35 years of thrills: 2012 belongs to 2000 AD!

[SmallBlueThing]

A lovely hardback Shako please, covered in a shaggy white fun fur jacket with rubber bear claws coming through slashes on the front, and the title picked out in blood dripping from these slashes. Can the strip be coloured in a subtle palette of pale blue highlights for the  snow and crimson for the blood? With script and tribute art in the back, and an essay by Mills?

Otherwise, Return to Armaggeddon, Silo, that dave d'antiques strip with hatty man the name of which escapes me at present and which i want to call 'bernard bum'- brigand doom! That's it. And please, for christssakes, sinister dexter- either continued or from the top, but properly done this time.

SBT

[Colin YNWA]

I really think S&D deserve a full and proper Casefiles type treatment. Alas the number of copies of the previous volumes that turn up here, there and everywhere very cheap suggests that sales were weren't good alas.

I did suggest in an article what I did do over at Everything Comes Back to 2000ad that a 'Greatest Hits' volume, in the style of Mega City Masters (I think they're called) might go down well in the US?

Otherwise rest them for a wee bit longer and let interest rebuild and those cheap copies disappear before producing a nice lovely Case Files type series.

[Grant Goggans]

3. R. Trooper, The Red Seas, Sinister Dexter all appear to have been dropped from the format. I know they may not all be big sellers but please finish what you started for us collectors who would love complete runs on the shelf.

I think Rogue Trooper is as complete as it's likely to get.

[norse_sage]

Wait --- just one case file this year???
You haven't given up on these, have you?

[The Adventurer]

Wait --- just one case file this year???
You haven't given up on these, have you?

It could just be they're pacing themselves after really pumping them out for a few years, I mean they're going to run out at some point.

[TordelBack]

Wait --- just one case file this year???
You haven't given up on these, have you?

It could just be they're pacing themselves after really pumping them out for a few years, I mean they're going to run out at some point.

Not at one a year they're not!

[radiator]

I guess that slowing down the pace of the Case Files makes a lot of sense - we're getting into seriously dodgy territory now - I put together a list of what will likely be featured in the next few volumes (wasn't able to find it with the search function, sadly) and there's quite a lot of poor Dredd material in there. It doesn't make a lot of sense to flood the market with weak Dredd material, being that most people will be buying these for completeness/curiosity rather than quality...

The other point is they are expensive books now - at £20+ each, it makes sense to space them out a bit so people can keep up!

Finally, it's worth noting that we are getting at least three Case Files volumes in 2012 - two Dredd (19 & Restricted 04) and Anderson 02.

As for Restricted 04, looking at the possible contents of that book:

Could You Be Judge Dredd? John Wagner/Carlos Ezquerra
Mr. Bennett Joins the Judges Mark Millar/Peter Doherty.
Sinned-In City Robbie Morrison/Adrian Salmon/Jim Vickers
The Mean Machine John Wagner/Cliff Robinson
Funeral in Mega-City One John Wagner/Colin MacNeil
Horror House John Wagner/John Burns
Strangers on a Zoom John Wagner/Jim Baikie
True Grit Gordon Rennie/Mike Perkins
Naked City Gordon Rennie/John Richardson
The Boston Crab John Wagner/Henry Flint.
Dredd Has Been Murdered Alan McKenzie/Paul Peart/Robin Smith
Raptaur Returns Alan Grant/Tony Luke/Dean Ormston
Through the Perphole Gordon Rennie/Jim O'Ready
Confessions of a Vegetarian Jim Alexander/Sean Longcroft
Devil Man Robbie Morrison/Jim Vickers
Sleeping Satellite Si Spencer/"Morak"
Die Painfully Jim Alexander/Stuart Mac
Fat-Bottomed Boys Robbie Morrison/John Hicklenton
Judge Planet II Si Spencer/Shaky Kane
Judge Rico: Perchance to Dream Pat Mills/Calum Alexander Watt
The Medieval Dredd Simon Jacob
The Pit: Black Day at Bad Rock Robbie Morrison/C. Bravery/Jack Couvela/Del Frost
The Incorruptibles Paul Neary/Marc Wigmore
Dredd of Drokk Green Alan Barnes/Trevor Hairsine
Out of the Blackstuff John Wagner/Sean McNaughton
Sugar Daddy John Wagner/James Joyce

That's actually not as bad as I was expecting.

[norse_sage]

I'll take your word for it that Restricted Files vol.4 won't be too bad, but I'm still worried about the release schedule of Case Files. I thougt a release schedule of two per year was cutting it thin, but one measly case file per year?? Really???

