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Given ongoing shifts in the Overton window, I hate to think what 'leftie' might mean by the time we get to Dredd's timeline in the real world. 

That's a disturbing but good point!

Flint is starting to remind me a bit of McMahon. Not in terms of style, but in terms of his willingness to shake up his style quite dramatically and try new things. And for those new things to be excellent. (D'Israeli of course deserves a mention in that realm.)

As for Judge Dredd, I hope this brings a conclusion to everything Red Queen. But I also hope I'm wrong in how I expect this to turn out for Mega City One and Maitland and that Williams is doing some cunning card tricks, with a strip that will in some way (whatever way) at least challenge the status quo.

One of the things I love about Dredd in terms of the strip and the lead is that things can change. Sure, the lead – as described IIRC by Wagner – moves like a glacier. But he does move. The Dredd we see today is not the same one from the 1980s. Similarly, the city itself has shifted and changed in response not only to major events but also its leaders.

I'm not suggesting I want to see A Better World end and for Tharg to be all: "Well, the judges are gone now. I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HAPPY WITH YOURSELVES!" But it would be great to have a series that has some kind of lasting impact, as per America, Apocalypse War, etc. And that sense of tension and topicality in A Better World is more heightened than I've seen and felt in Judge Dredd for a long while.

Quite what that impact could be, I've no idea. Upending the strip's entire set-up would be a massive risk and arguably unnecessary for future success. So I'll be gobsmacked if the series ends with a return to something resembling current-day democracy, and the judges 'relegated' to being a police force. By the same token, different 'states' operating in different ways might be sustainable, although I imagine a Sector 304 enclave wouldn't quite cut it!

I suppose if nothing else, kudos to Williams for making me care about a MC1 accountant, and not wanting the conclusion that's currently in my head: her plan being destroyed by nefarious types, possibly including her being badly injured or killed, and Dredd rocking up and angrily growling that "at least you tried", before being instrumental in dismissing half the council and possibly the CJ, without taking up a role of responsibility himself. (I do also still wonder what spanner Beeny might be in the works of whatever goes down.)

Anyway: this is all great. Nice to see such a strong Dredd in the prog.

I agree with all this but feel I should point out this story has two writers - Arthur Wyatt is scripting too rather than Williams alone. I like the way 'Robert Glenn' has such an ordinary name, posing as an everyman like he is, but I did find his mention of 'leftie ideas' a bit on the nose - Dredd quite often has some ludicrous future slang term for this kind of thing that allows us to see the contemporary idea it's referring to. Whereas just using the same phrase that gets thrown around on social media in 2024 pulled me out of the story a little. Still, this is great Dredd, I really like Maitland as a character - if her experiment does completely fail I'll be interested to see how she responds in future. Wouldn't be the first time Williams had a character I loved really fall from Grace - I still feel bad about how things ended for poor Aimee Nixon.

Elsewhere Enemy Earth zooms along and I'm happy to zoom with it.

Thistlebone is already oozing that queasy feeling that all isn't right and it is absolutely playing to Davis's strengths - the facial expressions are pretty much the best in comics.

Broodblik upthread really hit the nail on the head for why I don't like Devil's Railroad - it's just people being cruel to each other, week after week, with no hope, no laughs, no glimmer of light, but also no real depth. It's horrible. Dayglo is great and I did want to say that Jose Villarrubia has done an incredible job on Sister White's face in the first panel. He could easily have done her all a blanket green but he's done the lighting on her every wart and crinkle amazingly. Giving her way more dimensions than the paper-thin character itself.

And finally Feral and Foe - this strip has won me over now and this has been my favourite series for it so far. Weird optical illusion on page one panel two where I thought they were fighting their way down stairs rather than up a pyramid! But awesome art and a cracking balance of action and humour. Roll on the next series! (Once this one's done).

Lovely tribute to Ian Gibson from Rufus Dayglo. Oh and a nice cover too. Good prog - very glad Devil's Railroad finishes next issue.

This is the kind of series I would now hunt down but I'm just not a single issues collector (other than 2000ad/Meg. Maybe one day they'll collect the lot.

Maxwell's Demon was good but the fact that the Newcastle woman was named Jordy Coquet makes me wince every time I think of it.

Oh, I just got the Jordy/Geordie bit. It's not Coquet as in "coquettish", is it? Because, y'know, vomiting a little into my cup of tea if that's true. The actual character in the story seems like she'd stab you in the eye with a fork if you called her coquettish.

I think it's probably pronounced the same as 'coquette'. I could be wrong but that's how I read it anyway.

Maxwell's Demon was good but the fact that the Newcastle woman was named Jordy Coquet makes me wince every time I think of it.

Hine and Kane are a great combo. Loved The Bulletproof Coffin in particular.

Intriguing one there Colin. I've looked at this series once or twice but never read any. The name always puts me in mind of All-Bran unfortunately and I think that's subliminally put me off by flavouring the series like a bland breakfast cereal in my mind.

Got this for Christmas. Turns out my brother knows more about FF than I realised:

Incredible!

1. Azimuth.
2. Rogue Trooper.
3. Hershey.

Nice thread, most enjoyable so far Funt. That Colin MacNeil Mongrol is just great.

Mine seems to be fine, so I hope you get a good copy soon. Blooming lovely book!

Mine arrived today but I've not had a chance to open it yet. I'm hoping these will include all the covers - it would be great to see the covers from the Titan collections and the Best of 2000ad Monthlies etc.

If it's the hardback webshop 'black' edition you might want to open it sooner rather than later - I now have two copies, both of which have holes punched into some early pages near the binding.

Gah!

Nuts. I'll have a peek, thanks Fink

What does everyone think of the repro? Is it worth it, especially if you already have the old, smaller paperback versions?

This might sound silly but I'm saving opening mine for a quiet day so I can't answer this yet. I did see someone tweet that the repro was very good though.

Mine arrived today but I've not had a chance to open it yet. I'm hoping these will include all the covers - it would be great to see the covers from the Titan collections and the Best of 2000ad Monthlies etc.

I've always felt DeMarco's solo series
should have been better, because she was quite a compelling character in The Pit and her other early appearances. I didn't love her being mega-wealthy, or her gorilla manservant. She lost the element of being an essentially good person who is drawn to things that aren't good for her, or who makes bad choices at times, and became a bit bland as a result. Ideally by now she'd have years worth of history and a load of interesting supporting characters and have had some character development. Happy to give the latest series a go in the Meg though.

Agreed that all the solo stuff was better than the way she was treated in the Simping Detective.