Topics

I've been back in the fold now for a year and am glad to be here. Been looking back through the past years progs, looking back through the best stuff of the last year. Came to some conclusions, thought I'd see what people thought.

Best Dredd Writer who isn't John Wagner - Well, it's Gordon Rennie isn't it.

Best Dredd Artist who isn't Carlos Ezquerra, or Ian Gibson - Colin McNeil.

Best Dredd Story - Tied between Flippers and Blood and Duty.

Best Returning Thrill - V.C.'s. The surprise return and surprisingly good.

Best writer generally who isn't John Wagner - Dan Abnett. Shakara, Apocrypha, Sin Dex, V.C.'s, even Wardog. But Gordon Rennie comes close.

Best New Thrill - The Scrap.

Best artist generally who isn't Carlos or Ian - Frazer Irving. Henry Flint comes a close second.

Best one off thrill - Thargs Terror Tales 'Scene of the Crime'.

Best Supporting Character - Judge Manners.

[THE SHORT, SHORT STORY COMPETITION]

After the 'Lettercol Challenge' I was thinking it might be fun to have another competition. So, as Wake has allowed me to go ahead with this, I want to suggest the first Message Board competition. If it's a success we'll do something like this again, if not, I'll hang my head in shame.

THE SHORT, SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The Rules -
1)The story must be based on a '2000 A.D.' strip or character.
2)Each story must be no more than 50 words.
3)To enter you just have to post the story on this thread.
4)The competition closes on the 10th of October A.D. 2002
5)The winner will be chosen by me, or it'll be put to the vote if someone wants to set a form up.
6)The winner will be announced on the 14th.

The Prize -
The winner gets to choose one of the following great prizes -
1)A copy of 'Nikolai Dante - The Romanov Dynasty' T.P.B.
2)A limited edition (1 of 1) hand crafted 'Bison' action figure.
3)A Sternhammer Silencer. (Not as crap as it sounds).

Have Fun!

The 1985 annual lists him as the second oldest droid (after the late Eric Bradbury). That was 17 years ago. How old is he, and how does he maintain a steady hand at such an ancient age?

Are you the same Alan Barnes who wrote that interesting article on how man has shaped the course of chalk rivers in last months 'Countryman'? In which case, congratulations and nice photo.

Looking through some old 2000 A.D. annuals in a comic shop today I noticed some scribbling in the front. Checking it it turns out to be what seems to be the signatures of John Wagner, Brian Bolland, A. Moore, and Kev O'Neil. I paid my three quid and took it away.

How do I check if they are genuine. Anyone got autographs from any of the gents I could compare them to? I just wondered because it could be a ruse of the shop, sign the old stock and people will buy them hoping to get a bargain (I was gonna buy it anyway!). I don't mind if they aren't, I got an annual in good nick for a good price, but it's interesting if they are genuine.

Hmmm. That does make me sound like a mercanary so and so, doesn't it?

Right, here's how we can do this. I'll send the comic to P.V.S. to sign, and he'll then send it on to someone else. If people can form an orderly line we'll do this properly. Anyone who wants to sign it should post a reply to this thread. The first replier should send their adress to Paul.

The second replier should send it to the first, third to the second and so on, so that we can all pass the prog on. Does that make sense? Good!

Hi,

I'm looking for 'Best of' reprints of Strontium Dog 'Max Bubba' (or specifically the first part) and 'Bitch'.

Also Nemesis Books 5, 6 and I think 7.

If you have them I have Judge Dredd 'Goodnight Kiss', 'Young Death', and Judge Anderson 'Shamballa' to trade, or we can come to some other agreement.

I don't have access to the profile pages so I can't find out which issues they are in.

Please answer honestly.

Question 1 - Did you start reading 2k in the 700's?

Question 2 - Do you have a beard?

Thankyou for your time.

I'm gonna quote you something.
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HOW MUCH TO PAY

Be careful. The rarity of old comics means that dealers charge many times their cover price. Do not expect to pick up, for example, a 1981 2000 A.D. Prog for its original price of 16p. Shop around. Take into acocunt the condition of the copy you want and the place you are buying it from. Different dealers charge different prices. As of writing copies of Prog 1 have been changing hands at anything from ?30 to ?50!

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Well it amused me.

I said I'd keep an eye out for a certain action figure and see if I could get it cheap. Well I found it on sale for ?1.89 but I can't remember who I said I'd get it for. If it was you e-mail me and let me know if you still want it. And I'll know it was the right person if you tell me which figure you wanted.

Oh this is getting ridiculously complicated. I should make notes.

News Item One - Armitage will be featuring in the forthcoming Big Finish play 'Get Karter'.

