Messages

For what it's worth, I was a big reader of 'normal' Archie comics in my youth (age roughly 10-13) - for some reason, they were readily available in India, where my best friend used to go (or his uncles maybe) to bring and share massive bundles of them. They're kind of like if Whizzer and Chips had a rom-com story that was less stalker-ish than 'Crazy for Daisy'. At the time I couldn't quite undersatand why Archie was so into VCeronica when Betty was right there, but I get it a bit more now. The TV show Riverdale is much kinder to Veronica than the comics ever were!

Oh its cool that a 'regular' Archie reader has given this the thumbs up, especially one as well read as Alex.

In general I do not like Archie comics but this was a well-worth read

And one as well read as Broodblik with the alternative take showing this one really is for everyone!

[Rome]

I'm 19 years late to the party but I just finished Rome. Blimey, it's a bit good innit?

Yes. Yes it is.

13th

[Part 4]

Part 4

Where to find it

You might be as well to pick these up digitally, that's how I still have them.

You can get a trade of the first arc, containing the first five issues, but the second arc, which was meant to run to issue 12 hasn't been collected yet as it was never completed.

I do keep an eye out for these in the aftermarket, but while the buzz has died down somewhat they are still a little pricey. Not prohibitively though, but enough to keep me hanging on to see if I can get them at a better price.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Archie Comics have a YouTube channel and they have trailers and previews of each issue which give you a fun sense of the series.

Den of Geek has a list of 13 scariest moments from the series. It's pretty spoilerific , but if you can handle that does give a very good flavour for the series.

Vulture has an interesting article explaining how the deals in the comic coming out sounded the death knells of for the series.

There was a lot of fuss and attention surrounding the first couple of issues, the buzz started to die away with the delays and there is little reflection on the series as a whole. Reviews in all the normal places and Multiversity Comics has a nice reflection from 2020 about the first 5 issues for example.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[Part 3]

Part 3


Copyright - Archie Comics

Oh and speaking of great tropes done to perfection, and things being made close and personal we also get one of the singularly best tear jerking dog as loyal friend and brave companion pieces in any comic I have ever read. If you read my entry for Y the Last Man (no.105) you know how much of a sucker I am for the powerful emotions that can be created by people's relationships with their pets. In Afterlife there are a couple of pieces that really play with that. One in particular, spoiled above, does that as well as I've known it be done in any story in any medium. How a comic about characters I have no history with, told a tale of a dog I'd just been introduced to, reduced me nearly to tears, is quite astonishing.

As that image above shows though in a large part it's in the art. The art in this comic is breathtaking, brilliant. It's - and here's that word again - perfect for a horror comic. Francesco Francavilla's art on the series is such a massive part as to why I love these comics. His dark deep shadows cast so creepily across almost everything he draws, starkly contrasted with reds and deep greys, blues and purples creates such a depth of atmosphere. He makes the horror aspects leap off the page at you, he makes tense, creepy moments catch your breath and grip you. In doing that when he changes his palette and depth of shadow to show the lighter moment or more typically flashbacks they really pop, needing no further clues to the fact you are looking back or the tone of the scene you are joining.

Almost all of what is so great about his art is captured in the single page above. He captures the drama and emotion of a scene with real craft. Archie shifts from sadness to horror and revulsion then finally to dreadful acceptance. The violence is tight, confusing - you know what's happening the storytelling isn't a problem, rather the pace and visceral energy of the action is hard to keep up with, it's a blur of angry motion and terrible violence. Finally the way he superbly captures the affection and love in Vegas (the dogs) eyes as he turns to his 'master' in the hope he will flee is so heartbreaking in those deep loving eyes. A moment of almost calm bonding between the two, a final goodbye with no remorse. Then panicked retreat as Archie releases he has no choice but to go.

The storytelling is sublime. The ability to capture such scope in individual moments yet have them run together in a way that makes perfect sense in a single, fluid, exciting, heart wrenching page is exemplary. The use of colour to at first emphasise the savagery, then quickly switch to  focus on the more tender, if desperate character moment is superb. In that single page you get a real sense of how amazing the art on Afterlife with Archie is and how powerful and effective the story the art realises is.


Copyright - Archie Comics

Afterlife with Archie is an absolute triumph. It's simply put one of the very best horror comics I've read, regardless of its unexpected combination of story types. The characters it uses are made real and therefore the horror they face all the more terrifying. It's just such a shame that we only got 10 issues. Just as the world and story was opening up, new threats, challenges and internal conflicts being prepared the series was cruelly snatched away. It really felt like the story had so many places to go and was ready to go there. Even if open-ended, unfinished tales aren't your thing these are worth checking out for the sheer brilliant craft on display and the way it usurps your expectations entirely.

