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Ooh, I can collect from Central London.....

I thought it was pretty enjoyable - the first half especially so, but it seemed to suffer from the same things that pretty much all the episodes of the new Doctor Who I've seen: it was too fast paced/too many story elements crammed into too short running time, it was overly sentimental at times, the music was laughably loud in one or two scenes, and the plot (as always) devolved into overly complicated yet irritatingly vague pseudo-sci-fi nonsense.

I didn't watch much of the last few series - I always found Tennant a bit annoying tbh - too much over-acting and his Doctor always came across as smug and arrogant rather than charismatic. Infinitely preferred Ecclestone in the role, but I like the new guy so far.

Really loving the art direction of this series, too - there's a very retro-Brit-cool vibe about the way everything looks, from the sets to the Daleks to the costumes.

How come you're selling, if you don't mind me asking?

I can't really remember that many new elements that other writers brought in during that period. Judgement Day aside, the vast majority of Ennis, Morrison and Millar's contributions were pretty much by-the-numbers one-offs and shorts.

The main 'innovation' that was introduced around that time were all those ridiculous world judges - a concept admittedly created by Wagner and Grant, but one that subsequently got ran into the ground - the low point being Crusade.


I do agree that each writers contributions on Dredd or Dreddworld strips are quite segregated - sometimes I think it would be neat for writers to occasionally use each other's characters or plotlines - imagine Dirty Frank having a cameo in the lead Dredd strip for example - but obviously from there its a slippery slope to a continuity nightmare like you get in superhero comics. Tour of Duty has been a bit of a departure from the norm, with five different writers all pitching in stories which make up a satisfying whole - I hope that we see more of this sort of thing in future.

I asked John Wagner about it on his facebook page last year and he said that he doesn't really follow any of the Dredd spin-offs, but he did say that the one he really admires is The Simping Detective.

Such a shame about [spoiler]Papa Yeltsin! Yet another Dante supporting character bites the dust! [/spoiler]I'd be very surprised if [spoiler]Elena is dead, though - they made such a big deal out of rescuing her in the last series it would seem odd to kill her in such an off-hand way now.[/spoiler]

Really anxious to see where the plot goes now - are we really that close to the end - is what we're seeing now really the final confrontation? In a way I'm hoping that Dimitri assumes control of the empire, takes Jena prisoner, and Dante is forced to go on the run again. Really hope there's a few more series to go yet!

Best non-Dredd series ever.

Looks lovely - I'd be very tempted to bid if you had other delivery options.

I don't know where this stands legally - you might get told off by Rebellion!

Devlin Waugh for one.
Toy from Halo Jones, even though she wasn't openly gay.

[spoiler]the stand out moment of the prog was Zombo's amazingly bonkers thumbs up![/spoiler]

That was a great little moment. Overall, I haven't been enjoying this series of Zombo as much as the first, but there's usually at least one bit in each episode that puts a big smile on my face.

Is anyone else slightly disappointed with the art on Dante recently? I'm a massive fan of Si Fraser - his early stuff on The Romanov Dynasty and The Great Game is some of my favourite 2000ad art ever - but this week's episode seemed rushed - a few panels were little more than sketches, really.

A lot of artists tend to streamline their work later in their career - I understand that to make money from comics you have to work fast and I sympathise - I just wish it wasn't the case and a little more time could be lavished on what is the climax of such an amazing body of work. On balance, he has done a few wicked covers andsplash pages recently.

[Mechanismo]

The standalone Dredd collections have slowed down a lot lately as they have shifted focus towards the Case Files. I think the last one was Mechanismo last year. There are two volumes coming out this September collecting the entire recent 'Tour of Duty' epic - 'Backlash' and 'Under New Management' I'd definitely recommend getting those, especially if you haven't been following it in the weekly. There is Heavy Metal Dredd too, but I would avoid that - it's pretty awful!

Recommending individual stories is a little tricky - if you let me know exactly what trades you've got I can suggest stuff that you should prioritise!

Otherwise, I would plough on with the Case Files - it's all good stuff. There's also loads of good Dredd spin-offs that are worth a look:

Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files 01
Judge Anderson: The Psi Files 01
Mega-City Undercover Volume 1
The Simping Detective
The Dead Man
Banzai Batallion
Judge Death: My Name is Death
Judge Death: Young Death - Boyhood of a Superfiend

Rebellion will be putting out The Taxidermist, Chopper and Missionary Man trades in late 2010/early 2011 and all of those are great too.

Yeah, looks like both versions of the Judgement Day book are out of print. I'm sure a cheap copy will pop up on Amazon or eBay if you keep checking.

Judgement Day should be in Case Files 17, which is out early 2011 if you don't mind waiting for that. If you wanted something else to read in the meantime, you should get Judge Dredd: America - it's set between (before?) Necropolis and Judgement Day and the lead story doesn't appear in the Case Files so you won't have to double up.

Hey Radiator, I posted a couple years ago asking for an order of graphic novels, you posted me up a brilliant list which I got part way through until circumstances prevented me from carrying on about a year ago. Now I fully intend on carrying on!

Cool - glad I could help! What have you got so far and what are your thoughts?

Yes, the complete contents are:

Mechanismo
Mechanismo Returns
Mechanismo: Body Count

It ends with [spoiler]the destruction of Number 5, Dredd falsifying evidence against the Mechanismo robots and deciding something must be done about McGruder.[/spoiler]

Hamlyn published the complete Wilderlands collection about 10 years ago - the stories in that book continue straight on from Mechanismo - you can probably find a copy on eBay.

The Arkady/Dimitri thing was revealed (or at least heavily hinted at) waaaaaay back in The Chaperone - progs 1560 to 1564 in 2007.

Amazing photos of the eruption:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/7606679/Iceland-volcano-the-latest-spectacular-pictures-of-the-volcanic-eruption.html

Give the subscription line a ring and they'll probably get another copy out to you.

9 times out of 10, my copy arrives on Saturday, sometimes Monday, sometimes Tuesday. If its any later than that, there's usually a problem.

I just couldn't get into Y... I tried, even buying and reading the first TPB, but it just didn't connect with me.

Same here. I think the main problem with it for me was that I was entirely unconvinced by the concept. Its an interesting idea - a world without men - but I didn't buy how it was portrayed at all - things didn't seem nearly messed up enough. I also thought that some of the dialogue was cringe-inducing and the artwork functional but bland. Brian K Vaughn seems very popular these days, but I seem to have an inexplicable aversion to his work.

I had the same thing with The Losers, Astonishing X Men, Sandman, Fables and The Walking Dead - all hyped series - all left me scratching my head wondering what all the fuss was about. I bought book one of each, all of which eventually ended up on eBay.

So far I've yet to find a US series that can fill the gap left by Transmetropolitan, Preacher and 100 Bullets.....

I recently read book one of the deluxe hardback Saga of the Swamp Thing - it's probably Moore's longest stretch of mainstream work, and I've never read it before so it's a bit of a treat. I've always tended to avoid hardback graphic novels, but it's an absolutely gorgeous book. I've been so impressed with it that I've started replacing my tattered, decade old Preacher trades with the lovely new hardback editions.