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Armoured Gideon also had better and clearer storytelling. It wasn't a classic, but it was at least fun and readable. Portals is increasingly turning into a mess.

"but they keep saying they cannot see any problem with it"

Did you send a photo? Mind you, I imagine their attention to detail on this isn't great. It's not the first spine flub.

[Nosedive]

Halfway through season 3 now, all of which appears to be '30 seconds into the future' so far. And this is also one episode before I stopped watching. So after San Junipero (which I recall adoring first-time around), all of these will be new.

I thought all of these first three were solid episodes. Nosedive neatly takes obsession with social media to its extreme, and frankly seems more relevant now than it did in 2016. It's also chilling to think that some countries have been more widely experimenting with personal rankings. The ending, with the palpable thrill of being 'free from all this shit' resonated with me.

Playtest was an oddball – Black Mirror as out-and-out horror. Structurally, I found it interesting, because the internal logic didn't hold together until the thing ended, whereupon it actually made some sense. And the casual disdain for people working within gaming seemed on point, as ever.

Shut Up and Dance was interesting on multiple levels. I vaguely remembered bits of this, and found it interesting to watch given the huge number of scams circulating right now. I can see why people would fall into those traps, if they get something suitably believable. The difference here is the series (as usual) taking that theme to its logical extreme conclusion.

What did surprise me is the twist at the very end. I'd totally forgotten about that, and it's a rug pull that made the episode hang together far better, even if 1) the outcome of the battle didn't really make sense, and 2) it likely made the audience feel a bit icky, on the basis of where their loyalties (to some degree) may have lied until that moment.

Taken in three-episode chunks, though, that feels like the strongest run since the beginning.

I don't think there's any likelihood of major change occurring to the foundational aspects of Judge Dredd, because that would kill 2000 AD's biggest strip. Even the Garfield aspect of Dredd's age is being punted away with "oh it's fine, because technology", even if that doesn't align with what's happened previously in the strip. (Although perhaps Dredd and a handful of others get special treatment not even afforded to other judges.)

I'm not sure it matters all that much. Mega-City One makes no logical sense once you peel away even the first layer or two. It's just a mechanism for telling stories. And the Fargo line was likely written by Wagner with a big grin on his face, because he knew it would be a talking point for a long time – even if the sentiment from Fargo would never fully be acted upon. (My guess is we will see a thread from that play out with whatever Maitland does, and she will – for whatever reason – 'fail'. Dredd may well end up saying "no blame attached" and that it wasn't a bad idea – just the world they live in that couldn't let it happen. But there's no way her ideas will be allowed to stick, both from an in-universe standpoint AND an editorial one.)

Pat Mills can try to retcon as much as he likes, but I'm not going to forget that scene in Nemesis Book 5 when a mega-city judge was tortured and killed by Thoth and Satanus.

Timey-wimey dimension wibbly wobbly etc. That's how my brain thinks of all this stuff, when it can be bothered. (See also: Fr1day rocking up in Mega-City One.)

Good grief. I find it astonishing that when a company puts so much emphasis on one aspect of its collection – and to the severe detriment of basic usability – it still can't get it right.

I love these volumes, in giving us hardback collections of series that would otherwise never have seen that format (and in books thin enough that they won't suffer page sag). Would it have killed them to get a designer in that could have at least put titles on the spines? Eaglemoss managed that and still had spine art for its collections. Bah.

(I still keep wondering if there's any way of doing this myself, but I cannot think of anything that won't look a bit shit. Any kind of sticker – even if perfectly trimmed to the spine – is going to look off. I detest dust jackets and so don't want to make those or sleeves. Ah well.)

[Dredd]

I'm with Colin YNWA Block! Or something. But, yeah, there's a feel that this line-up isn't quite as much of a heavy hitter as it possibly could be. It's still mostly good though.

The cover was interesting. Dredd barrels along and while it feels a bit by-the-numbers, it's good by-the-numbers. (And, yeah, Asher is either going to end up dead or incarcerated. Almost certainly the former.) Portals has now totally lost me. I just don't care about any of it. I'm still reading it, primarily because I have a rule of reading everything in 2000 AD – even Wireheads.

Maxwell's Demon works for me. It's probably not going to be up there with Nikolai Dante or whatever, but it feels wrong to consider it 'filler', because it's better than that. The dynamics are interesting. The art is great. The biggest problem is that it does the supernatural weirdness thing a whole lot better than what preceded it in the Prog. (And Portals has already had five parts, to MD's two.)

Hershey... As this series began, I wasn't expecting Dredd to show up. Given his stance in the past with McGruder et al, he'll probably be happier with Hershey going out in a blaze of glory rather than quietly slipping away in her bed – even if some readers won't be. (And Dredd might feel irked that he was lied to. Assuming he was. Perhaps he always knew of the plan but was nonetheless saying goodbye.) Anyway, I've enjoyed this.

And then, Azimuth. I'm not sure I'll ever fully reconcile this. I was excited by something that looked different and new for 2000 AD. Instead, it's something different and new for one of the most long-running strips that for me ran out of steam years ago. So it feels a bit like wasted potential and yet is one of the best Sin/Dex strips to date. I simultaneously like it and wish it didn't exist in this form.

Hershey > Demon = Dredd = Azimuth >>>>> Portals 4/5 for me this week.

I think the answer is: it depends. Or, more: it depends on how the writer feels at the time. Mills has certainly at points aimed to align the strips. And there are plenty of cross-strip nods during the comic's early days, such as a Judge showing up in Nemesis (as a tasty dino treat), mentions of Mega-City One in various non-Dredd strips, etc. But Mills retconned ABC Warriors and Ro-Busters to expressly remove them from Dredd continuity years back.

