Topics

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Film & TV / Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 31 May, 2022, 09:00:50 AM »

How can we not have a thread for this yet? I'm not going to post any spoilers here, but I'd suggest going forward that if you haven't seen the most recent episode, steering clear of this thread until you have.

I'd suggest that anything that's been broadcast is fair game and doesn't need a spoiler tag, but if you've got a rumour of something upcoming, or even just some informed (or inspired!) speculation, you whack a spoiler block over it so people can decide whether they want to come to each new episode cold.

So… short, non-spoilery opinion after two episodes: it's fucking great. It looks fantastic, the performances range from fine to excellent, and there's an inspired plot driver that wasn't in the trailers that very quickly takes the story somewhere you might not have been expecting. As I understand it, pretty much everything that was in the trailers was taken from these first two episodes, so it's safe to assume there may be a few surprises in store before the end.

Highly recommended, by me, at least.

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Film & TV / Dr Who: Legend of the Sea Devils

« on: 19 April, 2022, 11:46:58 AM »

Caught this on iPlayer last night. Even by the low standards of the Chibnall era, this was fucking terrible. I can't even start to count the ways the plot made no sense, but that's par for the course with the show these days.

The directing, however, was objectively awful — the action sequences were disjointed and hard to follow, and there was no sense of a coherent 3D space in any of the scenes, with characters just popping up in places where they clearly hadn't been moments earlier.

Most of the acting was pretty poor and the jokes, such as they were, completely failed to land.

On top of all that, it managed to look like the production had quite a lot of money spent on it, whilst simultaneously looking cheap and plasticky.

Is the next one Chibnall's last? God, I hope so…

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General / Rogue Trooper: Who Did What?

« on: 16 March, 2022, 07:18:05 PM »

Because the forum search function is so bloody useless, I can't be bothered to try and track down the thread where we had a big ol' discussion about Rogue Trooper's development and GFD's contribution.

However, thanks to an unrelated Facebook post, I've been directed to this article on Down The Tubes.

If you scroll down a ways, you'll find the original pitch document which, the accompanying text confirms, was written by Dave Gibbons. There's an awful lot of what went into the final strip in there, whilst we also know that a lot of what GFD brought to the table ("He's like the Euro-Fighter plane project — one group made his legs, another made his arms!") was (rightly, it would seem) jettisoned at the thrashing-it-out meeting between Gibbons, GFD, and Steve Mac.

I'm not trying to make a particular point here — I'm only breaking this out into a new thread because I can't track down the original discussion and I thought it might be of interest to those who participated in that thread.

(And, again, I have a lot of time for a big chunk of what GFD did in Battle… I'm not trying to spin this into a 'worthless hack' narrative, but I still maintain he was never a great fit for 2000AD.)

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Announcements / Twenty Years of Mightiness!

« on: 08 January, 2022, 09:04:06 AM »

As Matt Smith noted on Facebook, yesterday marked the twentieth anniversary of his ascension to The Right Hand of Tharg.

I hope you'll join me in munching a plastic cup in celebration of this milestone, and of the many thrills, classic and new, we've enjoyed under his stewardship.

It's amazing to me that I'm still excited to read a new prog after 43 years of readership (and it still feels slightly unreal to see my name in a credit box every prog).

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General / Help! Specific Image Needed…

« on: 07 August, 2021, 12:13:31 PM »

Can anyone help me out with this? I need a decent resolution scan (or capture from digital) of some specific images — I can't remember which of the end-of-year progs it was in, and my back progs are scattered across multiple boxes and locations.

You'll know the one I mean — the story is the Alan Grant penned/Cam Kennedy illustrated Dredd with John Wagner in a flying bath. If any one can help me out with some of the panels of John from that episode, you'd have my undying gratitude.

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General / The DAVE EVANS TRIBUTE BOOK — LAST(ish) CALL

« on: 29 May, 2021, 08:34:28 AM »

I know not everyone reads every thread on here, so I wanted to break this out, just in case.

