Messages

P.S. I like Meltdown Man

I agree with those of you who say that it's down to perception. Some of 2000ad's readers are only recent converts to thrillpower while there are still a few of us who have been there since the start. Going over the older progs, or reading the reprinted stories, some of us can find that our opinions of the stories have changed, or discover that these stories are still enjoyable to read. I enjoyed a grea deal of the stories in the 80s; I copuld still find stories to keep my interest in the early 90s, and now, its a case of I like som,e of whats given to us but others leave me cold. But I'm alright with it, because most likely, there's plenty of readers out there who will enjoy it. Sorry to go on so...

For me the Apocalypse War was great because it had bags of action, ran and ran smoothly from Block Mania and had ramifications which lasted for years. However, Judgement Day was also good because of the supporting cast of international Judges and the return of Johnny Alpha. It does come a very close second to only Helter Skelter IMHO because of the inclusion of the Dredd villians from the golden Age of 2000ad and because it uses elements from the other 2000ad stories also.

I can't place my single favorite cover from 2000ad, but my favorite panel has to be from the Judgement Day series from Dredd. It's the last panel: Dredd and Alpha walking side by side after defeating Sabbat and saving the world (again). My favorite characters drawn by my favorite artist - nice one Carlos!

What are you saying, that our Rico should have killed their Rico? How surreal would that have been?

How does Joe end his days? Does he have to? I recall in the Red Razors story when it was brought over to 2000ad, Dredd had been frozen, to be thawed out and used only in time of emergency. That can't be much of a life, even if it does extend your longevity considerably. As for Rico Mk2 becoming Dredd's replacement, well they tried replacing Dredd a while ago with a certain Judge called Kraken and we know how that turned out...

Damn! I was going to say that one. Well, what about the time Dredd shot himself in the heart just after he executed Chief Judge Griffin? I'll bet that wasn't pleasant...

Oh my God! He's on the 2000AD Advent calendar as well! There's no escape!

Coincidentally enough, Gavin Bennett got into Dreddlines in the January 2002 Meg (which arrived this A.M.)asking for the Sprog to be reprinted. Can there be a vast pro-Bradley conspiracy going on?

I've always tried to give 2000ad stories the benefit of the doubt over the years. I could read the earlier ones and find something postive to say about them. Those times came to an end when one story vommitted itself on the pages of this illustrous publication. I speak of none other than Bradley. A classic example of a Future shock that never should have been given its own series. Try as I might I could not find any redeemable features to this loathsome strip. I came to the unmistakable conclusion that it was simply taking up valuable space, which could have been used to show the greats (Dredd, Alpha, Rogue, Sam Slade etc). Sorry if I went off on a rant there, but if you read the strip - you'll understand.  

The short answer is that they were not trying to raid a train, they were just catching a lift. They were heading up country in search of the flesh wearing robots when they were intercepted by one (sans the flesh apparently).

It's a thorny issue all right. An arguement can be made that if a story is good enough, it doesn't need swear words to incite some shock/novelty value into it. the excuse that 2000ad gave to the inclusion of that word in Button Man was to give realism and because they thought we were mature enough to handle it. If the story appeared in the Meg, there probably wouldn't have been such an outcry - strips like Preacher and Lazurus Churchyard (admittedly not "pure" 2000ad creations) have extreme language in it as a matter of course. 2000AD, however, still should try to maintain its standards as a publication which still has something for most sci-fi/fantasy readers. In tthe end of the day, if 2000ad goes down the road of the Meg in using incidental swearing, it will soon lose its shock value andd mean that the writers will have to go further and further to achieve the same response from their readers. I hope that this will not be the case.

McNulty (not real name), Scottish, Dredd and Johnny Alpha fan. I can still remember wearing the Bionic Man body stickers given away as freebies in those early days.

I agree; short stories have a place in 2000ad. They have to have a quick attention grabbing introduction, followed by a bit of development, then end with a suitably humorous/ tragic/ unexpected twist. For most of the future shocks, a short story is enough to accomplish this. My bugbear is stories which go on too long, as if they have been told to run for x amount of weeks, no matter what. If I cannot get into a story e.g. Necronauts, it just DRAGS on with me.

I don't think they did. It was mostly Dredd, with a couple of Rogue Trooper. I don't think they did any others. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.