#Judge Dredd imagine

[geekynerfherder]

'Judge Dredd' by Frank Frazetta.

Cover art for MAD Magazine #338, published in August 1995.

[idmimagineering]

Something NEW is coming for 2024 and it won’t cost you Judges anything...

[apas-95]

i was watching the judge dredd movie while absolutely wasted a while back and became absolutely convinced that the movie had taken an insanely brilliant and subversive turn, by having the psychic orphan the police had conscripted just full on gun down dredd, who had just been making a long speech about weakness and discipline, before he could execute a downed opponent. it took me a while to realise that she had actually shot the Evil cop that i literally wasn't able to discern from dredd, because both looked identical and talked in batman voice about The Law

in my imagined version of the movie she gunned them both down and went to be friends with ma-ma. good end

[vixstarria]

I just had a really stupid prompt idea, but it’s not really a request, more a “can you imagine”? What if Tav is from another plane like the Gith, but she’s from a very different race: What if her whole race are lawyers? Just masters of cosmic rule and magical law memorization, so even Lae’zel takes one look at her and is all “oh hell no” because her lawyer race is so exasperating.

Of course when Astarion introduces himself she’s excited, and Astarion panics because he’s out of practice and has to quickly read up on current Faerun laws. Tav actually will fight strictly for “self-defense” and she’s bloodthirsty when her law convo with Astarion is interrupted by cultists. She’s further enraged when she learns Cazador kept Astarion from his magistrate job for 200 years, and she becomes the BG3 equivalent of Judge Dredd.

See, the existence of cosmic lawyers and cosmic magical law implies the existence of cosmic law enforcement and judiciary, and that is an enormous can of cosmic eldritch horror.

As a side note... So, I work in legal. And let me tell ya, never have I ever partaken in as many illegal activities as I have in the company of lawyers.

Astarion's background checks out.

Cosmic lawyer Tav is a massive pain in the dick to argue with, but parties hard.

[quasitsqueeries]

Gender and Warhammer 40,000

Look I’m sorry. It’s been a long time since I’ve played 40K but I still find the setting really interesting and also I have *opinions* (also I’m thinking it could be fun to play some Dark Heresy).

Dudes who play 40K love to point out that there can’t be any space marine women (they say female space marines) because of how you can only have like eight livers and two hearts if you’ve got XY chromosomes or something. Anyway it’s really difficult reading about this stuff because every post about it has this energy.

So why aren’t there space marine women? There were, back in 1st edition, this post from Bell of Lost Souls includes two models that were released of space marine women and talks about how retailers asked GW to stop sending them because they couldn’t sell them to their players, who in the 80′s were mostly men. As far as I can tell the stuff about only men being able to survive the space marine making process because of some chromosome rubbish was just post-facto justification for discontinuing those models.

Which is a shame because there’s a better justification. Someone on Twitter was pointing out that they’re basically children kidnapped by the Fascist empire and turned into supersoldiers. Of course the Catholic Fascist space Empire isn’t making space marine women. I think it’s pretty clear that the space marines were initially intended as a pastiche of Thatcherite militarism, just like Judge Dredd. In the Rogue Trader they’re depicted as thuggish, inhuman instruments of the state.

I also feel like there’s something about English boys’ public schools going on here. I’m not from the UK so I’m not sure I can quite make sense of it but there was a decision made to have the punk hive-ganger’s butt be really prominent in the image.

There aren’t women space marines for the same reason there weren’t women in the Sturmabteilung. Military organisations in Fascist states serve a double purpose, they don’t just fight, they also serve as propaganda. It’s clear from most 40K imagery and fiction that the image of the space marine is meant to communicate the strength of the Imperium. Imperial propaganda calls the Imperial Guard “the anvil” and the Adeptus Astartes “the hammer” in an empire that seems fixated on hammers, in a game that is largely about hammers (it’s called Warhammer).

