Messages

The up side is that it is all out in the open and, as has been said, you can spin this to your favour. So instead of there being a lot of rumur and innuendo you get to put your side of the story.

It'd be well worth getting a clarfication on LitG so that people get your story up front so they don't have to wade through the suggestions that it might be touch of misdirection before the proper story emerges.

You should be able to turn what could have been a disaster into good publicity (they do say there is no such thing as bad publicity after all) - its got your name out and that thread amply demonstrates that you work quickly to protect creators rights and that in the end the people who are actually out of pocket is FQP.

And I have also seen things from the other angle too. 15 years ago I was in Herefordshire and talking to a couple in their fifties and I kept getting blank looks - turns out they genuinely couldn't understand what I was saying and I haven't got a very thick accent (I have an odd amalgam having had a number over the years).

They also asked if we'd got electricity as far as Liverpool yet - perfectly genuinely too.

Its a funny old world - it'd be dull otherwise surely ;)

I get the same way with call centres which are obviously on the Indian subcontinent somewhere.

I had the same problem the other day - the guy had such a strong Indian accent that what should have taken 10 minutes (he knew his stuff and fixed the problem no problem) took half an hour as I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. The main problem was my email address which must have taken 5 minutes to get right - we ended up having to use police call codes:

Me: Its "the"
Him: So thats Victor
Me: "the" Tango Hotel Echo

and on and on. I'm sure there is some lesson in there at bilabial fricatives and the closeness of b, v and t but I had better things to do.

I can't see this as being racist (more a practical manegerail thing) - people in call centres have to at least be able to hold an intelligible conversation with people. I once had problem with someone with a very strong Scottish accent so its not a racist thing (unless I also hate our brethern north of the border and give or take the odd scary moment I've only ever had good times in Sconny Botland).

I really hate the way some of the artists ( Though they still are well drawn.) have drawn four armed dragons. The back ones used for thsiere wings and the front left free.

As Dragons go, it just looks abit too odd.

Those are from the Dragonriders of Pern and so aren't proper dragons - they were genetically modified from an indigenous lizard and like most fauna on Pern they have 6 legs (or 4 legs and 2 wings).

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_%28Pern%29" target="_blank">Wikipedia

Does it really really have to contain dragons? The writer would have to come up with a different approach to the beasties as they can be difficult to handle. When I was a lad I wrote a short story set in a world where people were symbiotically linked with giant monsters like dragons, cetaceans, etc. - I think it was round about the time I was reading the Dragonriders of Pern and Elric (hopefully more the latter than the former as I found the books a bit tame).

I'm up for stories not set in the future (and with no Slaine or Red Seas there is room for one) but I'd worry about fantasy comedy as this can be even trickier than dragons. I tend to find myself agree with this:

If it's got to be in earnest, I'd rather have science-fantasy in the vein of Elric of Melnibone than medieval fantasy in the vein of Lord of the Rings.

In the end though it all depends on getting the right story - even if I voted yes for dragons it'd be pointless if it was rubbish.

Alan Grant is being interviewed by Mariella Frostrup on Radio 4 for Open Book right now. Looks like you can "listen again" online.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/openbook_20070128.shtml" target="_blank">Open Book

And possibly Treasure Island next??

The Emperor says "Yarrrrrrrrrr"

Gets a mention in LitG.

Might be more in the works.

Link: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2635" target="_blank">LitG

Well done - I gave a young sprog most of my Staw Wars figures and vehicles 10+ years ago. Although I still have a scout walker and a speeder bike I still get nagging pains on dark evenings. COmpletely offset by the knowledge of the joy they brought but still...

I couldn't part with my 2000 ADs though. In fact there is probably not a lot I would part with to Help Spread the Word - even those dodgy Star Trek ones from the early eighties have a certain entertainment value. A guest subscrption might be all they'd get on that front ;)

1. Wooly's Torquemada - great composition, strong colours, menace - what more do you need?

2. Dark Jimbo - great idea, great realisation.

3. James - superb with a great feeling of movement. Those knees!!!

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Honourable mention to Radiator and Bolt for comedy value.

54 Jones was also really relly good - I liked the simplicity and it was a hard choice.

In fact honourable mention and hard choices all round. There is a lot of great stuff and it is so close that I could come back in a different mood (and with less caffeine in me) and pick a completely different three.

I understand that a daysworth of posts may have gone missing in the electronic aether (including the "Look I've removed Syd Barrett's name from Brian Bolland's cover" thread.

So swings and roundabouts. ;)

Is there a vote for this month's submissions even if just for fun?

And suddenly I feel even more of a talentless numpty...

If it is any consolation when it comes to no talenty numpties on the drawing front then it'd be difficult for other people to come close to how very very bad I am. I'd produce more convincing drawings if I, drank lots of sugary drinks, jammed a pen up their ass, watched the wrasslin and then framed the cushion I was sitting on.

Every figure I draw looks like a penis - not a heroic finely proportioned one but more like a blind person's attempt at portraying John Wayne Bobbet's Frankenpenis. Its not just people either - pretty much any shape when passed through the alchemist's stone of my pen turns to penises.

I suppose the only good thing is that I am so bad that the fien work here doesn't upset me as I am resigned to my fate and make up for it in other fields (like Rythmic Buttock Slapping - a suprise as I am tone deaf but I can slap out a fine rendition of "If I Were a Rich Man" although as everyone knows that's the ass whacking equivalent of "Chopsticks" and most people can rummage up a passable version).

Oh boy - superb.

And top amrks to Boltnrich!!

Last month's voting could have gone a number of ways and no one is making it any easier to slip the Rizla of Fate between the contenders.

DREDD'S knob.

and Boomsticks.

I think I saw that film. It was the XXX version with lots of reference to his helmet never coming off and his Lawgiver exploding in the wrong hands.

A piece of paper saying: "IOU one shocking twist ending. Please redeem at the end of prog 1505. Now stop peeking"