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I dropped out at 111 and have cherry picked since. My completist itch will no doubt continue to nag at me about that, but it is what it is. That said, if I was still subscribing now, I think I'd see it out to the end. Although I do feel the pain of the lack of space brigade. (I need to start reading and filtering the books on our main bookshelves, because I'm out of space there now. One in, one out is my future.)

[Dredd]

All varying degrees of good for me this week. Nice cover. Good to see Fiends is on its way back. Dredd vs Giant Shako continues to be fun. The cadet's a thinker, which may well save Dredd's life. Brink starts wonderfully and is already horribly creepy. Aquila stomps along too, which some great moments and quality art.

Indigo Prime... I think I'm going to take that meta thing from the series to heart. This is the strip from an alternate reality, rather than Smith's creation. Or something. It's up and down for me – some great ideas but only borderline coherent at times, and I don't really want Johnny Depp in the comic, TBH.

And then it wraps up with Proteus Vex, which continues to be masterful. Everyone has their preferences, but for me the Prog's on a real high right now.

Born Bad just arrived from FP. Not an empty box! My replacement books from Hachette are reportedly on the way tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

EDIT: And they're here. This time, someone decided to send the four heavy books in a cardboard box. They even wrapped a bit of crushed brown paper around them, so they didn't move about too much. Blimey!

Born Bad has shipped! As has the tiny little extra I bought alongside it. (Kev's big book o' joy.) I imagine that will beat the Hachette replacement volumes. And I hope FPI's packaging is typically bulletproof, as usual, so that doesn't arrive empty!

Gideon is an interesting one. I did read a – cough – 'version' of it on my iPad at some point*, and I'd wondered if my desperation to get it in the UC was misplaced. So I'm stoked to find so many are enjoying it and am looking forward to getting a copy myself. I imagine I was just in a grump at the time.

* I mean, I own the original Progs and a reprint of the story already, and have ordered a third volume, so I'm not going to feel too guilty about that...

Gah. I mean, it'd be rude not to at that price. Shame they don't have the McMahon one on for a bit of an offer as well. (I got the previous one 50% off at FP in London!)

Indeed. Just come out and say something if you've got something to say.

As I've noted elsewhere, if Niemand is another script droid, then fair play, because his work doesn't read like anyone else's. And if he isn't, fair play for the same reason. And in both cases also, because his work is some of my favourite Dredd – one of the few that sit in that top tier and 'get' the character.

Yeah. It's gone up some. Still, FP's packaging is typically excellent and so at least your book will be in good nick when it arrives.

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.)