Oddly enough, I’ve never heard an entire song by Gorillaz
typed for your pleasure on 11 February 2008, at 7.49 pmSdtrk: ‘Alright, already’ by Combustible Edison
Being as that I’m a reasonably large fan of the comic-artist stylings of Jamie ‘The Bicycle King of Worthing‘ Hewlett, you know what gets on my wick? I’ve got all of the Tank girl trade paperbacks available (except for ‘Tank girl: Apocalypse!’ as that was shite), and I even have a copy of the rare ‘Hewligan’s haircut‘ in my library, which I proudly display whenever dignitaries or heads of state pop round Deafening silence Plus. However, the one thing I desperately need a trade paperback of would be his series ‘Get the Freebies!’ which ran in the UK fashion/music/style mag THE FACE back during the late Nineties.
The premise of the series was typical The Hewll: gay Buddhist kung-fu expert Terry Phoo and his partner Whitey Action, a former child star who has her breast development stunted by hormone use, work for the police in order to capture the Freebies gang, which is comprised of Burk, a dumb purple gorilla; a fey midget with hooves for feet whose name I can’t remember; and Marlon, their leader who has a basketball for a head. They drive round in Matchbox cars, Whitey’s main gimmick are her utility pants, which are a bottomless pair of knickers which hold her weapons and… anything at all, really, and in the first issue, the Freebies get killed. But that doesn’t stop them from reappearing in the rest of the series! YES. HEWLETT.
What shags me off worse is that there actually is a trade paperback for Get the Freebies! But the bastard’s in Spanish. DAMNIT *slams fist on table*
However, there might well be a live-action television series. The Devil, you say.
Car chases, kung-fu and comedy come together in the wonderfully warped world of Phoo Action – an offbeat 60-minute drama special for BBC Three.
Based on characters created by Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz, Tank Girl) for The Face comic strip Get The Freebies, Phoo Action is set in 2012, when London is in the grip of mutant criminals, The Freebies.
Only Terry Phoo, a hapless Buddhist kung-fu cop, and unruly teenage heroine Whitey Action, the daughter of Police Chief Benjamin Benson, can save the nation.
Together they form an unlikely but effective crime-fighting team who bring together chaos and comedy, mischief and mayhem, to become heroes for a future generation in the face of Britain’s super-vile, super-famous mutated criminals.
taken from this site
Going by the trailer on the above-linked Myspace page, the pilot looks rather Sid and Marty Krofft-esque, which fits, and would probably be the only proper way to translate something like that into three dimensions. Also, it’s reassuring to see that it’s directed by Euros Lyn, who was in the director’s chair for one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, ‘The girl in the fireplace’. Huh! And HOLY CRAPS IT’S ON BBC THREE THIS TUESDAY NIGHT AT 9PM.
As long as it’s nothing like that hideous Tank girl movie, there’ll be no need for that massacre. Err, not that I was planning one, of course
Technorati tags: Jamie Hewlett, Tank girl, Get the Freebies!, Phoo Action, Doctor Who, BBC Three, Sid and Marty Krofft, Worthing
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February 11th, 2008 at 10.02 pm
-they drive around in Matchbook cars??? :-O
How do they fit in? The mind boggles, but then mine does easily LOL
Being culturally unconnected I’ve only heard of the Gorillaz, but what I heard was they weren’t half-bad 😛
But what do I know?
And if Tank Girl was live-action rather than animated it would be sure to suck. As much as I love Death Note I am staying FAR away from the LA flicks.
OTOH, I just watched “Air -the Movie” (animated by Toei, a somewhat lesser-quality studio than Kyoto Animation which did the Air TV series), and it was pretty damn good. If you like lovely heart-wrenching mystery stories, anyway…
Hope you and the Missus are well and happy and all in good repair,
PBS & the Fair Maidens
February 12th, 2008 at 2.03 am
Do you enjoy other graphic novel series too? I am a big fan of the Sandman series. I like the Cerebus series too though I haven’t read much of that series…
February 12th, 2008 at 6.47 am
PBShelley: Air the movie?!?!?!?!
*googles* THEY DID A MOVIE! 😮
ZOMG!I havn’t watched that in years *skips off to youtube*
Davecat:BBC3 scares me, have you seen those weird slug things they advertise with.
their scary :S
Hyde
X
February 12th, 2008 at 8.27 pm
Jeez, I am still stuck at R.Crumb ….keep on truckin!
