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Apologies if this tastes a bit spammy, but I thought there was the possibility people might be interested in seeing some of the artwork for a Dredger story I found in the 1980 Action Annual, with some rather lovely colour art by a certain artist north of the border, down Glasgae way...

Anyway, I'll post up the first page here, and if anyone's interested I'll stick some more up, otherwise just let the topic drift down the thread and die like some kind of electronic messageboard salmon.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/Action1980_Dredger1.jpg">

Got sent this email from someone, but it reeks rather strongly of urban legend-style bullshit to me - unfortunately, I'm not nearly skilled enough in the ways of art packages to recognise if the following pic is a fake or not, so I was wondering if some of the resident photoshoppy experts could chip in with their two-cents?

"YOU HAVE TO READ THIS FIRST BEFORE LOOKING AT
PICTURE.

Family on holiday in Australia for a week and a half when husband, wife and their 15 year old son decided to go scuba diving. The husband is in the navy and has had some scuba experience.  His son wanted a picture of his mum and dad in all their gear so he got the under water camera ready to go. When it came to taking the picture the dad realized that the son looked like he was panicking as he took it and gave the 'OK' hand sign to see if he was alright.  

The son took the picture and swam to the surface and back to the boat as quick as he could so the mum and dad followed to see if he was OK.  When they got back to him he was scrambling onto the boat and absolutely panicking.  When the parents asked why he said 'there was a shark behind you.'  The dad thought he was joking but the skipper of the boat said it was true but they wouldn't believe him.  As soon as they got back to the hotel they loaded the picture onto the laptop and this is what they saw."http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/?action=view¤t=SHARK.jpg">

Looking around for a distraction from work this morning, I came across the local paper (the Ham & High) which had the headline:

GHOSTS SUPPORT BID TO SAVE PUB!

Now, as it turns out the 'Ghosts' are actually a band and not, as I'd hoped, phantoms from beyond the grave. But it set me wondering, what sort of ridiculous, hyperbole-bound, alramist or just generally idiotic headlines or stories have you come across in the past?

Link: http://www.rttimes.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1568617.mostcommented.crabs_attack_in_hampton.php" target="_blank">Crabs Attack in Hampton!

http://i23.tinypic.com/hv54cx.jpg">

More self-serving poncery I'm afraid, as I thought I might as well exhibit the photo-strip that me and a few mates put together the other week (and special thanks must go to Bolt-01) as the result of a pub crawl-cum-Al Pacino mass-impersonation up in leafy Hampstead. I can feel the waves of indifference already...

So, may I present detective BOYK - a homicidal cop on the edge, and the one man capable of kicking the ass of terror!

In Yorkshire.

Link: http://dcjproductions.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Thief Taker! Ass Breaker!

Okay, I've got a fat wadge of horror comics I picked up for research and am now looking to get rid of, so what better way than in the form of a board comp?

Up for offer are copies of The Curse of Dracula (Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan), Unexpected, Ghosts, The Witching Hour, The House of Mystery, The House of Secrets, Swamp Thing, Werewolf By Night, Chamber of Darkness, Vault of Evil, The Legion of Monsters (Gene Colan/Mike Ploog), Ghostly Haunts (Steve Ditko), Creepy (Jose Ortiz), Eerie, Dracula Lives! (Dick Giordano/Paul Gulacy), Tales of the Zombie (Pablo Marcos/Alfredo Alcala), Masters of Terror (Gene Colan special), Doomed 2-4 (Ash Wood/Rufus Dayglo), Chilling Tales of Horror, The Revolver Horror Special (John Bolton/Ed Bagwell), Scream! (Eric Bradbury/Brendan McCarthy).

All you've got to do to win this lot is to fill in the dialogue in the two empty speech balloons on the page below:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/HorrorComp.jpg">

Don't know if anyone else saw that there was a free preview edition of the old sixties educational magazine/comic Look and Learn with thguardian recently. Anyway, it's a nice newspaper-style reprint of various articles and strips from the comic's heyday, including Don Lawrence's gorgeous Trigan Empire, by way of building anticipation for the upcoming relaunch of the title next year.

Anyway, if anyone wants a copy, we were handed a great stack of them at work, so drop me a line if you want a copy...while stocks last!

Link: http://www.lookandlearn.com" target="_blank">Look and Learn

Okay, this is a bit of a cheeky ask, but does anyone have a copy to hand of the Meg that came out a couple of Christmas' ago which featured an interview with IPC Editorial Director John Sanders, as well as Da Bish's ongoing TPO (Meg 214?) My copy seems to have gone walkabout, and I can't find the dratted thing anywhere!

Reason I ask is because I seem to remember that in it, Sanders says that one of the reasons behind the premature closure of Scream was the NUJ strike which had delayed publication on a number of IPC titles, with management wanting to teach those militant unions a thing or two.

Of course, I could be remembering this entirely wrong, but if anyone could maybe scan or post the particular portion of the interview as plain text, you'd be doing me an absolutely massive favour, for which I would be very, very grateful...

