Messages

They're from the strip telling the story of Judge Giant's final assessment, which ran in the Megazine (it must be in Case Files 21 or 22)

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=megprofiles&choice=2.50

Actually, it's one word more than necessary ...

[I enjoyed the story]

That's presuming that they're using quaint old-fashioned digital computers & neural nets ...

All perfectly reasonable points, but this is a story that started with a character actually saying  good job these translator patches will allow the Sovs to understand our speech, and these nanobots will baffle their defences.

I really need to restate that I enjoyed the story; it's impossible to make more than 3 posts on a topic without looking like you're claiming the story has ruined your life.

Fiendish

Yeah, I said all that above, guys. That's delivering computer code via a biological interface - not sure what makes that a psychic virus.

My computer was delivered to my house by a human from Argos; that doesn't mean my computer is a biological computer. Like I say, it's probably just a matter of terminology.

[psychic]

I know Dredd ain't exactly hard SF but the ending sort of got on my tits.  "Psychic virus?"  What's one of them when it's at home Rob?  And it makes their aircraft crash?

It's either psychic in nature, in which case it wouldn't work on a computer, or it's computer code, in which case you don't need Megacity's top psychic to get it onto Sovnet - just a USB stick.

The problem might just be the terminology; if Anderson had said she was implanting a virus, everyone would have assumed she was using a psychic link with Martin to transmit code.

Everyone enjoyed the story, so it doesn't really matter.

[canon]

See, canon!

You win!

[Both]

.
Patrol Wagon is a good rationalisation*, but the name's probably a gag based on the Paddy wagons referred to above. The use of the archaic term 'wagon' is difficult to explain otherwise.

Both theories are just fanwank, though. Maybe next time Wagner does a Q&A, one of us can put their fascinating question about when we're going to see Judge Death again to one side, and get the real explanation, straight from the horse's mouth.


* Although it doesn't explain why Pat wagons aren't P wagons, like H wagons

.
Hartlepool is a foreign country, they do things* differently there.


* ... to monkeys

annuals without a date ... were apparently printed for the Australian and New Zealand market. Perhaps to do with the length of time it would take for these annuals to ship there. Without a year there was no 'best before date' giving them a much longer shelf life.

... aaah! Cheers, David.

Manta Prowl Tanks ... don't appear to be particularly fast or manoeuvrable

... yet they're small enough to fit down a sewer!*


* See Michael Carroll and Paul Davidson's New Tricks, prog 1884. John Wagner and Greg Staples think Mantas are suitable for kicking in doors (Dark Justice, 1912)

[so]

Well, my copy (and every other copy I've seen) has got 1978 printed on both covers and the spine, so it looks like Eddie does have something unusual!

Not so unusual. The only time I've seen the cover of the 1978 2000ad Annual is on Barney, and the image depicted there doesn't get all Flavor Flav (link).

For all I know, the version with the date is a rarity.

[shaolin _monkey]

"manta prowl tank" is also rather odd phrasing now I come to think of it - does a tank prowl?

In the same way an Opel Manta basks in shallow waters, hoovering up plankton. Mankind has a long history of attaching meaningless mood names to technological creations.

shaolin _monkey: do you want a picture of Carlos's Manta (striped like a flat fish) or absolutely everyone else's Manta (asymmetrical tank without wheels)?

The Manta got its own introductory story, fixing the name to the characteristic Ian Gibson touch of the judge helmet turret. Pat wagons, H wagons and everything else in Megacity One look different every time they appear.

Can't wait to see how the Manta looks when rendered in Sculpey ...

[money]

Q.  Why do you think the year was omitted? 

Because at that point, there were no other 2000ad annuals*. Same reason Rocky isn't called Rocky 1.


* Thanks to IPC's policy of merging comics, there was a better than fifty-fifty chance there never would be another 2000ad annual. Some titles seemed to keep on putting out annuals long after the parent title folded, but I've never really understood why some did and others didn't. Other than money, obviously

[Savage]

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Savage: Comic Rock volume II.

Mills joins Moore and O'Neill for a drink in the Out Of Copyright Work Saloon. I suppose retyping Old West doggerel gives him something to do while Goddard puts Bill through his paces, the textures of that large image on page 3 revealing the hitherto unacknowledged influence of Carol Swain upon his inking style.

Overlaying a familiar work upon a new one is an invitation to draw parallels between the two. It's difficult to see any here, but if Pat needs some text to stop the page looking bare, I'd rather see Savage blowing stuff up with a caption box reading THERE WAS A MINER, FORTY-NINER than OBEY, AS A DEAD BODY OBEYS!

My only real problem with the CORN BEING AS HIGH AS AN ELEPHANT'S EYE is I get so used to the rhythm that when the captions switch back to prose I carry on reading them as verse. It actually takes a few lines for the scansion to go awry:


SO LEMME THANK THE DEVIL
FOR SHOWING ME HOW I FELL
I'M READY FOR HIM TO CAST ME
TO THE FIERY FLAMES OF HELL

I'VE GOT PROFILES OF THE STRAW DOGS
AND WHERE I CAN FIND OUR WEAPON
CACHES THERE'S JUST ONE FILE MISSING
THE THOUSAND YEAR STARE