Main Menu

Space Spinner 2000AD

Started by Steve Green, 19 April, 2017, 09:18:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

sheridan

Quote from: Andy B on 01 May, 2018, 03:26:41 AM
Just reread Skizz for first time in a long time: forgotten just how great it is, and it's aged really well.

Alan Moore really was the master of telling a story in short episodes that have a satisfying structure of their own, but also move the story forwards. His 80s output is so good it just doesn't seem possible for one guy to have done it!

(Just for the record, there are no nuclear power stations in Birmingham, which is as far from the sea as you can get in the UK. Plenty of chimneys, though - birthplace of the Industrial Revolution!)

The furthest point from the sea is in Derbyshire - maybe you're thinking of the 'centre of the UK', in Coventry (not far from Brum)?

SpaceSpinner2000

That's so weird, because nuclear cooling towers do seem to show up in Skizz imagry a bit, both in the opening comic and even in teasers for upcoming progs, like this one:



Maybe these are just regular smokestacks and I'm making assumptions? That said, I really love Skizz. There's so much character stuff in it, especially for Roxy, Skizz, Loz, and even Cornelius. It's a big change from the average 2000AD story of the time, but it also somehow fits right in. Very excited to cover it more!
2000 AD recap podcast, from the beginning!
Check out the show here! Or on iTunes, Google Play, or your preferred podcast app!

Steve Green

They're not nuclear power stations necessarily - cooling towers are all over the place for non-nuke power stations in the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didcot_power_stations

All the nuclear stations in the UK are on the coast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_Kingdom

Andy B

Quote from: SpaceSpinner2000 on 01 May, 2018, 10:23:45 PM
That said, I really love Skizz. There's so much character stuff in it, especially for Roxy, Skizz, Loz, and even Cornelius. It's a big change from the average 2000AD story of the time, but it also somehow fits right in. Very excited to cover it more!

I didn't know anything about UK girls comics (which were huge in the 70s and 80s) until I read the recent 'Misty' reprints.

Reading Skizz again now, it seems clear it was influenced more by those girls comics than by anything in 2000ad itself. The schoolgirl protagonist (obviously), the emphasis on characters with realistic emotions, and the (wonderful) Jim Baikie art: could easily have run in 'Jinty'.

An early example of 2000ad soaking up influences from all over until it was the last comic standing. Next up: Sword & Sorcery!

Andy B

Quote from: sheridan on 01 May, 2018, 10:01:36 PM
The furthest point from the sea is in Derbyshire - maybe you're thinking of the 'centre of the UK', in Coventry (not far from Brum)?

Yes I was - the nearby Meridan (or so it is said). Damn: geographic nit-picking, and I started it!

Eamonn Clarke



That is, or was, the Nechells coal fired power station in Birmingham. I grew up not too far from there.
It closed in 1982 and was subsequently demolished. It's now the Star city shopping mall/entertainment multiplex, but then again isn't everything these days?

SpaceSpinner2000

This is really interesting stuff! I think some combination of SimCity and the Simpsons made me assume that those big towers were just for nuclear plants. Always learning new stuff for this show!
2000 AD recap podcast, from the beginning!
Check out the show here! Or on iTunes, Google Play, or your preferred podcast app!

Andy B

By the way, nice shout-out to Dave Gibbons on this weeks show. For anybody who doesn't know, the reason he didn't do that much in 2000ad between Dan Dare and Rogue Trooper is, he was drawing Doctor Who for Marvel UK.

And an excellent job he made of it: it's all available in three collections, 'The Iron Legion', 'Dragon's Claw' (with bonus Mike McMahon), and 'The Tides of Time'. The first volume is written by John Wagner and Pat Mills, and if you imagine Dr Who as an early 80s 2000ad story, it's exactly like what you're imagining.

Anybody who enjoys this period of 2000ad should definitely check out the first book at least. Thinking about it, one of those stories ('The Star Beast'), would make an interesting double-feature with Skizz...

