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As well as being pleasantly surprised by the arrival of my Prog and Meg today I also received my beautiful commission from Ian Gibson, completely out of the blue!

It's absolutely fooking massive and simply stunning! This scan that Ian has kindly sent doesn't do the piece justice, the colours are so vibrant and the detail is fantastic.

What a lovely day!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/Petemean-1.jpg">

Hmm, that doesn't work as well as Trout's Wii thread title but here we go. I'm finally having to accept that PC gaming is on the way out -  it's nearly May and the only games I've bought are Turning Point (rubbish) and Assassin's Creed (beautiful), so I'm finally going to get myself an XBox. Plus, I really want GTA4 and it'll probably be months before it hits the PC, if ever. My stoopid questions are:

- What's the difference between the different types of console (Elite, Arcade etc.)

- Why do some have a hard drive?

- Very imporant this, I've got a wonderfully huge flatscreen monitor for my PC, can I hook it up to that?

- Can I browse the interweb on it?

- What are the bestest games for it?

Cheers folks,

Pete.

I bought these lovely Nemesis tryouts from Dale and thought I'd share. I'll pop a larger versions of each beneath this message, they're blooming lovely!

[Cover]

Hooray, ealry prog for Easter and I've bagged the thread!

Cover - I love it, though the writing gets in the way for me. It looks lovely in the thumbnail image on the nerve centre page, another call for us seeing covers in all their glory somewhere on this site!

Dredd - I'm loving this tale, it's absolutely packed with Dreddworld history. It was great to see the Palais de Boing(TM) back as well as Vienna and Rothman and I always enjoy a Dredd tale where it's a proper investigation going on in it. I was chuffed that Joe finally met his relatives but found the dialogue a bit naff with Vienna suddenly going on about the case. The final panel was a belter though!

Savage - Chilling. Goddard continues to impress and the scene with the garbage truck was just horrible.

Dead Eyes - Yay, three weeks in and I'm still following the script! The story continues to intrigue and the art is great, yes it's murky, but it's bloody night time innit?

Ten Seconders - Hmmm, I'm not into this story as much as the rest but the big stompy robots may change my mind. Still, it's fantastic to see Dom in colour, I really love his work.

Dante - Continues like a futuristic Pride and Prejudice. Absolutely great characters throughout - what a bunch of shits the Tsar, Arkady and Kerensky are. Brilliant!

A good prog with Dredd and Dante stealing the show.http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/hires/1579.jpg">

And it's a doozy! Is it Greg Staples?

Bloody luvverly!

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?Comic=2000ad&choice=1579" target="_blank">Peeky peeky!

I'm absolutely over the moon as my lovely lady is preggers and obviously I'm going to be the best dad in the world.

Howevr, we went for the first scan today (I filled up like a wuss) and was amazed to see my future baby has an early style Judge Dredd Helmet on!

It's got the curvey eyes and the respirator too! I'm even prouder now!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/babydredd.jpg?t=1204649773">

Blimey, have you heard about this? Granada have sold the show to America without consulting Pegg, Wright or even bloody mentioning Jess Stevenson!

Understandably, young Simon and pals signed away all their rights ten years ago when they originally made this wonderful series. So now Granada are selling the show on the back of it's creators without even a courtesy call to let 'em know.

Money grabbing shitpots win again! Can you imagine the show without the charm of the wonderful cast? In America? Without 2000AD and the Tharg mask? Truly shocking, though unfortunately not surprising!

Link: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=144582906&blogID=362929911" target="_blank">Edgar Wright's blog with Simon Pegg's comments.

Goddammit, I'd stupidly fell for all the negativity surrounding Dante's pirate arc so was blown away when I read this brilliant book in one swashbuckling session. Yeah, it deviates from the whole Romanov/Makarov saga but it has given us some wonderful back story on Nikolai and helps round 2000AD's most likable character off even more.

In my opinion, Morrison has done an amazing job with Nikolai, creating a world filled with characters who you genuinely care about and developing each one in a believable and intelligent way. After the horrors of the Tsar Wars books, I welcomed the departure as Nikolai rediscovers his humanity and tries to forget or atone for some of the wrongs he may have done in the war. The tension caused by the uneasy alliance and forthcoming treachery with his mother is almost unbearable.

