The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

[Colin YNWA]

And so the end is near...

...and Dante faces his final curtain.
His father he's done in
And his mother is dead now for certain.

The Tsar is on the run
And he and Jena are more than flirtin'

but more, much more than this
Dante end did it the best way...

Okay I lost that towards the and I'm kinda glad as though praise through song is good, its does rather under play how mind meltingly good the end of Dante is. Across 17 parts Robbie Morrison, Simon Fraser and John Burns play a perfect tune. The 11 part 'The Wedding of Jena Makarov' the action adventure concludes. In a perfectly time piece of comics Morrison and Fraser just wind up the tension and the stakes. They play the reader like fiddles, stringing us along with the cut and thrust of the final conflicit between and similarly captured and doomed Dante and Dmitri Romanov and his Imperial force and the army of thieves and whores. Its just a perfectly played action piece, with so much emotional punch as is befitting this epic.

After that there's just the mopping up of plot lines and characters to be done. In 'The Dante Gambit' however Morrison and Burns, who gets a fitting story to end his contribution on, makes it feel like so much more than just mopping up. They bring to the end a number of stories in style and make it feel like it matters. They've made us really bond with these characters over the years and here the expertly give them all space and time to have a final bow before their audience.

One more to go.

Elsewhere 'Day of Chaos' continues to grind us and Mega City One down. Christ its tense, I know there's no hope!

Flesh Book 2 runs hot and cold at the same time. Zaucer of Zilk positively dances and Age of the Wolf is once again close but not quite there.

There are the end times, but they are good times.

[Colin YNWA]

Wobbles can be golden too

Okay so we know Dante is about to end and between 'The Marriage of Jena Makarov' we're just waiting for 'Sympathy for the devil to begin'. Will that be the marker of the end of times, the end of golden days? Well we'll see but heading into the last Dante we do have a wobble, but after so much good we're okay with a wobble... or is that more.

Firstly Age of the Wolf Book 2 is pretty weak. I'll be honest I'm not sure what its point was. Not that it didn't move things on, it certainly did. I'm just not convinced what it was moving on was worth the effort, or what exactly it was trying to say. The art struggled as well.

Elsewhere while we're looking back not forward. The great thing about this Golden Ages is while it did so much good stuff with its good stuff, its great as it strove forward, created some many new, wonderful thrills. In the 1780's we get Cadet Anderson, Retro Durham Red and Flesh. None a problem in themselves, in fact on re-read I've really enjoyed 'Cadet Anderson - Algol' by Grant and The Mighty Yeowell, its been a fun little... something. 'Flesh - Midnight Cowboy' is close but its a set of frustrations alas. I mean Gorehead was almost cast into the future, turning the food from the past into the diners on the future. With lots fractions to extend the story beyond T-Rex eats folks and Reagan and Carver on the fringe this would have been fantastic. Instead we get another band of seven... somethings and a story that never quite makes its mind up OH and makes such glaring scientific errors... okay okay a story about cowboys fighting dinosaurs gets a pass. Or should. The idea that killing some of ancestral creatures of human will kill some of the humans is utter poppycock and gets the way evolution works entirely wrong... if Uncle Pat wants to bash science maybe he should learn how it worlds first rather than just placing it as another monolithical institution to bash...

... sorry this is getting needlessly personal... or self absorbed if you like...

But if this is a wobble how come there's still so much good here. There's some fantastic one off Terror Shocks type things and there's 'Zaucer of Zilk' which has the same dandy and wonder as something like Hewligan's Haircut. Its fizzy, its exciting and its fun... oh and it looks just fantastic, no surprise there.

So there's much to love and we're not just waiting to see off Dante and the wobble is wobbling on very, very strong foundations...

... oh and over in Dredd, Day of Chaos has its own wobble with a needless and distracting Dark Judge's storyline... or do we need the distraction because it continued to grind and grind and grind, quite magnificently and it feels so dreadful and relentless. Its like having weights slowly placed on your chest, slowly, unremitantly crushing you and forcing the hope out of you... but christ alive its magnificent torture.