But here’s the interesting bit, the image of the space marine *also* communicates the Imperium’s ideas about the role of men. The figure of the space marine represents the glorification of toxic masculinity, not just because it depicts men as warriors and protectors who are inherently violent, but also because these are men who are utterly disposable and who’s subjectivity and individualism have been completely erased for the sole purpose of making war. The primary role of a space marine apothecary isn’t to heal wounded marines, it’s to ensure that their gene-seed is harvested at the point of death so they can make more marines. It doesn’t matter that space marines die, only that hyper-masculine bodies can continue to make war.

I can imagine some Imperial Guard recruitment poster with a picture of a space marine saying “They put their bodies on the line to protect the Imperium, and you should too! Join the Imperial Guard!”

But, if we’re going to talk about what ideas the Imperium wants to engender about women, we need to talk about everyone’s favourite nuns with guns.

Okay that image probably doesn’t communicate what I’m trying to say but I had to include it, here’s Saint Celestine.

So the Adepta Sororitas, actualy first here’s a Reddit post with an extract from a Rogue Trader scenario including a chapter of space marine women called The Little Sisters of Purification (you know they’re carrying a lot of flamers). This is interesting because while Astartes are technically supposed to be monastic, their imagery (with the exception of the Dark Angels, and in that case the major theme is HERESY) rarely leans on that aspect. From the start, the Imperium’s women warriors have been explicitly coded as nuns.

The themes that come through with the sisters of battle are things like purity, innocence, piety, faith, martyrdom. They have a propaganda role, like the space marines do, but it’s a different message. While the Astartes’ singular military role communicates the idea that men are only good for violence, the Sororitas fill a bunch of different roles, the order hospitaller provides medical aid to Imperial citizens, the order dialogous are diplomats, and the order famulous are scholars. This communicates that the role of women in Imperial society is more diverse, and less dispensable, an idea that’s probably reinforced by the various orders’ integration into Imperial society. Sisters would be a much more familiar sight to Imperial citizens than marines, who are largely aloof on their fortress-monasteries. It’s likely that most Imperial citizens would be much more shocked by the idea of the nurse-nun they go to see every few months being killed than some armoured super-human with no personality other than anger who they’ve never met.

And that’s where the idea of martyrdom comes in. Toxic masculinity says that women must be protected, by men, because they’re not dispensable in the way men are. The Emperor, in all his masculine wisdom, will not countenance women to be killed in his grimdark future of only war, so Sisters of Battle aren’t killed, they’re martyred, and often when they are He brings them back in the form of living saints (See Saint Celestine, above). There are no resurrected space marines because the Imperium treats men’s bodies as expendable, and women’s bodies as sacred.

And then there’s the whole purity and innocence thing. Sosoritas are obedient to the one man in their life (Him on the Golden Throne). They take vows of chastity, they spend most of their time in prayer, they’re probably the faction in the game with the most number of abilities based around faith, piety and purity (I didn’t count or anything, but I think it’s a safe assumption). They play a propaganda role to demonstrate to Imperial citizens what a woman should be like, and also how men should enlist to protect them.

So when I see people modding their space marine armies to include women space marines I end up in two minds. On the one hand it makes me happy because it’s clear that it’s going to upset guys who are invested in the idea that women are inherently weak, but at the same time I worry that they’ve missed the bit where this is a sexist Fascist Empire and maybe they’re thinking the space marines are the good guys.

On the other hand, often when this topic comes up, people mention that the records of two of the 20 primarchs are expunged from all records. I kind of like the idea that while the Imperium still keeps records of the traitor primarchs, it’s the idea that there were two women primarchs that’s so horrific to the Imperium’s scribes that they had to destroy all records of them.

[dreddedwheat]

Back to the Dredd-tomes: Judgement Day

Okay, so-!

Brief introduction: I used to have a previous blog that focused on my youthful fanboyism of the 2000AD and Judge Dredd universe. A few misstimed clicks a year or so back and that all got nuked, and it basically killed my enthusiasm for writing stuff up, since I lost a metric ton of amateur analysis, fan-mixes and other stuff that most people would usually forget.

There was a lot of back and forth with good folks like @judgeanon (who I credit with helping support what is a vanishingly small online discussion around Dredd and 2000ad in general), which is now sadly mostly lost. Usually for the better with my more immature antics, hence the fresh start and fresh name to go with it.

However, after a Christmas filled with a sudden surge of - probably ill-informed - Dredd buys, I decided to get back into things. That means actually talking about the comic that was formative for me as a fan of both comic-books and fiction in general...

JUDGE DREDD

And where better to start than the biggest, the meanest, and the best/baddest (depending on who you ask) Dredd epic, JUDGEMENT DAY. (Spoiler warnings, images courtesy of the 2000AD site and Google Search.)

So, let's get into a basic overview of this contentious Dredd epic...

The Story so far: Judge Dredd is a law-enforcer in Mega-City One, a massive post-apocalyptic metropolis. As a Judge he's authorised to deliver instant sentencing on the spot, no jury or court necessary. He's judge, jury and executioner, and he is the law, but you probably already knew that.

Johnny Alpha is a Strontium Dog, a mutant bounty-hunter that wants to break free of life on an increasingly anti-mutant Earth. Taking on the bounties no-one else will touch, he utilises his unique 'Alpha Eyes' to see through walls, sense other people's intentions and more. He always gets his man.

Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, let's get into it. For the uninitiated, a Dredd 'epic' is a pretty standard description for a big summer storyline. This all started with the "Apocalypse War" back in the eighties, a storyline which defined not only Judge Dredd but also British Boy's comics.

For American fans, and British comic readers of a certain age (like me) it's hard to imagine a time when most British comics were simply lukewarm re-treads of the same adventure stories you'd read in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Of course, not all of these were bad - far from it - but like many things in Britain during the eighties they were a victim of a stuffy, uptight and squeamish society.

2000AD proved to be a seminal title in many ways, mostly in introducing borderline graphic violence, mature storylines, cynical themes and more complicated heroes. Judge Dredd, a tyrannical authoritarian supercop who nonetheless has strong principles and heroic intentions is the most emblematic of that.

However, for most of his lifetime Dredd had been a relatively straightforward and heroic figure. And although a direct criticism of this was not far away - in the form of the Democracy Now storyline - the Apocalypse War was perhaps the first time we saw Dredd on a firm backfoot.

The lantern-jawed hero was put thoroughly on the defensive when the Sovs, a pastiche of Soviet-era Russia, attacked and destroyed a large portion of Mega-City One. It was a grand war story depicting the Judges of the city waging guerilla warfare and culminating with a particularly chilling page where Dredd retaliates using the Sov's own nukes, obliterating hundreds of millions of people.

Yee-ikes, even nowadays this is vicious stuff. Now imagine this in a mag that's being sold next to "The Beano" on shelves and you can imagine why this was considered such a definitive storyline.

But, okay, why am I telling you this? Well, put simple, Judgement Day is a result of the inherent love that writer Garth Ennis, best-known now for titles like The Boys and Punisher Max, had for this storyline. At least that's the prevailing thesis put forwards by people like JA, God knows that online discussion of Dredd is hard to come by no matter what.

Regardless, this should set the stage. By now, Mega-City One has fazed many crises and successive near-extinction events. Most recently - at the time - Necropolis, where the Dark Judges (we'll get into them) invaded and took control of the city's Judges, attempting to carry out their campaign of omnnicide before being narrowly halted by Judge Dredd, McGruder, Cadet Giant and the everlovin' Psi-Judge Anderson.

So, stage-set, where does that lead us?

Judgement Day is, in simple terms, Dredd vs Zombies. Pretty cliché now, but back in the 90s this was still a fresh and rather bloody concept. And regardless of what one thinks of Ennis' writing, the art is stunning and graphic, with Dredd mainstay Carlos Ezquerra taking center-stage. Although I'd argue that Dean Ormston is at least second-best if not better, with some mouthwatering - pardon the pun - depictions of flesh-eating zombies cribbing from giallo films.

Judge Dredd - and the rest of his post-nuclear world - suddenly face an overwhelming undead assault from the necromagus Sabbat. Resurrecting billions of corpses, Sabbat wages all-out war on the Mega-Cities, and all seems lost until the arrival of Johnny Alpha...

Alpha and Dredd had already met in the story "Top Dogs" where Johnny and his partner, the time-displaced viking Wulf Sternhammer, narrowly escaped capture by the lawman. Naturally, they don't get on too well.

