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Normally I hate puns as much as the next Earthlet, but the ones in SinDex are always a treat.  Rex Monday, for example.  Demi Octavo.  The lapdancing club called Straddle Various.  The fact-totem, which I only copped a year or two ago.  Rod and his Staff.  The Um Louts (I went to work in Germany the week after they were introduced and soon got the joke.) My favourite of all, the Hot Pot and News on the Square.  Genius!

It genuinely concerns me that I've probably missed loads of them.  I know a Tannenbaum is a Christmas tree, but I don't know if or how 'Moses' fits in.  Does Tracey Weld have any kind of double meaning?  Missy Solemnis?  Bronski Hammer?

Just wracking my brains trying to think of any.  Films like Goodfellas, Apocalypse Now, On the Waterfront etc; the ones that will be remembered for years to come as classics.  Not cult classics or anything, much as I'd love Dredd to be remembered as groundbreaking cinema, but the ones that'll go down in history as being among the most important of their age.

I'm kind of stumped - I really liked Joker,  but I think it may be a wee bit too derivative of old Scorsese stuff to be considered a classic.  The Irishman maybe?  For me it was a great watch, but well, like Goodfellas but not as good. 

There's something staring me in the face that I'm not remembering.

It's just occurred to me that he must be one of Tharg's longest-serving art droids at this stage - possible the longest, now Carlos is gone?  It baffles me, too, that he wasn't snapped up by the yanks during the great exodus of the 80s and 90s - personally I've never seen his work anywhere outside of the House of Tharg.

What's more, his work just gets better and better - that last Meg cover was utterly amazing.  His Dredd is entirely his own - over the years he's added more and more subtle detail to the uniform, to the point where it's got more bells and whistles attached than any other artist's version, but it totally works.

Robinson:  He's the Bolland who stayed.

The last thread I started got me thinking about the opposite situation.  I was considering artists who, depsite being good, would be the last person you'd get to draw a particular strip.
Arthur Ranson on Hewligan's Haircut, for example.  Anthony Williams on Anderson: Engram.  John Hicklenton on Halo Jones.  That kind of thing.

EDIT... I'm not so sure about that last one, actually. I'd love to see it.  So I'll put forward Carlos on Nemesis instead - two amazing things that just don't fit together.

Steve Yeowell was perfect for Zenith, but I often try to imagine what it would have been like if they'd gone with the original choice of artist, Brendan McCarthy.  Which made me think of other strips where the artist is absolutely intrinsic to the strip - if it really, really had to be someone else, who would it be?

Button Man, for instance.  I don't think Frazer Irving was quite the man for the job of replacing Ranson, even though he's brilliant.  But I think the Yeowell of Zenith phase 2 could have done it.  Or Jimmy Broxton with a time machine.

Halo Jones - hmmm.  What about Ron Smith? All those normal, everyday people and weird aliens. My mind is breaking trying to imagine it, but as i said, if it HAD to be someone else...

Bad Company.  I love Rufus Dayglo, I really, honestly do, and he absolutely nailed the look of Kano and co., but I just can't imagine him illustrating the grim, introspective psychological horror of the first few series.  I'm struggling here, but what about Cam Kennedy?  He really nailed the dirty, battered warscape in Rogue Trooper, and I can just about see him doing a successful job on Ararat and the weird planets that came after.

Sooner or Later - Hewlett was the man to replace McCarthy, no doubt about it.  But y'know, if Rufus can do Tank Girl so well, I'd have no problem with him doing a sequel to this.

...lays mainly on the pain', according to Tharg when answering a reader's letter a long time ago.  The letter was questioning why Sláine had become more obnoxious of late, and Tharg wisely pointed out that hanging round with Ukko must have had some bearing on it.  Also, it was the first time I realised that most people didn't prounouce Sláine the way I did, but that's been covered elsewhere ad nauseum.

