Main Menu

The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

Started by Colin YNWA, 22 May, 2016, 02:30:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Dandontdare

Quote from: broodblik on 28 August, 2020, 07:42:34 PM
It looks like his last work was done in the Megazine #333, in a JD story written by Alan Grant "Night Mayor on L.M. Street"
I don't remember offhand what that was about, but gotta say it's a fine example of 20000ad story titles

Colin YNWA



Ending

So one of the great lines ups comes to an end. Dante rattled through quickly but its slot was taken over by Necrophim a thrill I find utterly readable. Its no classic but its plots, twists and turns make it a page turner utterly in keeping with its Hellish setting.

Around it it Strontium Dog, Shakara and Kingdom all finish superb stories very well. Johnny Alpha's ending is the only one what doesn't feel significent. Its a great end to a story but does pull to more to come.

Kingdom - Call of the Wild ends with Leeze being carried into space and Gene running, for now, on his own again. Its an ending that adds weight to the series. We're only three stories in to this strips life and already events like this feel signifcent and of real importance.

Shakara - The Destoyer though has an even more shocking end as Shakara floats into space, red eyes fading out after a seeingly final confrontation with Cinnibar Brenneka... but even this dark ending seems to suggest more to come BUT damn for a series that all about over the top space fistie chuffs it has massive impact.

By Prog 1661 Sinister Dexter has already popped up to help wrap up the year, it will be joined next Prog by Slaine and lets face it while I might not be liking Slaine of this era (or for quite some time) you can tell we're in good pastures, golden meadows when its being dropped in as end of year filler! And all of this is being built around Tour of Duty a Dredd epic built in wonderful smaller blocks and building up magnificently as we watch Sinfield slowly reveal what a magnificent villain for Dredd he is. An officious administrator our lawman can't touch, we also get fantastic Cursed Earth westerns to provide our action staples. Its a tight and dangerous balancing act that of course Wagner and a host of artists gets perfectly right.

All this is just fantastic. We'll see how the year tops out and then out NuGolden Age (TM) will get possibly its stiffiest test. We'll come out of one magnificent line-up but as we enter the new year will we sustain?

Colin YNWA



Unreliable narrators

The year wraps up with a solid little line up. Tour of Duty continues in its set-up/high action phase. Necrophim continues with its twisty plotting phase (does it have any other). Slaine pops in to get some amber and Sinister Dexter shot up the joint as the Moses War kicks off in earnst and Alternative Demi drops in to shake things up - this is fantastic stuff in Downlode.

This line-up is filled out with some Future Shocks / Terror Tales of decent standard. There's one however 'Death of a Despot' by Matthew Badham (is this his only appearance in the Prog I think) and John Cooper. Its a simple tale of unreliable narratives wonderful realised as words and pictures give us two perpsectives on the events unfolding. The pictures never lie. I really enjoyed it and it seemed really fitting for the waffling I'm doing here.

Already folks have suggested alternative times to call the dawn of the NuGolden Age (tm) and I'm sure there are many ideas out there. Heck even I can think of some alternatives. There are almost certainly many that will define no such NuGolden Age (tm) which could possibly compare to there rose tinted Golden Age - many of them we can find on Faciebooks I'm sure.

The thing is reading these issues I'm becoming increasingly convinced I'm right in my call. The trouble is I wonder if my truth is defining what I'm seeing and a clean reading is impossible for me. This period settled in when I was fully settled in as a newly returned reader. Is it really as good as 2005? or 1999? Can anything compare to ... well you select your original Rose Tinted Golden Age (tm). Or is it just that it landed right with me? The trouble is I suspect I'll present my narrative to present the evidence I want to. That justify past YNWAs view that this era is the best and I'm not convince now YNWA will be able to shake that.

So I'll give you the narrative you have to find the pictures to give you your truth yourself.

