missed a few

Is it something in the water? (other than whisky that is)

The frustration of  too many gray days (clouds, mists, fogs, rain, and snow), and several hundred years of English domination.

[Andrew999]

I'm looking forward to reading Dundee-based DC Thomson Media

[Andrew999]

Glasgow-born Eddie Campbell is 65 today - Happy Birthday, Eddie!

Eddie's probably still best known for his collaboration with Alan Moore on From Hell, a fascinating retelling of the Jack the Ripper mystery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Campbell

Meanwhile, let's not forget Eddie's amazing wife, Audrey Niffenegger - best known for the mind-bending debut novel The Time Traveller's Wife, a book which in my opinion was surpassed by her second novel Her Fearful Symmetry. It's not often that I feel shivers down my spine when I'm reading a ghost story - but this was one such occasion.

What's the scariest ghost story you've ever read?

[Andrew999]

Kick Ass Albion Rovers fan Mark Miller launches a dynasty:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/emily-brooks-millar-comic-the-couch-ate-my-brother/

[paw broon]

He's one of the few.  Albion Rovers used to have a tiny attendance, in fact their most famous supporter was the local mp, who was nearly blind.  I used to go to Cliftonhill regularly, not for the football, though.  Friday night was speedway night. The first team who raced there for a couple of years was the displaced Edinburgh Monarchs with the great Reidar Eide.  I saw Ivan Mauger one night.  He was seriously good.After a while, Glasgow tigers moved out to Clitonhill retaining the services of Jim McMillan and Bobby Beaton, both Scottish internationalists.  Unfortunately, by that time Charlie Monk had moved on.
The Tigers had to step down a league and the big names left.  But 2nd. division racing was exciting.  I wrote up the match reports for a couple of years.
All but a memory now.
Interestingly, on a Saturday the football team got perhaps a couple of hundred through the gate, but Friday night there were 1500 - 2000 fans in the ground.

[Robb_K]

Glasgow-born Eddie Campbell is 65 today - Happy Birthday, Eddie!

Eddie's probably still best known for his collaboration with Alan Moore on From Hell, a fascinating retelling of the Jack the Ripper mystery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Campbell

Meanwhile, let's not forget Eddie's amazing wife, Audrey Niffenegger - best known for the mind-bending debut novel The Time Traveller's Wife, a book which in my opinion was surpassed by her second novel Her Fearful Symmetry. It's not often that I feel shivers down my spine when I'm reading a ghost story - but this was one such occasion.

What's the scariest ghost story you've ever read? 

What a great story that is!  It brought up a lot of issues for me to consider in my own time travel stories (one of which I am working on in the plot development phase, as I type this.  It considered the effect of time travel on the time traveler's life, and family, and the issue of needing, somehow to control IT, rather than letting it control you. 

My story is a Black Comedy, and I want (as always) to have it extremely well thought through, and more towards scientific plausibility, and less towards wild fantasy that breaks the laws of physics so badly that it makes the story seem silly.  Her book gave me food for thought.  It made an excellent and very entertaining film, as well.

[Andrew999]

I was a Plymouth Devils fan in the seventies. They had a loyal fan base and the best riders became local legends - like Dave Whitaker and Bob Coles - though being a second division club, we never got to see any of the greats like Mauger or Briggs.

I still watch it on TV sometimes - I like to follow the Polish Ekstraliga where there are always some madcap challenges on the bends - though it's impossible to pronounce the names.

[paw broon]

You might fancy a swatch at this site:-
http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/Plymouth.htm
This is Cliftonhill:-
http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/Coatbridge%20Speedway.htm
You'll find Jimmy Squibb in the Plymouth link.  I saw him once at Coatbridge towards the end of his career, but not riding for Plymouth.  Can't remember the team.

[Andrew999]

That's the one,  thanks Paw.

I followed them from 68-70 but they still exist - though they ride now at a different arena

Do you know, I never knew Dave Whittaker (the captain) was a New Zealander.

[Andrew999]

Clearly, Mark Miller needs more money if he is to prop up Scotland's second worst soccer team - but SEVEN new Kingsman projects?

I must admit I enjoyed the two movies so I'm keen to see how it develops - and the concept is strong. A TV series would give minor spies in the organisation a chance to shine so it could work. Are we about to see a rebirth of sixties Eurospy movies and comic books with a techno twist?

https://www.marseillenews.net/news/cinema/sept-nouveaux-projets-kingsman-en-preparation-69270.html

[Andrew999]

Happy 51st birthday today to the extremely prolific Mark Miller, a man who has successfully beaten his own path in life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Millar

My own particular favourites of his are Kick-Ass, Kingsman and the Chrononauts

[Andrew999]

I don't know how he does it but Mr Millar has just landed another money-spinner scripting the new Starlight movies - it does sound interesting though.

Millar describes his script as a cross between Flash Gordon and The Dark Knight Returns - so no oversell then....

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/attack-the-block-director-joe-cornish-is-adapting-mark-millars-starlight/1100-6490068/

Wasn't there another Starlight - a woman hero? I lose track sometimes