First, before I tackle Little Timbo's warped comparisons website (
http://www.martianinvaders.com), as it is clear that Timmy Boy has been reading some of the reactions to his latest bizarre publicity stunt, I would like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with any of the following organisations:
- Dark Horse Comics
- Paramount Productions
- Asylum Films
- The H G Wells Estate
- The Freemasons
- The Illuminati
- The Bilderburg Group
- The Priory of Sion
- The Knights Templar
- The Elders of Zion
...or whichever other group that deluded crackpot Hines claims that I am in league with (including Satan and all his demonic minions). In fact, given his obsession with 'shells' and 'shelling' (by which I assume he means 'shills' and 'shilling' and is not indicative of an obsession with artillery and its use in battle, the syntactically-challenged moron), perhaps he might like to put his money where his mouth is and actually come right out and accuse me by name (Roger Todd, London, England) of being a shill, instead of making spineless insinuations on his joke of a website. So, let the bunfight commence...
Little Timbo Versus Dark Horse
Right, here’s a list, with responses, of the so-called ‘similarities’ between Little Timbo’s
shysterwerk and Dark Horse’s graphic novel, as delineated on Little Timbo’s website:
http://www.martianinvaders.com
Some images will be skipped, lest this become too much of a borefest. Of course, it goes without saying that as Little Timbo claims that his adaptation is ‘100% faithful’ to H G Wells’s
magnum opus, and Dark Horse’s graphic novel is also a faithful adaptation, then the fact that there will be similarities is as obvious to anyone but a talentless boggle-eyed cretin as the fact that night follows day, but there you go, that business called show is a funny old world…
Before going on, however, some words must be said about Little Timbo's methods of argument. A perceptive observer on one WOTW forum, who I shan't name unless he wishes me to (and who was once a supporter of Hines), commented that Little Timbo has adopted the same tactics as those of Creationists arguing against Evolution - subject the reader to an avalanche of 'facts' that look authoritative by virtue of their sheer volume. I would add that Little Timbo also uses frames from the Dark Horse comic out of context. That is, he will use a single frame that he has cherry-picked to kind of match a still from his film, yet if one views the DH comic frame in the context of its surrounding frames, it invariably becomes clear that taken as a whole, there is no resemblance between the two depictions. In every case, the DH version is more spectacular in scope, better executed in terms of composition and layout, etc. etc. If you don't believe me, look at the comic in its entirety online here (click 'e-comic'):
http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/wotw/index.php
Anyway, to the barricades,
mon frere!
Mars as seen through the telescope
Little Timbo says:
For this through-the-telescope view of Mars, Pendragon’s artists [
*cough*] puzzled over how to represent this, as the tube inside the the eyepiece and outerspace would both be black. So a thin reddish circular line was inserted to bring out the eyepiece for the Pendragon movie. Such a line is an artistic representation and would not be seen looking through a real telescope eyepiece. The Dark Horse comic follows the same technique, using an identical thin red line.
I say:
Given that Mars has been known since time immemorial as the
Red Planet, D’Israeli, Dark Horse’s artist, has logically depicted the view with a red cast to it to heighten the mood (unlike the inexplicable choice of poo-brown Pentimbo used). It is only natural to make the edge a different shade of red to provide the necessary boundary - after all, electric pink or baby blue would have spoilt the mood somewhat. Apart from anything else, big fat hairy deal.
The first falling star
Little Timbo says:
Dark Horse chose to display the meteorite in the same direction and approximate size as the Pendragon Pictures movie.
I say:
Blimey! Amazing! H G Wells described a green meteor shooting overhead and both Little Timbo’s ‘artists’ and D’Israeli portray… a green meteor shooting overhead! As for the motion being from left to right, this is a fairly natural direction to depict. Given that this is the direction in which we read text, it is natural for us to scan in that direction. Of course, Little Timbo fails to mention that the landscape seen under the meteor is
completely different from his. The cretin.
But hang on, what green light from yonder Martian cylinder breaks...? Good Lord, in depicting the same scene, the artist Tom Kidd painted this...
