Okay, I have Invasion, Savage-Taking Liberties and The Guvnor. I was reading an entry somewhere online that started indicating that the storyline has went a lot further than those books.
Are there plans to print any more Savage collections?
I have to admit that reading them in order, that Invasion while still enjoyable does look a wee bit dated, especially with the stereotypes. The Scots that talk about Bonnie Scotland and wear Tam O Shanters, and the opposing Oil Workers and Forest workers. I'm Scots and don't find it offensive, but just a bit amusing.
One question, was Shirley Brown originally Shirley Williams in the first print? I know that according to Invasion they were going to use Margaret Thatcher and the newsreader was to be Angela Rippon and that was nixed. I might just be misremembering as I'm sure at one point in 2000AD there was one of these mini reprints of the first prog, something that happened with a few comics in that era.
You're right - there have been three more Savage stories since 'The Guvnor': just right for another collection. I'll be surprised if it doesn't show up on the 2016 schedule pretty soon.
The dating of 'Invasion' isn't surprising when you consider the 26 year gap between it and 'Savage': part of the charm of early 2000ad. It says a lot for the strength of Pat Mills' ideas and characters that something like that eventually became (in my opinion) one of the best strips of the modern era. (I just love that 'Bill Savage will return in Prog 1387!' caption from the 'Invasion' collection)
I'm not complaining about the dating, but Invasion just has a more gung ho feel about it than the two Savage books. It's like comparing the Commando comics to Garth Ennis's War Stories comics.