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Messages - AlexF

#1
I finished reading through LoEG relatively recently and had a fair time doing it. But yes, it's 100% the case that the frist two colletions breeze on by, while the rest of it feels more of a slog. I winder if that's how it felt to write, too? As if Moore and O'Neill had a jolly old wheeze putting the first two stories together, then felt they had to keep trying to exhume and insert as many cultural/litrary touchpoints as they could think of, and it sort of sucked out the joy of a simple plot told with just a handful of characters.

That said, the moments where Moore makes you go 'oooooh, that's dead clever that is' do make me feel real good. And those moments crop up in Watchmen, From Hell and League of Eggs, reliably.
#2
I think I like From Hell more than you, Colin, but I will agree it very much felt like homework to read. But the good kind of homework, that you're glad at the end of it you were forced to read. (I feel the same way about David Copperfield, an asbolute tome of a book I'd never have dared attempt as a schoolboy except our English teacher was a Dickens nut; it took most of the year but it was wirth the effort).

But for sure it's a book that does no favours to anyone by being held up as some great work of comics, because it is first and foremost a book for people who are interested in serial killers, Victorian London, and occult/class shit. I'm more into superheroes than any of those things, so for sure I'll turn to Watchmen more readily than From Hell. But I'm still glad to have read it, I totally think it explores those themes in interesting and intellectually stimulating ways. (Don't tell anyone, but I feel the same way about Eddie Campbell's 'Alec' comics. Intellectually interesting, but emotionally just not my cuppatea.)
#3
General / Re: Top 3 single episode Dredds
18 March, 2024, 10:31:10 AM
I've spent far too much time thinking about this and not coming up with any answers, and it'd be mental - hoho - to attempt a re-read of all existing Dredd one-offs to date to find the answer.
I generally like the ones either about weird future crimes, like the one about the lady who sends in fake invoices. or the ones about citizens living life in MC1 - like the one about the dude who just loves running (actually I think there are two of those, both good, one by Wagner and Fegredo and one by Worley and ?). Also the ones where Dredd wins not by being especially clever or tough but by combating total idiots, like the Hottie House seige (a story so good Wagner told it three times!)
#4
Watchmen: definitely a comic to admire more than love. I'm sure part of the reason it gets so much praise is that you could - and I'm sure people have - write long essays analysing its comics techniques, and its dissection of superheroes, in the same vein vein as a Dickens novel or what have you. On the other hand, if you're reading a superhero comic and thinking 'I bet I could get a good English essay out of this'... well, let's just say you're not gonna end up in MY top 10 favourite comis of all time...

Also I get really annoyed by that one scene with the supposed 'world's greatest psychotherapist' who just can't cope with how weird Rorschach is. Either Moore hates therapists (fair enough) or else he was being uncharacteristically lazy in finding a way to make Rorshach look more badass.
#5
Off Topic / Re: RIPs
13 March, 2024, 10:40:09 AM
Totally agree - and it doesn't even matter that Dragon Ball is not even that great of a comic. The first chunk (before they added the 'Z') is pretty great, though, and so easy to read. Comics that are easy to read despirte having mad ideas need more praise.
#6
Totally echo BDKano's sentimenbt on Phonogram - it's not actually THAT good of a comic story, but it's so much fun when you get to see places you know (Camden pubs) and bands you like being namechecked (David Devant, as seen by me in at least one Camden pub...).

Honestly, Gillen kind of took some of the ideas of Phonogram and did them way better in Wicked/Divine - a series I was totally in love with until I hit a roadblock in like volume 4 or 5 where he commits that ultimate comics sin of filling entire pages with prose. I'll stumble through that eventually and hope to find a killer ending but honestly, I don't want to read a comic for the words. Ideas and pictures first, words maybe after that. Eisner knew the score!
#7
Man oh man! What a fun thread, slapping myself on the forehead yet again for not really knowing how to navigate the forums... (if it's not in the 2000AD subsection, I often don't notice anything, fool that I am).

Anyway, Colin, you're a total legend for setting this up and writing so much delightful commentary on so many great (and not so great) comics. Bit late for me to weigh in on some of your choices, but I'll certainly say that based on the comics you've listed that I've read, you have great taste, and my to-buy/borrow/read list is gonna get loads bigger. Your love of superhero comics in the vein of Stern Avengers and Bendis Daredevil I think puts you pretty much dead into my age and comics-reading bracket - which all makes me even more chuffed you were so nice about my own comic, knowing you're mentally comparing it to many of the things I grew up on, too.

Am especially excited by some titles I'd never heard of before: Bat Lash (describing that as being like Wagner-Dredd is a weapon to weild carefully, sure works on me!); Hourman; Cowboys & Insects.

I'm with you and it seems most people here of loving the art and stroytelling style of DKR, but not as such the plot or especially the characterisation of Superman. Even more with you on singing the praises of P. Milligan, a man I've always got time for even if I don't love everything he writes.

