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I've given up flagellating myself over the racial dodginess of its odder expressions. 

No, my essential criticism with regard to Book of the Dead, after more than two decades of reflection and considered analysis, is that it's utterly crap.

Totally agree. Wasn't really aiming for subtle racial critique, more considering how the crapiness of the racial stereotyping compounds an already bad story and turns it into something truly, truly dreadful. Dredd fighting a mummy over 8 episodes (written by Millar) is bad enough, but Dredd fighting a mummy over 8 episodes in a barely considered depiction of future Egypt that seems to have been thought about for all of 10 seconds is just taking the piss.

It's not the stereotypes (Wagner may be tonally off with race at times, but, for example, the Mex-Cit burglars in "In The Bath" work wonderfully), it's the conflation of peoples and cultures without any indication that Millar is even aware that he's doing so. I'm certainly not saying "Mark Millar is a racist", but I am saying that the clunkiness of his racial stereotypes are laid pretty bare reading this 20 years later in a way that, say, doesn't hold for Banana City's corrupt judicial system.

I think it's the difference between ignorant/naive racial stereotypes and nonsensical, crass or dumb stereotypes. Further case in point - the Frankenstein Division super-judge (urgh) calling MC-1 judges 'comrade' (without a hint of irony) as he murders them. That's just a dumb indication that Millar thought "I'll have him say comrade lots because that's what communists do", without realising that it was utterly nonsensical. A second of extra thought would have given him an equally naive bit of stereotyping that at least made some kind of sense (have super-judge use "capitalist pig" all the time).

Just started wading through Case Files 20, and I have to say that the Morrison/Millar era is so, so much worse than I had remembered. Everything about the character is wrong, the dialogue is truly awful, the plots are pathetic and the concepts are idiotic at best, and downright offensive at worst.

Perhaps the most glaring example is Book of the Dead. I remember really liking this as a kid. I was always a sucker for international judge uniforms and was struck by Dermot Power's designs. Now, especially given our cultural awareness of arab/islamophobia, the story just comes across as utterly racist, not to mention poorly conceived and paper thin. Why would a future Egypt hark back to a long dead culture (and not have any hint of its more recent islamic past)? Why would all Egyptian names suddenly be related to ancient Egypt? Even if we judge it by the standards of Our Man in Hondo (the typical bar for is-it-racist Dredd questioning), it fails miserably.

Let's not get on to the crap toilet gag, inexplicable mummy from nowhere and usual Millar "Dredd as one-note grump who hits things" trope. Perhaps the worst thing, however, is that this is, at best a 2-part filler Dredd that is somehow stretched over eight progs. Eight! Dredd arrives in Luxor, has a quick look around. A mummy kills the chief judge and Dredd fights it in a pyramid/body processing plant. Judge Death Lives was only 5 episodes! The Graveyard Shift was 7! Midnight Surfer was 6! How can fight with a mummy justify 8 episodes!

The sooner we're out of these dark days in the Case Files, the better.

Nemesis, books 7 and 9 for the astounding and (to my 10 year old self) utterly terrifying John Hinklenton artwork. Torquemada The God is also great.

Great post radiator. I don't know how I managed to miss a whole volume, but your thoughts look good. Rebellion - get us to 25 as quickly as possible!

My big hope is that vol. 23 is a bit of a chunky one.  Judging by the length of other recent volumes, it should end around Hammerstein, but it'd be much better to end at Man Who Broke The Law (last Miller?) and start vol. 24 with the first episode of The Pit.

Now there's a dividing line in quality if ever there was one.

Definitely 939, and 2.80, which takes us up to Escape From Kurt Russell and Terror with Mrs Gunderson.

Some good Wagner Dredd in their, as well as the Miller dross (which is thankfully starting to thin out). Next volume will be the last of the post-Necropolis dip, with Garth Ennis' Goodnight Kiss (although Ennis was obviously miles better than Miller/Morrison).

Looks lovely. Glad to be getting it early.

Don't you love the way that bleeding cool are essentially acting like kids in the school yard shouting "fight, fight, fight!"

Deadlock! Of course! Henry Flint's name is included, so that seems likely. Is the Blackblood story "Dishonourable Discharge"?

Looks like it should be an interesting collection.

OK, so judging by the names, it looks like ABC Warriors: Solo Missions includes:

Red Planet Blues (Moore/Dillon), Possibly the DICEMAN ABC story (Mills/Dillon) & Joe Pineapples Greatest Hits/Dishonourable Discharge (Mills/Carney/Walker).

Doesn't seem to be anything else, but that seems very, very light for a trade. Any clues?

I'm repeating myself here, but Bad Company seems to me an ideal choice for a film.

It could easily be toned down to reduce the budget without losing anything vital, it's got drama, action, a convincing arc for the main character (Danny), a great twist and, in Kano, one of the most memorable anti-heroes in comics.

KILL KROOL!

I like the cut of your jib! Thrax, Flytrap and Mad Tommy would be great too. It really is one of the best things ever to be printed in 2000ad (and No. 2 isn't half bad either).

Devlin Waugh had one of the longest runs of any modern(-ish) story in the Prog ... prime movie or HBO material.

... and we know Dominic West can handle the accent.

That's his real accent! (he's an old Etonian, although comes from more meagre/less bullingtonish origins)

That looks like a very interesting collection. Agreed, however, that a bumper Pete Milligan Collection would be beautiful. He was certainly an eclectic voice in 2000AD at the time - Tribal Memories, The Dead, Bad Company, Hewligan's Haircut, Bix Barton, Sooner or Later really span quite a range of styles.

Not caring for comics much outside tooth (difficult to wade through the capes to find the good stuff), I have no idea of his other work, nor why he no longer writes for the Galaxy's Greatest. Anyone want to fill me in?

Can I go with the following:

Flesh, because Flesh.
Cradlegrave (E4, BBC3, 3-4 parts)
Nemesis Bk 1
Savage Bks 1 - 3 (BBC, 3 series; got to have the perfect Bill though)
Ro-Busters: Terror-Meks (because Pacific Rim meets Ken Loach is a great movie pitch).
Sell the FutureShock stories as concepts for Doctor Who episodes.

Do you not listen to the podcasts then

Oops, no. Have I missed wonderful news?