Topics

With the appearance of Vienna at the end of the latest episode I've come up with a thery about what might be going on. But which I'm sure will prove to be wrong making me look daft.

Vienna (who is an acctress) and several of her actor friends are acting out the kidnap/Satanist scenario in order to teach 'Uncle Joe' a lesson for all the years he snubbed her.


Or maybe not.


It was just an idea.

 

Dear Tharg

Someone recently asked for a book of Classic cover, which got me thinking

Please, please, please can we also have a book (Or even as a feature in the Meg) of Classic scripts?

The selection of scripts on the web site is paltry to say the least and although good are hardly classic (Bad Mother?)

You could print the script, including the writers opinions of what worked and then the strip with artists comments.

I for one would find it interesting to see how well known stories were written and then interpreted by the artist.

Amongst the scripts I would like to see include the following:

Pat Mills: Judge Whitey script (With amendments)

Any of the early Nemesis scripts particularly Book 4:Gothic Empire

Judge Dredd: Blood of Satanus (With references to Dredd?s girlfriend included)

Return of Rico

John Wagner: America, Judge Death, Buggo, The Fink etc. (Too many to mention)

Grant Morrison: Zenith

Alan Moore: Halo Jones, Time Twisters etc.

Gerry Finlay-Day (Complete with typos and Alan Grant?s amendments)

Gordon Rennie: Any (Missionary Man, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper) bar Witch World

Robbie Morrison: Nikolai Dante


Anyone else thinks this is a good idea say yey-us.

Right I don't know much about the Doctor so I was wondering if anyone could answer these questions and maybe suggest links.

1 William Hartnoll was the first Doctor but has his adventures before 1963 (real time) ever been explored?

2 How old was the Doctor when we first met him?

3 How many lives does he have?

4 Was the First Doctor actually the first body the Doctor has had?

5 How old do Time Lords live?

6 Have we ever seen Time Lord children?

7 Is it just the people who live on Gallifrey who are Time Lords?

8 What powers do Time Lords have?

 

Is it me or are the free gifts and also half the stock in Tharg?s future shop generally not that great? Allow me to elaborate and you?ll see the point I?m trying to make.

Bits and Bobs
I think over the years we have suffered from ill thought out free gifts and 2000 ad related merchandise. Stickers, pencils, badges, mugs, t-shirts, novels and hats have all been produced by the house of Tharg. I think the major problem with these is that you may be a fan of the Galaxy?s Greatest but that doesn?t necessarily mean that you want to go down the pub wearing a red baseball cap with Judge Dredd emblazoned across it whilst wearing an ill fitting Judge Death t-shirt (XL only) which is covered in badges (?Judge Dredd megazine available every fortnight?).

Not that there?s anything wrong with it BUT it is possible to be a comics fan without wanting to wear them on your head, chest etc.

2000ad above all else is a visual product with a loyal fan base. Each week we fork out cash to pay for the action, humour & anarchy continued within. With such a strong visual identity it is perhaps inevitable that we sometimes think more of the artwork than the writing. You only need to look at the popularity of Logan?s recent ?Best Cover Ever Competition? to highlight how important the artwork is to us.

With that in mind I think Tharg should concentrate his effort in producing posters of his hyper heroes.

?But Tharg has always produced posters! What are you on about??

Posters-a brief history.

In the Seventies and Eighties we had Starscans. The art was amazing especially the wraparound covers. The draw back? You had to cut up your prog and stick it to a bit of cardboard. We all did it when we were young and daft. Nowadays I?d rather, I don?t know, burn my Granny.

During the Nineties several Poster Progs were produced. These had to be folded down to a manageable size consequently the poster was blighted with folds and creases.

This was also a problem with the countless posters given away free in the prog and meg over the years. That and the staples, always the damned staples. (See prog 1350)

If you look at the posters available in the Future shop you can see another problem, which seems to have blighted posters and for that matter covers since the Nineties, the stock image. Here is a poster of Character A pointing his gun at the viewer. Here?s one of Character B shaking his day stick at the viewer and one of Character C etc. etc. etc. I blame Bisley!  

All the posters on sale here appeared as covers originally and have a kind of familiarity breeding, if not contempt, certainly an apathetic feeling about them. Add to that they?re not the biggest poster (A3 & A2) you could hope for and you have a quite dull product in my opinion.

Proposal.

I sincerely believe that Rebellion should investigate the idea of producing a number of A1 sized glossy posters.

