Annnddd we’re back. Yes! Another thread of dull letter reviews and the same jokes - just what no one asked for! We’ve been away for a while, mostly due to
The Beast developing a faulty part, but we’re back now and it’s not because of this week’s 2000ad letters page content or anything.
Our previous threads can be found
here and
here. and we can all remember the excitement when the Road to 10,000 was finally won by someone who didn’t claim their prize or probably even know their place in history! Can’t we? Still, this one will be better because rather than a Slaine beanie, which now forms part of our hill walking apparel, the prize is £100. Yes 10 tenners is the prize for the first person to get 100 letters across both 2000ad and the Judge Dredd Megazine. D.C. Dredd doesn’t count cos it was crap! Later down this thread you will see the leader board and it couldn’t be closer, with literally 27 people within a measly 90 letters, or less, of the grand prize.
The usual LETTERSENTERTAINYOU T&Cs apply or details send an SAE to The Moon, Space.This column will also review current letters to a high and impartial standard and provide stats direct from The Beast concerning the composer of each. You may also post requests for letters data but please don’t ask stuff like - ‘What Prog was that letter about Dredd appearing in a pizza in the 1990’s in?’ - The Beast isn’t wired that way!
In the last two years while we haven’t being dying, we haven’t been idle either with the first ever Letters Road Show containing top talents
Stephen Watson and
Alan ’Hollo’ Holloway penning missives to Tharg live in a Witherspoons in front of a frankly disinterested audience.
Picture credit : Iz McAuliffe.
This was a great moment when two top 8 talents got together. Unfortunately
Tom Proudfoot couldn't make it, because if he had it would still have been two top 8 talents.
Anyway to business.
Prog 1937 had a fine back page foursome with a wide range of talent and experience.
The Letter of the Week prize when to new boy
Nic Freeman of London who confesses his virginity in all things letters in his opening line.
The Beast can confirm this statement to be TRUE! Nic has been reading 2000ad since he was 26 so he must be about 40 now. What a weirdo! Most readers are at least 44! We’ll be gentle on Nic due to his newness but his inspiration that “each issue is so varied” kinda states the obvious in what is billed as an anthology comic. We also had that all Rogue Trooper issue a while back so he’s technically wrong in his generalising. There is a lot of positively in his letter and Tharg sounds flattered in his gushing reply.
There have been three Tim Canterburys, sorry Freemen, in the Prog before with ‘JD’ in Prog 316 and Adam in Prog 840 who drew a smashing ‘Judge Mellie’.
Next up is attention seeking, ventricular tachycardia exaggerating, mash potato scoffing, Paisley resident
Stephen Watson who celebrates his 88th letter and his first in over two years.
The letter is OK but is shamelessly namedrops
Mike Carroll as a source of info (Hi Mike!) and is perhaps missing his usual cutting edge of wit and toilet references. Some good, albeit obsequious, points were made and he did get the always welcome reply from Tharg. He revealed on his well followed Facebook thread that he received the Dredd Heroclix for his letter and posted the photo below of his bounty.
Ivo Bochenski sounds like the baddie of some terrible Commando comic but he is in fact an old friend of the letters page having had his debut in 1997’s Prog 1044. He was previously seen in Prog 1517 in 2006 so he’s clearly another who has recently rediscovered his muse or at least Heroclix addiction. All Ivo’s letters have appeared in the Prog although two of them are credited to ‘Evo’ - must be Tharg’s mistake as
The Beast is infallible.
Ivo’s letter notes his long-term absence from the letters page which
The Beast has already confirmed. His letter has no shortage of whimsy as he sees some synchronicity to his writing a letter to a new story in “the fabric of things”. Maybe it’s really just a bunch of stuff that happened? Anyway Ivo’s daughter was the real critic here as she ran off before he could say any more!
We close out this opening salvo with
Mike Morgan who has a bee in his bonnet, as those Americans say. He opens stating he “enjoyed the Prog immensely” but then goes on to damn with faint praise some thrills and lambasts others. A brave man who comes out with hotshots such as ”The Commercial Break 3riller was OK”, a statement that must have had Tharg jittering in his jumpsuit. Mike gets a near full column in a letter that could have been trimmed, but was left super sized - well he is an American!
Mike has a deserved place on the all time leader board which sees him in mortal combat with his near neighbor
Doug Butler on 12. Mike is another returnee with this his first letter since his effort in 2011’s Meg 308. He has a lopsided 8 to 4 tilt towards the Prog and previous letters state he’s from Texas, so we won’t mess with him any more.
All in all a good letters page with some movement on the all time chart which is always welcome. We’ll try to run a column to coincide with each letters page or Dreddlines unless we get bored or snuff it or something. We leave you with the updated chart and as you can see the ba' is on the slates as far as the grand prize goes!
