Clyde Built

In the summer of 2015, the Glasgow Print Studio exhibited some of the work of Mark Millar and Rutherglen's "Frank Quitely" aka Vincent Deighan. I was drawn to it ( ho, ho) because I'd enjoyed Quitely's collaborations with Grant Morrison JLA: Earth-Two,  New X-Men and Batman and Robin. Millar describes Quitely as one of the top three in the world.

This year, until October, Kelvingrove Art Galleries hosts The Art of Comics, a larger exhibition of Deighan's work. I went along yesterday (April 2nd) and it was very busy, which shows how mainstream comics culture is nowadays, thanks largely to movies and television.

The exhibition encourages visitors to be creative and I decided to try a redesign of one of my own creations from 2003: an All-New Red Clydesider.

Named in honour of political radicalism, I felt a super-heroine- possibly a gay, Muslim refugee superheroine - was the only logical response to the Marvel VP comments on diversity, more of which below.
Other elements whirling through my head were the Night Nurse/Daredevil scenes in the Netflix series; soap opera storylines and the image of a woman soaring over the Clyde Arc- the "Squinty Bridge".

Here are sketches of the Golden Age Red Clydesider  ( swiped from Mike Machlan) and the Modern Age ( swiped from Todd Nauck via John Byrne). Hugh Robertson, the modern RC, has developed early onset Alzheimer's and his mantle is adopted by Rabaa Ahmad, a newly -qualified doctor and Syrian refugee.

The first pass at the New Clydesider had her wearing a hairslide, since I was thinking of her as a bit of a Belle and Sebastian fan. The big RC seemed too provocative and comedic for Glasgow however and as I left the exhibition table, I got the refugee idea.

I got inspiration for a Muslim female character in a headscarf online and swipes from Patsy Walker aka  Hellcat gave some of the upbeat flavour I wanted. I didn't want a parodic character- rather something that John Romita might've worked up in the late 70s.

I wanted the costume design to incorporate the colours of the Syrian flag but also the Bird, Bell, Fish and Tree from the Glasgow coat of arms. I found a 1975 graphic from a Glasgow 800 poster I really liked  as an emblem.

However, this version was a bit too Xmassy and a bit "Broccoli Girl, with the proportionate strength of cruciferous vegetables!"

This predominantly red costume seemed more dynamic and although it's a bit Harley Quinn, I was aiming for something of Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman. It would be amazing if someone cosplays her! All-New RC can fly, punch really hard and has a linguistics power a) because Syrians speak a variety of Arabic dialects and b) communication seems massively important in the present day.

Villains? The Gorbals Vampire, Kick 2 Kill, "Mars" Barr, the Patter Merchant...

And meanwhile, as they used to say in the comics, I am still looking at collected library editions of the "diversity" titles that kill sales...

I bought the first Uneatable Squirrel Girl tpb last year but I didn't find it as funny as I'd expected. Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now is more entertaining. Firstly, Doreen has an encounter with ancient Invaders baddie, Brain Drain, whose glooomy Nietzchean pronouncements are very funny. "Chaos and murder are the only inventions of nature that humanity might one day truly understand". Another metallic adversary, Victor Von Doom turns up in a timey-wimey adventure with a witty visual gag about Secret Squirrel. Finally, there's a cross-over with Howard the Duck guest-starring Kraven, the Beast and Rocket Raccoon. It also parodies We3 quite amusingly, Quitely fans. It irks me that HTD looks nothing like the Colan version but this is a very silly comic which kids seem to adore.

Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel stars in Alis Volat Propriis ("She flies with her own wings". State motto of Oregon, apparently.) Issue 2 of the original Ms. Marvel was the first superheroine comic I ever bought for myself ( I'd read Ross Andru Wonder Woman stories and the Million -Dollar Debut of Batgirl in Double Double Comics, plus the odd Black Widow episode in Amazing Adventures). At the age of 13, I was a bit uncomfortable about buying a girl's comic - as I perceived it- but I immediately became a fan of  Ms.M, despite her appropriation of Peter Parker's career.

She's gone through the mill in the last forty years- an infamous Demon Seed storyline, amnesia, alien experimentation and alcoholism- but in her current incarnation, she's an Earth ambassador in a space opera title by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez. A not-very-interesting encounter with space pirates leads to Phoenix-style temptation but Carol ultimately rejects her Binary powers. The best-written story in this slim volume sees Carol reacting to the death of her old mentor Tracy Burke, whose battle with cancer and same-sex relationship are both sensitively portrayed.

I dislike Carol's 1960s Kree helmet and her dreadful Mohawk (and I don't understand why Canada's Alpha Flight have been repurposed as a space program) but Carol is a gutsy, appealing, Forties-style broad and I'd prefer her to take on the FF's old foes, now they're in limbo.

Like the FF, the original X-Men and Cap's Kooky Quartet, Thor is one of my oldest Marvel memories from the Power Comics of the Sixties. Thunder In her Veins features the adventures of Jane Foster as Thor, whose cancer is a dark twist on Don Blake's disability. I wasn't very engaged by volume one Thor: Goddess of Thunder and was disappointed because I loved Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men. Happily, this book was much better.

This series draws very heavily on the imagery of the Marvel movies, where a civil war in Asgardia is instigated by Malekith the dark Elf and his human allies in the Roxxon Corporation. The cosmic battles are on an interplanetary scale and there is an element of Moorcock's cursed Stormbringer in Thor's hammer. I also enjoyed seeing Gerry Conway and John Buscema's Hildegarde, from early-70s Thor, whom I like almost as much as the Valkyrie of the Defenders.

With humour, heroic fantasy and sci-fi, these three titles offer a variety of viewpoints on female experience ( and super-heroing) but they are killing sales- NOT event fatigue and multiple crossovers? Hmm?


Coming soon: Shade, Prez, Wasp and the Bionic Woman

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