Thank you Richard.
Aaaand we’re back for more. Still waiting on our second jab but we’re sure she’ll call back soon and tell us where our wallet is as well. We’re still at Level 3 Letters excitement, so let’s dive straight into the sexy sextet that made up the
Prog 2234Input page.
First up is
Matt ‘Spider-Man’ Webster of Bradford who spins his sixth yarn in a career that started with a Letter of the Week outing in Prog 1380. He has had three letters in the Prog, all of which have achieved top billing. His 3 Megazine letters in issues 219, 243 and 249 were probably less well received.
His letter here starts with an outright lie when he says it has been “about 20 years since I sent a letter in to 2000ad”. The fact is Matt had a letter printed in Prog 1475 in 2006, a mere 15 years ago! We hope Tharg sends the Rigellian hotshots round for that whopper! Matt’s letter is a billet-doux to Slaine and he takes us on an unwelcome trip down memory lane where axes are swung and environmental issues discussed. He says he thought 2000ad was a ‘specialist fantasy magazine’ but he’s way off on that front - look at least two shelves higher Matt!
Old hand
Ashley Beeching of Ashford now who celebrates his quarter century with his usual puff piece. To be fair, he does discuss a previous letter and we have to celebrate any letters based debate. Ashley wants to ”disagree with (the previous letter writer’s) opinion in the strongest terms possible“. What’s this? ‘Points of View’? He likes the flowery Slaine art and will complain in the strongest terms about anyone who doesn’t. Well we’re complaining in the strongest terms about Ashley’s lack of tolerance and indeed his letter writing style!
Ashley has taken worse from better than us in a long career that began in 1996 in Prog 1008. He has a 14/11 split in favour of the Megazine but can boast only one Letter of the Week from Prog 2222. His latest letter takes him up to position 9th= on the all time Beast chart although he’s technically only a top 11 writer due to ties.
Off to the land of the rising sun now in the company of the exotic sounding
Chris Doherty of Japan in what may be his first letter - we do have a Chris Doherty from Berkshire on the list who displayed his ‘Dredd Hat Photo’ in Prog 1681. Could they be one and the same? He falls afoul of the 10,000 mile rule, but we are happy to review his case on receipt of evidence and the £25 fee. Japan is well represented on the Beast database with 73 entries. On closer inspection this is less impressive as most of them were from second rate, er, place, letter writer Floyd Kermode. Our trawling did reveal that letters from Japan were printed in consecutive Progs 1341, 1342 and 1343 from Tim Ashten, Daryl Johnston and Floyd himself. Coincidence or conspiracy? Who cares really?
We hope Chris didn’t spend a lot of Yen on posting in his letter which says ‘How can brilliant art be unsuited?’ Well I wouldn’t want Tracy Emin making our bed or having Mondrian paint our cat but at least he has passion and, critically, reads the letters page as his lambasting of poor old punch bag of the week Marcus will attest.
We get a trip to Whalley World next with our new friend
Pete W. Whalley of Lancs. Pete is a new scribe and the first Whalley to see print. Excitingly we have had two writers from Whalley, which is a village in Lancashire…where Pete lives! Could it be Pete Whalley lives in Whalley or is it just Pete from Whalley Lancs. and the letterbot got confused? We suspect the latter. Maybe other Whalley writers Andrew Taylor (Prog 120) and Kenny Kaxter (Prog 634) could ask about for us?
Pete provides the standard ‘lost but found’ buffet, returning to the Prog to lap up the 'Four Horseman’ Dredd saga. Surprised he stayed on. He may just be easy pleased, as he sees ‘A Penitent Man’ as an “all-time Dredd classic”. We agree it was decent, good even, but an all-time classic? It was hardly ‘Finger of Suspicion’ or even ‘Twin Blocks‘.
Nearly done as Finchy would say, and to celebrate we have a new entrant to the Beast Halls of Glory. Step forward
Paul Tapner of Poole and collect your Beast code of
}}} for attaining your tenth letter credit. Paul’s road to glory has been long, with his first letter seeing print back in Prog 1109 in 1998. That’s over 20 years - or 30 if you go by Matt Webster’s metrics. Paul joins three other fledgling writers at the bottom of the Beast ladder in 36th= position. It only up from here Paul!
Paul’s letter sets out to be a brave criticism of ‘Feral & Foe’ but he pulls most of his punches, taking the blame for his not liking the strip on himself. He says it is ‘nice’ and ‘good’ but underneath this faint praise is an undercurrent of dislike. He says it is too knowing. We hate it when things are like that, don’t you agree loyal reader? He finishes by saying ‘there’s always one’ in self deprecating tones. Don’t put yourself down Paul; we couldn’t follow it either!
Last up this outing is
Grant Smillie Face from Bearsden. Most people would have just said ‘Glasgow’ but Bearsden people like you to know they’re from Bearsden, don’t you know. Fur coat, no knickers we bet! Grant may have the post code but he doesn’t have the letters with this being his first offering to see print. There aren’t that many Smillie people with Robert of Pukstone the only other to bother the scorers as he did in Prog 218, with his exciting image of a ‘Murdering Mantis SD Agent’.
Grant doesn’t have anything of his own to offer so he ropes in his daughter to do a cross stitch Dredd based on a Jock cover. We’re hoping she gets the prize for this effort. Grant hopes the cross stitch will warm the hear of most squaxx - well if it’s going to work on this one you’d better wrap it around our cardio defibrillator .
Overall this was a decent Input age crammed with six letters - one more than normal for those maths boffins out there. The content was varied as was the mix of writers which is the perfect recipe for spam fritters or something.
See you again in 4-5 weeks!
