What do you think have been the top 10 greatest moments of 2000AD's last quarter century?
Am pretty up on the comic until the mid-90s but regrettably lost interest for a while after that.
What have I missed?
Quote from: McGurk76 on 16 November, 2018, 08:02:34 AM
What do you think have been the top 10 greatest moments of 2000AD's last quarter century?
Am pretty up on the comic until the mid-90s but regrettably lost interest for a while after that.
What have I missed?
I think most people, even those whose favourite moments are in their youths (nostalgia can be tough to beat) will agree that this is special...
(http://www.geek-pride.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/judge-dredd-day-of-chaos-endgame-03.jpg)
My second prediction is when Dredd boots down a door in the last panel of his story and the first panel of the next story features the same door being booted in.
My third and last prediction before I start work today!
This one could be a bit divisive, but the last panel published to date of Stickleback where we find out [spoiler]that Stickleback is Sherlock Holmes[/spoiler]. It was quite some while ago so I put the reveal behind a spoiler in case people come across it for the first time in the 2000AD Ultimate Collection.
I'd recommend http://megacitybookclub.blogspot.com as a great place to hear readers talk about their favourite thrills.
Certainly Nikolai Dante, Brink, Leviathan, Zombo, Stickleback, Cradlegrave, Mega-City Undercover / Lowlife and Judge Dredd: Trifecta would be amongst my recommendations.
-tccchh- Everyone knows there's been nothing good in 2000AD since the mid-80s. Insert anecdote about tracing Nemesis for an art project and some vague memory of Dredd shooting a mutant in the face. You couldn't get away with that nowadays, the triggered snowflakes would be all over you! And even if they were still publishing it today, it'd all be PC nonsense aimed at empowering muslim lesbians.
Warning to the OP: this is one spoilerific thread! If behind the black bars you go, only pain will you find.
For my money, any strip that has the words 'D'Israeli' in the credits box can be counted on as being a highlight of the whole 40+ years, never mind the last 25. Picking individual moments is more difficult, but the successive revelations of the Big Man's identity in Low Life (written by man-of-the-moment Rob Williams) has to be in there.
Still resurfacing in my head on a daily basis is the glorious slab of solid atmosphere that was Cradlegrave, by John Smith and the late and so-very-much-missed Edmund Bagwell: the whole strip was one single, claustophobic moment. In fact, you could add both those men's names to the 'guaranteed highlight' list.
You've had Nikolai Dante recommended to you as a matter of course, and rightly so, but specific moments include its exquisitely judged ending, and the single-episode 'Love and War' (there's another multi-episode story of the same name, but this one appeared in Prog 2000), that issue itself representing one of the great moments of the comic's history (there's another Prog of the same name, but that's another story...).
Right now two of the greatest strips of the past quarter century have their current instalments running in the Prog - the so-2000AD-it-hurts version of Lassie that is Kingdom, and the high-tension-cable of a slow-burning thriller Brink. Today is the good old days, Earthlets!
#Testify, brother.
Another vote for Cradlegrave, one of the absolute best stories from one of the absolute best script droids.
The last chapter of Nikolai Dante, a strip I really hated at first.
Al Ewing's role-playing-parody Christmas Dredd strip; can't remember the name or the Christmas prog but it was as clever and cool as any Alan Moore one-off.
Also, his Megazine Dredd The Americans, a very brave attempt to patch up dodgy Dredd continuity and an absolute perfect snapshot of the Mega City one we know and love.
Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.
Dredd's second attempt at annual mandatory 24-hour downtime, scripted by Grennie, and even better than Wagner's first workaholic-dealing-with-free-time Dredd script.
My Name is Death, which effortlessly made the main Dark Judge scary again.
Bear with me, I'll think of more.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 04:52:04 PM
Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.
Was that the one with Dredd and the other clones pretending to be at a family get together at christmas, but just being uncomfortable and wanting to get back out on the streets?
Best long-term strip in last quarter century would have to be Nikolai Dante (currently being reprinted in 9 lovely hardbacks a part of the Ultimate 2000ad collection - part 4 due in a few weeks, but you may be able to snag the others online).
For best short-term strip, I'd vote Cradlegrave - creepy council estate horror
Best Dredd? It's gotta be the big world-changing trilogy of Origins/Tour of Duty/Day of Chaos, with special mentions for Trifecta and Every Empire Falls
Unsure whether we're being asked for highlights - stuff like Strontium Dog returning with the original creators or Dante coming to an end, for example - or for actual moments in stories that forcibly removed our socks.
