2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[Tomwe]

I'd guess at Slaine: The Horned God, which was the first of the pilot issues. A good one to kick off with.

I suppose so, but surely most of the target audience owns it already?

Well, as a lapsed reader (I stopped at the original Prog 2000) who was brought back in by the JDMC I'm very pleased to be starting with Horned God, and in fact have not read any of the next few volumes to come at all.

[I, Cosh]

I'd guess at Slaine: The Horned God, which was the first of the pilot issues. A good one to kick off with.

I suppose so, but surely most of the target audience owns it already?

The loons on here aren't the target audience.

[Fungus]

Are you suggesting owning something in one format precludes buying a new, shinier, hardback version of exactly the same thing...?

[IndigoPrime]

Exactly. The target audience is people ambling about WHSmith, who see a hardback of Sláine for two quid and think: I'll have me a bit of that. And who then read the book, remember how much they used to love 2000 AD (or who are newcomers and also love it), at which point they note the next issue is 'only' £6.99. So they buy that too. And, really, £9.99 for the next hardback comics collection isn't all that much... And so it goes.

[TordelBack]

Are you suggesting owning something in one format precludes buying a new, shinier, hardback version of exactly the same thing...?

There goes Rebellion's 3rd Quarter turnover...

[moly]

Well there were a few graphic novels I was going to get but will now hold off with this collection coming

[Davgardo]

Personally I think this is a crazy to go with this now - a 1 or 2 month overlap with the JD Mega Collection would be just about affordable, but we're looking at the best part of a year here. I would love to subscribe to the 2000ad Collection but I just cannot afford or justify £40.00 a month.

[JamesC]

It's worth noting that it may not be a case of 'subscribe now or miss the boat'.
Eaglemoss are still pushing for subscriptions of the DC Comics collection - I took one out a few months ago, starting from issue 1 and am now up to issue 8. Original subscribers are up to about book 50 I think.

[abelardsnazz]

Exactly. The target audience is people ambling about WHSmith, who see a hardback of Sláine for two quid and think: I'll have me a bit of that. And who then read the book, remember how much they used to love 2000 AD (or who are newcomers and also love it), at which point they note the next issue is 'only' £6.99. So they buy that too. And, really, £9.99 for the next hardback comics collection isn't all that much... And so it goes.

Almost exactly what happened to me when the MC launched. While I understand comments about the £40 commitment every month, I guess they're striking while the iron's hot in the 40th anniversary year.

[Anthony Garnon]

There's a signing with Boo Cook at the London Forbiddden Planet Megastore:

https://forbiddenplanet.com/events/2017/08/23/launching-2000ad-collection-forbidden-planet/

[Arkwright99]

It's worth noting that it may not be a case of 'subscribe now or miss the boat'.
Eaglemoss are still pushing for subscriptions of the DC Comics collection - I took one out a few months ago, starting from issue 1 and am now up to issue 8. Original subscribers are up to about book 50 I think.

You can also buy individual (back) issues of the Mega Collection from Hachette so if the same holds true for the Ultimate Collection then I can see people (like myself) waiting and picking up only those volumes that we want to buy - possibly even waiting in case there's a sale any time.

[IndigoPrime]

The crossover is curious, I agree, but I suppose all that's been considered by the company. It'll be interesting to see whether people dive in, too. The one thing that still holds me back a bit is the nature of such collections in terms of completeness. I already own the majority of my favourite 2000 AD series in book form. Would I be interested in 'upgrading' them to MC-style hardbacks for ten quid a pop? Sure. Do I want to do that if there are gaps in the major series? Hmm.

So: 80 books. What might it include? I've just faffed about in Soulver to see what Rebellion's current line-up is, and to convert them into Hachette page counts (approx.), being mindful that the 2000 AD books were a mite slimmer than the Dredd ones.

Major series (as per Rebellion's own shop) come to about 76 books in all:

ABC Warriors: 10
Button Man: 2
Nemesis: 5
Nikolai Dante: 10
Ro-Busters: 4
Robo-Hunter: 4
Rogue Trooper (original): 8
Rogue Trooper (War Machine): 1
Savage/Invasion: 3
Sláine: 13
Strontium Dog: 13
Zenith: 2

Cherry picking some others shoves you well over 100 (111.5, in this case).

Absolom: 1
ACE Trucking: 3
Bad Company: 2
Brass Sun: 1
Caballistics: 2
Dan Dare: 3
Dr & Quinch: 0.5
Durham Red: 2
Flesh: 2
Future Shocks: 2
Halo Jones: 1
Indigo Prime: 2
Jaegir: 1
Kingdom: 2
Red Seas: 4
Shakara: 2
Sinister Dexter: God only knows. Maybe 5
Skizz (wouldn't be complete): 1

It'll be interesting to see what they decide on, not least because everyone has their own favourites and ideas about whether something's important regarding completeness. To my mind, anything less than the entire Nikolai Dante saga would be a big disappointment, even if you got synopses to bring you up to date. But I could live without a chunk of Sinister Dexter. I suspect there are people here who'd argue the exact opposite.

That all said, I'm very happy that this is happening at all. Think back to the Fleetway days, when we got the odd sporadic book, in varying formats. Then deals came and went – Titan; Hamlyn; DC. Then Rebellion took everything on, and since that point we've had at least 20 new books every year, and now we're getting the second partwork. That's pretty amazing.

possibly even waiting in case there's a sale any time.

I'll be amazed if they do another 50 per cent off one, though. The number of people they pissed off with that!

[The Monarch]

and then we get mark millars robohunter and we despair we sooooo despair

[IndigoPrime]

I'd hope with 80 books there would be no crap. With Dredd, some filler was inevitable. But it'd be horrible to see Junker or something similar stinking up the place. (I rather liked how the phonebooks dealt with Robo-Hunter – just pretend the Millar run never happened and skip to the Hogan/Hughes stuff.)

[Richard]

That Strontium Dog cover looks brilliant. Is it original or have we seen it before?