I feel so extremely guilty. Its now 12, and i was supposed to wake up at 730 to start doing things. Namely get cracking on the sampler, refining my resume, praying reading abit of Paul Pope’s Heavy liquid and have a mid morning coffee. I woke up to dark skies, all gloomy and grey, didn’t like it really. Good thing that I can still salvage what’s left of the day later on, im going to take a train on Circle Line at Marymount, to Bishan and pick up some stuff from Mini-toons. The train ride from here to Junction 8 only takes around 10minutes, which is really amazing. Previously, i had to wait 10minutes for the bus to come, and an additional 15 minutes to reach Junction 8.
Yesterday, I finally re-read Warren Ellis’ The Authority. My dad bought me the TPBs at Raffles city. I never imagined that Comics Mart would open a branch at City Hall, I always thought it will always be this nice little shop at Serene Centre with really bad comic geek proud asses kind of place. Well things never change, and the guys working there are still proud nose in the sky people who stare at you when you buy certain comics, I guess its the same thing with everything.
After spending the night reading the new TPBs, I went for a smoke and lo and behold, I really felt that my imagination had broadened. I went downstairs to the void decks and started drawing mental lines from the stars to the moon, which was nice, there was this warm fuzzy feeling of Neil Armstrong possibilites. I always associated this feeling with 2000 A.D. comics and Dan Dare’s adventures with the mekons. I really have to find Dan Dare Reprints. I particularly like the story about Sliding Albion and England’s secret Space Program, it reminds me so much of Dan Dare. The blue bloods, who are actually human/ alien cross breed nobility, i would think, are references to Moorcock’s eternal champion, Elric. I also totally love Ellis’ other book, Ministry of Space, which is, if i remembered correctly, about an alternate Earth where the British reached Berlin first during World War 2, and therefore acquired rocket technology instead of the American forces moving up from France. It was all Dan Dare, the charm of tea time before Space shuttle checks, the Englishness of science-fiction somehow seems nostaligc to me.
I was from St Andrew’s secondary, and most of the teachers spoke with a stiff upper lip, lisping sometimes through long speeches about being a proper boy. They used to keep drilling in us that our blood is blue.
I really hope that someone can buy me Dan Dare, Strotnuim Dog, ABC warriors, Rogue Trooper and even Judge Dredd.I realised that in my room, i have only one thin Judge Dredd/ Batman crossover which is painted beautifully by Simon Bisley. I don’t mind even throwing away all my old Guitar World back issues to make room for a 2000 A.D. / Moorcock library.
Oh my, since i’ve started writing minutes ago, and listening to Animal Collective’s Animal Crack Box, I can’t stop thinking of anti-grave steam ships, muskets that fire projectiles like lasers, the sky ships and the fireworks in the sky from ships parked around the Earth near the atmosphere. Adventures.
Father take me into your arms.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/stories/dan_dare.aspx
Great article i found for a Science Museum Exhibit called Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain.
here are some excerpts:
“After 1945, though war-weary and broke, Britain found huge pride in wartime advances such as radar, penicillin and the jet engine. Discoveries like these were now tipped to kick-start world-beating industries, bring prosperity and bankroll the emerging welfare state.
In an age before globalisation, products from rockets to radios sprang from local roots. Together they reveal a fascinating ‘lost world’ of British design and invention – a glimpse of a time when the TV in the corner was a Murphy, not a Sony.”
“Dan Dare’s adventures were created by Hampson and his team of artists using an innovative method for drawing strip cartoons, using a film-like approach where the narrative was carried in a more fluid way between frames, and employing physical models of rockets and space cities to draw from life. This evocation of the possibilities offered by future technology enthused a generation, from James Dyson to Stephen Hawking. For many people, from schoolboys to scientists and engineers, Dan Dare symbolised the bright future that technology offered to the post-war world.”
I’m glad that im not the only one.
Clothes make the smart man!
