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Messages - Buttonman

#1
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
16 January, 2024, 12:34:31 AM
Ooooh! Exciting! Not got my Prog yet!
#2
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
05 January, 2024, 12:55:45 AM
Quote from: Richard on 03 January, 2024, 02:17:58 PMI'd like to claim two new letters last year in progs 2319 and 2357 please.

Sorry I missed these - the Beast had a malfunction and didn't prompt me to add in your Beast code of WWW. Now logged and it rockets you up the charts to 21st= on 16.

Quote from: Link Prime on 03 January, 2024, 04:54:47 PMYou know how it goes Rick, once he got to the top he stopped caring.

Yeah, like I ever did! (totally did, always).
#3
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
02 January, 2024, 08:28:53 PM
The New Year Update!

#4
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
30 September, 2023, 09:04:32 PM
A big hitters, well medium hitters at any rate, letters page in the currebt Peog, 2353.

For your groats you get :

Neil Colquhoun - 17th Letter
Tristan Louth - 23rd Letter
Ade Bowen - 15th Letter
Chris Browning - 19th Letter
Stephen (Formally Steve) Hallam - 7th Letter.

New writers? We don't want their kind here!
#5
Coincidentally, I'd booked to go to Zaragoza (And Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia) in August. Will be looking for Carlos' street for sure.
#6
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
03 May, 2023, 03:40:13 PM

And we're back for the first Lettersentertainyou since July 2022. Of course that can only mean one thing! Yes. That's correct, it's time for the coronation of King Charles III, and as obsequious royalists we're all down at Beast Towers for venerating our glorious leader and his handsome wife. This column is well known at the palace and held in equal regard to Michael Fagin and Nicholas Witchell.

In our brief absence the letters page has bounced along with a plaintive plea made in the Prog for more letters to the Megazine. They said that no one was writing to Dreddlines - well we can confidently say that they are bang wrong on that front with our bulging outbox testament to that fact. Hopefully the Ex-lax will take care of that though.

The return to action takes place in Prog 2330 which as the Input page sneakily deposited on Page 9 - it's almost like they were checking to see if we were still reading the full Prog and not just flicking to the back cover! For shame! Ask us anything about 'Brink' or 'Proteus Vex' and we'll find you an answer - possibly via Chat GPT though.

We get a nice selection of five letters, that include old and new faces and some letters based intercourse. Lovely, but we do have a headache.

First up is the always  keen Alistair Coleman of Reading. Or maybe he's Reading; it's not totally clear. This is Alistair's 6th all time appearance on the Beast database, all of which have graced the Prog. This is his first Letter of the Week with his first ever letter appearing in 2018's Prog 2093.

The letter is decent but it reads a bit like an essay from an earnest first year sociology student. He detects the subtle themes in Dredd of him being a big old fascist  and its parallels with contemporary society. I did enjoy his background details to the Dredd 'Shrine' story as that angle had passed us by - just like our youth and will to live. He snags the top spot with a timely salute to Michael Molcher's book, but all's fair in love and the Nerve Centre. Tharg responds to say Dredd is no hero but he'll stick him on a load of merch anyway.

Next up is a 2nd class return  from Nottingham from Pat Draper. That ancient 'Tunes' gag actually works as this is Pat's second letter to see print following a Letter of the Week offering in Prog 2274 last year. This score sees him as the dominant Draper as he overtakes Vincent of Coventry on one, who presented his memorable 'Long Tongue of the Law' in Prog 991.

Pat is a person who offers faint praise with his opening of  "The Prog is in a great place right now" quickly qualified by saying 'Enemy Earth' is "decent transition" - whoa boy don't go overboard here! He also bigs up 'The Order' before saying he has no idea what's going on - high praise indeed!

Wipe your feet in the forest next, as we have Mat Woods of Stockport in the mid page berth. This is Mat's first offering and he's the first Woods to be seen for the trees since William of Milton Keynes in 2004's Prog 1389. The King of Stockport remains Glen Hattersley on ten, who was last seen in 2017's Prog 2023.

Mat's letter is the old favourite of the lost then found reader. Mat lost interest in the Prog in the 90's but returned when he saw Simon Bisley back in action. Mat now has a double sub and all is good in the world. Unsurprisingly Tharg is happy with this state of affairs.

Next up is old, and we mean old, stager Stephen Watson of Paisley. This familiar hack hadn't been seen since Prog 2330 in 2022 and there was speculation that his dodgy ticker had at last expired. 'Not true' he tells us in an exclusive, and totally unsolicited, interview. He tells us that he's had at least one letter  printed in each year since 2014. This may be a record but we can't be bothered to check. Watson does extend his overall lead on the Beast chart to 103 and excitingly (for him) he now has more Prog Letters than Megazine ones with a 52/51 ratio. The Prog record of 53 held by Floyd Kermode is now firmly in his sights although Steve Frame's 9 Letters of the Week crown seems unassailable as Watson lingers with Floyd on a lowly six.

