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Indeed. I just grabbed one. Fingers crossed!

(I may have accidentally also ordered the Kev Apex Edition as well, which was on sale. Oops.)

Hey, I look at my missing books in another light: how frustrated would I have been had I managed to snag the last copy of Durham Red and that not rocked up?

I'm not familiar with Horrid Henry. Mini-IP does have some pre-refresh Dennis books that are fairly horrible though. I much prefer the current take on him and Walter, where Dennis is streetwise and Walter is a fun-killing wannabe authoritarian, rather than Dennis kicking the shit out of anyone who is perceived to be 'girly' and effeminate. The dynamic now feels much smarter and has radically reduced 'othering'. (The comic as a whole has also benefited from getting over its 'girls – URGH' framing.)

I just got a reply that they'll resend them. Hopefully someone might use some tape this time, so £44 of books don't fall out of the package in transit. (Still, that beats when I bought a whole bunch of books one time – 20 or so. They were sent in two huge boxes with no padding at all. About a third of them were so badly damaged that I demanded replacements. Hachette did send them, to its credit. But it always annoys me when 20p of packaging and two minutes of time could have stopped the need to send £60+ of replacement stock.)

Best packaging effort yet from Hachette. I order four books. What's delivered: a card envelope minus the books.

Isn't his argument that comics are now too middle class and that the industry has given up, and that he has the tools and knowledge to unlock comics for a new generation of working-class kids, or something like that?

I mean, he's not wrong in that comics are no longer a mass-market concern. And their circulations have dropped to the point they are out of reach of many families. But then a £10 Spacewarp is hardly fighting against that particular problem. Which leaves, I dunno, attitude? But if people have been reading The Phoenix and even the modern Beano and arguing that it's far too 'safe', I'm not sure they've been paying attention.

Half the time, old men just appear to be rallying against the increased inclusion (and the drop in bullying) in modern comics, and ignoring all the other changes that chime with the current generation. (I even see people arguing that modern cartoons aren't allowed to be rude and anarchic. And my response is: have you read Looshkin?)

If nothing else, interesting to see the gulf in a (weekly) comic ten-year-olds are excited about reading (to the degree there's even an annual convention now, along with regular video drawalong sessions with the likes of Jess Bradley and Jamie Smart) and (a very irregular) one that's ostensibly aimed at the same age bracket, but really feels like it's aimed at people who were ten somewhere between 1976 and 1983.

I'm sure Spacewarp has its fans, and I'm all for more comics. But perhaps it's not a great idea to bang on about it being some kind of panacea to the country's shortfall in children's comics, given that it failed to hit an affordable price point and disappeared for four years. (I've no idea whether the content struck a chord with kids. I've no way of knowing that for sure.)

Talking of the Phoenix, mini-Solo greatly enjoyed their April Fools issue.

The Spoons issue last year was a masterstroke. Mini-IP was young enough that it did actually catch her out. She was ready for this year's gag, but appreciated their dedication to all things egg. I bloody love that comic. During the rare occasions I get to see it. (Mini-IP sometimes takes pity on me and suggests I read Bunny vs Monkey or something. But I haven't read No Country in weeks now.)

Be fair, Gordon: it's perfectly standard between issues of a comic to wait a mere *checks notes* four... years...

Yeah. My 9yo gets antsy when her Phoenix is a day late.

That's the thing with Dredd: everyone likes different stuff. I quite often see people asking for the best starting point, and it's hard to reply. I mean, what are their expectations? There's a world of difference between classic-era Dredd and The Pit, and then again compared to what we have now.

Also, Dredd often works best in the smaller moments rather than the epics. And many of the epics only hit home when you've some context behind them. So I don't think America or Origins are goods start points. Case Files 5 isn't too bad, because at least you do have a bunch of strips before you get to the epic. But I'd almost be tempted to point people at 6 or 7 first, if they fancy some old-school Dredd.

I wonder what would be a good intro to more modern Dredd. 35? (Block Court; Sin City) 40? (Total War kicking things off might be a bit much, mind!) 41? (Some nice strips, including Mandroid.) 44?

From what I can tell, folks from the US in particular have a very hard time getting into 2000 AD. It's black and white. The storytelling is staccato and dense. And the early Dredd doesn't really fit  expectations. It doesn't help that it took the team until its second year to figure out what the character was. And even then, you get quite a lot of hokey Dredd for a time.

So, yeah, I can see a lot of folks buying Case Files 1, wondering what all the fuss was about, and then going no further. (It was interesting watching Omar over at Near Mint Condition going through this. Although, curiously, he was also far more receptive to strips by Ennis and Morrison that most of us would consider poor.)

Krazy Kat seems to click with cartoonists. Perhaps it's again that thing of whether you've the inbuilt mentality to be able to place yourself in a certain era or not. (I don't, for the most part. Although I can – and do – enjoy a lot of early Peanuts, and collected the entire run of HCs.)

On the dailies, that notion of slowing down makes a lot of sense. These strips were designed to be enjoyed as quick blasts of fun, rather than as a sit-down treat. (One might argue the same about 2000 AD and even classic-era US comics, before collections blurred the lines.) So I found myself in a similar space when sitting down with Roger Langridge's Diary Comics. I read them a month at a time, because I don't want to burn through them and not appreciate them.

Heh. That'd be amusing. Eight episodes in and Dredd's getting REALLY annoyed at his inability to shake a giant bear. And Moon's sincerely wishing she'd been a massive show-off so Dredd would have picked someone else. But then: shock twist! By the end, Dredd runs into a bunch of super-secret East-Meggers, planning to invade, but the bear tears through them all. To which the only response from Dredd is to make the bear an honorary judge.

(Why, yes, I have been leafing through 1970s and 1980s Dredd and 2000 AD specials. Why do you ask? )

[Dredd]

Nicely realised nostalgia cover. I've no idea if Tharg holds any widespread appeal, but I can't imagine that many characters do, frankly. And I don't really want every 2000 AD cover to be Dredd angrily going GRRR at the reader.

Speaking of, Dredd is probably not someone any judge should agree to go on a mission with, judging by the current fiasco. I'm enjoying this story well enough, though. Then Full Tilt Boogie ends well, but with that ominous strap. Returning for a series finale? I hope that means it just wraps up this arc, rather than the whole thing.

Aquila bursts out of the gate with its bloody fury, while Indigo Prime dodders a bit, even if that a full-page ship image is rather lovely. Then another twist of sorts in Proteus Vex, which remains compelling.

In all a very good Prog, and that looks set to continue next week, given that FTB is being swapped out for Brink.

Oh, and the strap on that star scan: let's hope so. But in a manner where Maitland's own cunning and foresight is the source and reason behind the downfall of those who killed her, rather than Dredd's fists.

Well, as in, if it chose to pursue a set of reprints. It's not like this is unheard of in publishing. I'm not suggesting it could magic up a set of reprints from nowhere.