Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World by Robbie Robertson

Legends, Icons & Rebels is a hard book to classify. It works as kids' guide to rock n' roll, as a gorgeous hardcover coffee table book on music history, as an art book, as a compilation album with massive liner notes or just a refresher course on the musical hell-raisers of the twentieth century! As he and his group, The Band, did in his the legendary film The Last Waltz, Robertson and his co-conspirators bring us a parade of musical legends that encompass a huge swath of music history. Unlike that Martin Scorsese directed documentary, here Robertson really sticks clearly to his curatorial role, only offering a single vignette that begins each entry.

Continue reading my review HERE


Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

R.I.P. Phillip Seymour Hoffman: 1967-2014

There were a lot of amazing roles that Phillip Seymour Hoffman inhabated but it was his channeling of the late, great Lester Bangs in Almost Famous that endears him to music nerds the world over!




Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

Beyond the Maypole Documentary ft. Billy Bragg, Oyster Band and more

In this documentary the late Biggie Tembo (of Zimbabwean band The Bhundu Boys) does a fascinating inversion of the staid reporter goes to a strange land to investigate its traditional music trope. In "darkest England", Tembo reports on the still-earnest but creatively vibrant English folk scene of the mid-eighties featuring The Barely Works, Kathryn Tickell, Billy Bragg, The Oyserband, Robb Johnson and more besides.





Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

Top Ten Comics/Graphic Novels of 2013 Pt. 2

As I said for Part One (see HERE): I read a lot of comics this year, stuff from all over the history of the form. As a result, I certainly didn't read any significant fraction of the year's new material. Here, comics differ from music, my usual beat; no music critic has covered a significant percentage of 2013's releases but some comic critics probably have. So, this list is by no means a definitive run-down of all the essential sequential art but just a heavily biased look at some good work that arrived this calendar year. My biases are; I'm writer-centric but am drawn to artists with a strong individual style, I'm a Marvel-ite but think Image is on fire of late, I think less of DC but some of the best older stuff I red this year was from DC and Vertigo. Oh, and I like a series with a sense of humour but dark undertones. My final caveat is that I read more trade paperbacks than individual issues, so a few things here may have been published in single-issue form in 2012 but it's TPB came out this year. For more cultural awesomeness (music, comics, film, politics etc.) Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

11) Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla (Archie Comics)

A shocking idea executed with just the right amount of creepiness due to the perfect teaming of Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla.

10) Something Terrible by Dean Trippe (Web-comic)

A poignant-as-hell comic about child abuse that Trippe needed to write but we also needed to read.

9) Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (Simon and Schuster)

Brosh's web-comic has made the jump to the Big Leagues without losing any of its charm, humour or sadness.

8) Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Not only is this brilliant and beautiful domestic sci-fi story on everyone's Best of the Year list but I'm wary of anybody who'd leave it off theirs!

7) Tales Designed to Thrizzle V. 2 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics Books)

Back in the eighties we called this strangley smart, randomly obscure and non-sequitur-ious style of cartooning at which Kupperman ex-cels, "college humour" now that that's the name of a run-of-the-mill frat-video site we'll just call it "Thrizzly Humour".

6)  Captain America by Rick Remender, John Romita, Carlos Pacheco (Marvel Comics

It sucks following up a defining run like Ed Brubaker's, a version of the character so definitive that the second Captain America film is already adapting it. So Rick Remender decided, with little fanfare, to banish Cap to an extremely hostile dimension and then gave him a kid to take care of. Instead of getting sappy or unbelievable, it turned the title into the comic book version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

5) It Came! by Dan Boultwood (Titan Comics)

It's Tim Burton's Ed Wood film, Alan Moore's 1963 comic, every MST3K commentary and that Monty Python sketch where the pilots talk in outrageous WWII slang all mashed together! If you missed this, as many did, do us all a favour and BUY IT NOW!!!

4) Goddamn This War by Tardi and Jean-Pierre Varney (Fantagraphics Books)

A sequel every bit as brutal and every bit as necessary as "It Was a War of the Trenches".

3) Todd the Ugliest Kid on Earth by Ken Kristensen and M.K. Perker (Image Comics)

Heinous and hilarious, satirical and snide, this twisted comic that didn't really hit its demented stride till it became an ongoing series.

2) Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Francesco Francavilla (Marvel Comics)

This is a superhero comic, one part of a massively successful big-budget franchise, done in a lo-fi indie style. It's a futzing great concept and it's executed perfectly, bro.

 

1) March by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)

March threatened to be dry, history but instead it resurrects an era - the end of Jim Crow - in all its beauty and all its ugliness.

Honorable mentions FF by Matt Fraction, Lee and Mike Allred  (Marvel Comics), Manhattan Projects by Jonathon Hickman (Image Comics), Daredevil* by Mark Waid and Javiar Rodriguez + Daredevil Dark Knights 1-3 (Marvel Comics), Sheltered by Johnnie Christmas and Ed Brisson (Image Comics), Velvet (Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (Image Comics). Also thanks to Peanuts (Boom Studios) and Bongo Comics in general for always giving my kids something to read (even Sergio Aragones!)

