Red Razors

[Colin YNWA]

Now I was pretty tired when I read this so that might have coloured by perspection a little, but I found it, well kinda ok I guess. Which to be honest was quite disappointing as I remember loving it when I first read it. I guess I went into it a little less expectantly than I might having just the second story in 2000ad which I just plain hated, but Steve Yeowell's brillant art soon got me hoping this might be the story that would break my run of whinging about Mark Millar stuff, Manic 5 aside. I guess in a way it did but not quite as emphatically as I'd hoped.

Its a fun little story but does feel like it trying a little too hard to be cool. It has some great characters, Mr Ed and some ok ones, Razors himself. The villians were, yeah ok not to bad and it was certainly chock full of ideas. The trouble is most of those ideas weren't terrible but weren't great either.  Yeah so Red Razors, fantastic art, the rest not bad.

[Mardroid]

I quite liked the first story of the GN. The second was rather too bleak for me though.

[Peter Wolf]

I seem to own 2 copies of this strip.

From the outset i didnt like the art or the colouring so that wasnt a good start.I managed to read half of it but never returned to finish it and odds are i wont as i wasnt enjoying it.

Unfortunately i have nothing more constructive to add.

[Dark Jimbo]

Yeah so Red Razors, fantastic art, the rest not bad.

I didn't even like the art!

[Dandontdare]

does feel like it trying a little too hard to be cool.

you've put your finger on it there. A good many other comics of that era suffered from the same affliction.

[Floyd-the-k]

trying too hard to be cool is a fair thing to say about it, but Red Razors was bags of fun, so I forgive it that.

[Devons Daddy]

i never got into it.
the art put me off, for some reason.

though as with such things. if i read it again now, my thoughts may well be differnt.
worth a look based on your suggestion alone.

[I, Cosh]

Like you Colin, The Hunt for Red Razors turned up in my Prog slog so I thought I'd make the effort to read the first one before I dug in. There's no doubt the second one's a load of brutally obvious, septic shite. The minute you first find out that Razors started out as a criminal, you're expecting a story where he reverts to that eventually but probably not the very next outing. It even has a conveyor belt.

However, if anything, I think the first story's worse. It's a premise that could be fun but is filled up with painfully unfunny pop culture references to Scooby Doo and Starsky & Hutch, which would probably both have been even more anachronistic when originally published before they were revived in the cinema. The absolute nadir comes when the chief baddie gives Razors the classic line: "You haven't got the balls to shoot me."

Not too offensive, you might think, and cliches are a staple of Millar and genre media in general. He's saying this to someone who has not only killed all his henchmen but who has already shot him with a different gun. Pretty much sums up the laziness of the writing. Plus I never like Yeowell's art to be coloured.

After that, Hunt for.. couldn't really do anything to put me off more.

[Radbacker]

there's one good idea in Hunt i think, thats the frozen weapon X's from Mega City 1.  Super secret kick arse uber judge that just happens to be a frozen Dredd (or Dredd clone they're never specific). 

CU Radbacker

[Art]

I kind of hate Red Razors - it's representative of the worst aspects of that era and the worst aspects of Millar's work. And it's just plain sloppy - it can't make it's mind up wether it's Sov Block 2 or East Meg 2, and I think at some point someone stroles from East Meg 2 into the ruins of East Meg 1. A horrible mess where everyone involved was capable of better.

(Oh, and the ruins of East Meg 1 are sort of controversial for some folks after I used them in Samizdat Squad - apparently The Inspectre featured a similar reconstruction effort that resulted in a bloody great city there. I can only admit that I went with the Millar continuity where it's still a hole in the ground not knowing anyone had done anything else with it, and since Millar's stuff is in the Dreddworld future, was written first and still in print it's probably got precidence, even though it's a terrible story. Also there's probably some credible explantion for both versions existing that involves time travel, quantum distortion and mind control.)

[The Adventurer]

I like to pretend the Uber Mega City Judge is Rico. I also like to pretend Red Razors never existed.

Because its fucking awful.

[Colin YNWA]

Well Nigel Dobbyn's art is nice in the second one and... no its the art that's it.

[JOE SOAP]

I can only admit that I went with the Millar continuity where it's still a hole in the ground not knowing anyone had done anything else with it, and since Millar's stuff is in the Dreddworld future, was written first and still in print it's probably got precidence, even though it's a terrible story. Also there's probably some credible explantion for both versions existing that involves time travel, quantum distortion and mind control.)

I think no one would mind if you ignored Millar continuity.

[radiator]

There's an interview with Nigel Dobbyn in this months Megazine, where he makes an entertaining confession about the series of Red Razors he illustrated (apparently the Megazine had rejected The Hunt for Red Razors which is why it ended up in 2000ad). He hated the strip so much that as a protest he deliberatley sabotaged the final page of artwork - apparently it was supposed to show a kid finding Razor's badge and holding it aloft in defiance, but Dobbyn drew it as the kid tossing it away in disgust.

[Steve Green]

I can only admit that I went with the Millar continuity where it's still a hole in the ground not knowing anyone had done anything else with it, and since Millar's stuff is in the Dreddworld future, was written first and still in print it's probably got precidence, even though it's a terrible story. Also there's probably some credible explantion for both versions existing that involves time travel, quantum distortion and mind control.)

I think no one would mind if you ignored Millar continuity.

I read that as continually.