Messages

1

General / Re: Stories that should be collected

« on: 30 October, 2018, 08:55:16 pm »

Crisis strips weren't creator-owned*

Huh. I thought they were. I assume Morrison and Yeowell own The New Adventures of Adolf Hitler, given that it appeared elsewhere first and caused a hue and cry?

You're Kane-ing with that final comment.

2

General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 11 October, 2018, 06:39:19 am »

More importantly what the heck is ‘folk horror’?

Jim Campbell, unplugged.

3

General / Re: droids you've forgotten

« on: 05 September, 2018, 08:58:19 pm »

How about Maya Gavin, who has the distinction of being the first female artist to draw Dredd (in the Meg and the Prog)?

Good manners mean we were right to pretend we'd forgotten that particular strip, if not the creator. Dave Bishop obviously lost the phone number of Gavin's co-creator on Blood Sport, Andrew Cartmel, who's the Barney equivalent of a Googlewhack.

Compared to Cartmel, Ross Dearsley's half a Dredd and a Starscan looks like a long and illustrious career. Like Dearsley and Gavin, why the literally unbelievable Keith Page only has one Future Shock and a few Annual strips to his name must remain a mystery to all.

Andrew Cartmel was script editor for Doctor Who in the late 1980s, and has written Doctor Who comics off and on over the years - including a recent stint with Titan Comics. He also co-writes the Titan Comics version of the Rivers of London novels series, working with Ben Aaronovitch.

4

General / Re: Stories that should be collected

« on: 27 August, 2018, 06:41:43 pm »

IIRC, all rights to Big Dave were returned to the original creators. There was some talk of it moving/being reprint/continued by Select music magazine in the late 90s, not sure if that ever happened.

5

General / Re: Stories that should be collected

« on: 14 August, 2018, 05:03:10 pm »

I'd like to see Middenface: Wan Man an' his Dug by Alan Grant, Tony Luke & John McCrea collected. It's 62 pages, which is the perfect length for a Megazine supplement. Not sure why it's never been reprinted, perhaps the memory cheats There's certainly enough latter day Middenface stories from the Meg to fill a book...

6

General / Re: 2018: forthcoming thrills..

« on: 03 August, 2018, 08:13:38 pm »

I am just glad his back on something. I believe if he used the same style as he did on Defoe he would have been a great option on "Fiends Of The Eastern Front".

He did use more or less that style on “Fiends of the Eastern Front”…!

Surprisingly almost competent script by David Bishop, too.
Yes I can remember it was published in Judge Dredd Megazine #245-252.

7

Books & Comics / Re: Thrillpower Overload: the missing chapters

« on: 18 July, 2018, 10:38:18 pm »

IN ORBIT EVERY SATURDAY, MONDAY, AND WEDNESDAY

Prog 1000 dropped the pretence that the comic was in orbit, probably because Dave Bishop is a boring bastard (who tried to get rid of Tharg too).

Bishop describes prog 1000 as the issue he chose to stamp his identity on the comic, and these changes signalled that 2000ad was growing with the audience. It was now aimed at the discerning, more mature reader, who thought aliens landed in Roswell and watched Star Trek TNG.

A minor correction: David Bishop is a boring bastard. Not sure who this Dave bloke is you mention.

8

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

« on: 16 July, 2018, 01:17:32 pm »

I hear Scarlett Johansson has a gap in her schedule...

9

Megazine / No more floppies?

« on: 12 May, 2018, 12:02:48 pm »

Got Megazine 396 today - but no reprint floppy - is this a permanent move?

10

Announcements / Re: Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

« on: 04 April, 2018, 08:01:24 pm »

In the 2018 World Cup Panini sticker album you can have a sticker of yourself made up - with room in the sticker book for it. Surely when you make it to the finish line of a Hachette series they could offer a personalised book - volume 91- you choose! Junker! Maniac 5! Armoured Gideon! You decide!

The Soul Sisters! Dead Man Walking! The Straitjacket Fits! All the classics... 

11

Announcements / Re: Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

« on: 04 April, 2018, 03:14:22 pm »

I'm shocked - shocked, I tell you! - to learn The Soul Sisters will not be part of the Judge Dredd Mega-Collection. Obviously the series is being held over for a 2000AD Ultimate Collection extension volume, appearing alongside Canon Fodder... 

12

Announcements / Re: Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

« on: 05 March, 2018, 10:30:51 pm »

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10156762292942788&id=653207787&comment_id=10156762484722788&reply_comment_id=10156763032992788&notif_id=1520283618239446&notif_t=feed_comment_reply&ref=notif

13

General / Re: Nikolai Dante and his lovable sexual harassment antics

« on: 04 March, 2018, 10:54:29 pm »

This has probably been discussed elsewhere but was there a specific reason it had such a long gestation period?

I wanted to give promising series longer runs to see if they cemented their place in readers' affections, and avoid the past woes of having strips dropping in and out of the prog. To achieve that meant not starting Dante till 70-80% of the art was already done. The first run was 15 episodes, so it took a year to get enough in stock to safely start running it. The days when foreign artists could be relentlessly flogged into producing an episode a week belong in the 1970s.

14

General / Re: Nikolai Dante and his lovable sexual harassment antics

« on: 04 March, 2018, 03:47:39 pm »

Thanks, David! Always nice to have an opinion from the inside. Was it you who commissioned Dante in the first place?

Nope. Dante was commissioned by John Tomlinson during his too-short stint as Tharg. Robbie & Simon were already developing it when I joined on December 18, 1995. At that stage it was going to open with the Tsar Wars, I suggested starting earlier so we knew the characters before unleashing war on their world(s). Took another 15 months before Dante was ready to launch in the 20th (!) anniversary prog.

15

General / Re: Nikolai Dante and his lovable sexual harassment antics

« on: 04 March, 2018, 02:51:52 pm »

I can't speak for Robbie or Simon or any of the other creators who worked on Dante, but having been editor during the first few years of ND I will say this: Dante was an absolute cock when the series began - and he was meant to be like that. The character was designed to grow and mature and learn. That makes Dante harder to like in the early series, especially viewed from the distance of 20+ years when looking back at the excesses of mid-to-late 90s in British culture [Loaded, et al].

But - to me, at least - his redeeming feature was Dante chose to do the right thing more often than not, possessing a moral code in a world where none was necessary and having one was a genuine disadvantage. That was what ultimately made him a hero, albeit a flawed on - and certainly not a role model.

Just my two credits!