Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

I get most of my comics news from Twitter these days and it has been obvious for sometime that Tom King is a very popular writer with critical acclaim and two  Eisner Awards for best writer to prove it. That tempted me to try volume 1 of his Batman ran and also Mr Miracle and while I enjoyed both I had plenty of other things to read and I left my exploration of his works.

Then a mate in the pub recommended The Sheriff of Baghdad set during the allied occupation of Iran, which Tom King was a part of. That was excellent. It mixed geopolitics, action and characterisation neatly and, being based on a real-world situation, was unlike most things I read. I was ready to explore more Tom King.

My next adventure was Strange Adventures Volume 5, a title dating back to 1950 and a home for Adam Strange a space adventurer who first appeared in 1958). That shared some of the themes of The Sheriff of Baghdad, this time the sheriff was Mr Terrific who is hyper intelligent and knows everything, and was also excellent.

That led me inexorably to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow which has also been highly praised.

Yes, it is a Supergirl story but it is not about superheroes and is not set on Earth. It's a Space Fantasy story that happens to have Supergirl in it.

At it's core, the story is about revenge with a young woman Ruthye chasing the killer of her father across galaxies and enlisting Supergirl's help to do so. A lot of the interest in the story comes from Ruthye's character, the interactions between the two women, alien civilisations and the banalities of the chase, such as the sleeping passenger on a spaceship. 

The story is good and well told but what makes the book really really special is the art work by Bilquis Evely.

I had not come across her work before and that is a mistake that I will be trying to make up for. Her style is very suited to Space Fantasy, it is both technical and fantastical and also very detailed, but you can see that.

I could have picked any number of examples that show just how talented she is and in the end I had to settle for the cover above and the single panel below.

 

This is ridiculously good for a single panel and the level of detail and styling reminds me a little of Philippe Druillet, which is most definitely a compliment.

I bought Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow for Tom King and I loved it for Bilquis Evely. When words and pictures combine like this the result is astonishing.

Revisiting The Defenders after forty plus years

I have fond memories of reading Defenders in the mid 1970s so when several collected volumes turned up in a Comixology sale I bought a few of them, i.e. Marvel Masterworks The Defenders volumes 4, 5 and 6 which reprinted The Defenders issues 22 to 57 plus a few other related comics.

It was the later issues, all in volume 6, that I most wanted but my memories were fond enough to get the earlier two volumes two, especially as Steve Gerber was the main writer then.

Those first two volumes were bit of a struggle but not so much that I gave up on them.

The stories were pretty weird and shallow, brains being kept alive in jars and other such matters, and The Defenders were a pretty poor team with Dr Strange doing almost all of the heavy lifting using his standard fare like the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, not really Sorcerer Supreme stuff (not that he was then, to be fair).

Nighthawk amused me the most as his only power was he got a little bit stronger when it got dark. Not particularly useful especially when you already have The Hulk in your team (for some reason).

It was off its time and quite readable, which is more than can be said for Deathlok which I also revisited.

Then, in volume 6, the creative team changed and we had (mostly) David Anthony Kraft on words with Keith Giffen on art with strong support from Michael Golden. These were the issues that I most enjoyed the first time round and I enjoyed them again this time.

And this art like this a comic always has a good chance.

Kraft was stuck with the poor team and I think that the only physical fight the The Defenders actually won unambiguously was against Scorpio's Zodiac warriors in issue 48 (June 1977). Still, I do not read comics for the fight scenes and I find the idea of super-humans throwing punches at each other somewhat idiotic, I read them for the stories and the art and these issues of The Defenders delivered on both.

Renaissance is superlative Science Fantasy

I have been reasonably successful in widening my comics reading by deliberately trying books that are not about superheroes (I subscribe to just two superhero titles now and one of them is about to finish) and not from North America.

In continuing that policy I bought the first volume (60 pages) of Renaissance, prompted by a sale. Words are by Fred Duval and Frédéric Blanchard , and art by Emem, all new names to me.

The premise sounded interesting, "The Complex, a federation of extraterrestrial civilisations decides to launch a vast expedition to save a planet that has exhausted its resources: Earth." A friendly invasion if you like.

Apart from that I did not know what to expect and the cover did not give much of a clue, then a very early splash page (below) told me everything. I had made a good choice.

The main picture when stripped of dialogue would make a great posted to sit alongside those of Chris Foss, Roger Dean or Rodney Matthews. I love the way that the iconic Eiffel Tower is cleanly transmuted into a weird future. Fantasy, I think, is at its best when it is grounded in reality as that make it both fantastical and believable.

