Messages

The Dredd was good fun, but imo went way over the top with the gore - in some ways it reminded me of Garth Ennis' sillier Dredd stuff. It was also a bit weird to see another X Men parody following Mutopia about 18 months ago.

why bomb a shop?

I must admit, I've lost the thread somewhere in these last two episodes. I think PJ is stirring up animosity between mutants and norms to misdirect Dredd's investigation.

When Tour of Duty ends, I'm going to do a big reread, and I'm sure it will all be clear.

Also: am I the only one who prefers Si Davis to Boo Cook?

Charlie Brooker via Twitter:

Why don't the BBC just wipe shit all over the screen during the final scene of Dr. Who next week?

I hope Moffat is bellowing down a phone to someone right now.

That's appalling - if I'd worked on the show I would be furious.

These are Dredd compilations for the US market. Volume 1 will showcase a variety of artists who have worked on Dredd, volume 2 will focus on writers - so there'll be stories by Wagner, Grant Ennis, Millar, Morrison etc.

Other than that, no contents have been announced so far - they look interesting, but as I'm collecting the Case Files and will end up owning all this stuff anyway I'll give them a miss.

I do wonder what part Viktor still has to play?

[spoiler]But he's supposed to be dead, isn't he? Those few panels were a little confusing - was Dimitri blowing Viktor and his wife up from afar? It mentioned the wife's body never being found, but didn't say anything about Viktor....[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Obviously, this being Dante, I don't believe any character is truly 'dead' until we actually see the body - Viktor has supposedly been dead before and we even saw a shot of his apparently dead body, so who knows?[/spoiler]

Dimitri's crest-blocking force-field thing was a bit weird. When Dante attacked him way back in The Romanov Dynasty he blocked Dante's bio-blades with a nifty nano-shield thing rather than block his powers entirely. It also seems a little silly that Dimitri has had ample opportunity to destroy the Huntsman - the only weapon capable of harming him - but has so far failed to do so.

[spoiler]Papa Yeltsin (he survived Dimitri's attack last episode), Viktor's wife and apparently Viktor.[/spoiler]

It's a very small thing, but this little article has endeared me to Nick Clegg a little. Personally it's a pet-hate of mine when politicians try to reference Susan Boyle or the Arctic Monkeys to appear to be cool and in touch with the public when we all know they aren't - it was bad enough when Blair did it, full-on excruciating when Brown or Cameron attempt it.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has admitted that he is not a fan of the UK's soaps.

The politician made his confession in an interview with the Radio Times after being asked whether he enjoyed Coronation Street, EastEnders, The Bill or The Archers.

Clegg replied: "I don't watch or listen to any of these, I'm afraid."

Meanwhile, when asked to pick a favourite out of X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh, the 43-year-old said: "None of the above."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/news/a215400/nick-clegg-i-dont-watch-soaps.html

[2000 AD:]

2000 AD:

Savage Book 6: Crims by Pat Mills/Patrick Goddard - starts May 2010
Lowlife: Hostile Takeover by Rob Williams/D'Israeli - starts TBC
Strontium Dog: The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha by John Wagner/Ezquerra & Son(TBC) - starts June 2010
Kingdom: Book 4 by Dan Abnett/Richard Elson - starts TBC
The Red Seas: Hell and High Water by Ian Edginton/Steve Yeowell - starts TBC
Defoe Book 4: A Murder of Angels by Pat Mills/Leigh Gallagher - starts 2010
Shakara: Book 5 by Robbie Morrison/Henry Flint - starts TBC
Sinister Dexter by Dan Abnett/Anthony Wiliams (ongoing)

Judge Dredd Megazine:

Lilly Mackenzie and the Mines of Charybdis by Si Fraser - starts Meg 298
Johnny Woo: A Hong Tong Ghost Story by Gordon Rennie/PJ Holden - starts Meg 298
Tales from the Black Museum by various writers/artists - starts Meg 298
Judge Dredd: Meat by Writer/Artist TBC - starts Meg 299
Judge Anderson: House of Vyle by Alan Grant/Boo Cook - starts 2010
Strange and Darke: New Blood by John Smith/Colin Macneil - starts 2010

Megazine Graphic Novel Supplements:

Mean Machine: Travels With Muh Shrink (Meg 298)
Brit-Cit Babes (Meg 299)
Sinister Dexter: Downlode Tales(TBC)

