Arrived today and it's absolutely packed.
There's a very affectionate feel here with Editorial pages, Horoscopes and even a Spot the Difference.
Standouts for me were Deathman the Gathering (Henry Flint) with a great final team-up panel with some familiar faces and The Return of the Sentinels (Ben Willsher) which felt very much like a modern Dr Who type tale.
13th Floor didn't work for me getting John Stokes to do the 'real world' and Frazer Irving to do 'Max's' world but it was an interesting attempt to bring a new storytelling device. I love Ortiz and I get what they were attempting.
It's a really good package. I misremembered paying 5.99 and it's not, it's only 3.99 so really good value and quite bold in terms of innovating. Includes house ads for Ant Wars, MACH1, Future Shocks, Dracula Files, Misty 2 (Sentinels) and Dracula File. 13th Floor gets a whole page to itself. Includes helpful bios on obscure characters.
Got mine today as well.
It's a lovely package that does not, for me at least, quite hit the mark.
It's a case of you can never go home again, but a decent effort.
I never read MISTY or SCREAM back in the day so I don't have much nostalgia for the strips revived for The Scream & Misty Special - although I do remember 'The Thirteenth Floor' & 'Death Wish' from Eagle - but I enjoyed the new stories a great deal.
Given that I didn't know anything about their originals, I thought the best of them was 'The Return of Black Max' with Simon Coleby's wonderfully moody art but 'The Dracula Files', 'The Return of the Sentinels' and 'Deathman' were all good potential launch pads for new stories and I'd be up for any continuing series. 'The Thirteenth Floor' had nice art but I wasn't a great fan of Max in the first place (despite the great José Ortiz) and 'The Fate of the Fairy Hunter', well, I doubt I'm the intended demographic for it so we'll let that pass. :)
Overall, a very nice Special. 9/10.
Pleasantly surprised to see this in Glasgow FP, lots of copies with both covers. Buying the Fabry cover version, was told it couldn't be sold. Not out till Wed. Grrr.
Should have read it in the shop!
The Ant Wars trade did look tempting.
In complete contrast to this week's prog, I found this an absolute delight from start to finish. Bought an extra copy for my eldest, and ordered the Fabry cover from FP for the collection. So they've made me buy it three times, and I'm not sore about it in the least.
Not a bad strip in there- with my favourites being The Thirteenth Floor, Black Max and The Sentinels. The Death Man strip serves as a pilot for a series I very much hope gets the go ahead- to see The Leopard and Blake Edmonds again made my day.
The feature pages were brilliant, and I even cast more than a cursory eye over the Spot The Difference. I did wonder, though, if knowing the age of the people most likely to pick this up, a Sudoku would have been more appropriate.
All in all, a lovely package, and seeing as I bought my copies from exactly the same papershop from which I collected my reserved copies of Scream in 1984, and in which I expressed my horror when I was told it had been cancelled all those years ago, it could not have been better.
More, please.
SBT
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 19 October, 2017, 09:01:37 AM
The feature pages were brilliant, and I even cast more than a cursory eye over the Spot The Difference. I did wonder, though, if knowing the age of the people most likely to pick this up, a Sudoku would have been more appropriate.
As welcome as it is to see, I must admit to wondering who the intended/potential audience for this might be. If the intention isn't to attract younger readers, surely the potential readership is at best a fraction of whoever already buys 2000ad/the Meg?
Anyway, it would be really bad form if the next time anyone is in the supermarket, they moved these to a lower shelf beside the children's comics.
I really liked every thing in the special. But most of them read more like pilots to revival then stand alone stories. Thirteenth Floor seems to be the only one coming back for sure. I really want to see more Death-Man: The Gathering and Fate of the Fairy Hunter. Those two really left me wanting.
Just got this and I'm loving every page! I desperately want to see 13th Floor, Dracula Files and Death-Man continue in the Meg/Prog.
