Comic Cuts - 15 February 2019

After last week's excitement, this week has been relatively quiet, although I've enjoyed having a couple of guests over at the house (Hi Norman, Hi Mum!). I'm back to writing at my old computer and I'm finding my eyes have slowly but surely settled into the new glasses. I'm still not sure that they're strong enough, but they're definitely an improvement... I'm taking longer breaks from the computer, so the eye strain that I was suffering from in January seems to have improved.

I'm also surprised to say that I've actually lost a few pounds. I'm still very overweight, but I'm normally carrying a few extra pounds following Christmas through January and February. Well, I'm currently four pounds lighter than I was six weeks ago. I'm eating a little healthier – more wholemeal rolls and less processed meat – and trying to get in an extra walk during the day, often down to the post office to ship out something that has sold on Ebay. I really must get more of my old annuals up on Ebay... thanks to them I'm losing pounds while I'm making a few pounds in sales!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Rebellion were planning to release two specials during the spring based around the former IPC humour titles that they now owned, namely the Cor!! and Buster Special released on 17 April and a Free Comic Day release. Well, Rebellion have announced a slew of other specials that they will be releasing between April and October.

The run of specials begins with an American-format 32-page special on 4 May when the 2000AD Villains Takeover Special is released, featuring the bad guys from Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Slaine. This will be available in comic book stores for 99p (in the US for 99c).

Inside, the lawman of the future faces a familiar rictus grin in 'Judge Death: The Judge Who Laughs' by Rob Williams and Henrik Sahlstrom, and there’s fiendish fantasy with 'Lord Weird Slough Feg: Lord of the Hunt' by Pat Mills and Kyle Hotz. There’s chem-wreathed criminality in the world of Rogue Trooper in 'Brass and Bland: The Professionals' by Karl Stock and Kael Ngu while  malefactory mutant-bountyhunters-turned-bad-guys, The Stix, from Strontium Dog cause trouble in 'Stix: Sleeping Dogs Lie' by Matt Smith and Chris Weston. And this issue is all rounded off by 'Terror Tale: Last of the Hellphibians' by that master of the mendacious Henry Flint!

Here are a few pages for you to feast your eyes on...

On 8 May, 2000AD Prog 2130 gives way to 2000AD Regened, following the hugely successful 2018 giveaway. The pint-sized anti-heroes return for another bumper prog for kids of all ages, The issue will be 100 pages and retail at £4.99.

This year's 2000AD Sci-Fi Special pays tribute to Carlos Ezquerra by focusing on some of his greatest hits, including Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. This 48-pager will also debut his unpublished work on 'Specter', the strip he was working on with John Wagner when he died. Priced £4.99, it will be released on 19 June.

A few days later, on 27 June, The Tammy and Jinty Special revamps some old favourites from the pages of those classic seventies comics for the 21st century, with a host of new creators on strips that pay tribute to the legacy of the two trail-blazing comics. This is also 48 pages.

August 14 sees the return of The Vigilant in a 64-page special, priced £4.99, bringing together the team of homegrown British superheroes from the IPC stable alongside one or two newcomers from the pages of the last special.

Roy of the Rovers gets his own special in time for his 65th birthday and following the release of novels and graphic novels featuring the new Roy. The 100-page, £9.99 special kicks off on 11 September in time for the new football season.

And, finally, we have Scream & Misty Presents The Thirteenth Floor, which is released on 16 October. The thirteenth floor is where homicidal computer Max sends invaders, crooks and other offenders as he protects the inhabitants of the tower block he controls. He was one of the stars of previous Hallowe'en specials and a collection from Rebellion last year. 48 pages for $4.99.

A quick change of pace. I haven't had much of a chance to watch a lot of TV over the last couple of months, but we're slowly catching up on a few things. I've finally watched the first season of The Good Place, which friends have been recommending for months (they're on the third season already!). I have to admit I'm a convert of this smart, funny comedy. The characters are horribly flawed, which makes them interesting and appealing, and the show has not once failed to surprise. The plot turns one way and another and ends on a corkscrew of a twist.

Hurry up, E4... we want season two.

The other thing we managed to watch was Ascension, which appeared on the SyFy channel in the US in 2014, but made its UK debut on Pick over this recent Christmas.

A lengthy three-parter, it begins with a murder on a generation starship. The ship has a retro feel to it and before long it is revealed that Earth had the technology in the 1960s to launch a mission to Proxima Centauri. It is now fifty-one years on and the mission has passed the halfway point. To avoid a population explosion, only a handful of couples out of the 600 crew are selected to have children. Some of the children are suffering from depression, believing that they were born into a situation chosen by their parents or grandparents which has left them with no future other than life and death on the ship. Sabotage has been attempted.

With political and class turmoil between the Captain, the council and the crew working in the lower levels of the ship, beginning to spill over, a fight breaks out between investigating officer Aaron Gault and one of the stockyard crew, Stokes, who has been set-up as the murderer. Stokes is sucked out of the ship's airlock into space... but that might not be the end of him.

This show also took some unexpected turns and it seemed to be developing into a rather ordinary murder-mystery set on a generation ship – lots of suspects but an enclosed location. Imagine Agatha Christie shaving Poirot investigate a murder at Buckingham Palace (which has 775 rooms) and you'll get the idea. But the writers took the story in different directions: the selective breeding programme may have an endgame in the mind of the project director.

I don't want to give too much away. It was better than I expected, remembering the mixed reviews it got at the time of its release, but it still had a few faults... which, I guess, makes this one of those mixed reviews. We'd already guessed the major plot twist that ended the first part and, after that, nothing really came as a surprise.

But it inspired me to go and watch Capricorn One, which was as daft as I remember it being and thoroughly enjoyable at the same time. I miss old-fashioned thrillers.  You seem to have to wade through a lot of dross these days to find good ones. If anyone has any suggestions for recent, decent thrillers, let me know.