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I always fancied starting one of these.  So, anybody seen it yet?  Mine's late again.

Just had flick round the "Profiles" section, and found that Kola Kommandoes has a score of 3.6.  

That must mean some people think it's worth a 5 or even more!  How?  Explain yourselves!

Well, my tickets are booked, the wife's been squared, and I'm off to my first ever Dreddcon, make that first ever comics event.

Any advice as to how much the event itself is likely to cost me, what's going to be good to see, etc?

Also, who else is going?  Don't post if you're not going, there's a "No Dreddcon for me" thread for that  ;)

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Calling all really knowledgeable comics fans!

I'm trying to get some comics references for a fairly obscure purpose - a paper on Jack Kerouac's Doctor Sax.  Kerouac was born in 1922 and grew up addicted to comics from the age of 5 onwards (examples he gives often are The Shadow, The Green Hornet and Operator 5), and uses a lot of comics references in the book.  However, I can't find a single decent study relating the two.

Can anyone point me to the best works to research (American) comics 1927-36?  Internet resources especially welcome.

Cheers!

In honour of recent posts, I would like to declare today "Pretentious Discourse Day".  It's fun for all the family to enjoy!

How, you may ask, does one discourse pretentiously?  To help in this exercise, I have assembled the following points system:

a) Use words with 4 or more syllables    (1 point per word)
b) Use terms specific to abstract subjects, e.g. philosophy    (1 point per term used)
c) Use any of the above incorrectly    (10 points)
d) Use any of the above incorrectly in order to put forward an extreme or ill-thought-out argument    (20 points)
e) Managing all of the above in the context of making your opponents seem intellectually inferior     (30 points)

The sole arbiter of this competition is to be an occasional boarder, who will be asked to judge upon his reappearance.

EXAMPLE (not entered into competition)

"I'd offer a dissenting viewpoint as a deleuzoguattarian deconstructionist interested in the multiplicity and hetereogeneity of desiring flows across the reterritorialised strata of discourse, but I can't be bothered."

Score:
5 x a
9 x b
1 x c
1 x e

= 54 points

This thread is sponsored by, well, me, to allow spooners to have their own space.  Before the debate begins (this week's theme: Apostle Teaspoon vs Ladles), here is a man with a beard...

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3233833.stm" target="_blank">World's best beard

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39522000/jpg/_39522487_hille_afp203body.jpg">

Last night Channel 4 showed the Japanese film "Audition".  S
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I would just like to ask anyone who's seen and enjoyed this film - what the hell?  Needles, eyes, the fingers, the feet - OWowowowowowww!  Totally nauseating, horrible, ugghhhh.  Why make it?  Why watch it?  What's the point?  

In a vain attempt to prevent the next board uprising of anti-religious bigotry, or indeed the very occasional piece of religious bigotry, I thought it'd be fun for everyone who cares to put their beliefs to the test.  This is for both believers and atheists, though it does rather seem to depend on monotheistic belief.

I did extraordinarily badly on this, would love to find out how others beliefs stand up to the test.

Link: http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/god.htm" target="_blank">How rational are you?

Iain Darth Sith in meltdown, the candidates to replace him looking totally unappealing, Tories up and down the land arguing with each other - it all feels goooood...

Since there are a load of Scots on the board, please can you tell me: what's it like, getting rid of the Conservative Party altogether?  Is it the land of milk and honey it seems, or do you secretly long for McGruder to be back in charge?

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In the latest Dredd story, Dredd reneges on a deal with the fattie & widow in custody, and sentences them to harsh jail terms for crimes that they manifestly didn't commit and had no control over.  This jarred with my perception of Dredd bigstyle, and I was wondering what others here thought of it?

For me, Dredd is harsh, and often his sentences are unfair, but is he really as arbitrary as this?  Doesn't seem to me to chime with a man who has the lawbook shoved up his rectum, who busts judges as willingly as he busts any other perp, etc etc.

Am I just a hopeless believer in the ideal of fascism?

