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... not all of them were necessarily Nazi true believers.

Which brought to mind the 'Clean Wermacht' effort. It was of course good for the Western allies to help perpetuate this because of the Cold War, but despite the fact it's clear the Wermacht was far, far from innocent, I still can't shake the notion that a lot of them were probably not 'true believers' as you put it. They were doing what they thought was right (if they volunteered).

Young men do stupid things sometimes, especially when other young men are doing stupid things. It turns out they were spectacularly on the wrong side of history in this case.

Young Earth Creationists claim that, obviously, the Earth is vastly younger than several billion years.

You geologists, all in the pocket of Big Magma.

I see you failed to mention the role of Big Ditch in keeping archaeologists on message.

...

So the Russians weren't allies? What's with all those US and UK WW2 tanks and planes in Russian mark schemes about then?

Conspiracy theories used to be, for me anyway, a relatively fun way of interrogating Stuff About Things. There weren't that many well known ones but now it feels that everything people don't like is the result of a nefarious conspiracy - it's become a way of dismissing the need for actual evidence to demonstrate or explain events or phenomena and an unwillingness to accept coincidence as a real thing. This suits the Edge Lords. As Terry Pratchett put it, million to one chances happen nine times out of ten.

Young Earth Creationists claim that, obviously, the Earth is vastly younger than several billion years. This means they can claim evolution isn't real and there hasn't been enough time for it to produce the biological complexity we see on Earth. They point at, say, the intricate relationship between plants and insects as something so complex it couldn't be produced by chance.

Therefore all of life and Earth scientists both now and in the past are part of a conspiracy to keep perpetuating the lie of an old Earth. Never mind the physicists and chemists keeping schtum too.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but it's an example of something that goes beyond any reason to maintain a worldview that's nonsense.

Fashionably late as ever, but just wanted to note how entirely brilliant I thought Hook Jaw was from start to finish. Genuinely creepy, it even gave me disturbed sleep after the final episode.

M

T'is.

I hear you Nordies have had a bit of trouble importing Tetley's Bitter this year for some reason.
Every cloud, eh?

You, sir, are obsessed with my imbibement of said beer. For the last time:

There. Was. No. Smithwicks.

But you can get Tetley's shipped to Norn OK as long as you pay the extras. Or so I've been told 

Howdy TB! It's been quite a while since I last showed up, but as I'm almost back up to date on the Prog thought I'd pop back, see what's going on.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that someone with WAAAAAAY too much time on their hands is taking the piss!

That is superb!!!!!   

Nah, it's no. It's affishil awrayt. Thers buddies thit hink it's a lengwidge, wull say it is, cuz themins hae Eyrish an gawt a payle a munny fer teachin it an putin it oan bins an rohad saynes. It's aw aboot cultyer an party o isteem wuddn't ye know, as yer by Tordels sez but spelt it wrang. Whit these fockin glypes hink iz at it's moar Prod, even win aw the fowk tawk lik thaht dependin waur they're frae, no ther raligion. It's those yins thit thocht it soonded wile cooerse afore and wahntit fowk to soond mare Inglish an aw. An it's differnt in differnt payerts uh the country onywey. Nae doot the way me ma an er famly spoke is differnt tuh thon buddies frae Awntrum ur doon the low country, so meebe yiz dinnae even unnerstan this av wrawt doon!

It'd gie ye the dry boke.

M.

[Cadet Dredd]

Howdy!

Having found myself actually up to date with the prog for the first time in ages, thought it was about time to tell you what I thought. You lucky few.

Have to say the cover didn't really work for me - think I'd personally liked to have seen a MC1 background.

Cadet Dredd was grand, a decent one and done with great art. And as far as the crime goggles, I read it as a foreshadowing of Dredd's bionic peepers, especially with Cadet Joe expressing cynicism (natch) about such a crazy notion catching on.

Gronk was good fun but felt a bit long, and Rogue was another good one off not a million clicks off what you'd find in the prog in the eighties, apart from (to my mind) in the 80s Nu Earth didn't feel so clean. But I really like the art so don't get me wrong, I'd happily see more of this.

My favourite strip however was Finder & Keeper. Thought this was just great, I was actually fully engaged in what was going on and it just hit the mark perfectly.

More generally, though I agree that some of the art in the prog when we were younglings was perhaps a bit more gritty at times, it was also competing with a lot of other titles for attention. The more clean style of a lot of the art in this issue perhaps would appeal to would be younger readers in the same way now? I've no idea what it's up against, but there's no way it's 'inferior' to other strip work seen in the prog.

Keep it up Joko Tharg, your doing a good job.

Oof! I had no idea the kickstarter had so many problems. Partly glad I missed out - my patience is shot to hell nowadays.

But yes, a wee drill is really useful - I have a manual pin vice, but also a Dremel for bigger kits and stuff. Bonus is they can be used in various DIY projects round the house, so a justified spend to Mrs Mikey, not just 'more geek crap'. Oh, and a vice can be good to have too I find - sometimes easier to clean up stuff held securely not in your hands!

Like the sound of the grey colour scheme McFad - I did a couple of Dredd & Death busts in a similar fashion, never thought of doing minis the same way. Hmmm...

As regards painting and building metal and resin minis, I've just used UHU super glue and it's worked fine. Think any superglue should do the trick. I'm an anachronism in that I use enamel paints (Humbrol & Revel) as that's what I'm used to, but appreciate that acrylics are probably easier in many respects. I've some clear acrylics that work well for 'glass' and to add a coloured sheen to darker colours, plus the usual washes and weathering powders to grime stuff up.

Can't wait to get my geek space ready to go - I'm buying paint (for the walls) today 

I so want one or more of the Mongoose Lawmasters. Thought I'd found a source last year in Spain but they'd just neglected to take them down from their website. Picked up a bunch of what they did have mind. I picked up a mound of stuff from Foundry during their end of line sale - I've got as far as putting the ABC Warriors on their bases and that's it...

Best supporting actor in a TV moida drama goes to...

...Michael Johnston.

Good (Turkey) gravy Pete!

Well, they left the box on the doorstep - thank Grud the aura of justice kept any perps away!

I went balls deep on this and dear sweet Jeebus and all his Saints but it's a big heap of awesome. Interestingly there's a note explaining they ran out of resin so have produced some of the minis in metal - no complaints from me and great to see demand was so high for it. The minis I've looked at so far are up to the usual high standards from Warlord, great clean sculpts - and a nice surprise was the inclusion of the decal sheet recently given away with Wargames Illustrated which I'm really chuffed about because I couldn't find a copy near me.

But now dear friends I have an actual Oola Blint. Achievement, as they say, unlocked!

[Anderson]

Yeah, that was a nicely balanced Meg under a simply superb cover.

Good to see others hold the Anderson run in high esteem - I entirely agree it's been the best Anderson in an age and think the 'Team Teen Mutants' aspect was a welcome approach hiding in plain sight all these years. Nice to see psi Judges get in a rumble and using their powers for more than finding a perp's whereabouts for a change.

Dredd comes in second place for me with what was a great one off, with The Returners, Diamond Dogs and ...Black Museum hovering at the same level. Of the other strips The Returners had some lovely art but I'm still not sure about it and Diamond Dogs was fine as an introduction/set up overall didn't bowl me over, though I'd definitely like to see more.

Mine's out for delivery right now! But I'll not be in so hope I can pick it up over the weekend...