Prog 2336 - Thrills set to stun!

[BPP]

Most of 2000ads readership are too old to have kids who would read regened if placed in their hands (and if they did read the first one 4 years ago they would now be too old to likely still be interested).

So it's only really there to give a stock to material to be collected and resold and essentially the progs audience are being used to kickstart this outside bet.

Personally I just ignore them the same way I do a strip I can't take to. But please Tharg no more than the established 4 a year (and stop transferring the stories over - despite their professional finish they really don't land as stories for me).

[Colin YNWA]

Another curious thing that just struck me: Regened currently lacks fun. It's had it in the past, most notably with Pandora. But this issue felt quite dour throughout, with Finder & Keeper being furthest from that.

I wonder whether the format could do with a bit of shaking up. It seems that, for whatever reason, Regened has increasingly gone for fewer and longer strips. But perhaps there should be space for shorts too. Heck, even base one on an old property, if you like. Maybe Samantha Slade: Robo-Hunter, but as an anarchic and properly cartoony take, in which every strip takes place over a DPS.

A trainee Robo Hunter is a tailor made idea. Old Samantha getting an apprentice.

Christ even Samantha could finally get to Paris - Grant Goggins (for those who remember him... and I'm not sure I've got the name right!) would be pleased!

[Richard]

Samantha Slade is definitely not the solution! That series was dire.

I agree with pretty much every other view that has been expressed today.

[Bad City Blue]

Samantha Slade is definitely not the solution! That series was dire.

I agree with pretty much every other view that has been expressed today.

Doesn't mean a better written one wouldn't be good though. Young kid stops a murderous robot (luck and judgement and panic) she is after. She splits the reward and he asks to become her apprentice due to money troubles at home. Split between home life and robo hunting, and the two inevitable become intertwined.

Shit... I feel like writing it now. Doesn't even have to be her, any Robo Hunter will do.

[IndigoPrime]

Richard: I'm not talking about a continuation of the original series. I'm suggesting someone combine something from 2000 AD's DNA ('robo-hunting') with, I dunno, the anarchic nature of Bunny vs Monkey. Make it properly cartoony and bright and silly and bonkers. But infuse it with 2000 AD's penchant for oddball sci-fi and weird robots. Run it across a DPS every issue of Regened. Give the comic varied pace and humour by default.

Maybe that's bollocks. I dunno. I'm not a comics editor, and I've not even edited a print mag section in years. But it feels as if something like this is worth a punt.

[Colin YNWA]

Ohhh chance for self promotion seen and taken... if you've looking for ideas...

[IndigoPrime]

Ha! I was thinking even more cartoony, but that is a fun image.

[Funt Solo]

These days, kids expect media that's made for them and, overwhelmingly, prefer to see protagonists around their age. Don't come at me with "Well, my kid..." — there's reams of market research on this.

I'm curious about this idea. I have read that one should aim for a protagonist who is slightly older than the target demographic.

But! My personal experience (I know, I'm just me - not an average) of reading is that it never mattered how old a protagonist was. As a young reader, I liked Asimov - most of his characters are adults. Am I an edge case?

Is it possible that marketing to specific age groups is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy? (You make the protagonists close to the target demo., then they buy it because it's in the correct section of the book store - then you say "see, this stuff sells - these people like this format".)

[nxylas]

I'm curious about this idea. I have read that one should aim for a protagonist who is slightly older than the target demographic.

But! My personal experience (I know, I'm just me - not an average) of reading is that it never mattered how old a protagonist was. As a young reader, I liked Asimov - most of his characters are adults. Am I an edge case?

I think it's more of a generational thing. When 2000AD first launched in 1977, kids didn't mind reading about adult characters. But apparently, kids nowadays want to read about teenagers. Hence Cadet Dredd instead of Judge Dredd and so on.

[Funt Solo]

I think it's more of a generational thing. When 2000AD first launched in 1977, kids didn't mind reading about adult characters. But apparently, kids nowadays want to read about teenagers. Hence Cadet Dredd instead of Judge Dredd and so on.

Aye, I get that idea - I'm just wondering if the proposition ("kids nowadays want to read about teenagers") is actually true.

I'm not saying it's not true, you understand. But I'm wondering what came first: the marketing or the desire to purchase the things being marketed.

(It's like someone noticing that - and I'm making this up, but it's not a terrible example - that people who smoke pot are prone to paranoia. Then one might argue that pot causes paranoia. But it may be that people prone to paranoia are more likely to smoke pot. Anyway, I ate this special yogurt and now I know you're all against me!!!)

[Le Fink]

As a young reader, I liked Asimov - most of his characters are adults. Am I an edge case?

If so, I am too. Asimov, Terrence Dicks (Doctor Who) and EE 'Doc' Smith among others in my case. All or mostly adult protagonists if I remember right.

[Jim_Campbell]

As a young reader, I liked Asimov - most of his characters are adults. Am I an edge case?

JESUS. No... as a young reader, you, like me, had almost no media aimed at you. YA fiction wasn't a thing, children's TV was barely a thing. We were basically raised on war movies and westerns and SF books we got out of the library. No one was creating media for our age group so we became acclimatised to accepting 30-year-old+ white men beating/shooting the crap out of people as our default protagonist. But, for the (seemingly) millionth time, that's not how it is now.

[Funt Solo]

Jim - calm down, would you. You have an opinion. I was talking around it - not even disagreeing with you. Laying out the all-caps JESUS shit, and all that for the umpteenth time jazz - it's pretty aggressive, and it's incredibly patronizing. There's just no need.

To talk to the argument, you haven't actually proved anything - just repeated a proposition (which I don't necessarily disagree with).

No wonder we got divorced.

[Funt Solo]

Sorry to double-post, but I was also ruminating on what was available in the late 70s/early 80s, and it wasn't as barren for kid's entertainment as is being made out.

There was kid's tv shows (Scooby), kid's comics (Asterix, Bunty), kid's books (James and the Giant Peach). Of course, I appreciate that there's more targeted content now.

My chicken and egg question remains, though.

[IndigoPrime]

As I understand it, publishers and producers started creating content that more directly aligned protagonists with the target market, it did well, and they did more of it. I'd say it's now quite rare to read a book with mini-IP where the protagonist is an adult, although there are usually (not always) adults within the stories.