Regardless, Alpha proves instrumental in helping Dredd - and a coalition of international Judges - finding and destroying (or near-enough) Sabbat in a bloody showdown in the Radlands of Ji, a part of post-nuclear China.

In-between we have lavish set-pieces of Dredd and his fellow Judges fending off hordes of the undead, flashes to other parts of the globe and other judges playing their part, as well as fantastic art throughout.

So, what's the problem?

Well, the main issue is that, as JA pointed out in his own posts on the storyline, Judgement Day is very much a 'blockbuster' event. And sadly, it's as close as 2000AD has ever gotten to emulating the American comics ideal of the big crossover event. And NOT in a good way. Although you couldn't criticise it for being slow-paced and overwrought, it has many issues that mark it out for fans.

For one, the storyline - as I only recently found out - ran consecutively in both 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine, the latter a solely Dreddverse-focused publication. Now, obviously, the issues with asking people to buy two magazines, monthly and weekly, aside this also meant that the fairly fast-paced movie-style storyline was constantly being broken up.

Add onto that the ridiculous stakes ("Billions of people are dying! Planet Earth is on the brink!"), an at-times-confusing tone (Sabbat's zombies performing a Disney-esque musical number during the climactic showdown), the destruction of various international Mega-cities - few of which we'd even had the chance to know - and the borderline fanservicey pairing of Dredd and Alpha, and we have a recipe for...not a disaster, but something that's a bit of a messy moment in the Dredd saga.

Because, yes, Dredd's story has been continuous, and while not concrete generally the broad-strokes have always been pretty solid (usually a tweak to a character's origin or what they said and did here, but stuff like the Apocalypse War is almost untouched). Judgement Day really feels like a moment where a lot of potential areas of the world like Brasilia, Mega-City Two and others were, quite literally, nuked off the face of the Earth. We also saw some interesting side-characters gored under the zombie hordes, such as Oz Judge Bruce and Judge Dekker.

Basically, Judgement Day slammed the door shut on potential plotlines, was shaky in terms of the publishing angle and overall had more of an overwrought Hollywood blockbuster than intense action-thriller. It also came hot on the heels of Necropolis, and arguably was part of a quick-succession of world-shaking crises such as Inferno which, as far as I can tell, numbed readership going into the 2000s.

Sabbat also stands as quite a weak villain. He rarely appears until the finale, and his backstory - a downtrodden teacher's pet turned murderous necromancer - may be an amusing reference to the aforementioned "Beano" but it's also a bit of a silly one for someone who's meant to be our big, brutal bad-guy, and not in a good way. He's not a bore to read, but sometimes his moments of simpering arrogance can undercut what is essentially an apocalyptic moment for the world of Dredd.

However, even more frustratingly, Judgement Day is also a massive stepping-stone in terms of the-then current Dredd plotline, making it very hard to ignore. It effectively marked Chief Judge McGruder's last major heroic moment, the first time we saw Judge Hershey take up the mantle of Chief Judge and perhaps the most definitive Alpha/Dredd crossover.

I think it's a testament to the overall high-quality of major Dredd storylines that Judgement Day holds up as well as it does. But it also bears all the hallmarks of something that would work well in a vacuum, but which has a messy place in continuity. I'd loved to have seen a non-canon take on this, perhaps allowing us to bring in characters like Wulf Sternhammer - who was sadly offed before this storyline was written - into the zombie battle royale.

There's also some usual holdovers of poorly-aged stuff that was endemic to British comics at the time. Hondo-City, Ciudad Barranquilla and other areas get equal billing but some traces of their stereotypical origins remain. This storyline did go some way to fleshing out the wider world - as much as it obliterated it - of Dredd.

Yet I can't deny that, in the moment of reading, Judgement Day is enthralling. It's pure, gorey action and fanservice. I just wish it didn't cast such a shadow across later stories, and that it hadn't taken so many interesting places and people with it in the process.

Picking this story up, you know what you're getting, and if you're along for the ride...you'll have a hell of a time.

