Covering Steranko / Paging Salvador Dali...

Those amongst you who have been keeping on eye my earlier blog post

It aint over until it's over

Will have seen I got another suggestion from Tony Robertson, web master supreme from the seminal Drawings of Steranko web site.

Tony was kind enough to be okay with me "borrowing" the original Outland from his site for me to re-draw so a big tip of the hat for that..

And for this:-

My vote would be for you to do that series of Steranko Marvel covers from 1969. It would include Nick Fury 1-7, Captain America 110, 111 and 113, Hulk Annual #1, X-Men 49-51, and the rejected Tower of Shadows #1 and rejected Captain America 113.


That's a good suggestion as then I could use the blog space to actually discuss Steranko's career - something which I was uncomfortable doing within the confines of Outland


And to give you an rough idea of what this would look like, at least art wise - I have chosen to try and re-do the cover to Nick Fury 7 which Tony says is "My favourite Steranko cover"


Here is the original - again from Tony's excellent site

Which I think we can safely say owes a bit to the work of Salvador Dali -- like this example ...

and Jack Kirby's photo collages - like this example

- Which is where I do have to say that Steranko did use collage on his cover of 7 - whilst I tried to draw the entire thing by hand - newspaper print and all...


and the results... hmmm - Well I let you all be the judge of that - there is a few mistakes here though

So if the vote does go for re doing all those cool Steranko covers I think I will try again with this


Fair enough?!

The Anatomy Lesson

If you remember correctly I said there was 2 Votes for 2001 - Well the other vote has come from  EL TIO BERNI who if you remember very kindly decided to post some of my Outland in progress on entrecomics!

Entrecomics

Which was fantastic and brought a lot of viewers this way, to thank Berni I offered to draw by hand anything he liked...

Well what he liked was a John Totleben Swamp Thing, which follows below

This offers the intriguing possibility of trying my hand at one of issues that Alan Moore, Steve R Bissette and John Totleben worked on - I would guess "The Anatomy Lesson" (Saga of The Swamp Thing 21) would be a great example

and then I could cover the career of all 3 of these creators in the blog text as I do pages

I think most of my viewers would be happier with me discussing comics as opposed to the meaning of life in which case 2001 is not such a good idea

I would say okay then, I would do Fantastic Four 49 and 50 instead as that is Kirby at his peak and then cover Kirby's career as i churn out the pages, so then I can do Kirby justice - does that sound any better?

Bare in mind I have a special and profound fascination with 2001 and its core subjects so am unlikely to discuss much about comics if i redo the adaptation

But lo, we have an another comics centred possibility which will we discuss tomorrow thanks to Tony Robertson

So okay, what I will do is extend the deadline a bit to the end of next week to give you all a chance to have a say

Majority vote will decide what follows next

Oh and anyone who comes up with a suggestion I will try to do at least one drawing to cover what I think it will be like, so no-one will miss out and I will offer the original to whoever makes the suggestion!

Which reminds me - there is now one drawing to accompany the 2001 blog entry

here

Douglas thats yours if you want it, just send me a email and I will pop it in the post

2001 A comic book odessy

This blog entry obviously owes a big thanks to Douglas who said:-

Oh, and consider this vote one for Kirby's 2001 adaptation, which should pose you a whole new set of problems! Thinking about it, it seems to me that Kirby would have been a better fit for Outland, and Steranko for 2001. Kirby's dynamism is entirely at odds with the cold aesthetics of Kubrick's movie. Sure, there's spectacle, but it's a spectacle that is very deliberately controlled (like the Steranko spreads)...


