40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024)

40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024)

Authors: Various (inc. Alan Grant / Alan Moore / Gerry Finley-Day / John Wagner / Simon Furman | Artists: Various (inc. Brendan McCarthy / Cam Kennedy / Eric Bradbury / Jesus Redondo / José Ortiz / Mike Western) | Page Count: 464

'A torturous approval system was imposed, where pages thought editorially sound had to pass four further levels of oversight...'

Rebellion, current owners of 2000 AD and its associated media, would publish the instructions from a toilet roll if they thought they could make money from it, and then within a year or two probably republish it as part of a themed anthology, perhaps with the ingredients of some liquid hand soap to bulk out the page count, and some adverts for other upcoming collections.

On the flip side, they're rescuing some classic-era works from virtual obscurity via their Treasury of British Comics imprint and giving them a new, vibrant life on higher quality paper stock than most ever would've been given back in the day.

36 (2004)

36 (2004)

aka: The 36 / 36 Quai des Orfèvres

Dir. Olivier Marchal

Two of France's finest male actors go head to head in a gritty, violent police thriller based partly on Dir. Marchal's time in the police force.

Detective Léo Vrinks (Daniel Auteuil), a man with many friends and solid bonds, is head of the BRI, a team who look out for each other and cover each other's backs when needed.

In contrast, detective Denis Klein (Gérard Depardieu), head of the BRB, is a man with no true friends, having alienated everyone who ever got close to him, and doing a good job of preventing anyone new from trying the same.

While both men hold the same rank within the same organisation, they're in different departments. And while one follows the law when it suits him, the other makes his own law.

A series of violent armoured car heists put the duo in an awkward position, requiring some tough decision making. The two men each want to be first to solve the case, but for different reasons.

2000 AD: Mike Carey (1999—)

2000 AD: Mike Carey (1999—)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrator: Various | Credits (to date): 25 Progs

I've featured quite a lot of author Mike Carey's comic work over the years. It's mostly been his output under DC's successful Vertigo imprint. I bypassed his work for 2000 AD because the quality is variable, but I'm filling that gap now.

Besides a few Future Shock-esque anthology pieces, he co-created two original series for the magazine: Carver Hale and Thirteen, both of which received a standalone collected edition.

01. Before I get to those, his first published work in the magazine was a one-shot under the Pulp Sci-Fi banner, titled Eggs is Eggs in Prog 1145 (1999), with Cliff Robinson (artist), Chris Blythe (colourist), and Annie Parkhouse (letterer), later reprinted in a Judge Dredd Megazine supplement (#296, March 2010).

3D Dot Game Heroes (2009)

3D Dot Game Heroes (2009)

Genre: Action / Adventure / RPG  |  Players: One  |  Developer: Silicon Studio

If you read the words sword, shield, life meter (red), magic meter (green), bomb bag, bottles, boomerang, magic boots, maze-like puzzles, side quests, and fairy companion, then there's a high probability that you're going to think The Legend of Zelda, right? 

I would too, but now you can add Silicon Studio's 3D Dot Game Heroes to the list. 

It has a stupid title, I know, and it would be natural to assume before playing it that the blatant theft makes it deserving of derision, but the opposite is true, it deserves much praise. It takes the classic, honed to perfection, 8-bit LoZ 2D aesthetic and translates it into a homage-filled 3D adventure for PlayStation 3 owners.