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This video of a lecture is very funny, but manages to conclude with one of the most shocking things I've ever heard of in my life:

http://www.spaaace.com/cope/

Regards

Robin

This might be useful:

http://www.tineye.com

Upload a picture and it will find more examples of the same picture. It was mentioned on an RPG forum I visit. Someone wanted to identify the image used on this cover:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55203&filters=0_0_2170_0&manufacturers_id=92

and some helpful chap used tineye to give this:

http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Midsummers-eve.html

In this case, the title had to be cropped, but even so it seems a nifty little tool.


Regards

Robin

This one is from Dave Langford's Ansible:

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/index.php/2010/07/15/daily-mails-secret-editorial-formula-revealed/

Looking elsewhere on The Poke, I was also amused by this item from the news in brief:

Abstract painter successfully sues gallery loudmouth who's baby son 'could not, in fact, do that'

Regards

Robin

I'm fairly certain there are a few here besides me who are familiar with Russ Nicholson's art from the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, White Dwarf, Warhammer, and other Games Workshop products in the 1980s. Today's entry is about his comics work,

http://russnicholson.blogspot.com/

Regards

Robin

I think you'll like this...

http://squid314.livejournal.com/275614.html

Regards

Robin

Nothing new or exciting, but good to see him:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8762703.stm

Regards

Robin

Courtesy of Dave Langford:

http://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01/

Regards

Robin

Of course, you could ask this of a lot of the supporting cast, but I can't help wondering what Cass is up to during Tour of Duty.

Of all the Judges that Dredd has worked with, Anderson is without doubt the one mostly likely to respect and understand his actions with regard to the mutant issue. I'd love to see her involved, somehow.

On a related note, I recently bought and read the Anderson Psi files. I have to say that Alan Grant used to write some bloody brilliant stories, and I really miss that. Currently though, I feel the character is stagnating in his hands.

Regards

Robin

My primary interest is roleplaying games. I follow a few RPG forums, but I'm not a heavy poster these days.

On one of them, I've just read some posts from someone who can't cope with the fact that the art on a card depicting one of the career classes shows a woman, rather than a man. He's just recieved a post of support from someone else who says he and his group often have a difficult time remembering even basic characteristics of each other's characters, like, and I quote, gender. He's actually limited character concepts to match pictures that are on the cards.

Rather than get myself banned from that forum, I've come here to vent.

At what point did roleplayers become so fucking petty, so fucking stupid, and so utterly incapable of using their fucking imaginations?

It makes me more ashamed to be a roleplayer than the fucking Dungeons and Dragons movie.


With apologies to non-roleplayers who probably can't follow this.

Regards

Robin

I've just re-read Necropolis in Case Files 14 (a much more rewarding re-read than
Mechanismo was, incidentally). It occurred to me that we don't really have a proper resolution regarding Judge Death and his eventual capture - what we have is a Batman/Judge Dredd crossover (of dubious merit) that can't be properly collected as part the Dredd storyline because of the DC connection.

Would people be interested in seeing John Wagner write a story to explain how Judge Death was really captured after Necropolis? If nothing else, it would be great to see a Dredd/Anderson story written by Wagner again.


Regards

Robin

I ordered the Mechanismo collection the other day (along with Grandville and The Misadventures of Jane). It arrived yesterday and I read it last night. I have to be honest and say that I was rather disappointed. Despite the presence of two of my favourite artists and my favourite writer there's little if nothing here worth re-reading, although Doherty's art does standout.

Arguably, it's a pivotal story, part of the Necropolis aftermath, McGruder's crumbling sanity, and Dredd's deviousness. However, the stories are pretty uninspiring affairs and largely predictable. Only Dredd's actions at the end of the third story are of particular interest, but there's no punch there anymore for a regular reader. Mechanismo is a Wagner Dredd that seems caught in the era of mediocre non-Wagner Dredds. It is remains a competent story and is convincingly Dredd in tone - it's still Wagner, after all - but there's no nostalgic thrill and nothing special to be found here.

Controversial?


