The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

[Colin YNWA]

Special and FCBD 2019

I guess 2019 isn't over until we've done the specials and FCBD issues and this year that is very true... even if I have already finished the year... anywayyyy. This year we get a, saddly very special special. As the Sci-Fi Special is a tribute to Carlos Ezquerra who past in the latter half of 2018.

And as might be expect Carlos inspires a fantastic special, a weak Dredd aside. There's an insanely horrible Fiends story, a strong Wulf Sternhammer one. The star of the show is however Spector John Wagner's and Carlos' last work together, unfinished but here we see the first 20 or so pages. Its solid stuff. With the distance of time I can move sentiment aside and say its neithers best work, but slightly sub-par work by these two is still some of the best stuff we've had in a Special. The story had potential and it would have be wonderful to see how it developed.

Alas not to be. Still it does make this special special.

The FCBD - Villains Takeover Special is almost as good, which give its a give away. The vast majority of the comics that sit beside it will rarely have ten pages of new material, let alone the 29 we get here. 29! And its not throw away stuff. The highlight is probably a wonderful Terror Tale by Matt Smith and Henry Flint but the rest of the content ranges from great to okay as a minimum. FOR FREE. When I read this I do wonder why the stuff that gets onto American shelves isn't flying off!

[Jim_Campbell]

I note that you have failed to mention the most significant occurrence in the prog's history, which occurred during the period you've covered in your last couple of posts.

[Colin YNWA]

I note that you have failed to mention the most significant occurrence in the prog's history, which occurred during the period you've covered in your last couple of posts.

I thought that you'd shun the publicity and attention Jim. What could I add to torrent of historical documents and reflections  on the moment you joined Tharg's army of Droids. I still remember the roar of the crowd at the ticker tape parade and how embarrasssed you looked!

[Jim_Campbell]

I thought that you'd shun the publicity and attention Jim. What could I add to torrent of historical documents and reflections  on the moment you joined Tharg's army of Droids. I still remember the roar of the crowd at the ticker tape parade and how embarrasssed you looked!

YOU ARE FORGIVEN. [spoiler]:-)[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

Prog 2162

Its a theme I've returned to time and time again but Prog 2162 does exemplify 2000ad ability to generate new and exciting stories, unlike me, who just churns out the same points again and again. See 10 self absorbed years ago I produced this list for Prog 2010ad:

Judge Dredd (1977) - 33 years
Future Shocks (1977) - 33 years (but each one new, so...)
Stickleback (2007) - 3 years
Nikolai Dante (1997) - 13 years
Zombo (2009) - <1 year
Ampney Crucis Investigates (2008) - just over 1 year
Low Life (2004) - 6 years

Interesting to note how many of those stories from 10 years ago have ended - or are on a looonnnnggggg hiatus - since then. Anyway this was to show how 2000ad then was refreshing and regenerating constantly. The year count is how old each of those thrill is by the time they appeared in Prog 2010.

So here we are ten self absorbed years later and with Prog 2162 its time to return to such a list:

Judge Dredd (1977) = 43 years
Graduation Day (a Absolam epilogue) = 9 years
Zaucer of Zilk = 8 years
Brink = 4 years
Proteus Vex = New
Fall of Deadworld = 4 years
Feral and Foe = New
Durham Red = 33 years (2 in this interation)

I mean that's pretty impressive. 10 years ago when I last did this all the of stories, but one - aside from the perennials - have ended and here we see an new set of 'new' thrills - or equal and arguably better quality still (there's a good debate!). When you think how good the two new stories in this Prog are, Feral and Foe and Proteus Vex we can safey say that while change is constant in 2000ad so is the quality that comes with that change.

[Colin YNWA]

Completely Self-Absorbed Regened Thread

Forgive me gentle reader, forgive me please. I have sinned, I have let you down. Please at least hear me out and let me explain.

