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Messages - Robert Frazer

#106
I think that it's similar to Sting's reaction to that winged loincloth in Dune: "Okay, I know that this whole scenario utterly ridiculous and demeaning, but it's the hand I've been dealt. If I try to take this seriously I'm only going to make a mockery of myself, so I'll turn the blade by brazening it out and hamming it up for all it's worth."
#107
I've been greatly enjoying Game of Thrones so I hope it continues to be successful, but I wonder if the second season can keep up the momentum of the first. While we geeks can provide a committed hard core of doggedly loyal support, for wider audiences I don't doubt that it was Sean Bean's star power that was the main draw. Now that he's been relegated to the convention circuit, will the show retain as much recognition next year?
#108
Megazine / Re: Meg 313 Voices in the fire
31 July, 2011, 05:48:12 PM
I've been catching up on my reading recently and I came across something that might be interesting for people who like Numbercruncher - Rudyard Kipling's short story "On the Gate: A Tale of '16". It's more light-hearted and optimisitic than Ewing's Thrill, but it has a similar basis in the afterlife being a pervasive bureaucarcy with the angels as bored civil servants, so it should be enjoyable for squaxx who want more in the same vein.
#109
Prog / Re: Prog 1741: Block Down
19 July, 2011, 01:37:53 AM
Quote from: King Trout on 07 July, 2011, 12:47:03 PM
Quote from: radiator on 07 July, 2011, 08:30:07 AM
Regarding the slightly implausible PJ Maybe escape thing, someone has been asking Mr Wagner about it over on facebook, to which he says:

QuoteIt's a valid question. Much will be answered in the third and final part of this short tale. I'd add that while in theory everything should run perfectly in the Mega-City system, it's staffed by people and people are imperfect. Another thing to note is that while some artists draw minor functionaries like iso-block warders as judges (we're trying to correct this), they are not judges. It makes no sense at all to train a judge for fifteen years to dispense justice on the streets and then use him as a warder. And ordinary cits are (again, in theory) intrinsically more fallible than judges.

That's interesting, and a departure from what's been accepted in the past. Several times we've seen actual judges as iso-block staff. The Orlok escape story drawn by Barry Kitson particularly springs to mind.

But what John's saying makes absolute sense. Also, it's an excuse for somebody to redesign the auxiliaries' uniforms. :-)

- Trout

I imagine that it would be a bit of both. The way I always saw it, older Judges who were reaching the end of their useful street-service life and becoming too infirm to hit the slab (Dredd's a genetically-engineered clone superman and can keep going indefinitely, but the rest of are more fallible) could be offered staff positions as Warders, Teks, Administrators and so on, as an alternative to taking the Long Walk. There's one such character in "Fifty Year Man", although he doesn't adjust well.
#110
Prog / Re: Prog 1742: Eating of Minds
13 July, 2011, 09:47:26 PM
Even though there the Iso-Block's staff's inadequacy was recognised in the story, it still came over as a lame attempt to scrape away the paint from the corner that Maybe was backed into. Right up until the final panel I was convinced that this had to be some sort of secret trap to lure Maybe into giving away his last outside contacts - no-one could possibly be this stupid. In its defence I suppose you could say that an assumed reputation as being a maximum-security prison means that standards slip as it's never tested but still, Jesus - there's incompetence, and then there's the Cobra Commander!
#111
Prog / Re: Prog 1713 - Watt on Earth?
01 December, 2010, 10:19:31 PM
I can say that I've had a similar experience to Darren - every so often my local WH Smith will put the new Prog out on Saturday. I assume it's because the warehouse just sends out all the new stock that it receives immediately, rather than wait for a due date, in order to keep the shelves clear. I'm not complaining, though! :)
#112
Prog / Re: Prog 1712 - Vote Tanenbaum
24 November, 2010, 10:46:53 PM
To be honest, I quite enjoyed the resolution to Slaine. The Cyth have been handled well, their mutant forms juxtaposed with the oddly exact movements and quiet, precise, and certain speech ("praise be to me.") is genuinely chilling. The priest was also an example of strong art, having an appropriately manic expression.
#113
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
10 November, 2010, 10:49:12 PM
After today's escapade at the student fees protest, and as someone who has recently left university, allow me to say that I find it difficult to sympathise with rioting students, irrespective of the issue at hand.

-Why are French students rioting about the retirement age? Most of them are barely twenty! They haven't done a day's work in their indolent lives! And the French retire earlier than most places in Europe as it is, so their petulant bleating (and smashing up of streets) completely fails to move me.

-It's all very well to talk about the halcyon Avalon of free university grants, but back in the 1970s 14% of British school leavers went on to university. Now it has more than trebled to 43%. Something's got to give somewhere. 

