Messages

Aw, bless. Hat's off the X's.

If the lead isn't long enough and there's a dearth of available material, well, molehill it is, then. Presumably that's not worth fixing because everything else works fine by it and it's easier to just say shit happens now and then. Great.

Not that you have to care about any of those things

I shouldn't have to care. Which is rather the point.

Explain?

D'oh. Fair point. I assumed that it was common knowledge here that Ezquerra couldn't do all of Helter Skelter on account of his house flooding. However, that's not to say he produced stuff that was poor (because I reckon Ezquerra's artwork could only be described as poor by comparing it to its usual standard, much like Gibson) and Flint came up with a couple of cracking episodes.

Now, in that instance, whatever your or my opinion of Helter Skelter may be (and why we should have known of Ezquerra's circumstances anyway was beyond me) you still have two artists who are at least generally accepted to be able to draw a good Dredd episode, right? That was a good call on someone's part. Imagine if some perenially unpopular or unsuitable artist like Kim Raymond was drafted in and not Flint?

In the case of this Robo-Hunter (recent stories of which I've enjoyed even if others haven't which is fair enough) you have two artists who are almost synonymous with the strip's best and worst stories. So, does it follow that the historically best choice should be replaced with one of the worst for the sake of circumstances? (Whatever they may be in Gibson's case; and, frankly, it's none of our bloody business anyway.) No. I figure that was a bad call. Just as if Ezquerra had bowed out of Helter Skelter and Kim Raymond stepped in. After all, who could complain? That would have been competent artwork from a reliable artist with previous experience on the strip, right?

Because, even taking PJ's list into account, why not include the options to shelve the strip for completion at a later date before publication or run some other standby strips in that slot instead, or even write it off as a loss and cancel it altogether if it's not going to be finished? That'd please the readers who don't like it at least. It's not as if Samantha Slade's return was widely trumpeted and we were expecting it. Hands up who knew and would have been disappointed?

Maybe the choice was unavoidable, maybe it wasn't. No idea. It could be anything from a molehill like a trivial bit of damage limitation on Tharg's part or the mountain of some whacky scheme to bring back the nineties and irk the purists for all I care.

unless you actually know what these particular circumstances are, it's not really fair to speculate or cast aspersions

But it shouldn't matter to anyone what the circumstances are. And it should be fair to have an opinion based on what you see in the comic (which I got earlier BTW, ho-hum). Yeah, I'm casting aspersions on an artist's lack of style in his work, the wisdom behind choosing that work for a particular strip, but most of all this stupid impression that's prevalent on the board nowadays that every 2000AD artist's work is actually wonderful and the end result has to be constantly excused. Some opinions come off like contrariness for the sake of it, or taking a pop at those armchair artists and see how they like those pineapples for a change, or that there's automatic brownie points to be had for defending or even praising stuff that isn't really very good at all, without a single ounce of objectivity. I don't know.

Where's that Americop thread... Shit art, wasn't it? Well, the artist was ill. You bastards. Probably. Oh, no. The artist was a small presser hoping to break the big time, and by criticising you may as well have just stamped on a kitten. No. It was a seasoned pro who didn't care much for what he was drawing and wanted to wind up the fanboys. No, it was...

Y'know, the kind of reasoning I'm seeing on this thread is what gave us stuff like Escape From Bisleyland.

Circumstances didn't detract from the artistic quality of Helter Skelter, no reason why Robo-Hunter should suffer.

Not got the Prog yet, but this is bad news to me. Like 2000AD's gone another step back to the duff nineties patch.

Nobody can replace Gibson's art, sub-par or otherwise, on something like Robo-Hunter. Just the postures of his figures are a big part of what makes it fun. Cam Kennedy can do that sort of thing too but not for a strip like this. William's can't do that sort of thing at all, so it's not going to work.

No, hang on. I take it all back. This is just a much maligned yet misunderstood artist heroically stepping into the breach to save a story for us ungrateful slobs because he's sooper wuvley and above criticism, since we're too thick or too anal to appreciate the "intriguing subtleties" of his style anyway. Or something.

From Prog 185, the first few episodes were really good and quite promising. Fairly creepy stuff for the time, about a starship crew stumbling upon a frozen planet with cloven-hooved corpses in the ice. Then it nosedived into a duff good versus evil fantasy quest that seemed to drag on forever until Prog 218.

Try and imagine what it must be like, having to present one of those shows without being allowed to say "You bunch of fucking Joeys" on air.

Harry said, with a twinkle, "Never forget, we're all Devo."

Yup. Garden Of Alien Delights and You Are Ronald Reagan are the classics.

It was a bit odd seeing 2000AD's stars gruesomely despatched on every other page.

You used to get Galactic Groats if you copied a drawing from the comic.

What happened to the second Steel Claw volume?

Didn't Titan poll readers to decide which book should come next? The choice was either a second Steel Claw or a first volume for either Janus Stark, Dolmann, Kelly or Doom. Looks like they plumped for a mixed bag of the latter, which might mean they aren't doing any more? (In a perfect world I'd want individual books of all of 'em, with Jungle Robot, Adam Eterno, Mytek and Galaxus to follow as well.)

Stark doesn't look odd enough

Yeah, reminds me a bit of a young Ray Davies for some reason. Forehead's not high enough. But who's the band-major puppet resembling Terry-Thomas?

It's a sad fact; the better the title, the duffer the film.

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=fan&page=messagethread&choice=7086&Comic=&skipto=-1&Replies=78" target="_blank">More

Not sure. Could it be http://www.eofftv.com/e/ear/earth_dies_screaming_main.htm>The Earth Dies Screaming?

Cover's alright for an old Bisleyclone. Dredd's a calm, unfussy episode. Not so much story as affirmation. Art's still quite ordinary for MacNeil. Best thing in it's the great dialogue for the Fargos.

Samantha Slade's a nice surprise. Gibson's art looks rushed but it's still jolly, and Grant's soapbox satire's funnier in small doses like it is here. Wouldn't it just be Slade's luck to end up in a slammer where all her new yard buddies could be doing a Ben Ninety?

Greysuit rolls on. This is the best art Higgins' ever done for 2000AD. Could all the mind control stuff mean the plot's an elaborate con to make Blake kill the minister, who isn't really a nonce but whose execution will send Thames House a message or something? No idea. I just wanna know what Zil did to that sheep.

86'ers is a bit dull. Maybe it's me but didn't Mercy Heights also have the split-faction fanatic backstory and the token ace GI pilot along with the stealth engineered uber-assassin caste warrior types with glowing red eyes infiltrating the space station where the administrators glower behind each other's backs while something ominous slumbers planetside which may yet destroy them all (deep breath) kinda thing? Not fussed.

Defoe's up and down. That's a cracking opening panel. Was the thing in the stench's cakehole a bit of the Mayor from last week? I couldn't tell. Story's stuck in empty portent mode at the mo. Hope next week dissects things further.

7/10-ish

Missed this. Good job, Ush.

Here's a http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/ComicInformationPages/TemplateCharacterStory.asp?ComicTitle=STARLORD&CharStoryName=Robusters&ReturnPage=CharStory>Summary and http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&Comic=Specials&choice=robust>index.