Some work related blah for your entertainment, me and my oh so brilliant manager had another one of our "talks" before Christmas. Apparently he doesn't want me to "represent him" on the Colleague Council any more, that little statement in and of itself is a brilliant example of his inability to grasp things, it's called a colleague council , I thought it was a pretty self explanatory term but clearly he struggles with it.
Apparently I have too much of a "negative outlook" for the Colleague Council. I asked him how I was supposed to have a "positive outlook" when the only things I hear off people on our department are about a lack of or faulty equipment and other "negative" things I don't think he appreciated the question or when I pointed out that pretty much nothing has changed regarding any of the things I've told him about in the last of our "talks" The whole thing is as one of my workmates pointed out bollocks, the reason he doesn't want me doing it is because I make him look bad and show him up for the moronic, half-wit, incompetent he is.
The very point of being effectively thrown off the council or being pretty much told to lie about the state of how things really are invalidates the whole purpose of it in the first place and only re-reinforces peoples opinion that the whole thing is a waste of time.
I think he's under the impression that he's going to find someone on our department that's going to be positive which is about as likely as finding an honest MP.
I can only assume that whoever came up with the company value of "A great place to work" has a keen grasp of irony (I recommend you watch the video just for sheer comedy value.)
Jump back in time about 20 years back to the late 80's, I was 8 or 9 and currently hating school (of course) and happily oblivious to all the stresses and problems of adult life (that was all still to come). It was me and my two brothers both older than me. Back then the focus for all our money was the local off licence affectionately referred to as "Pete's" by the locals after it's owner. Back then Pete's had pretty much everything you could want as a kid or an angsty teenager. I don't how or why but for some reason comics had always been something we'd been aware of,my young self had been a reader of the likes of The Beano and The Dandy for some time laughing at the antics of the Bash Street Kids and Dennis The Menace like numerous others my age. Whilst my brothers opted for Eagle & Transformers and I read those too absorbing all the action of Dan Dare and the sparring between Optimus Prime and Megatron as fast as I could get my hands on them.
Then one day after yet another trip down to Pete's my brother returned with something new. It was smaller than all the other comics we got which seemed to be a bit odd to me. After some begging I finally managed to get my hands on this strangely small comic, it was called "Dragon's Claws".
Every month me and my brothers would be fighting over who got to read it first. It was dark, grim and set in the far distant future. Now I'm amazed they even got Dragon's Claws at Pete's since the distribution infrastructure was nowhere near as good as it is now and due to it's smaller size you had to know it was there to look for it behind the rows of other larger comics.
The reason for this little trip down memory lane? Marvel has recently reprinted the whole run of Dragon's Claws. While not the best comic ever, reading Dragon's Claws now is more than just a nostalgic high, if anything it's even better since I didn't really understand the conspiratorial elements of the writing, which as it turns out was by Simon Furman, who also wrote Transformers and one of my other favourite esoteric titles Death's Head.
As well as being my introduction to American style comics Dragon's Claws is undeniably one of my favourite comics of all time. Much like 2000AD (which was undoubtedly a big inspiration) there were no superpowers or heroes flying around to be found. Though it only lasted for 10 issues due to the unstable market of the time Dragon and his team (Steel, a samurai indebted to him, Mercy a former vigilante assassin,Digit a cyborg and Scavenger, a former prisoner) are very much real people. Dragon himself having a wife and a son and happily living out his retirement from The Game on a farm. The Game was introduced as an opium for the masses by the World Development Council in a bid to quell anti-social behaviour, civil unrest and distract the populace from the reality of their bleak lives. The Game is only briefly mentioned, a form of team versus team combat sport which while violent was officially non-fatal though numerous "accidents" occurred involving certain teams. Unknowingly manipulated into becoming enforcers for N.U.R.S.E. (National Union for Retired Sports Experts) Dragon and his team become unwitting pawns in a Machiavellian scheme whilst being charged with stopping former game teams from wreaking havoc .
