"Funk you!" -- Prog 1387

[The Amstor Computer]

Just a couple of quick impressions, more later:

Dredd: A fun short, with gorgeous art from Cam Kennedy.

Savage: A promising start. Some very obvious "one man's terrorist..." comments, but this could be very good. Charlie Adlard's art is fantastic, far better than his recent colour work on Dredd.

A.H.A.B.: Far better than I expected, this could be a bit of a minor classic. The final page is almost worth the cover price by itself :-)

Low Life: A fairly downbeat start. Some of the best Henry Flint art I've ever seen. This has got a real "Lenny Zero" feel to it - no bad thing IMO.

Chopper: Interesting. This is the only strip I'm not sure about yet. I'll re-read and comment later.

First impressions? We're in for some fun with this lineup :-)

[Krustabi]

How many dead?...

[Dudley]

How many dead?

[The Amstor Computer]

???

[Mr D]

There's been a competition to guess how many die in this prog. Multiple deaths with unnamed bodycount count as 1 I believe...

[The Amstor Computer]

0 die in Dredd

7 die in Savage

Dozens dead in A.H.A.B., but they don't die "onscreen".

3 die in Low Life

1 death in Chopper

[Mr D]

If Odders agrees with that, Slips will be the winner!
And I'm one off... Damnit!

[IndigoPrime]

::Savage: A promising start.

I agree, although I'm already getting fed up with Mills's penchant for fake swear words (again - see also: "dastard").Oh well.

[JamieB]

"Dastard" is a proper English rude word, albeit pretty archaic...

[backslash]Das"tard[backslash], n. [Prob. from Icel. d[ae]str exhausted. breathless, p. p. of d[ae]sa to groan, lose one's breath; cf. dasask to become exhausted, and E. daze.] One who meanly shrinks from danger; an arrant coward; a poltroon.

You are all recreants and dashtards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, ? 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

J-Bo-you-wouldn't-have-thought-Shak-was-that-verbose-if-you'd-sat-through-STEEL-1

[Art]

You just know that from watching Dick Darstardly cartoons.

[JamieB]

Wyatt, you snickering, floppy-eared hound ?
When courage is needed, you're never around!
Those medals you wear on your moth-eaten chest
Should be there for bungling, at which you are best!

J-Bo-he-he-he-he-he-he-1

[IndigoPrime]

The point I was making was Mills using certain words as "safe" replacements for profanity - to my mind, dastard fits because it's so obviously a replacement for bastard. I don't believe for a second that Mills was using it in the way you mention. It's actually more jarring having such things in 2000 AD than actual swear words (although I'd also hate to have 2000 AD turn into a US film, with fucks being thrown around with merry abandon. So to speak).

[Oddboy]

Mills used "Dastard" quite a bit during Nemesis the Warlock, didn't he?

[JamieB]

Simply, keeping swearies out of the comic keeps the comic from being consigned to the top shelf along with WYATT'S MILPORN MONTHLY and suchlike. I'm aware that some shops rack it in the top shelf anyway, but unfortunately it's impossible to legislate against rank stupidity.

I think that creative replacements are far more fun than the real thing, by and large; SinDex with f**k instead of funt, for example, would be grim reading indeed...

J-Bojemoi!-1

[The Amstor Computer]

"Creative replacements" for expletives are fine - I've no problems with "Drokk", for example - but some of the words that make their way in could hardly be classed as "inventive" or "creative". "Funk", "shiv" or "vucking" are, IMO, lazy stand-ins for real words that simply serve to pull the reader out of the story.

If the issue is keeping real-world profanity out of the comic, I'd rather see writers avoid using expletives altogether rather than just switching a couple of letters.