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Hey there all you Artistic Dudes and Dudettes.
I've written a horror script for "Tales of the Supernatural", a new publish on demand small press mag being produced by Down the Tubes (http://downthetubes.ning.com/forum/topics/looking-for-artists ).
Now its that time again when I need to find someone to draw it. Without getting in to too much detail, its about a zombified plant-girl (of course).
Anyway,if anyone's interested/looking for a new project/has time on their hands etc, drop me a line.
Cheers

D.V.D

...what do the stars that appear under our user names here mean?
I always thought it was something to do with either how long you were a member or how many posts you had. It took me forever to get up to 3 but Cyberleader has 2 after just 2 days and 100 posts. I also noticed David Bishop only has 1 under his and he has loads more posts than me and has been a member much longer.

So is it just something to do with how active you are in a short period of time, or something??? What would you have to do to get 5 or 6? Dont get it and sorry again it I'm missing a thread about this already, did search but nothing came up.

As much a fan of Jean Claude Van Damme as I am, I don't usually go around recommending his films to people, as they are certainly an "acquired" taste (and you really do need to be a fan to enjoy most of them).

However, I will unashamedly recommend Universal Soldier Regeneration highly to everyone. I've watched this twice since I got it last weekend and I plan to watch it again tonight.
It.
Kicks.
Ass.
Seriously. Forget all the silly tv movie spin offs, forget the atrocious sequel from about 10 years ago (which also starred Van Damme but was like the Beverly Hills 90210 interpretation of the concept). This is a true sequel. Van Damme and Lundgren both reprise their roles in an incredibly gritty story with some fantastic action. There are huge, one shot scenes in this which are just stunning. And the Van Damme Vs. Lundgren reprise is worth waiting for.

Sure, its still a pretty low budget DTV movie but the director John Hyams (son of Peter) has done a brilliant job with what he had.

Great little action movie, don't think its getting released in UK until next month but keep an eye out for it when you are video-renting for a stay-in Friday night!

Anybody come across this? Its an RTE project where they let amateur film-makers submit their ideas for a web-show and have regular punters vote for which one they want to see get made into a show. Some pretty good finalists in the mix here, voting open from today.
It has to be Zombie Bashers really, doesn't it?

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/

So 8 years ago I was free and single, had no wife, no mortgage, no kids, and a not so responsible job. I was also fairly anti-social and spent most of my freetime alone, creating characters and writing random stories that never really went anywhere. Until I came up with one particular concept and set of characters that I actually managed to pull together into one complete novel. At the time, I was considering self-publishing it and spent a bit of time putting together a very, very poor website as a promotional tool. Now, I have no web design experience so I just used one of those free template webpage thingies with very little resources. Its as basic as you can get, featuring a synopsis of the novel, a couple of sample excerpts, a bit about the characters etc. I'm also shit at art so although I was able to put together a logo on Paint, I wasn't able to get many pics together to decorate the site. One or two a friend did for me + a couple of actual photos from the net (hence why one of my characters appears as Winona Ryder and another some random porn star!)

Anyway, due to a variety of things happening (getting married, buying a house, having kids, going to live in Japan etc), the whole project ground to a halt in 2004 and hasn't progressed a single step since. I hadn't even accessed the webpage in about 5 years (and the fun I had trying to remember the web address was hilarious I must say - took me days!!) but entering the monthly short story comps recently has revitalised my interest in writing and I decided it might be time to get back to this. Also, inspired by locustsofdeath and mike gloady's recent addition of signature links, I decided I wanted one for myself and the only thing I could think to put in it was this!

So I'm dusting this off and putting it out there, if you're really bored and have nothing better to do you can have a wee look - but don't expect too much, beyond the actual extracts. It seems a shame to have a 700 page action novel sitting around doing nothing as well so I might as well try and do something with it. If anyone thinks there might be a market for this or has any ideas where I could submit it please let me know.

Anyway - the link is below in my brand spanking new signature line!!!

Just wondering if anyone else watches this show? Its absolutely fantastic stuff.
I just watched the Season 2 finale last night and was blown away by it. 45 minutes of utter coolness. Who needs movies when tv is this good???

If you haven't seen it, I'll describe it like this - its The Prisoner meets The A-Team meets MacGyver, with BRUCE CAMPBELL and an unbelievably sexy Gabrielle Anwar (you have to see her in this show to believe it, every episode some serious jaw-dropping-ness occurs when she appears on screen.) Everybody should be watching this! Its TV Heaven!

