Prog 2248 - Death Wish

[Woolly]

Jaegir – Dark, moody and somber this is the world of Atalia as the story gets more interesting. Take top honors this week great stuff from Rennie and Coleby. Pity the story will end next week and then we must wait again to see where the dark path Atalia choose is heading to.

Yep, absolutely the best thing in a very good prog. I've a feeling it's going to take something particularly nasty to get Atalia on a better path right now...

Also, it's been a looong time since I sat and pored over any artwork like I used to do as a kid.
The Cole-B droid's stuff I can marvel at all day! His robot arms are second to none! (And the one's he draws are pretty good too...)

[Woolly]

Dexter will be back in November ; and it’s Dexter vs dinosaurs, by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin! :

https://2000ad.com/news/whats-coming-from-rebellions-comics-imprints-this-november/

Not the title I was expecting, but yay!

[Colin YNWA]

Dexter will be back in November ; and it’s Dexter vs dinosaurs, by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin! :

https://2000ad.com/news/whats-coming-from-rebellions-comics-imprints-this-november/

Not the title I was expecting, but yay!

There will never, ever be anything wrong with a story that can be summarised as Dexter vs dinosaurs!

[Woolly]

Dexter will be back in November ; and it’s Dexter vs dinosaurs, by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin! :

https://2000ad.com/news/whats-coming-from-rebellions-comics-imprints-this-november/

Not the title I was expecting, but yay!

There will never, ever be anything wrong with a story that can be summarised as Dexter vs dinosaurs!

Yep, I'm here for that!

Personally though, I'm hoping the 'dinosaurs' are older, deader characters being synthed back to life by the AI.
And that's why I don't try writing stuff!

[norton canes]

Congratulations!

Thanks!

It was the letter captioned 'For Mature Readers' proposing a solution to the Regened impasse. And although its tongue-in-cheek tone saw it given short shrift by TMO, I think it's got mileage.

Let me expound...

As has been explained many times here, the major obstacles to the creation of a new Regened weekly have been the cost of marketing a new publication and the potential difficulty of getting it shelf space at the newsagents. So why invite those risks? The regular prog is already well-established, so there's no need to start from scratch. By filling it with all-ages content on a permanent basis you've created your new publication by modifying an existing one. We know the 'veteran' readership of 2000 AD is (how to put this kindly) dwindling, so sooner or later it's going to get to the point where there's a greater return to be had from aiming at the new generation rather then the old.

But of course the 'loyal Squaxx', as I put it in my missive, still want to buy and read the comic they love - which is where the new publication, aimed squarely at them, comes in. The difference is, it won't need to be marketed; the long-term readership will simply transfer their allegiance. If Tharg announced today that all 2000 AD's strips were going to continue in a new organ, I'm willing to bet that 99% of us would take up a subscription (or modify their newsagent purchase) immediately.

I don't seriously believe, as I suggested in my letter, that the new publication should actually be called '2000 AD Degened', or that its content should exactly mirror that of the GGC in its formative years - that was a little humorous aside. But as time marches on I think it not only should, but must and ultimately will happen.


BTW until I saw my letter in print, I didn't realise the Betelgeusian style guide capitalises 'Thrills'

[broodblik]

So norton it is like a magic trick, look at the "left" hand people whereas the trick is done by the devious mister "right" hand.

[norton canes]

No, nothing devious about it : )

It would all be up-front ("Exciting news for readers inside!")

It just think it's a way that hasn't been considered of passing the thrill-baton (sorry, the 'Thrill-baton') to the next generation of Squaxxes.

[Jim_Campbell]

But of course the 'loyal Squaxx', as I put it in my missive, still want to buy and read the comic they love - which is where the new publication, aimed squarely at them, comes in. The difference is, it won't need to be marketed; the long-term readership will simply transfer their allegiance. If Tharg announced today that all 2000 AD's strips were going to continue in a new organ, I'm willing to bet that 99% of us would take up a subscription (or modify their newsagent purchase) immediately.

I'm not convinced that a weekly or even a monthly all-ages periodical is The Mighty One's endgame here. As mentioned on various previous Regened threads, the all-ages/YA audience isn't enamoured of the format, preferring the TPB/OGN format, which they buy (or have bought for them) in extraordinary numbers.