So yeah we're fine and in Prog 1786 Dante is back for its swansong. The question though remains while it also be the golden age's swansong as well - i predict not - but before we find out lets enjoy the swansong for what it is.

[Funt Solo]

Ah - you're at the stage where my coma read got started, more or less. What can I say, except:

[AlexF]

I must say, if Age of the Wolf II and nuFlesh are the bad parts of this Golden Age, that puts it streets ahead of the first Golden Age, which had to contend with second-half Mean Arena, Rogue on Horst and the interminable Garpetbaggers...

[Colin YNWA]

I must say, if Age of the Wolf II and nuFlesh are the bad parts of this Golden Age, that puts it streets ahead of the first Golden Age, which had to contend with second-half Mean Arena, Rogue on Horst and the interminable Garpetbaggers...

Yeah I have to say I agree entirely. The Old Golden Age had some glorious highs - but some crushing lows. The nuGolden Age is far, far more consistent.

But all good things come to an end alas.



One end, two ends. But The End?

Well I'm not going to answer that. As to whether this is the end of the NuGolden Age? I don't think its is but that's one for time to tell. What we do know is that two long running stories reach an end.

Firstly Day of Chaos drops, seeming suddenly, off the end. But that's the genius of this ending. Day of Chaos works so well, even on re-read, by playing with your hope. We are so used to Dredd, indomitable saving the day. Even when on his knees and seemingly powerless, he somehow finds a way. This has been underlined - so brilliantly in the TOP THREE mega Epic 'Tour of Duty'. In 'Day of Chaos' however John Wagner and assorted artists toy with that, play with our assumption of Dredd's ultimate victory so masterfully that even on re-read, when we know how it ends, its still impossible not to hope. Not to stir in stunned disbelief as each new hope slips away. And so the end is a touch of complete genius, when it just sharply drops away. Cuts off the hope and end with a brutal, horrific counting of the cost.

This is an epic is of failure, of the system, of the man, of the one hope they gave the citizens, that pay so much to have them there. They fail to even protect them. And it all just suddenly drops away and cruelly, viciously suddenly ends. Its harsh and its fitting. Its also gives Wagner his end to Dredd that he will never get to deliever. It gives us Wagner's end to Dredd we would otherwise never get to read.

Nikolai Dante's endings in the following issue 1791 is utterly different. In the 6 part ending 'Sympathy with the Devil' Morrison and Fraser utterly end the story we need to see, that will entertain and in doing so brilliantly open the world to give is the ending we want to craft for the Dante we have made. To allow us to craft the next phase as suits where we want to go, but that won't make great reading in 2000ad.

Dante marries Jena, they rule magnificently and are happy ever after? That's not 2000ad

Dante marries Jena and becomes twisted and broken through the weight of responsibility and lust for power that The (former) Tsar predicts for him. That's not 2000ad.

Dante does a runner, but now a hero has not space for folrics and hi-jinxs and he's crushed by regret and has been beaten by the Tsar who in death has finally robbed Dante of the hope he sort. That's not 2000ad.

So none of those tales, or any others are for the comic. But Morrison and Fraser leave all those stories to us, for us to choose and tell and we see fit.

Now that is a magnificent ending. In Dredd we get Wagner's. In Dante we get our own.

Ending are bitter sweet, they can be hard. But done well they can be wonderful things.

[TordelBack]

Seldom does I agree so unreservedly with a conclusion, never mind two I  threw same post. Endings are THE hardest things to get right, in fiction as in life, but both of these endings are perfect. Robbie has the advantage here in that his actually sticks. What a triumph it would have been if John"s had too.

[Colin YNWA]

What a triumph it would have been if John"s had too.

But no more Dredd - surely the price would be too high?



But its not over is it...

So after those ending we're into a downward patch for sure... right... well actually yes. But its the quality of that drop that we have to marvel at. As we head towards Prog 1800 we have much to consider.

I mean things aren't perfect. Dredd post DoC gets off to an unplanned started with two stories that clearly had no sense of the consequences of Wagner's Epic. But even there Al Ewing gives us Judge Maitland, a fantastic addition to Dredd's supporting cast... even if some folks seem to forget she's African Caribbean for some reason. Mike Carroll soon gets the DoC back on track with some fantastic stories with a real sense of the desperation of both the Justice Department and the citizen's of Mega City One.

