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2000 AD => News => Topic started by: Tjm86 on 11 October, 2017, 06:45:28 AM

Title: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Tjm86 on 11 October, 2017, 06:45:28 AM
Stumbled across this little gem this morning. Looks like a nice little line up for the new year.  The meg listing looks especially enticing.  Solicitations for January for tooth. (https://www.newsarama.com/36851-2000-ad-january-2017-solicitations.html)  MovieDredd Dark Judges, Cursed Earth Koburn, Lawless ... oh my!
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Magnetica on 11 October, 2017, 09:06:59 AM
I see the ABC Warriors are back in January.

I have just done a re-read of Hope and came across an ad in one of those Progs saying they would be back in 2017.

Not the first time one of their series has turned up later than expected. In this case, assuming it happens, I guess it's not too late. :)
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: I, Cosh on 11 October, 2017, 09:29:05 AM
Quote from: Magnetica on 11 October, 2017, 09:06:59 AM
I see the ABC Warriors are back in January.

I have just done a re-read of Hope and came across an ad in one of those Progs saying they would be back in 2017.

Not the first time one of their series has turned up later than expected. In this case, assuming it happens, I guess it's not too late. :)
Starts in the end of year Prog. In December.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: IndigoPrime on 11 October, 2017, 11:50:30 AM
" we return the world of the movie DREDD for the last of the comic-book sequels "

:(
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 11 October, 2017, 11:53:21 AM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 11 October, 2017, 11:50:30 AM
" we return the world of the movie DREDD for the last of the comic-book sequels "

Obviously to clear the decks for Dredd 2 starting production. ;-)
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: TordelBack on 11 October, 2017, 12:01:07 PM
You heard it here first! 
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Dash Decent on 11 October, 2017, 01:19:18 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 11 October, 2017, 11:53:21 AM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 11 October, 2017, 11:50:30 AM
" we return the world of the movie DREDD for the last of the comic-book sequels "

Obviously to clear the decks for Dredd 2 starting production. ;-)

or JD:MC1  : )
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Richard on 11 October, 2017, 03:12:30 PM
Good. I loved the film, but I never warmed to the comic strip version of it.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Woolly on 11 October, 2017, 05:49:29 PM
Quote from: Richard on 11 October, 2017, 03:12:30 PM
Good. I loved the film, but I never warmed to the comic strip version of it.

^This^

It was a great idea to keep the love going for the 2012 movie, but ultimately has ended up feeling a bit flat.
That said, I can't wait to see how the Dark Judges will be handled!*


*(With care, hopefully...  ;))
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: The Adventurer on 11 October, 2017, 07:50:28 PM
I'm going to be honest, two Mills and another Bad Compnay does not fill me with Thrills. Yay, Brass Sun though.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Dash Decent on 12 October, 2017, 10:10:11 AM
Quote from: Woolly on 11 October, 2017, 05:49:29 PM
I can't wait to see how the Dark Judges will be handled!

Presumably they'll get a uniform update too, so they remain broken mirror versions of the 2012 Dredd look.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 12 October, 2017, 11:15:55 AM
Bad Company again? How many more nails does that particular coffin need?!
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Bolt-01 on 12 October, 2017, 11:41:10 AM
Jimbo- thought you weren't reading the prog currently anyway?
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Magnetica on 12 October, 2017, 01:10:13 PM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 12 October, 2017, 11:15:55 AM
Bad Company again? How many more nails does that particular coffin need?!

I hope they explain how come they are actually still alive. As I recall most if not all were killed in previous Bad Company stories. Pete Milligan said he would explain that on a Thrillcast, but unless I was dozing, that hasn't happened yet.

I see the floppy will contain Outlier. That seems a bit soon too me, but then again it doesn't really matter as I often don't read them anyway.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: jacob g on 12 October, 2017, 02:52:14 PM
New BC means more Rufus art, so I'm fine with that.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: The Adventurer on 12 October, 2017, 04:19:12 PM
Quote from: jacob g on 12 October, 2017, 02:52:14 PM
New BC means more Rufus art, so I'm fine with that.

