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Maybe at this point they're basically fulfilling subscriptions and a small amount of newsagent run, and that's it?

Still waiting on the latest issues as a subscriber so not even that.

"Oh What a Lovely War" is a play on time travel and the old Fighting Fantasy Books / computer games.  The revelation involves a child so it's not that one.  Biological Warfare is a play on alien invasion and advertising.  The aliens are lizard like and do burst out in the final panel but other parts of the story don't quite fit.

The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.

Just wondering if anyone else ordered this, had a dispatch email and has actually received theirs yet?  IIRC something similar happened with either Last American or Summer Magic where there was quite a lag between the email and delivery.  Not so much a case of the mail service from the Oort Cloud as it was that the email was automatically generated when someone was thinking about packing the books and there was still quite a delay before they got round to sending them.  Not completely willing to discount the posties mind as I'm still waiting on the most recent Mega Collection volumes which seem to take longer and longer to arrive each month. Seriously questioning whether I want to carry on past 80, but that's another discussion altogether.

If comics were 4 American dollars a pop in the 90s I wouldn't have had much interest in paying for them either.

TBH even today at $4 a pop it's hard to maintain the interest, particularly considering the quality.  Even at it's worst, Tooth always has something to justify the cover price and comparatively speaking there has been very little movement in price in recent years.  Arguably it's far better value for money.

Rebellion's growing move into the nostalgia market is also a great thing.  Granted, as has been said, there have been a few missteps but overall things have gone well.  I do wish they'd expand the niche bookplate range but then again I can understand their caution.  DC complete overdid the Absolute range and it lost it's kudos.  Sparingly moving makes sense, especially considering the size of the market.

I'd rather see Christian groups recognise the real good they could do in society, and that leading by example is better than force and threat when it comes to connecting with people. However, I think that by placing them under constant attack they inevitably withdraw and double down. I wonder if actively supporting individual priests, vicars, whoever, who are in favour of (for example) gay marriage would be more beneficial than attacking their church as a whole?

I hope nobody minds but I didn't want to have the prog thread mired down the way some other threads have of late.  In some respects I suppose there is a degree of inevitability since Tooth has always worn its political sensibilities on its sleeve but these days things seem so polarised that it is difficult to engage with issues without things getting nasty.

Christianity seems to have been reduced to this single issue it seems, its stance on sexuality.  Sometimes it seems like it is baiting.  People know what the Bible says and how important it is to Christians.  The vast majority are happy to accept that this goes against social mores.  Granted some are quite vocal and they generally tend to be quite influential but that is not the same as saying that they speak for all Christians.  It's a bit like saying that Donald Trump speaks for all Americans with some of the daft things he says.

It is fair to say though that Christians would do far better to focus on serving needs, following Gospel teaching on service and letting people make up their own minds.  Sometimes Evangalising does more harm than good even though it is possible to understand the concern that sometimes drives it, as misunderstood / miscommunicated as it often is.  Perhaps, as is suggested, this needs to be rethought since it is being done so badly.

Dare has always benefitted from some really quality ideas and some outstanding artwork.  By the same token, some of the stories that have been told over the years have really lacked focus and sold the character short, even some of the tooth and original Eagle material.  Tom Tully did not do the character any favours, either with the final tooth strip or some of the later Eagle stuff. 

I would say that in the mean time we need a history of IPC comics volume.  We've got Thrill Power Overload, Barkers Action and Gifford's Book of Comics (which has way too much American crap in it) but we desperately need someone to do a history of British Comics, especially the post war era.

Dillon's Mean Machine Christmas has to be on the list.  At the height of his powers.   The last few years have generally seen a Christmas related story although Ezquerra's post Apocalypse War story has to be on the list.  Isn't there a couple of the Tour of Duty stories along these lines?

Yoinks:  got results of my final Masters course this week.  Passed!  Now BSc(Hons), BA(Hons), MEd.

Bah:  payroll / HR screwup means my pay is a couple of hundred quid short this month!!!!!!   

Just in time for Christmas.  On the plus side we are well ahead of the curve this year and pretty much done.  On the down side this tends to be a bit of an anxiety trigger so deep breathing exercises all round for a while.

There're some nice ideas here.  I think, as you say, professionally there are probably solutions that can address some of the issues but source material is likely to be the biggest challenge due to the age and the quality of the original material.  Daemon and Tower King are both fine examples of how effective your techniques are.  Both stand up well in comparison with the originals.  As you say, at that sort of resolution file size becomes quite an issue as well which impacts on processing time.  In terms of personal computing we seem to have hit something of a plateau in terms of tools for this sort of thing so that is likely to be an issue. 

Thanks for that.

B&W art should be easier to deal with in theory

Speaking from experience when I have scanned the odd early prog page, the big issue is with the thickness of the paper which means that the reverse side image distorts the output.  IIRC it requires a high brightness / contrast setting to compensate which is what produces some of the results we are seeing.  Very much depends on the quality of the material in question as well as the scanning tools I would have thought.

Of course now I'm going to sit back and see my understanding torn to shreds by more knowledgeable minds!     (For which I will be grateful).

My apologies sir.

the modern day sjw's ability to apply reason and logic.

Another one for the ignore list. Sigh.

Seriously? I think you're being a bit touchy there.

Don't mind Jim.  He's a bit gruff but harmless.  Just buy him a pint and make nice noises about Comic Sans and he'll be rolling over for you to scratch his tummy in no time.   

There's standing up for social justice, and then there's just plain ole virtue signalling, which I'm seeing more and more of these days.

Not sure I'm in complete agreement there.  An old comment along those lines:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.

That said, the way this discussion seems to be heading highlights a danger in the old #metoo meme.  I would agree that there is a perception that any kind of sexualised behaviour or entertainment is risky.  Comments about SJW's and PC madness undermine the legitimate concerns that in certain industries predatory behaviour has run unchecked for years.  The perception of hysteria feeds into this and undermines attempts to clean out the swamp.

Popular entertainment has always had to tread a fine line on these issues.  Tordels makes a good point with regard to how far the pendulum has swung.  We are long way from Mary Whitehouse's day.  That said, it is still slightly schizophrenic at times.  If Dante had been written 10 years earlier it may well have gotten tooth pulled from the shelves.  Today?  I do think you are correct to question whether it would be so well received.  It is very much a creature of its time as is so much popular culture.  At the same time though, Dante evolved as a character. 

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