As it stands, Judgement Day is a weaker entry writing-wise but still well-worth picking up for the art and general premise alone. If you're a new Dredd fan and want something a bit lighter than the commonly-cited "America" storyline, this is a fine way to get into the fast-paced and more action-focused content of 2000AD without needing much forward knowledge.

FIN

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Dont really have screenshots to go with this but we wanted to talk about the 'Dredd in OZ' arc, in particular just one casual thing with weird lore implications.

And that is that the outback is referred to as the 'radlands.' How did the Australian outback become heavily irradiated? The Mega City there isn't just set in Sydney, they still have the Opera House even, so it seems unlikely they were nuked. An earlier bit about World War 3 seems to imply is western states vs russian backed middle east(?) and was the conflict that escalated into the nuclear conflict that ushered in the Judges. Even if every other major city in Australia was nuked with the exception of Sydney, which would be weird, why is the outback itself so irradiated? Just nuclear winds from the actual targets? Can't imagine someone actually targeting a nuke into the outback, its not like theres people really there.

[doom-nerdo-666]

I heard Doom did a crossover with Call of Duty.

On one hand, it's funny because of how both series are seen as opposites in the FPS genre (To the point that a lot of Doom fans hated COD).

On another hand, it's just some weapon skins and a pretty basic selection at that.

But it got me thinking: When it comes to crossovers, fighting games or related like Smash are when some thought is put/expected into gameplay but some other genres just get skins.

Even in my Doom and Halo post, i wrote about how a crossover should be something "mechanical/interactive" instead of skins.

(And at least QC did something mechanical for BJ and Doomguy)

Because a lot popular game series in certain genres always had their own differences and set of features, that it should inspire some creativity.

The fact that mods like Samsara exist or people porting various games' features in GMod is a thing also proves this.

In a way, it could go beyond game franchises and even apply to non-videogame properties (Even if it relies on whether or not they had games).

Imagine if Judge Dredd in Call of Duty also lead to a Lawgiver that worked like how it did in the Dredd vs Death game.

In general, gameplay is like the main feature of videogames as a medium.

Edit: Might as well mention some Smash examples.

On one hand, you have how Snake is a mix of both main characters.

On another is how every stage had to be reworked when Steve was included.

[bravecrab]

So this morning I found out about a new theme park that Universal are building in Florida, and it got me thinking about Intellectual Property.

This new park, Epic Universe is similar to many other modern theme parks by Universal, the park is split up into several zones based on an intellectual property, and in this case it's Nintendo, Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts, the Universal Monsters/Dark Universe, and How To Train Your Dragon. It's not a new concept, but there has been evolution from Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom in WDW, in which those parks were split into more theme/genre rather than a specific IP.

The move away from more generalised theme/genre can be seen in other places too, in Lego sets, and in TTRPG rule systems, for example. I'm showing my age a bit, but Lego used to have more generalised themes that they designed their sets around, pirates, knights, space, etc, and they still release the occasional Lego original series, it's just over-shadowed by the amount of stuff based on established IP. And with TTRPGs there's an ever increasing amount of rulebooks based on properties like Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, Alien, Judge Dredd, and more.

My issue with this focus on IP, is that it puts a focus on those who want to play, for them to play only with the officially licensed toys, rules, etc. You can run a story like The Witcher in D&D 5E, but if you are someone who wants to get into TTRPGs and you just watched The Witcher on Netflix, are you going to buy the core rulebooks of D&D to homebrew a Witcher story, or are you going to buy the Witcher rules?

I'm not shitting on people who would do the latter, if it's helping you access the TTRPG space, I'm not going to gatekeep you. However, when you've finished that game and maybe want to run a game that's not quite The Witcher, will you homebrew within that system, or buy another rulebook? Also if you're playing with players who have varying degrees of knowledge about The Witcher canon, who are you going to side with as a GM? Are you going to shut down a player's cool idea because it doesn't fit neatly into the established canon of the IP?

The same with Lego, like if a kid wants to play and make up their own little sci fi story because they watched Star Wars, you could get them the Star Wars Lego set. They still have their imagination to make up their own story, but it does set some limits when the established IP's canon comes up. Although obvious this becomes less of an issue when all the Lego blocks get mixed between sets, but I remember plenty arguments amongst kids about how that isn't what [Insert Character] would do.

