2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Put me down for a complete SiniDex too. As far as I'm concerned it's the best thing 2000AD has published in the "modern age", edging out Dante for this reader.
I'd also put it easily in my top ten "of all time" (or since prog one, for those less interested in hyperbole) and the sad fact that it's never been properly collected yet is obviously popular enough to hold a semi regular slot in the comic still, makes me wail and gnash my teeth.

SBT

[sintec]

Here's a question.  I have the 'case files' edition of Strontium Dog, the one that had, among other things, Portrait of a Mutant.  Are all the stories in that book going to appear in the collection.  If so, I know someone who would be appreciative of the Case Files book, but I'm a bit reluctant to let go of one that will have stories that won't appear in the collection.

If vol 3 of Strontium Dog contains The Killing and Outlaw then I think we'll have everything that's in Agency Files 2 (which I'm assuming is the edition you're talking about).  Vol 3 should be in the shops next week I believe so not long to wait and find out.

Seems the tide of opinion is against me on Time Killer.  I'll have to give it another go at some point, probably shortly before the next volume of Slaine turns up.

[Dark Jimbo]

Here's a question.  I have the 'case files' edition of Strontium Dog, the one that had, among other things, Portrait of a Mutant.  Are all the stories in that book going to appear in the collection.  If so, I know someone who would be appreciative of the Case Files book, but I'm a bit reluctant to let go of one that will have stories that won't appear in the collection.

If vol 3 of Strontium Dog contains The Killing and Outlaw then I think we'll have everything that's in Agency Files 2 (which I'm assuming is the edition you're talking about).  Vol 3 should be in the shops next week I believe so not long to wait and find out.

Should be The Killing, Outlaw and Big Bust of '49 - that'll be all the main stories from Agency Files 2, but it's doubtful any of the Annual stories will appear in the UC.

[James Stacey]

You'd have thunk if all the content is available digitally, which Red Seas is and I assume most if not all of SinDex, that Print On Demand could be an option for a smart hard back edition. I've bought several roleplay books which are small run PoD from PDFs and they look great.

[sintec]

Should be The Killing, Outlaw and Big Bust of '49 - that'll be all the main stories from Agency Files 2, but it's doubtful any of the Annual stories will appear in the UC.

Isn't that all of the rest of the stories from Agency Files 2, it is according to wikipedia anyway?

Why do you doubt we'll be getting the annual stories in the UC?
We've had annual stories from several other series.  As far as I'm aware we're expecting pretty much the whole run bar the Starlord stuff aren't we?

[IndigoPrime]

I imagine extras like annual stories will show up if they are essential, if there's space, or if they don't overlap what was in the Dredd collection. With Strontium Dog, that suggests no Top Dog (although IIRC that was a Dredd branded tale anyway), but the annual stuff might still make it in. Mind you, some of the annual stories were a bit off anyway, being by totally different creative teams who didn't really get the strip.

[Dark Jimbo]

Why do you doubt we'll be getting the annual stories in the UC?

It's been a bit all over the place so far on that score, consistency-wise. We just got Battle of Clontarf in Slaine #2, for instance, which is barely even in-continuity; but in the Ace Trucking book we didn't get the story from the '82 Sci-Fi Special, despite the last story in the collection directly referencing the event of that tale!

I suspect it's like Indigo says, a bit of a mix of what's print-ready/what's relevant/what fits, etc. Most of the Stront annual stories aren't too good, to be honest, but it'd be a shame if The Beast Of Milton Keynes didn't appear.

[IndigoPrime]

Also, notably, some of Rebellion's own trades have similar issues. The Nemesis Winter Special strip where [spoiler]he frees Candida from her madness[/spoiler] was originally placed as an 'extra', despite it being a pretty important link between two stories in the Prog. (2000 AD used to do this a lot – the Rogue Trooper arc The Hit was tied up in a special, and Corey's [spoiler]suicide[/spoiler] was relegated to a special, for some reason (and had a DPS annoyingly printed across two spreads in the Mega Collection.)

[The Monarch]

plus of course never forget the sindex eurocrash collection which was missing the bulk of the story because mister abnett dared change the name of the strip during a major part of it and whoever was in charge of the collections at the time was asleep at the wheel.

[Tomwe]

The latest stront volume (3) is another black and white one that suffers from pages here and there where the blacks are grey instead of black. I'm starting to wonder if this is some kind of CMYK error in the proofs- like they've forgotten to convert half the pages from RGB it something. It's pretty frustrating, though I feel the worst offender was the McMahon art on Slaine.

[IndigoPrime]

Probably worth checking with others whether their copies suffer from the same. I've had a few books like that during the Dredd run that were fine when I got a replacement. (That said, it could, as you say, be a screw-up in production, if it's a lot of pages. QC doesn't appear to be especially high with some of these volumes.)

[Dark Jimbo]

Mine seems fine, to be honest...

[Tomwe]

Mine seems fine, to be honest...

ok, I'll see if they'll send me another one.

[abelardsnazz]

Looking at the contents of Strontium Dog vol 3 and wondering whether vol 4 will be thicker to accommodate both Max Bubba and Rage or whether Rage will be split a la The Black Hole.

[Dark Jimbo]

I doubt they'll split any stories in half. Black Hole and Hellbringer are a bit different because they were originally run in the prog as 'Book One' and 'Book Two'. Going to be interesting to see if they run Rage in Book IV though - my guess is they'll hold it over for Book V.