2002 more thoughts, part 2

[Thread Zero]

Spoiler warning!!

Sinister Dexter
"Slay Bells in the Snow"
I liked it. Quite funny I thought. Better than some of the recent ones I thought. That sumo wrestler one a few progs ago was the sumo's fat bums. A load of arse!

Bad Company 3 or is it 4?
I think this has great potential.
This should be the final chapter where Kano confronts his inner and outer demons. People who are saying "do we really need this?" should bear in mind that Bad Company has had a continuous, evolving storyline.

Book 1 was about the futility of war,
Book 2 was about one man sacrificing himself to stop war - Danny Franks,
Book 3 was about Kano haunted by his past,
And Book 4 is about Kano killing the past forever, ie Danny Franks - the Krool Heart.

I reckon it will be similar to Book one and have lots of fighting "war is hell" in it! Plus some deeper introspection stuff like book 2 when Kano confronts Danny.

And the art isn't that bad! I like it.

I will be back for part 3 soon.
I know you can't wait!!

scojo

[davidtobin100]

I was very dissapointed with the prog in general.

Memento was a below average Future Shock.
Nemisis (I mean Shakara) seems to have gone nowhere despite the hype - we live in hope!

Bad Company was very much an intro to the new cast.

Sinister Dexter was average.

The first Judge Dredd suffered for the newer readers - anyone who hasn't been reading for 15 years - and did not introduce or explain the charachters to us.

The second J.D. story was a good one-off but hardly memorable.

The only thing that seemed worthwhile was Zenith (sorry Storming Heaven). This could become a good story but it seems jaded. Add that to the fact that that Gordon Rennie seems to be portraying drug-use quite a lot these days and it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Not worth the asking price at all - in fact it sucked for a special.  

[Thread Zero]

Oh dear.

I think this proves once and for all...Rebellion, you are never going to please all the people, all the time!

scojo

[Hend-RE]

>Add that to the fact that that Gordon Rennie seems
>to be portraying drug-use quite a lot these days

From what I remember there's been Reefer Madness and now Storming Heaven.  Doesn't seem like such a lot to me really.  John Wagner has been portraying violence week in week out for more than 20 years.

Ross

Link: 2000AD - TUWS

[Thread Zero]

Well violence has always been portrayed in 2k, regardless of the writer!

scojo

[davidtobin100]

2000AD is a comic that is being picked up by a range of ages and although I use the average age to justify purchase, I am sure that there are a lot of younger readers out there who don't know any better. Greater care should be taken with how content is portrayed. You cite violence as existing in the comic each issue, but it is for the most part handled maturely, and shows consequences that are real. The way drug-use has been portrayed by Rennie is morally irresponsible. I don't want to sound as if I am preaching as I really don't care what people do with their lives - Gordon Rennie can be a junkie for all I care (again no offence meant) but his portrayal of drug-use may be of detriment to younger readers.
Next time Hend-RE think before you type.

[W. R. Logan]

>2000AD is a comic that is being picked up by a range of ages and although I use the average age to justify purchase, I am sure that there are a lot of younger readers out there who don't know any better. Greater care should be taken with how content is portrayed. You cite violence as existing in the comic each issue, but it is for the most part handled maturely, and shows consequences that are real. The way drug-use has been portrayed by Rennie is morally irresponsible. I don't want to sound as if I am preaching as I really don't care what people do with their lives - Gordon Rennie can be a junkie for all I care (again no offence meant) but his portrayal of drug-use may be of detriment to younger readers.
>Next time Hend-RE think before you type.

Yeah Ginge, think!

I?ve been reading 2000AD since I was 10 and as an impressionable youngster I tried to do DIY Compu-Puncture, my body still bears the scars of all those needles. And the list doesn?t end there, I?ll never forget the time I tried to impregnate myself after reading Al's Baby, which is nothing compared to the time I tried to remove the top of my head and replace half my brain like Kano. After Below Zero I attempted to remove my arm but that didn?t work so had to stick with my Bio-Tronic stickers. After reading Big Dave I turned into a real bigot and no one was safe from my Sun reader expletives. I won?t go into too much detail as my time trying to be Harry Exton as I don?t want the bodies found. My pets have never been the same since I tried to turn them in to Yugees and my wife, who?s a bit soft still hasn?t got used to the dial I stuck in her head. After serving in the forces and having a couple of friends die their families weren?t to pleased when I attempted to remove their Dog Chips with a rusty chisel, and pretending to be the Universal Soldier never did get me promoted as quickly as I had hoped.

I?m sure there are many stories that have appeared over the years that could fit into the Storming Heaven category but are there many readers as stupid as me to try and emulate what they read.

I work with kids between 10 and 16 and believe me they know more than people give them credit for and I can?t imagine that many will try LSD in an attempt to become a superhero. At many times in history people have tried to scare monger about stories in comics but as we all know it?s not real, it?s a comic with stories in to entertain. If a few are stupid enough to try anything then they are just as likely to try and copy ideas they see in many more mediums as they are more popular than the comic we enjoy. The computer games that they play are more violent and contain more possibilities for giving kids ideas than a story in a comic.

Well I?m off to try and perfect Rennie's strain of LSD and turn my world in to magenta rich world that Rennie and Irving have created.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Link: The Class Of '79

[Thread Zero]

Prog 2002, Part 3

Nikolai Dante:

It's ok but I would bet that Robbie Morrison can't go a single episode without referring to bodily functions and sex.
He is obsessed with it.

