Thrills that Failed to Live Up to the Hype (for you)...

[Daveycandlish]

I realise I may be run out of town for this, or chased from these boards with pitchforks and torches, but I don't like Shakara. I know everyone else loves it, but it just left me cold, and the latest story was just skipped over when I was reading the prog. I just don't get it, and have no inclination to go back and try it again

[Jared Katooie]

I was indifferent to Dante for ages. Then came The Courtship of Jena Makarov. I loved it. A great story that really made me see the potential for the character. When I saw the promo for Tsar Wars, you better believe I was hyped to the hilt.

I hated it.

I have no problem with dark or even depressing stories, but Tsar Wars always felt more maudlin than tragic. The abrupt shifts in tone, with Dante prancing about heroically one minute and cold-bloodedly murdering his enemies the next didn't help.

Since then I've hated Dante, the self-righteous whining git. At least it keeps Robbie Morrison off Dredd. If he writes another one of those beauties I might just have an anuerysm.

[Paul faplad Finch]

I realise I may be run out of town for this, or chased from these boards with pitchforks and torches, but I don't like Shakara. I know everyone else loves it, but it just left me cold, and the latest story was just skipped over when I was reading the prog. I just don't get it, and have no inclination to go back and try it again

You aren't alone.

[Van Dom]

I was indifferent to Dante for ages. Then came The Courtship of Jena Makarov. I loved it. A great story that really made me see the potential for the character. When I saw the promo for Tsar Wars, you better believe I was hyped to the hilt.

I hated it.

Similar story here. I wasn't reading 2000ad at the time Dante started, but my brother was, and he kept going on and on about how it had "got good again" with the likes of Nikolai Dante and Sinister Dexter. He was constantly pushing them on me wanting me to read them, but I was kind of done with 2000ad at that stage and had no inclination to return to the fold just then. Eventually, after years of him going on about Dante I let him loan me the first three trades....and I just did not see what he was going on about. I couldn't get through the first book!!!

Since coming back in 2006, I've managed to catch up on nearly all of Dante and don't mind it so much now. Do think its gone on just a tad too long though and am glad to hear Tharg in this weeks Nerve Centre say it is reaching its climax soon.

[DrJomster]

Dante for me too but I have a strong suspicion it's because I only started reading partway through. Must get the trades one of these days and start from the beginning...

[chris_askham]

I realise I may be run out of town for this, or chased from these boards with pitchforks and torches, but I don't like Shakara. I know everyone else loves it, but it just left me cold, and the latest story was just skipped over when I was reading the prog. I just don't get it, and have no inclination to go back and try it again

So Dave, I guess you're not exactly chomping at the bit for the coming week on the Weekly Themed Art Blog, eh? 

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

That's right: Kingdom really was swallowed in the hype and enthusiasm over Origins, The Volgan War and Stickleback.  It was the one that people weren't paying attention to.  (Clearly, as all the recent debate over when it was set and when the flashbacks in story four took place proved, none of us remembered that the date is clearly set by the revived human around episode six.)

Umm, I seem to have missed this. When is it set, then?

[Richmond Clements]

I realise I may be run out of town for this, or chased from these boards with pitchforks and torches, but I don't like Shakara. I know everyone else loves it, but it just left me cold, and the latest story was just skipped over when I was reading the prog. I just don't get it, and have no inclination to go back and try it again

You aren't alone.

Nope... I read it and wish- wish- I loved it like everybody else seems to...

[Jim_Campbell]

Nope... I read it and wish- wish- I loved it like everybody else seems to...

I dunno... I love me a chunk of Shakara action, but I can't imagine buying any of the Shakara TPBs, because the strip works entirely in the context of an anthology title -- the plot is pretty much entirely superfluous and it's all about Henry.

If this was a US monthly then it simply wouldn't work but the beauty of an anthology is that there should always be room for one strip where you can step back and watch an artist knock the fucker out of the park every week. And that's it, for me, with Shakara.

(No disrespect to Robbie M, because I think there's exactly enough plot in Shakara to make it work.)

I mean, seriously: the long-thought-dead saviour of your race turns out to be its exterminator and is hell-bent on annihilating the universe, so has ranged the hardest bastards in the galaxy against you, so you turn a whole planet into a missile and plough through the fuckers. How is that not a big SF concept on a Millsian scale?

Cheers

Jim

[CrazyFoxMachine]

the beauty of an anthology is that there should always be room for one strip where you can step back and watch an artist knock the fucker out of the park every week.

This. I don't remember a great deal of hype for Shakara. I just remember feeling the warm glow of a strip which started with Earth being destroyed AND THEN WENT FROM THERE. Iconic, perfect and so damn good I called myself it on the forum in my fragile virgin days. Anyone want to do a concept album featuring "The World Engine" "The Sun Gun" and "The God Machine"?!

[BPP]

Threads like this always have me shaking my head in disbelief.

Yer all mad. Go read them again.

[The Adventurer]

My favorite non-Dredd serials of the last 6 years (since I started reading 2000 AD) have been Nikolia Dante, Shakara, Kingdom, Red Seas, Stickleback, and Caballistics Inc. Shakara and Kingdom in particular are two of the finest ongoing science fiction action comics I have ever encountered in my life. But I completely understand that there are certain types of people those two serials won't appeal to. I think that's ultimately the great strength of the serial anthology, variety. Something for everybody, you don't need to like everything. Now, I'm not generally the type to skip comics I've paid for. I mean, I slogged through the most recent Necrophim installment, with its labored story and stiff artwork. But I'm not going to act shocked if someone actually likes this sort of thing. And you never know when something is going to surprise you if you give it a few chances (see: most recent Ampney Crucis Investigates)

On topic...
I think the strip that let me down the most was Breathing Space. That Dredd-World strip about Luna-1. It started out promising, a moon based crime noir thing. But... it never really got anywhere. I think I was mostly annoyed with its great potential lost.

I suppose also Detonator X. Ian Edgerton is typically a favorite of mine, and everything in the Edgerton-verse is generally great (even Ampney Crucis Investigates), but this one was just a mish-mash. Again, it had a great concept (giant robots vs giant monsters. How do you get this wrong?), but nothing ever clicked for me.

And yeah, The Ten Seconders always felt sloppy. Even before the second series got screwed by artist change ups. I should give the first series a reread though... its been a while.

I know I was pretty excited for all three of the following series before they arrived, and left feeling let down.

[The Adventurer]

I suppose in terms of readership Hype; while I was getting more and more classic 2000 AD under my eyes thanks to the Extreme Editions and TP line in the late 2000s. The one thing I kept hearing over and over again was how great and classic Nemesis the Warlock was. And how essential it is too read.

But when I finally got to it in the chunky 'casefiles' collections it left me stone cold. I think its because, as I have learned, Pat Mill's writing style just doesn't do it for me on any level. Nemesis, ABC Warriors, Slaine... just not my bag it seems.

And after all the hype, that's disappointing.

[Darren Stephens]

Wow, really? ABCs, Slaine and Nemesis are 3 of my favourite strips in 2000AD...ever! As for thrills that left me cold, I would say the return of the V.Cs. A shadow of it's previous self, despite some nice artwork and an pretty good script. It just didn't seem to work, for some can't-put-finger-on-it reason! 

[The Adventurer]

Man, I loved the Dan Abnett V.Cs. Anthony Williams is an under utilized art droid IMO. I also read it before I read the original, (also started on like book 4...) I thought it was a great little space war series, with a fun cast and some great design (which I know where that comes from now).