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The BBC making Science Fiction again, quite scary really.  We've had Dr Who, Life on Mars, Quatermass, and A for Andromeda and Torchwood to come.  The BBC used to do this all the time until some gits decided SF was a no-no.  Enjoy these days, for they are few...

A FOR ANDROMEDA
Monday 27 March 2006 9pm-10.30pm; 1.20am-2.50am; Friday 31 March 10pm-11.30pm; 2.50am-4.20am (signed)

Following the success of The Quatermass Experiment last year, BBC Four tackles the 1960s sci-fi classic A for Andromeda.

When a group of scientists receive a message from outer space telling them to build a computer, they follow the orders with disastrous results. The computer is far more advanced than they imagined and proceeds to build a biological robot, Andromeda, from one of their dead colleagues.

Kelly Reilly leads the cast as Andromeda, with Tom Hardy, David Haig, Charlie Cox and Jane Asher also starring.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/andromeda.shtml" target="_blank">A for Andromeda

Had a quick look at this in the comic shop, I have to say it looked absolutely fantastic.  No dark and dingy pages, a really nice shiny solid hardback collection.  

And I'll have to pick it up at some point, but there's so much amazing stuff I'm seriously waiting till post May Bristol Expo or I won't be able to afford to put my own book out.

Paul Gravett has a very nice 2 page article on 2000AD and it's graphic novels in the current Comics International.  It also had a good plug for Something Wicked the horror anthology, articles on V and Jack Staff.

I'm after letters for issue 2 of omnivistascope*, so if you have something to say, why not e-mail me?  Though if it's a crap letter I might just use a rolled up copy of issue 2 to beat you to death.  But with its extra pages and high quality strips you'll enjoy every moment.  And not in a wrong way.

Cheers

Paul

*As seen in the Megazine and Troutmaster Weekly as well as on Anglian Television.

As reported by a british tabloid, Liz and K9 might have their own kid's TV series.

Personally I'm not convinced, but Liz is in the new Who, she has her own audio adventures and the BBC have considered a K9 kids series in the past.  So it's possible.

I'll certainly watch it if it's a proper kids drama and not the lame sub-rentaghost pantomime that passes for a lot of kids TV these days.

Of course, I shall complain if they don't keep the original title sequence and music, it's a classic.

K9!  Doo-doo-doo-du-doooo...

Solar Wind 6 ? Have you Forgotten your P.E. Kit?

Issue Six of the national comic award winning tribute to Britain?s? comic heyday features a merger with Sporto ? The Comic about Sport!  
It?s Traditional Sports versus Future Sports, with two teams of 11 strips (plus subs) competing for the comics title!  

The Solar Wind team, coached by none other than stellar editor Cosmic Ray includes Murderdrome: 1997, Griefbringer, Rollerbowls, Ultradarts 1999 and Death Olympics 2012AD.  They may be the underdogs in this match, but they?ve slain many a bigger title in local merger derbies and have the added advantage of future technology and a high body count.  

Then, managed by The Ref, come such well loves strips as The Lofty and the Lowly, Donny Darto, Sidney?s Shoes, Freeze Frame Finnegan and Pot Luck!  The Ref knows his job is on the line with this match.  If he wins, it?ll mean a new lease of life for his comic, but if he loses then his logo will shrink each week and he?ll join Starlord and Big E on the dole queue.

Entrance to this terrific match costs a measly ?3 (plus ?1 for ticket postage), and can be ordered from match official Paul Scott, 13 Kiln Crescent, Bishop Middleham, Ferryhill, County Durham, DL17 9AP, or via the website at www.solarwindcomic.co.uk.  All match-goers will be thoroughly entertained with letters and features as well as the main match, and everyone takes home a free gift with (reputed) magical powers!

Well, I thought someone here might be interested in hearing what a Romanian chap has to say about the Romanian Comics Scene.  I find this stuff interesting, anyway, it's amusing to see that the current state of their comics industry is about the same as ours, and in some cases are the same comics!

Here we go...

We had a few magazines with romanian comics art but all have died. The last died a few months ago. We also have few translations like Ultimate Spider-Man, a so-called SuperEroi (SuperHeroes) mixt magazine with translation from Dark Horse crossovers such as
Superman and Madman, Batman and Tarzan, Superman and Terminator and Planet of Apes and traditional kids stuff such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Tom & Jerry, Mosaik.

Occasionally we have albums too: there is an editor who publishes romanian underground comics albums (the series title is Hardcomics, nothing to do with porn) and others publishes also isolated translated albums (few Asterix albums, around 9 Garfield albums, 2 Lucky Luke albums).

There are also some imported comics magazines from Belgium and France such as Lanfeust, Fluide Glacial, Bodoi, BD Magazine, W.I.T.C.H. and from UK Dennis the Menace, Classic Comics, Beano and Commando. By the way, who on Earth is still reading these english
titles in UK?  The company should have imported 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine instead . Am I right?


