The future is 35 years young in February!

[The Legendary Shark]

Fantastic day!

Emps has the photos to prove it - and I have a page of Strontium Dog art from Prog 450 (the last page, where Wulf gets abducted by goblins)! I couldn't be chuffeder!

[Emperor]

Fantastic day!

Yes it turned around rather quickly and everyone was lovely.

Emps has the photos to prove it - and I have a page of Strontium Dog art from Prog 450 (the last page, where Wulf gets abducted by goblins)! I couldn't be chuffeder!

I have a photo of sharky looking suitably chuffed but I'll let him upload it as he probably wants to Photoshop out him blubbing and going all jelly kneed (or else I need to find someone to Photoshop that in).

Missed photo-opportunity of the day: A girl walked passed John Wagner holding a "Anyone for a Black War?" sign - it made his day.

Pretty sure there should be someone in one of the Planet Replica costumes knocking around... would love to see a pic of Blessed being busted for shouting...

I didn't hear Brian Blessed all day, which suggests they hadn't flown him in from the Siberian bunker they keep him in. However, I did get plenty of photo of them doing their thing.

Al has a photo of the 9 feet tall Judges, which somehow managed to evade us, very odd.

[TordelBack]

Clearly cover for a clandestine Bilderburg meeting.  They finally got you, Sharky.

[The Legendary Shark]

Nobody got me.

All is well.

Trust the government.

[Proudhuff]

Now the 2000ad crewbus SHOULD be heading north for HI-EX   

[Dark Bat King]

Twitter Droid is tweeting highlights of the Wagner Ezquerra panel!

[Emperor]

A few highlights for posterity:

Dredd was created as "Margaret Thatcher in uniform", Wagner says.

He still went to see the Thatcher biopic though.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165783095574933504

Dredd design heavily influenced by fascist regime in Spain, says Ezquerra. Wagner hated it but admits Ezquerra was right!

He usually is.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165784244113780736

Wagner: old movie costume was very restrictive, the new movie Dredd costume is much better and more a riot policeman

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165784704572866560

Wagner on return of Johnny Alpha: killing him was mistake & 'flash back' stories had no danger in them. Seemed right time to bring him back

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165786349637603330

Ezquerra on working with Wagner: "After 35 years it's like a marriage."

That seemed to be the conclusion on Friday too

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165787173440856064

What character do you wish you'd created? Wagner: "Ro-Busters". Ezquerra: "Ro-Busters and Rogue Trooper".

Good question.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165788468969095169

Dredd will continue even if Wagner retires, he says: "In 100 years, 70 is the new 40."

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165789568120012800

Dredd and Alpha are like sons, says Ezquerra. You might get annoyed with them but they never bore you. Tho he prefers Alpha to Dredd.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165789856499380224

Alpha is more complicated than Dredd, says Ezquerra. Wagner: Alpha has been exclusive to Carlos, so they're closer.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165790126247657472

2000 AD has always been very prophetic, asks audience member, are you psychic?

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165790829078790144

We've actually been quite restrained, says Wagner, things are outpacing even our ideas.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165791027209322496

Pet hates? Wagner: so many in Dredd! Never envisaged it would last this long so things became rods for my back, like lie detector.

Coming up next year "The Day the Truth Died" a nanovirus sweeps through MC1 that masks voice stress analysis and other techniques used in the lie detectors. Possibly

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165791348128088064

Dredd has become nicer as Wagner has got older, he says. He's still a fascist but farer.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165791788727144450

Really impressed wih Karl Urban and especially Olivia Thirlby in new Dredd movie, says Wagner, who went to South Africa to see filming.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165792330786406400

Wagner has seen an early cut of Dredd, without CGI and music, and says he can't wait to see the finished movie.

Which is encouraging as, like District 9, I suspect the magic is going to partly come in post-production.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165792447937519616

The queue is now snaking back on itself - over 100 people waiting to meet John and Carlos at #SFXWeekender

Seems the signing is going well.