2000ad Graphic Novels and Books - UK:

Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files 02 - June 2010
Leviathan (paperback) - June 2010
The Stainless Steel Rat - July 2010
The Complete Al's Baby - July 2010
Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 16 - August 2010
Harlem Heroes - August 2010
ABC Warriors: The Volgan War Book 3 - September 2010
Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty - Backlash - September 2010
Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty - Under New Management - September 2010
Zombo: Can I Eat You Please? - October 2010
The Complete Fiends of the Eastern Front - October 2010
Meltdown Man - November 2010
Durham Red - Isle of the Damned - November 2010
Chopper: Surf's Up - December 2010
Mega City Undercover: Volume 2 - December 2011
Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 17 - January 2011
The Complete Taxidermist - February 2011
Harry Twenty on the High Rock - TBC
Missionary Man - TBC
Daily Star Dredd - TBC

2000ad Graphic Novels and Books - US:

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 - June 2010
The Complete DR & Quinch - June 2010
Judge Death: Death Lives! - July 2010
ABC Warriors: The Meknificent Seven - July 2010
Harry Twenty on the High Rock - August 2010
Judge Dredd: Mega-City Masters 01 (Artists) - August 2010
The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones - September 2010
The Complete Nemesis the Warlock 01 - September 2010
Judge Dredd: Mega-City Masters 02 (Writers) - October 2010
Zombo: Can I Eat You Please? - October 2010
Slaine: Warriors Dawn - November 2010
Hewligan's Haircut - November 2010
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 02 - December 2010
Missionary Man - TBC

Can't believe they went ahead and put Raptaur in the reprint - it's set to appear in the next Case Files volume (out in August) so it seems very odd to publish it twice in such a short space of time.

Haven't read the Dredd yet, but it's great to see Spurrier back. Actually quite sad to see the back of The Lost Cases - especially as its to be replaced with Black Museum (Zzzzzz). Hope there's a series two in the works.

Very much looking forward to the start of Lily Mackenzie next moth!

One of the board members has been immortalised as a judge, too..... (and I don't mean Logan!)

Again, Dante and Dredd are the highlights. The bodycount continues to rise in Dante, with [spoiler]two, possibly three, more supporting characters getting killed off this week.[/spoiler] I have a hunch that one of the next characters to get knocked off will be Crest, and Dante will be forced to take on Dimitri for the final showdown without his superhuman powers.....

As for Dredd, it looks like [spoiler]Inga is toast....[/spoiler] I (and I suspect many others) still want PJ to come out of this situation on top, but its looking unlikely. Dredd finally has the ammo he needs to deal with Sinfield once and for all! Really feels like things are building up for the big finish - four episodes to go....

Great as everything else is at the moment, it all pales in comparison to these two fantastic strips.

DotD remake is an enjoyable, throwaway movie but the original is a stone cold classic.

No competition.

How anyone can ink a whole page with brush alone boggles my mind! Comic panels - especially 2000ad pages which tend to have more panels per page than the norm - are very, very small, something you can't really appreciate if you've never tried to draw one, and I just can't get my head around how people get a thin enough line out of a brush - I can't get a straight line using a brush either.

I also find maintaining brushes a nightmare - now matter how carefully I look after them, they somehow lose their point within seconds!

I tend to use a brush pen to lay down all the large or curved lines in a drawing (outlines etc) then do everything else with fineliners. I've never found a perfect method for inking, but I tend to prefer inking rougher these days (rather than aiming for a slick effect) so it seems to work for me. I always have to do quite a lot of cleaning up in Photoshop, though.

I bought Manga Studio and a Wacom recently, so I'm going to have a crack at digital inking at some point.

I am intrigued as to this idea of Ennis destroying Mega City 2. I'm guessing it was in a fairly major story - Judgement Day? - since destroying an entire city seems a bit over the top for a "by the numbers one off or short", although I suppose it is Garth Ennis we're talking about so you never know.

It wasn't just Mega-City Two - a whole load of cities were destroyed in that story - not sure how many of those that were had actually featured in the main strip before though - even MC2 had hardly been mentioned, only really playing a role in The Cursed Earth. I guess as far as John is concerned it didn't exist, I certainly can't think of any of his scripts referencing it.

Ocean's 11.

Casino Royale.