Lobo Baggins

Quote from: Andy B on 02 May, 2018, 05:06:49 PM
Anybody who enjoys this period of 2000ad should definitely check out the first book at least. Thinking about it, one of those stories ('The Star Beast'), would make an interesting double-feature with Skizz...

Nonsense! Everybody knows there's no thrills worth sucking at Marvel UK...
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Eamonn Clarke

Quote from: Andy B on 02 May, 2018, 05:06:49 PM
By the way, nice shout-out to Dave Gibbons on this weeks show. For anybody who doesn't know, the reason he didn't do that much in 2000ad between Dan Dare and Rogue Trooper is, he was drawing Doctor Who for Marvel UK.

And an excellent job he made of it: it's all available in three collections, 'The Iron Legion', 'Dragon's Claw' (with bonus Mike McMahon), and 'The Tides of Time'. The first volume is written by John Wagner and Pat Mills, and if you imagine Dr Who as an early 80s 2000ad story, it's exactly like what you're imagining.

Anybody who enjoys this period of 2000ad should definitely check out the first book at least. Thinking about it, one of those stories ('The Star Beast'), would make an interesting double-feature with Skizz...

Stay tuned to another 2000AD podcast for an episode on the Iron Legion volume from Panini which is coming up on May 13th, and we do mention similarities between the Star Beast and Skizz.

The Monarch

god the doctor who weekly/monthly/whenever the hell its released now are good stuff

SpaceSpinner2000



In our thrilling ninety-seventh episode Fox and Conrad continue their journey through the Galaxy's Greatest Comic with Progs 313-329 of 2000AD, covering April and May of 1983. Join us as Skizz gets sick, Slade gets dead, and Dredd gets pregnant!

Direct Download
iTunes
Google
Stitcher
Or on your favorite podcast app!

Please let me know what you think of the episode!
2000 AD recap podcast, from the beginning!
Check out the show here! Or on iTunes, Google Play, or your preferred podcast app!

WhizzBang

I consider this to be the last proper Sam Slade story and it was a shame to see the character written off like this. Has any background into what happened ever come out? Were Wagner and Grant just bored of him?

SpaceSpinner2000

Quote from: WhizzBang on 08 May, 2018, 08:32:51 PM
I consider this to be the last proper Sam Slade story and it was a shame to see the character written off like this. Has any background into what happened ever come out? Were Wagner and Grant just bored of him?

It seems a bit like that to me, both Play it Again Sam and this storyline have a fair amount of filler in them imo (all the different songs, or the section we'll be getting next episode that's basically a clip show of previous robo hunter stories). Plus we're right on the verge of a sea change for authorship in 2000AD. As opposed to the last year or two where basically every non-future shock has been either Wagner/Grant or Finely-Day, we're now seeing Alan Moore come on the scene with extended stories (first Skizz, then DR & Quinch, then Halo Jones) and Pat Mills is on the verge of arriving with both Slaine and fairly regular Nemesis storylines. There clearly isn't room for all that PLUS Robo Hunter and Strontium Dog, so I could see them working to get all the story lines they wanted to tell and get it all finished up in time for Prog 335. Of course, it's a telling detail that they only revisit Sam once, two years later. But all this is based on looking at the text, instead of actual back story :D

Also, I like the Peter Hogan/Rian Hughes installment of Robo Hunter, though I understand it wasn't popular at the time, and I'm very interested to check out the Samantha Slade stuff, but of course that's way way in the future!

2000 AD recap podcast, from the beginning!
Check out the show here! Or on iTunes, Google Play, or your preferred podcast app!

Colin YNWA

Quote from: SpaceSpinner2000 on 08 May, 2018, 09:23:17 PM
Also, I like the Peter Hogan/Rian Hughes installment of Robo Hunter, though I understand it wasn't popular at the time, and I'm very interested to check out the Samantha Slade stuff, but of course that's way way in the future!

Yep to the Peter Hogan / Rian Hughes stuff its great and I'm a big fan of the Samantha Slade stuff too.

Aren't we all forgetting the brilliant 'Farewell my billions'. Absolutely love that story.