2000AD chat: "Gaze into the thread of Dredd!"

Topic

[Bruce]

From the Prog 2150 previews. Wagner and MacNeil on top form here if this single page is anything to go by.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Bruce.

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We still have some issues with threads when they cross a page.

Dave was saying he still struggled with 2000ad even on the 100 page Christmas issue designed for new readers. I do get what he says but I also think you kind of have to go with it and press on. I did back in 2011 when I got a tablet and a digital sub and while it can be hard work initially I really do love the weekly cadence. It probably does make more sense to pick up the acclaimed stuff in trade but I grew fairly quickly to love my Wednesday dose of 2000ad.

Something like Slaine by Mills and Manco actually isn’t really beholden to much before, it doesn’t continue directly from the last run at all which had nothing much to do with Romans, it just likes to drop you in the middle of the current scenario and explain later.

Durham Red – I can’t recall the last time the strip ran or what it was about, the current story I’m enjoying, it’s just a siege/jailbreak story.

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Dave

Yeah, I guess there is that element with it where you can think you’re missing more than you actually are in terms of previous knowledge.

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garjones

Dave wrote:

Yeah, I guess there is that element with it where you can think you’re missing more than you actually are in terms of previous knowledge.

Re: Anthology or Re: Issues when threads cross a page?

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Dave

It can be two things.

Did the Xmas Prog have a couple of middle instalments of stories? I haven’t picked up an issue since then as my comic shop is in lockdown and has no online presence to say if they are doing kerbside collections.

I found the Prog hard to get on board with when I started buying it years ago. I definitly had to stick at it for a while to get into the swing of things.

Bruce wrote:

Did the Xmas Prog have a couple of middle instalments of stories?

I don’t think so, it all seemed to be standalones or kicking off new stories.

Bruce wrote:

Did the Xmas Prog have a couple of middle instalments of stories?

No. They are all standalone or starts of stories but I would say with stories like Proteus Vex and Hershey they do pretty much rely on knowledge of the previous runs. Survival Geeks is a one and done but I think relies on you knowing who the characters are.

Funnily enough even though I’m nearing 10 years of reading the progs again that can still happen. Absalom and The Diaboliks for example both spin off from the Caballistics Inc strip that ran in the previous decade. When that happens I just call up the wikipedia pages to be honest and then dive in.  (Unless I really love a story like Nikolai Dante – then I went back and read them all).

To me though it wouldn’t hurt if when a strip comes back after a sizeable break they do a lengthier recap than the very brief ones on the contents page for new readers.

garjones wrote:

No. They are all standalone or starts of stories but I would say with stories like Proteus Vex and Hershey they do pretty much rely on knowledge of the previous runs. Survival Geeks is a one and done but I think relies on you knowing who the characters are.

Yeah, exactly. I felt a bit lost even though these kicked off new story arcs.

Also, is there a reason why the colour dropped out, two pages into the Strontium Dog strip? There didn’t seem to be a story reason for it so all I could think of was that it was a retro touch to evoke the days when only certain pages were colour and some were black and white. But here it just felt like they couldn’t be arsed to do the colour any more.

It looks like it’s just a stylistic thing- harking back to the old days of limited colour. Seems a weird choice to do it in 2020.

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Dave

Yeah I think that’s the idea, it’s a very retro story set  in the early days (Wulf died back in the 80s and his adult son was in the most recent comics) so I think it’s an homage to when only the first two pages were coloured. Dredd tended to get the colour centre pages in 2000ad and Strontium Dog in Starlord if memory serves me well.

I’m a bit behind with my 2000AD reading at the moment. Working through the pre- Xmas issues. This selection of Progs is fantastic.

Never read Stickleback before, but really intrigued by it and the connections to a beloved character of yesterday. Will have to add this to my list of stories to catch up on.

The Fiends on the Eastern Front storyline is very Hellboyesque, and the artwork is fantastic.

Hookjaw has been an unexpected delight. It’s a bit trippy, and I’m not totally sure what’s going on, to be fair, but it’s a dark and spooky tale that’s perfect for the post Halloween Progs.

This string of short Dredd multi parters have been uniformly good fun too.

The only tale I’m not enjoying is Skip Tracer. This just sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s just such a dull read.

