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scans_dailyThe "yawn" perhaps?
Well, this is the other part of the penance.
The last post had nice art, but a freaky story, this has an almost vaguely competent story (kinda) but the ART...
The Gladiators, was the UK version of the American Gladiators show. Same basic principle. Athletes with assumed identities and names in mock combat with members of the public to compete for prizes. It was like a more versatile approach to Wrestling I suppose.
The Gladiators became media celebrities in their own right; they were either physically imposing or attractive, wore spandex a lot, encouraged fair play and sportsmanship and were usually extraordinarily fit, as well as quite prepared to buy into the hype, essentially, they gave good TV.
They all had catchy, superheroic sounding names; Wolf (a particular favourite of the fans, a slightly older guy, all scowling and wannabe Wolverine attitude), Saracen, Shadow, Lightning, Blaze, Jet, Hawk, Zodiac, Nightshade... so perhaps the next licensing effort was rather obvious...
From the depths of 1993 (and found accidentally when cleaning out a box of really old crap I thought I'd long since disposed of) comes....
Now that's not especially bad art, it's not GOOD, but it's sort of competent...
6-ish pages out of 19 below the cut.
This is written and drawn by Kev F Sutherland, who has had a respectable enough career as a cartoonist for The Beano, and as "The worlds fastest caricaturist", and has even done work for the rather splendid Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, but that's a story for another day perhaps.
So here we are at page one, and we see that whilst a career as a caricaturist and Beano artist is nothing to be sneezed at, it doesn't necessarily translate to a more mainstream superheroic style.
Oh my.... this is going to be one of THOSE
Now this next page actually shows a not bad gift for narrative.... slightly purple prose-y, but not bad.
...BAD GUYS!!!
And what a set of bad guys they are! All cyborg bits and bad anatomy... imagine a Cyberman designed after a night getting drunk with a Deathlok fan and you might sort of have it.
Umm... yeah... REALLY bad guys....
Our villains first have to deal with Lightning, whose power it is to channel electricity, through her pugil stick (accurately described as looking like a giant cotton bud or Q-Tip as we call them in the UK).. She deal with one of the intruders, but has to send out the Emergency telepathic signal of "Gladiators Ready? 3-2-1!" (The introduction to every round of Gladiators)
I've had to trim out the fights of Wolf (As noted, Wolverine with a receding hairline) who takes down one trying to blow up the Atlaspheres (which in this context can fly), Shadow (who has a shadowform) and Saracen (who... well, I have no idea what he does)... But the badguys battlesuits have flamethrowers built in and...
She seems to be enjoying that just a little much...
We also meet the superfast Panther, the crackly eergy handed Scorpio and the... stands imposingly enough Warrior
There's one last bad guy to take down who is tackled from behind by the man called Cobra...
I have to say I rather approve of the bad guys battlesuit having a weapon deliberately designed to fire BEHIND him, in case, y'know, some spandex clad good guy tries to stop him, it shows a proper sense of planning...
It's also quite effectively creepy that the battlesuits can be operated remotely by the bad guy's boss, but the bad guys didn't know that going in, so this guy here has just heard his own death warrant be signed.
And now, a line I'll bet you never read in another comic in all your life;
"And you can't absorb an explosion" Flame sensibly points out. She'll absorb the blast and then Jet can catch her...
Of course, given the cover of the comic it doesn't quite work out, and whilst Jet suriveves the crash
Now look at this magnificent display of raw and enuine emotion... sold to the read with all the subtlety of a rabid ferret down your underwear,,,
And your forehead is now large enough to require it's own postcode Wolf, what's your point?
I don't think I have issue 2 of this comic, which lasted something like three issues, but I think that Flame might have returned as the Gladiator called Phoenix, or that might be how I remember it (which I barely do at all), but I think she got better (As Flame really WAS the name of a Gladiator, I'm pretty sure they would have had to bring her back in one form or another.)
Now I think the scales of comicy godness and badness have been properly balanced, so I can find something less... freaky looking for next time!
creator: kev f sutherland, title: gladiators
Well, this is the other part of the penance.
The last post had nice art, but a freaky story, this has an almost vaguely competent story (kinda) but the ART...
The Gladiators, was the UK version of the American Gladiators show. Same basic principle. Athletes with assumed identities and names in mock combat with members of the public to compete for prizes. It was like a more versatile approach to Wrestling I suppose.
The Gladiators became media celebrities in their own right; they were either physically imposing or attractive, wore spandex a lot, encouraged fair play and sportsmanship and were usually extraordinarily fit, as well as quite prepared to buy into the hype, essentially, they gave good TV.
