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That sounds like a ridiculously early start! Been stung by that sort of thing occasionally, 9pm is usually the optimal arrival time if I want to skip the support bands but once in a while they'll catch you out.

Yeah. 9pm is always my strategy as well, unless they actually tell you it's an early start. I do have one mate who always insists on being there at starting time. I genuinely believe he's seen every band on every bill at every gig he's been to since he was 14.

I was aware that Dylan is always on stage early and never has a support these days. He played the SECC a few years ago with a 7:30 doors open time on the ticket. We got there around ten to eight to be told we'd already missed five songs.

And if those final seconds did not give you a big shit eating grin, I suspect you must be dead inside!

Call me dead inside, but I eye-rolled like a mo-fo.

Ha. The Han & Chewie reveal was basically the only bit I didn't like!

... the thing that REALLY worries me is when people start believing their hyperbole to such an extent that we might end up with a publication that looks and feels like Crisis did at the very end of it's days - when I leaf through the last 10 or so editions I can see a bunch of people who got so focussed with the direction of the brand that they totally lost the interest of their readership because it just turned into gibberish and nonsense...

Any chance you can explain what this swivel-eyed raving actually means? What hyperbole? What gibberish? Sure, I think Reaper is tedious shite as well, but it's one strip and it'll be over soon.

From Dead Zone to The Cop, Meg Dredd's been consistently head and shoulders above anything in the Prog for almost a year. In the same time, we've had the best Anderson story in a decade and a couple of debutantes - Angelic and Lawless - which were both entertaining and full of potential.

I guess we're not likely to agree: two decent stories out of four is break even for me, I've always preferred an even mix of Dredd/non-Dredd stories and New Adventures of Hitler was the second best strip in the whole run of Crisis.

A couple of things which have knocked my socks off this week.


Squelchy Canadian LNRDCROY has a winning way with a slow snare and the occasional squealing noise which could make him this summer's Blondes.

While Natalie Prass just has a wonderful voice.

So, can we this to the music board?

[Bjork]

So, to try and makes things a bit more definite, I bought tickets to see Bjork in New York at Easter. Quite interested in any other potential rhyming gigs: U2 at the zoo, AC/DC at the bottom of the sea, that sort of thing.

Hilariously, this gig was cancelled.

Last week me and a mate went to see Twilight Sad. Arrived around 9:15, saw two and a half songs, then they finished and I've just realised I'm missing A Place to Bury Strangers tonight as well. Gah!

Still, hope springs eternal. Tickets purchased for Bob Dylan in July, Cut Hands and a trip to Les Nuits Sonores in Lyon in May. Also contemplating Godspeed You! Black Emperor the night before my birthday and Body Count in June.

Been listening to a couple of quite different FACT mixes a lot recently.

This one, allegedly cobbled together out of odd ends of crap littering his laptops and tape decks, from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is all gentle, woozy ambience. Really quite beautiful.

Quite a contrast to Vessel's  noisy effort. Gregorian chants, lo-fi punk, jarring shifts in volume, ambient noise and "Some seagulls outside the window" all add up to an endlessly interesting listen (and some hilarious comments from the bpm counting bellends on soundcloud.) Manages to capture a good dose of live experience too.

[Demon Nic]

I lack time to count further back, but were 355–357 anomalous in strip count?

Ostriches has always had a significantly higher than average page count, even compared to the other stuff in the creator-owned slot. Paul Grist's Demon Nic will be filling that space, along with a new series of Lawless.

Personally, I'm still quite enjoying the Meg at the moment. Ewing's farewell to Dredd continues to impree and Angelic has been a great little series, and finally makes its playing around with continuity explicit, Spock-style. More soon Tharg.

I was a bit surprised when I first heard we were going to be getting a non-Grant Anderson story but I needn't have worried as this was a tight, engaging start from Beeby and also nice to see Mr Currie toning down the tits in his art.

I preferred the remake of Solaris with Gorgeous George C, although there is something vaguely amusing about chubby, middle-aged Russian dudes in space.

