Strontium Dog Novels (Black Flame)

Continuing the line of novels from Black Flame, here we have the Strontium Dog series, which is basically all Johnny and Wulf.

Story by
Rebecca Levene

Cover by
Greg Staples

'Warped by the twisted effects of Strontium 90 fallout, mutants are a victimised underclass on Earth. Denied normal work, many have taken the job too dirty for norms: bounty-hunting. Across the expanding frontier of space, they hunt the criminals too dangerous for the Galactic Crime Commission.
Johnny Alpha is one such Strontium Dog and his latest assignment takes him to Epsilon 5 - a quarantined planet where time has sped up to four-hundred times its normal rate. Johnny is in a literal race against time to avoid all manner of dangers and to find his prey before he ages to death!'

Story by
Simon Spurrier

Cover by
Dylan Teague

'Johnny Alpha is hot on the trail of crime lord Mister Grinn after a chance encounter with a small-time crook reveals a tantalising lead. Accompanied by a mismatched group of mutants, Johnny must contend with an all too real doomsday prophecy as well as Grinn.s many henchmen, if he is to bring in his man - dead or alive.' 

Story by
Jonathan Clements

Cover by
Dylan Teague

'When Johnny's sister goes missing, accused of a crime she didn't commit, he is determined to discover the truth. The rules no longer apply when it comes to a Dog's family and anyone who gets in his way better watch out!'

Story by
Andrew Cartmel

Cover by
Karl Richardson

'Asdoel Zo hires Johnny Alpha and his Strontium Dogs to collect the bounty on Preacher Tarkettle, the man who killed his family. However, after landing on the desert world of Santo segrelle, Johnny's team is attacked and their weapons destroyed. Now armed with ancient six-shooters and rifles, Johnny and his fellow mutants soon realise they have been tricked: Zo is a twisted big game hunter and he has his sights set on hunting the deadliest prey in the galaxy - the Strontium Dogs!'

Story by
Jaspre Bark & Steve Lyons

Cover by
Philip Sibbering

'In the worst end of the galaxy, bounty hunter Johnny Alpha and his companions chase an escaped felon across Miltonia: the only planet where mutants are the majority and normal humans are the mistrusted minority. But when their quarry has the power to steal other mutants' identities, nothing is as it appears. Hard action and dark satire collide at the end of the galaxy.'

Again some excellent stories from a variety of writers that all know their SD stuff.

Judge Dredd Novels (Black Flame)

In 2003 to tie in with the release of the Dredd Vs Death video game from Rebellion, Black Flame launched a run of novels starring 2000AD characters. This run of 9 Dredd novels was the longest out of all the books written, which was a pity and the last one came out in 2006.

Story by

Gordon Rennie

'Mega-City One, 2123 - and a plague is spreading like wildfire amongst its millions of citizens, apparently turning them into blood-crazed vampires. With the Justice Department struggling to contain the outbreak, Judge Dredd teams up with the psychic Judge Anderson and ex-Judge DeMarco to investigate the trail of the carnage and death left by the enigmatic Death Cult. When the cultists fight back by summoning the four Dark Judges - Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis - it becomes a fight to save both the Mega-City and Dredd's very soul!' 

Story by

David Bishop

cover by

Andy Clarke

'It's Friday the 13th and a bad moon rises over Mega-City One. With weather control off-line in sector 87, the heat is rising along with the tension and the crazies are out in force. In the midst of this madness Judge Dredd is drafted in to enforce the law during the graveyard shift.

But when human xenophobes strike against an alien ghetto in sector 87, things get a whole lot worse and the tension spills out onto the streets! With the Citi-Def squads turning vigilante and aliens with psi-powers running around, Dredd must stop the riot before it engulfs the whole sector!'

Story by

Simon Jowett & Peter J Evans

Cover by

Dylan Teague

'Hot on the trail of a cargo of illegal bi-weapons, Judge Dredd boards the Cityship Sargasso, a vast agglomeration of ancient toxic waste tankers loaded with refugees from warzones around the world. It is also home to large populations of mutants and scavengers, so when the law comes on board, Dredd finds himself as a most unwelcome guest.