And, does anyone actually enjoy the Regened issues? Are they worth a read? I’ve literally just skipped them all. I don’t really see the point of them.

 

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garjones, Chris-S

Agree on all of the above Vik.

I don’t even bother reading Skip Tracer now, i try it every time it comes back and it’s just completely unengaging despite the nice art.

I hate the regened issues, I wouldn’t buy them at all if it wasn’t for being a completionist. I rarely finish any of the strips and the one that got boosted to a full run; Full Tilt Boogie was absolutely terrible.

The good news is that the latest run of strips is amazing right across the board. Loads of good talent involved, although it does require a bit of knowledge of what came before to really get the most out of them.

 

Wait until you see the art on Slaine though!

 

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garjones, Bruce, Vikram

Manco’s art on Slaine is terrific, that strip doesn’t half get some good artists on it.

Skip Tracer we’ve discussed before is possibly the blandest story in history. There’s nothing obviously that bad about it but absolutely nothing to hook you in either, it’s a guy with very little personality doing run of the mill detective things with adequate artwork.

I don’t think I dislike the Regened issues as much as Chris does, but I have always been flummoxed by the purpose of them. If it’s meant to bring kids to the book that doesn’t make sense when they just go back the next week to the usual content. They’d be more logical as separate specials, they do enough of those anyway.

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Vikram, Chris-S, Bruce

2000AD has announced that Si Spencer has died.

Si Spencer, 1961-2021

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Todd

That’s real sad. Saw it on the 2000ad Facebook earlier this evening.

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Vikram

https://eamonn1961.blogspot.com/2021/02/mega-city-book-club-146-john-m-burns.html?m=1

A short podcast interview with John M Burns. It made me laugh to hear he – like the rest of us – has no bloody idea what is happening in The Order.

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Chris-S, Vikram, garjones

Found a few new 2000 AD trades due towards the end of the year:

Sept – Fall of Deadworld OHC3

Oct – Slaine: Dragontamer HC – might be OHC

Oct – Megatropolis HC – looks interesting

Nov – Brink Volume 4 – good to see this continuing

Dec – Scarlet Traces Volume 3 – great to see this listed.

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Chris-S

Ben wrote:

Found a few new 2000 AD trades due towards the end of the year:

Sept – Fall of Deadworld OHC3

Oct – Slaine: Dragontamer HC – might be OHC

Oct – Megatropolis HC – looks interesting

Nov – Brink Volume 4 – good to see this continuing

Dec – Scarlet Traces Volume 3 – great to see this listed.

Megatropolis is a terrific elseworlds style slow burner

I’m loving Dragontamer, the art is just astonishingly good. I’m enjoying the story as well, it’s adding to the mythology.

Brink is is just fucking great.

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Vikram, Ben

Brink I’m so-so on, despite liking both creators, but it keeps my interest so it’s good that it hasn’t been left hanging.

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Chris-S

Having come late to the party, I’m trying to find a copy of the two Lawless TPB’s. The first appears to be out of print and difficult to find in the usual places. Has anyone seen a copy out in the wild anywhere?

Try nabbing the Dredd Mega Collection volume instead? No idea how available it still is though.

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Vikram

Those are earning quite the premium on eBay at the moment too, Ben!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Judge-Dredd-Mega-Collection-87-Lawless-New-/352340894259?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

That’s a silly-price listing though. Sold items are showing copies going for around £10-£20 and there are a couple listed at the moment around that price.

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Vikram, Ben

[Ben]

What the fuck? Those prices are insane.

Sure, they are great quality hardbacks but £99.

To invoke Clay Davis: Shiiiiiii…..

Edit – saw Dave’s post, £15-20 for an out of print hardback would be reasonable.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Ben.

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Vikram

Ben wrote:

Sure, they are great quality hardbacks but £99.

That’s nothing. I was scouting Amazon last night for a hardcover book for my Dad’s birthday. It’s by an Irish writer, Conor Brady, who writes a crime fiction series featuring Detective Sergeant Joe Swallow The first book in the series, “A June of Ordinary Murders” was published in 2012, and must have had a very low print run in hardcover, because the cheapest price on Amazon is $919.00. I almost choked when I saw that.

On the other hand, eBay has pre-owned copies much cheaper, including one “in mint condition” for $37.00.

