Messages

[Traduce]

Some people see what they want to see, I guess

Indeed they do . . .

- and looking at about 2 minute's worth of your posting history tells me all I need to know about your "bullying" experience (which seems to consist of people hitting you back).

....Actually I took issue with people having a petty little go at others, not at me, but try & spin things however you want. One of them was the Eraser himself, Wyatt Twerp, and don't tell me he didn't deserve it.

Fact: you get involved in endless scuffles on this board and don't try and pretend it's only cos people like me pop up to have a go at you. You're the instigator most of the time and you know it.

Fact: this is my second pointless row (and yes, more fool me for getting involved but hey, you never shy from sticking your oar in so why should others?), so your insinuation that I just opportunely show up to cause trouble is weak and hypocritical. There's trouble and rancour in your wake, chum, not mine.

I'd have gone with misrepresent over traduce.  Traduce implies that I was accusing Eldritch of telling deliberate lies, rather than simply attempting to mislead.

You'd have used misrepresent? What bizarre little hair-splitting you're resorting to now! Check this definition:

Traduce: to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation


Is there any chance you'll stop embarrassing yourself and just admit for once, on this tiny point, you were wrong? Go on, it'd go some way towards deflating the image of you squatting tensely over this site, always trying to prove you're right and taking evident relish in being nasty. Go onnnnn...

Ding!  Ding!!  Seconds out!   I'll take 2 to 1 on Timson!!!

Seems to me Eldrich scored a KO, Tankie. I killfiled some clowns for being nasty little bullies a few years back and I got to say my board experience was much improved after that. While generally a nice enough place there are a few who seem to delight in being unpleasant and vicious and I include Timson in that.

Oh, and according to my dictionary (the ol' OED) Eldrich used "traduce" correctly.

[Human Target]

Apparently they're making Milligan's Human Target as a TV show, starring Jackie Healy Ray.*

*I may have got his name slightly wrong.

Not sure, TBH. I downloaded it. It wasn't too successful in the US, so might be straight to DVD.

Agreed. Really liked it. Usually I don't give a damn if a book has been faithfully adapted or not, but this time I couldn't help thinking it was well done & true. Good cast, with one of my faves - William Sadler - just perfect.
Also, about the most annoying Mrs Carmody you could hope for.
Early cgi was awful, but got better.
Apparently Darabont made do with a smaller budget than usual cos major studios wanted him to change the ending. Brave and gutsy on his part & vindicated by what's there to be seen.
Bleak as fuck it is.

Is that or is that not the music to Mad Max 2 at the start of the trailer? It's damn familiar.

Well... even allowing for all you've posited it is, at the end of the day, YOU making allowances, excusing the lack of continuity; YOU filling in the gaps for 2 writers who clearly didn't give a shit.

Personally I can't/won't go that far on behalf of a couple of jokers.

Tell a good story, respect the source material - too much to ask?

This is going to sound harsh.  I can't understand how anybody who likes and cares about Dredd -- or any other story with continuity -- can tolerate Purgatory and Inferno.
There is such a disregard for pretty much all that has gone before: Grice is a weak and cowardly backstabber when first introduced by Wagner, only to suddenly become a superman; the astonishingly punitive and disfiguring regime on Titan suddenly permits fat guys and only demands miniscule little metal caps on the nose; everybody is fucking indestructible; Grice and fellow inmates are clearly the good guys of Purgatory only to rapidly become pantomime villains in Inferno, replete with ridiculous boo-hiss actions.

There is no logic or care to the story in Inferno.  Despite all its history the city has suddenly no defense against aerial assault; fucking bullshit.  In the absence of plot, or logic, or respect for previous stories, there is merely over-the-top sadism, sickening violence.

I've had this argument before.  Some people say they enjoyed it, and that's that.  But what I can't understand is, why collect a comic, follow a story, presumably caring about the building of world and character and NOT object to a sudden reversal -- massive betrayal, really -- to something you've been following for years?

