ABC Warriors Time line

[positronic]

In one of the original Ro-Busters stories, "The Tax Man Cometh", it's established that Howard Quartz is a British subject (here he's been handed a tax assessment of 238 billion Earth Credits).

However, in the more recent RETURN TO EARTH story (which takes place after The Mek-nificent Seven, but prior to Hammerstein joining Ro-Busters), Howard Quartz is an American citizen

That isn't necessarily contradictory - you don't have to be a British citizen to pay UK tax.

True enough. It's only contradictory when one of the taxmen in the story states outright that Howard Quartz is a British subject.

There are other ways to rationalize it, I suppose: He always had dual citizenship in the U.S./U.K. but moved his main base of operations to England after Hammerstein's assassination of his grand-nephew, the U.S. President, or something pretty close to that.

[Dark Jimbo]

Yeah, well none of this is mentioned in the story. So essentially you're saying the original Satanus had a son before he died, and the Golgotha living on Mars is a clone of that son? So no relation (except by genetics) to the Satanus of the Cursed Earth. He's not the son of that Satanus (who is a clone of the original).

No, it's most likely that it was Satanus (Mark II) who concieved Golgotha (Mark I) after Thoth released him back into the jungles of the Cretaceous to live out his natural life in his own time. Golgotha lived; died; became a fossil; and was eventually ressurected on Mars just as his pop had been in pre-Atomic war US.

So the Golgotha in Meknificent Seven could easily have been around before his own dad is ressurected!

[positronic]

Howard Quartz is ...kidnapped by his "little brother" Ebenezer, a withered old man who had instituted a plot to take over Ro-Busters. A later story introduces Quartz' great-aunt, who although middle-aged, is significantly younger-looking than Quartz' younger brother Ebenezer.

It is perfectly possible for an aunt to be younger than a nephew, especially in families with lots of child and whose children have lots of children. The time span of the oldest to the youngest of a particular set of siblings could be decades e.g. parents have a child at 16  / 17 and then one in later life. So apply that twice and great-aunt younger than great-nephew becomes a possibility, I guess.

They don't state ages in the story, but Ebenezer is hooked up to a hoverchair which is keeping him alive. He looks to be maybe around 90, but I'd skew that older. The reason is that Howard's his older brother, and in the story he berates Ebenezer for being too cheap to spring for the cost of prosthetic replacement parts like he has. So skew upwards again for Howard's age. He'd be dead by now if he wasn't only 10% organic, so he's been slowing replacing one organic part after another only when no better option was available. Whereas the great-aunt appears to be more like 60-ish.

[positronic]

Yeah, well none of this is mentioned in the story. So essentially you're saying the original Satanus had a son before he died, and the Golgotha living on Mars is a clone of that son? So no relation (except by genetics) to the Satanus of the Cursed Earth. He's not the son of that Satanus (who is a clone of the original).

No, it's most likely that it was Satanus (Mark II) who concieved Golgotha (Mark I) after Thoth released him back into the jungles of the Cretaceous to live out his natural life in his own time. Golgotha lived; died; became a fossil; and was eventually ressurected on Mars just as his pop had been in pre-Atomic war US.

So the Golgotha in Meknificent Seven could easily have been around before his own dad is ressurected!

Interesting question. If the cloned Satanus II returned to the Cretaceous, how do scientists in the future tell the fossilized DNA of Satanus I from Satanus II?  So essentially he could be a clone who was cloned from himself, literally. The clone goes back in time to become the source of the very fossilized DNA from which he'll one day be cloned. It really doesn't matter if Old One-Eye killed him, as long as he found time to have a son (later named by Mars colonists from Earth "Golgotha" when HE got cloned).

[Magnetica]

In one of the original Ro-Busters stories, "The Tax Man Cometh", it's established that Howard Quartz is a British subject (here he's been handed a tax assessment of 238 billion Earth Credits).

However, in the more recent RETURN TO EARTH story (which takes place after The Mek-nificent Seven, but prior to Hammerstein joining Ro-Busters), Howard Quartz is an American citizen

That isn't necessarily contradictory - you don't have to be a British citizen to pay UK tax.

True enough. It's only contradictory when one of the taxmen in the story states outright that Howard Quartz is a British subject.

There are other ways to rationalize it, I suppose: He always had dual citizenship in the U.S./U.K. but moved his main base of operations to England after Hammerstein's assassination of his grand-nephew, the U.S. President, or something pretty close to that.

