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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

Started by Molch-R, 27 February, 2017, 06:03:27 PM

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Tomwe

Quote from: Super Mario on 13 April, 2021, 01:21:04 PM
is this the first megazine content to end up in the collection
A quick search of the wiki shows a couple of the Kenny Who strips plus a Shakara & a Fiends..., but otherwise, yes the first major content.

Dark Jimbo

Bit behind, but I've started Indigo Prime. Despite the revival (post-Dead Eyes) being one of my favourite thrills ever, this early stuff is all new to me.

Bit hard to believe that earlier collections opened with the completely mystifying Issigri Variations...! A Change of Scenery is a much better introduction to who/what IP are. IV might have read better if the Tyranny volume had been released first - there's five or six references to Soft Bodies that don't mean a whole lot! It's a fun story, but needlessly obtuse at times. The idea of two characters whose every adventure is *actually* an unreliable operatic retelling of those adventures is brilliantly mad, but doesn't work as well in practice as in theory - it needs some sort of visual device to mark the switch between the opera and the adventure, which could be handled really well now with the advent of digital colour. A bit before its time, maybe. Beyond the opera thing (and very subtle hints that they're gay lovers) Fervent and Lobe don't make much impression - they just look and sound far too similar.

Indigo Prime would have been the story that opened the book with almost any other writer, and it's a great little intro. Chris Weston makes an immediate impression, and this carries through to the series of shorts that follow. The whole universe starts to feel really coherent. Can't wait for Killing Time!

One reference/joke I feel like I was completely missing, though - who are these cliff carvings meant to be? Tom Baker and Peter Davidson...?

@jamesfeistdraws

dossa1uk

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 14 April, 2021, 11:00:44 AM

One reference/joke I feel like I was completely missing, though - who are these cliff carvings meant to be? Tom Baker and Peter Davidson...?



Starsky and Hutch, I think...

Hackenbush

If you're really lucky you can get a "special hachette edition" of this volume that starts at page 33 in the middle of the Issigri Variations, and goes on to put the first 32 pages at the end of the book.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Hackenbush on 14 April, 2021, 12:44:17 PM
If you're really lucky you can get a "special hachette edition" of this volume that starts at page 33 in the middle of the Issigri Variations, and goes on to put the first 32 pages at the end of the book.

I mean... I feel for you, but that is very John Smith.
@jamesfeistdraws

abelardsnazz

As predicted upthread, Dominion contains the title story, Memories are Made of This and Torture Garden. No Deadworld stuff, but still lots of lovely Dark Judge horror.

The Corinthian

Quote from: dossa1uk on 14 April, 2021, 11:06:16 AM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 14 April, 2021, 11:00:44 AM

One reference/joke I feel like I was completely missing, though - who are these cliff carvings meant to be? Tom Baker and Peter Davidson...?



Starsky and Hutch, I think...

Definitely Starsky and Hutch, though they do look a bit like Gareth Thomas and Michael Keating.

levers

Hmmm. The ultimate collection appear to have vanished from the Hachette website!?! Hopefully just a temporary glitch?

Hackenbush

Quote from: levers on 14 April, 2021, 11:15:59 PM
Hmmm. The ultimate collection appear to have vanished from the Hachette website!?! Hopefully just a temporary glitch?

That really is curious. Maybe their web host is as competent as their printers?

IndigoPrime

Hachette support replies: "I can confirm the collection is still running as it should be. I am unsure of the reason for the issues being taken down, so I will raise this query."

levers

Thanks for the update. That's a relief. I Facebook messaged them this morning but hadn't had a response. Wonder if someone working on the website accidentally hit the delete key!

abelardsnazz

Dominion is brilliant, Nick Percival's art is something else and this and the Deadworld series put the DJs firmly back in the horror camp where they belong.

sintec

Quote from: levers on 14 April, 2021, 11:15:59 PM
Hmmm. The ultimate collection appear to have vanished from the Hachette website!?! Hopefully just a temporary glitch?

Appears to be back this morning.

levers

Quote from: sintec on 16 April, 2021, 09:16:24 AM
Quote from: levers on 14 April, 2021, 11:15:59 PM
Hmmm. The ultimate collection appear to have vanished from the Hachette website!?! Hopefully just a temporary glitch?

Appears to be back this morning.

Thanks. Time to order some books. Recommendations from the extension please?

IndigoPrime

#4799
Everyone will have their own take on things, but of those in stock (80–92), I highly rate:

Firekind: a John Smith classic that's also among his most coherent and accessible works, featuring an explorer on an alien planet. Backed with the interesting Leatherjack.

The Red Seas: rollocking epic adventure that suffered in the Prog due to the manner in which it was drip-fed over many years. Far better in collected form. (Note: this will run to FOUR books: 83; 87; 93; 101)

Brink: a modern 2000 AD classic, providing an alternate take on a procedural that rapidly goes to some very dark places among the last surviving humans, living in tin cans in space. (This will run to TWO books: 88; 104.)

Fiends of the Eastern Front: a collection of linked stories from across the ages, featuring vampires and the military men who meet and confront them.

I'm also fond of:

Flesh: old-school 2000 AD with cowboys herding dinosaurs in Earth's distant past, and battling meat eaters for supremacy. A bit hokey, but then it's old.

Lobster Random: divisive Spurrier-scripted yarn featuring a grumpy war veteran with a penchant for robots and massive lobster claws grafted to his side. I find this a breezy, fun read, but know it rubs some people up the wrong way.

In a more general sense, this is almost a "can't go wrong" extension. Of the books on the Hachette site, the only one I reckon should get in the bin is Greysuit. Looking at the announced list through 111, Mercy Heights is the only one I'm surprised to see in the list. (Although I don't recall it being _bad_ per se, Medivac 318 was a far better 2000 AD 'ER in space', and Mercy Heights for me wasn't as interesting as the solo spin-off featuring a certain blue-skinned character.)