Messages

1

Film & TV / Re: Wheel Of Time.....

« on: Today at 07:33:23 PM »

OK. Watched two episodes of this now. I'm entirely unfamiliar with the books, but is this ever going to stop being sub-Tolkien, second-rate-D&D-campaign shit?

I mean, even the "No, it's fantasy but POST-APOCALYPSE FANTASY" thing was already thoroughly played out by the time Terry Brooks' execrable 'Shannara' books were done with it.

I'm really struggling to find a reason to watch another episode of this.

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Film & TV / Re: The Trailer Thread

« on: 27 November, 2021, 01:19:40 PM »

January 2nd on the Beeb: David Tennant in a new adaptation of Around The World in 80 Days that looks rather tasty.

3

Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 24 November, 2021, 08:39:10 AM »

A Love Like Blood is probably my least favourite Smith series from 2000AD proper

Great art, great concept. Unfortunately hamstrung by an edict from The Powers That Be than no series could run more than ten(?) episodes for a single story,* due to a reprint deal in the offing with a European publisher who had a specific page count for their books. The deal never materialised, and the edict was withdrawn, but not before it had forced some very truncated storytelling on both this and (I think) Storming Heaven.

*Note: this edict was not Andy Diggle's famous "shot glass of rocket fuel" memo, which is regularly blamed for the LLB/SH thing, but something entirely different.

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Megazine / Re: Meg 438: Homeland Security

« on: 22 November, 2021, 07:13:36 PM »

Here’s hoping Matt had an idea of where the series was going to end from Si. Even if not, I thought it ended well and was clearly in-keeping, since I didn’t notice the scripting switch.

I think there’s usually a synopsis of the whole series, giving at least a broad overview of the story and the important plot points, before a series is given the go-ahead for scripting. In that case, I’d imagine Matt had at least a general idea of how Si intended to wrap things up.

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Film & TV / Re: Accident Man 2

« on: 22 November, 2021, 10:18:54 AM »

'Uncle' Pat's championing of creators' rights has never extended to artists.

On reflection, and to be fair, I don't think Mills has ever really claimed to be championing all creators' rights… I suspect his position is much more along the lines of "nothing's stopping other creators making the same kind of ruckus as me", but I still find myself wondering about an alternate timeline where Kev O'Neill did exactly that, vetoing Nemesis BkII and then getting to the end of BkIII and saying "Right, that's your lot. No one draws Nemesis but me, so it's over."

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Film & TV / Re: Accident Man 2

« on: 21 November, 2021, 09:38:25 PM »

Of course. It seemed strange that the champion of only his own creator rights and originator of all those devastating Mills Bombs dropped on bullshit-spouting editors and publishers would meekly accept such an arrangement, but there you go.

'Uncle' Pat's championing of creators' rights has never extended to artists. You only have to look at his career and ask yourself how long any of his long-running strips would have lasted if he'd extended his own "no one works on this but me" position to his co-creators (the artists) to see that almost none of his creations would have got past the first series. It's abundantly apparent that he doesn't consider the artist an equal co-creator. I have a word for someone like that, and it's REDACTED.

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: 20 November, 2021, 08:34:02 AM »

It's great. I mean, insert your (my) standard complaint about an over-CGI-reliant finale here, but, honestly, I really enjoyed it. It looks lovely throughout — it's worth watching for the early fight sequences (especially the much-praised bus fight at the start) but it's basically Marvel does Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers.

Oh, and I forgot to say: a surprisingly pleasing guest appearance from another Marvel franchise character that I definitely wasn't expecting. :-)

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: 19 November, 2021, 10:08:59 PM »

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I can't deny it — there's something missing about not queuing up at a multiplex with a few hundred other people to see a 'tentpole' movie that adds something to the whole experience, but Cineworld's (my only easily-accessible IMAX cinema) covid mitigation measures are, to say the least, unsatisfactory. So, I have no expectation of going to the actual pictures in the foreseeable future, which is depressing.

So, we caught Shang-Chi on Disney+ tonight.

It's great. I mean, insert your (my) standard complaint about an over-CGI-reliant finale here, but, honestly, I really enjoyed it. It looks lovely throughout — it's worth watching for the early fight sequences (especially the much-praised bus fight at the start) but it's basically Marvel does Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers.

Obviously, if you insert "Marvel" at the start of that sentence then for a non-trivial bunch of people that invalidates the rest of the sentiment, but I really enjoyed it. Stick with it for both the mid-credit and end-of-credit sequences.

9

News / Re: Hawk the slayer coming to 2000AD

« on: 19 November, 2021, 02:43:35 PM »

So yes it looks like it will make the megazine a must get next year and do not forget Lawless will be in it as well

The new series is starting in the Christmas Meg, I believe.

10

Music / Re: Best Cover Versions

« on: 18 November, 2021, 12:50:22 PM »

from that, here is 'my favourite things' by laibach

What the ACTUAL FUCK?! How have I missed that? Thanks!

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Music / Re: Best Cover Versions

« on: 18 November, 2021, 11:48:57 AM »

slovenia's mightiest, laibach, took on the beatles for a while. i think this is the finest:

Laibach have a long tradition of splendid cover versions — they're all quite, quite mental but also brilliant.

12

Film & TV / Re: Is Sigourney Weaver Back For More Aliens?

« on: 16 November, 2021, 07:43:28 PM »

If not, perhaps it’s best we only got that half season and the movie—which was, what, the two-part finale to season 2?

Yeah. I've come to the conclusion that I'm (sort of) happier to have had the brief but wonderful stuff we got, rather than have ended up sitting around bitching about the lacklustre fourth season.

13

Film & TV / Re: Is Sigourney Weaver Back For More Aliens?

« on: 16 November, 2021, 07:10:14 PM »

Firefly still holds up amazingly well, even in this age of budget-smashing TV mega-sci-fi. It's wonderfully written and performed.

It is. It's a testament to how quickly and how well the characters 'take' that after only six episodes they can do a story like Jaynestown, which is hilarious for much of the episode but almost entirely because of Jayne's utter embarrassment, and then execute a precision turn for a surprisingly affecting finale.

(And I'm a sucker for a western. As my clothing choices might suggest…)

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Film & TV / Re: Is Sigourney Weaver Back For More Aliens?

« on: 16 November, 2021, 04:06:16 PM »

Firefly should have been an obvious comics hit: fill in the gaps from the end of S01 to Serenity and then forge ahead. But almost every comic I’ve read in that universe has been utter shit.

The BOOM ones? They do exactly that. I know I'm biased, but as a Firefly fan I've really been enjoying what Greg Pak has done with the property.

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Books & Comics / Re: The Comics Code Authority - a few questions

« on: 15 November, 2021, 01:52:55 PM »

I'm not up on the detailed history of the CCA, but it was still enough of a thing in the 80s for them to rule that nothing Kev O'Neill would ever draw could get a CCA stamp of approval. They also famously refused to certify Swamp Thing #29 (1984) leading DC to publish without the issue without the CCA stamp — the first time they'd ever done this, but obviously not the last. You can pretty much draw a direct line from Swamp Thing #29 through to the birth of Vertigo and the explosion of 'Mature Readers' comics.

So, like you, I'm not sure where the CCA actually drew its lines, but there were certainly still lines in the 80s.