Messages

Well, my copy of Zap! was purchased this very afternoon in Dublin, and... Eeeee, it's not like the comics we had when we were kids, is it? All these video games and whatnot.

Dr Disaster is easily the best thing in it - well done, Rac! Very cute - a little kid who wants to be a supervillain... I wish I'd thought of that!

Mike C

Anyone remember an old British show called Beasts? There was one episode where these people were renovating an old cottage and in a hollow wall they found a horrible decayed thing wrapped in old rags... I won't go on because even now, it creeps me out just thinking baout it!

Mike C

Mr Blobby is still kind of scary...

Okay, now don't laugh...

Among the many posters I had on the wall as a little kid was one (taken from Look-In, I think) of Richard Anderson, who played Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man.

One night I had some sort of weird waking nightmare in which I was convinced that Oscar was looking at me, and what's more, he was the devil. Scared the crap out of me, and for years afterwards I wasn't comfortable seeing Richard Anderson on the screen.

Mike C.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Homo

Heh

Disgusting (and fascinating) though this thread already is, I feel compelled to further lower the tone for the sake of a good laugh...

Some years ago my mate Rob and I were discussing the movie Basic Instinct, in which Michael Douglas makes a comment about always looking in the toilet bowl after taking a dump.

I commented that I couldn't believe anyone wouldn't look: I mean, you have to, just in case there's blood or something.

Whereupon Rob says, "I always look just in case there's Lego."

Ah, good ol' JK Rowling! Thanks to her incredible sales, everyone thinks that writers make lots of money. Fact is, most writers earn significantly less than the minimum wage (see the Guardian article below).

Say for the moment that the average book costs a fiver. The author will typically earn about 6% of the cover price for each copy. If the book sells 100,000 copies, the author will be entitled to ?30,000. That sounds like a lot, but... Very few books sell 100,000 copies. Sales of SF/Fantasy/Horror works by unknown authors are unlikely to be more than 10,000 copies. That drops the author's royalties to ?3,000 (minus any taxes and/or agent's commission).

Mike C

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1528065,00.html" target="_blank">The Guardian: Harry Potter and the stony broke aut

WAIT a second! Is this a trick question?
Is this perhaps a subtly disguised poll about whether Johnny Alpha is better than Sinister/Dexter? Cos if it is, then I want to change my answer to "Dogs"!

Mike C (again)

If the people who lived in the house behind mine had a shark, I wouldn't be woken up every single drokkin' morning by incredibly loud howling and whining that goes on all fraggin' day until the drokkers come home from work.

Therefore, sharks are better.

Mike C

Okay, so that's Neil Flynn (the Janitor) for Dredd, Sarah Chalke (Eliot) for Anderson, Donald Faison (Turk) for Giant, Christa Miller (Jordan) for Hershey...

Instead of "Judge Dredd", let's call it "Helmets"...

Mike C

Dredd: I've said it before (see below) and I'll say it again... Clancy Brown for Dredd!

Anderson: Definitely Sarah Chalke!

Johnny Alpha: How about Simon Pegg in a black curly wig. And while we're there, let's put Nick Frost in a blonde wig and beard (and stacked boots) to play Wulf.

Dan Dare: the guy who plays Abs on Casualty (with a suitable haircut, or course).

Mike C

Link: http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/features/sprout/2003/dreddmovie/dreddmoviesprout.shtml" target="_blank">"My name is Joe"

Bloody hell, David... That's a bit crazy! I've just had a quick check on-line for taxis, and apparently a taxi from Luton to Oxford will cost about ?85 (and you'd have to get back, too!).

Maybe some fan travelling from the Luton area would be kind enough to give you a lift?

Alternatively, you can hire a car from Avis (www.avis.co.uk) for a lot less than a taxi: their site quotes ?35 for a day (for a Corsa 1.2 LS). Though if you did that you'd have to find somewhere to park in Oxford (and pay for it)!

It might even be easier to let the flights go and try to book another flight into Heathrow; there's lots of buses and trains from there to Oxford, and they're pretty cheap.

Hope you can sort it out: my wife and I will be there, and it'd be great to know that we'll be meeting someone who isn't a stranger!

Cheers,
Mike C

Excellent... We'll be there, and we'll bring some comics-related thingies (if I remember).

Cheers,
Mike

So what are the details about Shed:Con? Specifically, where is it taking place, and at what time? And since I doubt that there's be anyone there I've met before, how will I know when I've arrived at the right place?

Cheers,
Mike C

Ah, that old chestnut! It's been knocking around for at least ten years. It was probably inspired by a Mark Twain article from 1899 (see the link below).

One of my former bosses used to rediscover this one about once a year and e-mail it to everyone in the office, usually accompanied by a witty subject line like "New Documentation Policy".

Yes, it was a laugh a minute in my old job.

Mike C

Link: http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/simple.html" target="_blank">A Simplified Alphabet