They all had catchy, superheroic sounding names; Wolf (a particular favourite of the fans, a slightly older guy, all scowling and wannabe Wolverine attitude), Saracen, Shadow, Lightning, Blaze, Jet, Hawk, Zodiac, Nightshade... so perhaps the next licensing effort was rather obvious...
From the depths of 1993 (and found accidentally when cleaning out a box of really old crap I thought I'd long since disposed of) comes....
Now that's not especially bad art, it's not GOOD, but it's sort of competent...
6-ish pages out of 19 below the cut.
This is written and drawn by Kev F Sutherland, who has had a respectable enough career as a cartoonist for The Beano, and as "The worlds fastest caricaturist", and has even done work for the rather splendid Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, but that's a story for another day perhaps.
So here we are at page one, and we see that whilst a career as a caricaturist and Beano artist is nothing to be sneezed at, it doesn't necessarily translate to a more mainstream superheroic style.
Oh my.... this is going to be one of THOSE
Now this next page actually shows a not bad gift for narrative.... slightly purple prose-y, but not bad.
...BAD GUYS!!!
And what a set of bad guys they are! All cyborg bits and bad anatomy... imagine a Cyberman designed after a night getting drunk with a Deathlok fan and you might sort of have it.
Umm... yeah... REALLY bad guys....
Our villains first have to deal with Lightning, whose power it is to channel electricity, through her pugil stick (accurately described as looking like a giant cotton bud or Q-Tip as we call them in the UK).. She deal with one of the intruders, but has to send out the Emergency telepathic signal of "Gladiators Ready? 3-2-1!" (The introduction to every round of Gladiators)
I've had to trim out the fights of Wolf (As noted, Wolverine with a receding hairline) who takes down one trying to blow up the Atlaspheres (which in this context can fly), Shadow (who has a shadowform) and Saracen (who... well, I have no idea what he does)... But the badguys battlesuits have flamethrowers built in and...
She seems to be enjoying that just a little much...
We also meet the superfast Panther, the crackly eergy handed Scorpio and the... stands imposingly enough Warrior
There's one last bad guy to take down who is tackled from behind by the man called Cobra...
I have to say I rather approve of the bad guys battlesuit having a weapon deliberately designed to fire BEHIND him, in case, y'know, some spandex clad good guy tries to stop him, it shows a proper sense of planning...
It's also quite effectively creepy that the battlesuits can be operated remotely by the bad guy's boss, but the bad guys didn't know that going in, so this guy here has just heard his own death warrant be signed.
And now, a line I'll bet you never read in another comic in all your life;
"And you can't absorb an explosion" Flame sensibly points out. She'll absorb the blast and then Jet can catch her...
Of course, given the cover of the comic it doesn't quite work out, and whilst Jet suriveves the crash
Now look at this magnificent display of raw and enuine emotion... sold to the read with all the subtlety of a rabid ferret down your underwear,,,
And your forehead is now large enough to require it's own postcode Wolf, what's your point?
I don't think I have issue 2 of this comic, which lasted something like three issues, but I think that Flame might have returned as the Gladiator called Phoenix, or that might be how I remember it (which I barely do at all), but I think she got better (As Flame really WAS the name of a Gladiator, I'm pretty sure they would have had to bring her back in one form or another.)
Now I think the scales of comicy godness and badness have been properly balanced, so I can find something less... freaky looking for next time!
creator: kev f sutherland, title: gladiators
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 10:57 pm (UTC)So why does the art look so much like a 70s metal album cover?
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 10:59 pm (UTC)Cobra was always my favourite, but he was also shit unless he was hanging from the ceiling, so nice to see a bit of accurate characterisation with the pwning there.
True fact: Warrior (WHO YOU HAVEN'T MENTIONED, WHAT THE HELL) used to live in our town. When we were kids we used to like argue about who'd had the best crap celebrity encounter with him (seen him down the town, in Tesco's etc). It was a small town.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:03 pm (UTC)Yes I did, when I mentioned Panther and Scorpio. He's just... there.
I did meet Trojan (Don't snigger Americans, it was a world long before you appropriated it for condoms) when he was the public face of "Action Man", and from the recent revival, I met Atlas (Lovely fellow, even if his forearms alone had more muscles than my entire body put together) and Battleaxe (Who was so sweet and nice that she is possibly the LEAST accurately named Gladiator ever)
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Date: 2010-04-18 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 12:03 am (UTC)Trufax: I used to live in the same apartment complex as Storm back in Georgia. Sweetest lady you'll ever meet, and able to keep my roommate in line just by staring. :)
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Date: 2010-04-19 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 10:58 am (UTC)yeah... very...er.. subtle.
.......
o.0
no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 07:02 pm (UTC)Not sure why that link didn't work the first time!
no subject
Date: 2010-04-20 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-20 08:48 am (UTC)