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The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

Started by Colin YNWA, 22 May, 2016, 02:30:29 PM

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Fungus

I don't think I've even asked myself that exact question, but... 178 (though I narrowly missed it at the time). The chrome logo appeared and the quality leapt accordingly. 222 and 224 are great but things were already cooking by then I'd say.

Jim_Campbell

You can't not include the 220s in any classic 2000AD definition. A ten prog slot that has the Gibbons-illustrated debut of Rogue Trooper and Bolland on Judge Death Lives? And you have Portrait of a Mutant running, plus Nemesis Bk1 kicking off. Add in Bellardinelli on Meltdown Man, some great Dredd shorts, and even the fairly lacklustre Mean Arena enlivened by some top-of-his-game work from Dillon.
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TordelBack

The First Golden Age starts with Prog 197.



The temptation to go for the low-hanging fruit of 222 must be resisted, lest you miss Portrait of Mutant and Return to Armageddon by entirely. Yes, you get a lot of Mean Arena in those 6 months, but Dredd has Pirates of the Black Atlantic and the Crime Files running to compensate.

TordelBack

And of course Unamerican Graffiti... Basically after 197 it's impossible to find a Prog that is less than great.

Magnetica

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 11 October, 2016, 09:29:59 PM
You can't not include the 220s in any classic 2000AD definition. A ten prog slot that has the Gibbons-illustrated debut of Rogue Trooper and Bolland on Judge Death Lives? And you have Portrait of a Mutant running, plus Nemesis Bk1 kicking off. Add in Bellardinelli on Meltdown Man, some great Dredd shorts, and even the fairly lacklustre Mean Arena enlivened by some top-of-his-game work from Dillon.

Quote from: TordelBack on 11 October, 2016, 10:21:23 PM
The temptation to go for the low-hanging fruit of 222 must be resisted, lest you miss Portrait of Mutant and Return to Armageddon by entirely. Yes, you get a lot of Mean Arena in those 6 months, but Dredd has Pirates of the Black Atlantic and the Crime Files running to compensate.

Basically after 197 it's impossible to find a Prog that is less than great.

You know you are right..I was going to say 222 and I am pretty sure I have previously called out the 220's as the single greatest set of ten Progs of all time, but as you say prior to that there is just a load of totally amazing stuff and I guess your naming of 197 as the starting point ...well you could well be right.

But actually I am going to go with Fungus's call of 178... (at the risk of slightly contradicting my earlier post ) - total Judge Child awesomeness, Killer Watt, Death's Head leading into what I consider the golden age of Strontium Dog. Even before 197 we get stone cold classic Dredd's: Block War (probably the single best episode following a mega epic), Aggro Dome, Monkey Business at the Charles Darwin Block, Otto Sump's Ugly Clinic...Pirates of the Black Atlantic...before hitting the 200s and  UnAmerica Graffiti and then into the Crime Files as you call them ( I always thought they were called the Mega City Rackets)..then Judge Death Lives. Surely the strongest period of Dredd ever...well until we hit Tour of Duty and on into Day of Chaos.

As for other stuff in the early 200s, well surely there are the greatest future shocks of all time around this period - all by Alan Moore e.g. "The English/Phlondrutian Phrasebook" and The Last Rumble of the Platinum Horde - stories that have gone beyond the normal throw away nature of the future shock.

I have a question of my own - is it just me or do others find the Progs of this era more memorable than any others? I am not sure if it is just because they were relatively at the start of my 2000AD reading "career" and so my memory was less full of other Progs*, or because they were just the best Progs of all time.

(*It is a bit like when I owned only a handful of Albums, I could name every single track on every album I owned. Now I have far more I can't.)

Tjm86

Quote from: Magnetica on 11 October, 2016, 11:29:34 PM

I have a question of my own - is it just me or do others find the Progs of this era more memorable than any others? I am not sure if it is just because they were relatively at the start of my 2000AD reading "career" and so my memory was less full of other Progs*, or because they were just the best Progs of all time.


