Messages

Thanks for the compliments, guys! Glad you like it.

For anyone interested in creating 2000AD-related 3D stuff, I've added a wee page to my website from where you can download my implementation of the original Judge Dredd font, plus 3DS versions of the current 2000 AD logo and the Judge Dredd badge; they might come in handy!

Just click on the link below and go to "2000 AD Stuff" on the menu. Feel free to use any of this stuff for your own home-made 2000 AD adverts! You never know; you might just win!

Cheers,
Mike

P.S. While you're there, have a look at my Graphics page... Scroll right down to the end and check out the Judge Dredd image! I'd love to know everyone's comments on how it looks!

Link: http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/" target="_blank">Michael Carroll's Website

Galactic Greetings, chums!

Anyone interested in participating in a wee competition, in which you could win one of a small number of not-very-good prizes?

The idea is that you should create an advert for 2000AD or the Megazine. The advert can be a text piece, a drawing, or even a short audio or video-clip (for the sake of everyone's bandwidth, videos should be not more than a minute long, certainly no bigger than five megabytes).

The competition's judges (i.e., me and my wife) will be looking for quality of ideas rather than quality of execution. In other words, if you have a great idea but your drawing skills are pants, don't be shy about joining in!

The competition deadline is March 31st - that should be enough time for you all to get your entries done!

Text and image ads can be posted here; videos are a different matter, though. If you can put them on-line yourself, then great, otherwise get in touch with me and I'll try to find space to host them.

Prizes: The winner(s) will receive some old tat that I happen to find lying around, to be decided later!

(Of course, if not enough people are interested in participating, then I reserve the right to call the whole thing off and have a sulk).

Lotsa luck,
Mike

P.S. Below you'll find a link to a short video-type advert I've put together as a sample. It's in WMV format (Windows media video, or something), and it's just over four megabytes.

Link: http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/advert001.wmv" target="_blank">Mike's 2000AD advert

Certainly, sailing around the world is a tremendous feat, but Ms MacArthur's in a bloody big yacht that has been specially designed for that purpose. It would be an even more tremendous feat if she managed to sail around the world in, say, a double-decker bus.

I've often considered enriching my life with some difficult task like climbing Mount Everest while wearing only slippers, or walking from Land's End to John O'Groats via Moscow, but then I think of all the telly I'd miss... Sometimes the sacrifice isn't worth it.

- Mike

The living axe was indeed in Dan Dare: here's a a scan from Prog #7...

-- Mike the helpful
http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/livingaxe.jpg">

Great news for those of us who can't get hold of Metro (it's a little hard to come by here in Dublin).

But about that cover of Metro: Can anyone remember if those terrorists ever did go on strike? I suppose they had the usual grievances... shorter hours, better working conditions, pension plan, etc.

-- Mike

I can imagine that this is quite embarrassing for the editorial folk, but shirley it's not as embarrassing as Titan's collection of Halo Jones book three, in which the last page of the introduction has been replaced with the last page of the introduction to book two...

-- Mike

Can't say I'm surprised that Enterprise has had its bucket kicked. The missus and I watched the entire first season (bar one episode), but when season two was about to start we realised that neither of us could remember a single thing about the show, so we didn't bother.

And just think; the good folks at Paramount once had Ronald D. Moore on their books! Given what a brilliant show he's made of Battlestar Galactica (and considering what a pile of pants the original was), I bet they're kicking themselves now!

When Enterprise began I made a prediction that sooner or later they'd feature a show in which the captain's dog got taken over by an alien... Anyone know if this ever happened?

My newprediction: The next Trek show is going to be set on a different starship which is also called 'Enterprise', and it'll be populated by a crew culled from a Benneton ad, and there'll be an alien who is the first of his kind in Starfleet, and they'll very likely bring in a cast member from one of the successful series just to get the numbers up. It'll be called Star Trek: Shark Jumping.

-- Mike

The birdcage first appeared (as far as I recall) in the Infocom computer game. Up until that point there wasn't any mention of exactly where Zaphod's other head had been during the party. In one of the radio shows Zaphod discusses his third arm with Trillian, and says, "I grew it just for you, you know", so perhaps sprouting extra body bits isn't that big a deal for him... Speaking of which; any noticed that the photo of the Zaphod toy appears to have only two arms?

-- Mike

Link: http://www.planetmagrathea.com" target="_blank">Planet Magrathea

Trainspotting II -
"Just when Renton thought it was safe to go back into the toilet."

The nervous contestants of the World's Longest Toes competition modelling their swimwear.

Gerhard the visiting Belgian rep looks a little puzzled as the Letchworth crew all gather round the office piano to belt out yet another rendition of the boss's favourite song; "I'm a little tea-pot..."

"formly"?

I meant "firmly"! Sorry about that!

-- Mike

An excellent interview indeed... I always considered Mr Grant to be one of 2000 AD's very finest.

I'm not ashamed to admit this; I actually laughed so hard at one of his early Lobo comics that I peed myself. Luckily, none of the other passengers on the bus seemed to notice.

Well done to Mr. Berridge and Mr. Hanly - definitely 2000 AD Review's best interview to date, which is saying something.

And I formly agree with Cosmic Ray about the new logo!

-- Mike

P.S. By a strange coincidence, Alan Grant's been constantly on my mind for the past two days because I've been reading The Making of Jurassic Park (picked up for a mere two Euro in the local charity shop).

> "If you draw the balloon in white, you can then go to layers>effects>outer glow. Make the glow normal and black with 0% opacity and it should look OK."

Alternatively, right-click on the layer in the "Layers" window, select "Blending Options" then select "Stroke" - the default is a red outline three pixels wide, but it's easy enough to change!

A wee word of warning: if you use the Stroke feature and then resize the image, the thickness of the outline won't change.

Love and cuddles,
Mike

James...

Check the "Color" window: one of the two colours will have a little square around it. The left/top colour is the foreground colour ("A" in the example below), the other one is the background colour ("B"). To switch between drawing the foreground colour and the background colour, just click the one that doesn't have the square around it!

Cheers,
Mikehttp://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/fgorbg.jpg">