Prog 2220 Regened: Earth-Shattering

[Bolt-01]

You're a baad man, Mr Carroll.

[broodblik]

The cover before it was coloured:

[HeidTheBaw]

I don't see the the point in them. I started reading 2000ad at 8 years old and I was lured in by great stories and incredible art.

I'm not sure how often it needs repeating on these threads, but...

Great stories and art, yes. But simply recreating 'golden era' 2000AD isn't going to connect with today's yoof who, twenty/thirty/forty years after whichever chunk of progs you choose to label 'golden age', would be largely unmoved by five cliff-hangers every week in black-and-white stories featuring surly, thirty-something white men.

I never mentioned a specific era to be recreated. The 'golden age' of 2000ad has never ended for me. I love the bunch of progs that we've had since the turn of the year, all 5 strips have been as good as anything from the 80s. As much as Wagner, Mills and Grant etc are my heroes, we have new bunch of terrific writers in Williams, Carroll, Neimand etc.

The prog has been terrific this year as has the Megazine since the anniversary special.

I'll remember Lawless, Proteus Vex, Brink and Dreadnoughts with the same fondness I do with Nemesis, Harry 20 and Strontium Dogs.

I can't remember a single thing I read in the Regened progs other than Full Tilt Boogie and I only remember that because I ended up skipping it from about 3 or 4 episodes in.

It's not about replicating the era that drew me in. It's about keeping the standard high so that any readers checking out the prog for the first time come back next week and keep coming back.

[Jim_Campbell]

I never mentioned a specific era to be recreated.

No, but you talked about what appealed to you when you were eight. If you're anywhere near the standard demographic for members of this forum, that will be a significant number of years ago and what appealed to eight-year-olds at that time is likely to be noticeably different from what appeals to eight-year-olds now.

You're entitled to like or not like whatever you want, and there's certainly an argument to be made that if The Powers That Be at Rebellion want to target a significantly different demographic who prefer significantly different story-telling priorities then, maybe, that should be broken out into its own specials or even an ongoing title. I imagine Rebellion would like nothing better, in an ideal world, for 2000AD Regened to be a separate, additional revenue stream to the regular prog.

However, particularly in the current precarious market conditions, that's a very risky proposition and I don't have any easy answers on how to square that circle. I think everyone would agree that the principle of trying to broaden the appeal of the 2000AD brand is a worthwhile and sensible one, and the only difference of opinion is how best to do that.

The 'Regened' issues may not be the best way, but I suspect it may be the only practical way in the current circumstances.

Disclaimer: I have zero inside information on this specific matter, but I've worked in various capacities for publications selling both on the high street and into specialist markets for most of my adult life, and a big chunk (possibly the majority) of the comic work I've done in the last few years has been on all-ages or YA titles.

[TordelBack]

I'll remember Lawless, Proteus Vex, Brink and Dreadnoughts with the same fondness I do with Nemesis, Harry 20 and Strontium Dogs.

This is a great point, and one I hadn't really thought about. At some point many of the recent stories entered my personal pantheon alongside the eternal '80s greats, and I haven't really reflected on that fact.

OTOH I've enjoyed a surprising number of the Regened stories, as well as stuff from. Tammy & Jinty and the other kid-aimed specials. This week for example I was half-planning to download a digital Meg I'd missed to top up the thrill-tanks between 'regulr'progs, but found I didn't need to.

[Woolly]

Well, I genuinely agree with Joko-Jargo - this prog was Earth-shattering!
I just wish it had a bit more room to breath - the overall art direction is, frankly, a breath of fresh air. Not that I have any problems with the art in the standard prog or meg, it's just that these Regened progs really feel like they're trying much harder to be a brand new thing than the usual, long established titles are doing.

If a 3 issue chunk of Regened could be somehow fitted into the regular schedule without breaking up any runs, that'd be sweet as!

[pauljholden]

I'll remember Lawless, Proteus Vex, Brink and Dreadnoughts with the same fondness I do with Nemesis, Harry 20 and Strontium Dogs.

From a span of Approx 2000+ progs.

I can't remember a single thing I read in the Regened progs other than Full Tilt Boogie and I only remember that because I ended up skipping it from about 3 or 4 episodes in.

From a span of half a dozen progs - with respect I think your expectations of a stone cold classic in each regened is a little high. (I mean, speaking for myself, that's what I'm aiming for, but no-one really knows what the audience will like until it hits...)

[MumboJimbo]

I'm a bit more sanguine about the Regened progs than I was, for two reasons. Firstly, well, I've just come around to the idea more. It brings in a new audience and that helps the long term viability of 2000 AD.

Secondly, this issue, for me, was a bit edgier and does the classic 2000 AD thing of doing a sideways look at the issues of the day. Cadet Dredd was, in my interpretation at least, a swipe at the working conditions at Amazon warehouses, and the Future Shock was a polemic on the rise of social influencers. Mayflies didn't have  such a directly allegorical nature, but its central idea of genetically bred cannon fodder teaming together to escape their destiny was certainly in the spirit of the prog I was buying back in 1983.

