Sad Day for Megazine

[The Amstor Computer]

re: reprint.

Even a basic "scan, remove obvious damage and adjust levels" pass to make scans of printed B&W line art ready for use adds up to a significant amount of time (and therefore money) when you're talking about a few hundred pages a year. Obviously it's less than the kind of full repro work Rebellion have been doing on their Treasury books, but it's still going to cost and there's a good argument that "poor" repro will turn people off exploring the archive material further.

The floppy is a definite value-add for me with the Meg, and I'd be a bit frustrated to have it turned over to a serialised encyclopaedia. Would prefer to see it continue to be used to collect Rebellion-era prog/Meg material (which should be stored digitally and about as low-cost as you get - already bought and paid for, no repro required etc.) but there's likely a limit to how much you can raid that with competing demands from the graphic novel line, or the simple limits of page count in the floppy. Reprints of material from the older archives would be great, but the repro costs probably make that difficult - I wouldn't mind seeing more "sampler" issues like the recent Vigilant one though, reprinting bite-size samples from existing Treasury reprints.

[IndigoPrime]

I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.

[Richard]

Whatever they need to do to keep the Meg afloat in a crisis is fine by me.

[sheridan]

I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.

I'd have to check, but I think that was already written for the Hachette collections, so not much further work needed to be done (as somebody who owns both I'm not complaining).

[JayzusB.Christ]

I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great

Snigger.

But yes, me too.  I much preferred it to paying for strips that I already have.  But as you say, it's a heck of a lot of work, probably without much reward.

[Colin YNWA]

Personally I'm chuffed about the Encyclopaedia its the sort of thing I love. Though to be fair it'll probably just end up as a preview of what I'll end up buying anyway when its a lovely HC. I can defo see why if its not your thing it'd piss you off though as it will be here for a while.

That said hopefully it will buy them the time they need to look through the Treasury and decide what to do with some of the content there. What to save for eventual trade release and what can be used for floppie. And scan it all and touch it up, whatever needs doing. Then when its done we will get a load of stuff from the Treasury. That's my dream scenario.

[Cyber-Matt]

I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.

I'd have to check, but I think that was already written for the Hachette collections, so not much further work needed to be done (as somebody who owns both I'm not complaining).

Nope. It was written for an intended series of monographs that ended up not going ahead.

[Funt Solo]

Sorry, what encyclopedia are you discussing?

[broodblik]

The one that will be published starting with Meg 424:

https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/

[TordelBack]

The floppy is a definite value-add for me with the Meg, and I'd be a bit frustrated to have it turned over to a serialised encyclopaedia [...] I wouldn't mind seeing more "sampler" issues like the recent Vigilant one though, reprinting bite-size samples from existing Treasury reprints.

I loved the Vigilant characters floppy, one of the most enjoyable comics in ages. Floppies are a big pull for me as a sporadic buyer,  if I see there'll be reprint I like I'm more likely to pull the trigger, and with some exceptions they're usually a good read even if they weren't an initial draw.

However, the Encyclopedia idea is intriguing, especially as having a digital version handy wouldn't preclude buying an eventual printing.

[broodblik]

The floppy for me is a very positive thing about the meg. I really like it when the reprint material is from stuff I never had access to like Tornado and even Starlord.  I also think when stuff like Operation Overlord was printed as a original rather than a reprint, this is when it becomes full value.

I am looking forward to the Encyclopedia.

[IndigoPrime]

Nope. It was written for an intended series of monographs that ended up not going ahead.

I did find it odd just that one appeared. A pity the series didn't continue. It was a good read.

[Funt Solo]

The one that will be published starting with Meg 424:

https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/

Ooh ... thanks, brood, that looks interesting. I was daydreaming about doing an A-Z to replace the out of date TBTHOT, but wanted to finish my Stages project first. And that'll probably take me years, so ...

[broodblik]

It is always nice when other people do your "work" for you.

[Funt Solo]

You keep the bag?

(I'm laughing, but I have a Forbidden Planet paper bag from circa 1982. And that free pencil. And my progs are individually bagged. I had to get rid of that Hubba Bubba, though - it was doing an entropy gig on its own prog - the parasite!)