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I was thinking I should look at my data, because what else is there in life?

And I found this:




I only count 100% jump-ons, so there are some progs labeled as "four new thrills" (for example) that don't make the cut. Those are jump-ish, not jump-on. I suppose you could do a color-coded chart where the data gets a hotter color the more new thrills it has, which would give a better idea of how easy it is for a noob to get on board. Then again, a totally new story (rather than a second book) is probably easier and should score higher. Then, you'd want to rationalize for number of stories in that issue, and ... HOOK! HOOK! TOOT! TOOT!

That's Robin Smith not Ron I imagine?

Thanks, Colin - yes, you're quite right.

I'll try to name them (L-R, T-B) from memory:

Kevin O'Neill, Carlos Ezquerra, Carlos Ezquerra, Ron Smith (?), Mick McMahon, Eric Bradbury (?), Kevin O'Neill.

Festive prog covers, part 01:

See this note from our lonely moderator:

BTW, if anyone comes here and doesn't get a response from me in a timely manner for an account upgrade (after you've posted a few times), DM or email me and I'll look into it.

Looks like the xmas prog is going to be split into a section of all one-shots and then the stories that continues into next year. I also preferred the concept that the xmas is like a jump-on point

There's a longer answer to this, but the short answer is that it looks like scheduling neatness has been somewhat sacrificed on the pyre of Regened. Or - if Regened can "interrupt your normal scheduling", then the festive doesn't need to be a jump-on anymore. I preferred it as a launch point as well.

Data-diving, the "last prog of the year being a jump-on" was in place going into 1999, then 2000 (with the oddly-numbered PROG 2000 that was actually prog 1173.5). This routine continued until Bad Company's First Casualties, which snuck its last episode into the festive prog 1961 (last prog of 2015).

Normal service resumed going into 2017 & 2018 ("in 1975 no one died") but then Brink decided to run for longer than standard over the 18/19 and 19/20 breaks. The Out did similar in 21/22. Basically, it's all Dan's fault.

I really didn't like the self-reverential (sic) nature of this prog's Feral & Foe. You're not supposed to see the little man behind the curtain, but Toto somehow got loose in the Nerve Centre and suddenly the script turned into the Look What Dan Can Do With Words show. The characters were hijacked to make a triple-headed naval-gazing repeat-joke (Stewart Lee would be proud) and then even the captions got in on the act and start talking about "plot points".

Punny names are part of the act, yes, but we don't need the other characters to explain them to us.

Pre-emptive response to anyone that thinks I'm being over-critical: "I know! but still..."

There's a bunch of DeMarco episodes too, besides those included in the Mega Collection Simping Detective book. I've no idea whether they were well received on release?

Looking at my listing, I'd suggest that the Robbie Morrison ones (2000-2002) are interesting, but not vital. She has a gorilla-butler sidekick in those ones. They do have the advantage of giving her a character beyond "young Judge fancies Dredd".

I wasn't terribly enamoured by the Carroll stories (2013-2016) because one of the difficulties with the character as a premise is that they are usually in situations that would get other folk cubed, and so we keep having to retread the "normally, you'd get locked up for this, you naughty scamp" stuff. Points for trying to do something with Mega-City Two (aka SovSec), but perhaps too many special monsters. Pretty sure the baddy ends up being Blofeld, as well.

File all of DeMarco PI under "I wish this was working better than it is".

I didn't enjoy the character design for Maniac 5. On the one had, a robot - on the other hand, drawn quite biologically - with a stretchy mouth and so on. It was more like Rambo had painted himself silver. I recall also disliking Soul Gun Warrior, from the same era - mostly because it seemed anachronistic. The perhaps irony is that Soul Gun Warrior has enough depth that I can now recognize its timeless quality. Time hasn't improved things for Maniac 5.

I've heard so much about how terrible Purgatory/Inferno is that I'm quite curious to read it.

It's like the Dreddverse had an irony-bypass, mainlined testosterone and decided that "thuggish" was a desirable character trait. Seek ye subtlety elsewhere. (Tis Ezquerra, though. Makes things look good, even if the characters are surviving lava through the power of sheer rage. RAGE!!!)

I found a bunch of old 2000ads in the loft earlier this year and it happened to contain the run containing Purgatory/Inferno ...

...truly, truly appalling storytelling. Even Carlos' artwork gets boring with all these super-jacked judges roaming around.

This is why I don't go up to my own attic. Who knows what's up there, forgotten?
A mad wife, locked away years ago, wouldn't be as bad as a complete run of Purgatory/Inferno.

And what if the mad wife (now bearded) then read Purgatory/Inferno, and was inspired, and then - as part of a revenge plot - escaped from the attic and toppled your Judge Dredd miniature, which then smashed an enormous breach in next door's garage? What then? Eh?

Oh, dear Grud - I've been teleported to a dimension where everyone's a [censored]. 

if the artist could draw faces in a slightly different way

FIFY

Richard - you are being a Scunthorpe. (I deleted what I was going to say - this is the polite version.)

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Let's just summarize some reality here:

- Zoe is wearing a bandana, has long purple hair and bruised eyes. And one arm.
- Jules has a dark mop of hair and stripey tentacles growing out of his back.
- The robot head has a single large red eye and is the head of a robot.
- The pilot is a massive bearded lumberjack of a man with wild red eyes.
- There's a dude on the ground with a Hitler moustache and a bald, scarred head.

If you can't tell the difference between those things then it's not the artist's fault.

(You're free not to like any art style you're presented with, but try not to talk utter bollocks about it.)

Red seas had passed me by somehow, so I'll check that out.

Of course, if you get into The Red Seas, it's part of Edginton's Edgiverse.

The closest thing in 2000 AD to Saga is probably the similarly incomplete Brass Sun.

I like both of them. Saga can be a bit brutal, but it's never dull.