BBC One Schedule 1-12-2015: The television guide (as it should be)

06:00- Breakfast: Framing the day for the masses with the latest brainwashing from bank funded public relations companies, presented by a stand-in mother and father figure cooing at you like kindly owls.

09:15- Fake Britain: The paranoia programming begins here. Watch how loveable, workingclass 'blokes' track down petty criminals selling fake watches and handbags in the highstreet, whilst ignoring all of the serious criminals in the corporate/government buildings around them.

10:00- Homes Under the Hammer: Mum and dad substitutes look at houses that you cannot afford.

11:00- Oxford Street Exposed: Authority worshipping documentary that follows the gods of the state (cops) as they investigate petty crimes and (like Fake Britain) ignore the corporate/governmental crime that is happening all around them.

11:45- Rip Off Britain: More paranoia programming, again looking at petty crime.

12:15- Bargain Hunt: Fake eccentrics wear silly jackets and bow ties in an attempt to impress lonely old ladies.

13:00- BBC News at One: National corporate/state propaganda, keeping the masses in fear and ignorance in order to maintain the status quo.

13:30- BBC Local News: As above, but with things to be scared about on a local level.

13:45- Doctors: Homosexuality/Cultural Marxism programming about handsome doctors and their fascinating private lives.

14:15- The Doctor Blake Mysteries: Australian drama about a television safe ‘eccentric’ doctor who spends his time investigating mysteries. Starring the bloke who used to be in Neighbours and is not Jason Donovan or Guy Pearce.

15:10- Escape to the Country: Another show about houses that you cannot afford.

16:15- Flog It: Another antique show featuring a fake eccentric in anachronistically quaint clothing.

17:15- Pointless: The name says it all. More harmless eccentricity, with a quiz show going on in the background featuring the banal, cardigan wearing public answering ‘pointless’ questions about safe subjects like bees, old movies and Mexican football teams.

18:00- BBC News at Six: Here’s what we want you to think at 6pm.

18:30- BBC Local News: Detailed information about that local murder, just to make you too terrified to leave your house tonight.

19:00- The One Show: Banality personified, presented by sexless/unthreatening mommy and daddy types talking to viewers like they are five-year-old children.

19:30- Eastenders: Cultural Marxism masquerading as drama, with random murders keeping the public in a constant state of anxiety and fear and with story-lines that push the neoliberal agenda of multiculturalism, homosexuality and everything else that is designed to destroy western civilisation. Essential viewing, if you hate yourself and want to see the western world burn.

19:57- BBC News and Regional News: More fear from the state, and some blatant lies and deception designed to make you think that their authority over you is legitimate, which it isn’t.

20:00- Holby City: Unbelievable hospital drama featuring attractive young people, and focussing on their relationship issues. Interspersed with gruesome murders, drug overdoses, car crashes and ladder based accidents. Expect your usual BBC dose of homosexuality and anti-family propaganda programming.

21:00- Capital: Politically correct drama programming about multicultural London stereotypes, based on a book described on Amazon as, ‘Weak stereotypes interrupted by flaky, identical characters that lack any substance, wrapped up in the complete absence of any engaging plot. Avoid.’

22:00- News at Ten: Oh God, does it never end?

22:30- Local News: Apparently not. Are you scared yet?

22:37- Weather: Random guesses about whether or not it’s going to rain tomorrow.

22:40- Imagine: Alan Yentob (former ‘Director of Drama, Entertainment and Children's Programming’ on the BBC during the Jimmy Saville child-rape era and chairman of fradulent, money-wasting charity ‘Kid’s Company’) is given legitimacy that he does not deserve. Here he interviews one of his old architect mates. A show for the drunk, dead, or family members of Mr. Yentob.

23:50- Possession: 2002 movie about eccentric English poets. Reviewed on the BBC website by Jamie Russell, where he describes it as, ‘Lacking the intelligence of an arthouse picture, or the classy sheen of a British production, "Possession" isn't possessed of anything other than over-wrought emotionalism and unintentional silliness.’


Goodnight, and thankyou for wasting your day on BBC One. Same s**t tomorrow? You betcha.

Marvel’s Civil War: The Death of the Superhero and Rise of Comic Book Collectivism

Article by: Mark.A Pritchard (aka Rorshach1004/SwindonPoet)
Date: 11th September 2015



‘The Iron has spent the last six years isolating us from the rest of the world. They have embargoed our trading partners. Threatened those who help us. Spread lies.’ (Captain America in Civil War #4-2015)

Do American (and western) comic book ‘geek’ readers see the irony in that statement?

The words come from the mouth of Captain America, the ultimate American comic book hero, and what he is describing (and decrying) is US foreign policy since the end of WW2. He is outlining a deliberate strategy of economic isolation/suffocation deliberately designed to achieve hegemony and domination over an entire planet. It is a policy that has led to the deaths of millions of innocent people who never had a chance, people who died because of the deliberate policies coming from western democracies.

The original Civil War, by Mark Millar.

That is the policy of the west. That is the policy of the ‘heroes.’

Will readers see the statement as a critique of what America actually is? Will they see the reality behind the statement, or will it just be another piece of comic book story-telling that is read, forgotten, and seen as play-time fun and games that has nothing whatsoever to do with the real world?

My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that readers will read it as part of the story in Civil War #4, and will leave it at that. Captain America has given a speech that could easily have come out of the mouth of Saddam Hussain, or Muammar Gaddafi, or Bashar al-Assad, or Vladimir Putin. It’s a speech that could have been given by any leader that has seen his country targeted for destruction by western ‘democratic’ neo-liberal corporate hegemony.

What would happen if readers carefully analysed the statement made by Captain America, and looked at what has happened in the real world over the past few decades? How would they see the US as a force for good in the world? They would be forced to re-evaluate, and to re-consider what they personally are doing in the world, how they, through paying their taxes, and supporting the state, are complicit in what has happened, what is happening and what it going to happen next.

What is going to happen next is war, a big war waged against Iran and Russia, the last two holdouts against western imperialism. It will be called World War 3, and it will be the last war. The end result will be a nuclear holocaust, a tiny population of world-controllers, and a slave population of five hundred million people.

Comic book readers need to put down the comic books, look at recent world history, and decide whether or not they want to go along with the unfolding agenda. They do have a choice; they don’t have to go along with it. They have a voice, and they can use it, if they want to.

The new 'Civil War' by Charles Soule.

This is not silly conspiracy stuff, it’s recent world history, and it’s happening right now as I type these words. Writer Charles Soule puts his words of truth into the mouth of Captain America at the beginning of Civil War #4, but then the book unfolds in a convoluted, contradictory fashion that makes pretty much no sense whatsoever, thus diminishing the impact of the opening statement. However, the statement is made, and it cannot be unmade. It’s truth in a genre that sees very little truth at all, and now it’s up to us to decide whether or not we want to face that truth, or just go back to reading comic books as usual.

US superhero comic books don’t do heroes anymore. Tony Stark won the original Marvel Comics Civil war, and the superheroes became agents of the state. Captain America, the symbol of individualism, of freedom from state control (Yes, I know it’s ironic, but perhaps he’s just represented the old America?), surrendered, and was murdered. Mark Millar wrote that ending in 2007. It was the correct ending to write.

