Blood Of Satanus II - Parody or bad?

[thrillpowerseeker]

Amen to that chimp

[W. R. Logan]

>Heavy words there Logan..When you say many readers you mean the vocal minority on this board ..Slaine, ABC Warriors, Nemesis etc etc remain Squaxx' favorites to this day..check out the profiles page for proof  ; )

Heavy? Don?t think so, Pat is and will always be one of my favourite writers ever, but his work after a certain year for me just diminishes what he has produced in the past. Yes I admit he created some of the fans most treasured strips and for that he will always be remebered fondly.
I don?t think its just the vocal minority here, I?ve been to plenty of message boards, conventions and other gatherings and Pat may be seen as something of a legend in British comics, but I bet you?ll find more people who recon he?s gone off the boil rather than people who think his recent writing is the dogs bollocks.
Pat may score 8.51 on his profile page, hey even I give him a 7, but that?s based more for his early work and reputation rather than anything I?ve read in recent years. No matter how good your reputation you cant live off it forever.
Wagner may have written some stinkers in his time but unlike Pat who writes quite sporadically Wagner puts his abilities on show week in week out, over the past 30 years I wonder how many weeks Wagner?s not had something in print and still does. Can you say the same for Pat, he writes certain things, they appear infrequently and I?m sorry to say, that for me the best has been seen and I truly believe that on some stories, it has been too many.



La Placa Rifa,
http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/>W. R. Logan.

http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/images/Co79_logo.gif>

[IndigoPrime]

:: If you hadn't seen the name Mills on the strip would you
:: really believe the dialogue and plotting were acceptable?

More to the point, I bet if this had been by some "new" droid, or (say) Alan McKenzie, people would be wanting their head on a stick. Because it's Mills, suddenly lots of people start saying "but he's been so important for British comics".

I agree with Logan and some of the others critical of his current output.

[thrillpowerseeker]

Well its all just opinions really..Roll on Black Sidhha and the new Savage...maybe

[Floyd-the-k]

Chimp, that`s a well-written evaluation of Mills and how you feel about his work.
 If it`s true that he doesn`t owe us anything. It`s equally true we don`t owe him anything, so I think the question of wether our comments would help is not a valid one. If he chose to read the board that would be his look out. A creator who does that should make sure they have a skin like a rhino.
 

[Oddboy]

Mills *does* owe us something - every creator for 2000AD does, because we pay for the comic, which pays them for the stories. Therefore, is it not fair to say that the paying punter deserves to get good stories?

[Krustabi]

I think the bit that really took the cake was the scene in the hospital where 3 WHOLE PANELS were dedicated solely to Dredd's foot...

[chimp]

"If it`s true that he doesn`t owe us anything. It`s equally true we don`t owe him anything, so I think the question of wether our comments would help is not a valid one."
Fair enough, but I guess what I mean is that if Pat Mills happened to look at the boards do the posters think he would pay them any real attention? I don't think he would, because I believe criticisms expressed harshly or in a derogotory manner lose credibility and if the criticisms are easy to ignore what's the point of them? I understand it's often the nature of message boards and it's what keeps them lively but it can be a bit limiting.
"Mills *does* owe us something - every creator for 2000AD does, because we pay for the comic, which pays them for the stories. Therefore, is it not fair to say that the paying punter deserves to get good stories?"
Sorry, I get what you're saying I just don't agree. All I ask of a writer is that they satisfy their own creative goals, if those goals are similar to mine I'll buy their work, if not, I won't. As I said, I believe writers do their best work when they write for themselves, Alan Moore springs to mind as the obvious example, whether coming up with something for himself or as per an editors instructions he's always tried to write what he would want to read and I believe that comes across in most of his work. If a punter got a quality anything just because they paid for it I'm sure the world would be a happier place, but I think that's a long way off.

[Oddboy]

Well it's true that Mills *shouldn't* take any comments read from a board like this - the comments aren't meant for him to take as constructive critisism.
If he were to turn up on the board asking for opinions/constructive critisism, then I'm sure he'd get plenty of differing views from everyone - but at the moment, I don't think anyone is writing here under the delusion that Pat Mills is reading our comments & ammending his work accordingly.

[Dudley]

I am.  

Pat Mills has been sending me coded messages through his Slaine scripts...Langley follows up with secret runes in his art...they won't leave me alone...Pat, i told you, i'm just not into that sort of thing...

twitches

[chimp]

I'm using Pat Mills seeing the thread as a guide line, really, but the fact that no one is under the delusion that Pat Mills is watching is probably why they express their criticisms so harshly. If people thought he was watching they might still make the same criticisms but they might be careful how they express them.
I have no problem with people disliking Mills' work or expressing their dislike but fans by our very nature become a bit attached to the characters and stories we read, it doesn't mean we should lash out when we feel let down.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I don't think Pat Mills reads these posts. Anyway, the story:
Ahh, it was alright, I suppose... Dodgy dialogue (the judges at the Grand Hall sounded like very un-22nd century and very un-MegaCity teenagers, going on about goths getting their kits off and all) and Dredd wasn't well characterised, but all in all, I didn't mind it. And where did Mills slag off gays in it? I totally missed that. Also, you can't really level charges of sexism or misogyny at Mills just because women got killed in the story. I always thought he was the complete opposite, in fact to the point where his PC-ness was sometimes slightly annoying.

[Art]

Oh wow. A dinosaur gets stabbed in teh eye whilst trying to eat someone. Like every bloody dinosaur ever...

[The Amstor Computer]

"And where did Mills slag off gays in it? I totally missed that."

I should note first that I don't necessarily agree with this viewpoint, but I suspect that Mills setting out Algernon Christie as quite clearly gay *and* evil is what's offending some people. It has, IIRC, happened quite often in his strips before (the most recent example being the nudge-nudge scene in Slaine where Sethor is taken over) and there are a couple of occasions where it has *appeared* that Pat is associating homosexuality with a more general "deviancy" as well.

Now, as I said, I don't necessarily think that this is intentional or even actually taking place - it's all too easy to read things into some of his work that isn't there - but it happens often enough and that reading is plausible enough that I can see why some readers would agree with it.

An interesting experiment is to consider how you'd respond if all of the evil gay/camp characters in Mills' stories were black or Asian. Would that start to disturb you & make you wonder about his personal attitudes?

[JayzusB.Christ]

I suppose, yes. I never noticed that the bloke in Satanus was meant to be gay, I obviously didn't pay too much attention. And now you mention it, wasn't Moloch about to do something gay to Slaine before Slaine killed him?