X-Men 45

Here's that back issue I bought at Brumcon. X-Men 45 from June 1968, written by Gary Friedrich with art by Don Heck, Werner Roth and John Tartaglione.

The X-Men have been captured by Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. There was no messing about with the names of the bad guys groups in the sixties. "Yeah, we want to be called the Evil Mutants!" Cyclops manages to get free and starts wandering round Magneto's super-villain castle type lair. He is attacked by Quicksilver, an "evil" mutant who has super speed. They fight for a bit before stopping to have a philosophical discussion about the mutants' struggle to be accepted by the rest of humanity. The X-Men books have always been about discrimination and prejudice, although this has started to get a bit silly over the years. How many times can the X-Men save the planet before humanity realises that they are the good guys after all?

Anyway, Cyclops and Quicksilver debate the best approach to their struggle. Is it Magneto's militant, aggressive approach? Or should they follow Professor Xavier and his non-violent protest? It's like Malcolm X versus Martin Luther King. Cyclops is tempted by Quicksilver's arguments but eventually decides that his loyalties lie with Professor X and he proves this by punching Quicksilver again. There's a lot of resolution through violence in this book. There's a back-up strip showing Cyclops recruiting the young Ice-Man to the X-Men group and inevitably, like in any other super-hero book, they end up just hitting each other. Or blasting each other with laser eye-beams and ... errr.. snowballs.

There's also a lot of telling as well as showing in here. Sixties comic books could be quite wordy. It's not enough for Cyclops to blast open a door with his eye-beams, he has to tell us what he's doing at the same time. Likewise Quicksilver can't just grab some nearby stuff and jam it into Cyclops' visor, he has to think aloud about cracking open a computer casing to find some "graphite padding", whatever that is.

And super-speed. I've written here before about the problems of super-heroes who can fly. There's a similar problem with super-speed, how can Quicksilver see where he's going? Or the Flash over in the DC, or any other speed based character? I ride my bike pathetically slowly, but even I need to wear glasses to keep bugs out of my eyes and to stop my eyes watering when I get up a head of steam riding downhill (using pie based technology to increase my speed!). There is a funny moment in the Incredibles movie when Dash runs through a cloud of bugs and gets splattered all over his face, but his eyes aren't streaming. Why aren't super-speedsters always crying, where's their goggles? In fact, goggles would look cool and help with the whole hiding your identity problem.

X-Men 45. A cool cover and a so-so story about super people who learn to resolve all their problems by hitting each other and thinking out loud while they do so.

Nice

Look at this beauty in its frame.

Ready for the surgery wall.

SVK

After back issues from the 70s and 80s here is something bang up to date that I picked up from Matt D'Israeli Brooker at Brumcon. SVK is a comic by Warren Ellis and D'Israeli about a mysterious hit man/spy/security expert on a mission to recover a piece of hi-tech kit, the SVK of the title.

It is a comic with a special feature. Each copy comes in a sealed envelope that includes a little UV light torch. The torch illuminates some hidden text on most of the pages that reveals more about the story as it proceeds. It's as if there is another hidden layer to the plot which the special light reveals.

So all very mysterious. I didn't think I would be able to get hold of a copy as the website says that the first printing had sold out. However when I asked Matt about it at Brumcon he said he did have copies for sale. He then produced the A4 white card envelope from under the table and gave me special instructions about testing the torch. It was all very cloak and dagger and somehow added to the mystery of the comic itself.

It also features an introduction by one of my favourite writers, William Gibson so lots to recommend it. For regular D'Israeli readers I did scan the pages carefully and can confirm that Fishpaste makes an appearance!

To see the effect of the torch and the hidden writing go to the publisher's page here.

The Dark Judges

One more set of images from Brumcon. This a colour print of the four Dark Judges from 2000AD by Dean Beattie. It's a long panel so I've scanned it in two parts. Not quite sure where I'm going to put it yet. Not sure a picture of Judges Death, Mortis, Fear and Fire would be appropriate for my surgery wall!

More sketches from Brumcon

I confess this only my second visit to a comics convention and the first time I have had some sketches done. It was rather fun and I can see why it becomes so addictive for comics fans several of whom were carrying splendid sketch books full of beautiful images collected from different artists over the years.

I'm most pleased with my Matt Brooker images because they are of two favourite characters, but I also got two other sketches done.

This is Hammerstein from 2000AD's ABC Warriors for my son, Tom. It was done by an artist called Roger Mason.

And this is Deadlock also from the ABC Warriors which I will be sending to my brother, a fellow 2000AD fan. The artist is Kev Crossley.

Matt Brooker and Ian Edginton

I've blogged here several times about the fantastic Scarlet Traces graphic novels which I did a set of annotations for a couple of years ago. The writer Ian Edginton and the artist Matt "D'Israeli" Brooker had tables next to each other at Brumcon. I chatted to them about Scarlet Traces and their recent books which I got them to sign for me. They are both charming fellows and it was a pleasure to meet them and to discuss the annotations and their plans for another Stickleback story..

I also got Matt to do me a couple of sketches. The first is of the older version of Major Robert Autumn from Scarlet Traces.

I think he looks splendidly cantankerous.

And this one is Delerium from the Sandman comics for my daughter Jenny. Delerium is her favourite character. We both like her slippers.

Alan Davis

Alan Davis has drawn Miracleman, the Fantastic Four, X-men, the JLA and he was the artist on my favourite Captain Britain story of all time: the Jasper's Warp. He was a little more brisk and businesslike than Dave Gibbons. He was doing more detailed sketches for £10 a go which did slow things down a bit. There were also several blokes in the line who seemed to have brought an entire library of books for him to sign which created a few grumbles. Anyway I got to meet him and thank him for Captain Britain. The first book I got signed was another Amazing Heroes issue with a fairly well known cover.

I also had issue 3 of the Marvel UK run of Captain Britain just because I liked the cover so much. Again this issue made him pause and flick through the pages commenting on what good condition it was in and asking if I had bought it when it first came out, which I had.

It must get repetitive just signing the same books over and over again. If I go to any more signings I will definitely try to dig out some more obscure items to bring along as that seems to amuse the creators and generate some chat.

Anyway here's Captain Britain #3 which will soon be framed and on my office wall.

Dave Gibbons

Mr Gibbons is most famous for Watchmen of course, but over the years he has drawn Superman, Martha Washington, Doctor Who and just loads of great comics. I queued for about 30 minutes to get him to sign a couple of my books. He was an absolutely charming chap who had something to say to everyone in the line. He was signing books, doing very quick head sketches of Rorschach, posing for photos and generally being a true gentleman.

Most people were carrying copies of Watchmen for him to sign but I thought I would bring some slightly more obscure comics from my collection. So I found this Watchmen cover he did for an issue of the Amazing Heroes fanzine.

And a lovely cover he did for Action Comics in 1988

Dave Gibbons greeted them as if they were old friends and was delighted to see them. We spoke briefly about the covers while he signed them and I thanked him for the enjoyment that I've had reading his comics over the last 30 years. It was a real pleasure to meet him.