I mean, no doubt. But something new, or a sequel to Counterfit Girl would be more exciting imo
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: AlexF on 13 October, 2017, 11:41:56 AM
The fact that Tharg commissioned more new Bad Company makes me think I'm not the only person who enjoyed the latest outing. Super excited to get more!

As to the complaints about how Milligan explains continuity, isn't the key point that he simply wanted to explore one newer trope of war stories, specifically, PTSD and government cover-ups?

With that in mind, a) it doesn't matter if this new outing follows continuity, it's more an excuse to tell a certain story using characters he created

b) given that part of the underlying premise is that our heroes don't remember what really happened, and that the government is lying to everybody, I don't struggle to believe that everything after the events of the final battle in Book 1 (if not before!) is just one version of what happened next, depending on which bit of reportage you believe.

Either way, if you want to avoid continuity rage, I think new Bad Co is best read as a sequel to the original Book 1, rather than a continuation of Book 2 and beyond, much like Halloween H20 is a sequel to Halloween's 1 and 2, and ignores 4, 5 and 6.

(Of course, teh fact that I happen to really like H20 doesn't speak too well of my taste! Love me some 90s Josh Hartnett, what can I say)
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Greg M. on 13 October, 2017, 12:23:34 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 October, 2017, 11:41:56 AM
Either way, if you want to avoid continuity rage, I think new Bad Co is best read as a sequel to the original Book 1

That doesn't really work though, because both Kano and Danny are explicitly the post-2002 versions, where the former has been shot to pieces on the planet of the Krool Heart and the latter has been liberated from the Krool Heart itself. (This latter idea is, notably, one of the worst Milligan's ever had.)

I'm just glad Milligan left Mac alone and didn't drag him into the continuity nightmare - although ironically, Mac's story post-Krool Heart is probably the most logical way to follow-on the series.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Link Prime on 13 October, 2017, 01:03:02 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 13 October, 2017, 12:23:34 PM
the latter has been liberated from the Krool Heart itself. (This latter idea is, notably, one of the worst Milligan's ever had.)

I think the execution of the idea was even worse- with the subtlety of a 5 minute Mallett's Mallet YouTube video, they just flew a small spaceship into the side of the Krool Heart's head.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: TordelBack on 13 October, 2017, 01:33:05 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 October, 2017, 11:41:56 AM
The fact that Tharg commissioned more new Bad Company make Super excited to get more!

I was enjoying the latest BC too, right up to the end where any potential reality-bending cleverness evaporated into Millsian point-pounding, leaving the preceding plot exposed as a load of inconsistent nonsense.  Lovely art, very commendable message, but sadly nothing beyond that. 

Please stop mentioning Mac, Milligan might be reminded that he hasn't fecked up his character the way he did Flytrap, Thrax and even Tommy.

I'm a fan of BC, The Bewilderness, BC2 and Kano, but for me the rest of it, from BC3 (2002) on has been an exercise in messing about.

Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Magnetica on 13 October, 2017, 02:43:35 PM
Thing is Thrax and Tommy died in book 1, so it doesn't work to say it's an alternative book 2.

The thing for me is Pete Milligan said he would explain it...but so far he hasn't.

I don't want 2000AD to go down the route of ignoring characters' deaths (apart from Johnny Alpha of course).
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Magnetica on 13 October, 2017, 02:44:34 PM
Or was it just Thrax?
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: TordelBack on 13 October, 2017, 02:54:22 PM
Everyone died except [spoiler]Danny, Mac, Tommy and Kano[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 13 October, 2017, 03:45:16 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 13 October, 2017, 02:43:35 PM
Thing is Thrax and Tommy died in book 1, so it doesn't work to say it's an alternative book 2.

The thing for me is Pete Milligan said he would explain it...but so far he hasn't.

I don't want 2000AD to go down the route of ignoring characters' deaths (apart from Johnny Alpha of course).

