Prometheus Bound

For the PaperJam Comics Collective "Art and that" anthology my contribution to the comic was based on Gustave Moreau's "Prometheus Bound" painting. I had to replace the poem that I was going to use as my script because it was too long.

Here is the painting:

Here is the poem as I intended it to be originally:

The Grecian Gods can be childish,
smiting and smashing on a whim,
jealous furies amongst the worst,
but some become heavenly stars.

Prometheus made the humans,
but could not deliver the fire,
igniting spark of human life
but not warming deathly cold flesh.

He stole from Apollo’s carriage,
stole the heavenly fire of life,
his sacrifice for the humans
caused that God great personal strife.

The other Gods weren’t merciful
to their fellow Prometheus,
they bound him to sturdy cold chains,
releasing the eagle of Zeus.

So, bound with daily liver loss
Prometheus suffered for man,
a symbol for humanity,
hence Moreau's "Prometheus Bound". *

*My official poem ends with "the Greek God of fire and humans" but that wouldn't have went as well in the context of the anthology, even though I didn't get to use the entire poem only fragments where I could adapt them.

The odds are there will be at least 1 PaperJam Comics Collective member reading this, so I have this to say. What I have seen so far of the other Art and That pieces looks great. I'm really looking forward to seeing the other pieces in their entirety.

Now to my regular guest Norman Osborn.

Thank you Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: Gods who have the balls to stand up to other Gods.

Goodbye Fullmetal Alchemist!

It's been a while since my last post but I'm back! According to my diary, the final chapter of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist was scanlated (scanned and translated) in English on the 10th of this June. Therefore I read the final chapter on that date.

Anyway this post will be solely dedicated to the masterpiece manga called FMA. The series ended as well as it began, and indeed as brilliantly as the journey in the middle.

What makes the series so good? This is a question you may ask me. My answer? Well it's a combination of factors really. First of all we have the story, which at it's core is deeply philosophical for shonen manga.

It deals with such themes as "don't play God" (trying to bring your mother back from death), the consequences and evil of war and genocide, the nature and purpose of human beings, the notion of truth and the soul amongst other aspects.

It does what shonen manga does best, conquers difficulties while keeping it's sprit up. There are challenges the many heroes face, but they always do it with absolute determination .

Shonen manga are typically created by males, FMA isn't and I'm convinced this helps make the series that bit different and therefore better than the average shonen title. Shonen typically sticks to well defined conventions. FMA plays the rules of the game, but Hiromu Arakawa adds brilliant feminine touches in her manga as shown here:

That montage wasn't in FMA but the picture of the big muscular sparkly guy there (Alex Lois Armstrong) certainly was. Arakawa tends to add little bits here in there that seem closer to shojo manga than shonen, but this enhances the manga overall as far as I'm concerned.

One of the greatest things about FMA if we move away from stylistic features or the story itself is the characters. The narrative itself is great, in that it is epic, funny and deep but it's made even better by a colourful cast of characters.

Unlike many shonen (say Naruto or Bleach) characters are strong irrespective of gender, the female characters are just as badass as the males.

Well that's a nice note to finish my part of this blog on, an image featuring my 2 favourite characters of the series, Olivia Armstrong and Izumi Curtis. Now, It's time for Osborn's approval, hit it Norms!

My thanks Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: Techniques passed down the Armstrong line for generations!

Dr Who meets Vincent Van Gogh

Beware do not read this until you have seen the 10th episode of the Matt Smith Dr. Who series.

Warning aside, I may now proceed. This has got to be my favourite episode of the series so far. As little as I know about art movements and artists outside of American and Japanese comics, I do like Van Gogh. His art was beautiful, but more than that he expressed his soul through his art, turning his own depression into a work of beauty.

This episode to some extent conveys that. The episode itself was quite touching in various parts, I really felt for Gogh when the had to kill that invisible alien beast. I really enjoyed watching this episode.

I thought this scene was particularly beautiful in the episode:

Now for my regular guest: Norman Osborn

My thanks Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of Sunflowers.

Bishonen clowns oh my!

I'm not going to bother writing about Dr Who tonight because tonight is the conclusion of a two parter, and the last one I thought was merely ok so not worth writing about.

I have finished all of the comedy TV show Black Books and it was excellent. Not much more to say that that other than it being hilarious, I highly recommend it, especially if you are a fan of either/or both Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran.

