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Topics - Frank

#21
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This is your chance to ask the Tharg who doesn't do interviews anything you want to know about his time on the Galaxy's Greatest, first as sub-editor (1980-1984), and again as editor (1987-1993). They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.

Burton poached schoolboy Steve Dillon from Marvel UK and coached Morrison through all 4 phases of Zenith, so whether your question is a nerdish 'whose idea were the Horned God intro pages?' or a controversial 'what on Earth happened to 2000ad in the 90s?', there's plenty to ask him about.

I'll let y'all know the deadline for questions, and I'll post a link to the ECBT site when the podcast goes up online.

 
#22
General / Letters Of Note (Tharg edition)
28 August, 2016, 09:27:30 PM
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One of the reasons I'm mystified by the smugness of those who have gone completely digital and freed up their spare room for yoga or bigamous marriage is that I'm interested in 2000ad as a living, breathing weekly comic*.

The great joy of trying to re-read a story in its original form is the way that quickly turns into reading two stories when you notice there's another good one running at the same time, which quickly turns into just reading the entire comic.

Even Tharg's Nerve Centre offers entertainment value when the readers' art or letters turn out to be by someone who would go on to work for Tharg, waste their time on this forum, or actually do something noteworthy in the real world.

This morning's reread of Robo-hunter threw up this missive from Joe Cornish of North London and the MCU (290, Nov 1982). It's less a letter to Tharg as naked boasting that he's been to America and seen E.T six months before everyone in the UK.


* Rather than an assortment of incomplete excerpts of longer stories on rubbish paper, with half-closed staples that rip the folded pages in half over time, like a self-destruct mechanism
#23
Suggestions / Fay Dalton can't get work in comics
30 May, 2016, 11:09:45 PM

According to Pat Mills, Fay Dalton can't get work in comics. FAY DALTON.

I assumed the reason why she wasn't producing cover images for US publishers that make Alex Ross look slapdash was that she was earning too much cash elsewhere, but Mills says he's shown her work around the major publishers without success. Dark Horse said her storytelling wasn't up to scratch.

My suggestion is that Tharg should get Dalton drawing Future Shocks, 3rillers, Judge Beeny or Maitland solo series, a Maze Dumoir reboot - anything:





http://www.faydaltonillustration.com/page17.htm
#24
General / Did nineties editorial really get it so wrong?
16 December, 2015, 05:40:54 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 13 December, 2015, 08:27:25 AM
the biggest mistake of (Grant Morrison) in 2000ad was by trying to redefine 2000ad for a 90s audience was that he forgot that the 2000ad was actually getting it pretty much spot on and so by rallying against it he was rallying against something that worked. He also missed that 2000ad wasn't looking for its next generation of audience, rather unlike a lot of comics wonderfully growing up alongside the audience it'd always had.

Colin's comments on another thread reminded me of the line pursued by Pat Mills in the Future Shock DVD.

Rebellion's decision to appeal to a core audience stabilised reader numbers, but if (in 1990) you explained to Robert Maxwell that the solution to 2000ad's circulation problems was to jettison 90% of its readers he wouldn't have been impressed.

The general thrust of the 90s was similar to the 80s approach - strips that were a bit like the kind of films and telly the mass audience were into. Mercy Heights was Babylon 5, Sin/Dex was Pulp Fiction, Vector 13 was X-Files, Sancho Panzer is Our Friends In The North, etc.

I'm not arguing those strips were any good*, just that imagining the 100,000 readers who bought 2000ad every week in the 80s might give the comic a second look if it featured stuff they liked (including Viz and Loaded) wasn't such an insane idea.


* saying they should run good strips instead of shite ones doen't seem like much of an insight
#25
General / Carlos Ezquerra's UK comics debut - 42 years ago
12 September, 2015, 10:50:16 PM

The venerable Colin Noble has granted permission to share the benefits of his detective work with the people who will appreciate it most. He Was Only A Private Soldier, published in DC Thomson's Wizard, marked the UK comics debut of Andorra's gift to the world - and it's reproduced in full on Colin's blog.

Carlos says the first three episodes of this were drawn in Spain and the rest in Croydon*, and it's remarkable how much of it looks like the Carlos we know today. The hero is the kind of clean cut youth of whom DCT would approve, but the faces of the supporting cast are very familiar and even details like the way legs look in high boots are straight out of his Dredd work of today:




* famously the model for the urban nightmare of MC1
#26
General / RENGA: aborted DC Thomson rival to 2000AD
30 June, 2015, 08:16:31 PM



I love this kind of WHAT IF? stuff, and it's a nice supplement to our recent discussion of CRISIS and Toxic.

Courtesy of Down The Tubes and Tony Luke, Glenn Fabry's cover art for the never-before-seen dummy issue of the comic DC Thomson hoped could crowd in on Tharg's action, circa 1995. Given how Tharg's 1995 turned out, that might well have been possible.

