IT WALKS AMONG US!

New Site New Danger.

2010-06-28T04:19:00.001-07:00

Forgive me if you haven't seen any film reviews or anything comic related on this blog site between now and the last post. Ive got my own website and I'll be posting stuff up on that site from now on. So what does this mean for this blog? Well I don't know I really don't. Probably if I want to talk about my feelings and just random nonsense I'll write here by the looks of it..

As for the site it allows me a platform for me to promote the work I've done. Just recently I've written short bios for comic convention so its a start nonetheless.My own site was done by a friend and it cost me over £200 I'm going to try and update it on weekly basis its going to be about comics, films and the odd action figure review.

So without further ado here's Dangerwrites.

N

What's been happening

2009-06-19T07:51:00.001-07:00

Let's just cut to the chase, i haven't been going to press shows for a while. It looks like they have taken Voice 21 off the press list for reasons i don't understand. Personally if i had my way I'd get rid of the management team at Cineworld cos' lets face it they suck.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back on the press list sometime soon. i like writing film reviews and i hope I'll be writing more soon. What you will see i go to events like Memorabilia,Collectormania stuff like that so I'll post my ramblings on what i think of shows like that.
That's it for now.
N

Doves gig on Friday night....

2009-04-20T07:04:00.001-07:00

I had the Friday off last week and I went to see one of my favourite bands Doves a band from Madchester AKA Manchester. I’ve been fan of their work since their first album “Lost Souls” came out in 2000. I don’t what it is about the music they do but its life affirming and great chill out indie music. I often think that if there was a soundtrack of my life I’d have too add some songs from the band.

I don’t usually go to gigs there’s very few bands I like out there I don’t how many how many of many of you are seasoned gig goers out there, but I hate standing up for a long amount of time my legs just kill me! Recently I’ve been getting some back problems and I’m going to get it checked out.

This marks the third time I’ve seen the Mancunian band. The first time I went too see them was in 2002 I bumped into drummer/guitarist Andy Williams when I was queuing he signed my ticket which was quite memorable.

I really like the first two albums they did the second one being “The Last Broadcast” as for the follow ups “Some Cities”(2005) and the recent Kingdom of Rust there just a slight notch off the previous two but they are both entertaining.

When I got there some support band were playing and I wasn’t much interested in them. When the main act came on I got a good view of still, I noticed that there was a small seating area above me and I kept thinking “I wonder if can get a seat or are they just for the press?” Another which thing irritated me were a pair of Liverpudulian lads they were far too loud and were moaning that one of their favourite song wasn't played.

Whilst the band was playing there some kind of scuffle in the audience which led to a funny remark from the lead vocalist and guitarist, Jimi Goodwin! With the attempted beat em up swiftly packed up by security the band played on.

From the set list they played quite a lot from the new album mixed with their back catalogue. I didn’t mind the new stuff in retrospect; I’m really starting to have a better appreciation of the new album. Tracks that stick out are as "Kingdom of Rust","Snowden" "Words" and the classic "Here It Comes" which was performed with footage from a Northern Soul disco!

The last encore track was "There goes the fear" along with the concertgoers i was getting caught up the enthusiastic atmosphere they really should hand out Maracas and Samba Whistles when this is performed in future gigs cos' its brilliant and a great end to an amazing night out.

I think the next time i go to a gig i think i'm going to have to look for a seating area...

Flash of Genius

2009-03-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Starring Greg Kinnear,Lauren Graham,Dermot Mulroney,Alan Alda,Jake Abel, Daniel Roebuck and Mitch Pileggi

Directed by Marc Graham.

Originally today i was going to watch a Clive Owen film called Duplicity they didn't have the print. Instead they put this on, its about an inventor called Bob Kearns(Kinnear) who creates an automatic windscreen wiper for cars back then it was a big deal. He takes his pet project to the Ford motor company, but they soon steal his idea. Furious that they stole his invention he begins a lengthy legal battle that almost costs him his sanity and his marriage.

OK i missed i don't know a few minutes of the film i couldn't quite into it properly and its the kind of movie that's probably best suited as a TV movie of the week. My initial thoughts were it was going to be a comedy since Kinnear is known for doing fluffy romantic comedies. The main problem with it is its too dull and let's face it, whose going to watch a film about a man who creates windscreen wipers. On a side note you've got appearances from actors like Mitch Pileggi and Bill Smitrovich who appeared in 90's shows The X Files and Millennium.

