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For pity's sake, Clickwheel!  Put prog 1716 up!

The Complete Al's Baby is the latest Rebellion collection to get a spotlight over at my Bookshelf blog, so click the image and go read about it.  If you've never seen this deeply silly story, get those galactic groats out, because it is a treasure!

Nope.  Looks like we missed Meg 304 as well.

I'll confirm that.  My shop received Prog 2011 and Leviathan, but not the rest.

I think Kevin's long done with the days when he worked on Xmas day to get Nemesis Book 3 out the door.

That series ran from September to December 1983, so that anecdote might not hold up to scrutiny.  The cover date of the last prog of the run was prog 349, 31st December, so it must have already been in the shops at Christmas.

Couldn't have been Book One either.  The last episode of that was in prog 244, cover-date December 26 1981.

Now I'm curious what the heck Kev was drawing on Christmas Day!

LOEG was always branded as Moore's and O'Neill's pet project -increasingly since it left DC- and always came with the caveat, stated many times, that it'll be done when it's done and when we're happy. It was never tied to a schedule and they both seem happy with it that way. Even with DC it was always loose whereas the other ABC books where always on schedule, LOEG was never really bound to any laws since it's inception and has become increasingly so even in how it's written. We can't really complain when we're forwaarned.

I'll take issue with only one part of that.  The original series was certainly not attached to any "done when it's ready" anti-solicitation.  It's easy to forget now that it's all in one nice book - same with the similarly late issues towards the end of Camelot 3000 and Watchmen - but I was working in a comic shop when the first series was released throughout 1999 and 2000 and there was a lot of resentment about the repeatedly blown deadlines, and a lot of irate customers who bought what they thought was the new issue, only to find instead it was a stop-gap reprint of issues 1 and 2 to fill time between missed solicitations.  (I want to say that issue 5 was rescheduled by a month to allow Kev time to draw episode ten of Nemesis Book X.)

The present plan of 80 pages every other year is greatly preferable to that, yes.

Beyond that, no, as I said in my first post, I'll be happy to see it when it's out.  I'm not complaining that it's "late," just observing that three pages of artwork a month is... well, just about the slowest in the business.

And yeah, we wouldn't be having this debate if Moore had tasked somebody unpopular with fandom, like, say, Siku, as his artist.

I stand corrected.  Each book is 80 pages.

I also retract my statement "at the risk of being inflammatory" and would like to substitute "at the risk of turning valued forum members into hyper-defensive babies."

I mean, come on, people.  We're all perfectly happy to give Ezquerra as long as he wants to come back to work on comics because he's had a major operation and we love the guy.  Other than that?  Please.  If anybody in 2000 AD's current roster dialed it down to three pages of artwork a month, they'd be mocked to the point of crusifiction.  And this is a guy whose 2000 AD output over the last quarter-century is six pages, so nobody can claim the various defenses of "official messageboard being official" or "being mean to creators is mean."

I know that we fans tend to be loyal to our beloved comic's beloved alumni, provided their name is not Millar, but none of them are above reasonable criticism, and I suggest, reasonably, that a two-year turnaround on an 80-page project is ridiculous.

Piss-taking, even.

Unless he's doing it with his toenails, in which case he should carry on.

I think that a book full of Creep and Calhab Justice would even break my collect-em-all spirit.  Missionary Man and Armitage, on the other hand, are long overdue.

Whereas I seem to recall that by Tom Baker's era, stepping out of the Tardis in a swim suit, only to find yourself in a quarry, becomes something of a regular occurrence.

Poor Sarah Jane had at least two beach vacations that I can remember spoiled that way!

At the risk of being inflammatory, yes, I am very much looking forward to this and hope that it sells a zillion copies, but Kevin O'Neill must be taking the piss, spending two years drawing 64 pages.  I know he's always had problems with deadlines, but that's ridiculous.

And whilst millions of others have observed it before, the War Chief is clearly the Master (before the Master was invented.)

My favorite scene in The War Games is that beautiful bit around part four when the Doctor and the War Chief first lock eyes and they recognize each other, which never happened in Patrick Troughton's time.  Then the Doctor runs.  Magic.

And definitely get The Invasion on DVD.  That's one of the classics, with a great villain played by Kevin Stoney.

Max, here's the list I compiled for TBTHOT:

The Mean Machine Goes to Town, 1 episode [6 pgs], Judge Dredd Annual 1982 (Sep. 1981). Story by Alan Grant, art by Robin Smith.

The Mean Machine Gets Married!, 1 episode [6 pgs], Judge Dredd Annual 1983 (Sep. 1982). Story by Alan Grant, art by Robin Smith.

Travels With Muh Shrink, 7 episodes [36 pgs], progs 730-736 (May to June 1991). Story by John Wagner, art by Richard Elson.

Son of Mean Machine, 10 episodes [60 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.2 #63-72 (Sep. 1994 to Feb. 1995). Story by John Wagner, art by Carl Critchlow.

Visiting Time, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.2 #82 (June 1995). Story by John Wagner, art by John Hicklenton.

Psycho Analysis, 1 episode [6 pgs], 1995 Sci-Fi Special (July 1995). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Rob McCallum.

Mean Streets, 1 episode [6 pgs], Judge Dredd 1996 Mega-Special (July 1996). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Jim Murray.

Close Encounters of the Mean Kind, 1 episode [? pgs], 1996 Sci-Fi Special (July 1996). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Anthony Williams.

Born Mean, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #69 (Sep. 2000). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Kevin Walker.

The Geek, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #74 (Feb. 2001). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Paul Marshall & Len Townsend.

Support Yore Local Bastich, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #75 (Mar. 2001). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Wayne Reynolds.

The Last Vidshow, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #78 (June 2001). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Patrick Goddard & Dylan Teague.

Butt Me Deadly, 1 episode [10 pgs], Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #79 (July 2001). Story by Gordon Rennie, art by Patrick Goddard & Dylan Teague.

Angel Heart, 3 episodes [24 pgs], Meg 218-220 (May to June 2004). Story by John Wagner, art by David Millgate.

http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/2kad11m.html

I have a new motto for Clickwheel in 2011.

"Clickwheel!  At least we're better than Diamond!"

Actually, the best thing about Artie was when the '90s revamp was running, Tharg promised a rematch with a classic foe from their namesakes' past.  From a rogues' gallery of one, I was guessing that... would be Artie, then.

Okay, that's probably not the best thing about him.  I did like the way that he talked to himself constantly.

A new review today over at the Bookshelf blog.  Come read about the ridiculous-but-lovable ultraviolent Harlem Heroes saga, and how nice a job Rebellion has done re-presenting it!