Name: Regie Rigby
Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?
By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.
The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.
When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.
Competition Time!
By Regie Rigby
After last week’s moan fest (and I’m still really cross about The Boys) it’s time to be a bit positive. It’s far too easy to concentrate on the negative aspects of the comics scene – as a community we like to gripe. We’re good at it. There is a lot to gripe about, but there’s a lot to celebrate too, and we should give that equal weight.
So, this seems to me to be a good time to launch the second FoolBritannia competition. Once again, we have a selection of rather natty T Shirts, courtesy of the nice people at 2000AD Online. What could be more positive than that? The latest wave to shirts is a doozy, featuring characters from the world of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Shako, and the arch nemesis of, well, Nemesis, Thomas de Torqemada. I’d give you pictures, but it’ll be so much easier to let you look at them here.
Good, aren’t they?
The only problem I had was what form the competition should take. last time we had a straightforward quiz. This time I wanted something a little different. But what?
Inspiration came from two sources.
The first was the response to the original competition. When I sent out T Shirts to the winners (and incidentally, I still have one prize shirt here at Fool Central, due to an administrative error – it’s on its way Charles…) I asked if they would e-mail me an image of them wearing it. The idea was to run the pics in the column, but in the end I never did because very few images came in. I can understand that, it can be a hassle to get around to doing that sort of thing and if you don’t need to, well, it’s the kind of thing you mean to get around to doing, but never quite do.
However, one or tow pics did get around to sending me a picture, among them this woman:
This is Kat, sporting the wonderful D.R. and Quinch “Eat Plutonium Death, you disgusting Alien Wierdoes!” shirt outside her LCS the “Comic Emporium”, situated in the sunshine state of Florida, U.S. on US 231, about a mile north of the Panama City Mall. (Go on, go and check it out on Google Earth – you know you want to…)
This picture got me thinking.
Comics shops are, as I have previously observed, rather strange places. I love them, I always have. We comics readers give them loyalty that most retail outlets can’t hope to command, they in turn give us the comics we crave, and something more. Less tangible, but perhaps even more important. They give us a community hub. A sanctuary. A place to compare notes, to swap opinions, and to indulge in the one thing most of us love even more than reading comics. Talking about comics.
Regular readers know all about my LCS, the wonderful Destination Venus. Now I want to know something about yours.
This is a 2000AD photo contest. There are no questions, just a task. I want to see a picture of you, holding something with a connection to the comic 2000AD, outside your local comics store. The 2000AD object can be anything you like – a copy of the comic, a copy of the Judge Dredd Megazine, an action figure, a graphic novel, a poster, a picture downloaded from the ‘net, a key ring, anything you want. Please let me know when you enter whether you’re happy for me to put the picture in the column, or whether you’d like me to keep it private.
In addition, I’d like to know why you chose the 2000AD item you’re holding in the picture, and something about your local comics store. A funny story perhaps, how you found the place, or even just the reason you like to shop there. A few lines will do, but the more you tell me the happier I am. Winners will be judged on originality of photo and text by me, and possibly by an expert panel. The rules are as follows:
All entries must include the entrant’s name and contact address. Addresses will be kept confidential, but I can’t send you a prize without it.
Only one entry per person. If you want the chance to win two shirts, you’re going to have to clone yourself, but if two different people at the same address want to have a go, that’s fine.
Please don’t pretend to be two people at the same address if there’s only one of you. That’s cheating, and I’ll know. And even if I don’t , you’ll feel guilty. If you want a shirt that badly, you can buy one here.
It will be assumed that you are happy for your picture and comments to be published in this column unless you expressly state otherwise. If you state otherwise your privacy will be respected, but we reserve the right to describe what your picture was of. Anything that is published here will be credited appropriately.
Entries should be sent by e-mail to regie@silverbulletcomicbooks.com.
The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. Except, you know, to say hello and stuff.
Please state T Shirt size when entering.
Prize shirt designs will be assigned more or less at random depending on availability of sizes, but if you have a preference please feel free to state it and we’ll see what we can do.
Good luck.
Right, off you go then. Let’s see what you can do! I’ll see you here next week with a slightly longer column and details of more reasons to be happy about the current state of the comics medium.
See you then!
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