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Messages - JohnCKirk

#1
The related news (which I haven't seen mentioned here) is that the UK "Action Force" stories are being reprinted soon:
https://www.totaltoybooks.com/news/battle-action-force-treasury-editions

QuoteBattle Action Force, was published weekly from October 1983 to November 1986 by IPC Magazines limited, and brought together some of the greatest talents in the British comics industry of that time, both on the editorial and illustrative fronts including names like Gerry Finley-Day, Geoff Campion and Cam Kennedy. Included within its pages were the adventures of "Action Force", created by British toy manufacturer, Palitoy.

Four heroic Action Force teams: infantry specialists Z Force, ocean based Q Force, infiltration specialists the SAS and orbital guardians Space Force protected the world against the evil machinations of Baron Ironblood, The Black Major and their army of brainwashed Red Shadows.

Now, for the first time in over forty years, Total Toy Books, with kind permission from Hasbro and in collaboration with Rebellion Publishing and Skeletron, are proud to announce an officially licensed reprint of the Action Force tales from Battle Action Force collected in a series of deluxe sized 'treasury editions.'

If that does well, maybe we'll see a "Storm Force" collection afterwards?
#2
Quote from: broodblik on 22 April, 2024, 05:31:48 AMI am reading the prog and meg via my iPad as well. I do not experience the same problems.

Try the following:
1. Go to Account
2. I have under the Reading settings: Page Animation, Display side by side and Prevent Screen Timeout ticked

I have the same boxes ticked, but that didn't help. In particular, the "side by side" option only applies when the tablet is in landscape mode. So, if I read the whole comic that way, it would be fine, but then I'd be reading at 50% size. (As Funt Solo says, this wouldn't be an issue for reading on a desktop monitor, and that might be the best solution.)

Do you read all issues in landscape mode, or switch between portrait and landscape?

QuoteMy problem with the app is more the continuous time-outs I get and how it refresh the content. The reading part I am fine with but the app behaves poorly slow when content is available were you have to close and re-open the app to start your downloads

Yeah, that's also a problem for me: I generally have to close and re-open the app each time there's a new issue available. I forgot to mention it here, but it's something I think of whenever I see the tips that say "Don't close apps, it wastes more battery than leaving them running".

While I'm moaning, another issue is metadata. I'd like the app to keep track of which issues I've read, particularly if I buy a bundle of back issues. (Other apps already do this, e.g. Marvel Unlimited, and so do streaming services like Disney+.)

As it stands, I download issues, and they say "Unread". After I read them in the app, the "Unread" status disappears (which is correct). However, if I then delete them and download them again, they say "Unread" again. That implies that the flag is only attached to the local copy, rather than being synced with the server.

I've been able to work around this by having a separate document with a "to do" list of unread comics, but it would be nice if the app could do that for me.
#3
I don't know if anyone's mentioned these before, but there are 2 minor annoyances about the 2000AD app. (These apply to the iOS version on 2 different iPads. I haven't tried the Android version.)

a) If the tablet is in portrait mode, I see each page 1 at a time. If the tablet is in landscape mode, I see 2 pages at a time. This applies regardless of whether they're part of a double page spread. By contrast, Marvel Unlimited and Comixology know which pages are in spreads, so if the app is in portrait mode then it will automatically show 2 pages joined together. That means that the pages will wind up at 25% of their original size, but it's a visual cue for me to rotate the tablet into landscape mode (bringing the spread to 50% of its original size). There have been a few times when I've been confused by 2000AD pages, until I read the next page and then realise that I only saw half of a conversation.

b) If an issue is longer than 60 pages, it displays a green screen. This isn't like the Windows "blue screen of death", i.e. it's just within that application. If I close and restart the app, I can resume reading from that point. For a Megazine, I only need to do this once. For a longer issue (e.g. Dredd Case Files), I have to do it multiple times.
#4
Megazine / Re: Meg 467: Brit for Duty?
21 April, 2024, 06:44:16 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 21 April, 2024, 11:47:01 AMDoes anyone know what we're getting instead of Under Siege? Or how many more months Hook Jaw has to run?

There's one more month of Hook Jaw (i.e. the Titan series had 5 issues back in 2017).
#5
Megazine / Re: Meg 467: Brit for Duty?
21 April, 2024, 06:41:55 PM
Quote from: jrdd on 18 April, 2024, 08:18:30 PMHi John, welcome to the board - I checked my paper copy, there's meant to be a page of Terrahawks in that gap

Thanks, I'm glad that the paper copies had something there.

Quote from: Funt Solo on 20 April, 2024, 08:52:41 PMUhm ... Mega-Tharg?! Big jobs for Mega-Mek-Quake here...

Your second screenshot is the same thing I mentioned before, so that confirms that it's a central glitch rather than something on my device.

Your first screenshot also matches my device. I remember thinking that the article looked a bit ... sparse, but I hadn't specifically twigged that there were missing images. (I've already backed that campaign at Zoop, so I only skimmed the article.)

It's odd to have the mismatch between paper and digital, since they're presumably both generated from the same source. On the plus side, hopefully someone can update the server files (i.e. we can download a corrected version later), whereas if the paper copy had missing data then readers would be out of luck.
#6
Suggestions / Golden Boy
18 April, 2024, 10:20:04 AM
(This is a copy of an email that I sent to the Megazine letters page in Apr 2023. It was never printed, so I'll put it here instead.)

Now that Rebellion has the rights to the Fleetway back catalogue, I'd be keen to re-read "Golden Boy". More specifically, I'd be interested to read an article with some behind the scenes info.

When I started reading "Eagle and Tiger", Jamie Speed had been blackmailed to take part in a dangerous competition, because his agent claimed to have proof that he was responsible for his parents' death. Each time Jamie completed an event, the agent would give him another piece of the photo, which fitted together like a jigsaw. However, the story had a change of direction (with Jamie getting a new agent), and we never saw the completed photo. I assume that the artist must have drawn the full picture, so that they could refer to it when they added each new section. Is there a copy in your archives? Maybe the writer/editor from the time could comment on their original plans?

As a more general point, I think that most of your articles tend to be focussed on a particular creator, spanning their career. I'd like to see some articles which are focussed on a particular story, particularly if it was something that only ran for a year or two (rather than the multiple decades of Dredd).
#7
Megazine / Megazine 467
18 April, 2024, 12:20:21 AM
First time poster, so I can't put this in the Megazine forum. Sorry that my first post is a bit of a grumble.

I upgraded your account and merged the topics — IP

Looking at Megazine 467, there seem to be a couple of production glitches:

* pp14-15 have an article about "Time Breakers", including a link to the Zoop crowdfunding campaign. That sounded interesting, so I went to Zoop, but the campaign finished 2 weeks ago. Was this article supposed to be published in a previous issue of the Megazine? It seems like a breakdown in communication: if Chris Weston knew that the article wouldn't appear until this week, it would have made sense for him to extend the campaign. Or if Rebellion knew when the campaign was ending, why mention it afterwards?

* pp44-47 have an interview with Steve Kyte. p47 has a blank section taking up half the page, which I'd normally expect to contain artwork. Did someone forget to add it? Or is it present in the paper edition but not the digital edition?