Re: The all purpose 2000AD thread

[tony ingram]

Ian's retired? Since when?

[MLP*]

Ian's retired? Since when?

Well, retired from 2000AD anyway ! He threw the towel in half way through the last Samantha Slade series.

[MLP*]

The Strontium Dogs reprint with the new Meg seems to stop half way through a story.

[tony ingram]

The Strontium Dogs reprint with the new Meg seems to stop half way through a story.

Where does it end? I haven't seen it yet. I know Strontium Dogs was discontinued somewhat abruptly..

[MLP*]

The Strontium Dogs reprint with the new Meg seems to stop half way through a story.

Where does it end? I haven't seen it yet. I know Strontium Dogs was discontinued somewhat abruptly..

Feral, Gronk and Durham meet a mysterious woman and... that's it.

[tony ingram]

Hmm. odd. I thought there was more to it than that. maybe they ran out of space?

[MLP*]

Saw the Manga / Commando sized Cursed Earth reprint in Forbidden Planet the other day.
Still missing the "copyright infringment" chapters.
A good read as always but you may need a trip to the opticians before picking up a copy. The print is pretty tiny !

[tony ingram]

Saw the Manga / Commando sized Cursed Earth reprint in Forbidden Planet the other day.
Still missing the "copyright infringment" chapters.
A good read as always but you may need a trip to the opticians before picking up a copy. The print is pretty tiny !

I think I'll pass: I still have the original comics and the eighties reprint album. Still a great story, though. Whatever became of Tweak?

[tony ingram]

Just found this while going through some old papers: my own concluding episode to the sadly truncated 'Dan Dare: Servant of Evil' (with apologies to Dave Gibbons).

[MLP*]

Enjoyed the anniversary Prog. I got the Bollandesque cover on the basis that it was the only one they had in my local Smiths !

With this many strips you can afford the odd duffer (I'm looking at you Grey Area.)

I liked the "What If" stories. Not sure if they are a one off for the birthday or if they will be a recurring thing, looking back at stories from yesteryear.

[tony ingram]

I'll be picking mine up on Friday! Sometimes, there are disadvantages to being in a rural area...

[Lucy Ingram]

For me, this is now canon.

[tony ingram]

Ah, yes. You've just read some of the previous episodes, haven't you?

[Lucy Ingram]

Yes. They were crap. Your version is much better.

[tony ingram]

You really need to be exposed to the real Dan Dare (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)...

Like this one, from Rod Barzilay's incredible 'Spaceship Away' magazine.

[MLP*]

Nice to see an unexpected bit of extra Strontium Dog with the "What If" tale in the new Prog.

The Meg has some old school action of its own, going back almost the full 35 years to reprint Death Planet and Angel. Never heard of either before but both are gloriously cheesy. Angel is a highly unconvincing MACH 1 wanabe. I'm guessing he didn't return after the five episodes on offer here !

This month's Meg cover is possibly my least favourite ever !

[tony ingram]

As far as I know, Harry Angel's only appearance sin ce his original, brief run was in the third series of Armoured Gideon in 1994. Angel was one of several former 2000AD stars including Bill Savage and Wolfie Smith who turned up in a kind of limbo dimension and eventually proved to be ghosts (since the series described Savage as having accidentally blown himself up when cleaning his shooter in a Volg ammunition dump, I suspect it's no longer considered to be in continuity, if it ever was).

[MLP*]

2000ad have tweeted. "IDW are producing a BRAND NEW Judge Dredd monthly series!!"

No details as yet. I wonder if it will tie in the new movie rather than the British comic ?

[tony ingram]

2000ad have tweeted. "IDW are producing a BRAND NEW Judge Dredd monthly series!!"

No details as yet. I wonder if it will tie in the new movie rather than the British comic ?

I suspect that'll be the case. Let's hope it's better than the DC Comics version back in 1995...

[MLP*]

Spent the afternoon catching up on my 2000AD graphic novels.

Blackhawk is perhaps the most bonkers strip I've ever read, going from Roman gladiator, to intergalactic gladiator, to flat out batshit crazy ! The big selling point is Belardinelli's artwork. No idea what Grant was smoking when he wrote this one though. My jaw dropped when a race of Thargs turned up !

Anderson volume 2. Enjoyed the Postcards From The Edge storyline even though I wasn't entirely clear why Anderson left, or came back. The artwork is highly variable, much of it coming from the "everything has to be painted" era. The photo reference is a bit obvious on some of Steve Sampson's stuff with Anderson looking like Madonna in one panel and Kim Basinger in another !

[tony ingram]

I think Black-Hawk's sudden shift to sci-fi was an act of utter desperation, and it's a tribute to the determination of the writers that it worked as well as it did...

[freedumbdclxvi]

after reading judge dredd: the crusade, i think i'm gonna pick up the first volume of judge dredd: the complete case files. and, because of the quick glimpse of talbot art earlier in the thread, i'm going to add the complete nemesis the warlock vol 1 as well. add those to the best of tharg's future shocks i just received, i think i'm making a decent start in on some 2000ad books, but i will most likely be coming back for future recommendations!

[tony ingram]

Recomendations (if you haven't yet read them); Alan Moore's Skizz and The Ballad of Halo Jones, Alan Hebden and Massimo Belardinelli's Meltdown Man and anything at all by Pat Mills!

[freedumbdclxvi]

i've not read either skizz or halo jones, though i've wanted to. my lcs has skizz, so i'll grab that friday. they did not have halo jones, so that will be in my next amazon order. i think nemesis will be the first thing i've read by pat mills, so i'm even more excited now to get that book. and i will look into meltdown man.

thanks!

