Who's Who in the CBU 2008

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

The Jester Awards 2007 - Part Two

By Regie Rigby

Well hello again my foolish friends, and welcome back to the Jester Awards 2007!

Yeah, I know – two columns in two days! Don’t get excited – it’s unlikely to happen again before this time next year…

We have already seen the Jester “What were they thinking?!” award and “Most Welcome Return of a Character to their own book” Jester. Now we’re getting to the some of the real big awards.

It’s time, Ladies and Gentlemen, to announce the Jester for the ”Best Original Graphic Novel 2007”. I confess, that having unaccountably failed to give this award to the unutterably stunning Pride of Baghdad last year, I was sorely tempted to use the release of the softcover edition of this astounding piece of work as an excuse to bend the rules and give the lions the prize they so richly deserve this time around.

That would be cheating though. The softcover of Pride wasn’t original this year. Besides, at the end of the day there can really be only one nominee for the title of “Best OGN 2007”. Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland hit the bookshops (and that’s right kiddies, I said bookshops - this is one comic that’s available to real people) back in April. It’s already on its third printing. That ladies and gentlemen is a truly truly impressive achievement.

If that was all there was to it, that would be enough to merit this award. But there is so much more to Alice in Sunderland than that. This massive hardback tome is like no other comic I have ever read. Talbot plays with all manner of storytelling telling techniques, dancing playing with the reader in all manner of clever post-modern ways without ever appearing to be pretentious or confusing.

Oh, and it’s also absolutely beautiful to look at.

In what is very nearly a quarter of a century of comics reading I have simply never, ever seen anything this good, and frankly I don’t expect to see anything as good as this in the future.

Talbot was also in the running for the “Best Artist” Jester Award this year, also for Alice in Sunderland. I instituted a rule a while ago not to give people more than one award per year though – I always hate when the same movie wins just about everything at the Oscars, and I don’t want that kind of thing happening in my sandbox.

So, however deserving he might be (and to be honest if he were eligible I can’t see there being anyone to beat him – be as good as him maybe, but not beat him) Talbot’s out of the running. There are a lot of artists who have impressed me this year, but nobody has really stood out for me in terms of interior art.

There has however been one artist whose work on covers has consistently been one of the high points of my comics reading month, every month this year. Seriously, whoever it was that decided to give Adam Hughes a call when they wanted an artist to do the covers for Catwoman deserves a medal. And a raise.

Seriously. If by some strange chance you’re not reading Catwoman at the moment (in which case you’re pretty much deserving of a “What were you thinking?!” Jester of your very own…) go and look at some examples – you’ll see what I mean! Hughes has put together some of the most beautiful comics covers I have ever seen. Ask my comics dealer – I don’t think I’ve seen any of his covers and not just gone “WOW!”

I’m not normally much of a one for covers. For me they’re just the wrapper the story comes in. But these covers are different. These covers reach out across the floor of the comics store and grab you by the eyeballs. These are images that just make you look at them. I tell you – if I could buy every single cover as a poster, I would. I suspect my wife wouldn’t let me put them all on the wall, but I’d buy them anyway.

So, I know what you’re thinking. If Adam Hughes wins the “Best Artist” Jester, who gets the “Best Writer” award?

Well you know what?

I’ll tell you in part three - be here, January the second 2008 to start the New Year off with a bang!