Quote from: Magnetica on 18 January, 2024, 10:31:49 PMI'll never skip anything in the Prog but I just read them as fast as possible and move on.
I saw this comment on another thread, and it made me think about how dedicated to the prog you have to be to read an episode of an ongoing story when you already know you won't like it, and -- if you're that kind of fan -- how bad a story has to be for you to decide that you're actually going to stop reading it.
For me, I hardly ever skip a story, and I'll usually force myself to read something I'm not interested in, but I did stop reading
Space Girls.*Which story made you think "nah, I'm done"?
* Sorry David -- if it helps, I really liked The Savage Amusement.
The only strip that I did not read at the end was Big Dave (and almost most of the Millar written strips). This was the strip that told me this is not for you and I stopped the whole prog. Today I will read everything. I might have a few stories I dislike but I will read it. The regen prog from last year was the closes I cam of skipping a whole prog, I read it as soon as I have downloaded it. In a few cases I start reading the regen prog days after I downloaded it.
I read everything in the Prog, even Thrills I'm not keen on. Some strips have grown on me as a result.
Cheers
There are some stories I'll read every week as they come in, and others I'll wait until a decent run has built up (or the whole thing is over).
It's not always a sign of quality either - Wagner Dredds I'd always read week by week (and found they worked well that way, even with long running stories), whereas the recent Ennis Rogue Trooper tale I decided to wait until it was complete and then read it in one sitting.
That said, if there's something that doesn't grab me I'll usually wait, in case concentrated exposure is what's required to make it click
I think I've read everything, with that just-in-case thinking lodging in the back of my mind. I'm aware I can come across as a grumpy sod here sometimes, but I do try to give every story the benefit of the doubt, and I am sometimes converted. (Or dragged back: see Azimuth.)
I'm due a re-read at some point of everything – something I've never done. And I'll attempt to read through everything again. But I imagine after that I'll never again waste time on strips I really don't like (vs things that are merely OK). Wireheads, say. And with the current Prog and Meg, I'm almost a cover-to-cover reader. (I'll admit to very occasionally skipping the odd text piece on the Meg, but only rarely.)
Quote from: Richard on 19 January, 2024, 10:52:59 PMWhich story made you think "nah, I'm done"?
My pedigree is that I kept going through all of the 90s. I had a weird moment that lasted for eight years (about 2010 to 2018, kinda thing) where I stopped buying the prog (for financial reasons), then I got caught up again later.
But Tin Man stopped me in my tracks. I think part of it is that it's difficult for me to separate out the comic writer from the man on Twitter, who, when asked a perfectly reasonable question by another creator, responded with an entirely context-free "fuck off". I'm not sure if it's that or that the dialogue was risible (and rinse-and-repeatable). Maybe it's all of these things at once. It's like if you were being gas-lit by an over-eager drunk in a dingy pub. You'd try to get away. You wouldn't pay for more.
I have a couple of others I've not read this year, but with those I do plan to get around to them. It was just a weird year for reading.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 20 January, 2024, 05:46:09 PMI'll admit to very occasionally skipping the odd text piece on the Meg, but only rarely.
The text articles are often my least favourite thing. I don't skip, them but there have been some recently that I speed read. The ones I'm really not into are when it's some creator with little or no connection to 2000AD, and it's basically a list of comics they have worked I've never heard of with a bunch of other people I've never heard of.
I used to make a point of not skipping anything on the point that it might grow on me, there's definitely been some slow burners over the years, and the art is usually a delight anyway. Mrs Boots doesn't bother at all with stuff she doesn't like and as a result usuallt reads only about half the Prog most weeks, and I always felt she was missing out a bit.
I'm not sure when I started skipping stuff (possibly Regened) but it's a slippery slope: once you start, it's easy to keep going, because why read something you dislike? Nobody cares if I do or don't at the end of the day.
That said I always feel a bit guilty when I do just flick past an episode and I've made an effort to go back and read the two strips in the current Prog that I was skipping. As an irregular Meg reader I'm far more likely to skip stuff in that and quite often do.
