And now... the Cocktails.

Hullo again,

Some of you will remember that at New Years' I promised to post up some photos of some of our mighty Marvel UK Cocktails. It was fully my intention to have these posted up within the first week of 2009. Sadly, there were a few technical complications in getting that done. Probably Resolution #1 for 2009 should be 'Buy more reliable Tech'.

Resolution #2 should also probably be not to drink enough of said cocktails that I believe it's a really great idea to pose for a photo with my Little Black Book of Cocktails...



Yeah. You won't be seeing any more of those. There were photos taken across the evening, but the problem with road-testing all of these wondrous creations was that having started around 6pm by the time I reached 10pm I was rather ridiculously inebriated. And while I had thought it would be a great idea to document the evening in photo detail, at the time, this was clearly the expressed wishes of a drunken lunatic.

Sober Mark has right of veto.

I just thank God I didn't Blog while drunk...

Anyway, here in their many multi-coloured glories are some of the It Came From Darkmoor Marvel UK Cocktails.

First up, The Dragon's Claw:



This one actually tastes quite sweet. It's the banana Bols to blame for that. But after taking this photo we really didn't think we'd done justice in showing just how GREEN it really is. So, enter a makeshift cyclorama (That's my theatre roots showing...) and we get a clearer picture:



Now that's suitably green. I finally picked up my copy of the Dragon's Claws trade of Christmas. I'm on a real kick for that series, right now. And for Death's Head, too. Speaking of which:



One Death's Head. I'm sure you'll agree that when I said it looked like fluid directly leached from out of a cyborg, I wasn't far wrong...

And here's a shot 'As close to a Death's Head without your eyes getting wet'.



Why the hell I insisted in taking this photo, I don't know. Hannah was doing most of these (Hence the lack of quite so much blur) but this is one I insisted doing myself!

And of course one Death's Head deserves another...



And, of course, a Death's Head 3.0. For the ladies.



I've just realised that photo how difficult it is to display scale in that last one. I assure you it IS a half pint (Plastic) glass.

And now onto the Doctor Who themed Sonic Screwdriver. Han's been doing this one for a couple of years. It really is alarmingly blue:



But again this photo didn't really do it justice. So a second attempt was in order:



Alarming, huh? Almost radioactive in appearance.

Closer to the other end of the spectrum, in terms of colour, we have the Black Axe.



This one again is in a half pint, due to the amount of spirits in it. It's certainly not unpleasant. But has an initial kick to it not uncommon with the flavour of accidentally consuming some of your other half's somebody hairspray as it hangs in the air, if not mixed well.

Otherwise, it's quite sound. I'm a great believer in the use of Blavod. Contrary to popular belief it does not taste of aniseed or siumilar. It's colouring is black but it does not have any effect on the flavour, which is very much that of a clean crisp taste of vodka.

One more from the list for you:



Now this is a Dark Angel. But dear god, we made several attempts at trying to get this on camera. Basically, the dash of grenadine creates a swirly of deeper red within the orange of the WKD. But by the time we had the camera ready, it had kind of sunk in. Each time.

This was the nearest we got, in this kind of sunrise effect. You'll have to take our word for it.

These two other cocktails were not on the list:

This was Hannah's 'Skrull Invasion' as a tribute to Paul Cornell's The Guns of Avalon storyline in Captain Britain and MI13.



It was actually quite a clever and potent mix of spirits from what I recall, and took forever to get a mix which would actually appear almost entirely undetectable to the eye.

And this was Felicity's 'Tangerine'



Which I believe was buck's fizz based. The problem was, that by the time we'd reached this point of the evening the recipes for these were not jotted down in the book, but elsewhere. So I can't actually tell you with any certainty as to what was in them. I'll try to track those recipes down, and post them up another time.

So that was my New Years'. I hope you all had most excellent New Years' of your own. I know that some of you did attempt a couple of these yourselves, and were inspired to attempt your own also. Please do let me know how those went.

In other news, today is new comics day in America, and we are only hours away from its companion day in the UK. A quick reminder that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's Nova #21 is out. I haven't gone on a lot about this series, I have to admit, but it genuinely is a great read. I'd very much recommend picking the book up if you aren't already. Abnett and Lanning were both very involved with Marvel UK, and the way they made the Marvel Space titles their own over the past couple of years has been great.

And while we're on the subject of books you should be picking up, I was very genuinely serious with my post from the weekend. We're two weeks off CAP WEDNESDAY, the release of Captain Britain & MI13 #10.

Pencil it in the diary. February the 11th 2009.

There's been a lot of positive talk about the book on message boards these past few days. Marvel speaking out about the title, and the promo poster that Newsarama put up last week for #10 has got a few people interested in finding out more, it seems. Which is a great start.

Spread the word, people. The more people who know about the book the better. Don't just go out there spamming message boards - nobody likes that. But strike up a conversation. Get talking about the cast, the stories, the creative team. Strike up a dialogue and make your case. One of the best things about this series has been just how close the fans seem to feel to it. I think that Paul Cornell offering his own blog up as a letters page certainly helps with that.

Pay him a visit at: http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/

I want to find you chatting out there on this here Interweb. Or who knows? You might find me.

Until the next time, folks.

Mark Out.

Party Time! - The It Came From Darkmoor Marvel UK cocktail list...

Greetings!

Well, I hope you all had a very suitably pleasing Christmas. I spent a fair chunk of mine catching up with old friends from my home town and my college days, who I generally only GET to see once a year these days, meeting up in the same old haunts for annual alcohol fuelled nostalgia. I was with my family (At home and at the homes of my extended family) for Christmas and Boxing Day, before getting on a train to visit Hannah's folks' up on Merseyside. A good, if not slightly busy, time all round.