Watson's letter is one of his better efforts - even his wife agreed between tears - and covers the whole 2000ad vista as well as the ongoing debates around an aging readership and what constitutes a thrill these days. 20% off Gaviscon does it for us. Watson likes most of what Tharg offers but misses the quick hits. He's a sucker for the Regened Progs and likes a bit of Rogue Trooper to spice up his Prog. Tharg agrees balance is difficult and Watson concurs as his Zimmer gives way.

Last up is Paul Weller of Cornwall and it would be beneath us to make any easy jokes about this. It would put us in The Jam however if we didn't mention that this was his first letter and we have none on the database for 'Foxton' but 'Butler' has 13 in the shape of  Doug . The only other 'Weller' on the Beast Database is Simon of Tonbridge who went underground after his only outing in Meg 88/V2.68.

Paul's letter speaks like a child compared to that which went  before it which covers the same ground. Paul finds it hard to access some longer running stories and he also is confused by the time travelling tin man antics of 'The Order'. Tharg loses his patience somewhat and points out Nemesis had loads of books and people managed to understand that. Shout to the top Tharg, that's the ticket.

Overall we enjoyed this offering and there was good interaction between the readers and the Emerald Editor. Hopefully the Input page is in rude health for years to come and it remains the shining diamond in Tharg's crown.
#7
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
26 January, 2023, 08:30:04 PM
I was on holiday!

I find that interest tapers off in terms of reads and comments if I put up too many. I have a couple to log with the Festive Prog and the last Input page to upload to The Beast. Didn't get the Christmas issue until the middle of January, so blame the posties! Nice to be missed though!
#8
General / Re: Dave "Bolt 01" Evans Charity Anthology
01 January, 2023, 06:24:48 PM
What a nice plan for a well loved and missed forumite and friend to many.

My artistic talents are no-existent but I can offer a couple of crumbs of interest. Below is a colab I did with Dave for an old forum art contest. It was around the time of the new Dredd movie and my idea was for Dredd to lay down the law about what wasn't acceptable following the Stallone offering. The idea wasn't suitable for my usual Paintbox offering so Dave came up trumps, despite a manic schedule, with the offering below :



He also had several letters printed in his favourite comic, the one below being his first in Prog 1316.



I appreciate these are small oddities but they may give a chuckle to is friends and family. Apologies for the Photobucket watermarks - I've been unable to raise their ransom fee!

Good luck with the project and I'll definitely be signing up for the Kickstarter.
#9
Prog / Re: Prog 2310 - High Plains Shifter
21 December, 2022, 04:18:51 PM
Mine just arrived today - most behind the times Prog ever!

The Dredd referenced is 'Block Rite' from Prog 489 by Wager/Grant and Cliff Robinson. It's not clear why they didn't used the same characters and blocks - maybe deference to the original creators? Not wanting to upset some ageing Wham! fans? In the Original Crippen of Andrew Ridgely beats Turk from George Michael.

In the end Dredd lets the fight play out to end block tensions and gives both fighters 18 months - which is perhaps another reason for the change as the current pugilists got sentenced to ten years apiece.
#10
Good on you guys for keeping this tradition going. I think covid, working from home, a lack of social events and many other factors have seen a lot of folk drift away from the boards. It's a shame but people find different interests and there doesn't seem to be the same number of people coming in to replace them. I browse the boards a couple of times a week and still take an interest in the ever more sparse letters pages, but I am as guilty as anyone of general apathy. I doubt I could event get my MS paintbox open these days!
#11
Film & TV / Re: HBO Cancels Westworld.
06 November, 2022, 12:04:14 AM
That's a pity - I stuck with it to the end - only season 2 was weak for me. Expanding into the 'real' world opened it up and Aaron Paul's character was good and had a decent arc. I think they knew cancellation was a possibility as they last season did have a finale of sorts, but I had seen Ed Harris post he was back for more - despite his character being killed loads of times!

Overall I think the world building and complex story made it hard for new viewers to get into and existing ones drifted away. I always ended an episode by watching a 'things you missed' video on Youtube and there were always plenty. Good to reward the careful viewer but don't make it so dense and inaccessible that you turn people off!

'Blockbuster' on Netflix it is then!
#12
Last three books ordered - excited! Sorry, the reading pile was huge!
#13
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
31 August, 2022, 07:51:12 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 28 August, 2022, 07:05:10 PM
Only a Scotsman would travel around the world to have a roll and sausage. Not even proper square, either

It was an Argentinian chorizo sausage in an artisan bread roll with garlic aioli thank you very much

Decent, but no Greggs' lorne with HP sauce.

Quote from: Proudhuff on 31 August, 2022, 04:32:17 PM
It that the family from The Fast Show behind you?


Do you mean the always late family or the 'I'm not pissed you know' family? It was the latter and they were.
#14
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
28 August, 2022, 12:46:12 AM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 27 August, 2022, 03:59:14 PM
Quote from: Buttonman on 20 August, 2022, 11:16:50 AM
Just back my holidays but I see Dr X endured the wrath of the letters community in the latest Input page - I hope you can leave the house without police protection from the baying mob!

And no plate pics?

Just for you Tom!


#15
Announcements / Re: The Letters Beast - Online!
20 August, 2022, 11:16:50 AM
Just back my holidays but I see Dr X endured the wrath of the letters community in the latest Input page - I hope you can leave the house without police protection from the baying mob!