* I'm not even into the 2013 part of the series yet but I now it stays good.

 

 WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE COMICS?

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE COMICS OF 2013?

WE LIVE AND DIE BY FEEDBACK HERE, SO PLEASE SAY YOUR PIECE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!


Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

Best Comics/Graphic Novels of 2013 Pt. 1

I read a lot of comics this year, stuff from all over the history of the form. As a result, I certainly didn't read any significant fraction of the year's new material. Here, comics differ from music, my usual beat; no music critic has covered a serious percentage of 2013's releases but some comic critics probably have. So, this list is by no means a definitive run-down of all the essential sequential art of 2013 but just a heavily biased look at some of the great work that arrived this calendar year. My biases are; I'm writer-centric but a huge fan of artists with a strong individual style, I'm a Marvel-ite but think Image is on fire of late, I think less of DC but some of the best older stuff I read this year was from DC and Vertigo. Oh, and I like a series with a sense of humour but dark undertones. My final caveat is that I read more trade paperbacks than individual issues, so a few things here may have been published in single-issue form in 2012 but it's TPB came out this year. For more cultural awesomeness (music, comics, film, politics etc.) Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

20) The Black Beetle by Francesco Francavilla  (Dark Horse)

Francavilla spins an entertaining pulpy yarn but it's the moody, dynamic artwork that really gets under your skin.

19) Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust (Fantagraphics Books)

Lust's story of sex, travel and poverty is so finely detailed in word and image that the reader becomes completely shifted into her world.

18) Private Eye by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martín  (Panel Syndicate)

Fucking hell, does Brian K. Vaughan have any bad ideas?  Even his slight adaption of Michael Chabon's The Escapist was loaded with deft flourishes like the jock who just wants to be letterer. This ten-issue digital only series concerns the world of 2076 where after the internet bursts open privacy must be maintained by way of secret identities and it promises to be another Vaughan success.

17) Dial H for Hero by China Miéville and Mateus Santolouco and  (DC Comics)

One we lost in 2013 was Miéville & Santolouco's dark, twisted, funny and deeply bizarre take ("heroes" like Boy Chimney, The Iron Snail, Hole Punch, Captain Lachrymose and Cock-a-Hoop must be seen to be believed!) on the gimmicky Silver Age title "Dial 'H' for Hero".

16) Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)

Y'know sex in comics is almost never well-handled; if The Guardian gave out a Bad Sex in Comics Award, they'd be too swamped with awkward nominees to ever declare a winner. So with all the forms' issues with human sexuality, how can Matt Fraction create characters who have the ridiculous ability to have magic orgasms, which they use to rob banks and say ludicrous lines like "Jon..is your dick glowing" and still have it be insightful, relatable and laugh-out-loud funny? God, I don't know but clearly Matt Fraction is one dangerous bastard!

15) Edison Rex by Chris Roberson and Dennis Culver (Monkey Brain)

We've seen a lot of faux-Superman stories over time, we've even seen a few faux-Superman stories where the faux-Lex Luthor vanquishes his foe but none have been done with more heart, inventiveness and, yes, wit then Robertson and Culver's Edison Rex.

14) Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)

It's a character-driven fantasy story that's light on the exposition and heavy on the satire, kinda like early Cerebus only with four homicidal female leads ("Take that, Dave Sim!"). Rat Queens manages to be both gory (sensitive eyes be doubly-warned) and funny ("Come on! Candy is awesome..." says the blonde, lesbian Smidgen who's packed the rations for the quest).

13)  East of West by Jonathon Hickman Nick Dragotta (Image Comics)

Jonathon Hickman is insane and we are all the beneficiaries of his madness. Whether it's the historical-disemboweling of the scientists involved in The Manhattan Project, imagining a religious war that follows the return of a deity in God is Dead or the sci-fi western about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that is the fucked-up East of West, Hickman and his allies have spent the year delivering the mad goods.

12) The Fifth Beatle by Vivek Tiwary , Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker (Dark Horse)

A landmark work that acts a political statement on the right of people to love whoever they want and an argument for the importance of the men and women who love the music enough to work out of the spotlight. Sure, there are some moments where the dialogue grows awkward (in that way they did in Walk the Line or Ray) but in those moments Robinson and Baker's inspired art carries the story.

11) The Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber (Marvel Comics)

Sure a comic done from the villain's point of view has been done before but never with the piercing wit and attention to small detail that Spencer and Lieber bring to this title. If Elmore Leonard had ever written a superhero comic, this would be it!

#10- #1 coming in the New Year

 WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE COMICS?

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE COMICS OF 2013?

WE LIVE AND DIE BY FEEDBACK HERE, SO PLEASE SAY YOUR PIECE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!


Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter