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Amazing work! Now when are the collections coming out!

I've really enjoyed the Mega City Undercover trades, and really like the inclusion of the Lenny Zero stuff. Perhaps a third trade could include that material, along with The Simping Detective and DeMarco PI?

Wait, what? I thought this wasn't out until Sept 12th? Does this mean I can expect my Deviant Edition soon?

I may jump straight to Invasions next based on what I've heard about the 90s stuff.

I don't think you'd miss anything continuity-wise, but Demon Killer and Lord of Misrule are pretty good fun (even though Demon Killer is basically a retread of the start of Time Killer).

... De Montfort as yet another archetypal Mills Torque-baddie would have been horrendously predictable, but as it was the twist Mills delivered in that story was pretty darn clever. 

Agree that it would probably have been hackneyed. In my mind I just transplant the opening scene of De Montefort burning the Cathars into a scene from The Two Torquemadas. To my mind, the depiction of De Montefort as doing the work of the Goddess in the name of Christianity is one of the few examples of Mills seeming to betray his own politics/morality in his work.

The story is probably my personal highlight of mid-period Slaine. 

Didn't like any of them much at the time, but Lord of Misrule was much better on reread.

The less said about King of Hearts the better.

Too true.

Here, here!!!

I hope it's a single chunky volume. I've personally found Grail War to be difficult enough* and, having only seen a handful of pages from Secret Commonwealth, I've been anticipating it with a mixture of dread and perverse, self-loathing delight.

* I loathe King of Hearts and its Braveheart bandwagoneering guff, and can't read the Grail Wars stories without thinking about how an earlier Mills would have been more likely to have Simon De Montefort as an incarnation of Torquemada. He really was scraping the Slaine-across-time barrel by this point.

Just to continue with the gap filling trades questions ...

... any idea when the paperback version of volgan wars 4 will emerge? Also, is ABC Warriors: Return to Earth really hardcover? Amazon has it listed as such so I'm in two minds as to whether to ignore this as usual, or believe it because it's a Mills/Langley book. Any ideas?

Finally, Savage Vol. 3 trade?

Totally love the Zenith pic.

I agree that there was a definite over abundance of ideas in the early Tyranny stories. It seemed to move from concept to concept without ever really settling. I loed it anyway, but I did always feel like it was going through a settling in period and trying to find the ideas that worked best.

I'd love to know more about J. Smith's thinking during her development, and what he thinks of her looking back.

The randomness of her appearances always felt like scheduling issues. The most obvious case is the Indigo Prime related story not being printed until after Soft Bodies, despite being absolutely essential to understanding the set up for that Story.  Similarly, one of her other appearances in the specials occurred after Soft Bodies, where she'd entered a convent, but made no mention of it.

I thought the art was great (especially Mark Buckingham on the initial episodes of Deus Ex Machina). For messy, I can only imagine you mean Will Simpson on Soft Bodies. His black and white work of the time was always very splotty (for want of a better word). Bloodlines in Dredd looks exactly the same. It does have the effect of making a confusing story even more difficult to grasp.

In light of some conversation elsewhere, I thought I'd start a thread about every toother's favourite dinosaur tailed art terrorist, Tyranny Rex.

For those who missed out, Ms Rex appeared around the 500s, disappeared until the 800s when she came back for a 3 book epic of brilliance (Deus Ex Machina) then disappeared again until somewhere around the 1200s. She's been missing since. One of John Smith's first creations for 2000ad, she's important as a starting point for some of the Indigo Prime world (Fervent and Lobe, especially).

Best moments - attempting to destroy the universe when hired by Indigo Prime; infiltrating (and destroying) giant, floating whale/bug things (I may be remembering this story poorly); becoming a space nun and fighting off a hoard of deranged, bloodthirsty maniacs after god's skin (then dying).

Great stories, great art, some impossible to follow plots and some very, very poor scheduling from Tharg. I'd love to see her back in the prog, perhaps integrated into the revitalised Indigo Prime. To me, she's always seemed a natural successor to Halo Jones. Like Jones, she's inclined to drift around and lead a varied life (c'mon who else could be an art terrorist, assassin, model and space nun), and the world(s) she inhabits allow for a great variety of possible stories. Unlike Jones, however, I think she's far more self-possessed. Halo only made a single active choice in the entire saga (killing the General); Ms Rex might drift, but it never felt as if she was at the whims of fate.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks/remembers about her. If the fabulous Mr Smith still knocks about these parts, It'd be great to hear from him too.

I was actually recently pondering if having Tyranny Rex join Indigo Prime would be a good idea. Or the GREATEST idea.

Didn't work out well the last time they tried that!

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=SCIFI88

Ah, but it did the first time [spoiler](when Tyranny tries to destroy the universe after infiltrating Indigo Prime)[/spoiler].

Oh that's what I meant - you think ... the ending was a good think?

Its a great story, if that's what you mean BUT no one was happy at the end! Makes me sad!

Ah, I'm getting confused. Thought the story I was thinking of was in the prog. Now I'm thinking about it, wasn't it one of those odd ones where the special featuring said story appeared after Soft Bodies, making Soft Bodies even more difficult to comprehend?

This is totally of topic now though. Perhaps I'll just make a thread where we can discuss how great Tyranny Rex was/is?

I was actually recently pondering if having Tyranny Rex join Indigo Prime would be a good idea. Or the GREATEST idea.

Didn't work out well the last time they tried that!

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=SCIFI88

Ah, but it did the first time [spoiler](when Tyranny tries to destroy the universe after infiltrating Indigo Prime)[/spoiler].

I've been going through a bit of a Smith reread (and read) of late. Worked my way through Firekind, Revere, Slaughterbowl, A Love Like Blood, Tyranny Rex, Indigo Prime, the first two Devlin Waugh trades, Cradlegrave, and Leatherjack and am currently on the new Dead Eyes/Indigo Prime trade (new to me as a non-prog reader these days).

I have to say that they really do all stack up well, purely from an ideas standpoint. Sections of old Indigo Prime, Tyranny Rex and Revere are either difficult to follow, or designed not to be understood, but that all comes across in a William Burroughs/David Lynch kind of way, allowing me to enjoy the style and concepts even if the plot is somewhat obscured. Soft Bodies and book 3 of Revere are particularly difficult, it must be said.

Surely I can't be alone in wanting more of Smith's stuff collected in trades. Even better would be a return for Tyranny Rex on the scale of something like Deus Ex Machina. The Comeback was simply not enough. Perhaps he can link her back in with the reinvigorated Indigo Prime?

With all this talk of reprinting Grant Morrison's old Crisis work, can I be the first (on this thread) to call for the reprint of John Smith's/Jim Baikie's astounding New Statesmen.  Another great 2000AD does superheroes story that's been lost in the mists of time!

Got one. Well I've got a confirmation at least. Won't believe it until it's sitting in my own sweaty hands.