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Perfectly put sir. It's a beautiful ending.

And you're right about the original plots being recycled and mainly cobblers. I've really enjoyed Ennis' take on Johnny so far though - both this, and the stuff in the Battle one-off with von Jurgen... I'd love to read more of it.

Fond memories of those Buster books, thanks Richard!

Serious mockery for Sharko this episode. It's hilarious and absolutely deserved.

This has been out a while but I've only just picked it up. I'm re-reading some old 1986 Battle Action Force stuff at the moment and whilst that period isn't peak Johnny Red, it prompted me to go out and seek more.

Great artwork from Keith Burns - the aerial scenes are superb and the grounded stuff portrays and grimy, bloody, desperate existence. The story is a little bit of a stretch, but as perfectly researched as you'd expect from a Garth Ennis WWII tale and containing the well written dialogue, pathos and violence you'd expect along with it.

What really shone through for me though was the love for the original that practically radiates off the story. Nina, Yakob, Rudi and the like are lovingly potrayed and the ending - which these characters never got in the original run - did leave me a bit misty eyed. I'm not sure how this would work for someone less familiar with the strip, but for someone who grew up with it, pure magic.

This is amazing mate!
Serious skills going on here.

I'm with Colin in that peak 2000ad is the early to mid 80s. We've had some magificent stuff since but there's a lot of stone cold classic tales. during that period. My favourite period, and I suspect this is the same for a lot of readers, is of course the period when I started reading it (88-90) but objectively it's not as good as the years that came before it.

Just discussing Dredd, I also think Judge Cal is where it really starts to take shape as the Dredd we know and love. The Cursed Earth has some very ideas, but it's far from essential imo - as Jim says there's no MC-1 and Superhero Dredd.

[Dredd]

Saturday prog! I've had a very cool day today and this arriving started it all off.

Absolute stunner of a cover.

Really digging this Dredd, as Niemand flips from grim to ridiculous. Incredibly daft fun and beautifully illustrated: Googe's Dredd is very clean cut but everything else is so full of personality, he draws some fantastic expressions and tons of small touches like the 'official' lewd calendat, the little hats on the Cal-Hab droids and a cameo there from Survival Geeks too. Definite dig in there about a current meg strip. Great.

Durham Red also really enjoyable this week. Excellently put together episode. Stupid pigeons!

The Order It really does feel like it's finishing too fast - not in a Meltdown Man kind of way, but like maybe this could have wound down over a couple of series? It's all breathless action and that harks back to the original series (but this time with more robots and less cool characters) but I feel like the story deserved a bit more. With another quest hinted at and no Anna still, I cannot for the life of me see how this is going to wrap up in the time it has left.

Enemy Earth - skipped it.

Rogue Trooper so - the dialogue is great and the art is absolutely fantastic but there's no story here to interest me. Rogue, who is basically superpowered in this setting, massacres a bunch of totally outclassed dudes in a conflict he has nothing to do with. He's under no threat and we're unsure of his motivation. I still have hopes this will turn around for me, but right now I'm not feeling it at all.

Despite the negatives, top Prog.

Exquisite mini indeed! Love this.
I preordered mine from Comics & Cocktails but very tempted to cancel and go straight to Hiya as well.

Just seen the original picture of Shareella the Snow Witch on a copy of Warlock Magazine and she is super-80s:



Still got the bird hat, but a leggings and 80s ankle boots. She looks like she could be fighting the Ghostbusters.
I think I prefer this to the 80s version or Les Edwards more sultry image on the reissue.

Top man Colin! Raising them right.
Not ashamed to admit that my fascination with lava lamps started with Barbarella.

A real pleasure to catch up with this episode today! As ever the podcast is a joy. I hope things are going a bit smoother for you guys.