[tony ingram]

You've read no Pat Mills? Please, please do yourself a favour and read at least some of Charley's War. You won't regret it. It's the best war story ever told in comics.

[freedumbdclxvi]

wow. i just looked at his biography, just to make sure, and i really haven't. and, as a comics fan, it makes me sad that i've not read anything by such a prolific writer. i'll bump charley's war up the list, but i'm glad i at least have nemesis on order.

this is an oversight that will be rectified. and, like a few other writers or stories i've read recently, i'll question why i didn't read this sooner.

[tony ingram]

Pat is the Godfather of modern British comics.

[freedumbdclxvi]

skizz is now in hand, and i just ordered halo jones and the first volume of charley's war.

i've read the first two tales of nemesis, and i really enjoyed them. looking forward to getting further in.

[freedumbdclxvi]

tony (or anyone who may have read it), would you recommend mills' ro-busters? i have been reading up on different series he's done, and that series seems to have a few elements that become major parts of some of his later stories. the series sounded quite interesting, so i thought i might make it the next one of his books i grab. just wanted to get some opinions on it.

[tony ingram]

Tastes differ, so all I can really say is that I found Ro-Busters very funny, sometimes touching, and still have great affection for it. And yes, it does introduce a number of key characters.

[Lucy Ingram]

I thought it was funny too.

[tony ingram]

Ah, yes-a recent convert, aren't you?

[Lucy Ingram]

Yes. How much is Pat Mills paying you, exactly?

[tony ingram]

Yes. How much is Pat Mills paying you, exactly?

Not enough...

[freedumbdclxvi]

Tastes differ, so all I can really say is that I found Ro-Busters very funny, sometimes touching, and still have great affection for it. And yes, it does introduce a number of key characters.

if i'm digging nemesis, i'm going to guess i'll enjoy it. i think i'll take a chance on it.

[tony ingram]

I love the Ro-Busters/ABC Warriors characters. They're so absurd, yet characters like Hammerstein just take themselves so seriously, which highlights their absurdity all the more. Where else but in a British comic would you find a team like Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein, named after an American songwriting duo (more or less) or a character like Joe Pineapples, a robot sniper who talks in code? Or see the robotic brute Mongrol-whose life was saved by a beautiful girl named Lara, now long since dead-sending his foes to the afterlife while passing on the plaintive message "Tell Lara I love her! Tell Lara I need her!"

[freedumbdclxvi]

that just sounds awesome to me.

[freedumbdclxvi]

alright, i went ahead and ordered volume 2 of nemesis and the complete ro-busters.

i'm in the midst of book three of nemesis, and this is turning out to be on of my favorite stories i've read in a while. why the heck did i not know about pat mills before now!

[freedumbdclxvi]

ok slight bit of modification regarding my knowledge of pat mills. i was flipping through my classic doctor who omnibus volume one, and i discovered i actually had read some mills before -- i read his who stories iron legion and star beast. and i enjoyed them. so, i did know a bit of pat mills after all! (although, since i had no idea it was him, i'm not sure i can honestly count it...)

[tony ingram]

Did you ever come across a DC miniseries from the eighties called Metalzoic?

[freedumbdclxvi]

no, i had not. i will have to look into that.

[tony ingram]

As far as Doctor Who goes, Pat wrote or co-wrote the comic stories The Iron Legion, City of the Damned, The Star Beast and The Dogs of Doom, and later went on to write the Big Finish audio stories Dead London, The Scapegoat (both starring Paul McGann) and The Song of Megaptera (starring Colin Baker). The Song of Megaptera was based on a script he'd written decades earlier for the Doctor Who TV series but which had fallen through. The original title was Song of the Space Whale.

[freedumbdclxvi]

i finished the first volume of the complete nemesis during lunch. that was an amazing read. i've volume two on order but, until it arrives, i have started the first volume of the judge dredd: complete case files. so far, quite good.

[tony ingram]

The thing that fascinates me about Nemesis is that for much of it, the humans are the bad guys and the demonic alien is the 'hero', yet we can still relate to the characters on some level. Or maybe it's just me that identifies with the demon...

[freedumbdclxvi]

oh, no, i relate to nemesis quite well. i completely understand where you are coming from there.

[freedumbdclxvi]

i finished the first book of halo jones today. that was a great read. looking forward to getting further into it. it has the potential to be one of my favorite moore stories ever.

[tony ingram]

I think it's one of his best works, and it's rather a shame more people haven't read it. But then i tend to think much of Moore's best work was done before he crossed the Atlantic, and sadly all too many people seem totally oblivious to the fact that he actually wrote quite a lot before Swamp Thing.

[freedumbdclxvi]

i finished halo, and it was amazing. i would definitely rank it as one of his best works. and i also just finished reading skizz. personally, i didn't think it was near as good as halo, but i thought it ended far stronger than it started.

i'm trying my best to get more into his (and a number of other british writers) pre american comics. honestly, that fire was lit in me starting with grant morrison and zenith a few years ago, but i hadn't really delved too deeply until now.

as far as moore goes, i think d.r. and quinch is next on the "to get" list.

[tony ingram]

Not 2000AD related I know, but have you read Moore's Captain Britain run?

[freedumbdclxvi]

not yet. i have almost picked up the hardcover collections at my lcs, but always ended up shelving them for something or other. but i do want to read them at some point.

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