One minor thing - did the 13th Floor really need (admittedly xxxx'd out) bad language?
Oh, and Ben Wilsher's artwork is stunning, really love his new style. Just wish he'd use a thicker pen!
Amazingly, my local WHSmith had three copies of this. (Two now.)
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 22 October, 2017, 02:38:21 PM
Amazingly, my local WHSmith had three copies of this. (Two now.)
Yep mine had two as well (one now)
Our only local supermarket is a Tesco. They're big on forced labor and sectarian hiring policies, but not so much on stocking comics.
Quote from: Woolly on 21 October, 2017, 06:47:29 PM
One minor thing - did the 13th Floor really need (admittedly xxxx'd out) bad language?
Of course it xxxxxxg did! :lol:
Have you heard how some kids talk to each other?
I liked the special,but I got a feeling Im landing in the middle of things.Are these stories meant to be trailers for the collections or will they continue or something?There is a lot of setup here.
Great review from Mr Jim Moon on Hypnogoria
http://hypnobobs.geekplanetonline.com/?podcast=microgoria-47-not-for-the-nervous
One perplexing mispronunciation but coverage and shares our hopes for more new material.
As an actual product I found this really disappointing, as a promise of what's to come it leaves me very excited. I'm not sure at all if that's a good thing or not....
The comic looks great but as others have said almost all the stories felt like set-ups for more to come and as such felt hollow and shallow in and of themselves. The biggest disappointment was Death Man. As I waded through the introduction text pieces I was really intrigued as to how so much would be cramped into the story and alas the answer was badly and the story felt pointless, too much packed in and nothing gelled at all.
The thing is I'd welcome it back (if it took the time to introduce the characters properly given more space and time). In fact any of these strips pretty much I'd be happy to see in the Prog, I was particularly keen on Thirteenth Floor. But yeah this as a stand alone produce was pretty duff.
Very interested to see if anything comes of any of this though.
I really liked it, lots of fun and looked great.
Not sure if it will get kids or new readers in to it though as others said it drops you in to things a bit but at least there were some good explanations.
I would have liked it to be "bumper sized" though :) but appreciate more pages is hard to do with these specials
I was a new reader. It all made sense to me.
Quote from: The Adventurer on 26 October, 2017, 05:19:57 PM
I was a new reader. It all made sense to me.
Good for you. :)
My feelings on this special is that it was an interesting experiment and I'll be intrigued to see what else Rebellion have in mind for their new acquisitions. Great to see Fraser Irving's work in a UK title again.
The only strip that had me scratching my head a bit was Dracula, the backstory was somewhat bewildering with no knowledge of the original strip, and the messy, confusing art didn't really help.
Actually the real highlight for me was the ad for the forthcoming "Faceache: First 100 Scrunges" book! You've no idea how many years I've been waiting for someone to put out a proper collection of Ken Reid's work, now if only Rebellion could somehow prize his classic Beano material out of DC Thomson's iron fist(not likely, I know) I could die happy.
That Rebellion is doing this sort of thing – and has dipped deep into its pockets at great risk to do so – is something that we should all be grateful for. That DC Thompson hasn't released bloody great big collections of, say, Bananaman is truly baffling.
I really enjoyed this and it definitely left me wanting more.
For me it did feel a bit like a series of trailers, but in a good way in that I now want more of everything. That's not unreasonable is it? :)
This only leaves me with the dilemma of which bit of lovely Misty/Scream (or is it Scream/Misty?) graphic novel loveliness to pick up next....
Quote from: The Adventurer on 26 October, 2017, 05:19:57 PM
I was a new reader. It all made sense to me.
Me too, both counts. The only bits I had any priors with were Death Wish (Blake Edmonds is a man so unlucky as to be horribly disfigured
twice) and 13th Floor. I hadn't really considered getting any of the Misty or Scream reprint stuff (seriously, I can't keep pace with the current 2000AD reprint programmes), but now I'm well up for more.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 26 October, 2017, 08:11:14 PM
That Rebellion is doing this sort of thing – and has dipped deep into its pockets at great risk to do so – is something that we should all be grateful for. That DC Thompson hasn't released bloody great big collections of, say, Bananaman is truly baffling.
