sinister dexter skipped stories in trades

[Van Dom]

Hi all. After about a ten year absence I returned to reading 2000ad with prog 1500. Ive recently been trying to catch up on what i missed by buying up some of the trade books. I just finished the first 3 volumes of sinister dexter, and it didnt take long to notice they werent complete sets of stories, and the odd tale here and there had been skipped. They were mainly 1 parters and I assume they were the weaker 1 parters which is why they were skipped, but having looked at the bibliography on the sin dex page on wikipedia, I noticed theres a tale called Smoke and Mirrors, which was 5 or 6 parts long, that was skipped at the end of volume 3. I find this odd because they have included all the other multi-parters, all other skipped stories were self contained 1 parters.
Anyone know why this longer tale was skipped? Was it just particularly crap or something???

On the same subject, before rejoining the fold with prog 1500 I did dive into the odd prog here and there through the years, but nothing ever inspired me to start collecting again on those occassions. I do remember reading part 1 of another sinister dexter story though and i wonder if anyone could tell me the name of it. Basically the episode featured a kind of car chase which ended  with the guys driving off some ramp bridge or something and crashing their car at the bottom in some kind of pit. There was seemingly no way for them to drive out of this pit and get back on to the freeway or something, so they were stuck there at the end of the episode.... anyone know which tale this was?

Thanks folks!

[Banners]

Basically the episode featured a kind of car chase which ended  with the guys driving off some ramp bridge or something and crashing their car at the bottom in some kind of pit.

Life's a Beach, Progs 1433-1435. There's an episode guide here.

M@

[radiator]

I noticed theres a tale called Smoke and Mirrors, which was 5 or 6 parts long, that was skipped at the end of volume 3. I find this odd because they have included all the other multi-parters, all other skipped stories were self contained 1 parters.
Anyone know why this longer tale was skipped? Was it just particularly crap or something???

I think that Smoke and Mirrors (the Voodoo one with David Bircham art) is generally regarded as a very weak story, so I'm guessing thats why.

[Grant Goggans]

The reason some stories were skipped is that Jamie Boardman, who was the graphics novel editor while the books were still co-produced with DC, felt that the very patchy, episodic nature of early Sin Dex worked against the flow of the books as a book in its own right, and eliminated some stories which he felt were particularly weak, principally in terms of the art by Anthony Williams, Tom Carney and David Bircham.

[TordelBack]

Blimey, David Bircham really doesn't have much luck.

[Van Dom]

Thanks for the info guys.
Good or bad stories, Im a bit of a completist so it does kind of bug me that having gone to the trouble of buying the three volumes in one go, I dont have the full set of early stories. But what can ya do. I dont really get the whole DC thing either - what was that about, those were the books that have the kind of glossy art covers, as opposed to the differently designed matt covers they haveon the books now? I take it the partnership was dissolved then - poor sales of the books in the States?

Hopefully, if there is a new editor of the graphic novel department now, he will allow future sindex releases to be full sets, so that from now on their will be no more skipped installments. I know the SinDex strip has its haters, I wasnt always a fan either, in fact over those ten years when I was away from the comic, on the occasion that I did pick up an issue it was usually SinDex that made me think "nah, this is still crap, not starting to buy this again!" Somehow though I "got into it" and I really enjoy it now. Strange though that volume 3 was called "slay per view" - which wasnt that great a tale - and not "mother lode and the red admiral" - which was a very very enjoyable tale.

Anyway, thanks again for the input!

[IndigoPrime]

You're pretty much on the money. I'm not sure what the sales were, but DC didn't consider them high enough to continue with the books; however, Rebellion itself was clearly happy with them, and not only continued the line but massively ramped up the production quality. (As I understand it, certain aspects of the original line, including elements of production and some of the book choices, were heavily influenced by DC, hence some of the rather curious early choices—Red Razors, Judgement Day, etc.)

That all said, I'd be surprised to see a revised Sin/Dex set. The line was put on hiatus due to less than stellar sales, and the gap between books 3 and 4 will be almost four years by the time Eurocrash yomps on in. Should Sin/Dex continue, one option might be to keep releasing full arcs, but bundle the 'missing' strips into 'bonus' sections at the back of any future books. The only line reboots so far have been to series with only a single title (Red Seas, Shakara, Button Man, and so on).

[Roger Godpleton]

I would prefer it if they skipped over all the filler in future volumes.