Messages

The other night I managed 3 dreams, the middle one is a big vague now and the third was pretty standard guy steals machine gun from security services so we had to go and kick some doors in an offer plenty of teeth/pliers-related violence but the first one was definitely odd and relevant to 2000AD.

We were in the foyer of a small shopping mall-type affair and as we left through the revolving door a friend of mine enacted a diabolical plan gassing the people in the door (God knows what the plan was but I believe Jimmy Carr being gassed, so it presumably worked out OK). Trying to figure out how to leave, while my friend gloated on, we saw zombie tsunami rushing down the road towards the big glass windows. Not having a chance to bring down the steel shutters, as they do in all good zombie films, we legged it. I ended up in a copy shop, balancing on top of stacks of reams of printer paper along with some other guy and Al Ewing. Unfortunately, hiding on paper and hoping that the zombies don't notice isn't the best plan, even for an impromptu undead escape. As you imagine it turned bad quick and Al got bit, so I jammed a pair of scissors up under his jaw and into the base of his brain to save him horror of living death (Al's a decent chap and I assume he'd do the same for me). I then made a wild leap from the stack but the zombies were everywhere. Although I managed to wriggle into some space at the top of a storage cupboard the grasping rotting hands were just behind me, so I decided it was time to wake up.

No we've had to upgrade security because of heavy downpours of spam and mentalism.

The mentalism bit sounds almost intriguing - is this your general run of the mill sci-fi fandom type of mentalism (for some reason some online fans of a certain time travelling, blue police box owning Brit TV character come to mind) or a specific type of 2000AD mentalism unique to this board?

Please ignore me if the memories are too painful ...

The memories are too painful. However, it is the type of mentalism that could easily spawn a slew of scientific papers as it is orders of magnitude further out there than most people have encountered.

No comment

It's quite odd - has it always been like this?

No we've had to upgrade security because of heavy downpours of spam and mentalism.

That is pretty poor and it is easy to lament the state of the British comics industry, but the best thing they can do is cover it in some depth. As well as distribution issues, the main thing holding the comics back is the lack of publicity.

I've left some thoughts over there, we'll see if they make them live. Because, we've seen these kind of newspaper pieces asking where the British comics industry is, but the two things holding it back are distribution and publicity, so The Spectator could help out there by regularly covering the field.

Bring on the next one!!

Shall I wait for Tharg or shall I just plow ahead? I've got a doooooozy of an idea.

sigh, we will, of course, have to wait for TMO to pass along his judgement. However, there is a shiny pound coin with your name on it* if you were to happen to accidentally PM me the topic so I can get started now.

* Or a rather tarnished one with a sticker from a drag club in Hull on it, if you prefer. It is one of my lucky bin lids (along with a very tarnished one sharky and I found in the Pontins car park just before we bumped into John Wagner and Carlos, but that is just too lucky to part with.

[NOT]

You are both bang wrong. Lenny advesrtises Premier Inn  NOT  Travel Lodge. You both fell into my trap like the fascists you are!

You assume we watch commercial TV channels? The horror 

That is pretty poor and it is easy to lament the state of the British comics industry, but the best thing they can do is cover it in some depth. As well as distribution issues, the main thing holding the comics back is the lack of publicity.

Emp, butt'man get a room!

We have a room, thanks. It's in a Travel Lodge with Lenny Henry and we all w*nk over how rubbish your letters are aaaa,aaaa,aaaah, we all say.

FTFY

I think I prefer Buttonman's version, even if neither have much connection to reality. Apparently, this loose grasp on events is a requirement for record breaking letter writing to Tharg. I will need more drugs.

#cough#

To buy it again the person should get the Judge Dredd Megazine issue 295 as it is the free floppy.

Available digitally:

http://shop.2000adonline.com/products/judge_dredd_megazine_295

An excellent line-up of winners.

Bring on the next one!!

I just want to put in my vote for Dante and sinister.  My wife and I got hooked on Dante after picking up the new volume 1 that was released last year.  Bummer when we search for book 2 onwards, we just see the old out of print trades.

That is more an argument for getting the original volumes back into print (I think it has been requested in the relevant thread). As we have the first one getting a US release, we might be looking at the second one dropping somewhere along the line, so it might be simpler to pick those up.

Yes I suspect it is something exactly like that.

Let us know what you hear anyway.

As soon as I know something I'll pass it on. I emailed Steve after I posted the above note, so if there is anything going on I'm sure he'll let me know.

The Hero Initiative often steps in when comics creators can't pay for essential medical needs and we have the NHS (and other state-run safety nets), for which we should be eternally grateful (and worried that it is under attack by the Coalition). Anything else can probably be addressed on an individual basis:

www.heroinitiative.org/success.asp

The CBLDF is an interesting one, there seems to be less need for it here but also the Americans have the First Amendment which provides a solid freedom of speech defence.

It may be there is a need for a union for British comics creators, but it might be The Comic Book Alliance covers the general bases here and can cover similar territory to the CBLDF and Hero Initiative (and other things), although it doesn't look very lively over there:

www.comicbook.org.uk

Qualifying 2000AD trades published between 1st September 2011 and 31st August 2012 (according to the books page):

• Flesh: The Dino Files
• Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 18
• Defoe: Qyeen of the Zombies
• Cradlegrave
• Mazeworld
• Blackhawk
• Insurrection
• Ampney Crucis Investigates: Vile Bodies
• Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga
• Judge Anderson: The PSI Files, Volume 2
• Kingdom: Call of the Wild
• Mega-City Undercover, Volume 2
• Judge Dredd: The Day the Law Died
• Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 19
• Slaine: Treasures of Britain
• Absalom: Ghosts of London
• The Complete DR & Quinch (reprint)
• Slaine: The Horned God
• Mean Machine: Real Mean (reprint)
• Savage: The Guv'nor
• Strontium Dog: The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha
• Shakara: The Destroyer
• Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files 04