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Stickleback!

SBT

Future Shocks all day every day.

SBT

I've still not received the 'Winter Special/ Yearbook" after backing it on Kickstarter when it launched last year, and there's no sign of #10 in my local WHS. All of which is a shame, because I really loved the first nine issues, and I'd be disappointed if it became yet another comic I have to order online. It's just not the same as picking it up in the shop.

I'm hoping the special turns up in the post soon- the various reasons for the delays have run a bit thin these last few months- and #10 appears when I'm next in town.

I tend to go with my gut on these things, and my great enthusiasm for Shift has fizzled a bit, it has to be said. Let's hope it gets rekindled with whatever we see next.

SBT

All this talk of gamebooks has led to me ordering a copy of House of Hell, as well as two modern 'choose your own adventure' books by Victoria Hancox: Nightshirt and The Alchemist's Folly. Looking forward to them, and once again you bastards are responsible for me spending too much money.

SBT

Definitely Tribal Memories for this little squaxx. It's reprinting in that lovely big fat 'Best of 2000AD' special edition should stick out as the weak link in amongst all the classic undiluted thrill power... but doesn't because it's just so bloody good, and demonstrates the prog isn't just all 'big gurning men in leather with big guns'.

SBT

 Blackhawk

SBT

Soul Gun Warrior.

SBT

Megatropolis. Which is superb.

(I had to look up From Grace- yeah... I hated that one, sorry)

SBT

I'm afraid I've never liked Johnny Red, so Charley walks this one for me. Never mind the strip is likely the greatest thing ever published in British comics, Bourne himself is all our (great?) grandads, isn't he?

SBT

 Kingdom, by a mile. But as for Carver Hale- I echo that said upthread, that it needed longer to bed in. It was basically Hellblazer with a bit of Bill Savage thrown in and a dash of Lock Stock, but for all that, I liked it enough to buy the hardback when I saw it for a fiver in a charity shop.

SBT

 Ever since moving back to the UK from Ireland, I have periodically dreamed of the house I used to live in over there. In the dreams, it's always different from the reality, but it's always *that house*. So far so so-so.

Last night I was back there- I was in the process of moving into a new flat within the building (no. 4) and throwing away much old property. Amongst bags and bags of old meat (steaks, joints of beef, burgers etc) was a singular item: a cucumber. I picked it up, and noted it was "the old cucumber".

When I woke up, the old cucumber was the single dominant image from the dream, and from that I managed to piece together the rest.

So why am I dreaming of Wulf?

SBT

Very much enjoyed this Meg. The Dredd strip built on last month's episode and I'm now wondering if this is a Dreddworld Wakanda parody... which for some reason didn't occur to me last time. Surfer is okay- though it is a bit par-for-the-course and I'm guessing it's only "not a Judge Dredd strip" because it would be more obviously going over the same ground we've seen a number of times before. But the writing and art are as smooth and engrossing as you'd expect from the talent involved.

Diamond Dogs always- always- surprises me. I look at it, think 'Why is this there?', then read it and absolutely love it. I really should reread the whole lot in one sitting, because I've been reacting in exactly that way since episode one. Best of all is Lawless- which was so good I didn't even notice Metta Lawson was absent. I am in awe of every aspect of this story. Look at that first page! Look at the transition from the top to the bottom! Incredible.

I'm afraid I skip the other main strip- as no aspects of it are to my liking, and after the first part of Hawk The Slayer last month, I'm afraid I'm skipping that too. Not for me- but I remember hating the movie at the cinema back in the day, so a couple of 2000AD people doing a sequel isn't enough to thrill me. If Wagner and Ezquerra had done a similar sequel to Tron, I would have felt the same.

SBT

If it had stopped at The Horned God, we would never have had The Books of Invasion, which are probably my most-beloved Slaine highlight. But even a bad Slaine story (of which there are a few) is better than most other strips, so the fact that it reached a peak early is no reason not to give this particular hoary old idea the contempt it deserves.

I'm of the mind that Judge Dredd's best ever story is The Apocalypse War, and it should never have continued past that. See how silly that is? (Though I do partially agree with it and Dredd mostly bores me stupid these days).

SBT

Totally agree re Zdarsky's Daredevil, the Devil's Reign Event, the Elektra mini and the X-Men issue (was it a one off, I forget) in particular.

I'm not one for crossovers in general, and the last time I tried to follow "all" of one it turned into the excruciating Secret Wars thing from a couple of years back. However, Dark Reign is wonderful so far (if overly familiar in parts- it's basically Dark Reign crossed with Civil War isn't it?) and the X-Men issue was unexpectedly a) understandable and b) entertaining. Two words I didn't expect to ever say about an X-book again. The only tie-in I've not enjoyed so far has been the Superior Four, with the four alt.Ottos, which should have been a joy but so far very much isn't.

SBT

Sinister Dexter, for obvious reasons.

But Tales of Telguuth is one of my favourite prog things of the last thirty years. I was going to say 'the modern era', but it's not really that, is it. It's ages ago. Reading the collection a couple of years ago, I was shocked at how well it all fit together, as I had previously thought they were all just unconnected one-offs and shorts. Steve Moore was a bit of a genius, wasn't he?

SBT