2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[moly]

I can understand it being extended to 111 issues as there will be a lot of good stuff, but is there enough good stuff for another 29 issues to take it up to 140

[Hackenbush]

I only really know the period from prog 500 - 850 or so well, but I can think of a few items that I would be happy to see in the collection:

Revere (pair with bradley for a nearly complete simon harrison collection?)
Brigand Doom (if not enough pages add in Silo for dave d'anquist collection)
Rogue trooper war machine + more friday (please all the chris weston art and john smith written stories)
Armoured Gideon
Strontium Dogs (would be great to have it all in one volume if possible)
Maniac 5
Peter Milligan "shorts" - tribal memories + The dead
John Smith "shorts" - slaughterbowl + Danzig's Inferno
Bix Barton
Bad City Blues
Universal Soldier (add in Kelly's eye?)
Night Zero / Below Zero / Beyond Zero
Finn

I would also LOVE to see some things from the mega collection extended if that was possible
Lawless
Dark Judges - dominion & torture garden
A volume with the Hershey stories from the megazine and later 2000ad
another anderson volume

I am sure I could go on but I think if I can come up with a list like this there must be a lot more that could be chosen from the later progs I don't know about ....

[sintec]

That last volume of Slaine really is a bit naff isn't it. It's basically a extended episode of Jeremy Kyle where [spoiler]Slaine's mum get's slut shamed for putting it about and we discover his "dad" wasn't just a pathetic drunk but was actually an abuser who beat his son and intentionaly manipulated events to kill his wife for her indiscretions. Eventually a paternity test is delivered via some druid magic that Slaine just happened to have acquired back in the day but which has never been mentioned before now.[/spoiler]. There's also a bunch of shouting and some brawling none of which really adds anything to the story beyond some great art. I can't help but feel that 80s Pat could have told this tale in 4-5 episodes rather than spread across 2 books where it just starts to feel repetative.

A sad end - here's hoping the forthcoming series in the prog won't suffer the same drawn out fate.

Dark Judges - dominion & torture garden

Dominion has already been revealed as one of the first extension (issue 94 if they stick to the ordering announced).

[The Monarch]

also maybe extensions of some prior mega collection and ultimate collection stuff

the rest of ace trucking (may not be good but completes complete)

more sin/dex (really overdue)

lawless

some much needed dredd that was missing from mega collection (like pirates of the black athlantic)

the a.b.c warriors stuff not reprinted

more the order

more defoe

absalom is confirmed in the intro to vol 80 did we know this already

as for stuff not reprinted at all assuming zeniths a nope

revere

armoured gideon

the zero trilogy

luke kirby (i know theres a book already just stating stuff worth reprinting in the uc)

canon fodder (maybe in a best of chris weston book? please matt?)

mean arena

harlem heroes (if reprinted that means everything but dan dare and mach 1 has been in the uc from prog 1

what the hell add mach 1 as well even if some of it is racist as feck

a tharg collection would be nice too

[IndigoPrime]

That last volume of Slaine really is a bit naff isn't it.

Brutania Chronicles started so well. That first book was full of weirdness and fantastic art. To me, it felt like Sláine does Hellboy. It felt like a new beginning. And then... the other books happened. SHOUTY ALL-CAPS RANTS. And, yeah, stretching plots out and the plots themselves... not good.

I only really know the period from prog 500 - 850 or so well

Having lived through it, I think 'diminishing returns' sums it up nicely. Around 500, the Prog was still strong. By the late 600s, the rot had set in. By 850, the Prog was around its nadir, where often you'd have perhaps one good story propping the whole thing up — and that was very rarely Dredd. So any collection that wants to keep its objective quality level high would have to be very careful about what to include. Of your list:

Revere: I really liked this, but it was and remains divisive. It's weird. It's Smith at his most tripped-out. But I'd happily read it again. Not sure I'd back it with Bradley, though, which was awful at the time and is horribly dated now.

Brigand Doom: This really, really wanted to be 2000 AD's V for Vendetta. It was OK. Lovely art, but rather meandering and aimless. Silo was an entertainingly short Die Hard rip, and one of the very few things Millar wrote for 2000 AD at the time that wasn't awful/sexist/homophobic.

Rogue trooper war machine + more friday (please all the chris weston art and john smith written stories): That would work for me. A proper cherry pick of the good bits, which is more or less War Machine + whatever Smith wrote. Most of the rest was garbage. Steve White's run was an improvement, but a continuity mess that I have no interest in revisiting. I did like Tor Cyan, though, and so perhaps there's something there.

Armoured Gideon: I really, really, really hope we can get this as a single volume, with basically everything. I always loved Jacob's art (despite his odd humans). Gideon's design is wonderful. At about 270 pages of strip, it's probably too big. I wonder how it'd work if The Collector was removed? That'd be about 200 pages of strip, and provide space for covers and star scans.

Strontium Dogs: There's quite a lot of non-Alpha stuff to be mined, which is of very variable quality. Tales From The Doghouse was quite nice, if a touch throwaway. Then you have Monsters (rather nice and touching, as I recall), all the Gronk stuff (risible crap, bar How The Gronk Got His Heartses), and Peter Hogan's attempt to create a new continuity (which was eventually guillotined).

There's also Durham Red's Grant/Ezquerra solo strip, Island of the Damned (62 pages), which could live alongside post-Abnett Grant-penned strip (36 pages) and Worley's soft reboot (59 pages). There are some other bits and bobs from specials that could pad this out, along with The Scarlet Apocrypha if that hasn't already been in the collection. (This would, however, require a helpful Matt Smith intro to explain all the different versions of Red!)

Maniac 5: Urgh. Nice art, but Mark Millar does bland.