...for the Harper Collins edition of WOTW published in 2001, some years
before Little Timbo made his so-called movie! Oh dear, perhaps someone should call Tom's lawyers!
The Writer and his wife at tea
Little Timbo says:
For this scene with the Writer and his wife at tea, the Dark Horse comic uses the same composition as the Pendragon movie. They simply reversed the characters, the Writer where the wife is and the wife where the Writer is. The book gives no description of the wife. Dark Horse made the wife a thin blond haired woman in a purple dress in likeness of actress Susan Goforth, who played the character in the Pendragon movie.
I say:
Tricky one, this... Both sets of artists face the phenomenally difficult task of depicting two people sitting down together to tea in a room. Hmmm, gosh, there are
so many ways to approach this: 'Do I put the Writer on the right and his wife on the left? Or vice versa? Hmmmmm...' Well, you've got a fifty-fifty choice, Mr Artist, so get on with it...
Astonishing! Once you take into account the reverse angle and totally different composition, the Writer and his wife are sat in the same position relative to each other! Except they're not - in Dark Horse's frame, they sit at
opposite ends of a table; in Little Timbo's shot, they sit at
right angles to each other at the corner of a table. Wow, suspicious! Or something. Maybe, in order to totally differentiate itself from Little Timbo's shot, Dark Horse should have had the wife crouching under the table and the Writer hanging off the chandelier making gibbon sounds. As for any similarity between D’Israeli’s depiction of the Writer's wife and Susan Goforth, well, it doesn’t need me to point out that D’Israeli did
not draw the wife wearing a
Mick Hucknell Ginger Fright Wig…
The crowd at the Pit
Little Timbo says:
In these crowd scenes at the pit of the fallen cylinder, notice the similarity to the white hat with the maroon band. This hat was chosen for the Pendragon Pictures’ movie by actor Jack Clay, from a variety of hats available. The book does not describe a white hat with a maroon band. A small detail, but point after point, we find such details mysteriously matching our production choices.
I say:
So what? Dark Horse’s Man With Hat is a different character. With his striped blazer and crooked leer, he looks like a squiffy Victorian ‘swell’. In keeping with the blazer, the hat is an Eton boater, common headgear for a hot Victorian summer. Perhaps Little Timbo’s lawyers should make representations to Eton School?
The Heat Ray
Little Timbo says:
Notice the design similarities of the heat-ray arm and the screen direction that the device pointing. The three victims being incinerated are grouped the same in both versions. Note the largest, center victim’s spine and rib cage as well as the position of the legs, which in both version are slightly spread and pivoted to the left.
I say:
Little Timbo may not realise this, as his grasp on reality is tenuous at the best of times, but the Heat Ray arm is a copy of the
earlier WOTW sequel Scarlet Traces, by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, scriptwriter and artist respectively of the Dark Horse WOTW (we shall return to Scarlet Traces later). Scarlet Traces was published in 2001, years before Little Timbo even thought of making a ‘faithful’ period version of WOTW. Who has copied from whom…? As for the positioning of the victims, far be it for me to note that it is also similar to the victims of George Pal’s Martians in his famous 1953 film. Perhaps the lawyers of the late Mr Pal’s estate should write to Little Timbo…
The Martian tripod
Little Timbo says:
Two images depicting Pendragon Pictures’ fighting machine designs. The black and white Pendragon art was widely published in 2001. And LOWER RIGHT: The Dark Horse fighting machine from the comic. The organic, bone-like structure of the Pendragon fighting machine was the result of incorporating organic Art Nouveau into it’s structure. Art nouveau was one of Wells’ favorite design styles.
I say:
Deja vu, given that the Dark Horse tripod is a copy of the tripods from the earlier Scarlet Traces, which predates Little Timbo’s cinematic efforts and plans thereof. So let's have a closer look, shall we?
Little Timbo - the final Meccano Chicken tripod as featured in his fillum:
Little Timbo - the earlier, concept art, from 2001, of what resembles a rancid mushroom on legs threatening Seattle:
Dark Horse:
Now, given that the Rancid Mushroom looks completely different from the Meccano Chicken, I fail to see what point Little Timbo is making. Is he saying DH ripped off the Rancid Mushroom? If so, why show the Meccano Chicken? Is he saying they ripped off the Meccano Chicken? If so, how, there's no resemblance whatsoever, except that they're tripods - and H G Wells thought of that.
