Topics

91

News / Meg 275 - information sent to subscribers

« on: 02 July, 2008, 10:18:03 AM »

Some of the guesswork can be laid to rest regarding the Meg. I today got a subscription notice that outlined the basic plans for the Meg over the coming months. The salient points are as follows:

EE30 is confirmed as the final issue.
The price of the Meg is going back up to £4.99.
The Jock Collection is the first 64-page mini-trade to be bundled with the Meg.
Subsequent collections are planned to include: Snow/Tiger, Dredd: Lawcon, Armitage: Flashback, Pussyfoot 5, a John Burns Dredd collection, and Son of Mean Machine.

From a personal standpoint, that hit-rate's about the same as the EE. I'll happily lap up all the Dredd stuff announced, but couldn't care less about Snow/Tiger, absolutely can't stand the dreadful Son of Mean Machine, and didn't care for Pussyfoot 5. Armitage is a strange choice, too—I was very much hoping (indeed, am still hoping) for a trade series, especially if that character's going to become a fairly regular Meg strip again.

Still, the promise of Tank Girl and a rejuvenated Meg in general (which has improved somewhat over the past couple of months) is enough for me to give it another year's stay of execution.

92

Books & Comics / Final Solution and Judge Death in the wild

« on: 29 May, 2008, 07:10:41 PM »

Although my copies haven't arrived just yet, I just saw The Final Solution and the Judge Death book in Forbidden Planet, London. The good news regarding Final Solution is that all the extras are in (two extra one-offs and Top Dog) *and* the trade dress not only matches the chunky volumes, but it's marked as book 5. The bad news... well, there is no bad news. Repro looks good, so go buy it now, people.

The Death book also looked good repro-wise, and has a wee extra in the form of a McCrea-illustrated black and white story, along with an afterword by Doherty.

93

Other Reviews / 2000 AD book reviews on my blog

« on: 22 May, 2008, 02:20:16 PM »

In addition to bitching about Nintendo DS games, retro games, web stuff and Macs, I today added a graphic novels stream to my blog at RevertToSaved.com. First up: Sláine: The King. Next up: the Flint collection and the new BPRD.

Link: Revert to Saved

94

Books & Comics / Mega-City Undercover

« on: 13 March, 2008, 10:18:45 AM »

The latest 2000 AD book just plopped through the letterbox, and, oh my, what a gorgeous coverâ??one of the very best in the entire trade line. Good to see both Diggle and Williams get intro pages to their respective 'collections', too. Fab!

95

Prog / Prog 1576 - Take a thrill-powered ride!

« on: 03 March, 2008, 09:46:36 AM »

Interesting artist on Dredd, no? Also, good to see Stickleback's not done yet (it concludes next ish).

96

Books & Comics / Metalzoic comment from Pat in new ABC Warriors book

« on: 26 January, 2008, 07:46:34 PM »

So, the new ABC Warriors book plopped through my letterbox this morning, and although I've not read it, I did read Pat's intro, where he stated (and I'm paraphrasing) that Metalzoic is apparently consigned to DC's 'never going to be seen again' pile. I wonder if he meant exactly what I think he meant (i.e. DC owns it and will never release it again), because if so it's a massive shame. I'm lucky enough to own a reasonable (if far from mint) copy of the graphic novel issued in the 1980s, and I have the Progs it was in, but if there's ever some classic Mills way overdue for reissue, it's Metalzoic.

97

Books & Comics / Droid Life book arrival

« on: 29 November, 2007, 10:03:41 AM »

For those hoping Droid Life would arrive for Christmas, you'll be happy bunnies now. My copy arrived this morning, and unless FPI has a cunning time machine in its sorting dept., that means the book's available now. It's a really nice dinky pocket bookâ??good fun and with a fun intro by a mad person claiming to be Cat.

98

Website and Forum / The classifies section - who uses it?

« on: 06 October, 2007, 11:47:53 AM »

Just out of curiosity, having whopped a fairly hefty classifieds ad on this site last night, I was wondering who here actually looks at that page, and how often. Personally, I'd always much prefer to sell at fixed prices to like-minded people, even if eBay potentially results in more income, because eBay is such a major pain in the arse. However, it would be interesting to know whether people check out the classifieds semi-regularly, or whether they never look at them at all.

Link: It's... 2000 AD classifieds funk-o-tron

99

Books & Comics / Judge Dredd: Carlos Ezquerra Collection contents

« on: 20 September, 2007, 08:53:29 AM »

As people have been asking what's in this book, here's the run-down:

DREDD
The taking of sector 123
Helter Skelter
Phartz!
Sturm Und Dang

KOBURN
Kuss hard
Burial party
The assizes
Malachi

COVERS
20000 AD: 254, 284, 673, 333 (the classic "Um... Synthi-sausage)
Meg: 221, 239, 244

In Ezquerra-related news, Strontium Dog 3 showed up today, and it's great to see that Jon's continued to dig up stuff from old annuals for the 'bonus' strips. This book includes 'The beast from Milton Keynes', and a bunch of other stuff.

100

Books & Comics / Your fave 2000 AD collections from Rebellion

« on: 24 April, 2007, 08:22:54 PM »

With Rebellion's 2000 AD collections now being rather numerous and diverse, I thought it might be fun to do a quick round-up of everyone's favourites so far. If you're game, perhaps you could share your top five, along with a wee bit of reasoning. For me, so far:

1. Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files 01
I'd not read most of these before, so this was a fascinating collection. Strangely, the story arrives pretty much fully-formed, and the art throughout is great, as is the collection as a whole. And while I'm usually irked by extras being printed out of sync (something that could potentially bugger up forthcoming Nemesis collections), it works here, seeing as the extras are, frankly, odd.

