Messages

Good stuff - like that colouring. I know the pain of failing to save, saving in haste or plain forgetting how I did something I actually liked!

Thats really sad news about Jon Lord - been having a bit of a purple patch last week without knowing why - Bought a great set of live performances from the pound shop!

"The night is black
and the stars are right
and the sea is dark and deep
and something unknown
is waking up
from an aeons encrusted sleep..."



And then Joe went and did a better version with the ninky nonk attacking Upsy Daisy.

Doh! Sorry Richmond!

I blame society!

Edit  -  ah that wasnt me AGAIN! I'm a model citizern me

"When you aint got nothin?" surely!

I think thats true, but complicated by the fact that we arent talking materially here - materially, the state will put a roof over your head and give you enough to pay your bills.  Probably as much as the guy next door who actually works - maybe more if youre wiling to put some effort into it.

I have relatives who have worked all their lives in communities where a lot of people havent and wont.   They have cars, they have TVs.  Probably better quality than my relatives - certainly better than me, whose last 2 cars were hand me downs and last 3 TVs were!  And I'm earning more than most of them.  If society saw that the working people moved on to better things, that'd probably a way of defusing the situation long term, but years of Tory and Tory flavoured policies have reduced most peoples work expectations and opportunities to being no better way out of (relative) poverty.

And in the mean time, a vast number of people have decided, screw that, I can make more on my own if left to my own devices, in various shades of grey and black market ways

We have created an underclass of people who have no concept responibility, have become dependant on state handouts and encouraged to breed. All this alongside the monstrous "celebrity culture" which has clearly clouded reality for these people.

So what you're really saying is that society IS to blame. Well done.

No i am not what i am saying is that people have choices whatever the circumstance. There are plenty of people who are in these circumstances but make the choice not to get involved, if everyone decided to riot then the streets would be overun. Its down to the individual choice of someone.

But what kind of society has allowed people not only to think this is a good choice, but for it actually to be a good choice?

It'd be hard to find a single word to disagree with in CF's eloquent and well-argued post, but it doesn't really offer much in the way of a solution.

If it's all down to the individual to know right from wrong (agreed), but 'society' has absolutely no role in shaping this essential and lamentably rare quality, how do you move things forward?  You can't be the parent of every kid in the world, you can really only influence your own (hopefully), and maybe those in your immediate circle.  If wider society (or government, or economy, or education) is not to be blamed for anything, it obviously has no role to play in how kids grow up and how they behave - so what mechanisms for change are there, outside your own family?  Just arrest a lot of people a lot of times and hope for the best?

Society could help by making it pay to work and by equalising some of the inequalities in this country, but thats about as far as it could go.  And frankly, the kind of people who are doing this are not people frustrated with their lot - they seem quite happy with it.

They arent after more opportunities - they arent after better policing, they are after more opportunities to get things for minimum effort and less policing to allow for that.  Benefits pay near as much or even more than they could earn, and they get to top it up with shoplifting, mugging, burglary or even a bit of light looting.  None of this is mindless, they've made a fairly logical life choice if you remove all morals from the equation.  And its embedded in generations of thinking now, the penalties if they do get caught (such as they are) are clearly accepted as part of the deal.  So sadly, I think the only real solution isnt locking them up a lot of times, its locking them up once.  Then the choice becomes less logical.  And this is from someone who is actually a leftie (honestly!)

It frustrates me that if they want things to change, they could channel this power into something positive. As it is, the people who really want change are left cowering in their homes, as they probably would have been  before this kicked off.

Nonsense Tordelback - its clearly Swagger Jagger thats to blame.

I think you have summed up what I feel in a much less inflammatory way than I could say it!

We've allowed huge chunks of society to simultaneously be excluded from the mainstream and at the same time supported them in the alternative.  Theres no direct politics to the actions, but its politics that have allowed this to fester - I think both sides have a point - not enough stick and not enough carrot have created an element who frankly, if they hadnt had been doing this on a larger scale, would most likely have spent their night causing similar grief that would have gone uncommented on as it does night after night on every estate up and down the country. 

They arent doing it for food, they are certainly all designered up and the benefits system may be crap, but its often less crap than an actual job, and youre your own boss! - but theres a poverty of something going on that needs as Tordelback says, a big stick, and a few more carrots to make it so people do have an incentive to not do this - Some people will always tip into scummery wherever they come from (see bankers), but you should do your best as a society to make that choice less appealing. 

I'm from a scabby estate, and my family instilled in me values that kept me out of trouble.  But my family haven't seen their fortunes dramatically rise over the people who didnt have those values, so is it any wonder we have this?

Thats etchasketch-tastic - love the level of detail implied in that

All I have are goblins, and only two at that

I could probably manage a 100 or so progs if theres enough others to make it viable

Forgot Fiends in that run too, plus the weird Dan Dare alike thing - some old space hero resurrection that he did a few episodes of.  Plus Alec Trench!

But he did Strontium Dog from prog 86, then ABC Warriors, then Stainless Steel Rat, plus lots of Tharg tales - then Stront again from 178, then Dredd and Stront and more SSR....

He misses out on that first year and a half, but more than makes up for it.

I'd say it was Carlos by a long chalk.  Stront, Dredd, SSR, Fiends, ABC Warriors, Anderson, Tharg tales...

Up to the 600s, it would probably have been a close run thing between Carlos, Bellardinelli and  Ron Smith - given Ezquerra is the only one still turning out the pages, I'd say he'd be in the lead by a mile... be interested to see the real figures though!

I took it that the train guard in the moments hesitation story hesitated because Alpha looked liked and reminded him of his own son, who is the kid in the picture - if he was recognising Alpha from some undercover activity, he woulda said something like "Hey, I know you -"

Millar reprints were squashed by Andy Diggle when the DC reprints started, though not because of politics (he was long gone by then, and I think it was more a case of he'd been let go rather than ran away, though it was probably a happy coincidence of the two).  It was more because they are lame, and he felt it wouldnt reflect well on the line - im sure he posted something to that effect on the old alt.2000 newsgroup.


Cheers for a kind mention of the case files (also cheers to David in his earlier post).  I do wonder at times if they are skippable, so its nice to see you got something from them - these weirdy special tales were a real odd set to work through from this end, let alone your end!

Good question - the daily star credits are somewhat...fluid.  The previous story was by McKenzie and Smith, and the first part of this story was credited to the same. The second part changes the credit to McKenzie and Pino.

However, McKenzie stories were almost all with SMith as artist, and having now read the rest of the story, it seems pretty Millarish to me!  Orlok might have more of an idea of they updated the credit to show Millar later in the run - i only have credits for the first 6-7 parts

Liking this - whiles its further from the uniform I'd have personally pitched it, it does look very Ezquerra - the collar looks very Carlos - like something out of a Starlord Stront.

Thanks to Orlok, I can now provide the missing Daily Star Dredd data!

"Perp watch" - Millar and Pino - 2549 to 2590 - 03.09.94 to 21.10.94
"Wanted - Judge Dredd" - Millar and Pino - 2591 to 2632 - 22.10.94 to 9.12.94
"The Judge and The Jury" - McKenzie(?) and Smith - 2663 to 2674 - 10.12.94 to 28.01.95
"Marked for Death" - Millar and Pino - 2675 to 2716 - 30.01.95 to 18.01.95 (features Judge Death)
"Mean as Sin" - Millar and Pino - 2717 to 2758 - 20.03.95 to 06.05.95 (features Mean Angel)
"Nutty City One - Millar and Smith - 2759 to 2794 - 08.05.95 to 24.06.95
"The Dead Judge's Society" - Millar and Pino - 2795 to 2836 - 26.06.95 to 12.08.95
"Muggable Willy" - Millar and Pino - 2837 to 2878 - 14.08.95 to 30.09.95
"Dead Mans Boots" - Millar and Smith - 2879 to 2890 - 02.10.95 to 18.11.95
"Block Law" - Millar and Pino - 2921 to 2961 - 20.11.95 to 11.01.96 (note gap in numbering)
"Spirit of Vengeance" - Millar and Smith - 2962 to 3002 - 12.01.96 to 27.03.96
"Teutronic Knights" - Millar and Pino - 3003 to 3044 - 28.03.96 to 16.04.96
"The Long Walk" - Millar and Pino - 3045 to 3086 - 17.04.96 to 04.06.96