Couple of minor tidbits you may or may not be interested in...
L'il Depressed boy looks and sounds quite a lot like the Manga series Goodnight Punpun, which is very excellent in its storytelling but I'm not really into the subgenre of 'life is just a constant series of depressing episodes' as per Chris Ware or Dan Clowes.
Gunning for Hits sounds fun but I'm guessing not as good as Phonogram, which may or may not appear higher on your list? Also, having a Bowie-alike main character called Brian Slade makes me wonder if it's also a follow-up to the film Velvet Goldmine - totally recommend that if you're into David Bowie, the music scene, and pretentious films.

Will be sure to keep an eye on this mega-thread in days to come! Partly looking for more workable answers to the question 'Daddy, why do you spend so much time writing about comics on your computer?' which I get a lot of at home an' all...

#8
Prog / Re: Prog 2372 - Escape Pod!
07 March, 2024, 11:33:38 AM
This Dredd story has pushed to examine what I most want from a longer Dredd tale. I do liek the politic-y tales, and it's definitely the case that I really want to see the Dredd/Beeny/Maitland combo manage to push through some sort of democractic reform onto MC1, because I'm a liberal lefty and seeing that would make me feel good. But of course it would end up breaking 'Judge Dredd' as a strip so it can't/shouldn't actually happen.

Which means we get these downer-ending stories, and when they're as magnificently well-drawn as this one - might be BEST ever art on a Dredd serial, for real - I'm OK with it. But thinking further, for me the truly successful 'downer ending' Dredd tales are the ones where it's Dredd himself who more or less agrees with the 'bad' thing that happens - as in America, for one example. I get that he's becoming more and more anti-fascist as the years go by, but the power of the character is at its strongest when we're reminded that he genuinely believes that being a shouty bully and using violence to solve problems is the best way to keep citizens safe. So mostly all I have to look forward to is Dredd punching out another Judge Grice lookalike at some point.

As for the rest of the Prog, it's definitely a win in the art column for all stories. Kendall's vision of giant arty towers made of human remains is up there with Kev O'Neill's from Nemesis Book 1. And yes, that SB Davis sure can paint trees and dead animals and duffed-up humans real good.

Agree that Full Tilt Boogie doesn't really explain itself in terms of 'how did she get out of that trap' - but with a get-out clause that I think the inside of that weird spaceship is meant to be trippy and dreamlike, in a Stalker/Annihilation sense. In that context it makes sense to me that will-power is enough to help a person escape, and of course we don't yet know what else Tee has brought out of the ship with her, even if it's just a big dose of anxiety/fear. Also it all justifies the cover which is an all-timer!
#9
Books & Comics / Re: AI Generated Books
04 March, 2024, 11:42:37 AM
For what it's worth, the Publisher I work for has taken the decision to ban all use of AI-generation for any writing/design/illustration on our books (for now).
Potentially we will be allowed to use GPT and the like to generate marketing copy, but that's about it.
#10
Prog / Re: Prog 2370 - Fire it up!
23 February, 2024, 09:59:05 AM
I get that J Depp is not a person one wants to give airtime to - but I confess I couldn't resist the charm of Kek-W taking the absurd premise of the Sauvage Ad (which I had to endure a LOT this XMas season for some reason), and turning it into a Indigo Prime story hook. Fun!
And the whole use of actual(ish) famous people does take me right back to that first Tyranny Rex story in which Prince was basically co-lead.
#11
Aces!
And I can't imagine drawing in THAT deyailed a Massimo-style is anything but a long hard job. Double Macmacs for that droid, and lots of 'em.
#12
Classifieds / Re: 2000AD cards / card game
07 February, 2024, 01:31:28 PM
Well with no word from Sheridan I'd say they're all your, Fortnight! Want to PM me your address and I'll figure out postage and stuff?
#13
Classifieds / Re: 2000AD cards / card game
02 February, 2024, 01:47:19 PM
Sorry, I totally forgot to cehck in on this thread!
I'm getting rid of them because apart from occasionally seeing them in a storage box I have not interacted with them in any way for years...
Extra cash defintiely helpful, but I'd rather they went to a 2000AD-loving home, hence posting on this forum, and only asking for postage to cover the costs.


In the interest of fairness, since I have three decks and there are three of you, I could send the Trading Cards to Sherdian, the 2000AD playing cards to Mr N Canes, and the Dredd playing cards to Fortnight?

What's the etiquette?
#14
General / Re: Space Spinner 2000AD
01 February, 2024, 10:58:24 AM
Never has the wait for Red Razors coverage been so desperately anticipated
#15
General / Re: Now I Know My ABCs...
30 January, 2024, 08:32:58 AM
Beautiful!
The Inaki Miranda really stuck out for me as something quite different.

Really a lot of people have drawn a lot of pictures of Judge Dredd.