This is one of those classics thrills which I always wanted to re-read but did not have access to the material. It is great news now that we will have this available in a digital format for the first time (I am also looking forward to the other digital first titles)
What really stood-out for me in Armoured Gideon is the amazing art of Simon Jacob. His art really carries the story which is also a quite an interesting premise. Armoured Gideon if you do not know is demon-slaying robot with an awesome vocabulary that consists out of one word "Annihilate".
The digital version also contains the following shorts collected for the first time: 'No, No, Nanette' from 2000 AD Prog 722, 'Starhavon's Edge' from the 1990 2000 AD Sci Fi Special and 'Making Movies' from the 1992 2000 AD Sci Fi Special.
So my question is why are you waiting to download it?
Hopefully this makes a physical edition possible one day soon!
Always loved AG, by far one of the best of the 90's thrills (which is damning with faint praise, admittedly!)
I didn't wait! 'No, No, Nanette' is a real fun story that I think captures the tone of the series as a whole perfectly. I confess that as a youngster I didn't quite get that the first series was a comedy until I read this one-off!
Am curious how they'll go about collecting the rest of the series - after this I think it's just three longer stories. One collection for each? All of them in one go? Obviously digital collections are not hampered by page counts, but why not collect the whole thing in one bumper edition? Or putting Book II into this first collection so you'd get two roughly equal-sized editions?
Actually finished reading the collection now and wanted to bump this thread to remind people that it's really, REALLY good stuff. I guess some are holding out for the Hachette collection?
I'm not that widely read in Science Fiction / demon horror outside of 2000AD so I've no idea if this story is one that's been tackled elsewhere, but it struck me yet again as just a perfect 2000AD thing.
'What if England were literally brimming witrh satanists, and what if their rituals to summon demons actually did work? What if there was a gianr robot monster that could burst onto the Earthly plane to recaptures those demons? What if a mildly psychic ex-combat photographer got caught up in the middle?' It's just so weird, with a great mix of uncanny ideas and smart jokes. And yes, above all that, there's ample scope for Simon Jacob to design one (two?) of the best robots ever, and just pages and pages full of crazy demons.
More please Tharg!
(The Armoured Gideon in the Order is, to my mind, what happened when one of the mystics from that story managed to possess/hijack it after stumbling across it when tackling some wurms. So it's the same outer shell (if less well drawn), but a completely different character on the inside. I do kind of want Kek-W to let the real Gideon emerge at some point, and I wouldn't object to poor old Franquites turning up as a 20th century agent of The Order...)
Bar The Collector, I thought the entire run of this strip was really fun. It's nice to see it get another airing in digital. I don't recall it being down for the Hachette hardcovers. I do hope so. (I still have my Extreme Edition, so that's something at least.) Looking at Simon Jacob's Twitter (https://twitter.com/Shiantu/status/1313022256080203776), how lovely it'd be to get him back in the Prog. Hmm. I wonder what John Tomlinson's up to these days...?
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 23 February, 2021, 09:50:39 AM
Looking at Simon Jacob's Twitter (https://twitter.com/Shiantu/status/1313022256080203776), how lovely it'd be to get him back in the Prog.
Goddamn you've not wrong. He had such a different distinct style. Funnily enough given the conversation elsewhere I think he'd be great to add an edge to a Regened story.
From his twitter a lovely Gideon pic:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrKDx7FW4AAB46M?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)
Dear Tharg: Pretty please can we have a new series of Armoured Gideon, with Simon Jacob on art duties? Pleeeease?
With another please here: can you please release the next volume as well?
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 23 February, 2021, 09:50:39 AM
I don't recall it being down for the Hachette hardcovers.
Yeah it's not on any of the lists and there's no indication of it in the snippet of spine art we were shown for the 2nd extension. There are still something like 10 unknown books though so I'm holding out that this is one of them. The other nice thing about a digital edition is there's no FOMO as they're not going to run out of stock.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 23 February, 2021, 10:55:31 AM
Dear Tharg: Pretty please can we have a new series of Armoured Gideon, with Simon Jacob on art duties? Pleeeease?
Seconded!
I'm sure Kek-W could whip up a good script if John Tomlinson isn't available :)