Thought Balloon: MY FIRST YEAR READING COMICS

Jo S: I got started in comics wayyyyyy late on - you guys who’ve been collecting since you were kids? Wow, I have a lot of respect for your experience but I’m a total newbie to this. My first introduction to modern comics was a copy of Matt Kindt’s Past Aways, lying around at a friend’s house. It has become a ‘thing’ for me that I have deep issues with stories which use time travel to fix things and I picked up this copy intending to be snotty about the weakness of using time travel as a magic wand to resolve all plot problems. Instead of finding ammunition for an assassination of yet another tiresome ‘just when disaster seemed unavoidable our hero reverses time and stops his own conception’ cliché (chronoclasm as contraception - hmm, should market that), I found myself giggling at the little cutaways describing various bits of loony future-tech and guiltily indulging in blatant parody of sci-fi, which for me had always been a pretty formal business. This gave me my start, and was followed by a little dabbling with more Kindt and more sci-fi (Trees by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard stands out - more please!). And then I met the Paradox Comics Group.

I won’t drone on with a full history of my year - I’m still new to writing (if you weren’t aware, I’m a mathematician, writing anything longer than ‘...and hence since this is true for n=1 and the truth for n=k implies truth for n=k+1, this must be true for all n greater than or equal to 1’ is new world for me) and my tendency to to ramble verbally isn’t tamed in the written word yet, so I’ve used my extensive research in the field of social media and opted for a list, because apparently that’s what gets clicks.

Here then, presented for your delectation, is my list (YOU WON’T BELIEVE NUMBER 6!!)...

Thought Balloon: A DARKER FUTURE FOR THE DC MOVIE UNIVERSE?

Stewart R: It's safe to say that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (from here on in forever abbreviated to BvS:DoJ to save my keyboard and my fingers!) is well and truly with us having rolled into its second week in cinemas around the globe and now eyeing its third weekend on release. It's also safe to say that the first cinematic meeting of Gotham's defender and Metropolis' champion has found the ire of the critic, divided the opinion of comic book readers and fans, and defied some expectations in breaking box office records across numerous territories and then showed some worrying declines after a very strong initial push. With so many uncertainties still hovering over the long term opinion and success of DC and Warner's biggest gamble to date, what does this mean for the future of their plans?

Thought Balloon: AVOIDING AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON SPOILERS, THE END IS NIGH!

Stewart R's wait and journey draws closer to the April 23rd (UK) release day for Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Here he summarizes how his attempt has gone following his initial article back in October (which can be found here) and shares some final thoughts on the subject of modern teasers, trailers and our exposure to them.

Stewart R: And so here I sit, just 7 days away from entering my local cineplex with my PCG comrades to bear witness to the movie event of the year (no, not Star Wars!). Nearly 6 months ago I set out my plan to avoid any spoiler-related material for Avengers: Age Of Ultron, particularly video media, but also pictures, posters and written articles, interviews and news pieces, in an attempt to maintain the full shock and awe element of such a big screen endeavour. Compared to my similar efforts with Iron Man 3, this journey has been slightly easier in some respects and more frustrating in others. I have, in the main, managed to stay relatively untouched by Disney/Marvel's marketing push and side-stepped several social media 'landmines' on the way, but those unexpected 'shrapnel wounds' of knowledge, how hard have they hit?

Thought Balloon: THE SONY AND MARVEL DEAL OVER SPIDER-MAN: A CAUTIONARY REACTION

Stewart R: There’s no missing it: the news that Spider-Man is going to be allowed to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies is certain to be one of the Hollywood stories of the year for 2015. Having been in Sony’s hands exclusively for two decades and change, having starred in five blockbuster films, across two iterations, steered by two directors and played by two different leading men, and having grossed over $4 billion worldwide as a franchise (when adjusted for inflation), our web-head’s live action playground just got even bigger.

Under the new agreement, Sony still retain the rights to the character and creative control of any solo outings for him, as well as spin-offs for his supporting cast, but Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, the face of Marvel’s successful track record through 8 years of film production and release, will co-produce Sony’s next Spider-Man film alongside the company’s former co-chairman (before the recent hacking nastiness), Amy Pascal. Marvel are also free to have Spider-Man appear in any of their upcoming movies through a very busy calendar filled with projects over the next 5 years and feasibly, beyond.

This news is certainly promising, bringing as it does Marvel’s most recognisable and bankable character back into their direct plans, albeit in co-star and cameo roles. It definitely helps to broaden Marvel’s available A-List cast for events considering that it remains somewhat depleted by the absence of the 20th Century Fox controlled X-Men and Fantastic Four properties, but could all of this excitement be a touch premature? Being the skeptic and mild pessimist that I am, I suspect this could prove to be a bumpier transition and agreement than the initial excitement alludes to.

