The Daily Dredds Volume one

Now this is a hardback that an editorial team can be proud of. The first volume of Dredd strips originally published in the Daily Star newspaper from 1981 to 1986. Written by John Wagner and Alan Grant with most of the artwork by the legendary Ron Smith, although there is also work by Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Steve Dillon, Brett Ewins and John Higgins. Beautiful black and white strips, many of which have never been reprinted before, presented in a landscape format book with an excellent standard of reproduction throughout.

Several things stand out when reading this terrific collection. Firstly the lengths that graphic novels editor Keith Richardson went to in order to get good copies of all the published strips, which he details in his introduction. The story of how this book was produced is almost as interesting as the contents. It represents a triumph for Richardson and for the many fans (including our very own Orlok) who responded when the call went out to find the missing strips. I know Keith and Michael Molcher touched on this in their youtube review of recent releases but I would quite happily watch a further film all about the search, the fans' involvement, and the details of the reproduction and design of this lovely volume.

Then there is the sheer inventiveness of Wagner and Grant in being able to churn out these witty little strips on a daily basis. There are some great gags and a variety of fantastic stories that must have introduced that distinctive Mega-City madness to many an unsuspecting newspaper reader. Quite how they managed this as well as writing the weekly Prog is beyond me. The boundless energies of being young and paid per completed script must be the answer.

If the story of the creation of this book belongs to Keith Richardson and the fans then the book itself belongs to Ron Smith. Sitting there at his drawing board with his alarm clock set to remind him when it was time to put one page aside and move onto the next, all the while producing his trademark madcap depictions of Dredd's world. His artwork is just sublime and this book is a fitting tribute to one of 2000AD's "immortals".

Rebellion seem to be all about high quality hardbacks at the moment and this one will be a fantastic addition to any bookshelf. I imagine it turned up in many a 2000AD reader's Christmas stocking but if it wasn't in yours then it's time to cash in that postal order you got from Aunt Gladys and add this to your collection. It is available as a cheaper digital download from the 2000AD online store but you really want the hardback, it's gorgeous and well worth it. Congratulations to Mr Richardson and the rest of the Rebellion staff for producing this Star Stunner. Let's hope we hear more about its production at some point. A five star volume

Big Finish - The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes

The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes, written by Jonathan Barnes and directed by Ken Bentley.

The third of three recent special releases from Big Finish. Dark Eyes 3 was terrific, Frankenstein was sublime, can Holmes possibly match their high standard? This box set goes some way to explaining what Holmes did in the gap years between the Reichenbach Falls and his return to London. It links Dr Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and the Great Detective himself as their different adventures are revealed to be linked by the fight against a sinister secret society. The story shifts across the globe as the characters try and unravel the mystery that threatens to disrupt everything the British Empire holds dear.

It's a clever juggling act to have the well known double act of Holmes and Watson separated but somehow working on the same case. Barnes manages to keep all the plates spinning and still give us all of the cracking moments of action, adventure and criminal deduction that we want from a Sherlock Holmes story. There are some terrific battles of wills as our heroes clash with the villains and try and decide the fate of England with their verbal sparring. A radio play is the perfect setting for these philosophical debates between good and evil, and interestingly here the main battle takes us all the way back to the birth of philosophical study. Well done, Mr Barnes.

Nicholas Briggs and Richard Earl are now firmly ensconced as my favourite incarnations of Holmes and Watson. They just sound perfect for the parts and deliver tremendous performances. They are ably supported by a great cast with Tim Bentinck and Jemma Churchill standing out as Mycroft Holmes and Helena Eidelmann respectively.

As ever the sound design and music are brilliant and it's all delivered with the usual high standard we expect from Big Finish. If I have any quibble it might be that the scene between Sherlock and Mycroft were they try to outdo each other with their deductive powers in a restaurant probably strayed over the line into improbability, but it wouldn't be a Homes story without some imposible feat of mental acuity.

Overall it's smashing package and my favourite of the three recent releases. Impossible to give it less than five stars.

Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter

After hearing the review on the ECBT2000AD podcast I was intrigued enough to pick up a digital copy of this through Comixology. The concept is initially a familiar one: take a famous historical figure, add a supernatural creature, and mix well, however there is more going on with this particular mash up. As our own Munkeh pointed out there was a lot of actual witch hunting going on in the 18th century and the paranormal theme fits in well with Burns’ famous poem Tam O’Shanter. Instead of the fictional Tam and his drunken encounter with a witches’ coven Rennie and Beeby have Burns himself stumbling into the midst of the action and needing to be rescued by a pair of experienced witch hunters.

