2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[Tomwe]

The FB page has a dumb new line on this:

Unfortunately, some customers who opted out of specials near the end of March were processed differently in our system and therefore won't be brought back up to their previous dispatch schedule.

My proverbial!

What's the link for this post?

Sorry, pasted after just about every reply on here

[IndigoPrime]

Yep – found it. That's just utter bollocks. I don't know whether anyone at Rebellion is following this nor whether they have any insight, but perhaps someone might suggest Hachette recognises what an utter balls-up they're making of this mess. At best, they're outright lying to subscribers; at worst, they're now stating that people who didn't opt into previously unannounced volumes will have to put up with being a month behind schedule, while seemingly hand-waving away people who didn't opt out, despite many having the same problem.

Imagine 2000 AD added an extra special into the subscription, and which you had to pay a fiver for, but gave you the chance to opt out. And then people who didn't opt out had to chase Rebellion because the thing never showed up. And then their actual 2000 AD subscription ended up running over a fortnight late. And then they're told "well, people who opted out can basically get stuffed and will stay running late". Well, you probably can't, because that would never happen.

These books are great, and I'll stick with my sub regardless; and fundamentally, it doesn't really matter given that I have a reading pile, and have read this stuff before. But good grief, this is a shambles from a customer services standpoint. But it must be impacting on sales. Worse, it must have a knock-on effect on the 2000 AD brand (which is otherwise dealt with in sterling fashion by Rebellion itself – its mail order arm is superb, and they never give you the runaround).

[moly]

What a load of rubbish I didn't opt out of anything and  I only got 19 and 20 this week they really are starting to bring a bad taste to this and very tempted to cancel but no doubt that would prove to be a nightmare

[Mattofthespurs]

I'm the same.
Didn't opt out and am behind too having received 19 and 20 this week.

[IndigoPrime]

I just wish they'd be honest about the situation. What they need to say is something like:

As many subscribers are aware, a scheduling error earlier this year has caused a delay with subscription copies being distributed. We apologise for this and are working to rectify the matter. After the next delivery, you an expect to receive new books every three weeks, rather than every four, until your subscription is back up to speed again. Please DM us if you need any further information.

[sintec]

Wow - that's really lame.

As IndigoPrime said they just need to fess up and sort it out.  They can't retrofit a 2-tier delivery schedule based on who did/didn't opt out of an optional extra volume, that's unfair and insane.

[IndigoPrime]

And even if it weren't, it's being inconsistently applied anyway, so almost no-one is happy.

[Jade Falcon]

Well, I read Ace Trucking Co, and it was fun, silly, but fun.

I wasn't a fan of this in the day but can appreciate it a bit more.  My older brother had had an old 40 Channel CB at home, so I knew of the craze.  I watched the films like Convoy, Smokey and the Bandit and other stuff like that.

The artwork of Bellardinelli really is awesome.  I only spotted two humans in Ace so far, his arch enemy of the Yellow line and the guy with an eye patch in the mail run story.

Fatty or whatever he's called, reminded me of another alien from some other story.  It might not even have been a 2000AD one, but I seem to remember a story with a character with a huge nose with a nose patch.  I'm NOT thinking of Citizen Snork from Dredd.

So what's next.

[abelardsnazz]

Next up is Dredd: The Art of Kenny Who?, which I think will be an all-Cam Kennedy volume in the style of the previous Carlos Ezquerra volume. Contents as yet unknown aside from the title story, but, on checking Barney, Cam's remaining Dredd stories from the progs that haven't appeared in the Dredd collection would be a perfect fit. There may be some special/annual stories too though.

After that it's the second volumes of Rogue Trooper and ABC Warriors, then Meltdown Man.

[IndigoPrime]

Contents as yet unknown aside from the title story

I suspect it'll be very similar to the Rebellion volume, which at 272 pages clocks in at very close to the Hachette requirement (~300, IIRC). If so, that's: The Art of Kenny Who?; Bodies of Evidence; Beyond Our Kenny; Blackout; Who? Dares Wins; SABs; Alien Wedding; The Student Prince; It's Deja Vu all over again; Block Court; Finger of Suspicion; Big Deal At Drekk City; The Bazooka. And perhaps a couple more.

[abelardsnazz]

Contents as yet unknown aside from the title story

I suspect it'll be very similar to the Rebellion volume, which at 272 pages clocks in at very close to the Hachette requirement (~300, IIRC). If so, that's: The Art of Kenny Who?; Bodies of Evidence; Beyond Our Kenny; Blackout; Who? Dares Wins; SABs; Alien Wedding; The Student Prince; It's Deja Vu all over again; Block Court; Finger of Suspicion; Big Deal At Drekk City; The Bazooka. And perhaps a couple more.

Several of those have already appeared in the Dredd collection and we've been promised no duplication. Also I think the average page count is around 200. It would be good to see Beyond our Kenny included but because that was in the Megazine is it eligible?

[IndigoPrime]

Matt mentioned on a podcast there was a sweet spot zone for these collections, and it was definitely north of 200. The ones we've had so far would prove that. As for duplication, fair point. That said, we got duplication within the Dredd collection in one case, so who really knows?

[walrus]

Contents as yet unknown aside from the title story

I suspect it'll be very similar to the Rebellion volume, which at 272 pages clocks in at very close to the Hachette requirement (~300, IIRC). If so, that's: The Art of Kenny Who?; Bodies of Evidence; Beyond Our Kenny; Blackout; Who? Dares Wins; SABs; Alien Wedding; The Student Prince; It's Deja Vu all over again; Block Court; Finger of Suspicion; Big Deal At Drekk City; The Bazooka. And perhaps a couple more.

Contents are:

The Art of Kenny Who
Beyond Kenny
Who? Dares Wins
I, Beast
Auld Acquaintance
Bodies of Evidence
Big Deal At Drekk City
Blackout
Suspect
The Warlord

[Dark Jimbo]

...huh. I think I prefer the contents of the Rebellion softback, to be honest. I suppose this gives a better spread of Cam's many Dredd 'eras', though.

[abelardsnazz]

Megazine stories in the Tooth collection eh? I guess this means all bets are off....maybe.

I enjoyed Ace Trucking volume 1, although Too Many Bams was maybe a bit too silly. Good to see one of Massimo's self-portraits in action though.