TimC

CBR interviews Mr Bisley on his Hellblazer covers and inners -

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42708

I also noticed the socks, before deciding that the slip-on shoes were even worse. THIS CHARACTER HAS BEEN DESTROYED FOR ME FOREVER.

'Sundays are Different'. Another from Delano's home stretch, but even more of a standout for me than 'Dead Boy's Heart'.

Since the Morrison guest spot - issue 25, if memory serves. Got the four early Titan reprints around the same time (the mono ones that smelt of vomit), and filled in the gap (most of The Fear Machine) at a comic fair in Sheffield, shortly before leaving home.

Been on board ever since, though came very close to dropping it during Carey's interminable run.

I've only read a few issues of Moore's Swamp Thing, though - basically, the first JC appearance (a pal gave me a spare copy), and the first trade this year. Not sure it's aged that well.

I'm late to this - been off around the world to mark turning 40. I started reading Hellblazer when I was 17 or so, now I'm older than JC was for most of what I still think of as the classic run. I've been enjoying Milligan's run, but not too surprised or upset by this news. It's time.

I hope there will be some decent one-offs to come from Vertigo, a la Pandemonium and Dark Entries, but won't be holding my breath. The DCU thing can fuck right off.

I think I've got the BBC Micro game somewhere if anyone wants it.

I was more bothered by the whole resolution of 'Hey, lizard people, why don't you go back to sleep until such time as the earth's been sterilised and the monkeys have fucked off on the back of a space whale. We'll be ready to share then, honest.' Maybe I'm just one of those pedantic nerds who could just about remember the story from a whole three weeks back.

To be frank, I'd rather take that Silurian story over most of Moffat's scripts. One of the most grating aspects, the (presumably unintentional) dating clash with the appalling 'The Beast Below', was the fault of the showrunner or script editor rather than the scriptwriter. Chibnall may be the Eric Saward of Nu Who, but on the whole he's less grating than Moffat.

Anyone else kind of looking forward to Chibnall taking over as showrunner?

I almost want to read this now.

Almost.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10835603

 

How cool is this!. Great thing for tourism. Unless it accidentally cooks some of them.

Oooh! I'm going to be there in about 8 weeks. Will take a raincoat.

Just a crap joke about the bad hat in question's main distinguishing feature being a facial tattoo, I'm afraid:

Of course, that's usually hidden by the clown make-up.

(The same actor played Mr Jolly

in Psychoville.)

Dredd is indeed a good arty action movie - not as good a pure action movie as 'The Raid' (really, go see it), but lots of fun.

Their take on Judge Dredd as a character (well, maybe not 'character' exactly...) is bang on. Well, apart from one mis-step at the end [clearly,

].

But it's really not a great Judge Dredd movie. The MegaCity is almost more of a character in the comics than old stony-face - here, it's pretty much indistinguishable from many contemporary flicks. It needs that sense of hyperbolic satiric exagerration to be proper 2000AD (something that Russell T Davies often did quite well in Doctor Who). As it was, I got more of a sense of futureshock trying to navigate Leeds ring road on the way back home.

The Stallone one, for all its many faults, did a better MegaCity.

To be fair, I'd probably have liked 100 Bullets a lot more if it had been 9 issues rather than, well, 100. (Or, given I read it in trades, if it was just one regular GN-size book). That kind of style-over-content can be fun, but you need something more to carry you over 2000+ pages.

Just ask James Ellroy.

I enjoyed Spaceman a lot more than 100 Bullets (or Azz's Heckblazer run). Maybe the ending's still a little weak, but there's some really nice worldbuilding there.

Saucer Country is the only other new Vertigo thing that I'm liking. And not just because an old pal got a mention in the last issue.

And then there's issue 72, the final issue -

http://www.dynamite.net/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513018402307211

To ease the loss, there's also new Battlefields -

http://www.dynamite.net/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513019769600111

- and it's more Tankies!

The new Love & Rockets is another good one. No earthshakers like the previous two, but both brothers on top form and setting up new threads that, in different ways, tie right back to the start. Intriguing.

Sorry to say it didn't do much for me. Like many of Moffat's scripts, it seemed more like a ticklist of plot points and setpieces rather than an actual story. A bit of a waste of Daleks, to be honest.

The whole [ Spoiler : 'OMG! The new companion's here months early!' ] thing is particularly grating - it feels like the programme is serving the needs of the publicity machine, rather than vice versa. To any viewer not hardwired to the fan press or showbiz news, it just isn't an issue.

Just in case of misunderstanding, I was in Portsmouth many years after The Sea Devils. It was around the time of the McGann abomination, in fact, when anything Who was very far from cool.

All together now...SSQQQUUEEEEESSSKKKKKGGRROOOOONNNKKKKKKHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHGGGGGGH GHHHHSSKKKKKKKKKKKKGGRRRRSPPPSLLLLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRTTTTT SKRRROOONNNNNKKKKKKDDDWWWBBLLLDDWWWWBBLLLLDDDWWWWBBBBLLLL SKKKRREEEEEEEEEREEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK. It'll be stuck in your head for days.

Yes, it will. But I did spend my formative years listening to this on cassette -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_%E2%80%93_The_Music

Personal trivia: I spent a year in Portsmouth at journalism college, and you can actually see my flat in 'The Sea Devils' (episode 5, I think, there's a shot of some boats coming by the seafront and pier). For bonus points, my course leader had been an extra in 'The Daemons'.

or the use of the "catch a n***er by his toe" version of 'Eeny Meeny Miny Mo' in 'The Celestial Toymaker'

To be fair, this was in common usage well into 80s. A different time. 'Little Black Sambo' was one of the first books we read in school, and that was in the People's Republic of South Yorkshire.

I can't get upset about Golliwogs on jamjars then, though I do despise people who buy them now as soe sort of retro symbol of conservatism.

Solid enough. I liked the Hungry Man.

But if the big sister was 14 years old 34 years ago, our Constantines have suddenly lost a decade or so. It would have made more sense (though lost the teen-pregnancy angle) if Cheryl had been older and John was away doing his punk things.

Just to backtrack a bit, incidentally - the main reason I wouldn't want them to cast Cumberbatch isn't to do with his fee, it's just that he's such a cripplingly, tediously obvious choice that I think he should be avoided for precisely that reason.

Agreed - but wouldn't he make a good Master opposite Smith?

re Gomez - here's an interview she did some years ago -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/apr/27/broadcasting.arts

She has ambitions to do some "palate-cleansing theatre", and, in the longer term, be the first female Doctor Who, or do a bit of Noël Coward.

And she's done one of those Big Finish fanny audio things. She's got form.

Somehow I thought people were going to mistake what I was asking there.

Apologies if I did misunderstand - it was very early in the morning.

Anyway, I'd still like to see Michelle Gomez as the Doctor.