The Dale Street Journal: The Filming of Captain America: The First Avenger in Manchester

The following is an account of the filming in Manchester, UK, of the upcoming 2011 Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger, which includes exclusive photos from the set. The film is directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park 3) with a $140 million budget and has Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) in the title role. Now readers, I will keep it informative and humorous, with the anecdotes coming think and fast, and remember — when the production needed somewhere cheap that could masquerade as 1940s New York that they could blow seven shades of shit out of… they came to Manchester, England. The Forbidden Planet store only 5 minutes walk from the set seemingly had nothing advertising the fact… strange.

‘The Buildup’

I was oblivious. I was informed by a work colleague that on the one day I had off from work was the one day I missed the article in the Manchester Evening Newspaper [Thursday September 9th, 2010, page 24] in the Northern Quarter of Manchester on Dale Street — the bohemian beatnik center of the city, iconoclastic famous and championed by the infamous ‘sons’ from the band ‘Oasis’, that filming is to begin… something I can guarantee you DOES NOT happen that regularly in the the North West of England — granted the last two movies filmed here was the Alfie remake with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes, both of which flew past without so much of a mention, not that Jude Law is worth a mention…

Darick Robertson is the artist and co-creator of Transmetropolitan and The Boys.

The Boys Vol. 2: Get Some
Written by Garth Ennis
Illustrated by Darick Robertson
Colors by Tony Avina
Dynamite Entertainment
Cover Price: $19.99; Available Now

One reason and one reason only was the reason (!?) why I approached a certain comic book artist to interview. One word: Transmetropolitan.

Of course I have plenty of classic comics, in fact, I have a collection of over 300 old school comics. But they lie dormant and gathering a mound of dust at the foot of and under the bed (I do vacuum!). Graphic novels for the discerning age are the coffee table books for everyone to see. If you have a coffee table, make sure it’s higher than the average toddler height”¦you do not really want to warp their minds at such a young age…buy shelves.

The 60-issue miniseries collected as a 10-issue trade paperback was one of my greatest personal finds ever. As per usual, I was a little bit too late to get into the comic from the start, but I did the requisite collector thing and got the graphic novels. I could then therefore catch up on what I had sorely missed. I also made damn sure that I had collected all the 60 back issues possible.

What a task. With comic store owners telling me it wasn’t worth it, and many a repeated issue bought without realizing, I tried. So I bled my local town store dry, then the store in the next town over. And then the city of Manchester where the TPBs materialized. Finally my mission took me to eBay. For obvious reasons as many a Geek will know, eBay proved to be the last bastion where I would finally (possibly) complete my collection. It took me til Jan 2007 to finally complete it. And that was with issue 59! Issue one had proved difficult to track down, but not impossible. 2007. That’s five years after the series ended! And surprisingly cheaply as well!

On the front line: the Convention War.

Saturday 8th March. The Collectormania Convention in Manchester. An event that spans two days filled with many a cult famous face that the stuff of Geek fanboy and Cosplay wet dreams are made of.

I couldn’t wait to get there. Usually trains to Manchester are really frequent but on this day, cancellations and late trains a plenty seemingly put me in a foul mood. However, after a short packed train journey and a short rain-sodden jaunt to the GMEX [Greater Manchester Exhibition Center now known as Manchester Central even though GMEX sounds better”¦] we got there.

The last two times I’ve been to this convention, the place was heaving with tables and stars, I got to meet a personal hero of mine: Dwight Schultz, otherwise known as Howling Mad Murdock from the A-Team, as well as the 1984 GMC Custom Van. Of course I have pictures, after all a photograph is the new autograph. (Read and see more later.)

But this time, the comic/merchandise stalls were noticeably scarcer and the plethora of stars available this year was diminished by cancellations. A quick rundown of who appeared this time around:

Kustom Graphics: Hot Rods, Burlesque and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Author: Julian Balme
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Korero Books
Cover price: $39.95; Release date: April 28, 2008

Things here in the UK can be a little tame.

Therefore, isn’t it any wonder that the missus and I seek the need to look further a field to satiate our somewhat lowbrow interests? I say this, not because I’m some kind of deviant (albeit desirable), but because as I’ve often stated in my past reviews that the UK, Britain, England offers very little compared to the likes of Los Angeles, America, or the World in general.

As much as America loves British culture, television, and humour, people do not realise how Americanized the UK has become! The problem we have though is that when we wish to get into something (predominantly American) we can only scratch the surface of the greater picture. You could say that it makes us Brits more passionate about finding out about specific cultures and lifestyles that are ultimately more readily available elsewhere.

Lowbrow art was and is native to Los Angeles, California, a visual art that is a product of the 1970s, which has over the last fifteen or so years (yes that recent) has exploded, a place I sorely wish to visit just to indulge my passions.

Coop recently stated in an interview with Bizarre Magazine (UK) “”¦Los Angeles is the American Capital of Weirdness”¦” Now though, the scene is worldwide with a plethora of artists from California, the Midwest, the East Coast, Mexico, Canada, Japan, the UK, Germany, Scandinavia, France, and Germany!

This is why, when I found this newly released book in my local Waterstones (a major bookstore owned/operated/is a minion of Amazon, similar to Borders) that I just had to have it. At £29.99 (around $40 if on Amazon) it was rather a stretch on the ol’ budget (Hell, I used to HAVE to buy expensive Psychology books but that’s what a Student Loan was for, but now I’ve got those goddamn bills to pay), but it was well worth it. A book chock full of veritable Kustom artists, some veteran, some new.

Witchblade Vol. 1: Witch Hunt
Written by Ron Marz
Pencils by Mike Choi
Inks by Sal Regla, Joe Weems, Matt “Batt” Banning
Colors by Brian Buccellato
Letters by Robin Spehar, DD’s Dennis Heisler, Troy Peteri
Covers by Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Justin Ponsor, Frank Cho, Laura Martin, Sonia Oback
Top Cow Productions
Cover price: $9.99; On-sale: Feb. 13, 2008

Witchblade. A comic I had heard rumblings about.

When Geeks offered me the opportunity to review this, I jumped at the chance to review this trade paperback, because it was Numero Uno. This meant I would have some semblance of a story to start with (it’s a new story, although it starts as #80; this TPB collections #80-85). It also gave me the prospect of looking into something from Top Cow.

Surprised? I am. My Top Cow intake is non-existent. That is not because I’m not a fan, oh no, I personally have stopped collecting comics is all. After I managed to secure all of the back issues to complete my collection of a certain Transmetropolitan, I thought it would be easier to get TPBs instead in the future. As many a comic-store owner has told me, TPB is an option, because the stuff I search for is usually few and far between. That and the fact that I’m always that little bit late coming onto a miniseries.

You must understand that British comic shops are somewhat of a backstreet shady affair; even my local comic merchant supplants his income not from comics but from back-of-the-store Adult Magazines. A shame really, but leaving the store with comics nestled in a brown paper bag leaves nothing to the imagination”¦