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Wow, I'm just full of new posts today...

I'm just curious if there is any chance of a US based writer ever producing stories for 2000AD.  I'm a Sci-Fi nut with dozens of potencial stories in my head and was thinking of fireing off a few "Future Shocks" or "Terror Tales" Tharg's way as per the Submission Guidelines.

Will I get looked at same as everyone else?  Or will they take one look at my US postage and Circular File it?  I'm always looking for ways to break into the comics industry and 2000AD seems to tackle the genres I like to write most in a format I love.

I noticed while going through some back issue of 2000AD, starting at Prog 1370 and going back the shape of the Magazing is compleatly different then it currently is.  It's narrower.

How long did the Magazine have this shape?  and can I assume any reprint matterial (Shakara spesificly) from that period will also be narrow shaped, and compleatly different from all my DC/2000AD reprint matterial?

Just wondering.

Having Judge Anderson and Sinister Dexter on the same week is going to HURT my wallet this week.  It's strange that Rogue Trooper is being pushed so far back, I guess July is now the last month of releases.

OOOOOOh....

See I didn't relise the site kept the Episode lengths a secret, I didn't notice what those '+' ment.  I was thinking they just told us how long each Thrill was.

Good to know.

I'm checking out the contents of Prog 1438 and it looks like all the current story arcs are wraping up.  Leaving Prog 1439 for a slew of new "Part 1s"

Any Idea what those Thrills might be? as I want to start an Internet push to get people reading 2000AD here in the US.  Since the issue will be coming out about a month or so from now here.

Uh.... I mean H.G. Wells...of course.  Curse this forum's inability to Edit posts!

The movie's going to be very very "americanised" which is good for hollywood and bad for people wanting War of the Worlds to be in it's more classic form.


Isn't the original story in the Public Domain?  I'm sure 2000AD would have no legal problem addapting the original story as a Trill Series.  But then what would be the point?  We already know the story.  Plus 2000AD does Alien Invasion Yarns all the time (realativaly)  Though putting Tri-Pods and ORSON WELL'S WAR OF THE WORLDS on the cover could spike a few sales, hell maybe you'd get a few kids reading, as parents would pick it for little Johnny to read that classic story in comic form!

I had a crazy (aka: Blasphumus I'm sure) Idea.  Republic should cut 2000AD to a twice monthly title, focusing it toward muture adult science fiction/fantasy, coming out every other week.  Then on the Odd weeks, replacing 2000AD, a new Kid friendly twice monthly comic magazine, with a new title of it's own with the same format as 2000AD.

Everybody wins!  Except those who think weekly Thrills must never end, you know....like I do.

I'm not prudish or anything, but I just wish Tharg was still pitching his comic at young customers.

- Trout
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And there in lines the problem with the entire comic book industy as a whole. The fact is the kids that have grown to adults reading books like 2000AD still crave it, and diserve high quality adult storytelling to fit their demograph.  On the other hand focusing souling on adults means new kid readers are left out in the cold, killing the future adult reader demograph after we all pass on.

Both sides deserve comics, but the adult side is the only one being focused on as a whole.  A change has to happen soon, or we may well see comics go extinct in our lifetimes.  Or our children will, and yawn and not care.

Just to American readers, because we're a bunch of panty waste children who cry tears of anquish when we see "foul words" in a children's storytelling medium.


Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but that doesn't make DC's stance any less true.  I envy you guys over there in the UK, with your creative freedom not hindered by asine parents afraid to let their little angels expericance the realities of violence, and nudity* and swearing.



*speaking of which, for a magazine sold in "Kids Sections" of newsstands the recent Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon didn't seem very kid friendly with it's full frontal female nuditiy.

On the subject of Robo-Hunter, I've noticed a few people mention the recent Robo-Hunter revival under Alan Grant didn't garner much praise.  I'm currious as to why this is, I read part of the second "New Robo-Hunter" and thought it was pretty solid, though not quite Verdus level good.  Was it just the "The Main Character is now a Girl when it was a Guy Originaly" or is it felt the tone has been changed too much?

