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ha!
Thought payday was Thursday... it was today.

Booked booked and booked. I'll be there, see yous then.

I should make it- just need to buy tickets, book a megabus and some cheap-ersed room with minimal  facilities to kip in. I think Mrs Deever is being a homebody this time aroond so I won't have a massive bag full of useless shite to haul about, which is great.

Broon Sass? On a haggis?
You're mental you are.

Cheers TS, some of those covers are tantalisingly familiar- I do vividly remember those free gifts- I had the Barry Sheen poster on my wall and definitely had a wee red car (clip togther, IIRC?), the skull badge. I don't remember the stickers, but the cover tells me I had number one.

Wish my mum hadn't thrown them all out now!

Only a minor hairsplit (it's a comic geek forum, I'm allowed dammit)- I'm not up on Irish Gaelic, but Scots Gaelic often tended to slightly change the name when used to denote lineage- for example, if a man called Eochaid had a son called Conall, that son would likely be recorded as Conall Mac Echdach (rather than Conall Mac Eochaid). If Conall then had a son called Máel Dúin, this son might be recorded as Máel Dúin Mac Conaill. I've no idea what this would do to the name Slaine when applied to his son, as I don't fully understand the rules of this change. It is apparently also not uniform, though very common- Máel Dúin's son would most likely be simply Mac Máel Dúin.

A better man than I may be able to explain this, but it's also important to understand that written language was in it's infancy and it's very doubtful that there would have been a standard form and a formalised set of rules as we understand languages today. Often the first language of the monks recording these things varied and spellings for the same person are inconsistent, depending on who recorded it- there are large differences between Brythonic speakers, Gaelic speakers and Latin forms. Eg: Domnall is often seen as Donuel or Dyfnwal, depending on the text.

As  far as later use goes, I think the importance in recording lineage developed from identifying which kindred you came from- important in determining who you owed 'fealty' to as head of a kindred. Later these things had become so vast, and so tampered with, that I assume it was necessary to redefine who came from whom and a new system of fixed patronymic became the norm over time. The Clan lineages recorded in the Gaelic MS 1467 are horribly confused, sometimes contradictory and at odds with earlier King lists, which often don't tally with the Duan Albanach, nor with the Senchus fer n-Alban, and neither of these tally completely with each other. The church, such as it was, controlled written records and whoever controlled the church (or vice versa) called the shots. There is a large amount of hints at epic re-imaginings of 'history' on a Marvel-esque scale and more than once- certainly when the Picts are thrown into the mix too.

My own clan claims descent from the Cenél nGabraín in one genealogy, and the rival Cenél Loairn in another- although there are glaring errors in the latter- a dude called Donald Donn is the cause of much of this problem, as one genealogy has him as a son of a guy called Ambcellach/ Ainbcellach, who is known to have been Cenél Loairn, the other has him as a son of Conall 'Crandomna' (by implication only), whose father is also obscure, but claimed as Eochaid Buide (definitely Cenél nGabraín). This one has a ring of truth to it and the Cenél Loairn one may have been a rewrite as a result in a changeover in overkingship between these two competing Kindreds via the ascension of Ferchar Fota/ Foda- a probable usurper. Donald Donn would have been chosen as the figure to rewrite around as the lineage of both him and his father were open to question. There is no point in trying to reconcile any of this as it is impossible as well as largely unimportant, except to nerdy bastards like me.

The three main Dalriadan kindreds fucked each other over at the drop of a hat and the Picts fucked them all over big stylee, and all of them were likely guilty of ret-conning to gain the legitimacy of their Kingship- it was important to claim descent from a legitimate king as opposed to a usurper due to Kingship being ordained by God. The only thing that can be truly said is that they were all a bunch of scheming, lying bastards- not much has changed.

I can only assume that the Irish equivalents are as big a mess.

Máel Dúin remains the most awesome of Gaelic names. Unfortunately, I couldn't secure it for any of my kids, and it's been thrown out for possible grandkids names too, a future cat will have to suffice- though missing out on Máel Dúin Mac Labhran still cuts to the quick!

I'd imagine The Beast in the Broch would have to be placed in Scotland somewhere, for somewhat obvious reasons.

