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The Dredd/McGruder scence was in the aftermath of the Apocalypse War.

Ah, yeah, found it.  Thought I wouldn't be able to look it up because I don't have Case Files 5, but it's actually the first story in CF6.  McGruder says, "This is where the cadets made their last stand. Almost a thousand perished - some of them only five years old, Dredd."

[Dredd]

Dredd is almost unimaginably brutal.  I know the Academy has been attacked and taken at least twice previously, but we've never seen anything like this before...

I'd always assumed that when the Academy had been seized before that the[spoiler] cadets et. al. had escaped to unassailable bunkers or at least worst held captive which is what makes the slaughter in Chaos Day so savage and hopeless.[/spoiler]

I don't know, wasn't there a line in Apocalypse War about brave cadets giving their lives, some only five years old?  So I always had the impression they were slaughtered back then.  A quick check of City of Dredd says 1000 cadets were killed, although I don't think we were ever given a figure for the total number of cadets.

[Cover]

Late getting to this one, didn't have a chance to download it before starting work this morning.  But wow, it was worth the wait.

Cover - Decent image and nice colours, but now that it's been pointed out all I can see are the tiny teeth.  Looks almost like it started out with a single row of normal-sized teeth and then it was divided into two.  Weird. B

Dredd - And so it begins.  Love the 'camera angles' on the opening page and throughout; there's a real sense of depth and scale, aided by the great colouring as usual.  Relentless stuff, and the two previous interludes really boost the impact in a way that you wouldn't have had if this came straight on the tail of the building clearance in Eve of Destruction.  Absolutely stellar. A++

Durham Red - Well, this story just kicked up a gear.  Now that the plot seems to be getting rolling it feels a lot more dense than the previous episodes, and naturally the art is as fantastic as ever.  Excellent stuff.  A

Nikolai Dante - The opening two panels of this are so great.  In fact, I love everything about this: it feels like a goodbye tour, getting to spend time with all the different characters before it's over.  Some amazing facial expressions in there, too.  This series is going out in style. A+

Future Shock - Wow, Anthony Williams should work in black and white more often.  The art looks great in this.  Plot was kind of blah, but the Brrribt factor gives it an added charm and ends things on a smile. B

Grey Area - Ooh, the art seems to have come together in this now: more of a sense of depth and space and the characters don't have that 'cutout standing in front of the background' vibe they did before.  Looks great!  Plot's chugging along now, too, and this is another series that seems to have found its feet in this issue. A

Fantastic prog!  Dredd and Dante are as amazing as ever, both of the other ongoing series seem to have stepped up a gear, and the Future Shock was solid with some great looking art.  Seriously high quality all round.  Thank you, Tharg!

do you know if any of the collections are available digitally or is it only the prog and megazine that are released digitally?

DriveThru comics has some Dredd collections available as PDFs.

Not to mention the extra cost of out-fitting such a milieu which probably would've meant the Judges would be of the cut-price variety wearing lycra rather than leather.

Thank you for the mental image of Judge Dredd wearing bicycle shorts.

...Wait, I'm not sure "thank" was actually the word I meant there.

Great pics.  Really kick over the assumption that the uniform only looks good when it's properly posed and lit.  Good stuff.

Re: contemporary dress on the extras, the earlier picture with the green gas had a guy rather conspicuously wearing trainers.  I suspect it's something that sticks out a lot more when you're looking at stills than it will in the actual film.

Congrats!

iFanboy just put up a post about the film.  (Twitter link here, if you're of a mind to retweet such things.)

Kraken's badge is definitely a bit of an oddity; in "The Shooting Match" he's shown to have a standard full eagle with his name on, which he takes off for the duration of the assessment (although he is wearing a white rookie helmet).  In "Necropolis" he has a sort of generic badge that says 'Rookie' (shaped like the full eagle, but with no design on it) rather than the usual half-eagle.  But you could always chalk it up to Odell's efforts to reinforce his mental identity as a Mega-City Judge, plus Kraken is actually something of a special case, being a retrained adult rather than an academy grad.  Could be that the generic 'Rookie' badge is something they use for qualified Judges who already have a badge but need to be reassessed for some reason, like if they're moving from admin to street or transferring from another city.

(Or it could just be an art mistake, but where's the fun in that? )

Also, just as a general question to nobody in particular; how come almost everybody picks Cycle of Violence? Is it 'cos you get to draw Dredd shooting?

I'm guessing it's because the only other Dredd script in the supplied sample scripts zip revolves around a cit's struggles with an intelligent toilet, plus is loaded with nine-panel pages and even has one page with ten.    Of course, being brave enough to tackle that one might actually serve you well in getting Tharg's attention.

I'd assumed it was his brother?

Could be an uncle, depending on how the rules of succession go.

Dredd-wise, Origins followed by Tour of Duty - The Backlash and Tour of Duty - Mega-City Justice are probably the best place to start to get up to date with current events.  If you want to fill in more of the backstory from the last decade, Colin's recs are excellent suggestions, and I'd also add Brothers of the Blood to that list.

The site shop has the digital 1786.

Any artists interested in a one page script for this?  Basically a "What if Tour of Duty went badly for Dredd?" story.  Featuring Dredd and Beeny, mood piece rather than action-fest, though there's one panel with a big crowd scene.  I can do the lettering and provide reference scans from ToD if necessary, and naturally the artist would get the prize if it's a winner.

What makes a good pitch for a story idea?  Short and pithy big concept or detailed story breakdown?  Does it vary according to the project and your relationship with the writer?

How do you decide if a story is more suited to 2000AD or the Megazine?

How many script and artwork submissions do you get in a typical week/month?  Do you get more at certain times of year or after things like cons and publicity boosts?

Do you ever catch yourself accidentally using the name Tharg in your mortal guise outside of work?