Elsewhere we have Lenny Zero return in a story - Zero's 7 - that might be a little bit of an unpleasent thing, if it wasn't for the fact its a decently plotted heist caper, but beyond that has nothng to say and so is curiously forgettable for something that seems to be trying hard to be stunning, with a fascinating cast.

The other three (or four) strips though really remind us what this golden ago is made of. Fantastically diverse strips and restless innovation.

Red Seas - Beautiful Freak gives us one of this series heartly side steps with a story set in modern times. Its as fun as a story featuring a quantum tortoise sounds... assuming you think a quantum tortoise sounds fun as I do. When this one is quickly over we get a reminder of the wonderful function 3riller's have within Tharg's arsenal with a neat little number called '15' by Tom Taylor (is that the Tom Taylor?).

Aquila makes its debute in Prog 1792 - well it appeared in Prog 2012ad, but that was a one off and this is its first series and its highly effective. I hadn't remembered how much until re-read. Its hard, exciting and I can make myself forgive a few historical inaccuracies - after all I sure there weren't many seven foot immortal souless warriors (and Spartans' of the same ilk) in 60's Britannia - so a few quibbles over how Londinium and the Boudican revolt are portrayed seem a bit silly! Nice panel of the battle of Watling Street which gives quite a neat summary of how the Roman's won that one... anyway more importantly this is a fantastic new thrill.

Less new, but just as fantastic is the second outing of 'Ichabod and its title of outrageous length'. Another one I have dismissed a little too quickly in my mind. In my head canon this second series sits a little clumsy between two superb bookend series. No such things its a fantastic piece of the work. It develops the use of colour perfectly and drives the central themes of the whole piece forward with grim certainty.

Any comic will miss DoC and Nikolai Dante at its finest - but 2000ad is now has a squad of such depth that it quickly finds more than adequate subs to fill the gaps.

[Colin YNWA]

The Muck 'n' nuBrass Age -

I popped back to the Prog review thread for this one (no need to try to filter things through the addled memory cave that hides so much inside the YNWA noggin anymore - I just look up what I thought about things). I went primarily to see if I bitched and moaned again about a four thrill jumping on Prog and how slight it feels. This was my immediate thought on this re-read. There is a secondary one which I will return to...

... but Self absorbed YNWA, now only 8 years my junior, was far to busy being blown away by the new thrill in the issue - a new thrill also being a pre-requistite of a great jumping on Prog - in this case Brass Sun. Man it gets off to a flier. I mean a really engaging first part that pulls you in and hooks you from the off, as Wren is summoned by her Grandfather, given a quest and then sent off on her tauntaun into the snowy wastes as said Grandfather is brutally captured... A quick scan shows me not alone and it seems to be widely hailed - quite rightly.

Now back to that secondary thought as I read this and that was - Christ I miss Brass Sun. See it will stay uniformly excellent as I recall and I'm well lookin' forward to reading it all again over the coming months. The trouble is its been missing from the Prog for quite some time now (over 2 1/2 years by a quick search). And there we find one of the dilemma's Tharg finds himself with. As we enter a period where I will be debating whether the nuGolden Age ends, or not, we will need new and exciting thrills to bloister up the NOT vote. The trouble is there is only so much creative juice to go around. So while I lament the lose of Brass Sun, I of course hail the arrival of Brink... can both co-exist - well maybe but that would be a hell of a strain on the INJ Culbard droid.

That said there are occasions when Tharg will need to look at his balance and distribution of resource. I mean yes of course I want more The Out, but if that means no more Grey Area - also making a magnificent return in Prog 1800, that's a big cost. Stickleback will be back soon, but then soonish also leave us for 6 years! As the creators ... well create.

I've literally this evening just sung the praises of the March 2021 solicitations for the strength of the line-up that includes so many thrills from the last year or so - that's fantastic and something we need to support and applaude. The trouble is we also need to keep an eye on the cost and reading the first episode of Brass Sun a strip now 'only' 9 years old, I worry how many of the new strengths will also expose new weaknesses...

