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Messages - IndigoPrime

#1
Interesting that you talk about a sense of obligation. That's kind of how I felt about From Hell when I first and last read it. That thing where people have said this is a high point in the medium, and you sit there wondering why you just don't care.

Like you, I think the art is wonderful. And there's a lot of interesting 'stuff' in there. But I imagine I'd struggle with it now, much for the same reasons you did. And as for "Comics shouldn't feel like homework"... Yeah. I have a set of League collections I've not read through yet (bar the first two). And I do wonder if they'll be staying on the shelf once I've done so, for much the same reasons.
#2
It's not the formatting – or at least not just the formatting. It might just be too long. I can post just the end section to the admin area just fine, and also the bit before that. I can also post part of the piece and then edit in the rest. So you could try posting the first half, then doing a very quick edit and pasting in the rest. And if that doesn't work, just add the rest as a second post. Or I can admin edit in the rest. Or I can do the post for you. Let me know regardless.
#3
Yes. The Dredd collection included Welcome to Badrock, Between Badrock and a Hard Place and Of Munce and Men from Welcome to Bedrock, and Long-Range War from Long-Range War.

This one is the rest of trade 2, all of trade 3 (Ashes to Ashes) and Boom Town from trade 4, but not Badrock Melody. (Trade 5, Ballots Over Badrock, is due out right at the end of July. I imagine it's unlikely there would be enough material for another Lawless in the UC before it ends – unless it does a Marvel and just continues.)

#4
General / Re: Wrap It Up
17 March, 2024, 12:34:53 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 20 February, 2024, 06:49:08 AMMetalzoic what a great cover. I just wish we can get a reprint. I believe DC is the problem
It's such a weird thing. Why wouldn't DC be up for allowing a reprint of this strip? Or perhaps it wanted too much money, which made the endeavour unviable. I'd bloody love to see Metalzoic (ideally in B+W) given the full-on HC oversized treatment, with those glorious full-colour covers included as well. Alas, Kev is no longer around to provide insight into the strip, but I'm sure Mills could be roped in to write an intro.

I'm still very happy that I somehow, years ago, managed to buy a fairly good copy of the DC trade for a price that wasn't bonkers. But it is a skinny and fragile little thing. And that Kev artwork always looked all the more powerful in black and white.
#5
Off Topic / Re: And so it ends...
17 March, 2024, 11:54:41 AM
Sorry to hear it. But everyone has their own distinct requirements for media. And if something isn't doing it for you, it's not doing it for you.

I can't imagine dropping the Prog myself. Given that I stuck it out through the nadir years, I figure if there was a dip now I could cope. It fits into little gaps I have, the weekly bite-sized format being less ominous and demanding than something larger. Also, I'm working through a LOT of modern Marvel right now and it's a fierce reality check about the average quality of the Prog. (The best stories are on par with the best recent Prog stuff. The average is... well. It's fine. Let's leave it at that. Whereas the average in the Prog for me has long been 'good'.)

Anyway, glad you'll be sticking around, Robin. And, like you say, it's easy enough to catch up if you find yourself with an itch you need to scratch.
#6
So, almost all of the Boom Town trade, but omitting Badrock Melody.
#7
I'd hope an error. Assuming you mean Dare, that's still listed as in stock.
#8
Prog / Re: Prog 2374 - A World of His Making!
16 March, 2024, 04:37:32 PM
What are you bribing Tharg/Royal Mail with to get all these Saturday Progs?
#9
So where does this new book take the story through to?

(I still think I'll pass, though. I have the paperbacks now, and I'm not sure I want to sell those so my Lawless will be split between the Dredd collection, the 2000 AD UC and then subsequent paperbacks. Mulling over what to do with Proteus Vex, for which I also have the first trade. And some other series. Easier with stuff that's finite or that has a good break point, such as Scarlet Traces. Less so with everything else, given that I'm clearly a bit particular with collections...)
#10
Yeah, I imagine Commando isn't going to appeal to that many kids. As for Toxic, I just had a look on Readly. Its most recent two issues has all of three pages of comics – all reprint from Monster Fun.
#11
Quotebut very few serialized comics on the magazine racks
I mean, what actually exists today? In the UK, I know there are two weeklies: The Beano and The Phoenix. Anything else? Beyond that, Panini still has a few reprint mags that are, IIRC, monthly (unless the Spidey stuff is still fortnightly) and then there's the now monthly Monster Fun. Beyond specials, I can't recall anything else outside of the nursery range.
#12
I didn't realise this was in any kind of order. Won't hold that against you! :D

I've never thought of Watchmen as The Beatles of comics, nor the Pink Floyd of comics, but the punk of comics. Not because of its aesthetic nor feel, but because I always reasoned its impact must have been far greater if you were 'there at the time'.

