Shocking Fiends - new Rebellion collections...

[The Amstor Computer]

Perhaps the thread would have gone a bit smoother if I'd posted this one at the same time as Future Shocks, but a fritzy scanner meant it took a while to get a decent cover pic:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/fiends.jpg">

FIENDS OF THE EASTERN FRONT
GERRY FINLEY-DAY & CARLOS EZQUERRA

THE UNDEAD REDS!

West Berlin, 1980, and workmen make a grisly discovery in a derelict building - the skeletal remains of Werhmacht soldier Hans Schmitt clutching his diary. The story he tells in his journal is one of terrible creatures lurking on the Eastern Front during World War Two - of the shadowy Rumanian Captain Constanta and his evil platoon feasting on the living blood of their prey. Can Schmitt warn his comrades before more fall victim to the vampiric hordes?

CONTENTS:

Introduction by Dan Abnett
Cover gallery (prog 158)

Fiends of the Eastern Front

Fiends... remains one of my favourite 2000AD stories, partly because - as Dan Abnett puts it in his introduction to this volume - it is one of the more un-2000AD stories the comic has ever published, reading more like a leftover from Battle or Scream than a 2000AD story of the period.

Finley-Day's script powers the story along, and while hardly subtle it is - like much of his other work for 2000AD - a thoroughly entertaining read. Unfortunately for this collection, it is also a very slight read - just 44 pages long - and while satisfying in itself, it makes for a less impressive collected volume. Dan Abnett's introduction is a nice addition, but - apart from a minor change to one sentence - it is the same introduction that opened the Megazine reprint of the story.

Ezquerra's art is a lot less polished here than on his later B&W work, and readers only familiar with his more recent colour work may find this something of a shock to the system. His page layouts are also a lot less inventive than in the previous year's Strontium Dog epic, Journey Into Hell, though this particular story benefits from a simpler approach. As with so much of Ezquerra's work, the art here exists to service the story rather than to draw attention to itself.

The reproduction is admirably crisp & clear, but apart from an increase in page size to more closely match the original published dimensions, there is no difference between this and the 2002 reprint of the story included with Megazine 201. Presentation is also typically good - a sturdy hardcover with a beautiful new cover from Ezquerra himself, and printed on thick, glossy stock - but it does feel a little like overkill for such a slight collection.

It's hard not to admire the quality of this collection - a minor classic given a loving reprint in prestige format - but it is more difficult to justify the cover price for a story that barely makes it past the 40 page mark. Perhaps if Rebellion had seen fit to bump up the page-count by including Abnett & Ezquerra's Megazine short, Red Menace, or if other extra material could have been found to add something to the collection it would be easier to swallow the ?8.99 cover price, but as it is this book must be something of an extravagance - perhaps only of interest to fans of the story who don't already own the Megazine reprint, or to readers with the disposable income.

[mechanix81]

Call me crazy, but as all the Dredd universe stories feature red spines, should Durham Red have a green spine like its strontium dog parent franchise?

Can anyone clear this up for me?

[ukdane]

Re: Scarlet Cantos, On the spine, where the title is, it wraps around (slightly)to the front cover. It's nothing major, but up against the other spines, it stands out as ? text.

Why are these spines red? I thought red spines were reserved for Dredd-world collections (or is it a similar red/burgandy)?

[The Amstor Computer]

Nah. Abnett's Durham Red is so far removed from her roots in Stront that I don't see any reason to lump her into that series. All of the Dreddworld strips take place pretty much in the same timeframe, in the same world - the same really can't be said of Durham Red whose adventures take place over a thousand years after her original appearance, in a universe completely unlike that in Strontium Dog.

...plus I hate that luminous green colour on the SD spines :-)

[The Amstor Computer]

UKD --

Yeah, my copy is the same. I think it may just be a problem with the slimmer collections - the spines on one or two of my other books wrap round to the front and rear covers slightly. The spine is also a slightly different shade compared to the Dredd books - a purple-red rather than the plainer red on the Dreddworld books - though it does look quite similar.