[Funt Solo]

The idea of reducing the variety of any given prog by allowing double-episodes is something I dislike in theory but often don't care about in practice.

I *think* the first prog to do it was 450, with the 14-page "A Merry Tale of the Christmas Angel", which only left room for The Ragnorak Job and Tomb of Terror. Still: pretty good lineup.

Then there's prog 900, the single-tale Dredd / Fr1day crossover Casualties of War.

Prog 1013 is (again, maybe) the first use of the scheduling get-out-of-jail-free use of a double episode to close things off before the next prog's jump-on. We get a double-episode of Black Light.

After that, it happens quite frequently: progs 1034, 1049, 1061, 1062, 1075 (1077 is all-Dredd "In the Year 2020") & 1078. Then something breaks and we get an extended period where Sinister Dexter stories are always doubled-up ten (or fifteen) pagers all the way through 1084-1095.

Then it tails off, like my post...

[Colin YNWA]

When its Golden watch the team that allows the stars to perform

Once you get past Prog 1800 and head towards the end of the year its easy to get distracted by one thing and I'll certainly be coming back to Trifecta, a thrill so bold you can hear Tharg telling us not to worry that Dante is over, he's got it covered. The Prog has a lot else to offer and looking back at the thought of nascent Self Absorbed YNWA its clear good as that thrill was Brass Sun is the stand out at this time.

I'm sure we'll come back to that too - I'm quite sure.

But there's more besides. ABC Warriors hits a rich vein of form as Hammerstein crashes back down to earth, exposes Millians conspiracies and fights prejudice - is it just me or does Mills have Hammerstein meet a Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn charcter as he crashes into lake just to emphasis this theme? - and defies the stories interstory logic with breathtaking ease - yet for some reason I find it fresh and exciting in a way it has no right to be. Maybe rather than being exposed by what surrounds it, its elevated? The joy of the quality it keeps company with washing it along on the crest of a wave of superb comics, so it shares their momentum and power? Who knows, I'm enjoying it all the same.

There are other enjoyable things Tharg uses to set up the timing required to have his star strips to align. Grey Area has a fantastic short story in 'This Island Earth' as member of the ETC try to prevent an alien diplomat hide murderous acts behind diplomatic immunity. There's some great Twisted Tales as well. There's some very good short form Dredds allowing Cold Deck to join in perfect time.

The strip I'd like to focus on is one of my favourite ever one offs 'Terror Tale - Blackspot' by John Smith and Edmund Bagwell. The sign of a good one off is you remember it. Even good ones burn bright but don't have the time to leave much of a mark. Especially when surrounded by great, longer form stories that have more opportunity make an impression. Its only when they are truly magnificent that I remember them. As is the case with this one.

In a recent thread some asked us to name our favourite one offs - this one sprang immediately to mind. Why? Well that's an interesting question. Its actually a very slight story

SPOILERS.

A couple arguing in a car strike what appears to be a person fleeing across the road at an accident blackspot - marked by a road sign detailing the numbers of victims. Getting out the soon realise that it wasn't a person, but bait to make them stop, leave their car and... They getted added to the numbers on the blackspots warning sign.

There, see there's nowt to it. This is all about the timing and execution. The first page is the couple bickering in the car. This sets the tone, gives the reader a sense of normality and reality. The 'accident' itself is sudden and silent - the drivers shock realised then they slowly get out and in the final two pages Bagwell lets loose with the horror - though of course the ultimate horror of the final killing is left to us.

Its just masterfully done and the genius of John Smith's earthy script is allow Edmund Bagwell to play to his own genius, his uncanny ability to render the absolute real, to ground things and then with the flick of a (digital) pen spring the incredible horror on us in full force.

In essence this Terror Tale is all (well most) that is wonderful about Cradlegrave done in 5 pages. Two creators distilling the core of the plot of that story into a condensed masterpiece.

So while we can celebrate the glories of Brass Sun and Trifecta we must not lose sight of the squad players that allow the superstars to do their attention grabbing best.

[Colin YNWA]

What makes something Golden?

So Brass Sun, its brilliant right. I mean really good and that's exemplified by the opening book - 'The Wheel of Worlds' but as I read it I was rather struck as to why.