It's a interesting point of view, in fact the very same question was asked in the very same blog entry to made me decide to do Outland in the first place, by of course none other than the very talented Matt Seneca 


2001 and Outland

which also discusses Kirby's 2001 - this was what I meant by turning the whole thing round 360

anyway

My feeling is why it would be an interesting experiment for Steranko to have tried adapting 2001 in the same way he did Outland but I don't think it would have worked

I have absolutely no doubt there would be some killer cool imagery, but the thing with 2001 is to quite a lot of people it actually has no story - there is obviously no actual narrivate in the movie at all, all one has to do is look at other versions of the same story like the novel by Arthur C Clarke or 2010 the movie "sequel" (or any of the "sequel" books also by Arthur C Clarke) to see how everyone felt the need to have to explain what was going on when Kurbick clearly never intended to

I dont think Sterakno would have felt the need to explain everything , so it literally would have been page after page of static locked in massive drawings with almost absolutely no dialogue

The other thing is at least in my opinion Steranko works best with a deliberately over written story and characters, just look at any of his Marvel runs on Nick Fury, or Captain America and the story translates into the need to make those incredible drawings we love

In short i can't see Steranko wanting to draw a number of 2 page spreads on the prehistoric Landscape where all that happens for quiet a while is some apes gibbering or age after page of a space craft docking etc

Kirby obviously tries to grab what he can with both hands and tries to make it as exciting as he can and thats possibly the best anyone can do with 2001 as a comic

as 2001 is not a movie, certainly not in the traditional sense, its more like an experience and most particularly and importantly its an experience that is totally reliant on the person watching to understand and see what is unfolding and to be able accept it as an experience

You could possibly achieve the same effect with having selected photos from the movie projected onto a wall to the music from the 2001 soundtrack to a very large degree, the pacing of 2001 is beyond adaptation as it would be a 200 or 300 page comic, each page a full splash page with only occasional movement per page and dialogue only when it appears in the movie and absolutely no narrative captions at all

at least thats how i feel

As to why I am considering re creating Kirby's adaptation, in honesty it is more because i feel that it would interesting to talk about the subjects of 2001 itself like evolution, space travel, the future, artificial intelligence and the greatest questions of them all, who are we, where are we going to and when will we get there

But I am uncertain as to how entertaining anyone would actually find that - and the other thing is its a 72 page story, if i stick to a page a week thats nearly a year and a half from start to finish

What I am saying is would anyone actually be willing to read the blog for that long - even if i do stick to just proper and insightful blog entries, as will be a literal odyssey to complete the story

or would you prefer something else - the choice is yours please let me know - I will try and start on whatever gets the majority vote is just over a weeks time

Now Douglas is actually the second vote for 2001 - I will tell who made the first and pay a visit to the everglades on Monday...

----
UPDATE - I did actually managed to do the inside cover of 2001 a little while back - here it is to give you an idea of at least what the drawing may look like

Douglas for making the suggestion, this piece of art is yours just email me and I will pop it in the post

Demon in a Bottle / Armour Wars

Continuing our brief excursion into why I like Iron Man the best as a hero - (the short version is I think a man in powered armour is not that far from reality) I can not possibly go without mentioning what I and a legion of fans think as the definitive writer / artist team of Iron Man

and that is of course David Michelinie and Bob Layton

Dave and Bob brought a literal breath and fresh air and completely redefined the character into something exciting and real, with a particular focus on  the reality of Tony Stark as a person under pressure (imagine being a millionaire running a massive electronics company as well as being a full time hero!) and the reality of the Iron Man armour as being a highly specialised tool a real technological achievement as opposed to just a suit that kind of makes you fly etc

That also introduced layered story telling and sub plots within plots with stories foreshadowing each other, exactly the kind of thing Chris Claremont did in his original run on X-Men

But they never lost focus on entertainment or drama they managed to balance everything together perfectly and gelled so well as a team - they have retuned to iron man a number of times

But the main thing they brought to the table is that their stories always had long lasting and game changing consequences and they never walked away or watered those consequences down

Their first run is possibly their best known work collected in the ground breaking "Demon in a bottle" story line

In this story line Dave and Bob have the unique idea of having a ruthless business rival Justin Hammer stealthily sabotage Iron mans reputation by remote controlling his armour, starting with small glitches and steadily working up to causing Iron Man to kill an ambassador by remotely firing his replusor at a crucial moment

this and many other things push Tony Stark over the edge - a man who has a need to do as much as he can himself trying to take on far too much and it almost breaks him and he turns to alcohol for escape and release from his situation only to make it worse with Tony Stark teetering on the edge and forced to make a choice between the drink or his dream for his future

This story of course sets the ground for Dennis O Neil's run, but by itself it is a fantastic story and Dave and Bob constantly sell themselves short on it!