Absolutely, the back catalogue of UK comics has been neglected for far too long, and the fact they're bringing so much of it back into print again is a great thing. I hope it pays off.
With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.
I'm sure there's a generation of adults who would buy nicely repackaged editions of old stories, they could easily tap into that nostalgia market if they wanted to. But they don't even try, it's just "bung out two or three annuals at Christmas, just like we've done since 1940."
There was that blip of activity when DC put out that Albion comic. Then, dormancy again.
I loved it, and I am hoping for more.
If you consider the other attempt that there was at something like this, the 2000AD Action special which really tore the heart out of the old characters that they attempted to revive (with the exception of The Steel Claw perhaps) producing bastardised versions of the characters, The Spider the worst offender.
What Rebellion have done here is shown that these characters and stories can be made relevant and contemporary with minimal adjusting to the concept. Brilliant.
Quote from: Goosegash on 26 October, 2017, 10:02:49 PM
With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.
I am very grateful to DC Thomson for being one of the only publishers still making comics for young children. You can criticise them for a lot of things, but they would leave a massive hole in the market if they shut down.
One of the reasons the Scream and Misty stuff doesn't really work for me is that it is aimed exclusively at an older audience. I understand why, I just find it disappointing.
Just had another flick through - on reflection, I feel it could have done with a one-off 'Library of Death' or 'Tale from the Gravedigger' to really round it off.
Definitely going to have to save up for the Misty reprints.
Quote from: CalHab on 27 October, 2017, 12:49:55 PM
Quote from: Goosegash on 26 October, 2017, 10:02:49 PM
With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.
I am very grateful to DC Thomson for being one of the only publishers still making comics for young children. You can criticise them for a lot of things, but they would leave a massive hole in the market if they shut down.
One of the reasons the Scream and Misty stuff doesn't really work for me is that it is aimed exclusively at an older audience. I understand why, I just find it disappointing.
I got no sense reading the Scream/Misty comic that it was aimed at an exclusively adult audience-if anything I found the slightly simpler storytelling implied quite the opposite.
Producing a juvenile comic doesn't mean it has to be so, well, juvenile.
I know, for I fact, that as a seven year old I much preferred reading Star Wars Weekly, 2000AD, Star Lord, Battle and (new) Eagle when it finally appeared.
I had next to no interest in The Dandy and The Beano, so one can't generalise what kids enjoy. :)
I suspect you might be confusing "simplistic" with "familiar", though it's probably a subjective distinction.
The special was relatively restrained as 2000ad stuff goes - only one decapitation and barely any racist characters - but you can only argue for so long that a 12 year old girl skateboarding over corpses in a WW1 trench pursued by a zombie biplane shooting body parts at her is something one might stumble upon in the pages of the Beano.
...and it's for that very reason that Ken Reid and Leo Baxendale left D.C. Thomson in the '60s.
I'd be happy to see a new series of The Thirteenth Floor in 2000AD.
Likewise, although hasn't Rebellion said it has no plans to cross the streams, so to speak?
Have they? Oh well.
i agree more of the thirteenth floor would be great its ripe for a future shock/terror tales/black museum like spot
Quote from: Richard on 28 October, 2017, 03:30:05 PM
I'd be happy to see a new series of The Thirteenth Floor in 2000AD.
Clearly you are confused about the rules: Eagle publishes 2000ad's rejects, not the other way around.
So I bought this and it didn't really work for me.
It seemed a lot about the atmosphere (fear) and feel of the strips rather than solid, well told, scary stories.
