RENGA: aborted DC Thomson rival to 2000AD

[Frank]

I love this kind of WHAT IF? stuff, and it's a nice supplement to our recent discussion of CRISIS and Toxic.

Courtesy of Down The Tubes and Tony Luke, Glenn Fabry's cover art for the never-before-seen dummy issue of the comic DC Thomson hoped could crowd in on Tharg's action, circa 1995. Given how Tharg's 1995 turned out, that might well have been possible.

Alan Grant's Devil Cop looks like it would have kept Lobo and Ghost Rider's lawyers busy, and anyone reading this who doesn't wish they'd had a chance to read the late John Hicklenton illustrating a strip called Killer Tongue needs to examine their priorities in life:

"Tony has very kindly handed the entire project, including emails, over to us for posterity. Over time, we'll bring you more on the origins of this lost project – how it came about, who was involved, and the road blocks put in its way by a rival publisher to try to stop creators working on it. Twenty years on, it's a fascinating story of a British Comic That Might Have Been – and what went wrong ..."

[Zarjazzer]

No doubt about it had I seen this I'd have bought it. Down the tubes has always got something cool to see.

[maryanddavid]

Nice spot Butch, certainly out of DCT's comfort zone. It will be interesting to see more.

[Professor Bear]

DCT used to do such books all the time, it's just they'd for some reason become trapped in a house style since the late 1970s while other companies like Marvel UK and Fleetway were gradually taking a different tone.  It looks like someone in the company was amenable to seeing what it might be like to update their approach to adventure comics, but I think by that point they'd really committed to kids' titles.

Looks bloody nice, all the same.

[Judge Nutmeg]

killer tongue looks like it is based on film of same name

[Famous Mortimer]

It's a rotten name for a comic, though.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's a rotten name for a comic, though.

Was talking about this on FB just yesterday. It's a "Japanese type of collaborative poetry", apparently. We suspected the hand of Tony Luke in that one.

Cheers

Jim

[Paul Moore]

I wonder if a competitor to 2000ad would expand the market or just take readers away from 2000ad?

[Satanist]

I wonder if a competitor to 2000ad would expand the market or just take readers away from 2000ad?

Even as a teen without much in the way of funds I would always buy 2000ad but could still find room for Toxic and would sporadically dip into Crisis, Revolver and what not. Would be nice to have options but I think for Brit comics that ship has sailed.

[Eric Plumrose]

Holy Fudge! STEVE POTTER!

[sheridan]

I wonder if a competitor to 2000ad would expand the market or just take readers away from 2000ad?

Even as a teen without much in the way of funds I would always buy 2000ad but could still find room for Toxic and would sporadically dip into Crisis, Revolver and what not. Would be nice to have options but I think for Brit comics that ship has sailed.

We'll have to wait until The Phoenix readers grow older (not being a reader myself I'm not sure what the age range is - would it be possible to jump from 'children's comics' to 2000AD, as it was when I was eight, or is there a bit too much of a gap in between)?

Just to make clear - 2000AD has grown up with its readers, which in the main were a few years older than I was at the time, up to my late teens / adulthood - is The Phoenix aimed at old enough children that they would be able to graduate seamlessly from Ph to 2000AD or would there need to be a gateway comic for the interim years?

[Professor Bear]

In theory, Phoenix stories are "all ages", but having read about 150 issues to date, the content seems exclusively geared towards younger readers*, and I can't really see its readership graduating into 2000ad without being steered there by some kind of interim experience.  I do see the odd comic on the shelves based on Star Wars or whatever - those might be just such an interim read for all I know.


* although there's the odd pic of a ding-dong or fanny if you have a hangup about human nudity.

[sheridan]

In theory, Phoenix stories are "all ages", but having read about 150 issues to date, the content seems exclusively geared towards younger readers*

* although there's the odd pic of a ding-dong or fanny if you have a hangup about human nudity.

I have no such hang-ups (though am a little surprised such pics appear in it).  In what context do they appear?