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(cont) the beauty of Stephen King's characters and dialogue- he's on screenplay duties here, so the words are lovely- and the joy of seeing those words delivered by a dream mid-eighties cast of Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Everitt McGill and Terry O'Quinn. Busey, especially, is just in a class of his own, and i'd argue that in Busey as Uncle Red and Haim as paralysed Marty you have just about the most perfect synthesis of King's words and actors' performance put on film. It just fits and feels entirely right.

King's screenplay isnt perfect by any means, and suffers from forcing the original story into places it was never meant to go, but the dialogue never falters and is always joyfully full of the kind of Kingisms we know and love.

No one will ever claim Silver Bullet to be a classic- but watching tonight in optimum conditions (with two small boys afeared of monsters) i am prepared to concede it's a work of underrated loveliness.

Just a shame about the woolluff.

SBT

Stephen King's SILVER BULLET (1985)

Now, this was interesting. My boys had the "novelette" upon which this was based as their bedtime story for a while last year, and ever since i've been meaning to get them the movie. The only problem being i remembered the movie as being really, really shit- and my intention is to inspire them to love horror, not put them off by showing them the worst.

Pester power prevailed, however, and in the end i really shouldnt have worried. Silver Bullet, my friends, is aces.

Of course is. Forget the direction- which is workmanlike at best (though effective when necessary, at least judging by my cowering, petrified, giggling, guffawing, screaming and cheering offspring) and dont even worry too much about Carlo Rambaldi's bobble-head werewolf suit- that's used sparingly, and is effective when shown in abstract close-up only becoming ridiculous when shown in full at the end, and even then better than most. No, what Silver Bullet's really about is (cont)

A good point well made though. When was he first referred to as 'joseph' in the comic?

It's always been an odd one for me anyway, as the only two joes ive known 'in real life' and from an age prior to the prog, were quite effiminate. One was the weedy milksop in our year at primary school and the other was similar in senior svhool before he moved- so joe has always sat badly for me as dredd's name.

But then i suppose there's always josef stalin.

SBT

och, get yerself over here: http://www.whatkatiedid.com/ purely as a shopping trip

I have a huge pile of their catalogues sitting not five feet from where I type this.

SBT

[character]

It's not a question of how well they've aged.

The issue is that the stories in Case File 1 are for kids, and the new film is for adults, being rated R or 18 for extreme violence and references to rape. You just can not reasonably expect someone who has just seen that film -- who has never read the comics before and is interested in starting -- to pick up Case Files 1 and read some stories which are completely different to what the film had led them to expect, and be converted into a life-long fan of the comic. They simply will never look at the comic again.

Our responsibility is to refer them to stories which actually resemble what they think they are going to get. Then, having hooked them, you can try to broaded their horizons.

Thankfully, 2000AD hasn't often featured "adult" strips with "references to rape" and "extreme violence" of the kind that would warrant a "not for kids" rating. So maybe if that's the only reason they liked the movie, they'd be better off going elsewhere for their comics. On the other hand, if they liked the character and the set-up, then they'd like pretty much any of the strips mentioned above.

SBT

To be honest, i never had a problem with torchwood- burn gorman's character was never supposed to be 'loveable' at the start. He was a cunt who used an alien device to get laid. Yes, the characters had sex a lot more than they did in dr who, but people (not dr who fans) like to see sex on tv, and that was the point. That many dr who fans couldnt accept characters who fucked each other without emotional connections says more about dr who fans than torchwood the series. But yes, it wasnt a particularly good show in the end (though i confess to finding series one and two just as, if not more, enjoyable than the parent show, and 'children of earth' was the best thing on tv than year by a mile. Didnt bother with the american series after part one- it seemed to be just another american scifi show). But as attachments to tv characters go, id much prefer to see jack, gwen and the rest on tv than most- they were great fun.

SBT

Ive ignored it jim, because im really not interested in getting into an rtd vs moffat debate- rtd was by far the better writer, up to the time i have noted. You just have to look at his early output such as QAF. He was a far, far better writer. Dr who, however, seemed to break him somewhat, and post- 2007 his work is mostly of such lesser quality that you'll never find me defending him. I have no personal feelings toward moffat at all- other than a dislike when i was in the same room. That happens- im not very fond of nick briggs either. But my dislike of his work is entirely unrelated and based purely on the fact it's so soulless and flimsy that it makes me scream. Let me make this very clear: i dont much go for either moffat or rtd's dr who scripts or showrunning. But forced to make a choice, id take 'midnight' and 'gridlock' over anything moffat has done- especially awful tosh like last week's, wherein he rewrote the rules of his monsters again and gave the audience an ending that made no sense, again.

