2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[sintec]

Looks like Leviathan is another definite for the final run from the art posted to FB. I've heard a lot about that on here so looking forward to finally reading it.

That looks a lot like Blunt in there too so I guess we'll be getting a book with the three series of that. I missed the first one and never quite got hooked in by the second two series in the Meg. Hopefully it'll read better collected.

Was this paired with the first Absalom series? Didn't think the page count was long enough on its own.

First two series, Noblesse Obligie and Ghosts of London.

[IndigoPrime]

Finn, Sinister Dexter, Strontium Dogs, ABC Warriors, Brass Sun, Black Hawk, The Mean Arena, and Revere.

I'll be honest and say that doesn't exactly thrill me in the same way as 81–111, and so I'll await a full listing, I think. Brass Sun is the best of them, but incomplete and I already have the Rebellion HC. I can take or leave the rest of it, bar, possibly, Revere.

Looking at the art Boo's doing, War Machine is a good bet (even if it'll presumably have to be padded out with shit), Leviathan is amazing but will need something else to go with it, and Ro-Busters will presumably omit the Starboard stuff, which would be a pity. Blunt's in there, although I didn't really enjoy the series. I'm assuming that's Devlin Waugh's arm on the right.

Who's the woman in the cap? I'm guessing Samantha Slade, in which case we really are heading into barrel-scrapping territory in at least a few cases. (Also: if we get to 140 and there's no Armoured Gideon, but there is Samantha Slade, then I don't even.)

[Tomwe]

I'm gonna share the pic here so I don't have to keep looking back to FB for it!

[Dark Jimbo]

Amazing to have this confirmed, but this is definitely going to be the last extension, isn't it? Mean Team? Samantha Slade? Strontium Dogs? Definite barrel-scraping happening now.

I really hope Kingdom gets a final volume, as well as Stickleback, now that the cliffhanger's finally been resolved. I would also love love love an Atavar volume - prime Abnett/Elson goodness with a beginning, middle and end, perfect for a collection and far more deserving of a hardback than bloody Mean Team.

[Hackenbush]

Hmmm

It's a bit disappointing to see most of my long shot wishes excluded, but it's possible we'll see:
Friday paired with some of the non Michael Fleisher strips, and maybe the dredd crossover
Strontium dogs paired with the missing Durham Red (could be over two volumes)
Revere paired with Slaughterbowl
Samantha Slade paired with the Hogan / Hughes Robo Hunter stories

[The Monarch]

hmm if blunts there and that IS devlin could we get more lawless?

[abelardsnazz]

I'm wondering whether extending the series to 140 issues has now become quantity exceeding quality. To take what's been said and what can be interpreted from the image - which seems to be only part of it, as we've only got a bit of Devlin:

Finn - I didn't enjoy this in the prog so meh for me.
Sinister Dexter - very welcome.
Strontium Dogs - don't remember much about this, but checking on Barney there's enough for at least 1 volume, maybe doubling up with Durham Red as has been suggested.
ABC Warriors - good to complete the run. So possible complete runs also for Kingdom and Stickleback?
Brass Sun - a modern classic.
Black Hawk - didn't this start in Tornado? In which case a chance for Starlord stories being included?
The Mean Arena - another meh.
Revere - brilliant.
Leviathan - haven't read before but I like all of Ian Edginton's work that I have so looking forward.
Samantha Slade - again haven't read but the consensus seems to be not good.
Fr1day - War Machine is good, I haven't read any of the Steve White stuff - any good?
Devlin Waugh - all the John Smith stories were in the Dredd collection, and at present the more recent stories aren't enough to fill a volume - paired with something else?

Some more Dredd/Deadworld stuff also?

[Swerty]

I used to love Finn back in the day.Strontium Dogs was enjoyable too.Id buy Samantha Slade too which is saying something has i dont buy them all.Welcome the extention.Hope it continues.

[IndigoPrime]

Strontium Dogs - don't remember much about this, but checking on Barney there's enough for at least 1 volume, maybe doubling up with Durham Red as has been suggested.

There's a lot of Strontium Dogs, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Some of the individual bits are good, and Hogan was playing the long game, but the Tharg of the day guillotined the story.

ABC Warriors - good to complete the run. So possible complete runs also for Kingdom and Stickleback?

You'd hope so. If not, that's not good.

Black Hawk - didn't this start in Tornado? In which case a chance for Starlord stories being included?

At this point, the logic of avoiding Starlord is odd. But it wouldn't surprise me if this is all going to be 2000 AD-only. (That said, Rebellion already has the repro, so...)

Leviathan - haven't read before but I like all of Ian Edginton's work that I have so looking forward.

It's superb. Short, but superb.

Samantha Slade - again haven't read but the consensus seems to be not good.

It's fairly awful. Early on, various questions were asked that I don't recall ever satisfactorily being answered (like why Sam's head is in a jar). The entire thing seemed to be a vehicle because Gibson wanted to draw one of his sexy cartoon women—and then he got visibly bored with the strip (Backgrounds? We don't need backgrounds!), complained about Grant's scripts and then declined to complete the run. Anthony Williams took over and the series just... ended.

If paired with Hogan/Hughes Robo-Hunter, that might lift the volume a bit—and that would bring the book to about 200 pages of strip. So that wouldn't surprise me.

Fr1day - War Machine is good, I haven't read any of the Steve White stuff - any good?

