The future will be like Japan or then again...

[2000AD Online]

Yo everyone, Floyd here, back from vacation.
  Remember the 80s when everyone thought Japan would dominate the future?  I think this idea affected 2000Ad at the time (that and the success of Neuromancer).  
  What do you think?  Is Japan still relevant to 2000Ad?  Should it be more so or less so?

yours academically,

[Wood]

Well, if it goes manga, I'm never buying it again.

[GordonR]

Heh.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

may i interject to say that gregory benford wrote of a japanese dominated future in his novel 'the stars in shroud', origianlly serialized in galaxy magazine between may & september 1978?

that's a total 6 years before neuromancer, kids!

i've wet my knickers!
steven l'enfant terrible
(who shan't mention that he believes gbenford to be the superior writer of the two)

Link: http://www.sfsite.com/isfdb-bin/exact_author.cgi?Gregory_Benford" target="_blank">Gregory Benford - Bibliography Summary

[ukdane]

... my backprogs from #1.
I've noticed a number of phrases, which at the time were supposed to sound like 'future talk'... and now we are in the future... well, they just don't sound quite right.
If I star the ball rolling, with "Hyper...", (which appears constantly throughout the first few progs), what other phrases or words can you come up with from old progs, which as 'future talk' just isn't going to happen!

(oh yeah, did they honestly think Angela Rippon was still going to be reading the BBC News in 1999?)

[Mk13]

It was hardly a new thing even then. The so-called 'yellow peril' has been a popular villain/adversary/overlord in Western fiction ever since the days of Conan Doyle and Sax Rohmer.

Back then, the characters tended to be Chinese, because it was seen as big and militarily powerful, while Japan was fairly insular, but after the second world war/cultural revolution, China became the insular one and Japan became incredibly powerful through finance and hi-tech.

Interesting to see what happens now Japan is screwed (as far as Western perceptions are concerned) and China is coming out of its shell somewhat.

[Art]

Talking of Japan, I keep on seieng a rather nice ad for Kirrin beer in the tube with what looks like artwork by Philip Bond in a mangaesque style.

Their websites shit though.

Link: http://www.kirineurope.com" target="_blank">http://www.kirineurope.com

[nick_coyle]

My claim to fame about Japan is that me and my mates started a fashion craze there! I visited Japan in June when the world cup was in full swing to watch the England group games. For the third match against Nigeria me and my two mates who I was travelling with decided we would dress up as terry butcher with fake england shirts and bandages tied around our heads spray painted with red paint in homage to when the mighty butch almost bled to death against Sweden some years ago (I am ure most of you must have seen the pictures with Terry's mad staring eyes). Anyway travelling to and from the match we seemed to get a lot of attenton from the Japanese but didn't really think too much of it until about a month ago my mate showed me a picture in a women's fashion magazine (his grilfriends he assured me) about the latest craze in Japan which was wearing bandages about diferent parts of your body with fake blood on it!

What this has to do with this link I am not sure but it is a nice story.

[Dominic O'Rourke]

Maybe 2000AD could take a leaf from Japans economics department and set intrest rates at zero and encourage actual deflation of the cover price!

[malkymac]

This is the same 'mighty butch the destroyer'who is now the rather shite manager of the mighty Motherwell F.C. I take it?

Scorer of fantastic own goals a speciality.

[nick_coyle]

The very same

[2000AD Online]

It doesn`t matter how many years Gregory Benford`s book came before Neuromancer, it didn`t make anywhere near the same impact on 2000 AD (whereas they shamelessly stole bits of plot and devices from Neuromancer).  I suppose GB was ahead of his time.

It`s quite possible GB is the superior writer, I can`t remember what he`s like.

[Devons Daddy]

i think your all the japan we need in tooth floyd.
your name makes more appearances in the letters section tooth and the meg then some of the great characters of our time.
:~)