Contemporary comic book heroes are collectivists, controlled by the state, working for the state. The era of individualism died with the death of Captain America in the original Civil War. What has followed since has been painful to watch, with Marvel and DC comics celebrating collectivised, order following, ‘heroes’ and the death of individualism and true heroism. The independent, moral, liberty minded heroes have become unthinking soldiers. I'm sorry, but soldiers are not heroes, no matter what the propaganda coming out of the state tries to tell you. Soldiers follow orders. Right and wrong does not figure in their actions, morality does not figure in their actions, they do what they are told to do, no questions asked, see Bradley Manning for more details.

Marvel’s original Civil War story-arc and this new extension of the original story (by Charles Soule) reveals a brutal truth about the death of individualism in post 9/11 America. That truth might be clouded and hidden within a jumble of plot twists, super-powered personality issues and contradictions, but the truth is there, and is something that we all need to understand.

Art from Yu, on the new Civil War #4

As the US Empire continues to crumble and morph into a one-world government, at least we all know how it happened, and who was responsible. The coming New World Order was made possible by the economic strangulation of sovereign states, a siege policy that ends in war or capitulation. All countries that have refused to be dictated to by US led corporate, neo-liberal hegemony have been under economic siege for decades, and those still holding out are being targeted by western intelligence agencies, NGO’s, mercenaries and the western backed lunatic army known as the Islamic state.

The policy of total, global domination is at the centre of western, neo-liberal political consensus. When you vote, you vote for war. All parties belong to the cult of neo-liberalism; your only choice is between personalities, not policy differences. Corporate lebensraum has made the world what it is today. Do you like it?

I personally am not a fan.

So who is to blame? It’s not the politicians or the liars on the television. They are there because we allow them to be there. We built their houses. We bred children to be used as their slaves, and now our children have guns, and the guns are turned at us.

We are to blame.

We built neo-liberalism.

We built it, brick by brick, vote by vote, order followed, after order followed. We refused to look as we slaved away at its construction, but we built it. It is our fault. The world is the way it is today because we had free choice, and we decided to give away our freedoms to the illusion of authority, because men and women calling themselves ‘Government’ ordered, and we chose to obey them.

Iron Man, a symbol of collectivism over individualism.

We shout and scream at the individual pawns, yet we play their game, we vote, we get what we deserve, we are willing dupes, and we have allowed ourselves to be used, abused, divided and killed. The world could be a beautiful place of free choice, free association, individualism and self-determination, but we didn’t want that. Instead, we chose collectivism, and if we continue to be spectators in our own lives then what happens next will be exactly what we all deserve.

Hoping for change will not change a thing, action is what is needed.

Real life heroes are individuals, people who do things not for ideology, reward or status, but because it’s the right thing to do. Change comes from action, from doing something, not hoping for somebody else to do it for you. Government kills all ideals of action and individualism and replaces it with the all-encompassing collective merged prison identity of the state.

We are living during a time of neo-liberal, cross-party consensus tyranny. We can change it, if we want to, but here’s my opinion on the matter. I think that some people would rather read comic books and go along with it, and some people would rather join it, than fight it.

A lot of people have become lazy, immoral, complacent, greedy and selfish. A lot of people are scared, or apathetic, or perhaps they are just confused? Learnt helplessness is a powerful weapon of the neoliberal corporate elites, and it’s pumped out 24/7 from their mainstream media indoctrination centres masquerading as ‘news.’  The message is to comply and that all resistance to neo-liberalism is futile. You are small, you cannot do anything, stand-down, comply, do what you are told.

Complicity, fear, apathy and confusion together with learnt helplessness imprison the programmed, collectivised masses and the end result is millions of people complying with their own enslavement and serving the system that imprisons them all.

Choose Cap, choose individualism over collectivism.

Individualism has become a bad word. It is being discouraged, because it is the individual that will destroy the collectivised state. We need to stand up, as individuals, not as a group. We need to re-learn how to say NO, and to do things for ourselves. That’s what I think. That’s what I think about the world today.

Comic books reflect reality, and the reality is that we have become collectivised slaves to state authority. Tony won, collectivism won. Cap lost, individualism lost. The world we live in today, the western world, the comic book world, it’s a defeated world. But is it over? Oh no, not yet.

I’m a scrappy bloke, and I’m up for a comeback fight. Cap died, but death is temporary in comic books, and here’s a truth, it’s temporary in the real world as well.

We die, sure, but the soul cannot die. The soul is immortal. The body dies, but we return, the fight does not end, it goes on, we live, learn, balls things up, but it’s never over.

Neo-liberal collectivist ideology might be in the ascendant right now, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go along with it.  I’m up for a fight. I’m up for saying no, and I’m ready to kick neo-liberal collectivist slave ideology in the balls. I’m not a superhero, but I’m not a slave either. I’m an individual, and individualism is the silver bullet that will kill the murderous ideology of neo-liberal state collectivism.

My blog is small, and it might only be read by a handful of people, but that won’t stop me from saying what needs to be said, and from talking about what is happening in the world today. Comic books reflect cultural consensus, but cultural consensus changes. We are living during a time of rising state collectivism, a time of war, lies and propaganda, but it doesn’t always have to be like that.  We can turn things around, but the only way that we are going to get out of our self-dug pit of collectivism is to realise that we are standing in a hole in the first place.

Comic review: Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #2- The Art of War

Script: Grant Morrison, Gotham Chopra & Sharad Devarajan
Art: Jeevan J. Kang
Publisher: Graphic India
Released: 12th August 2015



Comic book reviewers shouldn’t really rave over this comic, and if they do so, you need to be very suspicious about their motivations (cough, re-tweets).

That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad comic though, because it isn’t. What it is, is a comic that is establishing what is to come next in the narrative. It’s a comic that is doing the boring work before the big battle kicks off. It’s a comic book about political intrigue, motivations, and the heroes of the upcoming war playing a strategic game of chess in order to set up their enemies for their inevitable defeat.

18 Days #2 features people putting down their arms and armour, and talking about tradition, honour, oaths and fate. The villains have lots of rule about who and when they will, or will not fight. They are all related, and have long histories and grievances against each other. The heroes are exploiting all of this, as they talk to the different people, playing them off against each other, and strategize for the upcoming battle.

The message of course is that success comes from effective strategising, from brains over brawn. The strongest, bravest, fastest, most powerful warrior doesn’t always win, the smartest warrior wins. War is manipulation, about playing sides off against each other.

A modern example of the art of war and deception would be how the US (and EU) is currently using ISIS to destroy Syria, whilst simultaneously using the terrorist group (largely funded through US allies in the Middle East) to justify a Police state back home. The strategy of the US using ISIS as a proxy army allows them to destabilise Syria and to blame it on somebody else. When the country is a complete mess they can then send in their own ground troops to finish them off, murder all of the leaders, install a puppet government, and steal the countries resources, just like they did in Libya.

That’s how you strategise in war. That’s how you use your enemy to defeat a greater enemy, just as the US used the Taliban in Afghanistan to bog down the Russians in an unwinnable war that helped to destabilise the entire Soviet Union. Sure, the Taliban led to Al Qaeda, 9/11, 7/7, Iraq, the NSA and all of the other ‘problems’ in the world right now, but the bottom line is that the strategy worked. The Soviet Union collapsed, and the western banks and corporations that control western governments now have the perfect, permanent enemy in Islamic terrorism. This manufactured, and controlled enemy can now be sent around the world to bomb and maim, thus justifying less freedom in the west, and more western corporate imperialism and hegemony abroad, whilst claiming it’s all about human rights, freedom and democracy. Yeah, the US might be invading your country, but they are only there to protect you from ISIS/Al Qaeda. It’s true, yet it’s a lie at the same time. That’s the art of war, and that’s how you get things done.