My mind is in a World of Hurt after this short story. Does anybody remember this? I've just read it for the first time and I will put my hand up and say I can not for the life of me understand it. Its only 3 episodes long but it jumps around all over the place, scenes come out of place and out of nowhere, it doesnt seem to make any sense. Were the pages printed out of order or something? Some pages have a red background, some black, it jumps from a hospital to the battlefield back and forth but I cant figure out if this is supposed to denote flashbacks/flashforwards/hallucinations....or what. And then it just ends, suddenly, with him back in a spaceship......

Goodness me! Thats knackered my brain for the day, that has!

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/blog/article/246254/
Anyone see this last night? He predicted all six numbers that were pulled from the lotto draw correctly. I say "predict" but obviously there was just some hi-tech trickery involved.... can't figure out for the life of me how he did it though. It doesnt look like theres a sneaky split-screen effect going on to enable someone else to write the numbers on the balls unseen. He never touches the balls once after the numbers are announced, and when he turns the podium they are on around you can see as it is turning that the balls are upright and the numbers are on them, so they are not being projected on. What other way could he have accomplished this. The obvious thing is that the lotto draw was done earlier and the actual "live" BBC broadcast wasnt live at all, allowing someone at Camelot time to tell the numbers to the crew of the C4 show so the balls could be pre-prepared...... but how legal is this???? Surely, not very. I cant see BBC doing this?

Very strange. Ill be interested to see how it was done when he reveals all tomorrow night!

Anyone know?
He's like the Andrew Ridgley of comics - as soon as Dan Abnett went solo he just seemed to drop off the radar. They did a lot of stuff together for Marvel UK I remember, and then they did Force Works for Marvel US (Which was a great comic but never picked up an audience Stateside - although I think half its run being lumbered with hosting "The Crossing" crossover episodes was most of the problem).
When did Dan and Andy stop working together and why, does anyone know.

Just interested, I came across an old Sleaze brothers comic in the attic today and saw the names Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and was like...oh yeah...Andy Lanning...

Somebody PM Thrylseeker! I need help with the Axe-kissing one.

As I've documented elsewhere I am currently indulging in a massive trawl through all progs historique, currently up to the mid 1000s. Unfortunately it seems that having read the first 1050 odd issues in about 7 months, I am now suffering from Thrill Power Overload - or Thrill Power Fatigue - as I seem to have completely lost the ability to reason with Slaine.

It hasnt helped that there has been constant Slaine in the prog for the past 100 or so progs with stories like Demon Killer/Queen of Witches, Name of the Sword/Lord of Misrule, Treasures of Britain and King of Hearts coming at me with nary a pause for breath. Its quite tiring, especially when all read in a relatively small space of time and especially when all the above stories seem to be the exact same script just in a different setting.

The net result is I am now on The Grail War and I honestly cant figure out what is going on. Even attempting to understand it is hurting my brain. I need an easy to understand explanation from the Mayor of Slaine.

Things I dont understand:
All of it.

I always thought the Cyth represented "God" and "religion", imposing order on humans so they could control them and feed off their fears etc etc. Then the Goddess was Mother Nature, representing anarchy and chaos and our base animal instinct which was being enslaved by religion and rules and civilisation etc. And Slaine was the warrior for that side of things, fighting against the system, order. In this tale though, there is now talk of another "God" - the Trinity - who cast out "Lucifer and his angels" from "heaven"...and Lucifer and these Angels are the Cyth. So the Cyth are the Devil? But the Goddess is someone else. And all these faerie folk that used to live in happiness ended up turning to the dark side because of humans becoming all religious and losing the magic from their lives?

Now Slaine is fighing WITH christianity AGAINST paganism?
Meanwhile Niamh's soul has been captured by someone called Clara and a hawkheaded man. Who are they? And how did they get her soul? It seemed like they went back in time to when Niamh was Marian and stole her from the woods when she was with Slaine -but that didnt happen in that story. And now shes appeared and said shes actually been reincarnated as Simon Le Bon and is the leader of the Crusaders fighting against the Goddess....

I dont know whats going on!!!

Thrylseeker - help me!!! (and keep it simple!)

Sorry if the answer to that is around here somewhere, I typed in kek-w in the search field but nothing came up. I've noticed a load of stories by "kek-w" throughout my read of the 900s. Who was he? Is this an Alan Smithee type name or just somebodies pseudonym??