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/index.php3?zone=prog&page=megprofiles&choice=214" target="_blank">Possibly...maybe not...

Okay, 2000AD has had plenty of horror strips over the years - Fiends of the Eastern Front, Devlin Waugh, Necronauts, Chiaroscuro, etc - but I was thinking today, how often has horror crossed over into other ongoing strips (like that fill-in story of Nikolai Dante and the vampires, for example). Specifically I was thinking about Dredd - we all know stuff like The Haunting of Sector House 9 and Cry of the Werewolf, but does anyone have any favourites or forgotten classics that they can think of?

A personal favourite of mine was Tomb of the Judges(?), somewhere around the 400's with Gibson art - I remember it scaring the crap out of me as a kid.

Not, as you might at first assume, the former star of the Terminator visiting twin-fisted justice upon toothless old gimp-faced John 'CORE CONCEPT' Byrne - no, instead the governor of California has followed Byrne's example by offending Latinos in general whilst trying to describe just one.

Though to be fair, the comments were in private and he has apologised for them now. And he never said anything about whores.

Well, he is a politician, after all...

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold9sep09,0,6430630.story?coll=la-home-headlines" target="_blank">"They are all very hot..."

Well, being once again totally self-serving and pimping stuff no one in their right mind is at all interested in (well what's new?), but there's a review of Action Stations! (sans StabFoot) over at Silverbullet:

Link: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/smallpress/113446358591933.htm" target="_blank">Review of Some Book or Other

Seeing as how our own Bou, Queen of the Board, is making the pilgrimage down to Old Grimy (or London for the less informed of you), it seemed prurient for me to start this thread as yet another excuse for Big City drinkage.

So who's up for raising a glass to Bou during this Christmas/New Year period, and when's the best time to do so? I'm assuming that the venue stays as The Horse & Groom...?

Have you got a favourite saying or phrase that you have? The best one I've heard today has to be:

"I probably spend all of my money on hay." (Brian Blessed)

Presenting previews of upcoming FutureQuake Press titles FutureQuake issue 5 and the first ever issue of brand-new MangaQuake, due to go on sale at the Brighton expo from this coming Saturday.

Also, for those with an interest in such things, there is a news article in the current issue of Comics International about Mangaquake plus print ads to run through December, two articles and an Eyecandy piece in the next Redeye, we'll also have a presence on a UK Manga publishers panel in Brighton, and best of all we got a plug in the prog this week (thank you Tharg - truly you are indeed a Mighty One).

Anyway, to kick off the previews, we have a panel from the strip Domestic Bliss, drawn by the deeply talented Si Penter, and due to appear in FutureQuake #5 - enjoy!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Bolt-01/FQ%20Samples/FQ05teaseDOM.jpg">

StabFoot!, the Devil Moose from Beyond - the Evil Nightmare of the First World War - has returned from the depths of the Infernal Underworld!

Is it a tall tale told by old crones on late winter evening's to frighten gullible children? Is it the first Moose-bound casualty of a war it couldn't comprehend, its great paw speared by a bayonet? Is it a Fiend from the Blackest Pits of Hell? Or is it the collected anger and hatred from the souls of all our war dead?

No one knows the answer...the only certainty is that...

STABFOOT LIVES!

Now you too, gentle reader, can find out the true story of the Terror of the Trenches, where Horror is a bloody bayonetted hoof, and Vengeance has a new name...and that name is StabFoot!

Witness the Fright from Beyond the Mind of Man with this apocalyptic figure of Deadly Moosey Death-Doom in the new convention edition of Action Stations!, which now adds two new strips for the exact same price as the orginal book - ?2 + 50p P&P (now with added Moose). Contact PonySchool@gmail.com to request your copy now, whilst it still resides in the mortal plane of man.

"STABFOOT LIVES! AND HE'S GOING TO BRIGHTON...!"

Link: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/smallpress/113142994761315.htm" target="_blank">Coincidental Pony School Review...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/Pony%20School/stabfootpage3panel3pic.jpg">

Presenting the first installment in a new webcomic spin-off from Big Finish's Dr. Who audio stories: The Forge. Written by Cav Scott, writer for the Megazine and editor of the Future Comics group, the story is illustrated by our very own Bryan Coyle (aka Professor Bear).

Personally, I think it's bloody fantastic stuff - can't wait for the next part!

Link: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/cavscott/forge/series.php" target="_blank">The Forge

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/theforgepic1.jpg">

Having found that I'm on holiday (having turned up for work this morning...again!), I ended up watching daytime tv.

Apparently Trisha is on Channel 5 now - she was talking to an overweight gay man when a sign appeared on the screen beneath the man that read "He Loves His Fags".

I also got the wonder of seeing Ross Kemp on thios morning (after his performance on Richard & Judy yesterday), and he really is a bit of a luvvie. In fact, he's pretty much exactly as he appeared to be in Extras, only a bit slimier.

I'll never be able to take Ultimate force seriously again.

