Happy 30th Birthday, Judge Dredd Megazine!

(Bear with me, folks... this one is going to ramble a bit. For a change.) Long before Judge Dredd The Megazine was launched in 1990, the words "Judge Dredd comic for older readers" were being whispered in the hallowed halls of comicdom. Although only around since 2000AD's second issue in 1977, Dredd had proved to …

Oddities: “Hero” Lawman Found Topless in Tabloid Mag!

One of my first glimpses of Sylvester Stallone in the role of Judge Dredd came from a copy of The National Enquirer, dated November 15, 1994. I've never been the sort of person who normally reads mags of that type -- I'm just not that interested in suspect "miracle cures" or the mundanities of the …

Rusty’s Reviews Round-Up

Angry news first: WordPress -- the content management system on which this blog runs -- has decided to force me to use its absolutely horrible, baffling and extremely user-hostile new editor, which I utterly hate and despise and hate again. And what's more, I also hate that I don't have the option to switch back …

Support the Cartoon Museum, London

The excellent Cartoon Museum in London has a huge collection of rare and vintage comics and cartoons, and regularly features exhibitions on specific themes, artists or publications. Not counting visits to family members, for me it's the #1 reason I'm itching to go back to London. The museum moved to a new, larger premises last …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Oddities #20191115

Dredged from the cloudy depths of memory canal... the Dublin Event Guide for 7-20 April 1992! Yes, that's Judge Dredd on the cover, drawn by absolute legend Cam Kennedy, reproduced almost certainly without permission -- the cover is not credited within, nor even directly mentioned. Dublin Event Guide was -- as the name implies -- …