The mainstream corporate media sell war as good versus evil, as neo-liberal democracy versus anything that dares to challenge it. They do so because they need to justify the corporate/statist/fascist status quo, and to portray their side as the heroes, and the other side as the villains. Contemporary superheroes play the role of soldier heroes, fighting against democracy hating dictator villains, fighting for freedom, whilst supporting indentured servitude to the corporate state.

Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #2 is a bit more complex than an average neo-liberal comic book. That’s partly due to Morrison himself, but largely because the book comes from ancient Indian wisdom (the Mahabharata) and so it has a bit more substance than the ignorant idiocy that is fed to us today.

Get the book if you want to explore Indian mythology and culture, but get it if you want to expand your horizons, and understand the complexities behind the art of war.

War is not about dictators and the illusion of freedom that is western style neo-liberal democracy. It’s not what you read in contemporary comic books, see on your television sets, and read about in your corporate newspapers. War is more complicated than what you see on the surface, and that is what 18 Days #2 is exploring.

It’s a book about war strategy, about what to do before the battle, and how to manipulate and weaken the enemy before a shot is fired. It’s about preparing for victory through proactive intelligence, using the most powerful weapon that we, as human beings, possess, that being the power of the mind.

Brains over brawn baby, it wins every single time, and that’s why the US isn’t bombing ISIS into oblivion right now. They could, but what would that achieve? ISIS are there to get rid of President Assad first (he’s an evil dictator, didn’t you know?) and then, who knows how they could be used next? Iran, Russia, something back home if the people start to question government authority perhaps? So many options, but that’s the game of war. We need to understand how it is being played, not for us, but against us, as right now, those in control, the evil people that control the world, are dividing, conquering, and walking over every single last one of us.


Rating: 7/10 (To divide and conquer, it’s the art of war)

Review: We Stand On Guard #1: Guaranteed not to offend

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Steve Skroce
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 1st July 2015


The previews to this book looked very promising. I picked it up hoping for something controversial, something that would upset people, and something that would go to the dangerous places where other comic books fear to tread.

I’m a bit of a sucker, aren’t I?

Okay, so, first off, ‘We Stand On Guard’ is a masterpiece of political correctness, of how to write a comic book that is guaranteed to offend absolutely nobody. That’s not a criticism, it’s the best thing about the book, how it manages to exist, and be so meek and compliant. If you want to know how to have a career as a comic book writer in these PC times, then this is the book that you’ll want to study, and emulate. It’s more impressive because it has the US as the villains, yet does it in a way that won’t upset Americans, or anybody else in the world.

The book starts with the cliché of the White House being blown up, and then attempts to subvert that cliché through point of view, having a Canadian family look at it on their television, then having the US retaliate by blowing said family up.

I have a few points to make about this opening scene, as it sets the tone for the rest of the book, and no doubt, the entire series. Firstly, when the Canadian family are speculating about who is responsible for blowing up the White House they very noticeable fail to bring up the two obvious suspects- 1: Islamic extremists. 2: Sections of the US intelligence agency apparatus, a false flag, hitting yourself in order to justify foreign wars (see 9/11 for more details).

The book is set in 2112, so I guess that means that all of the problems that we have today with the peaceful, tolerant religion of Islam have disappeared? I guess that also means that the CIA no longer exists, and that false flag attacks no longer happen? It’s either that, or writer Brian K. Vaughan is being very careful, and very mainstream in his writing.

So, if it’s not Islamic extremists or a false flag attack who is responsible for blowing up the White House? Candidates are Algiers (is that the new capital of the Islamic state?), domestic terrorists (again, no religion mentioned) or Canadians?

It’s not exactly a very controversial list, is it? That list alone should tell you everything that you need to know about this comic book. It’s going to be a very careful book, a PC book, a book that will wash over you, and do nothing, because it’s not trying to do anything except shift units, and not offend.

Canada versus America one hundred plus years from now is as safe as you can get. I’m not reading a safe book. I want to read a book that sticks its neck out, and I’m not going to get that here.

Let’s look at the characters. All of the leaders are young women. Men are followers, missing, dead or expendable. On page seven a father dies. His last words are for his son to protect his young daughter. The story shoots forward to the future, and the son is missing, the daughter is looking after herself. She is strong, self-sufficient, independent, young, feisty sexy, and the main point of view protagonist in the book, of course she is, that goes without saying. Rebellion is the sole domain of pretty young girls in contemporary comic books, false rebellion of course, but that’s the only rebellion that exists today in the corporate mainstream.

This generic comic book protagonist pretty young girl is alone for only a couple of pages before she hooks up with a group of Canadian freedom fighters, led by another young female, of course, and you know exactly what you are going to get in this comic book. More feminism, more male/female power dynamics reversed, and more of the neoliberal corporate consensus, dressed up as equality, pushed as the new norm, and if you don’t like it, send in the social justice warriors.

We Stand On Guard #1 is a neoliberal consensus politically correct comic book. If that’s your thing, buy it. It’s not my thing, so I’m one and out on this one. I need more than safe in my comic books today. This comic book is safe, and it doesn’t interest me at all.


Rating: 3/10 (A case study in how not to offend)

2000AD PROG 1937-Review- At least a beaten dog knows how to lie

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion (Rebellion?)
Released: 1st July 2015



It’s supposed to be hot today, but I’m not hot. I’m cool, man. Yeah, ha ha, I’m cool alright, that’s why I read comic books, and that’s why I’m spending my time now, indoors, typing away, listening to black metal and writing more words about PROG 1937 of 2000AD than anybody else will bother to do. And why should they bother? It’s hot, they are outdoors, doing sweaty stuff, but I’m cool, so I’ll stay indoors doing cool stuff, and onto the review.

It starts with Judge Dredd, we get some torture, it works, and I’ve had enough of the story already. Torture doesn’t work in the real world, but as long as they pretend that it works in the realm of fiction (see 24) the justification stands. All evidence coming from western torture centres (Guantanamo Bay) that demonstrates how torture actually works (it plants information, rather than extracting it) continues to be ignored by a criminally complacent, compliant, condoning mainstream media. Until torture is shown for what it actually is, nothing changes.

Absalom starts in a 1980's UK care home with some Satanic child abuse. It’s nice to see some reality in 2000AD for a change. I’m not joking btw, see David Icke for more details. However, it denigrates quickly with the cops acting as heroes trying to protect the public. Sorry, but reality doesn’t work like that. Cops work for the state, not the public. They protect their masters, like the obedient dogs that they are. The tax paying, voting for slavery, cattle public is controlled, not protected, and cops are little more than the dogs of the corporate elites. Don’t believe me? Try going to a cop when you need help, and see what his response is. They don’t care, because it’s not their job to care. It’s their job to maintain the status quo of their masters, and that is what they do. Absalom ends this week with a reference to Jim Davidson, a comedian whose jokes were woefully dated in 1993. Oh dear. How long does this one run for?