The Art Comp this month was for Strontium Dog-based art tributes, or text of any kind, to the much-missed Bolt-01 (Dave Evans) and, as I said on there:

At the end of the month, I'd like to gather everything together and see if we can't get a printed collection made up that I'm hoping some kind soul will forward to Dave's family. I can't imagine what they're going through, but I thought it might be nice for them to have some permanent record of how well-loved Dave was here.

With hindsight, using the Art Comp thread for submissions might have caused some people to overlook it, and I don't want anyone to miss out, hence this separate post.

The ostensible deadline for submissions is the end of the month, but I still have some contributions to come via email so I won't be thinking about making a start for at least another week.

Many of you have said some wonderful things over on the RIP thread, too, but I don't want to go harvesting quotes from people without their explicit permission. At the same time, as I say, I don't want people to feel they've missed out when they would have liked to contribute.

If you posted on the RIP thread and would like your words including in the book, then just say so here and I'll take that as permission to quote you from the other thread. If you want to post some specific text here, then please feel free.

If you feel like you don't have any words, but would like to express condolences anyway, then I'm open to the idea of a page of general sympathy/condolence with a list of names. If you'd like to be included in that, then, again, you can post here to that effect.

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General / 2000AD Forum Sketch Comp #4: SPECIAL BOLT-01 EDITION

« on: 08 May, 2021, 09:41:21 AM »

Normal service will be resumed next month, with Tomwe's cracking theme, but I didn't feel like we could just press ahead as normal this month in light of the heart-breaking news about Dave.

So we're going to do something different.

This month, the theme is STRONTS.

Anything Strontium Dog related is fair game. We're not going to vote — I'm just going to leave the thread open until May 31st. Take as long as you like over your entry — if you want to use Dave's preferred medium of biro-on-Post-It, that's cool. If you want to give us some lovingly-rendered full colour wonder, that's cool, too, as is anything inbetween.

Not an artist? That's fine. If you want to write something, there's a place for that here, too. Doesn't have to be Stront-based — if you've just got something you want to share about Dave, share away.

At the end of the month, I'd like to gather everything together and see if we can't get a printed collection made up that I'm hoping some kind soul will forward to Dave's family. I can't imagine what they're going through, but I thought it might be nice for them to have some permanent record of how well-loved Dave was here.

Over to you, my friends.

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General / 2000AD FORUM SKETCH COMP #3: RESULTS THREAD

« on: 02 May, 2021, 09:00:09 AM »

Sorry for the delay getting these votes tallied and the results posted… it's been quite a week.

Annnnyway, finally it's time to announce the winners of the thoroughly thrill-charged third Unofficial Sketch Competition!

In THIRD PLACE, it's…



Colin YNWA #4

In SECOND PLACE, we have…



Dark Jimbo

And, by a whisker, the WINNER is…



Tomwe #2

Congratulations to all our worthy winners, to everyone who contributed so many fantastic entries, and to all of you who took the time to grapple with the impossible task of picking their favourites and casting their votes.

Take a bow, Tomwe, and bask in the radiant glory of your well-deserved win. I'll pop you a PM shortly so we can get your prizes sent to you, and I'd ask you to pop your thinking cap on and consider a theme for competition #4, which will be along in the next few days…

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Books & Comics / Kiss His Axe…?

« on: 24 April, 2021, 12:41:23 PM »

It occurred to me that Squaxx who are now facing an axe-wielding-barbarian-shaped hole in their comic reading might want to ask their favoured purveyor of funny books to procure them a copy of Vault's Barbaric #1 — a 3-issue mini-series which might scratch that particular fantasy itch.

You can find a preview of #1 here.

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General / The Unofficial 2000AD Sketch Competition #3: VOTING THREAD!

« on: 18 April, 2021, 09:03:20 AM »

With apologies for the unseemly delay getting here, it’s finally time for the Unofficial Forum Sketch Comp #3 voting thread!

Voting will be open for one week — the thread will close to votes end-of-day Sunday 25th of April after which we’ll announce the winner, and hopefully kick off competition #4 in early May.