1. Slough Feg: Bisley
2. Balor: you know, I really can't remember what anyone's depiction of Balor actually looked like if I'm honest- terrible thing to have to admit.
3. Ukko: McMahon's hatchet faced weasel
4. Medb: At first I liked Bellardinelli's spidery haired slip-of-a-girl, but later I warmed to Fabry's evil-faced seductress and she's my 'definitive' choice.
5. The knucker: Bellardinelli
6. Nest: Fabry
7. Niamh: Fabry, definitely the scariest Niamh
8. Warp Spasm: Bellardinelli's- just mental, though Fabry was only a hair's breadth away from it

I too must commit sacrilege and confess to utterly losing interest during The Horned God. Other than the bigger paintings he did (which were fantastic- his Green Man is an indelible, iconic Slaine image for me), I felt the scale of the smaller panel work messed up his draughtsmanship too often in a way that was detrimental to the strip and was inconsistent. Combined with the horrible murkiness towards the end of the run, it just annoyed the hell out of me at the time and even now I dislike much of it, to my eyes it's one of the most over-rated stories, in terms of art- in places it was damned good, elsewhere it fluctuated between decent and awful. Whilst I do understand and appreciate the significance of Bisley's work on this and the massive ripple-effect it had on the comics art at the time, I still don't like much of it.

I love Simon Davis' art and it really is no reflection on his work on the strip that I haven't chosen him- I was so pleased to see him taking over duties as Langley's has done little for me (not intended as an insult- his ABC's have been great, though I find it dull, overblown and repetitive in Sexy Ostriches), there's just been too many damned fine artists have worked on this strip over the years to be fair to them all).

Get well soon Buttman- visitors to Glasgow need a garden to pish in.

RIP Brett. Sad news.

I got the first three or four issues of the Crunch, before it disappeared from the local newsie and I had to switch to 2000ad (eventually). I remember being really into the comic- I recall drawing the logo out constantly, but curiously remember next to nothing about the stories inside! My mum three my older pre-2000ad comics out when I was a kid so I didn't have the back issues lying around for any real length of time. I'm sure I've seen somewhere on the internet that you can read a couple of the stories online.

1st- 1908 Greg Staples
2nd- 1869 Alex Ronald
3rd- 1910 Glen Fabry

So many good covers this year- HM's for Willsher (1877), Coleby (1878- ye spelled Jaegir wrong )Kendall (1905), Higgins (1906), Disraeli (1911)

And a Merry Xmas back to Jesus- an artist whose work has stayed with me in my head since I first saw it as a wee boy. Thank for the thrillpower!

glad to see our very own Dog Deever on the cover 

I'm alright with Death making continuous comebacks- you cannot kill what does not live. It kind of makes him a different category of villain to the more usual arch-baddies like Orlok or PJ- an added dimension. I'd go as far to say it's entirely appropriate to never give him a final send off without any real need to explain how he keeps coming back- he is Death and Death cannot be avoided, only delayed for a time.

I agree that the other three Dark Judges have been pretty underdeveloped over the years and entirely overshadowed by their superior- sometimes they have just felt like dumb stooges- skittles to be gunned down by Dredd. I think there's a lot of scope for them as individual characters, much like Death has sometimes appeared in his own tales.

I'm looking forward to it- what I've seen so far looks pretty tasty.

I was brought up in the rural NE of Scotland and there's a lot of 'auld money' up this way as well as new- plus loads of titled folks who may or may not be less well heeled. I was a window cleaner for about 16 years and we were the biggest firm in the area so got most of the prime jobs, which meant a lot of old country houses- I've cleaned the windows of two Lord-Lieutenants of Moray and one of Banff, The Laird of Drummuir, The Laird of Brodie, the Gordon-Lennox's,  and probably several of their extended families without my knowing who they were.  I also cleaned the windows of Gordonstoun School too.

I've generally found the toffs, especially maybe the older ones, to be an alright sort really, on a personal level - haven't been horsewhipped by any of them anyway. In general we'd usually assume that they wouldn't want the likes of us dirty, scruffy and unshaven yokels talking to them, but more than a few of them surprise you and make a point of talking- not much common ground, and I'm fairly sure some of them had only the vaguest idea what we were actually saying- but they meant well enough. I think some of them, usually the older ones, like the 'couthy' local lingo. We just called them 'min' like anybody else, as in "ahright, min? Fit like?"

Anyway:
it's hard tae doff yer bunnet tae the Laird o' Drummuir just efter he's bared his erse at ye...*

*windowcleaning/ bare anatomy anecdote

Well done to the worthy winners, and big thanks to Owen for running it.