Dredd Musings and Complete Case Files 23

Hello, hello, glad to see you here. Just thought I'd do a quick appreciation post on the 23d installment of the Complete Case Files of Judge Dredd. Complete Case Files is a series that'll of course end up covering the entire legendary lawman's career. But it is a career that isn't over and done yet, even though he's been active since 1977 on a weekly basis, the stories, and his age, progressing in real time, and we are all still following along in the same timeline as when we first saw him.

     Yeah, when the Complete Case Files will finally be done and over with, it is going to be damn huge. Case Files 34, which'll be out later this month, collects the series up until prog 1275 together with the spin-off Mega-zine issues that came out during the time the included progs did.

     I think that this week 2000AD released prog 2152.

That's still at least more than double the amount of Case Files until we arrive at that point, and still more when you realize that the amount of progs included in each Case Files has diminished since the inclusion of the Megazine issues in Case Files 15.

     Where in previous Case Files we frequently got to read about 50 progs, leading to a steady accumulation of numbers, in later issues they would have to share that space with the Megazine issues, which frequently leads to less than two dozen progs per issue. 

     This is not a problem, as the Megazine is canonical and was conceived to explore the world of Dredd and the Mega Cities, frequently running in tandem with the prog stories.

     But it does mean that there's going to be an unholy number of Case Files yet to come.

And Dredd's continuity is still ongoing.

     That as a bit of an aside.

I just really wanted to talk about how good Case Files 23 (progs 940-959 and Megazine 2.81-3.07) in particular is. I can't remember having had this much fun since the Necropolis storyline in Case Files 14.

     The Recent Case Files had been a bit of a hit and miss for me lately. I gather that this is true for most people, this being the time in the 80s and 90s where Garth Ennis wrote a ton of the stories while he just did not get the character at all, which lead to a whole bunch of sub-par stories, where Dredd didn't feel like Dredd, where the ideas and plots where derivative, and the whole overarching relationship between the Judges and the Citizens took a step or two back right into super fascism.
     Things had been looking up since Case Files 19 and 20 where there were a few good stories, but which were deprived of being completely satisfying for me since my Case Files specifically had a few issues missing between progs. Imagine, I was having a lot of fun with the Inferno storyline and events were really beginning to spiral out of control, and all of a sudden there seem to be some pages missing, since Dredd is already in hand to hand combat with the Inferno storyline's main villain. Kind of took the wind out of my sails, let me tell you.
    But in the previous 2 Case Files, the Chief Judge Mcgruder/Mechanismo storyline was finally dealt with in the really quite good Wilderlands story arc. And though Mcgruder is a memorable judge which I do have a certain fondness for, she did have the unfortunate honour of being the one in charge between Necropolis and Wilderlands, that very dreadful and dull and out-of-character period that most of wish that it rather did not exist.

     And now, that second aside over and done with, we arrive at Case Files 23, which was an overall really enjoyable time, even though it quite stretched the bounds of credulity at points. Of course, this is a comic book with stories set in a sci-fi dystopia setting, so there's bound to be more than a few instances of outright fantastical bullshit, but this one nonetheless managed to up the ante a little bit.
     What I mean is; take a look at the Case Files 23 cover.
That is Judge Dredd and his two greatest nemeses: Mean Machine Angel, and Judge Death. 3 characters who would as soon tear each other limb from limb as look at each other. And there's a story around that, and it is canon. And surprisingly it is very, very good.

The story is called The Three Amigos, and it is hilarious and bewildering and very, very satisfying.

It was written by John Wagner and it has art by Trevor Hairsine.

It concerns a band of Muties tearing across the Cursed Earth, trying to establish the United Mutant States of America. For some reason, nearby Tex-city is unwilling to stomp on the threat and so the Muties do what they want. Until of course, The Three Amigos ride into town.