Great cover by situ

Did you mean Siku?

If so, nice to have him back! 

Awesome. It's a beauty as well.

[El Maldito]

Strong looking Meg coming up from 361. Rennie and Ezquerra's El Maldito, a new series of Lawless and Paul Grist's Demon Nic in the creator owned slot.

All that and another Sci-Fi Special. Huzzah!

Robertson is a great artist with a proper 2000AD sensibility, but for this they either had to commission Bolland or re-use existing art for this book of all books.

Looking at this again, Anderson herself is good and firmly in keeping with the contents of the story, but the DJs are all a bit squiffy. I guess it's one of the risks of interpretation. A bit like when Carlos did an arc of The Boys and none of the characters looked quite right.

Six months ago, I was trying to find some free or unsecured Wifi in New York when I came across a network called WuTangLAN. I like to think I was outside The RZA's house, but I probably wasn't.

[cover]

Thryllseekyr is going to go into meltdown when he sees that cover.

Soth! It's the spit of Harry Styles!

Arf. Another nice Davis painting here but, unless I miss my guess, it's another young pop sensation that's gracing this week's cover. Time for Thryllseekyr to start shunning poring over images of Bonnie Prince Billy. Titan was my favourite Dredd story of last year. The way you assumed it was going to be digging up Sinfield but then it became a Low Life story was great. I was pretty keen to see the continuation and so far I'm on the fence. Flint's art is as outstanding as ever, with the red and white theme in this week's episode particularly striking. The opener was solid - scene with the futsie tickled me - but the developments this week haven't really grabbed me. I'm getting to the point where I'd be happy if Hershey would agree with Dredd about something just for a change and the muddled psychological fallout was the one part of the earlier story which I didn't think hit the mark and stopped it from being a real classic. Digging back into that aspect doesn't pump my 'nads much. Nonetheless, a good team turning in a decent story here. Like many, I thought the last Slaine outing was the best for a decade. While I can't really top or argue with Mr Blue's earlier assessment, I would say that I don't necessarily take it as a criticism:

...the first two episodes are basically him having a scrap with a magical knobhead, both parties talking bollocks throughout.

The recent Orlok story ended up being a passable thriller which really didn't need to be called Orlok. Here, he's off to explore another little part of the world. There's a deliberate silliness to this one, with it's codpiece-thrusting opponent, which I'm nor sure how to take. Jake Lynch is definitely a promising artist but, for the moment, I think he could do with taking a step back and a bit of time to play with some more basic layouts. I was frequently unsure if a character was supposed to be Orlok or the Widower and the first page reveal of Oz Mutants (a clip for those not up on their Brazilian rock) is certainly full of energy, but it's also pretty difficult to differentiate the individual characters from the mass. I like the short form, episodic structure of Grey Area. I'll reserve judgement on the current fish out of water scenario until it's had a bit of time to grow. Which leaves Strontium Dog to bring up the rear. I like the new duds. I'm happy we've gotten the resurrection story over and done with. I was hoping for one of the more light-hearted adventures but it doesn't look like that's where it's going. Let's see.

[Mr Bolland does some stunning, innovative covers elsewhere]

Mr Bolland does some stunning, innovative covers elsewhere and while this one just plain oozes with the technical skills the fella has in almost unequaled spades its a bit flat innit. Its a great set of portraits, but its just not that interesting. Come on Tharg let the man off his reins next time will ya.

This was exactly what I thought when I saw the preview of this cover and nothing's changed since then. If that's what he's asked to draw, then I suppose that's what he'll draw but it doesn't stop it being as dull as ditchwater.  When you compare it to even something like the witty, story-relevant Jack of Fables covers he was doing recently you can see what's missing.

Obviously, every story is just starting out so we know what we're getting. I've actually just reread the first two episodes of each so maybe I'll take it to the Prog 1925 thread. Dredd and, surprisingly, Slaine were the two I was most looking forward to coming into the relaunch.

Cliff [Richard] is very much a tool of the British and Israeli Intelligence Services

Wow. Case closed, eh?

The film's pretty good.