Regened aside I think I gave up on Hope this year: I wasn't enjoying it on any levels, unlike previous series.
I don't skip any comic strips, although a few things recently have made me come close - Tin Man, lots of Regenened, City of Courts. There are very few things published by Tharg that I find so annoying or unenjoyable that I think about not continuing.
There are still a few thrills I've never read, or not fully - MACH 1 and 0, Angel, Dynosty, Universal Soldier come to mind. If they'd turned up in a Megazine floppy I'd happily have read them but I wasn't collecting the prog weekly at certain points and haven't gone out of my way to track them down. The second collection of Dan Dare is another. Thats not really skipping though, just I've never had them in my hands in order to skip.
I do skip a lot of the Meg text articles - they can be quite repetitive, or as Magnetica says about creators and comics I've not heard of and am not likely to read. Or quite often they're basically extended adverts for upcoming Rebellion products, which, if I'm interested in, I'll be buying anyway.
Dynosty! That's possibly the first strip I stopped reading and never went back to. Hated it.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 22 January, 2024, 09:47:38 AMRegened aside I think I gave up on Hope this year: I wasn't enjoying it on any levels, unlike previous series.
That's such an odd one for me. I loved the first two series. Bought both of the extremely skinny trades, even. But that last series left me cold. I still read it, mind.
That all said, I do wonder how much of this is a 2000 AD thing, to some degree. I think I mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but I'm currently working through boxes of Marvel Panini reprints. I've skimmed quite a few series, and have given up entirely on classic Spidey and also 2099, because I think both of those are unreadable tosh.
A slightly different take on the question: how many episodes does it take for you to decide to skip something?
And is there ever a point, when having decided to skip something you might give it another go? A new series or it perhaps?
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 22 January, 2024, 10:19:16 AMDynosty! That's possibly the first strip I stopped reading and never went back to. Hated it.
Not well loved, is it? I'd still kind of like to read it one day! Not sure what Langley's style was like early on but I loved that slimy oozing work he did on the three-part Nemesis story shortly after.
In 2000 AD, I'll usually give something three or four episodes before it gets shoved into a bucket of love/like/don't like. But I'll continue reading and those things can change. With Spidey, I think I gave up after four of five issues of barely readable Todd McFarlane comics. 2099: one series read fully. Half of one skimmed. Then I was done.
Good question. I think 3 or 4 episodes also.
At heart, I want to like everything in the Prog so I'm usually up for giving something another go. A new series will entice me to start afresh, or just an excuse (I picked up Enemy Earth again in the new year and read it all back for example)
The exception would be if I really found the content of the strip distasteful. This doesn't really apply to the Prog but I've read other comics where the subject matter is so unpleasant to me that I'd just mentally stick that in a 'never again' category.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 22 January, 2024, 01:20:40 PMIn 2000 AD, I'll usually give something three or four episodes before it gets shoved into a bucket of love/like/don't like. But I'll continue reading and those things can change. With Spidey, I think I gave up after four of five issues of barely readable Todd McFarlane comics. 2099: one series read fully. Half of one skimmed. Then I was done.
Nice to meet another
Ravage fan :D
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 22 January, 2024, 01:41:20 PMI want to like everything in the Prog
This also. For whatever reason, I'm more invested in 2000 AD than other comics. Defensive of it – even with myself, when I don't like something. Which sounds weird, but there you go.
And I've done the same with re-reading things when new series rock up. With Helium, that was an especially great idea. I remembered liking that strip, but not to the degree I did on the re-read. Maybe I did. Memory is weird and unreliable. Kudos to Tharg for lobbing the PDF our way.
Enemy Earth is going to be an interesting one. It's not a favourite. Most weeks, I list it as fourth out of five strips. But it's one of those that for me has nonetheless been pretty entertaining throughout its run. I'm really curious to see how it reads in one go. I suspect it'll be a properly fast-paced adventure in a trade. (I mean, it's not been slow in the Progs, but sometimes collected editions provide new energy to something.)