For over 40 self-absorbed years and indeed over 5 NuYears I've kept it honest, I've kept it pure and stuck diligently to my task. These past few days however I've faltered, I've strayed off the path. Why do so when I'm so close to my goal, so very close. Well that my friend, if indeed you still call me friend, is simple. For what is the point of a re-read if not to give you the chance to re-examine what you have already read, to see it with fresh eyes. And that is quite hard when Self-Absorbed YNWA is so close to crashing into NuYNWA.

And so I have, for once, not been reading Prog by Prog, instead I have taken all the Regenes, throughout 2020 and read them out of sync - all the better to reappraise them AND to remove the bump in the flow of the regular stories as they come along. I think the latter will be of benefit, the former certainly is.

See for all the natching of teeth, of all the cries of SHAME and HOW dare you from 50 year old fans across the internet I've really enjoyed re-reading them. Even more than I had when reading them 'live' and I enjoyed them enough then. But read like this I've got a new appreciation for the strips - mostly - and hail this a success.

Not an unqualified one, but a triumph all the same. Let's break it down.

Cadet Dredd - by and large these have been magnificent in 2020. Typically the hardest strips in the Regened issues, pocking a finger in the eye of prime complaint "oh its too sanitised". The interplay between Dredd and Rico, when there works wonderfully. The new framing forcing new takes on an old idea and in the cases of 'Combat Ready' (in Prog 2183) which revisits the Route Combat Assessments and  'Tooth and Claw' (in Prog 2206) an immensely fun Cursed Earth dino romp absolutely crackin' Dredd tales. The other two are pretty good too.

Finder Keepers - the next most frequent thrill is alas a lot less successful and is open to the criticism of being a bit unengaging. It just never gelled as a strip, lacked any realy excitment and was generally a damp squib in the three issues it appeared in during 2020 (and before if I'm being brutally honest).

Judge Anderson - Appeared in two of the Prog 2183 and 2206 and I've gained a much finer appreciation of the interconnected story by Cavan Scott and I'm really looking forward to reaccessing the conclusion next year - though I still worry it will wrap things up WAY to quickly.

All the Regened issues had a Future Shock (or similar) and aside from a convulted one in 2170 they were all actually pretty damned good, I'd dare to say with a better hit rate than in the Prog regular at 3 for 4 and Karl Stocks stories in 2196 and 2206 were particularly tasty.

As for the rest, well The Gronk was very good in 2170, alas the Rogue Trooper in the same issue was and that marks the first 'regular' Regened as a bit of a miss overall, which is a shame as that meant the opening salvo wasn't too strong and might have set some folks minds for them.

Similarly Strontium Dog in 2183 was pretty muh, not really giving us anything of substance, but as mentioned above the other strips were stronger so that made this one a step in the right direction.

2196 was the first absolute hit for as well as a good Cadet Dredd and very good Future Shock we get both Pandora Perfect and Department K two absolute stonkers that get the tone and depth spot on and both asolutely deserve their runs in the Prog 'proper' so only Finder Keepers let this one down and overall this is a bloody good Prog regardless of it Re-ness.

2206 while not having standouts like those two in 2196 had a really good Abelard Snazz story to back up the stories mentioned above with only a muh Venus Bluegenes in the mix, so while not quite getting to the heights if 2196 is still a bloody good read.

So yeah the content is different in tone, but read like this not as different as some scream out, the balance is just shifting rather than them feeling wholesale different. Overall Prog for Prog with two stonkers, a good Prog and one muh issue the return is pretty much at the level you might expect from the Prog 'proper'...

and I put 'proper' in inverted commas advisedly. For this may well become what the Prog becomes, this maybe be were 2000ad needs to go. The balance might need to step down a gear to open up the throttle once more. If, however, the quality is there, a change of pace, all be it not much of one, won't slow down the thrills, it'll just help them up to getting up that big ol' hill of needing a long term future and finding the next generation of readers.

