Chris Ryall and Sam Kieth collaborate on Mars Attacks: First Born – Coming May 2014

IDW Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief, Chris Ryall, has scripted this comic from a plot he co-wrote with Sam Kieth. They previously worked together on The Hollows (which I haven’t read). A four issue mini-series starting May 2014. Sam Kieth is on art duty and will be providing covers.

So far the only IDW Mars Attacks story I’ve read was the Mars Attacks Judge Dredd by Al Ewing and John McCrea. I thoroughly enjoyed that and am tempted to dip my toe in the Mars Attacks water again.

So it is with no former knowledge of these creators that I anticipate this series.

The Blood Crows by Simon Scarrow – spoiler light

The Blood Crows by Simon Scarrow

Published by Headline

First Published 24th October 2013

This is the 12th book in this series, which was originally called The Eagles series but is now referred to by the Publisher as The Roman Series and by some fans as Cato & Macro (or Macro & Cato) though I, as do some other long standing readers still refer to The Eagles.

The two main characters are, you might correctly surmise from the paragraph above, are Macro and Cato. Or more accurately Quintus Licinius Cato and Lucius Cornelius Macro.

You can read a synopsis of the earlier books in my earlier article The Eagle Series that article doesn’t give any major spoilers.

Rock of Ages – The Library. Leeds 25th January 2014

Rock of Ages are at The Library, 229 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds (LS2 3AP) every month. This is the third event there, promoted by Adam Grindrod. Doors opened at 20:00 with the first band due on at 20:30.

Black Shuck by Leah Moore, John Reppion & Steve Yeowell – Coming to 2000AD July 2014

A teaser image was in Prog 1864, 15th Jan 2014. I mentioned this on Twitter on Saturday 11th (subscription copies reach readers on Saturday before general release) and I think this may have been the first Leah or John had heard about publication. Suffice to say it was a ripple of excitement.

Leah and John have had a story in Judge Dredd Megazine, Black Museum: Scouting for Bots was in Megazine 322 illustrated by D’Israeli.

This is their first work in 2000AD this time illustrated by Steve Yeowell, probably most famous for Zenith and more recently Red Seas in 2000AD. (edit – you can read an Interview with Leah and John elsewhere on this blog)

The strip begins. as I said in the title, in July but the Prog number isn’t yet confirmed. Though the preview art above and below is in black and white the lettered finals will be in colour. The story will be told over nine parts.

Pretty Deadly – issue 1 – Spoilers

Pretty Deadly issue 1
Published by Image
October 23rd 2013

Writer: Kelly Sue Deconnick
Art: Emma Rios
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Cover: Emma Rios

I came across Emma Rios in 2012 at Thought Bubble where she took part in a Charity Sketch Spotlight. It is a great chance to watch artists at work and it benefits charity. Anyway, Emma talked about this project and I decided to try it out.

I missed the start; only realised last week. So I picked this up on Wednesday Jan 22nd 2013.

What did I find? Well firstly I found out I would have liked this in October. As it has been out for 3 months I’m putting way more spoilers in this review than I usually do. If you don’t like spoilers go buy issue 1, if you are OK with spoilers read on.

Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two – issue 1 – Spoiler Light

Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two
Issue 1 (of 5)
Published by IDW

Writer: Douglas Wolk
Artist: Ulises Farinas
Colours: Ryan Hill
Letters: Tom B. Long

Cover Art: Joe Corroney
Covour Colours: Brian Miller

Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

This story introduces Mega-City Two to IDW’s Judge Dredd continuity. There is nothing that looks similar to any glimpses we ever had of the city of the same name in 2000AD continuity.

That’s said and out of the way now because this isn’t about what is different. The two continuities are what they are; different. This is about the comic in question.

Curse 1 of 4 from Boom! Studios – spoiler light

Curse issue 1 (of 4)
Published by Boom! Studios
January 15th 2014

Writers:
Michael Moreci
Tim Daniel
Artists:
Riley Rossmo
Colin Lorimer
Letterer:
Jim Campbell

Well I find myself again reviewing something lettered by Jim Campbell. Coincidence? Well not so much. I bought this as I decided to jump on the next Issue 1 I saw from Michael Moreci and I came across Mr Moreci via Mr Campbell. I’ve previously reviewed some Hoax Hunters.

I did misread the market a little on this & failed to pre-order. I expected to stroll in to my lcs and pick it up; they sold out before my lunch time. They reacted well and had more copies in on the Friday.

Night of The Living Deadpool – 1 of 4 – Spoiler light

Night of the Living Deadpool
Limited series in 4 parts
Published by Marvel January 15, 2014

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino

Cover: Jay Shaw

Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld

Firstly – Pencils, Ink and colours (mostly red) by one artist. This is part of why I bought this comic, that and the premise is fun.

I’m used to this idea due to being British. British comic artists always ink their own pencils and very often do their own colours. US comics not so much.

The premise? In the words of Marvel’s websight:

“Deadpool awakes from a food coma to find…THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS OCCURRED! Can the Merc with the Mouth avoid becoming the Merc in their Mouths? Writer of the DEADPOOL KILLOGY Cullen Bunn brings us to one of Deadpool’s darkest tales ever…and not just because it’s in black & white (and red)!”

Who reads Judge-Tutor Semple Blog: Where and What?

I often wonder who you are, dear reader. I wonder what brought you here, whether you liked what you found and whether you will come back.

I see some details on my Stats. I can see how many visited the Blog from UK servers, or other countries. I can see how many unique readers there are each day, unless they use different IP addresses (I can’t see IP addresses) and I can see how many times each article was read.

I can see what sites people find me from – the top referring sites in 2013 were:

1. forums.2000adonline.com (mostly from my Links placed there)
2. facebook.com (multiple users sharing my Links)
3. twitter.com (multiple users sharing my Links)
4. 2000ad.wordpress.com (Cheers ECBT!)
5. judgeminty.blogspot.co.uk (Cheers Steve!)

(thanks to anyone that shares my Links in any way, really appreciated)

The above are a few examples of what I can see.

Below is something I can’t see…

I can’t see what countries are reading what…

Beyond 2000AD by David McDonald

Beyond 2000AD

Published by Hibernia
October 2013

Written by David McDonald
Edited by Mike Donachie
Layout by Richard Pearce

Contents:

Hail, Star Troopers!
How Starlord Saved  2000AD
We Could be Heroes
The Turulent Tale of Tornado
Born Slippery
The Tale of One Bad Rat
2000AD in the USA
Tharg Spreads the Book of Thrillpower!
Comics to Newspapers
The day Comics got Trendy
Our Daily Dredd
Bringing Dredd to the Masses
Mill’s Metal Mayhem
The Forgotten Robots
It’s Only a Comic, Chum!
Doug Church – In his own Words
Colin Wyatt
Dredd and the House of Mouse

The first part of this book deals with the first comic to merge with 2000AD, Starlord. This in itself is separated in to two parts firstly dealing with the inception of Starlord and leading to the merger, followed by an interview of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra about Strontium Dog and ending with an article about Robusters.