Interesting. Being called a British Subject rather than a British Citizen s important. You can originally have another country's nationality and then become a British Subject. So perfectly possible to be a British Subject and have a sibling retain the original nationality.

British Subject status has changed over the years, so who is to say what the rules will be by 2078 or 2180?

[positronic]

In one of the original Ro-Busters stories, "The Tax Man Cometh", it's established that Howard Quartz is a British subject (here he's been handed a tax assessment of 238 billion Earth Credits).

However, in the more recent RETURN TO EARTH story (which takes place after The Mek-nificent Seven, but prior to Hammerstein joining Ro-Busters), Howard Quartz is an American citizen

That isn't necessarily contradictory - you don't have to be a British citizen to pay UK tax.

True enough. It's only contradictory when one of the taxmen in the story states outright that Howard Quartz is a British subject.

There are other ways to rationalize it, I suppose: He always had dual citizenship in the U.S./U.K. but moved his main base of operations to England after Hammerstein's assassination of his grand-nephew, the U.S. President, or something pretty close to that.

Interesting. Being called a British Subject rather than a British Citizen s important. You can originally have another country's nationality and then become a British Subject. So perfectly possible to be a British Subject and have a sibling retain the original nationality.

British Subject status has changed over the years, so who is to say what the rules will be by 2078 or 2180?

Could be that the general mood in America soured on the Quartz family soon after the untimely demise of President Quartz. Then again, if some unknown party is gunning for you, maybe it's best to pull up roots and make a fresh start in a green and pleasant land. England might offer a relatively safer vantage point for him to conduct business with at least a reduced danger of assassination attempts. Certainly they'd not make the mistake of using Quartz-originated robots for the job again. Might the Quartz name be better regarded in England for supplying the A.B.C. Warriors which helped reclaim the country from the Volgans? I really can't say as I haven't read the Savage series. I know Bill Savage was on to the Quartz' self-serving motives as munitioners, but what about the general public and the reinstated government? At any rate, they certainly would welcome those taxes into the general coffers. In early Ro-Busters stories, he seems to have offices in England, but in later stories he's more frequently seen as operating directly from Devil's Island (off the South American coast) where his main supply of vehicles and equipment as well as robots are maintained. And indeed, this is exactly where the tax men come to levy that 238 billion Earth Credit tax bill. Of course, it's all a conspiracy between Ebenezer Quartz and the man from the British Nationalization Board, and the tax records were faked. After brother Eb abducts Howard, the Nationalization agent declares him a tax evader and takes over for a short time before Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws decide to sort things out themselves. What wasn't faked was the sabotage of his atom-cracker supplying power to the whole island, which destroyed half of it and leaked radiation all over the place. This seems to be quickly forgotten in subsequent stories, so maybe he actually wound up with a tax writeoff for the business loss caused by the sabotage!

If we're squaring this with Return to Earth, in that story Howard's brother was also the President of the U.S. (can't recall whether the first name was mentioned or if he was still alive). The first President Quartz (Howard's brother) was the grandfather of the current one who was assassinated by Hammerstein. There's no reason he can't have two brothers. Ebenezer's nationality wasn't established, but is presumably British because of the conspiracy angle. It wouldn't seem to make sense that the man from the Nationalization Board would co-conspire with a foreign citizen without questioning motive, even though of course Ebenezer's ultimate plan was to reduce the net worth of Ro-Busters as low as possible so he could take it over for next to nothing. The first thing that happens after Nationalization is that Mek-Quake gets to do a couple of dozen Big Jobs on this fellow robots, which sets Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein off to save Mr. 10%, motivated more by self-preservation than anything else. Apart from "The Terra-Meks", this was Mek-Quake's little slice of heaven.

[positronic]

I've just finished reading (between yesterday and today) "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" and RETURN TO RO-BUSTERS. I wasn't quite sure what order to read these two in, but since I'd already read everything else but in RO-BUSTERS: THE COMPLETE NUTS AND BOLTS VOL. 2, I opted to finish that off first. When I finished reading "Fall and Rise" and saw how it ended, I began to suspect I'd made a mistake there, but now having read Return to Ro-Busters, I see it was fortuitous that I read them in the order I did, or it may have spoiled some things for me.