Anyone else going along to the International Manga and Anime Festival 2005? It runs from 21st - 25th October, held at the County Hall on London's South Bank (just by the London Eye), and is entirely FREE to enter. There's going to be various talks, events and screenings, including a rare UK showing of Samurai Champloo, which has got to be worth the (non-existant) entrance fee alone.

Oh, and I'll be on a panel and various other bits and bobs to do with publishing UK Manga, so it'd be nice to see any familar (or even unfamiliar) faces that manage to make it along.

SCHEDULE OF MANGA EVENTS FOR IMAF 2005 AT COUNTY HALL

Friday Oct 21 2-3pm : Manga for Beginners: Are you new to Japanese comics? Puzzled by their big eyes and reading them backwards? Discover the secrets of manga with this illustrated introduction by Paul Gravett, author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King).  

Saturday Oct 22 4-5pm : Make Mine Manga! : Join a panel discussion with artists and writers making manga in the UK and Ireland, including Ilya-san, author of the Manga Drawing Kit (Thunder Bay Press), and Edward Berridge and others from new anthology MangaQuake.

Sunday Oct 23 12-1pm :  Massive Wall-Sized Manga Happening! : You can suggest ideas, twists and turns as Ilya-san, Craig Conlan, Edward Berridge and other writers and artists create a giant manga story before your very eyes.

Sunday Oct 23 2-3pm : The Best Manga and Graphic Novels: Are comics becoming 21st century graphic literature? Discover some of the modern masterpieces of comics, from Japan and around the world, with Paul Gravett, author of Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life (Aurum Press).  

Monday Oct 24 2-3pm : Manga for Everyone: Shonen, shojo, seinen, hentai, yaoi, redikomi, gurume, golfu and more mean there really is something for everyone. Sample some of the wild varieties of Japanese comics with Paul Gravett, author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King).

Tuesday Oct 25 12-1pm : The Next Big Thing: What are the big hit series on the horizon and coming here soon? Who are Japan's hot new creators of the future? And how are Japanese comics changing now you can read them online and on your mobile phone? A look ahead with Paul Gravett and guests at the shape of manga to come.

Tuesday Oct 25 5-6pm : MEET JUNKO MIZUNO - IMAF's Very Special Guest Mangaka from Tokyo is Junko Mizuno, Japan's Queen of the Cute and Creepy, the original 'Hell Baby', whose fractured fairytales Cinderalla [sic], Hansel & Gretel and Princess Mermaid are translated into English by Viz Comics and whose dark debut graphic novel Pure Trance has just been published by Jap Press/Last Gasp. She will be in conversation, demonstrating her stunning artistry and signing her books.

Attention, Boys & Girls!

Saturday 1st October marks the release of the only existing copy of the long forgotten childrens comic Action Stations (incorporating Fairytale Princess for Girls). The book contains a number of highly regarded strips of yesteryear as:

-Pony School
-Secret Agent Skipper
-Destroy All Japs!
-Wild West Wendy
-Misty the Teen Detective

To round the issue out, there's an interview with comic writing legend Jimmy McGuffin, a letters page and all the sorts of usual rubbish that people use to pad these sorts of books out with.

Own yourself a slice of British comic-book history for only ?2 + 50p P&P by contacting PonySchool@gmail.com

And for those of the more literal-minded amongst you, I hereby point out that this is a PARODICAL publication.

Now here's a pic from Destroy All Japs!

Link: http://dcjproductions.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Death Camp Jones

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/Pony%20School/Destroyalljapsdetail.jpg">

Though in this case it's actually a comic-book, but one that might potentially have the fate of the British Isles hanging upon it!*

We're looking for people to write us letters for the Action Stations Winter Special that should be ready in the next month or so, and we want you, the general public, to write them. We want people to send us their awful letters and childlike fan art to PonySchool@gmail.com or just post it on this thread, and base it around one of our many regular strips, including:

-Pony School
-Magical Mindy
-Misty the Teen Detective
-Tammy the Teenage Housemaid
-Bee Academy
-Princess Daisy
-Wild West Wendy
-Sergeant Typhoon
-Destroy all Japs!
-Gun Patrol
-Death Warrent
-Major Smokie
-Death Camp Jones
-Jack the Fighting Sambo
-Jock Wars
-The White Samurai

It genuinely doesn't matter that you haven't read or seen any of these titles - neither have we. Just send us a short letter or hurridly rushed scribble of what you think your chosen strip might be about, preferably something negative, and you could be up for getting the coverted Star Letter position. Whoever manages to achieve that lofty height will win themselves a fabulous prize of mystery, which I can't elaborate too much on right now, but Bryan'll be along in a bit with more information.

We want to hear from you, the Great British public, who are bitter enough to spend their working days wandering aimlessly round the interweb, even if it's just to tell us how much we suck.

Drop us a line today. You know that it probably doesn't make sense.










*You never know, the next Hitler might be reading it and choke to death on the noxious printing fumes. Well, it could happen!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/BAonstrike.jpg">