Messages

Still waiting for my sub!!!!

Me too. As said previously I don't think I would sub again with Strip-much easier just to pick up a copy than wait on the fraught postal service from Bosnia.

I have to say I am beginning to regret the subscription. I could have simply ordered it via my local and very helpful newsagent. No sign of it at Prodigal towers as yet. I have a feeling that subscribers might be at a relative disadvantage in the new dispensation.

Picked one up this morning from local newsagent.

Woohoo!!

Looking forward to reading your material Richmond!

With respect to both sides in this argument, I have a problem with the logic of Thatcher's supporters:

Life used to be bad, pre-Thatcherism

Thatcherism happened

Life got better (in the opinion of many)

Thatcherism is therefore good

I can't subscribe to that. I can accept that, yes, there needed to be change but that doesn't mean that Thatcherism had to happen. It certainly doesn't mean that the worst excesses of Thatcher and her government - such as the significant erosion of workers' rights, the imposition of the invidious poll tax, and the very 1980s principle that greed is good and socialist thinking is bad - should be seen as acceptable.

History happened - fine. That doesn't mean it had to happen that way. As science fiction fans, you should all understand that. 

What Trout said.

Hallo all. After poking about in the shadows on here for a few months I thought I really ought to sign up for an account.

Anyhow, if you want to know a bit about me and my relationship with 2000AD I'll lay it on you. Although I would pick up the occasional prog throughout the 90s, to my regret i was never a devout reader. As of Prog 1800, however, I have been a dedicated fan and now a subscriber. And boy howdy does it feel good! I have also been spending that time picking up a multitude of TPBs and trying my best to fill in the gaps in my Thrillpower memory banks, thanks in no small part to the posts on here.

I'm very much looking forward to getting my oar in here and joining in with some great discussions. Oh, I should also add that I have a fairly mighty comic collection outside of the 2000AD world and used to spend a ferocious amount of money on comics every week (I even put in some hard graft working in a comic shop a brave few years ago), but have now decided just to abandon all other weekly/monthly comics in favour of the prog. Turns out it is pretty much everything I want in a comic with a breathtaking level of talent showcased on a weekly basis, it just took me too damn long to realise.

Needless to say, I'll be making up for lost time!

Oh, I'm from Belfast. In case anybody wanted to know.

Welcome to the board fella. Btw I am you with about one years additional reading of the prog. Reading your post was like reading my own comics biography. I live just outside Belfast.

Are you sure you're not me mate?

Strip phase 2 scheduled for next week. I would love Strip to succeed-it really has excited this old dinosaur.

D'Israeli's own references
http://disraeli-demon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/stickleback-number-of-beast-part-1.html

Amazing stuff.

The odd thing for me is that I like Reaper-its just so conspicuously strung out.

Unfortunately for me the meg is a luxury buy at the moment. I can't help but compare the prog and meg and prioritise my spending accordingly. I have loved some stuff in the meg but its not consistent enough for me.

I have been reading the meg for a few issues now. I have this strange syndrome that looks forward to the issue then feels relatively deflated after the actual reading of it.

I am in harder economic times these days and don't think I can justify the cover price particularly with American Reaper taking up so much space. I really like the story line but it is a 5 pager innit?

Glad the thread is going down so well with the short connoisseurs amongst you!

I now include a picture from war time and this shows the true horrors of it all. I hope you realise that it is quite hard to include this one, as I'm having flashbacks now!

Commando with all due deference and respect I must say you look like someone from the paramilitary wing of the Village People in that photo.

Its this sort of thing that had me give up superhero comics after a life time of addiction and return after a 30 year break to 2000AD.

For me, the issue here is less about Card and more about DC.

Card's opinions are vile, bigoted and fringe-extremist. He says, for example, that 'many' gay people are made gay as the result of rape, molestation or 'disturbing seduction' and spend the rest of their lives wishing to be made un-gay (in the same article, he suggests that if gay people want the legal rights afforded by marriage then they should just marry a person of the opposite sex and pretend to be straight).

