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I mentioned it briefly.

It wasn't one of Bisley's Heavy Metal Dredd's was it? There was bad phase in the early 90s where Lawgiver shots to the leg tended to send limbs and blood flying in all directions.

Where he shot the guy in the back? No, I think it was only this year, (or late last.) I forget the story but I think it was during the mutant vote story (but I might be wrong. It's worrying how blurred one's memory get, I must be getting old.) I wondered at the time if Wagner himself wrote it that way or if it was a bit of artistic license.

Cover- Good. Dredd looks ancient here but... well... he is pretty old isn't he? A different kind of art but that's a good thing.

Ad for Ampney Crucis looks interesting. Not too sure about the extradimensional alien theme (at least that's what it looks like) but it's too early to judge. Great art though.

Dredd-  Good if predictable ending. And predictable isn't always bad as it can be satisfying. I kinda thought [spoiler]beating the guy to death[/spoiler] was a bit much too though. Mind you I saw him shoot an unarmed man in the back a while ago (at least he didn't have any weapon visible) and that was a Wagner Dredd! I can't remember the name of the story, but the guy swiped a woman's bag. Dredd told him to stop, and he kept on running, and Dredd blew him away with his bike cannons. Like a tap on the noggin with his daystick wouldn't have worked (I've also read about a stun setting on the lawgiver, although I haven't seen it in action myself.)

Twisted Tales:  Yeah, I didn't get it either. I quite liked the freaky art, and insects bother me for some reason, (big ones in [particular) but I just didn't follow this.

Sinister/Dexter:  It was ok. Funny booby gags in page 1, panel 3 (woah look-a-tit go!) and page 2 panel 1 with (conveniently placed nubbin hiding).  [spoiler]The girl at the end is lost on me too, but I probably haven't read that far back. Incidentally what's with the cabbies eyes?[/spoiler]

Dante- Wow! [spoiler]Quick turnaround! A bit too convenient if the Tsar survives, (which he possibly will) but very dramatic. Not Dante's wisest tactic, attempted assassination in front of everyone, but obviously he's emotional.[/spoiler]

Roll-on prog 1600!

Edit- I forgot the Terror-tale. I liked it, but [spoiler]I'm not sure what the twist was since it seemed straight from the start that 'calling up demons would cause them to come for you' (albeit the demons are future humanity in this case.)  It was a good scary story, don't get me wrong, but seemed to be in a different format to what they usually suggest. Not that it's a bad thing to open it up more if that's what they're doing.[/spoiler]

I totally forgot that Long Road Home had started until I read about the second or third issue being released, so I didn't bother trying to get into it then, I'll wait for the collected edition.

Be aware you'll miss the Furth end-stories if you go for the collected version, (which might not be a bad thing if you don't like them. My views on them are varied, i.e. some I like, some I don't).  

I wouldn't be surprised if they brought out a separate collection for them eventually though.

[any]

You could probably get away with not offering any explanation as to what caused it - why not open with a simple black panel & a caption saying something to the effect of "Something had gone horribly wrong" then launching straight into the narrator seeing his reflection in the mirror? There's no need for even the briefest of whys, as the reader will accept that something has happened to make the narrator see these things and carry on with the story.

I think some explanation is needed, but a quick blow on the head for a terror tale will suffice.

>Terror Tales - enjoyable tale, but what's the why of how he got the second sight?

Twas the famous old tap to the noggin routine. Usually causes just unconsciousness and amnesia, but sometimes you gets your superpowers! He could have found magic glasses though I suppose. (Oh the big guy already  did that in They Live! And John Smith apparently. The founder of Mormonism I mean.)

I liked it though.

Dredd
Slaine
That alien who shouts his name a lot. Shakara! (Funny, I'd genuinely forgotten the name. It popped into my head when I finished the end of the sentence. )
Johnny Alpha
Big dog man from Kingdom. Gene!  It worked again! What is it about typing which triggers the memory?

I thought maybe I should pick Nemesis or Rogue Trooper since they seem to be tough characters. I've only read one story for the former Nemesis though. And no Rogue Trooper, (apart from one strip but I think it was a fanzine strip). Played the game though. I thought it only fair to go with the one I've read most about.

Good point, hadn't noticed that.

My interpretation would be that they're probably still kicking around somewhere, but by the time of the second series, three years on from the first, Defoe's stepped up his game and is looking for bigger fish. He's Zombie Hunter General now rather than just a lowly zombie catcher, so he's out for the ones pulling the strings this time and the importance of the intermediate zombie generals in the strip has lessened in favour of the hunt for MT and LV.

So, [spoiler]it seems the intelligent ones are back in the form of the Diablonians. That was a term that was thrown around earlier, so now we know what they are. Although I imagine these are actually a higher rank from the creatures of the last arc. Interesting reveal concerning La Voisin. In more ways than one.[/spoiler]

Cover:  Great image and great art. I think it would have fitted better with the contents of last week though (not that I'd want to swap it with the excellent Defoe image of last week.)