Assuming the latter, I'm saying the finale of Dead Eyes (1577-1588), by John Smith and Lee Carter*. I wasn't reading 2000ad when it was originally published, so I'd already had the ending spoiled by reading online discussion of the story. It was still a bravura moment**
* Starts off with John Smith challenging you to think whether you've ever read anything more John Smith - working class protagonist pursued by cynical, murderous establishment and large sections apparently generated by doing a William Burroughs cut-up with a dozen issues of The Fortean Times - and builds to an anti-climactic ending that's not a million miles from the protagonist waking to find the previous events had all been a dream. But somehow, it works - and the Bagwell/Carter stories that followed were just stratospherically imaginative and accomplished (and silly and funny)
** +++SPOILER+++ DO NOT CLICK UNLESS YOU LOVE HAVING SURPRISES RUINED: (LINK (https://i.imgur.com/OD25B83.jpg))
Quote from: sheridan on 16 November, 2018, 04:58:54 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 04:52:04 PM
Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.
Was that the one with Dredd and the other clones pretending to be at a family get together at christmas, but just being uncomfortable and wanting to get back out on the streets?
Once again memory fails me. In fact, Vienna may not have appeared at all in that one. Feck, I'm crap. It was a Dredd where he actually feels the festive spirit, convincing Hershey to reconsider the mutant ban and wishing her a Merry Christmas, no less.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 06:05:38 PM
In fact, Vienna may not have appeared at all in that one.
This means nothing to me.
Arf!
The Award for Most Disturbing Attire:
(https://i.imgur.com/pKB5Sce.png)
As others have said, highlights of 2000AD's second golden age include the entirety of Nikolai Dante, all of Kingdom so far, Cradlegrave, Brink, and I'd say Caballistics and Absalom, possibly also Stickleback, and definitely Lawless in the Megazine. That's some damn good comics right there.
SBT
There's so much said all ready that I could just nod my head to. But for the sake of conversation I'm going to take a different tack and pull for Progs and what they represent.
Prog 1066 - now this one surprised me but is perfect for making the point. Its the first issue that I kind find that has the holy triumvante of Wagner Dredd, Nikolai Dante and Sinster Dexter. Now it also just happens to be the bloody awful 'Sex' issue. But kinda hammers home the point. For all the crap that swimmed around the Prog at this time having these three in regular rotation really helped stir the Prog back to form.
Prog 1466 - is a great example of what having those three around allowed to grow. John Smith's under-rated classic Leatherjack concludes, Red Seas has been added to the roster and Leviathan is in there (all be it the shorts). Just great, great stuff.
Prog 1634 - First Zombo, second Cradlegrave, joined by Savage (with Dante and Dredd) - superb and I've talked about my love of this Prog before.
Followed shortly after by Prog - 1652. Kingdom book 2 starts are makes clear that this is pure distilled 2000ad and its around to say. Alongside it Shakara, Strontium Dog by Wagner and Ezquerra, Dante and Dredd classic Tour of Duty
Prog 2101 - cos its possible pound for pound the best Prog ever.
Oh and if I may cheat Lawless is one of the absolute greatest things from Tharg's house.
Loads of good stuff, and this is just 1993-2013.
Legendary Adventures:
Age of the Wolf (I)
Aquila
Devlin Waugh: Reign of Frogs & Sirius Rising
Kingdom
Nikolai Dante
The Red Seas: The Hollow Land
Slaine: The Books of Invasion
Slaine: The Book of Scars
Judge Dredd
The Pit
Total War
Origins
Still Mental After All These Years
Emphatically Evil: The Life And Crimes of PJ Maybe
Tour of Duty
Day of Chaos
Rough Diamonds:
Bob Byrne's Twisted Tales
Button Man (II, III & IV)
Durham Red: Night of the Hunters
Low Life
Savage
Snow/Tiger: Pax Americana
13/Thirteen
Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon
Tyranny Rex: Deux Ex Machina
Other Worlds:
Brass Sun
Breathing Space
Firekind
Glimmer Rats
Shakara
The Horror ... The Horror...
Caballistics, Inc.
Chiaroscuro
Cradlegrave
Judge Death: My Name is Death
Leviathan
Lightness of Being:
Dandridge
Trifecta
Necronauts
"When I make a point, I make a funting point!"
Really hit me hard
Heroes be damned.
