Messages

1

Games / Re: Gamebooks

« on: 11 August, 2022, 12:13:16 PM »

I've done Demons of the Deep, Sword of the Samurai, Trial of Champions, Creature of Havoc and Beneath Nightmare Castle. Five books, and only one win! 😆

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Games / Re: Gamebooks

« on: 11 August, 2022, 09:08:10 AM »

Hey Jimbo, how are you getting on with Sorcery 3?

Haha, good, thanks! Must be well over a third of the way through now (2 of 7 serpents dispatched) but my main focus has been FFs. I seemed to be forever playing catch-up to Barrington, so I've ploughed ahead with the titles I own and got another five playthroughs/write-ups in the bag for when everyone else catches up to those books.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Kingdom vs. Rogue Trooper Rd 5 Heat 13

« on: 10 August, 2022, 09:24:38 AM »

There's a lot to like about Rogue Trooper, but oh dear lord is it inconsistent - and that's during the GFD era, too, never mind the latter Hit-era stuff. Kingdom is by far and away the strip I'd rather read on any given day.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Insurrection vs. Nemesis the Warlock Rd 5 Heat 10

« on: 10 August, 2022, 09:22:07 AM »

Nemesis, but no slight on Insurrection.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Brass Sun vs. Savage Rd 5 Heat 14

« on: 10 August, 2022, 09:21:11 AM »

Savage was starting to go off the rails towards the end but for me is far better - gritty, nasty, packed with action and a dubious, brutal anti-hero. Patrick Goddard draws the hell out of it as well when he comes in, from sidestreet firefights to tigers to full on warfare, and it's reminiscent for me of the glory days of Battle. The strip really peaks for me when Savage and Co are stuck on that bridge - it's desperate, tense stuff, yet still humanises the Volgans with that little plot about the birdwatcher. Yes, the dialogue is often ropey but it's a genuine modern classic for me. Gets my vote!

Savage, for all the reasons he said ^^. Brass Sun never really 'clicked' with me, to be honest.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Skizz vs. ABC Warriors Rd 5 Heat 12

« on: 10 August, 2022, 09:18:46 AM »

I think Southstreeter hit the nail squarely on the head - ABC Warriors are often style over substance, but what style!

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 05 August, 2022, 12:44:38 PM »

Updated list -

111 - Strontium Dog: Repo Men
112 - ABC Warriors 7
113 - ABC Warriors 8
114 - Strontium Dogs 1
115 - Strontium Dogs 2
116 - Strontium Dogs 3
117 -
118 - Mean Arena 1
119 - Mean Arena 2
120 -
121 - Cradlegrave
122 - Brass Sun 1
123 - Brass Sun 2
124 - The Returners
125 - Devlin Waugh
126 - Finn 1
127 - Finn 2
128 -
129 -
130 - Ro-Busters 1
131 - Ro-Busters 2
132 - Rogue Trooper: War Machine
133 - Blunt
134 - Revere
135 - Samantha Slade
136 - The Fall of Deadworld
137 - Sin/Dex 4
138 - Sin/Dex 5
139 - Sin/Dex 6
140 - Sin/Dex 7

A mere 4 gaps left now(!), and we know that the following are coming:

Dredd
Necronauts
Blackhawk
Leviathan

So with Necronauts almost certainly twinned with Leviathan (but not confirmed), does that leave us with one final unknown? Or perhaps two Dredd books?

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - VCs vs. Fiends of the Eastern Front Rd 5 Heat 7

« on: 04 August, 2022, 10:26:41 AM »

I’ve never really understood the appeal of VCs. I find it… fine.

Fiends is the opposite of formulaic – a strip that has managed to reinvent itself meaningfully a couple of times now.

Yep, all of this. Despite the problems with modern Fiends, it's still very much got the edge over the just fine VCs.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Slaine vs. Strontium Dog Rd 5 Heat 6

« on: 03 August, 2022, 11:33:09 AM »

The peaks of both strips are about comparable, but Slaine has far more troughs than Strontium Dog.

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Off Topic / Re: Boys Adventure comic blog

« on: 02 August, 2022, 01:11:47 PM »

Time for an updated covers gallery for 'Around the world with Willy Fog' - a 6 issue series from Marvel UK in 1990. Two covers missing, can you help?

https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com/2022/08/updated-around-world-with-willy-fog.html

Oh man, the nostalgia blast! That first issue may very well be the first comic I ever owned, at about 5 years old. I certainly can't think of an earlier one.

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Games / Re: Gamebooks

« on: 02 August, 2022, 09:42:40 AM »

Yes I wasn't interested in the Samurai one before, but I might have to try it.

Yep, it was one I nabbed off Barrington recently. Like you, it had never really appealed before, but after all these effusive write-ups of WotT and Talisman of Death, I'm itching to give it a go!

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Sinister Dexter vs. Feral and Foe Rd 5 Heat 1

« on: 01 August, 2022, 01:51:06 PM »

Sinister Dexter, to my own slight surprise. It really has tried the patience over the years, but when it's good I really, really like it.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Firekind vs. Meltdown Man Rd 5 Heat 2

« on: 01 August, 2022, 12:59:42 PM »

I've nothing bad to say about Firekind, certainly not the art, but it never quite lit my imagination on fire the way the joyful romp of Nick Stone and his Yujee buddies did.

Yup. Firekind is pretty good, but just doesn't stir an emotional reaction the way Meltdown Man does.

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Books & Comics / Re: Jerusalem

« on: 31 July, 2022, 01:17:37 PM »

I have the three-volume slipcase edition, and that really helps with the endurance-test aspect of things (I know that it's technically split into three books whatever version you buy, but there's a not-inconsiderable psychological boon in seeing and holding those seperate volumes and thinking 'I can probably manage this one.') I also read a different book in between each volume of Jerusalem, just for a bit of lighter fare to help break things up, and give me time to mull and ingest what I'd read.

All of which I suppose is set-up to say - it really clicks together, I think, with that second volume, Mansoul. The Boroughs was incredible, but I was a good 150 (dense) pages in before any sense whatsoever emerged of a linking hand guiding it all (specifically the bit where you read the Freddy Allen/Peter the monk meeting, but this time from Peter's point of view). Individual chapters were incredible, but that nagging 'Where the hell is this going?' held my enjoyment back slightly. In Mansoul, however, you've got Moore laying out his whole cosmology - Heaven, Hell, Life, Death, Time - and it's just stunning stuff. Probably the best of the three volumes.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Anderson Psi-Division vs. Max Normal Rd 4 Heat 30

« on: 29 July, 2022, 08:37:28 AM »

Wildly inconsistent it has certainly been (even when under the sole authorship of Grant) but Anderson easily trumps Max.