GOLDTIGER

[Arkwright99]

I completely missed the original Kickstarter campaign for Goldtiger so when it was announced that Rebellion were publishing their first original graphic novel I admit I fell for the 'official' line that Goldtiger was a long-lost relic from the Swinging '60s hook, line & sinker and was quite excited to read Goldtiger so eagerly put it on pre-order.

That illusion was shattered a week or so before publication when a couple of tweets by Duncan Fegredo and Sean Philips alerted me to the fact that there had long ago been a Kickstarter campaign. Checking out the campaign details for Goldtiger's KS finally let the cat out of the bag for me and revealed the (unwelcome) truth that Goldtiger was actually a modern day pastiche/parody of Modesty Blaise rather than a '60s artefact. I'd be lying if I said that revelation didn't dampen my enthusiasm considerably but I went ahead and bought the book anyway.

Having read Goldtiger I really wish Adams and 'Broxton' had sold Rebellion a 'proper' faux newspaper strip collection, by which I mean something like the old Titan Modesty Blaise, Jeff Hawke or James Bond collections, rather than the fake history we ended up with. With the tease of futher volumes being an option I can only hope - if there's a sequel or series - that Adams and 'Broxton' ditch the text features now the joke's been told and stick solidily to the comic strip elements in future.

Arguably there's some potential in the concept/conceit of Goldtiger which I'd like to see developed but on the current evidence Adams & 'Broxton' have some way to go to prove Goldtiger isn't a one-trick pony with a slightly dodgy punchline. ([spoiler]If Baretti's trapped in his own comic strip who's drawing the later episodes?[/spoiler])

[Skullmo]

Well this is all a furore!

Personally I don't really know why you'd get angry about being 'duped' by PR...  Did you enjoy it has to be the main criteria.

Well, I guess that brings us to the debate of whether we enjoy anything for its inherent worth, or simply because it forms part of the '2000AD canon'.

[I, Cosh]

Personally I don't really know why you'd get angry about being 'duped' by PR...  Did you enjoy it has to be the main criteria.

Very much this. Although it has rather blown my mind how many people were duped. I assumed the first one was joking then they kept on coming. And I knew nothing about kick starting, just what was in the Nerve Centre.

[GordonR]

Add me to the 'I can't believe so many people fell for this' column.

With the bonus comedy value of people claiming to get angry at being 'duped' over a book they'd already said they had no intention of buying, when they thought it was still somehow 'real'.

[Steve Green]

I am outraged it's fictional fiction rather than real fiction...

[Proudhuff]

I am really outraged that people are claiming fictional outrage at fictional fiction rather than real outrage  fictional outrage.

[Colin YNWA]

I'm outraged that the proclamations of fictional outrage at the fiction outrage are outrageous and that the outrage both fictional, non fiction and fictional none fictional are real and fiction and not fiction real fiction...

... oh no hold on, I'm just confused...

[Steve Green]

Turns out we're all a Guy Adams creation.

[Professor Bear]

With the bonus comedy value of people claiming to get angry at being 'duped' over a book they'd already said they had no intention of buying, when they thought it was still somehow 'real'.

Having been the recipient of such delightful correspondence on two separate projects now, my biggest regret is that I didn't immediately copy and paste the most aggressive examples of penny-dropping-related outrage onto promotional material and capitalised on it - because let's be honest, I would buy a comic promoted with the tagline "I hope you get AIDS when you stick this comic up your ass" and so would everyone else.

What's really funny is that US superhero fans - long known for their  open-mindedness - were subjected to just such a hoax with the original Sentry miniseries (it was promoted and sold as being a "lost" Stan Lee superhero concept set in the Marvel universe), and they took it in good grace.

[Dandontdare]

I wouldn't say I was angry at the hoax, but I do find it annoying.

I read the Meg article (it was the first I'd heard of this) and as someone who is interested in the history of comics, I thought this was a fascinating story and might make an interesting purchase.

Now that I know that it's modern creators dicking about and being oh-so-clever about it I'm not interested. I would've been miffed if I'd shelled out money on a misleading premise.

[TordelBack]

If a project like this didn't wrongfoot a decent proportion of prospective readers, it wouldn't be much good.  I don't think there's any shame in either being taken in, or in playing along with the gag in the first place: it's just proof of a quality product. 

I was completely taken in by Eddie Campbell's obscure cartoonist pal Bunny Wilson, and his so-bad-they're-awful Monty Zoomer comics, right up to and including the pics of Eddie and family attending his melancholy funeral.  I felt like a right silly billy when the penny dropped, but that's part of the fun! 

[Pyroxian]

What's really funny is that US superhero fans - long known for their  open-mindedness - were subjected to just such a hoax with the original Sentry miniseries (it was promoted and sold as being a "lost" Stan Lee superhero concept set in the Marvel universe), and they took it in good grace.

[spoiler]Well it was - we'd just all forgotten that Stan had written it.[/spoiler]

[The Adventurer]

Oh my God. They did it a gain.

I feel for Marvel's Sentry.

And I feel for this.

WHEN WILL I STOP BEING A CHUMP!?

[The Adventurer]

Fell.

I Fell for things.

[Dog Deever]

Yup- I took it for what it was presented as too- the fact it's Pr makes it funny, that it seemed to work fairly well as a 'hoax' makes it funnier. The creators sounded like such utter dingbats I wanted to know more about them...

It did read very much like an old strip- particularly one that and it was quite enjoyable nonsense. I'll possibly pick it up out of curiosity the next time I've got some gift vouchers, but that Rennie bloke has some book about monsterologies that's first in my purchase queue.