It’s a neat fit and very well executed with Burns going on to learn the secrets of witch hunting from the fiery redhead Meg and an elderly curmudgeon called Mackay who sees young Robbie as his possible successor. Mackay is a great character, you’ve got to love a grouchy old Scottish expert of the occult, and it’s not too hard to imagine him as a ancestor of old Harry Absalom himself.

Trevallion’s artwork is as sublime as ever. His character work and story telling are fantastic and he fills in the background details with all manner of bogles, ghoulies, ghosties, long leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night. And of course it’s lovely to see his work in full colour. As far as DVD extras goes there are some character sketches by Trevallion and a short biography of Burns written by Jerry Brannigan. There are also some selected poems including the full version of Tam o’ Shanter.

I enjoyed this and came away knowing a lot more about Robbie Burns then I did before. The ending does make a sequel possible and I would certainly be on board for that. In the meantime if you’re missing your fix of Absalom in the prog then this book will fill the gap very nicely. Four out of five stars and recommended.

IDW Judge Dredd The Complete Carlos Ezquerra volume 1

This collection from IDW has been out for some time but it was on special offer in Forbidden Planet so I caved in. Turns out there might be a good reason for the reduced price but I’ll get to that in a moment. This features stories written by John Wagner and Alan Grant that date all the way back to the Bank Raid story that was supposed to run in the first Progs. It goes on to include a number of classic stories including Fungus and Destiny’s Angels and some other stories from around the Apocalypse War.

Good stuff first: this is presented in the same large format hardback binding as the splendid IDW Apocalypse War reprint . The artwork is reprinted at a slightly larger side than in the original Progs, and of course the stories from that golden age of 2000AD are great, but that’s about it for the plus points.

Unlike the beautifully coloured Apocalpyse War collection this is a black and white book and there have clearly been some issues with the reproduction of some pages. This is most notable on the first two pages of each story chapter, the pages that usually got the full colour centre spread back then in the Prog. Here they appear in monochrome with large chunks of the pages just reduced to heavy blocks of black with no detailing visible. It looks exactly like the result you get if you run a coloured comic page through a slightly dodgy photocopier. Other pages are also spoiled by odd splashes of black that didn’t appear in the original comics.

Clearly there has been a problem with the reproduction. I don’t know if IDW were able to work from the original plates or if they just had scans of the Progs, but somehow this has been allowed to slip through without the editors knowing (or caring). And I don’t have a one off dodgy copy, the reviews on Amazon mention the same problems.

The last story in the book is The Man Who Knew too Much from 1985 and here IDW has dropped the ball again and managed to miss out the last two pages of the story completely. Extra features include some classic Carlos covers printed in black and white apart from a couple of more recent covers which are in colour.

This was a major disappointment from IDW. I know it was one of their earliest releases of collected 2000AD material and maybe they managed to sort out the reproduction issues by the time they got to the Apocalypse War. I note from other Amazon reviews that there are similar problems in the first Brian Bolland collection. Although Matt Smith and Keith Richardson are thanked in the book for their assistance I can’t believe they were involved in the final product. It doesn’t seem likely that anyone from the House of Tharg would allow such a shoddy product to go, especially when they have been producing such high quality hardbacks of their own in the last few years.

0 of 5 stars. Get your King Carlos fix elsewhere and avoid this mess of a book.

Big Finish - Frankenstein

Another quick review for another bit of enjoyable Big Finish audio. Frankenstein adapted by Jonathan Barnes and directed by Scott Handcock, with Arthur Darville as Victor Frankenstein and Nicholas Briggs as his Creation.

A pretty faithful adaptation that really brings out the theme of Frankenstein's rejection of his monstrous offspring. Briggs does a great job and gives the creature a voice that was both unexpected and particularly fitting. His philosophical jousting with his "father/mother" are the highlight of this terrific production. Some other members of the Big Finish family round out the cast including Geoffrey Beevers, Georgia Moffett and Terry Molloy.

Quite possibly my favourite adaptation of the book at the moment. Five stars and on towards the return of Sherlock Holmes.

Dark Eyes 3

Big Finish keep pulling me in with their special releases and here we go again with Dark Eyes 3, written by Matt Fitton and directed by Ken Bentley.

Paul McGann is back as the Eighth Doctor and up against Alex McQueen as his nemesis the Master. Plus there's Molly O'Sullivan and the fearsome Eminence who is now set up as a major presence affecting several of the Big Finish Doctors. It rattles along with great verve and while some of it may have been a bit confusing in places it was still terrific fun.

