I have to start this review with a disclaimer; I consider the writer of Sugar Glider, Daniel Clifford to be a good friend of mine. I occasionally offer him some bad advice and lackluster support, which is why he felt it necessary to give me a mention in the special thanks section at the front of the second issue of Sugar Glider. This will in no way affect the way I write my review, you can try to bribe me with your 'special thanks' Clifford but we both know this book is all you and artist Gary Bainbridge and I'll judge it as so ;-)

Sugar Glider #2 starts with our hero, Susie Sullivan, still reeling from her first foray into super-heroics, battered and bruised with her family now aware of and condemning her desire to become Newcastle's finest vigilante. On the delicately, well designed cover there is a pull quote that top's the page "The Empire Strikes Back of Comics has arrived", this comment is so acutely accurate, with issue one things ended on such a downer with everything falling down around our heroine. So, does this mean this next installment should be 'Return of the Jedi'? I can't even decide whether that would be a good thing or not?

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As I gave my opinion on the DC reboot and day and date digital debate yesterday, and we also heard from some of the industries biggest names via Twitter I thought it'd be a good idea to try to capture the mood of the rest of the comic book community. What we have here is a megablog post collating as many opinions of comic book fans, writers, artists and of course Sidekicks as I could muster up:

Mike Harding AKA @mikeybumchin, Sidekickcast guest-host and contributor to the Sidekick Blog.

Well following a read of the initial article i think that as Rob Williams said, not bothered too much, as long as the stories are good. If they decided to reboot the characters then that would be a different thing entirely. I just hope that they aren't doing an "ulitmate" version which brings all the heroes origins into the now as that would ruin certain titles like Batman, Superman and Justice Society as these are legacy characters that have influenced other heroes. If they do erase all that has gone before then I think they may run the risk of losing a lot of readers, who, have heavily invested both time, and money in some of their larger projects (52, the numerous company wide crossovers). I have always been critical for the excessive amount of continuity driven stories (not just in DC but also in Marvel) and DC's lack of referencing to the past; but this is not the way to deal with that.

The initial title launch of Justice League by Johns and lee should be good as both writer and artist are among some of my favorite individuals in the comic industry.

Regarding the idea of cutting down piracy, I don't think this will be the case as people will still illegally download stuff, due to various factors.

Will be interesting to see how this develops, and I'm not surprised that they are doing this again, as it seems to be something they feel that they can do every so often.

*UPDATED*
Michael Legge AKA Lil Fat Mikey, Comic Book fan and sometimes Sidekickcast guest-host

As someone who now only buys trades and when he does it isn't either of the two big boys, I couldn't give a shit ...

Only joking, now for the serious bit - I think it's great for the industry, if it gets people buying comics it can only be good particularly if this $2.99 for a year rumour is true. It won't be a complete reboot either i.e. not right, right back to origins but go back to the characters younger days with different customers to take them in a different direction - I for one will watch with intrigue and hope the writing grabs you by the b***s

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Link: http://www.fantasyevents.org/bristolcomicexpo/

Although Cardiff is my hometown and we now have our very own comic convention, I have to admit that a substantial part of my heart will always belong to Bristol International Comic Expo. It was the first 'proper' comic convention I ever went to (only crappy comic book markets before Bristol), where The Sidekickcast did our first interview with creators and hosted our first ever panel, not to mention all the friends we've made whilst there. This year we're probably only going to be able to make it for the Saturday (14th May) so I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of the things we'll be going to see, what we think looks good and where you can find us during the day...that one is pretty easy actually, we'll be at the bar.

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Over the past few months I've gotten to know Daniel Clifford pretty well, either through listening to him lose his mind on his and co-host Lily's excellent podcast; North East Geek Feast, enjoying a Halo: Reach wild ride in true Mr Toad fashion or endless twittering back and forth. So when the opportunity came up to talk to Daniel about his latest project with the Paper Jam Comics Collective; Sugar Glider I jumped at the chance to delve deeper into that wonderfully weird mind:

So what is Sugar Glider all about?

Sugar Glider is a costumed crime-fighter comic based on Tyneside but like all the superhero comics I like best, it's more about the person in the costume than it is about the crime-fighting. And the person in the costume is Susie Sullivan; a teenager with no clue what to do with her life. Everyone around her has a clear path in life - her mam is a nurse, her sister is a mother and her best friend is a sports prodigy. But no matter what Susie tries, nothing ever sticks. She's done all the dead-end jobs you can think of and tried out fashion design, wildlife photography, filmmaking, judo, athletics, etc etc. But she can't commit. I really think this is a story people can relate to - everyone's under so much pressure to decide one thing to do for the rest of their life - it doesn't even matter that the 'one job for life' thing just doesn't happen anymore. But then there's the escapist part of the story - she's found herself with this gliding suit and is trying out something a lot less ordinary - super heroics!

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Thought Bubble is nearly upon us, just under two weeks away and we're barely recovered from MCM Expo. We'll be doing our usual thing whilst there, kissing hands and shaking babies but what will you be doing? We'd like to know what you have planned for Thought Bubble 2010 and as this is olur first year there maybe what we should be doing.
Email us: sidekickcast@sidekickcomicsuk.com

One thing we will definitely be doing is checking out our good friends at The Paper Jam Comics Collective, I'll let them tell you a little bit about what they do:

Paper Jam Comics Collective is a group of Tyneside-based comics creators that meets every two weeks to talk about comics and collaborate on anthologies. The group will have a table at Thought Bubble where they'll be selling a new anthology, History...and that (1 to 4 page comic strips set throughout history; some factual, some fictitious) as well as a host of their other comics: Space Monkey (all-ages), Art...and that (art-themed) and Robots...and that (sci-fi).

Twitter: @PaperJamCC

Website: http://paperjamcomics.blogspot.com/

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