Most of the action takes place in Greater Britain (comics set in Britain don't number very high now never mind back then). Dragon's nemesis in the series is Slaughterhouse the leader of the Evil Dead, the only game team to match Dragon's Claws. The Evil Dead are the flip side of Dragon's team revelling in carnage and death. The first incarnation of the Evil Dead consists of Death Nell and Slaughterhouse joined by Hex, Kronos and Feral. While several of these characters only feature in one issue they are undoubtedly imaginative.
One of the most frustrating things about Dragon's Claws short run is the history that is hinted at, like an apparent romantic link between Steel and Death Nell in the past and the way the last issue #10 ended with so many things hanging in the balance, the fate of Dragon's wife and son, Deller being inducted into the team with Dragon being oblivious to his hand in the scheme to get him out of retirement. With a good writer I think it could be really something if it returned today amidst the dreck and substandard offerings cluttering up the racks at your local comic shop.
I watched this the other night and rather surprisingly I thought it was okay, it has an inherent Britishness to it, which comes across a sort of all girl Bash Street Kids with extra cheek. You don't get many films now that have a sense of fun, plus it has Stephen Fry and Russel Brand to reinforce it's Brit credentials and also:
Gemma Arterton as Head Girl Kelly
Tamsin Egerton as Posh Totty Chelsea
Apparently it's been torn to pieces for "sexualising children" even if you were to point the withering finger of shame at it for this reason which doesn't really apply anyway it can't possibly be any worse than what they read in magazines or see on tv or on the interweb and am I the only one that gets a little annoyed at everything having to be submitted for screening under the microscope of political correctness now, it makes me wonder whether the Carry On films would even get made now for fear of offending somebody somewhere God forbid.
I already mentioned I got the Criminal Deluxe Edition for my birthday, having now read it I highly recommend it. Somewhat like Frank Miller's Sin City minus the steroids, the gritty and very real noir stories are very much something you can lose yourself in and Ed Brubaker's writing is so utterly convincing and engrossing you forget that this is a work of fiction.
I also picked up X-Force/Cable Messiah War, which I thought was pretty good, writing and story aside it's worth getting just for the art. With Ariel Olivetti providing some crisp and clear art
Alongside the hellish intensity of Clayton Crain's art:
Apparently I have too much of a "negative outlook" for the Colleague Council. I asked him how I was supposed to have a "positive outlook" when the only things I hear off people on our department are about a lack of or faulty equipment and other "negative" things I don't think he appreciated the question or when I pointed out that pretty much nothing has changed regarding any of the things I've told him about in the last of our "talks" The whole thing is as one of my workmates pointed out bollocks, the reason he doesn't want me doing it is because I make him look bad and show him up for the moronic, half-wit, incompetent he is.
The very point of being effectively thrown off the council or being pretty much told to lie about the state of how things really are invalidates the whole purpose of it in the first place and only re-reinforces peoples opinion that the whole thing is a waste of time.
I think he's under the impression that he's going to find someone on our department that's going to be positive which is about as likely as finding an honest MP.
I can only assume that whoever came up with the company value of "A great place to work" has a keen grasp of irony (I recommend you watch the video just for sheer comedy value.)
Jump back in time about 20 years back to the late 80's, I was 8 or 9 and currently hating school (of course) and happily oblivious to all the stresses and problems of adult life (that was all still to come). It was me and my two brothers both older than me. Back then the focus for all our money was the local off licence affectionately referred to as "Pete's" by the locals after it's owner. Back then Pete's had pretty much everything you could want as a kid or an angsty teenager. I don't how or why but for some reason comics had always been something we'd been aware of,my young self had been a reader of the likes of The Beano and The Dandy for some time laughing at the antics of the Bash Street Kids and Dennis The Menace like numerous others my age. Whilst my brothers opted for Eagle & Transformers and I read those too absorbing all the action of Dan Dare and the sparring between Optimus Prime and Megatron as fast as I could get my hands on them.
Then one day after yet another trip down to Pete's my brother returned with something new. It was smaller than all the other comics we got which seemed to be a bit odd to me. After some begging I finally managed to get my hands on this strangely small comic, it was called "Dragon's Claws".
