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I had a birthday party yesterday.  I really like picnics, but being born in October it's usually a bit cold to do that.  Last year the day of my birthday was actually really warm, and could have been picnicable, so this year I decided to have a barbecue in a bonfire night style standing outside in the cold (if the weather wasn't up to much).  Luckily it didn't rain, which is the only thing that would have put a damper on things (literally).  We had a Hallowe'en-themed birthday party, and as a bonus now have lots of party food left over for gaming night (every Tuesday).

Especially as it's "Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits"... 

And the answer is?  My first thought was 'economics' (echo-gnomics) but gnomes aren't spirits so I'm at least half wrong.

What always confused me about that pun was that I don't pronounce economics in that way (Eek-o-nomics).

It's easy sitting in your chalet Cosh! I'll get a Youtube up of the finale later. Just did a count - 21 right and 3 wrong. Poor Phillip didn't get one wrong the whole show!

Congratulations on the win!  We were on the edge of our seats when you got down to three questions left, with all three contestants still in the game!

Are you allowed to tell us if you'll be back (I think Sandi said you were likely to return, but not a given)?

Just watching the second one now - just passing the first commercial break.

Sandy's intro said you were fifteen of the brightest brains in the nation.  Though some of the questions your comrades got wrong in the first round undermined this statement...

I liked everything about this two-parter except the doctor addressing the audience - that just felt wrong somehow. The whole point of an assistant is so they can say "but what does it mean Doctor" "Well Clara, basil basil basil..."

Is basil the new rhubarb?  Good, 'coz I'm allergic to the latter.

Prog 17 - the one with a dinosaur with three (human) heads on the cover.  Turns out that this is my favourite episode of Judge Dredd so far in the Back Prog Hack - love the styling of the back of the Lawmaster, Gibson's views of the city, Texas City gets a mention on the side of an oil tanker and more.

[Bad Company]

Bad Company. I know the art is meant to be a tribute to Brett, but it doesn't actually look as much like his as I thought it did. It also doesn't have that trade mark thing Brett did in the original Bad Company of re-using the same panels e.g. with a close up. And he hardly ever used the "loads of dots shading effect" (sorry I don't know what the correct term is).

The artistic technique is pointillism, though I don't recall Brett ever using it.  Possibly you're referring to (what I assume were) artefacts of the afore-mentioned re-use of panels (not familiar with which technologies would have been available in the mid-eighties, I always figured were achieved by photocopying the originals).

[Brass Sun]

Brass Sun was another intriguing episode that was streers ahead of the preceding run, SinDex was a nice mix of humour and ultraviolence (I'm not getting the Woody Fougery pun... Little help here?),

That one stumped me as well, I tried repeating it in my head in a few different tones and accents, but nothing rang true...

Just waiting for the half-time ads to finish - for some reason the internet stops dead when the adverts come on, even if there's no buffering during the show itself.  Weird - I'd have thought broadcasters would prioritise bandwidth towards the adverts, not away (not that I'm complaining, mind).

During that ten minutes I've been looking at the following film blog: 100 W Movies

Did I imagine a story where Dredd comes to our time. Was it ok - I read the odd issue but maybe it was a feverish dream. It seems a bit Star Trek

I don't remember the Exterminator.  There was the one where he followed Death to Eastbourne and lots of eldsters had heart attacks (induced either by Sidney or more naturally).

I love the mystery about future volumes. I was quite excited about the similar DC comics collection until I realised all the volume titles were listed (and they weren't including their classic stories). It's odd to enjoy being kept in the dark - and my knowledge of 2000ad isn't good enough to guess what might be in Target Dredd etc.

My guess is that one story we'll see is the Ron Smith one where the Mega-City mobsters are getting fed up of Dredd foiling their schemes and try to variously kill him, get him to ride the wrong way up a one-way street and (again) kill him in new and bigger ways. 

I love the idea that Mega-City One has so many serial killers that there's constant one-upmanship and professional rivalries among them. Like the long-running occasional plot thread of Mad Tony Newton's record-breaking kill spree and the various attempts to beat it, starting with Jean Paul Blatty's 'Lefty' murders in the Graveyard Shift.

Not forgetting the Righty murderer from Brit-Cit (not that we talk about that)...

Hi all, not something I'm selling myself, but on the way back from getting my weekly prog from Mega City Comics, I dropped in to a few charity shops on the way home.  The Age UK on Kentish Town Road has a copy of DR & Quinch's Guide to Life (the 1986(?) Titan album) for £1.50, and about four doors down (the next charity shop but one) there was a hardback book copy of Persepolis for about three quid.  I can recommend both books, but a) don't have space for more Titan albums and b) already have Persepolis (as does my girlfriend - two is enough copies for one flat).

We get a second Dan Dare centrespread in portrait orientation next – I don't remember there being another one until the Torque-Armada spread in 1983, and I'm pretty sure there won't be any more after that.

Does the City of the Damned 'Next Prog' count? (Somewhere in the 390s).And am I misremembering, or did Mad George not get the Torque-Armada treatment first? Or was that technically a Star Scan? (Somewhere in the 130-150 range?).

Really enjoying the blog, Sheridan - keep at it!

Thanks - and good catch on both counts, just checked, there is the Mad George / ABC Warriors reporting for duty portrait.  I reckon we're well overdue for another centrespread (though good luck to anybody rotating the magazine on public transport...)

Savage goes face-to-face against an Australian bounty hunter who uses the word 'sport' in two thirds of his sentences while Probe gets to wipe out a "nest of slant-eyed vipers".  Casual racism was more socially acceptable in the seventies you say?  I'd never have guessed!  Prog 16: We are Being Attacked by the Capitol Building.