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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

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

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AlanProut

I picked up Invasion yesterday and I have to say it's very enjoyable. The art on the spine is slightly off but not enough to bother me, the end pages on my copy are not upside down.

IndigoPrime

And in the nightmare dimension: "Sorry, but we've decided that of the 30 new books, 30 of them will somehow be Sláine."

Rately

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 05 December, 2019, 11:56:44 AM
A Fiends book would be a nice inclusion; plenty to choose from now between the classic strip, the Durham Red one-shot, the Bishop/MacNeil story, and the Edginton revival.

I'll second that.

I've seen some lovely art by Carlos, and love the few progs I've purchased with the new series so would be lovely to have it all collected.

levers

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 December, 2019, 01:10:03 PM
And in the nightmare dimension: "Sorry, but we've decided that of the 30 new books, 30 of them will somehow be Sláine."

Surely that's also every issue of The Best of 2000ad!

sintec

#3679
Speculating about the extension got me thinking about how much of the prog we've already had.  Playing arround with the data I hit on the idea with looking at it through the lens of Funt Solos excellent 2000 AD in Stages thread.  Thought others here might find the resulting graph interesting so here it is.

For the initial run of 80 books I don't think we're actually expecting much which is going to change this.  The next future shock volume will inch some of the columns up a little bit as will Cinnabar in the 5th Rogue volume.  Other than those 2 books I think everything else is going to be in later stages.

Jade Falcon

I'd really like to know what more stuff will be in an extension as to be frank I've had more satisfaction from the Dredd collection, there have been a fair few too many that I've been meh about, namely the amount of Slaine but others as well.  I'm also surprised there hasn't been more of the really older collection like Flesh, Shako, Harlem Heroes, The VC's, Ro-Busters and others.  Granted, all of those I've listed I already own in other trades, but I'm talking about that era.  For a 'best of', there's a fair amount of newer stories, at least newer by my perspective.
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

sintec

That's interesting - personally I'd found that the Dredd collection had more meh volumes. Stuff like Stars of Psi-Division, Behind The Iron Curtain, The Heavy Mob, and Fallen Angels were all a bit rubbish and I can't see them getting many re-reads. Slaine 5 & 6 I could have lived without and that 2nd volume of Robo-hunter was a slog to get through but otherwise I've enjoyed pretty much everything in the Ultimate collection so far.  For my money the bad Dredd volumes were worse than the bad Ultimate ones have been ymmv clearly.

Given we've got 30 books in the extension I'd be very surprised if we don't get at least a couple of those titles.  Flesh and VCs both seem like pretty safe bets for inclusion.  Not sure what they'd pair Shako with to make up a vol, I don't think it's got enough page count to stand alone.  Similarly I'm not sure if there enough 2000ad era Ro-busters to make a volume given we've already had a couple of bits in ABC Warriors: Volume 4. Although it would seem weird to include Return To Ro-Busters without including more Ro-busters and I think the Return To ABCs stories seem like strong candidates for inclusion.  Personally the future sports stuff doesn't really appeal but given it's significance in that opening line up I wouldn't be surprised to see a volume or 2 of Harlem Heroes.

Arkady

Yeah that's an interesting take. I feel like the collection has been a bit of a slave to nostalgia and is overly dominated by complete sets of stuff from the 80s instead of taking a braver approach and including a wider range of stuff from the whole run.

Mambo please!

moly

Would nice if they can include harry20, mean areana and other older stuff that's either oop or not previously released in graphic novel format

sintec

I think this conversation is nicely proving just how hard it is to please everyone when compiling a collection like this. The complete runs of the classics were quite appealing to me as a new reader but it has dictated a lot of the content so far.

It'd be nice to see some more creator themed volumes gathering up any future shock style shorts and 2-3 self contained stories by a specific writer or artist. We've not really had very much of that and it looks like a potentially rich seam.

IndigoPrime

What sintec says. Personally, I'm very happy Strontium Dog and Nikolai Dante got complete runs. Of course, the latter would make no sense piecemeal, but the former could have easily enough skipped a bunch of stuff and still worked. But with Sláine, I'd have happily jumped from Horned God to Books of Invasion (perhaps with a single 'highlights' volume of some of the better in-between shots). But then Sláine is arguably the most famous 2000 AD character after Dredd, and so it makes sense to get it warts an' all.

For me, what's going to be interesting is what happens in those extra 30 volumes. I assume that they will mostly be hardback versions of books Rebellion has already released in some format (be that for OOP soft back trades, Meg floppies, or something else). But I do hope there's a decent mix of strips. I personally don't want a nostalgia fest any more than it would have made sense for the Marvel series to go all-in on a classic run.

My hope is the series primarily concentrates on objectively decent fare. By admission of the editorial content in the Dredd volumes, that wasn't always the case, which, frankly, baffled me – if the editors think a series isn't that great, why bother reprinting it, unless it's vital in some way? 2000 AD has such an embarrassment of riches that this shouldn't be a massive problem. (And I know that although some people will disagree over what's good and what isn't, objectivity can differentiate between, say, Harry 20 on the High Rock and Angel.)

Jade Falcon

I still think it's strange that in the Dredd collection we never had a Captain Skank story especially considering how much of the Dredd lore was taken up by the Apocalypse War and both its lead up (like Luna City) and it's ramifications like Orlok and Chaos Day.

Shako is one I have the trade in, and it is a fairly slim book.  It includes the story and an annual story which was basically an 'origins' story.  Still, it wasn't as thick as say the Jaegir book.  It is too thin to stand on its own and I can't see that theres something with a similiar theme to pair it with.  What about Leviathan?  Flesh complete is a sizeable book, not quite as thick as the Harlem Heroes/Inferno phonebook edition, but about the thickness of Nemesis phonebook 2.

The VC's would be nice in hardback, though there's quite a contrast in style between the original story and the 'Back in Action' era, but still worthwhile.

I remember the 1980 2000ad annual had a story about a WWII platoon and a captured german prisoner with a time machine, but I can't remember what it was called and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a holdover from the Starlord days.
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

that would be phantom patrol an old ipc story used a filler in the early days of the annual.

Jade Falcon

Ah, thanks for that, I doubt that will be in the collection then, not that I'm complaining, but I remember the first few annuals were a bit variable in quality.

I've mentioned before that there was three Bill Savage books released by Rebellion, the original Invasion, Savage:Taking Liberties, and The Guv'nor.  However, the description in Wikipedia makes it plain that there is still stuff that has not been released in graphic novel form.  Does anyone know if its a sizeable amount.  Wiki makes it sound so, but that could depend on the person writing the entry.
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

leethomson

The most recent Savage series was Book 11.Taking Liberties and The Guv'nor collect 3 Books each, up to Book 6. So, only half (or just a little more) of the series has been collected so far.