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[Bright]

Bright - as with others, pleasantly surprised that this wasn't terrible but instead fairly trashy fun. As mentioned elsewhere I enjoyed that this wasn't Shadowrun (Magic has appeared in the mundane) but instead a world where all of the fantasy and fantasy racism has always been part of the world.

Saw the first four minutes of this at the weekend before it was declared "too stupid" and we watched 2012 instead...

[Wagner's Walk]

Did anyone notice that there is an episode missing in Wagner's Walk? We get the thrilling cliffhanger of Wagner's tank exploding and we wonder has he been killed, "tune in next week"..only to turn the page to discover  all three lads are at a train yard miles away and Mike White has taken over on art duties. Did I miss an explantion in the Meg? Was the art lost or something?

Anyway, I really enjoyed this story, much more than I expected.

I also found it very enjoyable. The same question has been asked a couple of times. There was no explanation in the Meg but someone offered this in the review thread:

Wagner's Walk missed a fortnight in its original run in Tornado, so there's nothing missing from the floppy reprint.

Quite why that cliffhanger was never resolved and why it mssed a couple of weeks isn't clear, but Tornado was a bit of a troubled title from launch and the crediting of the strip to "R.E. Wright" (a pseudonym used when a strip had had significant editorial rejigging, IIRC) and shift from Lozano to Mike White on art duties (as well as the suggestion that the story had originally been a Hellman tale) makes me think there was a behind-the-scenes mess of some kind.

Perhaps art was late or lost and with the title already a bit shaky it was thought better to plough on with what Mike White had started on rather than waste even more time getting those episodes redrawn? Or perhaps the strip really was just a retitled/edited Hellman tale (the timing would be right, I think - Action had wrapped up not long before and I could see a commissioned, completed Hellman strip left sitting in a drawer and subsequently hacked about to run as "Wagner's Walk") and the cliffhanger and awkward continuation with a new artist perhaps a symptom of that?

Let's give this a bump, it would be a shame if anyone missed it:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/judge-dredd-comics

Ends 7pm today (UK time).

I finally got off the fence and bought it last night. Then I had a look at my humble purchase history and got freaked out by the number of things I don't even remember buying, much less reading.

I assume there will be another Image one along soon...

I've just learned the word factotum, and realised I've missed a long-running Sin / Dex pun.

What shocks me about this is that you've never read any Bukowski!

[Doom]

Thought Doom was a fantastic game and I'm actually a bit surprised to hear this described as RPG elements. Unless the game is radically different from the PS4 version, the only stuff I can remember was the weapon upgrade trees. Think there were a couple I had to consciously chase but most of which you unlock just from playing the game.

Definitely agree about the exhilaration you get from the Smeato gameplay ethos!

Oh and I have FOUR moons on Odyssey! Yah!

I absolutely hated Odyssey after my first session on it. To the extent that I didn't play it again for two months and would have returned if I was a less lazy man.

Fortunately I'm not and I got right into it over the holidays. I still have some big issues with the controls and camera in certain situations but given the ludicrous number of different play modes involved, it's basically fine.

Currently on 300 moons and have just unlocked Bowser's Kingdom so I guess I'm nearly finished the main story.

Oh, and had to finally give in and look up where to find the last three or four shrines on Breath of the Wild. Good game but I think it will be a while before I'm dying to play the DLC.

Should we all try to be Switch pals or something? What online vs games are there?

[Ragnarok]

I had to go back through my Comixology history to see what I've actually bought new this year. There's not very much.

New titles:
01. Ragnarok. Great conclusion to this. I hope the rumours are true that Walt was working on more but wanted to have a few issues in the bank before releasing it. I notice he's been working on something with Rob Williams lately.

02. East of West. After a couple of books of treading water/repositioning, the most recent volume was bag with a big bang. Getting towards the end of this now so plenty of scope for brutally maiming all our least favourite characters.

03. Angelic. Very Spurrier and very beautiful art.

04. Godshaper. Seems like Spurrier is the creator I follow most these days. This one wasn't his absolute best but it's better to fail from trying to stuff too much in than too little.

05. Archangel. This was pretty good, sporadic fun and it came down to this or the second Brittania mini which I didn't like as much as the first.

New to Me:
01. The Discipline. Picked this up in a sale as some of Pete Milligan's recent output has been right back on form. Liked it a lot (much better than The Names, for example, which I was struggling through at the same time) but it seems it never went anywhere. Which is a shame.

