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2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2021

Started by broodblik, 07 July, 2021, 09:51:19 AM

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sheridan

Quote from: Tjm86 on 11 July, 2021, 07:48:02 AM
I do get the point in some respects SBT.  Specials of yesteryear were a bit like the annual in that they had all sorts of other bits and pieces in them. 

Whether it was something on the latest event in the Space Race or the latest SF / Fantasy film, a smattering of book reviews or (as you say) a puzzle piece, it was always a bit of a mixed bag.

Then again, given how dated most movie information is by the time it hits print or the different audience that Rebellion aims for, ... Would it still work the same way?


That's not all that appeared in specials and annuals - there were interviews with creators (which tends to get covered in the Megazine Interrogation features) but also top covers of the year and articles about the creation of certain pieces of artwork or stories (McMahon, Bolland and Gibson Dredd artwork and Nemesis, Skizz and Halo come to mind).  I wouldn't mind seeing this in specials, to differentiate from the prog.  In some cases of a lot of the work has already been done - just reformat one of the Wells-bot's covers uncovered posts for print.  Though the argument that anything that takes away from story pages is bad is also valid.

sheridan

Quote from: JimmyNailz on 14 July, 2021, 01:25:00 PM
Quote from: JimmyNailz on 14 July, 2021, 11:38:54 AMI also agree, its a waste not to have Anderson ageing. I feel like there is a great story to be told in her coming to terms with losing her youthful good looks.
I would hope if they ever do fully address Anderson's age and actually make her look her age, they'd move beyond the hackneyed and played out angle of a woman losing her looks. I don't recall Anderson as ever having been especially bothered about that anyway.

You're quite right. I phrased that badly. I meant, there is a some good stories to be mined from an older/wiser Anderson.



In the real world something that ageing women report on is that they don't get the kind of attention they used to - in both good and bad ways.  Middle-aged women can be invisible in a way they weren't when they got the unwelcome attention when younger.  Might be interesting to see how this plays out when the middle-aged woman in question is a judge...

sheridan

I have no idea why it didn't quotify the end of the first part of that post.

sheridan

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 July, 2021, 09:05:39 PM
I'm all for the interlinked story and really don't mind if its more Meg than 2000ad its the natural way to link up stories so worked fine for me.


The only non-Dredd property that could tie in this number of stories would have to be set in the Rogue Trooper universe with its various spin-offs.  Strontium Dog would probably be second though we've not seen too much of all the other Stronts other than Durham Red and those who appear in the main story.

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 July, 2021, 05:19:41 PM
I enjoyed it overall - it was fun to see a lot of underused characters back in the fold. If you're counting, and I am, it's been a while. We last saw Koburn in 2018 - he was a Rennie character, but was used to great effect in Dust to Dust (part of the Every Empire Falls sequence) by Carroll, and in his own five-parter by McConville.

Armitage, you'll recall, had a central part to play during Every Empire Falls' Brit-Cit segments (in 2016), but original writer Dave Stone hasn't done a solo series since 2012.

Chopper's a bit more recent (last seen in 2018's Wandering Soul by David Baillie) and clearly ties well into the whole earth-spirit thang.

Inaba (via Hondo City Justice) seemed to be dropped mid-thread by Robbie Morrison back in 2013's Revenge of the 47 Ronin - which had set up a new familial angle to the story. It was great to see both Inaba, and Googe on art duties - as he did such a bang up job on the first Hondo City Justice series in 2010.


Thanks for the round-up - didn't realise Wandering Soul was already three years ago!  Highlights the two big failings of modern-day 2000AD.  First is how many dangling stories and threads there are.  Eight years since Inaba's last appearance?  That's the entirety of my prog slog to date (currently on the year 1985 so eight years on from launch in 1977).  Picking out one story would be unfair (it'd be like asking where Dare had gotten to*) but this has plagued a number of ongoing storylines.  Stickleback's relatively recent return gives us hope that they'll eventually return, but still...


Second is that some of the shared universe stories could really do with a show-runner.  I know that 21st century Tharg prefers a light touch in editorial style - possibly influenced by tales of more heavy-handed editing by Tharg's gone by - but having multiple but very similar plots supposedly occurring concurrently does push suspension of disbelieve for all but those who don't like to engage brain while reading***.