Peter Milligan "shorts" - tribal memories + The dead: Both of those strips are superb. Milligan also did Freaks (78 pages of strip) and Shadows (53) and so there's plenty to work with.

John Smith "shorts" - slaughterbowl + Danzig's Inferno: Feels a bit John Smith's dregs, TBH.

Bix Barton: I never had a lot of love for Bix, but reckon he merits a re-read in some form.

Bad City Blues: I recall this was fine, in the classic 2000 AD mould, but nothing special. Very much League One material, to use a terrible football analogy.

Universal Soldier (add in Kelly's eye?): And now the publisher wouldn't nearly get sued for using characters they don't own! I always thought US, while a bit clichéd, was a solid effort from McKenzie, who only really excelled with Like Kirby. It'd be a skinny volume though.

Night Zero / Below Zero / Beyond Zero: He's tough. He's sexist. He's a MAN. In a SCI-FI. In a COMIC. With a DAME.

Finn: Mills in conspiracy theory overdrive. I never got the love for this, but I don't for a second imagine it's not coming. I just hope it won't take up too many books.

On the Meg stuff, Lawless remains the problem. It'd have to start halfway through, with people no longer able to access the first bit. Would that piss people off too much? I dunno.


As for The Monarch's list: I'll be OK with Harlem Heroes, despite it being very much of its time and deeply problematic in a whole range of areas. But I don't recall — art aside — Mean Arena having any redeeming features whatsoever. (Note: we know the collection's been extended one time too many with McKenzie's Mean Arena reboot is a book all of its own!) Tharg strips? Urgh. I recall back in the day when Best of 2000 AD was stuffed full of those. It was the worst issue to that point by a country mile. In the Prog, as one-offs, they are tolerable. An entire 200-page book of the things would be as trying as the worst of the Dredd books!

[Super Mario]

140?!

My wife is going to kill me

[IndigoPrime]

Not if you strategically hide 30 or so volumes under a large hat.

[sintec]

A Ken Niemand Dredd book would be an excellent addition - I wonder if there's enough Niemand Dredd to fill one out?
Going by Barney there's ~100 pages of strip but that's doesn't include some of the more recent series so I reckon it might be plausible by the time we get to volume 112.

And while we're on potential Dredd volumes a collection of the recent Wagner Dredds would be superb too. Harvey, Machine Law, Gautemala is ~130 pages so room for a couple of other stories too.

[Rately]

A Ken Niemand Dredd book would be an excellent addition - I wonder if there's enough Niemand Dredd to fill one out?
Going by Barney there's ~100 pages of strip but that's doesn't include some of the more recent series so I reckon it might be plausible by the time we get to volume 112.

And while we're on potential Dredd volumes a collection of the recent Wagner Dredds would be superb too. Harvey, Machine Law, Gautemala is ~130 pages so room for a couple of other stories too.

Having that recent Wagner Dredd in Hardback would be brilliant.

As for the Wife, she is convinced I've started another subscription!

[Dark Jimbo]

Brigand Doom? Fr1day? Maniac 5?! I don't want to thrill-shame any body's choices, but with the best will in the world I think it needs to be borne in mind that this is The Ultimate Collection - it's about showcasing (nominally) Tharg's best, not just about sticking everything in hardcovers.

Anyway, here's some speculations from me, based on finishing off existing series, or just stuff that seems viable (files already compiled for an existing collection, series was complete and finished, material is just good quality).

Kingdom x1
ABC Warriors x2
Sinister Dexter x3
Brass Sun x2
Stickleback x1
Survival Geeks x1
The Order x1
Defoe x1
Horror Collections x2 (Necronauts/Leviathan/Cradlegrave/Chiaroscuro/etc)
Atavar x1
More Future Shocks x1
Summer Magic x1
Skip Tracer x1 (I know, I know, but Tharg seems to like it)

Just off the top of my head that's another 18 books without any Dredd world stuff!

[Arkady]

Am I the only one who would like Mambo? I bloody loved Mambo. The body-horror element blew my mind. Though I guess I was a very, very young man at the time.

[Tomwe]

Skip Tracer x1 (I know, I know, but Tharg seems to like it)

Aw. Dark Jimbo beat me to it! I was just thinking this at lunch. This latest thrill brings it up to a good page count for a collection.

[IndigoPrime]

Am I the only one who would like Mambo? I bloody loved Mambo.

That has about 150 strip pages, and so would be viable. Honestly, I don't remember a huge amount about it, but also don't remember actively disliking it.

Niemand Dredd would be good, as would new Wagner. The more I think about it, the more I reckon a Milligan volume needs to happen. I guess there's relative freedom now, too, given that this is subs-based rather than trying to draw people's eye on the newsstand.

[Dark Jimbo]

The more I think about it, the more I reckon a Milligan volume needs to happen. I guess there's relative freedom now, too, given that this is subs-based rather than trying to draw people's eye on the newsstand.

That's a great shout - Counterfeit Girl, Freaks, Faces, The Dead, Tribal Memories... An eclectic collection to say the least, but easily enough for a book!

[sintec]

Feel like there's almost certainly going to be at least one volume of 70s era stuff in there.  Harlem Heroes does feel like the obvious call but the page counts are an awkward fit for the Hachette Volumes:

Harlem Heroes - 112 (too short to stand alone)
Inferno - 183 (perfect for a solo volume)
Harlem Heroes (Fleisher reboot) - 186 (also perfect for a solo volume but as I understand it not highly regarded).

The other one I could see happening is Shako as the bear seems to be popular with Tharg at the minute.  It'd need pairing with something though as it's only 86 pages (including the annual story).