Can you get Beeb 3 OK ? but then I guess you can get it on the WWW
February 13th, 2008 at 4.13 am
PBS and Lily and Eden and Pennie –
Yes, Matchbox cars! I neglected to mention they’re like normal-sized. Otherwise that would be awkward, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility for The Hewll. 🙂 I mean, Hewligan’s Haircut was about a bloke who reached an alternate reality through a hole in his hair. Yes, a hole in his hair. I blame Nineties-era Britpop for his mania! And alcohol.
You should see the Death note live-action fillums, as they’re not entirely repellent! Like most manga-to-anime-to-film adaptations, it has its own take on the storyline. It’s fundamentally the same, yet slightly different. But worth watching! Although I’ve still not seen the second one yet…
And thanks for inadvertently reminding me; I have to pick up the ’13th volume’ of Death note, which is like an encyclopaedia/guidebook for the series…
Here’s hoping you and your lasses are doing well! Be sure to rub Pennie’s tummy for us. 🙂
Hi Regina –
Like most subjects, my tastes in trade paperbacks are flailingly obscure. I can’t help it! I loved Grant Morrison’s Sebastian O, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series of course, Watchmen, Blue Monday and Scooter girl by Chynna Clugston-Major, err… did I say Watchmen? Then there’s a number of things I’ve read but can’t justify buying, like Preacher, Kingdom come, the first couple of volumes of Transmetropolitan, pretty much anything by Chris Ware, etc. I’m usually loading up on manga, to be honest, like Akira, Death note, Monster, Exaxxion — but then again, there’s several other titles that I’d like to get into, but I’m running out of apartment space…
I’ve read very little Sandman — I read an early compilation or two — and I’ve heard many good and heady things about Cerebus. Dave Sim certainly achieved his target, and you have to appreciate his tenacity! Have any manga series struck your fancy?
And thanks for popping round ‘Shouting etc etc’, of course. 🙂
Hyde-chan
Slug-things? I cannot say I’ve seen those! To be honest, I don’t actually watch telly, I just download the shows that I think are ace, and buy them on DVD if I think they’re really ace…
Rentell –
…which kinda answers your second question. 🙂
Have you seen the documentary about Robert Crumb’s life, called, well, ‘Crumb’? It’s a stunning portrait of him, his family, friends and influences. And when I say ‘stunning’, I mean that in the context of ‘you will watch parts of the film with your jaw agape and your eyes agoggle, as if you’d been stunned with a mallet’. It’s out there. But then, he’s out there, as you know…
February 13th, 2008 at 4.47 am
Hi DC and the ever-luverly Sidore-chan,
God, I have enough trouble with the anime, let alone any more manga! In fact the only manga I have are the Rozen Maiden series, but stopped when I recognized yet another financial sinkhole LOL But black and white artwork isn’t really my thing; too hard for me to tell figures apart. Plus, I like lots of well-done coloring 😛
And based on your rec I guess I will try to watch the Death Note LA fillums… but I’ve got the anime “look” for the characters so embedded in my mind that I don’t know how the shock of seeing actual Japanese actors portraying characters I’ve grown to know so well will be. I mean, Misa-chan just HAS to be a blonde!!! Pretty archetypal, aside from the “eyes” thing 😉
What an amazing series, and so well-written! Never have seen such cat-and-mousing done so well.
And speaking of, consider Pennie’s tummy rubbed but she bites me when I do that LOL
Maybe that means she likes it 😉
Regina-
I’m a HUGE Sandman fan; Neil Gaiman’s my favorite writer in fact! I’ve read LOTS of stories, and The Sandman is my favorite epic. The ending was so emotionally and wonderfully told. Hated to see it end, but it had to…
I’ve got the comics, the softcover graphic novels, the HARDCOVER graphic novels (paid $80 for the leather-bound “Season of Mists”!), and have both “Absolute Sandman” volumes, all of these sitting between my bookend statues of Morpheus and Daniel.
I’ll (obviously) buy anything connected to it! Love Alan Moore as well.
I was also a big Cerebus fan but dropped out of comic collecting when it got just too expensive. Have all the early issues up to around 150 or so; another great, exceptional, and unique series.
I admire your good taste 😉
And Ray, I still have my old Zaps and quite a few Undergrounds that featured R. Crumb, but not a whole lot. Still must see the documentary; I’ve heard it is really good!
Cheers,
PBS and the etcs
February 13th, 2008 at 4.37 pm
http://static.flickr.com/44/119979292_be6a0eef22_o.jpg
Scary slug things!!!!!
