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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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sheridan

Quote from: Spikes on 07 April, 2017, 10:10:10 PM
Ah, 1984. I remember it well. 'Twas the year I left the prog behind, only to return again in 2011....


Quote from: Colin YNWA on 07 April, 2017, 09:30:14 PM
Any recommendation for full sized Halo Jones reprints?

Well, its gotta be the original 3 TITAN books, hasn't it? It's what I did.

Yeah, what Spikes said - nothing compares to the initial Titan reprints (though I have the latter all-in-one as well) - the whole package is pretty perfect - original full-colour Gibson cover on each, pages scanned from the original artwork (I'm guessing - I've read that's what Titan did with their first releases).  Only thing lacking is they could have had a little more concept artwork.

Colin YNWA

Prog 392

Oh right, yeah I forgot that... see I pay so little attention to Rogue Trooper, on this read as others, skip reading really, not really taking it in (after each time when I satrt to read the series I try to fire up proper enthusiasm, if to enable me to enjoy the glorious art more if nothing else... anyway I'm getting distracted). So I forget so much of what happens, including it would seem how fitting the end is...

... alas its only fitting in that its so weak. It promise so much, yet in in end it has no substance, its utterly flat, full of potential and while looking beautiful just in story, dialogue and character really poor. Ultimately its just poor. So like the series as a whole.

So 'The End'... oh that it were.

Mind Dredd has had a blindin' few weeks, the triology (if unoffical) of Case of, Error of, and Case for are pretty special, setting up things to come for years. The Wally Squad as feels so perfect in developing this new tone so the big story to come is going to be fantastic is it... oh yeah... I remember now...

Colin YNWA

1984

Not quite sure what to say about 1984 really. A bit of a mixed bag of a year really. Some absolute highlights. Dredd has some absolutely stunning stuff going on. In fact the highs of 1984 are probably the very best there's been to date. Halo Jones is of course magnificent. In between though...

... well I like DR and Quinch but its not great. I love Strontium Dog, but Outlaw is a bit hit and miss for me. The return of Ace Trucking see the series, at first not find its form. There's a LOT of one offs of very variable quality. And Rogue Trooper... well I think I've said enough about that already.

Much like last year however by the end of the year things are really cooking. I'm enjoying the start of Helltrekkers far more than I remember, Nemesis Book IV is quite brilliant, Stainless Steel Rat has a great opening and Strike is a bit of an ace up the progs sleeve seeing Garp and co back at the top of their game. So yeah the trick is can we carry these highs into the new year. 1984 didn't hold onto the highs of the end of 1983, will 1985 manage it?

AlexF

Yes. Yes, it will! Apart from a certain blue-skinned fella letting the line-up down, it's onward and upward into 1985, I predict.

Colin YNWA

I feel I should say more about the 1985 Annuals... but I'm not sure I have much to say? The quality of the annuals starts to continues to converge. 2000ad 1985 is the best yet. Some real highlights, Slaine, Alan Moore ABC Warriors, a beautiful Dredd by Gibson. So nice filler and some filler filler. But its a solid product.

Dredd 1985 is continuing to slip. Again real highlights, black and white Gibson here as beautful as the coloured Dredd. Some solid Ezqueera stories and again a chunk of filler.

You know the two are probably on a par this year. As much for 2000ad annuals getting better as Judge Dredd ones not being able to live up to the astonishing standards of the first few.

The 1984  2000ad  Sci-Fi Special isn't all that much to write home about. Very interesting to see early Cliff Robinson, his work very much that of a man finding his feet. It doesn't feel quite ready yet to me. Mind we all know it will come soon enough! Some fantastic John Stokes art in a cute Future Shock and some stunning Brett Ewins art in a ... pretty typical... Rogue Trooper story. The rest is filler of various quality.

Now next years Special has a very special place in my heart. I always dread reading it as I'm not sure it holds up!