Cheers for the help!

My retro-read has reached prog 926 - thought I'd make a few observations.
It's great to be reading stuff for the first time. I gave up buying the prog in april 94 with issue 881, due to starting final year exams, lack of funds, jobhunting, starting a career, and the fact that the line up in 881 - Dinosty, Millar Robohunter, The clown, Grudgefather and Millar Dredd - was the straw that broke the camels back after a good few months of very bad strips.
Its a good thing I did because things haven't been much better up to 926 - apart from Button Man 2 and ABC Warriors there have been precious few good stories running (Armoured Gideon: The Collector was novel enough but overlong, and Mambo was pretty interesting but a bit unsatisfying).

Prog 926 then:

Judge Dredd: The Exterminator - wow! This is a great story! I've never come across this one before and have been thoroughly enjoying it. Currently up to part 8 its turning into a nice little mini-epic with such a fresh premise (Dredd hunting down infected people in 2001 New York with a gumshoe on his tail). I'm surprised I've never heard of this before for, to me, after months of pretty poor Dredd material (wasn't madly taken by Wilderlands I have to say) this has really made Dredd the must-read again for me. I have to say I also really like the art by Emilio Frejo, an artist I've never heard of before. He has a rough, Klaus Janson type style which really works for me, and for Dredd, I think. Who is this guy? Where did he come from and how did he get a multi-part Dredd story as his first 2000ad gig?? Does he ever do anything else for the comic again? Wonderful stuff, wonderful use of colour, nice sketchy, gritty atmosphere... Loving this!

Future Shocks: I'll be honest, I'm not reading any Future Shocks or Time Twisters or Terror Tales or the like for my retro-read - just sticking with the series.

Skizz 3: What the hell is this mess? I am so disappointed by this. Skizz is one of my all time favourite Tooth characters and stories. Skizz 2 was also a bit disappointing but not on the scale that this is. This is an out and out disaster. What is the point of these Omega City gunsharks tooling around through history? Why the hell do they end up in the Australian Radback with Chopper and Dredd....?? And whats this war thats going on on Earth that we dont even know about until all of a sudden a nuke goes off in the outback??? Bloody hell! The art is fine and I respect Jim Baikie as an artist/creator but he had to be on something when he wrote this. Where the hell was the editor when this was being passed? Or did they just leave Jim  at him himself to turn in finished pages, without reading the scripts first? Bizarreness! And 16 episodes of  it!!! The mind boggles!!!

Timehouse: Century Duty - I've been reading a lot around here lately about how Peter Hogan is under-rated, and while I enjoy his Strontium Dogs and Robohunter, I can't get into this at all. Its just been going on and on and on about nothing for 8 weeks now with no end in sight. Its an interesting idea but even the first story overstretched it - how anyone thought there was justification for a second story, never mind one this long, is as mind-boggling as the Skizz thing. The art by Tim Bollard is lovely but it seems wasted here. He must have wondered - why the hell am I still drawing this, is it not over yet? I feel sorry for some of these artists sometimes when they got stuck drawing something for weeks/months that is clearly going nowhere. (Poor old Nigel Dobbyn on the recently finished Red Razors - some of the finest, lushest artwork I've seen on such a pile of iredeemable crap...there's no justice!)

Finn: Origins - I really like this! I'm actually wondering why this never went on (I believe theres only one more series after this one). Okay so he's basically a modern day Slaine, where Mandy is Danu, but still - its good! Like the characters, like the art, like the eco-terrorist/warlock idea, the Newts, the Shining Ones. I'd have much rathered Pat to resurrect this for another run than Slaine, as there has been soooooo much Slaine and so much retreading of old ground... Finn seems to me the story that he could take in a new direction and give us something different. Anyone know why Finn was retired? Was it not successful in the comic at the time? Ican see Finn fitting right in with Bill Savage in the current continuity of that strip - in fact that would be kind of fun, a Savage/Finn punch up... Somebody needs to get Mr. Mills on to this pronto!

So - 2 good strips out of 4 this prog.... well... I suppose its an improvement somewhat!

Final comment - in the Nerve Centre, there is an ad for a new upcoming Rogue Trooper story. In it, it says "Until now, Friday has prided himself on his status as Nu Earth's only genetic infantryman..." NO!!!! HE HASN'T!!!! HE WAS NEVER EVEN ON NU EARTH UNTIL HE WAS STUPIDLY TELEPORTED THERE IN THE LAST STORY!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU BIG GREEN IDIOT!!!!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

I hate this Rogue Trooper mess, I really do.

