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Congratulations James,

Who says comic readers are nerdy virgins who can't get a girlfriend! Pah! I spit on your stereotype! The Simpsons has a lot to answer for.

Steev

I hope all goes well- my lovely and rather splendid lady delivered our firstborn, Bram Vincent Helsing, on Saturday at 4:53. It's a absolute blast being a dad and has even overshadowed (somewhat) the arrival of prog 1350 this morning.

Hope the labour is quick and easy.

Steev

As i said in another thread, the arrival of 1350 was slightly overshadowed by the birth of my son at the weekend, but here's what I thought anyway.

Generally, three strips is far too few for me. I'm in the "five or nothing" camp, sorry. That said,

Cover: Great paper, nice and heavy. Not keen on these montage shots unless done in an eighties stylee, with jaggedy lines and lots of text promising huge thrills. Looked too much like an annual from the early 90s for me.

Dredd: I love Charlie Adlard's art and this time he's backed by a great first part, so I'm happy. Nice to see the more troubling, human, side of Dredd, which is often ignored. Wagner seems to explore it very timidly, as if he's sure it will dilute the character- which it probably does in truth. Still, it's good to see a promo prog with an atypical Dredd story- helpfully batting away accusations of Dredd's one-dimensionality.

Slaine: Marvellous script, marvellous art. My top thrill. Mills's script really stirs the emotions and I can imagine him thumping the keys as he writes in a whirlwind of anger. Which is exactly how it should be. Clint Langley deserves to be held shoulder high and paraded through the streets as the king of powerful art that is unlike any other. After years of wandering in a Bisley-universe, Slaine is back.

Stronty: Hah! very funny, pacey and Mr. Ezquerra is on top form. Am I the only one, though, who misses the days when Johnny's afro was larger? He looks like he's had some kind of celebrity makeover, and it irks me.

Input: Keep this here every week Tharg, or I'll be releasing my genetically modified clone Rigellian Hotshots in your direction.

Free Gift: Just advertising fluff. We used to get this kind of thing all the time, and now it's an 'event'. Bring back badges and plastic doohickeys, or failing that, a packet of HubbaBubba.

Great prog all round though. Is the cover stock like this from now on?

Steev

"i remember years ago,seeing 541 going for silly money in fp in dublin"

Hi Dave,

Prog 541 was still going for silly money at the beginning of this year in Crow Corner. It even had a little sticker on the cellophane wrapper saying "very rare ltd distr". Blokey was very cagey over how rare was "rare", but he obviously felt it justified the inflated price.

As for the one with two covers- any idea why one came with a CD and one didn't?

Steev

No arguments there- no matter how great Spider-Man was as an adaptation, If it came to a choice, I'd take the comics any day. I would be very unhappy not to have access to the Stan Lee/ John Romita issues. They're some of the very first things little Bram is going to get thrust under his nose when he learns to read.

Actually, my mother tells me that I learned to read thanks to her buying me marvel comics. This does explain why my school reports at infant and junior school went something like this:

"Steev is a careful and imaginative writer of stories and has a reading ability far in advance of his age. However, there is no such word as "thwipp", nor is there any need write every story with aliterative character names. The world does not need to be threatened by giant aliens in purple pants each time and bad things don't always happen to good people."

Steev

It's weird how people seem not to like the DD movie. I thought it was dark and funky and fabulous, with great performances by Ben Affleck (who I normally care not one joy about) and Colin Farrell. Having never been a fan of The Crow movies, I thought that DD was how The Crow should have been.

For the record, here's my very adolescent "top list" of Marvel movies...

1. daredevil, 2. Spider-man, 3. Blade, 4. Blade 2, 5. X-Men 2, 6. X-Men, 7. Dr Strange, 8. Captain America, 176. Those old Thor cartoons where he didn't move much ("Over the rainbow bridge of AaaaasGARD, the god of THUNder the MIghty THOR") 7970. Hulk- which I loathed.

