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Personally, I'd go the other way.

Keep 2000AD full of fresh new thrills (with the judge) and maybe just one old/not so old school thrill.

For a RETRO blast, you could have a monthly title that features a complete story for ROUGUE TROOPER or STRONTIUM DOG etc.  You could alternate the monthly titles like they are doing with the audio stuff.

I don't mind the RETRO thing too much but what I'm looking for is the buzz that reading a brand new prog. used to give me years ago as opposed to (what I think too much retro gives you) the feeling that you've just reread a good old prog that you'd half forgotten the stories in.

Did that come out clear?  Did anyone understand what I mean?  Am I alone in the world of PG TIPS?

cheers
Mister Tips

The Citizen Kane references did grate slightly but the actual revealation of ROSEBUD bought a tear to my eye...(almost).

I did enjoy this prog, but yet again, I was left with the feeling that it was all a little TOO retro.

Art throughout was fabulous; clean, unfussy and in places idiosyncratic without being inaccessible.

JD was good but too short - didn't really go anywhere - hopefully will be followed up later.

ROGUE was OK ish but I can't help feeling that this would have been polished off in a single episode in the old days.

VCs - thoroughly enjoyed it.  Technobable actually had bearing to the characters and actions rather than just being made up nonsense.  However the old timers showing up the young guns is a bit of a cliche.

BISON: Speaking of cliche... the only thing that can save this is a major reversal of style and/or genre.  A twist of the size that turned Psycho from a heist movie into a slasher movie or that turned FROM DUSK TIL DAWN from Tarantino movie into naked vampire blood fest.  Tharg would never commisson a (adopt gravelly voice) "He's a cop on the edge..." story so I'm thinking that this must turn into an out and out parody or something completely unexpected.  As someone pointed out, it reads like the start of LAST ACTION HERO.

STRONTY DOG: OKish. I loved the art, I loved the "WRONG" but if it turns out they are in some form of mad alien ZOO or in an alien hunting ground ("where we test your abilities.  You have passed Mister Alpha, you are free to go".). I'd be most disappointed.  John Wagner's hardly disappointed me since the days of Battle - I do hope he's not going to start now.

cheers
Mister Tips

 

Here's a poser for you...

When you read the history of 2000AD in the Megazine it's always full of comments like: "So XXXX sent in his script and it was appalling so I had to rewrite the whole thing from scratch...."

Does anybody know any juicy examples of this kind of behaviour that has gone on recently?  Does Tharg still have to dust off his old typewriter every now and again to apply "polish" to a script?

cheers
Mister Tips

PS: I was going to ask this on Scriptdroids but the 2000AD message board can, on occasion, be much more vicious.

Truly evil.

There's a story called Niall of the Nine Sausages in that list.

I can't remember half of the stuff she's credited with (or he) but the stuff I can rememeber sends a shiver down my spine.

Like the rest of you, I thoroughly enjoyed the prog. Thought each story was great.

Wagner showed exactly how you can show the human side of Dredd without turning him into a gigantic wuss.


However, I thought the PROG was lacking something.  I can't quite put it in words but it all felt a little too RETRO.  I'd have thought a Summer Assualt should have contained something brand spanking NEW and exciting - an entirely new series or character.

Anybody know when the next NEW big thing is coming along?

>I'll be reading From Hell

Odd, don't read "Chapter ten; the best of all tailors" while eating.

I'm off on hols for a week.

I KNOW we should vote for the whole rather than each half but occassionally one grates against the other. (E.g. when recommending films to people I know that SFX fans would like "Attack of The Clones" but people that like good story, dialogue and character development won't).

However, given technical limitations and the problems experessed above (even the one that I guess is a wind-up), I can see this isn't a good idea.

When we vote for a story, why can't we vote for the art and the writing?  Sometimes the art is great and the story is tosh; sometimes vice versa.  

>Nah, we just listen to Scojo...

lol

How does Tharg know which Thrills are popular?

Is it market research?

Is it the number of love/hate letters received?

Is it based on the votes on the website?

Is there weighting based on critical acclaim as well as popularity?

A combination of all of the above?

I have a terrible feeling that some people will use this facility to keep their name on the top of the board.  I'm thinking of people who might consistently reply to their own posts two or three times.

And then posts again with "Sorry for the typos" that nobody had cared about.

But hye, my name popped up at lunchtime so I'm chuffed....

Agreed, there's no point picking these things apart after they are published.  I think I was probably reacting more to the gushing praise rather than the story - I was expecting something VERY special.

I did like the twist.  I did like the way it was foreshadowed and the clues were there if you looked for them.  I didn't like Maggie and some of the clunky plot devices.

These are all IMHOs (and the bloke sat opposite me at work) which is probably where I should keep them (or on scriptdroids).

And now I think about it a bit more...

...why does the Reverend try and use Thatcher's gospel to stop the captain. Surely he'd be all for greed.

...why does this ship seem to have what amounts to a coal fired reactor that you can just bung energy balls into? Surely not just to cause an overload and kill her?

... what are they doing out in space anyway?

... is greed her *only* motivation.  It makes her a pretty stereotypical character.

Alan Moore?  Choking in on your cornflakes?  I think you'll find that was the plastic toy.

Oooh I'm getting all confused, I think I'll have to sit down.
 

Actually, I take some of that back.  The religous bit is a good foreshadowing.  It's just the Thatcher stuff and the implausible reason for death I don't like.

I thought it would have been worked better as a serious tale.