Tell me how to enjoy Armitage

[TordelBack]

It's based on building up a picture from bits and pieces of information here and there and filling in the blanks, a bit like the way they reconstruct dinosaurs from an incomplete skeleton.

[Richmond Clements]

Heh!
I agree with Ush though- I very much doubt that 2k has so much money knocking about the budget that they can afford to sit on multi-part stories like Armitage for any length of them.
I sopke to Colin McNeil, for example, the week before the first part of Dredd hit the shelves, and he was still drawing part 4 or 5 at the time.

[TordelBack]

I agree too, but i just love those models so much  - one of my favourite childhood trips.

[House of Usher]

I knew tordelback wouldn't be able to resist that.  

[Colin_YNWA]

Its a shame there's not more information on the relative health of 2000ad at the minute. Creatively its certainly seems absolutely fine and with a blossoming trade programme I kinda felt that it was doing ok. The alternative view that House of U put forward and that certainly seems backed up my the Colin McNeil point is of course very possible. I don't think its in danger of being cancelled anytime soon but it'd be good to know it wasn't having to live hand to mouth so to speak or being bolstered by other revenue streams.

[Mike Gloady]

The health of the title is a little tough to work out. 

THIS PLACE is vibrant and active, but we're ALWAYS going to be the hardcore.  Those at the periphery to whom it doesn't mean as much are never going to post in the first place, so we're unlikely to spot them leaving.

However Rebellion would hardly be pumping cash into the collections if 1. they weren't making money from them and 2. if the collections weren't doing their secondary job of dragging attention to the prog and meg.  That, plus the new audios, suggest that they're at least comfortable (if not as comfortable as they'd like). 

My local comic shop informs me they've upped their order twice in the last year.  So our evangelism seems to be working, albeit in a small way.

[Richmond Clements]

I think the health of the comic is fine.
And it's not unusual for comics to be running close to deadline- which is part of the reason so many US comics come out late, after all.

[Jim_Campbell]

And it's not unusual for comics to be running close to deadline- which is part of the reason so many US comics come out late, after all.

To be honest, it's bad business to have a huge pile of stock (ie - pages) sitting on your books as inventory. 2000AD can cut it closer than most US titles precisely because it's an anthology. Any strip except Dredd can be rested for an issue or two if the artist needs to play catch-up with the handy insertion of a Future Shock or a Terror Tale, so you really only need to have a couple each of them, and a couple of generic Dredds, and you should be able to commission the rest to order.

(Obviously, that's an ideal case scenario - sorry, Matt, I don't mean to make your job sound easy!)

Cheers

Jim

[Peter Wolf]

The health of the title is a little tough to work out. 

THIS PLACE is vibrant and active, but we're ALWAYS going to be the hardcore.  Those at the periphery to whom it doesn't mean as much are never going to post in the first place, so we're unlikely to spot them leaving.

However Rebellion would hardly be pumping cash into the collections if 1. they weren't making money from them and 2. if the collections weren't doing their secondary job of dragging attention to the prog and meg.  That, plus the new audios, suggest that they're at least comfortable (if not as comfortable as they'd like). 

My local comic shop informs me they've upped their order twice in the last year.  So our evangelism seems to be working, albeit in a small way.

It does make you wonder how out of over 3000+ and growing by the day board members how few of them actually post anything.

As for the comic it would be good to have some up to date sales figures and some clue as to wether sales figures have dropped or increased especially in the last year or so.

With the AvP game out soon that is going to make a LOT of cash for Rebellion which they might use for more reprints and suypport the comic if sales do drop.i dont mind that myself because if sales have dropped or do drop below a certain amount then i am sure it wont be because of the material in it.

I expect Rebellion will make a huge amount of cash out of the game but as its licensed product i am not exactly sure how much of a percentage they have agreed to hand over to 20th Cent Fox or wether Rebellion paid 20th Cent Fox a one off payment to use the characters and develop a game out of them.

Not sure how all that works exactly but its nice to know that if times do get very hard then the comic has some revenue to fall back on if needed.

Rebellion might make so much cash that they could afford to reprint some of those old school black and white strips that i love.