Steev

He does- stopped from walking under a car by a young Matt Murdock. And Daredevil is absolutely marvellous. My personal favourite of all the marvel movies so far.

Steev

Ashen-faced, eyeliner wearing, pvc, silk-and-leather-clad, huge booted sports-phobics, like me and the lady, will be dancin' in the streets if it rains ANY TIME NOW.

But, hopefully, not before 9am tomorrow, cos I have a new job to go to in the morning, and I'm "not exactly sure" where it is (read: Haven't a sodding clue) and so will be wandering around like a drenched git if it did.

Steev

"Lovely day?" "Lovely day?" My arse! It's horrible- at least 27 degrees here, and frankly that doesn't sit well with two elder goths trying to take their two week old gothlet for a stroll around the park. I have fac50 sunblock on, pvc trousers and NewRocks, so while the fault may be mine own, I still feel obligated to rant at the sky.

Bring on the rain, bring on the clouds, bring on the gloom.

I hate summer.

Steev

For the second week running, my subs prog didn't arrive this morning- but this week it was replaced by the megazine. Can anyone please tell me what's going on?

Ah, that'll explain it then.and at least i had my meg. And it's a good one too. Cheers for the info.

Steev

Mine arrived this morning- Wednesday. Sadly, the continuing battle to get my actual, real, and proper, name put in the address line continues. I am still 'Mark', according to the subs department. Have emailed them about it, despite having been assured it was fixed and this week would see it addressed to me. Sigh. A bit of a huge fuckup all round this week. Never mind, these things happen. I shan't hold it against Tharg's underpaid and overworked droids.

Great prog all round though. Enjoyed everything- except the lack of an Input, replaced by a dreary subs ad for some overrated adolescent wank-rag and the equally dreary cover that, following Cliff Robinson's generic effort last week, made me wonder where the original, thrill-powered covers have gone. Prog 214- now THAT's a cover!

Steev

... and I never got my "set" (if 4 of 6 can be called such) of "zarjaz postcards"- surely Tharg's cheapest letter column prize ever, you stingey green git- for having my letter in the Meg this month.

And while I'm on the subject, the red baseball cap I won years ago is still missing the '00A' from the '2000AD' logo. Mind you, not that I'd ever be seen wearing it in public. Especially not after a particularly rainy night in the mid-nineties, when a friend borrowed it to walk home in, kept it for months, and then admitted he'd used it as a "sperm catcher" after an impromptu wank upon getting home to find his mum's Gratton catalogue had arrived and the bra section had been expanded.

He did wash it before returning it, I hasten to add. Or so he said. It's not been near my head since- though I did once delight in watching an enormous twat that i know, stick it on his head in an effort to appear humorous one night.

Steev

Mine has wandered into the realm of endless night too. Now the question is- if it doesn't come tomorrow, do I go and buy one off the shelf anyway?

Subs? Don't talk to me about subs- three weeks with the wrong name on the envelope and STILL no mug.

Steev

Right Mr McNulty sir, you owe me a ton of ink, as I have just copied all of it so far into Word and prited the bugger out. 42 pages! 24000 words! That's damn near a third of a novel. Well done that man.

Of course I haven't actually read any of it yet, but I will. I would just say though that if you have the stamina to write at that length then you are halfway there to actually getting the thing published. well, maybe not this thing as it features characters owned by others, but something published anyway.

Too many would-be writers are full of ideas but don't have the discipline to sit down and actually bang the stuff out. You obviously have. At this stage it doesn't overly matter what people here think of the style or the plot- you can't possibly know or trust us enough to take what we say with anything other than a pinch of salt- you have proven, to me at least, that you can write- whether or not you 'can write', if you see what I mean.

And I don't even like the Calhab stuff that much as a rule, so don't fret over my nonsense. will read though, and comment. eventually. Don't hold yer breath though as I have a screaming baby to deal with and a brand new job starting Monday.

Steev