It's my strong suspicion that it's this market that the House of Tharg is eyeing. The Regened-quarterly-tester followed by full-series-quickly-bundled-into-a-trade model enables that without having to sink a fuckton of cash upfront into commissioning content.

That said, I've advocated in the past for the regular prog to go all-ages, and the Megazine to become the home for everything 'grown-up'. Strips have moved back and forth between the prog and Meg in the past (Devlin Waugh, Missionary Man) so some clearly unsuitable strips for an all-ages treatment (like Brink) could migrate to the Meg whilst some others might be in line for a soft-ish reboot and stay where they are — Kingdom, for example.

If the Meg picked up a few thousand extra readers from the pool that don't currently buy both titles, it might even be financially viable to either up the page count, or drop some of the feature to make room for added strip, so more of the transfers from the prog could find a semi-regular home.

Which, IMO, neatly solves the all-ages issue without the expense (and administrative/editorial overhead) of launching a new title at all.

[norton canes]

I've advocated in the past for the regular prog to go all-ages, and the Megazine to become the home for everything 'grown-up'

Yes! Brilliant.

Strips have moved back and forth between the prog and Meg in the past (Devlin Waugh, Missionary Man) so some clearly unsuitable strips for an all-ages treatment (like Brink) could migrate to the Meg whilst some others might be in line for a soft-ish reboot and stay where they are — Kingdom, for example.

If the Meg picked up a few thousand extra readers from the pool that don't currently buy both titles, it might even be financially viable to either up the page count, or drop some of the feature to make room for added strip, so more of the transfers from the prog could find a semi-regular home.

Which, IMO, neatly solves the all-ages issue without the expense (and administrative/editorial overhead) of launching a new title at all

Yes! Of course - no need for a new 'Degened' publication. The Megazine is the missing piece of the jigsaw.

(Not sure about a 'soft reboot' of Kingdom though : ) )

[norton canes]

Although, thinking about it, that would be a lot of extra content (four weeks' worth of a typical strip being ~20 pages) to fit in a monthly Meg.

A weekly Meg, on the other hand...

[Jim_Campbell]

Although, thinking about it, that would be a lot of extra content (four weeks' worth of a typical strip being ~20 pages) to fit in a monthly Meg.

At one point in its past, the Meg was square-bound and 100 pages. 88 pages of strip and 12 of feature/ads/editorial would deliver roughly the same amount of thrill power as a month of progs. You could run—what?— six 12-page strips and maybe a 16-page Dredd every issue? The longer page count for each episode would make the instalments feel… meatier and help to offset the longer wait between issues.

[broodblik]

What you suggest Jim is a workable solution but I love my weekly progs and the 4 regen progs a year is not a problem.

[norton canes]

At one point in its past, the Meg was square-bound and 100 pages. 88 pages of strip and 12 of feature/ads/editorial would deliver roughly the same amount of thrill power as a month of progs. You could run—what?— six 12-page strips and maybe a 16-page Dredd every issue? The longer page count for each episode would make the instalments feel… meatier and help to offset the longer wait between issues.

Literally beyond excited at just the thought of that.

I mean I pay £12.40 for four progs a month; I would happily spend a bit upwards of that on a lovely prestige-bound monthly publication instead.

[norton canes]

Anyway, about this week's prog...

That cover is absolute filth (in the way da yoot use the word now to mean 'rather wonderful'). Flawless design and execution.

It's all kind of a bit disjointed inside with some strips only having short runs but Dredd provides some welcome stability as well as adding a nice twist to its tale. I'm beginning to wonder if Sinister/Dexter (delete as applicable) really is building to some kind of finale, or whether this story will just rumble on ad infinitum whenever a few progs need space filling (though I should say it's rumbling on brilliantly). 'The Mask of Laverna' is a bit by-numbers; we didn't get any backstory on Adelphi in the last one, did we? I think that might have helped.

As always with runs of the Rennie droid's stories, the major frustration is that they're over before you really have a chance to get into them. Oh for Jaegir to have enjoyed as much prog space as Skip Tracer over the last few years!

[Jim_Campbell]

What you suggest Jim is a workable solution but I love my weekly progs and the 4 regen progs a year is not a problem.

I agree. It's just fun to play Armchair Tharg every once in a while! :-)