Don't forget there are TWO GLITTERING PRIZES for the winner. In addition to choosing the theme for competition #4, the winner will receive a randomly selected graphic novel from my Terrifyingly Tall Tower of Comps, plus a signed Nick Percival Dredd print, courtesy of the generous Colin YNWA!

Please clearly rank your selections first, second, third and, in if you’re choosing one of multiple entries by the same person, please make it clear which one you’re voting for. You can also single out entries out for an honourable mention, which I’ll use for tie-break purposes.

Everyone’s done fantastic work again this month, and I have no idea how anyone is going to make selections out of this bumper crop of brilliant work, but here they all are…

Bolt-01


Colin YNWA #1


Colin YNWA #2


Colin YNWA #3


Colin YNWA #4


Dark Jimbo


Dog Deever


Funt Solo #1


Funt Solo #2


Jayzus B. Christ #1


Jayzus B. Christ #2


Jim Campbell


Pete Wells #1


Pete Wells #2


pictsy #1


pictsy #2


pictsy #3


pictsy #4


tomwe #1


tomwe #2


tomwe #3


tomwe #4


Woolly #1


Woolly #2

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General / 2000AD Forum Sketch Competition #3: ENTRIES THREAD

« on: 02 April, 2021, 11:17:32 AM »

And what rough comp, its hour come round at last, slouches toward the forum to be born…?

Why, it's the third monthly sketch comp! This time out, it's SIDEKICKS

Last month's winner, Dark Jimbo explains:

Sidekicks! They're the last word in loyalty, but they don't always get as much of the limelight as they deserve. From Wulf and the Gronk to Walter and Maria; from Ro-Jaws to Ukko, Purity Brown to Venus Bluegenes; to Dredd's whole supporting cast of Judges and Dante's Romanov siblings, there should be plenty to choose from! Approach the brief however you want, but let's give a little love to the B-teams!

You've had a week to get your thinking caps on, now you have one week to get your sketches in. The competition will close to entries end-of-day Friday April 9th.

You can render your entries in the medium of your choice, and you can enter as many times as you want, but please don't spend more than 45 minutes on each sketch.*

There will be a GLITTERING PRIZE for the winning entry. As well as getting to choose the theme for Sketch Comp #4, the winner will receive a randomly selected graphic novel from my Terrifyingly Tall Mountain of Comps™, and a signed Nick Percival print of Ol’ Stoney Face hisself thanks to the generosity of Colin YNWA.

Get sketching, folks!

*Abandoned attempts don't count, so you can take as many stabs at getting an idea right as you need, and no one is standing over you with a stopwatch, but the 45 minutes starts when pencil/pen/crayons/fingers hit paper on the version you want to submit.

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General / The Completely Unofficial 2000AD Sketch Competition #3: SIDEKICKS

« on: 25 March, 2021, 08:52:55 AM »

PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR SKETCHES TO THIS THREAD

With Competition #2 out of the way, we roll on inexorably to the next challenge! This time it’s been selected by the victorious Dark Jimbo.

Thus spake Dark Jimbo:

Sidekicks! They're the last word in loyalty, but they don't always get as much of the limelight as they deserve. From Wulf and the Gronk to Walter and Maria; from Ro-Jaws to Ukko, Purity Brown to Venus Bluegenes; to Dredd's whole supporting cast of Judges and Dante's Romanov siblings, there should be plenty to choose from! Approach the brief however you want, but let's give a little love to the B-teams!

You have one week to put your thinking caps on, get scribbling if inspiration strikes, but please don't post your entries to this thread.

You can render your entries in the medium of your choice, but please don't spend more than 45 minutes on each sketch.

The thread for posting your masterpieces will be along next Friday, and will stay open for one week (or thereabouts), after which we'll move on to the voting.