Helium is starring another dog of the elites, a female dog this time. The world controllers love female dogs, they are so materialistic, so career orientated, so easy to control, and so willing to do anything, as long as it pleases their masters. Girl power baby, anyway, this female dog/cop is on protect the public duty, just like Absalom, so at least 2000AD has it’s story straight. Cops protect, remember that, even though it’s not true. The story is better than Absalom, but it is very progressive with men in the role of women and women in the role of men. Welcome to the New World order kids. Don’t be sexist, have a nice day. The story ends with a bloke talking about destroying the world in order to save it. Hey, with a progressive mindset like that the guy is perfect new world order material. If he does what he is told and looks good on the tel lie vision he could even be a future EU technocrat, head of a troika bank or the next US president. Quick, somebody get him a scholarship immediately.

I’m in no mood for nonsense this week. It must be the weather, as truth is boiling up, and rising as steam from my keyboard, and onto the screen, vomited onto the Internet for one man and his dog to look at, dismiss, and to continue their lives as usual.

Next story in 2000AD is Outlier. Oh crud. I couldn’t make any sense of it last week. This week must be better, right? Oh, double crud, it’s beginning with a weak man and a strong, determined, steely-eyed woman bossing everyone around. I see patterns evolving. I read on, and they’re soldiers, or cops, more dogs of the elites. Patterns man, patterns, they form a whole, and the picture is tyranny in a uniform, wearing lipstick, smile, comply or they’ll send the drones.

I’m almost at the end of PROG 1937 of 2000AD now, with one story to go, and it’s been about worship of the uniform, of authority, of female authority working for the corporate elites. That’s not good, but I have faith, so onto the final story, a new one, Jaegir/Tartarus- Part One. Ah man. Here we go again, a female soldier, bossing around the men on the first page, she’s tough in control, action, now back-story.  The villains in this one are dressed up like Nazi’s, no joke, bloody Nazi’s again. Oh, and it has dinosaurs in it. The story is about a young woman acting like a man, following orders in the army, like a female dog, end of review.

I’m very disappointed with PROG 1937 of 2000AD, because there’s nothing here for me, at all. It’s all strong independent female dog stuff. I’m not a female Police officer, or a female army officer, and I consider neither of these two types of people to be worthy of my time. I hope that they have lots of fun following orders and acting like men, but I don’t care about them, and I don’t particularly want to read about them either.

2000AD wasted my time, and now it’s just wasted more of my time on a review that will do me no good whatsoever, and will only end up with bad feeling against me, and inevitable accusations of sexism.

I want to be clear. I dislike feminist liberal marxist types. I dislike the neoliberal corporate status quo. I dislike social justice warriors. I dislike fake rebellion. I dislike anti-human, anti-family propaganda that comes from corporate whore mainstream media programming. I want genuine rebellion in my comics. I want comics that recognise truth and attack, attack, attack. They are rare, but these are the times in which we are living, and if nobody else is going to call out the neoliberal consensus of contemporary comics, I’ll do it myself.

PROG 1937 of 2000AD is a whimpering female dog, begging to serve, all rebellion is gone, oh dear, I think it just pi***d itself. Last week I saw some hope in 2000AD, but this week all I see is a cowered dog, beaten into submission by a friendly faced socially conscious, progressive slave master. I usually recommend that you pick up 2000AD, if only for one of the stories, but this week it’s pure junk. Pat Mills is gone. Slaine is taking a break. He’ll return in 2016, but what is left, what is there to enjoy in 2000AD at the moment? Not a lot I’m afraid. It’s going to be a long, hot, summer, and I’m starting to really feel it now.


Rating: 1/10 (Good cover)


Do you feel defeated? Do you feel like there is no hope, that sleep is the only escape from new world order tyranny, but that even sleep aludes you now? Watch this video. Here it is, defeated masculinity, predicted by the Richey Manic era Manic Street Preachers in 1993:

Pathetic, isn't it? Don't give up, don't accept the new world order, fight against it, the fight is not over, it is only just beginning. The masses are asleep, but the masses never change a thing. Don't seek the change, be the change. Be strong, be annoying, be loud, be aggressive, be unpopular, be free. 

Comic review: Doctor Fate #1: PC Muslim Hero Abandons Faith to Join Egyptian Cat Cult

Writer: Paul Levitz
Artist: Sonny Liew
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 17th June 2015




Here’s an interesting book, that within its pages includes a valuable lesson about the portrayal of Islam in contemporary neoliberal western comic book narratives.

The book stars a Muslim hero, with a white Mother, a hot girlfriend, and a promising future career as a Doctor. Wait, it gets even better. If all of that wasn’t enough for you, the narrative then has him saving a baby from underneath the wheels of a subway train, sacrificing his life for a complete and utter stranger.

What a guy hey? See multiculturalism is great, no problems to be had at all. Muslims love to integrate and contribute to society, they even save babies from underneath subway trains. I say let them all in, and take over the country, take over the world actually, what could possibly go wrong?

White racists need to die anyway. Let’s bring in the dawn of this brave new era of ‘moderate’ Islam, with tolerance and diversity for all.

Certain kinds of people are going to love this review. They are going to read it, and positively explode with righteous indignation and rage. So I say, come on, bring it on. Come on then. Accuse me of being an evil intolerant Islamaphobic racist. I know you want to, go on, accuse me until the cows come home, it will be fun.

Jump up on that moral high horse of progressive liberalism and tell me that 99% of Muslims are moderate and tolerant. Pretend that ISIS doesn’t exist. Pretend that Saudi Arabia doesn’t exist. Pretend that Syria doesn’t exist. Pretend that Libya doesn’t exist. Pretend that Boko Haram doesn’t exist. Pretend that Sharia law doesn’t exist. Pretend that the Rochdale sex trafficking gang didn’t exist. Pretend that the Beslan school massacre didn’t happen. Pretend that the Charlie Hebdo massacre didn’t happen. Pretend that all of the other massacres and beheadings and atrocities worldwide didn’t happen as well.

Blame US foreign policy. Hell, even blame George Bush if you like. Pretend that the UK Muslim community doesn’t shut itself away in their own little communities with their own laws. Pretend that Muslims just want to integrate into society like some kind of neo-liberal mythical paradise. Pretend that reality itself is an abstract construct and those moral high horses and neoliberal utopias are the ‘tolerant’ way of looking at reality.

It doesn’t matter what evidence you see or hear, it doesn’t matter, because you will always be right. Even in the middle of a massacre when you yourself are being chopped up because you are not the right kind of wahabbi Muslim. They are not extreme, it’s intolerant to say that, they are just expressing their dissatisfaction with US foreign policy as they chop you and your kids into little pieces whilst screaming for their god like a nightmarish cult of devil worshippers. No, you will always be right, because you are a liberal, a dead, chopped up liberal, but always right, and always tolerant and always passive and pathetic and indoctrinated and self-hating and feeble and weak, and useless until the very end.

Here’s a question. Have you ever read a comic book where Muslims were portrayed as the villains? I have. It happened ONCE, in a book called ‘Holy Terror,’ by Frank Miller. The following quotation pretty much sums up how it was received by the mainstream press:

"Frank Miller doesn't do things halfway. One of the true comic-book greats, he’s created several of the most extraordinary stories ever to grace the art form. So perhaps it's fitting that now he's produced one of the most appalling, offensive and vindictive comics of all time ... Miller's Holy Terror is a screed against Islam, completely uninterested in any nuance or empathy toward 1.2 billion people he conflates with a few murderous conspiracy theorists." (Spencer Ackerman of Wired Magazine)

You don’t criticise Islam in comic books, even in a very small way, and if you do, then prepare for a whole heap of trouble coming your way. No, if you write Muslim characters in a 2015 era comic book then they must ALWAYS be positive, heroic, tolerant, liberal drips, just like the writers themselves actually.

