Messages

(being an L&H fan myself)

I knew there was a reason I liked you!

Cheers

Jim

Have either of you been to the Laurel & Hardy museum up in... um, the Lake District somewhere? It's bloody fantastic! And the man who curates/ lives in it is astonishing. Anyone with even a passing interest in L & H should make an effort to go.

Steev

I absolutely agree. That's my thinking on the matter too.

However, I have a plan.

(Huddle round... everyone here? good)

We all subscribe... AND buy a newsagent copy. It's only an extra £1.90 a week- less than a beer (considerably less, as I found out last night on my first venture to a pub in two months), less than a packet of ten fags, more than a ticket to see XFactor winner Steve Brookstein- who played my local pub last year for a quid a pop.

We then GIVE AWAY the extra prog. Leave it on a bench, leave it on the train, on the bus, in a doctor's surgery. This attracts new readers.

Let's do it!

Steev

[because they are a regular here, on the 2000AD forum]

Okay- deep breath. Bear with me, this is difficult. My wife has just shown me a message she received, on Facebook, from someone both of us "unfriended" a month or so ago. This person had distressing links to a third party, whom neither my wife nor I wanted to have any connection to our lives, however tangential.

When this person was "unfriended", my wife sent them a very polite message explaining why- and that it was nothing personal to them specifically, just that in the circumstances it was the only thing we could do.

I'm going to now post BITS of the message here for you to read. I've deleted names, obviously. The complete message is saved on my wife's profile and a copy on our desktop, in case we need to seek further advice.

"My sister was in a very controlling marrage, you seem to exhibit the same manerisims, plus from what i have heard about (my name) (or "[my wife's name]'s boyfriend") causing trouble at various gigs you've performed at and his general reputation as violent, unstable, delusional and generely unplesant...

Obviously I don't know you that well but I just get a bad feeling, you seem a nice girl and a lot of people say very good things about you... everyone seems to say the same thing about your husband to the point where I am actually scared of him.
I am sure you know you've lost gigs because of him and others refuse to work with you because they don't want him turning up and attacking the audience etc."

Phew.

Now, quite patently, that is ALL a bunch of old bollocks. To me it's at the very least libellous (which is why I'm saving it up)- what does the Hive Mind think? The scary thing is that the person who wrote that friended me on Facebook- because they are a regular here, on the 2000AD forum and recognised my (then) avatar when searching.

I don't need to defend myself- but once again: the description of me this person paints is absolutely untrue.

Anyone who wants to know the name of this person, PM me- and watch your Friend Requests.

Steev

I'm not sure- but didn't it all start because somebody kept posting that some rubbish American "hunk" actor would be a perfect movie Dredd- again and again and again ad nauseum?- and instead of it becoming an ongoing joke, poor Trout got banned for mentioning it. Or something. I still don't know who the "both" were, who were banned in the thread I started about Mega City Architecture and it's similarity to rural England.

But it wasn't me, or Mike Gloady.

All very confusing!

Hope it's sorted soon, I hate this kind of thing.

Steev

Why the flip would anyone come here and post if they didn't read it every week? I know there's a bit of contorvery on that topic elsewhere, but I neverthelss am quite serious? It's like going to a Dr Who forum and not watching the programme. You just wouldn't get as much out of it as the other people using the site.

Oh, I dunno. Both 2000AD and Dr Who have massive ammounts of history- and both could (COULD, mind you) be viewed as having an appeal primarily down to nostalgia. With the increasing prevalence of Rebellion's trades (esp the Case Files, etc) I can see that people may come here to discuss the past despite being completely ignorant of the comic's current existence.

In fact, LIKE Dr Who, current 2000AD is so radically different than it was "in the golden age" (progs 1-300, at a guess) that I could equally see those same people deciding the current version is not for them- and no amount of our rabid fanboy spurting over Cradlegrave, Zombo, Dante, etc would change their minds. Wouldn't stop someone coming here to rave over The Beast of Blackheart Manner, The Apocalypse War and Shako- just as someone going to a Dr Who forum and being not in the least interested in anything post-2005 wouldn't stop them getting enjoyment in discussion over Talons, Nimon, Spearhead or Hartnell.

Personally, I started with prog one- and have been here ever since, more or less.

Steev

Steev

I currently have a very stretched and pixelated picture of John Carpenter's face looming out of the dark...

It was the downloadable Slaine one from this here site, but it's scanned-off-whiteness annoyed me too much.