Colin YNWA

So 1985 is destined to be an interesting year. In many ways I consider it the year I really got into 2000ad. Even though I'd been reading it on and off since the start I'd always read other people's, mainly my brother's copy and comics had felt disposible. All the old progs fell victims to various clear outs by the mum monster. 1985 saw me get 2000ad for myself for the first time and it's also the start of me being a proper comics fan, as opposed to a kid reading comics like all kids did. So perversely the prog of this year lack some of the majesty of the earlier years, I owned them and know them like the back of my hand and as such they don't quite have the same mystic... still we'll see how we go.

Anyway at the moment we are still in the glories of pre-summer 85 and it's all still quite mystically exciting.... well Nemesis book 4 is... Stainless Steel Rat for President sees this strip end on an  absolute high... Helltrekkers is surprising me with how entertaining I'm finding this dated thrill.... Rogue is steadfastly proving even a revamp can't save this old war horse and of course we have Dredd which is a surethin...

...oh hold on no its a bit rubbish.

I've never been a fan of 'City of the Damned' and my latest re-read isn't doing it any favours. I think I got bored with it long before Wagner and Grant did. They just seemed to be trying to throw so much stuff at the story, seeming convinced by the success of 'Cry of the Werewolf' and 'Haunting of Sector House 9' that throwing horror at Dredd is a safe bet. But so little of this hits the mark and so much just splashes against a wall of cliche. There's some great moments, love the riffing off Spiderman 33 (intended or otherwise) of the Gibson drawn indominitable Dredd, and it looks superb in the main, but it's all a bit aimless and listless. A bit of a Dredd low, which given we are about to enter what I consider a bit of a high when Cam Kennedy soon takes control of the series with some of my all time favourite stories, is a bit of a shame.

Still a Dredd shocker aside 1985 starts off well enough.

Colin YNWA

Prog 411

Interesting times in the Prog as we race towards the time I really think of as mine. Its like the Prog is shifting in preparation for my arrival. I'd read so much in the past its as if Tharg was shifting the house around to make it feel new to me...

.... trouble is I'm not sure I like it.

Dredd has a lovely procedural end to Hunter's Club, kinda reminiscent of procedural that will repeat at their best in the future, though feels a little fresh and different here, not sure if that's my imagination.

Rogue Trooper tries to freshen up the setting. Like a WWII war story shifting from the European Front to the Far East... the trouble is it takes the dullest thing with it Rogue, while leaving behind the best the craziness of Nu Earth. Surprised this strip coild get worse!

Slaine likewise makes a paradigm shift. In the old days I loved it. On re-reads not so much... now... I'm really not getting on with it. It all feels so jarring and I have to say Glenn Fabry's art really lacks the storytelling skills he will develop. Its all too close to really get a sense of place and with all the visual redesign it feels confused.

So yeah we have all this book ended by the new and innovative Halo Jones and old Helltrekkers and in the middle all feels a bit unsettled. 2000ad is often at its best when its testing its boundaries... but sometimes it shouldn't do that with staples.

Colin YNWA

So we're in a bit of a special phase for me. While the pre Prog 416 (not 415 as I always seem to say) stories always feel a little bit special I've not read them as much, or certainly those readings are lost in the mists of time and many issues I didn't own myself until about 10 or so years ago, the Progs from 416 - 430 have a different magic. I bought these progs from Forbidden Planet (when there was just one) on holiday in London after buying 431 and the Summer Special on a whim (or holiday treat for the car journey I imagine).

For one glorious summer holiday these Progs completely dominated my thoughts. I read and re-read these time and time again. As my collection built from here, there was more and more Progs and less and less time to re-read them endlessly as I slowly got into American comics too. These Progs in particular are burnt into my mind. So many Panels I can remember perfectly. Even fan art I remember almost 20 20 from the likes of T Proudfoot, whatever became of him.

Its funny I was 13 when I got these comics, a time I should have been moving away from such things, like so many others did. These reversed that and I got more and more absorbed into the incomparible wonders of 'sequential art.'

