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I'm not at all sure if we need yet another undoing of the comic's ambiguous ending, but the trailer is out and it seems to be a sequel.
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a27408914/watchmen-tv-show-hbo-trailer-when-set/

While it's a criminal waste that a decent Hellblazer adaptation has yet to be made (and that he's been reduced to a bland DCU part-player), I'm interested that a number of his creators claim to have spotted him in real life.

Now, the reasons for this aren't entirely inexplicable to me- Constantine doesn't have a particularly unusual appearance, and if you spend weeks focussing on a character you'll unconsciously pick out a lookalike straightaway.

I'm familiar with the Alan Moore story, but does anyone know of the others?

What I hate most about Doomsday Clock is that I like it.  I'll probably never consider it a real sequel to Watchmen - that terrifyingly uncertain ending should never have been followed up - but it has me riveted,  and all Alan Moore's characters are characterised perfectly.

I didn't want to like it, but I do.

After John's latest Dredd masterpiece, it's got me thinking: is there a writer, in comics or otherwise, in history who has written so many pages about his own character over so many years?  And if so, has the quality remained as high?

I'm very lucky to have grown up with his work.  It's been a part of my life since I learned to read.

I've been joyfully perusing the online scans of my favourite comic as a child, Oink.  There is so much stuff that I couldn't possibly have understood that it's ridiculous; a lot of it by Jeremy Banx who didn't seem to care he was writing for children.  And I love him for it.

First of all there was Keith Disease, the living print of a punk kid on Hector Vector's talking T-shirt.  He calls his poor owner both 'hairless' and 'pre-pubescent' and later goes on to screech out the first verse of Anarchy in the UK while carol-singing. (As an adult he obviously went back to his real surname, Flint, and sadly left us a couple of weeks ago.)

There was also Burp the alien, who actually makes me far queasier as an adult than he did then.  He meets an alien king at one point: a Prince Charles lookalike called 'King Parasite the Inbred.'

Also the violence level of the comic in general was insane; families murdering each other for laughs, kids dying comic deaths, blood and guts flowing like the prog at its goriest.

A bit of Kev O'Neill there too: his Santa Claus is revealed to be a filthy, emaciated, child-hating  Steptoe-esque degenerate in a fat suit.

I loved it, and I still do. Shame the smutty little oiks that created it were never heard from again.  Charlie who?

Have a good one. Me, I'll be avoiding the Mad Max hellscape of Dublin city centre but planning to enjoy the festivities one way or the other.

I've been looking mainly at the issues that Garth Ennis wrote.  It's amazing, but out of the schlockiest, nastiest torture-porn backdrop imaginable, he's managed to create something touching and beautiful.  Just finished the last episodes of the saga of Harry, Paddy, Jock and Taff, and even as the monsters wearing masks made of severed genitals closed in I found myself close to tears.

Other writers on the comic vary from those who think it's supposed to be a gory video-nasty knock-off to others who do a very fine job,  but Ennis outshines them all.  I never thought I'd say anything like this in the days of Judgement Day or even Preacher, but even Alan Moore's episodes of Crossed don't match the emotional depth of Garth's.

It's certainly not the best comic ever written, but for me it shows how incredibly far a writer can come since writing about mutant Cursed Earth teddy bears.

Here it is: I'm not reading too much of the prog these days.  I ran out of cash a few years ago then realised I was a bit lost; and never found the time to catch up.  I buy batches of digi-progs sporadically but skip quite a bit, and am probably missing out.  Weird, after nearly 40 years of reading religiously.  Maybe it's the lack of a consistent Wagner Dredd (can't be helped, I know, and there are other fine Dredd writers but that continuity isn't as strong as it was). Or maybe I'm just getting old.

The honest-to-grud truth is, I keep coming here because I love you feckers.  I've been a boarder for about 18 years now and I still think this is the best little corner of the interweb, because you guys make it that way.

But I should probably start getting back into the prog.  What should I read from the last 4 or 5 years, and what should I not bother with?

Only managed to read one back when it came out (which, I'm afraid to say,  I shoplifted).  Reading them now,  though,  I realise I'd been missing some really good stuff.  Loved the editorial style too, somewhere between Tharg and Uncle Pigg.

Pure punk rock comics at its finest.  No wonder Tharg was getting worried. Shame so many of its creators were stiffed.

Just a quick note to announce the winner of my advent calendar compo.

It may seem cliched to say 'there can only be one winner', but nowhere (apart from the North Korean elections) is this more true than this competition, as there was only one entrant   

DANDONTDARE, PM me your name and address and I'll get it to you asap.  Merry Christmas to you and everyone else who entered and didn't enter! 

I was just having a nostalgic festive think back to the games I used to play on the Spectrum (and the Commodore at my friend's house).  They were dreadful, of course, but suspension of disbelief made them amazingly brilliant and full of atmosphere.

Jet Set Willy - how many games these days can you find about a hungover millionaire tidying his house after a party?  Very simplistic graphics but it was easy to feel that you were exploring a gloomy and magical mansion.