And with theme parks, an IP specific area is always going to appeal to a specific fandom more than those who may like the theme/genre that IP is part of.

I feel like the focus on IP is primarily about making money from "official" products, and also gatekeeps by treating unofficial or stuff that has taken inspiration from that IP as a knockoff.

[lordnot]

Repeating to myself "Police serve the interests of major landowners and corporations, not your average citizen"

As I once again witness a car drive onto the shoulder to move ahead during a traffic jam

And imagine how nice it would be if Judge Dredd showed up and blew them to Hell.

[satoshi-mochida]

Space opera Metroidvania game Altered Alma announced for PC

Gematsu Source

Publisher Critical Reflex and developer 2Awesome Studio have announced Altered Alma, a side-scrolling space opera Metroidvania game coming to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam. A release date was not announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Altered Alma combines the beloved classic Metroidvania formula with RPG elements, dating sim features, a slick pixel-art presentation, and a gripping story. Whether you want to beat up bad guys, find love, or just explore the beautiful cityscape, Neo-Barcelona awaits!

Key Features

A Space Opera Metroidvania – Discover new routes, acquire powerful upgrades for Jack, and adapt your playstyle as you take on gangs and criminal kingpins of Neo-Barcelona.

All-Star Writing Team – The game is written by industry legends Anthony Johnston (Resident Evil Village, Dead Space) and Emma Beeby (Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension, Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge).

Ship, Captain, and Crew – Customize Kastefa – Jack’s spaceship and the base of operations. Upgrade the Kastefa, recruit new crew members, and make it your own. The choices you make will directly influence Jack’s abilities and playstyle.

Forge Relationships – Bond with rich, colorful characters: reconnect with Jack’s old friends and make new ones! Recruit them to your cause, build relationships, and possibly even find love in this unforgiving world.

Engage in Intense Combat – Master the rapid, stylish combat system and use mobility, skill, and powerful abilities to overcome the relentless onslaught of enemies.

A Pantheon of Adversaries – Encounter lots of unique foes—from gangs of giant lizards to armies of cyborgs… and don’t forget a multitude of vicious Bosses for Jack to beat!

Barcelona, Re-Imagined – Explore Neo-Barcelona, a futuristic city based on the real thing! Featuring iconic landmarks: Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and many others! Although they may not look as you expect them to…

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

[winterandwords]

Happy WBW, lovely! Not sure why, but today I'm asking about fashion?? What does the fashion-- I'm talking high, street, or anything else-- look like in your world(s)?

Thanks for the ask 💜

The world in Bridge From Ashes and Project Aria is inspired by the cyberpunk imagery I grew up with (I'm late Gen X, so excuse my anti-establishment anger under the neon rain 😁) and I imagine it to have recognisably cyberpunk fashion in general.

The Authority (the combined police and military) have a futuristic soldier/riot police look with Judge Dredd vibes. The Elite Operations department that Rafe is in is a more elegant version of that, with a little bit of inspiration taken from the military intelligence ministry in Starship Troopers. I love shady figures in excellent coats.

The gang that Rafe and Gillen are involved with in their youth, known as Them, are less refined. I don't describe their collective appearance in the books, but it lives in my head in a lot of detail.

The Other Side, the organisation Aria ends up with after getting out of prison, are all about the dystopian tactical aesthetic, apart from Taf, who is a law unto himself and only gold and burgundy velvet will do for him.

[downthetubes]

Going Out? Don't miss "The Out" in this week's 2000AD!

In this week's 2000AD, the latest, unsettling chapter of "The Out" by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison's SF epic lays some scary trails for the weeks to come!

The latest edition of 2000AD, the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, is out now and on salke in all good comic shops and newsagents, aiming to not only stimulate your imagination circuits but also blow away the January blues. Prog 2314, featuring a stand out cover from Mark Harrison, includes the latest instalments of “Judge Dredd“, “Proteus Vex“, “Joe Pineapples” and “The Out“, plus the penultimate…

[judgeanon]

I absolutely love the female judges from judge dredd article

Thank you so much! They were an absolute blast to research and write, and while I imagine going back to them now would probably be mortifying, I can't deny how cool of a project it was.