I owe these Progs so much.

So when I read them now its a little weird. A strange mix of almost over familarity and absolute nostalgia - glorious evocative stuff. Its hard to evaluate them out of that context. When I do there are a couple of surprises... well actually one main one.

The Dredd's is still absolutely staggeringly good as we enter what I think is my favourite passage of stories from the series, certainly from the pre Wagner return of the 950s (or whenever it was). Cam Kennedy becomes the predominant artist and the stories are just mindblowingly good. Saturday Night Fever being a prime example. Just genius.

Anderson's first solo story is glorious. Probably my favourite Dark Judges story. They just felt perfect in this story and the art from Brett Ewins is sublime. Cliff Robinson does a great job on the back stretch but Ewins chapters are something else.

Strontium Dog is pretty damned fine, but I'll come back to that.

Rogue Trooper... well he's on Horst and its... crap frankly. Still Jose Ortiz continues the fine tradition of dressing up the crap so at least it looks tasty.

Slaine is the shock. I loved this back in the day and re-reading it here, as I've said earlier is just so disappointing. Its all a bit chaotic and not in a good way. Ideas are thrown at it ten to the dozen and few of them work. The art has some glorious moments but it just isn't enough. The change from 'old' Slaine (which I had read back in the day but didn't mean as much to me) is just not working. Its jarring rather than fresh and new.

Still it all means so much to me, good and ill. Like Star Wars and Flesh, in many ways much in here shapes what I define as good reading.

Colin YNWA

Strontium Dog in Prog 425

I've pulled this out of the wittering of my previous post so it didn't get lost.

I rarely talk about detail here... as I'm not much of a detail chap, as my spelling and grammar will atest to. But Strontium Dog in 425 is just golden. Johnny doesn't even appear outside a photo but this episode, The Slavers of Drule part 1. Its just scripted so fantastically. Its so evokes what the strip is about. Its loaded with greatness. Right down to the find bubble.

"He's a Search/Destroy Agent.
They say if you pay them enough they'll track a man to hell itself"

Hell yeah now that's dialogue!

AlexF

Prog 425 was one of my very first as well, and you're getting close to my personal equialent of 'treasured early Progs read to death as an impressionable youth'. That opening epsiode of Slavers of Drule is drokking fantastic!

You now have me scared to re-read Slaine 'Tomb of Terror' which was my introduction to the character, and much beloved. Along with those really ropey 'people on a D&D quest' comics ads that ran in the Nerve Centre.

sheridan

Quote from: AlexF on 23 May, 2017, 02:18:47 PM
Prog 425 was one of my very first as well, and you're getting close to my personal equialent of 'treasured early Progs read to death as an impressionable youth'. That opening epsiode of Slavers of Drule is drokking fantastic!

You now have me scared to re-read Slaine 'Tomb of Terror' which was my introduction to the character, and much beloved. Along with those really ropey 'people on a D&D quest' comics ads that ran in the Nerve Centre.

I quite like those ads - I'm not sure I did at the time, but I've grown to appreciate that, er, stylised art style since.  I should go through them to see if I can mine them for adventures (I'm a DM now :-) ).

Colin YNWA

As we stumble towards the end of the year we hit another very special Prog to me Prog 435, shortly after getting back on board I was lucky enough to have a jumping on Prog and man what a Prog it is.

Dredd continues to be sublime with a strip which for me is the quintessial jumping on intro Dredd. There's been a number of these over the years but this one, one of the earliest is so definative and covers so much of Dredd'd world with a simple mundane army robbery caper. But its not about the crime in this one, its not about the crazy, though there's plenty of that on display, no this is all about the basics. Its just a simole introduction done so very well with beautiful Cam Kennedy art, a phrase I think you'll be hearing over and over again over the next few posts (or more).

