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2018: forthcoming thrills..

Started by janus stark, 05 January, 2018, 12:39:55 PM

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Link Prime

Quote from: James Stacey on 09 July, 2018, 12:01:03 PM
y know what. The thought of other writers having a bash at Slaine or ABC Warriors genuinely thrills me.

Aside from The Black Hole, my favorite ABC Warriors story was written by Alan Moore.

I was chatting with former IDW head honcho Chris Ryall a couple years ago, and he suggested strong interest in producing an ABC Warriors series, but couldn't get it of the ground due to the restriction about using a different writer for the characters. 
I know IDW can be hit or miss, but the thought of new ABC Warriors material with a completely fresh creative team did have certain appeal.
The characters have always had huge potential in my opinion, and sometimes haven't been serviced with the best of story-lines (nevertheless always the best of artwork).

Having said all that, I've been a huge Pat Mills fan all my life, and regularly enjoy his current work in the Prog.

Tjm86

Quote from: broodblik on 09 July, 2018, 05:51:17 AM
Just imagine Rebellion gets tired of this and all his current series gets reassigned to other creators.

Not to mention, what will happen when karks it.  What will he do?  Come back as the ultimate ghost writer?  Or just haunt King's Reach tower, moaning pitifully about what writers are doing with his characters now?

Greg M.

I would hope that when Pat is no longer with us, 2000AD would retire his characters. All current evidence suggests that won't be the case, unfortunately.

Bolt-01

and with the best will in the world it shouldn't be. Rebellion have spent a lot of money to own these characters and the revenue they generate. I would imagine that The ABC warriors and Slaine will definitely be continued.

James Stacey

Marvel would be kerbollocked when Stan Lee dies.

Greg M.

From my perspective, continuing ABC Warriors and Slaine without the unique authorial voice of Pat Mills would be a creatively worthless endeavour, just as continuing Indigo Prime and Devlin Waugh without John Smith is.

Bolt-01

But you are happy for the artists to be reshuffled despite their authorial voices?

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Greg M. on 10 July, 2018, 01:51:16 PM
From my perspective, continuing ABC Warriors and Slaine without the unique authorial voice of Pat Mills would be a creatively worthless endeavour, just as continuing Indigo Prime and Devlin Waugh without John Smith is.
I'm torn on the John Smith thing. It's hard to know fully what went down there, and even what the current situation is. But I get the feeling he basically filed some scripts and then – due to horrible personal circumstances – basically went dark for two years. It comes across now like bridges have been well and truly burnt, but I hope that's not the case. His voice was unique and exciting, and is – as I've said before – the reason I stuck with the Prog.

As for others taking over, though, I don't know. Indigo Prime worked nicely with Kek-W behind the typewriter. Devlin Wauigh, though, just didn't click. McConville just doesn't have the right voice for me, and perhaps he was deck-clearing but bringing tantalising glimpses that were presumably Smith's background texture to the fore seemed an awfully strange decision. Still, these are Rebellion's characters, to do with as they please, and if the people behind them won't write anything further, and the editor reckons others can do a good job, that's their prerogative.

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 10 July, 2018, 02:13:01 PM
But you are happy for the artists to be reshuffled despite their authorial voices?
This is an interesting point, not least given that a strip's visuals are often as much of a 'voice' as what's said/written.

Jim_Campbell

Also worth noting that assigning Smith's authorial voice to someone else's character gave us what is near-universally regarded as the best Rogue Trooper story, whilst 'Red Planet Blues' remains my favourite ABC Warriors story by some margin.
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Steve Green

Depends on the strip for me.

If a strip starts with a varied line-up then it works up to a point - multiple artists are having their input (see Dredd), plus not many artists could keep up with doing it day in day out anyway, so it's just a reality.

For those who have a stamp on it - Carlos on Strontium Dog, Ian on Robohunter, then I find another artist taking over hard going.

I believe Kingdom was held back for Richard's availability, so it seems to be preferred to hold back for certain strips.

And I'm not comfortable with the way John appears to have been treated either - I've been dipping in and out of the prog and megazine this year because I'm not really feeling it, and having that hanging over strips doesn't really encourage me to do so.

It may be a great strip, but hard to separate that from the circumstances.

Also in general with a couple of exceptions, having other writers take over characters doesn't have a great track record either.

Greg M.

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 10 July, 2018, 02:13:01 PM
But you are happy for the artists to be reshuffled despite their authorial voices?

You do indeed make a good point, Bolt, and I don't want to give the impression that I think the artist on a comic strip is somehow of lesser importance than the writer. That's not my belief. However, I do feel Slaine and the ABCs are defined more by Mills's voice than by the work of any individual artist. I'm not saying you can't get interesting one-offs or stories with different writers – as Jim suggests, few would fault Cinnabar – but for the most part I'd rather new creators came up with their own unique stories.

James Stacey

I think the John Smith thing was unfortunate but also an exception rather than the rule. Whether it was right or wrong to pass the characters on, if John hadn't encountered the horrible personal circumstances and continued supplying scripts I suspect there would have been 0% chance that he would have been taken off IP in favour of someone else.

IndigoPrime

I suspect James is right. Be mindful that while Smith was – albeit sporadically and somewhat randomly – filing content to 2000 AD, his strips were never given to other writers. It was only when – from what I can tell – he went dark for something like two years, leaving Tharg with a half-finished series, that cogs started turning. Perhaps that was bad timing. Perhaps had Smith resurfaced a few months earlier, things would be different. But things are what they are. (And, as I've said elsewhere, while I do sympathise with Smith and love his work, you can't just cut off all contact and expect to pick up where you left off.)

Steve Green

There are plenty of half-finished series/plotlines littering the past few years not by John Smith.

I have some sympathy about getting someone in to finish one already started in IP, but handing over Devlin Waugh and Tyranny Rex?

Greg M.

Quote from: Steve Green on 10 July, 2018, 03:18:22 PM
I have some sympathy about getting someone in to finish one already started in IP, but handing over Devlin Waugh and Tyranny Rex?

Agreed - not to mention Revere, whose appearance, whilst possibly intended as tribute to Smith, jarred horribly.