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I'm trying to remember the name of a cartoon goblin (I think he was) from a role playing magazine way back when, White Dwarf possibly but I think it might have been a different one? Was one called 'Imagine'?. He was called something like Grobbledonk but wasn't actually Nemesis' familar but his name was something like that?

Can anybody help with a name and even better a link to some of the cartoons?

Question for everyone.

When sorting out some comics today I stumbled across Wagner, Grant and McMahon's 'Last American' and it got me thinking. It's such a shame that this comic was 'wasted' being printed by Epic for Marvel and I really feel it would have been served much better appearing in 2000ad where I feel it would now be regarded as a classic instead of as a forgotten gem (at least this is how I think its regarded?)

So anyway are there any other comics out there by regular 2000ad creators that have been published by other companies that you feel would have been better served appearing in 2000ad?

Back in January I linked to Comic Books Resources 'A Year of Cool Comics Moments' with any early appearance from Zenith in the daily year long feature. Well less than a month later I'm pleased to report that 2000ad has already notched up its second appearance. This time featuring Judge Dredd, link below. There may be many more to come?

//http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/02/04/a-year-of-cool-comic-book-moments-day-35/#comment-704547

So its over all for all the moaning about delays its only a month late. Personnally I thought it was brillant. Final Crisis was Twin Peaks to Secret Invasions' Heroes.

Secret Invasion was shallow, deriverative. Sure there were some cool moments, even bits great charactersation but ultimately when you remove the gloss and the successful production values it was nothing new, in fact it just rehashed and stretched out old ideas to breaking point and gave nothing new except the next big Marvel event. Ironically all it left you with was [spoiler]To be continued[/spoiler]. By the end I just wanted the whole thing over.

Final Crisis was challenging, difficult and while its ambition sometimes let it down it succeeded a lot more than it failed. The cool moments meant the need to return to fully understand, or at least get to your own understanding, was a joy and each time you looked at it to work out more you found things you didn't even know you'd been looking for. At time frustrating but over all brillant and worth while (though I do think DC should have made it clear that Superman Beyond was pretty intergal to an understanding as to what was going on).

It'll be a shame when people complaining about needing to put some effort into reading something win the day in the comics industry!

Now as I'm reading through selected stories from my collection I've choosen to post only about the stuff I've found surprisingly good. I'm not a big fan of posting stuff that just says "Well that was rubbish" that's not constructive BUT I think here I'm going to make an exception. If only because I'm intrigued to see if I'm alone on this and whether even having the thoughts I've been having will get me run out of town! So anyway introductory blahhering aside I'll get to the point.

I thought Slaine - The Horned God Book 3 was a bit rubbish.

There said it.

Good.

Ok I should qualify that a bit. Rubbish is probably putting it a bit strongly it just wasn't anywhere near as good as the other two books, that I should say I thought were excellent. The art in Book 3 is still superb as well. The story, well not so much. My problem with it was after the excellent build up and steady development of characters and ideas it decended into battle after battle after battle. It felt disjointed and the framing sequence that I'd enjoyed during the first two thirds actually became a hinderance and was used for some clunky story telling. For example when Ukko was at death's door his inability to complete the tale was given as the reason we don't actually know Medb's fate. All well and good if you want to keep the character alive for potential future stories BUT given that Ukko is soon revitalised doesn't make any sense. Now often I'll let stuff like this go BUT when there are much simpler options available i.e. in the confusion of battle no one knew her fate etc why not go for that. Anyway there were a couple of bis like that which bugged me.

Unlike the first two parts which I felt were clearly written as a graphic novel it seemed that Book Three was was more self conscious of its serialised nature. This led to some really poor cliff hangers 'oh no Ukko's not going to complete the tale' etc etc. Another example was the way the framing story was used to emphaize theme's in the story. The discussion about Slaine redefining the hero from a maternal perspective was crude. I'm left assuming whether the discussions about the amount of violence that readers found fun in the stories and the druidy fella finally telling Nest to lay off Ukko's work was a commentary of the editorial process during the writing of the story?

I hadn't read Horned God in years and was a little concerned that when I re-read it it wouldn't last up to my memories of it. The first two books certainly put that to result and then the last one alas really let me down with a thump.

Anyway do I get run out of town for this or does anybody else share my thoughts?

Well my nostgalic tour of back progs continues and I'm nearly done with the 600s and it was with some intrepidation I approached Necropolis. I remembered this as a terrible let down after the glorious build up. Deadman was a classic and stood up really well on re-reading. The demise in Dredd's faith in the system had been brillantly played out over, what was it 3, maybe 4 years and this was the big climax, it had a lot, a heck of a lot to live up to. Have to say I was pleasently surprised. Its a pretty good 'epic' nicely told in must parts. Not fantastic and compared to the build up I mentioned not as good but still a lot better than I remembered. The art was glorious, no surprises there but the way the tale of told was great. I loved the way there was a slow build of tension. The enemy gathering at the gates. The cut to Dredd and the terrible consequences aren't really seen until he arrives at the city. You can see a bit of where Morrison might have got some ideas for Final Crisis here!