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I live in Tower Hamlets, and was quite pissed-off with the way it's portrayed in this week's Caballistics.  From the New York-style fire escapes to the gangs waiting round every corner, this just didn't feel like the warm community that in the last few years I've found more welcoming thn any other part of London.  And I live in the middle of vast estates, mostly council, so it's not like I don't see the dark side.

Does anyone know bits of TH that are like they're drawn here?

And, are there other parts of the Uk/world that get traduced like this on a more regular basis?

I'm polishing up a few Future Shock ideas and hope to be able to stick them in Tharg's slush pile before long.  My question is: is it better to send in a lot of scripts at the same time, or wait a while between each submission?  Does the editorial team get back to you if you haven't been accepted?

Last week I went to get the wax cleared out of my ears.  This week I shall mostly be spending rolling around in agony thanks to a massive ear infection that has closed my right ear completely and, thedoctor tells me, may actually threaten my hearing.  

My question is: can I get anyt sort of compensation off them in that case?  It's obvious to me that the infection came from their equipment, but what's the standard of proof I need?

Anyone know anything about this?

"I fancy my boss!"

Picture One: Anderson & Dredd, riding on their Lawmasters thru the mean streets of Mega-City One

Anderson thinks:    I really like Joe, but how can I tell him?  He's my boss!
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Last night the British pop singer Sophie Ellis Bextor was found dead on a rug in a hotel room occupied by members of the French national football squad. The Parisian Chief of Police has released the following statement :

'We 'ave spoken to Fabien Barthez and Thierry 'Enry and we 'ave eeeleeminated zem from our enquireeez. Zerfore eet eez our conlusion zat zis is murder on Zidane's floor'

More shocking news after the all the football scandals last week.

Sophie Ellis Bextor has been found dead on the floor of a French soccer star's hotel room.

The police are treating it as murder on Zidane's floor.

Synammon - the device.  After some debate here, I thought I'd take a closer look at the issue of how Synammon plants the device.  Using Iain M Banks as a reference, I get this...

Sequence:
1) Morpulous suggests they, ahem, cough, y'know...
2) Syn gives her combat drone the go-ahead
3) The drone uses a field to tear a hole in Morpulous's actual flesh and deposit the singularity generator in it.  Deduction) The hole is then sealed up with another field that requires a "key" to unlock it.
5) Syn does the whole thing with pretending to escape with the generator, Morpulous gives chase.
6) Having allowed herself to be boarded, Syn gets ready for battle.  The "key" is placed on her hand, hence what looks like a tattoo of Morpulous on her bare skin before she slides the glove on.
7) Syn knocks out guards, opens the field (which is round about the appendix, anal probe fans), retrieves singularity generator, sends Morpulous into deep space.

If I'm right, then those who are writing this strip off before it starts might find it has hidden depths worth considering.  I don't think that it's good to pair up writing with this art as both rely slightly more than average on the reader to examine and work stuff out, but on the whole I've revised my initial impression and will look forward to seeing how the universe of this strip develops.

Is it worth going to Dreddcon if you're a mere 2000ad fan, rather than a general comics fan?



And, from your collective experience, how many other people from this board will be there?  

As promised, the seond half of my "throw myself on the mercy of the board" posts.

I'm looking for an A4-sized scan of Robert Crumb's "Jumping Jack Flash" - either the cover or the page where he takes part in an orgy with his acolytes killing themselves over him (or both.  Both would be great).

If anybody has said scan and can post it (either black and white or colour), I would be very grateful indeed, and would add you to my pints list for when I get my act together and attend one of these convention things.

Cheers!

I'd just like to say, with the sudden rush of warmth that comes either from being about to finish your pointless job or a tramp urinating down your leg, that since I have arrived on this board I have not felt in any way put off by an In Crowd.  Here everyone seems to be a thoroughly good egg, and if the long term people have a little long-running joke every now and again, well that's the oil that spins the wheel.

With that in mind, I'd like to call for everyone to lay down their keyboards and give one another an electronic hug, recognising what splendid chaps and chapesses you all are.  

Trout and Bou, this could even mean you...