Messages

1

Prog / Re: Prog 2099 - Unleash Hell!

« on: 16 September, 2018, 01:38:24 pm »

Dredd: I wasn't entire sure what the journo was on about regarding justice. Did he suddenly feel empathy for the Sons of Booth or the judges? I thought it was fine overall, if a bit inconsequential.

Survival Geeks is always welcome from a variety and pacing standpoint, and the art is great. I often find it veers dangerously close to being problematic from a gender/sexism standpoint, and seemingly usually aims to get around this by way of subversion or "stupid blokes are being stupid blokes". I know Rennie's not, say, a Big Bang Theory writer, but there's something that niggles with me about this strip in that area.

The Order: I need to re-read this from episode one, because I've no idea what the hell's going on now, nor even what the motivations and aims are of the various protagonists. I feel a bit sorry for Armoured Gideon, too. It would have been quite fun to have him just stomp about the place yelling ANNIHILATE, like an angry metal Groot.

Mechastopheles: lovely art. As for the strip itself, I'm not really sure what I think of this. I don't think I'd mind if it comes back and gets expanded on, but it seems have have concluded well enough as well.

Future Shock: That was appropriately nasty. As noted earlier, that felt equally like it would have worked as a Terror Tale. But, well, yikes. Good stuff. Also: horrible stuff, in the sense of what was happening.

Roll on 2100!

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Creative Common / Re: Why Don't I Enjoy Art Any More?

« on: 16 September, 2018, 01:31:38 pm »

Perhaps, if I found a better source of income, stopped pursuing art as a career, I might enjoy art again as a hobby...

Another side of this might be to revisit how much you're charging for commissions. I've no idea on that score, but I know someone who does pet portraits, and said it was becoming a chore. Then I found out how much she was charging (about a quarter of what she should be, which put her efforts below minimum wage) and that suggested where part of the increasing resentment for the task was coming from.

Colin MacNeil talked about art going from a paying hobby or passion to just a Job after America.

I recall when I was games editor on a magazine getting in touch with one of my favourite writers from the old school. He thanked me for the offers of work but said that, no, he was happy that for the first time in his life that gaming was again a hobby rather than a job. He then warned me about the same. And so it's been since that point. I play games for work – very rarely for myself. I almost never finish any. I don't harbour any resentment towards gaming, but the relationship with something is changed forever when it becomes work. (The possible exception there is if you can make a very good living from something you live. For example, I can't imagine too many A-list musicians are unhappy about having to write an album every year and do some touring.)

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Creative Common / Re: My Artwork Collected

« on: 15 September, 2018, 01:48:00 pm »

That last one's ace. (I mean, the others are ace too. So, er, that one's extra ace.)

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Creative Common / Re: Why Don't I Enjoy Art Any More?

« on: 15 September, 2018, 01:43:17 pm »

I have the same with some skills, whereas others (notably music creation) have never really left me. The only advice I would give is not to be too hasty about dispensing with the materials. By all means back them in a box and stick them in the loft. If you go a couple of years without the slightest regret about them, give them away; but if that doesn't happen, you can always drag them back out again.

Sometimes, perhaps what's really needed is just a break and a bit of reflection. Othertimes, it might just be that the is not 'you' any more. But you need time and space to figure out which.

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Prog / Re: Thrill-Coma 2010

« on: 14 September, 2018, 09:53:26 pm »

Supersurf 13 was rather pointedly excised from the Dredd Hachette collection.

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Classifieds / Re: Wanted: Two issues of the Judge Dredd Mega Collection

« on: 14 September, 2018, 03:55:56 pm »

A load of them are now out of stock. Even the 2000 AD collection appears to have surprisingly low availability.

7

General / Re: How old is Johnny Alpha?

« on: 13 September, 2018, 09:10:08 am »

it all feels kind of rudderless. But what's really missing is Wagner's voice.

Or a rudder.

8

Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 12 September, 2018, 03:59:37 pm »

I suspect it's a combination of factors. The fag-end of empire. Massive arrogance combined with shocking laziness. An unwillingness to even learn about the basics of the EU, despite hating it. (Remember David Davis said on day one after the referendum, we'd be in Germany making deals, seemingly unaware that you don't deal with one EU country – you deal with them all.)

