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General Chat => Help! => Topic started by: sheridan on 10 September, 2017, 02:29:08 PM

Title: Name that Shock!
Post by: sheridan on 10 September, 2017, 02:29:08 PM
Hi all,

I have a friend who noticed my copy of the Ultimate Collection Volume One and asked me about a story she'd read many years ago (probably late eighties / early nineties).  It's either a Future Shock or similar one-off and features an empire (presumably galactic) which has been in decline.  This is where it gets hazy, but it seems similar to the Plutonium Horde which ends up [spoiler]going around the galaxy, which is spherical, and ends up wiping out the remnants of a now decadent empire which ends up being its start point[/spoiler], but it's not that one.  From what she said I was also reminded of a shock (possibly from Starlord) where humanity retreats underground after a war, [spoiler]evolves into a subterranean creature and eventually emerges on the surface, ending up getting killed by a gardener as they're now moles[/spoiler].

Sorry, I know it's not much to go on, but any ideas?
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Lobo Baggins on 10 September, 2017, 02:49:18 PM
The one about the moles is Tharg's Future Shocks: Subterraneans 2000 AD prog 365 by Pete Milligan and Jose Casanovas.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 10 September, 2017, 03:03:48 PM
What sounds most likely is that she's inadvertantly conjoined the two in her head...
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Richard on 10 September, 2017, 09:59:30 PM
If there was another Future Shock with an identical plot to The a Last Rumble of the Platinum Horde, we'd know about it. I think she is thinking of that one, and thinks it's another one, but it can't be.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: sheridan on 13 September, 2017, 12:46:33 AM
I perhaps should have mentioned that she told me what she remembered of it while we were at leaving drinks for some friends who have now left London *sniff*.  I started this thread with what I remembered of some stories that her account reminded me of at the time.  I've gone back to her and got her to tell me what she remembers of the plot while I'm in a state to pass it on...

"Our human 'heroes' return to a lost in legend Planet Earth to find it full of diseased ugly mutant humans. They decide to cleanse the Earth and return it to pure humans like themselves. So they kill, slash and destroy everyone and everything that doesn't look like them. Only at the end, as they stand triumphant and marvel on the purity they have restored, do we see [spoiler]them from behind.. The 'heroes' are also mutants - with lizard tails.[/spoiler]"
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Richard on 13 September, 2017, 09:06:00 PM
Ok that's not Platinum Horde then. But I'm afraid I don't recognise it. It does sound very 2000AD though.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: O Lucky Stevie! on 22 November, 2017, 12:15:32 AM
Sorry, just seen this.

Going by the description by Sheridan's friend of...

Quote from: sheridan on 13 September, 2017, 12:46:33 AM
[spoiler]them from behind.. The 'heroes' are also mutants - with lizard tails.[/spoiler]"

...Stevie seems to remember this as being drawn by John Stokes. Don't have the progs at hand, but Barney (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=thrills&Comic=2000AD&Field=Artist&choice=johnst) suggests that it coud be either:

Oh What a Lovely War 1 episode (Prog 464) 4 pages
Script: Oleh Stepaniuk, Artist: John Stokes

Biological Warfare 1 episode (Prog 466) 3 pages
Script: Oleh Stepaniuk, Artist: John Stokes

Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
"Oh What a Lovely War" is a play on time travel and the old Fighting Fantasy Books / computer games.  The revelation involves a child so it's not that one.  Biological Warfare is a play on alien invasion and advertising.  The aliens are lizard like and do burst out in the final panel but other parts of the story don't quite fit.

The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: sheridan on 07 December, 2017, 12:38:57 AM
Thanks for the leads - I'll have to dig through my old progs and have a look...
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: O Lucky Stevie! on 15 December, 2017, 04:25:55 AM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
  Biological Warfare is a play on alien invasion and advertising.  The aliens are lizard like

Aha - that's why it stuck in Stevie's mind. Cheers Tjm86.

Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.

Defo not Moore.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: JOE SOAP on 15 December, 2017, 09:07:48 AM

Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.


The only Future Schock/Time Twister style story I know featuring dinosaurs by Alan Moore is Cold Snap, with Bryan Talbot, but it's not 2000AD.

http://theporporbooksblog.blogspot.ie/2010/08/slow-death-comics-no.html
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Tombo on 15 December, 2017, 04:10:02 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.

I remember that one.  It was actually two lectures - one about a theoretical nuclear war and one about the death of the dinosaurs.  Both lecturers use the same lines about the effects (nuclear winter, end of the world) and at the end its revealed that the nuclear war lecture is by dinosaurs who laugh at been replaced by "stupid mammals" and the other is set in the now and the students laugh at been replaced by insects.

Sadly no idea of the name or Prog, and nothing on either Barney or Touched by the Hand of Tharg ring any bells.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Lobo Baggins on 15 December, 2017, 07:33:22 PM
Quote from: Tombo on 15 December, 2017, 04:10:02 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 December, 2017, 03:41:04 PM
The other FS that springs to mind is one of Alan Moore's (I think) involving students at a lecture talking about life being wiped out.  In the denouement it turns out that the students are dinosaurs.  Not sure which prog though.

I remember that one.  It was actually two lectures - one about a theoretical nuclear war and one about the death of the dinosaurs.  Both lecturers use the same lines about the effects (nuclear winter, end of the world) and at the end its revealed that the nuclear war lecture is by dinosaurs who laugh at been replaced by "stupid mammals" and the other is set in the now and the students laugh at been replaced by insects.

Sadly no idea of the name or Prog, and nothing on either Barney or Touched by the Hand of Tharg ring any bells.

That's Tharg's Future Shocks - Class of '65 from prog 382, written by Alan Hebden and drawn by Jesus Redondo.
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: TordelBack on 16 December, 2017, 06:47:10 AM
That strip gave me one of my stock phrases, deployed when someone makes some overly dire prediction: "it's a chilling story, class".
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: Steve Green on 16 December, 2017, 05:49:32 PM
For facebookers, there are some pics on Jesus Redondo's fb page.

https://www.facebook.com/838454839511423/photos/pcb.1629119700444929/1629117687111797/?type=3&theater (https://www.facebook.com/838454839511423/photos/pcb.1629119700444929/1629117687111797/?type=3&theater)
Title: Re: Name that Shock!
Post by: sheridan on 18 December, 2017, 11:53:32 PM
Quote from: Steve Green on 16 December, 2017, 05:49:32 PM
For facebookers, there are some pics on Jesus Redondo's fb page.

https://www.facebook.com/838454839511423/photos/pcb.1629119700444929/1629117687111797/?type=3&theater (https://www.facebook.com/838454839511423/photos/pcb.1629119700444929/1629117687111797/?type=3&theater)

Thanks Steve.  I was glad to have met him at the 40th and doubly-pleased to discover that we both think the best story he has illustrated was Mind Wars (shame the annual/special prequel got drawn by somebody else).