Was he ever referred to as 'Caligula' in the strip? I've seen ads for collections and figurines where they call him Caligula, but (despite clearly being inspired by John Hurt's magnificent performance as the emperor in question) I can't quite remember whether the chief judge was called anything other than Cal.
Incidentally, I've also learned that the real Caligula most likely wasn't much of a nutjob really; more the type of victim of negative propaganda that Trump erroneously believes he himself is.
Pretty sure he's only ever referred to as Cal in the actual story - the Titan collections were titled Judge Caligula though.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 10 July, 2018, 07:26:25 PM
Incidentally, I've also learned that the real Caligula most likely wasn't much of a nutjob really; more the type of victim of negative propaganda that Trump erroneously believes he himself is.
Nero suffers from a similar bad press from what I remember.
I always thought in 'Crime and Punishment' he
really looks like Pat Mills!
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 July, 2018, 08:01:45 PM
I always thought in 'Crime and Punishment' he really looks like Pat Mills!
Yeah, that was deliberate, but Pat didn't think it was funny and asked that they stopped drawing Cal to look so much like him - hence that weird bit at the start of DtLD with Cal saying 'Now that I have my new haircut, I'm ready to rule Mega-City One...'
Ha! He is a ringer for P. Mills, that's excellent.
Yup, I have the Titan 'Judge Caligula' volumes, and more to the point, why rename the story completely?
Quote from: Fungus on 11 July, 2018, 01:45:12 AM
Yup, I have the Titan 'Judge Caligula' volumes, and more to the point, why rename the story completely?
It gave them an excuse to do a special fish badge and for Cal to have his own personalised version of the visage in the letter J of the Judge logo – and Judge Caligula sounds cool.
(https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1138135.jpg)
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 10 July, 2018, 08:07:54 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 July, 2018, 08:01:45 PM
I always thought in 'Crime and Punishment' he really looks like Pat Mills!
Yeah, that was deliberate, but Pat didn't think it was funny and asked that they stopped drawing Cal to look so much like him - hence that weird bit at the start of DtLD with Cal saying 'Now that I have my new haircut, I'm ready to rule Mega-City One...'
Wasn't Day the Law Died created first, with the Crime and Punishment trilogy written to improve the continuity with Cursed Earth? In which case, McMahon's Caligula look would have preceded the Mills look-a-like.
That hairstyle change anecdote has been used for ages now and I don't think I've ever seen it contradicted. Prepared to be proved wrong though!
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 10 July, 2018, 08:07:54 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 July, 2018, 08:01:45 PM
I always thought in 'Crime and Punishment' he really looks like Pat Mills!
Yeah, that was deliberate, but Pat didn't think it was funny and asked that they stopped drawing Cal to look so much like him - hence that weird bit at the start of DtLD with Cal saying 'Now that I have my new haircut, I'm ready to rule Mega-City One...'
Never heard that anecdote before - hope it's true!
I've read it somewhere, pretty sure it's true.
By the way, thanks, all! Couldn't quite remember whether it was the actual title on the Titan album or just some ill-informed advertising somewhere else.
He was only ever called Cal in the strip.
The real Caligula went completely nuts, possibly the result of lead poisoning since all the pipes were made of lead.
... and lead in Latin is plumbum, hence plumber. Here endeth the lesson.
Also lead used in paint, often used to adorn food vessels is theorised to contributing to high levels of mental illness in the Roman Empire.
Not to mention the pewter plates and cups they used. Read somewhere that lead poisoning via (among other things) mulled wine in pewter drinking vessels was one of the reasons ancient Rome had a severe problem with impotency and infertility leading to a drop in population growth.
This is Rumour Control, here are the facts: Far as I know, there's only been one major diachronic study of lead levels in human remains, which did include some data from Imperial Rome, carried out by my erstwhile colleague the rather wonderful Janet Montgomery. That supported the idea that lead levels rose sharply in the Imperial period, and that there would indeed have been what were probably the first cases of lead poisoning in human history, but NOT that it was widespread or caused the fall of the Western Empire, which in any event ambled happily along for another 4 centuries after Caligula's time (and the Eastern Empire for arguably another 1000 years after that). And Tetley make teabags make tea.
Quote from: Richard on 19 July, 2018, 07:11:27 PM
He was only ever called Cal in the strip.
The real Caligula went completely nuts, possibly the result of lead poisoning since all the pipes were made of lead.
We don't even know if he really was a madman. The whole idea of insanity and sexual perversion was a common trope at the time when muddying the name of unpopular politicians.
How do you know he wasn't unpopular because he was an insane pervert?
Q: "What are you writing?"
A: "It's a biography of Caligula. Since he died last year, now it's safe to write about him without being executed for it."
Q: "Good, I've always hated him ever since he raped my wife and I at our wedding in front of all the guests. Are you going to mention that bit?"
A: "Fuck no, future generations will just assume I made it up to blacken his name just because he was unpopular. I'm just going to leave all that stuff out."
Q: "Really?! Even the bit when he said he wished he could execute the entire population of the empire?"
A: "Especially that bit."
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 21 July, 2018, 12:03:50 PM
Quote from: Richard on 19 July, 2018, 07:11:27 PM
He was only ever called Cal in the strip.
The real Caligula went completely nuts, possibly the result of lead poisoning since all the pipes were made of lead.
We don't even know if he really was a madman. The whole idea of insanity and sexual perversion was a common trope at the time when muddying the name of unpopular politicians.
Pretty sure I've heard that about Nero (and King Herod isn't
quite as bad as the Bible says - just got a bad rap from that "killing all the babies" thing).
Quote from: BMCCOLL on 19 July, 2018, 08:25:02 PM
... and lead in Latin is plumbum, hence plumber. Here endeth the lesson.
Hence Pb is the notation for lead on the Periodic Table of Elements.