News Item Two - Declan Donelly will be guest starring.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

The title of this thread is a quote from King Troutman, commenting on 'The Incident on Mayjor Minor' when he describes the caption - 'Next Issue: Chinky Take-Away' (I don't have it, so I'm paraphrasing Troutmans words). He also says in terms of 'casual racial insensitivity' "it's right up there with 'Tojo' and 'Blakee Pentax'". ('Blakee Pentax' is from the RoboHunter tale about the World Cup, and 'Tojo' from a cover that saw Dredd fighting a samurai type if my memory serves)

Now he's raising a valid point there. I doubt that either Wagner or Grant are actually racist, Stontium Dog is all about tolerance and the evils that are performed on people who are different. So when they use terms like that are they just making fun of racial stereotypes? Or just casually making comments they don't mean to have any depth?

I doubt they's use terms like that now, and I'd be seriously offended if they did, so are we just to take it as something that was more acceptable when the comic began (a generation ago!) and accept it, or should these terms be blanked out in future reprints?

Wagner and Grant have an admiral record for featuring characters in strips that are more than just white men. (Wagner & Mills wrote in a companion into their 'Doctor Who' strips that was Black and Working Class nearly two decades before the next non white companion) So it's very interesting to me that these comments exist.

And in this context what do we make of Alan Grants comments in a recent 'T.P.O.' in the meg that 'Blakee Pentax' was fun sounding but meaningless gibberish? Has he misremembered? Does he geniunely think that? or is he saying that to cover up something that he now regrets, to distance himself from a mistake?

Anyway, what do you all think?

Loved the first collection, can we have some more please? 'Outlaw' and 'Stone Killers' would be good together, (though maybe to long). 'Bitch' would be appreciated, as would collections of the shorter stuff. 'Rage' would be good as well.

Any Stronty, and as soon as possible, pretty please.

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   Tharg the Mighty!

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    Judge Dredd!

       

As Blackblood has pointed out it's been a while since there was a letter col in the weekly. I'm not sure but I think the last one was the week before 'Sin City' so that's three months now. Now it could be they've just dropped the idea, but it could be they aren't getting any interesting letters. And so, if I may, I'm going to instigate the Great Letter Col. Challange of 2002!

All you have to do is write an interesting letter to the weekly mag. And there's a prize for the first person who gets a letter printed.

The Rules -

1) Entrants must have no connection with the editorial staff od 2k. That would be cheating.

2) Entrants must use their message board names so we can prove it's them.

3) No bribing Tharg with polystyrene cups.

The Prize -

I'll buy an extra copy of the 2k that the letter is printed in and sign it. I'll then send it to another message boarder, who will also sign it. And so on and so on until everyone that wants to sign it has done. It'll then get sent to the winner who will own a unique 2000 A.D. signed by the message board irregulars.

Testing

Yeah, I think they suck, personally....

Told you they were good.

SPOILERS. Duh!

Sifting through the mail today, looking for the latest 'Doctor Who' C.D. and spotted the tell-tale package. Popped the kettle on and without looking at the case took the disc and popped it in the player. And then realised that it wasn't the due Who but an early Dredd.

In the latest adventure Dredd has to 'babysit' a visiting V.I.P. film director in order to protect him from a mysterious assassin

So, 'The Big Shot'. It's more overtly humourous than the previous Dredds and it works nicely. The comedy isn't too as to overshow the plot but works nicely alongside it. Dredd gets sidelined to the job of minding a pain in the ass, while Steel gets on with the investigating, the two plot threads meeting and being resolved in the climax.

Overall it works, it's perhaps the plot best suited to audio of the Dredds we've had so far, and the newsbeats are used to an interesting affect as well, with Enigma Smith being able to interact with events for once, so that element doesn't seem quite so bolted on.

There's also a plot twist at the end that gives the story a bit more depth than the story would have otherwise. It's a little soapy, but there are examples of similar things in Wagners Dredd (as recently as 'Sin City') although whether it would be possible for Steel to keep her secrets is another matter.

The disc ends by directly setting up a future adventure but in such a way as to leave this as a story that can be heard on it's own and presumably the later story can still stand alone. It's nice to see some links between C.D.s, it makes them feel more like a series rather than a sequence of individual stories.

Toby Longworth has settled into the role well and plays the humour straight - and there'd be nothing worse than Dredd knowing he was being funny. Claire Buckfield is getting better as Steel. Her role in the plot requires her to be less of a sidekick which helps greatly. Regina Reagan has got Enigma Smith down pat and Teresa Gallagher is more commanding as Hershey this time around.

Of the guest cast Peter Sowerbutts and Nick Briggs are every bit as annoying as they should be but are also convincing when the play takes on a darker tone. Good stuff.

It's also as well directed and produced as you'd expect. David Bishop has clearly learned from the earlier scripts and the next couple of discs look like they should be quite good. There's a Dredd from Jonathon Clements who wrote the ranges only certified hit 'Down to Earth', and then it's the story that has been set up in this C.D.

Overall I'm going to have to say that disc shows signs of promise for the range. It's an improvement on the first discs and worth a solid Seven out of Ten. Better script, nicely realised.

Sorry, I didn't mean to waffle on, but it gets it out of my system so I won't have to bore you all about it later!

What a bitch. Why is he cooking for her. Cow.

Anybody herad this yet. Loved the first half, can't wait to see how it works out.