My remaining gripe is that some of plot points were a little lost in translation from idea to script to panel. The chase sequence in Action Pact was hard to follow, and it wasn't clear their ship was approaching a cliff edge - it looked more like they were going to crash into the side of a mountain. Also, as has already been mentioned, when the bodyguard guy morphed into one of Viva Forever's fans. On first read I didn't pick up on that at all, and just thought is was a quick change of scene back to the ongoing heist business. I think for an all ages prog, it's probably more important that these things are tightened up before publication. You want the young'uns enjoying the twist and turns of the story rather than scratching their heads at what just happened. As I've mentioned before, the previous Regened issue had similar problems with the Cadet Dread episode, so if anything the Regened issues have more problems in this regard than the regular prog, which is a pity.

If the next Regened issue can have ideas of this calibre, but also 5 stories that make perfect sense on an initial read-through, then I think Tharg's nephew will be onto a surefire winner!

[The Corinthian]

From a span of half a dozen progs - with respect I think your expectations of a stone cold classic in each regened is a little high. (I mean, speaking for myself, that's what I'm aiming for, but no-one really knows what the audience will like until it hits...)

Isn't this the big problem with Regened though? There's not enough of it for the new character to make a splash. Full Tilt Boogie stands out because it got a longish run in the regular progs. The first episode is fine but without the follow-up series I doubt it would have stuck in my mind.

Regardless of the merits of the contents, the Regened progs feel awkward because it can't really lead anywhere. Is Rebellion using them to trial a regular Junior 2000AD? Apparently not, or it would have materialised by now. Are they stepping on points for new readers? The example of FTB suggests it might be, but the Regened format itself suggests that regular Tooth isn't suitable for those readers. Is it just to drive sales on 3 or 4 specific issues per year? In that case, why not do them as specials rather in the weekly?

None of this makes Regened wrong, bad or unsuccessful, but it feels like a one-off experiement that's simply been repeated several times rather than properly developed.

[Jim_Campbell]

Regardless of the merits of the contents, the Regened progs feel awkward because it can't really lead anywhere. Is Rebellion using them to trial a regular Junior 2000AD? Apparently not, or it would have materialised by now.

I sort of addressed this in my post a little further up the page. My strong suspicion (and, again, no inside info here) is that Rebellion would very much like it if the market would support Regened as a standalone title, or multiple regular specials per year but, right now, that's simply impractical.

Even if the bump in sales for the Regened issues is only ageing Squaxx buying an extra copy for their kids, it's building the Regened brand and getting it into the hands of the audience they'll need to address for it to be practical to break the Regened issues away from the regular prog at some hypothetical point in the future.

That sales bump would also be crucial in proving to the distributors that the title is viable in its own right. Distributors are remarkably hostile to new product and convincing them that your publication has legs is a big hurdle in getting any new title to market.

[Colin YNWA]

I wonder how much will be determined by how the collections do? If you believe what you see the book shop's are awash with title from Dog Man to the DC YA stuff. Maybe what we are seeing is the end game in the hope that the collections do well?

[broodblik]

I also feel like The Corinthian about the release of the regen issues. Why disrupt the regular prog's flow if you could have created 4 specials during the year. As a normal subscriber I would have picked-up the regen specials with a smile (even subscribe to a regen prog). I think we all would like to know what the plan is going forward. What I can see is that each regen prog we have a few changes to see what works and what does not.

[Link Prime]

I'm still baffled by lots of it. I read prog 300-500 era 2000ad when 10-14, who is this stuff for? 8-10 year olds?

That era was getting on for forty years ago. As has been noted on these Regened threads before, kids in the 2020s engage with entertainment media very differently from the way you or I did. Two specific examples: they vastly prefer protagonists closer to their own age, and they hate episodic content. There's a shedload of market research to back this up.

Maybe.

Then again I train kids rugby and they seem exactly like kids I trained with 30 years ago. The 12 year olds of colleagues all love uber-violent computer games and doing what they're not allowed in those game-worlds.

Kids market research rarely convinces me - sanitised, corporate, adult-pressured, monitored.. meh.

A lot of this seems to me to be the exact safe adult-approved content we rejected as kids. Fxxk Dr Snuggles, I want Battle of The Planets.

I am equally unconvinced that kid's tastes have changed too dramatically in the past 40 years, based on nothing more than first hand experience with every child in my family / circle of friends that I have ever known. Like ever.

I cannot see the Regened experiment resulting in increased younger readership of 2000AD.
The reality is that it's most lasting impact will just be the fact it pissed off a non-insignificant portion of the Prog's loyal readership, who would have likely supported the concept (if not the sanitized content)  financially through other avenues.

Maybe brought up before - but why not go after a slice of the reportedly thriving 'Manga' market?
I imagine that the format would suit several of 2000AD IP's and the production costs would be much lower than a new series or standard 2000AD / one-off Special print format.

The Regened Prog's have a noticeably high level of support on the Forum - I understand that - we all want to support our favourite publisher and their creative teams.
But c'mon - who could put their hand on their cholesterol clogged heart and say they actually want to read this stuff?

[broodblik]

But c'mon - who could put their hand on their cholesterol clogged heart and say they actually want to read this stuff?

I think you will surprised how many do not mind reading this stuff including the high blood pressure club card carrying members.

[Link Prime]

I think you will surprised how many do not mind reading this stuff including the high blood pressure club card carrying members.

I'm sure, but preferable to The Out, Brink, Hope etc?

Personally, I tend to consume my comic related entertainment with strict referral to the 'Time left alive / material I want to read' equation.