And in a bit more detail from another e-mail:

By the way, now that you mentioned Dandy being the oldest UK ongoing comics title, I realized that is also imported in Romania, together
with Beano, Dennis the Menace, Commando and Classic Comics. I forgot to tell you about the new edition of Pif magazine which is imported from France. I buy it because is the only foreign comics magazine which was available (limited availability) under the
comunist regime from Romania, when I was kid.

Pif was the comics magazine which was supported or edited by the french socialist party so you can figure out why was tolerated by the comunist system from Romania. More than this, one of the most
popular characters from Pif Magazine, who's name is Rahan, had reprinted his adventures in albums (such as the Chronicles of Judge Dredd albums, but coloured) which were printed in the comunist
Romania (!).

Later I found out that even some beautiful hardcover Superman albums
were printed here, but they were never aloud to be sold on the romanian comunist market. So the pupil who were born around 1968 (as myself) grew up with these french comics titles (Pif and RAHAN). Now, the new generations are more american oriented.

Here you have one online address where you can see the complete scans (made by a devoted fan) of Quadrat nr. 1 (1996), which is
considered by me and many others to be the best 100% romanian comics achievement after the anti-comunist revolution (december 1989).

Unfortunately, Quadrat Magazine died after 2 numbers, I suppose because of totally lack of publicity and because it has been very poorly spread around the country.
http://www.visualart.ro/forum/showthread.php?t=6325

The following online address is of the underground Hardcomics (only romanian authors published by my knowledge) which issued 4 albums up
to this moment.
http://www.hardcomics.ro/
Go to the "Old Sait" (Old Site) link section and you'll be able to see a few samples from the first 2 albums published. Warning! Some samples have explicit sexual content by I wouldn't call it pornography.

The latest romanian comics magazine which died around 2 months ago was called CARUSEL (new edition) and it had mix-content: romanian comics short stories and translations of some Conan and Aliens Dark Horse series.

I think that the 2 numbers which appeared were totally sponsored by Sandu Florea, a romanian comicbook artist who lives in USA at this
moment and works as inker for Marvel, Dark Horse and many other publishers. He also published some of his work in CARUSEL, some comics created with romanian colaborators, some with american ones.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other online address then the following which shows you only the covers of the 2 numbers. Cover of Nr. 1 is made (pencil+ink) by Sandu Florea and cover of Nr. 2 is made by Tudor Popa who also worked for Quadrat (cover of nr.1 and also the first painted serial title "Aranca")
http://www.caruselbd.blogspot.com/

Hope someone enjoyed all that!

Paul

Up for sale amongst all the daft TV annuals, huge amounts of Blakes 7 stuff and RPG material is some stuff I promised to let people know about including all my Hammer Horror Comics (and books).  They are okay condition, a bit worn, but still okay.

Also, someone said they wanted to read Watchmen but didn't want to pay ?20 for it, so there's a copy on for ?3 inc post.

I've been sorting out a lot of stuff this year, and just decided to get rid of it all, more or less.  And between now and May I'll be selling off a lot of stuff I never use, and using the money to put out some comics.  Yeah, I could just chuck it all in a canal and cut out the middleman, but I'm trying to be environmentally friendly.

Feel free to browse and snoop around the rest of my stuff.  I was just taking advantage of the 5p listing day, the vast bulk of my Games Workshop, RPG and Comics stuff will be going up between february and April.  And I'll pimp it here.

If anyone wants to pimp anything using this thread, then please do, so my shame will burn a little dimmer.

Thanks

Paul

Link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6474003218&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1" target="_blank">Horror under the Hammer (sorry)

Oi, Russel T, that's how you write a time travel show!

Cracking stuff.

I have played Rebellion's Gunfighter game for the PS1, which was very entertaining and the best Light gun game I've played on the PS1 yet.  And I intend to get GF2 at some point as well, when I've blasted my way through my other light gun games.

As there are only about 15 games for the light gun, I would have thought that any good game would win an audience amongst all such players.

Rebellion have done these sort of games before, so presumably have the know-how.  Dredd was a light gun game on the PS1.

Also, a Dredd light gun game could be a lot of fun, with much more craziness than you'd normally find in these sort of games.

You could start with Dredd in Mega City, shooting perps, boingers, weirdo's and skysurfers.

Then head out into the cursed Earth to tackle the Angle gang, Fink Angel (with his pizzening balls), Starborn Things (blasting them off people as they head towards the spaceship, and trying not to get got yourself), Land Sharks, Gila Munja, Mutants, oh all sorts of stuff.

Then end up with the big bad guys like Orlok, Death anf the others.  With er, some sort of vague story linking 'em togther...

Well, I think it would be fun, but I suppose attentions will probably be turning to PS3.  A fun Dredd light game would be great, I think anyway.  Same for Eyetoy.

Heh, I do, so if anyone wants to join me I'd feel less shameful.

I'm selling a lot of old Iron Maiden records, some plastic citadel skellingtons and a collection of Fortean Times, which DXB (or whatever abbreviation he goes by these days) is bidding on.

