Transformers Animated Arrives At Titan

To coincide with the new Transformers Animated television show Titan are publishing a comic – showcasing everyone’s favourite Autobots and Decepticons duking it out for supremacy on Earth, in a future Detroit.

We are launching the new title on the 23rd October, and the regular TRANSFORMERS Comic: UK, will continue to run in it’s current format, published every four weeks.

Find out more about our new comic here.

Presumably Hasbro have created the television show to keep the new generation of fans sated after the Transformers 2007 film, and to keep the fanboys bitching until the sequel – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Transformers Animated has been on NickToons since March this year, and is rumoured to be available on a terrestrial channel in the UK in the New Year.

The ‘bots have been given a American anime makeover to appeal to their audiences – in this case 5 – 10 year old boys. However, the ‘everyman’ of the show is in fact a little girl called Sari Samdaq, who just happens to have one of those fiendishly gifted inventor fathers. Sari finds herself the unofficial ambassador to the Autobots, all at the grand old age of eight years.

Easily the coolest Autobot is Bulkhead, a huge gentle giant of a machine who masquerades as a SWAT van. Bulkhead is a one man demolition team, which is just as well with the deadly Decepticons around to cause trouble on Earth.

TRIVIA For the movie geeks among you – you may be interested to know that none other than Lance Henriksen of Aliens fame is providing the voice talents for the bounty hunting ‘bot called Lockdown.

Naturally, there is a whole new range of toys to accompany the show and I was lucky enough to get a freebie. Courtesy of our friends at Hasbro I am the proud owner of the Autobot, Prowl. Prowl is a sleek ninja/ commando type ‘bot, who transforms into a motorcycle.



Check out this site for all the official news that’s fit to print (figuratively speaking) on Transformers Animated.

http://www.transformersanimated.com/

Little Kid in Prague – Part Three

Part three of Little Kid’s adventures in the Czech Republic, with a fine looking Dame in a bid to see Tom Waits.

La Boutique
Having navigated my way around the chaotic Czech ticket ordering website and procured us two tickets to see Tom Waits, the Dame went on to secure us accommodation – just round the corner from the Staropramen factory. Staropramen is a Czech lager for those of you thinking ‘Ooh, that sounds nasty’.

After our decidedly stress free flight to the Czech Republic we arrived at La Boutique to find a good sized room, with a huge bed and good décor. Admittedly La Boutique only really provides bed and breakfast, but this was a serious cut above any bleak, British, seaside B & B.

Breakfast was served in the basement, which features a steep staircase, made more exciting by the lack of handrail. To add to the excitement two wide screen televisions beam a German music channel to the bleary eyed patrons. If you’re a fan of 80s and 90s pop and some highly entertaining European music you’ll be right at home here.

The breakfast on show was nothing particular to write home about, but it wasn’t bad either. Arranged in a buffet style, with a few options to choose from – although eating tiny hot dog frankfurters for breakfast is a little unusual. And, of course if you’re on a budget you can load up on the complimentary breakfast and have a light lunch.

A word of warning though, La Boutique is a fair distance away from most of the tourist spots, so unless you have cash for taxis, or enjoy walking along the river for 10-15 minutes to and from the center of Prague, you might want to find something closer in.

You can read more about La Boutique here and here.

Find out part one of this triptych here, and part two here.

Richard Morgan – Book Review

The Steel Remains
Richard Morgan
Hardback

Ringil ‘Angel eyes’ is living off of old tales and slowly running to fat in some sleepy town of the League. All the while kir-Archeth Indamaninarmal serves an Empire she nether cares for or believes in. And then there is Egar of the steppe nomads, who would run his tribe properly if he could just stop longing to be away to the south.

Richard Morgan’s first foray in to fantasy avoids many of the worn clichés and dull tropes of the genre. Clearly Morgan isn’t afraid to take risks – this was never going to be the usual ‘orphan-with-a-destiny’ high fantasy fare. The characters are well drawn and detailed and come complete with drug habits, taboo breaking sex lives and shady pasts. Therefore it is a credit to Morgan he makes such ‘warts-and-all’ characters with all their attendant flaws so engaging, and his knack for dialogue and camaraderie so believable. And of course no Richard Morgan novel would be complete without its unflinching, bone-jarring depictions of violence.

However, for all of the adrenaline soaked combat there is a certain element of waiting for the reader around the middle of the book as the plot draws onwards and it takes too long to draw the three main characters together. This is clearly the first part of a larger work, rather than a story in its own right, which is disappointing after the complete individual nature of the Takeshi Kovacs novels.

That said Morgan revels in (and excels at) world building, and The Steel Remains is no exception, providing an exciting and often dangerous backdrop that is as fascinating as it is corrupt.

