Topics

Based on  the Prog review thread I have decided to re-read early Ro-busters.

I have Titan Ro-busters books 1 and 2 but they don't include Ro-Jaws memoirs. However I vaguely recall reading them at some point.

Can any-one remember if they were re-printed in an Annual or Summer Special?


(And yes I know it is available in "The Complete Ro-busters" and presumably the Nuts and Bolts hardback but that's not what I mean).

I think we probably need a separate thread on the reproduction issues. I think there are a few different things being discussed here which are wider than the Mega Collection.

1) Re-production on the Mega Collection.

Personally I am perfectly happy with it. Let's take Trifecta as an example. I think someone said the reproduction on the Simping Detective was poor. Well I have just compared it to the original Progs and it looks perfectly fine to me in terms of quality.

There is an absolutely minuscule amount of cropping of the art on the full page Henry Flint Dredd pages, presumably due to aspect ratios. I have noticed this before, but I guess it is bound to happen as the Prog has varied in aspect ratio over the years where as the Mega Collection books are all a standard size. It really makes no material difference and is only noticeable when comparing it with the Prog at a fine tooth comb level of detail.

2) Loss of quality / resolution in general.

I think IndigoPrime has done a good job explaining this one, and I accept that. To me it is all about expectations. The one that rankles with me - and I know its not a Rebellion publication - is the IDW Complete Brian Bolland Judge Dredd volume.  I bought this as I absolutely love Bolland's art and the whole point was to have a good quality copy of it.  But it seems to me it suffers from murky reproduction in places e.g. Father Earth - especially that page with the droids watching the election and isn't quite what I thought I was buying.

3) Poorly printed copies. This is a totally different thing and not fundamental to the argument as to whether a good source has been used. And as others have said Hachette are good at replacing stuff.

4) Loss of next prog text boxes.

Now this one I don't get. This surely is different to whether the available source is good quality. The Mega Collection sometimes seems to include them and in other volumes takes them out. Personally I would rather see them retained but guess it goes hand in hand with whether the logos are retained. I would guess they are retained when the original Prog had double page spreads e.g. The Cursed Earth and OZ, and are otherwise dropped.

I actually don't mind except:
- on Zenith they added something
- so long as their removal does n't crop the art work. With Zenith it didn't (well almost) but in the Mek Files, they seem to have cropped some of it "quite a lot" It is that aspect that I don't understand. Why do it? I can't see that has much to do with the quality of the available source, more a conscious decision was made at some point to crop.  Again it is about expectations:

It's also worth noting that The Mek Files aren't a 'complete ABC Warriors' series in the same vein as the Case Files and aren't listed as such - they're just nice hardcover reproductions of the main stories - so sorry if that's caused any confusion here. The Solo Missions collects one-off and sidebar stories in much the same way as the Restricted Files do for Dredd.

and that is the point - when I got the Mek Files I wanted "a nice hardcover re-production" and actually on the whole it is, just with a few examples of over cropped art work which annoys more far more than it probably should, especially as I also have the non cropped Titan volumes. (Ironically I am less bothered about the reproduction on the Black Hole).


On a separate note, I agree the Mega Collection is good value. The Trifecta TPB is twice the price and doesn't include Family Man, which is actually pretty important to it.

I have increasingly come to think we are currently in a new golden age of art in the Prog and the Meg, to match what I consider to be the original golden age.

Now I don't want to be too prescriptive about the actual Progs that original golden age spanned, but let's say it was some where around the 200s up to the early 500s (I say that so I can include Slaine the King). Newspaper period and all.

First of all I think we need a strong line up on Dredd.

Then we had Bolland, McMahon, Ron Smith, Carlos, Ian Gibson and Cam Kennedy. To me this was the period that really defined Dredd.

On the other strips we had total awesomeness from the likes of:

Belardinelli on Ace Trucking and Slaine
Brett Ewins on Anderson and Rogue Trooper
Can Kennedy on Rogue Trooper
Kev O'Neill on Nemesis
Bryan Talbot on Nemesis
McMahon on Slaine
Glenn Fabry on Slaine
Carlos on Stront
Ian Gibson on Robo-Hunter and Halo Jones
Alan Davies on Harry 20 and DR and Quinch

In the current era (lets say the last three years or so) on Dredd we have had Henry Flint, Ben Willsher, Colin MacNeil, Greg Staples and Carlos.

