Messages

Also, is this is the same universe as Judge Dredd?

I don't think anyone else answered this one, but yes, Strontium Dog is in the same universe as Judge Dredd.  Well, there's been cross-overs a couple of times - could be argued that there's some timey-wimey parallel dimension creation along the way but they're in the same universe as far as I'm concerned.  Which means we'll be due some atomic wars in Mega-City One's future in about fourteen years time.

The other thing worth bearing in mind is the fortieth anniversary of prog 1!  I'd have to agree that as a series this would perhaps be challenging but as a special anniversary?  Give it the full absolute treatment.  As you say, include prog 0, character designs etc.  Slipcased oversized hardback.  Let's face it, we're talking about the early days of what has to be one of the most influential British comics of the last fifty years.

The only other comic that comes near is the (original) Eagle, which was launched in 1950 and would have been on its last legs by 1966 (only lasting until 1969), so I think it's safe to say that Tooth is the most influential British comics of the past half century.  Despite it's use in initial promotion for the Galaxy's Greatest, I'm not entirely convinced that the Eagle itself is that influential.  Outside of the comics and a Haynes manual I think there's been a nineties children's CGI series, but I'm not sure what other wider cultural impact DD has made.

I also assume, and again without any knowledge, that this is reasonably profitable: the creators will be paid on a work-for-hire basis at anthology rates, then sign away the reprint rights where there is a bigger margin and bigger market.

I don't know what the sales figures are like but The Phoenix and Toxic! (not that one) appear to have survived for a while.  I believe Toxic is more magazine-style and Phoenix has a few non-comic pages, but they're still anthologies.

Strontium Dog fares much better. The strip feels almost fully formed from the off (though when does Wulf actually become a viking, not just like a viking?). Its very good.... well its is buuuutttt not as good as it will become under Tharg.

I actually don't like much the initial two stories which ran in 2000AD and Starlord from the Starlord side of the merger - Galaxy Killers and Death on the Orient Express - both series got better after those ones though.

Available for pre-purchase from the Abaddon website, blurb as follows:

ONE BAD DAY...Mega-City One, 2081, Joe Dredd's second year on the streets as a full-eagle Judge. He's got the experience, he's done the sked-time,but no Judge is infallible – all it takes is one bad day, and all those years of training can disappear in the simple pulling of a trigger. A routine arrest, an ambush, an explosion. The perp's down, but Dredd is bleeding and burned, his Lawmaster is destroyed, and he's in a bad part of town with no backup. For the first time in his career, he's truly alone...

Release date: 16 Sep 2016

So a comic frame that Mike McMahon stated in a recent Thrillcast haunts him as his worst work- a manic Cal holding aloft Judge Fish - is now the image chosen to advertise the The Mega Collection edition of The Day The Law Died on the back cover.

It did cross my mind that McMahon would be covering his eyes when he found out which image was chosen for this one...

Does anyone here have experience of working across various written media fields? It'd be interesting to know how much of a disparity exists regarding things like advances, royalties and rights when it comes to various kinds of books, comics and so on. (Certainly in magazines, you basically get nothing bar a single payment that arrives a few months after you invoice. Books and comics often give you royalties, but I only have limited experience of the former myself.)

I'd completely forgotten about it, but I'm actually a paid writer.  I've written a few articles for the in-house magazine at work.  I didn't need to invoice them or anything like that, and it appeared on my next month's payslip as 'taxed journalism'.  Employees of the company I work for are welcome to submit anything they'd like for publication, but we don't get paid for it any more - wish I'd kept it up while it was still paying work, and compared to my day job the pay-per-hour was in the multiples!  I didn't keep any copyright on what I wrote though (it's a free magazine so royalties don't apply either).

The Facebook page has posted the cover of issue 44, Dark Side of the Moon. Cover is by Brian Bolland, from (I think) an Eagle comics reprint cover.

Just had a quick look, and yes, it's from the cover of Eagle Comics' Judge Dredd No 2 (the Luna City War with the umpire).

I don't think it's important to start reading at the first story - each new story is written with new readers in mind. My first issue was at the start of the colour era, and references to stories I hadn't read just made me curious to go back and see how everything fitted together. I didn't feel I'd missed out.

True dat.  I started reading around the time of Cry of the Werewolf and Requiem for a Heavyweight.  There was quite a bit about the fallout from the Apocalypse War - an epic which had finished about a year before I started reading but it didn't spoil my enjoyment for the first year or two of my Squaxxdom.  I was lucky in that Eagle's reprints filled in the background for me (earliest thing I remember in that run was Blood of Satanus - did I know who Satanus was?  No!)

And this is, I think, where his more crankily extreme creator-rights position finds some purchase.  Moore is - or should be - the Stephen King or J. K. Rowling of comics, a fabulously wealthy IP collossus. He isn't, and this solely because he writes comics, not books.

And at least partially because he won't associate himself with any of the films that have been based on his work - how many hollywood films now, four?  Constantine, LoEG (no idea how / why that got made), From Hell (which I'm guessing he co-owns, but not sure how it got made), Watchmen and V for Vendetta.

Look at Gaiman, a fellow with a decent lucrative career,  but one really based on the prose fiction that he actually owns. If he was trying to make a similar living out of his Vertigo IP I'd say he'd be screwed.

Gaiman's certainly had a wider and more varied career - my first contact was probably a tie between a Future Shock or two and Don't Panic.

Moore's complaints can always be slapped down with the accurate statement that he entered into all these contracts with his eyes open, and was happy to take the money at the time. But this just doesn't address how ludicrously unfair the entire industry is - which is what Moore is deliberately highlighting, because he, as towering Magus of the form, can.

I'm torn - we live in a world of IP owned by huge corporations living off of work that others did, sometimes in the early to mid twentieth century.  On the other hand, what job have I ever had that pays me after I've left it?  I'm not about to picket a place I worked at twenty years ago to try to get some of the present-day profits.  Work for hire is just that - and I've got to say that I do respect Rebellion for not publishing Halo Jones Book Four (as they would have every legal right to do) and Vertigo for not releasing Endless books based on Gaiman's work - I'm thinking Death more than Morpheus here.

EDIT - meant to say something about not being a fan of global media conglomerate Disney / Marvel / Lucasfilm there, despite liking the MCU and being more of a fan of Star Wars now than when it was owned by its creator (I'm talking about the trilogy we try not to speak about too much)...

This is supposed to be a replica of the model used in 'The Empire Strikes Back' so the round dish was a given (no plans to provide the oblong dish from 'The Force Awakes' as far as I'm aware) and it will have five landing struts as opposed to the three shown in 'A New Hope'.

Wow - I first saw both ANH and TESB over thirty years ago and I've never noticed there were more landing struts in the latter film.  Then again, I didn't notice that the radar got swiped off until TFA, so I'm obviously not very observant when it comes to watching high-speed spaceships in films (real life I'm better at).

Wonder what is the name of that restaurant? Remember Peach Trees 😉

Very distinctive ceiling but plain lights - should help in locating it in Soho (all concept restaurants and fancy lighting!)

Welcome to the Forum!

Welcome back Ben!

A salacious two page spread from a Sunday newspaper, dating back a few years.

Should I ask?  Too much to hope it was a 2012 feature on a contemporary film?