From what I gather, the stories won't pick up until Wagner returns full time around case files 24 or 25, and at the rate of one per year, we won't get there until 2017 or thereabouts. That's five more years of crap case files, or rather five more years of NOT releasing loads of high quality case files written by John Wagner because of a crappy period in the early nineties. That is a plan I can not get behind.

Just release the case files at a rate of two or three per year and have the dark days ahead done with so we can get back to the good stuff sooner rather than later.
Why prolong the suffering this way?

[Dash Decent]

September sees the first ever 2000 AD collectable art book – 2000 AD COVER ART FEATURING JUDGE DREDD (£34.99 ISBN 978-1-781080-44-3). Edited by 2000 AD graphic novels editor Keith Richardson, this highly-collectable tome will celebrate 2000 AD and Judge Dredd's joint 35th anniversary with a compilation of the most stunning and innovative Judge Dredd-related covers, illustrated by some of the greatest talents in the industry – a must for 2000 AD and Dredd fans!

This is absolutely excellent news!  If I was designing it, it would be a large (oversize) hardback with each cover getting a double page spread.  The right hand page would be cleaned up reproductions of the covers (so they are immediately visible when turning the page or flipping through), with each cover filling a whole page.  The left hand page would have the sort of details Pete has on his blog - initial sketches, art being worked up, the black & white version, the version with all the text masked onto it.  These would be smaller and there would only be two of three of them so all the 'weight' in the spread is on the right hand page.

I would also include non Dredd prog covers because many are excellent, and it's a celebration of 2000AD as well as Dredd (and how unlikely would a non Dredd covers companion volume be?), but around half the covers would be Dredd ones.

Oh - and I'd dedicate it to the artists, writers & editors of 2000AD.  And SBT and Pete Wells.

And I'd get the 2000AD logo on that cover somewhere.

Will they:
• scan yellowed comic covers and let it be obvious that they are old comics (I kind of like the charm of that)
• or scan and clean up the comic covers.   
• work from any original artwork they might hold.

I hope they clean them up.  If I want to see a yellowing comic I can look in my box of progs.  I want to see them in their pristine glory.

Seriously - hasn't pretty much everything from the old-school worth collecting been done now?

I wouldn't mind Return to Armageddon, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, more Future Shocks, the collected Sweeny Toddler (sorry, wrong comic) and the Dash Decent Case Files (all 20 pages).  I also want the promised third V.C.s title.

They might not all be to everyones taste but here's some of the ones I'm wishing for:

More Harry 20 on the High Rock

There's more??

[Dash Decent]

Wait --- just one case file this year???
You haven't given up on these, have you?

It could just be they're pacing themselves after really pumping them out for a few years, I mean they're going to run out at some point.

Guys, you're missing something here.  Moloch-R said the list was:

The January to September 2000 AD graphic novel schedule in full:

You see, Watson, it only goes up to September!! 

Certainly that only leaves three months for another Dredd case file release (October - December), but November could be a strong contender given it's 6 months after the May release of Case Files 19.  Restricted Files 4 is out in August, i.e. three months after CF 19, nicely bridging the gap between both and helping to work towards a Dredd release in each quarter.

My work here is done, Watson.  Pass me my violin and the needle.

[norse_sage]

Thank you for pointing that out, Sherlock.
So there is still hope.
I feel better now.

[Molch-R]

Moloch-R

While they may say marketing is the Dark Art, I'm not sure I'm at the standard of a baby-sacrificing Phoenician angel of Satan.

Yet.

[James Stacey]

While they may say marketing is the Dark Art, I'm not sure I'm at the standard of a baby-sacrificing Phoenician angel of Satan.
Yet.

You'll never get ahead in this business if you aren't.

[Dandontdare]

A lovely hardback Shako please, covered in a shaggy white fun fur jacket with rubber bear claws coming through slashes on the front, and the title picked out in blood dripping from these slashes. Can the strip be coloured in a subtle palette of pale blue highlights for the  snow and crimson for the blood? With script and tribute art in the back, and an essay by Mills?

Now where have I heard that before?   

C'mon you've finally got your glossy covers book, but you just have to face facts - furry Shako ain't gonna happen!

[SmallBlueThing]

Please dont crush my dreams. I see it as the first in a set of themed novelty covers- continuing with valkyries and the complete space girls. After all, i have to offload that two hundred cases of plastic comedy breasts somewhere, and it might as well be on rebellion.

SBT