There's also, perhaps more worryingly, the people using this to usher in disaster capitalism and make millions off of betting against the UK. In other words, crash the economy and make a fortune. Beyond that, eradicate worker rights but also their free movement opportunities, making a subservient workforce that has no choices. (This extends to those few EU migrants who'll want to come here. Instead of being able to move around, they'll get visas for a specific job. Which is shit.)

The blame game warrants watching, though, and calling out. If there's no insulin that'll be because of the British government deciding against retaining our place in the single market while simultaneously not ramping up British production (which currently accounts for a massive two per cent of demand). Now expand this problem out to other non-British pharmaceuticals and things like cancer medication (which we cannot provide). And energy (ditto). And food (ditto). But it'll all be the EU's fault, for some reason, when everything goes to hell.

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Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 12 September, 2018, 01:08:36 pm »

I get furiously angry about the state of electoral reform in this country. The Tories simultaneously go with "it's so unfair and biased in favour of Labour" and "we need to save money" as excuses for stitching up boundaries to the point they'll be able to command a sizeable majority on about 35% of the vote. Labour fucks about as well, with Blair kicking the Jenkins Report into touch (presumably labouring under the misapprehension that they'd be in government forever, rather than thinking that they could eventually form coalitions with the Lib Dems), and Corbyn bangs on about PR for the Lords but – SHOCK! – thinks it's a terrible idea for the Commons. Hmm. I wonder why? Could it be that FPTP also benefits Labour, and they'd rather have a third or so of elections go entirely their way (and the rest not) rather than consider a mature voting system that would require some compromise on the part of ideology? Perish the thought! (As for the Lords, all those pesky crossbenchers and Lib Dems. Best be getting rid of them, to transform the UK's political landscape into one that mirrors the USA's, only without a president.)

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Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 12 September, 2018, 11:24:12 am »

I've not tried to wash away any unemployment figures. I and others have stated that in isolation and out of context, they are meaningless. If you can't afford to live, being employed isn't enough. Yet too many people see unemployment figures as the be all and end all. You must know this.

As for project fear, that's the most ridiculous ongoing slogan. It's project reality now. At best, the UK will come out of Brexit diminished. Even its biggest proponents say any benefits might not be felt for 50 years. That means people coming of voting age now would work for their entire lives earning less than they otherwise would have, just so a handful of rich people (some of which are moving their businesses to… the EU) can get richer. In the meantime, the ERG seeks to drive the country off of a cliff and renege on every single promise made prior to the referendum. (The latest zinger from Rees-Moog: a belief EU/EEA citizens should be treated no differently form the second we leave. That'll be fun for the estimated four million people in the UK who are either EU/EFTA/Swiss nationals, or who are married to/in a relationship with one.)

In terms of employment alone, we've already seen EU agencies move out (the most obvious of things that would happen, despite the arguments of idiots like David Davis), and companies are relocating staff. Many businesses simply won't be able to exist. Without the CU/SM, JIT manufacturing is dead. Agriculture will be wrecked if we want a deal with the US or Australia. Services will be bulldozed by our lack of a deal with the EU (and the knock-on effect is the UK then becomes less interesting to other third countries regarding trade.) Investment in the UK has dropped sharply, and no-one is talking about benefits anymore. Brexit more or less went like this:

- Sunlit uplands! No downsides!
- Easiest deal ever with the EU – done in an afternoon
- We never said it was going to be easy
- Always said there would be an adjustment period before the benefits
- Won't be like a Mad Max dystopia
- May not see any benefits for 50 years
- Won't be the end of the world

The last of those is something May quoted recently. That is the lowest possible fucking bar to set for no-deal. Although, arguably, it will be the end of the world for some people, because under a no-deal scenario, people will die. That's not hyperbole. Unless we can guarantee the flow of medicine and food, there are going to be colossal problems in this country. Of course, Brexiters wave such problems away, or lay groundwork for blaming the EU. "Surely, they wouldn't be so CRUEL as to stop insulin medicine coming into the UK?" It's nothing to do with the EU. We've flung up barriers entirely unnecessarily, and this government is so ideological and stubborn that it won't walk back.

I hope that something changes. Either something happens to call this shitstorm off, or the Irish border forces the UK into a semi-permanent transition state within the CU and SM, and that holds until such a point that enough old people die to get us back into the EU. The first of those I think is vanishingly unlikely. (Sorry, second referendum fans, but that just isn't going to happen.) The second is reasonably possible, albeit under massive spin. The third I suspect is very likely, albeit not in the timescales pro-EU people hope. (I'm in my early 40s. I don't imagine the UK will be in the UK again before I hit retirement age, and possibly not within my lifetime, assuming I live to an average age for a person born in the UK.)

