Messages

Hope someone spell-checks 'Trevor' between now and December!

As things are at the moment, is it still possible, in a weekly Prog, to run a story about either an idiotic fuiture fad or a bizarre future crime in MC1, then have Dredd turn up at the end to make an arrest + say something pithy?

Or is it vital to the strip to remind readers every episode that the Justice Dept in MC-1 is fundamentally too small and ill-equipped to deal with routine crime-busting?

Certainly possible - I think it's just more the case that the current writers are more interested in developing their respective supporting casts and doing multi-part thrillers than self-contained funny sci-fi episodes.

The Psi Files? Very much so.

As Alex says they continue the story of MC1, Orlok, Judge Death and others and the stories often intersect with the main Dredd strip- if, as I suspect, you're trying to get 'the full story' of Dredd's world then they're definitely worth picking up. Here's how they slot into the general reading order (A1, A2, A3):

And some Ron Smith classics to round off the volume, which a lot of people have been asking for. Hoping the collection will include more of these, such as... the original Nosferatu story - the Total War volume has already included the sequel.

The Total War follow-up is actually the sequel to the Megazine Nosferatu story by Wagner and Hicklenton - they're both about the same creature. The Nosferatu in the Ron Smith story doesn't make it out alive!

Taryn is my sister's middle name, but that's the only other time I've heard it. Can't remember where my mum said it came from, other than it was Russian (I think).

[Irish]

Well, he's pretty close to being Irish, at being a Scot.

1/12th Giant, Alpha, Satanus, Rojaws, Vintage Blue Dredd with Lawmaster this summer."

Well, still no mention of Hammerstein is a bit of a bummer - I need that figure in my life!

That's tempered by Ro-Jaws (finally!) and Satanus. I can't really believe that he's happening, especially not this soon. Where in Christ's name am I going to put him?!

I have to be honest I didn't remember Spike... but by God when I see a figure/sculpt as cool as that I do wonder why the hell not.

It's a fairly silly character and a ludicrous design - but to be honest, that was exactly the appeal in trying to bring him to life!

Wow. I didn't honestly think there were people who bought the Megazine but not the prog - always assumed it had to be the other way around, if anything.

Thanks as always, folks! Very much not a professional, MaryandDavid! Just an inspired dabbler.

I love how Spike turned out. My only regret is that he doesn't have any moving parts - he's more of a sculpture than a figure. Since finishing Spike some months ago I've started work on another three Millsverse characters (besides ongoing work on the killdozer) and they've got a bit more going on.

Now where's my Blackblood figure?! Spike needs walkies...

[Casefiles 26]

Just flicked through Casefiles 26. Oh. My. Dok!  All Wagner (I think), some modern art giants entering their mature phase, and I've barely read a dozen pages of it before!  Plus the pink volumes are always good.  Big invoice due to be paid tomorrow, I think it'll be straight down the shop for TB...

D'you mean 27? Yes, the very first all-Wagner volume!

Something I've wondered before - before this kind-of-death, was it official policy to have Dredd, or a clone thereof, appear personally in every prog (bar the Sin/Dex and Sláine prog-length stories)?  Apart from one Wilderlands segment in the Megazine, I can't remember a single Dredd episode without at least one appearance of the man himself, or at least someone with identical genes.

Can't recall them off-hand, but there have been more Dredd-free episodes than you might think - particularly in more recent years, with Wagner's long-form, large cast thrillers.

Working now...?

Photobucket's a mystery to me. Linked pictures seem to come and go at will, and this is one of the only boards I know where you can't modify posts to fiddle with links!

[Spike]

Mek-Quake's a long-term, ongoing build, and it's nice to have smaller projects in-between bouts on the killdozer to break things up a bit and keep my interest. There was little doubt in my mind who the first of these would be – the moral and emotional backbone of the ABC Warriors, that fan-favourite mainstay who kept you reading through the dark days of the 90s; the myth, the legend, I'm talking, of course, about... Spike!

I ask you, who could resist a bulldog with exhaust ports?! It's mad and ridiculous and oh-so-2000AD and I just had to try to bring him to life.

The bulk of Spike was simply modelled by hand from epoxy putty, based closely on Kev's brilliant design. Every time I worked on Mongrol or Mek-Quake and had some putty left over, it got moulded onto a ball rather than chucked away. This ball soon developed legs and a head, and that was what first sparked the idea to make Spike.



The hoops on his head and collar were small picture hooks half-buried in the putty; his tail was a paperclip, straightened and re-bent then over-sculpted; the shoulder gizmos were bits I found in my DIY odds-and-sods box.





Once he was sculpted, he was primed...



...then I started laying down some base coats. You might see I started tinkering again around this point and sculpting some more little details here and there!



Then inks and details!






And he was done! Here he is with the big fella for a sense of scale.



I borrowed some links from Mongrol's chain to give Spike a wee lead. All he needs now is his master Blackblood, to take him for walkies. Are you listening, 3A...?