* the pages of Eagle **
** sort of
*** seems like an insult, but those who have pointed out inconsistencies on social media have garnered responses about "overthinking" things, "it's not real" and similar, so I'm not sure how else to phrase that.

CalHab

Quote from: sheridan on 13 September, 2021, 12:50:42 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 July, 2021, 09:05:39 PM
I'm all for the interlinked story and really don't mind if its more Meg than 2000ad its the natural way to link up stories so worked fine for me.


The only non-Dredd property that could tie in this number of stories would have to be set in the Rogue Trooper universe with its various spin-offs.  Strontium Dog would probably be second though we've not seen too much of all the other Stronts other than Durham Red and those who appear in the main story.

Pat Mills could manage this with his various inter-linked creations, but there obviously is little chance of that happening.

Colin YNWA

Would be an interesting way for Ian Edginton to cement the Edgverse as well?

sheridan

I was completely forgetting the Millsverses and Edgverses :-)

Funt Solo

Kurt Vonnegut showing up in Kingmaker was pretty jarring, though.  It works in Brass Sun because the story has hinted before at the idea that this is our solar system in the far future - so the idea of Kurt as the avatar of a god is valid for the milieu.

With Kingmaker, it was way less clear that we could be in our own future, or even a shared universe, that would make Kurt the obvious choice as another god spirit. It felt more like an intrusion, and I felt it weakened things. I feel the same way about Gideon in The Order.

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Marlon quoting Shakespeare goes against the original depiction of the character as someone who is entirely disillusioned with education and turns him into a peppy go-getter, instead of an anti-establishment rogue. It's just a completely different character borrowing the name.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 September, 2021, 06:48:56 PM
Marlon quoting Shakespeare goes against the original depiction of the character as someone who is entirely disillusioned with education and turns him into a peppy go-getter, instead of an anti-establishment rogue. It's just a completely different character borrowing the name.

I did think when reading it that it wasn't true to what we'd seen before.  I guess being familiar with the character since I was about ten years old means that it didn't even occur to me that Marlon might have taken special interest in the Bard's works because they share the same surname!*  I think I can rationalise Marlon quoting Shakespeare in the same what that Alex likes the Ludwig Van...

* yep, I didn't make the connection until reading this thread!

sheridan

Quote from: sheridan link=topic=47682.msg1067994#msg10  I think I can rationalise Marlon quoting Shakespeare in the same what that Alex likes the Ludwig Van...
/quote]

That should be "the same way that Alex likes the Ludwig Van".  And as I didn't make it clear, I'm referring to the antagonist of A Clockwork Orange, for those not familiar.

sheridan

Isn't there a law of programming that every time you try to correct an error you introduce two more?

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Quote from: sheridan on 13 September, 2021, 07:41:25 PM
Isn't there a law of programming that every time you try to correct an error you introduce two more?

99 programming bugs in the code
99 programming bugs
You take one down and troubleshoot
1534881384351 bugs in the code
You may quote me on that.

Jacqusie

Quote from: JimmyNailz on 14 July, 2021, 11:38:54 AM

The whole thing felt like a clumsy attempt at an all-ages Judge Dredd Megazine to me.


Good shout, clumsy is the word, although I'm not sure why the opening Dredd had to be so hard to read in that respect. Lovely to look at though, but the plot?. On the whole I thought it was a series of events lacking in any real story and pretty clunky dialogue.

The ending with Anderson floating about (from where did she come?) prior to which she states I can't do this anymore, had me agreeing with her. The last story was just bobbins in it's narrative and dialogue and failed to tie all the many lose ends. Dredds characterisation just didn't sound or look right and don't get me started on Develin Waugh...


Funt Solo

Quote from: sheridan on 13 September, 2021, 07:30:03 PM
I think I can rationalise Marlon quoting Shakespeare in the same way that Alex likes the Ludwig Van...

Good point.

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(First year programming challenge: make the most compilation errors with the fewest mistakes.)
++ A-Z ++  coma ++