Skizz artist Jim Baikie

Aw. Sad news.

[since when]

Saw the film last night without having seen any footage and knowing as close to nothing as possible. Have now spent an incredulous couple of hours reading through posts on this thread since the release date.

The film was clearly too long - I actually thought it was going to end after the confrontation in the throne room - but was significantly better than I expected it to be.

The Luke/Rey relationship was great. Basically any scene with Mark Hammill was gold and the I thought the climax to both his story and the subtext of letting go of the old was fantastically done.

Poe's storyline was very unexpected in making him the fuckwit responsible for losing most of the fleet. Perhaps it could have done with a bit more realisation on his part to sell it fully.

Of the new generation, Finn is the one that I could happily see excised. He contributes absolutely nothing of any worth beyond bloating the running time. Having rewatched The Force Awakens for the first time last week and found it almost completely devoid of any charm, this seems to be his specialty. I'm choosing to believe that Benicio del Toro's character is a crossover from Sicario.

Loved the penguin things.

FWIW, my girlfriend's favourite parts were: the penguin things, the Funkelfüchse (uncharacteristically pretty German translation literally means "sparkling foxes"), the quiet after the destruction of the ships, the red trails on the sand. No mention of anything related to story or characters you might notice.

g) since when did Star Wars have hyperspace jumps anyway - it was described as travelling at "light speed" before (in ANH anyway - or ok "making the jump to light speed IIRC)

Since about 23 minutes into the first film?
"Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy!"

Of course, the bigger epistemological flaw here is that Luke and his family are, of course, moisture farmers so the idea of cropdusting is unlikely to be commonplace.

Well, if anyone was on the fence about IDW Dredd and fancied dipping a toe, grab the current Humble Bundle. For $15, you get pretty much everything, from what I can tell, along with a smattering of Rebellion content. For $1, you still get the superb Mars Attacks vs Dredd, year One, Urban Warfare, Cry of the Werewolf, and Origins, along with two volumes of the Swierczynski-penned Dredd, one volume of Mega-City Zero, and the Funko one-shot.

(Notable also that the sole Case Files in the mix is vol. 5. Very smart choice.)

Nice one. My inner masochist almost jumped in on the IDW Comixology sale but this is a much better deal. Particularly with a serious helping of proper Dredd to sweeten the pill.

Forget the movies what on Earth are you doing drinking coffee before going to bed???!!!!

6pm is the latest I allow myself a cup of tea... I'm off topic aren't I!

I assume it's because he knew Jaws 3D was on after.

Did anyone else read the Wagner's Walk collection that was bagged with the new meg?

It seems to have skipped a chapter, as it jumps from a cliffhanger in the previous episode, straight to a completely unrelated scene in the next - and it's clear time has passers

Just wondering if anyone else had the same error, or it was just my copy.

Pretty annoying as I was really enjoying it.

I read this last night and had exactly the same experience. There's a headline at the start of the next episode: "After resting, the three Germans were ready to continue on..." so it looks like there's some reason for it but I've no idea about the original publication.

Not sure if anyone has seen your request to be upgraded yet either. Anyone?

[Dredd]

So, the inaugural Rory McConville Megazine is finally upon us! Thought it was alright in general.

Dredd was a good fun effort which didn't outstay its welcome and I always appreciate Joe taking time out from the main threat to book an incidental character for something so plus one point there.

A decent, relevant twist enlivened the Tale from the Black Museum, although the art seemed a bit weightless.

Devlin Waugh is a very nice looking, hollow echo.

Lawless continues to be the star of the show with the pressures of the siege taking its toll on our heroes.

I was happy to see the last episode of Dominion until I got to the last panel and discovered there's more of this dreary stuff to come.

Floppy looks interesting, will read it later today I think.

Hi Chris. Good to hear you're enjoying the Prog!

And yes, it's because you're new. New accounts are restricted to where they can post (to stop spammers until) a mod upgrades them.

You can always ask here!

The story's called The Son.

Doesn't say who the father is. Could be The Gronk.

So it's entirely feasible for Wulf to have an adult son by now.

Yes, entirely. Looking at the picture we have, I'm guessing Wulf must have fathered him pretty soon after his arrival in the future, making him around 28 at the oldest.

Why does he need to have fathered him in the future?