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Yeah, reading this for the first time suffers from not having reprints of Nemesis Books 3-6 handy...

Nem 3 reintroduces Mek-Quake as a soldier in the Termight army.  He mentions he'd really like to run into Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein one day.

Nem 4 finds Ro-Jaws working as a valet on Brittania, the homeworld of the Gothic Empire.  Nemesis basically press-gangs him into his service.  The terrans send Hammerstein and his last two robots, Hitaki and Mad Ronn, on an assassination squad to kill Gothic Queen Victoria, but Nemesis stops them and convinces them to reform the ABC Warriors.  Hammerstein explains that Happy Shrapnel was killed on Mars, and that they'd left Steelhorn/the Mess behind there, so Mad Ronn and Hitaki substitute for them.  Joe, Blackblood and Mongrol are recruited from various other jobs they have been working, and Nemesis reveals that Deadlock has been part of his essence since he returned from Mars, found the Knights Martial have gone soft in his absence and prayed to Khaos for help.  Nemesis arrived and the two became one.

In Book 5, Mad Ronn is destroyed.  Mek-Quake replaces him.

In Book 6, Hitaki is also destroyed.  Ro-Jaws accompanies Hammerstein, Joe, Mongrol, Mek-Quake and Blackblood as Nemesis orders them on the Black Hole mission.

--Grant

I think that Nemesis books were probably planned at one point.  The DC/2000 AD US Preview comic had a Nemesis pin-up page, so it looked likely they were considering it, if nothing else.

From Rebellion's perspective, there are probably more important considerations right now, although a reissue (or Rebellion release) of Death to All Aliens, followed by a collection of Bks 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 and 9/10 would be nice.  Maybe starting in late 2006...?

--Grant

I dunno... the absence of "Smoke & Mirrors" is no great loss, but I quite liked the artwork in "Hand Maid in Downlode" and I'm surprised to see it omitted.  I'm looking forward to picking up my copy tomorrow evening!

--Grant

Palomar.

"They called me Mister Glass!"

I've just realized that by the time Blood Trails finishes, Rennie will have been on Dredd in the prog exclusively for about five months.  Hmmm.

--Grant

Solid reasoning, and excellent research.  I have only a couple of points.  The Complete D.R. & Quinch will almost certainly have "Back to Nature," so there's another 6 pages.

I certainly hope Brothers of the Blood includes Rennie's excellent "Prodigal" story from the Meg last year.  It certainly means more to the recent mythos than the freakin' Satanist.

I won't have the new Meg for a few more weeks, but the credits indicate that "City of Dead" is only 12 pages...?

I also have to wonder whether we can realistically expect the Complete Dredd Case Files vol 2 to include the Burger Wars and JGG stories, in which case your page count might be a little high.  On the other hand, it would be very, very nice if they included the annual and Sc-Fi Special stories.

--Grant

Carver Hale is okay, but... ehhhh...

The problem is that it's a very character-centered story without much plot around it.  As an eight-parter intending to introduce a long-running character, it works all right, except Carver never appeared again, so there's not a lot of point in reading it.  Had this been the first of several Carver Hale stories, we'd look at it differently, I expect.

--Grant

I'm curious whether anyone's getting this press out beyond this website.  Surely Newsarama, Comicon and CBR run press releases.  This should be sent to them, along with contact information should the sites desire an interview with any of the creators.

--Grant

On Footloose:

Do you remember 1983-84, when you had really decent music by Echo & the Bunnymen, David Sylvian, Talk Talk, the Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees in the top 10?

I don't, because I'm American and all we had in the top 10 was songs from the fucking Footloose soundtrack for pretty much a whole calendar year.

I will never watch that movie.  The sound of it would drive me mad.

--Grant

That crazed buffoon would be me, and I'm aware Suspiria has a considerable reputation, but I think it's the most incompentent pile of overrated tosh I've ever seen.

It's not frightening in the slightest, but it tries to be with incredibly overwrought sequences ruined by the acting and the dubbing - like that scene where, if I remember rightly, they've been relocated to the gym and one character is agonizingly telling the heroine about the person who breathed just-like-THAT! and neither of them bother to peek around the curtain and see who's behind the labored breathing.

When the plot isn't relying on hoary old chestnuts ("Gosh, I don't know who could have told you to go away when you arrived last night during the storm, please, come in"), it's making up ridiculous backstories for witches just to make the evildoers more ominous, or it's relying on bizarre incidents which are so absurd they go past outre and grotesque and into comical - like that room full of barbed wire.

The photography's terrible, the pacing's bad and then there's the central issue of what makes the film a big headache and chore to watch - that soundtrack.  It's like someone dropped a guitar down a flight of stairs.

More power to you if you find that nonsense appealing or actually frightening, but yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about when I say that movie's an embarassing, laughable, unfrightening joke.

--Grant

Napoleon Dynamite, Suspiria and The Fireman's Ball are my "Bottom Three of Shame."

--Grant

That R1 Sapphire & Steel box set retails for a hundred freakin' dollars.  For 34 episodes.  That's why I haven't bought it yet.

Heck, the dollar's so weak now I should ask one of y'all order it for me and pay you back in trade.  What's $100 these days?  ?8.40?

--Grant

Yes, they have the added coolness of lacking any mention of DC on the exterior of the book, even the spine, which I thought was neat.

--Grant

"If those pics are anything to go by, it looks the covers are changing to be more in line with the Euro trade layout, with the creators across the bottom of the page and no black bar. Hopefully the spines will stay the same, if only to keep them looking snazzy on the shelf!"

Yeek.  That's the only thing that genuinely displeases me.  Not only do I prefer the back bar across the top, but... heck, why change the trade dress after that many books?

--Grant