I'm the same, the early 200's for me are some of the best and most memorable.  That said, I do have a strong recollection of the majority of the 200's.  Perhaps it was because of the time / age I was reading them.  I do agree though that it contained some of the strongest writing and artwork.  The Apocalypse War era was, for my money, marred by the overly comedic Robo Hunter run.

It's also been interesting following some of the comments about era's.  These largely mirror my own and for similar reasons.  The late 80's / early 90's saw a drop off during my RAF days with a brief dalliance down the Falklands during Judgement Day.  It wasn't really until the Pit that I returned fully and never looked back as the prog went from strength to strength, particularly under Rebellion's ownership.

AlexF

I wasn't reading at the time, but from re-reads and obsessing over Barney, I'd plump for Prog 178, too. Mean Arena is the weak link, but to be honest I don't know if there has ever been a seriously long stretch of Progs (the odd 5-10 Prog mini-streaks, maybe) that didn't have one less-then-superlative strip. And everything else was SO GOOD.

Picking the end Prog for this era is harder for me. 520? 600? 660, when we start getting Harlem Heroes, Dry Run and so on?

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: AlexF on 12 October, 2016, 12:51:41 PM
Picking the end Prog for this era is harder for me. 520? 600? 660, when we start getting Harlem Heroes, Dry Run and so on?

Just out of interest, I skipped forward on Barney by 100 progs, or roughly two years, and the 320s into the 330s is just as strong, with top quality Dredd, great Moore shorts, Skizz, Cam Kennedy Rogues, Gibson Robo-Hunter, then Skizz giving way to Slaine, Dredd serving up Cry of the Werewolf, then Nemesis and Strontium Dog coming back into the line-up just as McMahon makes his Slaine debut.

Surely, Prog 335 has to be a contender for strongest prog in the title's history?
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Magnetica

Good shout. Dredd, Slaine, Nemesis, Stront at or near their peaks ( My Top 4 all time thrills).

When the weakest strip is Rogue Trooper you know it's a good Prog. But those others elevate it to the stratosphere.

Fungus

Last time the Best Prog Ever subject came up I think 335 took the honours. In an unscientific, no votes cast as such, wandering thread, kind of a way. Can't think of a better prog, offhand.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 12 October, 2016, 12:59:41 PM
Surely, Prog 335 has to be a contender for strongest prog in the title's history?

Okay, I'm not sure about either of these but just to add to the mix how about

Prog 626
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=626

or

Prog 1634
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1634

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 12 October, 2016, 05:57:35 PM

Prog 1634
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1634
Oh my WORD that is a rather magnificent line up. It's saying something when Savage back when I gave a damn about it, was the poorest thing in the prog.

SuperSurfer

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 12 October, 2016, 12:59:41 PM
Surely, Prog 335 has to be a contender for strongest prog in the title's history?

Features The Moses Incident – in my opinion the finest Strontium Dog story that graced the pages of 2000AD. 

sheridan

Quote from: Magnetica on 11 October, 2016, 11:29:34 PM
I have a question of my own - is it just me or do others find the Progs of this era more memorable than any others? I am not sure if it is just because they were relatively at the start of my 2000AD reading "career" and so my memory was less full of other Progs*, or because they were just the best Progs of all time.

(*It is a bit like when I owned only a handful of Albums, I could name every single track on every album I owned. Now I have far more I can't.)


A good deal of that is just because it's when you started reading it.  I feel exactly the same about the era about two and a half years later (I'd have been a bit young to read Tooth in the time period you describe).

sheridan

Quote from: Fungus on 12 October, 2016, 02:54:35 PM
Last time the Best Prog Ever subject came up I think 335 took the honours. In an unscientific, no votes cast as such, wandering thread, kind of a way. Can't think of a better prog, offhand.


About the third or fourth prog I ever bought (the first one I bought was 330 and for some reason I missed a few weeks - perhaps I'd only ever got non-sequential comics* before then and wasn't in the habit of having to buy them every week).  No wonder I was hooked and am still reading thirty-three years later!


*Beano / Dandy / Whizzer and Chips / etc - they have issue numbers but you don't miss anything if you don't read every issue in order.