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The two hosts, Graeme and Jeff, talk about 2000AD at least a little bit on most episodes of Wait, What?, they're big fans. They have a deep abiding love of Zombo, for one.
I'm sure they'll give their own background when they start putting out the Drokk spinoff, but as far as I can tell Graeme (the Scot) grew up reading 2000AD in the early 80s, and has kept in touch ever since. Jeff  (the American), has read bits of Dredd here and there before reading 2000AD on the regular in recent years, so I imagine the early stuff will be brand new to him. As with Conrad and Fox, it's likely to yield a fun dynamic of opinions / appreciation.

Word is, there's a new podcast in town, reviewing all of Judge Dredd, in order.
Details to be found here:
http://www.waitwhatpodcast.com/wait-what-ep-264/,
- but you have to the end. (or download the episode and fast forward by about 2 hours!)

It's being co-hosted by comics/pop-culture journalist Graeme MacMillan, who's appeared on the Thrillcast at least twice already, so it's in good hands. (Wait, What?, his main podcast, is bizarrely entertaining and listenable, despite the general rambling tone. I guess it's down to the chemistry with his co-host, which is on the same level of infectious as Fox 'n Conrad.

Apparently it kicks off next week...

Frankly, what has me most excited are the comments at the bottom of the above-linked post, in which their American listeners get very excited to find out more about Dredd.

Who'd have thought that the best way to promote the joys of 2000AD, a silent comic, would be via podcast, an auditory-only experience...

As for Finn, I don't recall that ever being a Crisis thing. The link between it and TWW is tenuous at best.

The very opening series of Third World War includes a character named Paul in the line-up of young, dumb and self-righteous soldiers on a 'peace-keeping' mission. Pretty sure this is very explicitly a young version of the Paul who would return from soldiering to take up being a cabbie in Plymouth in the pages of Finn. I believe he grows more and more Finn-like as TWW progresses, although I've only read about half of it.

Book III of Finn also re-introduces Eve and the ultra-tory blonde girl from that original run of TWW, which may be another reason why that series hasn't been reprinted (yet)?

On the subject of John Smith collections, it'd be a right effort to put it together, but the dream is to find a chronological collection including basically all of his early stuff, which (apart from Future Shocks), is all tied in to Indigo Prime in various ways, and sets up that agency more clearly!
I'm talking the original 'Void Indiga' Future Shock, but then all of Tyranny Rex, including especially the Specials/Annuals episodes (I guess you could do without the Redux series), not forgetting Fervent & Lobe and Almaranda. Maybe throw in Danzig's Inferno for good measure. And of course the actual Indigo Prime episodes. Call it 'John Smith: the making sense at last collection'.

Just sayin'.

Witch World... dodgy Slaine... Space Girls... Vector 13... Life Less Ordinary...
It's a short period of time, but for whatever reason this seems to be what people think of when they think of Bish-Op, poor bastard.

For real! A ton of work has gone into this series, and well worth it, too.

I have to confess that one reason I love this show so much is that you broadly agree with my own opinion of virtually every strip,* and who doesn't love an echo chamber. It's enough to make me believe there's some objective truth in critical evaluation of comics. So I'm waiting to see if that continues into the delightful 90s, which I have much fondness for.

*ie all of it is is super fun. Minor disagreements: I've little love for Helltrekkers, even the art, and I have a strong love for the early days of Rogue Trooper, which you both seemed to like less than the mid-period stuff. I think we can all agree it started tailing off around the time of Colonel Kovert.

The hard work is always appreciated, and as someone who maintains single blog on which I barely manage one post per month, the nailed on weekly / bi-weekly schedule is a wonder to behold!

Oh man, another big big name in 2000AD. His Dredd one-offs remain the funniest and most lunatic. I echo the love for his mega-citizens, and indeed his Mega City 1, constantly throbbing and heaving with people and buildings and vehicles and everything. This picture of the juve unwrapping that umtpy candy positively vibrates with emotional impact.



My condolences to his family and friends.

You ever had one of those months where you find yourself writing a 3,000 word essay on the merits of Tony Skinner?
I love writing this blog, even if it does take me ages.

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/01/no-127-tony-skinner.html

I remember really struggling with Slaine at the time, but having read this era in the collections recently it holds up surprisingly well. Definitely the murky repro in the Progs didn't help, but it also feels as if Mills had given up writing thematically coherent episodes, and was already writing for the trade. The tale of Catholic soldiers besieging a town of Cathars is a weird fit for a story about a pagan barbarian, mind.

I'd be up for a Dredd sticker or two (or maybe ABC Warriors) to liven up my headphones.

[Prog 1551]

Prog 1551 for me, and I couldn't be much happier. Progs 1500-1800 is the 2nd Golden Age of 2000AD I reckon (the first being 300-600), and 1551 is a 9/10 prog for me:

ABC Warriors Volgan War Book II, episode 2. In the context of all of ABC Warriors, a bit of a mess, but there's you can lose yourself in, and Blackblood beginning his search for the elusive 'General Public'*

Judge Dredd: Time's Squared. A one-and-done bit of fun.

Button Man IV, episode 1 - Guess I'd be frustrated not to see what happens next but it's a story I like a lot.

Caballistics, Inc: Ashes, episode 1: Again, frustrating not to be able to read more episodes, but at least I'd
get in on the ground.

Stone Island II, episode 2 - I'd be utterly lost as to what was going on, but it's gorey as hell and this is another series I love overall, although series 1 was better.

5 top artists, 5 top writers, with a real mix of styles. Not many better single Progs out there in my opinion!
But really, what kind of monster would consign you to a cell with but a single issue of 2000AD for company??

*One of those jokes that just wasn't funny at first but has become funny after sufficient repetition

Always I am late to these poll threads!

My list:

1st Survival Geeks
2nd Brink
3rd Sinister Dexter

(I feel bad putting Brink at the top when it's an incomplete thrill - but I'll be honest and say this third series hasn't been quite as good as the first two, although I'm desperate to see how it unfolds)

Honourable mentions from me - Bad Company (mostly for the Return of the Mac); Mechastopheles (Another series with a clearer plot could propel this into Nemesis-level fun); Fiends (Dave Taylor's art especially, but Trevallion's working wonders too); Durham Red

And yes, best thrill of the year was actually Judge Dredd: the Small House. Hand on heart, not a vintage year for my money. The Megazine, on the other hand, that's been on scorching form!

I quite enjoyed the 3riller this week. Maybe I've been out of the zombie game for too long and it's old hat to a lot of readers but it felt like a new take on that monster and I do like a bit of red.

It's slightly sad that the mystery of Kenneth Niemand is holding our collective attention more than the mystery of any given strip!

Here's one for that 'ask me anything' segment:

Did you reply to Eamonn Clarke's Top 10 list challenge, and if so, what were your guys's top 10 Dredd and non-Dredd stories?

(Although I appreciate Conrad may not want to divulge his opinion of stories yet to come in Fox's reading timeline).

In a more personal vein:
What are both of your 'comics reading' origin stories?

I could go for this - the existing Mean Angel collections do feel a bit empty without having all of this stuff in. But I think you'd have to include a least a handful of episodes from the Judge Child, and probably the Fink story as well, just to get the man's origin in there?