Main Menu

2000AD Thrillshots - Reviewing the Mega and Ultimate Collections

Started by Vernoona, 31 December, 2018, 06:29:01 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Frank

Quote from: Dandontdare on 26 July, 2019, 10:34:08 PM
Nowadays I'm afraid I just regard Slaine as a frame to hang some truly beautiful pictures on - Pat hasn't had anything interesting to say with the character for some time, but my god, Clint Langley and Simon Davis have given us some absolutely jaw-dropping images over Pat's thin storylines

Longest-running 2000ad Series

Judge Dredd
ABC Warriors
Slaine
Judge Anderson
Indigo Prime
Devlin Waugh
Durham Red
Sinister Dexter


I'll concede that Pat Mills Slaine isn't as good as John Wagner Dredd, but everything else on that list? Seems like much of a muchness to me, but opinions are opiniony.

Slaine should have finished years ago, but then so should all the others.

Like all good-hearted people, I think the premise and tech upgrade of Time Killer are ridiculous but that the strip itself is more fun than zorbing with Jameela Jamil.



Leigh S

Coount me in for having my Time Killed!  It's a bit of an abrupt change, could maybe have done with a tale to set up the transition, but the ideas are pure Mills magic and make Slaine more than the sum of its Celtic Conan parts

Dandontdare

Damn you Frank!

I was composing a witty, cogent comeback about how most of those strips are irrelevant to the argument, but now all I can think about is zorbing with Jameela Jamil

broodblik

Quote from: Dandontdare on 26 July, 2019, 10:34:08 PM
Nowadays I'm afraid I just regard Slaine as a frame to hang some truly beautiful pictures on - Pat hasn't had anything interesting to say with the character for some time, but my god, Clint Langley and Simon Davis have given us some absolutely jaw-dropping images over Pat's thin storylines

Unfortunately so true. It almost feels like Pat is just recycling the same story does not matter the character(s). I am looking forward to the upcoming Defoe and hopefully the new Slaine story that is in the wings are something different and new.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Vernoona

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! As a relative newbie to 2000 AD every time I post I'm worried I've missed something / not got the context of something. It seems like Time Killer was a big swerve even at the time though!

Pat Mills will obviously feature a lot in the blog, and I find him an absolutely fascinating writer. Even if I dislike the structural move with the story here, as has been pointed out it's still so much bonkers fun that it's impossible not to enjoy the ride anyway!

Vernoona

Quote from: TordelBack on 25 July, 2019, 04:53:15 PM
Great read Vernoona, thanks!  I could happily live without having ever heard of the Cythrons, Leysers or El-Worlds, but it's not entirely fair to say that all the SF elements dumped on us in Time Killer were unprecedented - as I never seem to tire of harping on about, time-travel and its connection to the Drunes is right there on the very first page of Slaine, and it's also far from alien from Celtic myth. The Ever-living Ones of Dinas Emrys are referenced several times in the early part of the strip, the technological harnessing of Earth-power and Atlantis gets a nod too.   


Thanks for that information TordelBack - it's all definitely seeded as you say. The Celtic background throughout the strip is fascinating!

Funt Solo

Quote from: Vernoona on 17 June, 2019, 09:25:57 AM

It's May 1983. Recite five of the nine sacred equations and, like, chill out man, and check out D.R. & Quinch / Skizz, now up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/alien-antics-d-r-quinch-skizz/

Perhaps obvious, but Skizz is also influenced by Alan Bleasdale's show Boys from the Blackstuff: in particular Cornelius seems based on Yosser Hughes (played by Bernard Hill, now famous as King Theoden).
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Vernoona

Quote from: Funt Solo on 28 July, 2019, 08:57:02 AM
Quote from: Vernoona on 17 June, 2019, 09:25:57 AM

It's May 1983. Recite five of the nine sacred equations and, like, chill out man, and check out D.R. & Quinch / Skizz, now up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/alien-antics-d-r-quinch-skizz/

Perhaps obvious, but Skizz is also influenced by Alan Bleasdale's show Boys from the Blackstuff: in particular Cornelius seems based on Yosser Hughes (played by Bernard Hill, now famous as King Theoden).

Thanks Funt Solo! The background material in the Volume mentions that connection - I'll have to add Boys from the Blackstuff to my "must watch eventually" list!

Vernoona



It's July 1984. A young woman is about to head out on a shopping trip, and change sci-fi stories forever. The Ballad of Halo Jones is now up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/journey-into-the-unknown-the-ballad-of-halo-jones/

Lorenzo

Quote from: Funt Solo on 28 July, 2019, 08:57:02 AMPerhaps obvious, but Skizz is also influenced by Alan Bleasdale's show Boys from the Blackstuff: in particular Cornelius seems based on Yosser Hughes (played by Bernard Hill, now famous as King Theoden).

Yosser also makes a one off appearance in Leviathan!:


IndigoPrime

The thread pointing out that early Sláine was far more batshit is interesting. The King was arguably the turning point, when the strip headed into a more grounded take on those old legends. As for the more recent stuff, bar one hideous scene that Mills said wasn't his idea anyway, I did like Books of Invasions. It wasn't bonkers, but it did feel (alone with The Wanderer) like a return to form.

The Brutania Chronicles: A Simple Killing, though, was the really big surprise for me. Refreshing new art. Oddball ideas. A sense of unexplainable weirdness and mystery that echoed Mignola. But then it all went to crap in the subsequent books that too often felt like a scene was stretched across multiple Progs, combined with a Scooby Doo-style loop on repeat.

Vernoona



It's August 1984. No-one writes a blog about this collection lessen I tells them they can! Mean Machine is up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/buttin-man-mean-machine/

davidbishop

IIRC, the Mean Streets tale was from a Dredd Mega-Special themed around alternate versions of characters - think Elseworlds, What If?, Unbound, that kind of thing. Hence the random strangeness!

Vernoona

Quote from: davidbishop on 05 August, 2019, 01:37:05 PM
IIRC, the Mean Streets tale was from a Dredd Mega-Special themed around alternate versions of characters - think Elseworlds, What If?, Unbound, that kind of thing. Hence the random strangeness!

Ah, that makes sense - thanks Mr Bishop! The artwork on that one is beautiful.

Dark Jimbo

Huh! I always assumed that when people mentioned 'Mean Streets' they meant a certain episode of Mean's solo adventures that I read in the Megazine in the early 2000's. Turns out that was actually 'Butt Me Deadly' - a completely different Mean-as-a-noir-gumshoe-with-no-explanation strip...!  :lol:


@jamesfeistdraws