Steev

Since the other thread was locked, I just wanted to point a massive hole in Mr Mike Gloady's argument- Ron Smith wasn't the only artist to draw the Big Meg as an "exaggerated normal city"- Vince Locke recently portrayed it as, er, well, a small town complete with houses and street, in that Pat Mills story about the very old serial killer.

So, nyah nyah, Mister Clever Dick Gloady! 

Steev

Been trying to load this for ten fucking minutes. And all I have to say, is "yeah, me too". So now Tharg had better bring it back or I'll pop a cap in his ass, seeing as I'm afflicted with laptop/dongle-rage.

Steev

That's terrible Mike- all my best to your mum and hope the whole family gets through okay. I guess we've all of us had encounters with cancer in one form or another, and it's never, ever, anything other than deeply frightening. Thoughts are with you, as if it needed saying.

Steev

Briefly, as about to go to work.

Kept quiet about last week's prog, cos I was underwhelmed. Too little diversity in strip, too many ads. This week, however... now THAT is a prog. A serious contender for "prog of the year", not a weak story in there- with possibly the only minor niggle being Shakara's four-page-plus-splash format, which I felt a bit of a waste. But really, if Henry Flint ran out of time due to that utterly remarkable second page, then it's a fair trade off. This run of Shakara is showcasing some of the best work I've ver seen from the Flint droid. Astonishing perspectives and machinery.

Dredd, Stront and Kingdom all utterly brilliant. Especially Stront. "Hunting men" indeed- I bet! Heh.

Dante's change of artist came at a good time for me. While Fraser and Burns are beyond the words I have for "good", I've become a little bored of Dante of late- this slight twist on the strip, with a slightly different visual style, seems to have been what it needed for me to appreciate it again. Splendid stuff.

BEst prog since the heady run that included Zombo and Cradlegrave. 2009 is shaping up to be a vintage year for Thrilpower.

Spundigs!

Steev

I've not seen the second one, but I didn't think a whole lot of Batman Begins- so I'm voting '(s)'.

Personally, I'll admit to being one of those odd comics-readers who can't stand Batman. Aside from The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum and Gothic, I've never read a Batman story I liked- and each of those mentioned above I admired because of the sheer comcis craft that went into them, not just because they were Batman.

However, having suffered enough tv and movie versions over the years, the thought of yet another exposure to the Penguin, Two-Face or grud help us The Riddler chills my blood. If there has to be a Bats3, why not use the Ventriloquist or Killer Croc? Or Soloman Grundy? A sprawling gothic adventure, set beneath Gotham, in elaborately-scary sewers, with Batman facing off against Croc and Grundy, I may be tempted to go see. Especially if The Ventriloquist had kidnapped someone and was holding them in one of the Joker's old lairs, at the heart of the dark labyrinth. That way, the "presence of Heath Ledger" could be felt, and somewhat appease the fanboys/girls, while at the same time using villains previously unseen and unruined by Joel Schumacher.

Mind you, I'd insist on Killer Croc having huge puffy nipples, in Joel's honour.

Steev

Second Division teenage sports team, based in Birmingham (transparently Birmingham City football club of the future) trying to get somewhere to do something.

I forget. I'll have to read it again- but it was aces (as they say in Birmingham).

Steev

I'm only a couple of episodes into Book 2, and haven't found that yet. I take it this is later on- will report back as and when I come to any "Claw escaping from prison" shenanigans.

Steev

Am I a terrible person for wanting a Second City Blues book 2?

No sir, you are not! I utterly loved Second City Blues (forever to be mixed up with Bad City Blue by drunken squaxx)- in fact I have, in my photo album a lovely picture of the issue that featured it on the cover.

In case anyone thinks the above is weird- said photo also has my eldest son's first pair of real shoes in it- both prog and shoes were bought on the same day. It's just a thing I do...

Steev

Steev

[was]

To those who don't understand the bile towards Disney: That's fine, you keep on consuming. But there is no way on Earth I'd allow my kids access to any of it. Thankfully, they are getting beyond the stage where things like that appeal to them- neither of them would know who 'Mickey Mouse' even was, for example.

The Disney Corporation is a vile corporate carbunkle upon the face of "entertainment"- it's not that I need to explain why that is, it's that you should know! I object to Disney on so many levels- as I said before, there aren't enough words in my computer to adequately sum up my horror at the prospect of them buying Marvel. My only hope is that the deal falters due to "Marvel shareholders and Competetion Authorities".

Seriously, this has really upset me. Back issues only from now on.

Steev