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Man oh man! What a fun thread, slapping myself on the forehead yet again for not really knowing how to navigate the forums... (if it's not in the 2000AD subsection, I often don't notice anything, fool that I am).

Anyway, Colin, you're a total legend for setting this up and writing so much delightful commentary on so many great (and not so great) comics. Bit late for me to weigh in on some of your choices, but I'll certainly say that based on the comics you've listed that I've read, you have great taste, and my to-buy/borrow/read list is gonna get loads bigger. Your love of superhero comics in the vein of Stern Avengers and Bendis Daredevil I think puts you pretty much dead into my age and comics-reading bracket - which all makes me even more chuffed you were so nice about my own comic, knowing you're mentally comparing it to many of the things I grew up on, too.

Am especially excited by some titles I'd never heard of before: Bat Lash (describing that as being like Wagner-Dredd is a weapon to weild carefully, sure works on me!); Hourman; Cowboys & Insects.

I'm with you and it seems most people here of loving the art and stroytelling style of DKR, but not as such the plot or especially the characterisation of Superman. Even more with you on singing the praises of P. Milligan, a man I've always got time for even if I don't love everything he writes.

Couple of minor tidbits you may or may not be interested in...
L'il Depressed boy looks and sounds quite a lot like the Manga series Goodnight Punpun, which is very excellent in its storytelling but I'm not really into the subgenre of 'life is just a constant series of depressing episodes' as per Chris Ware or Dan Clowes.
Gunning for Hits sounds fun but I'm guessing not as good as Phonogram, which may or may not appear higher on your list? Also, having a Bowie-alike main character called Brian Slade makes me wonder if it's also a follow-up to the film Velvet Goldmine - totally recommend that if you're into David Bowie, the music scene, and pretentious films.

Will be sure to keep an eye on this mega-thread in days to come! Partly looking for more workable answers to the question 'Daddy, why do you spend so much time writing about comics on your computer?' which I get a lot of at home an' all...

This Dredd story has pushed to examine what I most want from a longer Dredd tale. I do liek the politic-y tales, and it's definitely the case that I really want to see the Dredd/Beeny/Maitland combo manage to push through some sort of democractic reform onto MC1, because I'm a liberal lefty and seeing that would make me feel good. But of course it would end up breaking 'Judge Dredd' as a strip so it can't/shouldn't actually happen.

Which means we get these downer-ending stories, and when they're as magnificently well-drawn as this one - might be BEST ever art on a Dredd serial, for real - I'm OK with it. But thinking further, for me the truly successful 'downer ending' Dredd tales are the ones where it's Dredd himself who more or less agrees with the 'bad' thing that happens - as in America, for one example. I get that he's becoming more and more anti-fascist as the years go by, but the power of the character is at its strongest when we're reminded that he genuinely believes that being a shouty bully and using violence to solve problems is the best way to keep citizens safe. So mostly all I have to look forward to is Dredd punching out another Judge Grice lookalike at some point.

As for the rest of the Prog, it's definitely a win in the art column for all stories. Kendall's vision of giant arty towers made of human remains is up there with Kev O'Neill's from Nemesis Book 1. And yes, that SB Davis sure can paint trees and dead animals and duffed-up humans real good.

Agree that Full Tilt Boogie doesn't really explain itself in terms of 'how did she get out of that trap' - but with a get-out clause that I think the inside of that weird spaceship is meant to be trippy and dreamlike, in a Stalker/Annihilation sense. In that context it makes sense to me that will-power is enough to help a person escape, and of course we don't yet know what else Tee has brought out of the ship with her, even if it's just a big dose of anxiety/fear. Also it all justifies the cover which is an all-timer!

For what it's worth, the Publisher I work for has taken the decision to ban all use of AI-generation for any writing/design/illustration on our books (for now).
Potentially we will be allowed to use GPT and the like to generate marketing copy, but that's about it.

I get that J Depp is not a person one wants to give airtime to - but I confess I couldn't resist the charm of Kek-W taking the absurd premise of the Sauvage Ad (which I had to endure a LOT this XMas season for some reason), and turning it into a Indigo Prime story hook. Fun!
And the whole use of actual(ish) famous people does take me right back to that first Tyranny Rex story in which Prince was basically co-lead.

Aces!
And I can't imagine drawing in THAT deyailed a Massimo-style is anything but a long hard job. Double Macmacs for that droid, and lots of 'em.

Well with no word from Sheridan I'd say they're all your, Fortnight! Want to PM me your address and I'll figure out postage and stuff?

Sorry, I totally forgot to cehck in on this thread!
I'm getting rid of them because apart from occasionally seeing them in a storage box I have not interacted with them in any way for years...
Extra cash defintiely helpful, but I'd rather they went to a 2000AD-loving home, hence posting on this forum, and only asking for postage to cover the costs.


In the interest of fairness, since I have three decks and there are three of you, I could send the Trading Cards to Sherdian, the 2000AD playing cards to Mr N Canes, and the Dredd playing cards to Fortnight?

What's the etiquette?

Never has the wait for Red Razors coverage been so desperately anticipated

Beautiful!
The Inaki Miranda really stuck out for me as something quite different.

Really a lot of people have drawn a lot of pictures of Judge Dredd.

In the intro to the Trade, Mills specifically says he talked to his daughter's mates to a) get dialogue tips on how young people talk and b) to ask them what they would do in certain theoretical situations.

This presumably, is his justification for ensuring that all female characters are inclined to sleep with Paul/Finn  /Mills's favourite character...

If the main underlying principle of all storytelling is 'conflict' (which is maybe debatable but not by the people who make money from writing stories), does this mean that all humans, as inveterate consumers of stories, are driven in life to seek out/expect conflict?

I'm basically wondering if that sitcom-based research, fascinating though it sounds, has fallen into a classic 'correlation is not causation' trap...

Getting wildly off-topic here but one of my favourite depictions of the use/vlaue/power of stories is, of all things, the first Croods movie.

I believe there's strong suspicion that Niemand's 'real' name is also Gordon, but that's just a coincidence.
(Unless sharing a name with an arrogant Express Locomotive makes you good at writing Judge Dredd comics)

Your context of a US High School definitely paints the likes of True Faith in a much scarier light, I can sure see how you wouldn't want to read/promote it!

I cling to the belief that art can never be truly responsible for encouraging real-life violence, but I can see how it makes it easier for people to think digital violence is OK, or at the very least funny/harmless, which is totally isn't.

The flip side if this is that while I am OK saying that True Life never made someone kill another person, Third World War didn't make people protest/overturn the actions of Mega Corporations or racist police, either...

Am slowly, reluctanly, offloading various 2000AD bits...

Would anybody like:
a deck of 2000AD-themed playing cards, as priginally given away with SFX Magazine
a deck of 'Official' Judge Dredd playing Cards
a deck of Dredd: the Card Game, 60 cards + 18 extra cards

Not asking for money, maybe enough to cover postage but they're only little!

I used to skip loads as a young reader -Rogue Trooper being the most obvious strip I had no time for- but I think since completing a full read-through (back in 1993 when I was 14/15 and such a thing was not TOO terifiying a time-investment) I've read everything published in the Prog, have yet to find any story so bad/distasteful that I won't read it. Even Lowborn High got better as it went on (and on).
I do skip plenty of reprint content in the Meg, much of it material I've never read before. I'm too young to get a nostalgia kick from a lot of the 'Treasury' stuff, and frankly more of it leaves me cold than brings delight.