The story Jayzus is trying to remember is The Spirit of Christmas in 2007's Prog 2008. It's a good one.
Although I don't disagree with the stories people have listed above, the question was about moments in 2000AD's last 25 years, so I don't think multi-episode serials really count. It's about "Because I hate you" (that one's from more than 25 years ago but you get the point).
So, in no particular order, my choices are:
The death of Judge McGruder ("You deserved better").
The end of Book 1 of Tsar Wars, when [spoiler]Ingrid Wagner hangs herself.[/spoiler]
Al Ewing's Choose Your Own Xmas (also nominated by Jayzus).
When Dredd meets Guthrie for the first time, in The Pit.
The fate of Nemesis and Torquemada at the end of Book X, which has always stayed with me. (I think the recent Nemesis one-off in prog 2000, which I did that ending, was the worst decision Pat Mills has ever made.)
The first ever episode of Kingdom. Also the episode in which [spoiler]the original Lizzie Sower was killed.[/spoiler]
The panel from Tour of Duty when Niles, Buell, Garcia etc set out on their way to arrest Seinfeld.
The first episode of The Scarlet Cantos. That introduced so many interesting characters and places, it's a great example of world-building.
That one-off story by Bryan Talbot in Prog 2001 or 2002.
There must be plenty of others, but that will do for now.
*"which undid that ending"
Quote from: Richard on 17 November, 2018, 01:53:19 PM
The question was about moments in 2000AD's last 25 years, so I don't think multi-episode serials really count.
Ok so if it is moments :
1. Dredd kicking his way from his own strip into the Simping Detective
2. "I no longer recognise your authority"
If it is strips /series then, in no particular order:
DreddTour of Duty
Day of Chaos
Trifecta
The Small House
The Pit
Any story featuring PJ Maybe
Other 2000 AD StripsBrink
Strontium Dog revival
Sinister Dexter
Nikolai Dante
Kingdom
MegazineLawless
Insurrection
The Simping Detective
OtherProg 2000 (the second one), the 40th Anniversary Prog and the 40th event
(This is definitely one of those "here is what occurs to me right now, tomorrow it will be a different lists").
"My name is Dredd. You may have heard of me. I'm a stickler."
Judge DreddMomentsQuote from: sheridan on 16 November, 2018, 09:28:21 AM
My second prediction is when Dredd boots down a door in the last panel of his story and the first panel of the next story features the same door being booted in.
Quote from: sheridan on 16 November, 2018, 09:27:36 AM
(http://www.geek-pride.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/judge-dredd-day-of-chaos-endgame-03.jpg)
Quote from: Richard on 17 November, 2018, 01:53:19 PM
The panel from Tour of Duty when Niles, Buell, Garcia etc set out on their way to arrest Seinfeld.
StoriesTrifecta, Monkey On My Back, Meet The Umbersons, Regime Change, Terror Rising, Road Stop, House of Pain, Great Expectations and Choose Your Own X-Mas
Other non-Dredd Related MomentsRowan Morrigan's resurrection after being eaten by Fenrir in the first Age of the Wolf story
Quote from: sheridan on 16 November, 2018, 09:39:27 AM
This one could be a bit divisive, but the last panel published to date of Stickleback where we find out [spoiler]that Stickleback is Sherlock Holmes[/spoiler].
Quote from: Richard on 17 November, 2018, 01:53:19 PM
Also the episode in which [spoiler]the original Lizzie Sower was killed.[/spoiler]
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-94K6TksYa3U/VJ7oS1VE0bI/AAAAAAAABfI/cZClQYYc8NU/s1600/cradle8.jpg)
Other non-Dredd Related StoriesNikolai Dante, Brink, Stickleback, The Ten-Seconders, The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake), Cradlegrave, Caballistics, Shakara, Kingdom and Nemesis the Warlock
Bit of a spoiler, that Cradlegrave pic.
It's ALL spoilers, innit? I suspect that's why most posts have tried to be fairly general: this is fast becoming the "ruin every cool surprise Tharg ever pulled off" thread. Shall I tell 'em about Malone and Crispy while we're here?
Indeed.
It's an awesome picture.
Sorry folks, I tried to put a spoiler tag on the pic but it wouldn't let me!!
Quote from: TordelBack on 18 November, 2018, 07:13:37 AM
It's ALL spoilers, innit? I suspect that's why most posts have tried to be fairly general: this is fast becoming the "ruin every cool surprise Tharg ever pulled off" thread. Shall I tell 'em about Malone and Crispy while we're here?
