Messages

Your admirable desire to be even-handed and fair does you credit, Owen, but on this occasion I don't  think James was voicing a minority opinion and was unjustly shouted down, I think he was just plain wrong.

I don't see a 'mob' here, I see plain evidence of how fondly the art comp is viewed by very many forum members, not just those who participate, and an admirable collective desire to stand up for the principle that it should always be open to those who don't take it that seriously.

I'd rather be misguidedly even-handed than think that "act like a dick, get called out for acting like a dick. Throw your toys out of the pram. I hope he calms down and reconsiders," is a response, seen by James that would genuinely make him (or anyone really) think, "oh fair enough I'll give those guys another chance."

He probably should have done a lot of things, he definitely shouldn't have said what he did but the massive tidal wave of cumulative abuse aimed at him after the fact isn't going to change anything beyond making  other folk that aren't him really consider whether this is the nicest atmosphere in which to put their artwork. I think more so than if his original comment was left to die in embarrassing silence.

Again - I can't change that. What I can do is take serious stock about the function of the competition and think about whether this echo chamber of in-jokes and bullish banter is genuinely the best place to center it. The really grim reality that old forumers have even rushed back in from the wilderness just to get some swift kicks in to an already one-sided fight because they read about it on Facebook is ... really not showing our best side. Certainly not as a loose social group but definitely not as a fandom.

If the spirit of the art comp is letting everyone of all abilities have a go which everyone has been so bold to defend then honestly we need to think about the POV of "everyone" not just people who know and are endeared to Pete and our 'way'.

Again - I'm not defending what was originally said, I'm just providing another perspective.

Perhaps it's the massive slew of people taking the piss out of him? He said some pretty misjudged things but we are ALL guilty of that from time to time. Yes, he's quit the competition and the forum for the time being. No, I don't blame him. Catley neither.

One of the things I've always loved about this forum is the range of opinions you get, some dumb, some trollish, but there's nearly always another side. On this matter people have been rather grimly moblike and honestly for me the overreaction against what he said has almost far exceeded the original offence caused. We all like Pete but I'm sure he's had much worse.

Shark, you can't have that entry. People using his avatar to mock him in a place where he may see it are bullying him. It's as simple as that.

As far as what this means for the comp - we carry on this month but in the future we'll have to see.

[Silent Running]

Silent Running

Hippies in sppaaaaacce. My first time watching this eco sci-fi classic and it struck me almost like a nihilist version of Red Dwarf. There's an admirable tightness of focus and a palpable sense of loneliness. The effects work well and the robots have more heart and personality than all of the humans. The black-and-white heavy-handedness of the eco message coupled with Joan Baez placed it firmly in its era but functions tidily enough.

I wonder how many unique page views the forum got yesterday   

Combine forces

[Mark Higgins]

From Mark Higgins on the FB page.

Poor sweet Fidget

Blimey. Genuinely buzzing for this - looks beautiful and I luurrve myself a characterful rag-tag team. Bring it on!

Lady Geoffery and I finally finished Daredevil S2 this month after watching it one episode sort-of every week since it came out. The first series was untouchably good in my eyes but thissun was weaker by a way. It retained a good sense of character throughout and the performances were great. The action was still fantastically measured as well but I felt about halfway through it started to meander a bit. The strong dynamic between DD & P was brilliantly engaging - his hunt, trial and temporary incarceration extraordinary but the more we got into [spoiler]Elektra and The Hand[/spoiler] the more the strong focus which made the first so phenomenal got muddier and muddier (the build-up to Defenders possibly). The final two episodes were guilty of  dipping into some really irritating cliches and felt more Agents of SHIELD than Netflix Marvel [spoiler]Punisher feeling almost crowbarred into the action to set him up for 'more to come'.[/spoiler] All this weight is being put on by the fact that 2016's DD is now a part of the Marvel Netflixverse rather than a bold new experiment.

A shame but I fully admit I'm tainted by my expectations from the stunning S1 (finally out on DVD this year!!) and there wasn't nearly enough bad going on here to capsize my view that DD is the strongest superhero television series ever made.

Starring a certain lost forumer's ideal Slaine 

Interesting casting choice and hopefully will bring home to a generation of young people the realities of losing a generation of young people. The comments on that video are largely Styles mega-fans going "oooh I don't normally watch history/war movies but anything for Harry!" there are going to be a lot of opened eyes I think. Visually arresting trailer - is this the first time Nolan's depicted a real-life thing?

....starting to have doubts about the art comp collab 

[This Is the End, Beautiful Friend...]

Correct. You might be referring to This Is the End, Beautiful Friend... from August 2008 which is from the Jim era and as such I don't have a record of it being a theme - although in the 2012 dead character thread I mention people being annoyed that it's been a theme before. Perhaps it was you then as well  WE'RE JUST TWO LOST SOULS SWIMMING IN A FISH BOWL.

YEAR AFTER YEAR.

Either way - this is distinct enough for me being as the previous two (!) times this has come up in the last ten years it was more a multi-character type thing.

Any format you desire, Goaty!

["Final Days" - Death of 2000 AD Characters]

Was this the theme once before?

Sort of. We did "Final Days" - Death of 2000 AD Characters in September 2012 and although Dredd featured heavily I think this is meant to dovetail with discussions had about it recently.

Perhaps there should be a different category for established droids so they can have a go without feeling bad?

You won fair and square, if people were unhappy about a droid being part of it they wouldn't have voted for you