Dave and bob's second run on Iron Man is best known as the "Armour Wars" where Tony Stark finds that components he invented had been stolen and was being used in the armour of countless criminals and in a unique twist a number of good guys as well

Tony has to face a almost never ending series of terrible and soul destroying decisions as taking down criminals is one thing but he also has no choice but to destroy Armour used for good purposes as if the technology is out there in any form then it could be stolen again

The story builds in intensity and the bridges burnt as it goes on, with Nick Fury being faked out as Iron polishes off the Mandroids he built for SHEILD, Iron man has to take down Captain America in order to destroy the Guardsmen protecting a high security prison for super powered villains and finally Iron Man accidentally murders the titanium man while fighting him and the crimson dynamo in russia

Tony Stark has to fire Iron Man to be able to stay in business and eventually the heat gets so hot that he is forced to quit the Avengers

The story culminates in the US Government built and sponsored Firepower armour which also has some of Tony Starks stolen technology not only soundly beating Iron man (to the extent that his ribs are caved in) but actually totally destroying the "silver centurion' armour with a nuclear weapon (I kid not!)

Tony Stark manages to survive and turn things around - but at a price

In issue 232 Tony Stark has to face the reality via a hideous nightmare that the thing he was trying to fight - was in fact himself and that the only he can win is to accept the things he has done wrong (creating the technology ("weapons") in the first place) and learn from them and that by fighting he was giving his inner demon strength - its a shockingly powerful story - helped by having none other than Barry Winsdor-Smith as guest penciller

there are no half measures or easy answers here

Both story-lines come as you expected highly recommended - if I had to chose one issue, I would chose 230 as it pushed the envelope as far as was possible in terms of destroying Iron Man as a hero - it was not until the next issue that anyone knew that Tony Stark had even survived

I was hoping to be able to include my attempt at the cover of 230 here, but it's only partly done

Hopefully I will have that finished tomorrow

UPDATE:- Here is the finished drawing, its not too bad - I suppose!

Tony Stark Makes you feel...

Yes, that's the opening line to the original 1960s cartoon of Iron man - is that showing my age a bit?

Not as much as my first american comic book purchase - which was brought with my very first pay cheque back in 1984

This was the first time I had actually seen American comics for sale and a couple of things struck me straight away (being british) :- How small they where (having grown up reading magazine sized publications which is even what Marvel UK did) and how beautiful glossy and colourful the covers where and yes full colour on the inside every page, it was a treat on every level

Having no previous knowledge of any of the comics or even most of the characters within them, I had to judge by the cover and by the contents..

The comic that I brought (eventually) was -

Iron Man volume 1, issue 179, February, 1984

It was in part the beautiful cover by Luke McDonnell and Steve Mitchell that swung it, the "all-new" part helped as well as I wanted to get something where I could just start reading...

And this comic as well as leading me to a lot more American and other comics in general also helped establish Iron Man as my favourite hero, which still remains to this day

If asked, I always say it is the closeness to reality that a man in a powered armoured suit represents that dictates my choice as it is certainly a whole lot closer to reality than being exposed to gamma rays, bitten by a radioactive spider, exposed to Cosmic radiation or being a direct relative of Nordic gods who all just so happen to be real - It doesn't take a large leap of faith to imagine the concept of Iron Man as being possible,  real or happening very soon

Iron Man then is one of the few characters who is not only very human (as all Marvel characters where) but also in his powers as well

Iron man also represents technology and hope for the future - the armour itself changing with the times and the situation all being perfectly logical extensions

Tony Stark himself started off modelled after none other than Howard Hughes,  these days one might imagine him as kind of like being a combination of Steve Jobs and a rock star