Alan Grant's Devil Cop looks like it would have kept Lobo and Ghost Rider's lawyers busy, and anyone reading this who doesn't wish they'd had a chance to read the late John Hicklenton illustrating a strip called Killer Tongue needs to examine their priorities in life:

"Tony has very kindly handed the entire project, including emails, over to us for posterity. Over time, we'll bring you more on the origins of this lost project – how it came about, who was involved, and the road blocks put in its way by a rival publisher to try to stop creators working on it. Twenty years on, it's a fascinating story of a British Comic That Might Have Been – and what went wrong ..."

#27

SUGGESTED FOR MATURE READERS, by Janean Patience, offers a great overview not just of Third World War, New Statesmen, and all the Garth Ennisry and Amnesty which followed, but of the brief period where publishers mistakenly thought comics might be a thing grown ups might buy, in general.

Patience is refreshingly frank about what works and what was absolutely risible, and the depth of the analysis lavished upon John Smith's New Statesmen means this is probably the definitive text on what Patience points out is a strip which is as neglected today as it was at the time of original publication.

This is the best writing on comics I've read since the demise of Douglas Wolk's incredible Dredd Reckoning blog - a Megazine text feature from her would make a refreshing change from creator interviews:

General overview: Crisis Of Identity

New Statesmen: In the context of the eighties fad for adult superheroes

New Statesmen: In the context of post-modernism and team books

New Statesmen: Complexity, redundancy and the way the old always strangles the new in comic books


#28

Not really. Radio Four comedy does very accurate pastiche of the two writers' contrasting styles:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vdtgg

The credits say the writers were Mark Haines and Simon Cane. If any of you lot are either of them, well done.




#29
Prog / Prog 1926 - April Fuel Shot of Rocket Glass
01 April, 2015, 05:41:47 PM

Cover: Nice to see Bill Sienkiewicz back on the character. Sienkiewicz is undoubtedly a genius, but Dredd's helmet is all wrong, the image is too static, and Vienna's claw covers up the logo.

Dredd: Who would have thought this would happen? I can't see any plausible way out of this for Old Joe, and I genuinely feel this is finally the moment the character will be killed off and replaced with a clone (Rico 2?). Henry Flint's art is superb, and Rob Williams is now firmly installed as the third place Dredd writer of choice.

Sláine: I used to love Sláine back in the day, but Mills has ruined it by battering the reader over the head with crowbarred political messages which burgle dialogue of credibility. It's in no way hyperbolic to say I'm the victim of a crime perpetrated by Mills; ruining my childhood memories of Sláine basically makes him a paedophile. SB Davis's superb painted art means the strip has never looked better!

Strontium Dog: Bringing the character back from the dead was a mistake, although the stories set before his death lacked dramatic tension because we knew Johnny couldn't die. Killing Johnny was a mistake - he should go back in time and prevent his original death, to correct the mistake of killing him. Knowing he wasn't going to die in future strips wouldn't be a problem, because this time it would be different.

I didn't bother reading Grey Area or Orlok, since they do nothing for me. Maybe they'll read better in trade collections. What Tharg needs to do is stop rehashing old ideas like Orlok and concentrate on new ideas. But the new ideas shouldn't be like Grey Area.

Rogue Trooper: Letting Neil Gaiman bring his dark vision to the story of a blue soldier and his talking hat was an inspired move, and I feel certain this latest reboot will be the one which finally takes, provided it explains how this Rogue fits into the continuities of all the other versions. With Al Columbia on board as artist, I foresee a long and bright future for this strip. WE'RE LIVING THROUGH A SECOND GOLDEN AGE! 


#30

Courtesy of Colin Noble on the Judge Dredd fan group. How heartbreaking is this - MacNeil originally intended to complete the second part of America in the same gorgeous painted colour as the first series, before time (and, I'm assuming, money) dictated otherwise.

Interesting to see how the decision to redo this page in monochrome led to not just a change in layout but some less subtle storytelling decisions (the foregrounding of the skull, for example). How did the extra content in the Mega Collection manage not to mention this?




#31
General / 2014 End Of Year Readers' Poll
27 December, 2014, 08:23:48 PM

WITHOUT TREADING ON THE TOES OF PETE WELLS AND HIS END OF YEAR BEST COVERS POLL WHATSOEVER, I thought we should revive the readers' poll in an unofficial capacity. If that turns out not to be a good idea, I'm sure this thread will quietly disappear.

I've just ripped-off the categories I can remember featuring in the old surveys which appeared in the prog and Megazine; feel free to include your own categories, but NO WORST WRITER, WORST STRIP, or WORST CHARACTER (etc) nominations.

There's no closing date, make up your own mind whether you want to nominate a single candidate per category or rank three candidates first, second and third, and - unlike the diligent Pete Wells - I'm not going to bother tallying up the votes and announcing winners - I'M NOT YOUR DAD!