Hyde
X
February 14th, 2008 at 7.01 am
O Miss Hyde! How could I have missed your comment on Air the Movie??? Apologies! It’s not quite as good as the series, but well worth watching if you’re a fan. There are a couple of twists, since it’s Toei’s version as opposed to Kyoto Animation’s, and the style is a little different, but it’s such a lovely and heart-wrenching story in both cases that you can’t help but love both. I’m a HUGE Air and Kanon (2006 version) fan; they’re both untouchable, incomparable stories that I love dearly. (*whispers* You can go to Nihonomaru.com to find the episodes; you may have to register but it’s well worth it! TONS of anime :-))
Those two and Elfen Lied are The Top, for me. I’ve got other favorites, to be sure, but these stories simply excel at grabbing your heart and not letting go 😀
Regards and Happy Viewing,
PBS & friends
February 15th, 2008 at 4.16 pm
Davecat: I have not been introduced to any manga, but I am open to reading some. Any suggestions for a manga newbie? 🙂
PB Shelley: I need to add to my Sandman collection extensively. Good to meet another Sandman fan. 🙂
February 17th, 2008 at 9.55 pm
Hyde-chan –
Wow, that looks… err, dated. If BBC 3 didn’t hop in a time machine and go straight to the Nineties for that slug design, I’ll eat my hat.
(Re)Gina –
Errm, manga suggestions? Well, Death note by writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata is highly recommended. It’s a rather intriguing tale of Light Yagami, a very bright and cunning high school student who gains, through the ability of a notebook misplaced by a Death God, the power to take the life of pretty much anyone he chooses by writing their name in said notebook. After he starts killing off criminals in the name of realigning society’s morals, he attracts the attention of the FBI, who send in a socially awkward savant to hunt him down. The series is only 12 volumes; there’s a bit toward the middle that, to me, lessens the enjoyment of the series, but overall, it will, as the kids say, grip your shit. It’s Davecat and PB Shelley Approved! 🙂
Also noteworthy: Monster, by Naoki Urasawa. An outstanding Japanese neurologist living in Germany risks his career to save the life of a young boy with a gunshot wound to the head, and in doing so, essentially ruins everything for everyone everywhere. It may not sound like much initially, but the story’s ridiculously intense. SPOILER: _____ is a master manipulator, and quite possibly schizophrenic. I say no more!
What else? I quite like the zany adventure aspect of Eiichiro Oda’s One piece, but it’s one of those series that’ll probably be going on for a number of years (currently 16 volumes of the 48 have been translated into English), and I haven’t got that kind of shelf space; same goes for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. But I can definitely recommend the six-volume series Doll, by Mitsukazu Mihara, which would be a cluster of stories set in the near-future that centre round Organiks and their interactions with lifelike Synthetiks called, naturally, Dolls.
That should set you right for a while. Your wallet, however, may not forgive you. 🙂
February 19th, 2008 at 6.15 pm
Hi Gina,
Depending upon your financial considerations, I’d suggest getting the Absolute Sandman series. They’re oversized, re-colored collections of the entire series with lots of extras, nicely hardbound and Absolute-ly beautiful! Amazon has them for about $62 per volume; there are already two out and the third will come out June 10th. I believe that the fourth and last volume will ship around Christmas, but don’t quote me on that 😛
And the Death Note manga has to be a good read if it’s anything like the anime, and it is 🙂 I just watched DVD 2 last night and the creative team worked closely with the manga creators to ensure compatibility between both, while being given the chance to put their own spin on it. And what a spin; that’s what your head will be doing in keeping up with the intense cat-and-mouse game between Light and L. This is one of the few manga that I’ll be getting; I’ll even spring for a boxed set assuming there is one. Er… once I get some money that is 😛
DC, Monster is another title I’ve been interested in; I was put off by the number of episodes though, over 70 :O -So much for owning the series *stomps on calculator* BTW, the manga is the number 1 rated title at Anime News Network (and Death Note is #6)! Hm… this bears looking into…
Doll is another unique and well-regarded story from what I’ve seen, haven’t sprung for it yet though but certainly will!
Regards,
PBS, Lily, and Eden, and Pennie says “Meow!”
February 20th, 2008 at 10.00 am
PBShelly & Co;
I am currently attempting to download that movie now my my computer hates me. *kicks*
February 20th, 2008 at 6.37 pm
Miss Hyde,
That’s great! Glad you found it! Here’s a little secret (well, kind of LOL) site I found to direct-download anime, mostly via Megaupload; I don’t know whether they have Air the Movie though. LOTS of stuff there *hint hint* ! It’s at nihonomaru.com, probably have to register, but it’s worth it (and I HATE regsitering at sites).
Enjoy the flick and as you know, have a box of hankies nearby 😉
PBS and so on