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I didn't get it, I had to look it up. 

They should all be numbered from zero through to nine. It goes:
0 - Rough Stuff
1 - Nothin' But Misery
2 - My Murderous Childhood...
3 - Heaps Of Ruination
4 - Virtue And The Grim Consequences Thereof
5 - Wicked Inclinations
6 - Chinatown And The Mystery Of Mr Wicker (this was originally a stand-alone graphic novel)
7 - A Place Of Heartache And Grief
8 - Those That Is Damned
9 - Calamity Of Conscience

8 and 9 (and I think half of 7, can't remember) are all part of 'Goon Year' in which Powell endeavoured to actually get issues out on a regular monthly schedule, and which all comprise one big story. For the record, I think 1,2,3 and 4 are the most fun. However, there is a one-off published under a different title which has never been collected, because it is a tad obscene...

The former. Every single episode of 'Judge Dredd', in order.

It's certainly a fair, no-nonsense review... incisive and opinionated, as a good review should be. (I quite like Raptaur, mind you, but that's neither here nor there.) I wrote a similarly lukewarm one of the same volume for Amazon but frankly Grant, you mince words a lot less than I did! It's interesting... I am now able to look at some of Garth's work from this era and enjoy it a lot more than I did at the time - but it's very different looking at it from 'outside' as a particular historical epoch of the prog rather than experiencing it from the 'inside' on an interminable weekly basis.

I found the humour in some of the early Goon books - mainly volumes 0, 1 and 2 - really quite awkward at times, and got the sense it thought it was much funnier than it actually was. The stop-start nature of the early self-contained episodes really grated, too, and Powell's art was good, but only intermittently great.

I think it was the sublime Hellboy crossover in volume 3 that finally turned my opinion around. It's about this time that Powell broke out a new style, and finally seemed to have ironed out all the kinks in his scripting skills. The remaining TPBs are pure, distilled brilliance.

That's interesting - it's the earlier Goon stuff that I found funniest, especially the fake adverts for 'The Atomic Rage', the foul-mouthed Kirby-esque superhero. Some of those in particular cracked me up. No question that Powell found another level for the strip to operate on later in its life though - for me, it's the Fighting Fish-Canners issue in Vol 4 that signals the big transition in the direction of the strip. Even though he gave the series a bit more depth though, Powell is still able to reduce me to fits of laughter: from the same volume, Dr. Alloy's retort to a randy Shawshank-y prison inmate is genius - "I'll have you know, sir, that not only is my anus impenetrable, but it can withstand a blast  from a fifty kilojoule laser!"

Cheers mate, I absolutely cannot wait to see what kind of a spin you've put on my demented yarn. I may well get over-excited and have to go for a lie down. 

On reading the comic at the time, I think my rule was that if there was one decent strip, it was worth sticking with. Invariably, that happened, mostly due to John Smith. I think had he not been contributing to the Prog around that time, I'd have ditched it.

I concur wholeheartedly. It probably doesn't get said often enough, but John Smith absolutely carried the prog through its darkest days. Slaughterbowl, Firekind, Revere and Tyranny Rex were like shining beacons of thrill-power in the abyss.

Absolutely bloody fantastic. Looks amazing, he's undoubtedly one of the US artists I thought would 'get' Dredd, and he does. Now lure him over to the prog for an episode!

I agree, Powell is the man, a brilliant artist and a damn good writer, one of few who can make me crack up laughing when reading his work. I remember randomly picking up the old Albatross Exploding Funny Books-era special in my local comic shop, opening it up, and finding the Goon running over a giant squid and complaining about its beak getting stuck in the car grill. I bought it pronto and have loved all things Powell ever since.

Let's hope it's the Brett Ewins or David Roach version...

Funny enough, I was considering having the last episode of Revere on my list.

Aside from that...


Nemesis – 'The Secret Life of the Blitzspear'. Might be the best art ever in 2000AD.

Bad Company II: The Krool Heart – 'The Short And Happy Life Of De Racine' My favourite episode of my favourite comic strip, in which my favourite member of Bad Company meets his fate. That's a lot of favourites. The dialogue is superb, but since this thread is about art, it's the depiction of De Racine and Protoid as they jockey for dominance in a duel to the death that stays in my mind.

Bad Company I – I love the third / half-page drawings of the major characters which used to introduce the episodes, especially the ones of Thrax, Flytrap and Scummer. But the artistic standout for me mmight be the first page of the episode where we find out what's in the Black Box, which features Kano's enraged face divided up by a series of horizontal lines. Awe-inspiring.

Firekind – The episode in which Mr. Cheetl first appears, and you see his hooves clip-clopping down the ramp. Absolutely terrifying.

Necropolis – Dredd and McGruder arrive at the devastated MC-1. This one stopped me in my tracks. The sheer scale of the horror is unforgettable.

Indigo Prime: Killing Time – The whole series looks wonderful, but the penultimate episode is particularly visually astonishing, especially the final page where the Iscariot is revealed.

Nice Rollerball homage with the spiky glove. A previous incarnation of Jonathan E?

Brilliant. Love it.

Totally mental stuff, in the best possible way! Nice one, lads, love it!

Wow, the advent calendar 'entries' so far are bloody wonderful... I'm really glad this is a big collaborative effort and not a competition or I'd be very anxious for my day in a week's time...