I'll always remember finding out the massive pre-Necropolis Dredd reveal: [spoiler]My brother, reading the prog to himself, shouted over to me 'You know the Dead Man? Guess who he is really? Judge Dredd'.[/spoiler]
I had picked up a couple of progs after being away from the fold for 20 years and was umming and ahhing about whether or not to start getting it again, when there was a single, two word moment in Shakara that made me cheer out loud:
"World engine"
Got a subscription that day.
Quote from: oshii on 18 November, 2018, 11:52:19 AM
"World engine"
Got a subscription that day.
:lol: Oh man, that was joyous. Laughed out loud at the audacity while reading those last few parts of Shakara.
Bagwells art on the return of Indigo Prime.
(https://futureshockd.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/indigo-prime-art-edmund-bagwell-copyright-rebellion1.jpg)
Flints art on Shakara
(https://futureshockd.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/shakara-art-henry-flint-copyright-rebellion1.jpeg)
Any rob Williams Dredd or Dirty Frank - he writes the perfect Dredd and the supporting cast from Frank, sensitive clegg, pin, Nixon, Gerhart allows a range of stories to be told. His comedy writing is the best, his angry Dredd is the best.
But also a shout for Robbie Morrison and Dave Taylor's beautiful Great Executions from meg 325/7 - beautifully told sad tale of love in the mire of MC1.
Quote from: Frank on 16 November, 2018, 05:33:59 PM
Unsure whether we're being asked for highlights - stuff like Strontium Dog returning with the original creators or Dante coming to an end, for example - or for actual moments in stories that forcibly removed our socks.
Assuming the latter, I'm saying the finale of Dead Eyes (1577-1588), by John Smith and Lee Carter*. I wasn't reading 2000ad when it was originally published, so I'd already had the ending spoiled by reading online discussion of the story. It was still a bravura moment**
* Starts off with John Smith challenging you to think whether you've ever read anything more John Smith - working class protagonist pursued by cynical, murderous establishment and large sections apparently generated by doing a William Burroughs cut-up with a dozen issues of The Fortean Times - and builds to an anti-climactic ending that's not a million miles from the protagonist waking to find the previous events had all been a dream. But somehow, it works - and the Bagwell/Carter stories that followed were just stratospherically imaginative and accomplished (and silly and funny)
** +++SPOILER+++ DO NOT CLICK UNLESS YOU LOVE HAVING SURPRISES RUINED: (LINK (https://i.imgur.com/OD25B83.jpg))
The first one. Highlights rather than moments.
Quote from: McGurk76 on 18 November, 2018, 10:05:59 PM
Quote from: Frank on 16 November, 2018, 05:33:59 PM
Unsure whether we're being asked for highlights - stuff like Strontium Dog returning with the original creators or Dante coming to an end ...
The first one. Highlights rather than moments.
In that case, retrofit that my previous comment as
The Return Of John Smith To Indigo Prime.
Of the
Dredd epics everyone else has already listed, I'd highlight
Total War and
Tour Of Duty. The former is just a great, self-contained story you can enjoy without knowing everything that led up to it, and the latter is a work of such grand ambition and peerless craft that it makes the other (very good) stories to which that term is applied seem timid and unexceptional.
I think it's the greatest Dredd story to which John Wagner has put his name - and he's written a few.
The other good stuff's uncontroversial; nobody else has steered you wrong.
Cradlegrave, Button Man, Zombo, Low Life, Ordinary, Leviathan, Brink, Lawless, Insurrection, some of
Defoe, some of
Savage.
Big Dave and the final book of
Zenith also conform to your Silver Jubilee rubric, although the first of those divides opinion. Being less specific, the emergence of
Henry Flint and
D'Israeli as not just good artists but equal to the finest talents ever to cross the threshold of the Nerve Centre made it worth changing century.
I agree with the previous Dredd comments, all worth reading.
I'd like to add Jaegir as a highlight - it and Kingdom are my two current favorites.
Also, the return of Johnny Alpha to the prog (Blood Moon, Repo Men etc) is fantastic.
Quote from: Frank on 18 November, 2018, 10:55:08 PM
...the emergence of Henry Flint as not just a good artist but equal to the finest talents ever to cross the threshold of the Nerve Centre made it worth changing century.
Absolutely.
We should be ever thankful for Mr Flint and his loyalty to Tharg.
