Messages

I want to make a really funny comment tieing together the quick passing of the avian flu fears and this new swine flu (very possibly) media driven panic, by using the saying 'when pigs fly' but haven't the time or the wit to do it at the moment. So I'd really appreciate if people could do that for themselves and make believe that I'm a sharper man than I am...

Every time I see one of these insane sums for a page, I think of poor Gibbons selling the whole lot to a (perfectly honest) dealer at the time for a modest but reasonable sum, which is probably less than the value of a single page now.

At least he's done pretty well out of it in other ways!

To be fair to them they do say they're going to stick to North American comics so they have a get out.

Kevin O'Neill - pointy

ok then Alan Davis - Smooth

Slaine is unexpectedly back in the Prog in two weeks time.

That came a bit out of left field! Not sure if this is good news or not yet as I've not read any of the 'modern' Slaine stories yet(nowt since the Demonkiller). So for me this is something to look forward too. Was the creative team mentioned? Mills but who's on art I wonder? Surprised this hasn't been mentioned in 2000ad, or have I just missed it?

On the rare occasions my friends ask me this I always point them in the direction of 'America' and 'Cursed Earth' (when I say rare I of course mean once!). Two stories that I think capture the diversity of Dredd. Also blooming good reads too!

Great links. Just how much do I want to own a copy of "The dinosaurs are coming" - alas none on eBay today at least.

Didn't remember much about this, aside from NOT remembering how good good Shaky Kane's art was (I take back all my previous comments about Shaky Kane being nothing but a Kirby rip off) but having just re-read it what fun it is. Simple as that really just really good fun.

I could also come on here and rave about Revere Book III but me coming on here saying how good I think John Smith stuff is is getting a bit tired!

Just posted this over at 'Prog Slog' and thought I'd add it here as well

I've always enjoyed Brigand Doom. While I know you [Paul Rainey auther of The Prog Slog] have issues with some of Alan McKenzie's work I quite like him. 'Quite' being the operative work. He's not brillant but he's a good solid writer and I admire the fact that he tried numerous different things in 2000ad, Summer Magic being a good example which added to the variety in the comic. I'm particularly impressed by this as during his period writing there really was a trend in 2000ad and other comics to rely on shocking violence, apparent 'grit' and high style over story (yes Millar I'm looking at you) and this led to a lot of charmless stories. McKenzie often seemed to side step that and many of his stories had charm. I say often cos yeah I've read 'Mean Arena' recently!

Wasn't going to watch it but after Have I Got News For You we kinda drifted into watching it and I was pleasently surprised it was pretty good. Not as good as I remember the original which I saw when it was repoeated years ago now but still better than most comedy on TV these days. Not bad at all.

Arh stealth porn. That's the way to do it!

I really should stop this now I'm not painting myself in a good light am I!

[ And my wife has just popped up to "see how it's going", but I reckon only to check that I'm not accessing porn.

Steev

What and you weren't? By my reckoning that post was a good 30 minutes after you got set up. What are you going for a record or something?!?!

If you want to know more about the art of comics then you can't go far wrong with the three Scott McCloud books, starting with Understanding Comics. His website is interesting too

//http://scottmccloud.com/

I really enjoyed the two Eisner classics 'Comics and sequential art' and 'Graphic Storytelling and visual narrative'

That said while I enjoy this kinda stuff if you like just reading the things then that's got to be pretty damned cool enough for anyone!

It wasn't long ago that I came on here praising Firekind to the high heavens and having read that I was really looking forward to the next John Smith story I remembered being pretty good, his Tyranny Rex epic. Well I've just read it and it didn't disappoint, it didn't disappoint at all. Fantastic stuff.

Ok so the art suffered from the numerous changes and however good the replacements were nothing was going to top the Mark Buckingham art on the first 4 or so parts. I'd say this is the best stuff I've ever seen from him. Just beautiful, with a wonderful sense of design. The art after that was always going to be disappointing. That didn't however detract from a brillant story. I was worried at the start of the second 'book' that the change in location and Tyranny herself, was accompanied by a change in writing style that lacked the refinement of the first book. As the story progressed however and the depth to the prose returned. Its simply exquisite. All the more wonderful as even though it was so much more complex and rewarding than the previous Tyranny Rex stories (from which I guess I should exclude Soft Bodies which baffles me to this day!) it was such a fitting end to her tail (excuse the pun) and themes that were started in the early stories saw rebirth in this modrn creation myth.

I'll not try to compare it to Firekind, or decide between the two, the mere fact that I'm thinking about it tells you how good I think it was.

Beautiful.

Glanced at your web site.

All of which led me there as well and while I'm sorry to go off topic, have to say its GREAT. Absolutely love it. So much so in fact that for the time being at least you're glorious picture of the Fury is my desktop.

Good stuff