As well as fantastic stories, the artwork is simply beautiful. Simon Fraser does a brilliant job on his half of the book with vibrant, action packed artwork and some wonderfully curvy ladies! But for me, Burns steals the show with what must surely be some of the most breathtaking work of his career. Some of his splashes (no pun intended) are gob smacking and the sadness and weariness he etches into Katarina's face is simply heartbreaking.

If I had to have a criticism it would be that the book seemed to end quite abruptly, but this may have been 'cos I was enjoying it so much! I'm sure logistically in the grand scheme of things it ended in the right place but I just wanted more dammit!

So in summary, a class, intelligent read with sumptuous artwork that definitely enhances one of 2000AD's best characters. Looking at my now huge 2000AD graphic novel collection I'm surprised to see that the Dantes are probably my favourites. I think that says it all.

A bloody lovely cover by Dizzy, I'm sure we all agree!http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/hires/1575.jpg">

[£100]

Yes, this is my own stupid fault but I'm sodding livid!!!

I went to my local 24 hour ASDA at 21.15 and parked in a virtually empty car park. As it was so deserted, I did something I'd never normally do and am normally really anal about - I parked in one of the many disabled spaces. Yes, I know that's an abhorrent thing to do but there were honestly about 40 disabled spaces and less than ten cars in the whole car park. It was quarter past nine on a Tuesday night fer-christ-sakes!

At 21.20 I left the shop with one item I'd ran in for and, you guessed it, found a £100 fucking fine slapped on my car. A hundred fucking pounds! For five minutes! In an empty car park! After 9pm on a Tuesday night!

Maaan, I'm furious! I'm really angry with myself for selfishly(?) parking in a disabled space in the first place instead of walking the extra 200 yards to the shop from a standard space but more over, I'm furious with the predatory, pedantic little shit of a kerb rat traffic warden who stuck a ticket on my car in an otherwise empty car park at twenty past nine at night!

I'm so angry I can't sleep! Please share your parking ticket horror stories with me to help calm me down!

I just bought this lovely Dermot Power artwork (or Dermot Powers as the German site called him!) and I'm wondering what it's from?

I contacted Dermot and asked and to his credit, he took the time to write back, but couldn't remember!

I thought it was artwork from those fantastic scan cards and album that were given away with the prog 750-752 but that's 1991 and the artwork is dated Jan 1995 (around about the time the film came out.)

Can anyone solve the mystery?

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/image.php?choice=750&Comic=freegifts" target="_blank">What I thought it was...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/dermot.jpg">

Got an email saying that FP have some 2000ad GNs for sale. They are:

Dredd vs Death Titan Hardcover £4.99;
Slaine the Horned God Vol 1 Softcover £2.99;
Judge Child Quest Titan Softcover £4.99;
Judge Anderson Death's Dark Dimensions £4.99.

All well worth a buy if you haven't got 'em a million times already!

I'm going to see this wonderful man tonight in Newcastle. He really, really cracks me up. Is anyone else a fan?

Written by a certain DCI Gene Hunt (complete with scribbles in the margins by DC Chris Skelton.)

I got this great Life on Mars spin off book for Christmas and it's a hoot. It's like Dredd's Comportment but written in the sexist, un-pc 1970's.

There's some great sections such as:

'Tools of the Trade' (i.e. what every copper should carry.) Namely, a hip flask, fags, bottle of Brut, pack of cards, cuffs, something heavy and blunt ('There's nothing quite like a crowbar for opening doors and closing mouths'), radio and a bit of cash.

'Tips for conducting an interrogation' - An example:

'When smacking a fag out of a suspect's mouth don't burn your hand - You're not going to look like the man in charge if you're hopping about blowing your knuckles now, are you? The trick is to aim for the cheek rather than the gob. Slap 'em hard in the face and the cigarette will fly sure enough.'

I'm really enjoying it and it got me thinking that perhaps the Megazine could have a Dredd's Comportment text section, instead of say, the Dredd Files in which we could see into Dredd's mind and what the cadets are expected to read. A page on each crime would do, complete with the great man's scribbles in the margins for authenticity. What about the Big Lie?http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k2Nhd%2BMbL._SS500_.jpg">

[1521]

Yes I know there's a 2007 Review thread but I always think the covers deserve a thread of their own. Sorry if this pisses anone off!