With FOG I liked Kinnear's turn as a professor who goes all nutty when his idea gets nicked by the end of it i couldnt help noticing he looks like the spitting image of TV detective Inspector Sledge Hammer! I expected him to get a 44 magnum and shooting executives and jurors in the courtroom. Okay that didn't happen. I wonder if you lot remember the comedy series? Probably they should get Kinnear to play the role of the aforementioned TV tec' if someone decides to do a remake.

Furthermore, trust me i know what i'm doing!

Watchmen the final word.

2009-03-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Starring Patrick Wilson,Malin Akerman,Matthew Goode,Billy Crudup,Jackie Earl Haley,Carla Gugino and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Directed by Zack Snyder.

Right now theres probably billions of opinions and reviews that are related to this film i thought ive give my two cents or two pence on what i think about it. As a fan of the graphic novel i can safely say that Snyder and co have done a really faithful job of transferring it to the big screen with a few exceptions here and there most notably the original ending to it.

The actors are bang on in their portrayals as their four colour incarnations in particular Jackie Earl Haley as Rorshach. Ive got to give kudos to Patrick Wilson who plays one of my favourite characters, Dan Dreiberg aka Night Owl.

The film currently no 1 in the U.S box office charts although its fallen short of the film companies expectations. I was talking to a freind who went to see a friday night showing and he told me some people left halfway I guess a lot of people wanted to see a slam bang action pic judging by the bombastic trailers. Another reason i bet parent's in the USA didn't want to take their kids to see a computer generated willy.To top it off its almost three hours long. There's also not many comic related films that have an eighteen rated certificate.

I've often thought that Watchmen is more like a drama which looks at the implications of having costumed characters in the real world. Originally back in the late eighties film maker Terry Gilliam was lined up to direct it he backed out claiming rising production costs and it would take five hours to tell the story properly.

Even Alan Moore, has distanced himself from the film adaptation claiming its unfilmable and its best suited to its graphic form. Since Gilliam's attempt other's have tried and failed at one point Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass was going to set the story in the current day as opposed to its early eighties instead of one single film it would be part of a trilogy i don't think it have would worked as it would have made a mockery of the source material and treated fan's of Watchmen like dirt.

I saw Watchmen with a mate whose not into comics and he enjoyed it and he commented on the film's climax which he liked and he thought it was thought provoking. Although i would have liked to have seen original ending as it is the graphic novel, where a giant alien type squid kills 15 million New Yorkers. The writer David Hayter altered it because of what happened in the terrorist attacks in America several years ago.

The ending just a minor gripe but i'm glad that its done by someone who didn't want to make vast changes, contemporise it, or even have Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr Manhattan. Film's that are based on comic books are fast becoming a genre in their own right and Watchmen has become a welcome addition to it.

Its really late and i'm off to bed...

Slumdog Millionaire Pictures

2009-01-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

These are just a few picture's that i took when i interviewed Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor at Birmingham's Odeon cinema....

The man shaking Anil's hand is my Team Leader/editor, Sultan Ahmed, who on that day was a little nervous meeting one of his Bollywood idols. Me on the other hand i was unfazed by all the razzle dazzle i got the feeling that Anil was aloof i think this due to me being too jovial and upbeat when i met him. Then again, i'm just making a personal observation....

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Starring Dev Patel, Frieda Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan.

Directed by Danny Boyle.

I'm not the biggest fan of Bollywood film's i was force fed them when i was little, the singing, the dancing, and even fake action sequences, don't even get me started on the melodramatic acting! I do admit that they are an important part of Indian culture and yeah, Bollywood actress are fit! I just don't think it's for me. If there's one Indian film i like its got to be Slumdog Millionaire.

Jamal Malik(Patel) is arrested and accused of cheating by police Jamal(Patel) a contestant on "Kaun Banega Crorepati" the Indian version of "Who Want's To Be A Millionaire". Having answered almost all the question's, Jamal(Patel) begins to tell the inspector of how he knew all the answers and how they tie in with his life. After living a life filled with heart ache and sorrow Jamal doesn't care about the money all he care's about is getting the girl of his dreams back. A girl called Malika(Pinto) his childhood sweetheart who was cruelly taken away from him. He's just hoping that's she's watching the show....

