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Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome home.

An interview and preview:

www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-03-31/Prophet-sci-fi-comic-book-series/53900954/1

Had he ever seen Star Wars?

That's the one with Ronald Reagan in, right?

FP's 2000AD novice review for this prog:

Whilst we're on epic and fun; Flesh – Midnight Cowboys keeps on going for it; big, kinetic, messy b&w art (good messy though), huge dinosaurs trying to eat other huge dinosaurs. There's a story in there as well regarding the humans around the dino, but really, isn't it mostly about big dino-fighting? Yep, epic and fun as well.

The Zaucer Of Zilk by Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing is another one bringing the epic and the fun, but bloody hell it does it by way of hyper-colourful weirdness and bizarre goings on, just as you'd expect from McCarthy, just as so many of us were hoping when we first heard about this one. Poor Al Ewing though. His role in this has rather been sidelined by us all (me included) talking up McCarthy. But Ewing's co-scripting duties are just as important, just as much a requirement for our continued enjoyment here.

...

You know, this is really getting stupidly enjoyable for me. I'm having a far, far better time than I imagined I would. In fact, if you want an idea of how much I'm enjoying it, there was a bit of me wondered if our local newsagent had the Megazine this week, but sadly not. I'm a good trip away from a local comic shop, and part of the whole 2000AD every week thing is about going out and getting the comic off the stands each week, so I'm going to resist the temptation to subscribe to both.

But so far, 7 weeks in, this is really getting good.

Although they do flag up a few concerns about AotW art:

However, the art is beginning, here and there, to look just that little bit ropey. Nothing really bad, just an occasional panel where something jars, there's a leg that looks wrong here, a shot of Rowan's face that looked wrong there. That sort of thing.

And that last panel on the scan they provide does give me Stalag 666 flashbacks there are so many things wrong with Kate in that panel (which is odd considering how far JDH has come since those dark days - it is almost like it has been drawn by someone else).

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/2012-2000ad-pledge-prog-1776/

[want more formal and rigid rules that dictate social interaction]

The real problems with Steampunk were underlined when it became a lifestyle, as everyone seemed to set about deciding what Steampunk was and wasn't (which would tend to actually exclude a lot of the early Steampunk novels).

I also suspect it is poorly worded as this kind of thing sounds like they are trying to impose their views on others, which I'm sure a lot of people into Steampunk wouldn't be comfortable with (after years of people telling them how they should dress or behave):

People dislike the trend of casualness in all aspects of modern culture, and want more formal and rigid rules that dictate social interaction.

...

It's sad to see people walking around at the mall wearing practically their pajamas and looking like they just rolled out of bed, and people want other people to at least try to look nice.

...

Some people think it's inappropriate to wear so few clothes out in public, and think that people should wear more modest styles

I suppose that Steampunk would also appeal to more... reactionary types and, who knows, that might be the kind of thinking in their circles.


I was amused by this:

It's sad to see people walking around at the mall wearing practically their pajamas

He should come over here and I'll take to a Liverpool Aldi where they are actually wearing pajamas.

Walking Dead is one of the those rarest of comics that actually sees readership increasing month on month (or did for the longest time).

It still does:

The Walking Dead #95 has hit stores, it's the highest selling issue of that series to date.

www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/30/the-bleeding-i-talking-with-eric-stephenson-about-image-selling-out/

This is not only impressive in its own right but helps drive sales for older issues, as well as the trades which have a permanent home on the NYT graphic book bestseller lists:

www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/paperback-graphic-books/list.html
www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/hardcover-graphic-books/list.html

The beauty of having a TV show linked to your comics - films will cause a spike in sales, but TV means a long steady sales boost that can actually build on the momentum (111 weeks in the charts for WD Volume 1 and the Compendium has had 37 weeks which is impressive as that is 1,000 pages and costs $60!!).

Top marks to Len O'Grady & Dee Cunniffe.

Dee has a post on his blog showing how he did the flatting for this Meg's S&D:

http://deesaturate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/strange-darke-new-blood-part-3.html

Sorry to bore you guys , these pages are up for grabs

You might be better off starting a new thread in the Classified section - a thread for people ohhing and ahhing over fine pictures might not be conducive to inducing a buying frenzy.

Anyway back on topic - I might be interested in this... or not. Only time will tell. 

Hopefully it doesn't get sucked into the same wormhole that your Hallowscream script got lost in  .