So, in my humble opinion, it's been a really strong year (as usual) for covers so looking from progs 1518-1566 I want to mention:

1521 - Coleby's Low Life Baby with a gun and lollypop, sublime, attention grabbing, like and old skool 2000ad cover.
1519, 1522, 1524, 1551, 1555 and 1559 - Langley's ABC Warriors collection deserve a mention,  I can't wait to see these all glossy in a TPB.
1536 - Henry Flint's wonderful 50 year man should have bagged the best cover but lost so much by poor colouring (see the beautiful uncoloured original below.)
1538 - A great year for Cliff Robinson but, for me, his Dredd's Boot cover was his best.
1540 - It's Jock so automatically it's beautiful!
1545 - Nick Percival's zombie cover was amazing.
1561 - I love a stock Dredd cover and Boo Cook's American Flag one was the best for a long time.

But for me, the winner is...

1556 - All of Frazer's Buttonman covers were lovely but this one of Adele rules in terms of design and impact - amazing!http://www.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_7767/subcat_41782/Dredd_wraparound_cover.jpg">

Michael Jackson was papped in a bookshop yesterday. When I first saw the pic I genuinely thought it was Kyyten from Red Dwarf!http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00407/JACKO4_350x550_407336a.jpg">

On a whim I installed Firefox for the first time yesterday and am finding it rather nice. However, it's doing one or two strange things.

Firstly, there's a couple of sites which just make it exit. Secondly, it 'restores down' every now and again and finally, my trusty 'back' button on my mouse doesn't work. Any tips, Firefox users?

More sinister shenanigans to hype the latest Batman film. Best campaign evah!

Link: http://www.movieweb.com/news/91/24891.php" target="_blank">Meanwhile, over at Movieweb!

[Crysis]

After a fairly poor year for PC games, a gazillion of great ones all seem to have come out at once! As I'm an impatient bastard who couldn't wait for Christmas I hammered my bank account last month and bought a shed load of 'em. Here's the ones I've completed up to now and my thoughts...

Crysis - Bloody lovely for 2/3 of the game but the alien bits spoil the last third a bit - think Xen in Half Life 1. Still, this is a beautiful game, if the demo ran well for you then I can't recommend it highly enough! 2000ad strip it's most like - Mandroid.

Gears of War - Yup, this is great too! I briefly played the Xbox version last Christmas and the PC version is just as jaw dropping, plus you get to use mouse and keyboard, hooray! 2000ad strip it's most like - Glimmer Rats.

Timeshift - Cool time bending game. A right laugh watching a hapless soldier's confusion as you stop time, steal their gun, shoot their mate, hide then restart time. Good fun all round! 2000ad strip it's most like - Strontium Dog.

Call of Duty 4 - Excellent addition to the COD series with a great story to boot. 2000ad strip it's most like - Snow/Tiger

Kane and Lynch - Dead Men - A real suprise for me as I loved this. The graphics are stunning and the story and dialogue brilliant! The characters are a real nasty bunch with the psychopathic Lynch offering some real laugh out loud moments. A really cool game. 2000ad strip it's most like - Sin/Dex (and lots like 100 Bullets.)

Blacksite - A fun alien romp set in the Nevada desert. The creatures are a bit samey but there are some real stand out moments in the game, for example, a helicopter battle on a bridge with a huge worm alien is really cool!

Like Timeshift though, this game suffers from being made on the Unreal Engine which I find a bit, I dunno, unreal! What I mean is they seem less realistic than the other games as your character doesn't seem to have any weight. The both look stunning though! 2000ad strip it's most like - Blacklight?

Jericho - Started playing this but am a bit unimpressed, especially as Crysis arrived the day after and I started on that. 2000ad strip it's most like - Caballistics Inc.

I've still got Fear:Perseus Mandate and Painkiller:Overdose to play though I don't hold out much hope for either of them!

Dammit I feel totally lost without Demonoid to get my daily quota of strange and illegal stuff. It sucks that the CRIA have had it closed down.

Which other torrent sites can boarders recommend where one can acquire the latest stuff for research purposes before buying*?

* I hope that looks more convincing than it sounds in my head!