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the Lara Croft/Kitty Pryde archetype

How dare you!  In the same breath!  The very same breath!

Monarch, you truly are the Galaxy's Greatest Fan!

As a kid, Skizz was the first 'all new' series to run when I finally started getting the Prog regular-like (after a year or two of reading occasional issues).  This was not a coincidence.  In fact, I came in at 309, and had missed the Prologue, where he actually crashes, but I wasn't to find that out for a few more months.  It didn't matter.

Everything about the strip spoke to me, story and art alike, from Roxy's hair and Madness collection, to Constanti...err Loz's comb, Cornelius' O-Level, the mopeds, the Bullring, Spaghetti Junction, Van Owen's then-fashionable South Efrikin nastiness, the stuffed Kangaroo ecoy, the cop that knew Cornelius when he were a nipper ("always was a strong lad"), the checkout ladies when Roxy goes to but baby food ( "I blame the parents" "Ooo yuss the parents"), Hitchcock's birthday, even the fluey mucus-covered Uuiiiii-ing utterly-believable alien with the unpronouncable name.  

It was unlike anything I had ever read.  It was REAL.  

These were real people interacting with an alien, your Dad's friends, a girl at school, a nasty authority figure, and finally EVERYONE.  Everyone came to Spaghetti Junction, the whole of Birmingham, not scared of Skizz because he was an alien, but awe-struck, amazed:  "I want to see the Kangaroos!".  That's how it would be, how it should be, when we finally do meet the aliens.

In the wake of ET it's a funny fossil of a tale, and I'm a bit embarassed now by how much I loved it, but it moved me like no comic ever had before.  If the adult-seeming action of Dredd sucked me in, the realistic heart of Skizz made me stay.

"Try to get your head up, Skizz.  There's something I think you should see."  

Well done, Mike, that went very well - you sounded all normal and sane, not at all like I expected ; ).   Actually, you do talk exactly the way you write, which is always amusing to hear.

A very pally conversation, and bound to nudge some of the Lapsed towards a newsagents.

Actually, that link is shite.  Try going through the main site:

Link: http://www.newstalk.ie/" target="_blank">Try again...

Bump!  Just to remind y'all that Mike is on in a bit - furreners can listen in on the linked stream.  

Link: http://www.txradica.net/tune.php?c=newstalk&.wvx" target="_blank">Newstalk 106 Stream

My God!  You're not going out with Shell-Suited Kevin, are you?

A reminder to our country cousins that Newstalk is now available nationwide (not just in Dublin anymore for soem reason, I assume it's some kind of attempt to raise the consciousness of the average culchie by giving them something other than Market Report to listen too), and that the previously-a-bit-tiresome Moncrieff actually turns in a pretty engaging radio show.  He also passes the time reading endless text messages and e-mails, so we could increase the coverage by vox-popping away.  Remember to big-up Mike's 3D creations too!  (Oh yeah, and those books he writes as a sideline).

Good practical ideas, Amstor, but what I really want to see is indeed Strontium Dog.  Aside from the core-game of Bounty Hunting, imagine the fun levels, like Journey into Hell, the Ragnarok and Shickelgruber jobs, and side-quests like the Moses Incident and the Kid Knee Caper.  Christ, I'd buy a new computer to get my hands on that.  

Asquad-based ABC Warriors would be fun too.  What would Blackblood do, other than lay fiendish booby traps and hiss a lot?  And what line-up?

He was wandering around the jungle, still in his shirt and tie!

Just like when we first met him, eh?

I haven't actually read the Campbell issues, but I rate the man as a living god of modern comics, and he seems to hate his Hellblazer days with a passion.  He was apparently 'going somewhere' with his Walkabout run, but never got the chance.  

And he had a great sense of shame. Contantine had ALOT to be ashamed of during his run.

Nice observation, Ignatz.

Yeah, I've picked up most of the B&W Delano collections 2nd hand over the years, and despite not being that impressed when it was coming out (I just wanted more of Moore's "How do you baffle a vegetable?" occulto-spiv version), the whole run works really well.

  There's enough genuine horror in there to lay nasty little seeds in your mind, so job done.  Like Art says, following Moore and almost pulling it off is no joke - in particular, actually realising Moore's McGuffin of 'Newcastle' was a hell of an achievement.  Thinking about the Norfulrthing still gives me shivers.  

I've no idea why Garth Ennis thought it would be a good idea to send him into 'cyberspace'.

A precedent set by Delano, I suppose.  Hellblazer is by far my favourite work from Ennis.

I liken it to Pope Julian the Second claiming that heâ??d created the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

You go, Ridgeway, never sell yourself short!  I just love his description of working on Junker, because that is exactly how it came across reading it.  It's a shame, because I really liked the look and feel of the opening episodes, it had a sense of great potential, of going somewhere, and then it all just collapsed into a sea of nonsense.  

Now y'see, if that was what Civil War was like, I'd have bought a few issues.  "10: Smite, 20: Goto 10" is worth a few bob alone, never mind Cap's meditations on Sun Tzu and Tony's baloney pony.