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Judge Sam at work?

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/01/world/saturn-moon-water-plume-enceladus-scn/index.html

[Hawk the Slayer]

I completely missed my chance to see if Henry Flint had any Hawk the Slayer artwork.

He had loads.

You can see one of them in the bottom right of the picture when Henry is crafting the xenomorph. Probably a dozen Hawk the Slayer pages in total, including the full page reveal of Voltan's face full of maggots.

Not sure that is the sort of thing you want hung on a wall; equal parts beautiful and horrifying.

[Lawless]

Fab sketches, Trooper.

'23 was my first time at Lawless; had an incredible weekend. Fun cosplay, a very happy crowd and every creator there was only too happy to chat. Even Mick McMahon, who was inundated most of the weekend signing and sketching, made time to talk.

I think part of the magic is that Su and the team limits the number of tickets sold, which makes it a lot more intimate than other cons.

Here are are a few of the sketches I picked up on Sunday:

Not read this for a long time, but the bit where the aliens come up out of the water and capture people on the island seared itself into my young mind as a scene of true horror.

Agreed. This is one of the all time great moments from Wyndham. Terrifying.

A book about slow-creeping climate change with great visuals (the motorboat speeding across a submerged Trafalgar Square; the fully laden frigate being split in two by an unseen, underwater power surge; THAT island attack)...I am staggered this has never been adapted into a film.

What rubbed me up the wrong way on this one was the authorial voice, which was authentic, but authentically oh-so upper-middle-class post-war Home Counties.

The whole thing is narrated ex post facto from a nice cottage in Somerset for heaven's sake...The ultimate cosy catastrophe

• Harvey
• Machine Law
• Guatemala
• The Victims of Bennett Beeny

very nice batch of stories that encompass Dredd's shifting attitude to the Mark 8s:

• Harvey - total scepticism
• Machine Law - grudging respect
• Guatemala - "Good to see you, Moe"
• The Victims of Bennett Beeny - preferring to assign Mark 8s rather that humans (or himself) because of their tactical superiority

[Poker Face]

Amongst a lot of very good TV on offer at the moment, the absolute best show is Poker Face.

A weekly anthology (and I know everyone on this forum loves a weekly anthology) that follows  a working stiff who has a preternatural ability to recognise bullshit. Nobody can get a lie past her.

She's on the run across the US so cannot stay long in any one place, and all of the crimes she stumbles across (and solves) are shown to the viewer in the first act. So the structure is a perfect fusion of two of my all time favourite shows, The Fugitive and Columbo.

Broadcast on Peacock in the US & Stan in Oz. Delighted to see it's coming to the UK next week:

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/news/rian-johnson-poker-face-coming-to-sky-in-uk/

[Fargo]

It's not on the same level as Fargo

very few things are. Fargo is probably the show that most exceeded my expectations over the last two decades.

When I heard the rumours I was adamant I would avoid it. 'Come on, the movie was perfect, why the need to build on that?' I eventually caved after the 100th recommendation from friends and was immediately hooked. Each series is very special in its own way and pays off with oblique references both to the original source and the previous seasons. 

Another marker to consider is Cincinnati.

About 300 miles West of Pittsburgh. Similar to Erie, the city "took two close hits during the war".

Of interest to MC-1 but not under their jurisdiction. 

Featured in Progs 1371-1373

[black]

But hold on a minute... -Eartha Fargo is Eustace Fargo's grandmother ??? What? How does that work? She's black.

The first thing that came to mind when this was mentioned was an anecdote from the early days of the strip, as Dredd was being established.

Of course his face was always partially obscured by his helmet. But within those confines, McMahon admitted to drawing him as black character, while Bolland drew him as white.

A Niemand meta-callback?

[Strange & Darke]

As a huge John Smith fan I'm probably biased, but his best strips always ended perfectly

true most of the time but Strange & Darke desperately needs to be brought back and wrapped.

[Return of the Mean Team]

The entire run of Return of the Mean Team was one of slow decline but the (anti) cherry on top was the final panel. DEATH. Really?

Insurrection sort of found new life in the pages of Lawless but I was satisfied with how that story and its framing device ended.

Helltrekkers (even little Crustacia's escape to a happier life) was nicely wrapped, and Leviathan was pretty perfectly tied up.

I'm still in two minds about Absalom as Graduation Day leaves events wide open for a further series. 

[Tour of Duty]

Is it ever explained why the Justice Dept stops cloning?

As Sheridan says, the Department has not stopped cloning. Prog 1835 shows Tech Department literally churning them out. Sinfield managed to slip his DNA into the program some years before Tour of Duty so they aren't that picky.



Prog 1216 reveals Dredd alone has seven clones (I presume this includes little Jessica above along with Rico, Dolman and Nimrod).



Then of course, way way back, there were these fellas, sent as a gift to Texas City to 'improve their stock'. Years later it turned out Rico was one of them.

[Sunday Night Fever, The Warlord, The Big Sleep.]

Another late entry.

I've been enjoying a re-read of the wonderful Cam Kennedy Dredd collection; below, a few examples of his take on the H Wagon.

More of a focus on troop transport and observation than weaponry (for a more muscular vehicle, see his peerless Manta). Nice incorporation of the JD badge.

Stories: Sunday Night Fever, The Warlord, The Big Sleep.

[Judging Dredd]

There is a pretty good podcast interview with some of the authors of Judging Dredd here

https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-thrill-cast-lockdown-tapes-judging-dredd/

[Book Depository]

I'd love to get to know Lawless, Nikolai (although the books can be hard to find in the States), non-Wagner Dredd, and Dreadnoughts.

Are you are open to reading digital versions of any of the above? They are all pretty reasonably priced in the Rebellion shop....and you just missed a huge Humble Bundle sale featuring the entire Nikolai run.

if you just want print then Book Depository has a very good selection. Can be a little expensive but all prices include worldwide delivery

https://www.bookdepository.com/Dreadnoughts--Breaking-Ground/9781781089385