Card has translated his status as an author into creating an audience for his political views; these are not privately held views, he has created the link between his beliefs and his work and it is entirely fair to judge one in terms of the other.

My issue with him landing the Superman gig is this: if Card held and publicly voiced* similarly intolerant opinions about black or Jewish people, he simply would not have got the job. No question. DC's decision sends a message that intolerance of gay people is somehow less bad than racism or antisemitism.

It's not, and that's what DC needs to recognise.

Jim

*At the end of the day, many people are bigots in their own heads. If we're honest, we all are to some degree. It's natural to fear the different -- it's what we choose to do with those fears that matters.

Everything Jim said and as for the bible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWuXpfXSl5Y

I am not saying for a second that this negates centuries of church sponsored homophobia but here's a bit of a bomb dropped recently by a leading English evangelical.

http://www.redletterchristians.org/steve-chalke-drops-the-bomb-in-support-of-committed-faithful-same-sex-relationships-2/

I don't want this debate to turn all theological but just to highlight that there are divirgent opinions on this out there. I personally don't want to stone anyone though I did try to hit next doors dog with an onion once.

The big problem with a lot of the religious debate surrounding homosexuality is that it focuses on selective use of Scripture.  Far too often it tends to miss the parts that talk about forgiveness and focusing on personal shortcomings.  At the end of the day the negative comments about homosexuality in the Bible are actually few and far between and pale into comparison compared to the overarching message about man's relationship with God.  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone ...."

With regard to Mr Card writing the character.  Personally it doesn't really bother me because it is a character that I have never really taken to in a big way and Mr Card has not produced anything I thought worth reading in a while.

For anyone who wants to take a squint at a theology that doesn't serve as a mandate for prejudice and that imho needs reading by every Christian that thinks despising people for their sexuality is ok:

http://www.soulforce.org/resources/what-the-bible-says-and-doesnt-say-about-homosexuality/


Maybe God doesn't hate gays after all.

For me, the issue here is less about Card and more about DC.

Card's opinions are vile, bigoted and fringe-extremist. He says, for example, that 'many' gay people are made gay as the result of rape, molestation or 'disturbing seduction' and spend the rest of their lives wishing to be made un-gay (in the same article, he suggests that if gay people want the legal rights afforded by marriage then they should just marry a person of the opposite sex and pretend to be straight).

Card has translated his status as an author into creating an audience for his political views; these are not privately held views, he has created the link between his beliefs and his work and it is entirely fair to judge one in terms of the other.

My issue with him landing the Superman gig is this: if Card held and publicly voiced* similarly intolerant opinions about black or Jewish people, he simply would not have got the job. No question. DC's decision sends a message that intolerance of gay people is somehow less bad than racism or antisemitism.

It's not, and that's what DC needs to recognise.

Jim

*At the end of the day, many people are bigots in their own heads. If we're honest, we all are to some degree. It's natural to fear the different -- it's what we choose to do with those fears that matters.

Everything Jim said and as for the bible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWuXpfXSl5Y

I am not saying for a second that this negates centuries of church sponsored homophobia but here's a bit of a bomb dropped recently by a leading English evangelical.

http://www.redletterchristians.org/steve-chalke-drops-the-bomb-in-support-of-committed-faithful-same-sex-relationships-2/

I don't want this debate to turn all theological but just to highlight that there are divirgent opinions on this out there. I personally don't want to stone anyone though I did try to hit next doors dog with an onion once.

I'm involved work-wise in anti-prejudice work and while the greater part of my time has been involved in Norn Iron's sectarian divide I have also been involved in anti-homophobic work. I agree there is still a lot of work to be done but as an old fart i am also encouraged by what i often observe as a youth worker where young people are concerned. A person's sexuality is often regarded as a non issue among young 'uns, a situation that I contrast with my own teenage memories of anyone even suspected of being gay when the roof of the world threatened to cave in.

Follow the link that should get tagged below. Or search iTunes for Everything comes back to 2000ad

Thanks blue.