Not really, to my mind. It was certainly OK, and some of the art was nice. But it was packed full of pseudo-military guff and, again, didn't really go anywhere. Then the series ended up tying itself in continuity knots for no good reason. The whole thing was a mess. I'd sooner see War Machine paired with Tor Cyan, because the latter at least had lovely art and a coherent storyline.

[Dark Jimbo]

Black Hawk - didn't this start in Tornado? In which case a chance for Starlord stories being included?

At this point, the logic of avoiding Starlord is odd. But it wouldn't surprise me if this is all going to be 2000 AD-only. (That said, Rebellion already has the repro, so...)

Quite a few Ro-Busters stories were reprinted in one of the ABC Warriors books, leaving very little 2000AD material over for a Ro-Busters book (which, judging by that spine art, we're almost certainly going to get). So surely this means we can expect the Starlord material...?

Samantha Slade - again haven't read but the consensus seems to be not good.

It's fairly awful. Early on, various questions were asked that I don't recall ever satisfactorily being answered (like why Sam's head is in a jar).

There was a whole story about that - a mad celebrity collector had done it to him, and the gang boarded his yacht to try and get his body back, which I think then got accidentaly destroyed.

There's an eight-part story - Stim! - which is excellent. Easily the calibre of the classic Wagner/Grant stuff, and Gibson's art for it is utterly sublime. The six-part Casino Royale which follows it is really not too bad, either. Generally speaking though, none of the other stories are worth your time. Grant's scripts are generally just going through the motions - it's not inspired stuff - and gradually you can see Gibson's enthusiasm wane, too. The final story is just a bloody insult to the readers, frankly, at which point Tharg pulls the plug, so there's no proper ending to speak of.

I'd sooner see War Machine paired with Tor Cyan, because the latter at least had lovely art and a coherent storyline.

Tor Cyan's run is already due in the Mercy Heights book.

[sintec]

Quite a few Ro-Busters stories were reprinted in one of the ABC Warriors books, leaving very little 2000AD material over for a Ro-Busters book (which, judging by that spine art, we're almost certainly going to get). So surely this means we can expect the Starlord material...?

I'm wondering if what we're going to get is two more volumes collecting the rest of ABC Warriors and the rest of the Ro-Busters strips from the prog split between them. Just playing with some spreadsheets to see how the page counts look. Doesn't look like there's enough prog era Ro-Busters left for a standalone book though, although I guess they could pad it out with Ro-Jaws Tales or something maybe.

[IndigoPrime]

There was a whole story about that - a mad celebrity collector had done it to him, and the gang boarded his yacht to try and get his body back, which I think then got accidentaly destroyed.

I'd forgotten all of that. But doesn't he just more or less disappear after that point? It's been a while since I read that strip, admittedly, and I don't feel terribly compelled to go back.

Tor Cyan's run is already due in the Mercy Heights book.

Has that been confirmed anywhere? Mercy Heights alone has 192 pages of strip, according to Barney, which is already around the average for these books. I make Tor Cyan's solo stuff ~116. That's way too much for one book. (War Machine is 70-odd pages.)

[sintec]

Gathered the data on the strips that might make this 2nd extension from Barney and added it to my spreadsheets. I've assumed complete runs of material and split them into roughly book sized chunks.  For comparison the initial 80 books in the collection range from 107-252 pages of strip. There are only 2 under 150 though (both Slaine), most of the books are 160+.

Series either named or visible in the art:

Book	Strip Page Count	Notes
Finn Volume 1	147
Finn Volume 2	174
Revere	109	Will need padding out
Brass Sun: Volume 1	195
Brass Sun: Volume 2	120	Could fit a short one off in here
The Mean Arena: Volume 1	168
The Mean Arena: Volume 2	180
ABC Warriors: Volume 7	153	Return Mars & Earth
ABC Warriors: Volume 8	169	Return Ro-busters & Fallout
Strontium Dogs 1	132
Strontium Dogs 2	194
Blackhawk	152	Just the prog run
Blunt	195
Rogue Trooper - War Machine	74	Will need padding out
Samantha Slade	145
Ro-Busters	117
Devlin Waugh	149	All the non-John Smith stuff
Leviathan	65	Will need padding out

I suspect there wll only be 1 book of cherry-picked Strontium Dogs stuff. Maybe just the Nigel Dobbyn stuff that's ~200 pages which would be perfect. I'm also wondering if they'll omit Fallout and put the Ro-busters stuff in the 2nd ABCs book alongside Return To Ro-busters. That'd also end up being about 200 pages.

Continuations of existing runs, I have no evidence any of these will actually be included but thought it was worth speculating on.

Book	Strip Page Count
Defoe: Volume 3	156
The Fall Of Deadworld 2	156
Stickleback: Volume 2	210
Kingdom: Volume 3	126
Flesh: Volume 2	203
Savage: Volume Four	138

If we get all of that lot then that would be 24 books which would leave space for another 5. We know some of those will be Sinister Dexter, 2-3 I'm guessing. I'm still hoping we might get a Wagner Dredd I'd love to have Machine Law and Guatemala in hardback. Similarly a book of Niemand Dredds would be an excellent addition.

Any thoughts on what they'll pad out Revere and Leviathan?
Cradlegrave would be a great fit for the former.  Helium and maybe another one and done for Leviathan?

[Tomwe]

Isn't revere already confirmed for the first time extension? He's on the spine.

[Jade Falcon]

I thought we were more or less finished with Sinister Dexter and to be honest I must be the only one who wasn't thrilled with Devlin Waugh.

It seems as if the extension is going to be a bit of a mixed bag further on.