After all its a pretty straight forward quest piece set in a steampunk(ish*) world. Its world should be implusible and the led character isn't immediately likable. So what makes it world. Well don't worry dear reader I've spelled it all out for you.

Bold themes, clearly defined but not overbearing.
Real characters. Wren, 17 (Septimus) and even Ramkin** who comes in at the end all feel real and rounded. There is more to each than meets the eye and none of them feel cliche. I'm particular fond of the no nonsense Wren, almost because she's  not immediately likable but is entirely engaging.
Action, but not at the expense of all and placed to aid pacing perfectly (wish this had been called Brass Planet - I need a P and an E (see below).
Sumptous art that defines character, place and atmopshere. INJ has a simplicity on the surface but his character's acting is second to none.
Suspense, mystery and intrigue to pull you through the story. This one has it in spades

Saddness, when it needs to it hits you where it hurts and does this very early to get you truly engaged with the charaters and gives you real feels, feels that the characters feel = yes this should be an 'F' or an 'E' for emotion (see above) but come on there's three 'S's gimme a break!
Unresolved plot elements - as the series clearly has the advantage of knowing its coming back, its gives you enough to be enjoyable, but leaves you wanting to know more. In this case very explicitly so...
Narrative cohesion. The world, its characters and the way everything pulls together makes perfect sense. Right from the off even though we're taking about a set of artifical worlds all connected by pipes to a Brass Sun it somehow feels grounded and real and you buy into it.

Tharg only knows why I've done this post like that. I suspect we won't be returning this format!

*I'll hold my hands up I'm never quite sure of the exact definition of steampunk, so its possible it might not be steampunk at all?

** One annoying thing this one does is fail to mention Ramkin's name episode to episode. A standard trick when writing 2000ad and there are plenty of opportunities to do so? It might well do it with characters, but I noticed it for Ramkin as I had to look it up when writing this - I think I've mentioned my shoddy memory in the past - don't ask me though I can't remember if I have./i]

[broodblik]

Just wish we can get some more Brass Sun. 

[Colin YNWA]

Just wish we can get some more Brass Sun.

You are of course entirely correct to do so. Brass Sun is probably the thrill I miss most.



Trifecta

Its a bit good isn't it... or is it... As Alex F points out in his recent reevaluation as part of the Judge Dredd Epics Ranked wonder blog...

https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html

... can it possibly live up to the experience of reading it 'live' and that thrilling rush of excitment as Dredd burst from his own strip into Simping Detective (or ... ahem ... a few pages after as it all finally clicked if your a numbnut noggin like me!) when you re-read it.

The answer is of course no it can't.

his was an absolute treat to experience live and a re-read is like trying to recapture the magic of your favourite live gig by buying a DVD of the event. It evokes powerful memories, but it will never quite capture the rapture of the event as it happened.

Self Absorbed YNWA went to Thought Bubble shortly after the strip breaking events of Prog 1807 and it was the talk of the town... well within the 2000ad nerdom I inhabited there. People were utterly psyched about the whole thing. I carried a copy of Prog 1807 with me, as I have subsequent cons and have it signed by all writers and artists involved in the issue (except Pat Mills who I've missed somehow) - yes I do have a seperate reading copy.

At the 40th bash one of the great original art collecting moments of my art collecting life happened. Chating to the lovely Simon Colbey and getting him to sign the aforementioned Prog, while regaling him with the excitment I felt when I read that door breaking page, he casually dropped the fact that he had that page (kinda - that's another story told on another thread) with him for sale. I couldn't believe it and for a bargain price, as its not quite as it appears in the Prog, but as close as its possible to get. And with apologise to Michael Dowling who I was going to spend the last of my original art money I took with me, I snapped it up without question or second thought. Still to this day my best purchase, as I say this page is the source of so much excitment...

... all this to say this story has had magnificent impact and I still think the courage to keep it hidden, to allow the surprise to land with FULL impact is an example of why 2000ad is so special. Its happy to do the brave things, to be bold and different. Any other company would have been publicising this to the hilt, maybe without specifics, to maximise sales. Tharg let it land as it should, utterly unexpected.Wonderfully with an ABC Warriors cover...

