Keep up with the Joneses!

[2000AD Online]

Get your hands on Halo as Books 1-3 of her interstellar adventures are collected under one cover and published by DC/Rebellion. Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's critically acclaimed feminist space opera is one of the most popular stories to have appeared in 2000 AD, and if you've yet to be introduced to Toy, Toby, Brinna or Rodice, then this is an essential purchase!

200pp
?11.99

Also out now in the last batch of collections to be jointly published with DC:

The Complete Indigo Prime
By John Smith, Chris Weston & Mike Hadley

Sci-fi bizarreness from the warped imaginations of the Smith, Weston and Hadley droids as transtemporal troubleshooters Indigo Prime protect the multiverse from all manner of threats. Included is the Jack the Ripper classic 'Killing Time' and Fervent and Lobe's comic opera 'The Issigri Variations'!

168pp
?11.99

Rogue Trooper: Fort Neuro
By Gerry Finley-Day, Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy & Colin Wilson

Genetic Infantryman Rogue Trooper is hot on the Traitor General's trail, but can he survive the horrors of the Dix-1 Front, not to mention the insanity of Fort Neuropa, a key Souther position that has been under siege for so long its inhabitants have started to act very strangely...

192pp
?11.99

These books are all now available from Tharg's Future Shop.

And keep your optical sensors peeled for the next wave of 2000 AD graphic novels - starting with Judge Dredd: Satan's Island, Rogue Trooper: Eye of the Traitor and Family - coming your way this October!

Link: Tharg's Newsround

[Dan Kelly]

Hmmm - notice the use of the phrase "Get your hands on Halo as Books 1-3 of her interstellar adventures " used above?

Is there anything we're not being told?

Hmmm?

Dan

[Dark Jimbo]

I never read this - what does anyone reckon, worth getting? Does it live up to the hype?

[Dudley]

Yes, yes and yes.

I've got the Indigo Prime book - it's pretty goshdarn good, too.

[The Amstor Computer]

In fact, all three books here are worth getting. Halo & Indigo Prime are 2K classics, and the second Rogue Trooper book collects some of his best tales - including the epic, "Fort Neuro".

The little bit at the end about future collections is welcome - perhaps a full announcement & schedule will arrive soon?

[Oddboy]

Think I'll stick with the old Titan reprint for Halo Jones... but I'll be getting the other two.

[Byron Virgo]

I was dissapointed with the Indigo Prime book - it was good, don't get me wrong, but it was a pity they didn't include the two text stories, or the original Future Shock featuring Basalt and Foundation. Plus, since some of the stories cross over into that Steve Dillon Tyranny Rex story that appeared in a Winter Special, some of it might seem a bit confusing to new readers. I can't help but think it might have been better to save the book until they could team it with a Tyranny collection.

The Rogue Trooper book was very good though. Apparently they sold out of all their stock in Gosh! on Great Russel Street in one day (and I know because I bought the last copy)!

[Grant Goggans]

Touched by the Hand of Tharg has been updated to include Halo Jones as well as Satan's Island and Eye of the Traitor, which are scheduled for US release on November 16.

While we're waiting, the Amstor Computer has downloaded me all sorts of interesting information about Titan's and Panini's lines of classic comic reprints, and my site will soon have a complementary table for these books.  Stay tuned!

--Grant

Link: http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/rebellion.html" target="_blank">Touched by the Hand of Tharg

[Art]

Either having forgotten or not having read those Tyranny Rex stories, I can confirm that big chunks of Indigo Prime just seem weird and pointless, like theres a huge peice missing. Of course it could be that it's just like that.

[Something Fishy]

How come the DC tie in was so short lived?

[Oddboy]

Because DC suck.

[Something Fishy]

lol.. ok.  it seemed such a good thing when it was landed.  i assume sales were too poor?

[The Amstor Computer]

US sales were fucking terrible, if the mutterings were anything to go by - I've seen figures of around 1,000 per book and lower mentioned in various places.

Piss-poor or non-existent advertising, awful distribution, a perhaps too offbeat selection of reprints... all of these seem to have contributed. DC's attitude toward the 2000AD and Humanoids lines seemed to be simply to get the rightholders to repackage the strips, then they would dump them into the marketplace with no support and shit all over them when sales didn't match expectations.

It has to be said that Rebellion's efforts on this side of the pond didn't appear to be up to much, either. IIRC, it took months before any of the books got any real advertising in the prog, Meg on online, and UK distribution was - and remains - pretty naff.

[Grant Goggans]

I'd guess sales were about 50% of it.  There has evidently been some major office politics at DC for months now, as shown by the revolving door of VPs with oddball marketing and sales titles.  It was a pretty decent idea to sell Humanoids and 2000 AD books, but then nobody got a proper promotion and marketing program for either line together to let readers know about them or get them in chain bookstores.

--Grant

[Something Fishy]

sounds a bit of a cock up.. no point selling something if your not going to let the consumer know about it.