Never mind. I'm back out of storage now. I actually hope to put more creative stuff on this blog, but I will probably do the odd review as well. I'll re-watch BtE soon and post up a review. It's late now, I know, but never mind.
As far as Red Dwarf news is concerned, there was a post on twitter a couple of weeks back by Doug Naylor (co-creator of Red Dwarf, and the main writer now) and it looks like there might be delays in the production. However he had a meeting and it looks like their at least putting the wheels in motion with hiring, etc.
I think there's a good chance there will be some more Red Dwarf coming within the next year or so but there's nothing definite. Still, it looked like there would be no more Red Dwarf at all and we got three new episodes in Back To Earth, so I'm hopeful.
As far as creative stuff is concerned, I fancy myself as a bit of a writer-droid, but I've done the odd bit of artwork too, although I've got quite a way to go with that.
Here's an example of a piece of writing to start with. This was my entry in a writing competition on the 2000 AD forum. The competition was called Tharg's School of Failure. The brief was as follows:
You can’t be the best all the time. Sometime, somewhere, even the greatest screw up. Tell us all about it!
The story had to be about a 2000 AD character having a bad day basically, and we had to keep to a maximum 500 word limit. I didn't even come close to winning, (I think I got about two votes!) but I was quite happy with it. Just don't look at it as typical work! I'd usually prefer to be more descriptive, but I had to keep it to the bare bones to keep it within the limit. I also prefer to write my own creations rather than what is essentially fan-fic, but it's all good practice.
Anyhow, it's a tale set in Judge Dredd's childhood before the atomic war.
The Cadet
The Warehouse- The Testing Ground
The front door of the warehouse was unlocked. He swept in, low. There were several dust covered crates that formed aisles throughout the facility. Facing him was a small robot. In it's claws it clutched a formidable looking weapon.
The Cadet leapt aside as several paint pellets flew past. A pellet splattered on the door frame, the splash-back causing a fine spray over his helmet visor.
The Cadet returned fire. Four rounds bounced off the droid's chest leaving dents. It gave out an electronic squawk and fled down a side aisle. He discarded his helmet and followed. He decided head protection would be of little use if he could not see properly.
Near the end of the aisle, he paused. He couldn't hear the droid's tracks. One of the shadows of the crates at the end of the aisle seemed out of place. Was the creep waiting to ambush him?
He set his weapon to 'ricochet', and aimed carefully at the wall, estimating the angle by the shadow and fired. There was a metallic pinging sound and the whirring of treads. As he rounded the corner he saw the door to the gents' toilet close.
Entering the toilet he suddenly noticed the figure aiming the gun his way. He fired, and the bullet cracked the mirror and ricocheted back at him clipping him above his right eye as he leapt aside. As the darkness took him he thought,“Drokk. Forgot to change the round setting.”
He awoke. His head throbbed. The little robot was standing over him, a comical look of surprise on it's metal face. “Did you just shoot yourself kid?” it asked.
“Seems so,” muttered The Cadet. Despite his embarrassment he felt vaguely proud that he was still holding his gun.
The little robot laughed. “I've had many crappy jobs in my time, bub,” it said. “But this makes it all worth while. Say, ain't you one of them new clones? They engineer you with stoopid genes, boy?”
The Cadet raised his gun. “Nobody likes a smart-ass robot,” he growled. “Armour piercing.”
The Hospital
The Cadet awoke. He was lying in a bed. His head still throbbed. His brother was sitting nearby.
“Seems that creep got you good, Joe,” said his brother. “But they passed you.”
The Cadet said nothing.
Rico continued. “Still, you offed it pretty good. Be a while before tech put it back together.”
Joe pointed at his head. “How bad is it?”
“It's just a graze. Docs said the eye-brow probably won't grow back though, but they ain't gonna waste cosmetic surgery on you. Said it would teach you a lesson.”
Joe grunted. “It will that.”
Rico's mouth twitched. He rarely smiled, but this was close.
“You could shave off the other one to even things up.”
Dredd shook his head. “No. Think I'll just keep the helmet on from now on.”
Heh. You'll need to be acquainted with Dredd to get the last gag. I've written some other longer stuff too and hope to get something published soon. I actually plan to submit a Future Shock to 2000 AD very soon. The script still needs a bit more work but I see it as being near the final draft.
I have a few other scripts in early draft stage. A couple are fairly good and I'd like them published in somewhere. Others are not so good, but it's all practice. I have a couple of ideas for longer strips too, one creator owned and one I hope to submit to another publication. (Possibly CLiNT but we'll see.)
Anyway, I hope to be back soon. Not so long next time.