Colin YNWA



2009

I've said so much about what 2009 stands for, what it represents there seems little point doing my end of year review. This is the start of the NuGoldenAge (TM) and its been a fantastically good year. Its all documented here, its all good.

Dear read I've not given you the full picture up to now though. There's probably other reasons this is a new golden age. See Self-absorbed YNWA started popping out children at this time... well Mrs YNWA did the popping out I guess, all I did was... well you folks don't need to hear about that. So in 2009 life was changing, in big ways and its possible that a YNWA whose world was being turned upside down, and however great kids can be, when they are not being almighty pains in the arse - the one thing they do to us all (and I try to avoid generalities 'cos we all experience things differently, BUT surely this one is universal) - those of us blessed / cursed with 'um, is they turn our world upside down.

I mean nowt is the same. And maybe a blurry eyes, mind fogged YNWA both pre and post arrival of child #1, known in these parts as The Girl Child, was seeking comfort. Maybe 2000ad was an anchor to the past. The thing that retained. The thing that reminded ol' Self Absorbed that there was still a bit of him, not father, husband, dad, nappy changer, a bit of him hanging in there? As the parasitic wonders that crawl into our worlds, and feed on our bank balance and shit and puke out our time, we withdraw from ourselves and not much survives. I don't listen to anywhere near as much music as I used to, let alone see it. The YNWA in my name became a tribute to a past life. Prose books are now holiday treats and cinema visits involve singing animals more often than not now.

I kept one bit of myself.

I retained one thing. Its as if as the lights of my life, stripped away the Self Absorbed YNWA and he was only able to hold on to what's at this very core. He only retained the one thing that its turns out defines him best. There was no time, money, or ability to be self absorbed left. Aside from...

...and I think you got this from here haven't you...

All that was left of Self Absorbed was COMICS.

Silly, magnificent, wonderful comics. I stupid industry awash with so many wrongs, but redemned by so much good. Held together by unsurpassed story and a unique way of telling them.

That's what survived fatherhood. That's the last bit of self absorbed I got left (well I have a Switch now which I pretend is for the kids). So is it any wonder 2009 is a pivital year in my self absorbed mind, for my favourite comic? Its should be no surprise as it became clear what was the last thing I'd hang onto that this year would mean so much to me.

Or is that just me being self absorbed?

Is this year so important actually 'cos its so good. 2000ad in 2009 is full of magnificent comic. Simply magnificent comics.

Is it as good as 1986? Is it as good as 1999? Is it as good as 2005? Who knows. I'm certainly not to be trusted to make a clear and honest assessment of that. All I can say is its a very fine year and a very important year. In so many ways 2009 was the start of a golden age in my life. And maybe that's not just 'cos that's the colour of some of the curious poo I had to deal with!

Colin YNWA


Colin YNWA

https://i.imgur.com/GDUBOyR.jpg

Prog 2010

Not much to say about Prog 2010 the big annual bumper Prog that starts the new years. Its a now typical doozy of one offs and introductions to the thrills that will lead off the new year. Essentially a big posh lovely jumping on Prog. And this one is no different and lovely for it.

What is of note is the thing that really underlines quite why we are in a nuGolden Age. Lets look at the Thrills in the issue and how old they are.

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

So for a comic that's been successful for almost 33 years, at this point, the very cover of this issue highlights characters from it rich and illustrous past. Yet over half the content of its big jumping on issue is 6 years old or newer at the time of publication.

In some parts of this here internet, there seems to be folks that get hung up on 2000ad being better back in the day, or the Prog losing form. And for those folks that's fine, thats a personal view based on their own experience and tastes and utterly cool. What is important however is the Prog itself doesn't get distracted by that. As his Prog so ably demonstrates while 2000ad should always celebrate its past - it must always look to the future and find the new thrills, the next thing.

So while I look back at a Golden Age started only 10 or so years ago, you can be bet your ass that Tharg is celebrating The Out, the latest hit to join the ranks, and looking for the one to come after that, and after that. 2000ad should celebrate the past, but by heck its greatest strength has always been shaping the future.

