L is for Linus Van Pelt, the Peanuts character and friend of Charlie Brown, and brother to Lucy and Rerun. He made his first appearance in newspapers, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, in September 1952, and is responsible for the term 'security blanket'.
posted 22.07.08 at 11:30 pm in Rainbow Orchid | permalink |
K is for... Kid Marvelman
Tuesday 22 July 2008
K is for Kid Marvelman, aka Johnny Bates, who first appeared in his role as a sidekick to Marvelman in Marvelman no. 102, July 1955. He was created by Mick Anglo, but was made famous more recently by Alan Moore who re-wrote him as one of the most chilling villains in comics as part of his Marvelman revival that appeared in Warrior (from 1982).
posted 22.07.08 at 10:23 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
J is for... Judge Death
Monday 21 July 2008
J is for Judge Death... he came from another dimension where the crime was life and the only sentence was death. He made his first appearance in 2000AD prog 149 in January 1980 in a Judge Dredd story written by John Wagner (as 'John Howard') and drawn by Brian Bolland.
posted 21.07.08 at 10:52 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
I is for... Iron Man
Sunday 20 July 2008
I is for Iron Man who saw his first appearance in Marvel Comics' Tales of Suspense in March 1963 in a story by Stan Lee and drawn by Don Heck (though visually created by Jack Kirby who did the cover). Underneath the armour is millionaire inventor, Tony Stark, who gets wounded and captured in Vietnam. While a prisoner, he creates a robotic armour suit which helps keep him alive, and aids his escape.
posted 20.07.08 at 11:46 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
H is for... Hobbes
Saturday 19 July 2008
H is for Hobbes, tiger companion of Calvin. Created by Bill Watterson, they made their first appearance, syndicated in newspapers by Universal Press, in November 1985. Hobbes is named after the 17th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes.
posted 19.07.08 at 11:11 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
G is for... Gaston Lagaffe
Friday 18 July 2008
G is for Gaston Lagaffe, created by André Franquin and making his first appearance in Spirou no. 985 in February 1957. As well as being the somewhat hapless office boy at Spirou magazine, Gaston is a proud inventor, most notably of the Gaffophone, a musical instrument... er, of sorts.
Gaston was suggested by Elyssa Campbell-Barr, Gústav Adolf Bergmann Sigurbjörnsson,
Richard Wainman and George Xydas. Thank you!
The original drawings of these A-Z characters will be going into the Caption auction in Oxford on 9 August, with all proceeds going to the Caption comics festival fund.
posted 18.07.08 at 10:15 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
F is for... Faceache
Thursday 17 July 2008
F is for Faceache (aka Ricky Rubberneck) who has the ability to 'scrunge' his face (and, in fact, his entire body) into almost any contortion imaginable. He was created by Ken Reid and first saw print in Jet issue 1 in May 1971, later moving to Buster when the titles merged.
posted 17.07.08 at 10:22 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
E is for... Elektra
Wednesday 16 July 2008
E is for Elektra, Greek-born assassin and sometime lover to the Daredevil. She was created by Frank Miller and made her first appearance in Daredevil issue 168 in January 1981. She is named after the Electra of Greek myth, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Thank you very much to Frazer Diamond, Uriel A. Duran and Elyssa Campbell-Barr for suggesting Elektra - she just beat managed to beat Electro, also with three votes.
posted 16.07.08 at 9:09 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
D is for... Dan Dare
Tuesday 15 July 2008
D is for Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare, chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet, who was created by Frank Hampson and made his first appearance in issue 1 of the legendary Eagle comic, in April 1950.
Dan Dare received three votes, as did Death's Head and Doctor Strange... so one had to be chosen at random. Many thanks to Lisa Naylor, Seth Wheeler and Davy Candlish who all suggested Dan Dare.
posted 15.07.08 at 10:37 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
C is for... Captain Haddock
Monday 14 July 2008
C is for Captain Haddock - Tintin's long-time adventuring companion, who first appeared in Le Soir in 1940 in the adventure 'Le Crabe Aux Pinces D'Or' (The Crab with the Golden Claws) and was created by Hergé.
