Jackstarr

Well, I really liked it.

Great script, great art.

I was worried from what you were saying that it was going to come across as an extended 2000AD Terror Tale, and I do like the nods to past continuity in Mike's run - but having just finished the issue it was a nice change of pace.

There were some classic Constantine poses sitting on the chair, nicely in control of the situation once again, and while I'd prefer to have a British artist on board, Manco does a sterling job. His style is realistic yet gritty, and really suits the title. I just hope he can avoid the cliched cobbled streets and victorian lamp-posts in future. Maybe someone could send him some reference shots? And I'm sure he can't do worse than Frusin, whose London was barely recognisable.

And if that was a stock cover it worked really well, complementing JC pulling himself back together in the interior.

If this is indicative of the future direction of the title, I'm more than happy.

Congrats on this, Rogan.

A quick question - how will you go about interpreting the dialogue - do you aim to make JC obviously English, or will you use Serbian colloquialisms?

It was pretty awful - I only read it about 6 months ago, but I've already blanked it from my memory, and fortunately can't remember it at all.

If only I was able to do that with some of the Azarello run...

Maybe it's just like the logo from the first Batman movie - many people saw it as a black bat, I saw it as yellow tonsils...

Sorry, Tim - I'm gonna have to agree that it looks like another "JC passed out on the floor" cover.

I haven't seen many wood-panelled walls and low tiled ceilings here in the UK - is this more common in the States?

I've also noticed this with both Frusin's and Manco's art in the interiors - lots of tiling, and the yellow/green colours of the tiles seem odd. Or maybe it's just me.

Still, I've no doubt we'd be complaining again if it was another brick wall...

I'd love to see you experiment a bit more with your covers - over the past year 192, 194, 197, 202 and 203 are probably my favourites, and of the iconic JC covers, 200 is contender for all-time favourite.

On the plus side, 204 and 205 are still better by far than anything else on the market at the moment, and I do like the vignettes on the latter.

I'm left-handed, although society has trained me to use my right hand in many situations. I've never been able to use scissors/saws with my left hand, all cutting is done with my right. I'm right-handed when using a mouse on a pc as well.

You can't be the Devil, Christian. We can't both be the Devil.

Today I didn't do any work whatsoever.

My first completely free day in years. Instead, I sat in front of the television and casually flicked channels, going cross-eyed and staring blankly into space.

I'm sure I can find some work to do tomorrow...

Really?

 

*now frothing at the mouth*

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The original was great, and they've just reunited cast members for adaptations of the last 3 books in the series for Radio 4.

They're up to episode 4 at the moment, and each episode can be listened to online a week after originally aired:

Hitchiker's BBC page

What about 'Ultimate Constantine'? It's only a matter of time...

 

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Hey, maybe we could ask John Byrne to do a reboot keeping to the movie continuity!

Hellblazer #300 is going to have a photo-cover of the entire STH crew.

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But can Tim's camera take the strain...?

Don't think I'll be picking up the movie adaptation, and I have a complete Hellblazer collection already, so the only one I'll be getting is #204.

It's a nice cover, but I prefer the more experimental covers that we've been seeing recently.

ok, thanks...I'm heading over to read it right now

My last encounter with Lucifer was in the pages of the Sandman, and I've only just started collecting the Lucifer trades, and am wary of spoilers - is it safe to read the interview, or should I avoid for the time being?

Jack-I've never heard of "Chain Gang War". Who was the writer?

John "Judge Dredd" Wagner.

Chain Gang War

I was tempted to say Ostrander's Spectre, but I've only read a few issues (I'm in the process of tracking down all Spectres/Dr Fates/Demons and will report back in due course.)

Doom Patrol and Swamp thing aren't valid choices due to their later integration with Vertigo, so I can't suggest those.

My next thought was to suggest Chain Gang War, which wasn't technically a mini-series (it was ongoing but cancelled early).

But in the end I went for Legends of the Dark Knight, if only because there were some classics in the early days.

And Rogan, I've never read an issue of Starman, although it's one of the things I've always meant to look into - are all issues collected as TPB, and if so in which order are they to be read?

I agree with pretty much all of the above comments.

I've always read comics - from the age of three or four I started reading the Beano, and then progressed on to the Eagle, then 2000AD and followed creators as they moved over to US comics.

I see comics as another form of entertainment, no more or less valid than television, cinema, theatre, books or music - just different. And variety is the spice of life.

I can tell you that the vast majority of folks who visit the STH site (some 1,200 unique users a day, which never ceases to amaze me) use IE, somewhere aroun 90% in fact.

That's a shame, and a surprise - I would have thought Hellblazer readers to be more anti-establishment than that.

Go get yourselves firefox!

Firefox

I've never read it, and never really been tempted...

Something about a samurai rabbit just doesn't appeal, although I've always thought of it as a kids book. Although I would have said that about a warrior aardvark before I got hooked on Cerebus.