I'm normally a cynic i don't do movies that share tagline's like "heart warming" and "uplifting". But the film's pure genius in my view. This is a Bollywood film seen through the eyes of an Englishman. The cinematography is stunning and breath taking, Ive always wanted to go to India this makes want to go even more... With a film like this, you're wondering "ain't there no big name stars?!" Well... with a film like this, its best not to.... For an actor like Dev Patel, fresh from his appearance in the T.V series, Skins he not only proves himself as a capable leading actor, but also as the emotional heart of the film.

Like i said when i reviewed Transporter 3 it had a model who made her debut as an actress, it failed but on this occasion SD has the stunning Freida Pinto who plays Jamal's love interest, Malika. She looks like she's been acting for years and she's a natural in her performance. The rest of the cast ain't that bad either I've got to add that the perfomances by the child actors are noteworthy considering the fact they have experience in acting along with the fact, that they are actually from the slums. After filming wrapped up the director Danny Boyle ensured that they went to a school for the very first time. Later this week I'm hoping to interview two of the stars from the film, so I've got to start writing some questions. I'm hoping my review of SD has got you going to the cinema go on, i know you'll be surprised like i was...

Stuff Round The House Part Two...

2008-12-30T08:12:00.001-08:00

Hi Its time to put your geek duffel coat on as i thought I'd show you some more picture that I've taken using my camera the first one is my extensive action figure collection. "It's starts with just one and turns to two then three" That what Ricky Wilson sings in the song "The Angry Mob". I guess i could say the same about my figure collection way back in 02 i saw a picture of a Hulk figure.

It was part of series called Marvel Legends the figures were super poseable so you could re create action pose from the comics. I was impressed by the sculpt and articulation i ended up buying the figure at the time i thought only about buying the Hulk figure from that point it all snowballed from there, i ended up quite a lot as you see over the years!

The toy line was originally conceived by Toy Biz, they are a part of Marvel Comics recently the rights to make toys about Marvel characters were bought by another company, Hasbro I've bought a few of them most of the sculpts look like knock offs from Madame Tussuad's unlike the realistic sculpts used by Toy Biz. Since Hasbro took over they've been quite expensive and the line is only released as exclusive ranges in American stores.

Its a shame as there's loads of collectors and kids in this country who are hungry for Marvel Comics related action figures....

Graphic Novels
As the year is about to draw to an end, I'm thinking of cutting back on my never ending collection of comics. I really need to cut down on comics. I've got loads... far too much in fact, there some that i haven't read. I've been into comics since i was a kid i love the art form but i want to stop but its hard man... Buying graphic novels saves time and money on monthly comics it's got the shelves creaking! As you look at one of the pictures you'll notice that there is a title called Marvel Omnibus Incredible Hulk its reprints the early tales of the Hulk. That tome cost me £64 quid still, I'm glad i got it...

What ever i post next will be different I'm not going to keep going on about comics and action figures but what ever i write about i would just like to say Happy New Year everybody!

Stuff Around The House..... Part One...

2008-12-22T03:12:00.001-08:00

Hi as they say "its time for something that's completely different". This is what the interior of the house looks like. I'll start with the TV I've taken this pic with my mobile phone. The picture quality's decent It's on one of the music channels we've got. The girl singing in the music video is by jailbait Gabriella Cilmi i can't believe she's eighteen! Moving swiftly on, there's some Xmas cards from friends, one of them(which obviously sticks out) is a sketch of Batman which is drawn by a friend he's influenced by a drawing by X Men artist John Cassaday who drew him a Batman which was inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns mini series or graphic novel depending on which version you've read.

Pics At BICS 08

2008-10-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ok i should have done this a while back but here are some pictures that i took when i went to the Birmingham International Comics Show a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

The Birmingham International Comics Show.

2008-10-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well where on earth do you want me to start about BICS. I attended both days and its left me with a case "Je Suis Fatigue"For those of you guys and gals who aren't in the know about of these sorts of events. Its a celebration of the four colour art form that is comics with guests ranging from artists,writers and small publishing companies, and not to mention dealers selling comics and various paraphernalia. Its also an arena for talks,contests and competitions for the discerning panelologist out there.

