I caught up with a few friends ( and after 72 days alcohol-free, let the genie back out of the bottle) saw the summer panto at Oran Mor and visited Strathaven but it took nearly six days to recycle and to pack boxes. Then the removal van came a day early. It's been strenuous work on bright, humid days. I lost five pounds in weight and I have had very mixed feelings about the choices I've made.
My Doctor Who vhs tapes- even the gift sets from the 200s- were collected by Oxfam on Byres Road.
I also donated some of my original Byrne FFs and Alpha Flights Miller's Dark Knight and other doublers I now own in paperback, with some Conan novels to Kirsty Miller- TV's Maggie in the early 80s- who has a bookstall at the Botanic Gardens.
The hardest part was winnowing out the UK weeklies. I kept a few first issues but became engrossed by strips like Gulacy's Shang-Chi, with the Bondian schemes of Conrad Velcro and Mordillo. I also developed deeper appreciation of Gentleman Gene Colan- from my favourite late 60s Avengers trilogy (Goliath, the Swordsman and Egghead's death-ray satellite) to Cap and the Falcon ( Stone-Face, the Exiles and the Red Skull, natch) and the Gothic romance era of Daredevil (the Cobra, Hyde, the Jester and Mr. Fear). Moody and magnificent.
I was also digging Buscema's regal heroes: Namor's conflicts with Tiger Shark and Paul Destine. The mighty Thor in Conway's sci-fi sagas about the Demon Druid, the God-Jewel and the Black Stars. Gorgeous; I want to seek them out in colour collections.
I was still reading modern comics too, with Forbidden Planet a few minutes away by train.
The first issues of Man of Steel and Superman introduced a new villain- Rogol Zaar, a sort- of orc warlord world-killer- fire chief melody Moore and a new Fortress of Solitude in the Bermuda Triangle, while Lois and Jon Kent were dispatched into space.The debut issue revealed Earth plunged into the Phantom Zone. Despite all this, I'm just not grabbed and I found the comics dull. By contrast, I hugely enjoyed the (redacted) foul-mouthed gang wars of Defenders: Kingpins of New York. There was a time where the same snarky voice and the rambling dialogue annoyed me but I've come to enjoy the rhythms of Bendis's writing. I wonder if his take on the Metropolis Marvel wouldn't be better suited to crime-busting with Intergang, the Prankster and Toyman?
Gail Simone's Plastic Man explores the gangster world of the stretchy and slinky one; it's an idea I've been intrigued by since seeing a sketch in an issue of Wizard which I'll maybe dig out again later this year.
However, crude jokes about wangs and rubbers and very graphic violence combine to create a queasy tone for the character, to whom I've had an attachment for a number of years now.
While I found Bryan Hitch's Justice League tedious and derivative of Who, his collaboration with Robert Venditti suggests Indiana Jones via Ray Harryhausen. Carter Hall has a lean,weather-beaten look and the first issue, featuring a cameo by Madame Xanadu has fun with a flying Cyclops gorilla idol on an island off Santorini
The Winged Wonder's costume reminds me of the pharaoh gear of Layton and Staton's late 70s All-Star run and the writing evokes the Fox/Anderson sensibility of my earliest childhood and I think I'll trade-wait this book.
In addition to the boxes and boxes of comics that are now dominating my rented house in Elgin, I had collected so many books- about 300- that you could call me Bookfinger. Since I was hoping to carry on from Glasgow down to Galloway for a couple of days, I brought a 60s Lin Carter paperback and a new Star Trek Discovery novel. I found I couldn't afford a weekend away however and haven't opened them but on the trains, I very much enjoyed the comic detective romp Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble . Of course, I took along some Doctor Who audios too.
The Brood of Erys is a 2014 adventure of celebrity caravanner Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor. It's an early outing too for Lisa Greenwood's Flip, the irrepressible Essex Girl. I used to find Flip a bit hard to take- a very "lite" Rose Tyler-lite- and I like her best in tandem with Constance Clarke. Here, she's kidnapped by some space imps who are part of the ecosystem of a living moon. Flip's second adventure, The Crimes of Thomas Bewster, involved a sentient planet but I can't recall any mention of that. In fact, this play by teen tv prodigy- turned- cop Andrew Smith didn't stick in my memory at all. I do remember characters being absorbed by planet-stuff , an amnesiac woman and a character named Elgin- but that's all. 2/5 Talmars.
Horrors of War is a recent release and an audiobook proper. It's also a sequel to the Hartnell Era Men of War, with further time warps in WWI. (http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.com/2018/06/temporal-jiggery-pokery.html)
The Third Doctor and Jo Grant zip about in the Tardis between Ypres and Sarajevo, trying to preserve the timeline. It feels like the middle third of a trilogy and while it's atmospheric, it's vey thin on plot. Katy Manning is a lively and appealing reader however and her compassionate characterisation of Northern nurse Annie Grantham redeems yet another insipid tale from the humdrum Justin Richards. 1/5 Talmars
While it might've been in character for Annie, I find it maddening that Who audio writers persist in writing: " He was stood/she was sat" instead of "standing" or "sitting". It's informal dialect at best and grammatically incorrect at worst and sadly testament to the camp, middlebrow, Anglo-centric voice of BF.
More excitingly, the trailer dropped for the new Jodie Whitaker series of Doctor Who. It looks colourful, contemporary and exciting- if a bit short on monsters so far. I can't wait.
Still to come this summer: Iron Fist on tv and life on Mars in comics and pulps. But there's yet another house move in August to come so no promises...
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