Regards

Robin

[Writing John Constantine!]

I've cut and pasted this snippet regarding Ian Rankin writing John Constatine from the new news page:

Writing John Constantine!
'You always like a new challenge, you like to try to do something in a new genre or something that stretches your brain a bit. But when I met Alan Grant a few times, he told me over and over again: "When you write a novel, you're only using one part of your brain because the reader is doing all the hard work for you, but when you're writing descriptions to let the artist know what you think this looks like, you need to know all the visuals." Learn more about the new range of Vertigo Crime graphic novels in Judge Dredd Megazine 288, on sale 19 August 09!

Now, this is Rankin quoting Grant, and it may well be completely out of context, but is Grant really suggesting that comic writers do description and novel writers don't? Having read one or two novels over the years, and looked at a few professional comic scripts, I can't help feeling that it's Alan Grant who's only using part of his brain.

Or have I missed something?

Regards

Robin

Just bought The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard from Amazon (well, technically the Book Depositry), and discovered that it's illustrated by Greg Staples. It looks like every story has an illustration, some of them full page. Colour cover by him, too. They all look very, very good indeed. Around fifty stories, I estimated.

Regards

Robin

I've just had one of those 'Bloody hell!' moments.

I was looking at this thread on a roleplaying forum:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=450759

and there was mention of censored art, apparently censored because it apparently suggested where little half-orcs come from. Obviously, when someone posted a link to the offending art, I had to look. Nothing very shocking to be honest, but, bloody hell! It was by Bryan talbot! And not quick, lazy stuff either!

http://home.arcor.de/tharius/zensur.htm


Regards

Robin

http://www.rolcats.com/

Regards

Robin

I couldn't find it mentioned in the RIP thread. I thought about posting this there, but then decided it was on topic.

Jose Casanovas (1934-2009) Spanish comics artist well known in the UK for his work in (among others) 2000AD, Starblazer and Starlord, died on 14 March.

I found it in Dave Langford's Ansible at http://news.ansible.co.uk/a261.html

Regards

Robin

Just noticed that I'm more interested in what's being discussed in non-2000AD threads than talking about the comic.

Are my Thrill-Buds worn out, or is there just a perpetual low-level Thrill-Sucker presence in the comic these days, barely staved-off by Strontium Dog and Dredd?

I don't dislike the comic, but there's been little or no wow-factor for years now.

Regards

Robin

Back in the 70s, the Sunday Telegraph magazine used to run a full page cartoon in the back by an Argentinian cartoonist called Mordillo. There was no dialogue or text, the joke was always visual. I loved them. I imagine the Telegraph stopped running his cartoons in the very early 80s...  Anyway, I'll leave you to do some online searching if you're interested.

Obviously, I was interested enough to do some online searching myself, and in the process I found this site:

http://www.bdgest.com/

Now, I'm sure it's not the only site for French comics, but it's the one I found and I liked the look of some of the comics. This one in particular looks like it has some very nice art:

http://www.bdgest.com/chronique-3338-BD ... kkars.html

(Of course, this may not be a French comic at all, just a translation for all I know.)

Regards

Robin

Does what it says on the tin:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/edibleeyes

Regards

Robin

I was reading various articles on Wikipedia connected with timelines and so on (interesting unsourced statements and odd interpretations), but I was interested by the following in the Durham Red entry:

"The Strontium Dog stories Red originally appeared in have since been deemed non-canonical, as part of Johnny Alpha's revival. This leaves Red in an unusual position in terms of continuity. The original Strontium Dog stories have been reclassified as tellings of the legend of Johnny Alpha, while the current stories are the "truth". As such, it is possible that the whole Durham Red saga spins off from events that never actually happened in the Strontium Dog universe."

Since when have the Durham Red stories "been deemed non-canonical"? I can understand people saying the Strontium Dogs stuff never happened, but Bitch?

Also, I noted in '2000 AD crossovers' timeline that John 'Giant' Clay dies in 2126. It's unreferenced - does anyone have any ideas where that one came from?

Regards

Robin