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Not sure if this has ever been done or considered?

I wondered if it would work as a one-off sometime for the art comp and short story comp to use a chosen month's entries (not necessarily the same month) as the brief/starting point/inspiration for that month's competition?

So for example, if the short story comp was based on March's 'Swords & Sorcery' then we could have stories inspired by Mongrol the Ogre, Nemesis vs Slaine, Tharg the Mystical, Knight Dredd, the savage axe of Ukko and so on.

Similarly, if the art comp were to take it's inspiration from the "Twothy TV" stories we could get pics of Steptoe & Son with Tyranny Rex, Johnny Alpha in the Spaced flat, Dad's Army featuring Rogue and just about every idea from Echidna's TV listings: Jerry Springer "I'm a Mutant... and My Dad's Nelson Kreelman!".

I thought it might bring a bit more attention to the short story comp as well as getting the old creative juices going across the board.
So what do you think as a general idea? Good plan or a stinker?

Hail Tharg!

He has sent me an early doors copy of Dredd Case Files 25 as my unearned prize for voting in the short story writing competition!

Now if that isn't motivation enough to get you reading and voting in that comp then you are clearly one Styrofoam cup short of a picnic!

(Nice to read The Pit again - mmm GrotPots)

Usually I can sleep for Britain but last night my brain was set to random. I remember a one off from years back where a future space geezer on a planet was being offered his choice of a pile of lethal exotic weapons for a contest / duel. There was a pistol that vaporised a mountain and a hand held nuke or something. Anyway I can't remember what he chose and how it helped him win, other than it was curveball ending. Kept me awake for awhile. Was it some kind of helmet? 
Any ideas? 

I would like to read some stories, set in our world, where a normal person or people get superpowers in isolation and has to work out how to deal with it for better or for worse.
So no super baddies to fight, no superteams, no aliens, just some random who suddenly has powers.

Got any recommendations?

So perhaps, like me, your 5 year old can draw a better Joe Dredd and any creative fiction you begin makes you want to dig your eyes out with a rusty spoon?
But you still have an imagination, you still have dreams and you need a receptacle for them, so they can wither and rot out of sight.

Bring your ideas for the art comp you wish you could set, the short story topic just begging to be addressed by those braver and bolder than yourself.
Yes! We would love to hear about your plans for a range of die-cast ABC action figures with swappable Hammerstein heads.
Rogue Trooper double duvet cover? Downlode puns and poems the collected edition? Ace Trucking the animated series?

What are your 2000ad ideas that you wish someone talented would strap to a bench and pump lightning through?

I've been given a Kindle today and a voucher for e-books.

Given that you and I like the same stuff, I thought it might be fun if you were to recommend your favourite two books of all time (and why if you can be bothered). I expect there are quite a few hidden gems that I have never heard of and it is quite a cool opportunity for me.

So if you would be so kind...
Any genre, I'm not fussy.

Minky

So yeah I was just wondering if there were any official Dredd 3D ringtone/alert type thingys I could buy/download somewhere?

Or if there was anyone here clever enough to rip some mp3 quotes from the movie ("Yeah", "Incendiary" etc.) if that is all legal, above board and allowed.

In the same vein, can you get legit phonecases with 2000ad stuff on? I would love a black case with a white Nemesis head for the back of my Galaxy S3.

Anyone got any knowledge?

Early doors today.

Cover: Initial reaction, "Oh no, more Age of the Wolf". This opinion is now changed.

Dredd: Bringing Joe up to speed with all that we already knew but gloriously. Waldorf & Mutch were great characters, reminded me a bit of Brand and Brass and also of Mr Neat and Mr Tidy from that seminal classic "Mr Messy" of the Mr Men stable. I love the detail of the street defenestration scene (especially the medwagon's retros) and the energy and atmosphere of the fight and flight. Top stuff.

Defoe: I didn't see that coming, you got me wrong footed there Pat with that confession, nice one. Further sparks of (conflicted) love interest and finally some movement away from the Tower bring some much needed fresh air to the strip. The old stumble and moan routine is a bit of a cliche now, but I don't care. Best Defoe for ages.

Sinister: This episode should have been called "The Scream". Great transformation from bimbling, loony half-wit back into lethal gun-shark. A very tight 45 seconds. Sharp.

Wolf: Well now. I was not in the slightest bit interested to see this come back. But this episode was fab and has rekindled the interest I had in the first few apocalyptic London scenes. Not sure about "Werewolves of the world unite!" cry though. It sounds a bit left-wing protest movement rather than feral battle cry. I hope this stays good.

