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There's a game currently seeking funding on kickstarter called DREADBALL. It reminds me a lot of some of the early 2000ad stories, such as Harlem Heroes, Inferno, Mean Team, and the like.
Whilst many gamers are drawing comparisons with Blood Bowl.
Fans of those golden age stories, might like to check it out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

Forgive my ailing brain.
Which current 2000ad stories (say last year or so) contain strong female lead characters?

Since August, I've given my bank manager plenty to complain about. How?
I've reignited my interest in gadgets. Probably one of the most expensive hobbies about due to a the sheer magnitude of items available. Until a few weeks ago I still had a 15" screen that filled ½ the office, let alone the desk! I still run Office 2000, an upgrade is just too expensive at the moment. Although I am looking forward to Windows 7. Vista was justa bad dream, right? I will be upgrading my laptop soon it must be 5 years old by now, and is so sluggish it takes near on ½ hour to start up (is it the HP printer drivers, or the constant Zone Alarm securty upgrades?), and sometimes just as long shutting down.

I've recently bought:
1) Humax Foxsat-HDR
2) Sagem HD PVR 101-ST
3) Canon PowerShot SX200 IS
4) iPhone 3GS
5) iPod Nano (for Mrs Dane)

The embers have been relit.
Now fuel my fire.
What are your top 5 MUST HAVE gadgets, and why?

I use the Humax for freesat- it's a great box, as it does everything I need. It's hard to find fault, If I have to push, yes it can be a little slow to start up, but it's quicker than the Sagem, and I have once had a recording cut short at the end, although that could be the signal that it was sent, as the previous program went on too long.

I use the Sagem for Canal Digital. It serves it's purpose, but next to the Humax, it looks second rate. The functionality isn't as well defined as the Humax, and the remote is feeble.

I used to have a Grundig DSR-6450, to receive both freesat and CD, BUT it didn't have HD (both the new ones do) and the PVR died on me (twice!) Plus there was no "red button" functionality on the Grundig. Yes it was "easier" having just one box. But on the plus side, I can now record and see up to 7 channels at one time, depending on which channels they are.

The Canon was my impulse buy. I was on holiday, staying with in-law realtives, and was shown the quality of image that the canon had. Compared to my, now ancient,Olympus (with damaged battery cover) I fell in love. Although I have to admit I but off buying it for a few months. But when Amazon launched their £40 cash back offer, I was sold. I also bought 2 extra items with this; a spare battery, and a memory card- both essential kit I feel. I already have a mini tripod, which I used with the Olympus.

The iPod Nano, was a birthday present for Mrs Dane, she's been going to the gym, and power walking, and wanted an mp3 player. She'd also just been competing in a paedometer competition, a few minutes of research, and 5 G from the gadget show, I was sold on getting her the new 5G iPod Nano. She's not into tech, but she seems to enjoy using it, which was a fear of mine. Originally I thought about getting her an iTouch, on the back of the performance of my iPhone- but she didn't want a new phone, but she wanted something that was smaller (more feminine???) and easier to have in her pocket/purse etc.

Then we have my fave new toy, it keeps me up SO late at night, enticing me with more apps, podcasts, and the such, it does so much, and is a long way from my old HP Jordana. If I have one fault with this, it's that they are so hard to comeby here, that I bought the first, and only one I found, and at work a few days later I found someone who had bought the 32GB (I have the 16GB) version, for the same price. I wasn't over charged, based on the prices I have seen, but I was pissed that he was able to get such a good deal. I only got 20% of the accessories that I bought.

So what are your favourite gadgets, and why?

For that matter do you have a favourite software program?

What podcasts do you regularly watch, or are currently subscribed to?

Hot on the heals of Mongoose's August Dredd RPG release...

Mongoose have announced the release of the first Strontium Dog RPG (also based on the Traveller game system).
It will be released in October, in conjunction with the a Dredd RPG supplement "Democracy Falls", and a Strontium Dog supplement "Bounties and Warrants".
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1724&qsSeries=Traveller


There are also a couple of Free Downloadable Previews. http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=51

Are you enjoying Cradlegrave or not?

"Who killed Raymond Leigh-Otter?"


Grandville, a new work by Bryan Talbot due October 2009.

See a preveiw here.

There's every chance this comic contains a monkey in a hat!

*Edit: Way too much focus was being put on the Strontium Dog image that I randomly selected to show off his artwork (as I figured the pinup of the gronk was a character that most people could associate with) so I've removed it, and included a couple of other images instead.
** Edit2: Trash is NOT starting next prog for those who noticed the tag line in the poster--- it's an old poster from years gone by.  

