Pat Mills

[Jim_Campbell]

I hope Pat wouldn't

I think you might be sadly disappointed...

[Bluearmada]

I hope Pat wouldn't

I think you might be sadly disappointed...

If someone in the public eye can't take criticism for there work, then yes, that is disappointing.

[TordelBack]

If by 'take criticism' you mean a creator should carefully reflect on your expert analysis of his work, thank you for your time and resolve to take your points on board, then I think you're living in some other reality. Not that you've given him anything to work with yet.

And as for Pat , he's the Gaffer, he's far beyond listening to the mewling of supposed fans on the forum provided by the publishers of the comic he created. He gets to write what he wants, and and if you don't like it skip to the next story.

Can we leave the individual out of it for a moment, ask, for example, what is it about the current run of Defoe you think is sub-par? That would be the start of a useful discussion from which we might all learn something instead of wanting to belaber you around the head with a copy of the The Complete Ro-Busters.

[Richard]

Or the mods could just call time out and lock this fucker.

[Frank]

I would love to (see) new blood injected into these projects, wouldn't you?

That's not really how 2000ad - certainly modern era 2000ad - works.

Residents of Fukushima can count the number of strips that have been thrown out to pool writers on the fingers of one hand. Dredd's the most notable example; the results vary from the occasionally inspired* to violating article three of the EU convention on human rights.

Rogue Friday/Cyan, Harlem Heroes, and Strontium Doggies are the obvious instances of Nineties Tharg adopting Big Two HR policy **. Presumably, those duds are why Tharg no longer offers day rates to any hack willing to plaster over the cracks in Robo-hunter continuity.

I'm no more interested in Arthur Wyatt's ABC Warriors than I would be in reading TC Eglinton's Nikolai Dante versus Leviathan or Rory McConville's Cradlegrave:The Return. Just like Mills and Wagner's 20th century creations, all those strips are work for hire efforts, © TMO.

Tharg won't inflict such atrocities upon me because of his sensible 21st century approach of dropping strips when the writer leaves the comic ***. I don't see why Brother Mills should be treated any differently - crucially, neither does he.


* the most successful example by far being scripted by Patrick Mills of Colchester

** Abnett's Durham Red and VCs have their admirers, but I doubt he'd bump Kingdom from his CV to accommodate either.

*** the most recent exceptions being Green Bonce's hilarious trolling of Grant Morrison via Ulysses Sweet. Reserving occasional trips down memory lane with old favourites for Summer Specials seems like a nice compromise

[sheridan]

It's a discussion board - what's the problem? Would it have been preferable if my first post had been - Deadworld sucked until the latest instalment, but now it's ace?

Speaking personally, I would find that preferable - 'it took a while, but I'm really liking these creators work now' is much better than saying 'it's time for $creator to retire'.

[Rogue Judge]

Bluearmada, it seems odd that you went through the effort of creating 3 threads to go on about Mills...I believe Pats pinions of any criticisms regarding 2000ad or his work are neatly summed up in his final sentence of the 2000ad documentary....

Also, I enjoy his ABC Warriors

[TordelBack]

Well, if nothing else this thread has occasioned the return of Butch Bikini Frank Sauchie to the active posters' register, and that's something. 

[positronic]

I recently read all four volumes of ABC Warriors: The Volgan War one day, followed the next day all three volumes of the ABC "Return to" trilogy, and thought they were unquestionably brilliant, on so many levels.

It's possible that the work reads differently in short installments spaced out over months at time, but I'm convinced Pat Mills knows precisely what he's doing.

[positronic]

We seem to have had this debate a number of times.

The case for-

- He pretty much invented the Prog in the first place
- He thought up all the stories in the first Prog apart from Dan Dare
- his editorial stint at the start shaped what 2000AD was
- although not credited as a co-creator he had a huge influence on Judge Dredd
- he has created and written some of the all time great 2000AD strips: Nemesis, Slaine, ABC Warriors/ Ro-Busters, Invasion/ Savage
- he continues to come up with new stuff: Greysuit, Defoe, American Reaper

...and there is that, as well. No small things.

Even apart from 2000AD, something like Marshal Law is an unheralded work of genius. It should rank right up there with The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, but somehow it never attained that status.

[Fungus]

But Marshal Law is heralded? Mills & O'Neill at their over-the-top best. And it could only be a comic.

Best thing about PM is that if you asked 6 readers to pick favourite works, you' could well get 6 different answers. That's quite something.

[Proudhuff]

It could be argued that he needs a firm editorial hand, but suggesting he should be put out to pasture is going to gain no traction here.

I'm torn between this ^^^ and the sockpuppet comment.

Like all the greats, Pat needs someone to clash/create with: Strummer/Jones, Lennon/Mccartney, Stan and Ollie...
Mills and Wagner???

[positronic]

But Marshal Law is heralded? Mills & O'Neill at their over-the-top best. And it could only be a comic.

I don't believe Marshal Law is recognized (at least among the wider mainstream comic fandom in the US) as having the stature it truly deserves.

There may be a few reasons for that. Perhaps in 1987 the mainstream of comics fandom was not prepared to accept such a radical stylist as Kevin O'Neill; it tended to get lost in the wake of TDKR and Watchmen, and because it was originally published under Marvel's Epic Comics imprint; it may not be so apparent in the face of its parody aspects that the work actually has something to say; and perhaps most crucially, it seems to have touched a raw nerve in fans by being critical of the superhero genre (some critics accused it of being "mean-spirited").

I'm sure that it was better acknowledged in England, where Mills and O'Neill's prior work was well-received. Then again, how to explain the failure of Judge Dredd to ever gain more than a cult acceptance among US readers?

[Mardroid]

But Marshal Law is heralded? Mills & O'Neill at their over-the-top best. And it could only be a comic.

I have read a Marshal Law book of the text variety, written by Pat Mills. (A novela or short story.) It had lots of nice accompanying comic style art too, but it definitely wasn't a comic book.

I also didn't think it was very good, and I do like the comics, well the first arcs, anyway, before the zombie nonsense, (and I like zombies usually. It just went out of its way to be a bit too nasty for my taste) so you might have a point!

That being said, the story told was okay, it was mainly the narrative style I had an issue with, which is likely a matter of taste.

[Dandontdare]

I was composing a long reply, but I think everything's been said - to be exact:

the Prog would be far worse off without Pat Mills' contributions, even the ones you might not personally like.

As I always say this comes up, Mills should always have a slot in 2000AD available to him. A happy Mills makes for a healthy prog.

The guy gets a Bowie Pass. Contribution is so great that whatever he wants to do is fine.

If I had done in comics 10% of what Pat Mills has done and continues to do, I would be a very happy man.

Personally, I don't like a lot of Pat's curent output - Greysuits and American Reaper leave me cold, Defoe, Slaine and Flesh are on-and-off, but I love Savage and ABC Warriors.

Buit oh my God what wonders he has given us over 40 years - the Cursed Earth, Nemesis, ABC warriors, Slaine ..... yeah, he's a pass

For everything he's done, I woudn't object to a guaranteed 5 pages of every prog reserved for Pat, whatever he wanted to fill it with.

As for the original poster - why would you join a 2000ad forum purely to slag off the creator of the comic?