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Agreed. Excited to see these collected BAF strips.

I have some huge deluxe Hellboy editions and they're absolutely glorious - massive pages for the art, look awesome on the shelf - but to read them you do need to either sit down at a big, clear table or potentially stand at a medieval style pulpit as they're far too unwieldy for reading on the sofa or in bed.

I'd no real knowledge of Liberty Meadows and my main Frank Cho exposure is cheesecakey Marvel covers, so this was an interesting read, thanks Colin - I assumed it was something that might have run in Heavy Metal rather than newspapers. That Calvin & Hobbes strip is delightful.

Absolutely great stuff McF!

I agree, the shoulder isn't my favourite version of it.. I'm not a fan of the tiny little badges or the Stallone-esque helmet personally either, but no real problem with the artist making it their own.

Congrats Jim!

[Dredd]

Definitely looks like a cover intended for last week.

I'm not a fan of this Dredd / judge interpretation either, but as others have also said, I like the fact that his look is open to interpretation by various artists, so no real issues here.

Dredd - I like the fact that the story starts mid-action but yeah, there's nothing intriguing or even especially interesting about the way it starts. It's only the opening episode, but this wasn't an enjoyable episode for me, it was just there. Maybe its just setting flashbacks to that terrible story where Dredd surfed a wolf.

Terror Tales I didn't enjoy this either. Colin nails it with his description above. Lovely splash page: bit of a waste of the art imo, sadly.

Full Tilt Boogie Big improvement! Although how are we on part ten already? The next part of the plot is set up. This is very easy to read and the art for me feels both fresh and nostalgic.

Indigo Prime mildly confusing in the best way. M*A*S*H mashups.

Proteus Vex Highlight this week: the world seems fully formed, the action and characters are ridiculous and interesting all at once. Horrible tongue-scene!

As the Prog went on it got stronger and stronger.

Absolutely this!

Funnily enough, I was just skimming the PDF of You Are The Hero from the recent Kickstarter and there's mention of the Hungarian art being comissioned because the publishers felt the art for the UK editions was aimed at the YA market, but the market in Hungary was for adults on a nostalgia trip (like us)

Cool, lets see when it's released and we'll sort it out. I have scouted hardback Port of Peril but the price is mental and I have heard the book is poor: if I'm throwing silly money at eBay I'd rather buy Howl of the Werewolf!

Damn, I didn't think this through did I?!

Buy a copy of each, tear out the better art and glue it over the existing art. Sorted!

I hadn't realised there were different artists on different countries' editions, so if I buy Assassins I'll have to be careful I get the right one! Balla's art is good.

I suspect the Hungarian version of AoA could be written in Hungarian, so you may have to deal with the weaker art!
I'm on a FF art group on FB and artists occasionally post their art from non-English versions of the books. I think I've seen some Spanish, Hungarian and Polish ones with fantastic, crazy artwork from 'native' artists.

Oh good, another Livingstone one - that means a limited edition hardback version, only available at some event I can't attend due to disability, and I'll therefore have to shell out 3 times the price to a scalper on ebay. Yay.

I'll be at Fighting Fantasy Fest this year, but I think the book is being released after the date. If it's available there I can pick up copies of the limited version for people that want it, potentially. They're expensive though!
I have the hardback AoA and Shadow of the Giants: they're nice, but not really worth the money over the paperback versions if I'm honest with myself. AoA has nicer cover art than the paperback but SotG is identical.

I wasn't over the moon about that news initially as Ian Livingstones books haven't been the best for a while and the art for AoA was not very good - but it seems Krisztián Balla did the art for the Hungarian version of the book and it is way better.
I'm not sure we need another Deathtrap Dungeon book but I know I'll be buying it all the same....

