Messages

Maxwell's Demon - Am I the only one keen to see this develop as a series? It's like RoboHunter but with demons instead of robots, and lovely English countryside.

I would love to see it developed in its own series as well

+1

+2 vs. Demons

++SPOILERS++

Prog 2122, where the confrontation occurs - the coup-group threaten to arrest Logan. Dredd arrives and kicks some ass.

Logan says "You're all suspended. Leave your weapons here, report to the guardroom, I'll deal with you there. I'm very disappointed in you..." [Nothing like - "you're all on the next shuttle to Titan".]

After Harvey removes himself from the equation, Logan tells Dredd "Fulsome's rejoined the Council in the light of Beeny's reinstatement".

It's not clear if Fulsome was part of the coup (not from my brief prog-scan, at any rate) - but it demonstrates that Logan felt (and he also said) that he'd made a mistake and was trying to recover from it. Within this narrative, even if it was not apparent to the writers, it also makes sense that the coup-Judges were ultimately forgiven.

2) As for the mini "Cadet Dredd" Regened stories, what do you propose that I should do for those readers that both enjoy that and feel that they should be added to the list...?

Just completely ignore me, would be my advice. I was only stating a personal preference - not suggesting a change. Opinions are like arseholes - everyone's got one.

Machine Law, progs 2115-2122.

In prog 2118 the new council is DCJ Ada Porter, Gerard Fulsome, TJ Han, Hector Robles & Judge Harvey [Mechanismo].

lets all touch all of us wood

I live in the US, so what you're suggesting is ... interesting. It is possible that some kind of homo-erotic ceremony would provide the mystical energy required for "this guy" to ... wait, is that sirens?

Why is Hernandez still on the Council of Five? He literally tried to depose the current chief judge. And at the end of that story, he'd been replaced.

My agèd brain hath failed me. What story was that in, please?

It's been nearly six years since we last saw Brass Sun. This guy is almost as bad as Pat Mills at finishing things he's started!

On balance, I'm pretty sure I'm worse. The trouble with Ian "this guy" Edginton is that he's created a multiverse but hasn't managed to access the alternate universe versions of himself in order to keep his multiverse plates rotating at a high enough TPP (Thrills Per Prog). It may be that the Edginton from this universe is the only one that's good at writing, and all the others are drunk on Captain McLean's Old Rotgut, or have been eaten by a monstrous horde shouting KHIII! Perhaps if he got in touch with Professor K, there might be some way of accessing a resurrection tank and getting more fingers on deck - although hopefully not the deck of the Leviathan.

Summary: yes, "this guy" - hurry up and provide us more of Brass Sun, Helium, Kingmaker, Scarlet Traces and Stickleback. And maybe Ampney, if that's not done. Detonator XI?

Lawless - I have some grit in my eye, dammit! 

You know something's not right when you're responding to yourself, but...

Lawless is just SO FUCKING GOOD. There's an argument about Lord of the Rings (the book trilogy) - about the length of the text, and some of the side-tracks and such. The argument that it's perhaps over-long. But there's something about the length of the journey that adds weight to the climactic moments. It's not just that someone wrote "there was a very long, difficult journey" - it's that the reader has to go on that journey as well, and (in doing so) becomes emotionally entwined with it.

So, when THAT THING happened in Lawless - the thing that got grit in my eye - it took me by surprise, and it had to do with the length of the journey and the depth of the characterization.

Lawless is just SO FUCKING GOOD - it's made me have a conversation with myself about it.

[The Telltale Incin Bin]

One might also want to consider The Telltale Incin Bin from prog 2347 - a one-page Dredd strip by Alan Kerr. (Personally, I don't count Cadet Dredd, as it's not in the prog and it's not Judge Dredd.)

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I went with the long-form grit-parade tales this year...

1st - Poison [unmissable lore wrapped up in a gory whodunnit - set everywhere]
2nd - The Night Shifter [brutal character study - set in Manchester]
3rd - A Fallen Man [brutal, suspenseful tragedy - set in MC-1] 

Honorable mentions to some of the lighter, funner ones:
 - The Disciples of Death
 - Flusher
 - Clanker

Has this been the fist year with zero Wagner Dredd in the Prog?

I believe so. He did do Surfer in the Megazine.

Will we get an update in 2024?

No. No this doesn't even merit the Fury Road gif at this point. It's just a bit silly now.

I think we can call it progress if it's been reduced to a yearly question. I mean - fair's fair - the Kingsleys probably check up on their languishing development hell proposals at least yearly. It'd be funny if their meetings went like this thread has...

 - A. Kingsley: "Will we get an update in 2024?"
 - A. Minion: "Oh ffs - this again?!"

I think one key advantage to keeping the Meg and Prog separate for voting is that not everyone buys the Megazine.

[04 - Gift-Wrapping the 80s]

04 - Gift-Wrapping the 80s

This is a small collection of three festive wraparounds - the first of which takes the form of the classic idea of Tharg dispensing gifts (from 1980's prog 192 by Carlos Ezquerra):





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Next we skip forward to 1984's prog 398, and a belter of a cover from Kevin O'Neill. His Santa seems to be sitting on (and squashing) an odd cross between Grobbendonk and Bonjo. I'm not sure what the evil cat at the back is doing, but it seems like a mole-like creature has come a cropper.





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Finally - it's another classic - this time from 1985's prog 450, and a visual summary of the exploits of D.R. & Quinch from the masterful Alan Davis. Again, it's the little details that matter - whether it's pterodactyls from their first Time Twister, or a copy of Mind the Oranges, Marlon. Note, as well, the subtle but dangerous difference between Quinch's Santa-hat and Crazy Chrissie's.







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Next: lesser-spotted...

Lawless - I have some grit in my eye, dammit! 

"Plus ça change"

Ah - thanks! Like a giraffe, that went entirely over my head. The little cedilla would at least have given me a clue, if they'd used one.