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2000AD Thrillshots - Reviewing the Mega and Ultimate Collections

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

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Vernoona



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/

broodblik

One of my favorite humor strips D.R. & Quinch. Thanks for the review, enjoyed it.
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


Vernoona



It's June 1983. It's Judge Dredd vs. Hammer Horror as we look at Famous Monsters, now up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/famous-monsters/

Vernoona

So throughout the journey through the Mega and Ultimate Collections, I'll be adding in a couple of extra books/collections that seem worth covering. It's a bit easier to work out what to add to Dredd as the Mega Collection is over so we know what they didn't include. I've already covered Nobody Apes the Law (https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/03/25/extra-thrillshot-meet-the-primate-perps-nobody-apes-the-law/), and I'll also cover:


  • Batman/Judge Dredd
  • Predator Vs Judge Dredd Vs Aliens
  • The Cape & Cowl Crimes
  • Dead Zone
  • Cold Wars
  • The Small House (and new collections following on)

Is there anything I else I should consider covering from the Dreddverse?

I'm going to wait until we know for sure what ends up being collected with the 2000 AD Ultimate Collection, but happy to take suggestions for additions there as well! I have both deluxe Volumes of Dan Dare and Ro-busters already, so they'll definitely be on the list.

Vernoona



It's August 1983. I defy anyone not to love a story that features floating ships powered by blood-soaked magic stones battling each other in the sky. Sláine: Volume One is now up on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/07/01/the-axeman-cometh-slaine-volume-one/

Vernoona


Vernoona



It's March 1984. Dredd tackles ghosts, poltergeists and serial killers as we take a look at Horror Stories.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/horror-stories/

Vernoona



It's March 1984. An alien race called the Cythrons. Holes drilled in time. Ancient humanity's encounters with the aliens. All that and more as we look at Sláine: Volume Two on the Thrillshots blog.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/a-race-against-time-slaine-volume-two/

sintec

Quote from: Vernoona on 22 July, 2019, 08:22:16 AM
in this collected form it does make for some confusion as you struggle to keep up with all the new elements.

For me, the Cythron elements are the weakest part of the story, and feel almost artificially grafted on to everything else.

Seems like you had a similar reaction to Time Killer as me (see my rants in the Ultimate Collection thread on the Announcements if you can be bothered to hunt for them). I felt like he'd run out of ideas for good Slaine plots but didn't want to roll up a new character so hammered them all in here with a crowbar.

Gonna try a slower re-read at some point in the future and see if that works better.  But so far (not got vol 5 yet) this was the weakest Slaine story for me.

TordelBack

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.   

Mills definitely takes us away very abruptly from what we've learnt to love about the series, the dream-time wanderings of a properly European Conan drawn with a deep sense of landscape and cultural context by Bellardinelli and McMahon, and places us in the larger vaguely Moorcockian world that surrounds and supports it.  I hated it all passionately at the time, right up to Slaine's Professor Hulk moment in the arena, when it starts to get interesting - but I've come round to the idea that this cross-time antediluvian techno-fantasy is as much a part of modern myths of the imagined past as anything else in the strip, and was in any event always hidden in the background. The shift in Slaine's consciousness (however temporary!), and ours, was an essential stage in his story. 

Keep up the reviews, they're great.

JayzusB.Christ

#71
They are indeed hugely enjoyable reviews.  In more mature rereading I kind of agree that the sci fi thing feels a wee bit sudden and strays somewhat from what I really like about the strip, but at the time I was a kid and I loved it.  Aliens, laser guns; sorry, leyser guns; and violence.  Just what the doctor ordered.

That said, one of my earliest memories is of the first episode ever; in particular my dad telling my brother and me how to pronounce Sláine  (but let's not go there) and my brother gleefully recreating the 'Eat it all up!' scene.

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Greg M.

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 26 July, 2019, 02:19:25 PM
Aliens, laser guns; sorry, leyser guns; and violence.  Just what the doctor ordered.

Yeah - you often see people complaining about the leysers or talking about Time Killer as a low point, and fair enough, but I think it's an enormously enjoyable science-fantasy conceit and, frankly, I reckon it gives the series a real lift. It's a heretical opinion, but this is where Slaine really starts for me. Time Killer itself is still a bit long - I prefer Tomb of Terror - but it's a riotously mental collision of loopy Mills-ian ideas.

broodblik

I agree with that the reviews are enjoyable. My first encounter with Slaine was "Time Killer". I still have fond memories of this story and I will rate this along-side "The Horned God" as my all time favorite Slaine tales.
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.

Dandontdare

Vernoona absolutely nails my opinion of Timekiller:
QuoteA prologue page throws more information at the reader than entire previous stories. An alien race called the Cythrons. Holes drilled in time. Ancient humanity's encounters with the aliens. The next few pages give us Diluvials. Leyser guns. All in the first episode.

As someone who'd always been into SF but, at that time, was also getting into Tolkein, Moorcock and D&D, Slaine had been a real highlight -sword & sorcery through the unique lens of 2000ad - but I didn't recognise this weird scifi hybrid (I shuddered with disdain at "ley-ser" when I was a child, and it still repels me, despite my usual love of puns), though to be fair Mills then steered the storyline round magnificently with tomb of teror and slaine the king.

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