[Dead of Night]

I played through Dead of Night a little while ago - I wasn't excited to get to this one, because frankly the title and cover art are totally boring, but had loads of fun playing it which shouldn't have been a surprise because it's written by Jm Bambra and Stephen Hand who know a few things about rpgs!
You play a paladin-type holy warrior on a mission to defeat your demonic arch-rival and rescue your parents into the bargain, travelling through a corrupted, Warhammer roleplay esque low fantasy world where demons and horrors lurk at every turn. Everything here is down at heel, dirty and broken: there's a element of being a witchfinder about it, as corruption could (and often is) lurking in most locations, although your character is very much a hero and not a cruel witchburner type - keeping your own goodness up by doing the right thing is a major plot point. There's some nasty little tricks in it to trip you up along the way as things aren't always what they seem, as well as a dose of body horror with a living demonic factory, plenty of undead and superstition, and multiple paths to the ending that reward good play and decisions. Gorgeous artwork from Martin McKenna only enhance the dirty, Oldhammer-y atmosphere.

No playthrough on this one from me, but here's how I bit the dust (repeatedly):

• Killed by the possessed corpse of a necromancer I'd previously dispatched, having failed to prevent a ritual from summoning something horrible and tentacled into his body.
• Dissolved by a pool of sentient sludge after foolishly wading into it.
• Battered to death by an ogre after some bad dice rolls.
• Eaten by the huge demon on the cover as, instead of running away I wasted my turn using my 'demon sense' power to see if it was real and not an illusion (it was indeed real)
• Stabbed by a bazillion floating knives trying to nab some magic armour

Despite all this, loved it.

I'm now playing, on and off, the new Huntress books from Magnamund which are a Lone Wolf prequel of sorts.

[Ace of Spades]

That's great!

Ace of Spades

Its poker of the very highest stakes for Ace Garp. The winner gets the very best shovel in the galaxy... but the loser gets castrated!

Amazon Prime

Hippolyta, one time Amazon Queen and daughter of Ares and now Sceneshifter for IP, is stranded in an alternate reality Brazil where she must deliver mysterious parcels in the jungle to stop the collapse of reality.

[Dredd]

Definite annual vibes from the cover! I thought billing this one as a 'new readers start here' one was an odd decision given it has the last episode of Thistlebone, two stories midway and the reasonably high concept Proteus Vex - not new reader friendly at all I'd thought! Stoked to see Alec Worley will be writing Hawk The Slayer.

Dredd is pure setup, but reading comments above about Dredd / Logan it does highlight their deteriorating relationship in their interaction. Interested to see what's next.

Full Tilt Boogie Cool stuff, pushing the story forward with some new elements, I'm a fan of this run!

Thistlebone wasn't the ending I predicted either and dare I say it, felt a little anticlimatic for all its gruseomeness - although I suppose the weight of the ending should be less Camerons fate but more that final panel? This has been an unusual series - parts of it have been stellar, and in both that final panel and the panel where Thistlebone appeared on celluloid we've had more evidence than in all the previous series put together that it might be an actual entity. Other bits of it I felt weren't as strong as the previous series, although it did capture more of that 70s schlocky feel. I'm a huge fan of this thrill though and looking forward to it coming back.

Indigo Prime also really enjoying this - it's hugely meta and weird and fascinating. Vista's explantion about reality changes had a little nod, for me, of how the change of writer has changed up the cast. As ever this looks terrific.

Rogue Trooper - this was pretty poor imo. It did feel like an old annual episode - or indeed, one that could have been written for Regened as it was very lightweight. Paul Marshall definitely not up to his usual standards on the art, nothing to the story, still don't understand why there are civvies on Nu-Earth. I'll happily admit I'm not a huge fan of Rogue - the concept is awesome, but take out the revenge story and I find him very bland: he works best, for me, when the environment or the antagonists really drive the story and here it didn't: possibly because all those stories have been told already?

Proteus Vex Great to have this back with a long episode. The world seems so fully formed now that it feels like the strip could continue even without Vex himself so a Vex-less episode is no problem! Amusing to see not-Tharg and his 2000ad allstars appear (and get eaten off panel, I assume).

That Rogue announcement is deeply underwhelming - Geoffrey D. Wessel's Rogue in the Christmas Prog wasn't a good one.
Alec Worley on Hawk sounds potentially great however!