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Cool, a sequel to that Demi Moore movie!

[-M]

Let's hope it's as informative and worthwhile as Spider-Man's sojurn in Belfast, shall we?

[s]

The Gronk is dead?  Missed that one entriely!  I can't answer for goings on in Strontium Dogs, but Mr. Johnnys is still definitely dead.  He ain't Captain Marvel, y'know.

As many folk will no doubt be along to say, The Final Solution has never been ret-conned away, thankfully.  'Current' Alpha stories are just set sometime before the boys retire to Smiley's World to cultivate their moustaches.  Heckuva nice place, I hear.

Mentioning them in the article seems perfectly reasonable,

Yup, the Wold Newton thing is really the direct predecessor of the LoEG idea, and Kim Newman is a repeat offender in the fictional character mash-ups.  I quite agree with Buttonman in a general about overly clever material, but these are immediate forebears of the work being reviewed - it'd be like reviewing early 2000AD without mentioning Action or Eagle.

Loved that Prog.

Great, great art from cover on through.

Dredd:  A solid one-off, lifted by an amazing collaboration on art - Mike's dynamic figures and Cliff's awesome inks, a perfect combo.

Stickleback:  Aside from basking in the glory of the art, I  enjoyed the appearance of Festival Road's most famous shopkeeper,

Kingdom:  I love everything about this strip.  Regarding Elson, a better question might be "How long can we keep him?".      His art manages to be rich, clear and adventurous at the same time, surely he's fattening himself for export?.

Shakara:  Shakara!

Strontium Dog:  This is great fun, and I love Ezquerra's drift back to his pre-computer Necropolis-era purple washes.

A huge treat from start to finish.

Incidentally, while I don't care for the non-logo logo, the smaller 'exclamation'  logo now peeps out of the tiniest space on the newsagent's rack, rather than being partly obscured, which works for me.

Some good info there, matthewvic, thanks.  

I've had terrible trouble in the past arranging trackable/delivery confirmation for international posts from Ireland.  I've been told several times that it can't be done through the Post Office (or rather you can pay a small fortune for it, and they still won't guarantee anything more than you having sent it), and I'd have to use one of the parcel crowds.  

Now it didn't matter, because all my shipping has been trades of Star Wars stuff and shipping was agreed in advance with my opposite number, but now the missus is eBaying anything that isn't glued in place, I'm geting a bit concerned, in light of matthewvic's advice.

Any Irish squaxx know how best to get (affordable) tracked international post?

On the subject of TPB that people are buying:

Due to an awesome 50% sale in Borders, I've just upgraded my patchy Love and Rockets collection with the four current Titan volumes:  Maggie the Mechanic and The Girl form H.O.P.P.E.R.S. (a lot  of which I already had in various forms, but nice to have the gaps filled) and far more importantly, Heartbreak Soup and Human Disastrophism, the first two Palomar collections, arranged in a slightly bizarre 'chronological' order (given the resolutely un-chronological nature of the series - publication order might have made more sense).  

I thought I'd read a lot of the Palomar stories, and had always rated Gilbert the lesser of Los Bros  (not enough punky lesbians or topless superheroines).  I was utterly wrong on both counts.  

If you don't already own a decent chunk of Palomar, you should buy no other comic before buying these two books.  To think that Gilbert was already  churning out this solid gold in the early '80's, long before Watchmen and its 'mature' friends, while I was still reading X-Men and Fantatsic Four - it's almost impossible to grasp.  Reading an isolated slice of Palomar is one thing, but being exposed to 100's and 100's of pages of stunning art, densely interweaving plots and unforgettable characters... gulp.  

It truly is one of the great masterpieces of the comics form.  I'm gobsmacked.

The various Star Wars books (-sigh-), of which Knights of the Old Republic is the standout, and the nice omnibus reprint series(s) Dark Horse are bringing out.

Age of Bronze and Berlin, on their rare appearances, are super-extra.

Gutsville.  More!

Army@Love is flagging a bit, but I have to support Roarin' Rick in all his endeavours (even bought the Technophage).

Fables, although I note I'm far, far behind.

As financial ruin looms, I can see myself dropping the lot, so I can at least keep getting 2000AD.  There'll always be the TPBs when I'm rich and famous in the future.

Not passing on information does not make unions crap, just that one.

That was me griping about that one Ump, not Jim, but you're dead right - in fact IMHO it isn't even the specific union that's at fault, it's the branch and the particular officer.  My point is that unions aren't always a panacea for their members.

Which isn't to say that I don't have time for unions - I was partly responsible for setting up my own professions' first union, which I promptly had to leave when I became an employer myself.  Mind you, that one's shit at representing their members too, and I speak as the 'enemy'.

I've delt with prick employers in the past and best advice I can give is join a union.

If only it were that simple.  After 10 years of service, I've watched my beloved almost go to pieces over her work situation over the past year, and her Union has been absolutely no help.  Her crime, incidentally, was stating that as new mother, she could no longer work weekend overtime in addition to her Monday to Friday 9-5, but would be quite happy to work 8-6 four days a week and take on one day a weekend when necessary (thus ensuring she had at least two days a week with our 6 month old son).  

In fact, the Union have considerably worsened the situation, failing to forward letters sent to them from the employer, failing to copy her their letters to the employer, accepting the employer's (entirely fictional) version of events without a shred of evidence being produced and actually agreeing on her behalf to employer demands that she herself had never even seen. All this despite her meticulously kept notes, and the evidence of the employer's own timesheets.

Now she is not only fighting her employer, but she's fighting with the Union as well.  And this from the most amenable, hard-working, dedicated woman I know - hey, she's put up with my crap for nearly 20 years.

As an employer myself, her problems seem ludicrous - there isn't one thing she was asking for that i would not automatically grant any of our staff, never mind someone who had dedicated herself to the company for 10 years.  

'Course, I'm going out of business, so there may be a lesson there...

The only problem I ever had with the marvelous Flashman books was the false sense of historical nous they gave me.  I'd find myself perched at a bar somewhere holding forth knowledgeably on the causes of the Indian Mutiny or the disposition of guns at the charge of the Light Brigade, and suddenly I'd realise that my sole source of info was Harry Flashman's version of events... Still, at least I've got a decent handle on the geography of the Indian sub-continent to show for it.   Or do I?

Fraser will be very sorely missed.  

I bought my first DVD (The Phantom Menace, ferfuxache) in late 2001, and finally got a DVD player in late 2002.  Prior to that I had to bring it round to my girlfriend's brother's house to play it on his PS2.  We still use the 12" TV she bought for her student bedsit in 1989 (fabulously encrusted with multicoloured candle wax), although we moved it to the bedroom in 1999, and replaced it in the living room with a slightly bigger cathode tube jobby which has served us well since.  

I love gadgetry and shiny new tech, but I can't stand replacing stuff that is still perfectly serviceable.  My still-fine digital camera dates back to 2001, my mobile is from 2002 and my beloved brick of an MP3 player is from 2004.  I'm waiting until they all stop working.  It's easier to justify getting nice new stuff if you've had maximum service from the old stuff.

...things like Robin Hood also look a lot better.

Now, now, it's not a magic TV.