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Prog 2142 - Major Malfunction

Started by Colin YNWA, 27 July, 2019, 03:47:00 PM

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MacabreMagpie


sheridan

Quote from: Woolly on 31 July, 2019, 07:10:18 PM
IP is fascinating to read week by week, but not something I can easily follow. I just wish Tharg had waited for John Smith. Kek-W's work is absolutely fine, but it all feels a bit 'unofficial'.


I thought Tharg did wait?  Two years, with art that was paid for but couldn't be used until a story was finished...

Frank

Quote from: sheridan on 08 August, 2019, 09:00:59 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 31 July, 2019, 07:10:18 PM
IP is fascinating to read week by week, but not something I can easily follow. I just wish Tharg had waited for John Smith. Kek-W's work is absolutely fine, but it all feels a bit 'unofficial'.

I thought Tharg did wait?  Two years, with art that was paid for but couldn't be used until a story was finished...

Time Flies, Series One, Episode One, Prog  700, 13th October 1990

Time Flies, Series Two, Episode One, Prog 1015, 19th October 1996

Philip Bond only completed five episodes of series two (i), presumably shortly after the first series. And Tharg waited 20 years for Smith to write another Indigo Prime story without Squaxx storming the Command Module demanding his head.

Obviously, I'm being a dick (ii), but I'm being a dick to make a point. I think finishing the series Smith started so Lee Carter could get paid for all the incredible work he'd put into the series is fair enough, but freezing Smith out and giving other writers the keys to Devlin Waugh, Tyranny Rex and Revere (iii) was a dick move.

I say that without knowing everything that went on behind the scenes, but the same applies to anyone saying they reckon it was fair enough, doesn't it.


(i) The remaining episodes being completed by various combinations of Jon Beeston, Roger Langridge, and Simon Jacob

(ii) Comic rock star Philip Bond was unlikely to be sitting waiting eagerly on his cheque from Tharg so he could buy the kids new shoes, for one thing

(ii) To such negligible effect, especially

sheridan

Quote from: Frank on 08 August, 2019, 09:37:27 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 08 August, 2019, 09:00:59 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 31 July, 2019, 07:10:18 PM
IP is fascinating to read week by week, but not something I can easily follow. I just wish Tharg had waited for John Smith. Kek-W's work is absolutely fine, but it all feels a bit 'unofficial'.

I thought Tharg did wait?  Two years, with art that was paid for but couldn't be used until a story was finished...

Time Flies, Series One, Episode One, Prog  700, 13th October 1990

Time Flies, Series Two, Episode One, Prog 1015, 19th October 1996

Philip Bond only completed five episodes of series two (i), presumably shortly after the first series. And Tharg waited 20 years for Smith to write another Indigo Prime story without Squaxx storming the Command Module demanding his head.

I didn't realise that the Bond episodes of the second series of Time Flies had been in the drawer for six years - I wonder what inspired the eventual publication?

ZenArcade

Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

Frank

Quote from: sheridan on 09 August, 2019, 08:32:15 AM
I didn't realise that the Bond episodes of the second series of Time Flies had been in the drawer for six years - I wonder what inspired the eventual publication?

You already know the answer to that one, bud - as Dave Bishop says in his official history of 2000ad, company policy was that anything that had been paid for had to be run in the comic.



TordelBack

Yet agaon add my agreement here. I'm not in the business of editing the galaxy's greatest anthology, or wrangling its stable of savants, so my opinion is as uninformed as possible, but for my money Smith was as vital to 2000AD's longevity as Mills was to its creation.  He's an utterly unique voice, and I wish some other more open-ended and generally respectful way had been found to deal with his legacy.

No disrespect meant to the writers who have worked on Smith strips, all have done good work.  I even thought some of the Waughs have come pretty close to the originals.  I just can't enjoy any of it.