New trades listed

[James Stacey]

VERY pleased to see mechanismo though - and guessing this is an indication that the case files won't incorporate meg stories when they get that far????

I suspect that might be the case, although I've not asked Jon this. Given how much Meg reprint already exists, it'd be tough to justify dropping the Dredd content into the CF line (such as, for example, the entire first arc of America); that said, the series would definitely be complete then!

It'd be really dissapointing if the _complete_ case files aren't just that. Could it be that with Mechanismo being a way into the meg it wouldn't be reprinted in the complete case files for a few years yet so they have chosen to add it now as well ?

[IndigoPrime]

Could be—you'd have to ask Jon. As for the CF series being incomplete, it's already missing a bunch of annual and special stories, although I'd hope they'd be bunged in as space allows now the series has gone full-colour (given that most of the stories outside of 2000 AD but pre-Meg were colour strips).

[the styrofoam kid]

Jon - if you're out there reading this, care to shed any light on your plans?

Pretty please?

[Dark Jimbo]

Will the buying of Tharg's GNs never end?

I'd quite to like to pick all of those up, as well as most of what we already know is incoming between now and August, as well as Case Files 11 and 12, Dante 8, Slaine 2-4, Stront 3-5 and all the others already out that I haven't got around to buying yet.

Please, Tharg, no more - I need to pay the bills!!!

[radiator]

Anderson: The psi files (384 pages)

Yes! Been whining about this one for ages. It's a real shame that the Shamballa book was all incomplete and out of sequence - I didn't buy it because of this. I appreciate that it was a more artist-focused book, but it's a shame stories like Childhood's End are now in limbo.

Might actually buy the Robo-Hunter volume as well - I take it the Ace Trucking and Ro Busters must have done well for more series to be getting the Case Files treatment. If they did the same with Slaine/Rogue I'd be tempted with those, as well.

As great as it is we're finally getting a comprehensive Mechanismo collection, I'd really like to hear whats going to happen with the Meg/Case Files issue. Ideally I'd like the Meg stuff to be included, and the other books like The Pit and Mechanismo to be there for people who just want to read the epics.... Not sure if there's a big enough market to support both though.

[BPP]

I'd say its up to us to show them there is a market for the COMPLETE casefiles. While lots of the meg has been reprinted there is lots that hasn't - the 48 page Midnights Children from vol 1 (grant / baikie) the gippers big night (grant / simpson) or who's reprint is harder to track down - raptaur (grant / ormston).

Although I think there is alot more bobbins in the Meg (raptaur for one, or if Anderson includes the Meg then we have the joys of Steve Sampson's non-art) its definitely worth including the material. And we are not far off knowing - the current casefile takes the progs up to March 1989 and the Meg launched in October 1990. By 1992 you have Judgment Day with its Meg/Prog dual-story.

As for the 'missing' material - a numerically significant casefile (15? 20?) could be used to reprint the whole shebang. It definitely would be a seller.


Casefile 12 is just lovely... if you haven't got it. Get it today.

[IndigoPrime]

It would be easy to 'catch up' with bonus strip just by bunging it in the back of 13, 14 and 15. The Meg is a different case entirely, given the page count.

However, given that Jon is one of the most reactive editors I know, if people have suggestions regarding suitable line-ups for books or how the Dredd CFs should go, keep saying so here, so he can read what your opinions are.

[Michael Evans]

Considering the imminent release of The Complete Heavy Metal Dredd, it would be fantastic to have a similar thing happen for the Daily Star Dredd.

[Dr Feeley Good]

Anyone know whats in the Flesh book ? is it just books one and two ? or is all the terrible colour stuff in there aswell !

[Leigh S]

Considering the imminent release of The Complete Heavy Metal Dredd, it would be fantastic to have a similar thing happen for the Daily Star Dredd.

The Daily Star Dredds are surely a no-brainer for Rebellion.  