Thought Balloon: SECRET WARS ANNOUNCEMENT REACTION or HAS MARVEL NOW! SIMPLY BEEN A (NOT SO) SECRET WAR FIGHTING FOR DRASTIC CHANGE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE?

"I think it starts with our core readers because the long and short of it is that this is not a reboot. We don't transform our world. We don't go back in time. This is all taking place in the Marvel Universe that readers are already invested in. It's characters that they already know and the important thing is that the Marvel Universe is entering into a new era..." Axel Alonso

Stewart R: You might look at that quote and think that it's taken from yesterday's Secret Wars press briefing delivered by the Marvel bods from Midtown Comics. In actual fact that's taken from a CBR interview conducted in 2012 with Axel Alonso when speaking about the then incoming Marvel NOW! initiative. At that time Marvel were keen to refresh their canon whilst sidestepping the backlash and criticism that was difficult to miss when DC rebooted their line wholesale with the New 52.

So no 'reboot' per se, but since 2012, Marvel have quickly and efficiently set about altering the shape of their central Universe via a host of core title shifts, drastic manipulations to the status quos of characters now predominantly in the public consciousness thanks to the success of Marvel's cinematic arm, and seemingly dropped some of their once successful properties into a sealed box due to conflicts of interest with other Hollywood studios and lacklustre sales.

Thought Balloon: COULD THE AVENGERS EVEN SAVE ME FROM SPOILERS ABOUT AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON?

Stewart R: We’re coming to the end of October 2014. We’ve had both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians Of The Galaxy light up the cinema screens this year and add considerable funds and fan trust to Marvel’s coffers. With the comic convention season behind us, the big draw for excitement comes with the anticipation of the comic book-based cinematic exploits for 2015. And next year is going to be big. Huge. A behemoth even. For 2015 heralds the release of Joss Whedon’s follow up to 2012’s The Avengers, with Avengers: Age of Ultron. With that in mind, and carefully considering my experience of that engrossing, exhilarating spectacle some two years ago I vowed earlier this summer that I would, once again, attempt to get to release day of a big Marvel movie without seeing a single trailer, viewing a single poster or reading a single article about the film. The large hope with this mission is to enjoy the film with as little expectation and pre-loading of narrative and let EVERYTHING be a surprise on the day. But can I possibly accomplish such a feat, even with my previous effort being successful?

Thought Balloon: Time For More Tough Decisions

Matt C: I don't do this kind of article as often as I could (over two years since the last time); I find that the necessity of it sort of pushes itself onto me when I reach a point where I have to make some changes. And - yep - I've reached that point again and I'm simply buying too many comics. Some have to be removed from the pull-list.

It's not just about the expense (although that's obviously an unavoidable factor in my decision-making) - it's about the time too. With work, family, friends and other hobbies all taking chunks out of each and every day, time is very much at a premium for me, and it's gone beyond the stage where I'm struggling to stay on top of my weekly books, let alone the hundreds of back issues, digital comics, small press books, and the various review requests I get sent. Yes, there's an element of madness in the collector mentality that I've been susceptible to on many occasion, but every once in a while there comes a moment when you have to admit you're buying way more than you can read (possibly ever!). That moment doesn't hang around for too long before the collecting bug manifests itself again, but while it's here (and during the last few weeks it most definitely has been here) it's best that I act on it!

Rough calculations have me currently buying in excess of 40 comic books a month. Which is just ridiculous and way past my money/time threshold. I did think that when I abandoned the DC Universe (and I have yet to be tempted back) I'd be able to keep things down to a manageable level. What I didn't count on is Image suddenly making a huge push forward with their creator-owned content, changing the make-up of my pull-list quite dramatically.

So let's start with them.

Thought Balloon: Where Are They Now? AWOL Comics Vol. 2

Matt C: It’s been a while since I took a proper look at those books that I was thoroughly enjoying when all of a sudden they completely dropped off the radar (over five years in fact!) so another article along the same lines was long overdue, particularly as I’m almost perpetually in a position where a number of books I’ve loved have disappeared, with no solid information to lead me to believe they’ll be arriving anytime soon.

