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I've already bought the white fake fur, DDD, and am just hoping this halloween to find a tolerable rubber 'bear claw' in poundland or similar, and we're away!

SBT

I never take any notice of reviews whatsoever. None. If a movie appeals to me in some way, i'll give it a go. I'd imagine the reason Taken 2 has opened strongly is because a lot of people enjoyed the first one and are giving the sequel a go based on that, as well as liking Liam Neeson. If it's as bad as people are saying here, the it's have a significant drop-off in it's second week.
I dont know why no one saw Dredd, but i'd guess that to anyone not familiar with it, it looked like a low-budget remake without any stars. The poster had no 'names' on it, and it promised only violence and a story about a drug bust- perhaps in a time of global depression, both economic and based on conflict, audiences wanted something with more escapism and obvious fun. Maybe Dredd looked like a straight to dvd (or to netflix) title that went to the cinema only to cash in on/rip-off the 'success of The Raid' and to gethe audience to fork out for unnecessary and expensive 3D. I dont know.

SBT

I have one on fb too thanks very much- and have updated both my kids' 'student jotter' profiles (it's a kids' facebook for schools- but nowhere near as ominous as that sounds) with comic-version badges of their names, without them knowing. They will be the fucking law, gruddammit!

SBT

Yep- i'd agree with that David. I am asking myself why i'm even considering another potentially expensive american run, when i still have Actions and Battles to get. And before i forget, i have a Crunch or three upstairs- i cannot in all conscience continue my current thing of archiving at least two copies of every uk title- so if you need them, they're yours.

But yes, it's a good point, and i should concentrate on those Actions, Warriors and Battles... But yeah- anything by Bruce Jones and Pacific- catnip. The Richard Corben adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher for PC is one of my most prized possessions. And not just for the magnificent funbags contained therein.

SBT

Trouble is Prof, 2000AD isn't for nerds, neither is the internet necessarily and,  back when i regularly went to scifi conventions and horror festivals, the horror folk seemed to wash more often and were more fun to be around than the scifi lot.

I don't buy into comics equalling socially-inept, stinking, outsiders. Doesnt fit most of the readers i know.

That kind of fan- and we have all met them- we can nowadays understand by reading up on the condition and showing a bit of compassion. In 1992, in my first year of uni, i'd never even considered it may BE a condition- it was an annoyance and a joke. As a result, and unfairly, i allowed them to piss me right off and in turn put me off the actual material itself. Twenty years later, i work professionally with young adults for whom their obsession with product like Star Trek and Dr Who is overwhelming and their condition does not allow them to control it. All joking aside, that's no one ive met through 2000AD or my love of horror, who's like that.

SBT

(cont)- in the latter's case filling in longboxes recently found in my attic from back when i read the comic each month for nearly ten years.

Anyway, i'm now within pissing distance of completing the Swampies- 25 to go, most of them available for about a couple of quid- so am beginning to think about what i'm going to go for next. Or rather, once i've finished off 'Twisted Tales' and 'Tales of Terror', and MAYBE 'Hellblazer' #50-200, which would only be five or so issues, thanks to another attic longbox.

So- i'm calling upon the great and the good here, and asking what would be a good series to try for? Not too expensive please- no 'first hundred Supermans'- and nothing too extensive either, so please not 'all of Cerebus The Aardvark'.

What is out there that i may not have come across, that may thrill me? I'm not asking for a good series just to read- i want something that's so good, i can bag and board each issue and put them on a shelf in my dining room, to impress guests.

Any suggestions?

SBT 

A couple of years ago, i thought my days of collecting comics were over. When i say 'collecting', i mean actually hunting down individual back issues, and then storing each one bagged and boarded, in a dedicated acid-free box. That kind of collecting.

I've long realised i'll never stop reading the things- it's by far my favourite medium, and i'd never want to- but i thought i'd moved entirely onto collected editions, trades and all that bumf. Other than 2000AD and The Meg, that is. Obviously.