But now New Year's is approaching. For the New Years' Blog this year I thought I'd do something a little bit special. Something which I and my erstwhile assistants began to scheme up while we were down in London earlier this month. We wanted to do something which was festive, but ultimately quite British, with a Marvel UK theme.

Well, we thought, what do the British do (Especially at Christmas) which we do particularly well? Almost too well...? Well, after the EATING we do have a rather strong habit of partaking in the ritual of DRINKING, leading to the inevitable getting state of getting a little bit MERRY.

Come, celebrate with me the noble British art of 'getting plastered' as we unveil...



Right, let's start off with a nice simple Cocktail, with a light green colour and an 80s vibe. We call it a Dragon's Claw. God, how we miss Dragon - The finest veteran retired sports expert that Earth 5555 ever had to offer.

For 1 Dragon's Claw you will need:

1 shot of Banana Bols
1 shot of Blue Bols
1 bottle of orange and vodka based alcopop.

Mix thoroughly until sufficiently green (hence the mix of blue and yellow liqueurs) and serve in a pint glass. Sports padding whilst drinking is optional.


The second drink on the list is a little combination we call a Captain Britain. A Captain Britain combination brings together probably Britain's two finest drinks in one sitting.

For a Captain Britain you will need:

1 pint of Brown House Ale, preferably from a British local brewery, served from a pump - not a tap, at room temperature - not chilled, for a strong crisp flavour free of silliness.

and

2 shots of Scotch as a chaser. A good scotch, mind. An old single malt from a trusted family source.

And no jokes about Brian (Allegedly) being an alcoholic. If your family members kept on dying on you you might be driven to a odd binge drink or two, yourself. But contrary to some people's belief the man DOES know his limits. He's very much a social drinker, under less grief-filled circumstances.

Moving on, we come to a drink which for the Captain's colleague at Military Intelligence, Section 13.

A Pete Wisdom:

In an ideal world Pete too would be represented here by a fine scotch.

But as Wisdom would doubtless be the first to point out this is NOT an ideal world.

Make it a whiskey - But as good a whiskey as you can find , at short notice, in a tough situation. And make sure you give him the whole bottle. It's only fair - he's had tough year. (But for God's sake no ice! - what are you, some kind of pervert!?)

Served best in a slightly dishevelled state, in a government safe house, protecting your lives from all manner of supernatural, extra-terrestrial and occult threats. And that's why we love the cynical bugger.



Here's one for the reckless. We call it a Black Axe. I'm sure you'll see why.

For one Black Axe you will need:

2 shots of Blavod
1 shot of Cointreau
1/2 shot of Campari and Banana
1/2 shot of Malibu
Dash of Lime Cordial

The mixture should then be topped up with Lemonade and served in a half pint glass. This fairly potent combination of spirits should have the desired effect of hitting the drinker very much like a blow from an infeasibly large black axe - some good foot taller than the gentleman wielding it. You have been warned.

Now, Here's a cocktail which Hannah came up with a couple of years ago. It's been a fair while since Marvel parted company with the Doctor Who franchise (More fool them), but thanks to the combined reprinting efforts of Panini and more recently IDW it has not been forgotten.

A Sonic Screwdriver is a twist on a more traditional Screwdriver(The vodka and orange based Cocktail and not a random household tool, that is). To make one you will need:

1 shots of Cointreau
1 shot of Vodka
1 shot of Blue Bols for colour.
And topped up with Lemonade.

Serve it in a pint glass. And if you happen to have a black light with you I'm told it does look rather good under UV.



And here's another one for the more destructive among you. Fancy a Death's Head?

This rather complex drink looks somewhat like it's been directly leached out of a cyborg, and packs a punch somewhat like being hit by one. For 1 Death's Head, you will need...

1/2 shot of Vodka
1/2 shot of Banana Bols
1/2 bottle of vodka and orange based alcopop.
1/2 bottle of vodka and tropical fruit flavoured alcopop.

Topped up with Blue Bols and Grenadine, and served in a pint glass.

I can't guarantee it will leave you with the cold metallic grin of a freelance peace-keeping agent, but if that still isn't enough for you you could always opt for:

A Death's Head II:

For one Death's Head II you will need

1 shot of Vodka
1 shot of Banana Bols
1 bottle of vodka and orange based alcopop.
1 bottle of vodka and tropical fruit flavoured alcopop.
Topped up with Blue Bols and Grenadine.

Served in TWO pint glasses.

You could kinda say it's like a Death's Head. Only a bit more hardcore.


Alternatively, for the less adventurous...

A Death's Head 3.0:

For one Death's Head 3.0 you will need

A dash of Blue Bols
A dash of Grenadine
Topped up with Lemonade
Served in a half pint glass

It looks somewhat reminiscent of a Death's Head but (Sadly) it's not quite as interesting, long term.

And finally:

A Dark Angel:

To make this fiery red-headed cocktail you will need:

1 shot of Gin
1 bottle of WKD Iron Brew
And a Dash of Grenadine.

Serve in a pint glass and curse the fact that while there's a whole big Cosmic Character revival going on at Marvel right now poor Dark Angel hasn't had a chance to be part of it, yet!

Maybe in 2009...


That's your lot, folks. Hope you enjoy that list. But remember, PLEASE drink responsibly. It kind of should go without saying but consuming a combination of some of these cocktails (Heck, A Death's Head II alone) is likely to have some kind of a degenerative effect on you. So please bare this in mind.

We're aiming to have some photos of these beauties up over the next few days. We'll be road testing a few tonight. Keep an eye out for those...

Hope you all have a great New Year. Thanks greatly for your support this year, and here's to 2009 and all the wonders it will bring!

See you on the other side (Of '08).

Mark
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