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If I pitched a cross-company resource-hungry project on that scale and told a Board it would only yield £200K tops over a 3 or 4 year timescale... well, I wouldn't.

Letting Hachette reprint the material that's already in print* is free money. Allowing Hachette to subsidize any costs associated with making neglected archive material ready to reprint as Megazine floppies seems like a canny move.

Expecting any creator to subsidize Hachette's business model by foregoing royalties to which they're contractually entitled** is no-one's idea of fair.  Those wondering why there are so may Slaine volumes in the collection can understand this as compensation for the loss of royalties on The Horned God.

Like many readers, I'm 100% behind Pat Mills 50% of the time.

As to why he's speaking out and whether it's effective - in his memoir, Be Pure, Mills described how he and other creators were asked to take a pay cut twenty years ago and hadn't received an increase since. Shortly after publication, Tharg got in touch to offer Mills his first rate hike since Britney was in pigtails. Metaphor.


* Which includes all of Slaine

** The idea that Rebellion introduced royalty payments is an odd one. In his memoir, Mighty One, Steve MacManus describes creating the Crisis creator contract, including royalties, which would serve as the basis for all subsequent Fleetway (and Egmont) contracts. If Rebellion changed that existing contract, I've never read mention of it. In a post on his Vicious Imagery blog, David Bishop describes Egmont's royalty terms and page rates at the moment Rebellion bought 2000ad at the turn of the century - a flat page rate for reprint and royalty payments at 'standard book rates' (8-12%, apparently) for trade collections.

[Dredd]

Really liked this Dredd ...didn't think the line about keeping Dredd around because his replacement could be worse (didn't make) much sense. It doesn't work like that...they just have Judges coming through, they wouldn't specifically make a "super" one to replace Dredd.

Dredd is more than a man, to many. Because of what he has done and what he stands for, he is a symbol of Justice. The criminals undoubtedly see him in the same way.

All that's true, but that isn't the reason the strip gives for sparing Dredd. Boss Ginger figgers the ability to track the judge assigned to their case is an advantage.

Dredd's not pursuing a personal vendetta against Ginger, Matrix and Don't Speak because they've Taken his daughter or killed his dog; he's a just a cop assigned to a case. Take out Dredd and another Rozzer would take over the case. That's what's meant by 'his replacement', not a clone.

The script even tells you this is the reason. Then, just in case you missed it or aren't convinced, helpfully explains that it is a good reason.

A HISTORY OF VIOLETS
or McMahon In The Middle, being a brief survey of colour & story order in 2000ad as it pertains to Judge Dredd

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dredd first made the jump to the colour centre pages during his Luna-1 posting, with Prog 46's Meet Mr Moonie and Ian Gibson providing the art. There he'd remain throughout the rest of his Luna-1 Marshal tenure, his return to The Big Meg, then for the full duration of his Cursed Earth mercy mission. On his return to the city, the strip was moved to the front of the prog as Dredd took on Chief Judge Cal in The Day The Law Died.





Following Cal's defeat, Dredd remained the lead strip, and therefore entirely B&W, right up to the start of The Judge Child Quest in Prog 156, whereupon it once more became the middle strip and took the colour centre pages, allowing the artists to be able to go to town and resulting in some superb double-page spreads from Bolland, McMahon and Smith.





Here it stayed throughout the Mega-Rackets storylines, Judge Death Lives, and all the filler in between, right up to Block Mania and The Apocalypse War, marking King Carlos's triumphant return to his creation. That epic occupied the centre pages except for the final two chapters, when Tharg's Future Shocks were moved to the colour centre pages.





By this time, poor Carlos was flagging. He'd already been given a week off to catch up near the end, meaning a vintage Dredd strip from the archives was run instead. To save time, Rey Carlos stopped producing any more epic double-page spreads, hence the strip's move from the centre for its last two instalments as well as the first two episodes after the epic wrapped (Meka-City).

Thereafter, Dredd held onto the colour centre pages and had an unbroken run that took in classic post-war stories such as The League of Fatties, The Executioner and Cry of the Werewolf, until Requiem for a Heavyweight, again featuring Ezquerra on art, ended Dredd's run in colour.





The following week's 'jump on' prog (335) saw the return of Strontium Dog and Nemesis, the latter taking the colour pages, whilst The Graveyard Shift opened the comic in glorious B&W. Dredd remained the opening strip for a while, only returning to the colour centre spot in Prog 353, up against Captain Strange and his Weird Boys.

Dredd stayed in the middle of things through the premature conclusion of his next 'epic' adventure, City of the Damned, The Hunters Club (shouldn't that have an apostrophe?), Midnight Surfer, and a whole buncha inconsequential filler material (notable exceptions being Kenny Who?, The Taxidermist, and the introduction of the major and recurring pro-democracy theme to the strip with Letter from a Democrat and Revolution.





Dredd held centre stage through the transition to painted colour (520) and the end of Wagner and Grant's writing partnership after the epic Oz. That story had a colour spread for each of its 26 weeks, as did each of the stories that followed the Judda's defeat until Prog 590's Twister, part 3 of which saw the entire Dredd strip go full colour for the first time, rather than just the opening centre pages.





Dredd briefly found his way back to the opening position for jump-on Prog 650's The Shooting Match, before returning whence he came back on the inside the very next week for the beginning of Young Giant, joined by two further all-colour strips in the shape of the revamped Rogue Trooper War Machine and Sláine epic The Horned God.