If he's whinging about the Looming Overhead pose being similar, then let's have a look at some other images through the ages...
Loom loom...
Bert Bakker, 1978
Overpower overpower...
Joseph Miralles, 1997
Tower tower...
Random House, 1991
Menace menace...
Famous Fantastic Mysteries Magazine, 1951
...and so on,
ad infinitum.
Shepperton...
As for the ‘similarities’ involving the destruction of the Martian at Shepperton, let’s look at the images:
Little Timbo:
Dark Horse:
And from the Moby Books edition of 1983, illustrated by Brendan Lynch:
Also:
Little Timbo:
Dark Horse – where are the background trees?
Oh, here are the background trees, in Brendan Lynch’s illustration from 1983:
Oh dear Timmy, I hope Brendan’s lawyers don’t see your film…
The Martians in London
Little Timbo says:
Here the fighting machine positions are the same. One small in the background one large in the foreground. Even the perspective view above the rooftops match. Note the small sharp peak on the left of the background fighting machine and the church steeple in the Dark Horse comic placed where Big Ben is, to the left of the background fighting machine as it was in the Pendragon production. What are the chances of the Dark Horse creators coming up with such similar composition by chance?
I say:
Funny how Little Timbo harps on the similarities, and then explains away the discontinuities by making ever narrower partial-comparisons. What next? 'Look how that section of the sky in DH's frame has a cloud in it, just like in mine!' Note how Dark Horse uses the Black Smoke in this image, just like in Little Timbo’s still. Er, wait, no, Little Timbo didn’t bother with the Black Smoke… And the way DH place Big Ben in between the two tripods like in Little Timbo's. Er wait, no, there's no Big Ben but the alleged stand-in for Big Ben, the church steeple, is in between the tripods. Er no, wait, it's on the right, well away from either of them...
But let’s also look at Tom Kidd’s illustration from the Harper Collins edition of 2001. Notice how Kidd has cunningly ripped-off Little Timbo four years before Timmy’s film was released by placing the Tower of London to the left of the Tripod, just like in Timmy’s still, except in Timmy’s still it’s Big Ben, and it’s on the right, and, er… Anyway, it’s absolutely identical, and Kidd had better quake with fear as he anticipates a letter from Little Timbo’s ‘lawyer’. Written in crayon.
Green crayon.
The Thunder Child
Little Timbo's so-called film treats the Thunder Child battle in suitably epic manner. No, wait, it doesn't, it's a bloody travesty. However, ignoring, if we can, the artistic merits of his cinematic
tour de farce, Timmy Boy claims that Dark Horse copied this shot...
...like so:
I wonder if anyone else ever thought to show the battle from a Martian viewpoint? Hmmm...
Good Lord, it's that plagiarising git Warwick Goble, pioneering illustrator of the original Pearson's serialisation of WOTW in 1897! Ooh, what a blooming cheek!
Little Timbo also says that this still…
…is also ripped off by Dark Horse:
Oh dear, Little Timbo, we’ve slipped up here! That frame is closely based on a frame from Scarlet Traces, published in 2001, some years before Timmy’s travesty was released.
The only difference is that there is only one Martian in the distance, exploding. Who copied whom? I think Dark Horse’s lawyers would be interested in
that question…
The Writer and Curate are buried…
Little Timbo says this still…
…is emulated by Dark Horse:
Well, the Writer
is on the left, and the Curate
is on the right, but the Writer is
also in the foreground, and the Curate is a podgy little speccy spod with a dodgy haircut who looks a bit like Benny Hill, unlike John Kaufman in Little Timbo’s film. Hm, how perplexing… To a moron.
The Ruined House
Little Timbo:
Dark Horse:
Amazing! Apart from both images featuring the cylinder and the house, pretty salient features in scenes depicting the cylinder and the house, not much similarity at all! Perspectives, relative sizes, cylinder and house designs, all are different. Come on Little Timbo, you can do better than that!