I have started buying my weekly from a newsagents down the road who about 3 weeks or so ago started to stock just a single copy.They sell the Meg and always have done but i always thought it was a bit odd that they didnt sell the weekly and then all of a sudden they did which is good .

[Colin_YNWA]

And it's not unusual for comics to be running close to deadline- which is part of the reason so many US comics come out late, after all.

To be honest, it's bad business to have a huge pile of stock (ie - pages) sitting on your books as inventory. 2000AD can cut it closer than most US titles precisely because it's an anthology. Any strip except Dredd can be rested for an issue or two if the artist needs to play catch-up with the handy insertion of a Future Shock or a Terror Tale, so you really only need to have a couple each of them, and a couple of generic Dredds, and you should be able to commission the rest to order.

(Obviously, that's an ideal case scenario - sorry, Matt, I don't mean to make your job sound easy!)

Cheers

Jim

Yeah I agree it makes sense to cut it as close to the wire as you can but when was the last time a strip was delayed? In the old days - when if you read Thrillpower Overload it would seem stock could be built up there were numerous stories delayed, from Nemesis book1 to Zenith Phrase 3 and of course Rogue Trooper War Machine which all spring immediately to mind. This just doesn't seem to happen anymore  - or I'm missing it? Origins had a gap but I really can't remember any other than that in the last few years?


Maybe Tharg has finally just whipped his droids into shape!

[Dark Jimbo]

...when was the last time a strip was delayed? In the old days - when if you read Thrillpower Overload it would seem stock could be built up there were numerous stories delayed, from Nemesis book1 to Zenith Phrase 3 and of course Rogue Trooper War Machine which all spring immediately to mind. This just doesn't seem to happen anymore  - or I'm missing it? Origins had a gap but I really can't remember any other than that in the last few years?

All the time!!! Dead Eyes was delayed by a year or more, Cradlegrave was delayed by something more like two years, Ten Seconders II was so badly delayed three different artists had to be drafted in to ensure it made it to the progs, and most recently John Burns' imminent new Dante saga was put back by months when Si Fraser's last arc had to be cut short at the last minute.

I think we just hear less about it these days.

[Colin_YNWA]

Sorry I wasn't clear. What I meant by delayed was mid-flow i.e. having to skip a few Progs or going missing for a few months half way through a story. It seems these days its not run until its all in. Which is clearly a sensible policy BUT you'd think would necessitate a bigger back-up stash as if something is late you have to have an entire story ready to go?

[Dark Jimbo]

Oh, I see. In that case the only example I can think of post-Origins is the third book of ABC Warriors: Volgan War, which took a five-prog break for no particular reason in the middle of the story.

[Emperor]

And that might be why Hector was drafted in to help keep things ticking along nicely (seems to be working too).

On the "how big is Tharg's pile?" question then, leaving aside suggestions involving Preparation H, I direct you to this, which did seem to suggest he was tightening up what he was commissioning during these harsher financial times. It makes sense as, I assume, trade sales have dipped and they must be partly helping keep the comic competitive.*

It does seem a pity that these collections aren't more widely available elsewhere as I assume they'd sell well in the US and in the Franco-Belgian market especially where there is name recognition (people liking Dan Abnett's US work wouldn't be disappointed in his 2000 AD output and Pat Mills is carving out a name for himself on the continent). The Dynamite deal still seems in limbo and I check Amazon.fr and there doesn't seem much translated material since about 1999/2000 which is when things really started turning around quality wise in the new material. Reading that Freakangels has just had the the French publishing rights snapped up makes me wonder about this.

My local comic shop informs me they've upped their order twice in the last year.  So our evangelism seems to be working, albeit in a small way.

Amen brother!! Spread the Word.

[Emperor]

I know I started this thread but I wish it would just die and slump into the silt at the bottom of the posting lake as I do feel a little bit guilty about the title. But it bears out my point about catchy/provocative titles. There's more life in 'em.

The thread title can be changed. How about: "Now matter how hard I try I find myself not enjoying Armitage, despite the sterling efforts of the creators"?