2000 AD/Rebellion Collected Editions (Judge Dredd, sláine, ABC Warriors ..)

[Endsville]

Reviving this topic from the grave because I just got my hands on the Zenith Phase One: Apex Edition, 2000AD's first Artist Edition book. You can Google around for all the details but Steve Yeowell basically kept the entire first series to himself and Keith Richardson (graphic novels editor of 2000AD) was the one who apparently had the idea to put this book together, since a full collection of 2000AD artwork for a series such as this not being in the hands of the fans is quite unique.

Anyway, if you read my posts earlier in this thread then you'll see that I had some concerns about how this would be handled and said that I wouldn't hold it to the high standards that IDW and Dark Horse have, for example, previously set with their books like these. Well, I'm happy to say that they nailed it on their first attempt, did Rebellion, and even my petty concern that they'd paste the signed bookplate on the interior was not necessary at all. So without further ado, have some pictures, and apologies in advance for their slight blurriness and no size comparison to the Progs this story originally appeared in. You should at least be able to click on them for a closer view.

IMG_0406.jpg

IMG_0408.jpg

IMG_0409.jpg

[Endsville]

Continuing, a close-up of that curious text at the top right corner of the first page that you probably noticed. This is something I personally find quite refreshing - very brief annotations from Yeowell about the process of making these comics at the time or what he remembers about a specific page:

IMG_0411.jpg

Looks even more glorious at full size:

IMG_0412.jpg

If you look closely at the where the road disappears you should be able to make out faint pencil lines, something you notice throughout the book:

IMG_0413.jpg

[Endsville]

A few last interesting additions. Notice on this page that text is missing in the third and fourth panels, clearly never so much as pasted down like the rest (if it had been removed I'm sure it would have left noticeable residue):

IMG_0414.jpg

Well, for the sake of completion, using those footnotes once again, we find what's missing added to the top and bottom of the page like so:

IMG_0415.jpg

Pretty nice, eh? The book closes with a bonus section of some sketches, the original hand-drawn logo, etc. but I only picked one example from here, a letter from Morrison to editor Richard Burton, the latter of whom's reply isn't pictured 'cause I'm daft:

IMG_0416.jpg

It's a pretty amazing book. The reason I was a little sceptical is because, although the guys and gals at 2000AD and Rebellion are increasingly putting together better and better books, not all of them are yet perfect and I was concerned this might be the same in some way. What a nice surprise to see that it's right up there with the few other Artist Edition books I own, both in design and quality (and yes, the spine is perfectly fine and the book sits flat, in case you were wondering). Not sure if it will be in any way possible for them to put together another book like this because, as I said, fans own a lot of the artwork from various series', which is also exchanging hands all the time. Still, if this will be the only Artist's Edition book they can make for the foreseeable future, they did a damn fine job. If you like the Zenith series and the best artwork of Yeowell's career then you're gonna want to pick this up.

[Judge Dredd]

Very nice looks like a great book, thinking about looking into grabbing one but already have spent a lot of money on Zenith book. Steve Yeowell's art for the series was incredible.

[titansupes]

Thanks to this thing newsagents are doing - Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection - I just read my first Judge Dredd comics, after having been curious about him since I was a kid when the Stallone movie came out. It was the complete America series, and I loved them. I'm skipping Mechanismo, but soon The Apocalypse War should be out, so can't wait for that.

[Roland1580]

I've made a preorder for Zenith Apex edition few months ago. Did they started to ship the book finally?

[Endsville]

I've made a preorder for Zenith Apex edition few months ago. Did they started to ship the book finally?

Yeah, it was delayed until this month, so you should probably expect to get yours soon.

[Ben11345]

What's the order for reading the slaine stuff? Is it fully collected? I know they released a few trades but not sure of its random arcs or everything. They didn't release chunky trades with a case files-like trade dress like they did with strontium dog and rogue trooper did they?
Also, are the nemesis the warlock trades oop? Prices seem pretty high online..

Thanks in advance

[Endsville]

What's the order for reading the slaine stuff? Is it fully collected? I know they released a few trades but not sure of its random arcs or everything. They didn't release chunky trades with a case files-like trade dress like they did with strontium dog and rogue trooper did they?
Also, are the nemesis the warlock trades oop? Prices seem pretty high online..

Thanks in advance

Slaine is fully collected and all of it is readily available too, but no, not in Case Files-like books. The order and name of the trades, some of which are hardcover only, is on the Wikipedia page. Maybe you should hold off until Rebellion's solicitations arrive for next year though - 2000AD seem to be gathering all of Pat Mills' ABC Warriors and Ro-Busters stuff into Case File-like hardcovers, complete with the original colour spreads that are absent in other editions. Wouldn't surprise me if Slaine were to be collected like that next, but then again, it's the bigger series and may take a while to be collected like that. Still, I doubt they'll go out of print if you do wait, since it does seem the most popular of what Mills has written.

It appears to me that only the first Nemesis trade is out of print. Maybe try checking all sorts of sites in the hopes of finding it priced reasonably somewhere. Or, again, wait and see if it also moves to hardcovers in the future. Since the series does actually cross over with the ABC Warriors, it's actually the most likely to make that transition next come to think of it.