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Prog 2183: Regened - Five knockout thrills!

Started by Colin YNWA, 26 May, 2020, 03:29:18 PM

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DrJomster

Aren't these trying to attract new, and dare I say younger, readers? Given that, I thought this prog provided a strong selection of thrills to be honest, hitting a lot of the right notes.

For me, the regened prog is starting to really hit its stride. The big question for me is what's the next step in the master plan? I imagine this year's sales figures will be odd due to the pandemic, but hopefully all will be in the right direction.
The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.

Richard

I liked the Strontium Dog story. However in future I want to see stories where JA is an adult, rather than as a child just because it's an all ages issue. (Children don't want to read stories about children anyway.)

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 10:23:30 AMChildren don't want to read stories about children anyway.
They don't? I mean, they certainly don't always, but my kid tends towards strips that feature kids/tweens. Not fussed about adults at this stage.

GordonR

Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 10:23:30 AM
(Children don't want to read stories about children anyway.)

The briefest look at children's TV suggests this is utter bollocks.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Quick thoughts: I unexpectedly very much enjoyed this.

I say "unexpectedly" because the time between issues of Regened means that most of the comment that is fresh in my mind is the dimwitted lunacy on the various 2000AD Facebook groups, where people who claim to be fans seem not to know what the Megazine is, seem surprised the prog is still going, dont like girls, dont like female creators, dont like any gay or black characters because diversity or something, and have agreed that the Regened progs are a disgrace that real fans (presumably people who dont buy the comic but once had dads who bought it for them) should absolutely reject.

With that nonsense being shoved at my eyeballs, I tend to forget I quite like them when they show up.

This was, for me, the best one so far- with the slight caveat that the last Finder & Keeper was a stronger story. That's not to say there was anything wrong with this episode, but if youd swopped them around, there would be a noticeable upward curve across the whole package.

A particular highlight for me was the Future Shock- having as it did enough anti-monarchy sentiment to stand out as startling in a comic "for kids".

But blimey- that image of Anderson and the mind bomb... I've been reading Scarred For Life: The 1970s, and most notably the chapters about comics (and in fact was in the middle of a digression about it in the Smash! thread before my phone crashed, in reply to Tordleback's comments about Tammy & Jinty) and much is made of the deeply frightening nature of certain panels and illustrations in kids comics of that decade. I'd say the image of Anderson here is of the same ilk. If a small person were to get hold of this issue, while little in Dredd or Stront would trouble their sleep, *that* drawing of Anderson may very well be one of *those pages* that gets skipped over and hidden- like Wolfie Smith being menaced by a huge demon thing was for me all those years ago.

Add to that the amusing criticism and end of the monarchy, "the bloodshed of Charles III's reign", and dead kid ghosts in F&K, and I'd say that far from being anodyne and safe, this "kids version of 2000AD" was at least as challenging as those early issues we all love so much.

So yes, great stuff. More please- with the same sensibility. 2000AD works best when it's slightly dangerous. This was a step in very much the right direction.

SBT

The Monarch

okay so the cover for next week is on twitter atm and it err seems to have a different group of thrills than we were led to believe? :o

broodblik

Quote from: The Monarch on 28 May, 2020, 11:19:50 AM
okay so the cover for next week is on twitter atm and it err seems to have a different group of thrills than we were led to believe? :o

Saw it and yes it is completely different. It is only The Order and Full Tilt Boogie (which starts in 2185) which was mentioned in the solicitation.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)


broodblik

For the people who want to be surprised I am spoiler tag the rest of the stories:

[spoiler]Sinister Dexter, which I believe is the mega-epic mentioned before. The Disaboliks, mentioned in the xmas prog. This is by Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon.[/spoiler]


Yes pity about Slaine but some strong stuff starting next week. The new Dredd story sounds intriguing
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Richard

Quote from: GordonR on 28 May, 2020, 10:47:26 AM
Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 10:23:30 AM
(Children don't want to read stories about children anyway.)

The briefest look at children's TV suggests this is utter bollocks.

Children don't make TV shows, they just watch the children's TV shows that exist, because the alternative is not to watch at all.

Perhaps I came across as too dogmatic, because I just wrote one sentence instead of an essay, which doesn't leave any room for nuance. I don't mean that children hate stories about children. Just that they generally don't require stories to be about children, but are usually quite happy reading stories about adults. When 2000 AD started, it was aimed at the same age group as the Regened prog, but the stories then were not Cadet Dredd, or Teen MACH One or whatever. Yet somehow it lasted for 43 years, when other titles didn't.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 28 May, 2020, 10:43:20 AM
Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 10:23:30 AMChildren don't want to read stories about children anyway.
They don't? I mean, they certainly don't always, but my kid tends towards strips that feature kids/tweens. Not fussed about adults at this stage.

Oh God, I hated fiction starring children when I was young. Particularly anything where they ended up foiling a gang of crooks or solving a murder or something ('Well that' s just stupid,' I used to think.' Children don't solve crimes, the police do. ')
@jamesfeistdraws

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Interesting that the comics we loved- the prog, Star Lord, Battle (though arguably Charley Bourne was a child, which may have been the point), and again arguably all those Marvel reprints, all featured very adult characters, while girls comics- even the likes of Misty, Tammy and Spellbound, to mention those that cross over to our sphere of presumed interest- all very much featured children as the protagonists and largely adults as the villains. As well as, of course, the likes of the Beano, Buster and all the humour comics.

Can any conclusion to drawn one way or the other about whether kids prefer one type of storytelling?

SBT

GordonR

#27
Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 12:02:51 PM
Quote from: GordonR on 28 May, 2020, 10:47:26 AM
Quote from: Richard on 28 May, 2020, 10:23:30 AM
(Children don't want to read stories about children anyway.)

The briefest look at children's TV suggests this is utter bollocks.

Children don't make TV shows, they just watch the children's TV shows that exist, because the alternative is not to watch at all.

Perhaps I came across as too dogmatic, because I just wrote one sentence instead of an essay, which doesn't leave any room for nuance. I don't mean that children hate stories about children. Just that they generally don't require stories to be about children, but are usually quite happy reading stories about adults. When 2000 AD started, it was aimed at the same age group as the Regened prog, but the stories then were not Cadet Dredd, or Teen MACH One or whatever. Yet somehow it lasted for 43 years, when other titles didn't.

Have you ever pitched an animated series for children's TV?  Because one of us in this conversation has. The people you'll be pitching to are armed with a whole mass of audience survey data and even child psychology consultancy info, and it all tells them one thing:  children want to experience stories featuring age-appropriate protagonists.

It doesn't matter what you or I were reading or watching 40 years ago. It's completely irrelevant. That's where the market and cultural mood is today.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: GordonR on 28 May, 2020, 12:46:46 PM
Have you ever pitched an animated series for children's TV?

I can't believe "The Fun Time Adventures of Little Atalia Jaegir" didn't get picked up.
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IndigoPrime

What GordonR said.

And to add to that, looking at everything through a prism of 1977 isn't terribly helpful, not least given that comics "for boys" back then were basically "be a strong white man", whether or not they were subversive in some way.