2000 AD Online Forum

General Chat => Classifieds => Topic started by: Famous Mortimer on 04 March, 2018, 01:22:53 PM

Title: Zzap! 64
Post by: Famous Mortimer on 04 March, 2018, 01:22:53 PM
I was into both when I was younger, so I hope someone else was too :)

Now the collecting is all done for 2000AD, I fancied building up my collection of Zzap! 64 magazines. Be nice to read em again, honestly. If you have any (especially if you have the binders they came in) get in touch.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 04 March, 2018, 01:44:29 PM
Good luck with the binders. Those things sell for a small fortune. I was a big Zzap! fan myself though – and one of the main people behind th me tribute issue from 2002 or thereabouts.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: sheridan on 04 March, 2018, 04:02:58 PM
Never heard of it before.  However, I did just find this...


(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/magazinesfromthepast/images/0/0f/Zzap64_Issue_70.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110330103450)
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Big_Dave on 04 March, 2018, 04:17:38 PM
chirs weston  https://archive.org/details/zzapp_64_issue_070_600dpi
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 04 March, 2018, 06:17:43 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 04 March, 2018, 04:02:58 PMNever heard of it before.  However, I did just find this...
Oliver Frey of Dan Dare fame was their regular cover artist. (He produced only one piece for 2000 AD – a Rogue Trooper pin-up (http://www.2000ad.org/functions/cover.php?Comic=scans&choice=774) that I subsequently used as the basis for a 'new' piece of art for the tribute issue 107 (http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=107&page=001&thumbstart=1&magazine=zzap&check=1). When he became overloaded with work, the idea was for other artists to take the strain. But as far as I can tell, there were only a few issues of the magazine Frey didn't do the cover for. Three were Weston art (the depicted one, and also issues 72 (http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzapcovers/i72apr91.jpg) and 73 (http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzapcovers/i73may91.jpg)), and one that featured another artist familiar to 2000 AD readers (http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzapcovers/i64aug90.jpg).

As for Zzap!64 in general, I suspect whether or not you heard of it is down to 1) whether you're British, and 2) whether you were a fan of the C64 in the 1980s.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Steve Green on 04 March, 2018, 09:00:19 PM
And if you weren't a fan of the C64 then there was the Spectrum equivalent, Crash.

Both published by Newsfield in Shropshire, they also had a spin-off games company called Thalamus.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: SIP on 06 March, 2018, 09:38:20 AM
Quote from: Steve Green on 04 March, 2018, 09:00:19 PM
And if you weren't a fan of the C64 then there was the Spectrum equivalent, Crash.

Both published by Newsfield in Shropshire, they also had a spin-off games company called Thalamus.

I did not know thalamus was a relayed company! I loved zzap, and thalamus made some of my favourite c64 games, Armalyte, Retrograde and Snare.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 06 March, 2018, 12:40:29 PM
Thalamus was owned by Newsfield. Ex-Zzap! Gary Liddon was one of the founding executives. The name and logo were later used by Thalamus Publishing for a number of years. That imprint mostly worked on history books, but also issued a volume of Oliver Frey's art. I did their website, oddly enough. That was wound up, and the name now exists as 'Thalamus Digital Publishing', which is looking to remaster classic Thalamus titles like Hunter's Moon (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thalamusdigital/hunters-moon-remastered).

And Snare was a superb game (and, oddly, under-rated in Zzap!64).
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Satanist on 06 March, 2018, 01:19:11 PM
There's an Zzap 64 annual in the works which will be funded via Kickstarter around the end of March...

http://www.retro-now.com/zzap-64-annual-announced/

I'll be all over this as was my favourite gaming mag.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 06 March, 2018, 03:08:00 PM
I grabbed the Crash one, which was nicely put together, and had some input from ex-Newsfield people. I suspect the Zzap!64 one will be in much the same vein.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: matty_ae on 06 March, 2018, 03:58:59 PM
Oli used to offer to do the 'reader's head shots' that used to feature in all their publications.
Have a look on his website and see if he still does them.

I asked him to do Dan and Zeta (who were clearly both readers)
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 06 March, 2018, 04:33:47 PM
Yeah, Oli's still doing those (http://oliverfreyart.com/reviewer-head/4570339040).
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: sheridan on 06 March, 2018, 10:37:07 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 06 March, 2018, 04:33:47 PM
Yeah, Oli's still doing those (http://oliverfreyart.com/reviewer-head/45703...).

That link appears to have been truncated.  Though when I url-chopped to get to the homepage I had the zoid Red Horn staring at me, so I'm happy.  Was it Grant Morrison who did some early work telling the tales of the little silver and gold plastic figures that rode around in zoids?
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 09:59:59 AM
Link fixed.

And, yes, some of Grant Morrison's early work was found in the Spider-Man and Zoids comic, including the set-up (but, sadly, never any resolution) for the universe being a 'game' played out by extra-dimensional beings. (The comic was set to continue as a US-format with Yeowell on art duties. Some pages exist in low-res scanned form (http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/zoidstar/11/index.html).)
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Link Prime on 07 March, 2018, 05:07:41 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 09:59:59 AM
Link fixed.

