SPACEWARP - New Venture from Pat Mills

[Funt Solo]

The back of the comic says "at least six months" before a second issue phase.

[MenschMaschine]

Mensch - are you able to offer any word on frequency? Is Pat waiting to see how issue 01 sells before committing to 02 or is there a plan for the future?

6 months till the second. But that is an estimation based on the time taken working on the first phase. The second should be more straight forward as the characters and their world have already been established. Obviously it'll depend on whether it'll be a hit or not and the feedback we'll get from readers.
That is pretty much in line with the French model that Pat mentioned. My friend working for Dargaud is contractually obliged to deliver two albums a year, roughly 60 something pages each.

Spacewarp is basically an album in terms of content.

[Laser Skeleton]

Mensch - are you able to offer any word on frequency? Is Pat waiting to see how issue 01 sells before committing to 02 or is there a plan for the future?

6 months till the second. But that is an estimation based on the time taken working on the first phase. The second should be more straight forward as the characters and their world have already been established. Obviously it'll depend on whether it'll be a hit or not and the feedback we'll get from readers.
That is pretty much in line with the French model that Pat mentioned. My friend working for Dargaud is contractually obliged to deliver two albums a year, roughly 60 something pages each.

Spacewarp is basically an album in terms of content.

This is not a model I'm familiar with but I love the idea - refining and polishing an album of content over time in the same way as a record or something. The extra time lets you add all the bits and bobs in between the stories and curate it all carefully.

I really enjoyed issue #1, it was absolutely bursting with ideas and the art was tremendous throughout!

[Funt Solo]

Well, I'm finding that difficult to plow through, to be honest. It's a bit like a comic got possessed by David Icke. One of the core conceits is that all seven stories are inter-linked by the over-arching theme of humanity being toyed with by evil aliens akin to gods. That's an idea that (when I first read it in Slaine decades ago) seemed fresh and outlandish, but I've since come to learn is actually the foundation of a few real, sub-cultural belief systems (or conspiracy theories).

So, there's no escape in the comic from that central conceit, which is coupled with the well-worn idea that the solution to the ruling classes is to execute them. This has been explored ad infinitum in Slaine, Finn, Greysuit, Nemesis, Marshal Law, American Reaper, Ro-Busters, The A.B.C. Warriors, modern Flesh, Defoe & Dinosty. A lot of those are very good, of course, but in many cases they were better in the past and then became too polemical. Another point is that they were tempered by appearing in an anthology that gave you a break from that particular view of the world.

Interestingly, early Nemesis had the very strong idea that humanity was subjugating aliens. This has switched here (in many cases) into the idea that the only good alien is a dead alien. Whether the aliens are responsible for all your woes, or evil but disguised as humans, or infecting your own body, or pulling the strings of your society: the solution is nearly always to stamp on their head until they're dead. Very Starship Troopers.

This comic could be improved if more writers were involved, and the stories were de-shackled from the over-arching thread that forces them to be connected. In most cases the art is very good. In most cases, I had to force myself to continue reading, shouldering aside the rhetoric in an attempt to enjoy the inventive ideas.

[broodblik]

I was looking forward of reading this in one go but at the end I struggled through this. I was hoping this would be as stated classic 2000AD but this was not the case. What makes anthologies what they are is the diversity of the stories and here we do not have them since everything is built around the same universe. The overall premise is my mine gripe I just did not like the concept.

[MenschMaschine]

All valid criticism and I appreciate the insight. If I may point something out ...

Spacewarp was never intended to be an exercise in nostalgia, it was not meant to be fanservice. Aesthetically - and I'm speaking for myself here - I never looked back on 2000AD as a source of inspiration. I still ignoring Flesh to this day.
Had I read it, something would have inevitably snuck into my system, and then translated in those pages. All of sudden, you find yourself with a "homage" in your hands, and that's a death sentence as a creator.

If anything, Pat and I discussed EC Comics at length during the creative process. But zero 2000AD artists, nowt!

Pat set the tone on those early progs, that is his style, some 2000AD element is already there, Spacewarp wouldn't benefit from an artist bringing more of that into the mixture.

