Stories that should be collected

[Frank]

I think you must be right. That was the Complete Judge Dredd Special Edition 1994, or it may have been the 1995 issue. There were also a couple of Best of 2000AD Special Editions, starting in 1993, which was 2000AD's 16th year. I no longer have any of them, as they are entirely reprint -- except for the features! D'oh!

Barney:
http://2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=BOJD1994

1993, the one with the McMahon cover:

https://i.imgur.com/Kj1CWmd.png

https://i.imgur.com/jH7REBE.png

[TordelBack]

Brilliant, well done Richard and Sauchie! 

That Special was one of the very few comics I've ever bought purely for the cover, since I think I already had all the strip content.

[Richard]

Thanks Frank

[Professor Bear]

Helltrekkers on a "worst of" list?  Well, I guess this was before Space Girls, Valkyries, or whatevs, but even so...

For years I was haunted by that image of that poor devil melting in acid rain, and wondering what happened to Crusty.  There's a probably a Zarjaz strip somewhere showing the Angel Gang eating an oversized crab.

[Richard]

It amused me while reading this that Mike Butcher predicted (sort of) that Vinnie Jones would end up in the X-Men films.

[TordelBack]

There's a probably a Zarjaz strip somewhere showing the Angel Gang eating an oversized crab.

I could have sworn there was a "Whatever happened to Crustacia Glemp?" strip in the Meg, but Barney sez "no!".  Most likely option would be for a giant armoured monster emerging from a lake to threaten the New Territoires (assuming they weren't wiped out during Judgement Day... hey, maybe it was Crustacia that saved them!).

[Frank]

Helltrekkers on a "worst of" list?  Well, I guess this was before Space Girls, Valkyries, or whatevs, but even so...

Butcher wrote this* in 1993:

The year Millar showed TB Grover how it was really done by turning Robohunter into the mirthless action shooter it was always supposed to be

Feral's search for a single reason the Strontium Dogs strip should exist led to the revelation that even the talking corpse of Johnny Alpha was a more charismatic presence than him

Pat Mills made his first unsuccessful attempt to reboot Flesh with a sexy female lead

It occurred to Pete Milligan that Bad Company being dead was no reason not to write a story featuring them

Judge Dredd punched the Mummy, fought a Scotsman with robot bagpipes for 20 weeks, and Frankenstein Division replaced The Apocalypse War as the epic all others had to follow

And fledgling editor Alan McKenzie gave a start to three promising new talents - Alan McKenzie (Brigand Doom), Alan McKenzie (Bradley's Storybook), and Alan McKenzie (Kelly's Eye) - and tasked safe pair of hands Alan McKenzie with the Mean Arena reboot fans had been demanding.

* To be fair, this was probably an old feature Tharg had commissioned but never used. Top marks to editorial for having the self-awareness to realise 1993 was the last year the article could have run without needing to be extensively updated with material they'd commissioned (and written).

[IndigoPrime]

Thanks, Frank. Natch, they were the only bloody specials I forgot about. So the list is: Angel; Wolfie Smith; Rick Random; Ant Wars; Black Hawk; Colony Earth; Disaster 1990; Hell Trekkers; Time Quake; Shako. I've not actually read all of those, despite having a complete set of 2000 AD. But I'd be hard pressed to put Ant Wars, Shako, Hell Trekkers and Black Hawk into a 'worst 10' of my own.

So! Time to have a go. Of those series I have read, in alphabetical order, these are the bottom of my own personal 2000 AD barrel:

Angel; Babe Race 2000; Big Dave; Dry Run; Harlem Heroes 1990 reboot; Junker; The Grudge Father; The Spacegirls; Urban Strike; Wireheads.

(Harlem Heroes to my mind is distinct enough from the original to be considered a standalone strip, much like Disaster 1990 isn't Invasion in the original feature. If not, sorry, Pat, but Dinosty is my not-so-super-sub.)

What's actually quite nice in going through the above is there are an awful lot of stories I haven't cared for that much, but that nonetheless have redeeming features. Mostly, that's artwork (e.g. Trash); sometimes, it's manic energy (Bradley); occasionally, it's just enough good (if not necessarily original) ideas that just make it worth sticking with to some degree (Silo), even if I never want to see a reprint. But over 2000 AD's history, it's nice to see for my own personal tastes that there's been relatively little out and out crap in terms of entire series (even if individual series can be wildly variable).

[broodblik]

Angel; Babe Race 2000; Big Dave; Dry Run; Harlem Heroes 1990 reboot; Junker; The Grudge Father; The Spacegirls; Urban Strike; Wireheads.

Most of the ones you mentioned I have not read but Big Dave for me is certainly the worst ever. I also had a big dislike in The Clown. Junker  I enjoyed and would like it to be collected. I agree what you are saying about Trash and Bradley.

[IndigoPrime]

Big Dave was always reprehensible and abhorrent – like a child trying to write satire but just punching down and being offensive. A waste of Parkhouse's talents.

[Jim_Campbell]

Mother Earth and Valkyries were also fucking terrible. I can't give any series a pass for 'nice art', otherwise we have to let Book of the Dead off the hook as worst Dredd epic ever...

I'm conflicted on Big Dave... I agree it was a poor fit for 2000AD, I agree about all the criticisms of its failings in the writing, but I sort of see what they were trying to do. I think it ended up being too much of the thing it was trying to parody, but I'd rather 2000AD tried the odd thing that's way outside its usual remit and fail than never try at all. For every I Was A Teenage Tax Accountant, there's a Button Man.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Not to mention Sooner or Later, which didn't even have the proper number of pages.  I enjoyed Big Dave for all its out-of-place oddness; it drew in a couple of friends who otherwise wouldn't have read the prog at all.

[broodblik]

I'm conflicted on Big Dave... I agree it was a poor fit for 2000AD, I agree about all the criticisms of its failings in the writing, but I sort of see what they were trying to do. I think it ended up being too much of the thing it was trying to parody, but I'd rather 2000AD tried the odd thing that's way outside its usual remit and fail than never try at all. For every I Was A Teenage Tax Accountant, there's a Button Man.

Very true what you are saying about 2000AD trying something different.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm happy for 2000 AD to try something new and different, but Big Dave was an abject failure if it was trying to satirise things like The Sun and thuggish elements in society. Instead, it just *was* those things, yelling "poof!" and such with merry abandon. When you look at this through the framework of much else Millar wrote at the time (note  how many villains are not straight and are played up for being traitorous and 'other'), it even manages to come across  worse in that area. But in general, it misses the target almost every time, thinks it's clever, and just punches downwards. It's the modern-day Ricky Gervais of 2000 AD's back catalogue.

Mother Earth almost made my list. Valkyries: I've definitely read that but can't rmember a thing about it. I've a sneaking suspicion that may have made my list had I been able to recall anything about the strip.

[QuickQuag]

Helltrekkers made it onto Tharg's list of the 16 worst stories ever to appear in 2000AD (in a special in the prog's 16th year).

Haha, I don't know about that. I find it to be delightfully depressing!

Tell me about it!