But for me, it's been a bit of the opposite.  Having had one of my many, many rereads of old Sláines, it seems to me he started off as a bit of a prick, and I kind of miss it.  Not just a brutal killer, he was also a sneering, egotistical bully (not just to Ukko) and it worked - like the series Rome, Pat had no problem using the morality of the times (whenever they were) to steer the main character.  Such as idly watching as a woman was about to be murdered, and forcing a man's brothers to bury him alive for the crime of chickening out of a fight.  Also, stealing the dragon and getting pissed a lot.  And he didn't bang on about it either - I got fairly tired of the likes of Finn going on about how he was into evil as well as good.  Slaine being a thug was all great fun.

After the Horned God, it all got a bit moral lecture-y - Sláine banging on about how the Romans are the true barbarians and how Feg was such a monster for corrupting Medb.  Maybe it was the enlightenment he found in Annwn or all the time hanging out with the Earth Goddess - but she isn't exactly a paragon of goodness either.   But fair enough, I suppose, we all change with age. Also it looks like Sláine will soon be going away for good.

After the Horned Gof

Just wondering if anyone knows - he's conspicuous by his absence.  Hope he's alright.

I've just remembered this quote - a questionably-translated line from the Book of Genesis - from the prog.  I could have sworn it was the last page of The Horned God, but it seems my memory has failed me. 
Anyone remember where it was from? Just to put my mind at rest.

I may well have asked this before, and I don't read a whole lot of DC comics, but supporting characters within the Bat-verse change their appearance, abilities and character so much that sometimes you'd be hard-pressed to know they're the same person.  I'm thinking about the screen and comic versions here; and I don't have any hard answers myself.

Alfred - Gotham has finally convinced me that a hard, working-class one can work well (the shaven-headed, youthful hulk on an animated Batman series a few years ago notwithstanding).  But I think I'll go with the slightly-built, dry-humoured toff of the Dark Knight Returns (pity about all that's happened with this franchise since).

Two-Face - my introduction was the babbling oddball of Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum.  Great character but it's hard to imagine him as a hardcase crime-boss when he's outside the place.  For me, I think the Joker's creation of the Dark Knight movie wins this.

Killer Croc - I know he's meant to be a crocodile man, but I found Brian Azarello's huge black guy, normal-looking apart from a weird skin condition, a lot more interesting.

Jim Gordon - I'm going with the one from Year One.  Just as tough and smart as he needs to be.  Gary Oldman's one comes second, I think.

Joker... no, I'm not getting into that one.   

Hello again.  Hadn't checked in in a long time, but when I did, I saw that Funt Solo had sent me a PM to see if I was ok.  I was almost moved to tears and remembered what a great place this forum is.

I replied to Funt by PM, but just to explain, I was kind of shellshocked for a few weeks by all the sudden changes brought on by Covid 19 and really wasn't in much of a mood to talk about it here, or to chat about anything else for that matter.  Since then, I've got used to the whole thing (mainly after realising that my elderly parents are being very careful and that my employer has found a way for us to work online) but got out of the habit of posting here.

So I really think I should come back - after all I've been on the forum nearly 20 fecking years now. Hope you're all coping ok.  I haven't read the prog in a few weeks.  Really ought to catch up.

...only I can't believe I'm the first to post it.
https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/18230180.swindons-judge-dredd-court-flouting-driving-ban/

Just did the draw (writing the initials on 20c coins, shaking them all up, and drawing three).

The two runners-up, who'll get a decorative Dredd-face plate:

MING and FUNT SOLO!

The overall winner, who'll get a Dredd plate AND, thanks to EddieHitler, a copy of Michael Carroll's Judges Vol 2, signed by the author:

SHERIDAN!

PM me your addresses (and real names of course), and Eddie and I will get on the case.  Thanks for taking part; I think I had more fun with it than anyone who entered!  Might do another some time.

The answers:

ACROSS 1. Orlok, 3. Satanus, 5. Rotten, 7. Judge Child, 10. Mean Machine Angel, 13. Father Earth, 15. Chopper, 17. Fargo, 18.  Sadu, 19. Armitage, 21. Giant, 22. Silver, 23. DeMarco, 24. Snork.

