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Issue 172 is Lawless: Breaking Badrock.

Sounds like that'll be picking up where the Mega Collection left off then. Excellent.

Glad to hear it's getting better Jayzus. It's horrid to dread going into work.

Overwork was another factor leading to everything going tits up for me so can definitely relate there. I'm being much more strict with myself now about maintaining a decent work life balance. Not going to slip back into doing constant overtime to hit arbitrary deadlines. It wasn't healthy for me or my relationship with my partner.

I seem to be doing alright right now which is weirding me out a bit tbh. Have been really busy organising a house move at short notice though so I suspect part of that is being distracted by all the mundane stuff.

Have moved to be close to a bunch of old friends and it has been really great reconnecting with people. Got plans for some regular film nights and music sessions to keep myself busy and to try and avoid sinking back into hermit mode. Therapist has also been helpful to vent at and talk through all the chaos over the past few weeks. Glad I established that connection before it all fell apart. Trying to stay positive and view it as a new start rather than an ending.

Well attempts to save my relationship were made and failed (see post from back in November). I now find myself living alone surrounded by boxes of comics/records/books/boardgames. Trying hard not to slip back into the depression I spent most of last year escaping (and which was a contributary factor to the breakup). Going to miss her so much but it's undeniable that things weren't working anymore and it's probably true we'll be better off apart. It's just very hard to accept that truth right now.

Very happy to see Survival Geeks make the list. Will be a fun volume

Long time lurker on this thread but finally gonna break the ice and post as (for better or worse) things seem to have reached some kind of crescendo. Have been mentally checked out of my own life for the what feels like forever, think it's been 2+ years at this point. Finally got the wake up call I needed when my partner told me she needed more and was going to leave if I didn't sort myself out. It's been a struggle and we're still on pretty rocky ground all things told. Right now I'm just trying to work out what a new me looks like. It's scary af. Just really wish I'd been able to hear her long before it got to this point. She's been eternally patient with me and my mental health over the years and I feel like an idiot for letting things get to this point. Can't turn back the clock though.

Anyway got a first appointment with a therapist later this week. Always felt it'd be a waste of time so never bothered, will see I guess. Tbh right now it'd just be good to talk through all this shit with someone who isn't involved.

Was just looking to see if this had appeared in one of the Image Humble Bundle deals as it sounds great. Doesn't look like it has though so it'll have to join the long to-buy list.

Sorry, another question. Lawless * 2? How many series have we had? The first 3 were in the JD collection - are we expecting those to be reprinted?

I'm hoping they don't reprint the UC ones but nothing has been confirmed. With info sourced from Funt Solo's excellent website there have been 6 series since the 3 collected in the UC. And it looks like they'd split fairly nicely into 2 books of just over 200 strip pages each.

Book 1 (well 2 really given the UC volume)

• Long-Range War - 54
• Breaking Badrock -59
• Ashes to Ashes - 100

Book 2

• Boom Town - 100
• Badrock Melody - 20
• Ballots Over Badrock - 100

It was a lot of episodes but possibly not enough - 26 maybe?
As much as I hugely enjoyed the first four books, I found this one a bit tedious. Too many talking heads going over the same stuff! No Bridget!

Assuming 6 pages an episode that'd be 156 pages of strip. We've had a handful of books around that length (or shorter) in the UC so not out of the question. Shortest was Slaine - Book Of Scars which was ~110, the Brutania Chronicles books and the 3rd Red Seas volumes were also all less than 160.

I'd like to see the final Defoe in that Mills book (in preference to Tin Man if it comes to it)

Good shout - I'd also prefer the final Defoe tbh. Tin Man was a bit meh even if the art was great.

I also grabbed the paperback of SSR so wouldn't be disappointed if that doesn't get included but it does feel like an obvious choice.

Thinking about it, if DD is coming, does that make MACH1 the only story not collected from the first Progs?

Yeah we'd have everything from Prog 1 except MACH1 if we get Dan Dare. We're missing a few of the Dredd's from this era so it varies between 60-80% of progs 2-23 depending on whether the Dredd story made it into either the UC or the MC. Numbers drop off a bit after that as Future Shocks and other one offs start to be a more regular occurrence.

I believe our first complete prog is 86.

So, with only 18 volumes yet to be formally announced, what are we collectively aware of that's either been confirmed or is visible on the spine art?

Think these all either appear on the spine or have been confirmed at some stage.

• Armoured Gideon
• Dan Dare * 3
• Proteus Vex
• Lawless * 2
• Kingmaker
• Durham Red (Worley + Apocrypha)
• Scarlet Traces * 2
• Harry On The High Rock + ?

Which is ~12 more volumes (assuming complete runs of everything).

My guesses/wish list for the other 6:

• A book with the 2 remaining Savage stories and Tin Man to round out those Mills sagas
• The Order
• Brink - I think the last series was long enough to fill a volume on it's own but might be mistaken
• Survival Geeks
• Stainless Steel Rat
• Dredd - although what I'm not sure

Finished Damnation Station and Atavar over the weekend. Both excellent volumes imo.

Damnation Station takes a little while to get going but delivers some cracking episodes along the way. The fight with the giant fish has some stunning panels. Ending is maybe a little deus ex machina but, given the commentary in the back section, I guess they wanted to get it all wrapped fairly quickly. Go Machine and Dead Signal are also both solid additions with plenty of action.

Atavar was also great action packed hard sci-fi. Can't really go wrong with Abnett and Elson on a strip. Does feel like a story which could keep going as there are clearly more battles to be won. Still enjoyable stuff and not a bad place to end things. Sometimes you don't need to resolve all the loose ends.

My only complaint would be 2 books with not dissimilar plotlines dropping at the same time. But overall great stuff. Looking forwards to the Milligan book in the neat future.

Looks like they've got the volume numbers wrong on the 2 new books . I can't see Button Man vol 2 being anything other than volume 152 but they've got that down as 166 and Flesh as 152. Seems more likely Flesh is 142 placing it adjacent to the other Mills volume as they've tended to group things by writer in the previous runs (although Abnett's got books spread across this run so maybe they've abandoned that). If it is 142 and they are (vaguely) sticking to that pattern the it might imply that this might be our last Mills volume. But that's a whole lot of ifs and guess work so could be entirely wrong.

I too would be very happy to see a volume with the last chapters of Defoe and Savage - just for completeness sake if nothing else.

Struggling with Black Siddha. It started well enough but by the 3rd book I'm just increasingly disengaged. The art's fantastic and Pat's providing lots of great stuff for Simon Davis to draw, I just don't really care about any of these characters. Feels a lot like Pat rehashing Finn but swapping paganism and Icke for Hindu mythology.