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165804560693215234

Queue not getting any shorter for John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Lots of new converts to Dredd and @2000AD!

http://twitter.com/#!/2000AD/status/165806130151440386

[Hawkmonger]

I hope you guys all had a good time. I was at home, revising for GCSE exams. The tits.
I was with you all in the spirit though as I had a good flogg through my early progs in celebration during my tea break.

[Emperor]

Oh and one thing I found out that you should all bear in mind: John Wagner occasionally drops in here to nose through some threads.* He is especially tickled by the title of the "Life spugs" thread.

I hope you guys all had a good time. I was at home, revising for GCSE exams. The tits.
I was with you all in the spirit though as I had a good flogg through my early progs in celebration during my tea break.

Well wherever Squaxx come together in the spirit of Thrills then that too will be a birthday celebration, this includes nosing through your progs while revising, it just won't involve a 2000AD cake. Yes there was cake.

* Of course, you should always assume any specific droid is reading the forums

[TordelBack]

He is especially tickled by the title of the "Life spugs" thread.

Chalk another one up for the great Dog Deever!

[Hawkmonger]

Oh and one thing I found out that you should all bear in mind: John Wagner occasionally drops in here to nose through some threads. He is especially tickled by the title of the "Life spugs" thread.

I hope you guys all had a good time. I was at home, revising for GCSE exams. The tits.
I was with you all in the spirit though as I had a good flogg through my early progs in celebration during my tea break.

Well wherever Squaxx come together in the spirit of Thrills then that too will be a birthday celebration, this includes nosing through your progs while revising, it just won't involve a 2000AD cake. Yes there was cake.

What good are my GCSE's if I can't have cake?! 
But anyway, with any luck I should make it to the 40th do. Yes, I have started counting.......what?

[Emperor]

Oh and one thing I found out that you should all bear in mind: John Wagner occasionally drops in here to nose through some threads. He is especially tickled by the title of the "Life spugs" thread.

I hope you guys all had a good time. I was at home, revising for GCSE exams. The tits.
I was with you all in the spirit though as I had a good flogg through my early progs in celebration during my tea break.

Well wherever Squaxx come together in the spirit of Thrills then that too will be a birthday celebration, this includes nosing through your progs while revising, it just won't involve a 2000AD cake. Yes there was cake.

What good are my GCSE's if I can't have cake?! 

If you do well enough at your GCSEs then a lifetime of cake can be yours. These days I find myself often declining cake and cake-based opportunities as my cake pouch brimmeth over with the finest quality gateaux. However, I didn't turn down 2000AD cake!! Neither did sharky, despite being generally cake reluctant.

There will be photos of cake soon...

[The Legendary Shark]

It's hard to believe that I ate a slice of actual 2000AD Official Birthday Cake! So what if it tasted like polystyrene cups sandwiching two internal layers of red and white polypropylene and iced with a sweet shell of high density polyethylene? I for one am proud to have...  urmph...

...excuse me for a moment...


(The cake was actually very nice, in all honesty.)

[dweezil2]

The wife and I had an absolutely fantastic couple of days at the weekender.

The 2000ad party on Friday was great fun with the Molcher droid presiding fantasticly, ensuring everything ran smoothly with a great sense of fun and playfullness.
The "play your cards right" game and the appearance of John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra and Tharg-who's trainers gave the suspicion of him being an imposter and well known writer droid where just a few highlights!

Saturday included the awesome spectacle of the Wagner/Ezquerra droids on stage, giving a fascinating talk on their work on the galaxies greatest.

My personal highlight was the signing event-where the two lovely and generous icons had time for a quick chat and I manged to have my graphic novels signed and to get a Dredd sketch from Mr Ezquerra. All of which I shall treasure forever!

A brilliant time and thanks to all for making it so special and memorable! 

[The Legendary Shark]

Were you the guy I superfluously pointed out who was John Wagner to? I have no idea why I did that, my only excuse is: Alcohol. (I was the scary bloke with the white goatee.)

If that wasn't you then the above incident never happened and I in no way made any kind of fool of myself...