Hey who knows, is anything really dead and in the ground. This one might rise up yet.

[Part 2]

Part 2


Copyright - Archie Comics

The setting is also perfect for setting up horror tropes as well. We start the story at a halloween ball at Riverdale's high school. That feels just so fantastically in keeping with so many teen horrors. And introduces both characters and the threat so perfectly.

The character's in Riverdale fulfil the tropes of characters across those teen horror genre delightfully as well. From the adventurous brave heroes ripe for casting themselves into thrilling danger. To the adults more resistant to accepting the status quo has tumbled down and the things they had built their successful lives upon no longer matter. The relationships embedded in these characters create the necessary tensions and conflicts to mean the biggest threat to survival more often than not isn't the shambling zombie herd itself. Rather it's the way personal reactions to that and the existing interpersonal relationships will drive people to poor decisions that elevate the danger far beyond stumbling brain-eaters you could likely smack with a spade and run away from.

Afterlife dives into these tropes but does so with characters you are really made to care about and engage with. Where they have villainous motivations they aren't paperthin they are based on reflections on why anyone might see things the way they do and act in that way. The story is structured in a very smart way. The first opens up the dilemma, throwing our cast into a contained environment so we can spend time with them seeing how they all inter-relate.

The second arc opens things up in two ways, again fairly typical of the horror genre but done here to perfection. Firstly it removes folks from that contained 'safehouse' and pushes them into other situations. Secondly it starts to add focus on specific characters in specific issues to get a closer sense of why particular characters are behaving the way they do. To give you a closer, more personal view of the heroes and villains of the piece you are made to care about. Or issues introduce and focus on new characters to expand the view we have of the world we are following and one assumes appeals to fines of the wider world Archie lives in. It does this while never losing sight of the rest of the ensemble cast or moving the general plot forward. 

It might do this in a way that toys with cliche but never feels boring and gives you enough new insight and variations on a theme that it always avoids feeling cliche, while always feeling (un)comfortably familiar. You might know what you are getting, you might well have seen it before, but damn it's never been done this well.


Copyright - Archie Comics

Another thing the Riverdale setting adds, which is used to perfection is Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is used as a tool to provide a frankly fantastic reason why a zombie invasion has hit. Often in Zombie movies or zombie tales in every medium there are two ways you can handle why the zombies are there. The most successful is just to ignore it, throw your viewer / reader in at the deep end. Accept the fact the person enjoying your story isn't going to worry too much about the how and why but rather just roll with it and enjoy the fun. Maybe you throw in a hint, reports of comets or other stuff such. Just a little something if folks want a little reason to hang onto.

The other way is to try to explain things. To give some 'plausible' scientific or mythical reason as to why the dead have risen from their grave and seek 'Brrrrraaaiiinnnnsss'. These rarely, if ever, work. In Afterlife Sabrina is used to explain why we have a zombie apocalypse in a way that is amazingly satisfying. Again I have no reference to whether Sabrina's actions are in character, my only knowledge of the character is being vaguely aware that she had a Saturday morning telly show in the 90s that seemed cute but I never really watched. Regardless of my ignorance in these comics her actions seem real and relatable. An innocent act with good motivation, gone astray and entirely out of control. This works perfectly with both my shallow understanding of the character outside the series and how she is presented in the series.

Her actions are explored more as the series goes on but I have to say it's such a smart way to use an in situ character to explain the astonishing turn of events in a way that I literally don't think has been done as well as this before. I wonder how many folks were in the writers room who worked to come up with the bumbled guff they came up with in Season 1 of the Walking Dead before they realised trying to explain why the Walking Dead were there before they realised that wasn't what folks needed to enjoy the show. Here we might not need it, but we get in such a satisfying way that it only enhances the enjoyment and makes things feel even more thrilling.

