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The problem I have with the 'Occupy' movement is that the nature of the protest is so poorly conceived and the message they are trying to promote is not clear.

If you are going to stage a public protest about anything you have a responsibility to make your message, and your goals, clearly understood.
We have an 'Occupy' camp in Norwich at the moment. As part of the camp they have a 'grievances' board where people write up the grievances they're protesting against. 2 that I read that spring to mind are 'Some people have more money than other people' and 'I work but don't get paid enough'.

It's missing Tex Avery's direction.

My girlfriend read Warwick Davis's autobiography and toward the end he mentions that he has written a treatment for a new comedy series that was being looked at by Gervais and Merchant.
She said she had the impression that Warwick's idea was more silly and slapstick - not like the cynical show that it's turned into.
I met Warwick Davis and thought he seemd like a really nice bloke - for that reason I hope this show does well.
I do have the impression that Gervais and Merchant have just pissed away Warwick's orginal concept with lazy hack work. This is ironic becasue it's exactly what happened to Andy's comedy script in series 2 of Extras.
Has Gervais turned into the very thing he loathes?   

Reviews are up...

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/325673/reviewsthe-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-review/?page=4

Sorry you didn't like the cover - the three 'generic' looking people are the lead characters of three of the strips, and the '30 year old picture of hookjaw' is a drawing I did without reference to any other material (so, you know, it's not 30 years old).

I don't disagree that maybe a more action packed picture may be better - but I think Strip wanted a frontispiece that spoke to the contents of the magazine and laid out it's stall, so to speak. Shame it didn't work for you.

As far as #2, #3 - to YOU it's a reprint of a strip from years ago, to many people (including to what I perceive as the intended audience) hookjaw is a new strip.

-pj

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Now I feel guilty! I certainly have no criticism on the execution of the main picture I just would have liked to have seen something more action packed for a first issue cover.

To be honest most of my criticism would be toward the editorial decisions and the way the covers are representing the tone of the comic.
I find the brand rather confusing. It's an anthology featuring new work by the cream of the British comics industry yet there seems to be a lot of emphasis on a reprint of Hookjaw.
Most other successful anthology comics have a lead strip. 2000AD obviously has Dredd, and for most of it's life has run with the tagline 'Featuring Judge Dredd'. Eagle had Dan Dare, Beano has Dennis the Menace etc.
Who's the lead character on Strip? Even if the intention is to have a constantly changing roster of strips they should have a lead story for the first six issues or so - just to help build the brand of the comic itself.
Even a strong logo for the comic would help.

Perhaps more importantly than any of this though is that the business behind the comic is solid. I personally thought that 'Toxic!' was amazingly cool (and what a first issue cover!) and look how that fell apart.

I suppose this is all pretty subjective and I'm sure there are plenty of other people on the board who know a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I do. I really do have lots of goodwill for this comic and hope it's a success.
I will probably pick a copy up when I go to my local comic shop and despite my criticisms I fully expect it to be a quality product.

I'm really in two minds as to whether to buy this comic.

I just don't think it looks cool. I can't belive they went with that for the first cover - three generic looking people standing there and a 30 year old picture of hookjaw.
'Stock pose' covers are fine once your character has enough gravitas to pull it off.

The covers to #2 and #3 look much better, but still, Hookjaw? These are just reprints of a strip from years ago and they get front cover status? Seems like an odd decision to me.

On the other hand I do want to support the British comics industry so maybe I should give it a shot. Can't help feeling like I'll be making allowances for it just because it's British though - a bit like I did with Clint and the Megazine.

The Last American was all about the artwork for me. Did it even have a story? I'd rather see a McMahon art book to be honest.

as for fans who'd like to see it serialised in the Meg though - it could work as it was serialised in Marvel's 'Meltdown' anthology in the mid 90's,

It's strange, I used to read Buster and the Dandy and Beano too but don't really associate them at all with the comics I read now.
I suppose it's all sequential art but I don't count single page gag strips in the same way that I wouldn't count Tom and Jerry shorts in a list of favourite films. I'd count things with a longer narrative though, like Asterix for example.


Just read that back and it sounds a bit like I'm having a dig at people who've counted kids anthology comics. It's not, I just thought it was interesting how I'd categorised things in my head differently to everyone else.

That's a shame - thought it seemed too good to be true!