The Handling Machines
Little Timbo:
Dark Horse:
Well bugger me, both images feature a Handling Machine! Amazing, especially when they illustrate a chapter about, er, the Handling Machines... And it’s carrying something too! Who would ever have guessed that a Handling Machine would carry something? Gosh, Little Timbo really sprung that one on me, I never expected that! Little Timbo’s is carrying an indefinable blob of some kind, possibly the meccano-chicken-like head of one of his tripods. The Dark Horse Handling Machine is carrying a triangular plate of some kind which Timmy is observant enough to claim is part of a tripod. God knows how he knows this, but gosh, he’s a better man than I!
At the window
Little Timbo:
“This shot of the curate and Writer looking out of the collapsed house was altered by the Pendragon production. The book says the hole is a triangle shape. Dark Horse must have been similarly inspired to make it a square window.”
Dark Horse:
Well, it is true that Wells writes of a triangular aperture, and both Timmy and Dark Horse depict square windows (so much for Little Timbo’s ‘100% faithful adaptation’). Hardly actionable, however, and how many ways can one depict two men looking out of a hole? Here’s how Marvel tackled this difficult problem in 1978:
Bloody hell, amazing!
The woman being drained of blood
Here’s where Little Timbo cries “Gotcha!”:
Here is one of the most "red handed" moments of theft. The book describes the Martians feeding in only the vaguest terms. H. G. Wells describes the fed-on character as a, "stout, ruddy, middle-aged man." Pendragon changed it to a woman so the dance hall singer could be reprised and increase the horror that even a famous singer is not immune to the Martians intentions. Astoundingly, Dark Horse also chose to change the character to a woman, again matching Pendragon's production shot by shot. Now what are the odds of this happening independently?
Dark Horse:
But unlike Timmy’s weird comedy strip routine involving strangely pervy electric ‘manacles’, Dark Horse’s scene is one of sheer horror and uses different angles, perspectives etc. The use of a woman as the victim, as well as the method of exsanguination, also echoes a theme of Scarlet Traces which, as has been said
ad nauseam, pre-dates Little Timbo’s effort by some four years…
The death of the Curate
Frighteningly dissimilar:
However, Brendan Lynch’s lawyers may wish to get on the blower to Little Timbo over his 1983 illustration:
The Curate is dragged away and the Writer hides…
There are too many images to link to, so you’ll have to go to Little Timbo’s page (
http://www.martianinvaders.com/). However, there are only so many ways a body being dragged away by a mechanical tentacle can be depicted – both versions seek to portray the same event. How bloody astonishing that they have some similarities.
As for Timmy’s sneaky arrangement of four stills from his film to compare with four frames from Dark Horse (has he
really got permission from them to copy so many of their copyrighted images?), this really is disingenuous spin at its best. The technique of comic strip artists emulating cinematic techniques with consecutive frames depicting a continuous action at discrete intervals is increasingly common, and a feature of D’Israeli’s earlier work.
The use of colour
Little Timbo complains:
Pendragon's movie received much attention [Really? From whom – Susan Goforth? Timmy’s mum? Name one person, Hines!] for its use of colors to emotionally accent the Wells story. Dark Horse, scene by scene used the same color schemes. Most noticeably here, where the Pendragon movie shifts to a deep red to indicate the Martian takeover. The Dark Horse comic shifts to the heavy red tone at the exact same story point.
As was remarked earlier, Dark Horse artist D’Israeli has a good sense of colour and mood. Given that the ruined house was overgrown by Red Weed, the use of red as a motif is hardly surprising. But where on earth could Little Timbo and D’Israeli have got their idea from to colour everything red at this point? Well, here’s a clue – this is what H G Wells wrote:
“The light that came into the scullery was no longer grey, but red. To my disordered imagination it seemed the colour of blood …and I was surprised to find that the fronds of the red weed had grown right across the hole in the wall, turning the half-light of the place into a crimson-coloured obscurity.”
