Prog 2373 - A crash course in future law enforcement!

[norton canes]

Kind of surprised there wasn't official confirmation in the Nerve Centre that Regened has come to an end (if indeed it has), though I guess that wouldn't really fit with the upbeat vibe. Perhaps a jaunty little sign-off, Starlord-style, from Joko-Jargo? "Great news! My mission on Earth is complete..."

Anyway, back in the Niemand-verse, a lovely Dredd - though whoever it was complained here a while ago about Call-Me-Ken's occasionally clumsy phrasing will presumably have had an involuntary splutter at the duplication in "Obsolete model servo-droids, Kinderman Street. Looks like they've been street-dumped".  I want to like this iteration of Indigo Prime and I actually got three pages in this week before I started to drift, so things are improving. Full Tilt Boogie continues to be lovely and to be honest, I could easily forego the overarching plot for more episodes of Cat and Gran. Spin-off, Tharg? Perhaps as a weekly three-panel short..? Less luck with Deadworld, I'm afraid, its early mystique having all but vanished. And yeah, surely every other member of the Dule Tree cast and crew will be down the local giving it "Am I bollocks going" while Terrence Steele stands in the middle of the wood being mauled by a giant badger?

[broodblik]

Full wrap-around cover:

[Funt Solo]

Dahl is still incredibly popular.

[Funt Solo]

But who knows - maybe modern-day children have a very different mindset.  We clearly had very different tastes from 50s Eagle kids, after all.

I'm not quite ready to buy into the idea that the generational shift has been so severe. It's not as if we didn't have rather staid, mainstream entertainment on offer as kids. Not to dis Blue Peter, but for me it was just too well behaved. I loved Tiswas and despised Swap Shop. 2000 AD had a bit of an attitude (like the later Amiga Power compared to other computer game magazines) - driven, of course, by an attitude-fueled team of creatives.

For me, Regened just felt more and more bland the longer it went on. I don't understand well the notion that kids these days really want bland things. (Not what you said - I realize - but it's how I'm interpreting some of the arguments.)

[broodblik]

For me, Regened just felt more and more bland the longer it went on. ..........

I agree with the bland statement. I also did not like the fact that we now get a 20-page story in every edition (and if you do not like it then 50% of the prog was a lost cause). I understand the idea was to get a collection done as quickly as possible (maybe it was already decided by then that the regen might be done and dusted). I liked it more when we had more stories thus a bigger change of something to your liking. I still believe scheduling is the bigger problem waiting for months between editions was a problem.
 

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm not quite ready to buy into the idea that the generational shift has been so severe. It's not as if we didn't have rather staid, mainstream entertainment on offer as kids.

These two statements don't connect, I'm afraid. We're talking about two generations, with the rise of the internet dumped into the middle of that. Add into that equation the fact that parents are (generally) much more supervisory of their kids' entertainment consumption and the transformation of schools into fascists work camps designed to stamp out cookie-cutter worker units* and we end up with an environment where simply recreating a facsimile of what worked in 1977 is a complete non-starter.

Please note that I'm not saying that Regened hit the magic spot between what worked in 1977 and what should/could work now, only that there is a very big gap between those two points and attempting to hit it is a task I'm glad I didn't have to grapple with.

(Yes, IP, The Phoenix... which is an astonishing outlier that has had an extraordinary amount of money pumped into it over a couple of decades and which no one can confidently say to this day actually makes money.)


*May be hyperbole, but my conversations with teachers suggest perhaps not as much as we might hope.

[IndigoPrime]

Dahl is still incredibly popular.

The books sell, yes. But I suspect there's a lot of that from certain age groups and/or it's fuelled by nostalgia. I picked up a set of books for mini-IP on a whim and regretted doing so once we read them. They needed some fairly heavy editing. Fortunately, she's now decided to get rid of the last of them, so they're off to a charity shop. There are far, far better books for children to read these days.

And, yes, I've no idea if The Phoenix is making cash. But I do hope so. And given that it's now heading towards the mid 600s (having been around for well over a decade), that's a... lot of time to be throwing cash at something if it's not profitable.

(One thing with The Phoenix that is interesting: the shift to other aspects of fandom. There's the annual Phoenix Fest in Oxford. And the mag has started experimenting with live drawalongs. I don't recall how many they said showed up last time, but I think it was north of four figures.)

[Jim_Campbell]

that's a... lot of time to be throwing cash at something if it's not profitable.

David Fickling has his fingers in a lot of pies, and a quick google tells me that his non-comic enterprises include publishing stuff by Philip Pullman, amongst others.

I get royalties from Classical Comics, a publisher I haven't worked for in over a decade, so I know at what point their books moved into profit (and which of them haven't yet done so). Some publishers have enough money behind them to pay a very long game.

I hope the Phoenix makes money, but I suspect there's a very long tail of debt behind it, which the over-arching business structure is happy to swallow. That might be for tax reasons, it might be for entirely altruistic reasons... we can't know. I'm happy it exists, and I hope it continues to do so.

[norton canes]

Dahl is still incredibly popular.

Delicious with some grilled aubergine

[Funt Solo]

I'm not quite ready to buy into the idea that the generational shift has been so severe. It's not as if we didn't have rather staid, mainstream entertainment on offer as kids.