I think I would prefer to see these comic in another Rebellion published comic, rather than appearing in 2000ad. Whether or not that would be sustainable, is another thing. If its not, I guess I'd accept tales turning up in the prog. (I did think maybe the Meg floppy could be used for new material too, but thinking further, I think it's great in its current role providing reprint material of Rebellion owned properties.)
I think it would be weirder if we didnt get some continuation.I mean,we got a whole Justice League of IPC characters,there is gotta be some long term plan there.
Do you think Sceam/Misty could survive as a regular quarterly? Maybe that's what Rebellion should work towards.
All the stories read as an opening chapter to a new series. Whether that's because there are concrete plans to continue, or just an optimistic open ended approach in case the special does well (which seems to be the likely option, and it seems like it's selling well. Yay!), we'll have to wait and see.
Personally, I enjoyed it and I thought the writing and art throughout was of a very high standard. I'd LOVE to see more.
My only niggle is that it wasn't particularly scary (aside from The Sentinels which was genuinely chilling). The focus in most of the stories was on the invincible, seemingly super-human protagonists who I never believed were in any danger. I'd like to see more stories where the monsters and villains have the upper hand and the protagonists are desperately fighting to survive, rather than just effortlessly booting them in the face.
On the whole though, I'd love to Scream/Misty in the newsagent every week/month/quarter/year. Gimme more!
I think a quarterly schedule could work.But is Rebellion willing to risk it with another magazine? :-\
The floppies aren't for new stories. The whole point of them is reprints.
Quote from: Richard on 30 October, 2017, 09:48:29 AM
The floppies aren't for new stories. The whole point of them is reprints.
Yes. They're there as an inexpensive way to add value to the Megazine. New strip isn't cheap — original material needs to be under a cover with a price on it...
Quote from: Richard on 28 October, 2017, 03:30:05 PM
I'd be happy to see a new series of The Thirteenth Floor in 2000AD.
I've not had a chance to read this yet but would always welcome more 13th floor!
Quote from: The Adventurer on 30 October, 2017, 07:40:28 AM
Do you think Sceam/Misty could survive as a regular quarterly? Maybe that's what Rebellion should work towards.
It's hard to know how a comic aimed at kids would work with a low frequency. Phoenix has momentum through being weekly. Would monthly be enough? I can't imagine quarterly working unless it was self-contained every time.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 30 October, 2017, 10:43:22 AM
It's hard to know how a comic aimed at kids would work with a low frequency. Phoenix has momentum through being weekly. Would monthly be enough? I can't imagine quarterly working unless it was self-contained every time.
It did cross my mind that seasonal themed specials (Spring, Summer, Autumn/Halloween, Winter/Christmas) could effectively be a quarterly title in their own right.
As you say, the frequency would mean the stories would need to be self-contained, but there's no reason why the same characters couldn't feature regularly and themes or subplots carry over to provide a narrative thread for 'regular' readers...
We've already had a Lawless Touch reprint, so why not put some Scream! and Misty stuff in the Meg floppies, see if it attracts any casuals? If nothing else, there's got to be a ton of Jinty strips that fit the bill for a sci-fi anthology.
I was hoping for something like the excellent Action special of the 90s, where characters of past British comics were updated for a modern, older readership. This Misty / Scream special didn't reach those heights, though admittedly the bar was raised quite a bit in my mind.
But I enjoyed it anyway - just what I needed for a dark Hallowe'en e'n and a nice dose of nostalgia from an original Scream reader. And I'll always remember The Sentinels story, which I read just after waking from a dream about a global, all-powerful fascist organisation with exactly the same three-armed swastika symbol as the one in the story. Crazy shit.
DeathMan The Gathering is what Henry Flint was born to do.
Make it happen Tharg.
'Forget It Lads, he's a Nazi. No class.'
Misfire for me, I'm afraid. Hannah Berry can normally do no wrong but I think the strips fell flat. Death-Man had most oomph, and crossover T-shirts gave it all a bit of cohesion. In truth I don't think I'm the intended audience but in that case I hope McNasty reaches enough of one, if it's looking to continue.
