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I'm really torn about Mills's tendency to do that. On the one hand, some of the throwaway characters and weapons he comes up with (in conjunction with his artists, obv.) are way cool, and I'd love to see them reappear and get used more often. On the other hand, I really respect and appreciate the creativity and bloody-mindedness of his drive to create new concepts all the damn time, and ignore old ones.

As a child, each 5-page epsiode of Mills and O'Neill Nemesis was like a self-contained Universe of delight - and if I'd never read a Prog before, I imagine I'd feel much the same with new episodes of Flesh and Defoe. They can be somewhat unsatisfying as long-form stories, but they excel in the moment, for the most part.

I've only seen the adverts for Nina and the Neurons, I'll have to check it out!

I'm guessing I'm not the only person on these boards (not that I post very often) who has small children? And I'm guessing further that most fellow parents spend more time than they had ever expected to watching channel 71, aka CBeebies, aka the baby/toddler channel from the BBC?

Anyway, it's only fairly recently dawned on me that two of the better shows on this channel are the product of 2000 AD alumnus Steve Roberts. I'm a massive fan of Dipdap, which at the risk of dumbing it down too much is like a 2D Morph, but generally reminds me that 5 minute cartoons can still be great pieces of work. I gather he also works on the rather charming Abney & Teal, along with the likes of Simon Gurr.

Anyway, both are recommended - Dipdap indeed I'd recommend to anyone who simply likes cartoons, regardless of needing the excuse of a young child to watch them with.

Since you've started, what have the been the best and worst selling GNs?

I'm going to assume that Judge Dredd Case Files 1 is a strong contender for best-selling - is there any thought of repackaging the Case Files series, without the 'complete' tag, to only include the 'good' stories? 'Case Files 1' is clearly a title that's going to draw new readers in, but do its contents really encourage said new readers to buy  'Case Files 2'?
For example, could there be a market for 'The best of Judge Dredd, Volume 1', which contains, say, Robot Wars, a few Luna 1 stories, the Return of Rico, and ends with the Cursed Earth saga'?

Walter the Wobot? And while we're on robots, Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein make a neat bickering couple.
But I can't think of any overtly covertly gay characters predating Brass and Bland, good call.

I agree, this would translate really neatly into 2000AD I think, but then with the quality of original content so high I can see why Tharg's not bothering to court the tie-in people. But if Mr. Brooker could submit some Black Mirror scripts for comic-bookery that'd be neat and might bring in a few new souls, eh?

Is the current Judge Anderson in the Megazine meant to be 50 years old (or thereabouts), or is she being drawn younger to match Olivia Thirlby?

Who's your favourite 2000 A.D. villain created in the last ten years?

Would you ever consider running licensed stories in 2000AD or the Meg in future? I know this didn't work out great with Urban Strike! or A Life Less Ordinary in the 1990s, but with maybe it could with the increasing popularity of genre novels and TV shows...

What's Prog 2000 going to be called when the issue count reached that magic number?

The point is, I'm definitely buying it now! Thanks for clearing that up.

Hardbacks, man. Thye may look luxurious, and no doubt live longer, but I've never found one that was easier to read than the paperback edition, and damnit, reading is what books are for!

Is this book in Hardback as Amazon claims? I must confess I'd rather it wasn't...
But it's a must buy for sure!

Just in case you didn't think Mr Ewing was already a proper clever bastard for creating this Dredd story (and let's not forget Higgins's hand in it, too, eh), spare a thought for poor Jason Shiga, creator of Meanwhile...http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meanwhile-Pick-Path-Story-Possibilities/dp/0810984237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324553453&sr=8-1.

This is a choose your own adventure comic which has basically the same premise (every choice leads to a new reality), but isn't half as fun as the Dredd, and can't be read as a panel-by-panel adventure either. The thing is, Shiga explains in his intro that it took him over 2 years to put the thing together, whereas one feels Ewing read it, thought, hang on, it can't be that hard, and proceeds to knock out his own, better version in a week or two.

The Shiga book is recommended by the way, but you have to read it as an adventure, and it's bloody hard to find the correct path through!

Anyway, cracking idea brilliantly executed by Ewing and Higgins.

I like this game! But I do hope future entries won't be quite so tough, but it's so hard to judge the line between obvious and virtually impossible.

Storywise not an awful lot has scared me from 2000 AD, but artwise there's plenty!
Especially Kev O'Neill, John Hicklenton, Simon Harrison and Frazer Irving. Redondo I think had a great line in showing people looking terrified, which adds to atmosphere brilliantly, even if the actual monsters weren't so scary.

Spurrier's From Grace and bits of Chiaroscuro - the reaction of the skeezy guy when he finally watches the movie and sees the kill scene - were chilling.

Chalk me up as a Vector 13 fan. I thought the reportage style narration meant that the ideas were often scarier, even if it meant less tension. There's a great one, by Abnett I think, about a man terrified of the dark.

I wasn't a huge fan of Abnett/Harrison Durham Red when it was in the Progs, but re-readng it in the collections it held up pretty well. The only thing that annoyed me was it was impossible to tell the difference between normal humans and mutants, which is one of the best things about Ezquerra's Strontium Dog art. Also, it didn't work out so well having her wear fewer and fewer clothes with each series. More dignity needed, yes!

Anyway, I look forward to seeing Red in the Prog again, she's a lasting character.

Nothing extra to say, but I wanted to add to the love. Definite increase in oil rations for Den-153.

I am so impressed with that piece of moon-crater fact spotting I just had to write in. Hats off!

If I ever do another book on dinosaurs I'll see if I can get that in.