[broodblik]

I can state that I did enjoy the art and I do not mind the B/W at all. The art that stood out for me was Jurassic Punx (the best strip of them as well) and Slayer (the Nemesis wanna been, even the main antagonist felt like Torquemada).

What I should have added is that this was sold on the premises that each story will be a self-contained story. It never read like this and everyone of these stories ended abruptly.  All of them felt like only the beginning with some pages missing. Maybe in hindsight doing less strips with more page count could have remedied this.

I will give the second warp a whirl since this is only the first issue and I have learned that you should not judge a story only on its first episode.

[Magnetica]

Anyone got a view on whether to get this via Comixology or Kindle?

I have never used either and have an iPad, so I would need the Kindle app. Is it DRM free on Kindle?

[IndigoPrime]

The Comixology iPad app is pretty good, but this comic can also be downloaded in CBZ for use in Chunky. No idea if Kindle is a cross-purchase that's also DRM-free.

[Bolt-01]

No idea - I purchased from comiXology and downloaded the book to read in my reader. I like that the digital edition had the wraparound as an extra at the end.

The package overall was pretty solid Mills through and through. Some stories worked better than others - I like Jurassic Man and Fu-Tant most but I would have liked more stories to have a resolution. From my (admittedly limited) experience of 'albums' I'd expected some resolutions to stories.

Some of the artists have issues with leaving enough space for lettering, and some of the font choices were baffling to me. However, this is a first issue-- possibly Pat's first 'first' issue since Toxic-- and would have been produced in a very different manner to that title.

[broodblik]

I purchased it on Kindle and when you buy comics on Kindle it is available on Comixology as well for you. For this to work you must use the same account on both Amazon's site and Comixology site. You can login to Comixology  using your Amazon account.

[MenschMaschine]

I can state that I did enjoy the art and I do not mind the B/W at all. The art that stood out for me was Jurassic Punx (the best strip of them as well) and Slayer (the Nemesis wanna been, even the main antagonist felt like Torquemada).

What I should have added is that this was sold on the premises that each story will be a self-contained story. It never read like this and everyone of these stories ended abruptly.  All of them felt like only the beginning with some pages missing. Maybe in hindsight doing less strips with more page count could have remedied this.

I will give the second warp a whirl since this is only the first issue and I have learned that you should not judge a story only on its first episode.

Oh, absolutely! Appreciate the feedback. It's something we all need to keep in mind for future issues. I'm sure the book will be fine-tuned until it finally comes out in print.
  I'm also aware that 2000AD comparisons are inevitable and I do not think it is a problem per se I thought in pointing out that Spacewarp should swim or sink on its own merits, and might not be your thing ( I hope you'll stick around ), but let's say Pat is cooking a different dish using similar ingredients and that's as far as nostalgia goes.

[Mardroid]

I purchased it on Kindle and when you buy comics on Kindle it is available on Comixology as well for you. For this to work you must use the same account on both Amazon's site and Comixology site. You can login to Comixology  using your Amazon account.

Huh. I preordered the kindle version understanding I'd be able to download it on ComiXology, but on release, I could only find the kindle version. Wondering now if the comiXology version was released later.

Anyway, I've been reading it bit by bit on the kindle app. Yet to finish, so this is based on what I've read so far.

Gorgeous artwork. I'm struggling a bit with the stories though. No criticism intended, I think it's largely me. It's difficult to put my finger on exactly  why. It's not that I completely misunderstand them, and the artists tell the stories fine. I find myself thinking "eh, what?" when I finish a strip (not every strip). It feels jagged, somehow.

[broodblik]

Mardriod it should now be available on comiXology (so you should be able to download it DRM free) . I read it on my iPad using the comiXology app and not the Kindle app. I like my non-AD stuff all to be in one place.

[Mardroid]

Mardriod it should now be available on comiXology (so you should be able to download it DRM free) . I read it on my iPad using the comiXology app and not the Kindle app. I like my non-AD stuff all to be in one place.

Thanks Broodlik, yes I see it now. It seems to be classing it as a separate purchase to the Kindle version (wondering now If I've got two accounts) so I guess I'll just stick with what I have for now.