McGann is as good as ever and McQueen gets the most out of his role as the villain with scene stealing relish. Not so much Ruth Bradley this time as she was off being busy elsewhere, but Nicola Walker makes a good companion instead. There will be a Dark Eyes 4 which will apparently wrap up this whole Molly O'Sullivan storyline, and I will probably be there for that one as well.

Four out of five stars.

Prog 2015

It's the big Christmas Prog from 2015. A bumper sized package that finishes off the year and sets up some thrills for what's to come in 2015.

Cover by Greg Staples and it's definitely one for the fanboys. Personally I would have gone with a bigger depiction of the Judges, something like Bolland's original or Henry Flints's from the Chaos Day run. Not sure this one is intended to sell any extra copies or just please the existing readership. Anyway he's back.

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice by John Wagner, Greg Staples and Annie Parkhouse.
After all the sssizle the steak is finally here and because it's only a prologue it is, let's be honest, a little underwhelming. But in Wagner we trust, all will be well. In fact all will be the complete opposite of well which is the point. Lovely image of Dredd wearing an actual Planet Replicas kit and test firing the Mark 3 Lawgiver. Should it be that easy to break in on P.J.Maybe though? Have no fear, Wagner will deliver.

The Visible Man by Pat Mills, David Hitchcock and Ellie De Ville.
Hitchcock does a pretty good job on the art, considering that everyone is wishing it was Henry Flint. The haunted house looks creepy and all those seventies and eighties toy references are great. But the evil priest story-line, again? The most obvious of reveals, which is saying something for a strip where two characters walk around without any skin. Bit of a dull one this, and are the Visible Man and Woman now working as some form of supernatural X-Files force investigating the weird from their souped up helicopter?

The Order by Kek-W, John Burns and Annie Parkhouse.
John Burns artwork looks great but didn't we already have this when it was called Black Shuck? Odd choice to run two similar stories close together but Robot Knights are always fun so I'll stay positive and look forward to more of this.

Ulysses Sweet by Guy Adams, Paul Marshall, Chris Blythe and Ellie De Ville.
It.s mad, he's mental and it's a slice of pure 2000AD nonsense, and highly enjoyable nonsense at that. Paul Marshall's style grows on me and it looks great.

It's also a big yes from me to that advert for Enceladus by Rob Williams and Henry Flint. Can hardly wait.

The only thing I can learn from the quiz is that there is a huge gap in my knowledge basically covering all the nineties and noughties. Nice to be able to get the Halo Jones, Ace Trucking and Skizz questions right though.

Jaegir by Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, Len O'Grady and Simon Bowland.
Rennie's alternate history of Nu-Earth fills in some more gaps and Atalia adds some brother issues to her problems with her father. In fact everyone seems to hate her apart from her doggedly loyal sergeant. It's an effective little filler story that does leave me anticipating her return to the prog. Hopefully she will find a mission that doesn't just relate to vengeance on her loathsome family.

Low Life by Rob Williams. D'Israeli, and Simon Bowland.
How can anyone resist a Christmas Dirty Frank story? One of my favourite characters and drawn by the demon, draughstman D'Israeli who uses a completely different style and set of textures to those we saw in Stickleback. I don't know how he does it but this was fabulous and one of the highlights of the Prog for me.

Max Normal by Guy Adams, Ben Willsher, Chris Blythe and Simon Bowland.
A lovely team-up for Max and the old ape and a chance to wallow in some black and white 2000AD nostalgia in the flashback sequences. Plus an appearance by that bucket Judge Jimp helmet and a bunch of block names with simian references. Lovely stuff by Adams and Willsher. Another high point.

Savage by Pat Mills, Patrick Goddard and Ellie De Ville
War is hell and who better to deliver that message than Uncle Pat as he sets up the next book for Savage. There's some nasty body horror stuff before old Bill finds himself betrayed yet again. Another strip to look forward to in the coming year.

There's a very creepy Star scan by Godmachine before Michael Carroll and Karl Richardson take to the stage for the big finale.

Judge Dredd: The Ghost of Christmas Presents by Michael Carroll, Karl Richardson and Annie Parkhouse
A hard nosed tale of one of the crime families filling the void left from Chaos day. I've been reading a lot of Brubaker and Philips' Criminal series recently and this felt as good and as gritty as anything there. I love a story from the dark heart of Mega-City One where Dredd is a peripheral character, he only appears in the final pages here. Lovely arwork by Richardson, lovely colours by Blythe, and Dredd is safe as ever in the hands of Michael Carroll. Top thrill

Overall it's more of a mixed bag of nuts than I was expecting and it's too early to say anything about Dark Justice but I'm braced and ready for thrill power overload in 2015.