Tharg's Future Shop: Had a jolt of thrillpower as those covers jump off the page at you. Makes me want to buy them all over again!

Ten-Seconders: Standout winner in the prog for me this week. "Your entire planet is being taken inside the Father's ship!" Crunch goes the moon. Now THAT is some awesome science fiction right there. Love Harris keeping it real and grounded as the planet writhes and adjusts. Malloy comes apart. Hope Jen will be alright and they just strip her powers away. Funny ending with great big stony toddler. Love it, worth the cover price alone.

Thanks Tharg, see you next week!

I miss Roger.

There, you made me say it.
Happy now?!

Great little work in progress this: http://bluebottlegames.com/main/node/21

You can play the demo for free in your browser.

It has a very steep learning curve and it is very easy to die, but I have never been so chuffed about making squirrel skin gloves before!

Tips:
[spoiler]Tip 1# Avoid all combat wherever possible. Run away! Get hills or forest between you and the raider/beast.
Tip 2# End your turn before scavenging, so you have max action points to get away if anything detects you.
Tip 3# Only eat the blue berries.[/spoiler]

Let me know if you want more advice, especially about starting skills and crafting recipes.

Minky

We had been married 10 years without being able to start a family when we started IVF. We had gorgeous twins 4 years ago, although things were more than a little touch and go with my boy at his birth as some of you with better memories than me might recall. Then we had our beautiful youngest girl at the earliest possible opportunity after the twins were born quite naturally and accidentally which has completed our family (we expect! ).

The thing is the IVF gave us several extra embryos which have been in storage up to now, we paid an extra £500 to store them for five years. Which is a lot of money for a bit of shelf space in a freezer if you ask me. In our decisions about whether or not to have IVF the biggest consideration was what to do with any 'spare' fertilised eggs, as your only options are to destroy them, give them to medical science or give them to other couples trying to have children. Because of our views that each of these bundles of cells deserved a chance of life we decided before we started that we would donate them.

So me and the wife have spent the evening trying to write "statements of goodwill" to children we might never know, who if they are born, will be born to couples we have never met. It is as hard as it sounds and we have both been crying into our wine. The parents can choose to use some of the non-identifying info to help the children understand their origins as they grow up. At 16 they can choose to see the non-identifying passages for themselves and at 18 they can choose to see the full info and track us down if they want. I hope they do.

So anyway, if any of you feckers end up with exceptionally beautiful and talented kids with a leaning towards British Sci-fi, you treat them right you hear?!

And for any of you unable to have children or struggling with the whole IVF nightmare, I'm sorry and I understand a bit.

Minky
 

Amazing deal over in the Steam seasonal sale.
I just got the Warner Games bundle for £40 which includes:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City [only released in November and costing £30 on its own]
LEGO Batman
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Lord Of The Rings: War In The North
Watchmen: The End Is Nigh 1 and 2
All three FEAR games and some others I hadn't heard of.

£272.32 worth of games for £40, gotta be worth a punt.

Hey fellow obsessive weirdos!

Has anyone put together a list of:

a) The initial "Welcome to Downlode the city that..." descriptions?

b) All of the superb puns in this strip, especially the names of shops and businesses?

If not, why not?!

My progs are in the loft and I don't have any S&D collections, so even if no-one has a comprehensive list could someone chuck me a few shop/business names?

Thanking you.
Minky

[resulting in the loss of most of his jaw. Byers' brain was also abscessed and holes were forming in his skull.]

Apologies if this is common knowledge but I just found out about Radioactive Quackery by following some links from a Fallout 3 site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers

I'll quote a couple of bits here for those who can't be bothered to click on:

In 1927, while returning via chartered train from the annual Harvard-Yale football game, Byers fell from his berth and injured his arm. He complained of persistent pain and a doctor suggested that he take Radithor, a patent medicine manufactured by William J. A. Bailey.[3] Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and became rich from the sale of Radithor. Bailey created Radithor by dissolving radium in water to high concentrations, claiming it could cure many ailments by stimulating the endocrine system. He offered physicians a 17% rebate on the prescription of each dose of Radithor.[4]

Byers began taking enormous doses of Radithor, which he believed had greatly improved his health, drinking nearly 1400 bottles.[5] In the process, he subjected himself to more than three times the acute lethal radiation dose. By 1930, when Byers stopped taking the remedy, he had accumulated significant amounts of radium in his bones resulting in the loss of most of his jaw. Byers' brain was also abscessed and holes were forming in his skull. He died from radium poisoning on March 31, 1932.[3] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a lead-lined coffin.[6]

This would make a brilliant starting point for a future shock or similar.