Doctor Fate #1 then is a specimen of it’s time, an example of how you write Muslim characters in contemporary comic books. For that reason alone the book is worthy of study. I don’t expect contemporary comic books to demonise the Muslim community, because that would be horrible, and completely unfair to the vast majority of peaceful Muslims around the world. So what do I want? What is the point that I’m making here?

My point is that comic books have to stop being so bloody cowardly. I know that the writers watch the news. I know that they see the same things that I do. I know that they have opinions on it, so why am I not seeing a DIVERSE range of opinions in my comic books when it comes to the portrayal of Muslim characters? They can’t always be heroes can they?

What is being created here is a parallel universe, with mainstream comic book creators going out of their way not to offend. This snake-bellied cowardice is creating a mythical almost idolatrous image of Muslim people that is completely at odds with what is happening in the real world and DAILY on our television sets. What I am complaining about here is a LACK of diversity when it comes to the portrayal of Muslims in mainstream comic books, as described by the dictionary definition of the word.

Diversity
/daɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ/
noun 
1.
the state or quality of being different or varied
2.
a point of difference
3.
(logic) the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct

All I am calling for here is for diversity, a point of difference, and when it comes to the portrayal of Muslims in comic books in 2015 I am not seeing this at all. What I am seeing is a very PC image, an image of the tolerant Muslim, of the not very religious Muslim, the neo-liberal fantasy Muslim. It’s a fantasy as real as the moderate rebels in Syria and the integrated Muslim television characters I see in Eastenders, that fantasy neoliberal London paradise of integrated communities that bears zero resemblance to the real London of today.

So what about this actual comic book? This is supposed to be a review, right? Yeah it is, so here we go.

The art is messy, the tone is soft and fluffy, and the story is about Ancient Egyptian Gods preparing a new flood to wipe out humanity. The Muslim protagonist takes to the Egyptian religion very easily, a cat speaks to him, tells him to put on a silly hat, and after some initial fears that have nothing whatsoever to do with his own faith, on it goes. This means that the protagonist is about as serious and dedicated to his religion as neo-liberals are to their own. He doesn’t even identify himself as a Muslim. Instead he very noticeable describes himself as ‘an American.’ Ah, it’s the liberal dream of diversity, alive and well within the pages of comic books at least.

In reality, this guy is a terrible Muslim. He completely disregards his own faith and jumps on board a new religion like it’s no big deal at all. He is a Muslim, but his faith plays no part in this comic book narrative whatsoever. His Muslim identity then is exposed as hollow, and meaningless. It’s a token gesture, a bone of political correctness thrown out so DC can stamp a label of ‘diversity’ onto one of it’s comic books.

This book is not going to impress any strong believer of the Islamic religion, as the religious aspect is mere background, and when faced with miraculous, amazing things that are happening around him, the protagonist doesn’t even refer to his faith one single time. So if it’s not trying to impress actual Muslims, who is the book trying to impress, and what is it trying to do?

You already know my answer to that question, right? The book is simply ticking PC boxes, and going out of its way to not offend anybody. The ironic thing about this situation is that offending Muslims is an extremely easy thing to do, and as hard as you try not to offend, the more likely it is that you will end up offending somebody. I’ll explain.

The very fact that the writer has put the old Egyptian religion into the lap of a young Muslim is probably something that he didn’t even think about. It’s just a story, something cool to do, right? What he has actually done, if he thought about it for a bit, is to make a young Muslim a Kuffar (an unbeliever) by willingly accepting the authority of another religion that is not Islam. As soon as he buys into the powers of the magic helmet, he has in essence rejected his own Muslim faith.

‘He that chooses a religion over Islam, it will not be accepted from him and in the world to come he will be one of the lost.’
Quran 3:85, "The Imrans,"

So by going out of his way not to offend liberal sensibilities, what writer Paul Levitz has actually done here is to create a narrative that demeans Islam and would likely cause huge offence to many Muslims all around the world.

What a twit.

That’s how it goes when you pussy foot around a topic that needs to be tackled with true courage and integrity. The more you try not to offend, the more you do offend, and that’s the problem with Islam, the problem that mainstream comic books do not want to discuss.

Writer Paul Levitz probably really is a very decent and tolerant person, but that counts for nothing, and by trying to write another PC Muslim hero he’s just gone and dug his own pit of trouble. I feel sorry for the guy, really. His intentions were good, they always are with liberal types, but this whole fake ‘diversity’ thing is a difficult construct to escape from, especially with people shouting ‘racist’ at you whenever you even question it.

I didn’t hate the book. I see it as misguided, and it teaches a valuable lesson about the portrayal of Islamic heroes in contemporary comic books, so it’s worthy of a purchase. American popular culture is at a bit of a crossroads at the moment, it’s lost, confused, and trying to find it’s way through these dark times of neo-liberalism where truth is dying at the alter of political correctness. This time period in world history will make for a fascinating area of study at some future date, but at the moment it’s not easy. I can write my reviews and say whatever I like, but the poor comic book writers are trying to make a living, they are trying to be PC, trying to be good people, but ultimately they are just ending up getting lost in a maze littered with corporate ‘diversity’ landmines.


Rating: 4/10 (PC Muslim hero ends up quickly abandoning his faith at the first opportunity, oops)

‘Drones’ by Muse- Review- Is Anybody Listening?

Released: 5th June 2015

Official Site:
http://muse.mu/home.htm


Our freedom’s just a loan
Run by machines and drones
They’ve got us locked into their sights
Soon they’ll control what’s left inside

Don’t try to hide it, don’t tell me it’s not there

You’ve got strength
You’ve got soul
You’ve felt pain
You’ve felt love
You can grow (you can grow)
You can grow (you can grow)
You can make this world what you want
You can revolt
You can revolt
You can revolt.’ (Revolt)


Matt Bellamy is being very direct in what he is saying here. I don't need to interpret it. I don't need to spin it. I don't need to analyse it. Just read the lyrics.

Go to YouTube, find the song, and check out the comments. What are the Muse fans saying about it? Here are some random examples:

‘F****** awesome. Full of energy and spirit, got a real nice queen vibe. All the hipsters/haters can fuck off back down their mum’s basement.’

‘I'm having nightmares about Matt chasing me while singing this silly chorus D:’

‘I looooove this song!!  But I need help, there's a part in the chorus that reminds me of and very famous old song (like in the 60s or something), but I cannot remember which one! Has anyone any idea? It's the part when he says "You can grow (you can grow!), You can grow (you can grow!) at 1:13 thanks!’

Take this one song, the message, and then the entire ‘Drones’ album as a whole, and Muse fans reaction to it, and it’s pretty much the same. They go straight into fanboy/girl mode, defending the songs, attacking ‘haters’ and then detailing why the song is good because it reminds them of something else that is also good.

That’s okay. I agree with them, the songs are good, and they remind me of other good songs too.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE THINGS HE IS ACTUALLY SINGING ABOUT????

There’s no discussion going on about that, and when it is brought up, it’s dismissed like his actual words and thoughts are completely irrelevant, even though these people are supposed to be passionate, loyal fans of his band.

So why aren’t the fans discussing what their favourite band are actually singing about?

