2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[Woolly]

'Ron Smith (pirates of the black atlantic, question of judgment etc etc)'

A Ron Smith collection, be it UC or a massive hardback, is looooong overdue!
Go on, Tharg, do it! The Complete Ron Smith Dredds (with annotations where required)!

[leethomson]

Just been into the office to pick up Savage and Jaegir. Really looking forward to both. I've only read the first two paperback collections of Savage before, so keen to see where it goes.

[Tomwe]

Got my sub copies of Defoe 1 & Grey Area 1 here today.

[mitchuk]

Mine just arrived, bit weird, I pay by Direct Debit but cover letter asked for payment and now online portal says Direct Debit doesn't exist.

[IndigoPrime]

Mine arrived also, having apparently previously been used as a football. First set with obvious dings for a while.

[The Monarch]

Defoes a chunky book contains everything from the two graphic novels

[Tomwe]

Defoes a chunky book contains everything from the two graphic novels

Considering I flogged those two GNs for £22 on eBay last October when it was announced we'd get the zombie strip in this collection I'm feeling pretty smug.

It's a fab volume and the endpapers are especially reeky.

[Max Headroom]

Just received my copy of 'Defoe' volume 1 and everything looks grand. However, it looks like there is just too much material left for it to be complete in two volumes and not enough for three. This is a shame as it would be nice to have the complete story in this format. I'm guessing the most recent story - 'The Divisor' - will not make the final cut.

[Dark Jimbo]

... it looks like there is just too much material left for [Defoe] to be complete in two volumes and not enough for three. This is a shame as it would be nice to have the complete story in this format. I'm guessing the most recent story - 'The Divisor' - will not make the final cut.

Hmm, you may well be right - we'd be looking at a book of a little over 300 pages. That's such a shame. If they couldn't fit the whole of it in, then I'm not sure why they didn't just split the six Leigh Gallagher books evenly across the two volumes...

[Jade Falcon]

I haven't read Grey Area or Defoe yet, I've been rereading Raymond E Feist's Magician for another bit of nostalgia.  I see we have Indigo Prime which I was a bit meh about next then Volume 2 of VC's which I have already in paperback but it will be good to get a hardback.

I'm still surprised, angered to a certain extent and baffled as to why we haven't had Pirates of the Black Atlantic.  I mean we had Dredds confrontation with the Sovs during the Luna Marshal times showing the beginning of the seeds in the timeline of the emnity with the Sov-Blok, we really should have Black Atlantic to tie in as well, especially since there was a throwaway line or two in Apocalypse war about it.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm surprised that tale wasn't in the Dredd collection, given how much objectively crap material we got lumbered with. That was such an odd series at times. An entire book of crap, with an interview at the back with the creator, saying it was crap. OK. I get that you wanted to show Dredd's world, but... why put in terrible books?

The 2000 AD series has been much better for that. Still, hard to see where Pirates would fit into a coherent Dredd volume (with Dredd having been clearly sidelined in this collection, what with many people having likely already bought 80+ volumes of that character's exploits.)

[sintec]

However, it looks like there is just too much material left for it to be complete in two volumes and not enough for three. This is a shame as it would be nice to have the complete story in this format. I'm guessing the most recent story - 'The Divisor' - will not make the final cut.

Yeah this occurred to me too and it definitely seems a bit of an odd choice. We'll have to wait and see what they put in book 2. I'm hoping we get:

Book 2 (159):
The Damned - 72
Frankensteiner - 8
The London Hanged -79

Book 3 (156):
Diehards - 84
The Divisor - 72

Those would both be on the slimmer side but not unprecedented. If book 2 contins Diehards then I guess we know there's no book 3 planned for the final extension. That'd be a shame though as you say it'd be really nice to have the complete story in this format.

[Tomwe]

Using a very unscientific process of photographing my books, pasting them over the original art, and then admittedly having to transform the photo to make the lines straight, I reckon book 85 will be the same size as 84, not skinny as would be required to go to a three volume Defoe set. Sadly.

[Tomwe]

Also a sad reminder of just how badly the spine crops Boo's art. BOO!

If anyone fancies a look ...

[IndigoPrime]

From a pure design perspective, Hachette spines are abysmal. They wreck the original art, have QC/QA issues that mean things don't line up properly, and are abysmal from a UX standpoint. Want to read Skizz? Good luck remembering what book it's in. Eaglemoss deals with this far, far better.