Two Things
One: I signed up for a Tumblr because what I really need is to join up with another website that goes offline all the time about three years after all the cool kids did it. It's at www.jodymacgregor.tumblr.com and obviously it's amazing.
Two: I wrote about the last couple of issues of Knight & Squire over at Rave Magazine recently, partly because I felt guilty about leaving Paul Cornell out of the 100 Comics and partly because it's really great. Here's what I wrote.
KNIGHT & SQUIRE #5 & #6 - Paul Cornell, Jimmy Broxton
(DC Comics)
Get your pants on, you’re nicked
Non-American heroes and villains are often portrayed as embarrassing stereotypes of their home country’s most obvious traits - Captain Boomerang, anyone? - an idea that Knight & Squire takes and goes way over the top with. It’s set in a Britain full of characters who are so stereotypically British that only an actual Brit could have come up with them. It’s so self-aware about this that you wind up with characters like Squire, whose superpower is the ability to cross class barriers. She works with Knight, who is essentially Batman crossed with Lancelot on a motorbike shaped like a horse. The delightful co-starring cast are similarly colourful, even by comic-book standards, including ‘cover versions’ of American characters such as Jarvis Poker, the British Joker (he copies the clownish look of the original, but says he just can’t bring himself to do the crimes). Artist Jimmy Broxton fills the backgrounds with cute details like Knight’s copy of Total Castle magazine left lying around and more small poppy uber-Brit characters like Salt Of The Earth and the Milkman. It’s not quite as dense with references as Top 10 used to be, but there are still enough that the back page each issue catalogues them. Previous issues have featured a glossary for American readers who might be confused by all the slang and references to morris dancing. Writer Paul Cornell did something similarly self-conscious when he was writing Captain Britain & MI-13 over at Marvel and the end result was just as charming. If it was this funny, I wouldn’t even mind them bringing Captain Boomerang back.
Two: I wrote about the last couple of issues of Knight & Squire over at Rave Magazine recently, partly because I felt guilty about leaving Paul Cornell out of the 100 Comics and partly because it's really great. Here's what I wrote.
KNIGHT & SQUIRE #5 & #6 - Paul Cornell, Jimmy Broxton
(DC Comics)
Get your pants on, you’re nicked
Non-American heroes and villains are often portrayed as embarrassing stereotypes of their home country’s most obvious traits - Captain Boomerang, anyone? - an idea that Knight & Squire takes and goes way over the top with. It’s set in a Britain full of characters who are so stereotypically British that only an actual Brit could have come up with them. It’s so self-aware about this that you wind up with characters like Squire, whose superpower is the ability to cross class barriers. She works with Knight, who is essentially Batman crossed with Lancelot on a motorbike shaped like a horse. The delightful co-starring cast are similarly colourful, even by comic-book standards, including ‘cover versions’ of American characters such as Jarvis Poker, the British Joker (he copies the clownish look of the original, but says he just can’t bring himself to do the crimes). Artist Jimmy Broxton fills the backgrounds with cute details like Knight’s copy of Total Castle magazine left lying around and more small poppy uber-Brit characters like Salt Of The Earth and the Milkman. It’s not quite as dense with references as Top 10 used to be, but there are still enough that the back page each issue catalogues them. Previous issues have featured a glossary for American readers who might be confused by all the slang and references to morris dancing. Writer Paul Cornell did something similarly self-conscious when he was writing Captain Britain & MI-13 over at Marvel and the end result was just as charming. If it was this funny, I wouldn’t even mind them bringing Captain Boomerang back.