So dear reader I hope you can bring yourself to forgive me. I hope you understand my need to change things up and mess around with the format of my re-read. See as time has gone on I've identified a need to change and so rather than stubbonly sticking to my guns 'cos its what I've been doing for over 40 years I've been flexible. I've allowed myself to try something new in the new context I find myself in now. Yes I hope you can forgive me, but more importantly I hope you can forgive Tharg and Joko for doing the same.

[Colin YNWA]

So out there its in

Well before we start has there ever been a greater drop than Brink - Hate Box (with its gory and glorious endin) out and Skip Tracer in? Answers on a postcard.

Elsewhere though we have a wonderous slight of hand. Proteus Vex very clearly presents itself as other worldly, different and difficult. Its full of marvels and metaphysics. Henry Flint quite astonishingly weaves a world like on other, on the very edge of what we can imagine. Has a strip ever been so perfectly designed for him. Yet... yet ... when you get down to it its a remarkably simple story.

Cop on the hunt. Partnered with an 'odd couple' partner from the other side. Tracking a renegade prepared to do anything for the side of the lawman. Brutal violence and BANG traditional story over.

yet sometime the style can win over the substance... or at least paper over it. Its a quite magnificent slight of hand that utterly, utterly works.

What a wonderfully 2000ad thrill.

[broodblik]

I really like Proteus Vex and I see Mike Carroll as one of the most underappreciated writers in the prog/meg.

[Colin YNWA]

Zaucer of Foe and Feral and Zilk

Or whatever - two more fine thrills from the first line-up of 2020 come to an end. Its been a fantastic run of stories. Brink, Proteus Vex, backing up some fine Dredd - Niemand continues his happy endings with 'The Relic' a real marker of his work on Dredd - and finally

Zaucer of Zilk - Zaucerful of Zecrets - the second story from the series continues the imagination, sweet word play and good times. The series is built around Brendan McCarthy's glorious art but we shouldn't ignore the fun Peter Hogan (taking over from Al Ewing) has with the world Brendan builds. The end is wanderful as Zaucer quits, handing over Zaucerdom to the fantastic new character Craggaknock (see what they did there) and rides off with this psycodelic family.

The final panel of the series really captures the fun a Romani Wagon drawn by a blue brick road by a giant pug, while Zaucer and this tu daughters, both the sam daughter, riding with him in this giant multicolour fancy pants. What more do you need to know?

The another fantasy Feral and Foe ends its first series. Like Zaucer its a fantasy that relishes and has fun with the story its telling. Such fun. Were as Zaucer seems to draw its trotes from a fever dream Wizard of Oz, Feral and Foes goes to gaming and a darker take. Both though are built on throwing all those ideas into the pot, stirring with some glorious led characters and topping it off with simply devine art.

Both have so much in common and yet remain so different. What they both hold onto most is being excellent thrills.

So the A rate opening line-up wraps up and the follow up will be lucky to hold that standard - we have Skip Tracer at its most generic, Sinister Dexter ending one of its rare lulls, Aquilla pops up and we'll see what else we get shortly. It is going to be a massive challenge as said, one I can't see it meeting but such is the joy of the anthology!

[Colin YNWA]

Survival Geekish / unwanted

Well having spent 15 years giving folks the conclusion they wanted for Caballistics Inc Grennie has been closing things off with more efficency of late. As we head to the middle of last year and with Absolam already finished, Aquila heads towards it final act and Survival Geeks ends its all to short run... or maybe it was perfectly timed?

When I first read this series it didn't gell with me at all. Fun, snarky whimsy was all it offered, but on re-read I see that it offers fun, snarky whimsy I really enjoy. Its 5 year run only covers some 200 (plus) pages and 8 stories and on this read that's just not enough. I'd have enjoyed more... or would I? I think its thin premise has potential for so much fun BUT once you've attacked the nerd culture you want to attack it has nowhere else to go... and even within that it would start to stretch its premise. So it a deft touch that draws it to conclusion so quickly. This time leaving me wanting more and mean there no over staying its welcome.