Before I give my opinions on that, here’s a quick break-down of some of the best songs on the album, and what they are actually about.

1- Dead Inside- A good guy is turned into a selfish, cold-hearted person through his contact with a person who is ‘dead inside.’ At the end of the song the protagonist is ready to serve the system of human enslavement, death and war. He is ready to become a drone pilot.

2- Psycho- About the army indoctrination cult training process that prepares soldiers for mass slaughter and obeying orders (Nazi style).

3- Mercy- The song’s protagonist looks for forgiveness, explaining that he was trying to infiltrate the system, to change it from the inside, but has seen that this is impossible. He now wants out of it, and forgiveness for what he has done whilst serving the system.

4- Defector- The song’s protagonist loudly declares that he is a free man, unable to be brainwashed and manipulated by the anti-human control system, or ‘society’ as a whole.

Meaty stuff, don’t you think? So, again, what do the fans make of it? Go again to YouTube, pick any video and tell me what you are reading. I’ll do it now. I’ll pick one song at random, and type out the first comment that I see. Here we go:

Psycho (first comment, 24 likes):

I love the music...
Matt says: I gonna break you. 
Lol.... 
He is intense... 


So, why no discussion? Why aren’t the fans discussing the song lyrics, at all? Their hero is belting out his heart and soul, and telling them what is happening in the world NOW, and their reaction is largely banality and LOL jokes. What is going on here?

Here’s my opinion:

Muse fans are not stupid. They love the band, but they are mainstream people. They watch television, they vote, they go to school and college, they work, they have children, they like cool music, they want to rock out to a catchy tune.

In other words, they are normal, everyday people. They are not rebellious, and they don’t want to think about horrible things that are happening in the world around them. They are stuck in ‘little-me’ mode. They want a good job, friends, relationships and to be happy, and if they have to become a Drone pilot to do this, then that’s just fine, they’ll do it.

They’ll pay their taxes, support the latest wars and believe what their betters tell them to believe. They love Muse, but they are just a band, nothing more than that. They are entertainment, you don’t have to listen to what he is saying, just enjoy the cool tunes, high notes and guitar parts.

This is the attitude not just of a Muse fan, but of an indoctrinated mainstream media programmed slave, a person that will not rebel, not because s/he is stupid, but because s/he has chosen to live a life of DELIBERATE IGNORANCE. It’s a choice to accept slavery and to try to make the best of it. It’s a choice to not care about anybody in the world beside themselves, their families and any friends that they are particularly fond of this week. It’s the mindset pushed by the corporate whore mainstream media, pushed because it maintains the status quo, pushed because it turns people into mindless animals, easily controlled, and easily culled when the time comes.

‘Drones’ by Muse, is an anti New World order/globalist/neo-liberal/corporate hegemony concept album. I was always going to appreciate the lyrics, but there’s passion, defiance, fight, emotion and a lot of really good tunes in there as well. The album, tells a story, even though Muse fans are unwilling or unable to hear it at the moment, so to get the best out of it, put on your headphones and listen to the entire thing from beginning to end. This is how you will get the most out of it, and that’s what Muse fans should do as well.

Your rock God hero is trying to tell you something about truth, morality, the human experience and the world as it is today. He is telling you that all of that wacky ‘conspiracy’ stuff is real, and that you are a part of it, and that you help it move along with your quiet acquiescence and feelings of weakness and learnt helplessness. He’s telling you to wake up, telling you that you are stronger than you think, telling you to fight against the new world order beast, but only by recognising that it exists at all will the true fight begin. That’s where most Muse fans are right now. They don’t want to look under their own beds, because they fear what they WILL find there. Matt is yelling, but how many people really want to hear what he is so loudly, passionately, eloquently and beautifully saying?


Rating: 10/10 (Are you turning into a human drone?)

Comic Review: Material #1- Slaves to the Wage

Writer: Ales Kot
Artist: Will Tempest
Contributing Author: Fiona Duncan
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 27th May 2015


There’s a long essay at the end of this book, and it goes on and on and on. Self-obsession, sex references, Marxism and a bit of moaning about neo-liberal capitalism are the themes, but does it really say anything?

I was going to do a short review on this comic book, keeping it simple, unlike that long essay, but as I was writing this review I answered my own question about whether or not that essay actually said anything, and I changed my mind about a couple of things.

Don’t be confused, this won’t be complex. I’m a simpleton, so don’t worry about not being able to understand what I’m going to go on about here. What I have to say about the essay ties in with the themes of this book, so I’ll discuss those themes first.

Material #1 is about unsatisfied, depressed, confused, traumatised, disaffected people.

There’s a Chomsky like professor who is sad, as I expect the real Chomsky to be as well. After all, being a careerist gatekeeper to real truth can’t be that much fun, can it? This professor talks his theories, but is in the process of questioning reality itself.

There’s a girl, an actress, she takes drugs, is creative, and self obsessed. A director wants to make a movie about her. Why? What’s going on here? We’ll find out at as the book progresses.

Next we get some ‘I can’t breathe’ panels of horribleness, with some order followers doing what order followers always do, and a young boy possibly being radicalised by the control system that shouldn’t be as he witnesses scenes of order follower (cop) violence.

Next there is some sex stuff that involves a bloke released from Gitmo. He’s innocent, messed up, and it’s sex stuff. He’s sad and confused, as you would expect him to be, but the sex stuff felt a bit over the top, a bit too outrageous, just for the sake of being outrageous, but that’s opinion. I’m not a fan of the weird sex stuff in ‘adult’ comics. Bottom line, I don’t think that it’s necessary.

Then we get some real world horribleness again, with some panels showing a young boy being interrogated in that Chicago black site called ‘Homan Square.’ Hey, it’s order followers just doing what they do. You vote for a master, you get a goon in a black uniform that’s how it works. That’s democracy, suckers.

Then Chomsky (his name is Julius Shore in this book) gets an email. The email claims to be from the, ‘First artificial human intelligence on earth,’ and finally, amidst the sex stuff and sadness we have some semblance of plot. There’s no connection between the characters as of yet, but at least something interesting appears to be happening.

The book then goes to the self obsessed girl and her movie, hints more about the radicalisation of the young boy, and concludes with the sad Gitmo bloke wanting to have a chat with the girl he pays for sex. It’s a weird ending, but then again, I guess it was supposed to be.

So, what do I make of it all? Look at the subject matter: Gitmo, Police brutality, the radicalisation of youth, useless academic careerism, human life being defined by ‘Market Value,’ and the vague notion that things have to change, if not, we might as well not bother getting out of bed in the morning.

That’s my kind of stuff, the kind of stuff that I talk about on my blog, and in real life, and the kind of stuff that results in one overwhelming reaction.

That reaction being, indifference.

I’m a reality junkie, writing about a genre (comic books) that has an audience of hard working people, busy people (it’s a theme in this book) that have no time for my reality/truth nonsense, and would rather spend their free time reading about superheroes, and cool stuff that reminds them of when they were happy, when they were children.

I can understand that. I can understand the need to escape for ten minutes from a life that sucks. People that know me in the real world, the people that I meet at work and out and about, they don’t really like me. I know. It’s no secret. I’m not a popular guy.

People see me as somebody with too much time on his hands. They see me as somebody who does too much thinking, and not enough working. They dislike me because I jumped off the career, jumped off relationships, jumped off of the endlessly moving airport treadmill (goes back and forwards, but never up) way of living my life. They would like me more if I was more like them, if I stopped writing, stopped thinking, and instead spent all of my day working in a job, any job, just as long as I don’t have this wicked ‘too much time’ on my hands.

