Tell me how to enjoy Armitage

[Dandontdare]

I have always really wanted to like Armitage - I mean, it's the perfect set up - a cynical, educated British detective in Dredd's world - but despite different writers and artists, this ideal premise has never been able to live up to it's potential.

I honestly don't know why I have always found Armitage stories somehow disappointing, but I feel it's a strip that may one day find the right writer and produce some amazing stuff.

So c'mon all you "creative common" bods - pitch Tharg a REALLY great Armitage story!

[House of Usher]

<stifles uproarious laughter>  

I can't see that comment going down well with Armitage's writer and creator!

[Dandontdare]

I've got no beef with the creator - It's a GREAT creation - but why has it never been a great critical success? Why has there never been a great Armitage epic?  It just seems that, even though this thread may be a bit unnecessarily negative, I can't ever recall a hugely popular Armitage review. I'm genuinely puzzled - I cannot fault any of the elements that make up the Armitage stories, (characters, plots, artwork) but I've never been really THRILLED or gripped by it. Am I alone in this?

[planetoid]

I've got no beef with the creator - It's a GREAT creation - but why has it never been a great critical success? Why has there never been a great Armitage epic?  It just seems that, even though this thread may be a bit unnecessarily negative, I can't ever recall a hugely popular Armitage review. I'm genuinely puzzled - I cannot fault any of the elements that make up the Armitage stories, (characters, plots, artwork) but I've never been really THRILLED or gripped by it. Am I alone in this?

Well, fans like and dislike all sorts of characters so I doubt you're alone in not liking Armitage. I'm sure there's someone out there that doesn't like Dredd!  

I think an Armitage epic is a great idea. Perhaps a bit too late now, but it certainly would have worked a decade or so ago when the character was reasonably fresh. As I mentioned, I guess the lack of a consistent long run has failed to make it a fan favourite. In hindsight, it should have had a few more stories.

[Dark Jimbo]

I have always really wanted to like Armitage - I mean, it's the perfect set up - a cynical, educated British detective in Dredd's world - but despite different writers and artists, this ideal premise has never been able to live up to it's potential.

I honestly don't know why I have always found Armitage stories somehow disappointing, but I feel it's a strip that may one day find the right writer and produce some amazing stuff.

Pretty much how I feel. Every time a new Armitage story appears I get quite excited and really want to like it, but it somehow indefinably falls short of what I want from it each time. When I see it's coming I think 'Great - Armitage!' - but by the time it ends I'm just thinking 'Thank God that's over.'

Like DDD, I can't fault many of the individual elements of the strip, but for some reason the work as a whole rarely seems to catch fire.


Thread title's a bit harsh, though. Can we get it changed?

[Trout]

I'm sure there's someone out there that doesn't like Dredd!

Nope. I started a thread looking for one and nobody owned up.

People who don't like Dredd don't read 2000AD, or at least don't post here.

Anyway, Armitage has picked up nicely in the new Meg (288). I enjoyed it.

- Trout

[virgil]

"How crap is Armitage?": the real origin of the name Armitage is "one who came from, or lived near the habitation of a hermit" but its most famous use here in the UK is the enamelled logo on millions of toilets "Armitage Shanks".

Do you think that was (perhaps subliminally) the title's original inspiration?

[House of Usher]

Every time a new Armitage story appears I get quite excited

*searches data banks - - - no matches*

Nope: doesn't ring a bell.

[House of Usher]

but its most famous use here in the UK is the enamelled logo on millions of toilets "Armitage Shanks".

Do you think that was (perhaps subliminally) the title's original inspiration?

This theme has been explored in the strip itself. No doubt someone will tell you which story arc. I'm guessing "Flashback I" or "Flasback II."

[virgil]

ha! i knew it. there I was, taking a leak, and it just jumped up at me (the logo on the porcelain, that is)

[planetoid]

Maybe John Wagner should be writing Armitage?

I'm sure Dave Stone would love that suggestion.    

When all is said and done, it's the writer that makes or breaks the character. If a lot of fans think Armitage is dull, it's Stone's fault. He hasn't made the character and the world exciting enough. I don't mind Armitage, I think it's okay, but look at how Wagner developed Dredd and compare it with Stone's development of Armitage. There's no comparison. Dredd became a rich world full of great plots, imagination and humour and Armitage appears every few years for a few weeks and goes again!   Wagner spent years developing Dredd, same is true with other writers on other characters, Stone has written a handful of Armitage tales in twenty years.

[House of Usher]

But if Dave Stone wanted to write a 10-page Armitage (Steel?) story for every issue of The Megazine, and get paid for it, do you suppose the editor would take him up on it? No, I don't think so either. So I don't think we can put the blame entirely at Dave Stone's door for the infrequency of the strip's appearance. You can, however, hold him responsible for the content of the stories he writes.

[planetoid]

But if Dave Stone wanted to write a 10-page Armitage (Steel?) story for every issue of The Megazine, and get paid for it, do you suppose the editor would take him up on it? No, I don't think so either.

Since 1995 - 14 years ago - we've had 4 Meg Armitage strips (and one Mega-Special story) Four strips in nearly a decade and a half means it's hard to get that excited by the character. Imagine Stront, Rogue, Dante etc with that amount of story content in 14 years, the strips would never excite people.

There must be some reason why Armitage has had just 4 stories in the last 14 years. Not popular with the fan base? The editors, David Bishop and Alan Barnes, not interested in Armitage? Dave Stone not interested in Armitage? Who knows, but the lack of real enthusiasm for Armitage must come down to its sparse appearances in the Meg. Compare Armitage to strips like Missionary Man, Shimura, Anderson. They had smaller time gaps between stories.

How many characters from the early Meg days are still in the Meg?  Dredd, Anderson and Armitage. I think that's it. Strips like Missionary Man, Simping Detective, Shimura etc seem to have finished for good. Armitage is the last of the Meg's old boys, from the class of 1990. He's showing his age, his back is hurting him more than it did in Judge Dredd The Megazine issue 1, the bones creak that bit more, but he's still going strong.  

[House of Usher]

the lack of real enthusiasm for Armitage must come down to its sparse appearances in the Meg.

That's a false conclusion. It might just be because Armitage is boring. I'm not saying that is the reason; it's just one you've discounted without weighing it up.

You know, I've never understood the love for Shimura. If it came to choosing between Armitage and Shimura stories appearing in the Megazine I wouldn't be able to express any preference.

[TordelBack]

There must be some reason why Armitage has had just 4 stories in the last 14 years.

With the exception of Anderson and maybe Devlin, very few early Meg characters have had more Meg stories than that since 1995 (more common are late starters like Young Middenface, Missionary Man and Simping Detective).  For a good chunk of that time there was one (or less) supporting strip sandwiched between Dredd and reprint.  There really hasn't been a lot of room until relatively recently, and Armitage has had a share of that.