Hell, every now and then I remember the first part made it to the Thrill-Mail and all. Peak!

[arg-machine]

Comics at machine HQ

Well, looking back at the posts on this blog, arg sees that it’s almost time for a new Comics at machine HQ post, since the most recent one was published nearly half-a-year ago! So here’s one this week!

As regular visitors to this blog know, arg has been tackling a crisis arising out of a family member’s passing and, with so many issues to be resolved, he hasn’t been able to read as many comics and/or graphic novels as he’d have liked to… As a result, this instalment of Comics at machine HQ has fewer titles than usual.

And yes, though not all the issues have been resolved, things are gradually returning to a new normal and this, as he explained in his previous post, may mean that arg will finally be able to get back to machine HQ work [provided no new hurdles/problems arise]...

Anyway, let’s move on now, to the comics/graphic novels that arg has enjoyed in the past few months…

Funnybooks! Here are the comics/graphic novels arg has read [and enjoyed!] in the last few months. All titles are arranged alphabetically, and related titles – or titles from related genres – are listed in the Also recommended sections. Keep in mind that a few of these titles are suitable for mature readers only.

“In 1969, a feisty new comics magazine emerged to rival the popular horror magazines Creepy and Eerie: Web of Horror. Conceived by a plucky, independent publisher, Web of Horror showcased instant classics of horror and science fiction by such rising stars of comic art as Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Bruce Jones, Ralph Reese, Frank Brunner, Roger Brand, and Wayne Howard, as well as seasoned veterans such as Syd Shores and Norman Nodel, illustrating stories written by Otto Binder, Nicola Cuti, and others.

Now, over 50 years later, Fantagraphics presents the complete Web of Horror in one expertly edited and designed volume. In addition to all three published issues, this collection includes over a dozen stories intended for subsequent issues that have been rarely or never-before published, several long thought to be lost and recently unearthed…” Pretty freaky!

Also recommended: Epitaphs from the Abyss, Tales of the Unnamed - The Blizzard, The Midnite Show, Brynmore and Destiny Gate.

“Compelled to oblivion, driven to entropy, all life in our cosmos can only end in one place: COMPLETE ANNIHILATION! For the first time in 70 years, the limitless fury of EC Comics rages back to life to shred the very fabric of the universe itself and wrench bizarre tales of time and space into our dimensional plane!

Our guides across this double-sized, 40-page introduction to a cosmic maelstrom of strange extra-terrestrial entities, malevolent scientists, and terrifying technological catastrophes? Learn to fear the void with the irradiated imaginations of various acclaimed writers and artists.

The unpredictable return of EC Comics continues with the quantum comics event of the millennium! Galaxies will collapse. Space-time will be distorted. And your very will to exist, too, shall be broken… Just remember: it's all in the name of science!” A lot of fun, this one.

Also recommended: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 44, Dandelion, Cyn, Crave, The Singularity and Hexagon Bridge.

arg loooves ducks! Especially when they’re called Daffy or… Donald! And yes, that short-tempered, lovable waterfowl is now 90 years old!

“In honor of Donald Duck's 90th anniversary, join us in tracing his comics career from 1934 to the present!

Carl Barks' Lost in the Andes and Don Rosa's Return to Plain Awful take the Ducks to the legendary land of square eggs while Romano Scarpa's Legend of Donald Hood pits Donald against Scrooge in a feature-length Sherwood Forest spoof! Marco Rota's Life and Times of Donald Duck traces our hero from birth as a wild duck in a nest, while William Van Horn's The Black Moon finds outer-space peril threatening Duckburg!

From Daisy to Gladstone to Gyro and the Beagle Boys, the gang's all here for an unprecedented look at everybody's favorite duck!”

Also recommended: The Goon - Them That Dont Stay Dead, Groo - In the Wild, Marvel and The Heavy Bright.

“Andrew Vachss' writing has been described as ‘red-hot and serious as a punctured lung’ (Playboy), hypnotically violent… made up of equal parts broken concrete block and razor wire’ (Chicago Sun-Times), and ‘short and choppy, like the ticking of a time bomb’ (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).