Spared from insanity because he was brutal and unimaginative and a barbarian to boot. Slaine, in 1986, and it was one of the coolest things I'd ever read. Dredd could be similarly described, at least in terms of lack of imagination and brutality.  Johnny Alpha was relatively compassionate, albeit in flashes, but always deadly.

It made me wonder why these British comic characters are so different from the average American one, who is almost invariably a geek, a put-upon loser with a magnificent alter ego.

The appeal of such American comic book characters is obvious: they speak to the potential within the -- let's be honest -- guy who is probably getting a tough time in school.  And yet the British comics characters have as their heroes the guy who is probably making your life hell.

Of course, most of the iconic early 2000 A.D. characters were written by two men: Wagner and Mills, and thus would share some common traits, but why have they been so popular in Britain and Ireland, and less so in the States?

I got some ideas, but would welcome yours.

Spared from insanity because he was brutal and unimaginative and a barbarian to boot. Slaine, in 1986, and it was one of the coolest things I'd ever read. Dredd could be similarly described, at least in terms of lack of imagination and brutality.  Johnny Alpha was relatively compassionate, albeit in flashes, but always deadly.

It made me wonder why these British comic characters are so different from the average American one, who is almost invariably a geek, a put-upon loser with a magnificent alter ego.

The appeal of such American comic book characters is obvious: they speak to the potential within the -- let's be honest -- guy who is probably getting a tough time in school.  And yet the British comics characters have as their heroes the guy who is probably making your life hell.

Of course, most of the iconic early 2000 A.D. characters were written by two men: Wagner and Mills, and thus would share some common traits, but why have they been so popular in Britain and Ireland, and less so in the States?

I got some ideas, but would welcome yours.

"To add an annoying note, I believe there is nothing wrong with attempting "classic" stupid names for your characters... how many amazing characters have the silly names, be they graphic/comic or literature"

Don't mind anyone attempting, I just think Ellis wears his efforts too obviously and, ultimately, unsuccessfully. JUDGE DREDD, that works; LUTHER ARKWRIGHT, no sweat - I could go on...

His process seems to work like this: Biblical name plus something Gothicky or unconventional *MUST* equal a great name.
They don't work for me, is all I'm saying. That, coupled with his crappy writing, means I'm out. I reckon spending on 3 of his GNs is a fair crack of the whip.

I read the first 3 GNs; won't read anymore.
I think Ellis tries too hard to create iconic, classic names for his characters.
Lazarus Churchyard and Spider Jerusalem just sound so fucken forced.
Also Spider's impassioned rants sound less like righteous rage and indignation and more like dodgy student activists, trying to be Hunter S Thompson.

Haven't seen any of S3 yet, but I'm told it's awesome. S1 was very good and S2 was mostly incredible. Best SF show I've ever seen.

"Cordite, you should enter that Tori Amos quote to Private Eye's 'Pseud's Corner'"

Heh, might just! I'd also recommend the Sandman but steer clear of the Death books as they are *awful* and seem to be aimed squarely at the teen goth girl market and, of course, Amos, who is Neil's mate.

Actually, a potentially good place to start is the Dream Hunters, which is illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano & based on Japanese legend. I know you've spent a lot of time in Japan, as I have, and you might find it interesting.

Tori Amos' introduction to Neil Gaiman's wankfest, Death: the High Cost of Living, makes me want to puke.   It contains lines like this:

"We're in the middle of nowhere in the desert and my being wants to go crawl under a cactus and wish it away.  Instead, I dyed my hair and she visited me and I started to accept the mess I'm in.   I know that mess spelt backwards is ssem and I felt much better armed with that information."

And gems like this: "When you're on your knees you're closer to the ground."  
 
And this: "Then Death couldn't come and say Peachy to me any more."
 

It is an apposite introduction, however, as it quite accurately represents everything I hate about approximately 35% of Neil Gaiman's writing.

Some good stuff though, of course, and his novel, American Gods, is a great read.