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Happy birthday sir, and speaking as someone for whom 40 was a literal previous lifetime, I can affirm that it can get a lot better from there on in.

On the other hand, it can also get worse first, so keep that In mind. Being now two years off fifty, I'm very aware of living in my twilight years. An acquaintance swears blind I told her I didn't expect to live to see that particular milestone, so I take every day as it comes.
SBT

The ninth film will end on a handshake. Balance will be brought to the Force, to the galaxy, and there will be no need for further war. It will all end on peace, not a "victory" for the resistance or a "defeat" for the First Order.

SBT

Rushed out and bought it as soon as I heard, and blow me down if that wasn't the most enjoyable Dark Judges strip in years. I'm not a huge fan of either Fall of Deadworld or Dominion, so this was a breath of fresh air. That's how they should be done.
SBT

Same on my, shop-bought editions too. That's a shame, that is. I would say that when the spine image is such an important part of the package, it's vital to get it right. Otherwise, why bother?
SBT

On the whole, I liked that more than any Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith. My main problem with these is the lack of Lucas. Whatever you think of the prequels, at least it was what he wanted, and he was unapologetic of his vision. These ones will always have a slight tinge of fan fiction about them, and it would be easy to dismiss them just as easily as I can dismiss the yards of paperbacks and comics in the shops.

That said, they mimic the "real" stuff very well, and if you squint and go in the best frame of mind, it's hard to fault them.
[spoiler]Problematic things:
Yoda. Lovely to see a puppet. But not THAT puppet.
What was up with that? The eyes were weird, the smirk was weird, it seemed stiff and expressionless... And the dialogue was just weird. We came out joking about "pyromaniac stoned Yoda who hits everybody with sticks"

Snoke. Excellent to see him killed, if he was. But why a CGI man and not an actor in makeup. He's human sized, basically human and the proportions of his face would fit a man in makeup. The CGI version just looked to me like it had "floating eyes".

That all said, I loved the end scene. I took it to mean that after a period of inactivity the Force had "awakened" and that all across the galaxy, people were at last fulfilling their potential to become Force users. The "fire" that Leia had spoken of being "sparked".

Very sad to see the death of Luke- and was unprepared for how moving I found that. Bearing in mind he's the first hero I can remember falling in love with as a small child, it felt like the end of innocence, in a way.

If they never made another Star Wars film, this could have served as a fitting End. As it goes, I have no idea what they can do next.  [/spoiler]

SBT

My condolences too, Jim. And you're right. I lost a friend ten years ago to alcohol, along with other substances and mental illness. Throughout the last year's of his life, despite his obvious problems, he was routinely invited out on heavy sessions by mutual acquaintances who found it "funny" to watch him at his worst. It was inevitable and heartbreaking, and when I found out about his death (pissed, stoned and overdosed in the literal gutter on the street where his mum lived) my anger at those acquaintances boiled over and lasts to this day.
He was 36.
SBT

On the whole, loved that. Top Thrill was Starlord, which was of the kind 2000AD so rarely does these days- funny, self-contained and packed with design work and jokes. Least favourite thing was Brass Sun, which I will never get to grips with in a million progs.
Everything else sat between the two, with ABC Warriors and Savage at the top end. Sad to see another run of Bad Company is upon us, which looks as irritating and skippable as the last one. There's nothing about it that appeals, and it only nudges ahead of Brass Sun for me because of the slight twinge of nostalgia for the original two runs.
But that's 2000AD for me- some excellent, some not, some that might grow over their series.
SBT

No Meg came in to my local newsie today, which is odd because I very much thought it would.
SBT

I thank you, and so does my friend.

SBT

Hivemind, I have just received the following message from an old friend, and my memory is failing me. Can any of yous guys help him out?

"hello mate, my Strontium Dog collection is buried in the garage and you're the only person I can think of that might know the answer to this. There is a SD prog where Jonny and Wulf enter a competition which is essentially last man standing in an enclosed environment to win a prize and they enter because they'll get bounties on many of the people in the competition. It's driving me nuts and it doesn't Google. IF this even vaguely makes sense let me know. Cheers."

Many thanks in advance
SBT

1. Prog 2018 by Ryan Brown
2. Prog 2050 by Simon Davis
3. Prog 2023 by Cliff Robinson/ Dylan Teague

SBT

Absolutely adore Scalped, and crack it open once a year to reread. There aren't many series that inspire me to do that, but it never disappoints.

Currently I'm a hundred pages into Andy Weir's follow up to The Martian, Artemis. While it's a bit more pedestrian than his first novel, reminding me in both setting and tone of numerous other "near future moon-base hard sf" stories, it's another page turner and written in a similar amiable style.

Also, nerds, it has a discussion between two characters about classic Star Trek and a pub called "Hartnell's", owned by an Englishman called Billy.

Watch as Hollywood makes a meal/ has coniptions over how to represent it's lapsed-muslim female lead and her religious father.

SBT

He's had a weekly comic bought for him since before he could read. Started off with CBeebies magazine, then Scooby Doo, Spidey and Dr Who Adventures. Eventually grew out of them all, and having been reading my 2000AD trades since he could string a sentence together, he asked me to get him the prog every week. Initially it was mainly for Dredd, but he's really liked Jaegir, Threeeeellers, ABCs and Savage. Like all of us, he has things he doesn't get on with (Brass Sun, Counterfeit Girl, Slaine) but he says it's always worth it because something will be good. I got him to give Brink another go, after he was skipping it in the prog, and he really liked it- as did I when I read it in one go. Obviously, being my son, he would be at least a bit like me, but I think 2000AD is now in his blood. I'm sure he'll drop out at some point, but I'd imagine he will always now come back to it from time to time.

Youngest son, the one who really IS a lot like me in most ways, on the other hand can't be arsed with it. He will read Dredd case files, but has no interest in comics really.

SBT

I will take Tordel's baked confectionary metaphor and add to it, by saying the strips in this prog were positively huddled together playing a game of "Thrilly Biscuit".
Dredd, Slaine, SiniDex, Absalom- all were frantically bashing out the Thrills, with an eye on the dormitory door in case Tharg came back.
In such games there always has to be a loser, and I'm afraid Indigo Prime has to munch the digestive this time, but even that can't detract from the overall feeling of being well-spent as you turn the last page.
SBT

I completely fail to see anything "generic" about Ragnarok. I could understand that levelled against Dr Strange or Ant-Man, because despite loving both they didn't once push the envelope either in content or style. But Ragnarok was about as far from the norm for these things as it's likely they will ever get.

SBT