Attack The Blog

Unfortunately Martin is the one on the right.

I want to use this little blog to encourage folks to check out the site Attackosaur.com

The site is dedicated to the Troma-esque whimsies of the dude pictured above. Mart is a comic book writer, publisher, film-maker, student, and all around good guy (it hurts to type that). 

Mart and I became friends through a mutual love of films and music and a burning desire to actually make our own film. One day on the way back to mine to watch a couple of films, we were having our usual whining session about whatever film we didn't like at the time when we decided that we were being idiots. I mean how could we have the audacity to constantly rip apart other people's work without at least attempting to contribute to the art form? Don't get me wrong, it's okay to criticise the work of others but I was one of those clowns that thought it was okay to constantly talk about the things I didn't like! If your going to criticise others then what the hell, you might as well try and solve the problem you're complaining about. So we figured we'd make the kind of film we'd like to see made.

Making films is hard. It's really quite hard, especially hard if you are a bell-end of a teenager who thinks that zombies should cover any other shortcomings your film may have, if one of those shortcomings is the script you can consider a robo-zombie (yeah we actually wrote that). Needless to say our first attempts were less than stellar but we found something that was a great bit of fun to do and for the last ten years we've made a few short films and lots of incomplete nonsense. Whilst we still haven't made anything I think we can really be proud of, I think over the last couple of films there is a definite improvement and maybe in another ten years we'll have made something worthwhile. Mart is currently down in Aberystwyth learning all about film-making and if you're intrigued you can check out the films he's making now as well as a few of the things we've made over the years. Just check out the films section of his site, it features gems like the one below.

The other thing Mart is peddling on that there site is his comics. Now it's worth noting that Mart is completely self-published and funds everything to do with these comics, credit where it's due, the dude is getting his stuff out there. There are four comics that can and should be purchased on his site. His first was Paralysis, which has quite an old school pulpy feel to it and set amongst a Nazi attack on London. Whilst short it serves as a good introduction to the kind of story that Mart seems to delight in telling and features some of the detailed research that permeates most of his work, be it comics or scripts. If you're interested in Cowboys, Indians, and Zombies (a decade on but to be fair this is a far better effort than our first script) then The Mutilated Dead is probably for you. I must say that this is a stylish looking comic. The art-work is so unique it's worth checking for that alone. I'm sure Mart won't mind me saying so but the art-work does detract somewhat from the story, it is hard to get the plot from the controlled messy style of the drawings. That said there is cowboys, Indians, zombies, and a ruck of blood. Good times. Mart's third release is certainly his most accomplished, A Rope Around Your Broken Neck tells the story of a persecuted Jesuit priest locked in The Tower of London during the Great Plague. Again the artwork in this one is stunning (handled by R.Ricardo and N.Brondo) but the most impressive thing is the slow burning, human story at the centre of it. Once again Martin shows just how well researched his stuff can be, the plague doctor being a prime example of how that research pays off. A Rope... is typical of the kind of gems that can be found in the indie comic scene, although you do have to do a fair bit of digging. You can also purchase the fun as hell Attackosaur: Robot Dinosaur Police Force which is drawn by Martin Ian Smith himself and tells the tale of a Robotic Dinosaur Police Squad with the brains of some of the finest police officers to have ever walked the earth and it tells that story on Mars. No more words are needed on that one.

I urge you all to head on over to his site by clicking the link at the top of this post and spending a couple of pounds to support an independent guy trying to get a break. Just think, if he ever makes it you can always brag that you were in at the ground floor.

Until the next blog.

Peace, Unity, and Power

MechagodZeala