They have both been wrestled from the space-time sphincter they got lodged in. We should see both of them later this year.

Get a room ladies!! Then locusts can leave the door open

Anyway back on topic - I might be interested in this... or not. Only time will tell. 

It was a fair price for a high grade 35 year old comic , i have better issue's for sale , see below :

Get 'em CGC graded, slabbed* and on eBay - looks like now might be the time to cash-in!!

* Although it is my understanding that they don't do this for 2000AD.

Threads merged, given a better title and moved to news.

LOL, indeed. Although Steve has been called "Ealing North's tattooed bruiser" by Private Eye so he isn't your average politician. Now if I could get David Cameron to curse my name during PMQs...

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the rules on what can be sent to Scrubs are pretty restrictive: stationary and stamps, religious jewellery/wedding ring, washcloths & towels, or postal orders.   if Brett is spending his time writing, maybe stationary would be appropriate.

Yes there are strict limits on what can be sent and I assume his friends and family have most of his needs covered. It'd be best to wait to hear back from the family.

Amazing and excellent news - Has anyone had a look at those sending guidelines - would they accept the inevitable Mark Howard Thank You Brett tribute comic?

Sharky is a little burnt out from sorting out two of these on the run but if anyone is interested in helming another one then speak up - there is plenty of material out there (linked above) I'm sure we scoop up so part of the work is already done and sharky will, I'm sure, be happy to lend his expertise and advice (and I'm sure we can rummage up the contacts to get some other droids interested). It is just that the restrictions might it might have to wait until he is out, so it might have to wait a bit.

If you are changing to BT from Virgin your BB speed will be severely reduced.
A friend of mine moved to an area that couldn't recieve Cable and from getting 20 meg from Virgin, are now getting a maximum of 2 meg with BT.
BT feed you the shit of being too far from their switch to get decent speeds. From my experience the whole of Leicester must be too far from a switch from what swapping customers have told me.
Be careful out there.

I think our speed is pretty minimal as it is, for broadband (fast enough for me most of the time, though) , but good to know we might have dodged a worse deal.

Also be sceptical of the speeds some of them are advertising, from last year:

"There is a substantial gap between advertised speeds and the actual speeds people get in their homes," Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards told the BBC.

"The chances of someone receiving the advertised headline speed are fairly remote," he said.

"We would like to see clearer information provided to consumers which more accurately reflects the likely speeds they will actually receive," he added.

Ofcom's latest research into broadband speeds found that just 14% of customers on 'up to' 20Mbps services received speeds of over 12Mbps, while 58% averaged speeds of 6Mbps or less.

Cable and fibre services fared better, with 92% of Virgin Media customers on an 'up to' 50Mbps service averaging 45.6Mbps.

Its lower 10Mbps service saw average speeds of 9.6Mbps.

BT's Fibre-to-the-Cabinet technology, which is currently available to 15% of UK homes, has an average of 31.8Mbps on the 40Mbps service.

...

AVERAGE DOWNLOAD SPEEDS

BT 'up to' 8Mbps - 4.1 to 4.8Mbps
Orange 'up to' 8Mbps - 3.3 to 4.3Mbps
Plusnet 'up to' 8Mbps - 3.4 to 4.4Mbps
Virgin Media 'up to' 10Mbps - 9.5 to 9.7Mbps
BT 'up to' 20Mbps - 6.9 to 8.7Mbps
O2/Be 'up to' 20Mbps - 9.9 to 11.6Mbps
Sky 'up to' 20Mbps - 7.4 to 8.8Mbps
TalkTalk 'up to' 24Mbps - 7.7 to 9.3Mbps
Virgin Media 'up to' 20Mbps - 17.4 to 18.6Mbps
BT 'up to' 40Mbps - 30.5 to 33.1Mbps
Virgin Media 'up to' 50Mbps - 43.9 to 47.2Mbps

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12611315

So Virgin's 'up to' 10Mbps was actually averaging out as being faster than BT's 'up to' 20Mbps and TalkTalk 'up to' 24Mbps!!

Plus Virgin are doubling (and in some cases tripling) their broadband speeds:

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/11/virgin-media-double-broadband-speed

Leading David Cameron to say "I welcome this announcement from Virgin Media; it will provide a great boost for those downloading films or people caught out by buffering in porn videos when they are on their vinegar strokes." Although I might have fixed that for him, a bit.