Messages

Black Hawk is all very well, but when are we going to see the return of the real star of 2000AD's golden age, the ever amazing Wolfie Smith?

Bollocks to that!  I'm waiting for the Angel collection.  You've got to go a long way to beat a man with half-a-plane sellotaped to his arm.

Well done one-and-all!

It's actually Pixar's first live-action film (directed by the guy who did Finding Nemo).  They didn't want the Pixar brand associated with higher-rated films, so they're using the Disney name only.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I never really "got" Last American.  It seemed to drag and was achingly predictable.  Was I missing something?

Mind you, the last time I made a statement like that was when I said that Halo Jones was basically Private Benjamin in Space.  It triggered a flame war that still haunts me now.  (Andy Diggle said it was the best "I'll get me coat" moment ever.)

... whereas Alan Moore wouldn't go on in case someone tried to turn his appearance into a movie.

I'm still convinced that Alan Moore and Dirty Frank are one-and-the-same.

So this whole thing has gone in a totally different direction in my head.  "Yes, Konnie.  You are correct -- Dirty Frank *did* prepare one earlier, but it was eaten by rabid lesbians who bore a passing resemblence to characters who are still copyrighted, so Dirty Frank cannot reveal their names."

At the risk of sounding like a Readers' Digest letters page:

One of my colleagues was teaching a class on computer program design.  One of the lads was not paying attention so he asked him, "Do you know what pseudo-code is?"  His geniune answer was "Is it that thing in the back of the newspaper with the numbers?"

Another time the same colleague asked a group to name a computer-based device used by banks.  One girl suggested "cashpoint".  The tutor then said, "Yes, but I'm thinking of the name Americans use for them."  A lad put his hand up: "Is it [strong Texan accent] caaashpoint?"

One of my personal favourites was a two-page spread in the News of the World, spotted over the shoulder of a fella on a train about 20 years back:

THE PHRASE NO MAN EVER THOUGHT HE WOULD HEAR HIMSELF SAY:
MY WIFE'S RUN OFF WITH FRED DINENAGE

Was hoping for a pre-Christmas release, but apparently Game of Thrones isn't out on DVD/Blu-Ray until March 2012...

In the meantime you can satiate your thirst by filming your own episodes with a webcam, a fur coat and a rented butcher's shop.

Write a script involving bearded people wearing crowns and having sex with a horse, and then chopping the horse's head off.  People will be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

So if someone was profiteering from something you owned you wouldn't mind?

So Andy Warhol should pay royalties to Marilyn Monroe, or to Campbell's?  There has to be a sensible limit, which is why so many countries have "fair use" rules.

If it was a character drawing being copied you could argue that this is taking money out of somebody's hands.  It's not.  It's a collection of logos, and any creative copyrights to those logos were signed-over at the point of creation specifically because they are created to be used wholesale for promotion.

Rebellion are only likely to complain about this kind of free advertising if it brings the brand into disrepute.

[Whatever the cause -- whether it's bullying or problems with her head -- the fact that you're there for her & trying to support her is vital and will make all the difference.]

My missus went through hell at school, so I sympathise completely.

My wife has a panic disorder, which means she loses all reasoned logic in agoraphobic/claustrophobic situations and becomes a danger to herself.  Started in her teenage years.  It made her exceptionally socially awkward and she suffered badly at the hands of classmates who couldn't understand why she would start screaming for her life & trying to knock herself unconscious if somebody locked her in a cupboard.

It was made ten times worse by the fact that her parents didn't try to understand it, and kept blaming her for being difficult.

(In later years she once tried jumping out of a car at 70mph 'cos we missed a turn-off -- and it's not easy trying to stop a car at the same time as you're restraining somebody, I'll tell you.)

Besides that she's a perfectly normal woman.  Nowadays it's under control and she leads a perfectly everyday life (although she still can't travel long distances).


Your daughter is obviously suffering.  If she's got to the shrink stage then it's more than just typical teenager stuff.

Whatever the cause -- whether it's bullying or problems with her head -- the fact that you're there for her & trying to support her is vital and will make all the difference.  (Believe me, I spent years picking up the pieces where my wife's parents failed to support her.)   As for making things worse, don't worry so much about trying to solve it -- that's the shrink's job.  Just support her as much as you can.

[visual identity]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JUDGE-DREDD-2000AD-Cool-Comic-Patch-Collection-/200579195473

This is surely a trademark issue, not a copyright one?

This company has set out benefit from the visual identity of a wide number of brands, not the creative work that went into designing them.

Besides, if you steal a quantity of information from a single source, then that's plagiarism; by contrast, if you steal many small pieces (e.g. phrases rather than sentences) from a wide variety of sources, then that's research.  This business is clearly falling into the latter style of 'stealing', and I don't see it as a big deal.

If these were heavy metal band logos then nobody would be batting an eyelid.

Now that's nice.

Boo should do more black-and-white stuff.  His colour stuff gets lost in muddiness, but this is just plain gorgeous.

Wow... I am amazed he can be so blatant and get away with it.

Roy Lichtenstein got away with it for years -- without giving any credit to the original artists.  At the risk of being corrected by any art historians here, I presume he made a fair amount of money off the back of "adapting" the work of others.

Every page of every prog ... except Visible Man (too squeamish, even now) and Red Seas (which must be the most aimless story ever).

@ A.Cow: Aren't they making a fan film about you? Judge Moo-nty?

Groaaaaan.  Mind you, I can see the cast list now...

• Sandra Bullock
• Moo-cow Caine
• Heifer Locklear
• Arnold Schwarzenudder
• Steve MilkQueen
• Ox Harrison
• Gina Taurus