I just wanted to note here that while reading through some of the comments earlier in this thread (before I bumped it recently) I was seeing a bunch of sour comments the general tone of which I'd paraphrase as sort of a grumbling "Pat Mills has lost it" (regarding the newer cycle of ABC Warriors story collections). I'm not sure if those people were generally referring to both The Volgan Wars and the more recent "Return to" trilogy, but since I'd already purchased most of these, I started to wonder if maybe I'd been a little too hasty in deciding to stockpile all of these before sorting out some kind of reading order to approach them in.

I have to say that based on the two newer books I've read, Return to Earth and Return to Ro-Busters, I disagree with that assessment entirely. I found them to be both thoroughly entertaining, sharply written, and informed by an interesting perspective -- plus I find Clint Langley's artwork to be quite satisfying, both modern, and still retaining a kind of "classic 2000 AD" sensibility of style. The newer books are more politically-angled, it's true, but I don't find that a bad thing at all. While I really appreciated the return to reading those classic Ro-Busters stories in "Nuts & Bolts", with that kind of goofy, comedic/satiric 'comic book' sensibility of not taking themselves too seriously, and just having some cool characters that were involved in fun and simple adventures, and of course the newer stories are aimed at a completely different audience, it's rightly so I think, whether that reader is younger, or one of those who read the classic stories all the way back in the early 1980s (or even the late 1970s, if you were reading them from the original Starlord and 2000 AD progs). The audience of today has grown up and requires more sophisticated storytelling and art. It's all good, but I can still enjoy the nostalgia of the classic ones as well.

I didn't have any trouble at all figuring out how the newer collections fit into the overall larger picture, by reading them in the order in which the main parts of the stories take place, interspersed with the classic ones. There are some contextual bits that I don't entirely apprehend about the short prologue (16 pages) of Return to Earth, and the short epilogue (8 pages), as well as the context of the 13-page epilogue to Return to Ro-Busters, but I'll revisit those again later on after I've caught up as far as The Volgan Wars. Overall, I think Mills is doing a pretty decent job of stitching things up a bit, and interleaving events. The main part of Return to Earth is a good lead-in to the beginning of the classic Ro-Busters series, and Return to Ro-Busters is both a prequel and a partial retelling (beginning about 2/3rds of the way through the book) of the story from "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" with new details, adding a new spin to the original story. There were callbacks in the latter to at least a half-dozen early Ro-Busters stories from The Complete Nuts and Bolts. Having read them so closely together as well, it's nice to contrast the differing perspectives, and the added subtext in the new stories, and note where Mills reiterated classic panels down to the exact dialogue (although Langley never takes the lazy route of just re-drawing the original panels).

I just now realized that Hammerstein is able to remove the outer part of his head (the helmetlike portion on top, and the big tubular piece going around his jaw), and what remains looks like the ABC Warrior robot seen in the Judge Dredd movie. I also have to say that Ro-Jaws just turns out to be one of my absolute favorite 2000 AD characters of all time. I took an instant liking to the little sewer droid (bless his faulty courtesy and obedience circuits), and he really is kind of hero in his own way. He's "quite a character" with plenty OF character. It was even nice to see some appearances by supporting players (including Miss Marilyn) and the less frequently seen (besides Mek-Quake) robots of Ro-Busters again.

It's easy to see that there remain vast swaths of territory in the ABC/Ro-Busters timeline open to filling-in with more flashback stories. The first big area is between the ending of "The Mek-nificent Seven" and the beginning of Return to Mars, and the other glaringly obvious blank spot lies between the end of "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" and... well, I was going to say Khronicles of Khaos, which is quite a bit later I think, but now it occurs to me that (due to that whole messing about through the Time Wastes in Nemesis' era) there really ought to be two sets of ABC Warriors running about the universe, so maybe there's an interesting story in having their older selves meet their younger selves. Or, depending on which ones joined and left before and after returning from the future Termight, maybe they're already a mix of younger and centuries-older robots.

But a give a big thumbs-up to the new stuff, if The Volgan Wars and Return to Mars live up to the other two I've already read. Next up for me, it's on to Khronicles of Khaos, Hellbringer, Return to Mars, and The Third Element.

[positronic]

I've just finished reading (between yesterday and today) "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" and RETURN TO RO-BUSTERS. I wasn't quite sure what order to read these two in, but since I'd already read everything else but in RO-BUSTERS: THE COMPLETE NUTS AND BOLTS VOL. 2, I opted to finish that off first. When I finished reading "Fall and Rise" and saw how it ended, I began to suspect I'd made a mistake there, but now having read Return to Ro-Busters, I see it was fortuitous that I read them in the order I did, or it may have spoiled some things for me.

