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FP saved myself (and the other half, well mainly her because they like females slinking about the shop) a copy of everything they got in, Of which zero interested us aside from 2000AD - so we gave it all to nephews and nieces and their parents have now complained that they have to buy them 'bloody comics'. Heh. Serves em right for having kids. We've also been buying a 2nd copy of StripUK and leaving it at the doctors waiting room. I wonder if thats tax-deductible? 

But yeah, the one way for comics to survive is that those that love them now spread the word. FCBD is great for this.

apologies to all the excellent artists and computery gubbins folk but... buttonman's photographs had me laughing more than an Al Ewing zombo-meets-dredd cross-over.

Kudos to a man for being that dashing looking.

1st Place - 3 points - 1727 - Henry Flint. - super smart design wins the day.
2nd Place - 2 points - 1729 - James MacKay - Gert big monster - its all about those evil eyes looking at YOU
3rd Place - 1 point - 1763 - Henry Flint - impossible not to smile at that Dredd. He's 70 and still better than you.


Honourable mentions to - 1762 (Angel Zero - Lee Garbett) which would have nipped 3rd but there does seem to be a perspective problem with her location / their gaze. Great use of colour tho, totally rocks as a cover. Also an honourable mention to 1720 (Necrophim - Steve Ellis) which looked great and contained more dynamism and energy than the entire 2.5 series of the story. In fact that should be the US trade cover and Tharg would shift loads of them. A seriously good cover and I hope we'll see more of that Ellis chap. Finally the Frazer Dante cover, the Robinson 'Brainbloom' Dredd cover and the first Absalom cover are all totally lush. Damm it a top 3 isn't enough!

Looks awesome. Time to make sure the local FP are aware, by the time FCBD comes around they should have got the message if I start now...

Mol-R - totally understand the logic of not giving it to subscribers at the time, however would retailers be upset if you guys were to give the annual subscribers a copy of it later in the year - say with the Prog 2013. Seems both constituencies would be met that way (lets face it - subscribers either go into comic shops already and therefore probably can blag a copy due to how long they have been shopping there, or they don't go into comic shops and probably won't because they know they won't get a copy (these things go way too fast - last time we hit FP around 2pm and all FCBD stuff was gone except for folk like us with grab lists).

Also would imagine that Subscribers offered the chance to purchase one later in the year would grab that too - so that its not an extra expenditure to you guys. It does seem that putting an exclusive Dredd story in an official publication and then not enabling your core-buyers some chance to guarantee they get it could back-fire. 

This is all going to end up with Colin being served an injunction by a long lost USA bastard son looking half the art-work from America and a signed copy of Insurrection.

It might just make for a must-listen-to wednesday night chatroom.

'Crivens! I've NEVER dabbled with a lady from Salt Lake City!'

well, the break-finale sure explained why the pace had slowed, totally brilliant. Not too sure it should have been Shane forcing the issue rather than how the comic tells it but the previews of the second half of the season shows they aren't leaving the farm just yet.

With this and Death Valley coming to an end thats TV gone from 2 zombie shows to 0 in a week. Boo.
(just have to play Dredd vs Zombies to make up for it)

might explain his warp-spasam face tho.

Great stuff from all - that really is a great Dante, should be back-cover of Prog 2012

oops - first world war, not second. My bad.

best thing being produced atm is the english language non-Adele Tardi books by Fantagraphics. The Adele stuff is great too but his non-Adele work is that bit more adult (gritty, smart adult i mean).  In order of 'how fucking great is that'

1) Ici Meme / Are you there - probably the weirdest but also one of the best comic works there is - about a guy forced to live on the walls of his families former estate and who collects toll's from the various houses now built on the estate in return for opening their gates. Meanwhile he falls in love (with a typically sarky, busty beautiful regularly naked Tardi female) and the French Govt (who need to invade somewhere for popularity in the Polls) decided to treat the estate as a sovereign territory and get involved. It starts off like a beckett play and ends up with a hilarious invasion like a French Dr Strangelove.  Sounds weird, is weird but totally great.

2) It was the War of the trenches - a totally bleak series of everyman tales about the second world war. These are beautifully drawn short 6-20 page tales of the ordinary soldiers, how they don't want to be there, how some cope and how they all die. Its a really sober realistic piece of work and easily the equal of Charlies War. These stories are of huge importance in France - there is no glory, no heroic moments, just the fed-up miserable life of good guys and bad guys as they await death or their vain hope of getting home. Tardi's art makes the whole thing astounding - the character he manages to capture in faces is something few artists have the ability to do.

3) Like a Sniper Lining Up his shot - One of Tardi's pulp noir novels - about a hitman who wants to quit but gets involved in a political assassination. Has a really joyous clever final page that will make you smile. The rest is like a 50s new wave movie with dames being dames, men being men and fat gangsters getting their due comeuppance of being so corpulent and greedy. 

4) West Coast Blues - in the same vein as Sniper - concerning an insurance man who gets involved in a gang trying to eliminate witnesses to a crime, a real road trip through France as he avoids them and tries to turn the tables. Includes Tardi drawing Captain Haddock which is a real treat.

All these books come in beautiful hardback editions - reasonably priced on amazon.

Other than these Dark Horse have just put out the first of their Manara Library which contains two fantastic stories set in early America. Beautiful and compelling tales (the first book has a serious adventure and a tragi-comic adventure) and again really lovely looking editions.

Great edition. He does sound a disturbingly balanced chap.

anyone got a contents list? Just for the sake of some tawdry blog with a passing interest in that sort of thing...

playing it, loving it. Cheers to all involved - great to see prog art used in the design - makes it feel like a real extension of the comic. Top marks to Rebellion.

Tardi - Ici Meme / Are You there

Mill & O'Neill & Redondo - Complete Nemesis The Warlock BK 1

Manara - The Manara Library vol 1.

Mills & Ledroit - Requiem Vampire Knight

and 25 others.

I think you can take it as a given that every regular on here is going to be buying it. TBH I don't know why more creators dont pimp their stuff here - or why there isn't a forum section 'also from the droids' because any time they do mention stuff (like PJ) it gets snapped up. 2000ad has very droid-loyal followers.

Who aren't adverse to a fantastically drawn female arse.

looks great. I happen to know a young lass who wants to combine it with a latex catsuit to cosplay Hershey at comic cons. Handy she's in the 'very fit' side of cosplay fems. Now thats what 2000AD needs for PR.

CF looks top dollar in his. Good facial hair too. That 'on the streets 48hrs straight' look.