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Quoth Rich Johnston, over at Bleedingcool:

Hidden in a piece for the Daily Record, comes the news that after Grant Morrison has finished writing the DinoGsaurs Vs Aliens movie for Barry Sonnenfied, he'll be writing a movie based on the 2000AD comic character created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons in 1982, Rogue Trooper.

The lead character, Rogue, is a futuristic gentically modified soldier grown as much as he is trained into the role, acccompanied by three sentient computers, each with the personality of a different, deceased soldier. These are manifest as his gun, backpack and helmet.

After Judge Dredd, Rogue is probably 2000AD's most popular character. I can hear Simon Pegg screaming at this moment, desperare for a part.

However the odds are that Sam Wothington wll be up for the role, as it his his company that is working on the project – Full Clip Production, who were previously attached to comics-to-film project, Damaged and Last Days Of American Crime. Will he go back in the blue?

I like the way Spurrier, Molcher and Emperor all studiously avoid mentioning the existence of this very forum!

Ha - it's a fair cop.

Truth is, I'm taking over stewardship of the Whitechapel boards from the esteemed Mr Ellis sometime this Summer, to coincide with the release of some free webcomics I'll be putting out via Avatar, and part of the plan is find new ways to reinvigorate the membership of those boards. Bring in some new contributors and turn it into a crackling hub of comicky, culture-y, web-based-fun-stuff-y content, that sort of thing. You'll understand therefore that, in this "getting to know you" period, it would be a bit of a gunbarrel-to-foot moment if I started advertising the existence of other fun communities in the same breath.

My hope is that, eventually, we'll get a lot of crossover traffic between Whitechapel and here anyway - as well as other savvy comicky communities - for the simple reason that there are too few Good People Talking About Good Non-Superhero Comics online these days, and it makes sense to let the doors revolve.  So, yeah.  Come play in the Whitechapel sandbox sometime too, if anyone fancies it.  It's not as scary as it might seem. 

Rabid review for "The Spirit" have reminded me of Crazy Frank's long lost unlamented Dredd cover.  Does anyone have a .jpg?  I can't find it online anywhere.

Submitted without comment:

//http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus

Um.  Didn't a post just vanish?

Yeah, you're both quite right - "angry" was the wrong word.

Wow...  I didn't see that one coming!

[spoiler]By which, of course, I mean the angry reactions.  So let me set a few things straight:

1) I/we didn't know about the Dead Signal twist when The Vort was being created.  
2) Not that it would've mattered either way.  To be frank, I don't really see the synchronicity.  Dead Signal delivered a wonderful crotchpunch after the self-contained story had ended, which came out of nowhere, which nobody saw coming, and which announced the return of some characters nobody ever expected to see again.  The Vort was intended as a juicy little foreword to the L.R. story, dripping with mystery.  I think it was pretty obvious from the start that it was building into something else -- the question has always been: "what?"  Now you know.  
3) The story of the Vort (the planet) is not over.  This was not a cheap gimmick to startle and surprise everyone with the unexpected return of Lob because - duh - we've all known he's coming back for months.
4) RE: cynicism regarding "the motives of the writers" -- to entertain, interest, engage and hopefully surprise.  Just because we knew to expect a surprise, doesn't make the mystery any less engaging.
5) As you'll see next week, Lob hasn't got a fucking clue what's going on.  Thanks to the Vort, we now know how he feels.  The whole point of this series was that the new (and hopefully eagerly awaited, by some) Lobster Random series in fact started 6 weeks ago, but none of us knew -- least of all Lob.

...at least, that was the plan.  I don't intend to defend it, because these things should stand or fall on their own merits.  But I can defend my motives, and I can present the facts.

I can also, FINALLY, take this opportunity to publically say how fucking AMAZING D'Israeli's artwork has been.  

He knows his storytelling.[/spoiler]

All hail Matt Brooker, genius at large.

...so that's 1 panel's worth of funny.  What happens for the next 29?

And the next episode?

And the next X years' worth of episodes?

I tried.

The license for ROM is owned by the toy manufacturer which first created the action figure.  The whole thing started out as a cynical merchandising crossover, and Marvel no longer has the rights.  In fact I think there was a cheeky reference recently to "Greatest of the Spaceknights!", because they can't even mention the name.

My "Rom Quixote" pitch was doomed from the start.

Spandex free zone, oh-ho-yes.

Seems utterly appropriate that my first post on this here new forum (very shiny, Wake -- good job) should be an act of shameless whorebaggery.

Lobster Random's back very soon - huzzah, hurrah, yay - but here's why it took so long: //http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080627-DannyKetchmini.html.

If you haven't seen the footage, well... Don't get your hopes up.

But here's the story, the video, and a challenge:

Link: http://simonspurrier.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Memespotter's Paradise.

Big bunch of my mates live just rount the corner from the Cross Kings, so I'll do my best.  

The venue could politely be described as "a bit shabby", but it packs a decent crowd.

Promise me I can throw shapes, Boo Cook stylee, to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds theme and I'm totally there.

Er, thanks...  It occurs to me that as well as being quick, clear, informative and a bit entertaining it may also've been a bit smug and self satisfied (see -- Creators get neurotic about what they're supposed to post on these boards too).

My only excuse is that I get overenthusiastic when it comes to Lob.  Poor Carl.

Yeah, there was a hardcover put out a while ago which collected the first Lob story...  Bit of an oddity, really, because there aren't many pages to it.  It'd be great to get a big juicy softcover put out, collecting Books 1-4.  

Hint hint, John-O...

As stated: Lob's an Intergalactic Torturer-For-Hire with a sexual appetite for machinery and a well-developed sense of cynicism.

In Bk 1 we learnt he once fought in a weird war, in which he (and all his squad) underwent pioneering surgery.  It left them unable to feel pain and unable to sleep (which caused a certain amount of existential grumpiness).  They also each had an enormous pair of Lobster Claws bonded to their sides.  As you do.  Lob thought he was the last of his kind, until his old Sergeant showed-up and tried to kill him.  Again, as you do.  Lob kicked his arse and left him wandering alone on a desert-planet with a pyschosis-triggering singularity implanted in his skull.  Er.  As you do.

Bk 2 revealed that Lob's sleeplessness and painlessness *weren't* caused by the surgery he underwent (ah-HA!), but by the spooky effects of the claws bonded to his skin -- claws which originated with the pan-dimensional Omnidevil Warathaal, who slumbers in Incandescent Rage Beyond The Veil.  Or something.  There was also an android monkey with a hat.  And a memorable sound effect.

Bk 3 had Lob (and his then-girlfriend, brain-in-a-robot-chassis Mrs Redd) trying to collect the bounty on the galaxy's deadliest gangster, Rex Ferris: a man born with a Tyrannosaurus as his siamese twin.  Ferris had built a bizarre device which sucked the Smuggery out of rich people's souls, and was using it to terrorise the aristocracy of the galaxy.  It was ultimately revealed that the device had been inspired by a dream caused by our old extra-dimensional pal Warathaal, who went on to collect Ferris's soul when the gangster died.  

Some, all, or absolutely fuck-all of which may or may not be pertinent to the coming series.



I love Lob very very much.