I got my copy on wendsday, so far it's easily as good as Verdus and really cements Robo-Hunter as one of my favorite 2000AD series.   These old reprints are stupid fantastic, makes me feel like I missed out on a life time of comic book reading that I'll never really catch up on.  It really sucks that 2000AD doesn't really have a presence over here in the US.

THREAD BUMP GO!

I've had a chance to pick up a number of new trades so I figure... Hey Review em up!

So away we go...


Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood - I've actualy been itching to pick this up for a while but I got delayed.  Well I got it, and I have mixed feelings, the first story, Swimming in Blood was really good, a good story with some good horror undertones that introduces a very interesting character.  I loved the art style and the writing was spot on, at least until a bit of a muddy endding.  I bit confusing on what actualy happened when the sub hit the dome.  As for the character of Waugh himself, he's one bad dude with the most flowerly atitude I've ever read, he's like the polar opposete of Nikolai Dante.  Deversity is always my favorite part of anthology books like 2000AD.  As for the other three stories, the Mega City One imagration bit was funny as hell, and Waugh's team up with Judge Dread was fun.  But the final story witht he black and white art.... I don't know what happened, but it sucked HARD, lost everything that made Waugh an interesting character, with a pretty dull plot.  In all, a good book, but I hope the next Volume is a little better in showcasing Waugh's character.


ABC Warriors: The Meknificent Seven - Now here's an interesting little book.  It starts out so good, a solid little Sciecne Fantasy War story with an interesting premisis, the way the human leaders hid from harm and had fine control of the ABC Warriors in the field. It was very cool.
THEN the Volg had to get beat and suddenly the book became something else...something far less intersting.  The ABC Warriors stopped being soldiers and became maurading rangers on Mars and....man I don't know, it just some of it's charm.  It was still good, but I wanted more of the Volgan War, or atleast more of the aftermath, with Humans not wanting to keep the ABC Warriors around after their job was done, that was interesting, but dropped like a brick.  I'm picking up the 2nd volume, but it better get better, more focused, then "The ABC Warriors stop another elitest human group from hurting a lesser group".  Eh... it felt a little too forumlatic.  Art wise the whole thing was steller across the board.


Eh... Pretty good offerings, they were no Robo-Hunters though.

I've got Judge Anderson and Slain in route from Amazon.com so expect reveiws on those soon.

I was going to skip Slain as the resent 2000AD Prog really turned me off.  Are you saying the first Book is signifigently different?


Also, My Bad, I posted this thread on the wrong forum.  I guess someone moved it for me.

Next on the docket I've got a stack of books to pick up and read include...

A.B.C. WARRIORS: THE MEKNIFICENT SEVEN
A.B.C. WARRIORS: THE BLACK HOLE
THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES
THE COMPLETE INDIGO PRIME
DEVLIN WAUGH: SWIMMING IN BLOOD
DEVLIN WAUGH: RED TIDE
JUDGE ANDERSON VOL. 1: ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION
JUDGE DREDD: DREDD VS. DEATH
JUDGE DREDD: JUDGMENT DAY
RED RAZORS
ROGUE TROOPER: FORT NEURO
SHIMURA
SINISTER DEXTER: MURDER 101
SINISTER DEXTER: GUNSHARK VACATION
SINISTER DEXTER: SLAY PER VIEW
THIRTEEN

and now....probibly Slain.  I guess just to have all the DC releases

Over the last month or so I've picked up a Stack of those DC Trades reprinting 2000AD matterial.  I figured...hey I'm new too 2000AD so why not through my thoughts of each up on the 2000AD message board.

So here we go...

Nikolia Dante: The Romanov Dynasty/The Great Game - Nikolia Dante ended up being the first 2000AD trade I picked up, partly by acident, and partly because my hunger for "European Comics" was growing thanks to discovering the Humanoids albums thanks to DC.  I quickly relised that I'd been dooped, 2000AD wasn't like Humanoids at all, it was something entirly different, in an fantastic way.  Pure unadulted Science Fantasy, of the type I can NOT get over here States side in satisfactory quantities.  Nikolai Dante was my first taste of 2000AD and continues to be a favorite of mine.  Nikolai's high flying adventures in cutthrougt Politics is just what the docotor ordered, and I can't think of a single story arc in either volume that wasn't entertaining.  It's definitly one of the first books I recomend when pushing the 2000AD line on other American readers.