You can do a single near 300 page volume containing the one-off Saturday complete tales that ran from 1981 to 1986 - there are roughly 280 of those - add in some other bits and bobs, like the Tales of Mc1 one pagers that ran in 2000AD (which obviously stories prepped for the Daily Star but used in the prog when the strip went daily).

Then you could collect all the Wagner Grant/Smith/Gibson/Kitson/Dillon/Collins daily stories in 2 more collections.  Then, you still probably 3 more books worth of Millar/Mckenzie/Smith/Pino/Rennie/Diggle/Goddard(?) etc etc ones if you so wished to carry on.

The only down side is they would take a bit of researching - there are 30 or so of the complete tales that never got reprinted, but a day trip to the Stars archive, or the British Library archives (armed with my handy list of which ones are missing) would surely solve that.

[Grant Goggans]

I think they should absolutely include every Dredd story from the Meg.  Especially since that was where Wagner was writing Dredd while the prog, in the 700s and 800s, was being scripted by Ennis, Millar, McKenzie & Tomlinson, etc.   Every few weeks there would be a pretty good Dredd in the prog, but there was nothing in the Meg as awful as Crusade.

Jon, if you're reading this, one thing I would like to ask when compiling the Robo-Hunter phonebook is double-check the order of the page films in Day of the Droids.  The previous edition has two pages in the wrong order (104 & 105).

Also, while all these new books sound lovely, could you please do something about my awful batting average and give us an announcement for either Zenith, The Stainless Steel Rat, Missionary Man, Armitage or The Daily Star Dredds?  Just one of 'em?  Whaddaya say?

[JamesC]

There seems to be lots of support for a Stainless Steel Rat reprint on this board. I've never read the stories myself but would quickly snap up a collected edition - especially if Carlos did a new cover!

[PreacherCain]

They should definitely reprint the Meg stuff in the Case Files.  Fact is, continuity wise, they impact on one another now and again and besides a bunch of the Meg Dredds are really great and worthy of inclusion! It'll probably mean that they'll have to release the Case Files at a slower pace of course.

And yes, they should include stuff like America that's already been released individually.  

[IndigoPrime]

It wouldn't slow the CFs per se—it'd just mean the speed of getting through Dredd itself would slow. Rather than each volume being a year in the Big Meg, it'd be six months (or whatever).

[I, Cosh]

Given how much Meg reprint already exists, it'd be tough to justify dropping the Dredd content into the CF line (such as, for example, the entire first arc of America); that said, the series would definitely be complete then!

It seems to me that the Meg Dredd stories have been woefully under-represented in the reprint stakes. I agree that it'd be a bit rich to reprint America again, but remember that it was originally done as a standalone story, not a Dredd story and ran alongside other Dredd stories in the early Meg so could quite legitimately be omitted.

There are hundreds of Meg Dredds which have never seen the light of day since they were first run and I've always thought Tharg was missing a trick by not bundling them together and shouting "Look at all these genuine Wagner Dredd stories you Squaxx who didn't buy the Meg [which is to say, me] have never read!"

There's also the fact that they're going to have to include some Meg stuff if they get as far as Judgement Day and Wilderlands.

Anderson: The psi files (384 pages)
...
*quick trip to Barney*
...
384 pages gets you:

Four Dark Judges, The Possessed, Hour of the Wolf, Contact, Beyond the Void, Helios, A Total Near Death Experience, Triad, And The Wind Cried, The Prophet, The Screaming Skull and some extras, presumably leaving stuff like The Random Man, Engram, and colour strips like Wonderwall, Crusade, etc., for a subsequent colour volume.

Barney can be your friend, but you have to be careful how you use him: Total Near Death Experience & And the Wind Cried are actually Dredd stories which should be in Case Files 13. By my reckoning, 384 pages gets you every 2000AD Anderson strip prior to Shamballa and every annual story up to 1988. Drop the Milligan text story (?) and include Leviathan's Farewell (still my mum's favourite 2000AD story) and you've got a real powerhouse that'd break a man's foot but keep him well occupied while he's in traction.