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If I am remembering my O Level Physics correctly, Alpha particles can only travel a few centimetres before they are absorbed by the air. So they wouldn't be a very effective probe.

Not sure what the feedback mechanism back to Johnny's eyes would be either.

Basically it doesn't pay to start looking into these things too much. So long as the story is consistent with its own established rules, then I can go with that.

WRT cameras in the helmet, well they have never featured in the comic, so they don't exist in that. If a TV or film adaptation wants to go with that, then fine.

Just only way home from this.

Only one more week to go, so get along if you haven't already.

There are a few more 2000AD pages upstairs which they didn't have room for in the main exhibition.

Overall very interesting.

9000 comics....wow....that is overwhelming.

If you read one per day that would take 25 years to read!

Hmmm....I thought that was pretty underwhelming.

At this point I am looking forward much more to seeing Rogue One again (on DVD) and, what I am taking to be the biggest film of the year, Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2.

Still I assume the excitement will ramp up as December approaches.

Although to give a counter-example to the "mental gap" I was talking about where writers sometimes try to 'pull a fast one' on the readers whose memories of reading a story quite a while ago might be hazy, my understanding is that this is exactly the sort of thing that applies to the end of Strontium Dog: The Final Solution, compared to the many-years-later sequel/retcon The Death and Life of Johnny Alpha.

I wouldn't call what they did with Strontium Dog a "fast one". The story made it perfectly clear it was going to reveal what "really" happened to Johnny Alpha i.e. he didn't die and the previous account was "false".

Changing it was the whole point.

No, what I meant is that I'd read somewhere (online, probably) that The Final Solution shows one series of details surrounding the events of Johnny Alpha's death, while in The Life & Death of Johnny Alpha, flashback sequences reiterating those same moments show differing details, that allows Wagner to fudge some specifics when resurrecting JA. The two pieces don't fit together seamlessly like a dovetail joint.

Perhaps this is more similar to something like those old movie serial cliffhangers where if you watch the ending to one chapter immediately prior to the beginning of the next, you see that the two scenes (the next chapter usually begins with a couple minutes' recap of the prior cliffhanger ending) are actually different, which allows for some trickery. You see some details that were missing in the first cliffhanger. It's a "cheat".

I'm not sure what you mean by "previous account"... that implies that The Final Solution is like an eyewitness story being told, in which the eyewitness lied, forgot, or wasn't aware of certain things that actually happened. Is that the actual case?

Yes that is what I mean by "previous account" - sort of. At the time the Final Solution was just told straight like any normal story, but The Life and a Death of Johnny Alpha uses a device where one of the main characters is a reporter (Precious Matson) and she is trying to find out what really happened to Johnny. And yes the story does show events that had previously been shown in the Final Solution in a different light and with ultimately a different outcome. It treats the events of the Final Solution as having been mis-reported, thus allowing Johnny a different fate.

It's not the same as those old Saturday morning serials - they did it to create a cliff hanger (one I remember really well is a car going over and a cliff and exploding killing our hero but in the next episode he managed to get out beforehand). In Strontium Dog it wasn't done to generate a cliff hanger, it was because John Wagner wanted to reverse the decision to kill Johnny off, so that the strip could continue without having to rely on the flashback mechanism it had been using for the revival i.e. Johnny is still dead and these stories just happen to be set before he died.

Although to give a counter-example to the "mental gap" I was talking about where writers sometimes try to 'pull a fast one' on the readers whose memories of reading a story quite a while ago might be hazy, my understanding is that this is exactly the sort of thing that applies to the end of Strontium Dog: The Final Solution, compared to the many-years-later sequel/retcon The Death and Life of Johnny Alpha.

I wouldn't call what they did with Strontium Dog a "fast one". The story made it perfectly clear it was going to reveal what "really" happened to Johnny Alpha i.e. he didn't die and the previous account was "false".

Changing it was the whole point.

Gothic Empire was published as book 4.

Books 1, 2 and 3 were published before it.

Funny that.

But yes you are right, as I understand it it was at least written first if not drawn and then book 1,2 and 3 were done to give more background.

And Kev O'Neill only drew the first couple of episodes before Bryan Talbot took over.

Btw Simon Davis drew the latest version of Slaine's mothers death. Clint did the Wickerman in the Book of Scars - his last Slaine before Davis took over.

Kev O'Neill only did Books 1 & 2? I could have sworn he did 3 as well? Okay, it was a long long time ago (in a galaxy in the next city over) for me. I was gonna get the Termight Edition, then segue into the Compete Vol. 1 with Book 4: Gothic Empire, and go from there, so Black Hole spins out of Vol, 6, right?

I meant Kev only did the first couple of episodes of the Gothic Empire . As Jim says Kev did books 1 and 3, Jesus Redondo book 2.

Bryan Talbot did the rest of book 4 then books 5 and 6 if I am remebering correctly. Then you get John Hickleton, David Roach, Clint Langley, Henry Flint (possibly others). Then Kev O'Neill returned for the last episode. And then he returned for (another) last ever episode in Prog 2000.