But where it gets interesting is in the stories that take the character to its limit and possibly even beyond and actually dare to change things - something that is not handled with any degree of concrete reality  in comics - especially these days

179 turned out to be 9 issues after James Rhodes had assumed the Mantle of Iron Man from Tony Stark who was literally on the streets and drunk a complete alcoholic having lost everything, his company, his fortune and most of his friends

Dennis O' Neil's (in my mind) definitive run on the title from 160 - 200 completely broke and remade Tony Stark with some of the most harrowing and brilliantly written stories ever

with issue 182 being the turning point (the cover copy says it all):-

In the story Tony Stark has completely given up after fruitlessly searching in the cold and snow of a blizzard for Gretl,  a  fellow alcoholic who is with child and literally just sits down ready to give up and die - when Gretl finds Tony and they have a conversation where he thinks about the armour he made

In his own words the armour being built to keep things out and to keep him in, how that shut him out from the world and how he thought part of him had died inside that metal shell, while part of him was screaming in pain - and that was why he was drinking...

Not long after this Gretl goes into labour and recollections and drink both get thrown to the floor, the baby makes it okay, but Gretl doesn't  -she dies in childbirth.

All Tony Stark can do in the middle of the blizzard is try and keep the baby warm by keeping it wrapped up inside his jacket (he had sold his coat earlier in the story to buy the drink) and made a vow that the baby would not die

The next day he is found by the cops and taken straight to the hospital and he survives and comes to realise the value of his life, if it was important to save the baby then it was equally important to save himself

That marks the first step to recovery, but Tony Stark never drinks again

To my knowledge this story has never been printed as a graphic novel which is a shame as Denny's entire run comes highly recommended

The other thing which made me decide to get 179 was the splash page which features a beautifully rendered drawing of Iron man being hit by 2 bolts of lightning - which I have attempted to reproduce below,  maybe you can see why I think Luke McDonnell and Steve Mitchell must be one of the most underrated team of artists going

and yes, you will also see why I prefer not to do hand lettering!

Tomorrow - I will cover David Michelinie & Bob Layton

Douglas - tune in on Friday!

It ain't over until its over...

So says Lenny Kravitz...

and he has a point - there is a page missing - did you notice?!

Yes its is the first page, which I said I would leave to last as it would mostly be a lo-fi computer composition rather than hand drawn...

So okay, its lo - lo fi - but I think it works in the context of what we have already seen and that's the most important thing?

Speaking of what we have already seen - having now finally finished re-drawing the entirety of Outland what do I think of it, what have I learned and what's next?

I recently described Outland as being like a series of the best perfectly posed and rendered movie posters you could ever imagine

Think Star Wars

Raiders of the lost ark (yeah I know the irony is not lost on me I know Sternako worked on this film)

Blade Runner The Final Cut

James Bond

all of these share similar art aesthetics to Steranko's Outland - essentially each double page spread being a combination of a movie poster and a series of movie stills

For those a bit younger there always used to be 6 or so still photos from the movie just below the poster outside the cinema to give you more of an idea what the movie would be like (this was way before the internet!) - movie stills - for example this one from Rocky

The thing here with all this imagery is the pose of the characters, the combination of the characters posed together, the size of the characters, their expressions and stance - the way that the posters and still are designed to convey what to expect in terms of a story, what tone does the story have, is it exciting, is it adventure, is it romance - the poster has to convey all of this in a way thats eye catching

And Steranko hits a perfect bulls eye with each and every single double spread each of which could stand completely on its own as a legitimate poster of art

And below each of these master poster shots are placed smaller panels (the stills i suppose) where the narrative and the sequential telling of the story happens with text acting as a counter balance to secure the reader in the plot - the plot to a degree almost being an abstract to the art

It makes for a totally unique and masterful piece of work

For all the de and re construction I have done the only real question I have is why was the movie of Outland treated to such a depiction

As the story just doesn't carry such a depiction very well at all, the movie is okay but nothing spectacular or ground breaking  - and the holes in the story - well okay I think I probably spent too much time on those already!

I do wonder for example what would it be like to have applied this stylistic discpline to a movie like Terry Gilliams Brazil or possibly Twelve Monkeys - I suppose only Jim knows!

What I have learned is something I am thinking about at the moment, I suppose I am still too close to the project to be able to think about it that abstractly - 

But I think its reasonable to say that choosing to blog on each and every stage was possibly a bit much as there was many times when I was just vamping in terms of what I was typing in the blog - which accounts for the idiosyncratic nature - and I was rarely planning ahead - it was literally whatever popped into my head at the time I was posting the blog

So I guess if I try something like this again, I will try and limit myself to posting only when I have a finished drawing and just comment on that?

What I think of my efforts - now that is definitely something for which I will never be able to look at with  enough detachment, all I see are mistakes and how things could and should be a lot better, that is good in a way as maybe I will learn from these things, but overall I will say it is for anyone who has been reading this blog to say what they thought of the recreations be it bad or worse (okay maybe someone might mention good, who knows?)

What's next? I am tempted to say rest and lots of it - It will be a least a short while before I decide what to do next in terms of a bigger project, if any of you have any suggestions or requests,  please please post a comment or drop me a email and I will do what I can to try and make it happen

It did occur to me that maybe I could try (emphasis on the word try) and do Kirby's 2001 to bring this whole thing 360 back to where it started- but I would like to see a show of hands - if enough people are interested then I will give that a go

But for the time being - I am going to do a number of one off drawings - starting tomorrow with some Luke McDonnell and Steve Mitchell - can anyone guess what this is going to be a drawing of?

Cathartic Victory

O'Neil has survived...

and he is quite justifiably angry - having to work his way through no less than 5 people trying to kill him:-

Spota, Yario, 2 Assassins and Ballard

and the source of his anger?

Shepherd. Who in the movie gets one punch to the floor - and thats it - O'Neil is then sending a message to his wife - what else happens is left to complete conjecture

but here in the comic...

O'Neil clearly not only hits harder but more often - as his fist and arm are covered in blood and if that wasn't enough O'Neil throws his Marshals badge down - quitting his job...

O'Neil has survived and achieved Catharsis

But what happens to IO?...

Epilogue

The chip entered a security transmitter.  The transmitter broke down the contents of the chip into a regularized pattern of electrical impulses which were metamorphosed into a stream of photos and shipped out across the vacuum.

Relay stations picked up the stream, powerful lasers at each, regenerating the message and casting it onward through the void.  Eventually the stream arrives at a security receiver, was sucked in and rearranged as electrical impulses.

The impulses were automatically fed into a computer which decoded them.   It was quite a long message, very explicit, and detailed.  People arrived to study the re-integrated patterns.   They began to move in response, slower than the impulses but quickly nonetheless.

Circuitry flashed.  New patterns were shunted to and fro around the solar system.  Many people became aware of them.  Those so apprised reacted excitedly, but for very different reasons.

The Outland Transport was cutting the orbit of the asteroids when it passed in space by a succession of tight-beam transmissions jumping from one booster to the next.

Eventually this fresh stream of information arrived at the central Security Depot on Station Green, the centre for Trans-Jovian operations.

The receiver there performed the magic of turning light into electric pulses which activated a computer, which activated a screen printer, which informed the uninformed people gazing at it of certain interesting facts.

ANALYSIS OF DATA PROVIDED BY O'NEIL, W.T., MARSHAL RETIRED.  LAST DUTY POST IO, CON-AMALGAMTED MINE.

RESULTS

1) RECOMMEND TRANSFER LAZARUS, MARIAN L. DR. IO INFIRMARY TO STAFF, COPERNICUS GENERAL, LUNA.