I think I must have missed a story, in a summer special or something.
I've been reading through all the old progs in order and as much as I wasn't enjoying the Friday reboot of Rogue - in particular the Fleisher stories- at least I knew what the heck was going on. This version of Rogue was set on a future, post-apocalyptic Earth as opposed to the Nu Earth of the original. There were no Norts or Southers, just various renegade bunches of people, including some strange religious cults and whatnot. No poisonous atmosphere. No biochips.
Then we get "Scavenger of Souls" which brings back the biochips, but they are Top, Lucky and Eightball. Fair enough, it was stupid not to have them from the beginning anyway and it made sense at least.
Then Steve White takes over. His first story seems to tie in with Fleisher continuity in that Friday revisits the Saharan Ice Belt and goes up against a religious cult that appeared in an earlier story.
But then we get to a story called Mercenary Attitudes and suddenly Friday is on Nu Earth and its all Norts and Southers all over the place again. But - they nobody is wearing oxygen masks anymore, seems like the atmosphere is breathable... I've obviously missed something, how did Friday get to Nu Earth, and why?
Then there's a Dredd/Rogue crossover story which features Friday but in which Friday seems to be part of a proper Souther platoon... Huh?!?!?! How did THAT happen?!?!

Is any of this supposed to make sense or is it just basically all over the place?

Hmm. My trawl through past issues is experiencing annoying hiccups lately what with the crossover between Judge Dredd strips in 2000ad and the Megazine. This Dredd/McGruder thing is still going on and as I dont have the Megazines in question, I have another question.
In prog 874, the "Conspiracy of Silence" story ends with Dredd bringing Quigley and Somes in for a meeting with McGruder about the Mechanismo Robot 2A that was being secretly tested. Annoyingly, this is "to be continued" in the Megazine...

So what happened?!? If anybody could fill me in, I would be most obliged!

Thanking all in advance!

Hi guys.
My re-read is currently up the late 800s (unfortunately) and I have a quick question.
In the current Dredd story The Sugar Beat Dredd is sent off to Pan Andes on an investigation. When McGruder is sending him he makes some comment about her just wanting him out of the way for a while, and there is a Tharg note referencing recent events in the Megazine as to the reason for the animosity between them. I don't have the Megazines and am not including them in the re-read...so could somebody kindly shed some light for me on what is going on there?

Thanks!

...or knows where I might be able to get one??
http://www.innerspaceonline.com/hornet.htm

Bit of a long shot I know.
I had one of these when I was a kid and it was my favourite toy ever. For ages and ages I was trying to track it down on the net but had no idea it was a micronauts thing and all I was able to type into search engines was a description of it, which yielded no results. I posted a request on a 70s toy forum to see if anybody recognised it and finally found out what it was called. Did an ebay search and - wouldn't you know it - one had just been sold the week before!!!!! No more have come up since.....other web searches have proved fruitless. Anybody know of any good - online or otherwise - vintage toy dealers that might have one of these things...or have one yourself in an attic somewhere that you might want to part with?? I dont know where mine went all those years ago but I have fond memories of it and I know my son would love one.

Anyway, not REALLY expecting anyone to come along and say "I have one!" but just thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

thanks chaps.

Does anyone know if those old Titan book reprint albums are worth much of anything? I have a bunch of them, Rogue Trooper, Robohunter, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd etc which I have now basically replaced with the new-fangled Rebellion trades and wondering if its worth my while sticking the Titans up on ebay or just binning them? Need to clear some shelfspace and no point having the same stuff twice. I doubt theyd be worth anything though...?

Hi guys

Im reading through a load of back issues I picked recently and have been working my way through the Nemesis saga in chronological order. Ive just got up to Torquemada the God and everything was going fine until I got to part 4 and the introduction of Brother Mikron. A caption tells us that "although Brother Mikron will kill Torquemada in an alternative future...." and this is where I was thrown.

At this point, the sequence of events is this:
- Gothic Empire - Torquemada is killed by his own people when his alien body reveals itself.

- Vengeance of Thoth - Thoth plucks Torquemada from the past, around the time of the Killer Watt storyline,and brings him to his present, which is 10 years after Torquemada was killed. He puts him in a time loop but Nemesis rescues him for this in order to lure Thoth out of hiding.

