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Gawd bless him! Good of him to take the time for a genuinely amusing and considered response. Brilliant stuff Colin- many thanks for running the whole thing. Funnest part of the forum in ages.

SBT

If the Beeb did wipe the Nationwide Action-ripping debacle, it wouldnt be the only bit of significant seventies Frank Bough pop cultural vandalism they committed. The infamous 20th February 1976 edition of the same programme, featuring the Hexham Heads, the werewolf/weresheep and archaeologist Dr Anne Ross has similarly vanished.
And I'd rather that were back in the archives than any number of old Dr Who or Dads Army episodes.

SBT

I loved those old Virgin novels- the "best one" (or at least the one I liked best) was Cursed Earth Asylum, by Mr Bishop of this parish. I always wanted that one to bleed over into the comic, somehow. As far as I remember, sadly though it didnt.

In fact, I feel like reading it again.

SBT

Hang on, will try again. Had this problem the other day.

SBT

Have PMd you Colin.

SBT

Immortal Hulk vs Zombo?

Spidey in Mega City One?

Sinister Dexter take the hit on Howard The Duck?

SBT

I just feel sorry for Dark Horse: Star Wars, Conan, Aliens, Predator... what next?

Still, at least I suppose this now GUARANTEES a Conan/ Predator face-off- which Dark Horse oddly never did but which Marvel surely wont be able to resist?

SBT

Yes, thankyou so much for running this. It's fired up my interest in the board and made me again come here for the good stuff rather than make do with all that guff on Facebook. I dont think it's a coincidence that I've been going through my boxes of Megs and reading a lot more trades than usual while the tournament(s) have been running.  Looking forward to more of the same.

As for it coming down to Abnett and Mills... I must admit I felt unsure about even including Mills in it- as far as I'm concerned if John Wagner was out, so was Pat. And probably Alan Grant too, to be honest. But Pat especially, seeing as he basically *is* 2000AD as far as I'm concerned.
But I think it all worked out perfectly- Pat gets second place, with everyone singing his praises and commenting on what an impossible choice it was- and Dan wins, showing that the modern prog is just as vibrant and important- and *loved*- as the classic days were. That's good for the comic, good for the future of the comic, and reflects well on the readership I think.

I now look forward to the cover of a near-future prog with the strap line "Featuring THE OUT by Dan Abnett- WINNER OF THE GODPLETON CUP!" in huge letters.

SBT

This was as difficult as I thought it would be as, despite reading the Meg since #1 (vol 1), most times it's been out of a "sense of duty" rather than pure enjoyment. I dont think they've ever got it right- and while the Rebellion years have been a massive improvement on what went before, it's still the prog's poorer cousin, at least to me.

Anyway, here's my top ten in order.

1) Lawless
2) Insurrection
3) The Streets of Dan Francisco
4) Devlin Waugh
5) The Dark Judges - (Dominion/Torture Garden)
6) Lilly Mackenzie
7) American Reaper
8) Cursed Earth Coburn
9) Storm Warning
10) Demarco

As an aside, where was American Reaper in that original first post on this thread? Am I just being blind?

SBT

I should point out that Meg #400 was also £7.99 two years ago. That surprised me too.

SBT

[Alan Moore]

Alan Moore. Has to be really.

SBT

[Abnett]

I don't think there is any final that could possibly have resulted in me being more torn. On the one hand, Dan Abnett is responsible for the majority of my favourite strips of the last twenty-odd years. From Sinister Dexter to Brink to Lawless, by way of just about everything he has written for Tharg, Abnett has become not only my number one "new" writer ("new" in this sense meaning "not Mills, Wagner, Grant, Finley-Day or Moore", so not that new, really), but also crucially a writer whose work I will track down away from the prog. I may not buy it all (and in Abnett's specific case, I'm fully aware I buy a small proportion of his enormous output) but I'm more inclined to buy something with his name on it than just about any other product from both sides of the Atlantic.

On the other Pat Mills would be a worthy winner if he'd only ever written Slaine, Nemesis and The ABC Warriors and then gone off to other things away from Tharg's influence. The fact he *was* Tharg is by the by here. In recent years, his work in the weekly and monthly has been more problematic, but hell, I liked American Reaper, Flesh was okay, Defoe took a while but got there in the end, and Savage is never less than magnificent. And it's impossible to discuss Mills without saying "Charley's War" and rendering every other argument invalid.

I've made my mind up. It has to be Abnett, because 2000AD is about the future and reinventing itself for a new generation. A "new" writer winning seems appropriate, and Pat coming second should be as big a shout to Management as there can be- we still want him in the prog. He's relevant, he's spectacular and he can tell a story and create characters better than most other writers out there.

Dan Abnett though, were the prog to lose him, would be irreplaceable. Abnett it is.

SBT

Not at all "a thing that went over my head", more of a "that's interesting, I'd not noticed that before". But we don't have a thread for that.

'Sunburn'- a Future Shock by Alan Moore and Jesus Rwdondo, from prog 282 (September 1982) has a protagonist named Rorschach- four years before Watchmen.

Are there perhaps any other preferred names used by famous and currently highly-regarded 2000AD writers, in much the same way that tv comedy writer and creator of the daleks Terry Nation couldnt write a shopping list without putting "Tarrant" in there somewhere?

SBT

I think I may have just literally pissed myself. Oh dear. And one day before my 50th too. That's not good.

Someone needs to make some of that.

SBT

Quick, reach for a slug 

You accidentally wipe your arse with a slug ONE TIME...

SBT

I think I may have just literally pissed myself. Oh dear. And one day before my 50th too. That's not good.

Someone needs to make some of that.

SBT