2) INDICTMENT OF FOLLOWING, MULTIPLE CHARGES, WARRANTS ISSUED FOR:-

SHEPPARD,  MARK B. - IO
APUNRA, KURAT - GANYMEADE
VELAR, GWEN L. - STATION GREEN
JURGENSON, KNUT S. COPENHAGEN, NORTH EUROPE, EARTH
MENDOZA, JORGE X....

It was a very long list, and almost as satisfiying to the men and women who watched it unfold on Station Green as the warmth of the woman O'Neil held tightly next to him in the bed on board the transport....

THE END

It's the final countdown....

Rather than have me interject how difficult having a fight would be in low or zero gravity

Let's instead indulge one final time in a hopefully synergistic marriage of music, lyrics and drawings...

as, after all it IS the final countdown

We're leaving together
But still it's farewell
And maybe we'll come back
To earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown

We're heading for Venus and still we stand tall
'Cause maybe they've seen us and welcome us all, yeah

With so many light years to go and things to be found
(To be found)

I'm sure that we'll all miss her so
It's the final countdown


And that was the final double page spread!


That's right, just one more page to go and the story is wrapped up - but who won the battle depicted above?


There is only one way to find out - see you tomorrow

Ballards!

Or a rather similar exclamation must be escaping O'Neil's mouth right now...

As it clearly is not over yet, with Ballard in space suit catching O'Neil and the viewing audience by surprise...

Yes a honest surprise, one of the few moments in the entire movie which is not totally telegraphed by events proceeding it, but one does have to remember this was back when the "one more scare" (as its known) tactic in mainstream movies was still relatively new....

I mean this was before Die Hard for example - just to give you an idea

And one does get so caught up in the moment that you would have to think a bit as to what Ballard's sudden appearance with murderous intent actually means...

It means that it is most likely that Ballard murdered Spota in the zero gee cell. As Ballard (being a fellow police officer) would have had access to the cells

The only other suspect was Yario, who wouldn't have such access and clearly had a thing for the garrotte

So the clue was there if you was looking for it! There was another killer looming in the shadows, who has just revealed himself

So O'Neil is up against it again - will he survive this round?

There is only one way to find out - come back tomorrow

Just two more days and we will reach the conclusion of the story....

Another day, another explosive decompression

That's right, It's the greenhouses turn to shatter the laws of physics...

As assassin number two carelessly fires a single shot at one of the windows in the greenhouse...

That's right windows, I mean don't let little things like physical construction of what is probably something like transparent aluminium at all, let alone to such size, thickness and quantity as to make a entire greenhouse that could stand the heat and pressure difference between tropical greenhouse and outer space get in the way

or again the ridiculously phenomenal expense to ship that all those hundreds of thousands of miles to IO and installing it etc

and the lack of any real reason to actually have glass as the sun would be a rather rare visitor here and most certainly not to the extent that it could actually entice anything to grow

let's ignore all of that...

and instead marvel at the incredible ability for just one bullet, just one mind you - to explode the whole entire contents, glass and all into outer space

Let us side step that one bullet would hardly be likely to make much of an impression on transparent aluminium built to withstand the rigors of space and assume it must have been the bullet to end all bullets

and lets also assume that having spent all that money on the greenhouse with its implausible windows at the hind end of space that the budget for any protective measures in the event of decompression, self sealing chambers, shutters, emergency doors, force fields or anything similar wasn't there so none of that was fitted either

Even ignoring all those things - the greenhouse screen is still pretty hard to swallow as it is played out much along the lines of the cliched bullet fired inside a airplane scene from a lot of movies

One shot is fired, it goes straight through the glass cleanly and air starts to woosh out in gales, cracks form in the glass as the pressure increases eventually shattering the entire window in question and taking whomever directly out of the plane on a one way ticket to the ground

Being in space of course you presumably have the added element of your head exploding or instantly liquifying on exposure to space or something similar as already seen in this movie earlier

we would also have to ignore that the pressure differential in space would be a lot different to a plane at 10,000 feet off the ground there would be no "pulling" (outside atmosphere) force at all