     I don't want to give anything away, since the moment you see that glorious piece of art where the three of them stand revealed, you're thinking that there's no way that this isn't just another dream sequence in order to please the fans by giving them another consequence-free appearance of Judge Death, but no: It's all real and it is all good, and it charmed the pants off of me.

     There's a bunch of other good stories in here with the Three Amigos simply being the flat-out best, but Goodnight Kiss, Bad Frendz, The Decision, Repeat Offender, Bug Crazy, Face of Justice, Hot Pursuit and The Wall, are also all very impressive, and many of these and lesser others set up interesting story lines to come.

     Loved it, and looking forward to what's next. I already read a bit of Case Files 24 last night, and the first story in there was already one that felt like it mattered, and which was engaging and well written. Yeah, I think Dredd's bad years are over.

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I did see that the next story in Case Files 24 has a crossover with another series as a certain robot makes an appearance, which means that I'm going to have to go and Collect the Ro-busters and the A.B.C. Warriors comics one of these days... Oh well. They do  look awesome, and they're out in nice shiny hardbacks too.

September Book Haul

Late, as usual, but take a look anyway at what arrived last month.

Jon Sullivan art in the background isn't new, but I'll take any chance I get to show it off.

You'll notice that most of these are comic books. This is a side-product of me still not having finished the Grendel post. You see, I made a commitment that I wouldn't start reading a new novel before I had shared my thoughts on Grendel. And so, instead of doing what I'm supposed to do I am actually spending my time devouring the comics I had left on my shelves, buying a heap of new ones (and just you wait till next month's book haul!), and making way too long posts on a comic that's pretty good, but maybe not worth the massive amount of time that I spent on it. But the time of prevaricating has passed, damnit! This month is the Horror month, and I need to read horror books! So I better get Grendel done pronto.

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We kick off with volumes 1 to 4 of the Sixth Gun oversized Deluxe editions which are crazy expensive, and which for that reason I had always held off on buying. They're written by Cullen Bunn, whose stories I really like, and who wove a saga around westerns and the apocalypse... 

Guns, religion and mythology and one of my favourite writers of horror comics. Yeah. I can tell you, you've no idea how frustrating it was to have to pass up on these again and again just because I couldn't afford them.

But then to make it worse (or now: better), the art in the 6 volumes of the Sixth Gun series, about 50 issues worth + spin-offs, was all done by one artist, Brian Hurtt. That's a pretty rare thing and immensely appealing to my european comic sensibilities. To top it all off, the packaging of these things! Sixth Gun Deluxe is absolutely oversize and the whole thing'll look very striking on any book shelf, provided those shelves are big enough.

So now, with the release of the 6th and final oversize Deluxe volume in sight I was trying to make myself purchase these things already in preparation to finally also begin reading the series, but the pricing was just plain out of my budget.

So I went on Ebay, had a short browse and found the first four volumes for a very low price, which amounted, together with shipping, to less than half of what you'd have to pay for these books if you're going through the Book Depository. Hurrah!

But unless I manage to get myself a discount or something I would have to pay just as much again for the last two volumes... Hmmm, I'll think of something.

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Yes indeed, can you believe it? The Book Depository, which previously stated that I would have to wait for my Pre-ordered Beehive Books for still more than 6 months, only went and sent me the last of the three books over to me last week.

This one'll get its own post, as it once again really is a beautiful edition.

But I guess there's no harm in already revealing that there are 9 short stories in here, with some very nice illustrations.

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You know how it is, a long drought of buying nothing 2000 ad related and then 6 show up at once. Judge Dredd Volumes 21, 22, 23 and 27. I waited until they were cheaper than normal, though number 23 was still pretty almost full price.

I've already read 21 and 22 and, which, together, deliver the conclusion to the Chief Judge Mcgruder long-running, low-key story line, which also resolves the Mechanismo storyline. Though it goes very, very sci-fi (like, a new planet in our solar system), it's a very good and engaging story. Mcgruder had been growing stranger and stranger as some writers just didn't seem to get what she was about.