On the other strips there has been really great stuff from:
Carlos on Stront
INJ Culbard on Brass Sun
Simon Davies on Slaine
Tiernen Trevallion on Absalom
Simon Coleby on Jaegir
Patrick Goddard on Savage and Grey Area
Lee Carter on Indigo Prime
Edmund Bagwell on Indigo Prime
D'Israeli on Low Life and Helium

We also have Greg Staples and Alex Rowland taking cover art to new levels.

I guess nostalgia will always win (e.g. no one can ever be better than Bolland!!!) but I think the current  / recent line up of artists is just amazing.

Anyway, I was just wondering what others think about this?

(Hats off to Matt Smith for maintaining such a roster.)

I am curious about something that I have noticed in the Mek Files vol 1 -  the art of the last page of a lot of the episodes has been cropped at the bottom.

I was wondering why that was and if some-one more in the know on these things could explain?

I assume it is something to do with not having the next Prog tag lines, but to my admittedly layman's eyes, it seems unnecessary.

Still a lovely book though.

I just popped into Smith's at my local station on the way home and much to my surprise I saw that they had, what looked like new printings to me (paperback), of Origins and Day of Chaos: The Fourth Faction.

I was really surprised as (a) this is the first time I have ever seen them carry Rebellion TPBs and (b) the timing seems odd given Origins is 4th up in the Mega Collection as I understand it.

So what's going on?

Origins is slightly more expensive that than the Mega Collection, and includes the story "The Collection" which ran in he Progs in the lead up to Origins - not sure if the Mega Collection will include that?

Anyway - great to see this stuff in Smiths - even more so as I didn't see the Mega Collection in this branch.

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but it is now come to the point where I need a solution to storing my Progs and Megs.

I have currently have about 1800 Progs and every Meg and am loath to go digital so the problem is only going to get worse.

What I am looking for are suggestions for suitable bookcases, shelves or other storage units to cope with the current quantity I have and hopefully the next 40 years worth.

I am also thinking about putting them in binders - say one for each year. I don't want to put any holes in them so ring binders are out, and i'm not going to individually board and bag each one either. Does anyone know what the best thing to use for this is?

Any help anyone can provide would be gratefully accepted.

I have just taken my family to see Paddington and wanted to comment on the PG rating it has been given.

On Film 2014 this week there was an interview with one of the team behind the film (not sure if it was the Producer) and it was said that he could not believe it had not been given a U rating and that there was nothing in the film anyone would find distressing.

Well as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating - my little boy did find it scary. I think the PG rating and the reason given by the BBFC are spot on.

Just seen something called "Judge Dredd: The Mega-City One Archives" for sale on an online retail site.

Does anyone know what this contains? It is described as a 13 volume history of Judge Dredd.

Is any one reading this? What do you think of it?

Ok I been doing a bit of a Slaine re-read.

One thing that I have never been quite sure of is...how do you pronounce "Slough" as in "Slough Feg" or "Slough Trott"?

Is as per the town Slough between London and Reading or is it "sloff" as in rhymes with cough?

Or something else. Any views? Has Pat Mills said anything about it?

I have just been reading the Downlode Tales floppies. They are great, but can anyone remember why these stories were billed as Downlode Tales and not Sinister Dexter? Sure there are a few that don't feature the duo but once it gets into the swing of things with the plot to track down Demi's killer they are central to it.

Also the last one in the 3rd floppy, The Off-Lode Experience isn't even set in Downlode.

Does anyone know if the cover of Prog 1821 is based on something? (Bolland Dredd).

I ask because I have just read an IDW Star Trek TNG  graphic novel (HIVE) and there is a very similar image of Jean-Luc as Locutus in the art gallery in the back.

Just wanted to say Hi to everyone.

The Prog has pretty much been an obsession for me since 1979 and hopefully will be for the next 40 years or so...just gutted I missed the first hundred or so and did n't buy them when I had the chance down at the original Forbidden Planet store on Denmark Street...still waiting for some of those early strips to be reprinted, especially Inferno and Dan Dare (pretty sure not all of that has been though I do have some Quality Comics editions with them in).

It has taken me 30 years to notice this - but has anyone else spotted the way Slaine's axe changes? In progs 330 to 336 it is drawn as a single stone blade tied to a staff. Then in prog 337 it is shown as double sided but then in 338 it is back single sided. Also on the cover of 332 it is double sided.

I get different artists doing different interpretations - which is pretty common on Dredd... but  most of these were drawn by the legendary Massimo Belardinell.

Doesn't spoil the story or anything...I just find it a bit strange.