Good God! Timmy! You’d better set your law-talking guy on that Wells bloke, what a bloody cheek ripping off your genius idea a mere century before you thought of it!
As for the dog, H G wrote:
“I saw a dog's nose peering in through a break among the ruddy fronds.”
At least D’Israeli got the ‘ruddy fronds’ right…
The Writer and the Man on Putney Hill
Little Timbo complains that Dark Horse features a scene in which two men meet, based on the bit in the novel when two men meet. How uncanny that this should resemble the scene in Timmy’s ‘film’ when two men meet. Of course, to differentiate itself from Little Timbo’s
magnificent octopus, Dark Horse should have had the Writer meet fifty-six clones of the Artilleryman in an Olympic swimming pool doing a Busby Berkeley routine whilst singing ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’. There is some doubt as to whether this would have been entirely faithful to the source material, however.
The Martian Flying Machine
Oh, one of my favourite whinges this…
Little Timbo moans:
As there is virtually no description of the flying machine in the Wells book, Pendragon chose to depict the machine as a kind of "stealth bomber, but with smoother lines." Amazingly, the Dark Horse comic makes the same design choice. Again, what are the odds of it being a coincidence?
I say:
What are the odds indeed? Well, Little Timmy’s Martian Flying Machine resembles a giant Tin Moth rather more than a Stealth Bomber, never mind Dark Horse’s organically rounded (almost aquatic-looking) machine, of which another shot shows it even more plainly to look nothing like Timmy's Tin Moth...
However, maybe
this might ring a bell:
It’s our old friend Tom Kidd again, whose illustrations pre-date Timmy’s travesty by
four years. Oh dear…
The house in Putney
Little Timbo whines:
The Putney Hill house is interesting in that the Pendragon production actually used a house in Seattle [Oh really? I thought you filmed in England, Timmy? Or were you lying?]. There is no detailed description of the house in the book. Once again, Dark Horse, mysteriously chose a nearly identical house to depict, including the rounded arch of the front door. These amazing coincidences just go on an on.
Dark Horse:
Amazing coincidences indeed! They’re both houses, for a start (bloody hell, Dark Horse, treading on thin ice there…); they both have a wall in front, except Timmy’s is really a wooden fence, while D’Israeli’s is brick. And the arch, oh the arch! What an amazing coincidence, I’ve never seen a door with an arch over it, such things are unknown in England! Except for the house I live in. And about one million other houses in London. Who would have thought it, an arch over a door! And a rounded arch at that. Perhaps Little Timbo should sue the ancient Romans for nicking the idea of a rounded arch from him a mere two thousand years before he thought of using it.
Let me point out one more thing, Timmy. D'Israeli, Dark Horse's artist, is English and lives in England. Thus it's possible that he, being an artist and thus observant, has noticed that virtually every Victorian house in England has a rounded arch over the door. So what was he supposed to do? Draw a bloody Red Indian teepee? Or a Mongolian yurt?
People grabbed by the Martians (ouch…)
Little Timbo:
Dark Horse:
Where could that idea have come from? Not Warwick Goble, pioneering illustrator of the serialisation of Wells’s story in Pearson’s Magazine in 1897?
I hate you, Goble!
Flaming heck, even the great Frank Paul has been nicking Little Timbo's ideas a mere seventy-odd years before he thought of them...
As well as the artist on this strange Mexican cover:
And this Pendulum Press cover from 1969:
Pretty damn common image, then.
So common, in fact, that Dr Zeus, on his inestimable site, devotes an entire section to it,
Humans Grabbed by Tentacles...
http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/graphics.html#11
Stop Press 1! Crying Man in Photo Looks Like Crying Man in Drawing!
Little Timbo is annoyed that Dark Horse's Writer character looks upset, just like Anthony Piano ('The New Al Pacino') does. Why Dark Horse’s artist D’Israeli didn’t depict the suicidal Writer grinning like he’s just been told he’s won the Lottery I’ll never know... Answers on a postcard, please.
The Dead Martians
Now, this next comparison is especially disingenuous (that means 'false', Timmy, as in deceptive/lying/deceitful etc.)...
