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Can I stress that I don't think it should be a lottery or via bribery. Future Shocks should be chosen on merit as they currently are.  

I am sure a lot of the Future Shocks are "unwanted" for very good reasons.  All I am suggesting is that there is a measure of how high the stack is - if possible with a counter for the most popular reasons for the rejections to help budding writers focus on the bits that are usually done badly.

Wake/Matt,
just looking at one of the online poll and it looks that over 30% of the people who post have either written or have vague intentions of writing a future shock. (though my sums could be wrong).

Maybe it would be a nice idea to have an indicator of just how big/small the submissions pile for Future Shocks is on the Submission Guidelines page.  

I think this would be nice for the submitters and, bear with me, may even save you some time.

This would let all those who have submitted exactly how overworked you are and may discourage people from sending stuff in if the pile is very high and encourage it if it is really low.  A fortnightly update would probabaly be OK.

If you wanted to go the whole hog; you could even keep statistics of how many of the submissions were complete toss (i.e. failed to follow basic presentation guidelines, full of smelling pistakes, unhygenic), how many were rejected after reading the synopsis (and reasons; no hook, been done before, predictable, no structure, complete toss etc.) and how many were rejected because of the final script quality (too much dialogue, too many panels, not engaging enough, unbelievable charaters).  

These metrics again might encourage people to focus on fixing things before they get to you and save your valuable time.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Thank you very much - memory lane has been well and truly . Nice to see that I thought John Wagner was great even before I thought John Wagner was great (if you see what I mean).

Anyone remember a story called "Darkie's mob" from Battle Picture Weekly?  Does nayone know who wrote it? Where can I reread bits of it?

I remember the setup as being vaguely like "Bad Company" but I can't remember how it ended.  I do rememeber liking the artwork (lots of shadow and strong colour that was probably dictated by cost rather than artistic integrity) and I remember liking some of the stories and unexpected violence and dirty tactics employed by the hero.  

I was also wondering if it ended with the raw recruit being subsumed into Emperor Hirohito.

BRUCE CAMPBELL

Yes, I did enjoy this prog too.  Anyone notice how clean and unfussy all of the art was - still trying to figure out if that's good or bad.

Dante had a good finish - the fight excepted - I really do dislike his Deus Ex Machina Huntsman rifle - I'd have preferred it if he outwitted Luther somehow.  I do like the way that the wink-wink "Italian Job" references weren't overdone.  In the tale as a whole, I liked the way I got absorbed in the heist so that I forgot Arkwright was hunting Dante and then I got absorbed with Arkwright and Dante that I forgot the Countess would cheat on him.

I liked the colours in Atlantis - all the red gave it a good submarine feel and also showed off the anger - reminded me of when Battle used to colour strips using only three or four crayons.

Future Shock was OK but it was a bit of a cheat slining in the asteroid information on the very last page.

Teleguth grabbed me for a change - Langley's art normally doesn't do it for me but I liked this and it did give it an "epic" feel.

All the muted colours in Atavar took a bit away from the nice clean lines of the art.  I am enjoying this - simple and straightforward tales can sometimes be refreshing.

Nice one, Tharg (and droids).

No, I can't say I am you but I'm sure that if I was, I'd be a very nice person.  

I've only just started to use the site and the message board so I'm still trying to get to grips with who a few of the "personalities" are and what their place is in the natural order of things. A Clinical Psychiatrist would probably have a field day examining some of the posting habits.

Still, I have found it interesting reading about all of the guessing games and tehories postulated about what goes on behind the scenes, who does what and why.  

I thought the one of the points of a site like this was that you would occasionally get the creators mucking in with comments and find out the truth (when not libellous).  I do get annoyed with "get rid of x because he's rubbish" comments because I think they will stop the creators contributing.  But maybe they already contribute under "nom de ordinateur" and I don't know.

I'm also on a positive criticism kick at the moment because, like several of the contributors to this message board, I've submitted a Future Shock or two and enjoyed getting positive feedback in reply. It was probably remiss of me to start moaning about the quality of some of the Future Shocks a few postings back but the Kebab story did lack a lot of what I thought the stories should have.  Bottom line: it was a jokey story; if you liked the joke, you probably liked the story and in retrospect, I can see why it would be commissioned.  

I've got this theory that the 2000AD readership is about thirty thousand strong and every one of them is submitting Future Shocks.  Judging by the quality of some of the postings here (and I include mine), I guess Matt and his team have their work cut out.

Firstly, I don't agree with using antagonsistic statements such as "Get rid of X, Y and Z" to make criticisms.

Atavar: So if he's just woken up and he's a clone made by the big insecti-reptillian beasties, how did he learn all these human swear words and attitudes in the first place?   Who educated him?   I don't think they can clone memories yet but I've probably just missed some plot point - can someone poiunt me at it.  For one glorious second when he said "Christ, A clone!" very early on and they replied "That word would be appropriate!" I thought they were referring to "Christ" and he was to be their saviour (if you believe in that sort of thing).  A bit of swearing to make a valid plot point is good.

Swearing: Don't mind it if it's justifiable or witty.  For example, I love the opening of the film "Way of The Gun" which has the most ridiculous amount of swearing but it made me laugh and told me a bit about the characters.  I thought Atavar was eating humble pie in the most graphic way he could.
 
The other thing that winds me up recently is all the drug references.  It's like being at a party with some first year students; all Bob marley posters and statues of gray aliens with big spliffs trying to make out how cool they are cos' they have a joint occasionally.  Everybody knows it's not cool to brag about drugs!

Oh yeah, and lastly, who are these Andy Diggle and Dave Bishop that everyone is moaning at.  Surely Tharg is the person to praise/blame.  

Anybody else feel that the Future Shocks of late have been shocking for all the wrong reasons?  I thought that one about Doner/Donor Kebabs was incredibly weak; an old schoolboy joke, poorly realised.

I must express a vested interest as I have recently submitted a few Future Shocks myself - I realise I am still learning how to write a proper story but it does pain you to see some of the recent stories that come no way near to matching the standards set out in the submission guidelines (hook, identifiable protaganist, drama arising out of conflict etc. - all missing).

Thanks for this info Alan.

It's all come back to me now - it wasn't Wagner who said the ending was rushed and unsatisfying but the chap with the Darkie's Mob fan page so I'll take your word for it that it's a good ending (as judging by the current high stock of the Meg, you have quite good taste).

I like this whole debate about changes - interesting that if John Wagner - the man responsible for the words, is happy to have them changed, why should anyone else moan?  Cue the story about the artist seeing one of his pictures in a gallery and being thrown out when he tries to touch it up to finish it "But it's my picture!"

I can't remember much about Darkie's Mob - apart from loving it at the time - but can anyone tell me how the Japanese are portrayed in the story? Are they one-dimensional baby bayonetting stereotypes as was popular at the time of such stories or do they have a bit more depth?  

If I recall, John Wagner said once that he wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending of DARKIE's MOB and that it was a bit rushed.  Anyone else remember this?  If so, would it be stretching it a bit if we could get him to rewrite the ending to something he was more satisfied with (sort of like a directors cut).  If the rather lovely original artist (MIke Western?) isn't around, perhaps Staz Johnson could do a good approximation?.

The question of language is a tricky one in this historical context.  Normally I'd say "Cut it if it will offend". But in the middle of dirty jungle fighting, I'm pretty sure that the troops used pretty nasty names for each other.  Are Apocolypse Now/Platoon/Full Metal Jacket et al racist films just because of the nasty names used for the VC by some of the characters?

PS: Had to do a double take at BISH-OPs posting! Thought he'd gone and resigned from TPO!