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Born Bad has shipped! As has the tiny little extra I bought alongside it. (Kev's big book o' joy.) I imagine that will beat the Hachette replacement volumes. And I hope FPI's packaging is typically bulletproof, as usual, so that doesn't arrive empty!

Gideon is an interesting one. I did read a – cough – 'version' of it on my iPad at some point*, and I'd wondered if my desperation to get it in the UC was misplaced. So I'm stoked to find so many are enjoying it and am looking forward to getting a copy myself. I imagine I was just in a grump at the time.

* I mean, I own the original Progs and a reprint of the story already, and have ordered a third volume, so I'm not going to feel too guilty about that...

Gah. I mean, it'd be rude not to at that price. Shame they don't have the McMahon one on for a bit of an offer as well. (I got the previous one 50% off at FP in London!)

Indeed. Just come out and say something if you've got something to say.

As I've noted elsewhere, if Niemand is another script droid, then fair play, because his work doesn't read like anyone else's. And if he isn't, fair play for the same reason. And in both cases also, because his work is some of my favourite Dredd – one of the few that sit in that top tier and 'get' the character.

Yeah. It's gone up some. Still, FP's packaging is typically excellent and so at least your book will be in good nick when it arrives.

Indeed. I just grabbed one. Fingers crossed!

(I may have accidentally also ordered the Kev Apex Edition as well, which was on sale. Oops.)

Hey, I look at my missing books in another light: how frustrated would I have been had I managed to snag the last copy of Durham Red and that not rocked up?

I'm not familiar with Horrid Henry. Mini-IP does have some pre-refresh Dennis books that are fairly horrible though. I much prefer the current take on him and Walter, where Dennis is streetwise and Walter is a fun-killing wannabe authoritarian, rather than Dennis kicking the shit out of anyone who is perceived to be 'girly' and effeminate. The dynamic now feels much smarter and has radically reduced 'othering'. (The comic as a whole has also benefited from getting over its 'girls – URGH' framing.)

I just got a reply that they'll resend them. Hopefully someone might use some tape this time, so £44 of books don't fall out of the package in transit. (Still, that beats when I bought a whole bunch of books one time – 20 or so. They were sent in two huge boxes with no padding at all. About a third of them were so badly damaged that I demanded replacements. Hachette did send them, to its credit. But it always annoys me when 20p of packaging and two minutes of time could have stopped the need to send £60+ of replacement stock.)

Best packaging effort yet from Hachette. I order four books. What's delivered: a card envelope minus the books.

Isn't his argument that comics are now too middle class and that the industry has given up, and that he has the tools and knowledge to unlock comics for a new generation of working-class kids, or something like that?

I mean, he's not wrong in that comics are no longer a mass-market concern. And their circulations have dropped to the point they are out of reach of many families. But then a £10 Spacewarp is hardly fighting against that particular problem. Which leaves, I dunno, attitude? But if people have been reading The Phoenix and even the modern Beano and arguing that it's far too 'safe', I'm not sure they've been paying attention.

Half the time, old men just appear to be rallying against the increased inclusion (and the drop in bullying) in modern comics, and ignoring all the other changes that chime with the current generation. (I even see people arguing that modern cartoons aren't allowed to be rude and anarchic. And my response is: have you read Looshkin?)

If nothing else, interesting to see the gulf in a (weekly) comic ten-year-olds are excited about reading (to the degree there's even an annual convention now, along with regular video drawalong sessions with the likes of Jess Bradley and Jamie Smart) and (a very irregular) one that's ostensibly aimed at the same age bracket, but really feels like it's aimed at people who were ten somewhere between 1976 and 1983.

I'm sure Spacewarp has its fans, and I'm all for more comics. But perhaps it's not a great idea to bang on about it being some kind of panacea to the country's shortfall in children's comics, given that it failed to hit an affordable price point and disappeared for four years. (I've no idea whether the content struck a chord with kids. I've no way of knowing that for sure.)

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.)

Be fair, Gordon: it's perfectly standard between issues of a comic to wait a mere *checks notes* four... years...

Yeah. My 9yo gets antsy when her Phoenix is a day late.

That's the thing with Dredd: everyone likes different stuff. I quite often see people asking for the best starting point, and it's hard to reply. I mean, what are their expectations? There's a world of difference between classic-era Dredd and The Pit, and then again compared to what we have now.

Also, Dredd often works best in the smaller moments rather than the epics. And many of the epics only hit home when you've some context behind them. So I don't think America or Origins are goods start points. Case Files 5 isn't too bad, because at least you do have a bunch of strips before you get to the epic. But I'd almost be tempted to point people at 6 or 7 first, if they fancy some old-school Dredd.

I wonder what would be a good intro to more modern Dredd. 35? (Block Court; Sin City) 40? (Total War kicking things off might be a bit much, mind!) 41? (Some nice strips, including Mandroid.) 44?

From what I can tell, folks from the US in particular have a very hard time getting into 2000 AD. It's black and white. The storytelling is staccato and dense. And the early Dredd doesn't really fit  expectations. It doesn't help that it took the team until its second year to figure out what the character was. And even then, you get quite a lot of hokey Dredd for a time.

So, yeah, I can see a lot of folks buying Case Files 1, wondering what all the fuss was about, and then going no further. (It was interesting watching Omar over at Near Mint Condition going through this. Although, curiously, he was also far more receptive to strips by Ennis and Morrison that most of us would consider poor.)