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***Seems a decent bloke but hopefully Bradley and Universial Soldier will remain in limbo. Luke Kirby was better but a bit too gently paced for my liking***

McKenzie's come in for a lot of stick over the years, but I've always had a lot of respect for the original Luke Kirby story, Summer Magic. Some of the later series were let down when they was drawn by people other than John Ridgway.

Regards

Robin

***1) Wasn't aware of the Mills situation.***

Reading between the lines over the years, and sometimes the lines themselves, the impression one gets is that Pat Mills, as a human being, is not very pleasant.

(And as a writer he's not what he was, either.)

Regards

Robin

***The Kraken Wakes is another of Wyndhams tales about mankind being toppled from his place at the top of the pole.

Micheal and PhYl reminded me strongly of Paul and Steve Temple, the resourceful, surprising wife and the solid, trustworthy investigative husband. For a book written half a century ago, in a male dominated genre, Phylis gets more of a stab at the limelight than most spouses do and theirs a revelation in the final pages that shows she was thinking of the future when her husband was just living in the present***

####SPOILERS####


That's one of the things I loved about this book. For ages, you're given the impression that Phylis is stressed because she can't cope with what's happening. In reality, she's way ahead, planned and organised, and the reason she's been so stressed is because her husband's continual nightmares have been keeping her awake! Given what I've come to expect of 50's SF (mostly from the movies), this book was a revelation and a pleasure to read.

If you haven't read 'The Trouble with Lichen' check it out. Great book, again with a central female character who is well on the ball.

Regards

Robin

"I'm probably in the minority but I really like Carlos's colour work and, unlike most, prefer the computer colouring to the watercolours."

I like his colour work too, and some of his computer colouring has been brilliant. I remember a one-off Dredd featuring some sort of electrical monster, with the streets full of lights and neon - the pages were almost lit up.

Of course, that doesn't diminish the quality of his plain old black and whist, and personally I'd be happy to see a lot more of it in general.

Regards

Robin

"What are your thoughts on the proposed name change to 3000AD?

It's generally seen as a bad idea here on the board but I kinda think it was another missed opportunity, especially with Rebellion taking over at the time.

They could have had a relaunch. A new first issue ect...

The title 2000AD seems a bit dated now, when I was a kid the year 2000 seemed a lifetime away, it was the proper future. Now it's seven years ago, no longer the future but the ever distant past."

I agree with you entirely. Over on alt.comics.2000ad I argued pretty hard at the time for 3000AD - it was a simple change that would have kept the title recognisable but futuristic.

Hardly anyone agreed with me.

Nineteen Eighty-four, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the like were all cited as reasons why there was was no need for a change. The fact that we were talking about an anthology comic and not classics of literature and film didn't seem to bother anyone. People also argued that lots of websites and the newsgroup would have to change their names too, as if that was somehow relevant to the on-shelf image of the comic itself.

Some of the argument was based around the idea that 2000AD is recognisable brand name. I've never bought that argument - it might be recognisable to a few sad old thirty-somethings, most of whom who quit reading in the 80s, but nobody else.

Regards

Robin

"'Alone In A Crowd' anyone? Back in '83, I thought the very idea of a crowd not helping someone being mugged to be inconceivable. I wouldn't be surprised now.
Stupid gameshows? There are so many now, so brain numbingly pathetic, it's like they could only be conceived by the minds of Wagner and Grant as a parody. Except these are created in earnest by ITV/BBC etc.."

To be honest with you, gameshows were probably even stupider and more common back in the 70s and 80s. Blankety Blank? 3-2-1? The only gameshows I'm conscious of these days are The Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and these seem to require at least a little bit of knowledge. But then I don't watch much TV these days.

As to the point regarding 'Alone in a Crowd', I'd need some evidence to convince me that people were more likely to help a mugging victim then than now.

One way Britain (and I mean all of it) is absolutely not like Mega-City One is that nobody seems to actually care about the laws and the police are hamstrung. Stupid bastards drive round using their mobile phones and putting other people's lives at risk, grown adults piss in the streets, and kids give you verbal abuse when you suggest that cycling on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic across a major junction is a bit dangerous.

I think we could do with being a little more like Mega-City One - bring on the Judges.

Regards

Robin

"And when Jade Goodie opened a beauty salon there were obvious parallels."

Please don't say things like that. I almost did myself an injury laughing.

Regards

Robin

"That is indeed the plan - I think there's four (maybe five) of these chunky case-files type releases, then a final colour GN to round off the series."

That's great news. By my rough calculation, The Final Solution plus the post-Alpha colour stuff by Ennis and Hogan amounts to about 300 pages, so that would make a fantastic final volume.

In the event that Rebellion doesn't have access to the Strontium Dogs Poster Prog (it might be an obscure item, I don't know) I'm happy to help out if they need a copy to scan.