In addition this Prog is awash with threats. Nemesis Book V starts, a strip I've really excited about reading again. I'd read a lot of the previous Nemesis and in my head, and on previous re-reads I dont remember the books post Book IV being quite as good as the early volumes. We'll see, I'm certainly excited to see how I get on with it this time round and it certainly gets off to a blistering start, as I recall the pace won't let up either!

There's also a fun Tharg story, another Pete Milligan Future Shock, not that I'm complaining they are always entertaining and occasionally brilliant, but I just didn't remember him being quite as prolific on the old Future Shock front, he's done LOADS.

But the very best thing about this exception Prog is the return of Sam Slade in what I always fondly remember as my all time favourite Robo-hunter story 'Farewell my billions'. Its got stiff competiton this time around as the story early Brit-Cit stories have been among the absolute highlights of my re-read to date, but man I have such fond memories of this story. Can't wait to tuck in again.

So yeah I think I go lucky when I got back into the Prog. I had a nice easy get on, stumbled across a bunch of back issues in the early days of UK comic shops AND then had what I still regard as one of the all time great jump on Progs almost as soon as I was on board.

When comics are this good was it any wonder I stuck around!

Colin YNWA

Wow reckon I'm going to have a lot to say over the next few issues and while we still have even more Milligan Future Shocks and Farewell My Billions is as good as I remember. Even though I'm enjoying Nemesis a heck of a lot its Dredd I want to talk about now and specifically The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Now back in the day I don't think I was too taken by this story, after all its surrounded by so many classic tales. I think I did find it interesting, just not exciting. As the years gone by its grown and grown in my eyes.These days its one of my favourites and for me a very under-rated classic.

See its important, its significent and its a quiet change that means so much and in that context everytime I read it I find more and more. See for me rightly or wrongly this is a real shift in the series. Sure Wagner and Grant have dealt with the darker side of the Judges. Sure they've dealt with the way they oppress the citizens but its never bveen so front and centre. Its never been so central and while that might appear to makes things less subtle it always makes it all the more terrifying.

In many way Fisher Wildman is not particularly sympathetic and that makes this work. Here Wagner and Grant aren't pulling on our heart strings their showing us the bare truth. They don't want to dostract by making us too attached to Wildman, yet we feel his fear and desperation all the same, cold and exposed.

For me this story is up there with Letter from a Democrat as one of the stories that truly starts the shift from Dredd as it was to Dredd as it will become.

Colin YNWA

Wow so much for me to whitter about on this particularly wonderful run of Progs. Its funny on past re-reads this stretch had felt a little too familiar to really stand out - this time round for whatever reason the quality is really shining through. Combined with the massive nostaglia hit they give me and the sense of how they shaped who I am as a reader and consumer of fiction in all forms it really is an absolute golden spell this time round. I mean top of the heap, A number one.

I mean I knew the Dredds of this time were amongst my favourites, and we have another standout here in the heartbreaking Death of a Politician. We've had many Pete Milligan future shock and in Its the Thought that Counts with have one of my all time favourite one offs. For whatever reason this one has always stood out to me and stuck in my noggin. Just amazing stuff.

But all of that isn't the reason I post the reason I post is that Robo-Hunter - Farewell My Billions really has stood up to the test of time.Its clear that Robo-hunter is at its best when the stories are kept to a decent lenght, the early, short Brit-Cit stories I hailed a while ago and this absolute classic are just head and tales (pun intended) above the more stretched yarns like Death Of and the singie thingie. This is tight, sharp, funny, intriguing, exciting and just so much fun and Ian Gibson is just firing on all cylinders. This story really is amongst the finest the Prog has had to offer. And to stand out in Progs as good as this is quite the thing!

TordelBack

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 06 June, 2017, 09:04:24 PM...and Ian Gibson is just firing on all cylinders.

Much as I love Gibson's work on Halo Jones Book III (and generally!), I often think that Farewell My Billions is his true masterpiece.  It's just a level up from what he had done on Robohunter before.