2005 - The First Six Months

[The Adventurer]

June is heading to its inevitable conclution, meaning the year is half over.  

So, I feel, its a good time to take a look back on 2000 A.D. of the first half the year.

This was my first year with 2000 AD, I started reading right around January.  Being so new it's hard for me to compare this year to anything that came before it.  But my general feeling is 2000 AD is everything I've been missing in the majority of US produced comics, good solid Science Fiction on a regular basis.

Judge Dredd has impressed me more then I ever hoped it would, here is a character in a world that can do ANYTHING.  From Over the Top Action to Drama to Social Commentary and out right parody, a genre mash fan's dream.

I really really liked Low Life, The V.C.s* (espessialy that ending, can't wait to see where that goes), and Nikolai Dante.

In the average catagory
Second City Blues, I feel, missed the mark, and I like quarky "weird Sci-Fi" ususaly.
Caballistics Inc. I feel I should like, but it just doesn't click fully.  It's good, but not great.
I can see how much potencial Sinister Dexter has, but it seems it ended up all filler this first half of the year.
American Gothic was good but felt rushed toward the end.  Needed a few more Progs.

Frankly I just couldn't get into Slain, maybe it's my general uninterest in the Fantasy genre, or maybe it was just overly dull. Probably a combination of both.  
As much as I want to like it, Bec & Kawl just misses the mark EVERY TIME.  It should be the greatest, but it's not.  Unfortunatly.

In all I got everything I wanted out of 2000 AD.  Varity and good storytelling with Wizzbang art.  I'm sure I'll be onboard for a good long time.


*Question, is it worth tracking down the first V.C. volumes?  Are they any good?  Do you think Rebellion will rerelease the first series in a single Trade at some point?

[The Adventurer]

Just curious, Judges "Are the Law" and all that, but from what I've seen Megacity-1 is like a Police State where the Judges can make almost any excuse to do as they please to any Citizen in pursuit of a criminal.


Do the people of Megacity-1 have any rights against the might of the Judges?

[colcool007]

"... *Question, is it worth tracking down the first V.C. volumes? Are they any good? Do you think Rebellion will rerelease the first series in a single Trade at some point? ..."

Adventurer. The original V.C.'s are worth tracking down, if only for the art of Cam Kennedy, which was gloriously mean and moody. They were published as Titan GN's and they pop up every now and then on Ebay or alternately you could collect the original issues from 140 to 175. Try www.26pigs.com or one of the other comic selling sites to track them down.

[Floyd-the-k]

welcome aboard Adventurer! It has been a pretty good year, hasn't it? Dredd fine, Low Life genius, other stuff alright.
  I'm with you on Slaine, it has been up and down but overall pretty pompous. SCB and American Gothic were both GOOD THINGS because Tharg was trying something new. But SCB never stopped being old fashioned, formulaic and lame while American Gothic let down its promising beginning pretty fast.

overall, I too am a happy customer.

cheers,

Floyd

ps I've read one of the early VC stories (in an old Best of 2000 AD) and it was good, I'd track down the early volumes if I had the money

[ARRISARRIS]

...must admit i must go back and reread all of Caballistics to date to remind me whats going on and with whom at the moment, but i see it as a long running continued story with differant chapters so what The Adventurer has read so far doesnt really make much sence, am i making much sence???...

[Dudley]

Well, Second City Blues, Caballistics Inc. and Bec & Kawl are all very British-specific, so it's possible that there's a cultural difference there, or more simply that all three are chock-fulla references that you simply couldn't get, being from the colonies.

Slaine has to be at its very best to appeal to people with an aversion to the fantasy genre, and while that last book was a definite improvement, it was the very best.

And I doubt you'll find many people (possibly even including the writer) who'll deny that Sin/Dex is mostly filler.

[Tiplodocus]

Did we mention Tiger Sun Dragon Moon?.

I thought it had a kick ass start and some lovely art but sadly we soon discovered that there was no plot as such (just an extended fight) and for some reason it was tied into Dredd continuity.  

Any second book would have to be pretty damned special to get me over my apathy that was caused by the non-plot of the first.

[Oddboy]

Judge Dredd:

Christmas With The Blints (Wagner/Currie)
After The Bombs (Wagner/Brashill)
Visiting Hour (Rennie/Williams)
The Searchers (Rennie/Critchlow)
Horror In Emergency Camp 4 (Wagner/D'Israeli)
Missing In Action (Rennie/Gibson)
Descent! (Rennie/Cook)
Radstock (Rennie/Richardson)
Blood Trails (Rennie/Currie)

[Oddboy]

Alien Invasions: Choir Visible (Flint)
Alien Invasions: Sign Here (Flint)
Alien Invasions: Stan's Pair (Flint)

American Gothic (Edginton/Collins)

Atavar III (Abnett/Elson)

Bec & Kawl: Attack Of The Cones (Spurrier/Roberts)

Caballistics, Inc.: Weird War Tales (Rennie/Reardon)
Caballistics, Inc.: Safe House (Rennie/Reardon)
Caballistics, Inc.: Northern Dark (Rennie/Reardon)