Suggested Categories (for prog or Megazine):

BEST WRITER

BEST NEW WRITER

BEST ARTIST

BEST NEW ARTIST

BEST SERIES

BEST NEW SERIES

BEST SINGLE EPISODE (either of a continuing series or a standalone story)

FAVOURITE MOMENT

FAVOURITE LINE OF DIALOGUE

CHARACTER OR STRIP YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN 2015

3RILLER OR SUMMER/WINTER SPECIAL STORY YOU'D LIKE TO SEE RETURN AS ONGOING SERIES

No nominations for best cover or cover artist, because Pete Wells's dedicated poll will be along shortly to inform and entertain us with miscounted totals and wrongly sized thumbnails.


#32
General / Disappearing 2000ad Creator Interviews
02 October, 2014, 10:45:51 PM

Two of the most informative, useful, and entertaining interviews with John Wagner and Alan Grant - by WR Logan and Edward Berridge, respectively - appear to have fallen off the internet or been hidden behind a wall. Is this just a problem with my network provider, or have these treasures really been lost to future generations *?

Class of '79: http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/jw_interview.htm

2000ad Review: http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/features/interviews/2005/grant/grant1.shtml



* The Wagner interview is reproduced here, but that's not the point: http://homepage.eircom.net/~okku/scifi/jwagner.htm
#33
General / PJ Holden's Dark Secret
05 August, 2014, 11:32:31 PM

You'll never guess what his favourite Dredd story is. I'm with him regarding Cry of the Werewolf, but City of the Damned? Really?

http://www.irishcomicnews.com/2014/08/interview-pj-holden-on-drawing-judge-dredd/

#34

Usual story - comic creator gets shafted by publisher/film company - but given added bite by the sad passing of Steve Moore, upon whose work the film is based. I don't need any persuading not to watch a fantasy film starring a half naked wrestler in a wig anyway:

QuoteSteve was saying that this film sounded like it was going to be a complete abortion, that they'd dumped characters such as Hylas. That's understandable in that Hylas was Hercules' boyfriend. And that's perhaps not what The Rock wants to bring to his tale of his Hercules. So, Steve wouldn't be getting any money from this. The only consolation was that his name wouldn't be going on it.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/17/alan-moore-calls-for-boycott-of-wretched-film-hercules-on-behalf-of-friend-steve-moore/

#35

I'm sure Rebellion aren't going to mess with their branding on the trade collections or wider publicity, but it would be a great mark of respect to restore the late Jan Shepheard's original Dredd logo design to pride of place in the prog.




#36
Ginger genius Pat Mills announces not just the release of his first self published digital comic, available for two and a half quid on Comixology right now, but plans to release more of his work digitally, in a project he's named The Millsverse, with characteristic humility and a reluctance to blow his own trumpet.

This first offering is Psycho Killer, from Toxic, the short lived nineties rival to 2000ad. It's alright, and £2.50 is good value for almost 60 pages, but - like most of the stories Mills worked on with Tony Skinner - it feels like they had more fun making it than I had reading it. The art isn't really my thing, but fans of Nick Percival and Clint Langley (or Dave Kendall, who actually drew the strip) should find a lot to like. The man himself gives it his usual soft sell via his blog:

http://patmills.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/are-you-ready-for-your-demonic-irrigation/

#37




If you think Action attracted unwarranted scrutiny by the authorities, or that the popularity of US comics had an adverse effect on the ability of homegrown creators to find an audience, try drawing funny books in 'Nam. Guy's style reminds me of young Bagwell, D'Israeli, and Hewlett:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27338112


#38
General / New 2000ad Logo?
05 June, 2014, 06:18:50 PM

Art Editor extraordinaire, Simon Pye Parr, announced he's thinking of having a tinker with the 2000ad logo (the type one, rather than Steve Cook's red and white badge ident on the left hand side), and that the version of the logo seen on the latest Sci-fi Special was a kind of try out for the sort of thing he had in mind. What do y'all think (current logo below for comparison):



#39
Website and Forum / Forum Intrigue
09 May, 2014, 05:41:40 PM

A recent episode of ECBT2000ad (1h 11m 30s) yielded the information that former forum member and comic art Belloq Fatboy Dale (holding sign, centre) had been ejected from this happiest of places for cussing someone in a completely different corner of the internet. Is this official policy? If so, I might have to make a few changes to my new blog, COLIN YNWA SMELLS LIKE SOUP.com.

QuoteFlint Lockjaw: Getting kicked out of the 2000ad forum is like getting kicked out of Special Ed - you've graduated! There are some good people on the forum, but overall it's too much of a niche group and it seems to be the same guys who bully everyone else.

#40
General / GQ: How 2000ad Predicted The Future
27 April, 2014, 08:15:03 PM

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2014-04/23/2000-ad-the-comic-that-foretold-the-future

Wagner and Grant foresaw TOWIE and Banksie, apparently. I share the author's disappointment that Dave The Orangutan has neither been elected nor assassinated as yet, but feel he may have missed the point Wagner and Grant were making about all elected office if he thinks we don't already live in a world of Dave The Orangutans.