I'd include Johnny's death.  I thought his death was a hauntingly beautiful moment and I was unhappy that it never really happened after all. 
As for Bad Company, for me it ended as soon as Danny [spoiler]became the Krool Heart.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 13 October, 2017, 06:44:51 PM
And don't forget that BC2015 took place on the planet Earth... Which blew up between series 1 and 2, condemning humanity to a life as scattered nomad enclaves strewn through the backwater systems.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Greg M. on 13 October, 2017, 06:53:14 PM
I always thought that could have been solved by saying this was another world that had been renamed Earth - maybe after BCII, humanity was able to re-centralise on one of the ghetto worlds - but that doesn't seem to have been the case.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: sheridan on 14 October, 2017, 11:38:28 AM
Quote from: Woolly on 11 October, 2017, 05:49:29 PM
It was a great idea to keep the love going for the 2012 movie, but ultimately has ended up feeling a bit flat.
That said, I can't wait to see how the Dark Judges will be handled!*

*(With care, hopefully...  ;))

Better than IDW, hopefully...
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: sheridan on 14 October, 2017, 12:49:50 PM
Quote from: The Adventurer on 12 October, 2017, 04:19:12 PM
Quote from: jacob g on 12 October, 2017, 02:52:14 PM
New BC means more Rufus art, so I'm fine with that.

I mean, no doubt. But something new, or a sequel to Counterfit Girl would be more exciting imo

I'd much prefer new Counterfeit Girl to BC that doesn't deliver on what was promised (if you haven't written an explanation of how people come back to life on a planet that blew up - don't say you have in the podcast (unless that explanation actually appears in the upcoming story?)
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Richard on 14 October, 2017, 02:07:23 PM
I suspect that the most plausible explanation is that the writer didn't bother to re-read the earlier stories before writing the new one, on the basis that he gets paid the same fee whether the story makes any sense or not. But I will be delighted if I'm proved wrong by the new series, assuming I can be bothered to even read it.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: AlexF on 16 October, 2017, 04:06:45 PM
I'll admit I too am hoping Milligan does a bit more to explain what's going on - but I still think there's an argument that even the events of Book 1, beyond the first few episodes, are potentially 'memories' of one possible version of events that various members of the Bad Company crew have been presuaded to believe.
So any character deaths / planetary explosions may not have actually happened. In this Unvierse.

It's a stretch, though!

Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: JOE SOAP on 16 October, 2017, 05:05:07 PM
I'm a little more interested in Pete Milligan's comic of The Prisoner (http://downthetubes.net/?p=40724).
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: glassstanley on 16 October, 2017, 05:39:57 PM
It's probably just me getting old, but the last series of BC seemed like an excuse to put the series on the cover again, to draw in nostalgic lapsed readers. As cynical an exercise as reheating Ace Trucking & Robo-Hunter for the specials.

The first 2 series of BC were astonishing reads. I remember loving the twists and turns of Book 2, with the final reveal of the narrator being a genuinely exciting moment. I think it was one of my favourite moments in the Progs ever. All I remember of the 2015 series is the wildly ill-fitting Boris Johnson cameo.

There was enough ambiguity in the 2015 series to lead me think that there was going to be an explanation for the messing with the characters. I'll go into this new series hoping for this such a pay off...
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: TordelBack on 16 October, 2017, 05:57:09 PM
I confess that I thought there would be an explanation by the end, but I feared it would be something along the lines of an ageing Danny roaming aimlessly around the grounds of a veterans' hospital on the ghetto world Look Back in Anger, clutching a potted plant and talking to the air.  So maybe no explanation was better than that.

Incidentally, I don't think there was anything cynical about the revival at all, it seemed like a very sincere attempt to do something that acknowledged Brett Ewin's legacy by two loyal friends.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: robert_ellis on 16 October, 2017, 07:10:36 PM
I thought the fact that most the cast and indeed the Earth itself had perished would be addressed. Have I missed something?
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Frank on 16 October, 2017, 08:56:44 PM

Any explanation would be a load of predictable bollocks* that would tie up subsequent stories in even more bollocks than the decision to kill the cast then bring them back.

