Pocket-Money Comics: The Complete Judge Dredd

As mentioned in this month's Hatch, Match & Dispatch feature, The Complete Judge Dredd title came to an end twenty-five years ago. Launched in February 1992, it boasted the clever tagline of "The Law in Order" and ran for forty-two monthly black-and-white issues, which isn't a bad old run for a comic that -- aside …

Star Wars Day!

For the past few years the fourth day of May has been pushed as "Star Wars Day" because "May the 4th" sounds like "May the Force" (this is something that young Rusty spotted back in 1978, but tragically failed to trademark), even though it means everyone is quietly ignoring the fact that none of the …

Rusty Staples: Year Two

Blimey, it hardly seems like a year since we last looked back at the first year of Rusty Staples, and yet it is. Year Two of Rusty's life started slowly, with only one post per month in April, May and June of 2019, and then nothing at all until October. This was thanks to work …

British Comics Top-10 Issue-Count Chart – 2020 edition!

2000AD -- the legendary British Science Fiction anthology comic -- has now reached issue 2176, which means that it's time for me to fulfil the Ancient Prophecy I made in the last version of the issue-count chart and provide an updated edition. (You'll possibly have spotted that I've stopped describing these things as Longevity Charts …

Dateline: 26 Feb 1977

If you're a fan of British comics it possibly hasn't escaped your notice that 2000AD was launched this week(ish) in the year 1977. Forty-three years ago, that was: some of the photons that left our sun on the day the comic was launched have potentially now travelled all the way to the binary star system …

Oddities #20200124

1015 was a Saturday supplement to the British newspaper The Times that ran for several years in the mid-to-late 1990s. Possibly beyond, too, but info on it isn't easy to find. At a guess, it's called "1015" not because someone behind the scenes was up against a deadline to suggest a title and just happened …

Most Popular Posts of 2019!

I'm happy to announce that Rusty Staples' sophomore year ("sophomore" is American high-school slang for "second") was even more successful than its first, even despite the four-month drought in the summer when I was too busy to post anything (due to a heavy workload, a week's holiday in London, the World Science Fiction Convention in …

It’s State-Approved Yuletide Greeting Message Time Again!

Oddities #20191206

It is a universally accepted truth in fiction that heroes need villains, and darkness needs light. And just like every rose has its dawn and every night has its thorn, one of the most persistent thorns in Judge Dredd's side is his long-time arch-nemesis Judge Death. Hailing from a dimension where it's been decided that …

Comics That Never Were #1

While writing about Before Watchmen last week I was reminded that occasionally comics are promised but they don't arrive. Sometimes this is because of economic or political factors, other times it's because the creators changed their minds, or were otherwise unable or unwilling to produce the work. Now and then it's because the comic was …