I think they should look into making the posters available not just online or in comics shops but also HMV, Virgin Mega stores, Athena etc. All these retailers sell posters of generic sci-fi scenes aimed at the impressionable teenage market. How much better would it be for everyone if posters of 2000ad characters in fantastic settings were available. The fans would be happy and the uninitiated shopper could be tempted to investigate the character. A discreet logo would also help to raise awareness of the Prog proper.

I think the image ideally should be an original image and it should not be reused as a cover. Also the poster should be the only place where you can get your hands on the image.

Saying that it would be good to see some of the classic covers in large poster format. Prog 204 please!

Instead of the posters being devoted solely to a stock image of one character you could produce a poster with every 2000 ad character who?s ever appeared. I?m thinking of the Classic Dave Gibbons poster from Prog 200. Just imagine Nikolai Dante rubbing shoulders with the Johnny Alpha, the bikers from Babe Race 2000 being snipped at by Lobster Random, Ro-Jaws bugging the bloke in the wheel chair from Chronos Carnival, Judge Death killing everyone in the Timehouse, Tao De Moto, The Space Girls and the Wireheads. And Junker.

Or a Mega City landscape filled completely with every character that has appeared in the Judge Dredd strip. Like a ?Where?s Wally? picture with Thrillpower.

The very best artists in the field should be employed. Brian Bolland & Mike McMahon back on Dredd? With a poster it could be a possibility.

Personally I would love to see Alex Ross attempting one of his celebrated homage covers. Any of McMahon?s Classic Dredd covers painted by Ross could look like a piece of Soviet Social Realist propaganda.

It could be drokking amazing!

Who?s with me?

And for that matter his "Utility" belt?

AND have we ever actually seen him getting anything out of them.

(I'm talking about those pouches on his gloves by the way.)

Does anyone know if the best sitcom in the world ever is going to be released on DVD?

And if so,when?

Just wondered what everyone else thinks about the City block's in Mega City One.

I thought the idea was that they're supposed to be like mini-cities. self contained units which contain hospitals,parks etc etc.

In fact in one strip it claimed that some citizens spend their whole lives in the same block.

If this is the case why do we almost always just see citizens walking between blocks, in tween block plazas or on pedways.

Does anyone else think this concept has not really been expored to its full potential?
 

Does anyone know what this droid is working on next.

IMHO he is one of the best new droid's around

Is it me or should John Wagner get together with Ian Gibson and bring back Sam Slade.

It would be brill.

Stop me if I'm wrong but did I read somewhere (The Meg?) that a 2000ad character is going to die soon?

My money's on Slaine.

What does everyone think/hope?

 

"Rufus is as close to early McMahon as you?ll ever get without a time machine."

WR Logan

I really enjoyed the two different styles of McMahon art which Rufus utilised in the first Class of 79.

And that thread got me thinking.

I wonmdered whether Tharg could commision Wagner to write a Dredd through the years style story and reprogramme McMahon to draw in the appropriate art style for each particular year.

In fact don't just stop with McMahon but use other art droids who are associated with a particular period in Dredd's life. I'm thinking Ron Smith for the action Dredd.

I thought it might be fun to compile a list of established artists who?ve never worked for 2000ad but would be ideal choices to work on it.

My first choice is Geoff Darrow.  Is it just me or would a Wagner scripted/Darrow drawn strip be truly scrotnig?

Just imagine a Mega City 1 literally packed full of Darrow?s intricate figure work.

Even better just a large poster a bit like Where?s Wally but instead Where?s Dredd.

I'd buy it.

"Andy Diggle was editor at the time. He had all sorts of crazy manifestos about this or that"

Simon Spurrier 2003

I was wondering whether anyone has any access to these manifestos as I'd be interested to read them all.

I remember reading one which said something along the lines that 2000ad should be about weird characters.

Interesting when you look at Snow/Tiger.  

I don't want to go on too long but does anyone have any idea whatever happened to Gerry Finlay-Day?

What's he up to these days?

Is he even alive?

I loved, LOVED all the strips he wrote,I tells ya!

Just wondering which Dredd story should be given the title "The Worst Dredd in the World...Ever".

For every "Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart" there's a "Teddy Bear's Gunfight" to balance things up.

I think to make it more interesting, reasons why you thought a particular episode stank such as poor art, plot,dialogue,colouring etc should be given.

C'mon get yer thinking caps on and give us your top ten worst.

Does anyone know any sites where I can find out the content of the 22 issues of Starlord which were published?

I'm only really interested in finding out about the pre-"2000 AD" adventures of Johnny, Wulf, Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws.

Any info would be gratefully received.

I've alreay got ten issues including one featuring Johnny's sister, brother in law and niece! (Its another 'Vienna' situation if you ask me)

In another he disguises himself as a gypsy with a 'trendy' spotty bandana!