JDM 306

[zombemybabynow]

no prog 1715 as yet - but meg 306 just came through the door - hurrah

[skurvy]

hey, me too.

[Jim_Campbell]

Hmm. The current episode of Samizdat Squad appears to retcon The Inspectre out of Dredd continuity. I can't say I'm entirely surprised, but it does create an oddly sour little note on which to end 2010 for me.

:-(

Jim

[Pioneer]

What happened in The Inspectre then?

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

I too am curious about this "Inspectre"!!!!!

[James Stacey]

It's been a while since I've read it and obviously Jim is in a better position to know having written it, but IIRC the Inspectre contained a story that was to do with the building of a new mega city 'Ultragrad'? on the remains of EM1. The Samizdat Squad certainly ignores this but I'm guessing it could easily be written around if needed ?

[Jim_Campbell]

It's been a while since I've read it and obviously Jim is in a better position to know having written it, but IIRC the Inspectre contained a story that was to do with the building of a new mega city 'Ultragrad'? on the remains of EM1.

The whole raison d'être of The Inspectre was that East Meg Two was trying to reclaim the site of East Meg 1, but that, being the site of 500 million people's simultaneous violent deaths, EM-1  was a turmoil of psychic activity as well as the more obvious issues of muties, background radiation and the like. To deal with this, their one remaining clairvoyant -- Viktor Zadek, the Inspectre of the title -- was freed from a gulag and put to work laying the ghosts of the Apocalypse War in order to allow reconstruction work to proceed.

Cheers

Jim

[Pioneer]

Sounds pretty decent to me, why would that be retconned? Did The Inspectre succeed?
Guess they're facing similar problems (ghosts etc) in this story though....

[JUDGE BURNS]

hey,  I had prog 1715 before new year  . Its early for a change....but no meg 306 yet.    probably saturday morning it will arrive with prog 1716...yeeahah!

[Jim_Campbell]

Sounds pretty decent to me, why would that be retconned?

No idea why it would be retconned -- I suspect it may simply have dropped below the radar of editorial due to neither Kev nor I finding an interesting way of reviving it over the course of the last fifteen years.

Still pretty depressing to have made a mark -- no matter how small and obscure -- on a mythos that means as much to me as Dredd only to see it effectively erased. Ho hum…

Cheers

Jim

[Emperor]

Sounds pretty decent to me, why would that be retconned?

No idea why it would be retconned -- I suspect it may simply have dropped below the radar of editorial due to neither Kev nor I finding an interesting way of reviving it over the course of the last fifteen years.

Still pretty depressing to have made a mark -- no matter how small and obscure -- on a mythos that means as much to me as Dredd only to see it effectively erased. Ho hum…

Plus it rules out a sequel

Although, as has been said, I'm sure there is a way to make it work again.

[Jim_Campbell]

Although, as has been said, I'm sure there is a way to make it work again.

I'm not sure at all. I imagine it would have to be the best proposal ever written to stand even half a chance of convincing Matt that he needed two Russian judge stories.

Cheers

Jim

[Zarjazzer]

Another great Meg. I particularly enjoyed the Strontium Dog freebie that I'd never read before Darkest Star.

Didn't read any of the movie bits but loving the old school b&w art on Samizdat Squad.

[Professah Byah]

You're obviously the man to ask, Jim: I haven't read Inspectre so is it definately absolutely a retcon and not character POV or potentially some sort of in-universe historical revisionism on the part of Sov propagandists?

I'm enjoying the old-school feel to Samizdat Squad, but find it unlikely that Arthur was unaware of the Inspectre or that Matt would want to actively retcon anything Dreddworld-related when it could be written around or included in canon with minimal effort.  Recent Ewing tales have made a virtue of referencing continuity anachronisms like Judgment Day and Arthur himself has contributed at least one Black Museum tale that referenced the Death Belt not referred to since Apocalypse War (which predates the Inspectre by at least 10 years) so I'm inclined to think there might be an in-story rationale for any continuity 'revisionism' even if we haven't seen it yet.  This is the House of Tharg, after all, not DC or Marvel.

[James Stacey]

You're obviously the man to ask, Jim: I haven't read Inspectre so is it definately absolutely a retcon and not character POV or potentially some sort of in-universe historical revisionism on the part of Sov propagandists

I would of thought that the remains of EM1 were a pretty big place. If the EM2 project to rebuild EM1 had failed for whatever reason, there would still be an awful lot of wrecked city for this story to be set in. I'm sure there is room for a continuing Inspectre story there, you just have to write it