Fans of character driven, low-fantasy rejoice. Richard Morgan takes to the genre easily and rewards his readers with blood, sweat, tears and black humour.

8 /10

Hellboy II - Film Review

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
Rating: 12A
Running Time: 122 minutes

An ancient and largely forgotten truce between mankind and the elves is about to be shattered when a disenfranchised exile Prince attempts to raise an indestructible, arcane, clockwork army. In response to this threat the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence send in their finest – namely, Hellboy.

Hellboy II is yet another comic book movie that is jostling for attention among this summer’s blockbusters, and by that score it fulfills certain criteria ably: Interesting set pieces, gorgeous character design, satisfying confrontations and solid special effects make this film worth the price of admission.

What will divide audiences is the uneven tone of the film that veers from gritty comic book darkness to odd rom-com type shenanigans. In an effort to portray Hellboy and his colleagues at the B.P.R.D as more than just two-dimensional superheroes, the film stumbles into rather uninteresting personal dramas. Another weak link is Danny Elfman’s score, which is largely unremarkable and at times seriously cliché with its choirs whining away at moments of high emotion.

Hellboy II is at its best when the B.P.R.D are doing what they do best, investigating the weird and wonderful (And del Toro provides both in abundance) and kicking ass. The market scene is a wonderful example of the director’s vibrant and teeming imagination.

Ron Perlman, undoubtedly, was born to play Hellboy and as such steals every scene he is in. Luke Goss trained for seven months with spears and swords in preparation, and is he suitably impressive as Prince Nuada, although the script and his rather sparse performance conspire to make him a slightly uncharismatic villain.

All in all Hellboy II is a worth follow up to its predecessor, but tries too hard to be funny, rather than have the courage to be an all out action film.

My Week In Comics

Another exclusive scoop for You Look Like A little Kid With A Beard. Yes that’s right, the cover art for TRANSFORMERS Comic: UK Issue #15!

The cover for issue #15 was drawn and inked by Jon Davis-Hunt of 2000AD fame. Bringing the colours once again is Jason Cardy, who is a firm favourite at Titan Towers with his eye popping work. Issue #15 is on sale 15th August in the UK.

You can catch more of Jon Davis-Hunt’s work when he comes back for Issue #17. In the meantime you can sate your needs for his clean style and gritty characters here.

TEAM TITAN 2!
Our genius-in-residence Andrew James (Editor of Star Wars Comic, Futurama Comic) has once again turned his wit, and his pencil, on the comic staff of Titan. You can find the first one of these comic strips on Facebook here, or on my previous post here


Aside from becoming a comic book character for the second time, I’ve not much else to report other than Scott Pilgrim is awesome, go out and buy it now! I must admit to feeling a twinge of advancing decrepitude as I read about the (slightly surreal) adventures of a group of 23 year olds, but roll with it. It’s all good.

Be sure to look us up at the following URLs if you’re in to the whole Social Networking thing:

myspace.com/teamtitanuk

www.bebo.com/TeamTitanUK

facebook.com/group.php?gid=22764146890

Little Kid in Prague - Part Two

Here is the second part of my adventure in Prague, accompanying the Dame to see Tom Waits.

Here are another two locales we discovered whilst walking the cobbled streets of the Czech Republic’s capital city:

Astrological Clock Tower

The Clock Tower in the old town square may not be the special effects laden monster you might hope for, but it is steeped in history. When the hour strikes two doors open and the Disciples file past looking gloomy. Further down the tower Death himself rings his bell, to remind you of your mortality. Interestingly enough Death occupies a similar spot on the clock to a Turkish looking fellow (resplendent in his green turban) and a Jew, who has since been renamed as simply, ‘Greed’. To finish the line up off is a chap looking in a mirror – depicting vanity. Clearly the Bohemians weren’t shy about making their public enemies, er, public.
Political correctness aside, it is said the man who designed the tower and clock mechanism has his eyes gouged out to prevent him making another similar one – now that’s copyright! The engineer then literally threw a spanner in the works and died shortly after.
The clock is nothing short of incredible, with its zodiac symbols, a separate band for Italian time. Who said history was boring eh?

Bar Zombie

And so it was that the Dame and myself found our selves at a loose end on a Saturday night. We're not the type to hit the Discothèque, we needed to find something that would appeal to our refined (read obscure) musical tastes. And so fate led us to Bar Zombie, located down an alleyway from Wenceslas Square. Although modest in décor, we felt right at home on the battered leather couches – and promptly went to work on some rather strong Mohitos. It’s not everyday you find a jukebox that features Faith No More, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana (to name just some) so we had a good time racking up a playlist, and then feeling very smug as lots of our favourite songs came on.

The only downside of Bar Zombie was the staffing levels – just the one barman.

Find out what else I got up to next week, or read about Little Kid In Prague – Part One here.