There's a few between-issue inconsistencies: for instance, Mcgruder being in a coma since the events of Case Files 19's Inferno, while an issue or 2 before she can be seen to be healthy and well. But on the whole, I do believe that this is the most satisfying arc since Necropolis. 

What also happens is that in these volumes there's an almost exponential increase, or rather; reveal of how many Mega-cities there still are in the world. The most arresting of these is Vatican City, which has iconography immensely appealing to my tastes and the most bad-ass looking judges since Oz's the Judda, it's the judge on the cover of Case Files 22 if you're wondering. Shame that the story they're introduced in happens to be so Sub-Par. Great art, just boring and jumpy storytelling.

Anderson 3 and 4, even though I haven't read or even have, period, Anderson volume 2.

Anderson Psi Files 2 is consistently out of stock, and the second hand prices on Ebay and other sites are regularly obscene, going as high as 500 pounds. Ridiculous.

The pages themselves must be made out of cocaine or something. It's a conspiracy.

It's a bit of a shame, because as long as I don't have Psi Files 2 I can't continue Anderson's story, which looked promising in volume 1, and managed to stand head and shoulders above the bulk of Dredd stories in sheer emotional storytelling. I'm thinking of Leviathan's Farewell in particular, which sees a friend of Anderson come into contact with the earth's last living humpback whale as it dies. It's a powerful little story with a heartbreaking ending.

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Here's one I shouldn't have bought, probably.

I'm reading Deadman right now, as he's such a prominent side-character in Swamp Thing, and I like him as a character, even though he looked ridiculous in Swamp Thing, but the story so far is just... uninspired. It should tell you enough when the artist gets first credit on the book cover.

And Kelley Jones' art is pretty cool though, it must be said. He moved away from the superhero aesthetic that Deadman had in Swamp Thing, and made him all creepy, elongated and very defined. What I mean with that is that with every muscle standing out, and the elongation, Deadman really looks like a ghost or something. It's pretty cool.

Reading Deadman made me realize that I now can not say I haven't read any superhero comics, so I guess that opens up the playing field a little. We'll see what happens, and with next month my birthday coming up too.

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Next up is IDW's ridiculously glossy edtion of Steve Niles' October Faction.

I don't like IDW editions much because all their comic books are so damn reflective, making it annoying to read them when you like reading your stuff under a fixed lamp.

Either way, I'm a huge fan of Niles' 30 days of Night and I'm a fan of horror investigative teams in general and so I had been keeping an eye out for when October Faction would be collected in one volume. As there are at least 28 issues at the moment and Open Season collects only the first 12 of those it's safe to say there'll at least be one other collection yet to come. Hmm, Odd. I just noticed that the cover doesn't actually have the sub-title "Open Season" on it, even though the spine and back do mention it. What the cover does manage to mention is that this one is getting a Netflix adaptation, so keep your eyes peeled for that. It's not available right now, but given its title it'll probably be here before the end of the month.

Strangely enough when I bought this one I thought the art duty was by Ben Templesmith, who collaborated with Niles on 30 Days of Night, but apperently the art is done by someone called Damien Worm. Their styles are very similar, though Worm seems less geared to make his characters outrageous, making them more grounded in reality than Templesmith.

Either way, it's probably going to be good as Niles' stories tend to be quite fun to read, frequently also packing some good emotional payoff at the end. I've read the complete 30 Days of night, his Aleister Arcane, and a bunch of short stuff by him, so I know what I'm talking about.

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Next up is Berserk Deluxe Volume 2 which I had to purchase yet again from a different site other than The Book Depository as their pricing was simply too damn high. That being said, Dark Horse is firing on all cylinders with this one as it looks absolutely awesome to have on the shelf.

You can see how big these Deluxe editions are below, where I've put them with the rest of my manga. As you can see I only have the Junji Ito stuff and Berserk, and I'm getting some more Ito next month. 

