“When I went to comic book stores, I would've been the only girl there."

Comic books have been a huge part of Marianna Mooney's life growing up and in recent years she believes stereotypes have changed.

Originally from Kildare, Marianna moved to Belfast in 2021 and she is among a number of local artists to feature in the debut print issue of Low Intensity, a comics anthology.

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Low Intensity's founder, Andrew Pope, said the publication's aim is to showcase comics and sequential art from this part of the world.

“Having it in print really felt important,” he said. “Now, market forces are against us, and it's totally understandable why print media has gone the way it has.

“But having comics in print; I like it, I really do like it”.

Andrew’s hope for Low Intensity is to eventually print older archived material to include in the anthology.

“I would love to get some stuff from the seventies, eighties, nineties and two thousands, reprinted and in the anthology to show to a new audience,” he continued.

Low Intensity is being published by Local Colour Comics, which also runs the Belfast Comic Jam, a collaborative comic making event, where many of the artists became involved in the project.

Rebellion/2000AD publishes a 40th anniversary of the horror comic book Scream!, as published by IPC Comics, in the eighties, with Alex Paknadel, VV Glass, Anna Readman, Torunn Gronbekk, Alejandro Aragon and Emily Schnall, as part of their November 2024 solicit and solicitations, though only making their way to the US in December. As well as plenty of Judge Dredd, 2000AD, Battle Action, Monster Fun and more.

Well, this may be the biggest plug that Judge Dredd has gotten since the last film. Elon Musk posted today to social media (guess which one) saying, "Judge Dredd Would Drive A Cybertruck". Alex Jones replied "No doubt". It's been seen by quite a few people.

And a few people, potentially quite close to the old Judge himself wanted to comment. And some agreed, possibly for reasons other than intended. After all, Judge Dredd is actually meant to be the bad guy, a point missed by a fair few over the years.

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And yes, if nothing else, it was an excuse for Judge Dredd writers and artists to call Elon Musk a creep, while in defensible character. He is the bad guy after all. Elon Musk wore Judge Dredd T-Shirts in his youth. We are not entirely sure how much of the subtext he got

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Still, it's probably a good reason to plug Michael Molcher's book, I Am The Law, about the history of Judge Dredd and the cultural and social implications of the time that saw Judge Dredd emerge as a popular character, in which the police in South Africa, where Elon Musk, played a crucial part in his creation, and the future he pointed to. It just won an Eisner Award for Best Comic-Related Book on Friday night!

Given the character's enduring success, movie adaptations invariably surfaced, the first being 1995's Sylvester Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd. Unfortunately for fans, the movie was a commercial and critical flop, universally panned for marring the character. Following years of development hell, it wasn't until 2012 that an unrelated adaptation in the form of Dredd—starring Karl Urban—surfaced. Though still a financial flop, Dredd was far better received by fans and critics alike for its greater adherence to the source material. However, this movie still garnered criticism in some sectors for its depiction of Mega-City One and lack of 2000 AD's signature satire, leading to another uneven adaptation. As such, fans are still clamoring for a movie that encapsulates everything that makes Judge Dredd so special.

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Ultimately, filmmakers should learn from past mistakes in any future Judge Dredd adaptation by combining the successes of Judge Dredd and Dredd. Indeed, if Judge Dredd's depiction of Mega-City One were fused with Dredd's characterization of the titular lawman, fans would no doubt be deeply satisfied. Furthermore, Dredd could have benefitted from including the iconic antagonists of Judge Dredd rendered in a comic-accurate manner. Importantly, both adaptations lack 2000 AD's characteristic playful yet biting humor and satire, and this should undoubtedly be addressed to ensure the financial and critical success of any future effort.

Moreover, it is important to note that none of Judge Dredd's quintessential storylines beyond The Return of Rico have ever been adapted for the big screen despite now boasting two adaptations. The Day the Law Died, Judge Death, The Judge Child, Oz, and Judge Death Lives! are all iconic tales that are yet to see any semblance of adaptation, meaning there is still a wealth of source material to mine. In particular, having never seen Judge Dredd's arch-nemesis Judge Death grace the big screen seems incredibly perverse—imagine if no Batman movie had yet featured the Joker. By learning from the mistakes and successes of the past, filmmakers will hopefully one day grace fans with the Judge Dredd movie they deserve.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14189934

Neil Gaiman — the best-selling author whose work includes comic book series The Sandman and the novels Good Omens and American Gods — has denied sexual assault allegations made against him by two women with whom he had relationships with at the time, Tortoise Media reports.

The allegations were made during Tortoise’s four-part podcast Master: the Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, which was released Wednesday. In it, the women allege “rough and degrading sex” with the author, which the women claim was not always consensual.

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According to Tortoise’s investigation, K did not file a police report. Scarlett filed a complaint to New Zealand police in October 2022.

Gaiman told Tortoise that the police did not pursue his offer to assist the investigation regarding the complaint, claiming that this showed the lack of substance of the complaint. But New Zealand police told the outlet it made a “number of attempts to speak to key people as part of this investigation and those efforts remain ongoing,” adding that there are “a number of factors to take into consideration with this case, including location of all parties.”

The Tortoise Investigates series