worst thrills!

[Matt]

Lets not forget Dry Run

[Wood]

The Clown?

I really liked that...

I think that actually, the worst strips in 2000AD weren't the quirky ones (because they're the kind of thing that some people really like) but the dull ones. Like Dry Run. Or Trash. Or Bad City Blue. Or HellTrekkers. Or anything by Fleisher.

Or Millar's RoboHunter.

On the other hand, there are strips with no redeeming features whatsoever, and even as a 17-year-old, I thought BabeRace 2000 was the absolute pits.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

or Outlaaawwworp...

i'm sorry, but the cavalcade of belle d'jour artists was unable to excuse the interminable pacing (which was so glacial it in fact made the phantom newspaper strip--in which, for those who came in late, it can take the masked protagonist up to a week to complete the throwing of a punch--look positively capricious in comparision0, it's utter void of any attempt at characterisation (so lazily monochrome it makes the cast of tomlinson's tor cyan stories an aquarium of exotically coloured fish) & the sheer waste of the first page with the repetition of the exact same, condescing captions in every episode...

i also didn't think much of either books of mean arena.

i wholesomely agree with wood's point about quirkiness, i enjoyed bradley immensely, the clown is unsettling agreeable & they've been some wonderful moments of quintessentially british whimsy in the progs which i can imagine would rub the blood'n'guts fans completely the wrong way (witness the response that the luke kirby stories elicited in some of the letter columns).

loved the soul gun stories too; can't get more incisively post-modern that the pop-art of shaky kane.

steven lenfant terrible

[Jayzus B. Christ]

I havent read this whole thread, but has anyone suggested any of Garth Ennis' Dredds from the early 90's? Particularly muck were the one about the living teddy bear and the one about the spitting contest. Even Judgement Day became farcical towards the end. I couldnt believe it was the same Garth Ennis who wrote Preacher and Hellblazer, both of which I liked a lot. And I have to say, he redeemed himself on Dredd with Helter Skelter.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

oh, & did i mention the complete absence of a single modium of wit in Outlooorppp

sweet jesus, pass me the mop...

steven l'enfant terrible

[O Lucky Stevie!]

That is you, isn't it Jared?

[Misanthrope]

Tao de Moto.

One of the most boring 2000ad stories ever written IMO.

[Adrian Bamforth]

I loved Bradley. As well as the enjoyable "slay Ride" story I remember the Bradley-based fairy tale which read like The Emperor's New Clothes, except the King's "coat" involved his skin being flayed. I think if you discovered 2000AD in the late 80s like me you weren't ever going to find it at odds with the 'classic' content as loyal readers would, and might even like it a bit more as there was no backstory to have to catch up with. I liked Simon Harrison's artwork a lot (he draws mutants better than Esquerra in my opinion on the basis that everyone looks mutated, while Esquerra's mutants tend to be a bit literal: Foot on head, extra breast etc), but similarly didn't realise at the time that Strontium Dog had been drawn exclusively by one artist, and was a pillar of the comic.

I would rather have an original failure than a predictable success, and as with other mediums, with the exception of Dredd I really find it hard to care about hard-nosed detectives and cops. It may be well loved but I just can't get into the spirit of something like Armitage - I just don't see the point of dragging sci-fi back to the realm of such a predictable TV formula.

I also thought the idea of solving a writing problem - The Gronk being a pacifist and therefore unsuited for a main role - by bumping him on the head to give him a complete personality change, was pretty lame in the recently reprinted Strontium Dogs material compared to the other option - of not making him a main role. However, I hate to say it because Alan Grant has written some great things in the past, but the Samantha Slade stuff was just awful, and at times illogical.

[Jared Katooie]

That is you, isn't it Jared?

Eh?

[Goosegash]

I loved Bradley. As well as the enjoyable "slay Ride" story I remember the Bradley-based fairy tale which read like The Emperor's New Clothes, except the King's "coat" involved his skin being flayed. I think if you discovered 2000AD in the late 80s like me you weren't ever going to find it at odds with the 'classic' content as loyal readers would, and might even like it a bit more as there was no backstory to have to catch up with. I liked Simon Harrison's artwork a lot (he draws mutants better than Esquerra in my opinion on the basis that everyone looks mutated, while Esquerra's mutants tend to be a bit literal: Foot on head, extra breast etc), but similarly didn't realise at the time that Strontium Dog had been drawn exclusively by one artist, and was a pillar of the comic.

However, I hate to say it because Alan Grant has written some great things in the past, but the Samantha Slade stuff was just awful, and at times illogical.

TBH, I thought Harrison's art was pretty much the only thing Bradley had going for it. To me it always seemed like a strip that was desperate to be subversive, but just lacked any kind of bite. That Sisters Of Mercy strip is a prime example. A comic sending up goths and the music industry practically writes itself, but this just seemed to miss all the relevant targets. Not to mention the fact that SOM were a band so of their time that devoting a whole episode to them just seems a little odd in hindsight.

Samantha Slade unfortunately seemed to fall prey to the same malaise that has affected much of Grant's recent work(see also the post-Half Life Anderson stories), just a feeling of going through the motions, plodding through each story to it's conclusion. When it got to the point that Ian Gibson couldn't summon up the interest to draw Robo Hunter any more, it was clearly time to put that strip to rest. Which they did, thankfully.

[Emp]

Dry Run wasn't that bad, it ranked up there with Night Zero (perhaps i'm not doing this any good considering i can't actually find Tanner on the characters list)

Tao De Moto (thanks Misanthrope, i'd nearly forgotten it)was the biggest load of crap ever. For a comic promoting thrill power it was a story that made 'Enders a pleasurable alternative!

BabeRace,Junker ,Zippy Couriers,Chronos Carnival,....crap of the higjest order.I can remember a time when 2000ad to me was Dredd and another story and if it wasn't for Dredd i would have given up!

[Misanthrope]

And yet, for my sins, I liked Zippy Couriers and Time House. Two thrills which are usually derided.

[IndigoPrime]

And yet, for my sins, I liked Zippy Couriers and Time House. Two thrills which are usually derided.

I thought they were OK too. I suspect their lack of pace and explosions annoyed some readers, but they were good enough and consistent. In fact, I still think it was a shame Hilary Robinson was pretty much hounded from the Prog. I was no fan of Chronos Carnival, but Medivac 318 was very good and should have continued. And while Zippy Couriers was no Strontium Dog, it was perfectly good 'filler' when a few weeks needed a strip.

[SmallBlueThing]

I still dont understand the point of view that hilary robinson was somehow 'hounded' from the comic- and yes, i know that's how it's normally expressed. At the time, i couldnt believe that the prog was giving pages over to someone who plainly couldnt write for toffee. I have no idea what she was doing there in the first place.
But yes, my worst list would have to include all the usual suspects; time house, tao de moto, junker, dry run, trash, the grudgefather, the clown, the new harlem heroes, fleisher's rogue trooper, night zero, etc. Or 'the early to mid nineties', to put it another way.
SBT

[radiator]

When I first started reading 2000ad (around prog 950) I had no frame of reference and would happily read the likes of Urban Strike, Mark Millar's Dredd etc, but even then I would scratch my head at Kid Cyborg and WireHeads - just utterly dreadful, and in the case of WireHeads, incomprehensible. I'm sure it made some sort of sense to the guy who wrote it!

In the case of Kid Cyborg, it was the artwork that put me off - I really can't stand Jim McCarthy's work - I'm not judging his storytelling or skill, but sometimes I will just be so put off by an artist's style of drawing that I find it impossible to get into their strips - it's just a taste thing.