And, yes, some of Grant Morrison's early work was found in the Spider-Man and Zoids comic, including the set-up (but, sadly, never any resolution) for the universe being a 'game' played out by extra-dimensional beings. (The comic was set to continue as a US-format with Yeowell on art duties. Some pages exist in low-res scanned form (http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/zoidstar/11/index.html).)

So 'Silverman' turned out to be an android eh?

Read and enjoyed some of that as a kid (really cool toys too), but I've never seen the unpublished material in that link before, so cheers IP.


Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 05:34:18 PM
The entire run is online (http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/zoidstar/comics.html). As I understand it, IDW had plans to reprint all this material some years back, but no-one could figure out the current rights situation. A pity. I'd have happily bought a Zoids volume. (Well, assuming it was done properly – i.e. thinking about it, in a manner better than IDW's usual reprint stuff.)
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: sheridan on 08 March, 2018, 12:11:44 AM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 09:59:59 AM
Link fixed.

And, yes, some of Grant Morrison's early work was found in the Spider-Man and Zoids comic, including the set-up (but, sadly, never any resolution) for the universe being a 'game' played out by extra-dimensional beings. (The comic was set to continue as a US-format with Yeowell on art duties. Some pages exist in low-res scanned form (http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/zoidstar/11/index.html).)

What, like people playing with little plastic toys? ;-)
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2018, 08:31:19 AM
I imagine that's basically where Morrison was going with it, to be honest. Still, if Transformers can gradually morph into an epic political drama painted in shades of grey, there's no reason Zoids couldn't have become something long-lasting.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Link Prime on 08 March, 2018, 09:43:21 AM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 05:34:18 PM
I'd have happily bought a Zoids volume.

Yeah, I would too, and I'm sure quite a few others would at that.
Rare material from the creators of Zenith with added 80's nostalgia appeal? It's a win.

I assume its still a little known fact about the creative team involved, I recall I was only made aware of it myself due to this forum a few years ago.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2018, 09:57:53 AM
Yep, although it's a shame how the other creators have been whitewashed, to some extent. Ian Rimmer built the UK Zoids world (which was frankly a lot more interesting than the Japanese one), and Kev Hopgood's art in those early episodes were spectacular. I love Senior, Anderson and Yeowell, but it always felt like a downgrade when Hopgood went away.

Grant Morrison doesn't show up until issue 18, with a two-prong script that introduces Metalon (which feels very much unlike everything that had happened until that point). Furman has a run after that, and then Richard Alan (a name I don't recognise), and Rimmer again.

Morrison returns in issue 30, expanding on the Zoids' thirst for galactic conquest, has a break (during which some of the Silverman arc is set up), before returning in #36 for a trip to Earth. We later get the Black arc Zoid (which is, frankly, perhaps the best 'clear the deck for new toys' writing, bar possibly the abrupt annihilation of a slew of Autobots in the Transformers movie, during which the Decepticons suddenly learned how to shoot straight), and a load of plot threads that were left dangling.

Despite some clear 'inspiration' from Aliens and Terminator, Morrison's Zoids was turning into something really interesting, and it's a pity the proposed Zoids comic never came to anything. At the very least, it would have been great to see a run of a dozen issues, to conclude the story of the survivors of the Celeste, and everything else that was going on.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: JOE SOAP on 08 March, 2018, 12:54:02 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2018, 09:57:53 AM
Kev Hopgood's art in those early episodes were spectacular. I love Senior, Anderson and Yeowell, but it always felt like a downgrade when Hopgood went away.

And Ron Smith.

(http://art.cafimg.com/images/Category_34661/subcat_81376/28p1.jpg)

http://www.comicartfans.com/comic-artists/Ron_Smith.asp?m=NewArt&PM=9&PI=18

The only reason I bought Spider-Man and Zoids was for the B story which was really the A story and I don't think I ever read the rest of it - certainly can't remember any of it.

Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2018, 01:37:49 PM
I read the other bits, but Zoids was clearly the main event. In a sense, it was almost an anthology comic, given how rapidly the back-up strip changed: Sectaurs; Fantastic Four; Star Wars; Star Brand; Strikeforce Morituri; Secret Wars II.

Those issues where it was just Zoids and Spidey were the best. But, man, I wasn't happy when it finally dawned on me in March 1987 that the promised Zoids comic was never going to materialise.
Title: Re: Zzap! 64
Post by: Link Prime on 08 March, 2018, 01:47:14 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 05:34:18 PM
The entire run is online (http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/zoidstar/comics.html).

Was reading through that on my lunch break earlier, surprised to find that there are several episodes I can clearly recall- must have been a spoiled brat very good child to have that comic and 2000AD bought for me regularly.

It holds up quite well.
Clever stuff having the youngest member of the Celeste crew being the only one small enough to fit inside a commandeered Zoid.