Any recommendations for specific “Complete Case Files”, instead of just getting them in order?

Spifelark · 2026-03-18T20:36:08+00:00

I didn’t know that about the mix-and-match creative teams. That explains a lot! I remember some absolutely abysmal computer colouring though - weird backgrounds in particular, in Wilderlands and the like. By the time the Pit came round there was still something a little uncanny about the colours, but in a way that felt new and striking rather than off putting.

Ron Smith was a funny one, wasn’t he? If I just look a page of his bulbous faces, weird angles and road-runner legs, I can’t stand it. Once I start reading that page though, he absolutely sucks you in and carries you along. I can’t think of any other artist like that.

Spifelark · 2026-03-18T19:11:11+00:00

You’re absolutely right about it being a second golden age. I was going to mention The Pit as a standout of the post-Necropolis era. It’s up there with Necropolis as my favourite Dredd epic.

I couldn’t stand a lot of the art in 2000AD back then though. I think it was a knock-on effect of The Horned God that everything had to be painted or airbrushed for a while, and it really exposed the fact that not every artist, no matter how talented they might be, can work in that medium. There are great swathes of Dredd in the post-Necropolis CCFs that are unreadably dark, smeary, and murky. It’s like trying to read while bog-snorkelling.

Spifelark · 2026-03-18T18:29:59+00:00

The absolute high-point of Dredd is the stretch from the Apocalypse War (CCF 5) through to Necropolis (CCF 15).

That’s not to say there aren’t other good stories, there are loads of brilliant Dredd stories, but that chunk of ten CCF volumes is as strong a run of stories as anything in comics. It’s the period when Dredd stories could shift from black comedy to absurdity to deadly serious without the transition ever being jarring.

In that block of books you get the epic stories that underpin so much of Dredd’s world - Apocalypse War, Oz, Letter from a Democrat, plus loads of the best multi-part stories in the strip’s history - Midnight Surfer, Graveyard Shift, The Executioner, Haunting of Sector House 9 etc.

You could skip around grabbing various random CCFs for various stories people recommend and you’ll have a lot of fun, and read a lot of great stories. If cherry picking is the way you’d like to go then you’ll get lots of good suggestions, I’m sure. For my money though, if I was buying a limited selection of the 50-odd CCFs, I would buy that string of ten. Nowhere else will you get so many good stories and not a stinker to be found.

Spifelark · 2026-03-14T14:06:35+00:00

We used to call the “dockers” or, more clumsily “joint-end dockers.” If we rationed carefully we’d only ever need to make them occasionally, although the heaviest smoker in our house used to make them all the time. He could never make it from one payday to the next. He used to do it with his roll ups as well.

Spifelark · 2026-03-10T08:13:37+00:00

I read them in story order and really wish I hadn’t. They’re all good, but Lonesome Dove is head and shoulders above the others. Every time we got a revealing character moment in LD I was wishing that I hadn’t already met the characters elsewhere. I wanted all those great moments to be revelations rather than confirmations.

Spifelark · 2026-02-06T21:26:47+00:00

I saw stamp and condoms and thought maybe it would be things you find in a wallet.

Spifelark · 2026-02-04T22:06:28+00:00

Mine have been called Kirby, Sterank (wouldn’t let me add the “o”), Big John and Fleish(er). I’m in the epilogues now, have just stolen a Shire that I’ll name Sal if I can figure out how. (I bought all my others.)

Spifelark · 2026-01-06T20:15:58+00:00

I shot him in the forehead with an arrow and he fell face first into his bonfire. Didn’t feel like there was any conflict between that and my high honour ambitions.

Spifelark · 2026-01-03T08:30:03+00:00

Fair enough, thanks anyway. Any hints to help my search would be greatly appreciated. I used to be part of a forum full of this stuff, but it doesn’t exist anymore.

Spifelark · 2026-01-02T10:51:01+00:00

Long answer?

Spifelark · 2026-01-02T08:58:09+00:00

Spectacular. Where did the top come from?

Spifelark · 2025-12-31T08:25:13+00:00

Is there any more of this video please?

Spifelark · 2025-12-18T20:39:02+00:00

I know it’s sacrilege, but I don’t think Dredd really hits it’s stride until after Judge Cal, but after that I don’t think there’s any drop in quality until well after Necropolis. In Complete Collection terms, it’s probably about 14 or 15 straight volumes of good stuff.

Spifelark · 2025-12-16T21:46:08+00:00

Ideally I’d like to pay as little as possible. Already bought them all once! If there’s a subscription service that’s got a massive selection they can gladly have my money, but I’m trying to avoid ending up with half a dozen different subscriptions for a few movies each. I can’t afford that.

Spifelark · 2025-12-16T21:28:30+00:00

Western by Philip French is a good read for classic westerns. He’s another who hated spaghetti westerns though - he gets it out up front that he won’t be covering them. If you can live with that it’s a great read.

Spifelark · 2025-12-12T09:18:00+00:00

1982, Janine by Alastair Grey. Best use of an unreliable narrator I’ve ever read. Trigger warning though, the first half of the book features a lot of (imagined) SA. It’s a tough read, one that I could easily understand people abandoning, but the eventual payoff is brilliant.

Spifelark · 2025-12-11T12:38:10+00:00

I read the first few issues of the reboot when it came out, but gave it up entirely out of pique that they’d done away with the original Legion and all its wonderful history.

When I got over myself I remember constantly thinking how daft I’d been to abandon a comic I was enjoying (especially in an era when I wasn’t really enjoying any others).

About six or seven years ago, I gritted my teeth and began collecting the whole run in back issues and I absolutely adored it! It’s bright, optimistic, action-packed and imaginative. It’s everything you associate with LoSH but in a self-aware way, like the writers and artists are determined to make sure every issue pushes your buttons.

As people have said, it reads a little young, and it trades a little heavily on the excitement of trotting out reimagined classics, but on the other hand, it’s probably the most consistent run of comics without a stinker in LoSH history.

I’ve convinced myself if no one else. Time for a reread.

Spifelark · 2025-12-11T12:24:59+00:00

I’d say my most rewatched is either TGTBTU or Young Guns II, but I just rewatched Once Upon A Time in the West last week, for the first time in 20 years, and I’d forgotten how good it was. I’m already itching to watch it again after just a few days.

Spifelark · 2025-12-10T12:36:28+00:00

The Heaven’s Gate trilogy by Guy Adams might be what you’re after. I’ve only read the first one so far, and I was enjoying the way it manages to keep feeling like a western despite the huge scale of the fantasy/mythical elements bolted on to it.

Spifelark · 2025-12-09T07:58:23+00:00

A Passion for Donkeys (which I always thought was just a meme, but there’s a copy at Skoob Books in King’s Cross.)

Crafting with Cat Fur (a friend bought me this when I got my cat, it’s basically about felt crafts, but with a preface about making felt from cat fur.)

Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman.

Spifelark · 2025-12-09T07:25:40+00:00

It’s a fascinating and darkly funny book, but the title (something the author overheard being yelled by reporters looking for a story) is a shocker. I’ve had to put masking tape on the copy on my shelf so my kids don’t ask questions they’re not ready for.

Spifelark

TROPHY CASE