I FELT pretty pleased with myself when I picked out Diego Maradona from a distant part of the stand at the ArgentinaHolland game the other night, but then spotting the wee man at this tournament isn't much of an achievement. Certainly the television cameras never fail to notice him. No Argentina game would be complete without countless shots of Maradona pumped up and either shouting and bawling or in a state of tearful euphoria.
Last month's Comic-Con International, the annual convention of the comic books/graphic novel industry, drew 100,000 attendees to San Diego, and it's a safe bet there were more than a few movie producers and agents trolling for business.He's living it up in Germany. He partied in Frankfurt's Pizzeria Machiavelli until the police arrived and warned them to keep the noise down at 4.18am. Under the headline "Party night with Maradona" in the Bild newspaper there were pictures of him with a cigar, a glass of champagne and his arm around their reporter Kitti Pohl. As luck would have it, she is an attractive blonde.Movie producers, on the other hand, see graphic novels as a starting place for a film. Not only do many novels or comic series have built-in, loyal fan bases, but they also have their stories laid out visually, much like the storyboards that directors create to outline their films.Graphic novels serve as rich source material for film producers looking for ready-to-visualize stories, and they're viewed as product extensions of comic book publishers, video game makers and television series.Eventually the players themselves get fed up of the mindless footballers' chatter about their agents, weekly wage or next car, and there are some big issues you just can't talk about with the lads. That's where the WAGs step in.Trains are central to a hack's World Cup beat. Every day involves a relentless criss-crossing of the country for press conferences or matches.Roughly two-thirds of the graphic novels sold by the bookstore are Japanese manga, with ones on superheroes, such as Batman, accounting for much of the remainder, he said.It was Tuesday, and we wouldn't be experts on Ecuadorian football for another three or four days, so the best we could figure out about England's opponents at the time was that Ulises de la Cruz used to play for Hibs and Gordon Strachan once signed one of the others.Frankly there are so many possible punchlines for this one that it hardly seems worth bothering . . .Marvel Comics has compiled the back stories of the company's superheroes and reprinted them as black-and-white books in its "Essentials" series, which boasts more than 30 titles--a handy reference for those introduced to those heroes in their movie manifestations.Graham Taylor has always struck me as a thoroughly fine chap.In an area of the stadium otherwise populated by blazered dignitaries he's there in an Argentina shirt looking like he's wandered in from the cheap seats.So, back to sleep Tom English of Scotland on Sunday. Your secret is safe with me.While superheroes and the supernatural still drive many of the stories told in graphic novels, some real-world tales are using the format.Historians of the form point to Will Eisner's 1978 "A Contract With God," a collection of four urban tales, as the forerunner of today's graphic novel. But two 1986 works proved landmarks in the genre.Will the graphic novel boom or bust in the years ahead? No one's crystal ball can tell whether flat sales or broader audiences will dominate, but Bankston notes one encouraging sign: young people interested in taking up the pen themselves."Two to three years ago, we wouldn't have the amount of trades (trade paperbacks) that we do now," he said.Imagine a beautiful stained glass transom window above your front door. Or a delightful stained glass sun catcher hanging in front of your kitchen window. Now, imagine the stained glass design on a wooden table top, such as an end table, sofa table, or entry table. That's the true uniqueness I'm talking about. Imagine your foyer or vestibule with its stylish hardwood floor, intricate baseboard and crown molding, and a gorgeous mirror centered on the wall with an antique coat stand in the corner. The image looks wonderful, but it's missing something. You can't quite put your finger on it, but you know it needs more. Aha! Something must act as a transition from the floor to the mirror on the wall. That's it! An entry table. But not just any ordinary entry table. An elegant stained glass mosaic entry table done in a rich, full stain color that perfectly complements the hardwood flooring. Imagine another room in the home with similarly wonderful mosaic furniture, such as end tables, curio tables, and sofa tables.Then we remembered it was Taylor who had taken the bold Useless from Easter Road to Aston Villa not long after the last World Cup. So we asked Taylor to talk us through this managerial highlight. And we didn't expect this: "Nobody at Hibs knows I personally went to see him play because I paid my own way in - I think it was against one of the Dundee teams - and I went disguised. I can't tell you what the disguise was because I might be recognised if I want to pull the same trick again some time. But if anybody at the game that day was stood next to an uglylooking sod who looked so bad you'd think he had a mask on his face it might just have been a former England manager."There should be only sympathy and understanding, then, when one of our number catches 40 winks when he gets the chance."The question in the industry is how fast is too fast to go into book form," Bankston said.
So, back to sleep Tom English of Scotland on Sunday. Your secret is safe with me.
Author: Michael Grant
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