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Thanks Dode and ZenArcade, only just seen these replies.

The exhibition series as a whole was well received, and my 'After Smith' bits did OK too -- it was kind of a hard sell, as Abstract Comics was in itself something new for the audience, added to them not knowing anything about 2000AD, and further never having any idea of who John Smith might be. I did a lot of explaining on the opening night. Probably too much, but then I tend to do that anyway.

The German newspaper Taz covered the series of exhibitions, with a few paragraphs on my work, which include an introduction to '2000AD' in German. You can check that here: http://www.taz.de/!5243906/ (the image they've used on the website is by Rosaire Appel, the print version used one of my work-up sketches).

There's talk of the series as a whole being shown again next year in a different city in Germany, and if it is I'll be back to announce that too. I'm also thinking of expanding the number of pages and getting something printed, but that'l be after I've finished some other projects.

Oh, and all of the After Smith pages can be seen here: http://intercorstal.com/after-smith-gallery/. And if you do check that page, there's a link to a PDF featuring more details of the work, and a beyond-excellent article by Tom Whiteley (JaneanPatience, from Suggested For Mature Readers).

Hi all,

Have been dropping in occasionally to lurk after a flurry of posts around the time that Dredd came out... Just thought I'd post to announce that I'll be exhibiting ten pages of 2000AD based abstract art as part of the Abstrakte Comics series of shows that's happening in Bremen (Germany) this year.

I've been working on an abstract comic for a while, which has sporadically involved reinterpreting pages from existing comics, usually 2000AD. When the organisers of Abstrakte Comics got in touch, I took the opportunity to do a themed set, which are all based on pages by John Smith. I've mostly gone for pages from my favourite thrills, so of the 10, 4 are from various Indigo Prime stories, 2 are from Revere and the others are Swimming In Blood, New Statesmen, Firekind and Still Life (which was a one-off in the Revolver Romance Special).

I'm keeping the majority of pages back from public view until the show goes live on Friday, but what I've already done can be seen on the comic's website: intercorstal.com

When the show goes live, there'll also be a free-to-download PDF of the pages, including a 10-page introduction by Tom Whiteley, who blogs as Janean Patience at https://suggestedformaturereaders.wordpress.com/. It's been laid out to look like 'Touched By The Hand Of Brendan' which was a Tyranny Rex text story in the 2000AD Sci Fi Special 1991.

If you DO happen to be in Bremen on Friday, or at all next month, here's the event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1648818192025847/

Cheers.

If that includes 'Zenith', 'JLA: Rock of Ages' and 'WE3' then I will pray for your immortal soul grthink!

By the way- I don't rate Arkham Asylum too highly either!

haha No, I've not actually read those. The Filth was borderline, but only really becasue Chris Weston's art was SO incredible. The actual 'I'm going to offend you'/'I'm going to screw your head' writing was a major turnoff, though.

I used to love Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum when it first came out. I was young, a big Morrison fan (still am) and loved Dave McKean's stuff. So having read it again for the first time in years tonight I was pretty surprised to discover I didn't particularly enjoy it. Its so overwrought... or maybe even aspires to be. Both art and writing. I'm not sure if its time that's done it a disservice and in its day it was innovative, but read now it just seemed trite and desperate to impress with how clever it all was. Yes even Dave McKean's art, looking to me now like a poor man's Sienkwicz, with none of the real energy of the great Bill's. It feels forced and as a result hackneyed.

What a disappointment. Still hours of pleasure as a kid, so shouldn't look too harshly at it I guess.

I hadn't read it until Summer last year, and it came with all the weight of it being the most successful graphic novel of all time and blah blah blah but I couldn't agree more with you, and I didn't really enjoy it at all. I can't actually think of anything by Morrison that I've actually really enjoyed -- which I know leaves me in a very small minority, but there you have it.

On Friday lunchtime I accidentally started a new project by calling out for animals to draw via Twitter, and it's spread to Facebook now too. The rules are pretty easy: get a suggestion, accept the challenge, spend a very short amount of time finding reference then spend no more than 15mins sketching.

A gallery of images completed so far can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461821140556785.1073741826.203955136343388&type=3.

If anyone here's got anything they want to challenge me with go for it. Only one I've not really been able to accomplish was 'Gooseberry Jamsloth' because in 15mins I couldn't work out how to make a sloth look like it was made out of jam.

I prefer Colossall Velocity, but I can't spell it, so it's just as well they didn't go with it.