The fact is even if a bullet did go cleanly through one window (which is implausible enough by itself) an explosive decompression would never be the consequence, air would escape certainly but not at the gale forces shown and certainly not to the extent to cause a entire window to go out and with enough force to pull a person out at high speed

The only way that would be possible is if the entire structure was completely hollow and built of fairly lightweight and feeble materials, like sucking the air out of a aluminium (not steel as thats too strong) coke can. In short the building would have to have little or very bad structural integrity to explode so dramatically

Once again its all a hollywoodisation, a plane is built strong enough to cope with almost anything and certainly more than strong enough to withstand instant loss of all pressure if such a thing was actually possible

that aside our assassin now exploding out the window is also conveniently not cut to shreds by the glass exploding around him, if we was to play devils advocate and agree that the force shown could occur, then the glass would shred the assassin into little bits, especially if it was the thickness of plexi glass or transparent aluminium

I am surprised that that was missed, this being a 80's shock / gore movie (of sorts)

So many ways for this assassin to die, but none of them are real

But in the story, at least the assassin is dead - so that's it right?

O'Neil has polished off both assassins, he got hit in the shoulder by assassin 1 but he has survived to save the day, yes?

hmmm..

I direct you to the ending of Ridley Scots Alien - and ask you - when the Nostromo was blown up and Ripley was in the shuttle - was she alone?

Those who live in greenhouses...

Shouldn't throw bricks...  Hey! that applies to me doesn't it?

Anyway

O'Neil appears to be tiptoeing on (not the tulips but) the top of the Greenhouse of Outland...

Yes you read that right a greenhouse, as if our credulity had not already been stretched by featuring a walk in freezer, a man explosively liquifying on exposure to no atmosphere and a myriad other articles of  un realism in the movie so far

But this does seem to push the envelope even further, I mean a great big huge and well lit greenhosue not previously shown not even in the context of a place for people to go a relax - oh no we had to have a seedy night club for that

The seedy night club fitting in perfectly and a great place to shown the beastly underbody of Outland.

My point being that a Greenhouse doesn't belong not just from a purely technical point of view of shipping all the plants all tens of thousands of miles and having to have climate control water etc to keep them all alive and then at the cost of unnecessary extra waste being produced by the miners eating the plants with the equally incredulous meat from the freezer! A big exercise in economic unreality if there ever was one...

but also from the tonal point of furthering the story, it represents a crunching shift of gears, luckily the scene is relatively short then i guess

Whats that? - oh yeah I guess I must work for the London Brick Company...

Join me next week for (blogger willing and being available) the conclusion to Outland - One finished page a day for 4 days Monday - Thursday with Thursday being the end

Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables

So goes part of the opening "rap" from "West End Girls" From the Pet Shop Boys...

and this is certainly what seems to be happening here but the juxtaposed comparison doesn't end there.. 

Here we go with some more of the "rap" with the pictures, so you can see how well they fit (or otherwise)... (bare in mind the scene below is taking place in the restaurant / cafe)

Sometimes you're better off dead

There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head

You think you're mad, too unstable

kicking in chairs and knocking down tables

in a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police! There's a madman around

And if that was not enough the song goes on to add...

Too many shadows, whispering voices


Did Neil and Chris (That's the Pet Shop Boys) watch 'Outland" or was this just a polemic on the West End of London?


That aside here's all the drawing together and i have to say O'Neil's face says it all, Jim really hit the bullseye on this one.. 

So thats one assassin taken down in the canteen, tomorrow we move onto the Greenhouse, yes  there really is a greenhouse! - will I invoke Silent Running, or some lyrics from a Tom Jones song? There's only one way to find out...


oh yeah "West End Girls" is copyright Christopher Sean Lowe;Neil Francis Tennant 

Or are you pleased to see me?

I will let you guess what the title is in reference to ..

oh okay, yes its the big gun at the top of the page..

Which obviously O' Neil would rather be using, instead of having to duck and cover under the canteen tables..

while being shot at by assassin number one...

who misses by literally centimetres, at least that's what it looks like

Let's see how this looks with the second page done - tomorrow