Posted in: Comics, Video | Tagged: america's got powers, bryan hitch, jonathan ross, the smiths

Ten Ways For Americans To Get To Know Jonathan Ross A Little Better

Published Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:00:03 -0500

Last updated Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:30:32 -0500

I really like Jonathan Ross. Always have, whether that was staying up to watch the Last Resort as a young teenage, watching him reinvent British television in the nineties by discovering Vic Reeves, getting a thrill of self-validation when he came out as a major league comic book fan, and the first time when I tried to hand him a copy of my self published comic book, only for him to tell me he'd already bought a copy. We always seem to bump into each other at San Diego Comic Con and I've been pleased to highlight his move into writing comic books – though I may have broken certain stories earlier than he'd have liked…

But it was reading the thread on a recent post about this comic with Bryan Hitch, America's Got Powers, to discover that not only had few people in the thread, living in America, had heard of the fellow, but they didn't seem to have much of a desire to find out. Well balls to that, I've got a website, and I can post some personal highlights of his work, to bring our colonial friends a little up to speed on why I enjoy his work so much.

On In Search For Steve Ditko, and getting Stan Lee, for a few seconds at least, to completely drop his mask.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4z7xuDhMeg[/youtube]

Presenting the Eisners with Neil Gaiman

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NxWnMhlso[/youtube]

Interviewing Robert Downey Jr, who then gave him a gift from Joe Quesada

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeikvMZNjiE[/youtube]

*That* interview with Gwyneth Paltrow

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltcunEQDEd0[/youtube]

Presenting Spike Milligan with a lifetime acheivement award, and reading out Prince Charles' tribute.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOAUht3G5o[/youtube]

Frolicking with Ricky Gervais in Extras

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGvS6xdWPGE[/youtube]

Discovering and constantly promoting Vic Reeves against audience indifference, until he acheived success and changed the face of British comedy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnJ4gvI15R0[/youtube]

*That* interview with David Cameron

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2kerzNLTIY[/youtube]

From The Last Resort, Bernard Manning sings The Smiths.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5cS0bZiJ1Q[/youtube]

And the phone call with Russell Brand to Andrew Sachs that cost him his career when the Daily Mail went for him in a big way, though it made me laugh like a muppet at the time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7IHJ66wj9g[/youtube]

And go on, have a bonus, there was the time he asked Tim Minchin to write him a song for one of the last episodes of his BBC chatshow. You have to have a hell of a sense of humour about yourself to invite that kind of roasting…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt-lotqZQsc[/youtube]

But if you want your own favourite clip, go to YouTube, put in "Jonathan Ross" and your favourite British or internationally famous celebrity… feel free to post what you find in the thread below.

UPDATE: Oh yes, and Jonathan Ross rattling off comic book minutia to Stephen Fry on QI…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twASPFRYwO0[/youtube]

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