The story lives up to the art and we are treated to earnest aliens trying to save us while having to content to things like budget pressures at home and rogue robots here. It read like Science Fantasy should read and I loved it, leading to the immediate purchasing and reading of volumes 2 and 3. I am now hoping for further volumes which could come as, in some ways, the story has barely started.

b.t.w. I am not going to get too hung up about categorisation here, you could just as easily call this Science Fiction, or even Space Opera once the complete story has been told, but I have gone for Science Fantasy because of the fantastical images of the alien worlds.

The story kept me engaged and in suspense throughout (slight spoiler, some of the good people die). I liked that the story was centred around 2 aliens, recently married, with different roles in the rescue of Humanity as this gave the story an additional dimension.

But it was the art that really grabbed me, I've picked just one panel to make my point, chosen as much as anything because it has no dialogue.

 

The setting is so obviously alien yet it looks functional too, you could sit on that chair or climb those stairs. The detail is staggering for just one panel that does not even mage dialogue to slow the reader down. It is gorgeous and makes me want to hunt out more of Emem (Matthieu Ménage)'s work.

The closest comparison I can think of is the original Dan Dare with its long storylines and unique Frank Hampson art. From me, that is high praise indeed.

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark is brilliant

I have read comics for most of the last fifty plus years or so but that does not mean all Marvel or DC comics for all of that time and there are some notable gaps, particularly when a young family put other demands on my time and pocket. 

Even so, I thought that I had Daredevil sorted as I was there for the legendary Frank Miller run which started in 1981. By the way, Frank Miller and I were born on the same day.

I was also there for the excellent Mark Waid and Chris Samnee run in 2014. More recently, prompted by reviews and sale offers, I filled in one of my gaps with the first volume of the Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev 2001 run. That was good but not good enough to tempt me to get the other volumes.

Then another sale brought me to Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark's take on Daredevil from 2006, which followed directly on from the Bendis run, and everything changed.

The Brubaker/Lark Daredevil is now my favourite Daredevil and one of my absolute favourite comics of all time. It really is that good.

Daredevil sits on the edge of the Marvel Universe and this is not a superhero comic, despite the presence of several caped heroes and villains. It is a story about Matt Murdoch and how he tries to regain some sort of life after being sent to prison and with several enemies conspiring against him.

It's a story that grips and twists like a good thriller, which is the domain that Brubaker now mostly writes in. There is action, quite a lot of it, but the fighting does not dominate the story, it is there because there and many things that Murdock needs to fight. Don't forget that his father was a boxer.

The story spreads over three collected volumes covering 39 issues (82 to 119 and 500). That's a lot of pages and I loved every one of them. The story swept majestically through some grand story lines and kept the relentless pace up with lots of little things along the way.

I had not come across Michael Lark's work before and it was a revelation! I could have picked almost any panel from any page as they are all as good as this one.

The detail of the background in wonderful and the grace of the movement of Iron Fist and Daredevil is gorgeous. There are a lot of scenes like this in the book and they are a thing of beauty. They also help to make Hells Kitchen one of the main characters in the story, which it should be as that is Daredevil's only natural territory.

The story goes international for a time and the scenes of, for example. a small town in Portugal are achingly good both in architectural accuracy and in the sunny mood of the place.

I cannot overstate how good this book is.

The latest version of X-Men is astounding

I have been reading X-Men comics for over fifty years and they have gone through many changes, relaunches and different titles in that time, several of which I have commented on previously. The latest relaunch by Jonathan Hickman is something else again.

Other relaunches have changed the team membership or changed the base location but this relaunch changes everything and it is world building on a phenomenal scale. There are not just new characters or new civilisations, there are new hierarchies of civilisations and categorisations of artificial intelligence. These are explained in all text pages within the precursor limited series that Hickman also wrote.

This breathtaking world building, while of interest in itself, is just there to hold the stories and nine issues into the main title I am gripped by the stories.

X-Men is something of a flagship title for Marvel and one of the best writers of the day is ably supported by one of the best artists, Leinil Francis Yu. The drama in the page below speaks for itself.

It is comics like this that show how superhero comics can do far more than have heroes punching pantomime baddies. I have picked up some of those in ComiXology sales and titles like Uncanny Avengers did absolutely nothing for me and are why I largely stop reading the genre.

I do not know how long Hickman is committed to X-Men for but I will be there for the ride.

