Messages

Strangely optimistic about this one working out, although as ever its the execution as a comic (no pun intended) rather than the originality of the plot that makes 'Button Man' work.  Still, good news!

Be interested to see how the 8th Doctor bites the dust - from the 9th Doctor's TV stuff, I sort of assumed it was at the conclusion of the Timelord/Dalek war.

Testify, brother!  

I used to take great nerdly pride in being able to dismantle and troubleshoot each every gadget and gizmo I owned, from my bike, through my PC, my theodolite, my camera, right up to my first car (a beautiful '85 Nissan Micra >sigh

I find myself taking Carlos' current strip art a wee bit for granted.  Every now and again, we need something leftfield like this to remind us just how unimaginably good he really is.  Wow.

SHAKARA!

It's working on a Sunday that does it, you know.

He's a great bloke, Eamonn 'Ned' Kelly (the Irish Keeper of Antiquities one, that is, not so sure about his namesake).   Spent much of the 80's pursuing metal detectorists and treasure hunters around the coast of Ireland in appropriate fashion.  

The current bog bodies project itself has been terrific, but the article in Saturday's 'Irish Times' was a bit bizarre.  It featured some  profoundly divisive notions, including the absurd claim that one of the bodies' fingerprint pattern matched current Irish norms (dodgy science in itself), meaning that the bloke was (and I quote) "One of Our Own" and not some bloody foreigner.  

I hate the idea that this man from 2300 years ago is somehow 'Irish' and represents a sort of pure arboriginal celticity that "we Irish" share, unlike all those other blow-in folks, the Vikings, the Normans, St. Patrick, the Scots, the Huguenots and other assorted Prods and Jews, and (lets face it) all those ghastly Eastern Europeans and Muslims that you see everywhere nowadays.  Couldn't help but feel that Hitler would have been nodding in agreement over his cornflakes (he didn't just keep archaeologists on teh payroll to find the Spear of Longinus, you know).

Show me a modern 'Irish' person that claims they aren't the descendent of someone who came this island in the last 2000 years, and I'll show you a deluded liar.

Never mind the fact that people had been arriving on  this island for more than 8,000 years BEFORE those two poor blokes got done in, so 'who' exactly gets to claim 'First Peoples' bragging rights is up for serious debate.  /RANT

The brain-blowing Irving art on 'Klarion' aside, 'Frankenstein' is my favourite '7S' book thus far, mainly for its sheer excess.  That whole Phobos/Deimos opening to No. 2 is just fantastic.  

I'm also enjoying 'Bulleteer', against my better judgment - maybe it's the Yanick Paquette approach to the female form that does it, or maybe because it's making some attempt to actually explain the 'plot'.  Still, it's hard to compete with a sword-wielding Frankenstein's Monster feeding the immortal consort of the Faeire Queen to a herd of carnivorous Martian insect-horses. (I did wonder about the Smithsonian having 100 spacesuits in storage, though.  Ah well).

Anyone else notice that there were no fewer than three 'Frankenstein' titles by different publishers out this week?

The more I watch my Deadwood DVDs, the more convinced I am that this show is the closest thing to modern Shakespeare in the richness of its language, range of allusions and the precision of its characterisations.  Or, if you'll pardon my french, "that fucking cocksucker Shakespeare". Swerengen and EB in particular are given to the most amazing soliloquies.  My GF and I spend many happy hours trying to work out which Hoople Head is Steve, why we like Dan so much, and whether Al's Dirt Worshipper head is the one from the Air Burial that the insufferable Bullock interrupts.  I loves it, I do.

My favourite work weirdness was a pair of engineers called Buggy and Beetlestone, who I couldn't help imagining as working for Indigo Prime.

In school, I had a music teacher called Mister Kuntz, and a lovely classmate with the crushing moniker of Lucy Klitz.  

Totally agree with Dweezil2, the Meg under Barnes has been in the best shape since the days of 'America', and as someone who almost never buys SFX/Cult TV/Comics Journal (long train journey and left me book at home sort of stuff) I get a lot out of the text pieces.  I am that target audience!  

Seeing as you can't afford a "shift" key, I'm guessing your money might be better spent elsewhere. ;-}

The Meg is still a terrific chunky read, but that may be because I am still really enjoying "Charlie's War".  I am a little perturbed at the apparent weakening of the text content (which I generally enjoy, and would actually like to see more of) and the departure of the dynamic Mr. Barnes, but the new strip is almost uinversally good, and there's still plenty of it.  Worth the moolah?  Yup.

"How the fuck did they get that big monkey onto the boat with only those itty bitty little rowing boats?"

In the initial scene in Denholm's cabin, you can see a photo of an elephant being lifted on to the 'Venture' by means of an on-board derrick/crane arrangement.   Still doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I thought it was a nice little touch.  

Absolutely adored the whole movie, by the way, and the original is one of my all-time favourite flicks.

Oooh, 'Valley of the Gwangi' is my favourite monster movie EVAH!  What a beaut!  I'd completely forgotten about the lovely Gorgo, tho',  Anyone for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms?  

I've had a few gaps, after a few issues in the 200's (my first Dredd was the opening ep of "The Executioner"!), I started reading in earnest in the glory days of the early 300s.  I had an unbroken love affair with the comic into the early 1990's, when one too many Fleisher t*rds seemed to segue flawlessly into nowt but Millar, Ennis and more Millar.   I think my heart broke sometime around Christmas 1992 (812? 819?  Something like that).

I was a poor student, there was Ennis on Dredd (rarely if ever worked), Mills and Skinner on Finn (if ever i hated a strip...), Millar on (-spit-) Robo Hunter and (dear SWEET God) Dead Meat *BOOK 2*.  Even Brigand Doom seemed to have lost its stylish noir vibe.  Zenith and Revere were over, to be replaced by the sodding Gronk and *BOOK 2*(?!?) of the appalling  Legend of Shamana.  I needed money for food and photocopying.  It was my time to go.

Wliderlands and Button Man II caught my attention in the 900's, but Skizz and more Finn soon dislodged me again, the Cal Files (and the return of Wagner) drew me in in 960's, as did the idea of Prog 1000 but crap like Vector 13 and Outlaw pissed me off again and anyway, I was really just visiting.

Other than the occasional railway station purchase, it wasn't until 1145's 'Return of the Assassin" and the promise of 'Doomsday'in 1999 that I sarted buying again. And I haven't looked back since - 2000AD and the Meg in particular just seem to get better and better.  Every week I turn to my long-suffering GF and bore her with just how gripping this prog's Dredd is (script on art on stuff like Dredd vs Aliens, Total War and Mandroid were simply unbelievably good, even tho' each had an ostensibly overused and haggard premise).

In one way I regret missing Dante, the Pit and Call of Duty, but to be honest I've enjoyed picking them in TPB format over the years, its been nice knowing there was good stuff out there that I hadn't read.  And hey, it meant I've never read even one page of Skizz Book 3!