Messages

1. Partly you might order it because you just want MORE.
2. The stories set in Dredd's world often help to explain old questions or flesh out the premise beyond what can be done in 2000AD. Some of those stories have become epics in their own right.
3. There have been some cracking characters over the years which have become stars in their own right and could easily be the leads in their own comics. The 2000AD and Megazine stable is that packed with talent.
4. You get to read some great non-Dredd stories which might struggle to get a leg up anywhere else because they're such pure sci-fi and the other great publishing houses in America don't really fulfill that remit (and the translated French stuff is pretty expensive). Some of the stories may be less sci-fi but very experimental in another way. Sometimes it works for you sometimes it doesn't but it's never dull.
5. More opportunities to see the best of the old and new Brit-Cit based talent out there.
6. Some people don't like the text features. I do. I especially like the interviews with noted creatives of the past who I've grown up with and not necessarily known much about them. It feels like getting to know someone as a friend who I've admired from afar.
7. The bagged story is a way of catching up on old Thrills that you missed in the past or reconnecting with old friends you'd not seen in a while.

[Zaucer of Zilk]

Zaucer of Zilk in the storyline reminded me a bit of Rogan Gosh in Revolver last issue. (Obviously McCarthy did the brilliant art for both.) Same shaggy haired layabout catapulted into a psychedelic otherworld and forced to evolve. This issue the storyline has mutated and it is clearly going to be a bit different. I have the same feeling as I did in the 90s that I am only going to understand about half of it but will always love the art.

I see Rogan Gosh is about £40 on Amazon. I hope I still have all my Revolvers. I've moved a million times since I bought them.

Flesh - I am a bit confused by the two females as they both look the same. Strange how people seem to be only able to draw one type of woman - 'their' type but can draw all sorts of different types of men. But hey the dinosaurs are all types of wonderful in this. The speed at which the action seems to be happening feels like I'm putting my brain through a dishwasher. Fab.

Dredd - Enjoying it more now various mutant chickens are coming home to roost. I suspected that the long slow burn would make for an extra exciting crescendo towards the explosions to come but it didn't make me any more patient. Bad girl.

Dante - I didn't use to like this much but I'm really appreciating the adult emotions of regret and sorrow as we come to an end. You don't get this in most superhero comics.

AOTW - Probably my least favourite this issue but that's not saying much to be only slightly less good than brilliant. I don't always like Worley's art but it's improved a lot and there is something about it which is very appealing. The setting is ace -  I really like that being a fan of post-apocalypses.

I've been listening to old acid house and rave all week - partly because of the sunshine and partly because Zilk made me feel a bit nostalgic. Zuper!

Wow, fancy that! Thanks for the link, I shall be watching that!

This is for a psychic-ish girl story I am illustrating. The pic proved unexpectedly popular when I posted it on Facebook earlier even though I deliberately didn't polish it as much as usual as it's only a character design shot. I did the colours because I was losing the paintbrush icon in all the grey but it reminded me of old comics colouring and orange is the colour of the 70s. It wasn't even going to be set in the 70s until I said to the author how it reminded me of old movies and comics and we got all inspired.

I was also inspired by a stunning set of photographs taken in the late 70s by a then teacher, George Plemper, of the people who lived in the area around Thamesmead which are well worth a look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7718785@N06/sets/72157601487596227/with/450387462/

Just a bloody brilliant photo.

This afternoon whilst watching the rugby:

Pundit A: What does Scotland have to do to win this game?

Thinks I: Score more points?

[FANTASTIC]

I thought that was a great prog. Two great shocks - Dredd and Dante. A little sadness in Dante too - so many great characters and it is impossible to predict who will make it to the end, especially if they are a supporting character. I like how hard Rowan has become in AotW and I am still trying to work out what is really going on in Grey Area or whether to take it on face value. I'll be glad to see it back as I have really enjoyed it. I now realise I don't expect Flesh to be that different in story from what has been before, as long as the dinos look amazing and humans meet disgusting ends at a quick pace I am happy.

Good art throughout although I thought the anatomy was a teensy bit off occasionally in Dredd and AotW (and I humbly say this as I could never draw action scenes like these people). Lee Carter did some lovely portraits this week. FANTASTIC cover (which made me sqeee in Tottenham Court Road and open up the whole wraparound to gaze lovingly at it whilst causing a nuisance to my fellow Londoners). Great storytelling in each comic by each writer.

DINOSAURS!!!!!!

What one person calls 'nerdy' another calls 'knowledgeable'. In a long ago era, you had to be well read in an range of disciplines to be considered a sage - there was a time when you could have read every book in the world.

But as more people have got a good education and the pool of information out there has expanded, people have become more specialised. This isn't a bad thing but as ever, irrational judgements abound and hierarchies about the values of different types of knowledge have appeared. 

You might remember how shocked people were when BBC's Mastermind started allowing more unusual subjects to be tested during the contestant's specialist rounds in the 90s. You can be tested on Asimov as much as Plato now and yet I think that programme has done a service by showing that 'nerds' who have interests in 'our' subjects can also have a great general knowledge too.

There's a section in one of my archaeology magazines called 'Odd Socs' which highlights a society for the study and preservation of something out of the ordinary every month (including roundabouts, pylons and petrol stations as well as the more obvious historical targets).  I think anyone who has a passion for a subject, no matter how mad, should be cherished. Especially in Britain as we seem to be a full of eccentrics.

I don't need to tell people on this messageboard to wear your nerd badges with pride as I think we do on the whole but I am sure we sometimes feel a bit down if we are a bit isolated in our enthusiasm. I know I sometimes get a bit weary as I bring back my latest 2000AD from the newsies on a Wednesday lunchtime and my crowings of 'Dinosaurs! Time travelling! Awesome!!!!' get funny looks. Oh well.

Jon that's great!

Another argument for proper licensing for keeping animals and policing of said licenses. Some people shouldn't be allowed near animals full stop. I'm really sorry for your friend, his family and the poor spaniel.

My friends' 15 year old cat died last night. They can barely speak today and are just holding it together.

On the good side, I did like some of the effects you did and your art slightly reminds me of someone else but I be blowed if I can remember who it was, the one who made Maeve the Many Armed immortal for me....

Every artist should study anatomy and body language. You should also get yourself into small press comics for the confidence, experience and portfolio possibilities.

ooh that's crappy, Dunk, but you're right as there's never been a better time for eye treatment.

I loved the cover (to the point of thinking a print would be very nice) and I like the spoofverts very very much. The strip I think is okay rising to the beautiful at times - I like everything except the faces and the fact I keep recognising the models when they're different characters in different stories and it throws me out. Plus the gurning. The story is fine but I think the art distracts from it.

I loved Armitage especially the last panel. He's pretty fit for a scruffy old git.  More please.

I love Dark and Strange, the art is understandably cracking but I love the pagan horror of the story too.

Dredd was funny!

That Anderson story was nowhere near miserable enough to be in Jinty or Bunty. She's not a one legged orphan or anything....

Re Grey Area - if a male character had been hijacked by a rather charming and hapless alien do you think he'd have been shown completely naked throughout most of the story? Still the revelation at the end was great, I had no idea that was coming...

Bit of a Work in Progress but this is what I have been working on this weekend. Looking at Edmund Bagwell's art for Cradlegrave was a huge help as I was having trouble making the hoodie look like a hoodie... It's not been a hardship staring at his work for ages..

This lil fella was just a joke I put on an illustration as a placeholder for a logo but the guy who wanted the picture liked him so much he ended up in the final version...