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I may be being crudely simplistic but is it not the case that the Dredd/Judge Dredd brand is about to bring new and renewed * attention to the 2000AD/Megazine mother-brand?  Job done.  After all, take Coca Cola to a lost tribe of pygmies and they're not going to bemoan it doesn't come with cocaine in it in the original glass bottles anymore.
If it's to a new punter's taste, great.  If it's not, that's a genuine pity.  But somebody who will enjoy the Prog's comparatively subversive, creative and not-exactly-rarely conceptually engaging content is not going to be held back by the title - and I should expect the opposite in many new comic or SF fans.

That reminds me, though.  How is the lost pygmy tribe market looking, Molch-R?  I'll bet they're being slower than most to to wake up to digital even with their Diamond problems.  Can't win 'em all.


* "Where have you been?  Get in here!  Great to have you join in."

Mr Garland,
Thanks enormously for taking that time off from Martinis and air hostesses to kindly give us some answers to really chew on for the next fortnight or so.  Heck, as you said yourself, you've already kinda given us the 'DVD commentary' to take into the cinemas with us, so I hope you're feeling our collective gratitude. 
If I had any say, you'd be getting everything you want.  Of course, I would then be blissfully looking forward to an Axel Pressbutton movie and Dredd on the goggle-box.  (And who's to say I shouldn't still be?)
Again, the very best of luck to you with Dredd next month and with whatever else is following on for you in the future.


Three cheers for Goaty!  (And at least 2.9 each for Joe Soap, Crave Noir and Radiator!)

Plus, at the risk of sounding like a grexnix: Nicely set up, Mr Molcher.

Magic!   Would the b-side be "By The 80-Foot Amazon" by any chance?

Dear Mr Garland,
    You're bloody smashing, you are.  Sunlight delights every time I watch it, having as it does a wonderful sense of crafted myth to it, so I'm heartily looking forward to your brand of filmic transportation with the new ('proper-like') Dredd.  Best wishes to yourself and your colleagues for the inevitable success of Dredd's upcoming cinematic rebirth.
    I was wondering, perhaps a little oddly...  While conceiving of the fabric of the film's content and what to combine and concentrate upon for the best dramatic impact and storytelling platform to put the character of Judge Dredd on...  Were there any particular aspects of the setting or character that you were most content to leave out, at least with this opening salvo? 

     Yours gratefully,
     GushingFanBloke

I'm not really much of a one for novels of comics properties, but I think I'd like to read this.

Having just finished it, TordelBack, if you've not already done so I really do think you're right.

Ooh.  I might lob something at you to consider using if nobody's beaten me to it.

"Guests with their mouths full.  Shocking behaviour," but a damn good show.  Just finished listening to the Molch-R interrogation and it's only while typing this that I realise I'm still grinning.  Great fun to listen to.  Excellent show.  Ruddy Australian Christian Parents, what do they know, eh?  Well worth waiting for.

Might there not be rights issues with the Hilary Robinson ones? Not to the overarching Strontium Dog continuity, obviously, but she may have asserted rights over her specific creations...

Cheers

Jim

Bah, facts.  Still, that's certainly an inescapable one however understandable a pity it would be.  Just checked with Barney after reading your post and with a little luck the Stewart Edwards ones aren't similarly hamstrung since it would be grand to get some reprinted Ron Smith and Mick Austin action, or perhaps some of the Simon Jacob ones.  Otherwise, I suppose the Alan Grant/Colin MacNeil ones would be too thin for a floppie.

Still a pity, though.  Facts.  Feh.  At least it's proven a timely nudge in the direction of nabbing a couple more Dogbreaths while I live in hope.

Won't argue with you there, Sir/stroke/Madam.  They certainly are, and if Carlos Ezquerra's layouts don't compliment the script compliment the story compliment the original author, I don't know what could. 
First thing I ever got mail order from Forbidden Planet was the Eagle Rats... by accident.  I'd ordered the Titan Rogue Trooper album and they came by mistake, so after a quick 'phone call, voila, "Keep them, we'll send your Rogue Trooper tomorrow."
Never gets better than that.  Free Stainless Steel Rats!  Hmm.  Perhaps it was all part of the canny Kelvin Gosnell-Harry Harrison conspiracy to get us all sucked into the wider world of Science Fiction...  Not that it didn't work.  Crafty!

Aye!  Dog for the Meg!

Me, I'd love to see a story that has some of those slackers dragged out of their cosy little Vaults cribs and put back on the street.  Umpty addiction?  Riot duties, take it out on the punks.  Degenerative flesh-wasting bug with six hours left to live?  Holocaust Squad, move!  Jigsaw Disease?  Assassination duties, East-Meg Two, they'll never find enough of you to pin it on us.

As for the veering towards the movie look, I too was a little worried when in the recent Debris story Uncle Joe seemed to ditch the pads for an all-black approach to poncing about in a city-block run by a mad bitch and the only back-up he had was an otherwise capable supporting character who has deep-rooted misgivings regarding a life as a judge....

This is disastrously sad news, made somewhat moreso for realising that I had been ignorant of it for a full day.  Of the few authors I have ever wished to meet, simply perhaps to gratefully compliment and shake the hand of, or even just see how he smiles and how his eyes move as if that could give me some new insight into his work and personality from across a shy room, Harry Harrison was high on the list.  Very high on the list, and for my entire adult life and the bulk of my teens before that.  And now...  It really is saddening to me, at this great distance, so I can only imagine the loss felt by those who knew and loved him personally.
Beyond the Stainless Steel Rat series, which I have merrily devoured over the years, however much I regret agreeing with A Cow's comment above, the Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies he so deftly compiled with Brian Aldiss through the 60s and 70s remain in my opinion the best available. Many anthology books and series of books are ample fixes and excellent showcases, yet this series was and for my money remains The Daddy.  I simply can't recommend them enough if you haven't yet picked one or all of them up.  In fact, I keep a spare copy of #7 in stock just to have one ready to give away to anybody I can talk into giving good SF short stories a try.  Even forty years on, it is not only a superb little collection but in my mind a pristine testament to Mr Harrison's informed passion for the genre, his personal impact upon it and, all the more tragically with his loss from within it, one of the tallest most beautiful buildings in 'the ghetto' his example and gifts helped make into a city.
Mr Carroll, although I did not personally know or even meet your friend, or indeed yourself, I nonetheless duly offer you my most sincere condolences.  A powerful, leading talent; a truly saddening loss.

Having moved cityblock twice (such fun) since the last one, I'm now faced with a deep financial crisis over this signing.  New Freezer or Signing. 

Drokk it.  The scoffing of rancid meat and quaffing of formerly solid ice-cream is a small price to pay for the opportunity to fawn and slobber over those droids.  I shall just have to remember to brush my teeth before doing so.

Oh, sure, yeah...  Laud Gordy for the greatness of No More Heroes, trumpet his name for his and Caio's labours rewarded, welcome his selfless offering of an immensely enjoyable easily-watched-several-times interview with the mighty, self-effacing class act that is John Wagner.  Yet, you all seem to be forgetting...  Take another look and it's there, staring us all in the face, like some kind of malignant smirk.  GordyM.  Writer/Frustrated God-King.

It's not like he's not been warning us all along.  It's only going to get worse, you know.

That said, Gordy, it is all praise well deserved and clearly earned.  Great work, sir.  Thanks very much, in fact, for putting it out there.  (By which I obviously mean the superb interview, since NMH is clearly the work of an unhinged sickster, if in a good way.)

If I may just add... It's a shocking thing to see the Prog 288* places below Susan Fucking Boyle.

* Though I expect this will soon enough change for the better