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Not sure about the hilarity factor here either, but one of the scenes in my Future Shock "The Enhancer" (Prog 1270) takes place in 'The Yak Bar', in homage to my esteemed co-droid El Spurioso's favourite ungulate.
The pyjamas worn by the lead character bear a panda motif because of an obscure running gag on the 2000AD newsgroup at the time. The reason for these in-jokes was that the story was partly inspired by alt.comics.2000ad and the amount of time I used to spend there.

Also the unfortunate couple in the story were named Peg and Dave as a nod to Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen (who victimizes people in a door-to-door style similar to the villains in the story), but that's a script in-joke not an art one.

In my next Future Shock, (Prog 1334, don't hold your breath) I only drew it, didn't write it. The story takes the pee out of Brit Art and I squeezed in a cameo of a famous YBA, chainsmoking and quaffing too much free bubbly at a gallery private view.

yours obscurely,

Sigu

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/index.php3?zone=news&page=features&choice=enhance" target="_blank">The Enhancer

http://www.2000adonline.com/images/page/enhance.jpg">

CALIBER wrote:
"Anyhow, here's hoping that McMahon's work may at some point in the future shape up and might once more be ranked with his Slaine artwork."

For crying out loud, it doesn't need to shape up! There's nothing wrong with it! Just because it's not crammed with detail doesn't make it rushed hack-work and just because you personally don't like it, doesn't mean it's crap.

SiG

Brian Bolland whose style has hardly changed in the last twenty years?

No disrespect intended to Brian, if it ain't bust don't fix it and all that, but it takes guts for an artist to move out of the safety zone of a successful style and McMahon's willingness to do this is one of the best things about his work.

And as Logan says, McMahon's storytelling is impeccable, whatever you think of his current style.

SiG

Looking at this week's prog, it occurred to me that Jim Baikie has taken a similar path to Frank Miller & Lynn Varley. This week's Dredd is to New Statesmen as DK2 is to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, i.e. not to everyone's taste, but much more energy thanks to the vibrant colours and looser, bolder drawing.

As for the story, I found it very uncomfortable reading, but maybe Mr Wagner and Tharg didn't anticipate the extent of the 11th September anniversary coverage.

SiG

Coincidentally, "Finisterre" is the title of MY forthcoming album. (Though obviously mine is a bunch of comic strips, not songs.)

Here endeth the plug.

SiG

Nah, Dennis the Menace will live for ever.

Thanks Mr Tips. Looking forward to Alan's and Cam's.

SiG

Frank Miller? *ptui* He killed our thought balloons!

S.

"i'm of the opinion that christopher columbus's voyages were faked. he took queen isabella's money & sodded off to ibiza for a year"

Reminds me of the episode of Blackadder II where they go round the Isle of Wight with a urine-drinking, legless Tom Baker.

SiG

Forgive me while I gush.

Part 2 _really_ works for me! Lovely pacing and some great dialogue. The story is opening up nicely with a clever bit of exposition and crafty use of background detail and Maliss is growing on me - a very sympathetic character, green lippy notwithstanding.

I am loving this ;-)

SiG

I'm not sure without checking, but I think the small pic used to advertise Dredd in prog 1 is McMahon.

SiG

Sound effects are only silly when they're in rainbow technicolour over black and white artwork.

Or when they're subbed into an atmospheric horror strip where the author didn't want them.

SiG

Heh heh. Sorry, it wasn't meant to be. just trying to be helpful!

SiG

"In that prog, the cover and episode were both by Brian Bolland."

Although Brian's friend Dave Harwood inked part of the interior art on this episode.

SiG

Soviet Sam,

you may have posted without thinking, but I'm going to assume you do believe Afghan people are responsible for the attack on New York last year.

For what it's worth, none of the 19 hijackers involved in the 11th September attacks were Afghan. 15 of them were Saudi, but that doesn't mean Saudi Arabia was behind the 11th September terrorist attacks either.

Although he was based in Afghanistan from 1996, Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, the 17th of 52 children of a Yemeni businessman. His terrorist network al-Qaeda is thought to operate in 40 to 50 countries, not only in the Middle East and Asia but in North America and Europe.

You can't blame one country for the attacks just as you can't blame one religion.

SiG