The Gemini Brothers in Space

Back in early 2014 I made a funny/silly Sci-Fi serial with my nephews and other members of my family and here it is. Have a good listen please and share it with your friends if you enjoy it.

Here is an interview I got my nephews to do with me

Each episode came with a silly advertisement/sponsor which I made some pictures for, so I will post those here too!

Episode 1 - Alien Abduction

Episode 2 - Close Encounter

Episode 3 - Emperor Fra

Episode 4 - Laser Battle

Episode 5 - No Escape

Episode 6 - Terrible Torture

Episode 7 - No Mercy


Episode 8 - Mad Medicine

Episode 9 - Dylthan Megabeast


Episode 10 - Final Fight

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If you have checked out the show you may well realise that it took a heck of a lot of influence from Flash Gordon. I used to love the old Buster Crabbe 30's series as a kid in the 70/80's when it was played on teatime television. They used to play that and King of the Rocket Men and Champion The Wonder Horse in the same teatime slot if my memory serves me correctly. I have listened to the original radio serial online too. Also the main factor was the film from 1980 with Sam Jones and Max Von Sydow, which I watched at the cinema and I am always happy to be the alt-geek and say that I much preferred it to Star Wars. In fact Star Wars may never have happened if George Lucas had managed to get the rights to film Flash like he originally wanted.

Flash Gordon was created  as a newspaper strip in 1934 by Alex Raymond for King Features Syndicate as a rival to the already popular Buck Rogers, you may recall there was a TV series of that as well, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and of course the parody starring Daffy Duck called Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half Century. The strip proved very popular and soon spawned many spin-off items to cash in on the brand including pop-up books, colouring books, toy spaceships and rayguns. That kind of surprised me as I didn't realise that kind of cynical product tie-in was such an old trend. I assumed it started later than that for some reason but obviously not! In the last episode of my Gemini Brothers show I did parody it in the joke advert but I thought I was projecting a later trend. King also sold the strip to other papers around the World, 130 papers carried the story at one time with a few making slight changes to suit the local market. For example in Australia he was Speed Gordon as 'Flash' had negative connotations meaning 'overly showy' and was likened with dishonesty. During war time some countries stopped running the strip but it reemerged in those territories after it ended. In 1939 there was even a ride with his name on it at the famous New York World's Fair. Reading about it makes it sound a bit like the Nuka Galaxy Ride from the NukaWorld add-on from Fallout 4

Alex Raymond's art and costumes for Flash inspired the Superhero genre too, the art of both Superman and Batman were influenced by his work and Hawkman was based on the Hawkmen race who was led by Prince Vultan who was played so memorably by Brian Blessed in the 1980 film.

The radio serials started in 1935 with 2 series totaling 100 shows in all. It starred Gale Gordon as Flash and stuck closely at first to the strip in regards story but later veered off with Flash, Dale and Zarkov visiting Atlantis! There have been 2 live-action TV series one ran 1954-55 and the latest from 2007/8, it was cancelled after one season which was a real shame. Maybe Flash and the concepts of this type of clean cut, all American hero are no longer resonant with the general public. There have also been 4 animated series for the space hero as well and a number of comic books over the years, the most recent being a series from Dark Horse in 2010 and from Dynamite Entertainment in 2011.

I already mentioned the film from 1980, I saw that in the cinema and I even had the Pannini sticker album which I later sold on Ebay I think, curse my foolishness :( I remember drawing a massive space battle based on the attack on Rocket Ship Ajax, I think I might still have that somewhere!! If I find it I will post the picture up here :D

There are meant to be 2 new films of the hero in development at the moment with scripts being written, so fingers crossed we will see him fighting the good fight some time soon.

       

Trinity - Vol.1 Better Together

As mentioned before I had to quit buying comics a little while back due to various reasons and so now I only get to read new books after people buy stuff for me off of my Christmas and birthday lists. Here's the 1st of 4 books my dad picked up for me this year. I just tell him to go to my old comic book shop near where he lives and ask for any new DC books from the last couple of years. I am not up to date with current events anymore but I kind of think this is a re-re-launch of the DC Universe!! I swear they were just relaunching it when I had to quit and this is another rebirth since then, I could be wrong! 