Skizz - I'm not an Alan Moore fanatic by any means, his mainstream work that seems to get all the raves over here in the US, like The Watchmen, really never did anything for me.  They're good, but not really...raving awesome.  But I do like Alan Moore, his work on Tom Strong, Promethia, and Top 10 are pretty entertaining.  I went in to Skizz looking to take a look as his early work, and that's exactly what I got.  I liked how he made Skizz alien, he didn't understand our world one bit for most of the book.  The main characters were pretty interesting as well, with alot of depth.  Except for the main bad guy, he was a seriously cardboard villain, a batshit "Everyone different is out to get me"/"Those damn commies are stealing all the water" is a pretty tired consept.  But maybe it wasn't in 1982 UK, I don't know I wasn't there.  Still it was a pretty solid "Stranger in a Strange Land" story with solid art.

Bad Company: Goodbye, Krool World - I have mixed feelings on this book, the first story 'Bad Company' was awesome, I loved the Behind the Frontlines approch and how any character could die at any instant.  It was a good Sci-Fi war tale that had a kinda weak ending.  Now Bad Company 2....I don't know what happened, but they took a great story and removed everything that made it interesting and shat something out that was supposed to sound philisophical.  Kano's quest for his brain and Danny becoming the, already lamn, Krool Heart was just too much stupid to discribe.  Good art all around though.

Rogue Trooper: The Future of War - Lattly I've had a real interest in 2000AD's early Progs, I don't really know why, maybe it's the Black and White art, or a nostogic trip back to the days of campy plots and hackeyed dialog, I don't know.  All I do know is Rogue Trooper is pound for pound the most consintrated book of 'Camp' I've ever read.  Don't get me wrong, I love the setting, the style, and I'm a sucked for War stories, espesaly Future War stories.  But damn, this book is full of Expossition Dialog, inane plots, and random Improbible situations escaped at the last second.  And for some reason I dig it all.

Strontium Dog: The Early Cases - Now here was an interesting book, like Rogue Trooper I was looking for a look at the early days of 2000AD, but what I found was something a little better writen but still chauk full of those little bits of '70s camp.  Johnny and Wulf are a class act action duo in a really over the top future.  What I was really shocked to discover was Johnny's "Cute Sidekick" Gronk.  I would have never suspected such a character in a book like Strontium Dog. Then I remembered...it was the 70s, everyone had cute bubbling sidekicks.  One the whole I really liked the 'Galaxy Killers' story, but found 'Journey Into Hell' to drag on way way too long, and 'Deaths Head' was just really weird with it's Timetravel plot.  A good fun book all around with, again, exceptional art.

which brings me to pound for pound my favorite 2000AD book so far.

Robo-Hunter: Verdus/Day of the Droids - Wow, I don't know what to say, but this is the craziest over the top comic series I've ever incountered.  Verdus was like The Wizard of Oz on crack and Day of the Droids is....er..well I havn't read it all yet, as I just got it yeasterday, but it's so far pretty crazy.  Sam Slade just can't catch a break from the world coming down around him.  It's funny, it's action packed, it's somewhat dramatic...in funny ways! It's probibly one of my favorite reads of the year.  At it's nearly 30 years old!


So yeah, I've been reading alot, and 2000AD his rapidly climed my charts to be a high contender of "Best Comic Company Ever"  Which is strange as a year ago I had barly heard of it, and completly ignored it based on my, compleatly wrong, belive that Judge Dredd was stupid (it was that damned movie, I swear bad movies blind me to more good stuff then anything else)  I've got on the ball and now pick up 2000AD, Judge Dredd Megazine, and 2000AD Extreme Edition regulary and still have a stack of DC reprints in my pull box at the local comic shop plus the last of the DC new orders.  I can't wait to read them all.  2000AD ROCKS.