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Vikram, Ben

Are you ready for the great Nikolai Dante readthrough podcast? (Is the world ready?)

Simon Fraser and his wife are doing a Nikolai Dante reread podcasts. I’m way behind on my podcast backlog but I’ll be making time for this.

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Ben, garjones, njerry

Celebrating The Judge Dredd Art Of Brian Bolland

I know @davewallace is a fan of these “reproduction of original art” books. Anyone else? I’m tempted by it but the fact that it’ll likely be disjointed in places (given the rotation if artists on stories like The Cursed Earth and The Day The Law Died”) does put me off somewhat.

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Chris-S, Todd, Ben

Yeah, I like these books – they’re the next best thing to looking at the original art itself.

As always, whether it’s worth buying will depend on how big a fan of the artist you are, and how interested you are in looking at original art.

In terms of the quality of the book itself, I bought the Apex Edition of Zenith and it was pretty well put-together for this kind of thing – decent build quality and the scans were clean and clear. (I later sold it though, as I wasn’t such a big fan of Yeowell’s work that I wanted to hold on to it.)

And personally I’m not too bothered if it’s a handful of non-consecutive pages rather than a full story. These books are mainly designed to show off the original art, and if you want to read the story the original comics or a standard-sized collection are the better vehicle.

It might be worth checking though to see what pages are included, in case there are major pages that you want to see but for which they haven’t been able to source the originals.

njerry wrote:

Ben wrote:

Sure, they are great quality hardbacks but £99.

That’s nothing. I was scouting Amazon last night for a hardcover book for my Dad’s birthday. It’s by an Irish writer, Conor Brady, who writes a crime fiction series featuring Detective Sergeant Joe Swallow The first book in the series, “A June of Ordinary Murders” was published in 2012, and must have had a very low print run in hardcover, because the cheapest price on Amazon is $919.00. I almost choked when I saw that.

On the other hand, eBay has pre-owned copies much cheaper, including one “in mint condition” for $37.00.

This is basically two or more shops using an algorithm to set their pricing, where they check the price on other online stores and mark them up be a few percent. The problem is shop 1 sells book for $30, then shop 2’s algorithm sets the price to $35, then shop 1’s algorithm sets it to $40, 2 then sets it to $50 and you can see where this is going…

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Vikram

Dave wrote:

It might be worth checking though to see what pages are included, in case there are major pages that you want to see but for which they haven’t been able to source the originals.

The editor of the collection has actually been on Twitter today trying to source a few of the originals for scanning, there’s 29 pages he’s listed. If I divide Bolland’s episodes by the usual 6 pages that’s not that bad – it’s 29 out of 246 –  hopefully his plea will get a chunk of the missing ones.

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Dave

That’s not a bad hit rate. There are books like the Frank Miller DKR Gallery Edition where they weren’t able to get every single page but were close enough that they could fill in the remaining pages with either artist proofs or the finished pages as printed, so you could read through the whole story too.

Then there’s stuff like the Watchmen book where they only got around 100 pages or so across the whole series and it’s a bit more of a random selection of pages.

Chris Weston had a co-writer credit recently, he’s now upped it to full writer on Dredd. Love his artwork and look forward to seeing how he does on word duties.

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Bruce, Ben, Todd

He had a full writer credit in one of the all ages Progs (a Cadet Dredd vs giant monster story) and another from the main Prog called The Death of Dan-E Cannon – both are collected in the Control trade. Both were good so I’m keen to read more.

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garjones

Ken Niemand is a bit of an overnight sensation, isn’t he? Checking out his credits on Barney he’s only been writing for 2000AD since 2019, but he’s already writing epic Dredd stories in both ongoings, and writing the superb Megatropolis too. Impressive stuff. Definitely a name to look out for.

I thought Ken Niemand was a pseudonym (not least as it’s a pun in Dutch that translates as “nobody knows”, or something similar.)

I’m sure I’ve heard guesses that it’s an alternative name for a more established writer.

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Vikram

Now that you mention it I think I’ve seen or read that too. It very would explain a lot, but his style doesn’t immediately put me in mind of any of his contemporaries either. It’s got a classic sensibility to it, that’s evocative of John Wagner actually, but that would be a crazy thing given that John’s retired and a huge draw on his name alone. Ken also has his own Twitter account – mostly shilling his 2000AD work, so it’s possibly just a “work account”. Interesting.