Forget ABC Warriors, it's Nemesis you want to read. Uncle Pat named it as his favourite story that he had done at the 40th.

Gothic Empire was published as book 4.

Books 1, 2 and 3 were published before it.

Funny that.

But yes you are right, as I understand it it was at least written first if not drawn and then book 1,2 and 3 were done to give more background.

And Kev O'Neill only drew the first couple of episodes before Bryan Talbot took over.

Btw Simon Davis drew the latest version of Slaine's mothers death. Clint did the Wickerman in the Book of Scars - his last Slaine before Davis took over.

How many times has Slaine's mother's death been covered?

How many times has the Wickerman been covered?

It's got to be two or three times each.

I'm all for filling in the details, but I would prefer new stories.

[Dredd]

Great Prog this week.

Dredd continues the neat trick of feeling familar yet fresh. It had the best line for a while: "you'd rather talk to him!" "Dredd? Uh...w-well maybe not".

Top stuff.

I have previously posted I would take Colin MacNeil's new style over his fully painted stuff if it meant we get more stuff from him... Who I am I kidding?...  This looks like America or  Mechanismo series one, but in sepia. Honestly comic art doesn't get much better than this. Just brilliant stuff. And the story seems to flow in a way it just didn't before. Don't think I have ever enjoyed an episode of Defoe as much as this one.

There had been a lot of talk that Defoe is currenly Pat's best thrill. I wonder how how of that is down to the fact it hasn't been around long enough to get the flashback / re-telling of previous tales treatment?

Brink. Just great. Lawless level great. All praise the might Abnett. Forget having a rule there should be a future shock in every Prog, there should be a rule there has to be a Dan Abnett story in every Prog.

Scarlet Traces. I don't normally like dream sequences and with this one being so exposition heavy, I was like "really" but then came that statement. It's gonna be rough from here in I guess.

Deadworld. Got to love military grade stealth suits. Been missing them since Trifecta.

I definitely want more Helium and Brass Sun, my two fave things by Edginton ever! (except for maybe Leviathan) Pretty sure I remember him teasing somewhere that Helium ties in with another of his sagas, that's a promise he has to delvier on, surely! I can see it maybe being set in a future time on Scarlet Traces, after the Martians have ballsed-up the ground-level Earth with some kind of ray.

To answer a question way, way up in the thread, I can't see anyone other than Culbard doing Brink (which I also love), but I think it could be neat to give another artist a go on Brass Sun as the format of visiting different worlds kind of means it could work to see a different visual style.

I'd also be happy enough for a non-D'Israeli to have a crack at Helium, but if he has to alternate between Helium and Scarlet Traces I don't mind waiting.

Stickleback i am not so bothered about, and I'd long given up hope of any more Ampney Crucis, which I think I only ever liked for the Wodehouse-y speech patterns and the art, never quite sold on the dimension-hopping story nonsense.

Kingmaker I regret to say I am already bored of, a waste of Gallagher's talents!

Kinda agree...apart from the last sentence.... no I love Kingmaker.

Can't believe it's been that long since Helium and Brass Sun have featured. I assume both will return.

But if it is a choice between Brink and Brass Sun, I'd go for Brink all day long.

I do think it would be better if we could get longer runs of stories or shorter time between series or at least finish one before starting something else. But I guess there are logistical reasons I am not aware of that prevent that. All I know was in the past that was what seemed to happen, but maybe there is more competition to employ top creators and that is the price we have to pay to have them in 2000AD.

Hmmm....not sure given it is the same artists and writers here who are doing other series before finishing off the previous one.

It's not me saying it Mr Tharg, it's your own PR bot.

Perhaps it is time to summon Mek Quake?

Yes, they clearly add to the cover price.

They don't. They were brought in to give added value to the magazine when the price had to rise due to rising production costs. Getting rid of the 'floppy' GN wouldn't bring the price down beyond a couple of pence.

I thought Havn had a great first episode. It is definetly worth reading twice though. Great art too for me.

Bit underwhelmed by the Dredd, especially as a 40th thing.

Lawless carries on, as superb as ever.

Anderson - ok ish, nothing special compared to what it has been in the past.

Highlight for me also was the Kim Raymond interview. I really don't get the point of view that "he didn't get Dredd / was one of the worst Dredd artists ever." Not for me. Indeed before I read the text I thought a couple of his panels looked just like they had been done by Ron Smith (and you don't get much better than that),so it was revealing to see Ron had effectively mentored him.

As to the floppies...sigh...it had been stated countless times...including by Rebellion's own PR bot, that they don't add significantly to the cover price.

I had a chat with the Langley droid at the 40th and he was a lovely chap and I bought a couple of prints from him. But that doesn't stop me entering nit-pick corner:

So anyone stopped the mistake on the cover? In the actual story it is Jess riding the bike, not Fairfax.