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I quite enjoyed this Meg despite having some reservations about the odd strip.

Mister Rennie's DREDD script was very funny and hit all the right buttons for me.  I love the art as well but I still think that Carlos only takes half of the time he used to on stories.  Whatever happeneed to his gorgeously squirly panel borders?  And the layout seemd a bit flat and lifeless for me.  There's one double page spread where almost identical pictures of Kobunr lie uneasily side by side.

Devlin Bore has gone on far too long and I confess I've completely lost track of all of the charcters and the original witty ideas.

Charley's War was top stuff - I can't believe I stopped getting Battle before this beauty turned up.

Harry 20 - more great stuff.  I particularly like the fact that the villins are set up quite well. It's not just Harry vs a one dimensional brutal guard; he's got to worry about the Warden, the guards, Big Red one and Toady.  How many modern stories have a similar roster of villains?

BATTLE article - I didn't find this as involving as I thought I would - probably because this month it covered ground after I'd stopped reading. However, overall it's a good companion piece to Thrill Power Overload and I loved seeing some of those old covers again. Thanks, Mister Bishop.

Armitage - I thought the gaudy colours spoiled the lovely art and the story hasn't exactly intrigued me yet.  I never did like Armitage though so I may struggle with this one.

XTINCT is great - I thought it was a fine example of how to deal with the self referential irony that plagues comics (and other media) today.  And it also proves that there's something up with Devlin as these short (nearly standalone) episodes live the same distance apart but manage to keep the overall arc going.

Strangely, the DEATH story has wandered beyond my attention span as well.  I'll get lynched for this but I don't think the art is helping me out.  I like Mister Irving's art normally but I'm just not connecting to it this time.  And I don't like being inside Death's thought process - he has such crap unscary thoughts for an alien superfiend.

I was about to suggest they could replace Gordon's biit with a "Choice Cuts from the 2000AD forum". I still piss myself laughing thinking about Art's response to whoever was banging on about "racist" hobbits and think that should be shared with a wider audience ("Yeah, they just want to kepp themselves to themselves and do the gardening, the bastards"). But given the level of childish and peurile stuff that's been posted recently and the fact that Gordon's column was quite enteraining this month, I'll hold off on that suggestion.

What? Better than Disney's Sword in the Stone?

I like Excalibur too.  Nicol Williamson's(?) Merlin is particularly fine - as off the wall as Johnny Depp is in Pirates.  And Cherie Lunghi was lovely too.  Actually, there's loads of half-famous people in it - Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren.  

Lovely.  You can't imagine them making a film like that these days - it just doesn't tick enough bozes for the marketting people.

2 for me.

That's 2. None of this revisionist 1.2 nonsense for me.

I'm just back from a cracking five days in Brussels.

I'll become a DreddVsDeath bore when the Gamecube version comes out.

Bugger.

That always happens.

I remember a cool line completely wrong.

The way I had it in my head was

"Beyond duty is honour. Beyond honour is obsession. Beyond obsession is the LAW. And beyond the law, there is only Judge Dredd".

Admittedly it's still pretty shite but it does away with that whol insanity thing which I agree is rhetorical nonsense.

Oh well, I still like the priveleged elite line from Helter Skelter. That does make sense.

Necropolis wins hands down for me but I found Judgement day fairly enjoyable too.

I thought the comedy villain in Judgement Day was a deliberate attempt to get some "Joker" style manicness into the baddie. I thought it was a bit more interesting than a lot of the unstoppable killing machine baddies you tend to get. Anybody else feel that Judge Death has sort of morphed into a Jokeresque figure these days?

My personal favourite bit of Judgement Day was the bit on the first page of the last episode...

"Beyond duty is honour...." etc.  Very good.

I think Ennis has a knack for getting these sort of lines right - I even thought his "priveleged elite" line in Helter Skelter was spot on.

But yeah, for all of the fine reasons quoted by others above, Necropolis is tops.

Doh!  heh heh! Here was me assuming it was some Hong Kong film and that Q and U were anglicised names.

One other thought was that I'll be interested in seeing the two films released on DVD (can't have them in the house - would get pestered too much by the kids wanting to watch them).

Given that this was a studio decision to hack the film in two, does anyone think that the whole thing be edited in an entirely different style to the two shorter films were?

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I thoroughly enjoyed this as well.  I must admit, I was a bit suprised to see a "based upon" in the end credits but still gave QT top marks for telling stories (sometimes about telling stories) in interesting ways.

I know the "Chapter" breakdown thing is done pretty regularly in movies but it's not foften you see the "chapters" told in different styles.  

I took the anime style for the O Ren Ishii section was to show that the Bride was relating the story to the audience in the way that O Ren had related it to her.  I'm not big on the cinema that this section emulates but can someone tell me if they have overblown spaghetti western style scores as well?

The violence was absolutely top notch as well.  Watching the earlier scenes I was a bit worried that if it maintained the grisly yet vaguely realistic level of the scenes in the Coma Ward, that I'd be leaving the cinema traumatised after the showdown in the tea house.  However, all it took was a couple of shots of blood gushing fountain like from necks and arms to put my mind at rest (strange that).

(That fight against the blue grid screen is an Elvis thing isn't it?)

I wasn't sure of the logic of hiding in the car after the Coma Ward scene? Surely someone would have discovered the bodies after THIRTEEN hours and come looking for the Pussy Wagon?

I'd like to watch it again because I actually reckon there was some very hip and quotable dialogue - it just all happened to be subtitled.

And what an outstanding last line (though the wife guessed it).

Volume II? Yes please.

Two things:

1) I love the film. I love the deconstruction of the western myth. I mean, how far away from riding into a sunset can you get then the last bwon, muddy, rain sodden scene of unforgiven?

Well. quite, actually. After all the talk about how gunfights *REALLY* are, I still feel cheated that Clint becomes a stone killer avenger at the end and pretty much conforms to the western myth in extracting his revenge.  I felt similar;y cheated by the end of Saving Private Ryan. The heroics at the end completely undid the graphic portrayal of the omaha beach landings at the start.

2) On reading PREACHER, I thought it obvious that Garth Ennis used "Unforgiven" as the starting point for his Saint of Killers origin.  It hjust seemed similar in so many respects. Did he think nonone had seen the film? That nonone would notice?

Where is the line drawn between ripping off ideas, homage and pastiche? Discuss.

Wake,

would it be possible for you to remove the MOON IN THE UNDERCITY scripts from the script test section of the site please?

It's getting drawn up as a strip for a fanzine and I don't want to spoiler it for anyone (assuming anyone may want to read it).

cheers
Tips

You can fuck right off with the "fair weather biker" stuff.

I've done my time in blizzards and gales and floods int he last twenty years, thank you very much.

Is it so wrong to think that it's safer to take the train and read a book and be guaranteed of getting home safe to the wife and kids than be all butch and risk my life on twenty miles of twiaty, turny, icy, black and windy back roads with death waiting t grab you at every dark wet leaf filled skiddy slidey corner?


What am I saying? Of course it is.... ;)

yep - I've got a lovely Yamaha YSF600R Thundercat (the coolest motorcycle name).  

I've been riding for twenty years now but I'm a bit of a soft biker - I don't like Heavy Metal, I've got short hair and, ooohh, it's a bit chilly and icey so I think I'll put me bike away for the winter...

This is why I don't like driving games. If I want some fun, I hop on my bike and drive down the back roads (at legal velocities).  I don't get the slightest bit of enjoyment out of car driving though.

Dredd game - I think I'll get it for the Cube eventually - despite being high enough spec, my PC just plain wouldn't load the demo so I'm not going to risk it.

I always wonder why dedicated PC gamers don't complain more about having to constantly upgrade PCs just to play the latest game or about having to download patches on the first day of release?  And how do they put up with that mouse keyboard combo for first person shooters?  I loved playing Goldeneye with my nintendo controller. I digress...

Championship Manager?  I think Odders did a 2000AD spreadsheet that you might be interested in...

"That Petrol Emotion" at The Boardwalk in Manchester - late eighties.

I also saw Transvision Vamp there - not so great in retrospect apart from licking Wendy James' thigh.