On the flipside of that, if you go to back to the original article linked above, half of the series highlighted actually returned and received a conclusion (the other half I doubt we’ll ever see again) so hopefully something similar may be on the cards for the choices listed below. This time around I’ve invited a couple of my PCG colleagues to come up with their picks of the books they really, really want to see return…

FELL

James R: Fell is undoubtedly one of my favourite books over the last ten years, and is Warren Ellis at his best - dark, clever and inventive. But after nine issues (and an increasingly erratic release schedule) we've had nothing since 2008! Ellis originally said that artist Ben Templesmith was far too busy promoting 30 Days Of Night around the world... an excuse which was then replaced by the death of Ellis' computer and the loss of Ellis' scripts. He claimed that the script for issue #10 had been sent to Templesmith in 2011, but still we wait. With Templesmith now heavily involved in his Kickstarter project The Squidder, it doesn't look like we'll be returning to Snowtown anytime soon. It seems to be that Southend's finest son always falls into a familiar pattern: he has an amazing idea for a book, which will launch with a number of brilliant issues, at which point he seems to get bored of the idea and focus his creative energies on another project (which may or may not get finished!). Indeed, it seems that endings are often Ellis' problem. When he does them right, they are something to behold (and I will forever doff my chapeau at the genius of Planetary here) but more often than not, there's a sense of "Well...that's it!" Both No Hero and Captain Swing tended to stop rather than come to a satisfactory conclusion. I'm quite aware that the abrupt, anti-ending might be seen as a literary device, but taken into account with his frequently curtailed titles, it doesn't look too great.

Thought Balloon: BEN AFFLECK CAST AS BATMAN - IS HE A GOOD CHOICE?

Stewart R: With Christopher Nolan’s highly successful - both critically and financially - Dark Knight trilogy now completed and seemingly never to be returned to, and thanks to a pretty successful summer for Warner Bros and DC courtesy of Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel lighting up the worldwide box office, we’re finally going to get Superman and Batman appearing on the big screen together in the Summer of 2015. The film is currently untitled, known for the moment as the Batman/Superman movie, but Zack Snyder will be helming and Henry Cavill will be returning as the last Kryptonian. The rumour mill had Warner Bros throwing money in Christian Bale’s direction to coax him back to the cape and cowl and a hundred-and-one casting suggestions littered the internet since San Diego’s annual Comic Convention.

The curtain was finally pulled back and the media savvy world gave a collected pause and intake of surprised breath today when it was announced that the newest iteration of Bruce Wayne and his crime fighting alter ego, Gotham’s Batman, would be none other than Ben Affleck.

Thought Balloon: IRON MAN 3 APPROACHES AND STEWART R’S CHALLENGE OF BLISSFUL IGNORANCE IS AT AN END

Iron Man 3 is released in the UK tomorrow evening (25th April) and it's time to see just how Stewart R has fared this past month since he last updated us on his adventure to remain spoiler and trailer free

A darker sequel approaches??

Stewart R: The end of the painful wait is nigh! Tomorrow evening I will join my PCG colleagues as we don the still tragically uncool plastic stereoscopic 3D glasses and sit down to spend a couple of hours with Mr Stark, his cavalcade of good friends and a handful of mortal enemies in the latest big screen Iron Man outing.

Here I sit, writing this article, still unaware - for the most part - of what possibly lies ahead for the Avenger in the suit of armour. What started out as something of a ponderous musing - what would it be like to head into a blockbuster Marvel movie having no idea of what was visually or contextually to come? - has built into something of a miniature personal quest. As of my last post on this project I was being confronted with a wall of digital advertising, temptation and intrusion as various press websites ramped up their coverage and the wheels of the promotion machine began spinning with vigorous determination.

Thought Balloon: DC NO MORE!

Matt C: I was a Marvel kid growing up. A lot of that’s down to location – Marvel had much more of a presence in British newsagents during the early ‘80s thanks to its Marvel UK operation, which ensured reprints of American comic books were a consistent presence on the stands. Spider-Man Comic Weekly (which went through a number of title changes during its existence) cultivated my passion and then the UK version of Secret Wars turned that passion into an obsession. I don’t recall seeing comics featuring DC characters back then, and if I did perhaps I neglected them because the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men just seemed a whole lot cooler than Superman, Wonder Woman et al.

The one DC character I couldn’t resist, unsurprisingly, was Batman. The changes he went through during the mid-‘80s, culminating in Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, pretty much made it impossible for even my fledgling ‘marvel zombie’ brain to ignore. So for a while then it was all Marvel comics plus a side order of Batman (I never really got caught up with the Image boom either). Then, in the mid-‘90s, I started to find I had more money in my pocket and decided to branch out into untested waters. This meant I let myself get sucked into the DC Universe fully for the first time and found it to be a more than hospitable place. Marvel was still the mainstay but I now had a new world of characters to explore, and DC titles became a permanent, weekly presence on my pull-list. It’s been that way now for over 15 years… until last week.