Pat Mills indicated that it’s Gordon Rennie but his stories don’t read like Rennie’s.

I agree. Definitely doesn’t feel like Rennie’s work.

It’s definitely a pen name but I haven’t heard anyone exclusively work out who it is.

As Robbo says the Rennie thing doesn’t quite scan but Mills must have heard it somewhere, some have reckoned it’s the editor Matt Smith who has dabbled in some writing before and maybe doesn’t want to look like he’s hiring himself.

There’s a possibility it could be both or more than one person anyway. T B Grover back in the day was the pen name for Wagner and Grant working together.

https://www.brokenfrontier.com/2000-ad-rebellion-45th-anniversary/

Among other things 2000ad are collecting the DC published series Legends of the Law (a Stalone movie cash in) for the very first time. I picked the individual issues up off of ebay years ago but a collected edition is tempting.

Judge Dredd: Guatemala

There are times when I forget how much a 2000AD story can do with a handful of pages and then I get reminded of it by reading a collection like this.

True, reading it in trade form does, like with Trifecta‘s stealth crossover, undercut Hershey’s “death”, but that’s the cost of not reading as it comes out.  The story itself continues Dredd’s evolving attitude towards the Mechanismo units, which itself is unusual in terms of character change.  Some might say Dredd opposed them, true – he did, but that was 5-20 years ago!  People’s views do change over time, even those of Judge Joseph Dredd.

It’s one of the other stories, the Victims of Bennett Beeny Block, that also leans into the time aspect of Dredd, with the judges dealing with a Total War attack on a city block, with Dredd and Beeny on the front lines fighting the terrorists that started with Beeny’s mother decades earlier.  No other story has done this kind of long, long form story telling and it’s a trick that only John Wagner has pulled off I think.  In tine I think others might follow him.

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Vikram

The real time aspect in Dredd is quite spectacular, just because of Wagner’s patience (and now other writers following him). He’s happy enough to wait 15 years for a character to be old enough to re-enter the story.

I do know Savage Dragon has since used the idea and Hellblazer to an extent in the full original run but stuff like seeing Hershey who was the young and enthusiastic Judge back in the early 80s when Bolland was drawing is now pretty old and embittered is quite unique.

Wagner’s semi-retirement seems to be decreasingly ‘semi’ recently though. After Ezquerra passed on SD has stopped and his Dredd appearances are stretching longer and longer apart. Luckily guys like Rob Williams and Mike Carrol do a great job on the character.

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Ben, Bruce

Details of the Brian Bolland Judge Dredd Apex Edition, collecting scans of his original art.

Judge Dredd by Brian Bolland Apex Edition – slipcase pre-order coming this Wednesday!

Looks pretty special.

 

Received my copy of Slaine Dragontamer.

It’s a quality hardback, not yet read but what was unexpected is that it’s the final Slaine story.

Wondering if Mills will be concluding ABC Warriors next.  Sure, it might be a bit of a Big Job….

I think Mills has fallen out with Rebellion, and has basically cut ties with them. I don’t think it was planned for this to be the final Slaine story in advance. IIRC, he has one more Joe Pineapples story left to go and that’s pretty much it.

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Ben

On Twitter he has been trailing it as the final Slaine story for quite some time but was never presented that way in 2000ad not really in story which is hardly a huge climax.

He’s also frequently claiming none of his characters will continue in 2000ad without him writing, which seems on shaky ground legally and would probably means he has some gentleman’s agreement with them.

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Ben

I agree that it’s more of a gentleman’s agreement. Pat seems to have been less critical of Rebellion in the last few months. I wonder if there will ever be a second issue of Spacewarp?

I think he’s always had a touchy relationship with 2000ad publishers. Mills is by nature anti-establishment and he’s slagged them off to some degree in the 40+ years he’s worked there.

If you read or hear him speak about his work he’s always going in to bat for his artists, always says the editors/publishers were wrong. I can see why you’d love to work with him but not be his boss.

I think that’s why he loves the idea of Spacewarp but unfortunately for me it’s doomed to failure purely because of the choices made as boss of himself. He wants it to appeal to kids and have a lot of the old school style of early 2000ad which is all good but it’s too expensive for that and short 5 page stories is not a format that works for something that comes out so sporadically (and was always intended to, when it launched he said any issue 2 would be months down the line).