The Might Thor by Walter Simonson is one of the best comics series ever

Walter Simonson's run on The Might Thor from 1983 to 1986 is one of the greatest series of comics ever. It is alongside, but not surpassed, by the likes of Frank Miller on Daredevil.

The comics that he both wrote and drew are collected in Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Volumes 1, 2 and 3, covering 33 issues from #337 to #369, a total of some 760 pages. It was a joy to read every one.

In my mind Simonson is more an artist than a writer and I have got many comics that he drew for other writers. I love his distinctive style and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to see so many pages of it again. It was very hard to pick just these two examples to try and explain why.

The writing surprised me. I remembered the some of the main these and some of the small scenes, such as the Executioner defending the bridge from Hel's realm that made it into one of the recent Marvel films, but I had forgotten just how much was going on at the same time in the stories and how much had been made of Norse mythology. It is a saga full of trolls, frost giants and a large cast of gods from Asgard.

There is also an incarnation of Thor from another planet (Beta Ray Bill below) and Thor as a frog thanks to Loki's mischief.

I was also impressed with the way that Simonson frequently used dialogue balloons to straddle panels. As a reader this helped the directional flow of the story and as a creator it gave Simonson more space to play with, i.e. the white gutters between the panels, which meant that he could use more words or, by moving them, more space for the art. It was a simple idea implemented effectively and I really appreciated it.

The Might Thor by Walter Simonson is a rich, unexpected and exciting story told with immense skill. Did I mention that I loved it?

War of the Worlds

Spending a lot more time at home than usual is allowing me to hit my rather large comics backlog. I started with War of the Worlds.

The simple premise of the story is that the Martians from H. G. Wells' famous story, were not wiped out by bacteria and went on to win the war. A few humans remained free to fight them and Killraven was one of these.

I have several of the original comics in my attic (somewhere) but I had never read the full run before. It was always on my to-do list and I bought Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 when it hit the ComiXology sales a while ago.

That 470 page volume included the 65 page Marvel Graphic Novel #7: Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds which I had previously bought a digital copy of to add to my existing paper one.

My driver to read the series was to enjoy the P Craig Russell artwork and this cover shows you why. It surprised me how much of the series had been drawn by other artists but as these included people like Herb Trimpe, Neal Adams and Gene Colan that was a bonus.

The story was constrained, as the helpful foreword explained, by not being allowed to end the War of the Worlds. The result was a series of encounters between Killraven and his small band with Martians and their human helpers. These encounters were fantastical and horrific with the Martians engaged in grotesque activities such as farming human babies for food.

The story telling style was very much of its time, early 70s, with a lot of text in addition to the dialogue. It was nice to revisit that style and I think that there is still a place for it.

What I had completely missed when first reading it was the racial sensitivities of that time and place, particularly the Deep South, and the first interracial kiss in comics was only allowed after much discussion at the highest levels within Marvel.

I liked the story and the way that it was written but, as expected, it was the art of P Craig Russell that I loved the most.

Joker: Killer Smile is exceptional

I do not read many traditional superhero comics these days but I do most certainly read comics written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino so I had to give Joker: Killer Smile a try.

As you would expect from that team this is not a traditional superhero comic and it is also very good.

I think that it is fair to say that the Batman and Joker world has been milked for all it is worth in the last few decades and while a few stories have stood out, obviously Killing Joke is one of these, the rest have disappeared in a vast sea of sameness. In such a large sea only the exceptional can stand out.

I think that Joker: Killer Smile is exceptional.

There are only two main protagonists, Joker and his psychotherapists  Dr Ben Arnell. Batman makes a brief appearance, because he had to, but makes no material contribution to the story. This is about Joker, not Batman.

The psychotherapist thinks he can cure Joker and spends hours talking to him in Arkham Asylum. Not surprisingly these conversations do not go the way that Dr Arnell hoped but their consequence is a genuine surprise. It's a tight noir tale that grips from the start and drags you into dark unexpected places.

The story is a good one (so far, I have read two of the three chapters) and the storytelling is excellent. Both Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino are masters in their fields, with the awards to prove it, and as a team they are even better.

Joker: Killer Smile shows how superhero comics can tell great, and scary, stories without relying on people punching each other.

Much to love in Green Lantern

I have never been a big reader of DC comics and these days I hardly read any superhero comics from any company so it took something special to get me reading Green Lantern.

That special thing was the creative team of Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp, both British as it happens.

I have had mixed experiences with Grant Morrison and while I would not call myself a fan as such I really loved his long run on New X-Men and have enjoyed several other of his books.

Liam Sharp having been around for a few years has suddenly burst to the top of the mainstream at DC starting with Wonder Woman and then with The Brave and The Bold. I have loved all of his work.

This page is fairly typical. The flow is imaginative and the detail is incredible.

Also typical is the wordiness, this is clearly not a Warren Ellis comic! But this is good fluid wordiness and not the panel filling wordiness of the early days when authors thought that they had to explain what the artist had drawn. It's a typical Morrison story too and it needs some attention paid to it, which is effort well spent.

We are five issues in now and I understand that there will be 24 altogether. It is going to be a good couple of years.

Another fine adaptation of Elric of Melniboné

I have at least two sets of Elric stories somewhere in the house, the original Michael Moorcroft paperbacks and the early 1970s Marvel adaptations by Roy Thomas with art by P Craig Russell (and others). I never expected to buy more Elric until I saw a new release notice on a new adaptation by Titan Comics and one glimpse at the art work was enough to convince me to dive in again.

This double-page spread should be all that anyone who likes comics should need.

It helps that this new comic adaptation has been produced with the full and enthusiastic endorsement of Moorcock himself, who wrote "Fully captures Elric's sense of utter decadence. The saga of the albino I would have written myself if I had thought of it first!".

That should be enough of a recommendation for any fan of Michael Moorcroft.

I like comics and I like Moorcroft so I absolutely love this version of Elric of Melniboné.

Cemetery Beach is delicious

Any new Warren Ellis comic book is something to look forward to and one with Jason Howard even more so given their illustrious collaboration on Trees. Cemetery Beach issue #1 arrived on my iPad this week and was the first comic that I read in bed with my first cup of tea on Saturday morning.

It comfortably lived up to expectations. This double-page spread starts to explain why.

Obviously the art work is lovely and the scene is futuristic and interesting. Also, like the five pages after it, it has no words.

It's early days but I am already deep into an exciting adventure that is steeped in mystery. I love the story, I love the action, I love the exhilarating pace of it. I love this comic already.

The Brave and The Bold is beyond beautiful

I am not a big DC fan these days and have never read their mainstream books (Batman, Superman, JLA, etc.) consistently, tending to dip in and out for specific stories and/or creators. I still keep an eye on what is happening in DC Land so I was aware of the buzz created around Liam Sharp's Wonder Woman in 2016 and experimented with the first issue. The art impressed me but the story did not and I left it there.

Then I heard that Liam was working with Wonder Woman again this time with Batman in tow in the revamped Batman team-up comic The Brave and The Bold. I experimented again, was even more impressed by the art and liked the story too so I stayed with the book.

This panel helps to show why.

The detail is frightening and the subject is fantastic. The story is steeped in Celtic mythology and that is reflected in the design of the pages. The book is beyond beautiful.

The only shame is that it is a six part limited issue series.

Blown away by Gideon Falls

Andrea Sorrentino work has appeared in this blog a few times over the years, usually because I have liked the samples shown in DC Comics Digital Sneak Peeks, most of which I singularly failed to tag with his name at the time. Anyway, the point is I have liked his work for a while.

I have also liked the little of Jeff Lemire's work that I have read, notably A.D.: After Death and X-Men.

The two had worked together a few times before, to great acclaim, but not on anything that I had read. Even so, that reputation was enough to get me interested in Gideon Falls.

It is my favourite current comic.

The art is as decisive as I expected with sharp lines and dramatic page layouts. The story is just as good. It is about an evil barn, a priest who lives nearby and a psychiatric patient who collects small parts of it from waste dumps across the city. If that sound weird then it is in all the ways that you want weird to be.

The two main characters' stories are told in parallel and so far, after four issues, have yet to come together. Happily Gideon Falls is billed as an ongoing series so there is plenty of time for this expected thing and many unexpected things to happen. I'm hooked and will be along for the ride all the way.

Outland by Jim Steranko - a lost masterpiece

It took a tweet from Cory Doctorrow to remind me of Outland by Jim Steranko which is a little surprising as it is truly spectacular, possibly his most striking work visually.

One reason that it got lost is that, unlike his work on characters like Nick Fury and Captain America, it was never that obvious in the first place. It was serialised in Heavy Metal in the early 1980's and I was lucky to be reading it then.

I recall that the story, an adaptation of the film of the same name, did not impress me that much but the art work most certainly did. These two pages show why. They speak for themselves and I will not attempt to explain why they are brilliant.

The other reason it is lost is that it is out of print, physically and digitally. All of his Marvel work is available digitally, and I think that I have bought all of it, but Outland is not despite the obvious demand for it from the many Steranko fans like myself.

I did look on eBay to see if there were any copies of the book available and there was just one, in America and it cost 150 USD. It's in French.

Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Vol. 1

It was in 1983 that Walter Simonson began his legendary run on Thor with issue #337.

I was readying Thor at that time simply because I was reading everything published by Marvel and DC that was distributed in the UK and Simonson's work blew me away from the start.

I've culled my comics collection a couple of times since then but I have kept all the Simonson Thor issues. He kept on as both writer and artist until issue #367 and as a writer until issue #382.

When Marvel (through ComiXology) had a sale of every issue of Thor I had to get some Simonson issues just to read. The easy way to do it was to buy Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Vol. 1 which collects the first year, issues #337 to £348. That is 283 pages of comics genius for a pittance.

Indeed the money was not even a remote consideration. My only concern was whether I would ever find the time to read them again. I hope that I do.

In the meantime I am toying with the idea of buying the next volumes in the Thor Visionaries series. I am particularly keen to read issues #360 to #362, The Death of the Executioner, because that story has stuck with me for over thirty years.


Update: Writing the above left me with no option other than two buy the next two collected volumes which gives me the run from #337 to #369 to reread.

The Incredible Hulk #189

With Marvel relaunching all their main titles (again) and returning to their legacy issue numbering they have been having a number of quick sales where every issue of the comic has been available.

This is proving to be moderately expensive!

Luckily for both my wallet, and my unread pile, not many of the collected editions of The Incredible Hulk were available and none from my Hulk Golden Age of reading black and while reprints in The Mighty World Of Marvel in the late 70s.

That left me with the options of buying s shed load of single issues which would have come to quite a price, even in a sale, or to buy just a few as a reminder of the good days.

In the end I went for just a single issue, #189. I wanted something with Herb Trimpe artwork and his run with writer Len Wein because of the humanity in those stories.

I remembered this story some forty years after first reading it so that was the one that I went for.

I very much enjoyed reading it the second time too.

Loving The Old Guard

It has probably been forty years since I've loved comics as much as I am now. Then the two main publishers, Marvel and DC, published a host of off-mainstream books like Warlock, Claw the Unconquered, Deathlok the Demolisher, The Warlord and Killraven, all by top class creators many of whom rose from these humble starts to become genuine stars, including Jim Starlin and P. Craig Russell.

This golden era is different in that it is the fringe publishers, notably Image, that are doing the interesting books while Marvel and DC are mired in constantly trying to refresh the dying superhero books. Another difference is that this time a lot of the good books are coming from established stars, like Brian Wood and Brian K. Vaughan.

The Old Guard appealed to me because it looked interesting visually and as a concept and because there was a lot of buzz around its launch. The barrier for entry to new comics is now very low, as soon as I hear about something that I like I can go online to buy it and the iPad means that I can read comics in any free moment. I currently have 89 books on my iPad waiting for free moments but that does not stop me buying more.

The Old Guard is very old in some cases. These are people who have lived for centuries, or millennia, simply because they cannot be killed very easily. Being almost immortal has brought them all together and made then successful mercenaries. Not a unique concept by any means but there is a lot more to the story than that and the story telling, words and pictures, is excellent. It is both a fun book and one that stands up to critical scrutiny.

The good news is that it is coming back for a second series, the bad news is that is in 2018.

The Complete Steranko SHIELD Collection

I have written before about the comics legend that is Jim Steranko but that was mostly in relation to his Captain America work whereas it is Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. that he is rightly most famous for.

I had read and bought various collections of his later episodes, and I may even have the occasional single issue in a comic box somewhere, but there was much of the run that I had not seen before, or even knew much about.

The ComiXology made me an offer that I could not refuse.


I am not sure what the occasion was but they had the completion collection in one of their sales and I did not hesitate to take the bait. The prize was almost 500 pages of comics for around £5.

Unexpectedly, and welcomely, the complete collection included complete copies of Strange Tales where Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD first appeared and which it shared with Dr Strange.

Both artists seem to have been told to try and emulate the styles of those that preceded them with Jim Steranko looking very like Jack Kirby (who did some of the layouts) and Dan Adkins like Steve Ditko. One of the joys of the comic is to see how the artists' styles evolved as they developed their own styles.

Elements of the Steranko style were there from the beginning, especially in the high-tech equipments, but it was a while before he was able to throw of the constraint of the six panel page to create stunning compositions.

The detailed line work with heavy contrasts that had been used sparingly became the signature of Steranko's work and why he is a legend.

The storytelling developed nicely too and I love the way that the panel above has no words, something that Warren Ellis also does very well. This is a marked contrast to Stan Lee who filled panels with lengthy speech balloons and explanatory texts. Comics were growing up then and Steranko was one of the people helping them to do it.

It is many years since I first came across Steranko's work and it still gives me a thrill. 

Black Road by Brian Wood and Gary Brown

My time available for reading comics is still very limited, though the new job is helping with the shorter commute making more free time in the day some of which spills though into more time for reading, and that means taking care over what I buy. The days when I bough almost everything that Marvel published and a lot from DC too have long gone.

I am also looking for different things to read. There are still some good superhero comics out there but the overall standard has fallen with the proliferation of titles (there are three or four different Avengers books every month) and the interest in the characters has gone with the innumerable relaunches and resurrections. I have no idea who DR Henry Pym is these days and I do not care anymore.

On the plus side, the rest of the comics market is very vibrant, particularly Image Comics, and it is easy to find and buy new things on the internet. My current reading list includes Trees, Injection, Sage, Autumn Lands, Midnight of the Soul and Fuse. To that list I have just aded Black Road.

The Black Road leads to the north of Norway and this is a medieval world with a powerful church, waring lords and wolves. Travelling the hazardous road are a warrior and a young woman who grew up as a slave in Rome.

The blurb sounded interesting and I had liked Brian Wood's work on one of the (many) X-Men books and that was enough for me to take a punt on issue #1. Having read that I immediately bought the other published issues (#2 to #4) and then subscribed to the series to get all future issues (#5 is due on 17 August).

There is a lot to like the book. It has lots of familiar themes, the journey, the companionship, the church, the primitive setting, the mysterious ast, etc. and they are brought together skilfully to make something new and interesting, much as Game of Thrones does.

The main narrative is the journey, hence the title of the book, and that drives the story in a clear direction, unlike Game of Thrones!, and makes it a compelling read.

I do not often fall in love with books as quickly as I did this one and not only have I got a new title to read every month I've also been encourage to try some other new titles.

Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored signing at Gosh!

I do not often go to signings by comics creators despite my deep love for the form. I am not entirely sure why that is but I suspect that part of the reason is that many comics professionals make other appearances, e.g. at talks and conventions, and so I have had the opportunity to meet several of my heroes over the years.

The last signing event that I went to was also at Gosh! Comics and that was for Sally Heathcote, Suffragette. Unfortunately that was not a good guide for what to expect this time.

This signing was for a new high-quality printing of Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth which carries the "uncensored" label as it had been impossible to reprint some of the issues previously. The reason was some copyright issues and the poster for the event hints at what those were. The people behind the Jolly Green Giant were not too amused either. Since then laws have changed slightly and common sense has prevailed and the full story can now be retold.

I have the story in another collected edition (I was not reading 2000AD in Summer 78) and while it is clearly worth rereading and it is always nice to have a high-quality comic book to read, the reason that i wanted to be at the signing was because of the people.

Brian Bolland went on from 2000AD to become an even bigger comics legend at DC Comics famous for many covers and for 1988's Batman: The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore. Almost thirty years later and the book still sells well, and rightly so.

Mike McMahon was the main reason that I went to the signing. His art defined what was best about 2000AD for me and I am a major fan of his. I got into 2000AD via Starlord when the two merged in 1978, oddly enough in the issue after Cursed Earth concluded.  At the time I associated him most with Ro-Busters, which later morphed into ABC Warriors, but he drew several stories for 2000AD and I loved his art on all of them.

And that is why I found myself in Soho on a Saturday afternoon queueing in the sun.

There was far more queueing than I, or Gosh!, expected. I arrived at 12pm for a 1pm start to find the queue already well established and most of the copies of Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored already sold. I wanted to buy two but was only allowed one. They had also stopped taking online orders a couple of days earlier.

I left the shop and joined the queue. Because of the high demand they started the signing a little earlier than planned, around 12:45, but it was still almost exactly 2pm until I got back to the shop door and a few minutes after that before I got to the table. It then took just another couple of minutes to get my things signed and to say a few nice things to the artists. I got a bit star-struck with Mike McMahon, which was fine.

I also got somebody in the shop to take this picture of me basking in their greatness.

Queueing for two hours to spend two minutes getting two signatures may sound like a poor deal but when it means meeting these two gentlemen then it was a bargain.