Scream & Misty - All new stories inside

[Colin YNWA]

As an actual product I found this really disappointing, as a promise of what's to come it leaves me very excited. I'm not sure at all if that's a good thing or not....

The comic looks great but as others have said almost all the stories felt like set-ups for more to come and as such felt hollow and shallow in and of themselves. The biggest disappointment was Death Man. As I waded through the introduction text pieces I was really intrigued as to how so much would be cramped into the story and alas the answer was badly and the story felt pointless, too much packed in and nothing gelled at all.

The thing is I'd welcome it back (if it took the time to introduce the characters properly given more space and time). In fact any of these strips pretty much I'd be happy to see in the Prog, I was particularly keen on Thirteenth Floor. But yeah this as a stand alone produce was pretty duff.

Very interested to see if anything comes of any of this though.

[Citi-Def_Joe]

I really liked it, lots of fun and looked great.
Not sure if it will get kids or new readers in to it though as others said it drops you in to things a bit but at least there were some good explanations.
I would have liked it to be "bumper sized" though but appreciate more pages is hard to do with these specials

[The Adventurer]

I was a new reader. It all made sense to me. 

[Smith]

I was a new reader. It all made sense to me.

Good for you.

[Goosegash]

My feelings on this special is that it was an interesting experiment and I'll be intrigued to see what else Rebellion have in mind for their new acquisitions. Great to see Fraser Irving's work in a UK title again.

The only strip that had me scratching my head a bit was Dracula, the backstory was somewhat bewildering with no knowledge of the original strip, and the messy, confusing art didn't really help.

Actually the real highlight for me was the ad for the forthcoming "Faceache: First 100 Scrunges" book! You've no idea how many years I've been waiting for someone to put out a proper collection of Ken Reid's work, now if only Rebellion could somehow prize his classic Beano material out of DC Thomson's iron fist(not likely, I know) I could die happy.

[IndigoPrime]

That Rebellion is doing this sort of thing – and has dipped deep into its pockets at great risk to do so – is something that we should all be grateful for. That DC Thompson hasn't released bloody great big collections of, say, Bananaman is truly baffling.

[DrJomster]

I really enjoyed this and it definitely left me wanting more.

For me it did feel a bit like a series of trailers, but in a good way in that I now want more of everything. That’s not unreasonable is it?

This only leaves me with the dilemma of which bit of lovely Misty/Scream (or is it Scream/Misty?) graphic novel loveliness to pick up next....

[TordelBack]

I was a new reader. It all made sense to me.

Me too, both counts. The only bits I had any priors with were Death Wish (Blake Edmonds is a man so unlucky as to be horribly disfigured twice) and 13th Floor.  I hadn't really considered getting any of the Misty or Scream reprint stuff (seriously, I can't keep pace with the current 2000AD reprint programmes), but now I'm well up for more. 

[Goosegash]

That Rebellion is doing this sort of thing – and has dipped deep into its pockets at great risk to do so – is something that we should all be grateful for. That DC Thompson hasn't released bloody great big collections of, say, Bananaman is truly baffling.

Absolutely, the back catalogue of UK comics has been neglected for far too long, and the fact they're bringing so much of it back into print again is a great thing. I hope it pays off.

With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.

I'm sure there's a generation of adults who would buy nicely repackaged editions of old stories, they could easily tap into that nostalgia market if they wanted to. But they don't even try, it's just "bung out two or three annuals at Christmas, just like we've done since 1940."

[The Adventurer]

There was that blip of activity when DC put out that Albion comic. Then, dormancy again.

[maryanddavid]

I loved it, and I am hoping for more.
If you consider the other attempt that there was at something like this, the 2000AD Action special which really tore the heart out of the old characters that they attempted to revive (with the exception of The Steel Claw perhaps)  producing bastardised versions of the characters, The Spider the worst offender.
What Rebellion have done here is shown that these characters and stories can be made relevant and contemporary with minimal adjusting to the concept. Brilliant.

[CalHab]

With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.

I am very grateful to DC Thomson for being one of the only publishers still making comics for young children. You can criticise them for a lot of things, but they would leave a massive hole in the market if they shut down.

One of the reasons the Scream and Misty stuff doesn't really work for me is that it is aimed exclusively at an older audience. I understand why, I just find it disappointing.

[Woolly]

Just had another flick through - on reflection, I feel it could have done with a one-off 'Library of Death' or 'Tale from the Gravedigger' to really round it off.

Definitely going to have to save up for the Misty reprints.

[dweezil2]

With regard to DC Thomson, it feels like they're stubbornly operating on a business model that's fifty years out of date, just because that's what they've always done. They've no interest in exploiting their legacy of classic material at all, they just keep on trying to appeal exclusively to a dwindling child audience with desperate attempts to remain relevant. It's really sad.

I am very grateful to DC Thomson for being one of the only publishers still making comics for young children. You can criticise them for a lot of things, but they would leave a massive hole in the market if they shut down.

One of the reasons the Scream and Misty stuff doesn't really work for me is that it is aimed exclusively at an older audience. I understand why, I just find it disappointing.

I got no sense reading the Scream/Misty comic  that it was aimed at an exclusively adult audience-if anything I found the slightly simpler storytelling implied quite the opposite.
Producing a juvenile comic doesn't mean it has to be so, well, juvenile.
I know, for I fact, that as a seven year old I much preferred reading Star Wars Weekly, 2000AD, Star Lord, Battle and (new) Eagle when it finally appeared.
I had next to no interest in The Dandy and The Beano, so one can't generalise what kids enjoy. 

[Professor Bear]

I suspect you might be confusing "simplistic" with "familiar", though it's probably a subjective distinction.

The special was relatively restrained as 2000ad stuff goes - only one decapitation and barely any racist characters - but you can only argue for so long that a 12 year old girl skateboarding over corpses in a WW1 trench pursued by a zombie biplane shooting body parts at her is something one might stumble upon in the pages of the Beano.