Berserk deluxe volume 2 collects volumes 4 to 6 of the ongoing Berserk saga. I've already read it, pretty much as soon as it came in, and though I was less than impressed with the Golden Age Arc, the Nosferatu Zodd arc then definitely made up for that. The assassin arc was another winner, although I would have thought there to be a lot more fallout and consequences from the actions Guts takes.

Anyway, so far Berserk is turning out to be quite a well-planned saga, with seeds of the things to come planted liberally in its opening chapters, and enough time spent to flesh out its principal characters to be some pretty absorbing reading. The pages fly by though, which is down to the manga format itself I think. It's showing itself to be a medium where whole pages can pass without anyone saying a damn thing and with the art just focusing on combat or characters faces to tell the story. It's odd but I don't think this makes it lesser than other types of media. It's just very different.

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And lastly we have a book that when I saw it online I just couldn't resist immediately snatching up.

I had been eyeing several different editions of the Melmoth the Wanderer hardbacks over the years but I never was completely satisfied with what I was seeing.

And when I saw the 1993 Folio edition I was sold in a second.

Very surprisingly the price was more than fair.

Melmoth the Wanderer is one of the quintessential 'man sells his soul to the devil' tales, and it casts a very long shadow. I've been wanting to read it mainly because Karl Edward Wagner cited it as one of the big inspirations for his Kane saga.

The edition comes with a few pieces of interior art, and while I was browsing through them and came upon the last one, I realized that it gave away the ending. *sigh*. Was this really my fault though, I ask you? Isn't it natural to want to talk a look at the extras your edition have brought you?

Either way, now that I've finally got it, I'll of course not begin to read it any time soon.

Because I'm weird like that.

And that's it for September, but October's books are already starting to stack up. But, first things first: Grendel.

April Book Haul

Right at the last minute of April I give to you: this month's Book haul!

Yes, it's a bit of a collection of assorted odds and ends, as per usual.

Let's start at the top.

These I bought after I had been to the doctor earlier this month, where I had to do my story regarding some of what's been going on this year. It took at least an hour longer than anticipated.

It was quite an emotionally draining ordeal, and on the long walk home I popped into the Grim Bookshop and casually splurged on these two well-known novels.

I needed a pick me up and these two did the trick.

The Old Man and the Sea is a tiny novel, almost a short story, really, but regardless of its length it was very pleasant to read. A beautiful tale, and though maybe not timeless, definitely indicative of a perfect time and a patient, trusting attitude. I devoured it in one sitting, which is pretty rare these days. This one is a classic for a reason.

Slaughterhouse 5 I'm reading right now and it's pretty much perfect for me: Non-linear, self aware, post-modern and meta-fictional. It's beautiful and brilliant, and though I haven''t finished it yet, I know how it ends, and it ends fine. The only thing I'm a bit iffy on is the aliens.

And up next, two novels which will herald in the age of Warhammer Horror. Expect reviews from these when I've read them.

I love the cover for Maledictions.

The Library usually don't do abstract covers like these, and these have garnered a lot of interest from people who normally wouldn't look at a Warhammer novel twice. Well done BL!

The Production value is pretty good, and granted, it bloody well should be as these effectively are meant to draw in new readers.

Games Workshop started an imprint specifically for these books. All I'm hoping for is that they do actually keep this going, and that the contents will indeed deserve to be called horror.

It does look like this will be the case, or that at the very least they're making a genuine effort to make these stand out from the other settings by the introduction of a new 'Age-blurb'. Either way, the existing settings have always had major elements of horror to them, so... the jury's still out on if this will fly.

Maledictions is a short story collection from both the 40k and Age of Sigmar settings, I think.

Which means that this book will be the first I'll be reading in the Age of Sigmar; breaking my resolution to hold off on Age of Sigmar until I have read every single novel set in the Old World.

Ah well, it was a mad idea at any rate.

The Wicked and The Damned is a collection of three tales, that are connected to each other, and which all take place in 40k.

