It's been up for quite some time, and the results on our last poll are as follows:

Sinister Dexter - should the gunsharks be permanently retired?

Yes - to the electric chair with them! : 53.1%     

No - they've many more stories to tell! : 46.9%

That's a win for those readers who are fed up of the punning gunsharks - but not by a huge margin.  If anything, the results prove what many of us believed - that Sinister Dexter really is a love it or hate it series with almost as many readers happy to see them in the weekly as those who wish they would just stay dead. 

The duo don't look like they're going anywhere, so hopefully Abnett will gradually be able to convince more readers that they're due a reprieve.

In the meantime - it's time for another poll. Given the recent Megazine relaunch - we'd like to know if you're more likely to buy the revamped version.  The new poll is in its usual place, over there on the left.

Here's a quick round-up of what's been happening in Tharg's domain recently.

Dredd Pants 

As any of you visiting the official site will be aware, Asda have just started selling Judge Dredd boxer shorts.  Featuring Dredd pointing his weapon, and the source of way too many double-entendres to go into here, they sell for only £3 or you can get 3 pairs for £7.  Alternatively, head over to the forum for a view of more pairs of Dredd pants than you could ever want to see...

2000AD at the BFI

As reported earlier, the BFI recently chaired a 2000AD talk in conjunction with its comic book movies season. Alas, we weren't there, so couldn't bring ou a full transcript or audio, but we'll do our best next time.

In the meantime, check out a quick update on the talk over at Fire and Forget.

Upcoming Signings

Forbidden Planet has a few 2000AD related signings coming soon with Alan Grant, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry, Ian Edginton, D'israeli, Dan Abnett and others all in attendance in coming weeks.  Check out the Forbidden Planet site for more.

Edginton and D'israeli will also be making an appearance at Gosh Comics.

That's it for the moment.  Don't forget to let us know if we've missed anything...

Just announced by the BFI and part of their current focus on comic book movies, here's a chance to catch up with some of the contributors to 2000AD.  If conventions aren't your thing, this is the ideal opportunity to get a much closer look at the House of Tharg.

Indeed, the surroundings of the BFI have brought out some of the 2000AD big guns, with Robbie Morrison, Dave Gibbons and Pat Mills currently announced as attending.  We'll do our best to find out who else you can expect.

Book now!

We've seen the Dynamite side of the proposed Dynamite Dredd comic - but thought we should get the Rebellion side of things.  So we caught up with 2000AD editor Matt Smith for some clarification.

Matt Smith: Dynamite publisher Nicky Barrucci got in touch with me through Garth Ennis (Dynamite publishes Garth’s ‘The Boys’) several months ago as he’d been keen for a while to publish 2000 AD material in the USA. Since then, it’s been a matter of ironing out a licensing deal, which hasn’t yet been fully signed off.

Dynamite are quite keen on doing all sorts of things with 2000 AD properties, but at the moment we’re just concentrating on an all-new Dredd title for the American market.

MS: At the moment, it’s just planned as a US title, which Dynamite would be able to collect up into their own trade paperbacks. But we’ll see further down the line...

So there you have it - we'll keep you informed as and when we find out more details...

Attentive squaxx were first informed by an early listing in Previews and this week the planned changes to the Megazine and the Extreme Edition became official. In a letter to subscribers, we discovered the following:

The Judge Dredd Megazine, as of issue 275, is being substantially re-mastered.

New strips, new stories AND Extreme Editions will become part of the Megazine.

The final edition of Extreme as a stand alone publication is issue 30 which wraps up the Death of Sam Slade storyline. Extreme then converts to a 64 page monthly publication bound into the new look Megazine. The first Meg Extreme is a 64 page collection of stories by fan fave artist "Jock". Every subsequent issue will contain 64 extra pages of story. Planned to be included in the line up are:

• Snow Tiger by Andy Diggle and Andy Clarke
• Judge Dredd: Lawcon by John Wagner and Richard Elson
• Armitage: Flashback by Dave Stone and Charlie Adlard
• Plus Pussyfoot 5, John Burns Judge Dredd stories, and Son of Mean Machine by John Wagner and Carl Critchlow

From issue 275 the Meg also has new Tank Girl stories. For those of you yet to enjoy Tank Girl, she is a foul mouthed , ferocious, Kangaroo shagging, druggie punk chick in post-apocalyptic Australia circa 2033. We await her new debut with baited breath.

The New Look double-sized Megazine with Extreme debuts with issue 275 on sale August 20th 2008 for £4.99.

All is certainly looking rosy for the Megazine. For a little more detail, we caught up with Megazine editor Matt Smith:

2000AD Review: What are the main reasons for the change in format?

Matt Smith: With Tank Girl joining the Meg, it’ll be the first time in a long while that the Meg will be free of reprint. It seemed like a good idea to fold in the Extreme Edition with the Meg, so readers would be getting 128pp of new and classic material, with a separate bagged GN.

Will the format/contents of the main Megazine change?

MS: No, there’ll still be a 10 page Dredd, two 9 pageDreddworld strips, and an 8 page Tank Girl episode. The rest will be the usual mix of interviews, features and reviews.

When choosing the contents for the 64 page mini trade - what kind of content are you looking for?

MS: Ideally, material that fits neatly under 64pp, and is fairly complete – short series like Snow/Tiger are perfect – and of course material that doesn’t conflict with the graphic novel line. Circumstances may mean that I’ll have to split a story over more than one collection, like Chopper for example. Other than that, I’d like to keep them artist-orientated, the way Titan’s old 1980s collections used to be – so we’ve got Richard Elson’s work in Lawcon, Chris Weston’s in Canon Fodder, and maybe some John Burns, Colin Wilson and Peter Doherty collections...

Finally - can you give us an idea of what we can new stories we can expect from the Megazine?

Illustrated are a page from Black Atlantic: Rig, by Dan Abnett and Steve Roberts, starting in Meg 276; Judge Dredd: Koan by Al Ewing and Paul Marshall, in Meg 278; Citi-Def: Field Trip by Tony Lee and Jack Lawrence, starting in Meg 279...

Thanks to Matt for the details and scans - click on each image to see larger sizes..

At the recent WizardWorld Chicago comic event, news broke of a new Judge Dredd venture in the States. Dynamite Comics, probably best known in the UK as the publisher of Garth Ennis's The Boys, has secured the rights to publish all an new Judge Dredd comic aimed at the American market.

According to reports at Newsarama and Comic Book Resources, things will be a little different from the previous attempts to break the American market - which DC comics has now impressively failed to do with the character on two separate occasions. This time, the talents of Garth Ennis and John Wagner are reportedly being brought in to oversee the books - the former being given the bizarre job of "Americanising" Dredd, the latter as scripter. The initial comic will feature variant covers (by Alex Ross and Bolland) and potentially feature reprint material as backup. It's as yet uncertain as to whether we'll see this new material printed in the UK in any form. Further adaptations of 2000AD characters may follow, as well as more trades.

It's potentially easy for the UK fan to look on this with a cynical eye, and given the lack of any supporting imagery (the Ross picture has been around for a while) it does have a whiff of a comic equivalent of vaporware. However, early signs are positive as Dynamite seems to see the potential of the 2000AD characters a lot more than DC ever did. The inclusion of Ennis and Wagner in the announcement is also heartening. The former is a "big name" who has had a track record on Dredd and if they can get Wagner to participate without it impacting his work on the UK comic, all the better. Let's face it - anything which raises the profile of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic is to be applauded.

We'll do some investigation in the meantime, and see if we can get any more info from Rebellion or Dynamite.