I just wanted to note here that while reading through some of the comments earlier in this thread (before I bumped it recently) I was seeing a bunch of sour comments the general tone of which I'd paraphrase as sort of a grumbling "Pat Mills has lost it" (regarding the newer cycle of ABC Warriors story collections). I'm not sure if those people were generally referring to both The Volgan Wars and the more recent "Return to" trilogy, but since I'd already purchased most of these, I started to wonder if maybe I'd been a little too hasty in deciding to stockpile all of these before sorting out some kind of reading order to approach them in.

I have to say that based on the two newer books I've read, Return to Earth and Return to Ro-Busters, I disagree with that assessment entirely. I found them to be both thoroughly entertaining, sharply written, and informed by an interesting perspective -- plus I find Clint Langley's artwork to be quite satisfying, both modern, and still retaining a kind of "classic 2000 AD" sensibility of style. The newer books are more politically-angled, it's true, but I don't find that a bad thing at all. While I really appreciated the return to reading those classic Ro-Busters stories in "Nuts & Bolts", with that kind of goofy, comedic/satiric 'comic book' sensibility of not taking themselves too seriously, and just having some cool characters that were involved in fun and simple adventures, and of course the newer stories are aimed at a completely different audience, it's rightly so I think, whether that reader is younger, or one of those who read the classic stories all the way back in the early 1980s (or even the late 1970s, if you were reading them from the original Starlord and 2000 AD progs). The audience of today has grown up and requires more sophisticated storytelling and art. It's all good, but I can still enjoy the nostalgia of the classic ones as well.

I didn't have any trouble at all figuring out how the newer collections fit into the overall larger picture, by reading them in the order in which the main parts of the stories take place, interspersed with the classic ones. There are some contextual bits that I don't entirely apprehend about the short prologue (16 pages) of Return to Earth, and the short epilogue (8 pages), as well as the context of the 13-page epilogue to Return to Ro-Busters, but I'll revisit those again later on after I've caught up as far as The Volgan Wars. Overall, I think Mills is doing a pretty decent job of stitching things up a bit, and interleaving events. The main part of Return to Earth is a good lead-in to the beginning of the classic Ro-Busters series, and Return to Ro-Busters is both a prequel and a partial retelling (beginning about 2/3rds of the way through the book) of the story from "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" with new details, adding a new spin to the original story. There were callbacks in the latter to at least a half-dozen early Ro-Busters stories from The Complete Nuts and Bolts. Having read them so closely together as well, it's nice to contrast the differing perspectives, and the added subtext in the new stories, and note where Mills reiterated classic panels down to the exact dialogue (although Langley never takes the lazy route of just re-drawing the original panels).

I just now realized that Hammerstein is able to remove the outer part of his head (the helmetlike portion on top, and the big tubular piece going around his jaw), and what remains looks like the ABC Warrior robot seen in the Judge Dredd movie. I also have to say that Ro-Jaws just turns out to be one of my absolute favorite 2000 AD characters of all time. I took an instant liking to the little sewer droid (bless his faulty courtesy and obedience circuits), and he really is kind of a hero in his own way. He's "quite a character" with plenty OF character. It was even nice to see some appearances by supporting players (including Miss Marilyn) and the less frequently seen (besides Mek-Quake) robots of Ro-Busters again.

It's easy to see that there remain vast swaths of territory in the ABC/Ro-Busters timeline open to filling-in with more flashback stories. The first big area is between the ending of "The Mek-nificent Seven" and the beginning of Return to Mars, and the other glaringly obvious blank spot lies between the end of "The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein" and... well, I was going to say Khronicles of Khaos, which is quite a bit later I think, but now it occurs to me that (due to that whole messing about through the Time Wastes in Nemesis' era) there really ought to be two sets of ABC Warriors running about the universe, so maybe there's an interesting story in having their older selves meet their younger selves. Or, depending on which ones joined and left before and after returning from the future Termight, maybe they're already a mix of younger and centuries-older robots.

But a give a big thumbs-up to the new stuff, if The Volgan Wars and Return to Mars live up to the other two I've already read. Next up for me, it's on to Khronicles of Khaos, Hellbringer, Return to Mars, and The Third Element.

[Dark Jimbo]

I just wanted to note here that while reading through some of the comments earlier in this thread (before I bumped it recently) I was seeing a bunch of sour comments the general tone of which I'd paraphrase as sort of a grumbling "Pat Mills has lost it" (regarding the newer cycle of stories...)