- Torquemurder - Nemesis brings Torquemada with him to navigate the Time Wastes but abandons him once he learns where Thoth has gone and leaves him to be killed again by Grand Dragon something-or-other and Nostradamus. As it turns out Torquemada is able to convince the Terminators he is the original Torquemada and gets them back on his side, thus killing the Grand Dragon, imprisoning Nostradamus, and taking power again.  Nemesis meanwhile goes back in time seeking Thoth while the ABC Warriors go off to find the Black hole Control room and stop the black and white holes colliding.

-Torquemada the God. Heres where I get confused. This tale picks up from Torquemurder with Torquemada returning to Termight to be Ruler again. Candida has gone nuts and is committed. Nostradamus is imprisoned. The world is suffering earthquakes from the black and white holes getting closer but Torquemada is sure Nemesis will fix the problem. So all of this is happening in chronological sequence. How then does the "Brother Mikron will kill Torquemada in an alternative future" make sense, since Brother Mikron already performed that act of murder 10 years or so prior to these events at the end of the war on the Gothic Empire.

Is this just a monumental fuck up or am I missing something. It cant be that Torquemada has returned to the time Thoth took him from, since everything is happening in line with what Nemesis and ABC warriors are currently doing. But also, Torquemada himself said in a previous episode he would HAVE to go back to the time he was taken from or everything that has happened since then (Gothic Empire, Chira being killed etc) will never happen...... and he hasnt seemingly done this so why hasnt history changed.

Furthermore, in Torquemada the God, why is Torquemada starting to "Decay again"....when A) this Torquemade never decayed in the first place since he was taken out of time before he lost his body (I think) and B) he should just be an ordinary human at this stage and shouldnt have any reason to Decay. Unless it was the phantom Torquemada that Thoth brough to the future but that doesnt appear to have been the case so far.

Im obviously missing something amnt i??? Any experts care to help me out?

Hi.
Anybody have any info on what happened to this strip?
I recently acquired a set of 2000ad progs 1450-1550 and in ready back through them I noticed there were quite a few Harry Kipling shorts that came at us fairly frequently over the course of a years worth of progs or so. And it was a nifty little story, interesting characters, interesting mystery behind it all. And then it just stopped.
Anyone know if its just been cancelled or if there is a huge stockpile of episodes building up waiting to be launched on us?
I kind of liked the scattershot, 2-3 episode story format they were using and would like to see it continued this way, rather than start throwing 10 episode 'books' at us instead.
Just wondering !


Secondly, I was enjoying the Samantha slade stories but what with all the kafuffle over the last installment (Ian Gibson pulling out etc) Im wondering now if they are going to continue with these or have they been shelved? I think a lot of fans - and Ian Gibson obviously - were unimpressed by the recent stories, probably due to the lack of zaniness and madness that old Robohunter stories thrived on....but I think the promised next installment in France would have changed that and brought some of that 'fun' back into the mix....so Id like to see it, to see if it changes peoples perceptions. But has it even been worked on?

Anybody got any inside info about either of these strips??!?

Hi all. After about a ten year absence I returned to reading 2000ad with prog 1500. Ive recently been trying to catch up on what i missed by buying up some of the trade books. I just finished the first 3 volumes of sinister dexter, and it didnt take long to notice they werent complete sets of stories, and the odd tale here and there had been skipped. They were mainly 1 parters and I assume they were the weaker 1 parters which is why they were skipped, but having looked at the bibliography on the sin dex page on wikipedia, I noticed theres a tale called Smoke and Mirrors, which was 5 or 6 parts long, that was skipped at the end of volume 3. I find this odd because they have included all the other multi-parters, all other skipped stories were self contained 1 parters.
Anyone know why this longer tale was skipped? Was it just particularly crap or something???

On the same subject, before rejoining the fold with prog 1500 I did dive into the odd prog here and there through the years, but nothing ever inspired me to start collecting again on those occassions. I do remember reading part 1 of another sinister dexter story though and i wonder if anyone could tell me the name of it. Basically the episode featured a kind of car chase which ended  with the guys driving off some ramp bridge or something and crashing their car at the bottom in some kind of pit. There was seemingly no way for them to drive out of this pit and get back on to the freeway or something, so they were stuck there at the end of the episode.... anyone know which tale this was?

Thanks folks!