Ant Attack - Odd 3d game about a boy saving a girl (or vice-versa if you wanted, fair play to them) in an isometric ruined city populated by giant ants.  It was set in some post-apocalyptic desert and somehow managed to feel like it. Also wins the prize for some of the most pretentious instructions in gaming history (which hint that the in-game characters are aware, Animal-Man-style, that you the gamer are controlling their destiny).  http://sandywhite.co.uk/fun/ants/AAInlay2.htm

Saboteur - incredibly easy but who cares?  You got to be a ninja assassin and go in a helicopter.

Thanatos - the parallax scrolling, as it was called, really gave this the required atmosphere.  I remember dreaming about playing the game before I'd every actually played it, and when I bought it, the gameplay was exactly the same as my mind's version.

Castle Master - one of the first proper, solid-graphics, 3d First-person POV exploring game.  I loved it but I knew it was the beginning of the end;  home computers would have to up their game to do this kind of thing properly.

I really loved the last one; it was unbelievably dark and bleak but in a beautiful way.  Possibly the best work I've read by John Tomlinson and Peter Hogan, and a rare case of the John Smith story not being the best in the collection. That Cursitor Doom story has always stuck in my head as one of the most disturbing horror stories I've read, where it was gradually revealed that the protagonist is [spoiler]dead and in hell.[/spoiler]

I'd love to see another one; perhaps with some more old characters (Kids Rule OK springs to mind; what an awful tragedy that Carlos wouldn't be around to draw another terrorised copper).

Still reeling at this awful news.  Goodbye, King Carlos, you've made my life immeasurably richer.

Well, I must say I really really hated when Garth Ennis took over as the main Dredd writer - I thought his stuff was juvenile and cack-handed (I didn't even like Raider much) and i just wished he'd go away.

When he returned years later for Helter Skelter, I thought he'd actually got his shit together a bit, Dreddwise. Dredd actually sounded like Dredd (even if Cal didn't sound much like Cal).  I know I'm in a minority but I liked it.

I've just reread Monkey on my Back, and I must say it's pretty darn good. Despite the mistake with the Wall existing before it was built, Dredd's character was spot on and the ending was powerful (even though it was the standard Ennis Unforgiven pastiche, and Dredd started saying things like 'lousy' and 'swell' for the first time since the first Ennis Dredds).

In any case, Garth has gone from being to one of my least favourite comic writers to one of my favourites, and I'd be happy to see him have one last crack of the Dredd whip.

I can just about remember him being Chief Judge in 'real time' (well, plus 122 years, I suppose) but have just found out his first name was Jurgen (with an umlaut I don't know how to type). 

I don't remember this being his name, nor his first name ever being mentioned - surely this was a retcon in light of his being played by Jurgen Prochnow?

Was he ever referred to as 'Caligula' in the strip? I've seen ads for collections and figurines where they call him Caligula, but (despite clearly being inspired by John Hurt's magnificent performance as the emperor in question) I can't quite remember whether the chief judge was called anything other than Cal.

Incidentally, I've also learned that the real Caligula most likely wasn't much of a nutjob really; more the type of victim of negative propaganda that Trump erroneously believes he himself is.

Just ordered the print versions of the last 5 progs by accident, instead of digital ones! Does anyone know if I can cancel this order and change to digital ones?  Thanks

That is, the people who try to stop you on the street and sign you up for a monthly charity payment.

It works, I believe, and I'm unsure as to whether it should exist at all or not - but it does make me furious when they persist. 

I have uncharacteristically sworn and shouted at them on the street in the past for not respecting my initial polite 'no thanks', but now I'm taking a different tack - I reported an Amnesty International one recently for shouting 'AAAHHH, COME ONNNN!' at me after I'd clearly said no.

Amnesty (of which I am a member, by the way) sent me a huge email of apology and brought the chuggers in question in for a good long talk about respecting strangers on the street.  I realise I'm not going to stop the practice, but I have at least improved that particular street of the city for other passersby; and I think I'll make it my own personal policy in future.

After all, it's not like these people are doing it voluntarily and out of compassion - it's a paid job for them.

Dead Man's Trousers.  The continuing adventures of Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie (now well into middle age, and enjoying varying degrees of personal success).  Very messy script compared to the tightly plotted Porno, and not nearly as raw and fresh as Trainspotting, but I enjoyed it and flew through it. 

Maybe this would have been better on the political thread, but it's something I've been thinking a bit about lately (in the wake of Trump, Weinstein, the #metoo movement and so on).

How come Dante always got a free pass from readers for his fairly blatant sexual harassment of women?  He was always smacking arses, groping and kissing without a shred of consent.  He planted evidence on some English princess by reaching into her bra, and made constant inappropriate comments about women's bodies.  His courtship of Jena consisted largely of a sustained campaign of harassment, which infuriated and humilated her but finally caused her to fall for him.

Even at the time, when the lad's mags were at their height, I thought it highly dodgy, but the editorial stance (and a lot of readers' opinions) seemed to be that he was a lovable rogue rather than a sleazebag creep.

He grew on me eventually when he matured a bit and toned all that shit down (also Robbie Morrison's use of dialogue improved vastly, which is always important to me), but initially I thought he was a bit of a prick, and couldn't believe that people weren't at least a little appalled by his behaviour.

I don't miss those earlier stories, but I do miss the series.