-For ****'s sake, for the umpteenth ****ing time, fees are not a barrier to entry[/u]. Under the student loan system you only have to pay once the degree is completed, and then only once you've reached a certain income level, so your background is irrelevant - and before you leap down my throat condemning me as the typical insensitive Tory, you should know that Vince Cable said the exact same thing.

QuoteWe currently have what is misleadingly called a system of 'tuition fees'. Many people believe, wrongly that when students arrive at university they or their parents are required to get out their chequebooks, or wallets, and pay more than £3000 for a year's tuition.

The idea that students are repelled from higher education by fees owes much to this erroneous belief.

In reality of course most students meet these costs by taking a student loan, payable direct from income after graduation when earning a reasonable salary.

Cable goes on to criticise the current system in that someone like me (an archaeologist) has to pay a similar amount to a stockbroker with a higher salary, but there is no financial barrier stopping a salt-of-the-earth blue-collar honest-crust flat-cap working-class person from applying for law or medicine or any other upwardly mobile degree should he so desire. To insinuate otherwise is fearmongering agitprop from people deliberately trying to provoke a false crisis. In short, lies.
#114
Books & Comics / Re: Mark Millar's CLINT
08 November, 2010, 09:10:00 PM
Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 08 November, 2010, 08:44:53 PMThoroughly enjoyed it to be honest.

Heh, it's telling that the first two issues were a wee bit duff when that sounds like an embarrassed admission. ;)

To be honest myself, I bought the first two issues mainly out of a sense of support-the-industry loyalty more than any real interest in the contents - I'd already read Kick-Ass and Turf in their dedicated books, Rex Royd was frankly repellent and while the Frost/Pegg interview was interesting the rest of the articles were pure filler. I was tempted by No. 3 as I'm a big Tarantino nut, but the voice telling me that Millar had had enough of my charity was louder.

This thread is making me reapprise myself, though - the positive reception it's getting is bringing me round to giving it another chance and buying No. 3 after all. Well done, Millar!
#115
Books & Comics / Re: Mark Millar's CLINT
08 November, 2010, 07:59:35 PM
Out of curiosity, do we have any sales figures for CLiNT yet? Seeing as it's Millar's stated aim to make comic books viable in the British newsagent again, I'm interested to see if he's succeeding.
#116
Prog / Re: Prog 1709 - Angel of Death
08 November, 2010, 07:28:10 PM
I'm a big fan of Spurrier so I'm pleased to see him back in the Prog after a long absence. I enjoyed the composition of last week's elevator Thrill - a 'bottle episode' done well - and for the most part I enjoyed this week's too. It had classic Meg kookiness, Dredd togging up in a new outfit like Action Man, good action and a stance to take to make it that much more worthwhile.

However, Spurrier spoiled it with that unnecessary final panel with the PR official delivering his spiel. The penultimate panel, showing the immigrant locked up in a detention centre, was a fine note to end on - nicely and artfully subtle without losing any of the impact of the message, and encouraging reflection. The last panel though simply overegged the pudding, soured the feeling with the sense you were being browbeaten. Does anybody really use that sort of dialogue outside of editorial cartoons? It pulled me right out of the story. Remember what Dirty Frank said in a recent Low Life Thrill - "it's not subtext, it's just... text. Don't patronise your audience." Overall, then, a great oneshot which only glances rather than bullseyeing owing to last-minute twitch. Still, I'm hoping Spurrier will be staying on for more stories.
#117
Prog / Re: Prog 1704 Spirited Away!
06 October, 2010, 04:30:00 PM
It's always been interesting to note Justice Department's approach to female adornments. After all, Justines usually enjoy rich, full cherry-red Maybeline lips, and recently McGruder sported a natty pair of justice-shield earrings...
#118
Prog / Re: Prog 1699 _ Hit the deck!
01 September, 2010, 02:03:25 PM
Quote from: BPP on 27 August, 2010, 06:20:06 PMNow the latter seems more poignant but then... WHAT THE FUCKS TAKING HIM SO LONG?

The thrill actually does explain this, albeit incidentally - he shouts "I should have done this decades ago!" during dialogue. It either never occured to him to do it before now, or he thought about it but dismissed it only for declining years and advancing despair to drive him towards it now.
#119
Prog / Re: Prog 1699 _ Hit the deck!
27 August, 2010, 01:14:18 AM
I'm actually pretty enthusiastic about the ending of Savage. Other than his quick day-trip to Dublin, the entirety of Savage has been limited to London - and while that's Bill's manor, this new Underground Railroad promises to send him further afield and give us a more diverse look at Volgan Britain. Book Seven should be good fun.
#120
Quote from: King TroutWhy has Dredd got a tube of lube?

...It's suntan lotion. I know that we hardly ever get a chance to use it here in Blighty, but still...