Thought Balloon: PLACING AN IRON CURTAIN AROUND THE IRON MAN 3 TRAILER *UPDATE*

Stewart R's ongoing mission to avoid spoilers and trailers for Marvel's Iron Man 3 movie is in full flow, so how has his plan been faring since October?

Stewart R: Four and a bit months on and here I find myself, typing away at an update article brought about by a rather alarming wave in visually intrusive advertising for Marvel’s big banker of 2013, Iron Man 3. In my last piece on the subject I clearly outlined just why I was looking forward to avoiding all spoilers, teasers and tidbits leading up to that evening in late April when I sit in the cinema and let Shane Black’s direction of Tony Stark’s latest big screen adventures wash over me in a truly fresh and unknown shower of entertainment. Since that time I’ve had several bumps in the road to steer past, roll over or blast away in a forceful motion of denial and let me tell you, this is no easy task!

Before Christmas 2012 the going had been fairly easy. There was only really the much heralded trailers to avoid and the odd poster turning up on various comic book, movie and entertainment sites to be navigated around. I was confident that I could make it to April without really having to spend too much active energy maintaining my stance on a ‘zero-info’ policy. The only time I thought I might hit a bit of a spike would be the few days leading up to, and subsequent fallout after, the inevitable Super Bowl TV spot that would garner an awful lot of attention from the web-based media. Not only did I have the prospect of some of my daily visit sites getting a little over-excited, but Twitter would no doubt go nuts over the event itself AND host a million and one thoughts on what the TV spot delivered afterwards. As it happens I’m a big NFL fan and there was no way I was going to leave Twitter behind during the Super Bowl and so I skim read much of my feed that night and thankfully Beyonce and the power cut were bigger stories than any of the movie previews!

Thought Balloon: The Green Lantern Creative Exodus Of 2013

Stewart R: 'The grass is always greener'.  Or is it that you're looking 'green around the gills'? Either way, in the comic world today the colour mentioned is certainly right!

The news has bursting forth from behind the DC doors and other quarters in the past 12 hours and it surrounds the near-term future of one of the publishers most popular lines. Initially it was announced on the DC website that longtime Green Lantern lead writer and Chief Creative Officer at the publisher, Geoff Johns will be ending his run on Green Lantern this May with the bumper sized #20 issue which will also cap off the 'Wrath of the First Lantern' event.

Upon hearing this news my heart sank somewhat and my brain was awash with solemn understanding. After ten years of steering the adventures of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, the rest of the Emerald Corps, their allies and enemies and elevating the property to great heights following a downturn period of the late '90s and early 21st Century brimming with fan dissatisfaction, it is now time for Johns to step aside and concentrate on his other titles - Justice League and Aquaman - and his larger responsibilities within the organization. 

Thought Balloon: A Superior Spider-Man; With Great Potential And Controversy Comes Great Risk And Responsibility

Stewart R: Christmas 2012 marked the end of the Amazing Spider-Man comic book series which had been running for 50 years.  This coming Wednesday, the Superior Spider-Man series hits the shelves of local comic book stores around the globe.  The ending of the former series and the creation and reasons for the production of the latter have set various corners of the internet abuzz with hot debate.  The main storyline running through Amazing Spider-Man #698 to #700 will probably keep many a fan conversing on the repercussions and their personal grievances or reservations for months to come. But is all of the debate, controversy and upset that has been caused all a little unnecessary? Well - and there are going to be spoilers of those mentioned issues throughout this article - let’s just go over the facts and see where the land lies...

Thought Balloon: Revisiting Calvin And Hobbes For That Festive Feeling

Stewart R: In these modern days of the early 21st century, where perhaps life appears to be getting more cynical, where it seems to be losing some of its ‘magic’ to these difficult times and where the festive season doesn’t come across as being quite that festive and jolly, I know that there’s always one thing I can fall back upon to put me in that seasonal spirit.

Growing up during the 80s and 90s I was very lucky to have cousins who knew how to equip their bathroom - stay with me here - for every time my family would travel up for a visit, there was always a copy of a Bill Watterson book within reach of the toilet. Not the most glamorous of introductions of course, but that special moment when you pick up that first Calvin and Hobbes collection will usually stay with you for a long time.