He’s essentially taking the business model he admired from European albums but with the content of a vibrant British weekly. Both are good things but I can’t see them wed together.

He is very pro-artist but he has a bad habit of upsetting fellow writers. He must be a nightmare to edit though. You’d think having been an editor (and one who’s admitted rewriting frequently) he’d be more sympathetic.

If you haven’t read Mills’ account of the creation of 2000AD, Be Pure Be Vigilant Behave, I really recommend it. He’s brutally honest about what he thinks about 2000AD’s owners, publishers, editors… basically everybody connected with 2000AD, who apart from Mills himself are all crooks and/or incompetent idiots.

It’s slightly possible that it’s a biased account, but it’s immensely entertaining.

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Bruce

Mills is a lot of fun, he’s very candid but his biases are also very overt.

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Bruce

For those interested in such things (me!) the final Nemesis hardback volume is now up for pre-order. Warning they tend to sell out very quickly.

PRE-ORDER NOW: the limited edition ‘Nemesis the Warlock: The Final Heresies’ hardcover

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Bruce

The chances of my getting a sketch from Brian Bolland are pretty slim, but I can do the next best thing. Met Tom Foster at Thought Bubble yesterday, and bought a Judge Death from him. It’s a beauty 👍🏼

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DavidM, garjones, Todd, Dave, Bruce

2000ad is 45. I’d never seen this TV ad before.

Happy birthday 2000 AD! Forty-five years ago today the comic of the future landed with a thermonuclear impact – along with this zarjaz TV spot!

What was YOUR first issue, Earthlets? Tag your replies with #2000AD45 and you could win free graphic novels! pic.twitter.com/KQQDWzGtfC

— 2000 AD Comics (@2000AD) February 19, 2022

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Bruce

I have no memory of that ad, but I can’t remember what first made me buy 2000AD, so I wonder if I did see it?

Though, I wouldn’t have needed to see an ad. If I just walked into a newsagent’s one day and randomly saw the first issue of a new SF comic, I would have just automatically bought it I think.

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Vikram, Bruce

DavidM wrote:

I have no memory of that ad,

45 years is a long time. possibly you were either too young to remember or too old and forgot

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DavidM, Todd

Does anyone else have this problem with the 2000AD app (on iOS)? Happens quite frequently to me, but only on black & white stories. Deleting and reloading does nothing, and the .CBZ downloads are fine if I read them in Chunky. Frustrating that the app continues to do this though.

I use the Android one and don’t have any display issues. Maybe try asking them on Twitter, they are usually pretty active there.

Legendary 2000AD and Batman writer, Alan Grant has died.

His work on Detective Comics, particularly #590 with that awesome cover, was one of the main reasons that I started reading comics.

Judge Anderson in 2000AD was amazing, as was his Strontium Dog.

I met him once at a comic con in Bristol. He was gruff, scrawny, and Scottish, with a black leather coat. We couldn’t be more dissimilar. But, he was charming and intelligent, and happy to talk to me for a while; as he signed my Anderson, PSI Division graphic novels.

You’ll be missed, Alan. R.I.P.

https://www.cbr.com/alan-grant-batman-dredd-writer-obituary/

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Chris-S, lorcan_nagle, Sean Robinson, Ben, Bruce, DavidM, Todd

Very sad news. In the 80s Grant and Wagner were asked to use pseudonyms by IPC because they didn’t want to reveal they were writing 70% of the stories in both 2000ad and Eagle. Even if I didn’t know it they were writing all those formative stories for me.

Now I have DC Infinite I plan to read his Detective run as I only picked up one or two issues at the time.

Grant was also the guy that picked up Alan Moore first 2000ad work from the slush pile and gave him a break into professional comics (he had been published before but in music mags, a local newspaper strip and fanzines).

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Todd, Bruce, Ben, DavidM, lorcan_nagle

https://fb.watch/eGaq9LJMrC/

 

Peter Serafinowicz voicing Judge Death in one of the upcoming 2000ad audiobook adaptations. I like it. A lot of folks think Death should have a more ethereal whispy voice but what’s in the trailer is pretty much what’s in my head when I read Death on the page.