About Thursday or Friday I'll be putting up all my Hammer stuff, which is a couple of books, a fanzine and quite a big run of House of Hammer Comics/mags and some monster mag posters.  Some Call of Cthulhu stuff (Delta Green) and my AC/DC records.

Sometime after that I'll be putting up various books about HP Lovecraft, oh and some other junk that's taking up space.

Cheers

Paul

Well, after venting my frustration with the prog last week, I find myself a sad dried up old geyser, with nothing better to do than start the prog thread.

Mandroid continues to entertain, as he switches gears into full attack mode, and the story starts to throw up new leads.

And Savage goes out with a murderous rampage.  I can't say how much I'm pleased he will be back, to go on further murderous rampages.  Just goes to show to my mind how a second series can really consolidate on what was an okay first series, and really get to work.

As usual skipped Sin Dex, if you are allergic to peanuts, don't eat peanut butter is my advice.

Breathing Space ends.  I suspect I didn't give it the attention it deserved, as I was confused till the end.

Leatherjack continues on with the waffle, but I can live with that as at least things happen this week.

Not sure Fint has Savage down quite right, but it's a colourful and exciting cover, and more importantly the logo is partly obscured to annoy the clean logo brigade.  Hurrah!

Greetings Creeps and Freaks, Judge Weasel here.

Having taken part in my newly acquired PS2 tactical simulation machine (Scenario Dredd Vs. Death), I've managed to put much of what I've learnt in the field to test.

When Vampires attack, run away and let them eat the citizens.  It takes their mind off you, and gives you time to slowly sneak up on them and blast them to death from a distance.  

Otherwise they jump at me, I panic and go round in circles as they eat my face off.  Or I'll go into a fear ridden crouch I can't get out of or back away slower than vampires run (effect: see face eating).

So far it has taken me two hours to get past the first 21 vampires.  I had to have a break when on the second level they said there was a hundred of the buggers.

How I passed basic Judge Training I'll never know.  A severe middle ear infection has effected by balance cauding me to giddily meander everywhere and I kill citizens almost every 5 minutes.

I appreciate a lot of Judges went under this sort of trianing some time ago (last year), but if there's a more pathetic judge than me, gee, I'd like to hear it.  

Your Local Judge,

Judge Weasel

'Ineffectual on crime, and a cause of crime'

Not very 2000AD, but has anyone been watching Coast on BBC2?  

The one on the North East pandered to the stereotypes of the region and once they got out of the countryside, they just stuck their nice little boots in.  

By the time they ended on 'never mind this shithole, next week we've got...' I was already swearing at the TV.

So, if anyone else saw their region covered, do they think it was fair?

Well, I'm sure anyone interestd already knows about this by now.  I'm currently putting together issue 6 of Solar Wind, the homage to boys adventure comics of the seventies and eighties.  This issue is a sports theme, either future sports, or traditional sports.  I'm particularly looking for volunteer artists, as ever, but could take a few bright (and short!) scripts.

All the best

Paul Scott

www.solarwindcomic.co.uk

I'm off out, but you might want to go to the BBC kids site and see new Doctor Who David tennant chatting.  I wonder if they've warned him that some kids might be grown ups, pretedning to be kids, and some of them are doiwnright wrong.

From 5:30 aparently.  

If you take a look, let me know what it was like.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/chat/livechat_video.shtml" target="_blank">Dr Who Chat

Leah Moore and John Reppion will be doing a signing in Manchesterville later in the month.

"We'll be signing at Travelling Man in Manchester from 12 noon on Saturday the 27th of August as part of the UK Comics Nation 365 Day Event."

I just got issue 2, and am enjoying it.  I suspect (as ACDC would say) there's gonna be a jailbreak next issue. It's all very enjoyable.

I have to say I find all those adverts very distracting!  Makes me glad for 20000AD being the way it is.

Link: http://moorereppion.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Blog

No, not a Blakes 7 tribute, but the Russians in the min-sub have been saved.

I can't think of many worse ways to go, and to be honest I sort of assumed they had had it, so something of a relief on Sunday morning to find out they are safe.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4128614.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4128614.stm

I don't normally want to add to the mountain of 'I've lost my sock' posts, but I hope this rates a good deal higher!

Congratulations to The Watcher and Mrs Watcher on the Birth of Mini-Watcher last week.  Joe Patrick Watcher is a healthy boy, who has already been signed up to work for Cosmic Ray (which probably flaunts all work regulations as per usual).

Anyway, well done.  Another 2000AD fan has passed on his thrill receptive genes.

Well, my last official function on my undiplomatic visit to the south of England was to see Deano's After Dark, a late night chat show with Dean Learner and guests.  It was a trial work out for the new TV series, which is being filmed for Channel Four later this autumn.  And if you liked Darkplace, I suspect you'll like this, in a different way.

To be honest, just to be in the same room as Dean Learner, oralising, was a tremendous experience.

Anyone else find it hard to get it on with a woman unless she's covered in worms and silt?

...I know what I'm doing.

Got Sledge Series 1 fir ?13.99 in the Play.com sale.  it's very silly, and still made me chuckle.  Bit of a bargain.