2000ad Archive

[Colin YNWA]

Over at 2000ad Review I've seen mention of this fella and a second volume reprinting issues 1-20 in their entirety. Does anybody have anymore info as I can find nowt on Barney so I'm assuming they're unofficial?

[Trout]

Uh-oh. I'm wearing my tin hat and heading for the Anderson shelter...

Those books did indeed exist, but not every reader would believe it. The delays involved caused a bit of controversy and, amid cancelled orders, the project was shelved.

The magic of Logan means I have a copy of the first volume, but a lot of people were left disappointed. Happily, the Casefiles have worked out far better.

- Trout

[Mangamax]

I got 'em back at Dreddcon 3 i think, and it really is a case of Thrill Power Overload.
Would rather have runs of entire Progs collected into volumes like them than the Casefiles any day.
Real strange they stopped production

[TordelBack]

Wow, new one on me!  How are they done, full adverts/features and all facsimile-type things (in B&W), or just the strips?  Sounds bloody great!

[Colin YNWA]

Not wishing to open up old wounds (by the sound) but does anybody know why they hit trouble? Immediately I wonder about the rights to stuff like Dan Dare in these early issues and whether that kicked things into touch? Shame as it sounds fantastic but a dark (and bitter by the sound!) veil seems to have been thrown over the whole thing?

[SmallBlueThing]

I have at least the first one of these- bought from Tharg's Future Shop a few moons ago. I may have both, but it would mean geting off my back to go upstairs to the sterile containment vessels section of my Thrill Archive, to go check.

They were paperback reprints of the first issues, in black and white, in their entirety- Dan Dare, ads and all. They suffered from muddy printing and a complete lack of design (both had the same cover, etc) but would have built up to be a rather nice, affordable collection of the early years... if they had continued. Now they stand as a bit of an oddity. But they are nice to heave out, when the mood to bask in raw proto-Thrillpower takes me.

It did cross my mind that if they had continued I'd've just ended up with basically doubling up the space taken by my "bloody comics" (my wife's affectionate description there)- which would have been massively pointless all round. But yes they were nice in theory.

On the whole though the Case Files are more sensible.

SBT

[Trout]

It was down to the printers being a bit shit, it seems. I can't believe it was seven years ago!

Anyway, here are a few threads. It's interesting they were mostly started by one disgruntled customer, but there were a few people quite unhappy at the time.

June 12, 2002:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,1752.0.html

June 24:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,1881.0.html

The following day:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,1895.0.html

July 4:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,2025.0.html

October 16:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,2928.0.html

There's no resolution there, I'm afraid. There may be other threads around, that better men can find. But the sad end of the story is only two volumes were ever produced and the project was shelved.

We should count ourselves lucky that phone book reprints did turn up in the end and - although I admit I own just one volume - are gorgeous.

- Trout

[Peter Wolf]

I want one or both of these.You know how it is when you see something that you must have.I am going to be scouring Ebay from now on and now i have given away my intent as well.


What an excellent idea though and really if i had my way the first 500 progs would be available in these volumes.That would only be 25 volumes in total.

What a shame they were discontinued.

Of course the various ownership rights nonsense would mean that entire strips would be missing which is a shame.

"On the whole the case files are more sensible"

Well yes they are indeed BUT they only contain Judge Dredd so the two are not really comparable in the broader sense beyond being chronological.

[Trout]

Peter, the first 500 progs would be 50 volumes, at 10 issues per volume.

- Trout

[Peter Wolf]

Peter, the first 500 progs would be 50 volumes, at 10 issues per volume.

- Trout

I was going by the second volume that was 1-20 and i speed read the post and didnt notice the first volume being 1-10.

[Trout]

Yeah, not your fault. I'm not sure the initial post is worded clearly. Volume one was progs 1 to 10 and volume two was 11 to 20. They're pretty chunky volumes.

I think the themed phone books are a better idea than these. They're more fun.
IIRC the idea behind the Digital Archives was they would be printed on demand - ie they would only exist if people ordered them.

- Trout

[SuperSurfer]

IIRC the idea behind the Digital Archives was they would be printed on demand - ie they would only exist if people ordered them.

So they were printed digitally? Up until now I thought they were some sort of CD archive, hence 'Digital Archive'. Not a good title. Why should the reader care what the print process is?

The Litho Casebooks.

[Trout]

Well, it was seven years ago. It's only relatively recently that publishers started switching to digital archiving, to remove the need for rooms full of paper. It seemed an interesting aspect at the time.

(When I started as a reporter about 15 years ago, we were still cutting little bits out of the paper for biographical files of people of note, and our digital library only had 18 months' worth of stuff in it.)

[Peter Wolf]

Yeah, not your fault. I'm not sure the initial post is worded clearly. Volume one was progs 1 to 10 and volume two was 11 to 20. They're pretty chunky volumes.

I think the themed phone books are a better idea than these. They're more fun.
IIRC the idea behind the Digital Archives was they would be printed on demand - ie they would only exist if people ordered them.

- Trout

In my dreams i would have these and the themed phone books.

[TordelBack]

In my dreams i would have these and the themed phone books

.

Me too!  And a new (significantly larger) house to put them all in.