There will be not one, but TWO GLITTERING PRIZES for the triumphant Squaxx in this comp. As well as getting to choose the theme for Sketch Comp #4, the winner will receive a randomly selected graphic novel from my Terrifyingly Tall Mountain of Comps™ plus a signed Nick Percival print of Ol’ Stoney Face hisself thanks to the generosity of Colin YNWA.

Time to get pondering, and to warm up those pencils/fingers/crayons/styluses!

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General / 2000AD Forum Sketch Comp #2: RESULTS THREAD

« on: 24 March, 2021, 10:15:15 AM »

Right, then. It’s what you’ve all been awaiting with bated breath — the Unofficial 2000AD Forum Sketch Comp #2 RESULTS!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to vote, and all the participants for their fantastic entries. In a very real sense, you’re all winners… except that we have to have some actual winners, and here they are:

With barely the width of a gnat’s chuff between third and second place, the bronze goes to…

Tomwe #2



In second place…

Jim_Campbell #1



And the runaway winner…

Dark Jimbo!





Congrats to Jimbo, on his well-deserved win, polling more points and votes than the #2 entry by a ratio of 3:2.

And that’s Sketch Comp #2 wrapped. The theme for Comp #3 will be along in due course, and we’ll kick off the next comp properly in early April.

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General / The Unofficial 2000AD Sketch Competition #2: VOTING THREAD!

« on: 17 March, 2021, 07:27:33 AM »

It’s time for the Unofficial 2000AD Forum Sketch Comp #2 Voting Thread!

Please vote for your three favourites, clearly ranking them 1st, 2nd and 3rd. If you’re voting for one of multiple entries, please be clear which one you’re voting for. If you want to add an Honorary Mention for anyone’s entry, I’ll use those in the event of a tie-break situation.

Remember that, in addition to picking the theme for next month’s sketch competition, there is now a choice of TWO shiny prizes for the winner.

Choose between either: 1) a randomly selected graphic novel from my Terrifyingly Tall Tower of Comps™ or 2) the original art for either my Chopper or Slaine entries. (There’s a fairly major cock-up that I erased digitally, within the time limit, on my first, so you can’t have that one!)



The entries, in alphabetical order, are…

Bolt-01


Colin YNWA #1


Colin YNWA #2


Dark Jimbo


Funt Solo


Jayzus B. Christ #1


Jayzus B. Christ #2


Jim_Campbell #1


Jim Campbell #2


Jim Campbell #3


Legendary Shark #1


Legendary Shark #2


Legendary Shark #3


Legendary Shark #4


MIK


Rogue Judge


Tomwe #1


Tomwe #2


Tomwe #3


Woolly #1


Woolly #2

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General / 2000AD Forum Sketch Competition #2: ENTRIES THREAD

« on: 06 March, 2021, 10:55:13 AM »

It's time! Show us your arts, fellow Squaxx!

The theme this month is REGENED.

As last month's winner, Colin YNWA explains:

Regened - its been all the buzz of 2000ad social media. We love it. We hate it. Now we create it. Regene your favourite character by reimagining them as they would be created in a new all ages comic. Regene your favourite cover, regene ... something completely new that would fit into the Regene issues... which isn't regening is it, its just gening... but you get the idea. Do something, do anything, that would look in place in the current regened issues.

Remember, you don't have to just do a younger version of an existing character — you can come up with something entirely new, or an all-ages/YA spin on your favourite strip. Manga Nemesis? Hookjaw in the style of Bone? Durham Red as a Powerpuff Girl?

You've had a week to get your thinking caps on, now you have one week to get your sketches in.

You can render your entries in the medium of your choice, and you can enter as many times as you want, but please don't spend more than 45 minutes on each sketch.*

There will be a GLITTERING PRIZE for the winning entry. As well as getting to choose the theme for Sketch Comp #3, the winner will receive a randomly selected graphic novel from my Terrifyingly Tall Mountain of Comps™.

Have at it, folks!

*Abandoned attempts don't count, so you can take as many stabs at getting an idea right as you need, and no one is standing over you with a stopwatch, but the 45 minutes starts when pencil/pen/crayons/fingers hit paper on the version you want to submit.