Colin YNWA

Imagine the image tags if you will!

Oh and 1000 is still coming....

Colin YNWA



Re-Edginton

I don't know that title got lost between reevaluation and reeducation and just adding 're' in front of Edginton just doesn't work does it! Anyway let's just out it behind shall we.

Self Absorbed YNWA didn't get on with chucks of Ian Edginton's work, certainly not all the time. I've already mentioned (I believe I'm not actually going to re-read though my piffle to check) that Stickleback is setting much better these days. Self absorbed YNWA really struggled with this series after the first story until the last book which he enjoyed immensely. Now who knows if it was enjoying that last book which made something click or just a shift in the YNWA noggin that made it click, either way I've been enjoying these (well I always loved the art of D'Israeli) early works so much more this time.

Its a fun crime romp. Some what helped by knowing the reveil and looking for the clues that point to that. But I don't think knowing he's Holmes is that bigger change. I'm not a big enough fan of the detective to care specifically really, fun though it is. No I just thing its a case of as you move through life your taste shift and twist a little. If something is tettering on the Edge (Jez there's the title "Tettering on the Edginton" wish there was some way to change that so you'd never know the one I first used...) of being something you are into it doesn't take much for a re-read to open that difference to you, unconsious thought the change and its reasons might be.

Of course that won't always be the case. With Ampney Crucis I as yet can't make that shift. Again we can set aside the art, this time Simon Davis providing the visual treats. Here though I think I can identify why it doesn't work for me. I find the juxtapostion between the Wodehousian tomfoolery and the Lovercraftian horror really jarring. Now I except that this is the point (or could well be I have a long and lavish career of missing the point but hey ho). Identifying the contrast between the utter class farce and light hearted japery with the brutal horrors in the world they ruled and the people the lorded over.

Its a fine idea and exposed well.

Just doesn't sit well with me when I read it. And I can appreciate the aim as much as I want if the two elements rub against each other they will pull the reader out and that spoilers the tension and the humour of both sides. Now that reader is of course me. Other readers it will work fine for. There's probably a future YNWA for whom this will click (I think it might by the last story I'm interested to see what happens there) and it will all work lovely like.

Just not Self Absorbed or Nu YNWA.


Colin YNWA



Ampney Crucis drops out and is replaced by a series of decent Future Shock (types) before Zombo takes the slot properly

A wonderful Nikolai Dante run - giving us the first of some false endings and this one happy - ends and we The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the dead left in his wake)*

Stickleback ends in the same Prog and Damnation Station starts.

When ABC Warriors ends we get more brilliant Dante back.

And this dear reader is why you can define this period as a new Golden Age. Great stories roll out just to have great stories bursting to get out the blocks. Tharg though isn't resting on his laurels as many of those stories are new and adding to the already brimming barrel of blazing brilliance.

Even Dredd 'Tour of Duty' gets in on the act. One of the great things about this Mega Epic is the way its constituent smaller stories provide wonderfully define different phases in the story and here we shift from the Dredd in exile phase into the PJ Maybe truly glorious character phase as his confliict with now Chief Judge Sinfeld comes to the fore. Its simple magnificent stuff. Dredd's frustration and impedence is not ignored completely, its just established and so not as embellished as much so the story can shift gears. Just masterful.

*Yes that will be the last time that gets right in full NuYNWA is a lazy begger

broodblik

Damnation Station was one of those thrills which I struggled to get into. I never got the plot.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Colin YNWA



Self Absorbed Post 1000!!!!
What a mighty celebration. What a wonderous time. There's parties in the street... probably... I imagine there's a Knighthood in the post (don't worry being a republican I'll knock it back anyway don't worry). As soon as I hear from the I'll pick my offical biographer from what I imagine is the hundred's queuing up ... I'd think....

