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February 9, 2016 12:01 pm good show but i could have lived without the burger sandwich stuff. Re Ralph's question, as I am older again that ye youngsters I would agree that writing styles change significantly over the years. Just look at any comic made up to 1990 and the sheer amount of words on most pages looks odd to younger people. But am curious about Conor's point that some writers are aiming towards a twitter bubble audience. I can see one clear example - Batgirl , which is a terrific series , what are others ? I can see that a lot of creators are using twitter for promotion (which is fine ) but maybe I am just not noticing it within the comics as my old feeble eyesight fails yet again. in my ancient opinion people on twitter esply don't seem to realize that most of the world is not on twitter and doesn't give a flying f*** about it , and when they do think about it believe it is equivalent of drunks shouting at each other in a packed bar. I have been thinking about this for at least 20 years

December 21, 2015 7:16 pm Hey Lads thanks for another entertaining year , best wishes for the holidays

March 2, 2015 4:22 pm About Garth Ennis writing stories on the Troubles : Josh mentioned Kit , the love interest from Hellblazer, Ennis and Dillon did a one shot ( about 40 pages) called Heartland about her returning to Belfast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_%28comics%29 It's excellent , and Ennis mentioned at a con in Dublin that more stories of this type were on the horizon( he mentioned it to me as I asked him while getting Preacher signed). Nothing has come yet , although something called City Lights has been rumoured for ages. The Punisher went to Belfast in an issue of the Marvel Knights ongoing series , again with Dillon , don't have the issues to hand but I think it is Number 18. It's a lot more cynical than Heartland and as it turned out a bit too cynical ( a bit )

December 23, 2014 5:28 pm Thanks for all the good shows you did this year and I hope this never becomes a burden to you Happy holidays to you and yours

November 19, 2014 4:54 pm Agree with all your points , some other things about Image and comics business come to mind I know a few people who work in the animation business at fairly good levels ( character design work) and they are very keen to get into the comics industry , the pay is better ( page rate anyway), the working conditions are way better in terms of hours , deadlines etc. Remember the notice that Robert Kirkman got for the Video laying out how the industry should work ? One point on that interesting discussion stood out Kirkman sold ( and sells ) using Image as creator friendly financially using his own experience as an example. Granted the money in any industry is always secret ( unless you are a director of a public quoted company) and when anybody talks about money they are lying if their mouths are moving, but Kirkman's Walking Dead experience is a huge exception, and should not be used as an example for any creator In terms of the type of material Image currently puts out it has great depth , si fi , crime , horror etc but the vast majority of the books are aimed at 16 years + , there aren't many books in their range that would appeal to a younger age group. This is not just a matter of swearing or nudity , but complexity of storytelling and art are turns offs too. Most of the books from the big 2 are accessible to a wider age group.(This is NOT a quality judgement btw). That is what touched off my comment - at what point are Image books going to eat themselves in sales ? They are mostly going for the same audience. The creators rights /conditions discussion has and is a heated one because of the points raised here and above , it is a messy area but it is the same for any creative industry. I am working in the Medical R + D area and the same issues arise there too, and I am sure arise in all areas with a creative side.

November 18, 2014 2:30 pm On Josh's comments about the quantity of Image books , I think he might be on to something and Ron Richards' reply was a bit smart ass. The quality of the books is subjective of course and I buy a few series in trade, but the quantity of books does stop me trying anything new unless I have heard /seen a very good review and then remember to pick up the trade of the first few issues. That is fine , however I attended a Image panel at DICE , where a few creators , Declan Shalvey , Jamie McKelvie, Jordie Bellaire , Kieron Gillien contributing from the seats. The creators laid out in a good bit of detail what the image deal is . It is self publishing effectively, the creators are all ( apparently there are exceptions but details of that are private , rightly) working for no page rate up front, ie until the actual sales of the first issues come in do they get paid. I think one of the creators actually mentioned the first trade sales being the first time they got paid. I have a little knowledge of the self publishing route and this is par for the course. But in the Image case I have mixed feelings as Image's role in this means there is not much to stop them overdoing the quantity in total of the books published , they presumably get their publishing fee from each issue sold , but no incentive to bump sales of any individual series. Like I said I have mixed feelings about this, I know that creators get to keep movie/tv rights and profits at a higher level if the book is successful , but even now they're big if's. Anything I have read about the actual values of movie rights (not much out there ,understandably) is that even a successful movie deal won't mean retirement money. All the creators mentioned creative freedom , the sense of ownership etc which is great but the financial stuff bugs me. Say what you like about the big two but you get paid when the work is done and you don't have to spend your time promoting the book which is an absolute necessity in self publishing. Even an unsuccessful big two book pays the creators, an unsuccessful self published one means no money. If I have got anything wrong about the image deal I am happy to be corrected and I don't have an axe to grind with Image the company or any of the people working in it.

September 1, 2013 5:32 pm Lads thanks for all the great articles over the years , thanks for the great podcasts done and still to come You have to do what is right for yourselves and don't feel bad about scaling back , you owe us nothing Thanks again

June 4, 2013 2:28 pm Read this over the weekend , it is witty and opinionated , Glen writes like he talks which is very welcome. The bibliography also has comments on the sources used which are 100% accurate for the books I have read (most of them) The bibliography would serve as a great reading list for comics history , not just Superman's history real and fictional. I wish there were more books like this out there on comic and pop culture characters , Benbella and smart pop's range only cover a small number of comics characters and the format of those books (essays by different authors on different aspects of a character/novel/tv show etc ) is inevitably hit and miss. Good job Paul

May 20, 2013 5:53 pm perceptive comments from all on the show. I agree with a lot of what was said , loved the 2009 version but this felt hollow . I like a lot of what JJ Abrams has done as a writer /showrunner etc in TV and movies but don't love too much of it . He and his prefered writers are goodish craftsmen but there is not a lot of real vision there and all their references are from other popular movies and TV shows and the standard scripting software apparently*. They could at least be inspired by cult novels that most of us haven't read. Abrams et al seem to aim for Awesome ! rather than a properly worked out story and they use the familiar characters as a shorthand to get the emotional response. This really didn't work in STIN, they didn't earn it ( it being KKKKHHHANNNN) Compared to IM3 with a genuine distinctive talent writing at the wheel this is a disappointment. * See "Writing movies for Fun and profit " for the most entertaining explanation of the screenplay structure which STIN follows PS Paul let us have a Fuzzy typewriter on The Twelve , the sequel to the Passage