In this graphic novel, dozens of comics writers and artists bring to life an assortment of Vachss' trademark life-at-ground-zero stories. This edition of Hard Looks contains 15 entries from the first Dark Horse edition as well as "Half Breed," a never-before-published prose story by Vachss, with illustrations by Geofrey Darrow, creator of Shaolin Cowboy and conceptual designer for The Matrix trilogy of films. Darrow also provides a new cover illustration.”

Also recommended: Leone - Notes on Life, Pocket Full of Rain, Seoul Before Sunrise, The Really Complete Paradise Too, Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas and Monica.

“An FBI agent from the cult crime beat and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic are drawn into a terrifying hunt for an insane killer hiding in the shadows of the underworld. Can you ever escape your past, or are all your bad decisions just more ghosts to haunt you, wherever you go?

Houses Of the Unholy is a riveting horror thrill ride from bestselling creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the award-winning team behind Criminal, Reckless, Night Fever, and Where The Body Was.”

Also recommended: The Horror, Men of Wrath, FATCOP, Out of the Blue - The Complete Series, Ain’t No Grave, Lost Boy and Invisible Wounds.

…and now, it’s time for a machine HQ’s Retro Pick!

“Sandman Mystery Theatre was an ongoing comic book series published by Vertigo Comics, the mature-readers imprint of DC Comics. It ran for 70 issues, one annual, and a cross-over special between 1993 and 1999 and retells the adventures of the Sandman, a vigilante whose main weapon is a gun that fires sleeping gas, originally created by DC in the Golden Age of Comic Books. In a similar vein to Batman, the Sandman possesses little to no superhuman powers, though he has minor precognitive abilities through his prophetic dreams, and relies on his detective skills and inventions.

In this film noir-like series by writers Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle, Wesley Dodds (the Sandman) and his girlfriend Dian Belmont (daughter of the District Attorney) encountered several, often grotesque, foes in multi-issue storylines…” Classic stuff!

That’s it for this new comics/graphic novels list, visit The Apocalypse Project on Mastodon, twitter/X and on tumblr, and don’t forget to check out the machinstagram too!

Header image features artwork from Weird Work and from Voices That Count - A Comics Anthology by Women.

[cryptometaphor]

Anamarie: So did your friends hear about how Biden apparently isn't physically fit enough to do presidency but somehow is gonna fight to change the supreme court? It's all bullshit. I mean I'm glad Trump won't get to be Judge Dredd.

Me: It's all a facade to maintain the vinear of democratic capitalism. These checks and balances serve no better than if Oskar made a decree he can't be kicked from the discord group. Like who was gonna kick him anyway? Me? Havoc?

Anamarie: You wouldn't kick him just out of principle. "Fuck you Havoc" lol!

Me: Esnackly lol. These guys are all friends or at least just rivals who argue how to maintain their structure and come out ahead to fulfill their egos. If anything a president that answers to noone would change things dramatically as normies gotta face the reality that yep, you're under a dictatorship, always were and will be. Not that I think it would motivate anyone to take to the streets. It'd just be nice to call them cucks yet again.

Anamarie: You're so mean lol but right

Me: You uhh... (Smacks lips) You trying to turn me on there?

Anamarie: IT'S TRUE LOL but maybe... You're right lol

Me: I wonder if my dick will lean to the right inside you?

Anamarie: Let's find out lol

Oskar: I join and all I hear is Jim's dick leans to the right

Me: God damn it Oskar, you're like a big dog that just walks into the room.

Oskar: Well go to a private call than you bantoid

Anamarie: Oskar's usually right too. Is that ok to say?

Me: Oskar is smart. Now if you had said Havoc lol

Anamarie: Havoc's weirder than Vance

Me: Oh we're having like 19 children you keep talking like that

Anamarie: You don't get to choose how many ya have at once lol. Not like you can impregnate me twice at the same time.

Me: No but you can get pregnant once every nine or so months. So it's like happy birthday! And it's another birth till your uterus crawls out of your vagina, points a gun to my head, and tells me to stop.

Anamarie: I love your imagination lol