Now another thrill in this peroid - a line-up that does a very good job of living up to the previous line-up (see last post) even if its not quite as good - that many would say overstayed its welcome the moment it landed. Hershey was felt to have robbed folks of the glorious final scene that 'ended' Hershey's life... even if John Wagner knew this was happening... and the scene still exists... still some folks minds were set against from the start. Which is a shame as in a lean, efficent and visually stunning 8 parts Hershey really is something new, from the old. Its design, break neck speed holds some fantastic storytelling but doesn't skimp on ideas and themes. Its breathless and satisfying.

All this and Chimpsky gets a wonderfully playful extended Dredd story in the fantastic Chimpsky's Law which really marks out the potential for the character, the new things he adds to Dredd's world and a knowing sense of story. These are good times.

[Colin YNWA]

Ten pages to wonderland

So early summer 2020 and we have yet more proof that 2000ad turns around new thrills and keeps up astonishing quality. Full Tilt Boogie, sharp, fresh and with beautiful art, The Diaboliks dark, gleefully grim and with cutting structure and then we get

The Out

Those two new strips are fantastic, they hit the group running and make quite the early impression. They grab and entertain you immediately. However good those opening are however they aren't The Out. What's astonishing about Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison' thrill is that it not only grabs you straight out the blocks, but how it simply screams in you face CLASSIC after just two episodes. 10 pages of its debut in Prog 2187.

How does it do that... well I don't know... it does that most 2000ad of things and manages to feel entirely at home, while being entirely atypical of the comic. Its funny, funny as hell but, again so 2000ad, has a dark cloud lurking on its horizon. You are washed away by the wit, sweep up with the art and its unearthly vista and population but you... somehow... glimpse all is not well. Cyd is hilarious, funny and bright, an absolute breathe of fresh air in the comic, but you also know, almost instintively in these early pages, that she has a deep sadness and desperation. We didn't know what that was, reading now we see the trail that Dabnett is leaving us to what we now know is coming.

The Out is a work of wonder, a truth, absolute delight.

It stands out against absolutely blinding new thrills like The Diaboliks and Full Tilt Boogie. It standouts out against Dabnetts other new thrills Lawless and Brink*. Its quite simply astonishing.

After only 10 pages!

Not to say its better than Lawless or Brink, just to say it stands in glorious contrast to them.

[Colin YNWA]

Cut it Out

God my titles are getting so weak. Weak, weak sauce.

Anyway while The Out remains quite brilliant. The Diaboliks grimmy entertaining and Full Tilt Boogie as good as it title supposes (and that's very good in case you aren't sure0. We have two more established stories at opposite ends. The Order remains brilliant. I'm surprised that folks don't like it (when they don't) I kinda get its hard to follow - though this re-read is really helping - but even when I get a bit lost its so energetic, refreshing and different to be bogglingly entertaining.

Unlike Dredd - End of Days . I really, really don't like it. I've enjoyed much of Rob Williams Dredd work and in some cases loved it. The art by Colin MacNeill and then Henry Flint is just astonishingly good... its just... well to be brutal... rubbish, tired and old and just the opposite of The Order, or indeed the new strips. On re-read its such a disappointment. I hoped to find more, in fact, I found less as its paper thin nonsense is exposed.

Rob Williams does like to put Dredd through the ringer. To show how unmoving, how Titanic he is. Its was getting pretty tried before End of Days, but other, more interesting story elements made up for that. With End of Days, I think by design, he's striped that away and just thrown as much as he can in  sharp, 'epic' action movie Dredd... and its just so hollow.

Its like Millar and Ennis car crashed together. As if Rob Williams is bellowing at the reader LOOK AT THIS, LOOK its ICHABOD AZRAEL HOW COOL..
. and now LOOK HOW IN DANGER THE CITY IS (though this is utterly strip of impact by just being throw at us, with paper thin sense of consequence beyond empty words)
LOOK HOW HARD DREDD IS
LOOK ITS SHAKO (whhaatttt why.... its not even Shako is it...)
LOOK DREDD IS TAKING EVEN MORE
LOOK ANDERSON IS JUST AS TOUGH WHEN SHE NEEDS
LOOK EAST MEG NOW
MORE
MORE
MORE

... and each time the story as a whole feels, less, less, less. Just so empty and its only gets style over substance marks for the wonderful art.