Anyway 1000th post ... Its got to be about... eeerrrr.... about... errrmmm... well I surpose I should thank all those who've contributed and played a small part in my magnificent (if self absorbed) achievement ... and we'll talk about...

errr... no, no it not just a number so... errrr... Yeah, yeah I got it I have something worthy of such a wonderous occasion I'll discuss...

...oh no that'll be rubbish.... errrrm...

Quote from: broodblik on 11 September, 2020, 07:59:58 AM
Damnation Station was one of those thrills which I struggled to get into. I never got the plot.

Yeah I agree I always struggled with it and so was looking forward to reading it again. As it starts I'm stil finding it a really difficult concept to buy into...

... Yeah, yes sir magnificent. A worthy and insight, cutting analysis as ever Mr YNWA if I do say so myself... and being self absorbed I of course do....

Colin YNWA



After the Lord Majors Show

Its been a fantastic run the strips that have swopped in have been fantastic, even if not all for me. I'll talk about Iccybod and his incredibly long title soon. Specifically in the context of the recent Dredd story. 'Zombo's Eleven' is a wonderful romp, hilarious, slyly horrific and wonderfully exposing the obsurdity of the modern world.

I don't get on 'Damnation Station' the interesting squad of character as commandos just doesn't make sense to me and undermines the entire strip's foundation. Any other ideas it may play with are therefore weakened.

I want to focus on two stories though. Two stories of absolute brilliance. Firstly Nikolai Dante - Hero of the Revolution. Its the one were villainous plots are revealed and Dmitri strike back at the Empire. Its so brilliantly paced. The story starting serenely as the recent victory is celebrate. Joyous occasions seen and then. BANG darkness strikes and Arklady is revealed, Dmitri hits out with perfect timing and the world is turned on its head. Even as the villain gets his revenge and his victims fall,  Morrison and Fraser take the time to underline the importance of impact of each blow as we are taken back to key moments in characters lives to show us why we should care and the bodies fly.

Its masterful. Then the final blow as Dante of course survives, but as Dmitri himself says suffers a fate worse then death. Stripping Chest from Nikolai is an absolute masterstroke. Always the cost to Dante has been to those around him, but here he directly feels the impact of the wars and conflicits he gets thrown into. Dante is diminished and struck down while still being able to carry on with the tale as he of course needs to. Prog 1685 the eulogy to Chest, recently reprinted in the Summer Special is so powerful.

Just fantastic.

So we have that masterpiece in one corner, but this is a special time as across in Dredd another masterpiece is also showing its true genius. The great thing about Tour of Duty is it strides across tones and story types, while always keeping a thread and plot that pulls the whole thing together.We've had the action packed episodic Cursed Earth adventures and then in 'The Talented Mayor Ambrose' we get a glorious portrait in contrasted villainly. The manical PJ Maybe and the mundane and defensive Sinfield - so gloriously indestructable. The impedence of the ever dutiful Dredd exposed. Then half way through we are of course reminded that while Dredd was impedent, he is determined and absolutely resolute and any mistake exposed, his powerlessness drops away in an instant and his ability rises to the fore and the story turns to a fantatic procedural as Dredd relentless closes in on both villains.

Just superb and on reread I'm reminded why this is the best craft Dredd epic ever and after my nostaglia fueled love of Cursed Earth my absolute favourite. Its quite wonderfully brings all the variety and scope of what a Dredd story can be into one gripping tale.

broodblik

At this stage for me Dante has established itself as one of the best strips ever to appear in the prog. I will always be a great fan of this strip and this is one that I will every few years revisit.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: broodblik on 16 September, 2020, 07:46:29 AM
At this stage for me Dante has established itself as one of the best strips ever to appear in the prog. I will always be a great fan of this strip and this is one that I will every few years revisit.

Yeah by this stage, even coming to the strip late I was utterly, utterly sold. I think by now Self Absorbed YNWA had gone back and read the series from the start and it stood up. Without doubt though its a series that just got better and better as it went on.



