Main Menu

Voting Coupons

Started by Leigh S, 15 May, 2021, 04:09:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Proudhuff

Quote from: TordelBack on 19 May, 2021, 10:58:31 AM
Quote from: The Corinthian on 18 May, 2021, 10:23:58 PM
Not quite the same thing but I'm simultaneously amused and annoyed by the fact that the 1994 Judge Dredd Mega Special ran a readers poll to choose a new series for the Megazine and the results were completely ignored in favour of two pre-commissioned strips instead.

Proper order. Give the people what you think they need, not what they think they want. The latter way of thinking leads to Angel Family resurrections and boobs on the cover.



THis ^^^^

I never cut up my progs for this or anything else,  What was Pat's take on these anyway?
DDT did a job on me

JayzusB.Christ

I remember that, it was a tad farcical and indeed cynical given that I think the phone calls cost a bit more than usual.

On a tangent, I remember the Meg's voting coupon used to say 'in order of favouritism', an odd choice of word that made it sound like there were some corrupt political shenanigans involved.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

The Corinthian

Quote from: TordelBack on 19 May, 2021, 10:58:31 AMProper order. Give the people what you think they need, not what they think they want. The latter way of thinking leads to Angel Family resurrections and boobs on the cover.

One of the pre-approved commissions was 'Pandora', which according to his own account Bish-OP went off pretty quickly. I'd've happily taken a Dave Stone series about a sexy PVC killer babe with amazing hair over that*.

* 'Sumos & Sporrans' not so much...

Funt Solo

Was Sumos and Sporrans before or after Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers movies?

Something something unlikely lawsuit something.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Leigh S

Not aware of the story here - how do we know the voting on these didnt select the precommissioned tales - from TPO? What won and didnt get t see the light of day?

The Corinthian

Quote from: Leigh S on 19 May, 2021, 10:48:55 PM
Not aware of the story here - how do we know the voting on these didnt select the precommissioned tales - from TPO? What won and didnt get t see the light of day?

It's from David Bishop's '15 Years, Creep!':

Quote[Pandora] had first appeared in the 1994 Judge Dredd Mega-Special. Readers were invited to determine which of the stories should be continued, but Bishop had already commissioned further episodes of Karyn, Psi, Missionary Man and Pandora before the Mega-Special was published. 'That was a bit of a cheat,' he recalls. 'I think the three colour stories were top of voting and none of them was ever seen again.'

This is from Megazine 239, p.30, the same page where Bishop confesses he "couldn't muster the enthusiasm to even read the scripts" for 'Pandora'.

There was a more detailed explanation of what strips got continued and why in the Meg lettercol back in the day, but I don't have a copy to hand to check. IIRC the explanation of why we didn't see more of 'Sumos and Sporrans' or the Sin City-homage character from the Dredd strip was the entirely reasonable "these stories are basically finished and don't have anywhere else to go".

Funt Solo

Quote from: Proudhuff on 19 May, 2021, 11:21:52 AM
What was Pat's take on these anyway?

I'm going to guess it was something like "They were great because readers* drive quality and then cowardly editorial removed them".

Now I'm going to watch the video and see if I'm right.


* But not fans, who are scum.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Funt Solo

Okay, so at about 55 minutes in, he talks about the coupons. The general gist is that the coupons reflected the opinions of Ordinary Readers (who Pat likes), but that they didn't reflect the opinions of Hardcore Fans (who Pat dislikes). Editorial didn't want to hear from Ordinary Readers anymore, so took their voting privileges away.

Another piece of magical thinking here - any consumer of his work that Pat disagrees with gets neatly placed in the Hardcore Fan box. Those he agrees with get to live in the Ordinary Readers box.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Leigh S

Indeed, and I kind of agree to a good degree with the basic "listening to fans is the road to ruin" - witness Doctor Who at various times (and spaces).  Yet Pat is also very happy to align himself with the super hardcore of fans who are the most dangerous -the ones who think "the comic was only good in the bog roll years" and don't want change.  The ones who RTD used a pretty offensive term to describe (he must surely be waiting on the John Barrowman Cancel Bus in 5-4-3....)

Pat is quick to slate the comic moving away from general audience to specialist older readers/fans (I agree), but neglects to mention he was also at the forefront of writing those more "mature" stories, in the prog or elsewhere- Crisis/Marshal Law/Toxic et al.



Quote from: Funt Solo on 22 May, 2021, 06:31:17 PM
Okay, so at about 55 minutes in, he talks about the coupons. The general gist is that the coupons reflected the opinions of Ordinary Readers (who Pat likes), but that they didn't reflect the opinions of Hardcore Fans (who Pat dislikes). Editorial didn't want to hear from Ordinary Readers anymore, so took their voting privileges away.

Another piece of magical thinking here - any consumer of his work that Pat disagrees with gets neatly placed in the Hardcore Fan box. Those he agrees with get to live in the Ordinary Readers box.

sheridan

Quote from: Leigh S on 22 May, 2021, 06:50:40 PM
Pat is quick to slate the comic moving away from general audience to specialist older readers/fans (I agree), but neglects to mention he was also at the forefront of writing those more "mature" stories, in the prog or elsewhere- Crisis/Marshal Law/Toxic et al.

Isn't 2000AD aging with its readership the unique selling point of the comic?  Otherwise it'd be sitting next to TV Comic, Eagle, Dandy, Tiger, Scorcher, Mirabelle, Bunty, War Picture Library, Hotspur, Judy, Buster, Victor, Look and Learn, Speed, Jackie, Shoot!, Whizzer, Chips, The Wizard, Look-In, Tammy, Whoopee!, Jinty, Lindy, Warlord, Mates, Battle, Valiant, Magic, Action, Bullet, Roy of the Rovers, Spellbound, Krazy, Read to Me, Scream! and all the other comics that have shared shelf space in newsagents with 2000AD over the course of its existence...

sheridan

...and when I say sitting I mean lying ;-)

The Corinthian

Quote from: The Corinthian on 22 May, 2021, 08:38:57 AMThere was a more detailed explanation of what strips got continued and why in the Meg lettercol back in the day, but I don't have a copy to hand to check.

Found it. It's in Meg volume 2 no 58. Fair play, they include a list of all the votes and percentages alongside the explanation of what was getting a series and what wasn't. Culling Crew (which didn't get one) scored almost 10 times as many votes as Karyn (which did).

We need to introduce this system for the Eurovision Song Contest.