Two years later, and largely thanks to not being able to wait for Walking Dead trades, and then DC doing the 'New 52' and letting a longtime not-DC reader like me jump onboard by ejecting all that wanky bollocks that put me off DC Comics for MY ENTIRE LIFE and making them approachable, i find myself reading multiple floppy titles a month. What's more, i'm spending my spare time tracking down particular runs of comics i like- like 'Batman' #515-552, and the entire 'Swamp Thing' kit and kaboodle from 1972 to date (cont)

That's remarkably irresponsible of Holland. I'd imagine that the country is a hellish post-apocalyptic landscape of teenage serial murderers, drug addicts, sexual perverts and that the Dutch as a race must spend their time invading foreign countries and committing mass murder of innocent populations. That must be what it's like, surely? After all, our government here in britain maintains that some movies can 'deprave and corrupt' young people if they are allowed to see them at a younger age than eighteen. And our government couldnt possibly be lying, in an effort to distract us from society's real problems. Nope. Never.

SBT

(cont) awful lot of dave these days.

I have no idea if it was a decent continuation- ive not watched an episode in twenty years other than that flawed but interesting thing when they went to the corrie set, which as foremost a corrie viewer was fascinating and fun- but it made me laugh so i'll watch again. But only because it made me laugh, not because it had spaceships and holograms in it.

SBT

Ive not liked Red Dwarf for years, though i remember briefly being extremely enthusiastic; at least enough to buy series one to three on vhs back in about 1992ish. If you'd've asked me what happened to it after that, i probably could not have told you. I admit to not liking the later series and becoming increasingly annoyed with the people i met at uni who liked it- they seemed to treat it as a science fiction show, instead of a sitcom, getting all angry over the continuity and sciencey bits. Plus, trekkies and nerds in general claimed it was 'the funniest thing on tv', seemingly only because it was set on a spaceship. Anyway, for whatever reason i stopped watching.

Caught the first of this series on dave the other night, and to be honest it didnt seem any different than the ones i remember. And, divorced from the stinky nerds, i could enjoy it again. The cast were just the same, the jokes were good, and the set-up how i remember. I'll watch the next one- and not just because i watch an (cont)

Good to see one of the true heroes of that period of British comics getting a shout-out. Nice one.

SBT

I have a sneaking suspicion it's roffman too. But, the 'fish' thing is confusing me- when did dredd last see him?

SBT

An entire collection of 2000AD and the Megazine (1816 progs, all megs, all scifi/winter/mega specials, all annuals, yearbooks, plus starlord, tornado, crisis, revolver and associated specials and annuals, can be stored, bagged, in sixteen standard uk comic/magazine boxes of the sort you can buy direct from comic shops.

Be warned though that backing boards will increase the number of boxes needed, and some types of box are of a different height- as i found this week whe trying to rebag and board my  progs 1-150.

An accurate guide to the type of bags, boards and boxes needed to store each different iteration of 2000AD would be very helpful!

SBT

(cont) well in my house and a couple of nicely-shot and splashy woolluf attacks. Eyes get shot out twice, but the scariest bits (if my two are any indication of such things, and they are) are the p.o.v shots of the woolluf stalking his victims and, crucially, climbing the side of a house to get to a bedroom window. We had sleepover last night 'just in case of midnight werewolf visits'.

SBT

Definitely pick up the book Mardroid- lavish colour and and b&w illustrations by Swamp Thing creator Bernie Wrightson aside, it's a beautiful thing. Originally a calender, i understand, sent to King's friends. It needed some on-the-fly editing when being read to small boys, but like the film is a scary monster-story for (mostly) all ages. Pick it up along with the Creepshow graphic novel, for a double dose of King and Wrightson horrors.

For those keeping tally- Silver Bullet contains a few "piss"es, a couple of "bitch"es, and multiple "shit"s- none of which worried me in relation to the boys (mummy's away in milan) but two potentially problematic "fuck"s. However, both are used in such a way as to drive home that it's a bad word that shouldnt be said- here, on the phone by a nice cop who admits he'd waited til the recipient had hung up before unleashing his obscenities. It's also a gag, which is better than the word being shown to have any power.

Gore-wise, there's a nice beheading that went down (cont)