Naughty Artists at Work

Hmm, I seem to have passed to the dark side this week with all these US comic comments, but it seems I'm not the only one being naughty.

As several fans have spotted, Ms Marvel clearly does have the sexiest bum in the Marvel Universe.

Could the art team on Mighty Avengers #1 be considering a career in Disney animation?

Gorilla Sex?

Gorillas may have been responsible for the introduction of pubic lice in humans, according to a new study. Evolutionary biologist David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville USA has traced the genetic structure of lice and worked out when they first appeared, and the results show the lice, which infect some three million Americans a year, evolved well before they first plagued humans.

This suggests humans must have had close contact with gorillas to first become infected, posing the question: just how did they jump from gorilla to human, and what were the humans and gorillas doing at the time?

Shatner versus Wheaton

Somehow, no matter how immersed in a show you become when editing or being part of the production of its official Magazine, some aspects of that show's history slip you by.

Case in point: Wil Wheaton's apparently revived beration of William (Captain Kirk) Shatner for being... well, he called him a d*** after the Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wesley Crusher actor's initial and follow-up encounters (the first took place during filming of Star Trek V) with Shatner proved disastrous.

Wheaton, a lifelong Star Trek fan, has just re-recounted his first meeting with Shatner, an experience which led to him becoming so hacked off by the original series star's attitude he even started selling "William F******* Shatner" t-shirts on cafepress which are now described as reverential rather than deferential.

(Despite the latest recounting of the feuds origins, it seems Wheaton and Shatner made their peace while shooting a tv show together, although Wheaton's update on how the whole saga started has prompted renewed support for his stance from some fans).

I know that there's back biting among actors out there, but having trawled the web for more Wheaton-Shatner encounters it seems there has been some kind of apology from Shatner, so wouldn't it be nicer for all concerned to move on and not stir it all up again? I can understand why Wheaton got so annoyed - by all accounts Shatner snubbed him on more than one occasion. But it all seems very old hat now, and an odd thing to revive so many years later. Perhaps ensuing recollections from Wheaton will reveal how the two made up.

Having worked for so long on Star Trek Magazine I'm surprised I'd never heard about the feud before. (Of course, the battle seems to have blown up originally well after I was editing the title and before I resumed the role in the run up to the magazine's recent US launch). Maybe it's just being blown up now far more than it was originally because we live in an even weirder slag-a-celebrity era than ever.

Personally, I've heard bad stories about some actors -- and great stories about others -- throughout my 20 year experience of working on licensed TV magazines and comics. During my last period as editor of Star Trek Magazine, there were several letters pouring scorn on Shatner's attitide to fans, and equally vociferous defenders of him, too.

While editing Doctor Who Magazine, I recall some fans being virulently awful about Jon Pertwee, but any fears I may have had about meeting him were quickly swept away during a convention in Indianapolis. Not only was he almost uniformly charming (admittedly helped, I'm sure by my sorting out a long-standing issue on the use of photos of him in the Magazine which his agents had not bothered to tell him about, leaving him out of pocket and DWM using the same old pictures over and over again). He was far from the curmudgeon he had been painted -- although I know he could be short-tempered.

I suppose the point of this post is to say that when it comes to dealing with people -- even world famous actors -- form your own judgments and don't be too quick to judge on the basis of third party claims. It's clear Shatner and Wheaton have had issues in the past, now strangely revived after long thought settled, but how much of the online debate on the matter is based on the comments of those involved, and how much is now based on hearsay and ill-informed claims?

Captain America

I think Adam Rogers over on Wired's Blog Network neatly sums up my similar feelings (aside from how the character has best been handled in the past) on recent developments

Hey, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not going to spoil your amazing ability to ignore some 500 + news articles online about the end of Marvel's Civil War series, or the many newspaper articles (such as Newsweek's interview with Stan Lee on events), with even Britain's Sun newspaper joining in.

... but if this proposed film comes off, I doubt the events of Captain America #25 will be permanent...

Cam Kennedy on Kidnapped

Over on the Forbidden Planet International blog, Joe Gordon has delivered a full transcript of the recent Kidnapped event at the Scottish Book Trust where artist Cam Kennedy was talking with publisher Ron Grosset about Cam and Alan Grant’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s brilliant adventure yarn... which prompted downthetubes contributor Jeremy Briggs that he sent me a report on the same event ages ago and I hadn't posted it -- until now. Enjoy both.

20 years of cartoon craziness celebrated

Angry aliens, terrified police and bemused party goers. Yes, it's the 20th Anniversary Really Heavy Greatcoat - three pages of mothball-inspired mayhem!

Artist Nick Miller has pulled out all the stops to mark this momentous date for the strip and a big hand for all his work and perseverance putting up with my grumpiness. I'm amazed his writing partner Antonella lets me in the house.

Oh, wait, she doesn't let me in the house.

I never should have tried to paint the cat.

Enjoy, and thanks to all Greatcoat fans down the years for your tremendous support and loyalty.