Rebellion trades in July - Russian & Rad-Deserts...

[The Amstor Computer]

I'd posted links to these on Amazon a while back, but the listings have now been updated with cover images & a spot more info.

First up:

Nikolai Dante Volume 3: The Courtship of Jena Makarov

Russia, 2666 AD and devil-may-care Nikolai Dante, raised by his pirate-queen mother, is also the bastard son of the Romanov Dynasty, one of the most powerful families in the world and one that is heading into war with the ruling Tsar Makarov. Worse still, his growing relationship with the Tsar' daughter Jena is going to spell tragedy for everyone.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/court.jpg">

By my reckoning, and if Amazon's page count is correct, this volume should collect:

Fists of Fury - 10pp
Last Dance of the Trans-Siberian - 20pp
Cruel Seas - 10pp
Requiem for Lost Love - 10pp
The Courtship of Jena Makarov - 65pp
The Courtship of Jena Makarov: Epilogue - 6pp

It leaves this book a slightly slimmer volume than the first two, but opens the door for a fourth volume collecting the entire "Tsar Wars" arc in one book.

Note to the TPB droids, though - you might want to check your spelling circuits... ;-)

[The Amstor Computer]

Next up...

Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth

It is the year 2100 and Mega-City Two, on the west coast of post-apocalyptic North America, has fallen victim to a deadly plague. With the spaceport knocked out, it falls to Mega-City One's Judge Dredd to deliver the antidote and undertake a perilous journey across the toughest terrain known to mankind - the Cursed Earth!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/cursedearth.jpg">

No need to guess what this book collects :-)

Nice choice of cover - different from any previous collection, but stylistically quite close to some of McMahon's work on the strip, and from one of 2000AD's premier artists. I have some issues with the cropping of the picture - the full image, as seen http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/megazine/hires/218.jpg">here is a far more powerful and better balanced image. A re-think here would be most welcome.

[The Amstor Computer]

...and the final release for July. There isn't a proper cover pic for this, just a placeholder, but I'll post it anyway:

Slaine Volume 2: Time Killer

Barbarian warrior Slaine and his dwarf companion Ukko have joined forces with trainee priestess Nest and are travelling by dragon to the fortress of the Ever-Living Ones, under attack from dark gods, the Cythrons. The arch-druids within the eternal fortress have plans to send Slaine through time to save the human race, as their Time Killer!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/timekiller.jpg">


The image here is simply a recoloured version of the classic Glenn Fabry cover to http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/hires/411.jpg">prog 411. I'm not entirely sure about the colouring, but it's nice to see a cover for the volume that is relevant & by an artist who worked on the stories within.

Talking of which, I expect this volume will consist of:

Dragonheist - 49pp
Time Killer - 122pp

[The Amstor Computer]

There's often a lot of debate here about the wisdom of resurrecting old 2000AD characters, like the VCs or Savage, but there's never really been any discussion about what classic boys' comic characters from beyond 2000AD we'd like to see again.

So, imagine 2000AD has the opportunity to print new stories featuring characters you used to love - which three strips from other Brit comics would you like to see?

For my money it would have to be a trio from the New Eagle; two classics and one that's more format than character. First:

Doomlord

Servant of Nox... Master of Life... Bringer of Death!

One of *the* great British comic strips, and one that seems to have largely passed under the radar in any analysis of British comics in the 1980s.

Doomlord - or Servitor Vek - came to Earth to judge the human race, but ended up rebelling against his masters on the dark world of Nox and becoming Earth's protector. His adventures in the pages of the New Eagle lasted only around seven years, but in that time he battled the Deathlords and the Populators of Pollux, engaged in a battle of wits with the Lord & Lady of Doom, led the forces of Nox against the Reptallans, raised & destroyed his son, Enok, and appeared on his own TV show - and all in time to return to his lodgings at a small B&B to watch Coronation Street with his landlady.

The strip was one of Alan Grant's finest creations, firmly rooted in a rather suburban Britain, but with a curious protagonist who was never wholly heroic, and - unlike Dan Dare, his companion in Eagle - often more unsettling than inspiring.

Although the series started as a photostrip, it soon switched to the more traditional comic format. Several artists worked on the strip - including Heinzl, and a brief guest appearance by Dave D'Antiquis - but the man who made it his own was Eric Bradbury. Equally at home in Mrs Souster's B&B as in the caverns of Nox, Bradbury's art on Doomlord was some of his best work & it's terribly sad that it's never seen print again.

The story ended rather ignobly with a final battle between Vek and his son, Enok, and the finale of this wonderful series marked the beginning of a slow decline for the New Eagle.

But with the original writer still with us, perhaps the return of Servitor Vek from the Realm of Ghosts isn't *too* much to hope for. After all, there's always another crisis to avert - and an awful lot of Coronation Street to catch up on...