I have no 'beef' with moffat, other than all his characters sound the same, he really wants to write american sitcoms (notably 'friends') but no one will let him, and he really does not have a clue how real people act or talk. The last point i can let him have, as it's dr who and 'real people' have no place in it, but i will not forgive his blatant disregard of logic and celebrating of the fact by the invention of glib and lazy get-outs such as 'timey wimey'. I maintain that dr who has been unwatchable shit since he took over, with very few exceptions.

As far as 'beef' goes, I was in the room with the man a couple of times, back when he was just a fan himself. The one thing he is not, i think, is the persona he presents to the public in his columns in dwm. I also thought 'jekyll', 'chalk' and 'coupling' were awful, and much earlier i hated 'press gang'. The sooner he goes off to the states and writes some californian sitcom the better. I also dont see anything special in 'sherlock'.


SBT

(cont) or the mccoy ratings without mentioning ken and deirdre. Arguably what came after this was more like 'proper' dr who, and moffatwho especially is niche and cult and celebrates this with timey wimey plots that trade off the early rtd-goodwill to ensure audiences dont switch off- but who under moffat has never been emotionally affecting at all.

SBT

Was it? With Rose's 'departure' we got a definite (at the time, anyway) end to the story- if we went along with the storyteller's intentions, and why would we not, as we had been entertained for two years at that point with the show scarcely putting a foot wrong- although it was obvious the story was not over, it felt like it was because of the skill by which it was told. In short, dr who was a communal saturday night experience and still 'watercooler tv', which it hasnt been now for a while. The audience was played beautifully by a writer who can move people and a cast with appeal across generations and sexes. You can argue all you like that RTD became a lazy shyster after this, i wont disagree- but those first three years are tv gold, especially tennant's first two seasons. The audience cared about the dr and rose in a way they've not since about the show in any iteration. It's an abberation as far as the show goes- like when fans note the ratings for city of death without mentioning the itv strike (cont)

HA! Love it!

SBT

The age of the material doesnt matter one jot, and it does make me laugh when i hear of people worrying that the old strips can't be any good- as if comics only got good in the last ten years. In which case i draw your attention to haunted vaginas and modern marvel, in comparison to the cursed earth saga and the apocalypse war! As for worrying whether you already have a particular story when buying the case files- it's fine when that happens accidentally, or just to have aa particular storyline in a nicer format... It's when you find you have the same story in the progs, in the uk reprint monthly, in the uk reprint dredd monthly, in the u.s eagle comic, in the u.s quality comic, in the u.s trade, in the titan uk edition, in the rdback titan edition, the case file and the 'b' format edition- and are considering buying again in idw hardback- that's when you have to admit mentalism.

SBT

I dont think there's anything in 'incubus' that's spoilerish for the wider dredd strip. While i believe it's referenced later, and is 'in continuity' as it were, it's also designed to sit on its own and not bother anybody. So if you were to order, you wouldnt be ruining any later strips, is what im saying.

SBT

Fantastic prog, not even ruined by Twisted Tales (which annoy me even for being called Twisted Tales, as that was the name of the best horror comic ever until WD came along).

Dredd was magnificently good- i thought only Wagner could do one like that. I'd not really rated Al Ewing before, except as a displayer of huge beard, but this was superb in every way. No idea who biscuitman is, but looking forward to finding out. Best bit was when Hershey tore Dredd a new arsehole, and he turned to storm out with the trad lightning zappy flashes going double-bonkers in his eyes. Haha! Fab.

Brass Sun was great again- i reread the whole thing up to now before this week, which i havent done for ages with anything.

ABCs- hmm, i feel like im reading a bad photocopy of langley's art at the moment, so im obviously not in the right headspace for it as yet. That'll come in time.

Grey Area- yes! Brilliant! Kick his scummy alien arse Bulliet (if you live).

Top prog (except Twisted Tales, but each to their own ).

SBT

I'd go for, after some thought, 'Dredd vs Aliens: Incubus'. I say this because:

A) i've just this minute finished it for the umpteenth time and have realised it's probably my most-read Dredd.

B) it has Aliens in it, and everyone knows what they are, what they do and what to expect. Using this familiarity, Wagbo and Diggle carve a tale that serves as a perfect introduction to Dredd for the new reader. As his character goes, nothing is wrong and it's nearly all there. If readers respond to the character in this, they'll do so to the wider canon.

C) Henry Flint draws Dredd like it should be drawn, but also conforms to the template of the american comicbook, meaning it's not six pages long with a pun at the end.

D) it's very gory, as was the recent movie.

E) it's absolutely the best of the cross-company attempts to break america, and i think will continue to be so for quite some time- being that it was good enough to be in the prog as the lead strip and we didnt complain.

SBT