Terror Tales (I read this first). :  Loved it!  Liked the special power the guy has, and nice twist at the end. And I thought the art was fine.

Dredd:  Great episode.  Loved it that Kerrigan really comes into her own this chapter, even more so than last weeks. [spoiler]Not sure she could have undressed quite that quickly... but it was a great gag. And what muscular thighs she has![/spoiler]

Dante-  Great continuation.  [spoiler]Tsar's actions were a bit predictable though, but certainly in character. I wonder if Dante is about to switch sides again? Probably not just yet...[/spoiler]

Defoe:  I was wondering about the zombies who still have their marbles in the Defoe thread. I saw Diablonians last week, but at that point didn't know what they were. So now we know [spoiler]they're super zombies. And freaky gag with La Voisin. Takes that phrase "You really let yourself go darling." to a whole new level doesn't it? Poor Jones.[/spoiler] I think it ended a bit too early though. I've enjoyed this arc, but I'd have preferred to have covered a bit more ground. Still, we did get some answers, and a few more questions, which is no bad thing.

Sin/Dex:  Good simple fun. Well, simple without all the parallel dimension doppleganger and clone stuff. [spoiler]I'd have thought Sinister would have been better served watching reruns of Sliders than Stargate mind.[/spoiler]

I went on a couple of school trips to a place called Horton Kirby in Kent. Great memories, although at the time one or two weren't so great. (Could have done without that episode with the bully and the compost heap but that's another tale. And one girl got bitten by a horse at one point... which sound really funny now. Poor thing came up with a terrible bruise though.)

Anyhow, when we were went to the woods our guide told us about creatures called kirbys, some kind of shapeshifting dwarf creature. They apparently play tricks by following a party of people through the woods and taking the form of one of the members. Hence when the leader stops the procession to do a head count, if an extra person is counted... it's likely a kirby is playing it's tricks.

(Can't help thinking that two identical faces in a small group of people would be easy to spot mind you, but it was still really creepy at the time.)

I'd recommend a reread Wod, it took me a long time to get into Defoe, it was Cromwell's head on a stick that did it for me. i went back and read it again and it made a lot more sense, and now I adore it.

That was certainly one of the good moments of the first arc. Or maybe I should say 'wrong moments'. But in a good way. Good for those of us with twisted minds anyway.

It's weird, I've had dreams about the new Star Trek film these last couple of nights. Quite amusing too, although if my 'dream scenes' end up in the film it could be a bit rubbish. One involved little remote control robot things scuttling around, and for some reason I was there as a member of the crew trying to control mine and it went havoc. I ended up grabbing it and ripping up the battery. Yeah, no logic compared to the show at all, so I'm not sure where that came from. Actually, I think I do, the fire alarm in my house is oversensitive going off when you cooks something, and my sleeping mind somehow combined the two disparate things.

The other dream involved Spock having an affair with Kirk's current girlfriend. (No explicit scenes mind. Thank God. The girl was a hottie though.)

Very silly.

I am rather looking forward to this film though. I'm not all that into the original series (or the spin-offs for that matter, although I got into the later series of Voyager and nearly all of Enterprise.), but I have a soft spot for the films (with the original crew, although I'd make an exception for First Contact. The Borg were actually pretty scary in that one) and the universe as a whole.

I know what Peterwolf means about the actors not seeming to take their films seriosly though. Wrath of Kahn had a good balance. My personal favorite was The Undiscovered Country, but that bit at the end where Shatner says [spoiler]"Well, we've saved the universe again..."[/spoiler] felt a bit off.

On the topic of this film; I'm wondering how they're going to deal with the whole idea of Wolverine and Sabretooth not knowing each other in X-Men. I know Logan's got the whole memory loss thing going on, but are they going to do the same thing for Sabretooth?

Well, Sabretooth might not have mentioned that he knew Wolverine in the film but he seemed to have a real grudge with him didn't he? Even though he pretty much owned him in their first encounter, playing baseball with the tree etc. (Mind you Saby seems to have a grudge with everyone, but anyhow...) I seem to remember him having a fascination with Logan's dog-tags, although my memory on that might be suspect.

And there's also the question of how he turns from Liev Schriber into a big shaggy-haired massive-eyebrowed wrestler.

Heh. I think some mutations become more apparent as the person ages. Just look at the evolution of Beast in the comics... (although I think part of that was experimentation on himself.)

I think Anderson is a fine figure of a woman (as I've said before, but it's worth saying again.)  And she's got superpowers, which are always cool...

... but I'm going with Miss Jones.  Ordinary girl take control of her life and travels the universe. Makes mistakes, sure, and has her reticent moments, but then shakes it off and moves on. She's real.

And am I the only one who finds this quote annoying:

"None of [the earlier films are] going to be canonical, as a matter of fact," Fischer revealed.

Canonical?  Certainly not in the same continuity if it's a restart, but that their terminology just sound presumptuous to me.