There you go - a discussion of the book spines. Now everyone can leave the thread happy...

;-)

[Cordite]

"There you go - a discussion of the book spines. Now everyone can leave the thread happy..."

Sadly, mate, I doubt it.  You are, if I may un-ironically say, studiously inoffensive, but despite -- or perhaps -- because of that you seem to draw what I consider two (or possibly three -- one is in the balance) of the four of the pestilentials that blight this message board.
There can be no objection to your thread other than that it might be drawing attention away from some benighted and foolish, foolish person.
In a place like this there are few things as unpleasant as a bitchy nerd; and here we have two (or possibly three) repeat offenders.  There is ample evidence to support this, but deep down I'm sure the majority of you already know this is true.
I swear, as soon as I figure it out/can be bothered (although that time is close), and have allowed these ... sad, sad nerds a chance to respond, they are going into the killfile.
I really do not think you need to explain yourself.  You clearly take time and effort with your postings.  It is your board as much as anybody else's.

[Artificial Idiot]

So he's a 'bitchy nerd' for just posting a reasonable critisim in the design of the book?

Sheesh, the heat really seems to be getting to some people this evening...

[Wils]

four of the pestilentials that blight this message board

[/me gets ready to be handed my membership card] ;)

[Cordite]

"So he's a 'bitchy nerd' for just posting a reasonable critisim in the design of the book?"


I thought it was fairly clear what I was talking about, but to make it explicit:


"Didnt you fancy using the thread already started on the topic of the Moore collection?"  Translation: How dare you start your own thread, and spurn mine?

"Ahh, but then where is the Fiends review?"  Translation: A touch!  Justification for your pettiness!  Well done.

"Well, obviously since Amstor is so important we're supoosed to wait give him the room to post up his shockingly awesome review, rather than piling on and commenting."  Translation: Fuck me, pretty obvious I'd have thought.

"Be fair... if he hadn?t posted a new thread then all the board may not have noticed it and missed spotted his awesome critical insights."  Translation: As above, but with a swelled bitchiness quota, given as how it builds upon the previous.

[W. R. Logan]

>"Didnt you fancy using the thread already started on the topic of the Moore collection?" Translation: How dare you start your own thread, and spurn mine?

Have no problem with multiple threads I read most of them so catch most of what is said. My only gripe about multiple threads discussing the same topic is that it makes it harder for new people to get the hang of the place. In Bristol I spoke to many people coming to the 2000 AD table and if I could get it in the conversation I?d mention the message board. Many weren?t interested at all but the few who had paid it a visit but didn?t take part gave various reasons for it including:
Cliques and already established hierarchy that made it fell unwelcoming to any one new.
Topics being in multiple places, so hard to follow and going wildly off topic very quickly.
Personal attacks on people.
Not being that interesting.
Are you joking I?m not that sad.
And a whole host of others that boiled down to read the comic, not interested in anything else or who else reads it.

>Ahh, but then where is the Fiends review?

Thought it was a simple enough question.

[Wils]

So what's your personal 'cure all' for the messageboard, if we're such a bunch of cunts?

[+rufus+]

Wils... (and everyone), I was suggesting the messageboard link was removed because of  personally abusive threads like this one. (not that I'm pointing fingers ay ANYONE, but is this really all necessary)

  What's going on here? Everyone seems to be going out of their way to take offence... at a comic review/perceived hierarchies..

 Ah well.. boys will be... *****

:-(
 Rufus,
discouraged by fellow terran types
 

[Dark Jimbo]

Ahem...

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=fan&page=messagethread&choice=17362&Replies=1" target="_blank">If I could just direct your attention this way...

[Jim_Campbell]

"What's going on here?"

Yes ... the board _does_ seem to be a bit, well, tetchy at the moment, doesn't it?

Here's a thought if someone nobs you off on the board: go to the fridge, get a nice cold beer and go and sit in your back garden for half an hour ...

Cheers

Jim

[Wils]

But another thread mentioning the Moore collection (as well as the Fiends book) isn't exactly like a return to the killfiletastic Big Brother threads 3 years ago, is it?