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That would make sense from Dante's point of view.

Great work, very regal looking!

I look forward to my Dry Run hardback edition in 2024.

In all seriousness, as someone who has picked up the odd volume here and there, extending this will hopefully be a nice opportunity to pick up some good quality collections that I don't own - Armoured Gideon obv but maybe also stuff like Night Zero, Harlem Heroes, Bix Barton and even recent stuff like Survival Geeks would be nice in a hardcover.

The final one, The Murmuring, is excellent. More chills than thrills, very subtle in places and beautifully shot and acted.

It's the usual mixed bag you'd expect from an anthology series. A couple of really good ones, a couple of turkeys, and a bunch that were good to alright. I'm a fan of this format and I hope it returns for another series - and that it gets better rather than worse (unlike Masters of Horror)

Not sure if we're still playing this game but I've been thinking about it all weekend:

"Giant, Slim and Hairy are the only players to survive the road crash! They've had to bring in a rookie, a veteran and two:
otters in tiny, adorable Harlem Hero kits
pints of lager and a packet of crisps
Slim hairy giants
and a half men
...to make up the squad!"

Look, if everyone goes around annihilating everything, we'll never get that bloody book.

There will be no annihilation cessation. Too much elation.

REJOICE ANNIHILATE!

Oh that is fantastic!

Raised by Owls: The Santanist

https://raisedbyowls.bandcamp.com/track/the-santanist

The Order to run for the entirely of 2023.
I also can't see it being wrapped up in one series. We were all saying it needed to start finishing, I hope when it does it does the story justice. The early bits are brilliant.
I also hope we can keep John M Burns, and get him drawing something else beautiful, preferably with period costumes in it.

Well that'll take some beating!
Is Stormslayer any good? My wife asked if she could get me a FF book for Christmas and pretty much all the others I don't have are £30 and up on the secondary market..

Did I read that this is the last arc of Hershey (presumably concluding with her death - and it doesn't look good for Frank either at the moment) or did I make this up?

[Masks of Mayhem]

Masks of Mayhem

I was sure I've played this before, but I didn't remember any of this book whatsoever, so perhaps I haven't!

I'm the king, which is awesome until my court wizard tells me another wizard is about to unleash destruction on my land (and indeed the world) by means of twelve magical sigils attached to stone golems. Someone should do something about this, I say. Yes, you should, says the wizard. So, against all reason, I set off ON MY OWN, on foot, with nothing bar a backpack full of sandwiches, a single potion of luck and my sword and special kingly helmet.
It is clear I am not a wise king.

Off I go, nodding to peasants and such and saying 'jolly good' and 'what ho' until I reach the foreboding monster filled and horribly named Lake Nekros. I build a raft, push off and something immediately hauls me into the water and kills me. That's a record for a FF book surely - dead in three paragraphs and on my first choice? Fuck that. I go back and try again.

This time the king decides to go around the lake via Affen Forest. It grows dark so I set up a jolly little camp and try and get some shuteye but some beastly kraken snakes up out of the lake and tries to have me for supper. It's a long fight as I have to fight each tentacle individually, but thankfully I am a skilled swordsman (all those fencing lessons paid off) and soon put paid to the rotten thing. What should happen next but a load of ghosts rising up out of the lake and offering to help me out should I but say the name of the top ghost fellow. Turns out the poor blighters' souls were held in thrall to the kraken and with it's death they're free. Odd eh?
Bouyed by the aid of my new chums I continue north where I'm accosted by some Wood Elves and taken to their delightfully rustic little village where I explain why I'm on my quest to vanquish Morgana and her masks. The elves agree to help and show me a mystic vision in their magical mirror, which is rather rum. "We could help you more but that would remove free choice which is what determines a hero" they say and whisk me away with their elf magic. Vague chaps, these elves!

(at this point I tried asking about the ghost and of course, when I mentioned his name, he appeared and destroyed all the elves. I was killed immediately by a magic vortex after so ignored this path, but this was actually pretty funny especially as the ghost was extremely cross)

I find myself in some mist shrouded hills on the far side of the lake. Top work elves, that's saved me a spot of boot leather! It's dashed cold here but I settle down and wait for the mist to clear, revealing an uninhabited mine of some kind. As a king I'm very interested in architecture, so I poke around in a ruined outhouse, fall through the floor and have to fight some jolly unpleasant rats and things to get out. I then meet some hermit chappy who gives me a rather nice royal sceptre before he falls asleep! One supposes it must be hard work being a hermit and all that. I then trot down into the mine itself where I pick up a nugget of copper ore and a pickaxe handle, which will make fine souvenirs of my jaunt. Spotting a hole in the ceiling I stop and look up through it and some chap above looks down it and shoots me dead!