Soon afterwards, Dredd came back to the fore with Tale of the Dead Man part 6 (Prog 667), and here he stayed more or less for the duration of his next up 'n' coming mega-epic, beginning in Prog 671 with the Countdown to Necropolis episodes (some of which reverted to the centre pages) followed by the full-blown Necropolis-proper from Prog 674 onwards.





For the most part, Dredd remained the prog's opening strip for the duration of Necropolis, with just two notable exceptions towards the middle of the run, when it jumped back to the centre pages expressly to afford King Carlos the opportunity to give us a couple of spectacular double-page splash images when it really mattered!

Post Necropolis, Dredd retained the prog's opening story slot and there, with the occasional exception, is where he stayed, Prog 723 marking the moment when 2000 AD went full-colour from cover to cover.

The strip's most protracted absence from pole position was in the wake of the 1995 Judge Dredd movie's release on home video and the demise of both DC's US Dredd titles and the UK Stallone tie-in comic, Lawman Of The Future. With Prog 999's conclusion of the lengthy The Pit, Dredd saw himself bounced to last place in the pecking order for the next 31 issues.

From milestone Prog 1000, the issue editor David Bishop says was intended to make his mark on the comic, Dredd (Dead Reckoning) brought up the rear behind Sláine and Vector 13. Joe only regained his title as leader of the pack with jump-on 20th birthday Prog 1033 (Lonesome Dave), The Mighty One apparently deciding the character had paid penance for his transgressions!

© Ian Hollingsworth, 2019

Superman = Desperate Dan

Cheers, Fungus.

... if you spend weeks focussing on a character you'll unconsciously pick out a lookalike straightaway.

That seems about the size of it, to me. Plus a disposition towards magical thinking, whimsy, and a more fun way of engaging with the world than us working slobs generally muster:



Superman isn't Constantine and Morrison didn't create him, of course. Morrison created King Mob then ended up staring at him in the mirror every morning^*, but that's getting even further away from your original question.

Can't remember if it's in Supergods, but G-Mo claimed he wrote Ragged Robin as the kind of girl he wanted to meet in real life, then ended up in a relationship with her. But Morrison says lots of Noel Edmonds stuff like that in (very entertaining) interviews.


* And wrote a story where King Mob was tortured to within an inch of his life, then almost died from a viral infection. Typing that, those two things don't seem to have anything to do with each other at all, but I defy anyone to listen to Zenith's dad tell that story and respond with anything other than a sincere Keanu Reeves WHOAH!

Hot Night In 95, by John Wagner & Staz Johnson (Megazine 307), all the way back in March 2011:



Wagner insists he's just making it up as he goes along, but you really have to wonder.

A Quiet Place.  Idea for sequel:

https://youtu.be/b2bzrCCKDwc

... personal indiscretion (aside)

Ashdown had a history of entering into ill-advised couplings with undesirable partners*

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/212440.stm


* Blair never gave the Lib-Dems the PR referendum they were promised in return for getting him elected. They'd have to wait until 2011, when Dave Cameron wooed the similarly guileless Nick Clegg with another tempting opportunity to prop up a vainglorious idiot obsessed with legacy, who would balls up the only really important decision they had to make during their entire time in office. The UK did not adopt a system of proportional representation and now we are where we are.

The black leather and fishnet-vested German acapella group in Pitch Perfect 2 are called Das Sound Machine. DSM: there are lines about the girls having to beatDSM or how they can never beDSM.

Possibly the least audience appropriate observation I've made on this forum, and that's including all the ones about Derrida.

BBC/Netflix's Watership Down remake looks as if they subcontracted the CG to a bloke called Dave they got talking to down the pub, who swore his brother used to work for Pixar.

[dirty Frank]

Will he still think I'm a prick if I promise to go and see this film he's making?

According to IMDB, Moore plays a character called Frank. How dirty Frank will be is a question of interest to readers of 2000ad.

[Tjm]

I pay mine in a one off payment about April ...They may therefore take it as a new subscription each year rather than a DD payer who has one long continuous sub.

I think it's more to do with paying for the entire year in one go. Tharg gets all your cash up front, so he knows how much he has to work with during the year, whereas Tjm could (theoretically) quit at any time.


2.5.3 Exclusive Combi Subscriber Bonus Premium Product.

Each year a bonus premium product is offered exclusively to print subscribers. Annual and two-year combi subscribers (i.e. those taking out a print subscription to both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Magazine) of good standing qualify for one unit of this for free per year.

Other print subscribers of good standing may purchase a single unit of this product per year.

Good Standing in this context means: any new annual or two-year subscriber, or an existing annual subscriber with four months or more to go before renewal, or a renewing annual or two-year subscriber, or any monthly-paying subscriber who has paid for and received copies for a minimum of four continuous months.

Rebellion reserve the right to withdraw or amend the free premium subscription offer at their sole discretion 

https://shop.2000ad.com/terms-and-conditions

I know exactly what they're doing with their pinkies.

... now everything is wet

Speaking of which, the BBC audience is coveted by advertisers, since it's generally regarded as a slightly higher demographic (in terms of social status and income) than ITV and Sky viewers, which is why you don't see too may adverts for Waitrose during X-Factor.

Looks to me as if the BBC audience is as horny and bloodthirsty as everyone else:

Show some respect to the British craftsmen who laboured long and hard over this unique collectable. This isn't just something they knocked up out of parts of other unsold toys: