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Double post, I know, but presenting my latest acquisition - my holy grail of original art, as it is my favourite page from any comic strip. Could enthuse all day about this one... Protoid's utterly satanic appearance and dialogue, De Racine snatching defeat from the jaws of victory... perfection!

I just re-read this one the other day. The Rogue strip is great (and is very notably Milligan's template for the Bad Company story 'Simply', the Prog 601 'drawn live' four-pager - they're very similar strips.) Fabry's early take on Balor is quite interesting, though I'm glad he developed him into the even more monstrous version that eventually saw print. Judge Dredd - 'Beyond the Wall' is also great - who would have guessed it would turn out to be such an enduring story, with a sequel by Garth Ennis and then reappearing several times in connection with Banzai Battalion?

And as for the visit of tv show Splash to the Command Module, with an appearance by Madness... it's like the entirety of being young in the 80s compressed into four pages.

I have very little doubt that Action Comics will swiftly become my most awaited read each month (unless it's a month when Wagner is on Dredd or Dante is in the prog.) All-Star Superman remains an absolute high point of Grant's comics career and it will be interesting to see him tackle Superman from the other end of the power scale. I had hoped to see Grant on more than one comic, but I suppose he was only on one before, and he's undoubtedly a very busy chap.

Which made a refreshing amount of sense, given Scott's out-Magnetoing-Magneto antics over the past few years.  If only they'd do more with Beast and S.W.O.R.D., that was a truly fun setup. 

Yeah, it was really well written and featured Death's Head! What more could you want from a comic? Well, apart from a version of Henry who didn't look so much like a goat.

I've found that once the first arc was out of the way (it was about an issue too long), the series has really come into its own. There's some very interesting character dynamics at play, plenty to get your teeth into, plus... well, it's fun. I'm actually very fond of Teon, who is deceptively interesting. And Kenji has started to develop a 'Bones McCoy' quality, what with his "I'm an artist, not a...." dialogue. (I was about to say 'Dr. McCoy', but in an X-Men context, that's Henry, my favourite living X-Man. Except he's not an X-Man anymore.)

The hardest Dredd GN to find is my own copy of Case Files 5, which has disappeared into the cavernous depths of my flat (which is why I've done over 80 days of the Daily Dredd blog without featuring a single panel from the Apocalypse War!)

There's a Luke Kirby story to be got out of all this for the current Short Story competition, y'know... 

Sounds like Keiron Gillen will have more time on his hands, what with Uncanny X-Men being cancelled.

Aw balls, I thought his X-Men stuff was good fun.

He's been a breath of fresh air after Fraction's messy, disjointed run, but I was hoping they'd be keeping Gillen on one of the post-Schism titles, presumably with Jason Aaron on another? (Plus, I assume Generation Hope will continue for a while at least?)

The main problem I have is that it's a cheat- in that it's not really a Carry On take on the Dredd strip at all, but an illegal movie. I know that's clever-ish, and probably unexpected, but I found it dissappointing.

That's right... we leave the film when some shelves fall on the characters or something, and then it's back to 'reality' and the judges bust 'em all for enjoying sexism and innuendo (which, of course, we've all just been enjoying.) I would also have preferred if it'd had the courage of its own convictions and just had a proper Carry On ending (something the best of the films themselves do very well... Khyber and Screaming both having classic denouements.)

He's got a point, has Adolf.

Didn't think I'd ever type that...

Personal favourites: Carry On Judging (if ever a strip was buggered by its title, it's this. That's the punchline, for Grud's sakes! Couldn't they have called it something- anything!- else?), that Brett Ewins one about the alt.Universe Judda judges, and Dan Abnett's Dog Vulture story.

I remember Carry On Judging, Cliff Robinson art I think... it was quite fun but ran out of steam on the last couple of pages (lacking, as you suggest a really killer conclusion... think it's just Anderson doing an 'Ooh, saucy' line or something?)

I have fond memories of the parallel universe Judda, which I believe was also an Alan Grant, in part because of my enduring fondness for Brett Ewins, but in part because that special or annual was published at probably the nadir of the regular Dredd strip in 2000AD and if we couldn't have Wagner weekly, I was dying for this to be a sign that Alan Grant was about to make a regular comeback and sweep away all the hopeless pretenders. He didn't, of course. But I clung to it as a thought and in my head it became a mega-epic waiting to happen. Dark days.

Think I might have said this to you before, ming, but that page is like the whole of Bad Company in microcosm - Danny writing in his diary, Kano revealing dark secrets, Thrax's unwholesome fantasies, 'regular' troops being afraid of Bad Company (and by extension highlighting how much Danny's changed), Wallbanger getting some particularly choice dialogue, Mad Tommy being mad... all you're missing is an actual Krool.

All being well, I too will have a new Bad Co. page to show off this weekend...

That one's worthy of Psychoville!

Yeah, that's right. He's a Dire Wraith. When he first appeared in 'Annihilators', I did think they might have picked him on the basis of the name.

Hatty goarthday, Birty. Or something.