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Anyone enlighten me on what Dredd is referring to with 'Look at Guatemala'?

Doesn't ring any bells, its the kind of throw away line that the Big W does and other writers build a world around... all of which I love

I was wondering that too.  But I like it if it's not referring to anything in particular; makes you realise there's a whole rest of a world outside MC1.

[x]

Hmm. So conflicted. Obviously I want more Strontium Dog; obviously I want Carlos done right by; do I want Stront without Ezquerra or Wagner? Really not sure.

To be honest, I wouldn't really have been interested in more Stronty Dog without Ezquerra - it was his strip much more than Wagner's*. It's difficult to think of a strip more defined by the personality and idiosyncrasies of a creator outside the world of US indie comix.

It'd take a special kind of dick to argue that the Ezquerra family shouldn't continue to benefit from his creation, just to protect his Special Feelings, though.


* or Grant, who always seems to get written out of discussion of Strontium Dog, for some reason

John Wagner and Alan Hebden panel at Enniskillen Comic Convention

Wagner wants editorial to continue Strontium Dog without his involvement*. He says Carlos's family should receive royalties from future stories - if Tharg's prepared to bend his rules and pay creators royalties when others use company-owned characters, he gets major Good Guy points.

More interesting, to me, is Wagner's desire to continue Ezquerra's Spector character with either Colin MacNeil or Simon Coleby.


* It's interesting that, in this case, it's editorial who were reluctant to carry on making cash by passing the character on to another creator. It's a Bizarro World version of how things usually play out in the comic industry

Probably just me, but it's in slightly poor taste to use the streets of Dubrovnik as a way of giving us all our vicarious war jollies. Less than 30 years ago those streets were actually bombed to hell - just weird thinking about how a survivor might view this glossy American programme essentially staging a fantasy re-enactment.

Dubrovnik was heavily shelled during the Croatian War of Independence (1991).  Whilst the King's Landing bombardment is partially filmed in Dubrovnik (and partially recreated on a set in Belfast), they modeled the fiery rain of destruction on the allied fire bombing of Dresden in 1945.

Whilst Game of Thrones is a form of entertainment, I don't think that disallows it from tackling difficult themes (such as the horrors of a civilian population being bombarded or a city being pillaged).  One might call it subversive.  Whilst watching it, rather than getting "war jollies", I felt shaken by the plight of the characters.  We could do with being reminded of Dresden's plight once in a while.

Fans of The News had Aleppo in mind when a dazed and bloodied Arya woke up in the ruins, covered in more plastering dust than The Nephilim.

Half of the online commentary about the show seems to come from those who've never wasted a second of their lives imagining what it might be like to be on the receiving end of precision airstrikes designed to reduce enemy capability, so bludgeoning them into some form of imaginative empathy by sticking Hillary Clinton on top of a B2-Stealth Dragon seems like a pretty sick burn.

Y'all are too invested in the show*. I'm sure it's not working out the way you wanted, but the plotting and drama's mostly solid. It's not up there with The Sopranos or Mad Men, but it can show its face alongside Boardwalk Empire and Godless.


* I've only watched this season. I didn't want to have anything in common with the pricks who can't wait to tell everyone they've never seen it, as if that's some kind of accomplishment.

[She was based on Debbie Harry]

She was based on Debbie Harry ... I'm not sure she's particularly Debbie Harry

She looks a lot more like Joni Mitchell there.

https://jonimitchell.com/images/jm0014-300.jpg

Bolland's Anderson looks like almost anyone except Debbie Harry. She doesn't even look like the way Bolland draws Debbie Harry. *

I reinstated more of that Bolland quote because it's interesting to watch how he goes along with the leading question then walks it back. Not sure I buy Gosnell's story, but it's worth hearing.


* Which doesn't look an awful lot like Debbie Harry.

[one-off]

... his one-off Dredd Christmas one-off

https://www.dictionary.com/irony

Everybody loved You Are Deadpool, which was essentially Ewing doing his one-off Choose Your Own Adventure Dredd Christmas one-off as a series.

That went down so well Ewing's been given the role of Albert Speer in the creation of Marvel 1000, a terrifying celebration of Disney's triumph in replacing all human culture. *

The distinction of being the only creator to devise any kind of formal innovation in mainstream comics since Will Eisner forgot to rule-up the panel borders means Marvel will want to squeeze Ewing tight to see if any more pips come out. **


* On the plus side, it features Chris Weston. ** Maybe we'll get lucky, and he'll run over Ike Perlmutter's dog, or Something

According to legend, Debbie Harry was the model for Anderson – true? She pretty much was ... She was based on Debbie Harry.

