Messages

1

Creative Common / Re: Possibly Big News For Digital Artists…

« on: 21 July, 2018, 02:31:32 pm »

Stroke of genius making the bog-standard iPad Pencil-compatible too. Not suitable for all pros, and not as powerful as the iPad Pro, but still a decent machine and good for people who'd like to dip a toe in the water. I'm not keen on the screen (which is more iPad Air than iPad Air 2), but for 320 quid, it feels like something approaching a bargain (rare for Apple). And desktop-grade creative apps are increasing in number and quality. (Procreate also recently got a major update, and continues to impress. I'm now waiting for the semi-inevitable announcement at some point about the iPad more smartly supporting external displays for artists, sound editors, video editors, etc. You know it's coming within the next year or two.)

So, yeah, Wacom finally have a proper rival, and Adobe's strategy is now looking decidedly dodgy. Right now, you can buy Affinity Photo and Designer for Mac and iPad, for a one-off total (all four apps) of 96 quid. So that's under two months of Creative Cloud, or three months of Photoshop/Illustrator on Creative Cloud. And of course, they only work on the desktop – not the iPad. If you want Photoshop and Illustrator for iPad… you basically buy the Serif apps!

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Creative Common / Re: Possibly Big News For Digital Artists…

« on: 21 July, 2018, 01:34:46 pm »

The Photoshop announcement was an entertaining clusterfuck. Something had clearly been happening. Someone senior at Adobe tweeted, then denied, and then the PR came. Looks like they're spooked, but Serif has a long lead and a TON of goodwill. I also suspect Adobe will make this – as per all their other mobile apps – part of Creative Cloud. By contrast, the Serif apps are currently 14 quid each on iPad, which is ludicrously cheap.

There are some really great touch elements in the app too, which you may have already spotted. When exporting, you can drag the format buttons to other apps (including Files or Mail). Multitouch is well supported, with additional fingers used to adjust options for the current tool. Dragging over panels often performs actions, such as increasing stroke sizes. There's real attention to detail.

Now fast forward a year or so and imagine when Publisher is on iPad too. It's going to be nuts.

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General / Re: New 2000AD Binding from Prog 1

« on: 20 July, 2018, 07:36:33 pm »

Any chance of a shot of the end papers?

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Games / Re: A Couple of Ideas for Rebellion

« on: 19 July, 2018, 01:48:11 pm »

Mobile is relatively low risk. Once you start heading for console/PC territory, you're into movie-style funding scenarios.

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Film Discussion / Re: Rogue Trooper movie (Duncan Jones)

« on: 19 July, 2018, 01:47:25 pm »

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=45348.90;topicseen

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Film & TV / Re: New Rogue Trooper Film!!

« on: 19 July, 2018, 12:37:45 pm »

Let's assume Rogue Trooper has a similar Budget to Dredd had which tends to make it a mid-tier production.

Didn't they say in the end the $50m budget was bullshit, designed for investors, and the actual figure was much lower (something in the region of $35–40m)? That puts you in the same territory as the likes of Lucy, Paul, The Muppets, etc. What we got for the money in that film was quite astonishing.

As for Rogue, I'm not that fussed about the character, but I do hope it's a good film and a success. Moon is a superb slice of sci-fi, and showcases that Jones can do VFX on a tight budget. That said, I do hope they figure out how to deal with the biochips in a non-awful way. I always hated that stunning coincidence thing that the one called Rogue went rogue, the one named Gunnar ended up in the gun, and so on. That's fine for a comic for children, but would come across really badly in a movie. (I can't recall what Brian Ruckley did in the IDW version, but I remember Rogue's name came right at the end. I vaguely seem to recall they were basically all serial numbers, and given nicknames based on their subsequent situations. Hence 'bag man', rather than someone called Bagman ending up in a backpack.)

7

Games / Re: A Couple of Ideas for Rebellion

« on: 19 July, 2018, 12:14:29 pm »

An alternative for a 2000 AD property might be to ditch the open-world-style thing, and run something with more linear action. Shadowgun Legends could be a way to do something with Dredd or (especially) Strontium Dog, although I'll admit I don't know the budget of that game either.

Ultimately, though, games are bloody expensive to make – even ones we consider relatively simple. The infographics surrounding the two Monument Valley games neatly showcase that. And one might surmise that had Judge Dredd vs Zombies done stonkingly well, it wouldn't be alone on the App Store in terms of 2000 AD properties. As for gamebooks, Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106 is gone entirely from the App Store. Drokk!

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 14 July, 2018, 10:27:59 am »

The lack of even a single Indigo Prime book is a crushing shame. A reprint of that first Rebellion volume would have been most welcome, and it probably could have included Dead Eyes and Everything and More. Anthropocalypse as well would probably be too much of a squeeze for the page count.

I'm not sure how you'd tie them together thematically, but Firekind, Leatherjack, Cradlegrave and Revere come to just under 400 pages. Lob in some Smith Future Shocks and those would be two cracking volumes. (And it's not like the collection isn't doing combined stuff – Dr & Quinch + Skizz, for example.)

Alas…

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 14 July, 2018, 09:55:28 am »

I'm still hoping (in vain I suspect) that we'll get at least some of the Summer Offensive strips.

There's no John Smith stuff at all in the initial 80, and of his work, I can think of a bunch of strips I'd sooner see in hardback than the extended Future Shock that was Slaughterbowl. As for the others, Really & Truly ended up in that Rain Hughes hardback a while ago, so who knows what's going on there? Which leaves the mediocre Maniac 5 and the divisive Big Dave. Frankly, if Hachette issues a hardback of the last of those in the current climate, it deserves for the entire series to fail. (At the time, I questioned the 'satire' of that strip – it was Ricky Gervais before that goon existed in the public eye, all punching down rather than up. Today, it looks like a relic.)

I also suspect for the most part, if you want to figure out what might appear in an extension of the series, look at what Rebellion has already published in trade form.

EDIT: On Big Dave, Rennie's comments in this ancient thread largely sum things up for me. There were bits of Big Dave that were just indefensible. Much of the remainder was "HAHAHA! POOFS!" and similar. It thought it was Chris Morris, but it was Chris Morris with a lobotomy, having been charged with taking the piss out of people in a comic for the Daily Mail.

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 13 July, 2018, 04:38:10 pm »

Half of the Black Hole will be in that book, remember.

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General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 13 July, 2018, 04:36:15 pm »

Filed half-arsed art for the Samantha Slade story, gave up, and then at some point named a pin-up "topless Halo" and then acted like a massive prick about it when Rebellion said NOPE. Alan Moore wasn't thrilled about the last of those either.

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General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 13 July, 2018, 01:34:49 pm »

Given the manner in which Gibson burned his bridges with 2000 AD, I can't see that happening, well, ever.

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Suggestions / Re: 2000AD Uncensored hardback

« on: 13 July, 2018, 01:33:00 pm »

Sounds like it could be a nice project for Hibernia rather than a hardback Rebellion tome.

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General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 11 July, 2018, 03:06:25 pm »

God knows. You'd think he'd be supportive of a comic full of original strip that, against all the odds, has managed to survive and thrive in the current climate, rather than dismissing it with a sneer. And, like Jim said, why shouldn't they do a barbarian strip? Sláine isn't exactly unique in the world.

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General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 10 July, 2018, 08:32:40 pm »

Perhaps he invented Conan the Barbarian in 1932.