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Hbomberguy posted:My big problem with UKIP and all their supporters I've come into contact with is their constant relation of themselves with the phantom 'other guy' who is oppressing their views by 'slinging mud' at them. For some reason the specific phrase 'mud slinging' comes up a lot, like they were all told the right words to use in a meeting or something. Given what they've been getting in the mail lately, mud-slinging is probably a mild euphemism! I wouldn't call it an elitist conspiracy but nonetheless I don't think it's controversial to say that there's an organised crowd who are dedicated to harassing UKIP over and above other parties. kapparomeo fucked around with this message at 22:10 on May 5, 2014 |
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May 5, 2014 22:07
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Igiari posted:Quick question for anyone versed in 2000AD, which are the best stories/arcs to pick up? I've mostly been confined to American or Japanese comics and don't have much basis aside from a 100 page pamphlet from 1999 I just read. Others have made good suggestions of series to get into, but with the better part of 40 years of Thrill-Power behind it Judge Dredd's a really sprawling entity that might seem a bit intimidating to get to grips with. Rather than just shoving a shelf-ful of books at you and telling you to crack on, I think these volumes are the "essential dredd", giving you a broad image of the character compressed into a small number of more easily-digestible volumes. Complete Case Files Vol. 5  If you're going to get any one Complete Case File, get this one. It's uncanny how out of all of them it's an almost perfect microcosm of Dredd's world in a single volume - kooky stuff like the futsies, supernatural beings like the Dark Judges, thrillers like the Hunters' Club, key appearances Dredd's supporting cast from Anderson to Giant, a whole gamut of Future Crime in the 'crime files' miniseries, some immortal one-liners... and, of course, perhaps the most important "mega-epic" of them all, the Apocalypse War, whose consequences are still reverberating in the modern comic's storylines over thirty years later. Mandroid  One of the more low-key stories that hasn't really affected anything else in the wider Dreddverse, but no less important because of it. The sterotype is that Dredd is barely more than a robot, a walking citation notepad with no character beyond "The LAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWUUURRRGGGHHH", little more than a cipher for the stories he appears in. Mandroid's bleak, downbeat tale is vital because it gives the lie to this - the vital thing to understand about Dredd is that he's not unemotional, he's controlled and reserved, and that doesn't stop emotion it's just a way of marshalling it. In Mandroid we get to see Dredd at some of his most affectingly emotional moments. Not to say that he's blubbering for an Oscar, but we see him guilty, ashamed, frustrated, sympathetic (even compassionate)... and perhaps most heartbreakingly, disappointed. The Art of Kenny Who?: The Cam Kennedy Collection  Something outside observers often mistake about the Dreddverse is that it's an entirely bleak black field of dour cynical misery. There are plenty of those types of story, true, but it's important not to forget that Mega-City One is a bright, colourful, outrageous place with all manner of weird and wonderful distractions. This anthology of Thrills drawn by Cam Kennedy (who's also done a number of Star Wars comics) taps into the comic side of Dredd's world, with the classic Kenny Who? trilogy (a would-be Scottish comics supremo finds success hard to find in the cut-throat world of publishing, and amazingly beats Dredd at his own game), and one of the finest one-shot stories ever made, "Block Court". Total War  It may be blasphemous to say, but if you want to get into Dredd's recurrent Democracy storyline don't start with America. It's a great story, don't get me wrong, but it is a little self-conscious about its own Worthiness, and more importantly a lot of the events lack resonance unless they have a greater experience of Dredd for them to echo off of. I prefer Total War to start off with, in the main because it's just a drat good ripping yarn. Dramatic, tense, dense, pacy, a high-stakes chase that sets off at a sprint right out of the gate. It also deals with a factor often overlooked by outsiders - Dredd's family, with his niece Vienna playing an important role - and while it may not have the the more rigorous commentary of America, it does nonetheless make a very pertinent point against the self-serving foreign donors who "keep the home fires burnin'" for terrorist movements while insulated from the actual pain and blood of the 'good old cause' proper. Tour of Duty  Dredd is not a blind regurgitator of the Law. He believes - passionately and ardently - in Justice, and has an almost religious faith that it will be fully realised. If the Law does not cohere with Justice, he will fight to change it - and that's tested to the limit in this story, where his principles butt up against high politics and low hatreds. There's a delightful irony where the Judges crack down their jackboots of Liberty and brutal Tolerance onto a population overwhelmingly calling out for oppression and division. Honourable mention goes to Satan's Island. Deliberate call-backs to The Apocalypse War again show the importance of that event, it's another tense high-stakes drama, and I like it because it has Soviets being savage villains and getting righteously punished for their crimes. :p 
kapparomeo fucked around with this message at 22:43 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 22:32
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