My main focus today is the anime Yakitate Japan which for those who don't know, is an anime about bread. That might sound bland but it is not, it is one of the most entertaining anime I have ever seen, mainly because of the reaction shots of the characters as they eat superb quality bread.

The recent episodes I have watched (30-35) have been particularly interesting partly because it is the start of a tournament arc and partly because of this guy: Pierrot Bolneze.

He had a good backstory and is a fantastic character, mischevious yet fair. Filled with jest and energy he is fun to watch.

Now over to you Mr. Osborn!

I thank you Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: Bishonen clowns such as Pierrot Bolgneze from the anime Yakitate Japan, Hisoka from the anime and manga Hunter X Hunter and Maximilian Galactica from the legendary Phoenix Wright series of DS games.

PS: This is Max:

Here's Hisoka:

Fanart but still captures his essence!

Dr Who and vampires (The vampires of Venice)

Warning: don't read this entry until you have seen the 6th episode of the Matt Smith Dr Who episodes

This episode has a nice real start, a romantic start. "Have I burst out of the wrong cake again?" Lol @ the goofy Doctor!

Venice may have been romantic in its time but it probably stank with those goats and stuff hanging around!

Owing Casanova a chicken is just the kind of thing I expect the Doctor to do heh.

The veiled women were suspicious from the start, even before 1 of them showed her vampire fangs. My Gods their voice unity is creepy. Vampires didn't strike me as conformist like.

This is excellent, Amy and the Doctor are actually getting excited at the prospect of the vampiric challenge.

Vampires surround the Doctor! So they weren't vampires after all. This is Dr Who there had to be something else about them! Their Queen had some sort of imagine inducer like Nightcrawler from the X-men, as seen here:

Impending doom and the Doctor climbs the tower, he saves the day! Woo!

"Tell me Doctor, can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race?" Powerful stuff, especially considering I had read the Dark Phoenix saga a few hours ago. Read Frank Miller's Wolverine also, just as brilliant!

With that I hand you to our regular guest. Hit it Normie!

Thank you Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: Non-sparkly vampires

Captain batman eternal fable reborn

Well apologies to those who read my blog for my delay since the last one, I have had my shitty dissertation to write and I've just finished the Satan essay! One more essay to go then I'm finished uni, which is becoming a rather scary thought.

Where do I start? Batman is probably a good place. I have been finding some splendid gems from the City library and other local libraries. Batman: Ego by Darwyn Cooke is the first of these gems I'm going to talk about today. It had a very noir feel to it but at the same time it felt like the old Batman cartoons so I really enjoyed that.

Next we have Batman: Arkham asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave Mc.Kean. I loved this one and it was as great as people said it was. The lightning guy was pretty cool, Joker was quite amusing and I enjoyed the appearance of Two Face, but Two face is probably my favourite Batman villain aside from the Joker.

Frank Miller's Daredevil Reborn was very enjoyable, I really felt sorry for Daredevil throughout and developed a strong hatred for the Kingpin. I just just disliked him before this, the ending was satifactory.

Jeff Loeb's The death of Captain America was a very good read, I'm trying to read as much as I can of the Marvel universe.

Gaiman and John Romita Jr's Eternals was very good. I loved how Gaiman was able to add his own things to Kirby's space Gods. Here's an image from the graphic novel:

A light using Goddess against a hoarde of demons? Always will attract my attention.

Finally I read Fables volume 7: Arabian Nights. It was absolutely brilliant but expected, Bill Willingham has a masterpiece creation on his hands! This volume deals with the Arabian Fables, Aladdin, Ali Baba, Djin etc.

Now I pass you on to out regular guest and his regular approvals.

Thank you Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: Urahara using kido (shinigami magic).

Dr Who episode 2

Right, good evening readers! Today I'm going to have a special focus on the second episode of the new Dr Who episode 2.

A couple of minutes in and is slightly creepy with those horrible clown like grinning manaquin things. Some red hellish portal appears and a kid falls in it.

Finally we arrive back to the tardis with serene music and of course the wonderfully manic, eccentric doctor, this one the 11th incarnation played by Matt Smith.

I like the sky country idea, it reminds me of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series of books.

I sense a dystopian world theme, but I'm new to Dr. Who so I am prone to sounding like a noob about it. Such as asking my housemate why the Doctor doesn't lock the Tardis when he was away from it. He sensibly replied: because he does lock it. Ah makes sense.

I haven't absorbed some of the basic details yet. Being new to the series I'm still looking at it with a sense of fresh amazement, I hope that stays.