Captain Haddock tussled with Captain Britain to be chosen, and just won out thanks to a last-minute vote from Sarah McIntyre. He was also suggested by Davy Candlish and Frazer Diamond.
posted 14.07.08 at 11:38 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
B is for... Billy the Cat
Sunday 13 July 2008
B is for BILLY THE CAT - orphan William Grange donned crime-fighting equipment invented by his late policeman father and went out into the night to do good and battle bad, sometimes with his cousin, Katie. He first appeared in The Beano in 1967, created by David Sutherland.
posted 13.07.08 at 11:08 am in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
A is for... Axel Pressbutton
Saturday 12 July 2008
This is the start of a new daily drawing project... Garen's A-Z of comic strip characters. It's to get my drawing motor going in the morning, partially inspired by Sarah McIntyre's and David O'Connell's (among others) great daily blog drawings and strips. I'm getting up a little earlier to fit them in!
So first up is Axel Pressbutton. He was created by 'Curt Vile' (Alan Moore) and 'Pedro Henry' (Steve Moore) and made his first appearance in 1979 in the music magazine Dark Star. In 1982 he graced the cover (with his assassin partner Mysta Mystralis) of the first issue of my favourite British comic - Warrior. When Warrior folded, his adventures continued in a series of US comics from Eclipse. Why doesn't he like apples? He was a florist until his body was eaten away by a carnivorous fungus, leaving him with a pathological hatred of all vegetation!
Each day I will be choosing a character from those suggested by the members of the Garen's A-Z of comic strip characters Facebook group - if you want to suggest any, please feel free to join in. If no characters are suggested on a certain day, then I'll have a free choice.
posted 12.07.08 at 12:12 pm in A-Z comic characters | permalink |
Age banding
Sunday 6 July 2008
I'm against 'age banding' - the proposal by the Children's Book Group of the Publishers Association to put age guidance on the covers of children's books to help customers decide if the book they're buying is at the right level for them, or rather the person they're buying the book for.
Last Thursday (3 July) Philip Pullman met with the Chief Executive of the Publishers Association, Simon Juden, (and others) to discuss the subject, and a couple of days later those of us who have signed the No to Age Banding petition received his report of that meeting. All I can say is I feel pretty glad we've got Philip Pullman as a spoke-person! Here are a couple of extracts from his report:
"Simon Juden opened by acknowledging in guarded and cautious terms that the presentation of this matter from their side had perhaps not been ideal, but that he and the publishers were very anxious to stress that their intention had never been to impose age-guidance (that is the term they prefer to use) on authors without full consultation, and that he thought it would be a good idea to take some of the emotion out of the discussion and simply deal with the facts.
I replied that I'd rather call it passion, and that I'd rather it stayed in, thank you very much, because the sheer volume and intensity of the anger caused by the proposal was entirely part of what we wanted to express. I went on to ask various questions about the research..."
... and...
"The central issue became this: we wanted them to agree that no book should be age-banded without the author's consent. They refused to agree to this, but offered 'full consultation' instead. We pointed out that every author in the world knows what 'consultation' means: it means the publishers saying 'This is the cover of your new book' and our saying 'Well it's horrible' and their replying 'Well, tough.' 'Full' consultation, I suppose, would mean that plus lunch."
The reasons against age banding are so logical and strong that I won't bother trying to represent them here - there are others that are far more eloquent on the subject than I could be (go and read Philip Pullman in The Guardian and Anthony Horowitz in The Bookseller). Last week J. K. Rowling added her support and signed the petition that is fast approaching 3,000 signatories.
posted 06.07.08 at 2:38 pm in Webbledegook | permalink |
Happy birthday NHS
Saturday 5 July 2008
The National Health Service is 60 years old today, and I would like to wish it a very happy birthday.
I've done pretty well out of it myself - I was born with a rare congenital condition that saw me have eleven major surgeries by the time I was six years old, is something I live with every day, and requires annual check-ups for the rest of my life. If it wasn't for the care I received as a child under the NHS I almost certainly wouldn't have lived this long - and maybe not even out of childhood. The NHS isn't perfect by any means, but I do believe in it, and am enormously grateful for the system we have in this country - especially when compared to alternatives like in the US.
With all that in mind, go and watch Michael Moore's excellent film, Sicko (here's a link to it on Google Video - don't know how long it will stay there) - very much worth seeing (even if the UK, France and Cuba are depicted through a rose-tinted lens, the generalisations are true).
My mum (1941-1995) as a student nurse c.1961.
posted 05.07.08 at 1:43 am in Webbledegook | permalink |
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