These two statements don't connect, I'm afraid. We're talking about two generations, with the rise of the internet dumped into the middle of that. Add into that equation the fact that parents are (generally) much more supervisory of their kids' entertainment consumption and the transformation of schools into fascists work camps designed to stamp out cookie-cutter worker units* and we end up with an environment where simply recreating a facsimile of what worked in 1977 is a complete non-starter.

I'm finding myself in agreement with both points, actually. I agree with you that "a facsimile of what worked in 1977" (not something I suggested) wouldn't be a great aim. My key point was that whatever the generational change, 2000 AD was always high quality but also counter-cultural (often labeled as "punk"). I don't see why we can't keep those (for me, core) aspects in trying to appeal to a younger audience.

Separate point, and not related to what you said, Jim, but I don't like the argument that helicopter parents should win, either. Fuck off, helicopter parents! It's none of your sodding business. (My dad wasn't happy with my reading 2000 AD as a kid - because he was doing a great impression of Modern Parents from Viz. I love him lots, but he was talking out of his arse about my reading choices. I can choose things to read, and have been able to from a young age, without adult supervision.)

[IndigoPrime]

My experience is kids have less freedom than I had growing up in the 1980s, and I had less freedom than my parents have. But specifically with media, the landscape has changed beyond all recognition. At my kid's age, I think I was about to get my first music system – a Saisho tape deck. I had a handful of tapes. We definitely had a games system back then (I think a VIC-20, with a C64 arriving shortly afterwards), but that wasn't a given. Our local library was... lacking, let's say. But comics were cheap and plentiful. So I naturally gravitated towards them, and although the counter-culture elements may have grated some parents (be that IPC/Fleetway's anarchic bent or Action and 2000 AD's violence), nothing in there was really beyond the pale. So they were cheap, thrilling/funny entertainment.

Today, my 9yo has access to 90+ million tracks on her iPod touch. She has a Switch and access to an iPad for games that regularly refresh in Apple Arcade. Libraries... that one's luck, but our local one is excellent for children's prose books. But comics... there's so little around, so what exists has to cast the net far more widely and yet simultaneously target people with the relevant amount of spending money.

The two surviving weeklies, The Beano and The Phoenix, cost, respectively, £2.99 and £3.49. When I was around the same age as my daughter, The Beano cost an average of 14p. If inflation alone was responsible for price rises, The Beano would be closer to 60p today, opening it up to a much wider audience. But various factors and shifts in production costs have dramatically shifted things, and so we end up with the current incarnation of the comic, which is clearly a lot less rough and ready than it was, in every sense. Note that as a parent I'm all for the comic's more inclusive bent. Reading back just 10–15 years ago, a lot of The Beano read like it was absolutely fine with bullying. And it actually gives a shit about girls now, which is good. Still, I find it a great shame that this medium is no longer close to being mass-media in any meaningful sense.

So back to Regened: what should or could it have been? Any comic is a risk. Regened clearly aimed to sit between The Phoenix and OG 2000 AD, providing a kind of 'upgrade' path that's now missing with 2000 AD itself being aimed at a much older readership than it was during the 1970s and arguably quite deep into the 1980s. Perhaps it was too safe. For me, it too often wasn't subversive enough, which is a different thing. (The Phoenix is quite clean cut in many ways, but often has its edge in subversion, when it has one.) But if Regened is gone, I imagine there are multiple factors, many of which we won't know about, and at least some of which were unavoidable (not least the weird schedule and the publication not being able to exist as a standalone).

At least Monster Fun continues to be on the shelves, mean that Rebellion has got one extra regular children's comic on to the newsstands. That's no mean feat in the current climate, although I do find it odd the comic is always faced in WHSmith with 2000 AD, when it'd make more sense sitting next to The Beano (and, in those few branches that stock it, The Phoenix). I've no idea if that's down to WHSmith or Rebellion, mind. (There are strategic reasons for both approaches.)

[The Corinthian]

Any discussion of What The Kids Want from their comics these days just puts me in mind of Grant Morrison's solar cycles hypothesis. So now I'm imagining that in 5-10 years time Tooth will be putting out Regened progs that are even more savage, bloodthirsty and insensitive than the regular series, for an audience that finds Tharg's typical output too tame for their tastes.

[Woolly]

I also did not like the fact that we now get a 20-page story in every edition (and if you do not like it then 50% of the prog was a lost cause). I understand the idea was to get a collection done as quickly as possible (maybe it was already decided by then that the regen might be done and dusted). I liked it more when we had more stories thus a bigger change of something to your liking. I still believe scheduling is the bigger problem waiting for months between editions was a problem.

I thought the idea of one longer strip per issue was a great one, considering there were only four issues a year. A good four-parter to keep readers coming back every 3 months, as well as a couple of shorter done-in-one tales to back it up.

Unfortunately Lowborn High wasn't the strip to make that format work, which is a shame.

[Jacqusie]

Kind of surprised there wasn't official confirmation in the Nerve Centre that Regened has come to an end (if indeed it has)

Having read all of this thread, are we saying it hasn't actually finished?

[Funt Solo]

Kind of surprised there wasn't official confirmation in the Nerve Centre that Regened has come to an end (if indeed it has)

Having read all of this thread, are we saying it hasn't actually finished?

We're jumping to conclusions based on some circumstantial evidence.