Messages

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General / Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Vote for positions 44 - 37

« on: Today at 10:38:14 AM »

1. Doomsday.
2. The Hunting Party.
3. Judgement Day.

I've stated my case for Doomsday in earlier rounds, and while I'm not fussed by the trial sequence (a rare misfire for SBD), and I don't think it quite pays off on its wonderful setup, there's just so much there to enjoy,  and the Prog/Meg split actually works for the first time, that it deserves best-of-the-rest status.

Hunting Party is good fun, and a fine example of the NYPD Blue period of Dredd (The Pit to Doomsday) where a recurring supporting cast of non-family is being gently developed. It doesn't really hang together, and some chapters (Camp Demento) just don't bring much, but elsewhere it's chock full of early Flinty goodness and I'm a complete sucker for a Hotdog Run (and Dune Sharks).

Judgement Day should rate higher, it's epic with a capital E, it's got guest stars galore,  a Hotdog Run (see above), Ezquerra magic, great setpieces and images but it's just so wasteful and nonsensical, and flipping between entirely different species of (great) art in the Meg and Prog murders any hint of cohesion or momentum.

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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate

« on: 07 March, 2021, 09:48:43 PM »

And they never were considered as part of Allied faction. At least I never saw it anywhere.

Not even Potsdam?

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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate

« on: 07 March, 2021, 01:55:16 PM »

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

You geologists, all in the pocket of Big Magma.

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Off Topic / Re: Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

« on: 07 March, 2021, 01:21:59 PM »

Current Irish plan is to skip vaccinating the 35-55 cohort (aka parents of schoolgoing children) completely, and go straight to the 18-35, on the basis that they have more social contacts, public-facing jobs and shared housing. That makes sense, but leaves school kids going home every day to a completely unvaccinated population.

 And still my 78yr old diabetic cancer-patient father, who has to attend three different busy outpatient depts on alternate weeks, hasn't had even a hint of when he might be getting a vaccine.

It wouldn't fill you with optimism generally.

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Off Topic / Re: Conspiracy Theory Debate

« on: 06 March, 2021, 01:50:09 PM »

So scientists can manufacture it without understanding its composition?

See, I can buy that a mad scientist or labful of same could come up with some never-before-seen fiendish new weapon/virus/adrenochrome, my problem is believing that an entire planetful of other less-mad scientists, given the evidence of said contrivance's existence and years/decades couldn't reverse engineer and duplicate/counter it. Science just doesn't allow the unrepeatable act of unique genius.  It's the Super-serum/Pym-particles/Web-fluid/spore-drive problem: within 4 years of Hiroshima, the Soviets had the bomb too.

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Prog / Re: Prog 2221 - Taking the Biscuit!

« on: 05 March, 2021, 07:56:58 PM »

That chunky pixel style typeface works really well.

Not for me, I'm afraid. I like '80s computer magazine/game logos as much as the next ageing squaxx, but I had to wonder: why here? It doesn't relate to the rest of the cover dress, the laboured tagline pun or the story itself. Am I being characteristically dim and literal?  Is it because the cover is a homage to one from 1983?

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Film & TV / Re: Current TV Boxset Addiction

« on: 05 March, 2021, 07:44:50 PM »

We lasted until somewhere early in Episode 4, and just sort of gave up. An interesting premise, good work from the two initial leads, but just all over the place. You could imagine Abnett making something good out of this setup, but alas.

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General / Re: Bisley does Zenith - all very odd

« on: 05 March, 2021, 01:55:56 PM »

Keith did the first 12 covers, have to say I like them all!
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=covers&page=artist&choice=samk&Comic=usreprints

Crazy that his style is still so instantly recognizable after all these years.

12 is particularly T-shirtworthy. What we have there is a real artist interpreting the material in his own style,  and it's different but good. Elsewhere...

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Off Topic / Re: Threadjacking!

« on: 05 March, 2021, 12:45:21 PM »

...thought I'd pop back, see what's going on.

We're ranked No. 1 for ranking stuff these days, so there's that!

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Off Topic / Re: Threadjacking!

« on: 05 March, 2021, 11:02:59 AM »

Howdy Mikey, good to see you around! 

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Off Topic / Re: Threadjacking!

« on: 05 March, 2021, 10:31:46 AM »

"Parotee o Astaim".

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General / Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Vote for positions 52 - 45

« on: 05 March, 2021, 10:29:04 AM »

And also because almost all of its villains ended up in the old Judge Dredd board game, making them loom larger in my mind than they did in the actual Prog...

This was my first thought on seeing its original inclusion in your list. Like yourself I wouldn't read most of the Mega Rackets until they appeared in Best Of, but all the characters were already old friends from the board game. (Similarly, I've seldom experienced such a sense of anticlimax as when I actually read 'The Invisible Man' - Edwin the Confessor had been such a big part of my life, why was he a footnote in a minor story! ).

The continued existence of known gang bosses in MC-1 is as bizarre a contrivance as the overland Trek to MC-2, but just as welcome a one!

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General / Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Vote for positions 52 - 45

« on: 05 March, 2021, 09:01:50 AM »

There's nothing wrong with Dead Ringer, it just feels inconsequential, a bit of light fun trading on Judge Child nostalgia - so not really epic in any sense beyond page count. Correctly relegated to its place at the bottom of the heap on largely technical grounds.

I'm a bit surprised by Robot War's placing (I forgot to vote in this one, so share any blame), it's surely the best of this bunch: it might be very short, but it is definitely epic.  Reading through the Robot Wars supplement for the current Judge Dredd RPG recently I was reminded of the sense of large-scale threat it manages to convey. Both victim and beneficiary of where it falls in the shaky early history of the strip.

The Mega Rackets, while highly enjoyable stories in their own right, had no place here at all, merely a telling artefact of AlexF's twisted mind.  Now if we're talking The Crime Files...

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Prog / Re: Prog 2221 - Taking the Biscuit!

« on: 05 March, 2021, 08:43:30 AM »

I don’t see this so much as a contradiction to what happened before as more of an exploration of how her condition responds in extreme circumstances.

Good analysis, Mardroid.  Ultimately Red has been depicted in so many different ways (Wagner, Grant, Hogan, Abnett, now Worley) that judgment in any new incarnation really has to be based on how entertaining it is, and how internally consistent it is within that version. Worley is a writer who has really grown into his craft over the past few years and I'd rather see him (and Willsher) develop the character in the way that interests him, rather than being tied to 'treacherous vamp with a heart', 'eternal mutant messiah' or worse, 'generic action babe no. 37'.

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: 05 March, 2021, 06:37:06 AM »

...but lacks a definite message beyond the value of real friendship.

It's also a searing exposé of the skuxx life.

(And eminently rewatchable).