I actually just checked the titles available for streaming via a PC. There's quite a bit on there but some say 'Free with a subscription of £5.99 or more' and some have a price attached.
The funny thing is that it seems totally arbitrary as to what ones cost and which are included in subscription. It's not a case of new releases having a premium added.

Youtube should be good though.

Anyone heard about this?

Apparently, later this month, there'll be a massive update to the Xbox 360 dashboard giving us access to Youtube, iPlayer, 4OD and Lovefilm!

I'm quite excited about the prospect of the Lovefilm service. Does anyone have this on their PS3? Looking at their website it looks as though for £5.99 a month you can stream as many films as you like. Sounds a bit too good to be true.

Ha! I've found a picture of the Mad Gadgeteer - with Steel Sterling too!



I had this comic but I'm pretty sure mine had a different title bar at the top. It was called 'Astounding Stories' or something similar.

I used to read loads of these types of comics:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASTOUNDING-STORIES-193-CHEAP-99p-/160671570726?pt=UK_Books_comics_Magazines_UK_Comics_ET&hash=item2568c59b26

They were really cheap in the newsagents. I particularly remember one with a story called 'How do you catch a ghost?' with art by Steve Ditko. There was also one with a villain called 'The Mad Gadgeteer' and a few with a super hero called 'Steel Stirling'.

Other than that I loved the old Marvel pocket books:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TITANS-POCKET-BOOK-No-8-Marvel-Digest-Comic-/330490833781?pt=UK_Books_Comics_Magazines_US_Comics_ET&hash=item4cf2c9eb75

All black and white art but great, fun stories. My favourite was a Spider Man episode featuring a villain called 'The Basilisk' (I'm pretty sure his alter ego was 'Basil Lisk' or something clever like that!) there was also a great one where Iron Man went back in time and got it on with Cleopatra!

My brother borrowed a great big pile of the Titan 2000ad albums when we went to stay with our Nanny one summer holidays. The pair of us systematically devoured the lot. My favourites were Robo Hunter books 1 and 2, Ro-Busters books 1 and 2 and Rogue Trooper books 1 and 2. I liked Dredd too but he certainly wasn't my favourite (I think the constantly changing art style threw me a bit).

I still think that Robo Hunter: Verdus and Ro Busters: The Terrameks and The Rise and Fall of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein are 2000AD high points. I think I prefer them to any of the Dredd epics.

After that I remember reading The Killing Joke - again borrowed from a friend. I've loved Batman ever since and went on to collect the London Editions Batman Monthly comics. It's a shame this isn't still going - there used to be some great free gifts.

I really enjoyed it too.

I've never read the books but had always imagined that Tintin was a bit of a sap. I didn't expect him to have such balls!

Haddock was great and i liked the way his alcoholism was tackled.

have to disagree about the score too. Thought it was great and really liked the plinky-plonky main theme.

Morrison's a great ideas man, that's for sure, but I think he struggles sometimes when it comes to character development and narrative structure - both things that Moore excels in.

The Filth, for example, is a full of great ideas and has some fantastic episodes but the structure of the overarching story is a mess. And something like We3 isn't an example of great comic writing - it's an example of a great idea being competently handled while the artist elevates it far above what's written on the page. Actually one of Morrison's greatest strengths is his visual awareness - he knows what will look cool on the page.

On the other hand, something like Top Ten is an example of excellent comic writing full stop. Expertly paced, excellent character development and plenty of laughs and shocks along the way. It's something that works on many levels, appealing to the geek and casual reader at the same time without leaving anyone struggling to 'get it'.

Moore's great. I don't think he's ever written an unsuccessful comic.
By that I mean he always seems to achieve what he sets out to do. Lots of people disliked Promethea - but they disliked it because they were reading it as a superhero comic. It's a very successful attempt at explaining magic using a comic book narrative device and I think it makes fascinating reading personally.
I guess Moore himself would cite Killing Joke as one of his less creatively successful projects. I think he said he disliked it because it wasn't actually about anything other than the Joker/Batman dynamic. Fair enough, but as an examination of the Joker and Batman relationship, and how it effects other characters around them, it hasn't been equalled in my opinion.

As for working for DC, well if DC in the 80's worked the way it does now we probably would have seen publication of 'Twilight of the Superheroes'. Back in those days the characters were what sold the books and the writers were very much expected to tow the company line. These days a star writer can make dramatic changes in continuity with editorial support. Seriously, the whole Dick as Batman/Death of Bruce Wayne thing wouldn't have happened in the late 80's.