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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

Started by Molch-R, 27 February, 2017, 06:03:27 PM

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IndigoPrime

#3525
Honestly, I'll be surprised if we get an extension to this one. If we do, what I'd like depends very much on how many books they go for. If just ten, I'd prefer them to concentrate on wrap-ups – get series finished (Strontium Dog; Absalom) or to logical breakpoints (Kingdom).

Beyond that, it would seem sensible to have content that can be wrapped up within the extension. So short of us getting 20 books, that means no Red Seas or Brass Sun, and Grey Area would be tricky. Scarlet Traces could work by ending it at a logical moment, though, as could (as much as I personally don't care for it) Defoe. Brink would be wonderful, but seems vanishingly unlikely, given the availability of Rebellion's own trades. (I'd love that in HC, though.) Button Man would presumably have rights issues.

On a more personal front, I'd happily not see Zenith (because I have the HCs!), but would love to see some John Smith content. Whatever we get, I'd be thrilled with that Firekind/Leatherjack HC that I won't shut up about. (I mean, come on – surely Firekind deserves a reprint in book form at some point?)

EDIT: Looking at Barney, Firekind is 78 pages and Leatherjack is 116. So even if there are issues with uneven episode lengths, that's within Hachette volume requirements. Alternatively, the entirety of Revere is about the same length as Leatherjack, and could fit equally well with Firekind. A small number of Smith-penned one-offs and Terror Tales also exist if the collection needs a few extra pages filled.

leethomson

I was being a bit optimistic there - it's enough material for about 30 more volumes and doesn't include the stuff already in the UC that could be continued (Kingdom, Deadworld Bad Company). Honestly, I'd happily settle for a one volume extension if it included Firekind, but I suspect you're right and we won't be seeing an extension at all.

IndigoPrime

I guess it just depends on sales and especially subscription levels, and it's impossible to know what those are like. Looking at it, almost every other one of Hachette's partworks has been extended, and so who knows? (Was the Doctor Who one? Mind you, that had a very obvious and finite end point. Transformers has been extended. Dredd got an extra ten. One of the Marvel ones got a bunch of extra books, and I suspect the original Marvel one will still be running when the entire world is populated by AI robots.)

The Monarch

milton keynes will be a mutie shanty town before the marvel books end

Mattofthespurs

The Doctor Who one got an extension of 10 further volumes.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 17 October, 2019, 12:04:07 PM
Beyond that, it would seem sensible to have content that can be wrapped up within the extension.

I started working out something similar myself - I think this would do it (Stickleback was on there, but that was presuming the final book had run in the prog by that point and it seems unlikely). You could easily have more Sinister Dexter books too, of course, though the current Hachette run will leave it in a fairly tidy end-point.

1 – Absalom (Sick Leave – Terminal Diagnosis)
1 – Kingdom (As It Is In Heaven, Alpha & Omega)
1 - Strontium Dog (Stix Fix – The Son)
2 - ABC Warriors (Return to Earth, Return To Mars; Return to Ro-Busters, Fallout)
2 – Savage (The Guv'nor – Crims(4-6); Secret City – Grinders(7-9))
1 – Dark Judges (Dominion, Fall of Deadworld III, IV)

That still leaves so much cool stuff uncollected, though, that would fit neatly into one (or at most two) fairly-complete volumes - Defoe, Indigo Prime, Jaegir, Brink, Lobster Random, Luke Kirby...
@jamesfeistdraws

Dark Jimbo

...And that's totally forgetting more Dredd stuff!
@jamesfeistdraws

sintec

Yeah a volume carrying on from where the MegaCollection left off with Dredd would be awesome - I'm holding back on buying some of the recent trades just in case this becomes a thing

sintec

Updated graph of "how much of the Prog have Hachette collected". Since last time I posted one of these I've updated my methodology somewhat to try and improve things. I've converted the Index_of_every_story_published_in_British_comic_2000AD.pdf into a csv which I'm now using for my comparison with csvs of the stories published in each Hachette volume. Previous graphs were based on the assumption that there are usually 5 stories per prog; now I know how many stories there were in each Prog I can account for those times when there were differing numbers of stories to get a more accurate picture. That said the % is based purely on the number of stories not their respective page counts, a 1 page Future Shock gets the same weighting as a double length Sinister Dexter.

By my reckoning we currently have 100% of the strips from the following progs:
257, 320, 322-325, 327, 329-332, 334-341, 343-345, 356-359, 363, 378-381, 383-385, 392, 412-418, 425, 428, 431-433, 448, 450, 555-556, 562, 1092-1095, 1100, 1138, 1150, 1523-1525, 1569-1573

That's a near complete run from 320-385 (quite a lot of near misses in the 360-377 patch where we're lacking a 1 one-shot Future Shock or some Dredds). 412-433 is also a near complete run but then Mean Team occurs and breaks it.

sintec

One last "interesting" thing I noticed as a scrolled through the numbers again. There are 435 Progs where we have 0 stories. Over 100 of which are the recent run of issues going back to 2034 which is unsurprising as I suspect many of those came out after the Ultimate Collection started running. That's just 319 issues which we have no content from out of the preceding 2033!

athorist

I'm pretty sure Defoe is unlikely, seeing as it's been in the megazine the last 3 months, so that only leaves one book (and the current one). Having said that, I wouldn't complain about having it all in one volume. I think it definitely reads better collected than week by week.

On the other hand, they could just troll us and have another 10 volumes of Slaine.
You need light here even in the morning
Compared to this St Petersburg was nothing

The Fall - No Bulbs

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: athorist on 20 October, 2019, 01:03:25 AM
I'm pretty sure Defoe is unlikely, seeing as it's been in the megazine the last 3 months, so that only leaves one book (and the current one).

If we get an extension, we won't see the first book until September 2020 - and the collection is aimed nominally at new and lapsed readers, so I don't think that matters.

Hachette seems to like to collect three 'books' per volume as standard, and Leigh Gallagher's run on Defoe splits perfectly into two volumes.
@jamesfeistdraws

Jade Falcon

Seems we're also missing a lot of stuff like Flesh, Leviathan, any of the Future sports.  I'm not bothered in the sports as I have the complete phone book of Harlem Heroes and Inferno, but I'm surprised on Flesh or Leviathan to be honest.

Still no sign of my missing Slaine.
When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies. - Valery Legasov

The Monarch

strontium dog vol 7 contains final solution and roadhouse no A Sorry Case though which is sad

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: The Monarch on 23 October, 2019, 11:51:37 AM
strontium dog vol 7 contains final solution and roadhouse no A Sorry Case though which is sad

Is that it? Huh, that's a shame. I really like Roadhouse (against the prevailing winds of opinion) so I'm glad it's been collected, but I was hoping for either Sorry Case or maybe Top Dogs in there too.
@jamesfeistdraws