//http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=NIGELD

Crime novelist Ian Rankin iswritting a comic for Vertigo's new Vertigo Crime Line.
It's an original graphic novel called Dark Entries, and features John "Hellblazer" Constantine.
He talks about it to Newsarama here: //http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030925-Vertigo-Rankin.html

And he plugs 2000ad about ½way down (although some of his facts might not be 100% correct- such as Alan Grant writing with Pat Mills (I thought it was John Wagner)). For those too lazy to click the link above and read the entire interview, here's what I said about 2000ad:

NRAMA: Well, what do you feel it is about that European perspective that works so well for horror comics?

IR: A lot of them came out of a comic called 2000 AD. And that it did was, up until then the British comic had been a lot softer – war stories and cop stories and funny stuff, things like that. It was realistic. It hadn't involved superheroes, people with superpowers. And what 2000 AD did was look at the American model, and then bring a British perspective to it.

So there's a little bit of grit and a little bit of humor and a great bit of satire. You look at something like Judge Dredd, there's a lot of satire in that one. I think that's what helped make 2000 AD successful. And it was a good training ground for writers. Alan Moore and Pat Mills and all sorts of people got their start there.
It was one of those things where you could just go to London and knock on their door and go, "I'm interested in writing for you." This one Scottish guy I know really well, he used to write for Batman, Alan Grant – he wrote half the stuff in 2000 AD! He wrote it under a series of pseudonyms. And I didn't know that, I thought it was all these different people, but half of them were him, working with Pat Mills.

Alan's great, and he lives in Southern Scotland, and we meet up two or three times a year, I've interviewed him at festivals and things. He's an interesting guy to talk to, because he has been around in the comic book industry for decades, and he knows the difference between writing prose and writing for comics. He knows that you're using a different part of your brain as a writer, that you're having to visualize a lot more than you would (in prose).

And he knows about visualizing it – "Where are we seeing the action from? Are we standing in front of the characters? Are we looking down at them from the ceiling or sky? Are we looking up at them?" You know, these are things novelists never think about. We never think about what angle the camera is shooting from.

Fans of comic writer Ed Brubacker might be interested to watch Episode 1 of his Angel of Death series here:
//http://www.newsarama.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=NA_090309_angel_of_death
It runs at just over 7 minutes, and in typical Brubacker style, has a killer twist.

//http://www.newsarama.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=NA_090316_krod_producers
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krod_Mandoon_And_The_Flaming_Sword_Of_Fire

Sean Maguire
Matt Lucas
India de Beaufort
John Rhys-Davies

Hat Trick Productions.
Comedy Central.
BBC2.

6 episodes.

April 2009.

So who thinks Victor Meldrew reads 2000ad?

//http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a142730/richard-wilson-lauds-fantasy-genre.html

"There are also some science fiction comics I buy occasionally."

[Contains possible spoilers!!!]

Read an interview with Robert Kirkman here: //http://www.newsarama.com/comics/010914-Walking-Dead.html
Contains possible spoilers!!!

Do you miss all the polls from the old site?

Should have used this function for the 2008AD Review of the year awards.
Would have been a whole lot easier for my little brain to handle.

I'm getting an error when viewing the Message Board.
When I scroll up on the message board, any area larger than the screen is white (no Kev Walker background, as it vanishes behind the white). I'll try and get a couple of screen grabs to illustrate.....

Anyone who was waiting for the Virgin comic collection of their 7 issue Garth Ennis miniseries, wait no more, Dynamite comics have acquired the rights to publish the collected edition, as well as future comics.

There is little information at the moment about new comics. (Let's hope they don't do a Dare/Battlestar crossover though!)

more info here

As reported here, a pilot is in the pipeline, based on Bill Willingham's Vertigo series Fables.

Did Charlie's War come to it's natural end in the Meg, or can anyone tell roughly how many issues there were to go?

I realise it's being reprinted by Titan now, but is there any chance of it being collected in the Monthly Meg "Graphic Novels"?

I've just read that both Robin, and Nightwing are being cancelled. To be replaced with Red Robin, and Batman and Robin.

I've not read the Batman R.I.P. storyline, so NO SPOILERS please, but can someone please inform me (by pm if necessary)
what has happened, as in the same article about the cancellation, it also seemed to indicate that both Batman and Detective Comics were either cancelled and/or on hold. Is this temporary, or what????

Cheers, and remember, keep it HUSH.

The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines.
Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said "This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office."
Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.
For consumer announcements, please refer to //http://www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.