Droid Life: Merry Xmas (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Cheryl (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Workplace Harassment (Sullivan)
Droid Life: The Classics (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Birthday (Sullivan)
Droid Life: UPC-01 (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Drokk! (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Diane (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Career Advancement (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Downlode (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Drinking Problem (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Junior (Sullivan)
Droid Life: Flesh (Sullivan)

Low Life: Rock And A Hard Place (Williams/Coleby)

Nikolai Dante: Agent Of Destruction (Morrison/Burns)
Nikolai Dante: How Could You Believe Me..? (Morrison/Burns)
Nikolai Dante: Primal Screams (Morrison/Burns)

Robo-Hunter: The Davinchy Code (Grant/Gibson)

Second City Blues (Kek-W/Pleece)

Shakara: Book II: The Assassin (Morrison/Flint)

Sinister Dexter: Dunce Macabre (Abnett/Davis)
Sinister Dexter: Latte Animals (Abnett/Pingriff)
Sinister Dexter: Vircade (Abnett/McCrea)
Sinister Dexter: Life's A Beach (Abnett/Yeowell)
Sinister Dexter: Slow Train To Kal Cutter (Abnett/Davis)

Sl?ine: Tara (The Books Of Invasions IV) (Mills/Langley)
Sl?ine: Odacon (The Books Of Invasions V) (Mills/Langley)

Tales From The Leviathan: Chosen Son (Edginton/D'Israeli)

Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon (Parkhouse)

V.C.'s: Book IV: Old Soldiers (Abnett/Williams)

[Funt Solo]

Tiger Sun Dragon Moon

I loved that series - loved it loved it loved it.  I just have to point that out when it gets a slating.  No plot, you say?  Read on...

That Khan fellow and his wizard are invading civilisation - and murdering the Royals is top on their agenda of "things to do whilst invading civilisation", but they're well defended by mystical hoo-hah, those Royals, so the wizard fellow uses a magic sword to confrabumodulate the woman goody.  She then goes on a murdering spree, only to be confronted by her ex-lover (is that right?) and they end up killing each other in a deathly embrace, the Royals escape and the mad wizard bloke gets de-confrabumodulated, which kills him.  The Khan dude might be a little bit pissed off about this but he's still got some giant stompy robots so I don't think it's going to stop him.  Bring on the next series!  

(And that, by the way, was a plot, you oh-so-harsh critics you!  There may not have been much overt characterisation, but there was a plot.)

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:: "is it worth tracking down the first V.C. volumes?"

Aye, it most certainly is.  It's one of the series that got me hooked on 2000AD in the first place.  It sometimes has that old fashioned thing where the cliffhanger from one episode is then repeated at the start of the next - so it makes a collected version odd to read sometimes.  That's my one and only criticism. The Titan GNs have lovely cover art, so are worth tracking down on E-Bay or whatnot.

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:: "... Bec & Kawl are all very British-specific"

The whole cones thing was just crap:  it didn't matter which culture you came from.  (IMO, of course.)

[Oddboy]

Question, is it worth tracking down the first V.C. volumes? Are they any good? Do you think Rebellion will rerelease the first series in a single Trade at some point?

Probably worth stating:

The V.C.'s original series written by Gerry Finley-Day ran in progs 140-143, 145-165, 168-169, 171-175 (November 1979 to August 1980).

In this series, Smith is a young man, and a new recruit to the V.C.'s - they are fighting the Geeks.

When Tharg calls the most recent series 'Book 4' he means 'Book 4 of the new series, as re-invented by Dan Abnett'
Book I - progs 1300-1306 (July to August 2002)
Escsher's Wall - Prog 2003 (December 2002)
Book II - progs 1327-1335 (February to April 2003)
Book III - Prog 2004, progs 1371-1379 (December 2003 to March 2004)
Book IV - progs 1432-1441 (March to June 2005)

In these stories, it's 50 years after the original Human vs Geek war, and Smith is an old man.

Is it worth tracking them down?
If you want to know what's happening in the current series, yes track down Books I-III (Book I is especially good, books II & III are okay).

The original series is worth tracking down because it's Aces - but you don't really need to have read it to get with Abnett's version.

[Keef Monkey]

Sometimes wonder how a new reader would take to 2000AD so it's nice to see that someone brand new to it can enjoy it that much. Think it's been a great year so far. Slaine was far better than usual so I even enjoyed that. Usually love Bec And Kawl but it's been a bit weak lately, and I think jumping into Caballistics in the middle it maybe wouldn't hook you the same. Thought SCB was dull at first but I liked the way it had a schizoid embolism towards the end, and Tiger Sun...was a great idea but it didn't feel like much actually happened. Fate's one paragraph retelling there was more exciting.

[Artificial Idiot]

Started collecting in August, so I'm kind of new. I've really been enjoying this year, despite some duffers (Slaine, SCB, Tiger Sun...) most of it has been in the range of fine to great. And I can definatly agree with Adventuers sentiments about it being better than most other comics on the market...

[Richmond Clements]

It'd probably be easier, not to mention a lot cheaper, to get the Best of 2000AD issues that reprint the VCs.