Every month me and my brothers would be fighting over who got to read it first. It was dark, grim and set in the far distant future. Now I'm amazed they even got Dragon's Claws at Pete's since the distribution infrastructure was nowhere near as good as it is now and due to it's smaller size you had to know it was there to look for it behind the rows of other larger comics.
The reason for this little trip down memory lane? Marvel has recently reprinted the whole run of Dragon's Claws. While not the best comic ever, reading Dragon's Claws now is more than just a nostalgic high, if anything it's even better since I didn't really understand the conspiratorial elements of the writing, which as it turns out was by Simon Furman, who also wrote Transformers and one of my other favourite esoteric titles Death's Head.
As well as being my introduction to American style comics Dragon's Claws is undeniably one of my favourite comics of all time. Much like 2000AD (which was undoubtedly a big inspiration) there were no superpowers or heroes flying around to be found. Though it only lasted for 10 issues due to the unstable market of the time Dragon and his team (Steel, a samurai indebted to him, Mercy a former vigilante assassin,Digit a cyborg and Scavenger, a former prisoner) are very much real people. Dragon himself having a wife and a son and happily living out his retirement from The Game on a farm. The Game was introduced as an opium for the masses by the World Development Council in a bid to quell anti-social behaviour, civil unrest and distract the populace from the reality of their bleak lives. The Game is only briefly mentioned, a form of team versus team combat sport which while violent was officially non-fatal though numerous "accidents" occurred involving certain teams. Unknowingly manipulated into becoming enforcers for N.U.R.S.E. (National Union for Retired Sports Experts) Dragon and his team become unwitting pawns in a Machiavellian scheme whilst being charged with stopping former game teams from wreaking havoc .
Most of the action takes place in Greater Britain (comics set in Britain don't number very high now never mind back then). Dragon's nemesis in the series is Slaughterhouse the leader of the Evil Dead, the only game team to match Dragon's Claws. The Evil Dead are the flip side of Dragon's team revelling in carnage and death. The first incarnation of the Evil Dead consists of Death Nell and Slaughterhouse joined by Hex, Kronos and Feral. While several of these characters only feature in one issue they are undoubtedly imaginative.
One of the most frustrating things about Dragon's Claws short run is the history that is hinted at, like an apparent romantic link between Steel and Death Nell in the past and the way the last issue #10 ended with so many things hanging in the balance, the fate of Dragon's wife and son, Deller being inducted into the team with Dragon being oblivious to his hand in the scheme to get him out of retirement. With a good writer I think it could be really something if it returned today amidst the dreck and substandard offerings cluttering up the racks at your local comic shop.
I watched this the other night and rather surprisingly I thought it was okay, it has an inherent Britishness to it, which comes across a sort of all girl Bash Street Kids with extra cheek. You don't get many films now that have a sense of fun, plus it has Stephen Fry and Russel Brand to reinforce it's Brit credentials and also:
Gemma Arterton as Head Girl Kelly
Tamsin Egerton as Posh Totty Chelsea
Apparently it's been torn to pieces for "sexualising children" even if you were to point the withering finger of shame at it for this reason which doesn't really apply anyway it can't possibly be any worse than what they read in magazines or see on tv or on the interweb and am I the only one that gets a little annoyed at everything having to be submitted for screening under the microscope of political correctness now, it makes me wonder whether the Carry On films would even get made now for fear of offending somebody somewhere God forbid.
I already mentioned I got the Criminal Deluxe Edition for my birthday, having now read it I highly recommend it. Somewhat like Frank Miller's Sin City minus the steroids, the gritty and very real noir stories are very much something you can lose yourself in and Ed Brubaker's writing is so utterly convincing and engrossing you forget that this is a work of fiction.
I also picked up X-Force/Cable Messiah War, which I thought was pretty good, writing and story aside it's worth getting just for the art. With Ariel Olivetti providing some crisp and clear art
Alongside the hellish intensity of Clayton Crain's art:
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
Political correctness gets on my tits. Fuck c*ns*rsh*p and all that. You've made me really conscious of the fact that i've never read any comics, other than a miniature version of the Beano and Dandy I got in a packet of cornflakes once
My camera is only a wee Samsung L313, but it does have 13.6m pixels.