Forthcoming Thrills - 2020

[Richard]

I have mixed feelings about this. I can see why they're doing it. The last Regened prog was the best-selling prog last year, so of course they're going to do it again. It's essential to the survival of the comic to engage with children and get them reading proper comics, not just shitty puzzle magazines bagged with cheap plastic tat. I hope it succeeds. Andjust because they interrupted the regular schedule last year doesn't mean they'll do it again.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no interest in these stories myself, and I know I'll be annoyed by the four "wasted" weeks when I know I won't enjoy the comic. I don't agree that it's the same as enjoying the first 500 or so issues, although I understand the point that's being made about that, because today's idea of what passes for a children's comic is much, much more tame and timid than 2000AD was in the 1970s and early '80s. I'll try to explain what I mean:

The early issues of the prog were aimed at children, but Tharg didn't seek their parents' approval -- they were subversive, they were stories your parents wouldn't have been happy about you reading if they'd taken the trouble to look at them. You'll all bring your own examples to mind, but here are some of mine: in Flesh Book 1 there's a scene where a mother and her child are about to be eaten by dinosaurs, and in their last moments the mother is trying to comfort her child, saying it'll soon be over. Nobody rescues them, they're killed. In the first episode of The Judge Child, people are being enslaved in a desert, and Judge Dredd -- the "hero" of the story -- rescues a slaver from some quicksand, interrogates him, and then hands him over to the slaves, who promptly lynch him. The slaver says "you promised you'd save me!" and Dredd just says "I kept my promise -- you're out of the quicksand," and leaves him to die. These were "all ages" comics. There was something for everybody. Was there anything like that in prog 2130? Was there hell. Tharg played it very safe: there was nothing for a parent to complain about. It was 2000AD Reduced, neutered, infantilised. It wasn't for all ages, it was for kids and only for kids, and while I daresay it entertained them, there was nothing to shock them, to make them think, to challenge their preconceptions of morality or of the world. In prog 504 (I think) Pat Mills wrote a time-travel episode of Nemesis the Warlock which showed the Americans as the bad guys, as murderers, and the Indians as the good guys, a concept which blew my mind when I was about 12 and had never questioned the usual "cowboys good, Indians bad" shtick I'd been practically brainwashed with before.

I'll happily reread that kind of thing, not just out of nostalgia for my childhood but because it's better.

All that said, I hope the results are encouraging enough that Tharg releases a new title for young children in 2021, and that it's successful, and that it secures the future of British comics.

[Fungus]

May drop the subscription and buy individual issues, based on this announcement. Have zero interest in the kid's edition. Full Tilt Boogie was OK but I do wonder if that was relative based on the other content...

[Dash Decent]

maybe buy them anyway and pass them on to a younger reader...?

That's a great idea, Jim.

[Dash Decent]

is there a list for the expected graphic novel releases for next year?

Not a complete one that we know of, but this thread is assembled from the information we have as it's comes out.  If you go back to the first page of the thread and skim through each page, you'll get a pretty good idea from the various covers.

[Link Prime]

Could you imagine if say Marvel Comics randomly inserted all-ages 'X-Babies' stories into the middle of Hickman's current / numbered run, and then charged the customers 40% more for those unsolicited issues?The comic associated internet would have a Chernobyl level meltdown.

Have to say, the balls on Tharg for pulling this move.

And to answer the obvious retorts;
Yes, of course I want 2000AD / Rebellion to improve brand awareness and distribution.
Yes, of course I want (and already support) the availability of all-ages comics.

Somehow, they've managed to get about six extra specials onto the schedule next year — which of them would you like to see replaced with four Regened specials?

Any of them.

[TordelBack]

I can honestly see the validity of both sides of this argument, but I always have to come down on the side of Tharg trying something new to bolster the ranks: and this is that.  For me, 2019's run of stories has been one of the most consistently brilliant of any era, dense, exciting, visually strong and downright meaty reads (sorry, Tips!).  If we can keep that up into 2020, and every few months just cut it with kid-focused fare for an issue, I'll be extremely happy.

I am a bit biased here, because while I enjoyed a good chunk of 2019's Regened myself, the real thrill for me was just flopping a prog down in front of my kids without the usual 'hang on, I'll just flick through it first' that I usually do when they show an interest.  There's no way I'm handing a prog with this week's Hope in it to my 10-year old daughter.