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Todd, Dave

Yeah that’s good casting.

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Bruce

Bruce wrote:

Peter Serafinowicz voicing Judge Death

 

Serafinowicz is a top shelf voice actor, I approve of this!

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Todd

2000ad audiobooks!? Why did I not know about these?

Still, not too many to bag, good casting and its Audible.

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Well, here’s something I never thought I would see:

 

Pat’s first book #NFT has dropped! 45 digital limited editions of his 45th Anniversary Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000AD & Judge Dredd: The Secret History are on sale here: https://marketplace.readl.co/<wbr />universe/pat-mills-45th-<wbr />anniversary-nft-edition

*Each NFT book includes a unique AI-generated artwork, inspired by Pat’s stories

*Every NFT of Be Pure! holder will also be sent a unique PRINT EDITION of their book, complete with the AI artwork, signed by Pat – there will only ever be one copy of each print book!

*We’ll hold an exclusive ‘ask me anything’ session with Pat for NFT holders

*Holders will get future NFT offers/discounts

 You don’t need to set up a digital wallet!

When you sign up with Readl, they create a digital wallet for you (unless you already have one, in which case you can use it)

 You don’t need cryptocurrency to buy our NFT!

You can purchase using your regular bank card, in your preferred currency

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Ben

What the fuck? No Fucking Thanks.

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DavidM, Todd, Dave

Good luck to him.

In the end it’s an old book that you can buy via normal sources, print or e-book. I have no interest but if people want to spend on NFTs then it’s up to them.

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Ben

It’s entirely possible he really needs the money. I haven’t seen him publish much recently, and we know (from his own rants on the matter) that UK comic writers lived hand-to-mouth and weren’t accumulating large investment portfolios back in the day.

 

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Ben

I mean I have a lot of issues with NFTs. It almost certainly is a form of ‘tulip mania’, as far as I can see it you are paying for a URL that can expire.  There are aspects to the blockchain model though that are more equitable, that you get a royalty from selling on. Which second hand art sales currently don’t.

I don’t really have much of an issue with people like Mills or Jimmy Palmiotti getting involved. Nobody is forcing you to buy, you can get that book at any outlet if you want to actually read it. It reminds me a bit of our old pal Steve Sensible that loves collecting silver age comics, he buys CCG slabbed comics and just gleefully rips the plastic container off so he can open them.

 

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Chris-S, DavidM, Todd, Ben

Pat Mills pisses off even more people.

https://comicscene.org/2022/10/11/pat-mills-faces-fan-backlash-over-ai-art-and-nfts/

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DavidM, Todd

Robbo wrote:

Pat Mills pisses off even more people.

https://comicscene.org/2022/10/11/pat-mills-faces-fan-backlash-over-ai-art-and-nfts/

I follow some artists on Facebook and they are pissed.

The AI art decision is a massive fuck-up, what other response did he expect? AI art is up there with NFTs for being despised, possibly for better reason.

Maybe it would have gone better if it had been anyone other than Pat ‘arch-critic of capitalism and creator rights advocate’ Mills.  This is such a clash that it’s hard to look at it any other way.

The point that NFTs can have benefits if configured in a certain way is fair, but I don’t think the public perception of NFTs is inclined to be fair.  Probably because there’s too much dodgy crap perpetually obscuring it.

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Todd

There’s a mountain of bullshit around NFTs. I am far from convinced they have any value, but I do get one part that Mills likes, the ability to forever reward the originator on resale. If I sell you an NFT of anything a percentage follows the creator all along the chain. If you take for example that Dave Gibbons sold off his Watchmen pages almost as soon as they were finished for prices in the hundreds of pounds when now they would be in tens (if not maybe hundreds) of thousands, he’d get a cheque for that. Mills forever rails against the ‘bosses’ and a greater degree of control is consistent there. Most of his greatest work is not owned by him.

I was a bit lost on blockchain for a while, it is complicated, but a good explainer from the Freakonomics podcast did point out there are potentially positive things to the model. It can’t be edited or manipulated as corporate owned records can and have been.

The AI art stuff though is harder to defend, I know Mills has always batted for his artists in the past and this seems to fly in the face of that and technically by using characters like Slaine it’s probably illegal, he doesn’t own that IP (although publishers are pretty calm about using that for one-off stuff like artist commissions).

