Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Shockheaded Peter

created by Ereneta

(thing) by Ereneta (11.6 hr) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Thu Aug 17 2000 at 16:59:57

Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera, a collaboration among British theatre artists, brought to life Heinrich Hoffman's classic children's book, Struwwelpeter to the stage in 1998. Michael Morris of Cultural Industry brought together Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott of the Improbable Theatre, and the Tiger Lillies to create an evening of Victorian gore and mayhem. Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Graeme Gilmour, Tamzin Griffin, and Jo Pocock created the show as performers and puppeteers, with Gilmour and Crouch designing the show. Martyn Jacques was the composer and musical director. The show combines puppetry, improvisation, melodrama, music, dance, and British pantomime for a phantasmagoria that both exposes the dark side of Victorian morality in the home and undercuts its own seriousness with the conceit that this troupe of actors isn't quite accomplished enough to pull this off. Produced in collaboration with West Yorkshire Playhouse and Lyric Theater Hammersmith, the show toured Asia, the United States, Canada, and Europe in 1999 and 2000.

Source: American Conservatory Theatre's Stagebill and http://www.shockheadedpeter.com/


(person) by Transitional Man (15.1 hr) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 2 C!s Tue Apr 02 2002 at 1:08:03

Shockheaded Peter is a character created by noted comic book writer Alan Moore and artist Gene Ha for their Eisner award winning series Top 10.

Pete is an ordinary beat patrolmen in the city of Neopolis, a city designed for the world's science beings, which is Moore's term for supeheroes and super villains, to live. It is like every other city, with prostitution, graft, cheap diners except that almost everyone wears a cape. Gene Ha originally designed Pete as a skeleton with steel 'snakes' linking his bones, but decided that design, while cool looking, would make showing emotion difficult, and keep him from many normal police activities, such as donut consumption.

The final design for Shockheaded Peter made him not at all, cool, but rather ugly. He's got Jimmy Olson's freckles with a long face, and his hips are a lot wider than his shoulders. It looks like he doesn't work out much, which makes him the opposite of most superheroes. His orange costume, featuring black boxers and a deaths head, plus antennae, hits a ten on the geek meter. With a bit of white trash mixed in.

Peter is pretty ordinary cop in the Tenth Precinct. He has a limited education and excess of porn videos, including actresses with tentacles. He's singularly unsuccessful with women, but his lack of success is easily understandable with his looks and rather clueless attitude toward them. Peter's probably a virgin and sexually interested in anyone with breasts. A bit of flirting can talk him into about anything. He's not very bright. But he genuinely wants to be a good cop, and in the early issues was quite a sympathetic character.

Unfortunately, Peter has a dark side, a genuinely racist attitude toward machine life, who along with monsters make up Neopolis' underclass. He supports groups like one flesh, a neopolis speciesist group, that remind me of the Aryan Nations or the National Alliance. His prejuidices became revolting when robotic officer Joe Pi joined the precinct to replace the fallen Girl One.

Shockheaded Peter is normally partnered with Duane Bodine, the Dust Devil, a cowboy superhero who wields two "twelve-shooters". Duane shares some of Peter's weaknesses with women, but none of his prejuidices. He's quite willing to let Peter know that too.

Peter's super powers, not surprisingly, center around electricity. He can generate and direct lightning, which he used to capture serial killer M'rgalla Qualtz, a fallen member of The Seven Sentinals. He can also create his own radio signals. Using his powers makes his skeleton visible, bringing back elements of Ha's original design. But he is vulnerable to shorting out.


printable version
chaos

Struwwelpeter Top 10 April 8, 2005 The Tiger Lillies
dust devil Top Ten Karlsson on the Roof Toybox
Hammersmith Alan Moore Slovenly Peter A Clockwork Orange
melodrama improvisation The Story of the Inky boys Cocteau Twins
Blue Peter Top 10 Annotations: Issue 1 Things to consider when choosing a Martial Art Beyond the Farthest Precinct Annotations: Issue 1
The Son's Room advice Eisner awards Puppetry
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Little presents from the Node Fairy:
Robert Falcon Scott
Wildcat
Jerusalem artichoke
Scotchgard
integration by parts
How to make war
Li Bai
Working without a net
Toby lied
bow
Letter to Dr. Laura
The Desecration of the Starship Enterprise
Everything Literature
New Writeups
Heitah
Anarchy is Order(idea)
jessicaj
July 26, 2008(dream)
Berek
ABBA(person)
devolution
k-hole(place)
Nadine_2
The Sound Of Madness(review)
Twin Eclipse
Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue(idea)
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo- the Loneliest dog in Purgatory(fiction)
locke baron
lynx(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us(person)
calgon
Buffalo Bill by the pool(poetry)
gate
Anarchy is Order(idea)
ushdfgakjasgh
Scribeling(thing)
E2 is a by-product of the existence of The Everything Development Company