[Part 1]

Part 1



Number 89 - Afterlife with Archie

Keywords: Horror, Riverdale, Zombies, defies expectations

Creators:
Writer - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art - Francesco Francavilla
Colours - Francesco Francavilla

Publisher: Archie Comics

No. issues: 10
Date of Publication: 2013 -2016

Last read: 2016

As the 2000s moved into the early 2010s there were just too damned many zombies across all genre media. Walking Dead was making it big as a comic as sales began to soar, it had transitioned to tv and zombies were everywhere. Its curious then that


Copyright - Archie Comics

was the standout zombie story from this time across all media, and yes that includes Charlie Brooker's superb 2008 zombie epic Dead Set. I mean Archie Comics, those are the daft kids comics from the US about school kids in the fictional town of Riverdale. One of whom, Archie of the title, is trapped in an inexplicable love triangle with the school's two teen beauties, Betty and Veronica. Comics that made no impression on the UK market despite years of success in the US as they were just so American. How on earth did these comics, about as safe and saccharine and idiosyncratically American, manage to produce one of the best horror comics I've ever read?

The answer is of course by taking those secure elements of Archie's world and simply using them as a launch point to produce genuinely intense, scary and emotional great comics. To not be bound by people's expectation of what Archie Comics are and just make great comics. It's really quite an astonishing trick to pull off. Add to that pitch perfect art from Francesco Francavilla, making his second appearance on the list and you have a formula for astonishingly good comics.

Archie Comics' bravery to stick with both writer Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francavilla even when their star rose and other, bigger jobs at bigger companies came calling for their services, is this series' greatest blessing and biggest curse. Their patience meant it took over 3 years to get 10 issues to lumber out and having lost momentum from its early rise to fan adoration and critical acclaim the series floundered. After this the two creators seem to have been just too busy and the series was left to quietly drift into an obscure hiatus driven ending, well before the story was done. Sticking with these two brilliant creators, even as things clearly seemed to be returning the series to its grave also meant that what we have is the near perfect zombie horror comic. The series remains undiluted by a commercial desire to keep riding the wave these comics caught regardless of the impact on quality. So even if the second arc didn't finish, what we have is superb. And who knows, maybe one day.


Copyright - Archie Comics

What Afterlife with Archie does so well is play with the best tropes of zombie survival stories almost ignoring the juxtaposition the setting and its characters offer. It plays things with a straight bat, and avoids the temptation to give knowing nods and winks to the reader about how setting zombies loose in the safe world of Archie is a bit of crazy fun. There's been previous tales in Riverdale - the town in which Archie Comics are set - that seem to play with the fun of things far more. The Punisher has visited, as has one of the Predators and from the outside looking in these seem far more playful than Afterlife. They seem to be gleeful in how absurd the ideas of these safe, homespun inhabitants of Riverdale meeting these extreme characters is. Afterlife has none of that.

It takes the characters and setting seriously and with what seems like genuine affection, but makes the tone less Archie and more zombie horror. The horror element is used well, rather than using the more spoofy, tongue in cheek zombie takes on other tales around this time. It places those characters in their setting, but flips that to be imagined in a genuine horror story rather than go the other way.

This means that even a reader like myself, with no relationship with Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica et al are introduced as real characters who I'm made to invest in and care for. It takes the ideas and scenarios from the 'normal' comics and treats them seriously as a launch point to create a world in a very 'real', 'serious' gut wrenching horror story. I say this as an outsider to this world before reading these comics and I felt entirely at home there, with only a very surface understanding of it. Well I say at home as it is played as a true horror story this one quickly does away with the homespun comforts of small town America. I can only imagine how effective this must have been if you were a long term fan of Archie and co. I got a sense that such fans didn't push back with this more 'realistic' take on the world, but embraced it as they knew they were getting an utterly enthralling new take on their favourites. That's certainly the impression I have and oh that all comic fandom was so open minded!

Have to admit to not having heard of Mark Russell before (or if I did my terrible memory quickly forgot him) but I was big fan of Steve Pugh's art on Animal Man, and your write up in general makes it sound like it'll be right up my street, so I plan to get it sooner rather than later.

Mark Russell really is a brilliant writer. He did some Dredd for IDW (in a mini) which isn't his best by far, which is surprising as it feels like it would be right up his alley. He'll be on this list a few more times yet.

[Comics Import Amsterdam - or CIA Comics]

Knew we had a thread for this type of thing. So here I am on my holidays in the Netherlands and managed to blag a visit to a comic shop while we were in Amsterdam - I mean I want for 2 but that was over optimistic and to be fair we were in Amsterdam so its not like there is a gazillion other super fun things to do.