Little Timbo says:
The Writer is entering from the same side of the frame in both images. Note the way in the Pendragon Production, the frame is divided into 3 sections, Writer on the LEFT, the Fighting Machine head in the CENTER and the body section on the RIGHT.
Dark Horse's shot follows the same symmetry; Writer LEFT, Fighting Machine head, CENTER and the body section is LEFT.
I say:
Little Timbo's shot is from the climax of the film, a fallen tripod in Dead London (although it looks like a field in the middle of the Northwestern American countryside to me, rather than centre of the mightiest city at the the heart of the greatest empire the world has ever seen, but there you go) - and that's pretty much all you get, a couple of tripods toppled in a field. DH's frame is from the same part of the story but is part of a far more expansive series of shots which show the full scope of the Martians' Last Redoubt in London. There is no comparison in terms of scope, ambition or competence of execution. In any case, Little Timbo is plain wrong - DH's frame shows
two Handling Machines, not
one tripod. Get your facts right, you reality-dodging coffee-guzzling numbskull!
Tripod
Little Timbo writes:
In the same scene from the book, note how Dark Horse has the fighting machine positioned with one leg off to the right.
Timmy, I know geometry is not your strong point (along with talent and sanity), but a tripod
always has one leg off to the right. If it didn't, it would bloody fall over, you Seattle-based cranial-vacuum.
Stop Press 2! Man In Bed looks like Man In Bed whether in photo or drawing!
Good God, it’s uncanny, they’re identical! Except for the completely different angle, perspective and the fact that Dark Horse shows a man and a woman with a small child, whereas Timmy shows two women. But apart from that they’re indistinguishable.
Man hugs woman – identically…
Little Timbo whinges:
In scene of the writer and the wife coming together, Pendragon placed the wife on the left, so did Dark Horse.
That bloody clinches it for me! Apart from the different backgrounds and the lack of the maid in the Dark Horse frame. I wonder if anyone else has ever tackled the challenging and infinitely variable subject of Man Hugging Woman? Ah, here’s Marvel’s 1978 adaptation…
I hate you, Marvel!
Final Words...
Here’s Little Timbo’s ultimate whinge:
There are, in fact, over one hundred screen direction choices that are identical in both the Pendragon production and the Dark Horse comic at the same story point in the Wells source material. One hundred! Wells never mentions screen direction or character placement in any way. Can anyone truly believe that all these similarities, including story deviations from the book happened by chance?
I say:
One hundred screen direction choices that are identical, eh? Demonstrate it, Timmy Boy. So far, your website shows a highly selective series of stills, some of which are similar, some of which aren't. You haven't bothered to go into the numerous areas where Dark Horse cover elements you never bothered with - such as the full scale of the Black Smoke, which in Timmy's film is half-heartedly squirted here and there like a gardener's aphid spray, but in the DH comic is deployed, after the book, by Martian artillery shells in huge choking clouds; or DH's depiction of the Thunder Child as a great ironclad, as opposed to Little Timbo's portrayal of a small torpedo boat destroyer; or DH's numerous scenes showing a recognisable London which really builds up a feel for that most great of cities, whereas Little Timbo appears to think that late Victorian London, the capital of a vast world empire, looked like a mediaeval French town with the Clock Tower of Big Ben standing in splendid isolation atop a hill overlooking it all.
Yes, Little Timbo, please tell us
why you made
your artistic choices as you did, compromising the atmosphere of the source novel in a way Dark Horse managed not to.
Instead, to deflect attention away from the woeful nature of your so-called film, you make spurious comparisons between two adaptations, in different media, of the
same original source material! Good God, Timmy, how utterly strange that two adaptations of the same story, both of which purport to be as faithful as possible, should have some similarities to each other! Who would ever have guessed it? Perhaps, in order to have forestalled any possibility of complaint from you, Dark Horse should have set their adaptation two thousand years earlier and had the Martians invade the Roman Empire, rather than the British Empire? Though even then you would probably have moaned that the scene with the Roman trireme ramming the tripod was a rip-off of your sorry effort with the Thunder Child. Oh, and you would have whinged about the arches...