Anyway the main thing I thought about after re-reading was did this mark the end of Judge Death as a truely scarey, effective villian? Due to the nature of the cut away to Dredd at the peak of the villians plans one problem with the tale is I don't think we get to see Death really in charge of this evil masterplan. We don't see him marshalling the terrible fate he has in store for Mega City One. On top of that I felt as though once the Dark Sisters were out the way Wagner didn't know quite how to sustain the end. It felt to me at least on this reading as though he was saying 'Look there's the story I've had to put Death in it but I really can't come up with an interesting way to end his story here. Lets just move on shall we'.

From then on, as though Death was certainly a great villian in the first two Bolland stories, he's played for laugh (in the stuff I've read). It as though during Necropolis John Wagner realised he didn't have anymore great Judge Death stories to tell?

And another one in my trawl through the progs.

Shadows. Completely fantastic. Milligan has always been one of my favourite 2000ad writers so it shouldn't relly have been a surprise. The art was a little dodgy and colouring terrible BUT the story was superb and it ended wonderfully. Great story and a great example, unlike for me Tribal Memories which I've discussed before, of where a story is completely contained and a sequel really wasn't required or desirable. Brillant stuff.

Oh and Armoured Gideon. I enjoyed it but didn't love it in the way I remembered. Still good fun. As I recall the second part has a lot to offer as well.

Well my slow but steady reread of the highlights of my 2000ad collection has reached the 600s. A great period which has much to look forward and it would seem some forgotten gems.

I always remember liking Zippy Couriers and its turning out to be a nice fun bit of comics. So I thought I'd re-read Hilary Robinsons Medivac 318 as well, it had pretty pictures after all. Wow I'd forgotten how great the first 'book' of this was. The second 'book' was ok BUT the first was a quiet piece of gold. Fantastic characters and the 2 parts where the nurse is waiting to be picked up from the planet war zone are so atmospheric.

Here's hoping when I get to the third book its more like the first than the second (not that the seconds that bad just not up to the fantastic quality of the first)

Hi,

Just to let people know over at 'Comics Should Be Good' a blog over at CBR their running a year long feature called 'A Year of Cool Comic Moments'. Now this will understandably be American centric BUT only 9 days into the feature 2000ad gets its first shout (lets hope there's more to come!). Well worth a read (as is the rest of the Blog)

//http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/01/09/a-year-of-cool-comic-book-moments-day-9/

Over at 'Comics Should be Good' there's another of their top 100 polls being prepared. Now whenever they have one of these international material never gets a look in. In their 'Top 100 runs' no Wagner Dredd, no Nemesis vs Torquemada in the 'Top 100 battles'. Now this is completely understandable given that its an American website focused on American comics BUT I hope theres enough 2000ad fans here to educate our short sighted cousins across the pond about the joys of 2000ad.

The current vote they have running is "Vote for the Top 25* "Versus" Countdown!"

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.co ... countdown/

By this they mean Fantastic Four vs. Doctor Doom
Thing Vs. Hulk
Batman Vs. Joker

etc etc - that type of thing.

So why not get over there and vote for some British stuff, or more specifically 2000ad stuff. I'm personally putting Nemesis vs. Torquemada at the top of my list. Don't think there's much point trying to get a consenus of the best 2000ad vs BUT if enough 2000ad fans vote maybe something will show up?

*In you don't visit Comics Should Be Good and are wondering why I'm going on about top 100s when the link clearly states top 25 its cos they have changed the way these countdowns are done. They have a top 25 thing first on their 'host' website CBR then the rest of the top 100 will appear at CSBG later.

Anybody seen it yet?

I'm really unhappy with what I've seen as a fan of Will Eisner's Spirit but was wondering if anybody of a similar frameof mind had had a chance to see this yet and ould give me hope that it was an 'God damn good'?

Slowly but surely going through my progs in groups of 100 reading the good bits. This weekend amongst many more obvious classics (Zenith Book II weakest of the bunch but still absolutely brillant) I came up to Tribal Memories 580s

I always remember liking this story but my God I hadn't remembered how good it was. So much packed into 4 short episodes. Great characters, great ideas, wonderful art. An absolute classic.

Such a shame that for whatever reason (I must dig out Thrillpower Overload and see if it has anything to say on the matter) the characters weren't used again. Sometimes its fair to say these things are left alone BUT there seems so much more scope to play with in the world Milligan and 'Riot' created here. Such great potential for future stories.

Next time someone bumps into Pete Milligan ask him to sack Marvel and DC for a while and get back into this wonderful world from his past... well you never know.

(Oh and still hated Soft Bodies - don't know why I assume that one will get better and its just that I'm missing stuff!)

Not sure this thread is in the right place BUT since you asked the question The Sopranos without a shadow of a doubt. Best TV show ever.

Not sure if I'm right in saying this BUT I think percieved wisdom has it that 2000ad's golden age was sometime around the 200s and 300s?