Man I did not expect to react to this quite the way I am. I really dislike it on re-read, when I was hoping for it to find redemption, its just exposed.

As I say I like much of what Rob Williams has done but End of Days is a terrible mistep by my reading and exposed as such against such wonderful strips next to it.

[broodblik]

As I say I like much of what Rob Williams has done but End of Days is a terrible mistep by my reading and exposed as such against such wonderful strips next to it.

I even felt at the time that the whole saga was a at least 3 episodes short and this might have given it a little more breathing space to grow. It always felt like a mad rush to get to the end. Art was fantastic

[Funt Solo]

I enjoyed End of Days but I did have to treat it as something else dressed up as Dredd.

Remember that Alternity Winter Special from 1995? Imagine it as part of that concept and I think it's pretty cool - like Judge Dredd as Shakespearean drama, as opposed to Judge Dredd as police procedural. I watched a Macbeth once, and they had the protagonists dressed up as arctic explorers, with ice picks instead of swords. It was inventive, and it was still Macbeth.

In a setting where the canon has become somewhat meaningless you either have to carefully toe the line of easy resets after each episode (unless you're Wagner), avoid Dredd as much as possible (see Niemand) or just go balls out crazy and do your own thing. I liked that Williams went for the latter. Look at what Rennie's doing with the Blackhawk premise (or Jaegir), for an example of new avenues for old ideas.

On the same note I've also been enjoying The New Adventures of Cyber-Hershey - and I get why people are feeling miffed that she was dead, but not really - and now she's superhuman, kinda and blah. But, it's given her character more character than a sort of stern cardboard cutout that was always just a reflection in Dredd's pool.

[Colin YNWA]

Not Out classed

So we're rolling to the end of this run and heading into 2200 and another jump on. Its been another stella line-up. So much so I'm beginning to wonder if 2020 will be amongst the best years in thrillpower. Its got to take it over the line, but so far, even though I've given up trying to do this 2020 is blinding... I'm getting ahead of myself. I should focus on what's so good about this line-up, especially since Dredd is annoying me so much.

Well its the freshness of it all. I've already waxed lyrical about The Out and it continues to be magnificent - especially when it flips and decides to be gut wrenchingly powerful. All the power and delightful hijinks serving to not only be wonderful and fresh in and of itself, but also to simply serve the moment when the story suddenly reveals its darkside, the one I mentioned lingering and the story plays in beautiful hand filled with death and loose. Just genius.

The Order has been its own crazy brand of freshness and by George what an ending as it plunges into a magnficent and tragic end and cliffhanger.

The Diaboliks keeps its short sharp story structure to keep its gloriously dark exterior all the more interesting.

All so good, but I'm here to talk about Full Tilt Boogie the freshest of them all. While it lacks the utter genius of The Out, this first strip blossoming from the Regened fulfills the remit of those issues. Its sends a shot through the Prog. I means its very 2000ad, glorious characters some all over out there. Wit and adventure. High drama tension. But it does it with a zest and energy that feels new, even while it trips across solid, well worked ground. Its a delight.

The art from Eduardo Ocana utter captures that fresh energy. Its entirely 2000ad with bright echos of the maestro Henry Flint, yet feeling more like an Image Comic filtered through The Phoenix. It calls out to those new reader who Regened is screaming to, it give that scream an glorious bit of 2000ad reverb, but its so there.

Even the title Full Tilt Boogie just works on the strips remit and if we want the Prog to thrive into the future we should salute the fact that FTB sits so perfectly alongside the other strips here. Allowing 2000ad to grow at the same time it remains utterly rooted in its magnificent past.