DOWN 2. Kenny Who (I hope you noticed the '?' in the clue), 4. Sardini, 6. Tweak  7. Judge Mortis , 8. Judge Dredd, 9. Link Angel OR Fink Angel*, 11. Nero Narcos, 12. Sabbat, 14. Hershey, 16. Otto Sump, 20. Grice.

*It was originally Link - the word 'connection' being part of the clue - but there's no way Fink could be considered a wrong answer either.

Sorry, I know the link within the advent calendar might be a bit hard to find, and I didn't want to clutter up that thread with even more of my own posts.  So here it is again - see the Advent Calendar thread for competition details, compliments of EddieHitler and me!
https://crosswordlabs.com/view/christmas-creeptic-crossword

Yesterday was my first day off in a month or so (this being by far my busiest time) and for some reason I spent it listening to documentaries about Christmas traditions from other countries.

Really fascinating stuff - Father Christmas / Santa Claus (though always 'Santy' to Irish kids) is so baked into our culture that we forget there are very different, and equally popular, gift-bringers and child-punishers only a few countries away.  Most of us know about the Krampus and the possibly-racist Black Peter,  but I hadn't realised just how important La Befana the witch was to Italian kids, each of whom get a piece of rock-candy coal with their other presents because nobody's perfect.

Catalan kids can't fail to believe in the arrival of the Three Magi with their presents, because they watch it happen in a big parade.  The kings' pages put ladders against balconies and climb into people's homes with presents.

The German Christkind (a winged woman for some reason) seems a bit dull to me (introduced by Reformation types because Santa was technically a saint), but by far my favourite gift-bringers are Iceland's Yule Lads, 13 mad trolls who each have weird idiosyncrasies (one steals candles to eat the tallow, for example) and have to be rewarded for their gift-bringing or they'll fecking kill you and eat you.

I always loved the Santa Claus myth and its evolution from Odin, St Nicholas, Father Christmas etc, but now I feel deprived because a witch or thirteen mountain trolls never visited me when I was wee.

Something just occurred to me while responding to Funt Solo's excellent Thrill Coma post.

Years ago when Mike Carroll used to frequent this board, I asked him to do an Emerald Isle Dredd story and make it better than Garth's.

He did so soon after. Probably nothing to do with me, but he did give the name Walsh to the Irish Chief Judge.  That was, and is, my name too.  I'm probably just feeding my own ego. But you never know; he did put my then-neighbour Johnnystress and his brother into Dredd as villains.

Anyway, that's my Christmas present to my own fragile sense of self-worth. Thanks, me!

Saw it last night.  I'd put it in the same category as Django Unchained - fairly entertaining, nothing special though, and with an obligatory [spoiler]bloodbath at the end[/spoiler]; though admittedly not the one history had led me to expect.

The most fun to be had for me was seeing how new actors played old actors ; even though most of them were before my time. Steve McQueen was fairly spot on, appearance wise at least, as was good old Charlie Manson. Would have liked to see a bit more of both.

That said, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio have of course long since transcended their old pretty boy statuses and have become Hollywood legends. Top performances from both.

Can't get YouTube working so I can't work out whether this is a real thing or not.

They filmed a lot of the original near my town, and as a long-haired youth I always regretted not applying to be an extra, even though I was a scrawny wee bastard and would have been about as much use in battle as a daddy longlegs with a plastic butter knife.  (But I did make up for it by being in Vikings later on in life.)

I'm a little bit confused about it.  I really loved the Harvey storyline and I'm enjoying the new robots on the beat but I don't really know what their status is. Are they judges proper or just auxiliaries?  Has Dredd changed his mind about them completely?  Can they still outrank human judges?

Anyone heard anything about it yet? It seems to be in limbo a tad, or maybe it's just me.

https://youtu.be/h7Xz1J5tmGs

Well this is rather marvellous.