All in the Name (and Journeys and things left in their wake)

I don't want to dewell on this too much but it feels impossible to read The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the dead left in his wake) and not reflect on 'End of Days'. Now clearly self absorbed YNWA had no idea what was to come and he LOVED this story for its own sake. But NuYNWA is able to compare and its a stark contrast.

Fitting Ichabod into End of Days makes perfect sense. Especially now we know its ending and how, as in this story he's been used as a vessel. His murderous ways of value to this who deal in death. The trouble is this plot parallel ends the value in throwing him in... well since he's Rob Williams (and Dom Reardon's vessel who am I to say the value).

However the glory in the orginal story is it luxuriates in its telling. Its basks in grim atmosphere and tone and telling. The dialogue, the narrative boxes all ooze purpuse and class. They simply drip with the art of setting a story in time, place and themes. Its just brilliant.

Just look at the title along and the tone and feel that alone brings with it.

The recent reintroduction in Dredd feels trite and sensational in comparison. End of Days, by design from what I've read, is bombastic, rushed and sharp. It lacks the very things that make this first story work so well and in doing so, in throwing Ichabod into a scenario like that, even if it makes perfect sense with the plot and story, feels entirely unfitting... but its the co-creators choice and so while I will stand by my right to have this view I of course stand by Rob Williams vision for his creation.

It will be interest for future YNWA and future Rob Williams to look back at both and see if either of us, or both of us re-evaluate our views of this.

What I can say for sure both Self Absorb YNWA and NuYNWA have the same view of this first series. Its simply brilliant and that ending just superb.

Colin YNWA



Prog 1693

The great thrills roll on. As one steps out, another takes its place.

Savage - Crims
Red Seas - Hell and High Water
Strontium Dog - LIfe and Death of Johnny Alpha

We will have views and opinions on these and their quality, but overall these are damned good thrills and its wonderfully relentless.

In Prog 1693 this gets a perfect demonstration. As 'Tour of Duty' comes to an end one of my favourite Sinister Dexter stories 'The Why-Shaped Cut' drops in. Now I'm not suggesting that the latter is in anyway as significent as the former, or as near perfect. Or has a fraction of the popularity. Its is however a fine example of one great thing rolling into the next. Each different, each of varied importance, but each of unique value to different readers. We are fans of a comic as wonderfully diverse as 2000ad and we will of course argue bitterly about what's great, what's superb, but at this time its hard to imagine folks not being bowled away my this tide of top notch comics material.

'Tour of Duty' has been quite brilliant and as it heads towards its climax Wagner has one more masterstroke. I've talked about the impedence of Dredd in the early parts of this story and Wagner at the end reminds us that while he might appear powerless time and again, he is indomitable and prepared to do anything to do what he thinks he has to. In 'Tour of Duty' its just that he didn't know the weapons he had to use, he didn't recognise them as they are alien to him. We're seen him pull his hands of crosses he is nailed to, crawl across barren land, shoot himself in the heart (almost) do whatever it took. He just never realised what it might take is becoming Chief Judge. But when that was his only weapon he would not back away. He would take the chance. As with that bullet though it stopped just short.

The very end wraps up quickly. Wagner doesn't waste any time and effort when its done. Just like 'Cursed Earth', just like 'Necropolis', just like 'Day of Chaos' will do, when the tales told he will wrap it up with brutal efficency. At times his leaves me feeling like its rushed, like its snatched at and I have this feeling and the end of 'Tour of Duty'. Its just that Wagner knows best and knows when the tale is told and doesn't waste ours or his time. 'Tour of Duty' is the best Judge Dredd epic (I'll return to that statement when I read 'Day of Chaos'). Its might not be my favourite, I have such nostaglic love for 'Cursed Earth', its so formative to what I love about fiction. But 'Tour of Duty' is the most complete of these long form Dredd stories, the most comprehensive and the most masterful.

Its just that I really like 'The Why-Shaped cut' also.