For me, today, it's one of those books I feel I kind of have to have in my comics library. It's foundational but also modern enough that I still care enough to read it from time to time. (By contrast, I don't – say – care about having early Marvel collections.) I probably need to give it another 'full' read at some point; but it's always been a series I've giving a respectful nod to rather than one I love.

Oddly, the same is true for me and punk. The vast majority of my music tastes start in the late 1970s. I don't care for much before that. But I also don't like much punk music. It was transformative and vital. But what I like is what it triggered, not what it did itself. Similar to Watchmen.
#13
My experience is kids have less freedom than I had growing up in the 1980s, and I had less freedom than my parents have. But specifically with media, the landscape has changed beyond all recognition. At my kid's age, I think I was about to get my first music system – a Saisho tape deck. I had a handful of tapes. We definitely had a games system back then (I think a VIC-20, with a C64 arriving shortly afterwards), but that wasn't a given. Our local library was... lacking, let's say. But comics were cheap and plentiful. So I naturally gravitated towards them, and although the counter-culture elements may have grated some parents (be that IPC/Fleetway's anarchic bent or Action and 2000 AD's violence), nothing in there was really beyond the pale. So they were cheap, thrilling/funny entertainment.

Today, my 9yo has access to 90+ million tracks on her iPod touch. She has a Switch and access to an iPad for games that regularly refresh in Apple Arcade. Libraries... that one's luck, but our local one is excellent for children's prose books. But comics... there's so little around, so what exists has to cast the net far more widely and yet simultaneously target people with the relevant amount of spending money.

The two surviving weeklies, The Beano and The Phoenix, cost, respectively, £2.99 and £3.49. When I was around the same age as my daughter, The Beano cost an average of 14p. If inflation alone was responsible for price rises, The Beano would be closer to 60p today, opening it up to a much wider audience. But various factors and shifts in production costs have dramatically shifted things, and so we end up with the current incarnation of the comic, which is clearly a lot less rough and ready than it was, in every sense. Note that as a parent I'm all for the comic's more inclusive bent. Reading back just 10–15 years ago, a lot of The Beano read like it was absolutely fine with bullying. And it actually gives a shit about girls now, which is good. Still, I find it a great shame that this medium is no longer close to being mass-media in any meaningful sense.

So back to Regened: what should or could it have been? Any comic is a risk. Regened clearly aimed to sit between The Phoenix and OG 2000 AD, providing a kind of 'upgrade' path that's now missing with 2000 AD itself being aimed at a much older readership than it was during the 1970s and arguably quite deep into the 1980s. Perhaps it was too safe. For me, it too often wasn't subversive enough, which is a different thing. (The Phoenix is quite clean cut in many ways, but often has its edge in subversion, when it has one.) But if Regened is gone, I imagine there are multiple factors, many of which we won't know about, and at least some of which were unavoidable (not least the weird schedule and the publication not being able to exist as a standalone).

At least Monster Fun continues to be on the shelves, mean that Rebellion has got one extra regular children's comic on to the newsstands. That's no mean feat in the current climate, although I do find it odd the comic is always faced in WHSmith with 2000 AD, when it'd make more sense sitting next to The Beano (and, in those few branches that stock it, The Phoenix). I've no idea if that's down to WHSmith or Rebellion, mind. (There are strategic reasons for both approaches.)
#14
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 March, 2024, 01:50:43 PMDahl is still incredibly popular.
The books sell, yes. But I suspect there's a lot of that from certain age groups and/or it's fuelled by nostalgia. I picked up a set of books for mini-IP on a whim and regretted doing so once we read them. They needed some fairly heavy editing. Fortunately, she's now decided to get rid of the last of them, so they're off to a charity shop. There are far, far better books for children to read these days.

And, yes, I've no idea if The Phoenix is making cash. But I do hope so. And given that it's now heading towards the mid 600s (having been around for well over a decade), that's a... lot of time to be throwing cash at something if it's not profitable.

(One thing with The Phoenix that is interesting: the shift to other aspects of fandom. There's the annual Phoenix Fest in Oxford. And the mag has started experimenting with live drawalongs. I don't recall how many they said showed up last time, but I think it was north of four figures.)
#15
And newsstand is even riskier today, arguably. Locally, we've seen McColl's be replaced by a Morrisons Local, which has reduced the amount of magazines/comics carried to (at a rough estimate) 20%. A nearby gigantic Tesco has ripped out its book section entirely and the magazines have been drastically reduced – probably to about 40% of the original space, and there's definitely also a reduction in what's carried. And rumblings continue about WHSmith and whether that too might start cutting things back in future. (I hope not – it's now last-place standing in a lot of towns.)