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Messages - john_s

#1
Megazine / Re: Meg 389 - Darklands
25 October, 2017, 11:14:39 PM
Devlin? "Humility"? Not an effin chance!
#2
Prog / Re: Prog 2054 - Me & My Shadow
25 October, 2017, 09:25:30 PM
Quote from: The Corinthian on 25 October, 2017, 05:57:47 PM
I'm afraid the SPOILER in Indigo Prime has just contributed to my sense that it's the work of a man wearing a rubber John Smith mask rather than someone who's completely sympathetic to the series and can make it work in his own style. Even if this was exactly where Smith was planning to go, I imagine he'd do it in a much subtler and stranger tone.

Damn right. It had my blessings. Now it has my curses. Loved it up to that stupid "twist". Of course, Tharg owns everything. But do you have to monster-mashup every story I've ever written under the same roof? It's incredibly lame and screams of "product on shelf". Just coz DC do it...
#3
Prog / Re: Prog 2050 - Epic Thrills!
09 October, 2017, 06:19:06 AM
Cosh has got it about right, yeah.  There's lots behind it, and I could pour out my sob story about my boyfriend dying and life going to shit (by actually having to actually learn what real life is), but I'll save it for a Bitter And Evil Podcast somewhere, eh?

Oh yeah.  And they should let anyone and everyone have a go at doing "Indigo Prime" stories.  It's kinda why I brought 'em back! Same with Devlin.  You could riff off these characters into any story.  I'm just rather annoyed they're so lame as to use all the obvious trappings that I've laid out for years! Tying up 25 years of cryptic hints in a few episodes is, well, what...?  "Fuck you, Smith! These characters... "Your my wives now..."

#4
Prog / Re: Prog 1884 - Crashing the Party
02 June, 2014, 06:43:16 PM
Horrible beer!  Don't blame it on me...

Hey!  Dark Jimbo!  I award you a bag of Schrodinger's kittens that have been skinned with Occam's razor...

Will that do?  ;)



#5
Prog / Re: Prog 1884 - Crashing the Party
01 June, 2014, 08:25:53 PM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 31 May, 2014, 04:00:18 PM
Very quick read this week - Slaine and IP are all action, and Grey Area and Dredd are both pretty light on dialogue.

The mystery in Dredd deepens. Still not over-keen on the art - I think Langley's style of working in photo-real stuff is more successful than Percival's - but it's clearly the product of much skill. Is that big panel on page 3 the one with all the boarder's faces?

Grey Area is back, and it's much the same as last time. All a bit ho-hum for me, but then if I was a relatively new reader this would probably be one of my favourites as it's so easy to get in to, just as Sin/Dex was for my first few years of proggage (before I knew better).

Slaine is fun but lightweight.

The 3riller's certainly intriguing, if not blowing me away, and Currie's art injects a lot of fun into proceedings.

Yet again Indigo Prime is the star of the prog - proof, if any were needed, that Tharg ought to have Smith/Bagwell/Carter beavering away on the next story as we speak. This really is one of my favourite thrills from the last ten years, even though I haven't read any of the pre-Dead Eyes stuff. A neanderthal in a suit and tie using a hardlight stone axe to smash in the cockpit of a battle mech piloted by a terminally-ill OAP...? That's what 2000AD is all about, right there. And that opening panel is a class act - a ghostly Mariah warning the heroes, the Nihilist pulling the strings behind it all, and behind that John Smith turning from his keyboard with a sort of 'What the f--?' expression in a metaphysical nod to a single throwaway (but crucial) line from one of the earlier stories. Bravura.



Not posted here for yonks - hope I've done this right! - but just WOW, man!  How the fuck did you work THAT out?

#6
Film & TV / Re: On telly this week
17 July, 2012, 09:09:08 PM
"Breaking Bad"!

What the hell was all *that* about with Walt at the beginning?  It's birthday week for me and I got pissed, so need to watch it again...
#7
Prog / Re: Prog 1789 And he was a killer
24 June, 2012, 11:19:50 PM
Quote from: Richard on 24 June, 2012, 08:16:32 PM
John S -- spoiler warnings / black boxes please.


Shit!  Sorry about that, fella - it didn't even cross my mind.  (Also, I don't even know how to black out text like that...)  Hope I've not ruined it for ya!
#8
Prog / Re: Prog 1789 And he was a killer
24 June, 2012, 06:38:01 PM
May I just add to the love too and say how fucking AWESOME Judge Dredd is?

I agree with that line - "Good people" - it almost made me cry.  (In fact, I am doing right now because I just ate a raw Scotch bonnet chilli for a laugh.  Really... it's not that funny.)

