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Post by tingramretro on Apr 20, 2017 3:24:09 GMT -5
It's a hell of a risk on May's part though. Labour are no threat at all, but, as tingramretro says, the Lib Dems are a real danger. At the last election they were hammered by the electorate, but I worry that anyone who voted to remain in the EU will now vote for them in order to stop or at least mitigate the Tory's proposed hard Brexit. Another Tory-Lib Dem coalition would, in my view, be disaterous for our exit from the EU. It would. It would drag it out far beyond the already overly optimistic two year timescale they keep talking about, at the very least, and I wouldn't be surprised at this point if the Libs tried to reverse the whole damn thing, which could have catastrophic consequences. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 19, 2017 8:52:02 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 19, 2017 6:46:04 GMT -5
So, Theresa May has called a snap General Election for 8th June here in the UK. Essentially, this will be a Brexit General Election. May had previously denied that an election would be called before the next due date of 2020, but she says that to have one, as we prepare to leave the EU, is in the national interest, which I don't necessarily disagree with. However, I don't believe for a second that May is simply doing this to be fair: it's designed to shore up her majority/mandate and quash rebels within her own party, ahead of the hard bargaining of Brexit. It puts me in a bit of a moral/political quandary though. I self-identify as a socialist and I voted to leave the EU, so I can't really vote for the Labour Party -- as I normally would in a General Election -- given their pro-EU stance and my general dislike/distrust of Jeremy Corbyn (never mind the fact that my constituency is in the Tory heartland and a Labour vote here is essentially a wasted vote!). But even though I think the Conservative Party will make the best go of leaving the EU, I can't, in all good conscience, vote for a party that will give us four more years of underfunded schools, welfare & disability cuts, attacks on the poorest & most vulnerable in our society, and the systematic dismantling of the NHS. As a result, I'm thinking of abstaining altogether or at least spoiling my ballot paper. If so, it will be the first time I've ever not voted for a party in my adult life. I'm in a similar quandary. I used to be a member of the Lib-Dems and stood as a Lib-Dem candidate in the 2015 district council elections, but I resigned my membership over their pro-EU stance and cannot in all good conscience vote for them now. I've never voted Labour, nor would I while Corbyn is in charge, but I don't trust Theresa May either. I can't really see any candidate I'd trust to handle Brexit right, and I fear if the Lib-Dems end up with any kind of say in the matter they'll actually try to overturn the decision to leave. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 18, 2017 5:58:39 GMT -5
pinkfloydsound17
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 18, 2017 3:53:32 GMT -5
I think Winter's Tale was probably the strongest of the Golden Age, for me. It's not a "big" story, but it's an incredibly well written one, and quietly moving.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 16, 2017 2:02:12 GMT -5
I was impresed. I like the new girl, it made a change that for once, the alien threat turned out to actually not be a villain as such, and I'm intrigued by both the vault and whatever's up with Nardole. Also, really appreciated the nods to the past with Susan's photo, the vintage sonic screwdrivers and the return of the Movellans after a mere 38 years!