Anyone else got similar 'science weirder than fiction' stuff??

(I guess my nuclear landmines thing I posted a while back fits into this as well - http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,26112.msg450782.html#msg450782)

Well done Postie, pre 10am prog = first bag for me.

Droid Life: All present and correct. Solid but not a side-splitter.

Dredd: Best in prog as usual. [spoiler]More insight into Danfran and Cal, sorry Sinfield. Dredd and Rico team up to topple the twisted tyrant tomorrow! Hurrah. But I don't buy the fact that Justice Dept couldn't work out where Pinky gang went. Surely when dust storm cleared they would see massive hole? And anyway short of huge matter transporter where else could they have gone? Anyway, looks like an old Mall to me. Looking forward to next week.[/spoiler]

Necrophim: I thought I had lost interest for good last week but this was much better. Good to see heaven at last and plot twisting feels more understandable for me now.

Slaine: I used to love Slaine back when his story was routed in a community and a purpose. Now he is just a wandering axe man, stumbling from one random unlikely encounter to the next I just don't care. Why should he care if someone looks like his dead wife anyway?

Future Shocks: Lots of similar looking extras. Didn't really shock me. [spoiler]Liar gets his comeuppance gasp!
[/spoiler]
Sinister & Dexter: Cooking on gas! [spoiler]Malone tie in brilliant. Start of distrust between Sin & Dex. Dex going funny cos of implants.[/spoiler] All in the kind of sleazy Downlode environment that makes Sin Dex work IMHO.

[you]

It is a bit like people saying, "Here, you used to be in I.T. can you fix/configure/install my insert any piece of technology ever built?"

As I read 2000ad, someone asked me to see if these two old comics are worth anything and how to sell them. I haven't got a clue, but you will sweet Hivemind, I know you will!

I have:
Issue 1667 June 29th, 1974 of the Beano.
The Best Of DC Comics: Super DC, no 14.

How do I value them?
How would I sell them if it is worth it?

Cheers,
Minky

So this is a nuclear bazooka, uhuh a drokking recoilless rifle that fires nukes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)

Then this is a nuke in a backpack that one man can carry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition

And finally a landmine nuke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Atomic_Demolition_Munition

That's right, a landmine slightly more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

"I think we got that tank Sarge"

So we are moving a food bank into the basement of a church building BUT the contact number is a business mobile cos the food bank is open in different venues on different days of the week. Clearly an unreliable mobile signal in this basement.

Easy answer is to get a new fixed phone line installed and forward the mobile to that line on that day of the week.

But Techie people, they have internet access in that basement. SO is it possible to do something clever with a mobile phone, laptop, skype or equivalent. Or some kind of signal booster using a spell and speak and an umbrella.

Any helpful ideas/workarounds?


Minky

So I am playing Fallout 3 (post apocalyptic role playing game) and loving, loving, loving it. Despite having lots of young children and a demanding job I am staying up into the night wandering around the wasteland, exploring, fighting and all the rest. Great stuff.

But I've just been in a bit of the game where you plug into a virtual reality situation and get trapped inside and need to figure a way out.
The fascinating thing I have realised (in retrospect) was that because this section of the game wasn't 'real' I didn't carefully explore and appreciate this quest as I have done with the rest of the game. Instead I rushed through it thinking that it didn't matter and had little worth because what my character was experiencing was all electronic make believe that had no value, impact or relevance on his 'real' existence.
Once my character had escaped the VR scenario I got back into slowly and deliberately enjoying the world and the adventures he has in it.

So why, when inside the game my unconscious decides that a VR section is a pointless waste of my time, is the main game itself so addictive and compelling for me when actually IT IS a pointless waste of my time that has no value, impact or relevance to my real existence?

Why does my unconscious not make the same judgement call about the game itself and stop me playing?

In fact other than the small benefit of being a pleasurable leisure activity it is actually of detriment to my real life as it takes up time and energy sorely needed for more important things AND it hovers in my head all day taking up processing space with day dreams and making me post about it on here!!

Of course now all this has BECOME concious to me I can apply my reason and values to it and decide to do the right thing and stop playing and do something more useful anyway.

Yeah right.

Anyway here is the BRILLIANT trailer if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZpR51XgW0

I'm jealous of all the spanky new avatars people are coming up with.

Bit beyond me as I am a bit of a tech-duffer, and having put all my progs in the roof could anyone sort me out with an avatar of that flying helo-monkey from Lobster Random?

I know years ago there was a chap who sorted out avatars for everyone but that was so long ago I have forgotten everything else.

Minky