Here's also the re-issue of Drachenfels to fit into the Warhammer Horror range. Note the Red curtains?

I promised a review of this one for last year, and I didn't get around to it.

As this is part of the Horror range I do feel more than a little obligated now.

It's not really a problem as the Genevieve novels are really quite stellar. It's not a coincidence that these got picked up to help with the launch for the Warhammer Horror range.

Also, this time Kim Newman got to use his actual name for the credits.

I also ordered the horror audio drama Perdition's Flame, but since that hasn't arrived yet I'm unable to show it here.

I was hoping that it would still arrive this month, it's why this post is so last minute.

The latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus.

I've read two out of three novels in here, Hammers of Ulric was decent, though definitely a little bit on the side of Oldhammer, but Reiksguard was very, very good. I reviewed it here on the blog.

A link? Why don't you look for it yourself you lazy bugger?

Knight of the Blazing Sun; the one that I hadn't read, has a bunch of accompanying short stories, which is pretty neat as I now get to read those all in one go

The two Dredd Case Files I bought this month. 20 is here because it's the next one to be read, and number 26 is here because I'll end up reading it anyway, and this one was cheapest among the ones available. I just lost my job, so I do have to make some concessions in my spending...

This last one I ordered blind, having not seen the cover. And I was blown away when I first saw it.

A Glen Cook novel with some genuine Raymond Swanland cover art.

Heirs of Babylon was Cook's first novel and had been long out of print, and it's one of the few stand-alone novels of his that I hadn't read. I had been curious about it for a while.

And now Nightshade finally got off their asses and went and did their best again.

I mean I was pretty happy this one was getting a reprint, but to have Swanland's art gracing the cover again? I am genuinely very happy with this.

And look; this one even has a foreword!

And of the third page of the foreword there is a bombshell.

Yes indeed, Glen Cook has Aspergers. I didn't know that.

I'm practically speechless. What a strange coincidence that I find this out right now.

When you look at the man's body of work, and how influential it is...

That's pretty incredible, and... very inspiring. 

Yeah, this one is going to get read very soon.

And that's all of what I got this month.

But soon... soon I get to order more!

March Book Haul

Tum tum tum tuuuum.

Another month, another bunch of books. In this particular pile you'll find some Warhammer, some new releases and some comics.

We'll start with the smallest book first; quite an old novel, and a personal favourite of mine.

I had already read The King Beyond the Gate; in fact it was one of the first 'darker' fantasy novels I had read, after having first read a bunch of Eddings and Redwall. This one cemented my love for the grim side of  fantasy. I got my original copy from my grandmother, and I thought it was about time I finished my Del Rey Drenai collection.

Of these, the only one I haven't read yet is The Swords of Night and Day. I keep holding off on that one, because once it's done, there will no more new Drenai to read. Maybe this year somewhere.

You'll notice that the Knights of Dark Renown and Morningstar are in here too. 'Officially' they're not part of the Drenai Saga but I put them in the whole anyway. This is because I once came upon an observation by somebody on the internet that, there is a reference to places from Morningstar in the Waylander trilogy, to my mind then, cementing the initial two books as part of the whole saga.

Here you'll see the Warhammer novels I got.

Gods and Mortals is a hardback short story collection which I won't read any time soon, but as these things tend to go out of stock pretty quickly I thought it would be good to have it on hand for whenever I felt like it.

City of the Damned is a reprint of a stand-alone Gotrek and Felix novel I didn't yet have.

I must say though, I'm slightly annoyed that the gold reflective theme from the dark omnibus editions wasn't carried through.

Up next, the fifth volume of the Night Shade's Jules de Grandin complete short story collections... which you can see here already gathered with the rest of them.

Though I haven't ever even read any Seabury Quinn, I did pick these up, because of the artwork, because I tend to want to support Night Shade Books, and because of the occult leanings of the Jules de Grandin stories. Also, I seem to have discovered that I like pulp stories of the weird and horror variety, more than I thought I did, and since I'm done reading Lovecraft now I am glad to already have something on the go.

I've had some difficulties with reading lately and I've found over the past few months that reading short stories helps with counteracting some of that. The introduction says these stories aren't of such high-standing quality that they can just be plowed through until completion, and that they might start to blur together after a while. So, on its recommendation, I'll start to intersperse these into my reading now and then over a long period of time, rather than trying to force the read.

Up next is book 2 in Anna Smith Spark's Empires of Dust trilogy.

As you can see, I'm reading it now, so I won't be saying much about this one right now.

The books without their dust jackets.

I did appreciate The Court of Broken Knives when I read it and I posted a very long review on it. I went off on a slightly off-putting tangent during the writing, so I'm not too fond of sharing the review itself. It's still there though, so if you want to read it, go and read it your own self; it's still on the blog somewhere. 

lovely cover art by the way.

The limited edition of Angron: Slave of Nuceira.

The Black Library again on form with their special editions.

The book comes in a thick sleeve (War Hounds embossing), which is why the book is actually quite a bit thinner than you'd think, and the book on the whole is only about 200 pages, and I've already read it too. I'll hold off on showing you more, as I've already prepared next post to showcase and talk about the book a little.

Three Horror comics, two of which I've read and can really recommend.

I haven't read Infinite Dark yet, but Space-horror is right up my alley so I picked this one up as soon as I knew it existed. I'm not sure when I'll get round to it, as I tend to wait a while until these types of series conclude.

Bprd: Vampire follows agent-turned-vampire Simon Anders after his experiences in Bprd: 1948 and is one of those side-jaunts in the Hellboy universe that is probably better than some of the stuff it is a side-jaunt of. This is a re-issue that adds a little extra to the original material, and sets up the second volume of the as of yet unwritten Bprd: Vampire trilogy. I do hope this gets continued soon, because it really is quite stellar.

Bloodborne then, the Death of Sleep is one of those gaming comics designed to pilfer a few bucks, or euros, from those fans that just couldn't get enough from just its source material alone, and which generally are not all that great.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found that this one is actually really, really good.

There's a story here, but as in the game, it's rather hidden, and I'm unsure if it was concluded or if it's still an ongoing project. The comic has a lot of mood going for it, relying on empty vistas and bleak imagery to tell its story, rather than relying on dialogue or exposition.

You obviously should be familiar with the source material to make some sense of it though.

It even managed to get some chilling moments in there, I kid you not.

I won't be spoiling those for you though, and instead I recommend, if you're a fan, that you pick this one up yourself.

And, lastly, the comic that I'm giving a read right now.

Caballistics Inc is one of those favourites that manages to hit all the right spots, and I'm finding a lot to enjoy on this re-read. The introduction that comes with this edition is a little startling however. It gives yet another one of those glimpses of discontent between the writing and art teams of 2000ad and their higher-ups. The introduction, written in the pub, isn't all that great and instead serves us up with yet another one of those 'oh-what-could-have-been' moments, but regardless of it now having made sure I'll never actually buy the spin-off novels, I'm glad that this edition at least, has Gordon Rennie's approval.

What's crazy though is that there even seems to be another arc here that I've never even read:

I'm sure that this is the first I've ever come across 'Visiting Hour'.

Which is slightly odd, because when I read the trade paperback editions I found that  Volume 2: Creepshow didn't actually have The Nativity story or even To Ashes in it, and I found myself compelled to buy the digital edition of the complete Caballistics Inc last year or so. And I'm sure Visiting Hour wasn't in there back then. Ah well, at least I've got something extra to look forward to now.

Here's the whole Caballistics inc universe, which besides the titular series, also consists of the Harry Absalom series, which is at least as good as its progenitor.

Also, by the way, Absalom seems to be about to conclude in the near future.

And I must admit, I'm quite looking forward to see what'll happen here. Some reference to Caballistics would be nice.