But when one of the bio-weapons is released from stasis, Dredd must stop it before it sets about fulfilling it's single pre-programed function: to destroy everything in it's path.'



Story by

James Swallow

Cover by

Colin Wilson

'On the anniversary of the Apocalypse War, ruthless ruthless future lawman Judge Dredd heads off-world to bring the rioting Luna-1 colony back under control. Using his unique brand of law enforcement, Judge Dredd is all that stands between millions of citizens and outright anarchy. But what have the vast MoonieCorp business empire and Moon-U pirate radio statio got to do with the trouble?' 

Story by

David Bishop

Cover by

Julian Gibson

'Senior Judges from around the world are gathering to sign an important treaty and security in the city is tight. Notorious crime boss Jesus Bludd has evaded justice for decades, but now he's prepared to step out of the shadows for the first time and seize control of the Big Meg. For Dredd, it's a race against time befor Bludd completely destroys the city.' 

 Story by

Matthew Smith

Cover by

Dylan Teague

'When the reclamation work on a plaza eradicated during the Apocalypse War reveals freshly mutilated bodies, it's up to Dredd to uncover the truth behind the murders which seem to involve friends in high places.' 

Story by

Andrew Cartmel

Cover by

Patrick Goddard & Dylan Teague

'Pork has been banned in the face of super-intelligent pigs demanding equal rights. Yet someone is still making bacon and it's up to Dredd to find out who, before his new partner is turned into sausages!'

Story by

James Swallow

Cover by

Clint Langley

'Dredd tries to put a stop to Wess Smyth - a small time hood - who has stumbled across the Skorpion: an unstable and powerful cybernetic firearm.'

Story by

Dave Stone

Cover by

Clint Langley

'The criminal overlord Efil Drago San has finally been caught, but the Judges have a big problem. His crimes are so abominable and so global that his high profile demands that Mega-City One will have to give him something it has never given before: a fair trial!'

I quite enjoyed these books, all were fast paced and full of action which was perfect for my tastes. The books cost £5.99 each, except the final one, as that rose to £6.99. Strangely the covers changed after number 7 for no apparent reason. Don't publishers know that when these are placed on your book shelves it makes it look bloody odd!!!

Look forward to the other characters in the series soon!

Mega City One Slammers

These came out around the release of the Stallone film, along with two different types of spugs (never heard of them before this). More about the spugs themselves in a future post! Four different packs, containing the varied slammers at the top of and the spugs below. They look quite decent on the shelf and the coins are excellent but the spugs themselves are just a waste of space really!

As said above, the coins come in two designs Dredd & Death and also painted & unpainted. The rear of each coin shows Dredd's badge of office and again it's painted & unpainted.

In each pack there was a redeemable voucher (spugcredit)  but due to these not taking off there was never a chance to redeem any of them, to get any of the following goodies. Pity, as I would have liked to have seen what the phonecards looked like!

Finally, just to show you how large these are, the obligatory 50p comparison photo!

Stallone's Dredd - Teaser Poster

This is another buy from the world of ebay. I was intrigued by it as I had never seen any other posters from the Stallone film, except the rubbish ones that we have come to love hate!

As you can see it features Dredd chasing down Hammerstein, the Angel Gang and a Clone! (just like what happens in the film)

The only other piece of info that I have about this came from the seller - 'This 23" x 29" poster was originally given away at comic conventions just prior to the film's 1995 release. It comes with facsimile signatures of the stars of the film.' 

It's an interesting piece as it reminds me of the B Movies posters from the 80's but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Now I have scanned the page for the artists signature and the only thing that I can find is a name on Mean Machine's arm that says RUTKUS. So I did a search online for that name and found his official site here. It does say that he has worked in cinema but who bloody well knows if he did this!