These fact files and other "history of Marvel/ DC encylopedia" are waste of paper as they cant keep up with the constantly evolving characters, for example will this fact file cover Peter Parker's demise in #700, will you get an updated history sheet once the 'Superior' era ends covering those events? That kind of thing is why printed encyclopedia's went the way of the dodo.

My wife got the 'Avengers Character Guide' or whatever it is for me to read to our son. A page per character, some minor facts about them and a potted history, usually taking into account what they did most recently (and therefore what I'm least familiar with). It's kind of embarrassing to read -- the core set of licensed characters are iconic and I love them but some of the bit-part players are cringeworthy. If he asks me to read it to him I usually try and suggest we read Mr Men or something instead.

I'm always saying stupid things, mostly becasue my sense of homour is kinda divergent from other people's. Like, me and my wife were bickering while paying at a supermarket and she said 'If you carry on like this I'm leaving you', which is apparently an OK thing to say. My reply of 'I am going to pay to have you killed' was not, even though I DIDN'T REALLY MEAN IT.

As for the question about giving up your seat on the train -- I commute on the tube everyday. For the first year or so I used to anguish about the different situations in which it's OK to give up your seat. But in the end I gave up the anguish for 'If they look like they need a seat, offer it'. That stands for whether they're a little way away, there's other people nearer, I'm not sure if they're preggers or not* and so on. Just offer: if they refuse then that's up to them, but I've done the right thing. I'm a grown man -- I can stand if I have to.

Btw: How can i set my avatar image?

Once you've been around a while and confirmed you're not a spambot the moderators will give you a 'full' account and you can do it then.

I tried playing Dark Forces recently but by god it is old.  I don't think it was particularly unplayable so much as the look and gameplay mechanics left me scratching my head wondering what I was supposed to be doing after a few levels.

When I played through it recently, I found muscle memory did most of the work for me. Some levels are quite obtuse, you really need to read the mission briefings and then use your map.

Yeah, I remember doing a lot of running around with my map open. Also remember the first few playthroughs, just wandering around with no idea of what to do next. Still, one of my fondest gaming experiences.

Are MGS 2 and 3 this tedious?

Can't speak for 3, but there's a LOT of cutscenes in MSG2. A few standout moments maybe make it worth playing through once, though.

For some reason Dark Forces is no longer available on PSN - at least in the UK, so I had to resort to eBay to get a PS original copy.

I'd kind of forgotten that it's a pre-Goldeneye, pre-Dual Shock game, so the controls are most likely going to render it almost unplayable to the modern gamer, but we'll see!

I remember going back to Dark Forces after playing Dark Forces: Jedi Knight and finding it almost impossible to play, what with having to key in where you're looking rather than use a mouse to aim (that's on the PC, not played it on PS). Such a shame because for a while I was insanely good at it -- the only game I've finished on hardest difficulty, that I can remember.

I've been wringing my Playstation+ account for all it's worth over the past few weeks. Revisiting God Of War via the magic of HD was very rewarding, the gameplay really stands up. Just started playing Dead or Alive 5, having not played any fighting games at all for a decade or so, and the game itself is good, and the game mechanics of the story mode are good. The actual story mode itself is cringing to sit through, though, and good lord I didn't think I'd get bored of breasts but DoA5 is pushing it.

Mass Effect 3 is DL'ing at the moment, and because of its size I had to clear a lot of stuff off my HD, so I hope I'll enjoy it. I played the original on X360 and the second on PS3, and whilst my memories of both are being sat watching talking heads for hours on end, I also spent a LOT of time on each of them.

[Batman: Venom]

I read Batman: Venom last night by Denny O'Neil, one of those books that are so bad you're forced to write an amazon review as a warning. I was planning to go through the Batman Knightfall books but kinda hesitant to buy them now as it's the project that O'Neil went onto after the Venom arc and I couldn't cope with more of this out of character stupidity.

I remember reading 'Venom' as a TPB near to when it came out and not finding it too offensively bad, but then I was 13 and had no taste, really. I read Knightfall again last year and I was surprised by how NOT rubbish it was, I was expecting much worse. But then I haven't read any modern Batman so have nothing to gauge it against. I do watch a lot of Batman: The Brave and The Bold, though, and tonally they're very different.

Um, IRL life my tone of voice would have made it obvious that I was being flippant about Brave and the Bold.

You've got to be made a 'proper' member before certain sections are available. Hang around a while, participate, and the Mods will get to you. Sometimes they need a bit of a prod, as they did in my case, but they're usually very good.