Messages

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Other Reviews / Re: Battle Action Special 2022

« on: 04 July, 2022, 08:14:17 PM »

I'm probably preaching to the converted, but if you enjoyed this Battle-Action, then Garth Ennis has a ton of other WWII books out.

Linking into this special, he did Hellman at the Twilight of the Reich, in Action 2020 (Rebellion), and a series of three linked stories about the Night Witches in The Complete Battlefields (Volumes One-Three).

There's also War Stories (several volumes), Battler Briton, World of Tanks and The Stringbags.

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Games / Re: Gamebooks

« on: 04 July, 2022, 04:32:17 PM »

Loving combat-tactics discussion for WotT.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Tribal Memories vs. Meltdown Man Rd 4 Heat 2

« on: 04 July, 2022, 06:27:56 AM »

Tribal Memories is all very worthy, riffing off Brave New World and all that - but Meltdown Man was fun, for fifty episodes straight.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Melatzoic vs. Slaine Rd 4 Heat 1

« on: 04 July, 2022, 06:26:26 AM »

I don't suppose Slaine will think this round too many.

Obligatory: Metalzoic is fucking amazing, and should swing over and kick Panzer Poncho out of this round.

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General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: What is this piece of broccoli doing on my plate?

« on: 04 July, 2022, 06:25:02 AM »

I only stopped reading for a while due to financial constraints*, so clearly I don't need any strong thrills to carry on reading (see prog 881).

The current slice of beetroot bleeding inconsiderately all over my plate is Skip Tracer. I poke at it with my fork, and am then sad - because now my fork is contaminated. I wonder at it - sitting there on series seven of its mediocrity as the likes of Grudge-Father, Trash, Dry Run, Junker & Babe Race 2000 look on in awe - wondering why they were sent to the knacker's after a much shorter exposure.

Ah now, says Tharg - there's nothing else I could possibly print. Who wants the next installment of The Alienist, or Brass Sun, or Helium, or Full Tilt Boogie (or Witch World, croaks a hopeful patient in the next ward) - when we are yet to find out if the Man With The Magic Eyes and his Daughter of Wonderment will escape an inescapable fate by being threatened and shouted at and probably tied up - perhaps by minotaurs. Oh no! There's no way out, no way they can possibly ... wait! Those foolish fiends have forgotten the magic eye powers of narrative convenience! No bonds, no locks, no burly miscreants can stand against their ill-defined powers!


* "Due to financial constraints the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off until further notice"

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General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Simply the best – The Magnificent 7

« on: 04 July, 2022, 06:11:30 AM »

*spits tea all over the keyboard*

I'm very fond of The Khronicles of Khaos - the art is astounding and the comedy is spot on, but it's the dark meanderings of The Black Hole that stands out as the best - with astounding art from break-out talent Bisley accompanied by the wildly talented SMS.

The first series is, of course, worth a mention, and would take the third place slot - if nothing else, for Mad George, Colossus of Mars. The Volgan Wars is all very well, but it doesn't even beat Red Planet Blues or Nemesis, Book IV for best ABCs.

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General / Re: Forums Favourite Thrill - Round 3 into Round 4

« on: 03 July, 2022, 05:19:57 PM »

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Other Reviews / Re: Battle Action Special 2022

« on: 03 July, 2022, 05:11:38 PM »

What a great comic! Wow. People up-thread have covered it, really: great stories that are written to make it feel like an anthology-worth of writers. Fantastic art.

Entirely nit-picking here, but the only thing that flagged up as odd was perhaps a font problem between computers, as the logo for Nina Petrova and the Angels of Death seems to have gone a bit wrong (comparing the preview page and the first page of the strip proper, where the subtitle is a parsing nachtmare of upper and lowercase). Perhaps this could be fixed if there's a later print-run or reprint or what have you.

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Off Topic / Re: This is the News!

« on: 02 July, 2022, 06:12:04 PM »

FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Eye#Litigation

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Prog / Re: Prog 2288: Law versus Claw

« on: 02 July, 2022, 06:11:04 AM »

Summary - I get this as a sort of training ground for new talent. That's how it seems, at any rate. Sorry if that's patronizing to the creators. But, it makes it difficult to read. Maybe it needs more close-in editorial steering? I wonder what this would be like if it were five-page stories instead?

The Regened idea of the first FCBD issue focused more on existing properties - it might be interesting to see other creators tackle existing characters. Young Slaine? Flesh: Origins? Maybe this is actually good and I'm too old to get it anymore. The Regened issues are mostly depressing. Sorry. Wish I could report otherwise.