Tharg finds himself in the same position as he was in 1994, when he was (apparently) inundated by readers demanding to know whether Fr1day was a reboot of the old Rogue or a new Rogue.

The resulting bollocks made everyone realise they really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

The 2002 return of Old Rogue had the right idea: here's the characters you used to enjoy; do you want convoluted bollocks explaining why they're back, or will we just get on with telling new stories?


* We've all watched and read enough sci-fi to know the options: dream, virtual reality, alternate timeline, clones (even a cloned planet!), robot theme park, limbo/heaven/hell ... all of these are the punchline endings to Future Shocks, not a viable basis for continuing adventures.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Link Prime on 16 October, 2017, 09:28:25 PM
Quote from: Frank on 16 October, 2017, 08:56:44 PM

Any explanation would be a load of predictable bollocks* that would tie up subsequent stories in even more bollocks than the decision to kill the cast then bring them back.


I agree with your post Frank, but for me there's only one option that'll satisfy: do a complete Bobby Ewing in the Shower (i.e. Danny is still the Krool Heart, in a 'consciousness creates reality' capacity).
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: robert_ellis on 16 October, 2017, 09:43:43 PM
Frank I like your attitude to this. I think a quote from you at the start of the last series might have made me read it with a different attitude. "Any Explanation would be predictable bollocks" would have cleared things up. I'm no expert on Rogue but I seem to remember 'Friday' was stylistically different to what had gone before. Clean lines had given way to murky watercolours and the Bio chips had gone. Bad Company superficially looks like a continuation of what has gone before - Rufus looked to be deliberately echoing Brett. This is what made me consider it 'Season 6 of Bad Company' rather than a bold new re-imagining. I think I'd rather we had 'untold tales' or maybe just leave Kano to rest in peace.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Magnetica on 16 October, 2017, 09:47:11 PM
Frank, so it's not that I need an explanation  it's more that I seem to remember Pete Milligan saying on the Thrillcast around the time of the last series that he would explain it, but so far he hasn't. And I apologise if I'm miss remembering that.

If he had said "I'm going to do some stories with these characters and don't worry about how that is possible " then fine.

But as far as a recall he implied there was a reason, and just out of pure curiosity I would like to know what it is.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Frank on 16 October, 2017, 10:12:09 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 16 October, 2017, 09:47:11 PM
... it's not that I need an explanation  it's more that I seem to remember Pete Milligan saying on the Thrillcast around the time of the last series that he would explain it, but so far he hasn't ... just out of pure curiosity I would like to know what it is.

That's a reasonable position, bud. I remember Milliglo promising answers of some kind, too.

I suspect Link Prime is on the same page as the creators. It'd be a fine explanation, in keeping with the cosmic Heart Of Darkness that was The Krool Heart.


* Doesn't work as well as Hewligan, does it? Dayglilligan?
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: glassstanley on 17 October, 2017, 01:00:51 AM
Quote from: TordelBack on 16 October, 2017, 05:57:09 PM
Incidentally, I don't think there was anything cynical about the revival at all, it seemed like a very sincere attempt to do something that acknowledged Brett Ewin's legacy by two loyal friends.

Actually, I think you're right on this. I'd forgotten the timing of this. I was letting my disappointment with the series colour my thinking. I remember meeting Rufus at the Prog 2000 signing in Eastbourne and he was keen to point out how he'd based a character on Brett. He didn't know why there were so many resurrections either!
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: JamesC on 17 October, 2017, 11:55:30 AM
Tharg should hire Geoff Johns - he's made a career out of writing stories (mostly predictable old bollocks) to explain continuity problems that don't really matter.
Title: Re: Strong Start to 2018
Post by: Colin YNWA on 17 October, 2017, 09:05:48 PM
Quote from: JamesC on 17 October, 2017, 11:55:30 AM
Tharg should hire Geoff Johns - he's made a career out of writing stories (mostly predictable old bollocks) to explain continuity problems that don't really matter.

HA! Its funny cos its true.