I wish for artists like Bolland, McMahon, Ron Smith, Fabry and O'Neill to grace the comic again, but not when reading a Henry Flint strip. He is like a modern cross between McMahon and O'Neill for me.
Flint is definitely one of the best talents that graced the pages of any comic the last 25 years.
Quote from: Richard on 17 November, 2018, 01:53:19 PM
The panel from Tour of Duty when Niles, Buell, Garcia etc set out on their way to arrest Seinfeld.
(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/judgedredd/images/2/2b/Judge-dredd-sjs.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130228213810)
Quote from: TordelBack on 18 November, 2018, 07:13:37 AM
It's ALL spoilers, innit? I suspect that's why most posts have tried to be fairly general: this is fast becoming the "ruin every cool surprise Tharg ever pulled off" thread. Shall I tell 'em about Malone and Crispy while we're here?
I was thinking the Malone reveal was pretty good as well, even though I hadn't actually like Sinister Dexter for some time before that (I think it's best when there are no Moses' around).
Just thought of a new one - the bit where Sensitive Klegg realises the grave syntactic he made during a full-on Klegg-rage!
Quote from: Frank on 18 November, 2018, 10:55:08 PM
... the emergence of Henry Flint and D'Israeli as not just good artists but equal to the finest talents ever to cross the threshold of the Nerve Centre made it worth changing century.
Quote from: Magnetica on 19 November, 2018, 10:02:13 AM
Quote from: Frank on 18 November, 2018, 10:55:08 PM
...the emergence of Henry Flint as not just a good artist but equal to the finest talents ever to cross the threshold of the Nerve Centre made it worth changing century.
Absolutely ... He is like a modern cross between McMahon and O'Neill
Expert use of shade!Diz nibbles grapes at God's side, as far as I'm concerned - and makes for a more fitting comparison with McMahon, in terms of arriving at a new style to fit every brief, if we're using that as our metric - but I suppose he divides opinion (as does McMahon).
I really like almost all the ink-monkeys Tharg employs, but D'Israeli's one of a small group of artists who can get me excited about a brand new strip
just because they're involved. You never know exactly what you're going to get; you just know it's going to be great.
Yep, they all have lovely bottoms, but D'Israeli, like McMahon, seems to be in an entirely different contest.
It occurs to me that as well as an injection of new greats that still dazzle today (Coleby, Holden, Flint, Goddard, M. Harrison, Trevallion, etc etc) weverything also gained and apparently lost some amazing artists in those 25 years: e.g. Jock, Irving, Critchlow, Adlard and for the most tragic of reasons Bagwell.
Edmund Bagwell was a great artist. I never knew about his sudden departure. All the names you mentioned TordelBack are all great (etc = Names like Paul Marshall, Culbard, Leigh Gallagher). I will add the name of Colin MacNeil is one of the most dependable artist in the last 25 years.
I wasn't including MacNeil because his tenure dates back more than 1,600 progs (31 years!): otherwise you're absolutely right, he gets my personal vote for MVP of the last three-quarters of the comics existence. Culbard, Marshall and Gallagher - right on! Nick Dyer is another artist of quite recent vintage that I could look at all day.
It's interesting when you do this kind of exercise, it really does remind you that those seminal early years, with their classic pantheon of characters and creators, were so short, and there's been so much more since, and so much that's every bit as good. Less concentrated, definitely, but when you start setting it out the list of post-80s greats just goes on and on...
The nice thing about the last 25 years is the variety in the art. Even the forming years we had such classic artist like Kennedy (Cam/Ian), Belardinelli (how I miss his wonderlust style), Dave Gibbons, Ortiz, Ewins (the list just go on and on).
My highlights story-wise: Nikolai Dante, Red Seas, Shakara, Brass Sun, Brink, Kingdom, Caballistics Inc, Leviathan, Leatherjacket (my favorite John Smith story), Defoe, Stickleback, Icabod Azrael, Age of the Wolf, Aquila, The Order, Deadworld, Helium, Scarlet Traces, Jaegir, Hope, Kingmaker.
Quote from: broodblik on 19 November, 2018, 07:20:36 PM
Leatherjacket (my favorite John Smith story)
Neil Gaiman, surely?
Quote from: Frank on 19 November, 2018, 07:24:09 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 19 November, 2018, 07:20:36 PM
Leatherjacket (my favorite John Smith story)
Neil Gaiman, surely?
