Other Projects - An Update

Hi folks,

Just a quick update to let you know about something else I'm working on at the moment.

I've teamed up with the guys over at Weekly Geek Speak to do some comics blogging in areas slightly beyond the world of Marvel UK. The first of which can be found over here.

For those unaware, Weekly Geek Speak focuses on Movies, TV, Comics and Gaming. They Blog, they sketch, they have a weekly podcast. They're good guys. Go check them out.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean that this place will get neglected. Work has been a bit demanding recently, leaving me with a lot less time at the weekends to get stuff together. But things will be returning to business as usual in the next couple of weeks. So keep an eye out here, or on Twitter.

Back soon

Mark

Radio Silence for a While

Hi folks,

You've no doubt noticed that the Blog has been a bit quiet of late. While I've still been tweeting periodically the actual content here has been somewhat sporadic.

As many of you will know around this time last year I was diagnosed with Cancer in one of my kidneys. I had some surgery, which went well, and then began on a period of chemotherapy. That took more out of me than I expected. There's a good few Blog post drafts on here that got started, but just never got finished off. I continued to work throughout that chemotherapy, and often at the end of a day I just didn't have the energy to finish off a post I started, sadly. So while I did have things to say on subjects like S.T.R.I.K.E. appearing in Fear Itself, the cancellation of Alpha Flight or Captain Britain joining the Secret Avengers they've gone unsaid.

For now, anyway.

Unfortunately, later on today, I shall be going back into hospital. I've got to have a bit more surgery, sadly. There's couple of leftover bits of cancer, tiny little things, which grew very slightly despite the chemotherapy. They need removing. I'll then be embarking on six months worth of more aggressive chemotherapy in order to finally clear this out of my system.

Hopefully by September/October time everything will be returning to normal.

For the next week I'll very much be off the radar, in a hospital ward, and without internet access. Which is probably for the best. I don't foresee a combination of me, morphine and the ability to Tweet ending in anything other than trouble... And I'll probably be a little bit quiet for a while afterwards.

In the meantime, if you're curious about my progress, I'm sure that (and I'm very proud to now be calling her my Wife :) ) @need_a_username will post the odd update about me on Twitter.

It's going to be another tough year. But by the end of it I'm sure it will all be worthwhile.

Until the Next Time...

Mark (The Sword is Drawn)

Moonlighting...

Quick Plug Time...

I've been a little busy this past week (Hence no update on here) but I was very kindly asked to do a few mini reviews for the Forbidden Planet International Blog . Not for anything Marvel related, but actually for titles from the Distinguished Competition, and their New 52 relaunch.

Yes. I do actually read books outside of Marvel. I'm very sorry if this shocks some of you... :)

So, if you're in any way interested to hear my thoughts on the relaunches of Stormwatch, Action Comics or Justice League International then you could do a lot worse than hopping over to their site right now.

Thanks very much.

Mark

(Sword)

On the subject of Radio Silence

Dear reader,

You are no doubt concerned over the lack of recent output from online Marvel UK Fan Blog 'It Came From Darkmoor'. Maybe you have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms - such as a need to explain the concept of Knights of Pendragon to total strangers, end all your sentences with a Death's Head "Yes?", or waking from a tormented sleep, screaming out about the oncoming 'Battle Tide'.

I feel for you.

At present I've kind of had to hold fire with the Blog due to having been cut off from my longboxes, and through spending most of my evenings and weekends packing, for an impeding house move. A move which has not been going well. I almost ended up homeless last week due to it not going well. Luckily I have an understanding lettings agency...

As a result, updates will be a lot less frequent until I actually bloody MOVE. Keep an eye out, you might spot one, now and then.

In the meantime, my Twitter feed will remain active, and you will be able to find my on Comic Book Resources' Forum and at Millarworld.

Thanks for your continued support.

Speeak soon.

Mark Roberts

The Sword is Drawn

A beginning

Hi there. 