Thought Balloon: The Five Greatest Comic Book Moustaches

Tom P: Movember will come to a close this week and to highlight this worthwhile cause I decided to take part by growing a moustache during November to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other men’s health issues. Starting clean shaven on the 1st you cultivate your top lip until the beginning of December starts and hopefully raise some money via sponsorship, which I'm pleased to say I have! If you would like to sponsor me and donate to this worthwhile cause that would be fantastic - the more the merrier! My horseshoe moustache has come on a treat and I must say the style has grown on me (the wife will be pleased to see it go though). To celebrate the final week of Movember 2012 the PCG now present The Five Greatest Comic Book Moustaches...

Thought Balloon: John Constantine RIP

Rob N: During the 1970s I used to buy a fair few British comics in addition to my regular supply of imported American titles. Back then we had a thriving and innovative comics scene that in certain respects was more daring than the American equivalents. But every nine months or so I would go down to my local newsagent on a Saturday morning to find an ominous message emblazoned on the cover of one of my favourite titles. Invariably it would read: 'Exciting news for all our readers inside!' And once I'd settled down with a Curly Wurly chocolate bar (price 3p) I would read the announcement that (for example) Tornado was being combined with 2000AD, or Action was being combined with Battle. From next week the editor proudly announced the two titles would be replaced by one with the best from both comics in an exciting new format! Practically speaking what that meant was you'd lose 2/3 of the ongoing strips from the title that sold the least, and those strips that remained would be significantly changed in order to make for a better fit with the parent title. Exciting news indeed.

Thought Balloon: Placing A Personal Iron Curtain Around The Iron Man 3 trailer

(Please note that I discuss a few plot points from the original Iron Man and the Avengers movie in this article so if you are still remaining spoiler-free, just be aware...and also, why haven't you got around to watching them already??)

Nothing much to see here...thankfully!

Stewart R: May 3rd 2013. It'll be a big date for the Box Office next year and it's already marked on my mental calendar as an unmissable day where my evening is most definitely booked up. For that date marks the current general release date (subject to preview announcements of course) of Iron Man 3, Marvel's banker blockbuster for 2013 and the first Marvel film to be released after the high grade, money-raking behemoth that was Marvel's The Avengers this year. With Robert Downey Jr and the regular cast all set to return alongside newcomers to the franchise, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pierce and director Shane Black, it promises to be a barnstorming couple of hours viewing.

At this precise moment in time I know only the very bare minimum about the plot – the fact that it'll utilise Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline as a vague guide has been fairly well publicised – and there's a big part of me that is thinking that I may well keep it that way up until the night I sit down in the darkening cinema screen and watch the spectacle unfold before my eyes. Sounds like an easy plan to carry out, but in this social-media whirlwind climate it's hard enough to avoid hearing who won the Great British Bakeoff if you recorded it for later viewing just a few hours previous; you almost have to go dark and disconnect temporarily from Facebook, Twitter and any news websites to keep the sanctity of mystery preserved. When it comes to blockbuster cinematic efforts – and doubly so when it comes to comic book blockbusters it seems - you have at least three iterations of the picturehouse trailer, plus countless TV spots and embedded site adverts to keep from entering your eyes, ears and ultimately your brain over the half year period before actual release.

Thought Balloon: Learning To Love Digital Comics

Tom P: I’ve had an iPad for over a year now and it’s only in the last few months that I started reading comics digitally. Why now? Well, I recently started the huge task of organizing my neglected longboxes and stacks of comics. Having put it off for far too long it remains an ongoing project but found I had quite a few Marvel comics with digital download codes. At first I dismissed them - If I had it in print why would I want a digital copy? - but there I was with all these codes. Now I love triple play blu-rays as I get a digital copy I can watch on the go, which is great when you travel or want to watch Megan Fox, sorry, Transformers in the bath. Anyway, I digress. Its added value and if I didn’t redeem them then maybe I wasn’t really taking full advantage of the $3.99 price tag. I typed them all in and now I have all these comics on my iPad and iPhone: brilliant!

Thought Balloon: Tough Decisions Once Again

Matt C: It’s been a long time since I last went through my pull-list like this but having seen a marked increase in the number of titles I was picking up each week (or, more to the point, the amount I was spending!) it became clear that it was past time to take a serious look at what books I’m buying and decide whether I really need them. Financial reasons obviously factor in highly, particularly with two under-5s vying for my attention (and money!), but there’s always the space issue to consider: having to justify to my other half why I need so many comics as the number of long boxes in our home increases just gets more and more difficult, and to be honest if I’m not getting enough out of a book the first time round, what are the chances of me ever reading it again?

Previously I’ve tried to keep the number of ongoing titles to about 25, and I’m going to try and hit that number again (or under), although I’m not so confident I will this time around. So, as before, I’ll start by listing the Top 10 titles in my pull-list at the moment: