Flesh The Dino Files

There are some comics from your childhood which conjure excitement and mystery just because you know about them but you never got to read them.

Flesh - which is a strip which featured in 2000AD Prog 1 - is one such comic. I remember friends at school going on about it and it sounded great but as I could only afford to read Marvel comics 2000AD passed me by. But I remembered Judge Dredd and Flesh. And now I've got the reprint from Prog 1-19 in my collection and I can see what the fuss was about.

New Purchases

It's that time when I can order new stuff and this lot arrived via Amazon yesterday.

Side note: Amazon seems to be getting more expensive for trades these days. The Book Despository is often cheaper although Amazon packaging is slightly more robust. This lot were about the same price at both outlets so I went with Amazon for the packaging. Saying that, I've just ordered some stuff from Forbidden Planet online which seems cheaper even with postage costs added.

Back to this order, I'm continuing to get the Bawoman series and the Judge Dredd is just what I want as it's nice hardcover collections of classic stories in colour. It's a lovely package. This is Vol 1 of Classics and I'm sure I'll buy more.

Another side note: I'm in the middle of a novel at the moment which is taking me longer than anticipated to finish (although I am enjoying it). Looking back at what I've bought I'm thinking I'm going to have to revise my plans for starting Marvel from FF#1. I'm guessing I'm going to have to move it back to Jan 2016 rather than 2015. That will give me time to finish all the cool DC stuff I've on my read pile and those Marvel Omnibuses I'm buying - two more due this year. Phew!

Judge Dredd: The Complete Brian Bolland

First off - this is a lovely and huge & heavy book. It's lovely to pick-up and flick through. Bolland's art is fabulous (much nicer in the black and white than in Camelot 3000 IMHO) and I enjoyed the strips what I read.

Unfortunately, because it just features the strips which Bolland drew it's ultimately not as satisfying as I wanted to know what had either happened previously or what was going to happen. The complete stories such as Judge Death were few and far between which was disappointing.

Perhaps I will have to purchase the complete case files as reprints now I've a taste for more Dredd.

Added to My Collection: Judge Dredd by Bolland!

This book also arrived today. It's a 250 page, oversized hardcover collection of Brian Bolland's Judge Dredd work. From a cursory glance  - it looks great! Can't wait to read it!

The Ballard of Halo Jones

Well it's not been that long since I won these three trades on ebay and I've not wasted too much time getting round to reading them.

It's early Alan Moore and it's very good. I'm not a massive fan of Gibson's angular work (although the three covers are lovely) but he's OK and the story more than compensates.

 I particularly liked the way it was neatly diveded into 3 parts (or books) and the ending was never obvious. In fact I half suspected our heroine not to survive. Ballards can be sad after all.

I'm very glad I have managed to read these after all these years. This originally came out in 1985 for goodnessake!

Added to my collection. Lots!

 It was a bit like Christmas today with so much arriving in the post. Iron Man Masterworks bought from the Book Depository, approx £5 cheaper than Amazon, kicked off things but I also got what was a massive ebay win/parcel. It was all won from the same seller over a couple of nights.

 This win was so big, I'm not going to post all the covers. First off a Marvel Two-In-One run from 20 -31 in VFN condition. A bargain at £6.17.

                                                    
Then there was a run of Chris Claremont's New Mutants 1-15, 18, 19 and Special #1 by Art Adams. £9.50 to me!

I've a few issues of both of these runs but they are still both worth it. The duplicates will go back on ebay.

And finally The Ballard of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson in the original over-sized Titan Editions from the 1980s reprinting the 2000AD strip. Vols 1 - 3 set me back £13.02 but as they are now unavailable and are in great condition I'm glad my high bid was high enough. This is supposed to be good early stuff from Moore so I am looking forward to reading it.

Very happy with all this!