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 14, 2017 14:48:19 GMT -5
^ Love Batman from that era....dark and gloomy covers that really capture the mood. The 'Tec ish is a great batmobile cover! And I have always wanted to get some of those Frankenstein books. The covers look great. Awesome buys! Subjectively speaking, I love Marvel's 1970s Frankenstein series! Bronze Age Bonkers! The first six issues or so are a very loose re-telling of the book. It's set in the 1890s and some intrepid adventurers have dug the monster out of the Arctic ice, so the events of the novel are related by the captain of the ship and then after they release the monster, he tells his side of the story. Mike Ploog art! Then he wanders around the 1890s for a while, including a run-in with the last of the Frankensteins and then a multi-part adventure with Dracula! Then the setting moves to modern-day (1970s) and the series goes completely off the rails! It's nuts! I have every issue up to #10, but only half of the remaining 8 issues. This has been a long-term project as I bought the first six issues in the late 1970s when they were only a few years old. I got them for 50 cents each. Objectively, I think most comic book fans probably consider the series to be a bit of a mess. Especially after the initial six issues. But I like it! I love that series, particularly after it moves to the then-present day. Frankie later turned up in both MTU and Iron Man, following on from it. Great stuff. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 14, 2017 1:24:54 GMT -5
I've owned two different printings of the Eclipse trade, and it wasn't in either of them. I don't know if it's in the Marvel reprints, either singles or tpb/HC. It's certainly in the Marvel singles. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 13, 2017 1:58:36 GMT -5
I was getting really bored of Cap's adventures now. Terminally long Red Skull (in which Brian discovers he has the power to disintegrate, then never uses it again), followed by someone as rubbish as Lord Hawk. Come on Marvel. Put a bit of effort into it! They tended to forget what the quarterstaff could do more often than not. Maybe Brian just had a terrible memory when under stress. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 12, 2017 13:19:29 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 12, 2017 11:59:56 GMT -5
Borders is a sore point for me. I used to write for and edit a magazine about British comics. We were doing quite well until the collapse of Borders UK took away our distribution network and we never got paid for the last issue they carried.Totally destroyed us.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 12, 2017 9:21:03 GMT -5
Captain Britain #29 (April '77)Script: Gary Friedrich/Larry Lieber Art: John Buscema/Fred Kida "Lonely are the Hunted!"  Brian Braddock arrives, as Captain Britain, at Professor Scott's "isolated shanty" in "the dense beechwood forests of Buckinghamshire", in search of the loony Lord Hawk (Retired professors don't tend to be totally impoverished, so presumably Hawk is living in this apparently semi-derelict dump as some sort of strange lifestyle choice connected to his eco-warrior activities). Our hero is immediately attacked by the robotic hawk his alter ego stupidly supplied the professor with, and after a lengthy battle ends up unconscious. Tying CB up and taking him into his shack, Lord Hawk then rather oddly takes a bit of a breather to read about his prisoner in The Times (yes, this really does appear to be the only newspaper in Britain in the Marvel Universe) rather than, say, killing or even unmasking him. Having determined that his costumed captive is something of a celebrity, Hawk decides that killing him in a very public way will better serve his purpose, and duly plants a homing beacon "beneath the skin of our unsuspecting superhero", before leaving him. The homing device, naturally, was provided by Brian Braddock, we are told. Could this kid get any more stupid? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he gifted the kindly old gentleman with a high-tech base hidden in a dormant volcano, as well! Hours later, CB awakens, changes back into Brian Braddock, and heads back to London via a sleepy litte rural railway station. He is unaware that he's being followed by Lord Hawk (who nonetheless fails to recognize him as Braddock), at least until he's back in the metropolis...where the robot bird attacks the bus he is now travelling on, right in the middle of Piccadilly Circus!
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 11, 2017 12:10:21 GMT -5
Moore doesn't do "unproblematic utopia". The concept of a benevolent dictatorship, which this basically is, would be anathema to him.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 11, 2017 7:52:23 GMT -5
Crimebuster
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 11, 2017 3:26:24 GMT -5
I found a piece on UK comic sales last year, specifically sales for the period January-June. Unfortunately, as the article notes, most of te more notable titles for older readers (like Commando, Viz, the Titan titles, The Phoenix and the 2000 AD stable) are not listed as the data has not been made available. Likewise The Beano. Consequently, most (though not all) of those listed are titles for younger children. And please remember that not all of these are monthly, several are weekly or fortnightly. Oh, and none of them are sold in the majority of comics shops. Here's a sampling of the titles listed. Toxic 58, 012 Doctor Who Magazine 25, 832 Doctor Who Adventures 11, 268 Disney Frozen 84, 021 Disney Star Wars Lego 80, 012 Lego Ninjago 77, 879 Peppa Pig 72, 973 Fun to Learn Peppa Pig 71, 978 CBeebies Magazine 58, 353 CBeebies Special 55, 373 CBeebies Art 61, 196 Sparkle World 56, 285 Lego Nexo Knights 51, 005 Star Wars Adventures 38, 014 Skylanders Universe 13, 686 Horrible Histories 23, 015 And here's the link, assuming it works for those not in the UK. downthetubes.net/?p=33120 |
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