Messages

Why not just go straight to the TPB with out putting it in a comic first?

I suspect, at least in part, because it's monstrously expensive and ties up great wedges of your cashflow for many, many months. Meanwhile, as IP notes, options for reprint are running low and pages still need filling. I'd certainly rather see a chunk of Pandora Perfect than some bottom-of-the-barrel reprint with a tenuous Dredd/2000AD connection.

Serious question, and I know you probably know better than me, but why would it be more expensive to go straight for a TPB, than to print it in the Prog or Meg and then put it in a TPB?

Why not just go straight to the TPB with out putting it in a comic first?

Not sure I'm too keen on it being in the Meg; I've actually been way more inclined to read the re-prints when part of the main Meg than the floppies.

And as others had said, regened content doesn't sit well alongside some of the Meg content. Especially Devlin Waugh and his... you know what...I'm not going to type it.

Portraying Dredd as a grump old man who is slowing down is the writers' choice. They could choose to not focus on that. Which would be my preference. If they really have to make him younger, my preference who be a passing reference to a re-juve treatment, similar to what he got in Carousel, and then just move on and write him as not quite so old.

[Thistlebone]

Thistlebone - great serial , and artwork, didn't 'get' the ending though.

Glad it's not just me. I've read it several times now and I still don't get it.

Anyone care to explain?

Has or Currie drawn Dredd before? There is a lot of praise up thread for his art this week, but for me his depiction of Dredd himself and especially his helmet doesn't quite work. The rest is fine though.

She might not even be dead. The way it is drawn the bullet is grazing the left hand side of her head. I'm assumimg it been drawn as a side on view from the opposite side to be deliberately ambiguous.

[Deadworld.]

I now have literally no clue what's happening in Deadworld.

Sidney's inhabiting his fathers corpse? Hmmm I must have missed that. I have 3 collected volumes and could reread them; not sure how much enthusiasm I can summon up for that.

And oh joy Indigo Prime is back. Let's see how many weeks it will be before I'm totally lost on that too. Up thread was a comment on Tranny Rex's last appearance. I can't remember that, so I'm off to a bad start.

Elsewhere FTB and Dredd continue with average episodes.

As for Thistlebone well I didn't see that coming. Not sure the flashback art needed to be that basic, but the story was truly horrible. Which I guess was the whole point.

I'm all in on the hardbacks for this.

Don't think I would be with much else, but the art, at least on the O'Neill and Talbot books is special.

For me O'Neill is the definitive Nemesis artist, but Talbot draws the definitive Torquemada. The way he gets expressions out of his helmet is just amazing.

[Dredd]

Dredd is great. One of the best in recent times.

The English Astronaut wasn't great.

I like FTB. The art is nice and I'm happy enough with letting the story develop.

Enemy Earth does nothing for me. Glad it's finished.

Thistleboneis great.

For me the classic one offs were in the 100s. For example:

The Mob Blitzers Prog 130
Palais de Bong Prog 136
Death of a Judge Prog 137
Night of the Blood Beast Prog 138
The Day that Xmas Came a Little Early to Des O'Connor Block Prog 144
Uncle Ump's Umpty Candy Prog 145
New Year is Cancelled Prog 146
Judge Minty Prog 147
Alien Seeds Prog 148
The Aggro Dome Prog 183
Mega way Madness Prog 189
The Nightmare Gun Prog 190


And that's not counting Block War in Prog 182 as it is really an epilogue to the Judge Child.

Plus there were load of great 2,3 and 4 parters then.
Not to mention my favourite epic, the Judge Child.

It's hard to pick a top 3 from that lot, but the most memorable for me are Des O'Connor Block and New Year is Cancelled.

Yeah sure I get that about another format. I'm also ok with that, it's the extra pages.

I seem recall talk of a  Second O'Neill volume with more Nemesis in it.

honestly I'm not thrilled about extra pages in the smaller ones. That feels a bit crap for people who splashed out on the big-o-edition.

(I'm in full-on FOMO mode here with the first Kev book and the second McMahon one. Close to buying. But... ARGH.)

Yeah totally. I've got them all apart from the Steve Dillon one. I thought the whole point was they were mean to be special. Which they are. But it definitely rankles a bit to see another version with additional pages. But I'm not going to buy the soft cover version.

Has anyone else noticed that the paper quality has gotten worse over the last few months. Have I missed any discussion about it elsewhere?
It seems the paper is super duper wafer thin and flimsy. Even the cover is floppy and thin, poor quality.

What's up with that?

Maybe it's just me?

Yes I had noticed that and I don't even get physical Progs any more! Like you I thought there would have been some debate about it.

It seems to have a weird waxy quality and the colours seems very muted. It almost makes me not missing getting the physical Progs, having swapped to a digital subscription a year ago.

With regard to the other question, the last newspaper print Prog number is completely ingrained in my memory, with 519 having the last episodes of Bad Company and Slaine the King, and 520 being the 10th anniversary Prog with the memory space station cake wrap around cover.

Why he can't it just be someone called Kenneth Niemand?

[Dredd]

So this should be a better Prog, now Devil's Railroad has ended (hopefully never to return).

But we've also lost Feral and Foe, so may be not.

This was a weaker episode of Dreddfor me; possibly because I can't remember anything about Major Domo.

The English Astronaut and FTB look great. With the former I'm not sure about the story so far, with the latter the recap just highlighted how much I'd forgotten about it. I'd like to do a re-read of the first series, but my back Progs aren't to hand.

I can't wait for Enemy Earth to wrap up. And not because I'm intrigued to find out what happens.

The best thing in the Prog is Thistlebone which really seems to getting to it. Which for what is mainly a talkie strip, is saying something.