...I have to say that based on the two newer books I've read, Return to Earth and Return to Ro-Busters, I disagree with that assessment entirely. I found them to be both thoroughly entertaining, sharply written, and informed by an interesting perspective -- plus I find Clint Langley's artwork to be quite satisfying, both modern, and still retaining a kind of "classic 2000 AD" sensibility of style.

Well, quite. The tone and style are certainly different these days, but I enjoy ABC Warriors as much as I ever have (well... Apart from wishing we could knock all these bloody flashbacks on the head). Newish readers usually tend to agree with you, too - and I think to some extent 'ABC warriors are rubbish now' translates as 'I want the ABC warriors to be like it was when I was seven', backed up by how often Mekniicent Seven is cited as best/favourite story.

[Rogue Judge]

I just wanted to note here that while reading through some of the comments earlier in this thread (before I bumped it recently) I was seeing a bunch of sour comments the general tone of which I'd paraphrase as sort of a grumbling "Pat Mills has lost it" (regarding the newer cycle of stories...)

...I have to say that based on the two newer books I've read, Return to Earth and Return to Ro-Busters, I disagree with that assessment entirely. I found them to be both thoroughly entertaining, sharply written, and informed by an interesting perspective -- plus I find Clint Langley's artwork to be quite satisfying, both modern, and still retaining a kind of "classic 2000 AD" sensibility of style.

Well, quite. The tone and style are certainly different these days, but I enjoy ABC Warriors as much as I ever have (well... Apart from wishing we could knock all these bloody flashbacks on the head). Newish readers usually tend to agree with you, too - and I think to some extent 'ABC warriors are rubbish now' translates as 'I want the ABC warriors to be like it was when I was seven', backed up by how often Mekniicent Seven is cited as best/favourite story.

Being new to ABC Warriors I agree with your assessments. So far I have read Mekniicent Seven, Black Hole and The Volgan war 1-4. Mekniicent Seven is possibly the best as I enjoy the old school feel but mostly the incredible art. However, Volgan war had a great story and is possibly my favorite as I loved how closely the flashbacks tied Mekniicent Seven together and introduces great characters like Zippo and Volkhan - Langley's bots look incredible but I don't care as much for the photo-realistic humans. I didn't really like Black Hole as much as the story meandered a bit and relied to heavily on the whole Khaos premises and was not a fan of how it ended; I did however like the solid characterization of the ABC Warriors.

[Mardroid]

I also think that maybe the newer ABC Warriors stories read better in collected form. What can seem a slow pace on a weekly basis*( particularly considering the large spreads and panoramic two page panels that feature a lot in modern ABC Warriors) can speed up considerably when you can just forge on.

I've always been fond of modern ABC Warriors anyway.

* And consider those stories in the Meg with a similar art aesthetic, particularly that other Mills strip concerning young thing identity theft with the big chinned non-Dredd in a batmobile. Despite my not remembering the name (I'm tired and on a train on my way home) I've often thought it better than many seem to credit it. But the monthly installments of page gobbling panels probably doesn't help the story.

[positronic]

Well, everyone seemed to be saying "Oh, gosh NO, don't try to mix in the new flashback stories between reading the old classic ones", as if in one direction or another, some of the stories would wind up suffering by this method.

I didn't find that at all. I found them to be much more interesting that way, maybe because of the contrast, not despite it.

If anything though, the more real-world tone of the new stories does cause me to just laugh a bit at the general naivety of the original premises here on which an entire castle of cards is built. The most basic sort of underlying (but absolutely critical) assumptions that were just glossed over in the old stories so we could get on with action, adventure, and comedy.

Such as: the idea that one could just walk into a used-robot showroom and buy a military-surplus warbot, about the same as going down to the AutoMall and checking out the selection of decommissioned M1 Abrams tanks. And yet no interested takers! Whereas in the real world, the place would be broken into after hours by criminals with some sort of EMP device to wipe Hammerstein's O/S, or otherwise disable his motor functions until they could overwrite his programming, then it's off on a crime holiday! And obviously if you're going to make war droids you've got to give them the capacity to kill humans, but why would you give them the capacity to kill your own soldiers or officers? Or the capacity to resist or disobey orders? At least Howard Quartz is shown to reserve that privilege for himself in RETURN TO EARTH.