QuoteThe exception would be if I really found the content of the strip distasteful. This doesn't really apply to the Prog but I've read other comics where the subject matter is so unpleasant to me that I'd just mentally stick that in a 'never again' category.
I'd say the Prog has flirted with that, but mostly in moments rather than series. There are certain things that happened in strips that I'm pretty much "oh, fuck right off" to, but it's very, very rare that an entire strip rubs me up the wrong way.
The closest has probably been the Mark Millar stuff during 2000 AD's nadir (as I see it). He wrote some really weird homophobic shit at the time, peppered in among the just standard flavour shit. Even as a relative youngling, I felt something was off. Looking at some of it now and it's all a bit... yikes. (I mean, 2000 AD has plenty of 'of its time' moments – Dredd has at times been xenophobic as a strip rather than a character.
But by the time the Summer Offensive rolled around, everyone should have known better. I guess the clue was in those words, but 2000 AD to me was always smarter than that. (Fortunately, it is again today under current Tharg.)
I do sometimes skip the text pieces in the Meg if I'm pressed for time. The only strip I remember skipping is The Mean Arena when it was first published. I took a real dislike to it for some reason. I've since read it in reprint form, and I'm not sure what my objection was.
2000AD: Still have not read Zenith to this day, just zero interest.
Megazine: Avoid text stories (comics are a visual medium!) and rarely read a whole floppy, usually find in the first few pages I remember the story/plot and no have desire tor re-read.
I used to skip loads as a young reader -Rogue Trooper being the most obvious strip I had no time for- but I think since completing a full read-through (back in 1993 when I was 14/15 and such a thing was not TOO terifiying a time-investment) I've read everything published in the Prog, have yet to find any story so bad/distasteful that I won't read it. Even Lowborn High got better as it went on (and on).
I do skip plenty of reprint content in the Meg, much of it material I've never read before. I'm too young to get a nostalgia kick from a lot of the 'Treasury' stuff, and frankly more of it leaves me cold than brings delight.
I'm quite harsh and skip, skip, skip stuff :-[ There's normally at least one story per prog I've given up on: life is too short!!
I can vary from totally skipping, to just top and tailing a story (first and last frame), to skimming the art and getting a general feel just in case it hooks me or the art is worth following.
The Meg gets the same treatment, but I always, always read Dredd, altho City of Courts was at my limit.
i don't think i have ever deliberately skipped a 2000ad story. loads i have personally hated by the end of their runs but never skipped. I can't even say the 90s screwed me over i was a Sonic the comic reader during the dirt worst of that time period
I do skip the idw stuff in the meg. i just can't stand it. Johnny red was great though that was a treat but i also don't think that was idw :D
Surprised you can't stand the IDW stuff. City of Courts was terrible, but I very much enjoyed re-reading Matt Smith's Dread and Anderson, the brief Rogue Trooper reboot, and the Deviations one-shot. (Very much diminishing returns from this point, though, unless Rebellion has any rights to reprint the Mars Attacks crossover.)
I used to skip Beck and Kawl- somehow I found it unreadable. These days I always read everything, though I skim stuff I don't like, such as Enemy Earth. I've also found DeMarco a bit of a struggle in recent years.
As far as 'new' material in both the Prog and Meg, never skipped a thing for good or ill. I think I skipped a few of the Meg floppy reprints after reading a few chapters in a peacing out.
Couldn't tell you what they where though, let me check...
I used to skip Dredd. For a while, when I was wee. There, I said it. I didn't really 'get' the strip, and I didn't think it was fair that Dredd got to be in every single prog.
I was ride or die reading everything in my younger days - I mean, we're talkin the full run of R.A.M. Raiders here.
Been ruthless in the last few years though, since about the numerical Prog 2000 - will skip anything that doesn't tickle my fancy without hesitation.
Normally not an issue for an anthology comic of the Prog's underlying quality though.
Original strips. Not only don't I skip anything, I try to reread every story in full once it's finished. I'm a bit behind with that at the moment though.
Reprint strips. Depends.
Text articles. Doubt I've read one since 2017.