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The latest model: The Crusader from Dan Dare (a prototype ship Dare stole shortly before the series went on hiatus for thirty years).

Here's one I realised on the way out of the cinema after the midnight showing:

Laurie's costume has the same colours as The Comedian's badge.

It's possibly not significant, but I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it before.

-- Mike

[All]

This sounds like it could be fun - I might give it a shot myself if no-one objects (though Kerrin's first post does say "All are welcome...")

And it's just become a little easier for the rest of us because His Lordship Rac's story - a great little tale - is ineligible! Hah! You're going to have to write something new, yer Lordship!

-- Mike

Just back from the midnight showing in Liffey Valley, Dublin...

My wife and I both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Yes, there are changes from the graphic novel - and some omissions - but I felt that it all worked very well, and I'm inclined to agree with JayzusB.Christ about the big plot change.

The cast were superbly matched to the characters - particularly Patrick Wilson as Dan - and the effects were mostly top-notch. There were a couple of slightly dodgy bits here and there but I'll forgive them because the rest of the film was so good.

But, man, it's violent! I mean, really, really violent. Some of the fight scenes are incredibly brutal - this is definitely not a "comic-book" movie in that sense.

Was it worth the wait? I think so, yes. It's not the exact same Watchmen as the comic, but then it wouldn't be: it's not a comic.

-- Mike

Mike have you ever used Blender?
It looks good (free), however I am a complete beginner and am looking for something to learn with / mess around with.
I tend to use Ubuntu more and more now and am not sure what else is available that would run on it besides this.

//http://www.blender.org/

Hi Martin,

I haven't used Blender, but maybe it's time I gave it a shot... It certainly looks impressive!

-- Mike

... I always thought it a clunky and inelegant design for a spaceship - the 'Eagle' shuttles were much cooler!

I completely agree: I'm currently re-reading 2000AD from the beginning, and the Spacefort is the least interesting of all the ships in Dan Dare. I constructed the Eagle model ages ago...


... but most of Mr Gibbons' designs from the strip are excellent, and I've added quite a few of them to my "must do" list. The Crusader in particular is a beautiful ship, so that'll probably be next up!

See the "3D Graphics" page on my website for pretty much all the work to date:
http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm

-- Mike

I've read through the first four pages of these things. Some of them are quite funny, but they're fake. That is, they're not posted by different people. Look at the evidence: consistent spelling, consistent punctuation, consistent presentation and reasonably consistent length... Every single one of them begins with "Today," and ends with "FML". Surely if these entries were genuinely posted by different people at least one of them would begin with "Once," (and there'd be at least one with "To-day" or even "Toady")?

So either someone with a greater-than average literacy is editing the users' entries, or it's just one person writing them all.

Thanks, guys!

I based the pose on an Ezquerra sketch over at www.200oad.org (//http://www.2000ad.org/functions/image.php?Comic=artwork&choice=Ezquerra_Gronk) which, incidentally, doesn't feature the Gronk's full complement of arms, so I decided to stick with just the two.

I did debate whether to include his stomach-mouth thingy, but decided he was cuter without it.

-- Mike

The folks over at Something Awful have nicked our idea for their latest Photoshop Phriday compo!

//http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/star-wars-art.php?page=1

(Some of their older comps are absolute gems - well worth a browse!)

-- Mike

Yay! Finally finished! I started working on this one years ago...

Just spotted on MySpace that one of my all-time favourite writers passed away this morning.

He'll be greatly missed.

//http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=236291806&blogId=473035149

- Mike

From John Higgins:

The Watchmen premier was great. I hate stuff like that for its cattle-prod crowd-control for the non-entities, but the movie experience to see it before most anyone else was magic! if it wasn't a more-than-good movie I would have been pissed off at it no matter what the rest of the night was like, but on my recommendation go and see it: it really is the most sophisticated action / adventure movie I have ever seen!

Whether or not that makes it a great movie I cannot say as I feel too close to it at the moment - give me two more viewings to put it into a "stand by itself" movie perspective.

P.S.: A new collected edition of John's Razorjack will be coming out in March from ComX - more info on this and other at //http://www.turmoilcolour.com!

-- Mike

I'm afraid that this would definitely be a breach of copyright!

Any intellectual property requires the consent of the owner (in this case, Rebellion) before an adaptation would even be looked at, let alone considered, and I'm pretty sure that the adaptation rights to Strontium Dog have long since been optioned.

-- Mike

I'm with you there, Satchmo! A lot of their books are absolutely stunning, yet mysteriously almost unknown in the UK and Ireland.

Lady S.: Here's to Suzie and The Scorpion are particular is high on my Must Get list. I would have picked them up at Hi-Ex if I hadn't already bought far too many comicy goodies (our suitcase was so full of comics and graphic novels that the only way we could close it was to wear almost all of our clothes rather than pack them).

-- Mike