These questions pertain more to the newsgroup than to the actual comics.


--- Can you explain Paul O'Brien's review grading system?

Here it is, in Paul's own words:

     A+ - unequivocally recommended.
     A  - highly recommended.
     A- - Could be better, but still recommended.
     B+ - Worth a look.
     B  - Fine if you like that sort of thing.
     B- - Passable.
     C+ - Unsatisfactory, though not actively bad.
     C  - Badly flawed; for fans only.
     C- - Bad; for completists only.
     D+ - You'll wish you hadn't bought this book.
     D  - You'll wish you'd never even read this book.
     D- - The creators wish they'd never even read this book.

It should be noted that the review grades vary depending on a number of 
factors, including Paul's mood when reviewing the title. And no, there is 
*no* grade of F. The UK grading system generally doesn't use F; work 
that bad isn't accepted for a grade at all. Paul doesn't, hasn't, and 
won't grade a book F. Perhaps a book so vile doesn't exist. If it does, 
Paul certainly wouldn't bother to review it.


--- Why do all these annoying dinos keep on complaining about the 
    X-titles here? If they don't like the books, why do they read them?

The answer to this is as diverse as the fans it's asked to, and the
question usually comes up once every three months or so on the 
newsgroup. Realizing that this answer is going to be hopelessly 
generalized, most older X-fans still follow the book because of the 
loyalty generated by Claremont during his original run. Many of them 
grew to care about the characters in the book during his run, and out of 
some sort of perverse curiosity, care deeply when they are mismanaged as 
they are currently perceived to be.

Dropping the book, of course, would send the "message" to Marvel that 
they no longer agree with the direction the X-titles are heading. On the 
other hand, a feeling like "If you don't vote, you don't have the right 
to complain" also comes over some of them. And every small bit of good 
comics that sneaks through fuels their memories of how much they once 
loved it, and keeps them around for more.

It may be that they're now grown up, and wouldn't have liked the 
original Claremont stories if they were coming out now. It may be that 
they're just following them out of curiosity, because a few comic books 
aren't much to keep up on with a professional paycheck. They may even 
prefer the stories as they are now. In any case, older X-fans who are 
still reading the book should be assumed to be getting some form of 
enjoyment from it, or else they would probably have dropped it long ago.

It should also be noted that there is one particular breed of dino, who
don't read any of the books, but feel qualified to post on racmx 
because they were once big X-Men fans, and will happily fill in 
information on the older comics and the characters that appeared in them 
to the newer fans.

Finally, many of the dino population have good friends who post 
regularly to racmx, and hang around to share in their virtual 
community.


--- What is this Kid Dynamo thing? Where can I find it?

Kid Dynamo is a fan-fiction written by once-netter Connie Hirsch, which
deals with the New Mutants in the days just after Magneto took over the
School (right after New Mutants #52). A very good story by any 
standards, most people who have read it have granted it automatic status 
in official Marvel history, vastly preferring it to the eventual rise of 
Cable and the appearance of X-Force, or at least delaying that 
inevitable occurence by including Kid Dynamo.

You can find Kid Dynamo on the Fonts of Wisdom Bootleg page. The URL is
http://home.att.net/~lubakmetyk/bootleg.htm . The fanfic is very long, 
by the way; 12 full-size chapters. It takes a while to read. It's worth 
it. (You can also find it on the http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~tsang/kd/ 
or http://ebonbird.tripod.com/kiddynamo.htm sites.)


--- Where can I get scans of comic art? Why doesn't anybody post 
    pictures on the newsgroup?

Well, besides the fact that it's illegal under copyright law to 
republish other people's artwork without their permission....

While it's perfectly possible, and commonplace, to post scanned artwork 
to Usenet, it's not always a nice thing to do. The main reason is that 
some people like to read their newsgroups using an off-line newsreader, 
which downloads all the articles (and attached binaries) at once and 
lets them read the postings without being hooked up to a modem. 
Obviously, it's an inconvenience for them to have to download several 
megs of binary graphics images if they aren't looking for them.

If you're looking for comic art on Usenet, the newsgroup
alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons is the closest thing you're going to 
find--but be forewarned that X-Men art very rarely, if ever, finds its 
way onto that particular group. Outside of Usenet, the Where Can I Find 
It? FAQ has a listing of web pages and ftp sites with digitized comic 
artwork.