In order of most to least thrilling:

Pandora Perfect - this was just perfect, and stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the comic. A page turner, with real laughs. Makes it all look so easy.

Future Shocks - Into the Void - this was an interesting concept that felt like it could have legs, but then abruptly ended (as you'd expect from a Future Shock).

Cadet Dredd - had to force myself to keep reading this to the end, because it was over on page #3, then again on page #9. Cadet Dredd can't seem to keep his age straight - last time, he seemed not much different in height from his supervisor, then this time he looked ten. That, and the Scooby Doo plotting and dialogue ("and I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you pesky kids") made this not very good at all. Just reprint The Alien Zoo. It's SO good.

Lowborn High - too many characters, the breadcrumbs at the start didn't take us anywhere, I never got into Harry Potter so I don't like something that's riffing on it, the main character is behaving like his own antagonist and I keep wishing he'd just die (the moping git), everyone is shaped and posed like a supermodel & some of the dialogue seems actually copied and pasted from the HP books. I had to force myself to keep reading.

Scooter & Jinx - another forced read. It's got some pretty poor story-telling. Brink gets away with lots and lots of dialogue because of the nature of its story - really, the dialogue is the story. Here, we keep getting talking heads telling us that things are happening. Just show us! Then, when they do show us, the perspective on the robots is all wonky - they seem giant, then normal sized all of a sudden. And their font is awful unless you zoom it way up. Bah!

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Off Topic / Re: Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'?

« on: 01 July, 2022, 11:53:17 PM »

No, it's a good point - and I appreciate your adjustment to my Wagner analogy.

Having people be confused or befuddled by modern gender politics, I can entirely understand. I can even understand a frustration with feeling as if a special grouping is under threat by being expanded. But as soon as someone makes the "dangerous toilets" argument, they've lost me. It's that assumption of a worst-case that's problematic.

I would say that, in the case of JKR - I think she's become stuck in a mindset that says trans women are actually men - and she finds men threatening. Ergo: she feels threatened by the very idea of trans women - for her, it's like a "wolf in sheep's clothing". I do want to be able to understand her position as something other than just "oh, look - a nasty bigot" - because I need to be able to position her other principled stances on things like race, and thereby make sense of her as a whole person - and not just a newspaper headline.

Oh, and I do appreciate that ContraPoints video - it does a good job of illustrating the complexities at issue.

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Off Topic / Re: Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'?

« on: 01 July, 2022, 10:37:34 PM »

Sorry, Leigh. I should have taken more care to allow for that scenario. I often post on threads without having read all of the preceding points.

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General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Helltrekkers vs. Stickleback Rd 3 Heat 62

« on: 01 July, 2022, 05:21:36 PM »

I miss when the Cursed Earth was a terrifying hellscape rather than a smattering of quiet(ish) Wild West villages.

Can't think what you mean...

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General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Like the desert needs the rain, I need you or not?

« on: 01 July, 2022, 05:08:31 PM »

I can dig it.

only shallow graves ?

Reminds me of a joke in The Young Ones.

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Off Topic / Re: Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'?

« on: 01 July, 2022, 05:02:32 PM »

If that's criticism directed at me, I'd much rather it was directed at me rather than as an aside on an entirely different thread to the one I was posting on

I would have though my FART joke was worse - and that really was directed at you. The point about overlong naval-gazing videos being used as a sort of alt-Wall-of-Text I felt could be aimed in a more general manner, but you were the most recent culprit, yes. As for posting here: I thought it best to move the JKR argument somewhere else - not least because IP had specifically requested a move, and two people (you included) had already ignored his request. It didn't feel sensible to join in.

I do really think the infiltration of message boards by GC types is a genuine concern ... disturbing to see that kind of thing appearing here and it needs to be challenged.

You do realize that you were the trigger, right? Because, on the other thread, you said "really concerning to see start appearing out of nowhere on a forum like this". Your response there is problematic for me, because it's as if you really believe that The Corinthian (who, by the way, hasn't identified as part of the - watch out, it's another auto-argument-winning acronym - GC, it's just a label you chose to apply) made their point "out of nowhere". They didn't - they were responding to you.

It's a bit like...



That shot of the ornithopters in Dune reminded me of the classic helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now featuring music by Wagner. God, that pisses me off! Wagner was such a fucking Nazi!

Other boarder: Woah! That's a bit strong - certainly, he held some outdated views, but then his work and mythos were posthumously appropriated by the Nazi regime.

Look everyone! A Nazi sympathizer! Stone them!




*This post sponsored by Godwin's Law and Monty Python, in association with The Apocalypse Now Appreciation Lodge.