Didn't buy this. I saw it in a thrill merchant a couple of times but I was hoping to attend one of the many comic shop events and to purchase it there. Was too busy to attend any signings or the talk at Orbital. I then kept emerging from work too late for the thrill merchants. I might have to purchase a digital version, seeing as the print version is out of stock from the 2000AD shop.
Got a spare if you want one, SS. Could hand over at the next meet up or post it to you.
Thanks Eamon. I will check the thrill merchant on Tuesday after work. If they don't have it I will take you up on your offer.
FB have still got copies of the Fabry variant if anyone else is still looking for a copy.
https://forbiddenplanet.com/234252-screammisty-special-1-dcuk-fabry-exclusive-cover/
I only just got my copy this past weekend, which I;'m a little disappointed by as I pre-ordered from the 2000AD store ages ago!
But the bigger point is that I really enjoyed it, so no matter if I'm a little late to the party!
Clear favourites for me where 13th Floor and the Sentinels, with the fairy-hunter story a close third.
Definitely keen on getting more, I'm guessing at least that this will become an annual Halloween-timed release, but maybe there's enough interest to sustain maybe 4 issues per year??
Mind you, that's not really enough to produce ongoing stories. Am I alone in thinking they could go more down the Megazine route of having fewer strips but bigger page counts for each one? I guess that'd be a shame for creators, it's always neat to have a high-profile venue for good people to get heir work in print.
I'm too young to have read Scream or Misty when they first came out, but I've been picking up most of the reprints and loving them; this updated version of the material is cracking, I'm clearly a sucker for British urban horror comics.
Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 05 November, 2017, 05:02:23 PM
Got a spare if you want one, SS. Could hand over at the next meet up or post it to you.
I got lucky and picked up the last copy from my not-so-local thrill merchant. Close shave, as it's sold out on the 2000AD shop.
Hmmm. Diamond has this listed as in shops on 27 December 2017 (https://previewsworld.com/Catalog/AUG171919) for those of us who pre-orderd it outside the UK.
That's not looking encouraging, is it?
French publisher Delirium who has previously translated Charley's War, Monster, and some really good looking Dredd books, has just released a Misty Book in an oversized hardcover format.
It includes Moonchild, the 4 faces of eve, the Sentinels + two exclusive shorts: Roots (by Mills and Castell from Misty #1), Shadow of a doubt (Juan Ariza, from Misty #58).
Quote from: vark on 11 February, 2018, 11:04:48 PMoversized hardcover format
I think I'm just going to sulk for a bit and pretend that doesn't exist.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 12 February, 2018, 08:51:05 AM
Quote from: vark on 11 February, 2018, 11:04:48 PMoversized hardcover format
I think I'm just going to sulk for a bit and pretend that doesn't exist.
The UK edition of Misty Volume 3 had better have
Roots and [/I]Shadow of a Doubt[/I], or I'll be joining you in the sulky corner.
Bloomin' heck first you get those glorious Charley's War editions now this. Its almost as if the French respect comics as the art form it is... oh yeah...
Delirium publishing is led by a passionate guy that only publishes a few books per year so he pushes hard each one of them. He has started the translation of the CCF in 2016 (in the same oversize HC format than the Rebellion 40th anniversary of volume 1), and he had the good idea to include the cursed earth uncensored as vol 2 of his CCF (with all the extra of the Rebellion hardcover and paperback edition).
http://www.thearchdeviant.org/2018/02/judge-dredd-les-affaires-classees-02.html (http://www.thearchdeviant.org/2018/02/judge-dredd-les-affaires-classees-02.html)
(not to move the knife in the wound guys ;) )
Quote from: vark on 12 February, 2018, 09:30:22 PM
Delirium publishing is led by a passionate guy that only publishes a few books per year so he pushes hard each one of them. He has started the translation of the CCF in 2016
Combined Cadet Force?