So anyway if you are ever in the city check out Comics Import Amsterdam - or CIA Comics for short. Its just by The Anne Frank Museum... which it could be suggested is a more significent thing to visit but I've been there before, so... ANYWAY. CIA comics I popped in and spent a glorious 45 minutes in the most incredible comic shop I think I've ever been to. The place is a mess, but I just spent the time chatting to the wonderful owner Charles who is simply lovely and a delight to talk to. The fella has over 2 MILLION (!!!!) comics in his shop (with a door with loads of sketches on, I recognised the one by Will Simpson which was my opening conversation piece and that seems to get him really talking). He has another million in his own personal collection.

He's a font of knowledge and seems to know everyone and everything. We chatted for the whole 45 minutes I was in there and frankly I'd have spent the day there chatting quite happily.

Now to be fair its next to impossible to look through most of the stuff unless you have like 2 days BUT even the stuff I was glancing at as we chatted unearthed some AMAZING deals. I got a hardcover collection of Gilbert Hernandez - which is really hard to get these days for 20 Euros - cos it had a bit of damage on it! I checked he was sure and he said it was fine. So I picked up a couple of other bits cos I felt I should he was giving me such a good deal on the book and he gave me a massive discount on those as well. At which point I stopped looking as I felt guilty.

Such a great shop, if you are in Amsterdam really check it out. If you like Marvel and DC take plenty of money as you will find some AMAZING stuff. He did tell me if I brought the kids next time he'd take them in trade... I'm going to discuss it with missus YNWA... I mean we have two so that makes one spare right... right...

...oh and two gorgeous dogs roam the comics and and so lovely and like a fuss. They sit on the comic boxes as you flick through and lick your face if you let them. Charles offers to make them stop but I love dogs so I just played with them!

[PART 3]

PART 3

Where to find it

Both mini-series are available in two neat trade collections. Though strangely It looks as if only the first is available as a collection digitally. 'Cult of Dogs' is available as single editions though.

As ever the aftermarket will also help you out. I imagine with a bit of patience you'll be able to pick these up for bobbins. It amazes and frustrates me that a writer of the quality of Mark Russell doesn't seem to reach massive audiences, nor have Netflix clamouring after him rather than Mark Millar. So while you might have a wait to find them, I'm sure when you do there's won't be a clamour driving up prices.

Learn more

No Obligatory Wikipedia page for this one. And to be honest not a load of information out there.

There are a few video interviews with Mark Russell, that I've not had time to watch so you'll have to cross your fingers and plunge in! Mind Mark Russell is always good value and fascinating to listen to so you should be fine.

FanBoy Nation has one.

As does Comic Watchers

Apart from that you'll have to rely on place like Good Reads for folks reflections. Or a Google search will get you some okay reviews.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[PART 2]

PART 2


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

It's a quality that is so perfect for Mark Russell's satire. Mark Russell makes worlds that on the surface feel perfectly nice, often filled with people who will face you with a smile, as they plan to stab you in the back. The characters that Russell creates can utterly lack self awareness, or awareness of the motives of those that surround them. Things hide unnervingly under the surface in Russell's stories. These aren't the worlds of dark shadows with grim and gritty rain soaked streets, in Russell's worlds the dark underbelly hides in plain sight, often bathed in sunshine, under apparently cloudless skies.

It's this quality that Steve Pugh so perfectly brings out in his art. Everything feels normal and appealingly rendered, but it has a slight twist, an ugly turn to hint at what lies beneath. In his aspect of his art Pugh is such a nature fit, the perfect partner for Russell's work and in part it is this that elevates Billionaire Island above many of Russell's other works.

Now it's fair to say that I love pretty much all of the Mark Russell comics I've read and I've read pretty much all of them, only Red Sonia was enough to put me off picking up one of his comics. So while I'm discussing Billionaire Island specifically here and finding reasons to pull this story to the near the top of the Mark Russell pile (but there are more to come) in some ways it acts as a proxy for all of the wonderful comics he produces. It's not that I think I'd specifically add another comic to this list ahead of Billionaire Island on a different day - though I can't rule that out entirely. Rather that these comics so perfectly encapsulate what he does at his best and so much of what I love here can be said for other series he writes that haven't made this list... in short just read all Mark Russell's comics!


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

What Billionaire Island exemplifies in the context of Mark Russell always producing sharp, funny, biting satire is our role in society's folly. While its targets are common with so many Russell stories, the rich and entitled. Those in power who are so detached from the greater society that feeds their greed that they are often almost sociopathic ... well actually they are often literally sociopathic. What Billionaire Island does so well is remind us of our role, or culpability in allowing those in power to rule over our own downfall.

