Messages

It's the internet, it's supposed to be confrontational. And I'm pretty sure that Shakira's Law was a pun, not a slip.

Turning back to the subject: I think this post is a huge overreaction, and it fails to keep in mind how truly awful the comic was for part of the '90s. It's just totally wrong to compare them; the '90s were truly dreadful, whereas this is just a brief period (eight weeks into the current stories) where some people aren't enjoying the current line-up very much. This has always happened from time to time, and always will: the nature of the prog is that stories end and new ones start, and it's just impossible for the quality to always be consistent and unrealistic to expect it to be. It'll pick up again in a few weeks, something that seemed very far away and very uncertain 25 years ago.

I agree with you about Bad Company, and about Brass Sun. I am enjoying Pat's stories, although your point of view about them is valid and I get it. I have no problems with the Dredd episodes so far this year, and I can't see anything wrong with Dredd leaving the city now and then. If that's not your cup of tea then don't worry, he'll be home again soon. It's hardly evidence of the prog's decline.

And you don't have to cast your mind back very far to think of some outstanding recent stories, like Hope for the Future for instance. It's not as if we've been fed rubbish for the last five years.

I think the prog is in safe hands. But if you disagree, then remember that there's no "duty" to buy it. If you don't like it you can always stop, and check back later now and then to see how it's doing.

I know Rebellion's a business, but that doesn't mean they've done this for cynical reasons. It could just as easily be because they believe in it.

Yes, it's not that sexism and Nazism are morally equivalent, it's only an analogy.

Ultimately this is why the world is so divided right now because people can't debate anymore with out becoming hostile and rude.

That's one reason; another one is bigotry. Bigotry is divisive. It's also hostile and rude.

Emotion doesn't have to be brought in to everything, that's a choice. Agree to disagree, where's the harm in that?

Bigotry tends to provoke an emotional response, and for good reason. As for agreeing to disagree, it all depends on what you disagree about. I'd agree to disagree about our favourite colour. But if it's about whether women should be encouraged / permitted to work in comics, then agreeing to disagree with a misogynist is indeed harmful, because it's a shameful surrender in the face of something that ought to be stood up to.

I liked how Dredd ended. It's good to see Dredd defeat someone by using his wits instead of just shooting them once in a while, and it had a big monster in it.

The next volume will probably be out in the year 2050 at this rate.

That looks good. Surprised to see it's weekly.

Joesphine Dredd

It's been done already: Michael Carroll's Cadet Paris is a clone of Dredd but with no Y chromosome.

We've had female creators in other recent specials and they did a fine job. I'm not worried.

I have fond memories of the Cal Legacy (though did it ever go anywhere?)

The Cal Legacy was an epilogue to the Judge Edgar storyline that had been going on for the last five years or so, rather than a prologue to something. But it's also the story in which Hershey became chief judge and Buell became head of SJS. And continuity stuff aside, its a good story in it's own right, especially the scene with Buell, Garcia and Muncie, which is a real laugh-out-loud moment.

It did however set Edgar up in the Cursed Earth for the excellent stories Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man and The Edgar Case.

Blood Cadets introduced Judge Rico. CF31 also brings back Trapper Hag and Walter the Wobot, and John Wagner appears in a story!

Not sure if Dead Ringer will be in 31 or 32, but that's a cracking story.

You only have to compare this with what Pat says about creators' rights in his autobiography to realise how outrageous this is.

4, for reasons given above.

Rogue Judge, I think you've missed a volume. Those questions were answered in Dogs of War.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strontium-Dog-Death-Johnny-Alpha/dp/1781083363/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DP3Y8QWY8YHPYNMHYSSG

The nuke didn't kill Death, but it did send him to Hell, where he was trapped until the Sisters of Death released him.

We were never shown exactly how PJ escaped from Death, it was left to our imagination. But we've seen him trap the other three Dark Judges in a bottle, so we know he's capable of out-witting them.

The voice in PJ's head was never explained. It might have been something to do with Death, or he may have just got schizophrenia or a split personality or something. The ambiguity led to a huge debate at the time about whether PJ was really dead, largely because the black speech bubbles had been used before in The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha when he was possessed by a demon. This led many people (including me at the time) to think that PJ was also possessed and so might have survived somehow. But when I re-read the story a year later I concluded that this theory was wrong, PJ was just mentally ill, and he really is definitely dead.

Genius!