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She'd have been a good option to fill the Sláine hole, to some degree. Also: another prominent female character in 2000 AD wouldn't go amiss.

final, final, final extension

Depending on subscriber numbers, presumably.

Bloke on bike was tactically inept. A showboater. They get you killed.

Curious that this book is a fiver cheaper than the McMahon one. I wonder why? Fewer pages? Shifts in materials costs?

My brain will of course now use this to justify buying a copy.

Aha. Brain no workee.

Hoping The Order isn't in one of those single slots, so we can get the entire run.

On Rogue, I forgot to mention that black and white aspect of atrocity. There was a bit of that in the original strip – that notion the Southers were mostly moral and the Norts were a bunch of psychos. But I thought Rogue's own thinking was more nuanced – he mostly fought for 'his' side, but had been burned enough to recognise that everyone was pretty bad. That simplism of having to believe we're the good guys, or what else is there all felt a bit weird. Especially for a more modern incarnation of the character.

It's a nice image. But it would be deeply weird for a limited print to not be art by the artist who the book is about.

I hope it's great and I also kind of hope it's a test run. Half of me wishes Tharg would cross the streams a little more. I mean, I don't want the Prog to become infested with everything Battle, Action, Misty, Smash, etc. But it's not like UK comics don't have a tradition of mergers. And—

OK, I just want more Black Beth. Maybe that would have been a simpler thing to say.

[Dredd]

I mean, I like John McCrea art, so I'm on board. I find the criticism of "Shoulder pad and Eagle way too big" quite a funny one, given Dredd over the years (including the gigantic Ezquerra armour). Rogue looks a bit weird, but the tribute Ezquerra dotted lines made me happy.

But what of the issue itself? Well, it's better than any of the recent Regened ones, that's for sure. And it has a reasonable crack at onboarding new readers. It's a bit weird to say "new readers start here" and fully end one tale, but there you go. The double hit of Proteus Vex was wise, as was the new Dredd and one-off Rogue Trooper. It'll be interesting to see how things go for the next bumper prog in terms of scheduling. More of this mix? Or a few new series alongside sone one-offs?

Anyway, the strips:

Dredd shows the aftermath of the previous run, with Dredd clearly annoyed at Logan, and Logan lacking the strength/authority to push back. Here's hoping Moon doesn't get horribly killed in the next series. Also, I got caught out by that colouring error.

After a Slaytime (Worley + Coleby!) ad, Full Tilt Boogie dials things up a notch. Still very much enjoying this. I hope De Campi is OK, given her recent post on Bluesky about work and asking for good vibes to be sent her way. Then Thistlebone ends in predictably gruesome fashion, albeit not in the specific way I'd have predicted. Not sure what happened to Mr Glassed, although maybe that doesn't matter. So an odd one for me, in that it does stick the landing, but I feel less satisfied than with previous series. Not sure I'll be picking this up in HC.

Indigo Prime surprised me, in how much I enjoyed it. Yes, it's all terribly meta. And you have expect Kek and Lee to make an appearance, the way things are going. But it's weird and fun. Rogue, meanwhile, was... fine? I'm not a massive fan of the character anyway, but when it's done well – Ennis; Cinnabar; the IDW run – I can be drawn right in. This felt like an annual story head beamed in from 1986. Perhaps that's apt for a bumper Prog.

Then Proteus Vex gets a double helping to kick off the new run, which – as I said – was in my opinion a very smart decision. There's enough her to get new readers on board, and to help existing ones refresh their memories. All very good indeed.

Oh, and there's a letters page. Which is nice.

Indigo Prime > Proteus Vex > Full Tilt Boogie > Dredd > Thistlebone > Rogue

I have a long way to go and who knows if I start picking up the original comics which I keep thinking about doing!

I have no idea why I started reading the strip, to be honest. My first exposure to the character was the C64 video game. It was years before I bought a trade. But then I just... carried on buying them. I don't think I'd ever buy the floppies, but there's also something just weird about the strip being coloured. So I'd be quite happy if the upcoming omnis revert it to black and white.

Usagi is top five for me at worst. Possibly number one. The sole bad thing about it is the publisher leaps, which means we haven't had an omni HC since it went to IDW. (It's now back at DH, and Sakai has at least hinted at more chunky HC collections. Although I hope they match the form factor of my existing ones, along with doing another print run of those editions that's not signed/limited, so everyone can own them. Because they're bloody lovely.)

it was just Alan Moore so thought I'd better read it

I do wonder how much of that there is in comics, either from people gravitating towards names because their work is considered important, or because of their star status – and then attempting to convince themselves it's all worthy, rather than just some of it? I've definitely done that myself with Alan Moore (whose work I now consider extremely variable, at least by my own personal tastes) and Grant Morrison (more often 'not great' than great for me – and I prefer the older work to the newer stuff). Universes too: for a time, I had to read anything in the Bellboy universe. But it lost focus and I absolutely HATED where BPRD went. So I've headed almost the other way and am even at the point where I'm wondering whether to sell off my HCs (knowing that I'd never be able to get them back).

Looking at my collection, there's almost nothing that stays the course for the entire run, or for an entire body of work. Ed Brubaker on Image does for me, but then I don't care about his Marvel stuff, which is... fine. Right now, the only name I can think of is Stan Sakai, who's not written anything I've disliked. Which makes me wonder if Usagi Yojimbo will be on this list, and where it will be placed now we know it's ranked.

I guess that confirms Regened is over, then. Well, if nothing else we got Pandora Perfect (which I thought was superb and would love to see more of, as unlikely as that probably is now), Full Tilt Boogie, Dept K, and some other fun strips out of it. I wonder whether Mayflies is dead? It'd be a shame if that just fizzled.

So you're saying it's going to take a lot to... ... shift your thinking on this?