BICS drives some comic fans to dress up as thier favourite chracters i don't know why someone i know dressed up the DC Comic's Black Canary her mate came along as Cheetara, one of the chracters from the animated series Thundercats she was decent id say... I have to mention this there was some one dressed up as Harley Quinn the following day she came as Lara Croft she's very attractive and i thought about chatting her up but she seemed the kind of girl that's hard work which i didn't have much energy for ah nevermind.....

This time round i got in because I'm on good terms with one the organisers. Originally i wrote a small piece about one the artist's that attended the event but due to budget problems it wasn't used and i was little gutted about it. I'm not going to let that get me down as Ive realised that there's other of way of getting written work published and this is what i'm working on right now.

One of the reasons why i went there is to fill in gaps of my comic collection and at the time of writing, I'm currently looking eight comic boxes, along with one box down the cellar these boxes is where put my comics. Ive managed to get almost everything i want although there's a few odd and sods that i want. More i recently started reading Miracleman for further information about him go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracleman

A few days back i won of one of the rare graphic novels which featured MM in an online auction and to date its the most expensive graphic novel I've ever bought, i ask various dealers if they had any back issues that featured the character none of them had any or had just forgot to bring them. This really surprised me. Working in a retail environment i get a fair share of customers who ask where such and such is kept or if we have a product in stock i usually to what i get paid to do which is to help the customer out. At the end of the day, i believe that comic dealers are there to serve fans like myself an excuse like "Oh i didn't bring any with me" or the classic "Could you order it online please?" just doesn't cut it for me.
I'm not slagging off the majority of dealers i did but i do expect them to have a quality range of comics although i did find some stuff which i was quite content with I suppose the big buy of the day was a T shirt I've just recently begun buying t shirts featuring comic related featuring characters l like but some reason they keep making them in extra large sizes which probably is for all those obese comic geeks out there in the U.S.

As for the guest's list i was impressed with this year's line up which included Olivier Coipel(Thor) and John Cassaday(X Men) those two were the big guests at BICS. i began buying Thor because of the writing by J. Michael Straczynski and it was a fresh start for the character i didn't rate Coipel that much as his artwork reminds of X men artist Marc Silvestri but i can now say that i'm a fan of his work.

When i asked Olivier to do a sketch of my favourite character, The Incredible Hulk he told me he didn't like drawing him i thought to myself "Oh great he's one of them lot". As he began drawing the not so jolly green giant i was completely blown away by the detail he put into it and i left completely chuffed. At some point i'll put scans of the sketches that were done by the artists One of the highlights for me was that I really enjoyed meeting Dave Gibbons who did a small sketch inside my Watchmen graphic novel.

The downside of getting a sketch is waiting in a queue sometimes it's up an hour or even longer than that but I'm not complaining as i think its worth it as artists like John Watson and Cassaday were approachable and good to talk to i can't really say the same for artist Micheal Golden who was charging to way to much for a drawing i thought about getting a sketch off him but a for a fee? Forget it.

I left the event quite pleased with what i got and knowing that patience is a virtue and perhaps next time at the event i'm taking an example of one of the fans who was there, he carried a small folding chair with him he sat down whilst everyone was standing there and waiting. Hey if it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me!

More about myself

2008-06-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons why i created this blog is to jumpstart my writing career ive done written work for a magazine, it's called Voice 21 Ive been writing for this magazine for years its a quarterly periodical its aimed at yoofs who live in Sandwell. but if you if wanna find out more check out their website, http://www.voice21.co.uk/

Why do i wanna work in the media? That's a good question i'll give you two answers, ive always been interested in magazines journalism etc. I think it started off with me as a kid reading comics,newspapers ive got over a thousand comics and i have to admit there's some stuff i bought and i haven't even read! The second one is abit poignant i didn't do well in school and screwed up in sixth form i ended up doing the wrong course and made a total hash of it. Its like "If i only knew then what i know now". Still "one must not dwell on the past" as they say. But i can't help having regrets.

There's a great perk about writing for V21. In fact its the only one, well whenever im there, they always seem to have a food buffet! The big one is i get to go to press showing's. There basically film's shown for critics and what i'll be doing is posting a review of films ive seen, once i get used to this blogging lark...

Hi

2008-05-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hi for those you who don't know me my name is Neil, Im thirty year's old ,and thats all you need to know for now.

Ive decided to to turn the clock back and start from scratch. I wasn't happy about the blog i made a few errors, so this is my new blog. I'll try to update it on a regular basis.

Anyway im off to bed so i'll see you soon.