Started in Prog 1450 - https://shop.2000ad.com/series/leatherjack (https://shop.2000ad.com/series/leatherjack) and https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/2000-ad/2005/PRG1450 (https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/2000-ad/2005/PRG1450)
Quote from: broodblik on 19 November, 2018, 07:41:17 PM
Quote from: Frank on 19 November, 2018, 07:24:09 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 19 November, 2018, 07:20:36 PM
Leatherjacket (my favorite John Smith story)
Neil Gaiman, surely?
Started in Prog 1450 - https://shop.2000ad.com/series/leatherjack (https://shop.2000ad.com/series/leatherjack) and https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/2000-ad/2005/PRG1450 (https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/2000-ad/2005/PRG1450)
Sorry Frank
Leatherjack not
Leatherjacked
Cheers, buddy!
I do wonder how much nostalgia clouds a comparison of the first 15 years of 2000AD and the last 25 years.
And I am only drawing the line there because the question on this thread was about the last 25 years - I would actually end the early part sooner. But anyway..
...I tend to think I prefer the earlier stories and artists but as Tordel's say this exercise is good to show there is also a lot of great stuff in the more recent era.
When I think about it, there is another factor at play...I have simply read and re-read the early Progs so much more than the recent ones and so they are more ingrained in my mind.
It is why, for instance I felt no need to buy the Apocalypse War in the Mega Collection, but snapped up Tour of Duty - I have read those original Progs with AW in them so often, but had never re-read ToD. And it is only on a re-read that I am happy to place it as the equal of things like The Apocalypse War, Judge Child, the Day the Law Died etc.
It is a bit like when I only had a handful of albums, I could name every song, now I have hundreds, I can't
Quote from: Magnetica on 19 November, 2018, 10:30:23 PM
I do wonder how much nostalgia clouds a comparison of the first 15 years of 2000AD and the last 25 years.
And I am only drawing the line there because the question on this thread was about the last 25 years - I would actually end the early part sooner. But anyway..
...I tend to think I prefer the earlier stories and artists but as Tordel's say this exercise is good to show there is also a lot of great stuff in the more recent era.
When I think about it, there is another factor at play...I have simply read and re-read the early Progs so much more than the recent ones and so they are more ingrained in my mind.
It is why, for instance I felt no need to buy the Apocalypse War in the Mega Collection, but snapped up Tour of Duty - I have read those original Progs with AW in them so often, but had never re-read ToD. And it is only on a re-read that I am happy to place it as the equal of things like The Apocalypse War, Judge Child, the Day the Law Died etc.
It is a bit like when I only had a handful of albums, I could name every song, now I have hundreds, I can't
I agree with absolutely everything you've said there (except for buying collections of things I already have in their comic form - space is too much of a premium for me).
Space is a premium for me too, but I am doing it anyway...but its not sustainable...but I carry on regardless :lol:
My experience is similar: with so many re-reads of my early progs, I'd be happy to bet some money on naming the prog number for any cover from 175-350. Not much money. But I know those progs and the stories within very well. Immediate artist recognition on any panel would go further - up to 500-ish.
After that, the drugs kicked in. Sure, there were progs (with numbers on them), and they had art by people. But it's all a little bit hazy.
Slaine traveled through time (and snogged a bearded lady), but in what order? Dante traveled throughout the empire (and snogged a bearded lady), but in what order? I don't think anyone else snogged a bearded lady. Rogue Trooper was Rogue, then Fr1day, then a Fr1day supper (with chips, y'see), then ... wait, are we on the Norts side now? Robo-Hunter was a funny detective with idiotic assistants, then he was an action hero, then he was his own niece. Was Robo-Hunter always just a better version of Magnum P.I.? Why the fuck is the Gronk a Terminator? Big Dave? Is this a Viz reject strip? Wait, it's Flesh! It's Joe Savage! It's The Visible Man! Nothing has changed ... I've traveled full circle. Watch out for the Sovs! We need to warn people ... they're coming! They're already here! You're next!
Without thinking about it too hard, stories/moments that have knocked my socks off would be:
Shakara book 1
Judge Dredd: Terror/Total War
Trifecta, especially that bit
When Ian Edginton is good, i.e. Leviathan, Brass Sun, Helium and, controversially, Stone Island
Simon Fraser, Henry Flint, Dave Taylor, Boo Cook, Frazer Irving
Cradlegrave
Ichabod Azrael
early books of Defoe
The renaissance of Kek-W
-things that knock my socks off less: realising that most of the things on that list are now from quite a long time ago!