Down the Tube has an article saying that Pat Mills is to write an exclusive regular monthly column for the new magazine Comic Scene UK. His 'Last Word' column is expected to be as colourful, controversial and outspoken as his appearances in the recent 2000AD documentary FutureShock and his book Be Pure| Be Vigilant! Behave! – 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History.
https://downthetubes.net/?p=42936
Sounds like an interesting magazine, but £8.50 an issue is rather steep.
It's a niche title, and production, printing and distribution costs money. Even so: 48 pages. I do hope they're at least paying contributors.
Mail order only as well- Folk will be stumping up the £8.50 without even seeing it.
Comics International used to be stacked by the till at my local comic shop, and was an occasional impulse buy from me. I would have thought that would be a logical way to sell it? Of course I know absolutely nothing about the economics or practicalities of putting out a magazine, so there may be good reasons not to go down that road.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 February, 2018, 11:23:47 AM
Mail order only as well- Folk will be stumping up the £8.50 without even seeing it.
Yeah this is what put me off getting on board. I miss this type of publication but subbing up front at 8.50 a pop is a bit too much of a risk!
That's three issues of Zarjaz, or both a Zarjaz and a FutureQuake...
:)
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 February, 2018, 12:53:49 PM
That's three issues of Zarjaz, or both a Zarjaz and a FutureQuake...
:)
Pimp my thread. ;)
But seriously, sounds lovely, but at that price, by mail order only (busy having an early 2000's flashback here) it's a no from me sadly.
That's really steep for such a page count.
I may give it a try as I'm a comics buff (not just 2000AD) but it'd better be brilliant to make me carry on
If you were only in it for the Mills Bombs, it doesn't really help to compare the price of Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Be Etc! (268 pages for STG£9.99) with the price of this magazine (48 pages [Mills percentage unknown] for STG £8.50). I know we're talking about different media in different markets, but that'd want to to be some pretty ace content for that price (£1 for every 6 pages) The FQP comparison is a good one.
John Wagner is also contributing.
He is the first creator to contribute to a regular column on how writers and artists developed their comic characters. John will be giving the background to how his new character 'Rok of the Reds' was developed by him, writing partner Alan Grant and Dan Cornwell. The graphic novel of 'Rok of the Reds' is due out in April from BHP publishing.
https://comicsflix.org/2018/02/23/judge-dredd-co-creator-john-wagner-writes-for-comicscene-uk-issue-one/
And, within a single post, this went from 'possibly purchase' to 'almost definately purchase'!
Fingers crossed, by the time this gets to print ready there will be enough of a 'buzz' to make the first issue a decent option.
The hard part will be the second issue and on from there, but if they don't give it a go we'll never know.
Not to mention £2 (or£2.50 depending where you look) postage per issue - looks like issue 1 is the only one you can buy as a standalone, so I reckon I'll give it a go before deciding on a sub.
Does anyone know anything about another title on their webpage called "the AKA tapes"? - seems to be a collection of interviews with Thargs(s) and droids
Quote from: Dandontdare on 27 February, 2018, 06:48:51 PM
Not to mention £2 (or£2.50 depending where you look) postage per issue - looks like issue 1 is the only one you can buy as a standalone, so I reckon I'll give it a go before deciding on a sub.
Does anyone know anything about another title on their webpage called "the AKA tapes"? - seems to be a collection of interviews with Thargs(s) and droids
It is a reproduction of an old fanzine from 1983 - I'm getting a copy as this one eluded me in my old quest to get any fanzines featuring 2000AD content when I had a bit of a phase of it back in the late 90s to mid 2000s and kids! Should be interesting, if only for talking about Zarjaz (not Bolt's iteration!) when ti was still in the planning stage
Ill be giving the first issue a whirl, while £8.50 is not cheap for 48 pages, if its good its well worth it.
Anyone received this yet?
I got chatting on FB and ordered the AKA tapes thing, which I assume might be coming out now, but was holding off for some reviews (or at least my copy of the AKA tapes!) before signing up to a sub.... seems deathly quiet here
Not got mine yet, but the few soundings I've heard seem positive.
Quote from: Leigh S on 05 May, 2018, 10:52:34 AM
Anyone received this yet?
I got chatting on FB and ordered the AKA tapes thing, which I assume might be coming out now, but was holding off for some reviews (or at least my copy of the AKA tapes!) before signing up to a sub.... seems deathly quiet here
I bought the confusingly numbered issue 0 of
ComicScene and
The AKA Tapes in pdf form.
Both are of interest to a comic reader of
une certain age. Because of my own proclivities, I found John McShane's history of Neptune/
Toxic, John Freeman's piece about comic sales, and the latest instalment of Pat Mills's attempt to reframe the relationship between work for hire creations and their creators of greatest interest.
The features on
Batman/Dredd, Deadline, the late Steve Dillon and
Tank Girl are nice without adding anything new, and there's lots of stuff about
Lion/Valiant, Thunderbirds, Dan Dare and
Dr Who too.
The AKA Tapes are an opportunity to read familiar stories before they were polished in the retelling.
ComicScene features Rufus Dayglo peeling patch paper from a page of original McMahon art to reveal the original version of a classic page from
The Day The Law Died. Which is nice.
They were giving it away free for FCBD at the Sheffield Forbidden Planet, which kinda made up for making my daughter queue up for 30 minutes only to find out at the last that the 2000ad had 'sold out'. I had a couple from my other store but wanted one to give to folks here.
Anyway not had a chance to read it but by George it seems rammed. Really glad to have picked it up and will report back when I get a chance, but given how much there is to read dunno how long this might take.
I Picked this up at Portsmouth Comic Con, First issue is pretty good. there is a mix of stuff about comics history and current comics, which is nice to see as my fear was it was going to be a comics collectors magazine full of articles about things form 20 years ago.
The historical articles are fine, easy to read and generally informative but I would prefer more dirt on the process/frustrations/personal feelings, but comics creators generally seem to get on quite well and have professional respect for each other so there doesn't tend to be a lot of animosity and getting into the nitty gritty of the process may be tricky from the pre-blog days, when all you have is a fuzzy memory to go on. I like reading a good opinion peace so I would probably enjoy hearing more about how creators feel about their own work.
Talking of which, I enjoyed Pat Mills column and found it far more thought provoking and far less confrontational then I had expected.
Honestly, I came at ComicScene with a slightly negative attitude, looking for faults, and I was won over.
Quote from: Steven Denton on 08 May, 2018, 11:38:59 AM
The historical articles are fine, easy to read and generally informative but I would prefer more dirt on the process/frustrations/personal feelings, but comics creators generally seem to get on quite well and have professional respect for each other not know who they might have to work with next week so there doesn't tend to be a lot of animosity
FTFY
Mostly that was a joke but the thing about any historical article or interview is that you want it to tell you something you don't know. A lot of the creators form the golden era of British comics have been working since the 70's. I doubt being a bit loose lipped would dent their career prospects. One of the reasons the 1970 was a golden ere for chat shows was that all the old Hollywood stars were drawing towards the end of their careers and no longer felt they had to be carful about what they said about their co-stars or producers. Quite a lot of the time they liked and/or respected each other too and that's nice, but friction is always more fun to read about.
I actually bought this last week and a right hefty read it is too, like John McShane Toxic piece and a couple of other bits, there's a load of Dredd/2000ad stuff in there, cant see them keeping up the v high levels of comic stuff on display unfortunately.
recommended :thumbsup: