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Rogue Trooper: Nortstrom  -- Garth Ennis & Glenn Fabry
A Roman Legions strip by Gordon Rennie & Cam Kennedy

Hell, I really should have thought of Ennis writing Rogue Trooper. Mind you, so should have Tharg! Fabry is an interesting choice for art duties - I went for Simon Harrison for mine because of his work on The No-Go Job.

I can already see Cam Kennedy's Legionaries on the page.

Regards

Robin

I'm being greedy and going for a Summer Special. It's a classic line-up with some predictable pairings, but I hope a few original ones. I've had to specify periods for some of the artists.

Cover: A wraparound, by Wayne Reynolds, of some monstrous time-travel cross-over featuring Dredd, Alpha and Hammerstein caught up in events during the Volgan War. Probably storming a beach because it's a Summer Special. With air-support, so we get some futuristic planes in there, too.


Judge Dredd: Wagner and Kitson (circa 'The Return fo Stan Lee')

Strontium Dog: Wagner and Ezquerra

Zenith: GMorrison and Yeowell (circa Phase III)

ABC Warriors: Moore and Talbot (circa 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright')

Robo-Hunter: Wagner/Grant and Gibson

Nemesis the Warlock: Mills and Bisley (circa 'The Black Hole Mission')

Rogue Trooper: JSmith and Simon Harrison

Nicolai Dante: RMorrison and Kevin Maguire

ACE Trucking Co.: Wagner/Grant and Belardinelli

Slaine: JSmith and Fabry (circa 'Slaine the King')

Judge Dredd: Wagner/Grant and Ron Smith

Other features include:

Droid Life on Vacation

a puzzle page hosted by Stickleback

one of those cut-away illustrations showing Zombo's internal organs, by Kevin O'Neill (or possibly a 'Where's Zombo?' illustration by the same)

a spread of the best illustrations from the 2000ADonline art competitions


Regards

Robin

I've been wondering why he's gone quiet, too. I still check his blog a couple of times a week. I'm sure he indicated a while ago that he was doing a course, possibly journalism or something of that ilk, so perhaps that's keeping him busy.

Alternatively, perhaps Dawkins sent some atheists round to beat him up.

Regards

Robin

The author link takes you to a load of roleplaying games, so this looks like it's a book for the new roleplaying game from Mongoose publishing. Based on Mongoose's frequently under-developed and generally rushed material, I wouldn't get too excited yet.

Regards

Robin

Tasty.

One imaginary book I would love to have is a large format collection of all Bolland's covers and poster art. Although I have The Art of Brian Bolland it's not complete enough and not all full-page-enough for an obsessive collector like myself.

Regards

Robin

I really wish we could still have art that detailed.

Regards

Robin

They'll be of value to someone. Not very helpful, I know, but I wouldn't bin them (although I might charity shop them).

They have a couple of things that might appeal to collectors: original covers and a larger format than the Rebellion collections. I've kept my Titan editions of Nemesis and The ABC Warriors: the Black Hole Mission for both those reasons.

Regards

Robin

Another big Yes for Preacher

Y'know ... I read the stuff they reprinted in the Meg, and I really don't see it. It just seems like Ennis in Tarantino mode and it leaves me entirely cold.

(Mind you, I pretty much hated Sandman, too, so at least I'm varied in my dislikes!)

I liked much of Sandman and think it's something that's probably worth returning to now and again.

Preacher, on the other hand, I'm still not entirely sure about. As a story, it kept me reading until the end, but it's such an up and down mess of ideas, trying to be serious alongside succeeding in being infantile. Much of it involves Ennis metaphorically waving his dick in our faces in an effort to shock us. He succeeds, but it's easy and not that impressive.

On the other hand, the Saint of Killers is an interesting character, and there's a rather jolly bit where he kicks an oncoming tank.

Regards

Robin

Things that artists have complained to me about on the grounds that they are hard to draw:

Rocks
Some trees
An empty feild

Feilds are notoriously difficuly buggers to draw, what with the bits poking out at odd angles and all.

Regards

Robin

Both these were excellent but I must admit I was a little surprised at the brutality shown by Dredd in the second arc. Even though it is a full war situation it his "Take No Prisoners, Kill them All" mentality and disregard for the East Meg civilians safety was a little shocking. When about to launch a nuclear strike on the enemy a soldier pleads with Dredd to think of the "half a billion people in my city", a request he flatly denies. While he was at war his lack of compassion for the civilians even after discovering they were held in fear by a ruthless War Marshall seemed a little hard nosed... even for Dredd!

Those of us who were once active on the 2000AD newsgroups may remember a lady by the name of Nadia. I once called her mad (or mentally ill or insane, can't remember precisely), although in hindsight she was utterly rational when compared with the horrors that came later.

Anyway, she had a big problem with this issue, too, and to be honest it's never sat comfortably with me, either, even though I argued with her brutally over it.

This is how I rationalise it:

Mega-City One was fucked by the war, absolutely gutted and virtually broken.

Even with the leaders of East-Meg One defeated, there were a lot of other mega-cities around the world sitting there, biding their time.

The only way to stop some other power, fresh and ready for action, rolling into the crippled city was to send out a clear message: mess with us and you will regret it.

I think Dredd saw that wiping East-Meg One from the face of the earth was the only certain way of getting that message across without it sounding like bluff.

Of course, none of that is stated in the comic and I doubt any of it has ever crossed Wagner and Grant's mind, but it sounds like Dredd logic.

Regards

Robin

Eat plutonium death, you disgusting alien weirdos!


Regards

Robin

[Desk Editor]

Desk Editor

I reckon I could manage that one, although my experience is entirely amateur and they'd never go for it.

More importantly, in my current role I get to cut up human body parts, and since not many people get to say that sort of thing it would be a shame to get a different job.

Regards

Robin

The Angel Gang.

Not really abandoned, as they were just locked up at the end. Story done. Thank god.

Regard

Robin

I have two rules: never start a land war in asia, and never argue continuity with Robin Low.

Consider me flattered.

But I have one exception that proves the rule: The Fargo Clones, if memory serves, the clones were in a limbo until it was suggested to Wagner (who'd, by this time forgotten all about them) that they'd be old enough to be graduating (Logan?) at which point they were reintroduced into the modern Dredd era.

You see, I don't really consider that abdanonment. It was part of the backdrop of a story and that story was told. There was never any suggestion it would be returned to, it didn't need to be returned to, and it wasn't ret-conned. Obviously, I'm glad that it was returned to because it led to some very interesting and significant stories.

Regards

Robin

I hate to really ruin Dredd overall for you, but that's never likely to happen, for a number of reasons, not least of which is that the overall continuity you (and others) perceive is, almost certainly, born out of a general direction that John is coming to, by adopting or abandoning his OWN story threads. There IS no over arcing continuity (except that which is already written, and John has merrily abandoned that in the past on the chase for a decent story...)

Got some examples of abandonment we can argue over?

Regards

Robin