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I just thought it was a bit embarrassing, like watching your dad trying to break-dance.

Also, it was part of the comic's doomed attempt back then to jump on the Deadline band-wagon and hijack a trendy, comic-reading audience which frankly simply didn't exist.

Erm...but Poe and Lovecraft didn't kill themselves.

Robert E. Howard did, after the death of his mother.

Yes, the creator of Conan was really a great big wet blouse of a mummy's boy.  Shameful.

Deal.

Just as long as it's not Borderline, though...

>>Couldn't really care less how England do - I've got money on Italy.>>

How about a friendly wager then, Mark?  If Argentina win, then I get that free Rogue Trooper biochip keyring thingy that I've been secretly after for months.  

If England win, I  promise to actually do the next interview/PR request you forward to me.

Deal?  ;>

Yeah, keep it up, matey.  Your boys will still be home before the postcards.

>A few choice lines in it as well.

Except for the last 'yippee kay-yay mother-fucker' type action movie line, which is downright embarassing.

I mean, I know that footie is a running theme throughout the moviem and that it's supposed to be set on the night of last year's 1-5 drubbing of Germany, but that last line is awful.

PS.  Go, Argentina!

But I'm smarter, and better-dressed.

>>besides, without us Pencil Monkeys u guys are just wannabee playwrites.<<

Although, hopefully, they at least know how to spell 'playwrights' correctly.

Stick to the pretty pictures, ink-chimp, and leave the difficult spelly-spelly-word stuff to the experts.

David Bishop was a journalist in New Zealand before becoming Megazine assistant editor.  I think he also worked for BSB, if anyone can remember that.

I think Andy Diggle was hired more or less straight out of college as 2000AD assistant editor, although I might be wrong.  

Matt Smith was a desk editor at a proper grown-up book publishers before joining 2000AD.

Alan Barnes was assistant editor and then editor of Doctor Who Monthly before joining Rebellion.  He's also written a couple of movie guides for Titan Books - Bond, Sherlock Holmes and Tarantino.

In terms of previous publishing work, the current Smith-Barnes team have more experience than their most recent predecessors.

>>How long into an editorship is it before some one had an issue that they completely commissioned?<<

It kind of varies, and there's no hard and fast rule.  For instance, some of the stuff which Andy Diggle was credited with doing as part of the 'return to greatness' thing was actually commissioned by David Bishop, but didn't appear until quite far into Andy's run.

Rogue Trooper and the VCs were both commissioned by Andy, but the actual work on them didn't begin until after he had left.  However, we're now starting to see the first Matt Smith commissioned series coming through into the comic.  I think Beck and Cawl is the first of these, although perhaps it wouldn't be fair to judge him solely on that alone ;->

Similarly at the Meg, Alan Barnes has just about used up the last of the Bishop-commissioned material, and we'll soon be seeing the first of the new series he's nwo comissioned, starting (I think) with a new Robbie Morrison/John Burns crime series.

At that time, as Managing Editor of what was still grandly called the 2000AD Group, Steve was Managing Editor of just two titles, 2000AD and the Magazine.  (Well, with maybe Lawman of the Future too.)

Five years earlier, the 2000AD Group had four regular titles (Crisis and Revolver were still on the go) as well as the usual bunch of annuals, summer/winter specials etc, all of which have now disappeared.  The aborted 'junior 2000AD' comic Alternity was also part of the stable.

I think at one point the 2000AD Group had about 8 or 9 editorial staff, as well as its own in-house designer and PR droids.

Gone now, all gone...

Yes, going from editor of the weekly 2000AD to editor of a struggling monthly, half of which was reprint material...you can certainly see why John would have jumped at that step up the Fleetway career ladder.

You'll hopefully see by now why it's unlikely that John was editor of 2000AD and *then* became the Megazine editor.  The simple fact is, he went from assistant on 2000AD to Megazine editor, just as Andy Diggle later did (while still helping out on 2000AD).

>In the Editorial Credits section, on this site, >it states:
>
>John Tomlinson Editorial Droid (915 to 977

Ah.  Then I think the information in the Editorial Credits is wrong.  I seem to remember this mistake being repeated somewhere else, so maybe it's just being replicated here again.  Still, at least Grant Morrison and Mark Millar are no longer listed as editors too...

Nope, my recollection is that Steve Mac definitely took over after Alan Mackenzie's abrupt departure.  John Tomlinson remained as assistant editor, and possibly taking an increased role on the comic under Steve's supervision.

 (For instance, Vector 13 was John's idea, and he did all the story commissioning for it, including...*sniff* as a tear of nostaligia comes to my eye...my very first 2000AD work.)

John was the Megazine editor for maybe a year or less, and was editor of Lawman of the Future in its dying days, taking over both titles when David Bishop moved to 2000AD, but he was never 2000AD editor.

So, basically, Steve Mac should be listed twice in that poll, and remember that it was thanks to Steve that John Wagner returned to 2000AD to write Dredd again, finally giving us a break from the efforts of Mark Millar and 'Sonny Steelgrave'.  That alone should be worth a few votes for his second stint in the big chair ;->

Robin, your poll list about the best 2000AD editor has a mistake in it.

John Tomlinson was never 2000AD editor, although he was briefly the Magazine editor.  After Alan Mackenzie's unlamented departure, Steve MacManus was interim editor for a while before David Bishop became the new Tharg.

>>If we could erase Alan McKenzie, Hilary Robinson and Michael Fleischer from time...<<

The Fleischer and Robinson droids both got fed to Mek-Quake in the 25th anniversary Tharg story.  If you look closely at the heap of destroyed droids in the same page, you'll see the remains of the Mackenzie droid in there too.

Obviously, some people in the Nerve Centre sahre your opinions, earthlet vonscott.