There was a previous run of Trinity books featuring the 3 premier DC heroes back when I was still collecting. I think it was a weekly book, following on from the 52 comic run I believe. So I am used to seeing the 3 characters in a series together. However reading this with the stuff that has changed the whole chemistry seems different than it did before. In the old books they were old friends, here it seems a bit less certain, like they are not quite so familiar with each other. It seems as if this is a pretty new Superman as far as Batman & Wonder Woman are concerned. This Supes looks like the old fellow to me but I think there was a younger,  brasher, less compassionate version for a while. I think that Wonder Woman was in a relationship with that version of the hero and that he died! This new guy is married to Lois Lane and they have a son who's about 10 years old! I don't know if the story is told anywhere of his 1st decade and I know I won't be able to afford to buy all the books I am missing to find out! Still it makes for fun reading to pick up what titbits of information I can to find out what has transpired since last I read them. 

I don't want to post any spoilers or plot stuff too much, so I will keep it vague. Something odd starts happening to the team; is it some kind of weird time distortion? They start seeing visions or have they been transported in time somehow. All three travel together to significant events in each of their respective pasts. In each location they travel to a part of the characters histories is explored and realisation of essential truths about their characters are made and important threads from their lives are resolved. Basically it's a way to get to know what drives them and to get a view of what makes them what they are. There is also a lot of side chat, where the dynamics of their relationships with each other are explored. It's basically reintroducing the characters to the readers again in a clever way. I must be a bit of a comics nut or else this plot device has been used a few too many times but I figured out what was causing the events to happen before the reveal. 

This volume collects together issues 1 - 6 of the series, it was written and partially drawn by Francis Manapul, a name I am not familiar with, I imagine they are a new force on the scene as I don't recall the name at all. I enjoyed the read, it had cool characterization, nice action, great art but I saw it more of a re-introduction to the characters and their interplay and was more of a taste of things to come really. Now we know how they all are with each other, future stories can concentrate on further development and kicking the butts of some new super villains. I notice that Vol. 2 is available also with a pretty kick butt cover so that's going on my wishlist. :)

Diana, where can people buy these Trinity Volumes from??

      

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

I had to stop buying comic books regularly a couple of years back for various reasons so for birthdays and Christmas it is always nice to get something new. I added these randomly to my Amazon wishlist and my girlfriend picked them up for me. I'd not heard of them before, I'd not even really read a review of them. I recognised the writer name from somewhere and the art looked cool enough. To be honest I thought it was by the same guy who did Fables and that with what looked like an angel and a demon it would be similar to those books which I own quite a few of and enjoyed a lot. It turned out that my silly brain was wrong anyway, Fables is by Bill Willingham, this is Brian K. Vaughan but it's not a problem as he did the Y: The Last Man books that I own the set of and they are cool as heck so it's all good.

As I said with 1st appearances I was expecting a story of an angel and a demon on the run from hell & heaven, something similar to an old Hellblazer run of comics and I'm pretty sure that angel/demon love story on the run is almost a bit of a trope by now. It turned out I was wrong anyway it's not a supernatural tale at all, although it does have magic in it, these are aliens. The winged woman is Alana from Landfall and Marko the horned fellow is from Landfall's moon Wreath. The two races have been at war for an unspecified but extremely long time. The races hatred has spread across the solar system with their war being  outsourced to encompass many worlds whilst the original protagonists planets have returned to relative peace.

Our story starts on the planet Cleave with the birth of the narrator who is Alana & Marko's daughter. We hear everything from her point of view as though she is reminiscing sometime in the future. It's quite an unusual move and implies that whatever happens she survives but I can't help wondering if there is going to be some almighty twist in there somewhere somehow. Since having my mind blown over the narrator of an old book called Enigma I don't take anything for granted anymore when it comes to these cunning comic book writers. Within minutes of her birth agents from both their planets turn up to apprehend them only to kill each other's forces whilst our new parents and child escape. She's deserted from her planet's army and freed him, a prisoner who she was supposed to be guarding and both of their people's want them eliminated and their child captured. Wreath hire freelancers The Will and The Stalk to track them down and Landfall send Prince Robot IV. Things escalate, new allies and enemies are made and people from their past are introduced and the story of how they met, fell in love and then went on the run is soon revealed in flashbacks. There is a lot more history to come in future books I am sure as we learn more about these characters. It's not just the main protagonists with a story, most of the supporting cast have well realised motivation and history as well, making for a cast of characters that are engaging and interesting and make you invest emotionally in them. There is a character that speaks just one word, not much to get you to be interested in them you'd think but you'd be wrong, when they get into some serious peril I was thinking, "Oh no!! Don't kill them!! Not.......(no spoilers here)"

The exciting thing too for me is that this is a new world created for this story, it doesn't exist in an already extant comic book universe so we don't know what it's rules are yet. There is magic we've seen that and learnt a couple of it's rules in this world. We know there's all kinds of aliens beings and strange creatures and ghosts, the universe is a BIG place and they are abroad in it pursued by two groups both intent on their capture and/or deaths. Surviving won't be easy especially as Marko is a conscientious objector who has vowed to never use violence again. Nobody is safe, any character could potentially die, you can't take anything for granted in this book.