Some really wonderful work by John Burns in this episode. The retro feel is very strong: I love the 70s spacesuit-style diving suits and the Foss design on the Raven base (I didn't know Chris Foss by name until Simon brought it up, but I knew who he was and it reminded me of his work, if that makes sense). And the T-Rex of course which is straight out of a Ladybird book. I really like the outside shots of the ocean and stuff but the absolute tour de force is the dialogue free page where Marguerite falls to her death.
This tale has a really sinister ending I think, where Dante is all like 'I'm here now' with us as the reader knowing his intentions are bad. Hearing Edie expound on his dickish actions on the previous page towards Marguerite also really made me take this ending in a new light.
Not sure why the ooze becomes a T-rex or a giant scorpion, when being a giant ooze was working out fine for it absorbing all the pirate dudes, but I love dinosaurs and giant insects so no complaints!

I'm less keen on the British episode but again it looks amazing. It's a bit throwaway and daft but one of Dantes strengths imo is the way it veers between the serious and the silly.

Also: Lava lamps rule. I have one on my desk right now. Simons depth of dino-knowledge is great. Wicked Wanda was a bit of an eye-opener on Google.

Finally, Hammer films! I had a huge collection of these in the past: my wife doesn't really like them so I haven't seen any for ages, but my favourite ones would be:
Horror of Dracula is amazing.
Brides of Dracula is awesome but has no Christopher Lee. another good Dracula one is Dracula Prince of Darkness. Or Vampire Lovers with Ingrid Pitt.
The Devil Rides Out rules and does have Christopher Lee.
I have a huge fondness for Twins of Evil and Count Karnstein's hilarious panicked face when he closes the door near the end was a running joke between my brother and I for years. As with a lot of the witch hunter ones though it's unfortunately pretty misogynistic and a more difficult watch nowdays (this is true of a lot of Hammer in general sadly)
Plague of Zombies is a good non-vampire one.
Lastly a special mention for Vampire Circus. My parents saw this film at the cinema whilst courting and my Mum was so shocked / disgusted they left halfway through. I heard this story so many times Vampire Circus took on this sort of mythical status as a super-horrific film for me which of course meant I watched it as soon as I could. It's not as good as any of the other films on this list.

[Dredd]

Tuesday Prog on a bank holiday week is practically a Monday Prog and that's the new Saturday Prog so.. a nice surprise when I got in from work, anyway.
Cool cover with use of the Carlos silhouette.

Dredd – Neat Dredd tale. The lift scene is superb. I like Gallagher's Dredd, his facial expression is constantly sour and he looks like a pensioner but also like a badass.

Durham Red – I'm into a redemption arc story but I still need more reason to root for the character. Beautifully illustrated episode throughout but that final page is a winner!

The Order – Looks like it's all wrapping up for good. Sad to say John Burns artwork is much better when he's not drawing the robits - the contrast on the last page between that lovely image of Izta and Daniel and then the giant Francis Bacon French attack robot on the rampage... but I'm never unhappy to see a giant robot battle. Just enjoying the craziness now.

Enemy Earth – Started to read it but ended up skipping it.

Rogue Trooper – This looks absolutely amazing, stellar work from Patrick Goddard. It's well written but the story is.. alright, it's just not interesting me. I guess I'm just not interested in reading a Rogue time travel story. Plus surely with his super-duper gear he'll just massacre everyone? Anyway, I really, really want to love this so lets see.

As a kid I never read the text stories in any comic. I'd read any book I could get my hands on, but there was something about a text story in a comic that seemed remarkably unappealing. It's very different to reading a full novel or even a short story.

As an adult, I confess I skipped 90% of them back when I was buying the Meg without really thinking about it. It's different with something like Watchmen when the text is an integral part of the tale - but two pages of prose still seems like something eminently skippable, I suppose.

Another thumbs up for D&D.

First half of the film was a bit of a mess, but it's charm carried it through. Once the team was assembled and the plot started to focus it was great. Accessible enough to non-nerds but enough nods to the game and setting to keep nerds like me happy.
Loved seeing some of the iconic monsters on-screen. The paladin character was fantastic and the dragon was even better.
It definitely had the feel of an actual D&D adventure.

So creative and cool from McFad, as usual!

Scrotnig, I have a hole in my collection around this period and might be interested in some of those, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one. I'm sure you could sell them here.