Regards

Robin

My copy arrived yesterday, and I'm very, very pleased with it. Unlike the Dredds, there is new material here for me. I've never seen most of the Starlord stories before, and as Mutie's Luck and The Doc Quince Case have never (to my knowledge) been reprinted elswhere I've not read those before either. All in all, a lovely looking package.

I was surprised to see Alpha's sister appearing in one the Starlord stories - she's married to a guy called Nigel. In Portrait of a Mutant (not in this volume, of course), there's a scene where she tells her father that she's leaving with Nigel. I was amused to see that continuity had been respected.

Some people have mentioned the potential problems when it comes to reprinting the six coloured episodes that concluded The Final Solution storyline. I'm sure the powers that be have already thought about this, but can I suggest that the best solution would be to have a final volume (or two or however many) in colour that contains not just this colour story, but the various Ennis and Hogan Strontium Dogs series that followed (including the Poster Prog).

I know not everyone liked that stuff, but Ennis had his moments and Hogan was very successfully and interestingly rebuilding the setting until Dave Bishop gave him the heave-ho.

Like many fans I'm a completist, and I'd dearly love to have a properly complete series. Hell, I'd like Tales from the Doghouse too!

Regards

Robin

***Metalzoic and Nemesis almost naturally fit because the same creators are involved and the style is similar.***

"That's the kind of thing that just makes no sense to me. Why would it even occur to anyone to try and fit these two stories together?"

Heh. I knew this one would cause trouble!

Very simply, take a look at the second Nemesis story, Killer Watt. In it, you see the surface of Earth, rather than the underground realm of Termight. On the opening page, you have a gigantic robot Gooney Bird looking very much like Concorde, picking up a series of train carriages to feed to its babies like a giant worm. There are even some little bi-planes with mouths and claws buzzing round scavenaging for left-overs.

Metalzoic is a vision of the world above Termight. I'm not sure where exactly to place it in the chronology of the far future (pre-, contemporary, post-Torquemada?), but it works.

Just my opinion of course, but I justify it on the basis of:

1) a cross-over of ideas (robots and machines evolved to fill niches left by extinct animals)

2) same writer

3) same artist

4) appeared in 2000AD

5) doesn't conflict with any timeline or storyline

6) adds something interesting to the 'future history'.

Regards

Robin

+++I've always thought one of the great strengths of 2000AD as opposed to other comics publishers was that stories are kept separate.

"This is true, I think it would end up a huge mess if the characters integrated more."

Perhaps surprisingly, I actually agree. It's hard enough as it is, without adding more. And as someone else pointed out, some of the Dredd- spin-offs are a bit messy.

When it comes down to it, the only series I would include are (in rough chronological order):

Disaster 1990
Invasion 1999
Harlem Heroes (original)
Ro-Busters/ABC Warriors
Dredd
Robo-Hunter
Strontium Dog
Dante
Metalzoic
Nemesis

There are clear links between these (Dante is tenuous and Robo-Hunter is controversial, but neither are much of a problem for a while yet) and they are all classic 2000AD series.

Regards

Robin

Yes, I have. However, it's still unfinished - I'm missing the 2122- present period of Dredd and have only started the Strontium Dog era (I'll be including Ennis and Hogan's runs, but not Abnett's). Dante will go in there too, evenutally.

I was going to post it here, but I know if I do a lot of people with start modifiying it, and it could even end up on a Wiki. Hopefully, when I get it properly sorted out I'll offer it to Wake if he wants it.

Regards

Robin

"I can't stomach Barry Kitsons artwork and compairing him to Bolland is (for me anyhow) so far off the mark it's unreal."

Are you sure you're thinking about the same artist as me?

The following site has a Kitson and Bolland side by side:

http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/sputnik/53/megacity.htm

Of these two samples the Bolland definitely has the edge over the Kitson, but at the time Bolland was the older and more experienced artist. Even so, it's still not a bad picture of Anderson, and I'd point to The Return of Deathfist as one of the best drawn Dredd's ever - there have been few fights as well choreographed as this. The couple of Stan Lee stories since have been been let down by artists who couldn't handle fight scenes with the same detail and elegance as Kitson.

Of course, the Cliff Robinson sample above them wipes the floor with both.

Regards

Robin

"OZ was definitely marred by having a conglomerate of artists, would have been better had Cam and McCarthy drawn it all as was originally intended."

I could have done with Barry Kitson at least doing all of the race. I was really annoyed when Jim Baikie suddenly took over.

(Under-rated artist, Barry Kiston - at least the equal to Bolland or Ron Smith, and probably better, but few people ever mention him. I guess he just never drew enough for people to really remember him.)

Regards

Robin

"Another great cover. It'd be nice to have a collection of Langley ABC covers for each warrior."

Agreed. This is one of the best covers for a while. It's a hell of a striking image and Langley's managed to keep it fairly clear and bright. It's a shame 'Beauty and the Beast' obscures part of the picture.

It's great to see the Warriors looking like machines again.

Your suggestion that there be a series of covers depicting all the Warriors is a good one.

Regards

Robin