Thrillpowered Thursday returns for the Spring!

Grant Goggans · 05 April, 2012, 09:36:18 AM

I hope that everybody's been enjoying the 2000 AD reviews that I've been posting on my Bookshelf blog for the last two months, but now the time's come for Thrillpowered Thursday to catch up with the issues from the middle of 2006. In today's entry, Meg 246 goes under the microscope, with production issues and that lettering hampering Black Siddha and Fiends of the Eastern Front.

If you've missed all the other reviews I've been writing in February and March, there is a link at the start of this entry to get you caught up. Enjoy!

Colin YNWA · 05 April, 2012, 10:18:08 AM

Great to have Thrill-powered Thursday back. Alas this time around I only read half as my trade of 'Fiends' is getting to the top of my read pile and so didn't want to pre-empt that.

To make up for it I clicked on that annoying BT advert on the left a couple of times... grrrrh.

Grant Goggans · 05 April, 2012, 11:01:16 AM

Thank you! Every click helps. They help me buy more 2000 AD books, mwa ha ha ha ha.

The Monarch · 05 April, 2012, 08:15:34 PM

Welcome back!

The Adventurer · 05 April, 2012, 08:43:14 PM

Oh thank grud. My Thursdays are now a little brighter.

Grant Goggans · 12 April, 2012, 10:56:12 AM

In this week's chapter, I talk about The Red Seas by Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell, and London Falling by Si Spurrier and Lee Garbett. Actually, I talk a fair amount in this longer-than-typical entry, probably because I skipped right past Red Seas the last time it was in the lineup! Enjoy.

Grant Goggans · 19 April, 2012, 10:46:21 AM

In today's chapter, we're up to prog 1500, with Stone Island and Nikolai Dante under the microscope. Have a read!

Colin YNWA · 19 April, 2012, 12:56:21 PM

Great stuff as ever. Can I ask when you refer to 'Stone Island' getting 'bloated and ridiculous' do you mean during the first story or the sequel?

Grant Goggans · 19 April, 2012, 03:25:40 PM

Sequel. Man alive, do I ever dislike the sequel. Something to come back to in a few months' time.

Grant Goggans · 26 April, 2012, 10:59:28 AM

Can't say enough good things about how amazingly good Dredd has been the last six years. Need to start doing that, so... In this week's entry, it's back to the very beginning, as Judge Dredd reveals his Origins in a major, game-changing epic that everybody who enjoys comics should read.

Colin YNWA · 26 April, 2012, 12:31:22 PM

As ever top stuff.

While I did really enjoy Origins I felt it did have a fundamental problem. It tells two separate stories the one set in the present and the one set in the past. The two reflect each other and bounce off each other, but do feel rather forced together. Each on its own merits is great, the joining of them felt forced and contrived.

Grant Goggans · 03 May, 2012, 08:15:06 AM

In this week's thrillpowered entry, a look back to the return of America Beeny to Judge Dredd, now a cadet assigned to an investigation with the top cop, plus the finale of Pat Mills' Black Siddha and a completely hilarious episode of Tales from the Black Museum. Have a read!

TordelBack · 03 May, 2012, 08:56:06 AM

Great piece. Spot-on with your characterisation of Dredd, and lament for where the Casefiles find themselves at this peculiar present moment. I think Rebellion should bite the bullet and just squeeze out as many of the 'difficult years' volumes as quickly as possible, get them out of the way and get back to the good stuff. At the present pace the coming material would sap anyone's will to keep buying.

The Adventurer · 03 May, 2012, 10:12:37 AM

Quote from: TordelBack on 03 May, 2012, 08:56:06 AM
Great piece. Spot-on with your characterisation of Dredd, and lament for where the Casefiles find themselves at this peculiar present moment. I think Rebellion should bite the bullet and just squeeze out as many of the 'difficult years' volumes as quickly as possible, get them out of the way and get back to the good stuff. At the present pace the coming material would sap anyone's will to keep buying.

I don't know, yeah this chunk of Casefiles is... not so great (and slow, now that they are collection Prog and Meg Dredd, in color. Which means short page counts) BUT Rebellion has been pretty good in getting 'modern' Dredd reprinted independent of the Casefiles. I mean... get copies of The Pit, Complete America, Art of Kenny Who?, The (not so) Complete PJ Maybe, Brothers of the Blood, Origins, and both Tour of Duties; and you're golden. Rebellion could be making more of a conerted effort to get OOP books like Mandroid and America back to press. The US market could have seriously used an opportunity to order many of these books again via Previews catalog too.

TordelBack · 03 May, 2012, 10:33:02 AM

Quote from: The Adventurer on 03 May, 2012, 10:12:37 AM...BUT Rebellion has been pretty good in getting 'modern' Dredd reprinted independent of the Casefiles. I mean... get copies of The Pit, Complete America, Art of Kenny Who?, The (not so) Complete PJ Maybe, Brothers of the Blood, Origins, and both Tour of Duties; and you're golden.

Agreed, a lot of great stuff is out there, but in a confusing and inconsistent way, in contrast to the 'flagship' reprint line of the Casefiles. I'm a fairly hardcore squaxx, but I've found it difficult to justify buying collections of material when at the back of my head is the anal idea that in a few years I can get it in in its chronological context in the Casefiles, and possibly even with matching spines (a nerd can dream). For example, I've never managed to buy modern (post-Titan) ABC Warriors collections, because deep down I have the suspicion that they'll be given the Casefiles treatment eventually, and I'm prepared to wait.

Meanwhile, the newest shiniest Dredd to arrive in the bookshop for the obsessive completist has bloody Inferno and Muzak Killer in it (also Hottie House Siege to provide some sugar coating for this bitter pill), and next up, presumably as the movie is opening, is Judge Tyrannosaur and Book of the Dead (also Bury My Heart..., but jeebus wept, strange bedfellows).