This is a new blog, so I’m sure that if you’ve stumbled upon it you have the usual legitimate questions.

What’s the remit? Who the hell am I? Why have I started it up? Possibly what the hell is Darkmoor, anyway? Etc...

Well, to introduce myself, my name is Mark Roberts, and I'm a comics enthusiast from the UK. Many regular posters to forums such as Comixfan and Comic Book Resources will know me better as The Sword is Drawn - my long time username, pilfered from the title of the graphic novel which introduced Marvel's first British superteam, Excalibur.

A while back a few regular posters out there suggested that I aught to start up a blog (I suspect partially to stop me from posting so much Excalibur-related piffle on said messageboards.) where I could stack up my ideas. I wasn't immediately sure. I toyed with it for a while. This is what I eventually settled on.

For those who don't know, Darkmoor is a fictitious area of moorland in Marvel's Britain. There's not a lot out there - a Research Centre where a student period Brian Braddock once worked and a castle which Dark Angel used for a while - but its real significance in terms of Marvel UK is that it was the setting for the first British originated Marvel material - 1976's Captain Britain Weekly #1. It was the place where Brian Braddock first stepped into the stone circle, and was asked to make his choice of two artefacts - the Sword or the Amulet - and became Captain Britain.

But that's a blog for another day...

The thing is, I wasn't even born when Marvel UK began publishing its own stuff, in '76. I was three years late for that. But in some strange fashion I can't truly get it out of my head. I read Marvel's UK titles as a kid - Transformers, Thundercats, Death's Head and as many US reprints of X-Men as I could find. US market comics were harder to get your hands on in the UK back in the 80s. Despite now being 28 (and probably by rights I should know better by now) I find myself still caring for the characters from the UK corner of Marvel's universe - sometimes feeling the need to explain them in detail. The daft thing is that many of them weren't even that great. Some were just plain better as concepts than the material they appeared in. But even at their patchiest the bottom line is that Marvel UK was ours. Made here in blighty, giving us a tiny foothold in Marvel’s world, and that was something to be proud of.

Sure, the Marvel UK imprint closed down in the mid-90s, but despite a gap of more than a decade I still find myself thinking about what stories could or should have happened in the years since then. What happened to the characters and the places? Why didn't we see them again? Is Death's Head still lost in space, having fragmented conversations with his other personalities? Does Motormouth still have a potty-mouth? Did Dark Guard ever end?

Who can say? Maybe we'll find out someday. Maybe not.

It has always disappointed me that the mainstream comic book industry in the UK has somewhat dwindled since Marvel UK folded. Sure, we still have 2000 AD, Doctor Who Magazine and a strong indie scene, but the bulk of what lines the newsagent's shelves is a US reprint. And yet, when you think of some of the biggest current and recent names in the American comic book industry? Mark Millar, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Peter Milligan, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, Mike Carey, Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch...

Yeah, they're all British.

So what went wrong?

When I ask that question on primarily US market messageboards I usually get the same dry answer - 'Because nobody gives a %^&* about UK based stories or characters'.

Maybe some people actually believe that, but when I think back over the last year or so Marvel alone have put out a number UK based stories. From Christos Gage's Union Jack series, to New Excalibur, to Paul Cornell's Wisdom series. Heck, even Ed Brubaker's Captain America (And lets be fair you don't get a much more American character than Cap) spent an arc in London last year, in the storyline 21st Century Blitz.

2008 will bring us a new ClanDestine series from Alan Davis and a new incarnation of Excalibur (Back to the original name, without the 'New' tag) from Paul Cornell.

If nobody gives a %^&* then how come there's so much going on out there? It's like a mini-renaissance for British characters in Marvel, right now. And I'm loving it.

And so that's what this blog is going to be all about. A bit of nostalgia for the past, and seeing where the characters of the past fit into modern Marvel. It's a place to help me keep track of that, and hopefully you'll get something out of it, too.

So please, Enjoy! And let me know what you think.

Mark (The Sword is Drawn).