Although if we're doing wish-lists, I'd rather see the content of the Tammy & Jinty special ported over: so many stories there I'd like to see more of, that Beeby & Holden one for a start.

[IndigoPrime]

May drop the subscription and buy individual issues, based on this announcement.

With respect, short of being a digital subscriber, isn't that a bit like cutting off the nose to spite the face, given the costs involved?

An annual sub to 2000 AD is £120. 2000 AD costs £2.99 for a standard issue, and, what, a fiver for the Christmas one? Remove Regened from the equation, and you're getting £137 of Progs you want for £120, and they're shipped to your door. It seems a bit bizarre to want to spend an extra 17 quid, just because you've a bee in your bonnet about four issues you might not enjoy. (Even on the basis of a monthly print sub, you're still saving a fiver over the year. So why not just stick with the sub and give away the issues you don't want?)

[Richard]

Shhhh, don't tell him! It's more money for Rebellion!

[broodblik]

If the regen progs are released in such away that the preceding prog all stories end and the following prog it is all new stories then it should not be an issue for me.  I did enjoy the regen prog and it was nice to have something different.

[Tomwe]

If the regen progs are released in such away that the preceding prog all stories end and the following prog it is all new stories then it should not be an issue for me.  I did enjoy the regen prog and it was nice to have something different.

An effective pallet cleanser before a slew of new strips each time. Sounds good to me!

[norton canes]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already but what are kids supposed to do if they like the Regened stories? Wait three months for some more?

[norton canes]

Also... er, is it 'Regened' as in 'regenerated', or 'Regened' as in 'having new genes'..?

[IndigoPrime]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already but what are kids supposed to do if they like the Regened stories? Wait three months for some more?

This is the problem with the current approach. I can imagine a bit of "well, let's buy next week's issue, then, and—ARGH" on seeing something like Hope. But then Rebellion is trying new things to see what sticks. We got a special, then a store-available comic that was the year's best-seller. Perhaps 2020's won't do so well, but what if they do? Perhaps they sell fantastically and Rebellion issues a standalone monthly for younger readers. Whatever steps need to be taken to get there, I'm all for, because as someone who has a youngling in the house, the current comic racks are fucking terrible for kids.

Right now, almost everything has a ton of plastic. Hey Duggee (which mini-IP is close to ageing out of) and The Beano are exceptions. (I would add The Phoenix to that, but good luck finding a copy in the wild. Around here, I've only ever seen it once, and that required going to Reading.) And most of the rest is just garbage. Lego Friends wasn't awful, but most of the other plastic-tat mags are just atrocious in terms of content (and that goes for Lego City as well).

So, yeah, more experiments, and, hopefully, more sales. It would be amazing to get to the point where at least one new comic for kids could be released and get stable sales. Perhaps these days even that is too much to ask for, but who knows? Rebellion has the skills and the IP, and if we get a few weird issues of 2000 AD every year to get to that future, I'm all for it. (And that's beside the fact I enjoyed the Regened issues anyway.)

[The Amstor Computer]

I'd imagine at least part of the calculation here is that existing readers are passing the Regened issue to their kids, or buying specifically for their kids knowing something about the contents of the regular prog and are therefore in a position to guide them to another purchase, even if it isn't necessarily the prog itself.

For example (and anecdotally):

My daughters really enjoyed reading my copies of the FCBD Funny Pages issue, and the Cor! and Buster/Tammy & Jinty Specials. There wasn't anything in terms of a regular comic from Rebellion that scratched a similar itch, but the Treasury books I've picked up (Faceache, Creepy Creations, the Misty and Jinty reprints) served as a next step for them. It's got them interested and aware, and it's prompted me to consider future humour or girls' comics reprints more strongly when I have a limited budget - if they can read and enjoy them and I can too, then maybe that's more enticing for me than just buying the next one that appeals to me alone.

Given the vast catalogue of reprint available - much of which is entirely kid-suitable - I'd guess that what Rebellion are hoping isn't necessarily that every young reader will jump straight into the next arc of Hope or Deadworld, but that they (or more accurately, their parents) might want to delve into the back catalogue or try one of the other all-ages specials. It all keeps people in the Rebellion/Treasury ecosystem, and that's got to be a good thing for the prog and for the future of the company's publishing plans. If at some point they're able to launch Regened as a regular (monthly?) comic then there's a more direct route as well.

[broodblik]

Now for something completely different February 2020 solicitations:

https://2000ad.com/post/6112