Regardless I'm curious to hear what other people think was 2000ad best period, of say around 100 issues.

I'm currently slowly but surely making my way through 2000ad 100 issues at a time (inbetween reading a host of other things) and having got to 500-600 I'm relatively confident that this will be my choose of the greatest time in 2000ad's history (the next 100 issues when read might put this to the test so I might come to regret saying that.)

During this period though the first wave of amazing talent had been shallowed up by the American's Tharg went out and found a whole new generation of genius and unleashed them on the world. Zenith started, Bad Company started, Slaine was back to form, Rogue Trooper was good for the first time ever (was never a fan of Finley-Day), Anderson was great, ABC Warriors returned better than ever, Nemesis was back to a high, Dredd was brillant (with the exception of OZ which I was never a fan of), Strontium Dog had some real highes and set the scene for it (then) conclusion is great style. This just touches the highlights of the era and there is alot of great stuff inbetween. As with every era there were bits of filler and the early 500s were awash with Future Shocks, but many of these were great. The new generation really took advantage of the more teen focus of 2000ad while having the benefit of having read the early stuff and being blessed by its anarchic past.

Genius comics all round. Oh of note having said this I've never read the issues between 1000 - 1500 so have no idea how good this period was and have heard (from this board) very good things.

So yeah what do people think was 2000ad's Golden Age (around 100ish) issues?

Over at Comics Should be Good the Curious Cat asked which people thought was better Final Crisis or Secret Invasion.

//http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/25/1025-curious-cat-asks-2/

So I thought what the heck I'd ask the same question here to see what 2000ad folk felt.

Have to say for me its Final Crisis by a country mile. I've found Secret Invasion to be waffer thin, a rehash of old fimilar stories dragged out. Its saving grace is that Bendis is great at the character moments meaning that the dragging out has been done very well ([spoiler]ok I was annoyed with the who crashed space ship, who is or isn't a skrull - oh they all are -thing) and I'm going to be gutted if they kill off The Wasp BUT there's nothing new there at all.[/spoiler] On the plus side been loving the art and at least they have got their act together in shipping it on time which is to Marvel's credit.

Final Crisis on the other hand is a fractured work of genius. It will be hard to judge until its all in BUT even half way through its been more original, intriguing and engaging than the 7 issues of Secret Invasion to date. I personally don't understand why people think its so hard to follow. Sure I've had to read each comic twice to try to get it all BUT damn me more comics these days could do with requiring a reread and the minute I've put it down I've actually wanted to reread it, so all good. Ok so if you do have a broad knowledge of DC you get a little more out of it BUT the same can be said of Secret Invasion. I don't think its inpenetrable to a DC newbie? The fact that's a Crisis doesn't make it unorinal in anything other than title.

The shipping and art changes haven't helped it BUT I think Civil War stands testiment to patience being a virtue and its a shame DC weren't bold enough to hold out for Jones but they're decisions that I don't have full info on so I'll settle for what I'm getting.

Anyway that's my take on the big two's big plays this year I'm really intrigued to know what the more decerning comics fan, e.g. 2000ad readers think.

Cheers

"Really, Godpleton? Do we have so many readers that you can take the piss with the newbies?" - Ignatzmonster.

This statement on another thread got me thinking. What are the sales of 2000ad these days. I know they'll have plummeted from the days of 250,000 a week (not sure where I plucked that figure from but from somewhere that seems to be right for the peak in sales?) BUT what are they these days?

Likewise are sales increasing? My instinct is that they will be based on the number of people like me who seem to be returning after a drop off normally started in the mid to late 90s. I get this impression from the very small community of comics people I actually know but also from a couple of other message boards I visit. Is this right?

Likewise do the sales of the actual progs matter too much these days and are things like 2000ad kept going really as a repository for exisiting characters, and the creation of new ones and the potential income they generate from other markets?

Does anybody have any insight they are able or willing to share.

Hi,

Well I fell off the path many years ago around about Prog 1000. It wasn't until Origins that I picked up another copy of 2000ad and have been back on board in a big way ever since. Now I now have almost a full run up to 1000 (only missing the first 40 issues) and recently picked up 1300 - 1399 for a good price on e-bay. The collector in me is therefore pretty determined to get 1400 - 1499 at some point soon just to plug that gap and because from current readind and flicking through the 1300s (not had a chance to read them yet) there seem like there will be some damned fine stuff in those issues.

The completist in me (I'm back collecting comics generally in a pretty big way and having a lot more disposible income I find I'm able to complete the runs I was never able to in the past) is pretty set on filling the gap between 1000 and 1300, before tackling the more expensive 1-39 problem.

That said around issue 1000 I have to be honest I felt 2000ad was going down hill. I've heard some pretty disparaging things about the comic in the late 90's early 2000's so I wonder is this true? Even during 2000ad darkest hours there was always at least one story to keep you going. So how bad exactly did it get? Or for that matter did it get that bad at all or have I just been talking to the wrong people?

I'd be very keen to hear people's option of the 1000-1300 era, my missing years.

Cheers