Prog 2097 - Psychos A-Go-Go!

[Dark Jimbo]

Dandridge was great - wish we'd got more of it, but maybe Tharg felt there were enough strips already doing the supernatural detective thing. (If he did, it should've been Ampney Crucis that got the dunt.)

Aye, Dandridge was great, and dissapeared just as it seemed to have ridden out that rough 'settling in' period and was about to really click. It was funny, inventive and charming in all the ways Ampney Crucis... wasn't.

[Taryn Tailz]

Dandridge was great - wish we'd got more of it, but maybe Tharg felt there were enough strips already doing the supernatural detective thing. (If he did, it should've been Ampney Crucis that got the dunt.)

And when was the last time we saw sight of Ampney Crucis?

[Magnetica]

wasn't trying to damn SG with faint praise, honest!

No I know you weren't and sorry if my post implied that in anyway.

All I meant was I didn't really take to Ulysses Sweet (too OTT for me ) or Dandridge (too boring I'm afraid).

[Greg M.]

And when was the last time we saw sight of Ampney Crucis?

About five years ago? Maybe it in turn was supplanted in the supernatural detective stakes by the infinitely superior Absalom.

[TordelBack]

And when was the last time we saw sight of Ampney Crucis?

About five years ago?

Curse that Pat Mills and his endless Chronicles. 

While the broad 'supernatural investigator' genre is crowded (Devlin, Ampney, Absolom, Madam Vespertine, maybe even Aquila), I would have thought Dandridge had a unique enough comic tone to have a place.

[Trout]

I've got to say how much I'm enjoying the recent run for Survival Geeks. It's just clicked with me in the last couple of stories in a way the early stories never did. I'm looking forward to a re-read now!

Me too! Well said.

[Magnetica]

And when was the last time we saw sight of Ampney Crucis?

About five years ago?

Curse that Pat Mills and his endless Chronicles. 

While the broad 'supernatural investigator' genre is crowded (Devlin, Ampney, Absolom, Madam Vespertine, maybe even Aquila), I would have thought Dandridge had a unique enough comic tone to have a place.

I would think there have been a lot more supernatural investigation stories in 2000AD than that. Bix Barton comes most readily to mind, but you could also include Pussyfoot Five and arguably any PSI Judge series (Anderson, Karyn, Janus) plus arguably Indigo Prime.

[TordelBack]

True, true, but Psi Div stories are sort of their own thing,  but I suppose I could have included Storm Warning and Strange & Dark.  Pussyfoot 5 aren't really jostling for a place in the current roster - otherwise Wolfie Smith and Carver Hale would have been in there!  Demon Nik is another possibility (man, I loved Demon Nik).  Let's face it, occult investigator is the next big 2000AD trope after future-fascist bully-boy and killer-for-hire.

[JOE SOAP]

Let's face it, occult investigator is the next big 2000AD trope after future-fascist bully-boy and killer-for-hire.

And to think Judge Dread was originally an occult investigator.

[JamesC]

Occult Investigator seems like a perfectly suitable profession for a 2000ad character but why are so many of them pompous dandy-types? Characters who say things like 'dear boy' or 'old chap' all the time always come across as crappy archetypes rather than interesting, three dimensional people.

[sheridan]

Occult Investigator seems like a perfectly suitable profession for a 2000ad character but why are so many of them pompous dandy-types? Characters who say things like 'dear boy' or 'old chap' all the time always come across as crappy archetypes rather than interesting, three dimensional people.

You've got a point - there's one or two more in the John Constantine mould, but most are as you say.

[Frank]

Occult Investigator seems like a perfectly suitable profession for a 2000ad character but why are so many of them pompous dandy-types? Characters who say things like 'dear boy' or 'old chap' all the time always come across as crappy archetypes rather than interesting, three dimensional people.

In the case of Devlin Waugh's mannerisms, Smith was tapping into the reemergence of Oscar Wilde as a figure in pop culture*. The other examples seem to be modelling themselves more closely after previous fictional characters.

As a fan of Big Dave and Cradlegrave, I don't subscribe to the argument that there's any kind of story that just doesn't belong in 2000ad, but I'm not sure why there are so many Scooby Doo strips.

The investigator bit makes sense; as thousands of books and TV shows** prove, the mystery element is an effective way of keeping readers hooked until the end of the story, but why demons and ghosts? Rather than aliens and AIs, I mean.

If it was just the detective thing, you'd expect 2000ad to be bursting with Rick Random clones.


* Following Morrissey dropping his name and quotes in interviews. I remember Athena selling posters of the young Wilde looking like a nineties indie kid with the ubiquitous centre-part. Both Athena and the idea of Morrissey as a figure to whom anyone paid attention both seem like very obscure, antique concepts, nowadays.

** Although not so many films, interestingly. Not in modern day cinema, anyway. And the occult investigator genre isn't really a huge thing in mainstream fiction. I suppose Buffy kind of fits the bill, although she wasn't much of a sleuth. Every third episode of X-Files was an occult (or Fortean) investigation, I suppose.

[M.I.K.]

Don't think it's that surprising.

Most famous British detective fiction writers = Agatha Christie & Arthur Conan Doyle, both around at a time when drawing room seances were a thing amongst bored/grieving posh folk, and both of whom incorporated supernatural elements into their stories from time to time.

[JamesC]

Don't think it's that surprising.

Most famous British detective fiction writers = Agatha Christie & Arthur Conan Doyle, both around at a time when drawing room seances were a thing amongst bored/grieving posh folk, and both of whom incorporated supernatural elements into their stories from time to time.

That's true, but Sherlock wasn't a society fop, and neither was Poirot (despite being pompous).

I'd still expect 2000ad to be more Saphire & Steel than Jeeves & Wooster.

[TordelBack]

Hmmm, are we really just talking about Devlin, Dandridge and Ampney Crucis* in the 'fop' category though, aren't we?  (Fair few donnish types in Necronauts and Caballistics Inc too). Unless we include God-smiting Harry Kipling, and I'd be against that.  Vespertine is something else again too. 

And set against that we have the Anti-Fops of Absalom, Stickleback, Chapter & Verse, Carver Hale (oh-so brief, oh-so long ago and oh-so Constantine) and (possibly) Aquila (although he's more a plaything of unspeakable ancient powers than an investigator).



*Incidentally, I don't think it's fair to say Devlin is a 'crappy archetype' just because of his 'dear boy' tendencies - he was something entirely new, to my mind.