Probably the strongest link between major strips is Dredd and Strontium Dog, which have now crossed over several times, with Alpha being quite pivotal. But those can still ultimately really be put down to 'bit of fun' territory.

I'd say The Pit had a profound impact on the strip itself. It was with that run that Wagner cemented Dredd's shift in tone, becoming a more mature procedural, even if it still occasionally dipped into the bonkers nature of the city.

Ultimate > Rare > Microsoft. No idea whether that's even feasible, although Microsoft has a couple of times used that old IP, such as with Jetpac Refuelled and Rare Replay. Monty Mole... well, those old 8-bit Gremlin titles should really have been part of the Gremlin cart, but instead we mostly got a fairly awful set of much later games. A pity.

Imagine: Alternative World Games, Avenger, Bounder, Cosmic Causeway, Deflector, HATE, Jack the Nipper, Monty Mole/On the Run/Auf, Re-Bounder, Skate Crazy, Thing on a Spring, Trailblazer, West Bank... You could easily allow people to select versions, to keep folks happy and get them 'their' version of a game.

The issue is always going to be rights. The big companies don't want to give anything away – or they are already tied up in deals. Hence no Namco cart for the EXP, no update from that set of NES games to proper arcade Pac-Man, bundled-only games from Capcom, etc.

Personally, I'd say there have been some good arcade carts. Data East 1 has quality stuff: Burger Time (esp in Tate mode), Chain Reaction, Lock 'n' Chase and Tumblepop. Atari Arcade suffers a bit from lacking the original controls, but if you can deal with that then you've Centipede, Crystal Castles, Missile Command, Lunar Lander and Asteroids. Jaleco has Rod Land (albeit with all its slowdown) and some solid shooters. And Irem nets you R-Type, Moon Patrol, Battle Chopper/Mr Heli and the absurdly difficult yet compelling In The Hunt. But, yeah, there are lots of big hits missing.

Honestly, I've enjoyed the indie stuff. Mega Cat 1 is probably my favourite Evercade cart. Xeno Crisis is great. I was less keen on many of the console carts because for me they were the 'wrong' versions. I wanted Amiga Bitmap and Sensi games, not 16-bit console ports. The Lynx collections at worked best, since they were the originals. I guess with the newish blue boxes, Evercade is at heading that way now, although with a mix of publisher and platform collections that feel messy.

I suppose it is what it is. If someone doesn't care about licensed fare and is willing to faff, there are plenty of alternative consoles knocking around, such as those from Anberic and Retroid, which can play pretty much anything you throw at them up to (and sometimes beyond) Dreamcast. They're good units, but I do also like that Evercade is trying to do things properly, and those new handhelds look like they'll offer great impulse-purchase value, even if a buyer never even looks at another cart.

Ha. Apparently my info was almost entirely inaccurate. Bloody website.

Smaller than Apex editions. More like the old Titan reprints, I imagine.

Don't forget "They will also feature colour pages, as well as new high-resolution scans of the original stories, and all the covers and pin-ups from each era".

I'm wondering whether I'm going to end up buying all of Nemesis for about the millionth time. Sigh.

[Nemesis the Warlock: The Definitive Edition]

Due to unprecedented fan demand, Rebellion is pleased to announce that the forthcoming release of Nemesis the Warlock: The Definitive Edition will be bigger AND better – printed larger than any previous edition of the landmark 2000 AD series!

Both paperback and hardcovers editions of the five-volume Nemesis the Warlock: The Definitive Edition series will now be published in a large-format size measuring 307 x 231mm (as opposed to 276 × 210mm).

Long regarded as one of the crown-jewel epics from the pages of 2000 AD, this new series of paperbacks of Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's Nemesis the Warlock is being published alongside gorgeous hardcover editions with stunningly designed new covers – available only from the 2000 AD webshop – that present O'Neill's groundbreaking and mind-bending art in all its glory.

After considering feedback from fans, Rebellion has boosted the dimensions of the collections to an over-sized format, making it larger than any previous edition.

And, for the first time, these editions will properly reprint the Nemesis the Warlock stories in their original publication order. They will also feature colour pages, as well as new high-resolution scans of the original stories, and all the covers and pin-ups from each era.

The first 176-page volume is on sale from 5 December, with pre-orders open now from 2000 AD and online retailers. Copies will be available to order through Diamond's Previews catalogue.

The first volume will feature the stories 'Terror Tube', 'Killer Watt', 'The Sword Sinister', 'The World of Termight', 'Alien Alliance', 'Secret Life of Blitzspear', and 'A Day in the Death of Torquemada' from 2000 AD, as well as development sketches showing the evolution of the cloven-hoofed alien freedom fighter Nemesis and his living spaceship, the Blitzspear – plus a panel from 1981 drawn by series creator O'Neill that acted as an apology to readers when the last few episodes of 'The World of Termight' were late.

Burning with iconoclastic fire and wild invention, Nemesis the Warlock is the satirical sci-fi space opera that helped place 2000 AD as the true cutting edge, and catapulted Mills and O'Neill into the comics stratosphere.

Termight is the ruling planet of a cruel galactic empire, an empire led by the diabolically evil Torquemada, a twisted human despot intent on purging all alien life from the galaxy and punishing the deviants. His motto: Be pure! Be vigilant! Behave!

But there is rebellion and resistance to his rule in the form of a devilish-looking alien warlock called Nemesis, who represents everything that Torquemada hates and fears. Together Nemesis and Torquemada are locked in a duel which will affect the fate of humanity and each of them on a personal level as their conflict spans time and space!

The first volume of Nemesis the Warlock: The Definitive Edition is out on 5 December from all good book and comic book stores, with a digital edition and the hardcover edition available exclusively from 2000AD.com.