...how can it possibly live up to all that. Well it can't can it, but damn it, it gets pretty damned close. I was nervous coming into the re-read of this, trying to view it as just a story, nervous but excited. It holds up really well. As Alex F points out there is a lot going on. Not just in the three plot strands, as they weave in and out of each other, but in the three very distinct writing voices and art styles that realise this as well. Si Spurrier is particularly jarring and wonderful as ever, but his Simping detectove does read starkly different. And that I think is its great strength.

For me the fact it is so clearly three seperate stories and allows the three stories be themselves really works. After all the machinations behind the scenes mean the three protagonists don't know the actions and events, or even the involvement of the others in the overarching plot. So the genius is they are seperate and different and the ties that bind them suprisingly loose, until the end pulls them sharply together in the grand finale of Prog 1812. The brilliance here being Carl Critchlow, the perfect choice for art, somehow managing to embody all the very diverse art styles from the seperate stories, while being utterly his own. He's fantastic and the conclusion is hectic, chaotic and that works for the plot of the finale too.

Next time I read this I'm going to do so reading each story seperately, then Trifecta. I think it will work best like that. So for me this isn't a heroic failure. Or a story that can't stand the test of time, released from the fan excitment of its immediate execution. Its three bold and exciting stories given the extra delight of being bound together in a thrilling, bold and creative way that perfectly serves each of the stories. It might not capture the excitment of that original gig, but damn all those songs are still astonishly good on that DVD and they still send shivers down your spine when you here them again and recall.

Still not as good as Brass Sun mind!

[Colin YNWA]

2012

So when reviewing 2011 I was getting tired of loving the Prog quite so much it was making reviewing to get quite dull, there wasn't much to get my teeth into and even Slaine bashing was getting tiresome (and on a clock as I recall) - I mean how self absorbed is that! And as we approached 2012 I made this prediction...

And so we go into 2011 2012 and I strongly suspect its going to be much the same, just as this year and the year prior, building on what's gone before and creating new thrills to add to the pot.

BUT, but, BUT, we'll get an ending, a big ending. An important ending. And a question. As Dante goes does he leave leave a hole that even Tharg's form of late can't fill. Do we see a chink in the Golden armour? Are things going to start to weaken. We almost certainly won't get to answer that until the following year, but it will be interesting to see how the next couple of years develop...

And this is pretty much spot on. Its ANOTHER magnificent year - sigh. The details of which I've detailed but in summary

End of Dante - Magnificent - truly the best of comics
End of Day of Chaos - Magnificent
Trifecta - Magnificent

There's very few low points - Lenny Zero, Flesh has moments of struggle, Age of the Wolf isn't great... err that's probably it.

Then we get some brilliant new thrills

Grey Area - Very good, if not quite magnificent
Zaucer of Zilk - magnificent
Aquila - Very good
Brass Sun - Magnificent - truly the best of comics

And amongst that magnficent sandwich we get some great second runs for Icheybod and Absalom all is well.

Except change is in the air. Dante has indeed ended, with DoC Wagner ends his Dredd - well he doesn't be it feels like it marks the whining down after two back to back(ish) classic epics and Sinister Dexter is largely absent. The three thrills that really launched the rebuilding of 2000ad have either ended or changed significently. Red Seas is about to end... so while this year has been truly golden will it be the last? If it is how bad will it get. Well actually my prediction is not very bad at all!

I see 2013 likely to be a bit of a transition year. I don't think it will be the best. I don't think it will be of the standard of the last four, but I'm not convinced it will mark the end of the Golden Age, it will mark a low point in the golden age, but a pretty damned high low point and one that its easy to bounce back from.

After all Tharg hasn't been building these new thrills for nothing. No nothing will replace Dante, what could, but there are enough magnificent thrills that it would be truly self absorbed to worry to much. We're on a watching brief, but to be frank it won't be until 2014 if we can tell if the dip (if it happens) has truly marked an end of the nuGolden age , or just a bump in the road... if indeed bump we have...

[broodblik]

2012 was a good year. I actually enjoyed Age of the Wolf