The book is aimed for an older audience, with nudity, mature themes, sex and some gore too. There is a giant that pops up at one time and it's quite a sight!! Let's just say that if he was from a Grimm's fairy tale his catchphrase would be Fee Fie Scro-tum and I'll let you imagine the rest.

I see there are about 8 books of this on sale already and I am going to be adding them to my future wants list for sure. This is the kind of book you end up recommending to friends, family and fellow geeks. I will be lending these to my big brother for sure. 

Saga, it may share it's name with a holiday company that caters for older folk but this is no sedate trip to Majorca, this is a thrill ride across the galaxy and I can't wait to see what scrapes they get into along the way.

Game of Thrones

With the release of this new set of Game of Thrones inspired stamps from Royal Mail in January 2018 it gives me the perfect excuse to blog about the books and the TV show. 

Wow, what a sensation it has been this show, nearly everybody has seen it and talked about it. Social media has been buzzing with it and often it's been avoided to save from getting spoilers. It's one of them shows to watch with friends and get carried away with, to gasp, or sigh or scream at the telly in reaction to whatever has befallen a beloved or hated character this time. Also it's a show to talk about with mates down the pub and in work the day after it airs.

2 of the books are so long they got made into 2 books each!

The show is based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire which are written by George R R Martin. The 1st called Game of Thrones was published in 1996 and was originally planned to be the 1st of a trilogy but has evolved into a septology (whatever it is you call a group of 7!!), a heptology apparently!! Who knew? At the moment the 5th in the series is as far as it has got with A Dance With Dragons seeing release in 2011. It took George 6 years to write so by that reckoning book 6 The Winds of Winter can not be far off now I suppose. The story is very much influenced by events from history, the wars and political intrigues of medieval times. The Lannisters and The Starks for example are likened to the houses of Lancaster and York from the War of the Roses. Martin has said that, "I take [history] and I file off the serial numbers and I turn it up to 11."

I've not read the books myself so I am not getting spoilers and knowing what fates await each of the characters as I watch, nor am I getting annoyed whenever the programme veers from the book storyline or changes characters or merges them into 1 for the sake of brevity. It's kind of good not to have any forewarning in that way. So often you see a movie or a show and as you know the base content from the raw materiel of the book it can vex you when the programme makers vision veers from your own thoughts on what the story and characters should be. Show co-creator David Benioff describes the translation from book to screen like this, its "about adapting the series as a whole and following the map George laid out for us and hitting the major milestones, but not necessarily each of the stops along the way". The TV series has now passed the books in the story too which is pretty strange! I don't know how much input Martin now has with the TV writers, does he give them the bare bones as he envisages it? Does he even know what is going to happen to the characters himself yet? I am sure he must. It is definitely good cause to read the books as well as watch the show, just to find out what parts I have missed in the adaptation.

I do want to read the books at some point but this is one of those rare times when I want to read the books after the show rather than before it. I listened to the 1st one as an audio book and it seemed to be pretty close to the TV show as I remember it, although it finishes before the events of the 1st series of the TV show does which surprised me. The 5 audio books were all read by Roy Dotrice who was originally going to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the HBO television series but had to pull out for health reasons. He later played Wisdom Hallyne the Pyromancer. I've got to say I might even favour the audio books over reading them myself as he read them magnificently. It's a shame he passed away in October 2017, fans of his style will miss hearing him for the last two books when they arrive.

Roy Dotrice as Wisdom Hallyne

Telltale games even made a game for PS4, Xbox One and PC based on the series which I have played and I have to say it has almost as much shocks and tension as the show does, perhaps even more as you are playing the character whose decisions will have so many ramifications and even lead to their own deaths if you choose poorly.

The seventh season of the show has recently ended and we now have a long wait for the final season. Filming began in October 2017. Season 8 is set to be the shortest of them all in episode count, with only 6 planned, (the 1st 6 seasons had 10 and 7 had 7), it is set to air in 2019!! Each episode is going to be a 1 hour long which is slightly longer than normal but not by much. It will largely consist of original content currently not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and will instead adapt material Martin revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. Whatever happens it is bound to be a momentous battle and afterwards and even during there will be bound to be some treachery to be sure and various characters machinations will either come to fruition or be thwarted. Who will live? Who will die? Who will sit on the Iron Throne and why would you even want to it looks very uncomfortable!! We'll have to wait and see, whatever the outcome I am sure it will be talked about for a long time to come.

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TheGreyGeek reviews - 1.01.2018