how to do a prog slog

[sheridan]

Oh, and after Alvin Gaunt wrote last week's Dredd, TB Grover is on the job this time around.

[Gary James]

Also, didn't mention it eariler, but the Mean Arena takes place next year, 2021!

2020 used to seem so futuristic.

[sheridan]

Also, didn't mention it eariler, but the Mean Arena takes place next year, 2021!

2020 used to seem so futuristic.

I was thinking of 20/20 Visions just the other day.

2000AD Prog 185: The Dogs of War are Here!

Tom Tully writes about a villain called Archie Sugrue, who's trying to kill our hero on the field of a deadly future sport. 

I'm sure there's an anagram competition in Archie Sugrue / Artie Gruber somewhere!

[Gary James]

As the title of the thread is "How to Do a Prog Slog."

Tom Tully writes about a villain called Archie Sugrue...

I always had the nagging suspicion, much like the Dredd stories using real names for blocks, that a great many of these names were slightly hidden references to celebrities / sportsmen / politicians / whatever. When people list all the characters in a story it would be really helpful to indicate, where known, what is a reference.

There are a few blindingly obvious visual nods (Rondo Hatton, and the Carry On ensemble in Dredd, f'rinstance), but the names are so much harder to place for some reason.

Really wish someone would do a comparative study, looking at the relaunched Eagle, Radio Times, Look In, etc. (titles which always had popular figures present thoughout the eighties) to see where things were picked up from, and what was a dig at current trends. Seeing the threads which the fabric was constructed from could make some stories better (Harry 20, Fr1day, Night Zero) if the satirical elements weren't so far removed frm the text.

Or maybe that's something Rebellion could do - putting a comic strip beside the original script, and highlighting the details which, thanks to the passing of time, are now historical curios. Sorta like DVD trivia tracks.

Not that I'm asking a lot. 

[sheridan]

As the title of the thread is "How to Do a Prog Slog."

Tom Tully writes about a villain called Archie Sugrue...

I always had the nagging suspicion, much like the Dredd stories using real names for blocks, that a great many of these names were slightly hidden references to celebrities / sportsmen / politicians / whatever. When people list all the characters in a story it would be really helpful to indicate, where known, what is a reference.


Or maybe that's something Rebellion could do - putting a comic strip beside the original script, and highlighting the details which, thanks to the passing of time, are now historical curios. Sorta like DVD trivia tracks.

Not that I'm asking a lot. 

I can think of reasons Rebellion wouldn't want to do such as thing, even with the changes in laws regarding parodies/satires a few years back...

But there are two threads devoted to cultural references, puns and blatant rip-offs (and there's reference to an older thread, but it doesnt' say what the thread's called so the reference is pretty useless).

2000AD Sci-Fi Swipe File

Things that went over your head...

I have the same issue that Conrad and Fox have over in SpaceSpinner2000 in that I'm a little too young to get many of the cultural references (and I don't watch Coronation Street, which is apparently key to understanding Judge Dredd).  Or at least I'll be a bit too young for the next five years (in progs).  After that I'm both a) reading as they come out and more importantly b) old enough to understand the references at the time, many of which would be incredibly difficult to find out about forty years later.

p.s. always happy to get suggestions about how to improve the prog slog - I'll try to remember to mention the cultural references that I do understand.

[Gary James]

But there are two threads devoted to cultural references, puns and blatant rip-offs

Yeah... Divided on whether I ought to read those in their entirety or not - I think I indexed everything up to c.1992 (I know I didn't cover the Meg), and it is extremely tempting to see where I can fill in gaps on my own. Add it to the list of things that are as yet "pending".

I have the same issue that Conrad and Fox have over in SpaceSpinner2000 in that I'm a little too young to get many of the cultural references (and I don't watch Coronation Street, which is apparently key to understanding Judge Dredd).

If you think Tooth is difficult to "get" all the jokes, references, and allusions, take a gander at 1940s and 50s comics sometime. I'm sure I only get about three percent of the references.

[sheridan]

2000AD Prog 186: "Get Ugly!" Revolting new craze sweeps Mega-City One!

Fox's favourite green-costumed superhero is back (in a reprint of an advert).

You've found a demonic creature on a frozen hell-planet?  And there's living cells in it liver?  Yes, let's clone it - what could possibly go wrong?

But Otto Sump is the main attraction this prog!  Cue plug for Mega-City Book Club's episode on Sump!

[sheridan]

2000AD Prog 187: In the Mean Arena you score first and check your wounds later!

Otto's advertising budget skyrockets as the Dredd tale takes a few commercial breaks!

[Gary James]

"Great balloon" is a weight reference - comparing someone's shape to a balloon.

To the thought about annuals: even in the early 90s - when the annuals became yearbooks - distribution was really spotty, and it wasn't just 2000 AD (or even Fleetway titles) as some Marvel annuals didn't seem to make an appearance up until right before Christmas.

[M.I.K.]

"Great balloon" is a weight reference - comparing someone's shape to a balloon.

That's not my reading of it.

"Balloon" is a particularly Scottish insult, which can mean either someone who is full of hot air or somebody whose head is full of nothing but air, (dependent upon context/regional variation).

[sheridan]

"Great balloon" is a weight reference - comparing someone's shape to a balloon.

That's not my reading of it.

"Balloon" is a particularly Scottish insult, which can mean either someone who is full of hot air or somebody whose head is full of nothing but air, (dependent upon context/regional variation).

Thanks M.I.K. - I'll have to remember to look for a Scottish slang dictionary next time I get confused by something Wagner and Grant have written!

[Gary James]

"Balloon" is a particularly Scottish insult...

In all my time in Scotland I've never come across the phrase, so I'll defer to you - given that it is written by Alan Grant... Yeah.

You might want to add that to Urban Dictionary.

I'll have to remember to look for a Scottish slang dictionary next time I get confused by something Wagner and Grant have written!

There's some online (alas without that particular use of the word).

[M.I.K.]

Just so ye ken ah'm no makin' this up... One link and another.

Also worth noting for future reference that there's a tramp called "Clarty" in the Judge Dredd "Fungus" storyline.

[sheridan]

Great stuff - though I suspect if I look up everything I don't entirely ken in Grant/Grover's scripts then I'll be making one blog post every two days :-)

[sheridan]

Speaking of research - I've managed to get a few progs ahead this weekend (so I'm not finishing one post just past midnight on the day it's being published) so I'm on prog 191.  It has a centrespread poster which ties in to posters published in the same week in Roy of the Rovers, Tiger and Battle - anybody here know where I can see what the other posters looked like?