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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

Started by Molch-R, 27 February, 2017, 06:03:27 PM

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sheridan

Quote from: Pale fire on 19 April, 2018, 09:47:44 PM
I've not subscribed - more than a little put off by the complaints on here. But, despite living in a big city, the number of copies at newsagents has basically dried up to zilch. I've been picking up mine at the cornershop at the end of the road, but I suspect that their system is only adding one copy because of me. The WH smiths in the city centre and forbidden planet appear to no longer be stocking them.


Which big city are you in?


QuoteIt'd be interesting to know how many copies they're shifting - and how close to the edge of viability it is (even reprints take a surprising amount of work...)


It'd be interesting, but Rebellion don't release sales figures, and I'm not aware of Hachette doing so either.

Steve Green

Forbidden Planet London are still carrying both.

No idea on sales figures but the facebook page likes for the 2000AD collection is way below that of the Dredd equivalent.

3000 compared to 15000

sintec

Dredd page has presumably been live for 2-3 years longer though so that could be an artifcat of age.  Or it could be down to changes in FB's algorithms over that time preiod which mean the ultimate collection's page is not getting promoted to as many FB users as the Dredd one did.

Steve Green

Age has something to do with it, but it's well known that Dredd sells more than anything else that 2000 AD has.

Even so the fan page for our Strontium Dog short has twice as many likes as the Hachette 2000 AD page, and it's not like we push that much.

Max Headroom

Does anyone know if the Slaine volumes will comprise the entire run? If not, what is likely not to make it?

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Max Headroom on 22 April, 2018, 07:21:48 PM
Does anyone know if the Slaine volumes will comprise the entire run? If not, what is likely not to make it?

Secret Commonwealth, with a bit of luck.
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Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Max Headroom on 22 April, 2018, 07:21:48 PM
Does anyone know if the Slaine volumes will comprise the entire run?

You'd bloody hope so, with 13 volumes...!
@jamesfeistdraws

Tjm86

That said, will we ever get a 'complete run' of Slaine?  Will it ever end?  (a question I tend to ask mid way through each episode at the moment)

sintec

Assuming the Slaine volumes follow the existing Rebellion trades then I suspect we're going to get something like:

Vol 1 - Warriors Dawn (208)
Vol 2 - Time Killer (176)
Vol 3 - The King (256)
Vol 4 - Horned God (192)
Vol 5 - Demon Killler (160)
Vol 6 - Lord Of Misrule (128), Treasures Of Britain (128) = 256
Vol 7 - The Grail War (176)
Vol 8 - Lord Of The Beasts (256)
Vol 9 - Book Of Invasions 1 (112), Book Of Invasions 2 (112) = 224
Vol 10 - Book Of Invasions 3 (128), The Wanderer (128) = 256
Vol 11 - Book Of Scars (192)
Vol 12 - Brutania 1 (112), Brutania 2 (112) = 224
Vol 13 - Brutania 3 (101), Brutania 4 (96) = 197

Those mostly seem to fit the 200-250 page count Hachette are going for.  Vol 5 is a little light at only 160 pages as are 2 and 7 at 176 and there are also few vols (3, 6, 8, 10) which are at the high end with 256 pages.  So the good/bad news is that this looks like it's going to be pretty much everything (at least everything that's been collected in existing Rebellion trades anyway).

Now a question for those more familiar with the Slaine stories; at what point do things start going downhill?
It seems quite a lot of you aren't big fans of the newer material but are there specific vols which you're really dreading, are there any gems hidden amongst the later stories?

Tomwe

#1899
The content of Slaine vols 2 & 3 are here (taken from FB)

30-SLAINE VOL 2 Dragonheist; Time Killer; Battle of Clontarf

31-SLAINE VOL 3 Tomb of Terror; The Spoils of Annwn; Slaine the King; The Killing Field; Mini-Series

... and 5 is titled "Slaine: The High King" though there's no breakdown for that one

IndigoPrime

#1900
Quote from: sintec on 24 April, 2018, 08:37:57 AMNow a question for those more familiar with the Slaine stories; at what point do things start going downhill?
I suspect this is down to the individual. Personally, I liked Sláine a lot through Horned God, even if some of the earlier stuff feels dated in the same way a lot of old 2000 AD does. Horned God was a natural end, and so Sláine ended up [spoiler]being a kind of time-traveller, a bit like a Celtic Doctor Who[/spoiler], which was variable in quality. But the end of that 'second era' Sláine, I felt things had gone downhill pretty badly. I don't recall liking Grail War and Lord of the Beasts, for example.

For me, Book of Invasions was a return to form. There are some things I very much disagree with (not least the [spoiler]unnecessary end for Niamh, reportedly suggested by the editor, which felt like a sickening slice of sexist fridging[/spoiler]), but for me it broadly worked really well. I didn't care for Scars, but consider that an interlude, and Brutania 1 was, for the most part, superb. I loved the art and the weirdness. But then that all went a bit downhill, with LOTS OF GODS SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER IN ALL CAPS, and drawn-out, horribly dull fights.

Given Sláine's general appeal, I'm not surprised they're bunging all of it in there. But I honestly don't think the collection would have missed much had it skipped from Horned God right to Book of Invasions, and then used the four 'spare' books for some Indigo Prime or something.

sheridan

Quote from: Tomwe on 24 April, 2018, 09:28:19 AM
30-SLAINE VOL 2 Dragonheist; Time Killer; Battle of Clontarf

31-SLAINE VOL 3 Tomb of Terror; The Spoils of Annwn; Slaine the King; The Killing Field; Mini-Series

Would I be right in thinking that the Battle of Clontarf and the Diceman stories have't had much of an airing since their original publication?  I'm sure I have a Titan of the Diceman stories plus the mini-series somewhere, but that was published in the eighties...

sintec

Contents listed on that FB post for Vols 1-3 match the contents of the Warriors Dawn, Time Killer and Slaine the King almost exactly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sl%C3%A1ine_(comics)).  The High King is the first story in Demon Killer so I suspect vol 5 will contain the rest of the stuff from that book.

sheridan

The Diceman stories being: Cauldron of Blood (which ties directly in to main story continuity), Dragoncorpse and The Ring of Danu (not so much).

TordelBack

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 24 April, 2018, 10:01:46 AM
For me, Book of Invasions was a return to form. There are some things I very much disagree with (not least the [spoiler]unnecessary end for Niamh, reportedly suggested by the editor, which felt like a sickening slice of sexist fridging[/spoiler]), but for me it broadly worked really well.

I didn't much care for BoI at the time, and the [spoiler]Niamh[/spoiler] incident seriously hacked me off too, but re-reading it in the collections it works very well.  As previously noted, The Wanderer sort-of-epilogue collection makes the best of a mixed bag of stories, and even fixes some of the ridiculous sexist dialogue.

I've found something to like in all the eras of Slaine, especially in their collected form (Grail War was a particularly interesting idea), with the possible exception of the very forgettable Braveheart thing. The main issue is often pacing of individual tales, where things ramble along until either Tharg or Pat gets bored, and it all wraps up in a couple of episodes, old-school style.