That is a mindset, and it’s nicely summed up by writer Fiona Duncan in her essay at the conclusion of this book. (Fooled you. I didn’t hate it. I just thought that it was too long). Here we go:

‘Everything has to be sacrificed to an abstract growth of money, and of value, of nothing. This is madness. This philosophy of the deregulated (neo-liberal) economy where everybody is demanded to give CEASELESSLY in order to survive.’

She borrows quotations from a Marxist (Boo) academic called Francis ‘Bifo’ Berardi, to make her point, but even though I have no time whatsoever for dusty old discredited Marxists, I have to recognise a point well made.

The problem that we have (as a whole) is a mindset problem. We have been taught through our schooling and mainstream media programming (funded by the neoliberal, free-market rulers of our time) that our value as people lies not in our actual inherent qualities as decent, moral human beings, but in our ability to maximise our own profit potentials.

This has turned money into a god, and humanity into a slave to that false god. I talk about the New World Order, and people hate me for it. I talk about governmental control systems (like Marxism) and people hate me for it. They want me to shut up, get a proper career job and to stop talking, please stop talking, just stop talking. They want me to join them, and I understand. The system, the society that has been created around them is all about joining, about maximising your earning potential, and when somebody like myself refuses to play the game, it makes them question the game that they are spending their entire life engaging with.

So what did I think of the book?

I thought that it had ideas that somebody like myself could interact with. It is a very different book, because it’s slow, and it has real world issues in it. I didn’t like the sex stuff, but sex sells, so I understand. Hang on. A book with themes that concern the maximising of earning potential includes a weird sex angle that reads very much itself like the maximising of earning potential. Is that ironic? What did Alanis say? Oh, she was wrong, yeah, funny.

Anyway, it’s not the sex that interests me about this book, it’s the ideas, or the possibility at least of ideas being discussed at all. The essay at the close of the book was a very good idea. It created more scope for thought, for ideas, for somebody like myself to interact with.

Here’s the problem, and I’ve hinted about it during this review.

Material #1 is a book that somebody like me is bound to enjoy and give a positive rating to, but do you know how many people I’ve met in my life who are like me?

Just one, and yeah, obviously, it’s me.

The book is talking about ideas, about the real world, about how messed up it is, about how we need to stop sleep walking through life and start doing something other than making money. Comic books largely cater towards the sleeping sections of society, the workers, the careerists, and the young people that want to join the money making, anti-human system themselves.

I enjoyed the book, and I’ll keep on reading. It intrigued me, it helped me to think, but in a comic book world largely dominated by fanboys/girls who want to chill-out and not think at all, how many other people will be up for this one? I’m the one comic book reviewer who is guaranteed to like this book, but I really do worry about what the other reviews are going to say about it. *

Rating: 9/10 (A rare book, worth checking out)


* Just checked the other reviews. There’s not many. The majority of the reviews gave the book a low rating and didn’t appear to understand it. It’s not surprising, as the mindset that the book is addressing is the same mindset of the comic book reviewers themselves. 

Comic Review: C.O.W.L. #10- Union City Blues

Writers: Kyle Higgins & Alec Siegel
Art: Rod Reis
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 13th May 2015


How many people have been reading and enjoying C.O.W.L. a comic book about a superhero union, political intrigues, corrupt officials and organised crime, that is set in a mythological 1960’s setting in Chicago USA?

To me, it’s Watchmen with unions, but set in the 1960’s, not the 1980’s. I don’t understand why it’s set in the 60’s and not now, a time where we really need unions to fight back against a neo-liberal political consensus. A cosy consensus between politics and corporations with the corporations having all of the power because they own the governments, and with the workers (that’s you, and me) being screwed over and told that everything is okay by smiling corporate faces on their HD television sets.

It was the late 70’s and early 80’s when union power was largely destroyed in the UK by the first wave of neo-liberalism. Margaret Thatcher used the police to beat up striking miners and to destroy their communities. The miners were standing in the way of corporate profit, so they had to be destroyed, and destroyed they were.

Working class communities all over the UK today have never recovered from Thatcher. In 2015 these communities have been devastated by privatisation, by international markets, by corporate, state backed neo-liberalism. The people still living in these devastated communities are addicted to drugs shipped in from Afghanistan, long-term unemployed, working in MCJobs that don’t even pay a living wage, fighting (and dying) in evil foreign wars for corporate profit, or languishing in prison. Destroyed by neo-liberalism, the people are herded like sheep, controlled by the drug laws that are designed to ensure that they never again become a threat to the neo-liberal elite.

Somebody should write a comic about that, but C.O.W.L. is an American comic book, so it’s about Chicago, not Liverpool or Durham. Like I said in the opening paragraph, I don’t know who is reading it, because in my comic book shop in Swindon, Wiltshire I am the only one. Batman and Spiderman sell hundreds of copies. C.O.W.L sells one, to me.

I buy it because there is a hint of reality there, just a hint, but that’s about as good as you are going to get today. I buy it because it shows how the cops and politicians manipulate public opinion, how they stage events to justify their own existence.

Imagine a comic book where a terrorist event in the west is shown to be staged, not for the illuminati, or stonecutters (Simpson’s reference) but for the obvious reason that the staging of said event justifies budgets for anti-terrorist departments within the police, military and intelligence agencies?

C.O.W.L. gets about as close as doing that as is allowable today. It counterbalances it by having good people working in the Police, and I’m sure that the villains will be exposed in the end.

People enjoy cleverness in their movies and books, but if that cleverness exposes how the real world actually works they get uncomfortable with it, and label it a ‘conspiracy theory’ that nobody should take seriously. That shows you just how effective mainstream media propaganda still is in this world of the Internet. It’s sad, but true. People buy conspiracy, intrigue and manipulation in entertainment, but in real life they want to pretend that it doesn’t exist. That doesn’t make any sense to me, but the world is a bit mad at the moment, so it doesn’t surprise me that people want to believe in fantasy more than the harsh reality that they are actually living in.

I always wondered who was reading this book other than myself, and as I read the letters page at the end of this issue my question was answered.

The book will be wrapped up in next month’s issue #11.

I know why comic book readers in the UK weren’t reading the book. They weren’t reading it because it was complex, because it was about new characters, and because it was about fictional US superhero unions in the 1960’s. That sounds like ‘politics,’ and the last thing that comic book readers want to read about in their comic books is boring old politics.

That says a lot about my generation, a generation of men unwilling and unable to connect dots, to see how important politics and unions used to be, and still are today, if they wanted them to be. But rather than getting involved, joining unions themselves and fighting back against neo-liberalism, what instead do they prefer to do?

Here’s what they do: They buy comic books that remind them of better times, when they were children, when they didn’t have to worry about work and bills. Anything that reminds them of adult reality is no fun. They don’t want to read about that. Give them Batman, Spiderman, and the Avengers. Give them cool quips, action, characters, plot-twists and exciting stories about nothing. That’s what they want, that’s what they demand, that’s what they buy, and the corporate comic book publishers are happy to oblige.

Enjoy this week’s event book. What, your future career went to China? What, your college degree now means nothing? What, you can’t even afford to buy a house? What, you are on a conveyor belt of endless work, no retirement in sight? What, no unions anymore?

Never mind, here’s a copy of the latest Batman. It has zombies in it, just like the walking dead. It’s a mocking metaphor. Don’t try to understand it, just enjoy, it’s cool, zombies are cool, it’s cool to be the walking dead. Bang, cool man, did you see his head explode?

I’ll miss C.O.W.L. It was about politics and unions, and about questioning those that claim authority over you. I would have preferred it to have been set in 2015 so they could have dealt with what is going on in the world today, but for a book about US superhero unions in the 1960’s it was a worthwhile read. I enjoyed it, and next month’s finale will be a book that I’m very much looking forward to reading, just to see how everything is tied up and whether or not it concludes with a message about what is happening in our neo-liberal, non-unionised slave worker world of today.


Rating: 8/10 (Nicely ramps up the tension for next month’s finale, plus there’s a ‘cool’ Nosferatu like villain for all of the geeks to enjoy)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1930- Recognise the beast, stare it down, strike it, slay it

Publisher: Rebellion
Released: Writers and authors: Numerous
13th May 2015


PROG 1929 of 2000AD jolted me. It reminded me that those working in contemporary comic books are more often than not the most asleep people in the world today. I’ll keep this brief, explain, and then I’ll review PROG 1930.

There was a general election in the UK last week. People had the choice between a couple of identical slave masters. Their vote meant supporting neo-liberalism because all of the political parties are neo-liberal parties. Okay, that’s good if you want neo-liberalism, but what is neo-liberalism?

Neo-liberalism is tax cuts to private banks and corporations, the state funding of all risk, with all profit going to those banks and corporations. Neo-liberalism is privatisation, austerity, endless foreign wars (very profitable for arms manufacturers) and less and less human rights as the fake war on terror is used to justify a Police surveillance (money again) state.

That is what neo-liberalism is, that is what UK voters were voting for last week, and what did 2000AD tell their readers to do?

It told them to vote for neo-liberalism, using the tired old cliché that voting is the only way that they will have a voice.

Do you get why that might have upset me? Do you understand then why I might be so pitched off with 2000AD that I would refuse to review their comic book?

Now it’s a week removed from the election. Guess who won? Yes, neo-liberalism won, and now it has the consent of the governed to carry on raping and pillaging all over the UK.

Thanks 2000AD, thanks for telling your readers to vote for it, now the government can do whatever it wants under justification that it has a legitimate mandate to screw us all over, because, well, that’s what we voted for.

Okay, I need to put this behind me, so I’ll end it here. I’ve been reminded of the statist asleep mindset of 2000AD in 2015, but that doesn’t mean that the book is completely worthless, so let’s jump into PROG 1930 and see what’s in store for voter/slaves this week.

Judge Dredd opens, as he always does, with the tale of a man getting screwed over by a system designed to maximise profit, and to use and discard human beings as ‘human resources.’ Sounds familiar to me. It’s a strong story, but the main protagonist lacks likeability, so seeing him get revenge on the selfish people who screw him over isn’t as satisfying as it should be. It is a good reminder however that rats in a cage attack each other as the actual evil that caused their situation (the scientist) is out of reach. Try to be nice to each other people, we are rats, let’s try to make the cage as liveable as possible, and how about we get that scientist (that would be the politician working for his corporate overlords) instead of attacking each other?

Talking about scientists experimenting on caged animals, that’s exactly what we have in the second story this week. ‘Terror Tales- Phase Shift,’ is an old school black and white sci-fi/horror tale, and just my cup of tea. I grew up with these tales. These are the stories that got me into comic books in the first place, not the superhero stuff that snared most kids.  I was always a fan of the creepy stuff. This tale is great, it has a mad scientist, gruesome experiments, a cat obsessed dead Mom ghost, and a delicious sting in the tale that should delight every fan of horror shorts. I loved it, the art was great as well, and I’d like to see much more of this old style excellence within the pages of 2000AD.

The next story is Slaine, and it begins with the cry of the elites,
‘He’s just one man, what can he do to us?’ Oh, I can do a lot, in my silly little reviews, read by a handful of people, I can get people to think, and to take up the fight against the neo-liberal status quo, to talk to their children, to unmask the demon, and to eventually defeat it. That’s what little people can do, we are not as little as we are led to believe. Slaine is the comic book embodiment of average, every day people in the UK today. After the election, we are told that it is all over for us, but it’s not over. We will rise up, all of the 'little' people, rising up to slay the demonic neo-liberal horde that is destroying our country whilst telling us that we voted for it, and so therefore have no option other than to step aside and let it wreck everything. No, we will not do that. We will not vote, then go back to sleep. We will fight. We are Slaine. We are immortal British warriors, and we do not give up. We will fight, we will fight, we will fight, and in the end, the beast of neo-liberalism will fall and be banished from our shores, forever.

Grey Area is about silly aliens, it’s funny, some light in the dark. There’s a message here as well though, the message being that big strong creatures have allowed themselves to be placed within a softly spoken BBC style friendly zoo. Hey, sounds like your typical newspaper buying, television watching, football supporting voter to me. I bet they love watching Question Time in their prison. Watch how red blames blue, blue blames red, the circle repeating for infinity, it will be fun.

‘So…are you going to stay in this zoo, beating on the other animals penned with you, until the God-star snuffs you all out?’ 

That’s the question of our times, and it links perfectly with what I was saying about Judge Dredd. We need to realise that we are caged, then we can formulate an escape plan, the problem of course being that the vast majority of television heads don’t even realise that they are in a cage at all.

PROG 1930 of 2000AD concludes with good old Strontium Dog. There’s something of the Return of the Jedi about the story at the moment, with Johnny in a fat gangster’s boudoir, a gangster that looks suspiciously like Jabba the Hutt. I like Star Wars, so I’m okay with this ‘homage.’ It’s coming back this year with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in it, so I'll take this story as an appetiser for the main course. Johnny Alpha is pretty much Han Solo in this book, and that’s okay with me. Some will attack it for a lack of originality, but I don’t really care, it is funny, enjoyable and provides a nice soft landing to what has been a pretty intense, rough and ready ride in starship 2000AD this week.

Last week they told you to vote for slavery, but this week I detect some fighting spirit within the pages of 2000AD. There isn’t a weak story here, and a couple of them really are saying something. Slaine is not just a treat for the eyes; it’s positively brimming with angry muscular defiance, rebellion and immortal British revolutionary fire. Slaine embodies the rebellious spirit of a man who refuses to buy into the mainstream media pushed lie that individuals are powerless to change the world around them. The corrupted neo-libeal elites want us to be in that 'little me' mode of thinking. They want us to vote, give away our power, and then return to our hovels and await the raping and pillaging that is to come. Slaine is the defiance that refuses learnt helplessness, rejects cowardice and fights to reclaim freedom and liberty from the control system that exists to enslave us all.

Do I forgive 2000AD for last week? Not quite, but PROG 1930 is a brilliant comic book, and perhaps after time I’ll learn to live, and yes, to even forgive, but I’ll never forget. The fight continues, and it would be nice if the editorial team of 2000AD recognised what is going on rather than limply going along with the flow of the neo-liberal blood, disease and garbage-polluted stream. The writers though, Pat Mills and Dan Abnett in particular, know what is going on, and truth is bleeding from every panel of their excellent stories, making 2000AD the one essential comic book that should be at the top of every comic book fans weekly pull-list.

Rating: 10/10 (Essential)