I think I did a Forbidden Planet advert and I drew a lot of famous people into that, such as Debbie Harry and David Bowie. I think I must have just drawn her. I'm not sure she's particularly Debbie Harry ... The thing I remember about her was she had to be bright and breezy, sort of smile a lot ... To me, that bright-eyed face was absolutely key for her.

(Brian Bolland, speaking to David Bishop's Vicious Imagery blog, February 2007

Deirdre Vine was Judge Anderson. There was a shot that we needed for a cover, and I got a camera with a very long lens on it and did a snap of her, from when she didn't know, and gave the snap to Brian Bolland and said 'make Anderson look like that'.

(Kelvin Gosnell, speaking to Michael Molcher for the 2000ad Thrillcast, March 2018)

Bolland didn't draw an Anderson cover until Eagle's US reprint title, long after he and Vine left the Nerve Centre. Still looking more like Judge Anderson than Debbie Harry ever did, Vine's untroubled by Gosnell capturing her likeness, and corrects his characterisation of her move into magazines as pursuit of her real interests.

As Pat Mills remembers, Vine held a genuine interest in science fiction, and was teaching a course on sci-fi cinema when she applied for the post of sub-editor on 2000ad. She enjoyed working with Wagner, Mills and 'all the fantastic artists', only moving to women's interest titles because Tharg's pay was 'abysmal'. Plus ça change!

... great concepts for characters, but can he draw the world - the retro-futuristic city - can he pull off sequential strip art?

There are some sequentials and cityscapes on the Artstation account I linked to above, bud.

To be honest, I was sceptical about the quality of artist Mills would be able to attract for this project. If Gareth Sleightholme isn't soon following the path Dan Cornwell trod, from founding father's self-published project to Galaxy's Greatest, it'll be because a US publisher got to him first.

All images © Gareth Sleightholme 2019, from The Executioners, the fictional analogue of Judge Dredd in Mills's 2000ad parody comic, Space Warp:





Mills has obviously read that the richest Youtube personality is an 8-year-old who does unboxing videos. You can watch him reacting like a kid with a new toy when he sees Sleightholme's art, here. Listening to Pat Mills at 0.25 speed, to screencap those images, was a big thrill for a fan of Chris Morris's Blue Ja-aa-aaa-mmmm.

... Mach-1 Direction

Taylor Swifty's Return

Halo Jonas Brothers

     and

Mean Ariana Grande

No problem with areolae or evisceration, but I didn't notice their absence. When the Megazine launched, it was (wrongly) assumed that all the sexy violence and pagan communism would decamp there, leaving Tharg free to lure kids in with all the Inspector Ramm and Chronos Carnival they could handle.

That strategy has a certain appeal today, except - as the creator interviews around 2000jr have pointed out - 21st-century kids want to read stories about characters just a little older than themselves. And there's a sizeable section of the geriatric readership who feel the same.

Unless Tharg's confident Mach-1 Direction will bring on thousands of new readers instantly, I'm not sure he can afford to lose the DOES ANYONE REMEMBER MEAN ARENA? crowd.

[1989]

... one day in 1987

1989, idiot.

[any]

Would the 2000AD brand have the weight it does if it had been entirely creator-owned from day one?

Creator ownership was baked into the DNA of 2000ad from day one. The promise of owning all rights to their work was how IPC scammed John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra* into creating the company's most profitable character.

The only reason any 2000ad creator is paid royalties is because, one day in 1987, John Wagner marched into John Davidge's office, dumped a ton of reprints on the desk, and pointed out that he'd made 'not one fucking penny' from them.

A creator made a fuss, then a system that was common across the industry, and had endured for decades, changed forever.


* ... and Pat Mills into creating the comic itself.

[actually]

Is this the first money Pat has ever received from his work on the Horned God then, or is he just unhappy with the latest paycheck

It's money the creators are contractually entitled to. If Hachette reckon they shift more units by publishing the first book as a loss leader, let them put their money where their mouth is, rather than expecting Rebellion or the creators to take a hit on their behalf.

I was happy to pick up Hachette editions of America and The Apocalypse War for a couple of quid when I thought they were a freebie from one of the largest publishers on Earth. If I'd known I was actually picking the pockets of Carlos Ezquerra, Colin MacNeil, Alan Grant & John Wagner, I'd have told them to stuff their books* up their collective arse.


* Squarebound hardbacks, with nasty pointy edges.