And points to Mills for finally giving Ro-Jaws justification for his recalcitrant personality in RETURN TO RO-BUSTERS -- he was infected with a Disobedience Code virus. It's a bit more questionable, given their past actions, why the current A.B.C. Warriors would need benefit of this... after all, going back to the very first part of "Hammer-stein's War Memoirs", one of the very first things he does (in the Volgan War) is deliberately kill his commanding officer by breaking a "pain barrier" seal on a dying robot, causing biofeedback that kills the remotely-monitoring officer. No, I doubt he really needs to be infected with any Disobedience Code, to say nothing of Blackblood, Deadlock, Mongrol, and the others.

Loved the scene at the end in the otherwise somewhat-grim proceedings in Return to Ro-Busters where Ro-Jaws finally passes on the DC virus to the other Warriors, and they're a bit unsure how it will affect them all, personality-wise. They'd hate to turn into "Mockney"s, like Ro-Jaws!  Then Deadlock surprises them all with a hearty "BOG OFF!", and there's a silent panel group reaction shot that's utterly comic! "... Just kidding!!" Who knew what comedy lurked in the heart of Deadlock?

[positronic]

Being new to ABC Warriors I agree with your assessments. So far I have read Mekniicent Seven, Black Hole and The Volgan war 1-4. Mekniicent Seven is possibly the best as I enjoy the old school feel but mostly the incredible art. However, Volgan war had a great story and is possibly my favorite as I loved how closely the flashbacks tied Mekniicent Seven together and introduces great characters like Zippo and Volkhan - Langley's bots look incredible but I don't care as much for the photo-realistic humans. I didn't really like Black Hole as much as the story meandered a bit and relied to heavily on the whole Khaos premises and was not a fan of how it ended; I did however like the solid characterization of the ABC Warriors.

You know, I don't want to say I found Mek-nificent Seven weak or something. It's really entertaining, and I love the old-school artists like O'Neill and McMahon and Ezquerra. But reading it again it seemed a little rambling or disjointed, and didn't really seem to hang together as a 'graphic novel', even though broken down into chapters. It's more a series of shorter incidents loosely strung together that doesn't really progress in any particular direction. Almost the first half of the story is gathering the various members, with the sinister shadowy puppetmaster (who turns out to be Colonel Lash) pulling the strings. When he finally reveals himself, his sinister purpose turns out to be not-so-sinister after all. He's representing the government of Mars, and he needs a tough group of robot cowboys to ride herd on the varmints on the frontier. At first the planet seems to be under the control of major corporations, but it occurs to me to ask, why does the government of Mars want to wipe out the corporate interests? Apparently these MarsCorps never heard of lobbyists? Aren't those the guys usually in cahoots with the government? But then after a few episodic adventures, it just sort of peters out, to no particular conclusion, after The Mess becomes fused with the giant robot Mad George. (Presumably, if he'd remained a member, in the next adventure he'd have been rechristened 'Mess George'.)  The other thing I noted here was that once they arrived on Mars, apart from Hammerstein, the individual members of the Warriors were rarely focused on much in any way, which is weird and kind of a letdown, after the recruiting phase where their various individual talents were spotlighted, and we're led to believe that it's their unique individual talents as robots that made their selection for the mission crucial for its success.

That's why I'd very much like to see a new ABC Warriors story that returns to this era, and has a more solidly-plotted overall arc, showing off both their individual talents and how they work together and mesh as a team. The prologue to RETURN TO EARTH hints of troubles that eventually split them apart, and I'd like to read that story, too.

[EDazzling]

Slightly off topic, but I've just got the last of the Volgan War hardcovers that I needed, and I'm thinking abut the future of my library: I believe the three "return" books have hardcovers, but I've never actually seen one. Does anyone have photos of them they could share if they have them?

My Assumptions:
-They are the same size as the Mek-Files/Volgan War hardcovers (pro)
-They have identical contents to the Return paperbacks (con)

A nice design might swing it for them.

[Dark Jimbo]

I believe the three "return" books have hardcovers, but I've never actually seen one. Does anyone have photos of them they could share if they have them?

My Assumptions:
-They are the same size as the Mek-Files/Volgan War hardcovers (pro)
-They have identical contents to the Return paperbacks (con)

They are indeed the same size and design as the existing hardcovers - the little spine graphic changes from the red Volgan skull back to the yellow 'ABC' logo of the Mek Files books, and the yellow/black chevron on the top and bottom of the spine has gone; otherwise they're identical to the Volgan War hardcovers.

I'n pretty certain that the Return books don't have paperbacks, though, so not sure what you mean there.