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It's not challenging, mind-expanding, nail-biting stuff, but it is very pleasant.  Which is why I'm not convinced by the grim'n'gritty pretensions of SG:U.

So far, I've found it okay. I can see where they're trying to give it a bit of an edge, but I don't feel they're overdoing it to the point where it grates. The bigger problem, I think, is the absence of any really appealing characters. Atlantis was particularly strong on characters, so it's a shame that they haven't managed to do get it right here as well.

The mind transference stones are a clever trick that's going to allow a lot of fun cameos from characters we know and like, but there's a risk they'll highlight how dull Universe's character are (at least at present).


Regards

Robin

I was older than you at the time, so I got it... but I wasn't very happy about it. I still saw as Dredd as essentially a good guy (albeit one with a gun) but his actions during the democratic march were clearly wrong. I just didn't think it was true to the character.

However, it's proved to be the starting point for everything of value and interest that's come in the years since. Letter to Judge Dredd is the real point at which Dredd stops being a just comic book hero with a cool gun and becomes a man with beliefs and doubts and the capacity to change, but that story wouldn't have happened without Democracy.

Regards

Robin

Whilst I find Stargate to be -- usually -- an unchallenging diversion, I'm utterly mystified as to the huge success and longevity of the franchise. I remember reading somewhere that the SG franchise was worth more to Paramount than James Bond. Baffling.

I think it's the unchallenging bit. There are some fun ideas, some fun characters, some fun banter, some fun special effects, and some fun ongoing storylines for when the other fun bits have hooked your initial attention. I think the latter has helped in particular, along with the various series' incredibly simple but quite brilliant trick of casting half a dozen likable actors who have also appeared in Star Trek, Farscape, Firefly, and The X-Files.


Regards

Robin

I ordered the Mechanismo collection the other day (along with Grandville and The Misadventures of Jane). It arrived yesterday and I read it last night. I have to be honest and say that I was rather disappointed. Despite the presence of two of my favourite artists and my favourite writer there's little if nothing here worth re-reading, although Doherty's art does standout.

Arguably, it's a pivotal story, part of the Necropolis aftermath, McGruder's crumbling sanity, and Dredd's deviousness. However, the stories are pretty uninspiring affairs and largely predictable. Only Dredd's actions at the end of the third story are of particular interest, but there's no punch there anymore for a regular reader. Mechanismo is a Wagner Dredd that seems caught in the era of mediocre non-Wagner Dredds. It is remains a competent story and is convincingly Dredd in tone - it's still Wagner, after all - but there's no nostalgic thrill and nothing special to be found here.

Controversial?


Regards

Robin

I wonder why we see so few women posting here?

Regards

Robin

I've not read through the thread, but my experience is that there are great, great many pedestrians, cyclists (pedal and motor) and drivers who all need to be put up against a wall and then shot through the genitals with a cannon.


Regards

Robin

Hammerstein seems to be using a Dredd movie Lawgiver, or something similar.

Given that Mek-Quake is there, I'm assuming it's set on Mars in the current storyline.

Looks good.

Regards

Robin

(The "who wants to live forever" montage for example)

That's the best bit!

Absolutely right - it's the heart and soul of the movie.

My mum watched it way back when on the recommendation of a friend, before I'd even heard of it. Now, my mother doesn't do fantasy and SF and horror, and certainly doesn't do chopping off heads, but that sequence with the aged Heather walking up the hill made it work for her.

That said, the whole curse of immortality thing is a wee bit of a cliche for fans of the genre, so I wonder whether a remake has anything new to say or do.


Regards

Robin

especially for those of us who are getting on a bit.

Is that not all of us?

Yes, which is a bit of a shame really. Much as I liked Cradlegrave and continue to enjoy Dante, I do think it's a pity that 2000AD isn't a kids comic anymore.

But that's a discussion for another thread.

Regards

Robin

In the Christmas issue story from a couple of years back, Dredd hands Hershey a letter of resignation in a private meeting, then persuades her to bring the mutant issue back on the agenda, and this time not abstain from voting herself. So as Jim says, Dredd did strong-arm Hershey with his threat to quit. 

Fair enough - I'd forgotten there'd actually been two votes on this issue.

That Christmas episode is particularly good, especially for those of us who are getting on a bit.

Regards

Robin

... And there's this superb look of hurt on Hershey's face, at the realization that Dredd's threat to her quit over the mutant issue was no more than a (successful) effort to manipulate her into getting his own way.

Do you think that it was intended or merely your (perfectly reasonable and rather clever) reading of it?

I'd have to get the Progs out, but was Dredd's threat to quit directed personally at Hershey or was he giving her something to use as leverage with the rest of the Council of Five?


Regards

Robin

I strolled into Sommerfield with my other half and before I was over the threshold there was a security guard asking me to take my hood off.

Cripes, is it really that bad in Britain?

I imagine it varies from store to store, individual guard to individual guard. Our hospital has a no smoking policy anywhere on hospital grounds, but security won't enforce it.

A lot of people like to pretend we're something of a Big Brother Nanny Police State, but in reality it's amazing how much anti-social behaviour is tolerated, ignored and even accepted as reasonable. The over-the-top responses to minor examples are the ones that get reported, of course.


Regards

Robin

From the article:

..Tesco store in Bangor

That speaks volumes. I'm from North Wales and went to Bangor to recruit for our new store. What an odd place. Very insular, agressive and in your face people. Had a couple of people demand that I conduct the interview in Welsh and got very annoyed when I said that we wouldn't.

I lived there for six years, four as a student, two blissfully unemployed, and I can't say I had that experience. I knew someone who had some trouble with locals one Friday night, but students experience that in most places. I go back there every year and have half a dozen English friends who've settled there, work with the locals, don't speak Welsh, and haven't had any problems.

The local council also demanded that we change the wording of our store title into Welsh. This is the only place in the whole UK where we've had this request.

I thought it was standard across Wales to have bi-lingual signs, or was the council asking for exclusively Welsh?

Regards

Robin

Demon Killer?

So there's a chance that, ropey as some of them were, the time-travel/reincarnation storylines will be reprinted?  Good.  Slaine deserves a complete run being available. 

I won't be bothering. With the exception of the rather goregeous Glenn Fabry Yearbook story (when Slaine finally goes into the earth), nothing between The Horned God and The Books of Invasions appealed to me at all. The art was predominantly (though not entirely) from that sub-Bisley fully-painted murky sludge era, and Uncle Pat was far too angry with everyone to focus on his characters and stories.

Regards

Robin

I'm another one who regularly gets stuff from them through Amazon and I've found them to be excellent... although I've not had to deal with their customer services. The worst I can say is that they might not be quite as fast as they were, but not to the point that it's at all an issue.

I start to notice problems I'll post again.

Regards

Robin