Judge Dredd by Rennie indigestion tablets.
Not bad.
Or as Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy would say:
Mostly harmless.

scojo out

[Hend-RE]

You say you "really don't care what people do with their lives" and yet "greater care should be taken with how content is portrayed".  Sounds to me like you do care.  Not that I have a problem with that and for the record, I do care how people live their lives, especially people close to me.
Drug culture is portrayed everywhere these days from fiction to music and has been for a very long time, simply because suddenly there's explicit mention of (ooh, could it be) hashish or acid in 2000AD does not mean that your average 12 year old is going to save up their pocket money for a half weight from the local dealer.  
Honestly, one 5 page satire on marijuana, which I believe was itself a parody of the film Reefer Madness, and the first part of a series about acid, which ended with someone who was going to join the drug takers having her eyeballs skewered, and you think the man is on a mission to dose us all up.  Obviously it's the second wave after the rampant Christianity of Missionary Man.

Next time David, take your head out your arse...

[davidtobin100]

my point is one of responsibility. You either didn't get point correctly or are unable to comprehend it. There have been more drug-references in the past number of months - at least another two in the JD Megazine. As someone who can claim to have a greater understanding of children than you due to my profession I can see that if drawbacks of decisions are not to kids they can have adverse effects.
As for your final comment - please grow and get a life. It is immature and shows you up and your arguement up.

[Thread Zero]

Hey it's Christmas!!

Goodwill to all men and...junkies!

scojo high on orange juice

[spaceman]

Memento looked to be the sort of soppy, pointless sci-fi that often rears its head in self-published anthology titles (almost always silent, because.. hey! it's pathos).

Bad Company looked appalling, Brett Ewins inked by Jim McCarthy? If there was anything of Brett Ewins left in that then it was obviously obliterated by McCarthy's inking broomstick. Whatever happened to Ewins, he was easily one of my favourite artists -- but since the early 90s (when Shakey "Oh look, a badbly done Kirby pastiche" Kane, Jim "Not nearly as talented as his brother" McCarthy and Simon "Bleurgh" Harrison destroyed the comic)it's like he's been in some kind of weird cult of the untalented. It's a sad loss.

Sinister Dextor was Sinister Dextor, never really been able to get into it because it's simply dull sci-fi by the numbers, nothing that special about it. Still, it's not that bad for filler.


First Dredd - been done, a number of times. Although it was gorgeous to look at.

Second Dredd - very funny, lovely Cam Kennedy artwork.

Storming Heaven. Ah, the inevitiable knee-jerk comparison. Superhero in 2000AD? hey! it must be Zenith! Why not compare the first ever episode of a new series with a story that had four books, yeah, that'll work!

2000AD's readerships average age is 31. While I'd rather the readership was 11 again it's too late. Face facts, if there are kids that read it then they are the exception rather than the rule. I'd like to hope the average reader can make up their own mind about drugs (personally, I'm trynna score me some LSD cus I want to be a superhero).

Am I alone in thinking that Reefer Madness was strongly anti-drugs?


Shakara looked incredible and was a good read. Dante looked fantastic and was a good read. Storming Heaven looked great and was a good read. The rest was -at the very worst- good, solid filler material. I thought prog 2002 was the strongest prog for a long time, and I'd have no problem if the prog stayed like it.

[GordonR]

>Am I alone in thinking that Reefer Madness was >strongly anti-drugs?

No.  Maybe not quite 'strongly', but, throwaway stuff that it was, I think it was a  lot more ambivalent than people seemed to have assumed.

I also think it was mistakely hyped as being a groovy pro-dope story, when in fact it didn't seem to be quite the anti-drugs hysteria satire which our good friends at Rebellion and 2000AD would have us believe.

Like I said...ambivelent.

[Hend-RE]

I believe I did get your point but I don't think it is valid.  2000AD is not responsible for bringing up children and has never pretended to be so.  When launched, the mandate was one of anti-establishment IIRC.  To this point, I don't think the comic has taken either a pro- or anti-drugs stance, though cigarettes have been banned in MC-1 for many years.  I do not subscribe to the "monkey see, monkey do" idea of human nature once a child gets beyond the age where they can tie their own shoe laces.  A young person is far more likely to be introduced to the wonders / tragedy (take your pick) of drugs via peer pressure and not a comic book.  If I knew any kids that read 2000AD I'd ask them but none of them do, they much prefer the insane violence of computer games.
With respect to the Megazine, last I checked it clearly said "Not for children" on the cover which is, well, pretty clear.  
While I can't say I have worked professionally with children I was a Scout and Cub leader for several years so I have talked to young people about the dangers of drugs and how they see them portrayed in the media.  Most of them are pretty well informed.  I don't know what your profession is but I still think you're overreacting.  Also, what does the second half of that sentence mean as it makes no sense to me.
You're right about my final comment, it was immature but I blame partly the alcohol (aargh!  Drug!) and partly the red flag you waved in my face by saying "think before you type".

Ross

Link: More of my inane ramblings

[Hend-RE]

I agree with Milo.  RM was simply a story which used hash as a focal point without resorting to preaching one way or the other.  A plot device and nothing more.

Ross