One last go. I decide not to look up at the hole, retrace my steps, fight some bally smelly bats, then stop for a sandwich and a bite of fruitcake whilst I consider my position. I've been stuck in this rotten mine for some time and the old kingly sense of direction has failed me a bit. I keep going left till eventually I arrive at an entrance where some beastly great bear is waiting for me. It gets quite a few licks in too, and I have to stop for another lunch after the battle, I can tell you. Then it's a simple task to toddle on to Fallow Dale where I am to meet with this chap Hever and pick up his magic horn (Kevin told me to do this earlier. Did I mention Kevin? Splendid fellow. Made my helmet don't you know)
Before meeting Hever I stop off at the inn for an absolutely splendid lunch. Hever says he can't give me his magic horn unless I hand over a magic mirror - I don't have one of those, so he suggests I head back into bally Affen Forest and deal with some great filthy tiger that's running around there eating his cattle and whatnot. I head into the forest with some hounds and blunder into a pit trap - dug by Hever's own men, worse luck - and that's it for my adventure. Bad luck old bean!

This book is incredibly hard! It's Deathtrap Dungeon-esque in it's instant death choices it seems with many of them being very arbitrary. There's also a lot of luck and skill tests, and it looks like failing a lot of them is fatal too.
I haven't got far enough into this yet to really get into the plot, but the setup with me being the king but wandering about on my own without even a horse or a couple of aides is ridiculous. What is great is Russ Nicholson's wonderful illustrations which are full of atmosphere and also very evocative not only of the first two books in the series (which he illustrated, of course) but also old Games Workshop art of yore, which all adds to it being very cool indeed.
The sequence where I had to hunt the tiger was rather unique as well, it being a grid with both tiger and myself moving around in it randomly. Would have been better without an 'enter this square and you auto-die' bit though!

Despite the difficulty I've enjoyed this so far, so I'm going to stick at it!

Didn't that Proletariat dude die last week? I assumed so but it's not clear.
I guess, when you're enjoying a story (like I have the recent Chimpsky) stuff like that is easy to not worry about, but when you're not then it sort of sticks out and drags it down.

Nicely out Colin re. the extra page count (even if I disagree about Hope!)

[Dredd]

Cunning work by Royal Mail, delivering a Prog on a Saturday just as my subscription commitment was wavering, and reminding me how awesome that is.

Lengthy final episodes for a couple of Thrills this week which means no Hope stodging up the middle of the Prog and makes it a much better reading experience. All behind a fantastic, eye-catching Simon Fraser cover! There's also a Kevin O'Neill obituary

Dredd - Wraps up. I enjoyed the first couple of parts of this tale but it went quickly off the rails for me - the ending is a bit of a mess ([spoiler]if the clone insta-kills all the Sov psychics, why is Anderson still here?[/spoiler]) and it all feels a bit pointless but the last couple of pages are great with Dredd at his hardline horrible best. Henry Flint's art is the business though - I do like the design on Vasilisa, Dredd's insane, staring mechanical eye is the creepiest thing here, and whilst technically not into a return to youthful Anderson, she's got an ethereal, almost fey look in this story.

Enemy Earth - I read this this week. It's ok. I don't like the artwork but I just figure this tale isn't for me. For a Regened tale it's pretty dark, which is what we've all been asking for, so it's a shame it hasn't really hit it off with the bulk of the commentators.

Chimpsky - Takes a dark turn with it's conclusion. This Chimpsky story has been terrific. Chimpsky having a secret psi-dampening prison room feels a bit of a stretch in a story about a super-intelligent ape in a future city but the story is great so it's easy to accept. Having been desperate to see these kids get their comeuppance, Chimpsky's decision - and his self-admonishment - is 100% in line with his character and a wider arc is set up. Really enjoyed everything about this.

Hershey - Really enjoyed this too. I keep saying this story is quite cinematic and I think it has been - the chase, the fights have all been done perfectly. The page this week where the spider-plant things come through the wall / window is brilliant. The story has been simpler than the boxing one and it's worked better for it.

Not a brilliant, but perfectly enjoyable Prog.