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Chris-S, DavidM, Todd

Sad news about Brendan McCarthy:

Sadly, my eyesight has deteriorated to a point where drawing any new comics is unrealistic. I’ve always worn glasses and done alright, but lately there’s been a marked decline.
I can still write and design stuff, and I’ll do a final ‘Art Of’ book at some point. But that’ll be it.

Sadly, my eyesight has deteriorated to a point where drawing any new comics is unrealistic. I've always worn glasses and done alright, but lately there's been a marked decline.
I can still write and design stuff, and I'll do a final 'Art Of' book at some point. But that'll be it. pic.twitter.com/sOqPgF7ouw

— BRENDAN McCARTHY (@MysticMcCarthy) October 28, 2022

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Chris-S, Vikram, njerry, Todd, garjones, Ben, Dave

Nice.

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Chris-S, Ben

Wow. Sold.

Saw an update it launches in April, 13 part story.

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Ben

Ennis on Rogue Trooper is a dream come true. Looking forward to the inevitable hardcover. That is a must buy.

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Chris-S, garjones, Ben

For fellow 2000ad readers. Do you have any idea what the fuck is happening in ‘Hope’? It’s beautifully drawn but completely impenetrable for me.

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Chris-S

Ha, I’ve only picked up a couple of issues recently and missed the start of the story but I was hoping you could tell me. Broxton’s art is great though.

It started off ok. It’s basically a 1950s private eye in Hollywood but he does a bit of magic – kind of a mix between The Fadeout and Hellblazer, which isn’t a bad idea.

This latest series though I really can’t get my head around, I can see random things happening but no idea why. So I’ve kind of given up and will enjoy the art. I have the same problem with another series they run called The Order which I can never follow but has lovely art from John M Burns who is still turning out quality work in his 80s.

I guess that is something with an anthology, you know you won’t love everything 100%.

Since moving out beyond the suburbs I rarely get to the comic shop in town. My latest haul had about three months of Progs which I spent the past few nights working through. I work through them a story at a time. Doing this with the latest instalments of Hope did not make it any easier to follow. I actually had to double check the Prog numbers as I thought I’d muddled my pile up. It very much feels like we’ve been dropped in the middle of an ongoing story with the thread about the film canister and “witches coven”. I’m hoping thinks will tie together in the end but it isn’t really playing the weekly anthology game all that well. I will agree that the art is real nice but I do find the use of photo reference a bit distracting (Ian McKellen in perticular draws me out of the story each time).

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garjones

Bailey’s contributions to the Joe Pineapples series have been published. Interestingly the art previewed here

https://2000ad.com/news/exclusive-first-look-at-simon-bisley-s-art-on-new-joe-pineapples-series/

hasn’t appeared.

I was super excited at full painted Bisley are for this series. In the end if I am blunt it is bog average and he never finished it. The reason this strip is in 2000ad about 3 years after Mills decided not work for them any more is he was very slow, maybe lost interest,  and they had to get Clint Langley to finish it.

I don’t even demand his sumptuous stuff on the likes of Slaine and Judgement on Gotham, I really liked his work on Milligan’s Hellblazer which was pencil and ink but this has been very disappointing.

 

That Mills had a final bust-up with 2000AD had passed me by.  Explains a few things, like why certain series probably aren’t getting another trade.

Ben wrote:

That Mills had a final bust-up with 2000AD had passed me by.

I’m not sure there was a massive bust up. I mean there could have been, we’re not privy to it, but 2000ad still has the same editor as the last 20 years and they worked together OK.

Rebellion are still releasing his trades (Finn came out a couple of weeks ago) and he promotes them on his Twitter. He’ll slag them off regularly but he’s been doing that for every boss he’s had for 40 years.

I think it’s more having enough of work for hire, he says most of 2000ad stories came to an end and he has his French ‘Requiem’ series of BD albums and did his self-published comic last year.

 

 

 

That’s what I found funny about it.  A headline of “Pat Mills is not happy with Publisher X” isn’t going to be news.

An interesting thing with Mills is he seems pretty confident his characters are retired. That’s he’s instructed 2000ad not to have anyone else write them.

