Prog 1700: Cooking Up A Thrill-Storm!

[IndigoPrime]

Dante, despite this reader being hugely lost (some russkie revealed as another dead russkie with a similar name, reanimated- wha? When?) is way too good to moan about. No 2000AD series has ever rewarded close-reading like Dante, and i horde the trades for a reread when its done and dusted. Glorious, if baffling.

Funny how different stories provoke this reaction with different people. I guess it's to do with how much they resonate with the reader. For me, Dante makes perfect sense, and I know who's who. With Mills's stuff—Savage and Defoe—I have no idea what the hell's going on.

Dredd made me laugh out loud at the start of page three. I love these little pieces of Dredd's internalised fuming. Wagner does them so well

Mm. Reading through the latest Case Files volume, it's pretty jarring, to say the least, to see how far ahead of other writers Wagner is on this strip. The fact he's managed to make what was originally a pretty one-dimensional character so interesting, with so much depth, for so long, and to create a strip with immense longevity, is astonishing. That Dredd isn't cited worldwide alongside the likes of Spider-Man, Superman, Batman and the like as a key comics character is criminal.

[radiator]

Funny how different stories provoke this reaction with different people. I guess it's to do with how much they resonate with the reader. For me, Dante makes perfect sense, and I know who's who. With Mills's stuff—Savage and Defoe—I have no idea what the hell's going on.

Completely agree - I've never had the slightest bit of trouble remembering who's who in Dante - even after a 3 year break from 2000ad, on my return I still remembered exactly who everyone was and their motivations.

[the shutdown man]

Glad it's not just me then; I have no idea what's been happening in the last book of Savage (or any of the books prior to that), and my grip on Defoe is only slightly better. Dante's been a favourite of mine since it started so I'm usually able to keep track of it.

[bluemeanie]

lol... Im in the other camp.
Savage and Defoe, no problems. Anything I dont remember I feel they do a good job of recapping in-story. Dante though... 

Im starting vol 1 of Dante tomorrow though although while it may piss off the long term mob I STILL think that on issue one's of things, especially on a jumping on issue like this one, they should put a one page "Story so far" at the beginning.
Hell, even Dredd would have benefited from a "This is who Sinfield is, this is why Dredd is on the council of five etc" for the reader for whom this is their first ever try.
Not saying to do it every issue, just one part one's of continuing stories. Anything so that your newbie doesnt get half way through, think "I dont get any of this" and just put it down.

[radiator]

Im starting vol 1 of Dante tomorrow

Yay! I'm sure you'll enjoy it - be sure to let us know what you think of it.

I STILL think that on issue one's of things, especially on a jumping on issue like this one, they should put a one page "Story so far" at the beginning.

They used to, but people got irritated as it was seen as a cheeky way of filling pages. There are little recaps for each current story on the front page every week, but there's not really enough space to be thorough - I would suggest adding a link to each of these to a page on this site that summarises the plot in more detail.

[IndigoPrime]

I agree. Either that or the intros on the inside cover need to be updated more often and less generic.

[Steve Green]

Great prog, I would love to see them do more jumping on progs - maybe 4 a year, double length, or at least a few extra pages...

[Simon Fraser]

So I was thinking of putting together a Dante family tree. Would that help with peoples confusion?
Many years ago I used to keep a summary of the Dante story so far

http://nikolaidante.com/dante/index.html

It only goes as far as the Battleship Potemkin story, but if anyone was interested in helping out by writing up summaries for the rest of the stories up to date then I would be pretty happy ( and might throw some original art their way.)

Simon.

[radiator]

It only goes as far as the Battleship Potemkin story, but if anyone was interested in helping out by writing up summaries for the rest of the stories up to date then I would be pretty happy ( and might throw some original art their way.)

I'd be more than happy to do that! I don't have much on workwise at the moment, so I could do it tomorrow.

So I was thinking of putting together a Dante family tree. Would that help with peoples confusion?

That would be neat!

[Colin Zeal]

No matter how much of a recap is put in it won't solve the problem for everyone. I know what's happening with Dante, but it helps that my first reading of a lot of the story was in the trades. Getting through a lot in one sitting really helps concentrate the plot/characters.

The stroy I really have trouble with is The Red Seas. I cracked recently and went out and bought volume 1 of the trade in a desperate attempt to understand what was going on.

[Aaron A Aardvark]

The story I really have trouble with is The Red Seas. I cracked recently and went out and bought volume 1 of the trade in a desperate attempt to understand what was going on.

Yeah, I have a BIG problem following the Red Seas.

Also SinDex. Some woman with big tits gets out of a car and I think, "remind me, which woman with big tits is this?" There are so many.

[Colin Zeal]

I've pretty much given up on trying to understand SinDex. Every so often in Forbidden Planet I look at the number of trades there are that I'd need to read to be up to speed and there's no chance of me spending that much money on it.

[Pete Wells]

It only goes as far as the Battleship Potemkin story, but if anyone was interested in helping out by writing up summaries for the rest of the stories up to date then I would be pretty happy ( and might throw some original art their way.)

I'd be happy to help out too, Si and Radiator. PM me if you want to divvy them up.

I'd love to see a family tree though Mr Fraser!

[radiator]

Have started on this now, I'll let you know if I need some help, Pete.

[TordelBack]

I cracked recently and went out and bought volume 1 of the trade in a desperate attempt to understand what was going on.

The current story made you buy a trade collection of the earlier material?  What insanity is Rebellion up to!  

Joking aside, it is obviously a big problem when stories are spread across such a length of time, and generally their earlier parts are lost in the prog mountain.  More detailed recapping would be nice, but ultimately it comes down to a choice between running longer more complex stories with large casts, or just simpler continuity-free tales.  I know I personally would never want to see an exclusive focus on the latter.  

Taking the Red Seas as an example - it's a large-cast team story that's been running since 2002, with a core plot running in the background right the way through its 60-or-so episodes.  That's very roughly the same page length as Watchmen, but spread over 8 years.  It's not surprising people coming new to it, or trying to remember exactly what happened when Jack seized Eerebus, are having problems.  

By contrast 'original' Rogue Trooper, the very simplest of small-cast stories, also ran over 8 years but racked up about 800 pages between the Quartz Zone Massacre and The Hit.  No-one had any problems remembering what was going on in Nu-Earth/Horst era Rogue, but wonderful as the early stuff was do we really want a return to stories like that today?

Best to consult the Wiki and the trades out of the library.