Is it a series you need to start from the beginning, or can you just hop on (pun intended) at any point?

I'm using Firefox as well (and have been since it was called Phoenix and then Firebird).

Haven't tried Thunderbird yet though.

On the downside, Firefox has proved to be so popular that it's now a prime target for hackers, and you'll need to make sure you've got the latest updates. There are still a very small number of sites that don't run properly in Firefox, so I'm still keeping IE to use in those instances.

On the plus side, it IS more secure than IE, the code runs faster, and I especially like the tabbed browsing system, which beats having multiple windows open.

Famed British novelist Alex Garland wrote a Batman story?  Which title was this and what number?

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Gotham Knights #39 (May 2003)

It was only an 8-page back-up "Black + White" story, but was a great example of clear and concise storytelling. The art was nice, too - Sean was letterer as well as artist. Just ignore the main feature story.

On the strength of this I picked up the original 1996 Batman Black + White miniseries, which is also well worth reading if you like the old-style Legends of the Dart Knight, featuring contributions from Gaiman, Bolland, Bisley, Corben, Kent Williams, and Katsuhiro Otomo, among many other top writers/artists.

There's a couple of TPBs out now with some of the B+W strips in, but I don't know if the Garland/Phillips tale is collected yet.

Write your own speeches for him!

George W Bush Speechwriter

From Rotten Tomatoes:

QUOTE:

"We had the opportunity to play a very small part of the new game and were quite impressed. The very, very early code on show (the game isn't scheduled for release until next year) played out like a warped version of Max Payne 2. Replacing the hardboiled thugs and gangsters for demons, zombies and possessed passers-by of Take 2's adventure was an obvious choice,, as in hindsight, the comics read like hardboiled novellas set in a world plagued with witchcraft and demonic catastrophe.

The controls were sharp and accurate and the worlds as detailed as their Max Payne2 counterparts, Constantine's Los Angeles is a dark, rain-soaked world of down and outs and crime bosses. The interiors showed a mixture of decaying buildings, complete with peeling wallpaper and glimmering offices of the police department and morgue - two scenes that begin almost antiseptic blue but get darker and bloodier the further you progress. Police officers and the dead become possessed and return to life to offer themselves as food for your duel action magnums. All good, slick violent fun.

Where Constantine begins to break the rules as far as this kind of third-person bloodfest is concerned is with the source material. Constantine is a character who committed suicide and was sent to hell, his punishment is to roam the earth fighting demons and solving supernatural crimes. In his corner he has a trusty set of firearms and a spell book. Incanting spells in the heat of battle will allow you to trigger a number of interesting effects from firing electrical bolts through crowds of enemies, to setting opponents on fire. Constantine can also access a Spirit mode to discover who is possessed - the demon becomes visible inside the persons body. In a fun twist, if you destroy the host body, the demon will spill out and seek a new one, often fighting with other demons for possession of a host."

I knew this was going to be a contentious subject...

Well, tinned pet food in no way represents what the animals would eat in the wild, and in many respects sheep, cows, horses etc. aren't and shouldn't be part of their diet.

Nutrients are often added to tinned petfood, proving that in itself the food is inadequate. Manufacturers also add artificial colourings, additives, salt and sugar, to persuade pets to eat this food.

Many pets die from tumours related to a large amount of meat consumption, even natural carnivores like cats - whereas on the other hand it's been proven that vegetarian pets live as a long and healthy life.

As long as all the nutrients are in the diet, why should it matter where the food comes from? I can understand why some vegetarians take this option, even if I don't force-feed my cats food they don't enjoy.

"Steps" wasn't a bad LOTDK tale, and I liked Sean's b&w short written by Alex Garland.

When is it due out? Which Bat-title?

Cats? Soybean burgers? Sweet merciful Jebus. Poor little bastards...

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It's all gone legit for cats now.

My cats won't touch the stuff though, and they still prefer marmite on toast.

Vegan catfood and dogfood

I'm going to Lansing this weekend to meet with a magazine editor about writing for them on a full-time basis. Nothing guaranteed.

Truthfully, I don't know if I even want to. The pay will be crap, and I'm going to have to write essays for the magazine that I don't even want to be writing. The purpose of my writing was to be able to write what I wanted to write. Not sure if it's worth giving up my fiction writing for the forseeable future for the kind of pay they're offering....

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At the end of the day it's a balancing act - and depends how happy you are with your current quality of life.

I'm still taking on jobs that in an ideal world I would prefer not to do (working on commercials when I'd prefer to be working on drama), but it pays the bills and enables me to work on more personal projects.

How important is money to you? You seem to be surviving well-enough as it is, but if the extra bit of money would help, then take the job, bearing in mind it is just a job - and you never know, you might get some new inspiration for your fiction writing in a new environment.