He bravely flags that the rich and powerful are the easy targets, the soft hits. We are all responsible for allowing that to be happen. The common person he so rightly wants to see supported and defended has a role to play in their fate. We can sit passively and by doing so allow those that desire it to have the control and power, they crave. The power we seem to willingly give them and only we can really grant them. He's like Wagner in that respect. He will mock the Judges, he'll pock fun at the crazy ideas that are passed as entertainment in Mega City One, but he'll never let us forget that it's the majority that sit mollified in front of the screen allowing the sad craziness to pass as entertainment.

Mark's Russell satire picks its targets so well. It exposes and attacks with rampant furor those that are directly responsible but he reminds us the reader that is easy to look up at the 'enemy' its easy to point fingers and shake our heads in contempt at those who lead the world into dismal times. He also never lets us forget to look to our side as well as up. To look in the mirror, to question if those that led us, lead us to things we dislike, or even despise, why do we let them lead. What are we doing to change things or are we passive victims allowing ourselves to wallow in our righteous anger, self satisfied that we know who is doing us wrong, yet often lacking the self awareness, or courage to see our role, all our roles, in allowing it to happen.

Mark Russell's comics are brave, not in attacking the rich and powerful, they don't care about a few satirists pocking fun at them and their abuse of power and privilege. No Mark Russell is brave as he is not afraid to remind his readers of our responsibilities... while making us laugh with glee, he sinks his teeth into our subconscious and quietly whispers

"Be better."

He adds that ugly twist on the lips of our own smiling faces, he plants the dark sad awareness behind our glee filled eyes.

That is why I admire this comic so much. I admire it while I have a wonderful time reading it, while I laugh and chuckle. While I grin at brilliantly realised characters, enjoy the wonderfully reflective worlds he creates and I recognise and am able to critique our society that he nudges just enough to the right to make me feel safe. He also makes me realise that the glimpse of hope I catch in his chilling dark humour rests with me and the changes I can make, that he makes me think about.

Mind I'll still link to Amazon below won't I damn it!


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

Billionaire Island brilliantly encapsulates the very best qualities in Mark Russell's work and Steve Pugh realises it with supreme skill. It's almost the perfect Mark Russell comic... well except for the couple that are still to come!

[PART 1]

Still travelling, still having problems posting my entries in one go... let's see what happens this time...

PART 1



Number 90 - Billionaire Island

Keywords: Mark Russell, satire, greed, darkly humourous

Creators:
Writer - Mark Russell
Art - Steve Pugh
Colours - Chris Chuckry

Publisher: Cartoon Books

No. issues: 12 to date
Date of Publication: 2020 - 2023

Last read: 2023

We return to the satirical world of Mark Russell with arguably the most Mark Russell of Mark Russell comics as in


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

he teams up (again) with Steve Pugh to target his ire at the mega-rich. More significantly our society that hangs onto their coat tails not only affording them the ability to despoil our world and culture, but admires them for it and looks to them for guidance and even salvation. Billionaire Island feels to me like the quintessential Mark Russell comic for a number of reasons. Its targets, its wit, its grim depressing world view saved by a slice of hope, but not least of all Steve Pugh's pitch perfect art. I'm going to reflect on that art in a second and why it's so central to this particular Mark Russell story finding a place where others, all very good, haven't.

First though let's cover some basics. The series has seen two 6 issue minis. The first sets up a world in the near future where environmental collapse has hit the vast majority of the world hard and society hangs on by its finger nails. I say the vast majority as the super-rich continue to look after themselves and have retreated to a luxury island away from global bedlam and continue to live out their luxury lives. Even more so. As the rest of the world hangs on, unfettered by needs and indeed laws of others the rich can do what they want. Just as long as their bank balance always has at least 10 digits. If it drops below that you are cast out to survive amongst the rest of the 'poor'.


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

As might be imagined, people without wealth look on in desperate envy and many try to slip onto the island. Even living on the scraps from the billionaires can be a living... though, as we learn, not always good for your mental health. Their desires unchecked the rich do what the privileged will and that in itself would be satire enough. The isolated self importance and self interest of the rich has almost predictable consequences as the series develops. The series digs deeper however asking important questions about how the rich get rich and the whole of society's permissive, submissive acceptance of this.