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Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 12 September, 2018, 10:10:57 am »

It does not help that every (quarter?) the press publicise the latest unemployment figures at face value.

Given that I'm a journalist, I'm increasingly angry with the way in which stories are presented. We had some BBC journo banging on about post-Brexit figures yesterday, parroting some bullshit shat out by a right-wing thinktank. Without context, this is all meaningless. The way headline are written is increasingly dangerous: "Opinion dressed up as fact, says person". Yeah, great. Most people (as in, literally a majority) don't read past headlines online any more. Reporters MUST do better, both in writing headlines and also on microblogging services where each post may as well be a headline.

Also, regarding employment figures alone, the government's going to have a hell of a spin job next year. The current estimates are, what, that we'll lose about two million jobs? That's about one in 17 people suddenly without a job. Still, I'm sure those zero-hour contracts can be forced on a few million more, and conveniently hacked in half for meaningless job shares. That'll work. Give it a few years and we'll have no unemployment at all – but food bank use will have somehow skyrocketed. Mind you, as Tory MPs have pointed out, that's only because people love free handouts, and not, say, because they can't afford to live.

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Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 12 September, 2018, 09:37:53 am »

So come on then, Headmaster, tell me what I said that isn’t true? Unemployment is down, vacancies are up.

You know full-well it's all about context. Unemployment being down isn't in and of itself a benefit if people aren't earning enough money to support themselves. We have an economy that's increasingly having people be self-employed (removed from unemployment figures) and not earn even half the average wage, where people are on zero-hours contracts (removed from unemployment figures) and are not guaranteed any work despite being contracted and making themselves available to a single corporation, and where others are deemed to not have tried hard enough to look for work (removed from unemployment figures).

It's the simplest of spins, and it's bullshit. I suspect if we were tracking people earning sustainable incomes in the UK, the figures would be much more damning, but this government is all about the spin and bullshit rather than reality. (See also the looming disaster of shifting the electoral boundaries and reducing the number of MPs to 600 under some batshit arguments about fairness and efficiency. In reality, all this does is sew up England for the Tories forever, and kick out the single Green MP as her constituency is carved in half and shared between a Tory and a Labour MP. As ever, it's a fucking disgrace, but people see "fewer MPs" and "money saved" and start cheering.)

13

Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 12 September, 2018, 09:14:29 am »

Probably worth checking with others whether their copies suffer from the same. I've had a few books like that during the Dredd run that were fine when I got a replacement. (That said, it could, as you say, be a screw-up in production, if it's a lot of pages. QC doesn't appear to be especially high with some of these volumes.)

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Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread

« on: 10 September, 2018, 12:48:43 pm »

The blame game is in full effect. "Surely the EU wouldn't be cruel enough to withhold vital medical supplies?" FFS. This isn't hard. The UK is CHOOSING to leave the EU. The British government, egged on by disaster capitalists has CHOSEN to remove itself from all of the EU's frameworks, entirely unnecessarily. This is our own damn fault, and has nothing to do with the EU. Yet that's going to be the spin for years, as the UK rapidly heads to the abyss.

I don't think it's hyperbole now to say that we're rapidly heading towards a very frightening place, with a real possibility of massive social unrest, where people are going to die. With luck, enough Tories will grow spines and steer us somewhere else before we hit no deal. But I see no evidence of that happening. (The customs union vote showcased that there are enough votes for no deal.) So we can no look forward to a point where there are massive food shortages, a lack of vital medical supplies, at least two million job losses, the expulsion of thousands of people (cf Rees-Moog and "EU citizens should have no more rights than any other foreigner"),  permanent austerity, the eradication of the entire social layer of the country, and possibly – according to an increasing number of very clever people – the army on the streets dealing with unrest.

At this rate, May's lot may as well just rebrand as Norsefire and be fucking done with it.

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Film & TV / Re: Judge Dredd: Mega-City One - TV show announced!

« on: 09 September, 2018, 07:09:58 pm »

Or give him a threaded arc where he could feature very sporadically for earlier episodes in the season (which can all be shot at once) and then a much greater amount of screen time as it draws to a close.