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Wait -- Scarlet Traces prequel? As in before The War of the Worlds?

A letters page also, with Ol' Green Bonce inferring that the 2350 strips could get another airing, if enough people demand it. Or, you know, plead. He also confirms there will be another Burns strip in the Prog (his last): Nightmare, New York. And that D'Israeli's working on Edginton's Scarlet Traces prequel, Empire of Blood, due in 2024.

I had wondered about Nightmare as both John Burns & Kek-W had mentioned the strip on Facebook after The Order finished but have not said anything in the wake of John's retirement announcement.

Yes, I'm entirely in favour of more violence in the Regened prog, but animal cruelty is a different beast _(ahem) altogether.

Isn't that what shooting robots is for?

I never thought too highly of Gibson's work until Halo Jones 3, and evidently he sometimes didn't think much of it himself. The following is his introduction to the 1984 Titan reprint of Day of the Droids.

Ian is specifically talking about Day of the Droids here. IIRC he was in a band at the time & was putting all of his focus on that. Which is why the art looks so rushed compared with the majesty that is Verdus, In hindsight he was so embarrassed by the result that he adopted the bylines Emberton & Q. Twerk because he didn't want the readers to associate his new work with his performance on that particular strip.

Interesting that all the regular stories seem to be running through the end of year special.

Someone recently mentioned that the Dredd / Robo-Hunter one-off would have made perfect sense for the Christmas issue.
Have to agree.

Prog 2350 hit the shelves the same week as the trade reprinting the Eagle comics colour version of Verdus.

Tharg knew exactly what he was doing there.

[RED PLANET BLUES IN ITS ENTIRETY!!!]

To be fair, I'm not sure my resolve will hold. I was very clear that I would not buy the Kev O'Neill one, but I've seen people flicking through the thing on YouTube and, well...

I wouldn't have thought Dillon would be a must buy Apex edition for me, but I'm pretty sure over the coming months I'll end up putting in an order for it. They're great books in general - haven't regretted one yet!

My heart sank when I saw Harlem Heroes listed among the contents but no Abelaard Snazz, Mean Arena or Tyranny Rex. However RED PLANET BLUES IN ITS ENTIRETY!!!

SOLD.

Where do you keep them?

Propped vertically against boxes of books in a walk-in wardrobe.

Not the most comprehensive Bix Barton collection - just two stories, already reprinted (ages ago!) in the Extreme Editions. I'll take them in hardback, though. Always had a soft spot for Bix, but I shouldn't think it's aged well (unlike yours truly).

That's... unfortunate. I thought that the strip really came into it's own with the done-in-one stories in the Sci-Fi Specials. These brilliant, often laugh-out-loud funny distillations of English absurdity along with John Smith's text stories consistently made the specials worth buying in the 1990s. Pete & Jim somehow even managed to give a talking plate of full English breakfast gravitas which is no mean feat.

But does it? I do t recall it ever explicitly naming the US location. We did get a start year (2140) and Slade later moving to Brit-Cit. And if this is MC1 at the start, although the timelines add up, what we see doesn't. Just the police alone in Day of the Droids don't scream Judge Dredd.</geekcontinuityhat>

I stand corrected. Sam & Kidd leave for Verdus from Mega-City 1 spaceport which does give Tharg a bit of wiggle room here. Any deviation between the two strips in subsequent stories we can put down to leakage of Time Radiation from Thoth buggering about in the Time Wastes as well as Helter Skelter 

Can anyone recall Slade's first appearance in Mega-City One? Was it in a Dredd story which I have forgotten?

That would be the very first episode of Robo-Hunter in prog 76.

Brian McBride, half of Texan post-rock / ambient duo Stars of the Lid

https://pitchfork.com/news/stars-of-the-lids-brian-mcbride-dies-at-53/

Chonky paperback omnibus of the first three books due February 2024.

The original, critically acclaimed trilogy of graphic novels of the cult-favorite anthropomorphic alien invasion collected together for the very first time!A cozy English country village enjoying the peace of the 1930s is invaded by deadly alien machines, forcing a ragtag group of survivors into hiding in the no-longer-storybook woods. A war veteran with PTSD, an agoraphobic writer, the town outsider, the local newsman, and a sheltered young man are forced to face life and death, the mysteries of the universe, and perhaps most horrifying, the callous officials who use the chaos of war to advance their own ends, attempting to discover the chilling origins of the invasion and keep each other safe. Wind in the Willows meets War of the Worlds, written by multiple New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning comic book writer Dan Abnett (Guardians of the Galaxy) and illustrated by award-winning graphic novelist I.N.J. Culbard (Doctor Who) in the classic sci-fi tradition with an anthropomorphic twist, Wild's End reveals powerful acts of humanity persevering in the face of war on a worldwide scale. For the first time, the original trilogy of the cult-favorite anthropomorphic alien invasion graphic novels are collected here!. Collects Wild's End: First Light, Wild's End: The Enemy Within, and Wild's End: Journey's End.

Thanks Richard. That opening scene really lingers in the mind, doesn't it? 

[Executioner]

That was a definitely a Shimura story drawn by Andy Clarke.

Which would make it either Executioner (Meg 224 - 226) or Deus X (Meg 228 - 230).

If anyone is near their Megs could they confirm which one it is please? Ta.

[Rehab]

That would be Rehab by Al Ewing with art by Karl Richardson (progs 1644 - 1648).