The second series picks up a couple of years after the end of the first. Society has fallen into even deeper despair. Billionaire Island ... well isn't what it was... I'll not give away too much and the world will look to anyone for hope and inspiration. As the US President falls victim to the state of the world their indulgence of the rich has led to, the world needs to turn elsewhere for leadership. Where better than the owner of Billionaire Island, who inherited the island at the end of the first series.

The only trouble is that it just happens to be a dog...

...and he's gone missing.

So various groups set out to find Business Dog - not the one from Squid Bits sorry Eamonn, who'd of thought a list of top '100' comics would have two characters called Business Dog in it!?! Anyway Competing groups vie for Business Dog and other interested parties seek to further their ends as the world collapses around them. The second series dares to push the ideas of the first even further and is arguably even better. Both are superb stories in their own right as well.


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

So back to our opening question, why does this story stand out so much, when compared to so many fantastic Mark Russell satires? As there will be plenty of time to discuss Mark Russell as we go through the list and only one more chance to discuss Pugh, let's start by focusing on why his art is so perfect for Mark Russell's work and how he elevates this series.

Steve Pugh is probably best known in these parts for his art on Strontium Dog 'Monsters', though he has done some other bits and pieces in the realm of Tharg. He's worked largely in the US market though, I know him particularly for a run he did on Animal Man with Jamie Delano. His art is sublime, smooth, meticulous, bold with fantastically twisted page design that never loses sight of the need for clarity of storytelling. His style is utterly distinct and carries a fragile confidence that's difficult to pin down. It feels complex and comfortable at the same time.

There's a specific aspect to the way he renders characters though that I want to focus on as to why his art works so well with Mark Russell and it touches on the contradiction in his art I've hinted at above. Steve Pugh produces beautiful work, it sits easy on the eye, and yet there is a slight unease, or discomfort hidden, nagging away. Steve Pugh has a beautiful, smooth line, yet his characters carry a twisted edge that hides a deliberate, exposed, ugly undertone in the beauty. His character acting feels almost perfectly natural and well realised, yet... yet... somehow it also feels slightly forced and dishonest. There's a dark motive on the lips of so many smiles, ugly intent hidden behind sparkling eyes.

It gives his art a distinct and deliberate queasy quality that is hard to pin down, difficult to quantify but absolutely there and impossible to ignore.

Kurt Vonnegut my favourite author. I really do a re-read, its been too long.

[Why I hate Saturn]

On a tangent. While on me holidays I've just read 'Why I hate Saturn' and it BRILLIANT. Might well be another addition to the already bulging list. I'm going to have to get a better collection - by 30th anniverary collection with Cowboy Wally doesn't get close to doing it justice. Any recommendations as to the definative version?

I've still got my old Piranha Press edition and I don't think any of the reprints have surpassed it. I know Baker's released a deluxe edition ("with rarities", which I think is the script for the TV pilot that was never made), but I think that edition's page size is smaller

Cool - I have a compliation of the 'deluxe' edition with Cowboy Wally Show and while I Hate Saturn isn't pretty good, the smaller size and some typos don't do it justice and Cowboy Wally is pretty poorly printed. I loved I Hate Saturn so will try to get that in the original Piranha Press editon (wonder what they go for). If I stumble across a better Cowboy Wally all good, but not as fussed by that one.

Talking of the Phoenix, mini-Solo greatly enjoyed their April Fools issue.

The Spoons issue last year was a masterstroke. Mini-IP was young enough that it did actually catch her out. She was ready for this year's gag, but appreciated their dedication to all things egg. I bloody love that comic. During the rare occasions I get to see it. (Mini-IP sometimes takes pity on me and suggests I read Bunny vs Monkey or something. But I haven't read No Country in weeks now.)

Yep continues to be a delight. No Country is very much on formand continues to be brilliant. I thought the egg gag was a little too close to Spoons Monthly BUT given that was pure fried comedy good I can forgive them!

The boy is getting to an age where he doesn't read it with quite the same gusto as before. The Girl long since stopped. But when the time comes I'll be carrying on the subscription cos I love it too!

[Dredd]

Late prog review as I read this a couple of days ago. Key things that stood out to me are:

Dredd - its just so okay. Its fine but at the moment just isn't doing anything that we've not seen a hundred time before.

I loved Full Tilt Boogie week to week, but now its ended I kinda think, oh is that all. It'll be interesting how it feels on re-read to see if it holds together. Looking forward to this one coming back.

Fun to have Aquila back - as I recall this will be a last horrah?

Indigo Prime and Proteus Vex remain wonderful AND we get Brink back - result.

Good Prog.