FCBD - 2000ad Regened The Best Comic Ever!!

Colin YNWA · 06 May, 2023, 12:00:58 PM

Well the lead feature here is the new strip. Harlem Heroes - YES Aeroball, as its introduced "it's football, basketball, boxing and kung-fu all rolled into one - plus Jetpacks and certain death". FANTASTIC this is the stuff all ages comics will lap up so in this introductary strip is a slap dunk... well except... they don't actually have Aeroball in it. They introduce the decent of possibly interesting characters, a little too briefly. Have fun vibrant art ... in a training excerise... WHAT ..no really I'm not making this up. The first strip for aeroball team Harlem Heroes has no Aeroball in it, aside from some training things... I was left scratching my head on that one to say the least. Kinda fun if deeply disappointing!

Pandora Perfect and Full Tilt Boogie reprints make up the rest of the issue. Both absolutely brilliant and perfect introductions to stories that have nice volumes to follow them up. AND we must have more Full Tilt Boogie coming soon as there's a second volume out in September so looking forward to more of that.

I will put this under the boy child's nose as I think this will be perfect for him, we'll see...

broodblik · 06 May, 2023, 02:18:45 PM

Cannot wait for the second series of FTB

Dash Decent · 10 May, 2023, 03:49:10 AM

As much as I love the particular Pandora Perfect story they've used - "With me, it's a poo in your toaster or nothing" - but hasn't this already appeared in an FCBR prog? Or am I getting confused with Regene collections and Pandora's own standalone collection?

IndigoPrime · 15 May, 2023, 11:15:26 PM

I'm working my way through the FCBD pile, figuring out what will be suitable for the child and, well...

The cover is nice. Bright. Well illustrated. And then the intro page does the job, helping to introduce people. But it all goes a bit weird with Harlem Heroes. I'm not really sure what this was going for. It's messy as hell and I'm pretty sure if I drop this under the nose of the youngling she'll have no idea what's going on. This being the kid who usually brings home a dozen books from every library trip and has delved into everything from classic Treasury books to Lumberjanes. There's a seed of something here, but I'm afraid this did nothing for me and didn't exactly warm me to Max.

Pandora I've read before, and this again just makes me think it's by far the best thing that's come out of Regened. Pitch-perfect gags. Great imagination. Great clarity in the art. And the toaster gag? Yikes.

Full Tilt suffers by comparison, because the intro is so chaotic. But if for me at least has intrigue, whereas HH didn't have much to keep me reading. Also interesting to see FTB 2 is slated for September. So I imagine that must be hitting the Prog this summer?

In all, I dunno. There must be an audience for this stuff, but my comics-loving kid isn't that bothered about Regened yet, and this comic certainly wouldn't have made her change her mind.

sheridan · 16 May, 2023, 12:05:59 PM

The Harlem Heroes strips have been running in the collected editions (I was sure it was more than one, but upon checking I can only see reference to it in Volume 3 - at the time it was released that means you'd have to pay £9.99 for six(?) pages of new content, so I can understand why it didn't come up on this forum! I do agree that the intro in the pages of the regular comic should have actually had some set-up.

IndigoPrime · 16 May, 2023, 01:36:41 PM

The problem for me with that strip is it just didn't land. Honestly, I struggle a bit with Rebellion's children's comics as a whole. I'm not sure what it is, but it feels like something just isn't quite right. Perhaps it's me. But it's also my kid. She doesn't mind them. But there have only been a small number of characters she's properly loved, like Sweeny Toddler and Gums. I find it a bit sad, because I want to support as many comics as I can, but I'm not going to buy them for the sake of it. :/

Richard · 16 May, 2023, 02:26:38 PM

I thought Harlem Heroes was dire. Almost unreadable. I'm glad Rebellion is trying to make comics that appeal to young children, and often they succeed, but not this time.

There's an advert for Mega-City Max or whatever it's called, with young reader versions of DeMarco PI and Devlin Waugh -- why? What's the point of re-vamping characters for an audience that doesn't know them? Why not just come up with new ones?

IndigoPrime · 16 May, 2023, 02:50:09 PM

The only answer I can think of there is the assumption parents will buy it for their kids because they like the characters. I mean, that works for DCT. But I'm not sure it does for Rebellion – and certainly not for those characters. I mean, both of them are quite racy, and so I'd assume that a smart move would be keeping those things siloed. Devlin (shag-happy vampire whose best friend is a possessed dildo) for kids seems about as obvious an idea as, I dunno, Vampirella for kids. (And, yes, I know the existing strip won't be transplanted across. But when a kid likes Property X, they will then see it on a shelf and head for it. That's what makes this potentially risky.)

I also find it odd because the best stuff in Regened has been new. Chopper is a damp squib but Pandora is superb.

sheridan · 16 May, 2023, 03:16:15 PM

I'll wait and see, but Devlin did seem an interesting choice for an all-ages comic...

sheridan · 16 May, 2023, 03:16:56 PM

(the bits that aren't sex are violence, and the bits that aren't violence are occult, and not even in a Worst Witch/Harry Potter way).

Funt Solo · 16 May, 2023, 07:06:37 PM

Quote from: Tyranno-Mek on 06 May, 2023, 11:00:18 PMThe thing I noticed was the ad for the new Mega-City Max (one-shot), with the new (character-free) Harlem Heroes. Perhaps they'll actually play aeroball?

Soz to be all negs, but launching a reboot by having seven clowns play an escape the room game, when JJ's blurb is all about the death-defying future sport they play is ... an odd narrative choice. Not designed for me, though.

M-C Max is also touting De Marco's daughter, Devlin Waugh's son and a really old Max Normal. That last one should bring the kids flocking.

It is all quite odd, isn't it. It's a bit like Scrappy Doo has taken over 2000 AD. You know what would make Judge Dredd really cool for THE KIDZ? It's if he had a big red clown nose and a water pistol that fired six different kinds of jape-related water. Like, uhm, slippery-icey water - those perps can't stay standing! And ... ACID! No! Not acid! ffs - haven't you read the memo from Tharg-U-Lite? Japes! Not dissolving the flesh of your enemies. What do you think this is - 2000 AD?

[/rant]

Funt Solo · 16 May, 2023, 07:13:38 PM

I'm enjoying turning everything into AI art just now, so here's Dredd-Clown:

A.Cow · 17 May, 2023, 02:09:17 PM

Quote from: Tyranno-Mek on 16 May, 2023, 07:06:37 PMYou know what would make Judge Dredd really cool for THE KIDZ? It's if he had a big red clown nose and a water pistol that fired six different kinds of jape-related water. Like, uhm, slippery-icey water - those perps can't stay standing!

IDW called. They're offering you a permanent contract and a corner office.