I've come to the conclusion that John Wagner is THE best writer in comics.  [spoiler]350 million dead?  Then that brilliant reveal with the infected cannibal kids...  Then they save that one little girl who hugs the Judge...  Man, this story rocks, and makes me so proud to be a "2000AD" fan!  It's moments like this that I live for!  Wagner's smashing up his toy box, trashing the play pen, and burning down the wendy house... and some of us poor writers are meant to pile in later and help pick up the pieces...[/spoiler] which is, let's be clear, abso-fucking-lutely terrifying and awe-inspiring in equal measure...

Oh, and yeah, don't Peter's colours look ace?  I really am going to have to work with that fellow, you know?   ;)
#9
Oh, thanks for that!

Your mention of that story made me re-read it online and I realise nobody seems to know what it's *really* about.  It's actually a joke involving a couple of illustrious Scottish comic writers who owe a lot of their ideas to a certain "Brendan".  The clues are in the names: Mason Gorrister and (I mean, really, come on now)Rallim Kram...   ;)
#10
Surely a "Cradlegrave" hooded top is a no-brainer?  (I'd post Edmund's cover if I knew how, but don't, sorry...)  I know I'd wear one!
#11
Quote from: mygrimmbrother on 23 January, 2012, 03:18:03 PM
I'm not arguing that I'd like everything homogenous - far from it. The diversity of 2000AD - not just from prog to prog, but from story to story within that prog - has always been one of its greatest strengths. And I don't want all my art 'pretty and sophisticated' (the opposite of ugly and crude).

I dunno, I've pretty much refrained from venting about AR because of the age-old adage 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all', but on the other hand we're all paying customers and if I pretended everything was fine and dandy purely out of loyalty, well, I'd only be lying to myself.



Heh!  I've just discovered The Maccabees - a bit late, I know - but this I do like this song, which is kind of appropriate to your sentiments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhmKNBBp3OU
#12
Welcome to the board / Re: Robo-Cook Blog
18 November, 2011, 02:21:23 PM
Hey - I remember "Alternity"!  I did a synopsis for that, called "Anno Domino", about this Frankensteinian techno-shaman in a totally bonkers future reality...

Mark's "Billy Whisper" came about when I told him about "Buckeroo Banzai" and he shamelessly stole the whole plot and character (only, y'know, making him a kid).  Even all that Orson Welles' stuff about his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast is in the "Buckeroo Banzai" film...

All in all, probably best that it never got to see the light of day!
#13
Prog / Re: PROG1759 IN FOR THE KILL
15 November, 2011, 11:59:40 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 07 November, 2011, 03:32:15 PM
I personally love the way he (John Smith) drops in this information as IndigoPrime say he drops you into a fully formed world. He also helps you work it out. I find it brilliant that he manages to weave in all the 'clues' you need to suss out what's going on, what all the dialogue refers to without it all getting very expositiony. He makes it all seem so natural and therefore so real. I do have to work at it but comics are often berated for taking such a short time to get through for so much pay out. So I for one don't mind the fact that his writing may take me a couple of goes to get (or at least reach a reading of that I'm happy with and feel I understand). The reward for this is a much richer, more real (in his very unreal worlds) experience.

Compare what he does to say what Ian Edgington does in Ampney. So often he'll have two characters actually discussing straight out for a good page or two what exactly the big snake demon beastie is and what its up to. He does it entertainingly enough but with none of the subtly that Smith employees. Smith leds the reader to almost being the second party in the conversation. To ask the questions and find the answers, which I think are all there.



Hah!  Ello, John S - big deal, eh?  I'm suffering from Blue Screen of Death at the momement - but you mde me laugh!

You've got it, man: drop 'em in at the deep end - and if they can't swin, like I can't, well then, tough.... this story may take yonks to write.  Bear with me.  Oh, and haven't you all watched "Breaking Bad" yet, you idiots?  It's so brilliantly done and written, I don't know why I bother...
#14
Other Reviews / Re: KILLING TIME
16 October, 2011, 07:10:00 AM
You did good - (and at least it kept you off the streets, eh?  JOKE!) but my God, man, it took me longer to listen to than it did to write the bloody story... and I'm not exactly Speedy Gonzalez in that department!

Really appreciate all the time and effort, though!  And you've given me a few inklings of ideas for this new series, so it's all good!  ;-)

Cheers!
x
john
#15
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
02 October, 2011, 10:18:13 PM
"Snowtown" is well nihilistic and depressing, but nowhere near as depressing as Lars von Trier's new one, "Melancholia".  (The first half is a bit of a drag, but essential to set up the uber-depressing second half.  Even Jack Bauer can't save the day!)

I'm desperate to watch "Kill List" but it's had a very limited release.  His first film, though, "Down Terrace", is pretty bloody good.  It's a kinda naturalistic set-mostly-in-one-house gangster film, with moments of random violence that are genuinely thrilling/chilling.  For an ultra-low budget first film, it's fucking ace!

(Thanks to The Emperor for pointing it out to me!)