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Messages - AlexF

#2206
General / Re: Question for any comics historians out there
07 September, 2015, 12:04:44 PM
Thanks for looking into it!
As far as 2000 AD credits go, at the time Tully had been writing Mean Arena for ages, but no other strips (he may've had some in Battle/Action, Eagle and what have you).

But the credits change from Tom Tully to A. Ridgeway for the last stretch (Progs 251-283). I have an idea that no one was especially enamored of the story at that point, but maybe Tharg had to keep running it because of all those readers who'd won a competition to have their Mean Arena team featured in the strip. So maybe Tully felt he was hacking it out more than usual, and wanted to hide behind some anonymity?

Or maybe the editor at the time had to rewrite the scripts a fair bit to shoehorn in the reader's teams, and so assigned a different script credit.

Aside from my own personal numbers game, this means nothing to anyone and doesn't matter a whit!
#2207
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
03 September, 2015, 10:33:20 AM
Serendipity: noun
    the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Cliff Robinson, subject of the last post, gets a full episode in this week's thrill-mail.
Paul Marshall, subject of the next post, is back in the public eye thatnks to his Dredd epic, Darkside, being reprinted in Case Files 25.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-43-paul-marshall.html
#2208
Other Reviews / Re: Dredd: The Complete Case Files
01 September, 2015, 09:40:57 AM
I'd imagine that the PDFs, contents and page count are already locked in for Case Files 26 at this point, but chalk me up as another one who doesn't want America II in there. Purely for selfish reasons as I'd rather see more Dredd stuff I haven't read in a while.

I'm assuming CF26 will include Fetish, of course, which is definitely a Dredd story but was also recently included in the Devlin Waugh collections. We might even get to see a Siku Dredd on the cover - one of the more distinctive versions out there. Biggest chin ever.
#2209
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
30 August, 2015, 09:16:05 AM
Thank you!
Not that I'd really want anyone to read it all twice, but people who've been their from the start may like to know I've been updating to fix typos and add newer pictures to old entries.
#2210
Yes indeed. And now it's impossible for me not to think of Dan Dare as the 'star player' and the galactic Council as the evil managers who want him dead!

Thanks Gordon!
#2211
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
28 August, 2015, 11:46:49 AM
Apologies for slowing down lately. I'll try to pick up the pace next week!

Anyway, on with the show: it's covers legend Brian Bolland Cliff Robinson
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-42-cliff-robinson.html
#2212
Thank you!
#2213
General / Question for any comics historians out there
27 August, 2015, 02:14:25 PM
Barney credits a writer named 'A. Ridgeway' with the last 30-odd episodes of the Mean Arena from way back in the 200s. Does anyone know anything about him/her? Was it a pseudonym for Tom Tully, or Steve Macmanus or someone else?
#2214
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
21 August, 2015, 09:36:21 AM
It's a vicious circle, isn't it. A writer like Smith derserves a creator-backed collection partly to help get him more fans, but it would only be viable if he had the fanbase in the first place.

Meanwhile, on with the blog...
In at Number 41 it's Simon Fraser.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-41-simon-fraser.html
#2215
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
14 August, 2015, 06:27:51 PM
At long last!
It's script droid supreme Peter Milligan. One of a handful of 2000 AD writers who deserves a book rather than a short blog post. I've never really understood why he didn't get the respect and acclaim of Grant Morrison.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-40-peter-milligan.html
#2216
I don't know if anything will beat the Dead Man for me - I was the exact right age to enjoy it, and there's something about the fact that Tharg was actively daring readers to guess who he really was. At the time, it could easily have been Johnny Alpha or Rogue Trooper, or indeed someone a bit more obscure like Bad Jack Keller or, hell, a golden oldie like Bill Savage or John 'Giant' Clay. That it ended up being the comic's biggest superstar was amazing.

Trifecta definitely wins it for 'most unexpected twist'.

Orlok the Assassin perhaps gets some sort of prize for being the subject of the most twists. He only actually appeared in maybe 3 episodes of Block Mania - and the fact that Block Mania was caused by Sov aggression was sort of a surprise, no? But he achieved enough fame there that his reveal in 'Age of the Wolf' was definitely played up as a big surprise, but a guessable one (as noted in the thread earlier). Then again he was a surprise villain in Triad. Then AGAIN in 'Childhood's end', where he actually pulls off a plastic face mask to show who he really is. Then AGAIN in Sin City, which didn't start off being about Sov revenge on Dredd, as I recall.

He's been dead for a decade at this point, but I wouldn't rule him out of one last surprise reveal...

I know we're not meant to include Future Shocks here, but I do love the double twist of Steve Moore's 'Slashman, Kowalski and Rat'.
#2217
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
09 August, 2015, 06:17:23 PM
One of 2000 AD's original superstars, Dave Gibbons:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-39-dave-gibbons.html
#2219
Other Reviews / Hondo City
03 August, 2015, 04:25:46 PM
What's the best way to read the collected tales of Hondo City, Shimura, Inspector Inaba and all that?

Should I try to get hold of the two recent Mega Collection volumes, or should I plump for the Rebellion Hondo City Law / Hondo City Justice volumes - or, sacrilege, even the old DC Shimura trade paperback? Is there an accepted reading order?

Or am I in fact better off just looking in the original Megs and not worrying about reading it all in one go? I've a feeling I like the art and the ideas significantly better than the actual stories...
#2220
News / Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
01 August, 2015, 07:36:39 AM