2. The Complete Nemesis the Warlock: Volume 1
Pat Mills at his oddball best, before Nemesis got somewhat weighed down by political agenda. Combined with some of the best art ever to grace 2000 ADâ??including the massively under-rated book 2â??this collection is a wodge of eye-catching, exciting ideas, which hurtles along at a blistering pace. The cover's gorgeous, too.

3. Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 06
The epics are all fine and everything, but for me Dredd often works best in smaller chunks, and book 6 of the case files is probably my favourite period of Dredd. Neat little bite-sized portions of oddness (The League of Fatties, Blobs) share space with darker stories (The Executioner, the wonderful Destiny's Angels), and the frontier-esque Starborn Thing, truly showing the character's range.

4. Leviathan
The Edginton/D'Israeli combo can do little wrong in my eyes, and so I was delighted when I first heard this thrilling story was going to be collected. What delighted me even more was the effort Rebellion went to. Usually, I'm anti-Euro hardbacks, but this story was born for this kind of treatment, and both the design and execution are flawless.

5. Alan Moore: The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks
Yes, it's uneven at times, and there are some definite iffy stories amongst the gems, but the hit-rate of these Moore nuggets is very high indeed. Some probably have more ideas than in entire comic-book series, and although the book isn't quite as totally complete as the title would have you believe (unless I'm having a senior moment, I think at least one Moore effort is missing), it's great that the complete Abelard Snazz is now available in trade format. (For what it's worth, Sunburn, The Reversible Man, Ring Road and The Time Machine remain among my very favourite strip work ever, so much so that even though I own the Rebellion collection, I'm still not parting with my '80s Titan trades!)

So, lots of b&w there! What are your favourites?

Link: 2000 AD Books website

101

Off Topic / Paging Matt C aka the3rdman

« on: 23 March, 2007, 04:31:24 PM »

Mattâ??your googlemail.co.uk address is bouncing, and so I couldn't reply to your email. Short answer is "yes". Total cost would be £17.70, and you can PayPal to cngrannell@yahoo.com

If anyone other than Matt is reading this, hello!

We now return you to your normal programming...

102

Classifieds / GNs and 2000 AD stuff for sale

« on: 06 March, 2007, 05:55:27 PM »

I'm a lazy, lazy man when it comes to offloading stuff, and I hate eBay. Therefore, I figured I'd offer some spares/stuff I want rid of on here for a couple of days before I fling it all on eBay. If the sendmail of this site's down, just email me via Snub Communications, saying what you want. Prices don't include postage, obviously. I'll post anywhere, but be mindful that sending overseas (I'm in the UK) might be pricey for some items.

BOOKS
Bad Company (Jock cover version) - £5
Strontium Dog: The Early Cases - £4
Button Man: The Killing Game (hardback) (small ding at top of spine - otherwise fine) - £5
Sandman vols 1-3 (Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House, Dream Country) - £10 for all three (includes slip case, although that's not in good nick, unlike the books, which are fine)
Death (Sandman): The High Cost of Living - £4
Usagi Yojimbo, book 2: £5
Judge Dredd Case Files 01 - £7
Sinister Dexter: Murder 101 - £5
Rogue Trooper: Realpolitik - £6
Dark Knight Returns (three-issue cardback series) - £5
Return to Amalgam Age of Comics - Marvel and DC collections - £4 for both

COMICS (£1 each, unless stated)
Complete Judge Dredd 1-31 (includes Dredd badge with #9) - £10
Bogie Man: The Manhattan Project (Apocalypse version)
Extreme Edition 10: Dredd "Darkside"
Extreme Edition 4: Ant Wars
Extreme Edition 2: Dredd vs PJ Maybe
2000 AD Winter Special 8 (2005)
Marshal Law: Kingdom of the Blind (Apocalypse)
Judge Dredd Megazine vol1 #9
2000 AD 1254, 1255, 1256, 1257 - £2 for all four
Toxic #10
2000 AD monthly 49 (Dredd)
2000 AD monthly 63 (Tharg)
2000 AD monthly 66 (Halo Jones 3)
Complete Judge Dredd Special Edition 1
2000 AD Winter Special 1993
2000 AD Yearbook 1994
2000 AD Yearbook 1993
2000 AD annual 1984 (not great condition)
2000 AD annual 1991
Judge Dredd annual 1991
Eagle annual 1990

Link: My contact form

103

News / 2000 AD Books website updated

« on: 11 December, 2006, 06:26:29 PM »

The 'coming soon' section of the 2000 AD Books website has been updated, to better represent the likely shipping dates of some of the titles, but also to provide a sneak peek at April and May's releases. I'm sure at least one of them will be a surprise to many!

Link: 2000 AD Books website

104

News / 2000 AD Books website updated

« on: 25 October, 2006, 12:25:58 PM »

Everything up until the end of March is now online in the 'coming soon' section.

Link: 2000 AD Books

105

Off Topic / Judge Blair strikes again

« on: 01 September, 2006, 12:38:44 AM »

Blair once again appears to be challenging Dredd for the '#1 fascist in a position of authority' prize -- see the link below. Next step: lock them up as soon as they're born! It seems the thing B.L.A.I.R. 1 got wrong was who wore the Judge uniform...

Link: Blair to tackle 'menace' children