Wow a badass Red Riding Hood appeared, calling herself the Queen. Mint. Wait she is the Queen. Cool. I felt sorry for the star whale though.

And now over to my regular guest: Norman Osborn.

Thank you Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: cosmic whales.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, Geordie colours are black and white"

First, I have no interest in football. I really dislike the sport and the culture that surrounds it, especially when a city beautiful for a variety such as Newcastle is associated strongly with this culture as if that's all it has. We have 2 respectable universities, some great architecture if you just look above and around you, and various sources of entertainment and interest. We have at least 2 unique theatres, one more of a classical, traditional theatre i.e. the Theatre Royal and something of a more modern, contemporary style i.e. the Live Theatre. We also have some mint comic shops, which is more of the interest of this blog than the stuff posted above haha.

Good I've got that off my chest. I did start with a football reference which leads me to Pratchett's newest discworld book: unseen academicals. It is about football, but it is Discworld, so it is a good read. I really liked his portrayal of the orc in the story- gentle, kind, academic. Pratchett portays orcs like anyone else- good and bad, not necessarily the monsters they are described as. He does this in other books when he is introducing different races in his series such as trolls, dwarfs and vampires. Some of them are bastards and some of them are alright, just like humans.

Next on my blogging agenda is a manga series that has caught my attention recently, and is something I have been catching up to at a fairly fast pace. The manga is: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Now part of the reason I have been reading it at a fairly fast pace is because there is a LOT of it to read. In Japan it has been going since 1987 and with a few reasonable gaps here and there is still going. I found out it inspired both Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh, in that it deals with shonen (boy's manga) heroes who can summon personal spirits to aid them in battle, called Stands. It is full of action, it has charasmatic masculine characters, a good dose of humour and beautiful artwork, detailed to almost seinen level of manga art.


Jotaro Kujo and his Stand: Star Platinum

The manga weeklies (and for the sake of this week, released monthlies and bimonthlies- I'm looking at you Claymore and D.Gray-Man): SPOILER ALERT!


Fairy Tail: A nice chapter, putting our heroes in further danger against the Exceed cat race.

D.Gray-Man: The art was excellent as ever and I loved the mangastream scans. However I want the story to move onto more action as opposed to an entire chapter about the past in the next Jump issue. 2 months until the next chapter...

Claymore: Yagi really delivers a nice dose of demon arsekicking as usual. Priscilla finally goes abyss mode, so she now has MORE power to kill everyone including the good guys.

Bleach: I wonder when Aizen will perform his next hax move. Will it turn out Isshin is actually fighting and owning one of the good guys who Aizen has tricked him into thinking is him? Or is the action actually real this time? Kubo has been a pretty bad writer lately, overpowering his main villain and wasting chapters on things we think have happened but are actually part of an illusion. Gin reappeared, hooray! He told Aizen he wasn't sightseeing, I have an

Gin wasn't sightseeing, I reckon he wasn't by Aizen's side not because he thought Aizen could handle himself without his assistance, but because he was drinking a hot beverage with this guy:

This image not only expresses my view of who Gin was really with but is also a reply to Sosuke Aizen's constantly smug bastard face every single chapter of Bleach he appears in.

Naruto: The key passed on from Jiraiya is finally being given to Naruto, so in all likelihood Naruto will soon have the full power of the demon fox at his disposal. Hope that comes in handy against "hax eye" Uchihas in the future. Also the sage toad predicted Naruto would meet an octopus, which pretty much means Killerbee can't be caught by the new and possibly improved ZombieAkatsuki as half controlled by Kabuto(maru). Also, Tsunade is improving in health and regaining energy by binging food in a way Luffy would be proud of!

One Piece: There are many reasons I nickname this series "One Piece of Awesomeness". This week it is Captain Shanks. The Navy were murdering pirates, pirates were trying to murder the Navy and retrieve the body of their nakama Whitebeard. Shanks tells them to stop and BOTH sides instantly stop. That's how powerful he is. I knew he was powerful but doing that makes him and is crew even more awesome.

Hunter X Hunter: Pufu is getting closer to his death each week with his inadvertant treachery to King Meruem. Kilua is ready to take him down if Pufu enters his en circle. Here's hoping Togashi isn't going to go on hiatus for a while. A weak hope indeed.

Now I, Geordie Green Lantern am going to hand you over to Norman Osborn for the final word:


Thank you Geordie Green Lantern.

Today, I norman Osborn approve of Deadpool's Chimichanga, in association with Snicktbub