So far they haven’t but I can’t help think this could be similar to the Paul Levitz agreement with Moore and Gibbons. There’s a lot of IP there to never use in a story again. The next Tharg may take a different view. It’s not a consistent one from the current Tharg as when John Smith parted company with the title they immediately farmed out his creations to new writers.

garjones wrote:

It’s not a consistent one from the current Tharg as when John Smith parted company with the title they immediately farmed out his creations to new writers.

They’ve also republished Zenith.

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garjones

Yes exactly. I’m not sure where his seeming confidence that it’ll be honoured comes from. He knows the conversations he’s had though.

It doesn’t seem to be a legal challenge on ownership, he’s happy to promote the reprints or if they are used in merchandise or whatever. He just wants the stories to end with him (and rules out reboots too). Someone mentioned Garth Ennis writing Savage would be good and he strongly disagreed – not against Ennis but the idea of anyone else.

 

 

I’ve just finished the second collected volume of Sinister Dexter (Eurocrash and the aftermath) and was surprisingly engrossed in it.

Surprisingly, because I didn’t really care for the first volume. So I don’t know what changed – if Abnett upped his game, or if it just took time for the characters to grow on me. The formula hasn’t actually changed, but something about this new batch of stories just worked beautifully. I like the characters, I like the storylines, and I even appreciate the puns more than I did previously.

I think it will be a while before I work my way down my stack of 2000AD collections to get to volume 3, but I’m tempted to skip ahead…

 

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Vikram, Ben, Dave

Yeah. Sinister Dexter is a weird one. I found it quite nonsensical and throwaway initially. I thought it far below the standards of other Abnett written strips. But, then, the more I read of it the more it hooked me.

It’s a bit like a long running sitcom to my mind. Individually episodes may be of variable quality, and the characters little more than ciphers, but over time they become more fully rounded and engrossing to the point that you actually start to care about them and what happens next.

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DavidM

Yes that is a good analogy. Sitcoms often start off not being great until you get into the characters properly.

There’s a slightly similar element in Nikolai Dante, I warn the first volume seems a bit throwaway with this rogueish lead character not taking much seriously but by the end you are so engrossed in the characters and the world it’s amazing.

Sinister Dexter is still a more exaggerated version of that as the comedy is more pronounced and Abnett often drops in these 1 or 2 part stories that end on a story punchline. However it’s all with a greater character arc and worldbuilding behind it too.

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DavidM, Ben

Garth Ennis is doing a new 5 issue Battle Action mini-series, starting in May. Very cool.

https://comicbook.com/comics/amp/news/battle-action-garth-ennis-2023-rebellion/

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Chris-S, Ben

New 2000AD Humble Bundle, Lots of Sláine, what looks like all of Nikolai Dante, The Day of Chaos crossover, Caballistics, some other bits…

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/2000-ad-character-spotlight-rebellion-books?utm_content=cta_button&mcID=102:63efceb063820a51a107c2af:ot:56c3d7fd733462ca893f00b9:1&linkID=63efceb17b50aaf3d9015670&utm_campaign=2023_02_19_2000adcharacterspotlightrebellion_bookbundle&utm_source=Humble+Bundle+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

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Chris-S, Ben, garjones, Dave

Buy, buy, buy for the Nikolai Dante!!!

It is an incredible finite series where characters grow and expand and over the decades they told it has a great ending. I love it to bits as one of the best comics for building a world and engaging the characters. It starts of seeming superficial in many ways, bear with it, it pays off.

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Chris-S, lorcan_nagle, Ben

Yes! Out-buy, out-read, out-consume all other readers of Nikolai Dante.

Brilliant art, epic scope, stupidly ambitious but it pulls it all off.

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Chris-S, garjones, lorcan_nagle

Having jumped back on the latest run of 2000AD (since Christmas) to continue reading The Out, I’ve found myself quite enjoying it in a way that I haven’t since I was a teenager.

The Dredd strips have been decent and I’m enjoying some of the other stuff to a greater or lesser degree too. Even when the stories are a bit impenetrable the art is almost always good.

It’s still The Out that’s the star of the show though, and thanks to those here who recommended it in the first place.

This latest cover was just gorgeous:

Tempted to hang around for a bit once the current storyline is done too, not least for Ennis coming up on Rogue Trooper and a regular fix of Dredd.

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Chris-S