Prog 2346 - Maximum Thrill-Boost!

[Funt Solo]

Maybe Joko-Jargo is the issue here. What are his editorial credentials, other than being nepotistically appointed by his uncle?

It's not often I say this, but rofl-copters.

It's baffling how much page space this has been afforded so far

It has one key advantage for an editor: it's finished (as in, technically, ready to publish). For modern 2000 AD, that seems to be very important. I have no other explanation for seven books of Skip Tracer. Imagine seven books of Dry Run. Bring back Brigand Doom etc.

[The Monarch]

i would kill for seven books of kek-w canon fodder

i will admit i liked the first lowborn high but my god 20 pages is too much

[broodblik]

I have read lowborn now and do find it not to bad but I think it does not regen prog. I also would like more strips than just these 4 (especially when do not like most of them then you feel like the prog has been a failure).

[Barrington Boots]

i would kill for seven books of kek-w canon fodder

And I'd read seven books of Dry Run.
Based on this, someone must be loving Lowborn High.

[Trooper McFad]

i would kill for seven books of kek-w canon fodder

And I'd read seven books of Dry Run.
Based on this, someone must be loving Lowborn High.

Maybe Tharg has had sight of the final panel and the pay off is immense and we will all eat our words and bow to his superior intelligence.

Well maybe!

[Barrington Boots]

Ooh, good point! maybe Armoured Gideon shows up on the Plateau of Leng Ming and the story takes a new and exciting twist.
Or it's all really just the AI from SinDex!

[IndigoPrime]

Expectation management, perhaps, but this wasn't as bad as I'd feared. But... it also wasn't good.

The cover is solid, but then Regened is pretty much always a Dredd now. Dredd itself was a bit Captain Obvious with the twist. Slightly irksome that Only Prominent Female Character was the baddie who hated the system (and with no depth/motivation). The overall premise still doesn't work for me either. Dredd is a stick in the mud. In the 1970s, he was a counter-culture bastard people rooted for. Now, he's just a dick. It's like trying to get behind the last-gen take on Walter the Softie (before his current incarnation as a kind of wannabe evil genius). Purely on the 'justice' side (with some kids – including my own – being big into that) it pales beside the likes of Claire, Justice Ninja (which surely needs another run). Art-wise, I quite liked it. There was energy. It was dynamic. Although those Lawmasters were a bit chunky.

Lowborn High was... fine. There are too many cliches, and characters don't do enough to deserve outcomes. I'd echo Colin's points about dramatic moments and the way the arcs work (or often don't). And, bloody hell, another 20 pages, forever? Rebellion must have some data on this, because otherwise I just don't get it.

The Future Shock was OK. I'm not sure the attempt at satire landed, in the sense of people being protected from the law when they are the law. And liability shifting when you're no longer employed doesn't make a great deal of sense. That's beyond even Dredd-style dystopia. Page four should have had the protagonist at least agree to taking down the protesters. It's just inferred, which isn't enough for what follows.

Then there's Renk. It has something. It's quite enjoyable. But as I noted last time, I'm confused by the character design. The lead looks like a disheveled middle-aged man. Why Renk wasn't a streetwise teen with a rep, I don't know.

And then we get the usual baffling house ad for the next Prog that kids reading this one won't be able to read.

Renk > Future Shock > Dredd > Lowburn. Alas nothing above the average bar. And only Renk is something I'd likely read again.

I think what disappoints me most about Regened is that it's cycled out the most interesting strips (and the few that chimed with my own kid) and retained some of its worst elements. It still feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. The overall feel is quite dull. There's no anarchy. There's very little fun. Too much of the strips are po-faced.

[Bad City Blue]

Yeah, LOVELY ad with "Burn The Freaks" and a slutty vampire just for the kiddies!

Seriously, does no one at Rebellion know how to edit?

[IndigoPrime]

People with kids: what are they reading these days,more specifically than "manga", I mean? And if you were Joko-Jargo, what sort of strips would you commission for the Regened progs?

I read with interest that Kev F Sutherland piece, which broadly aligns with what I see with mini-IP and her 9/10yo friends.

There is, notably, a discovery problem, which now won't change. Most parents are unaware comics exist. When I've recommended The Phoenix to people and parents actually subscribe, they are by and large really happy with it. But if you don't know comics exist (because you never got the habit yourself), that causes a problem.

But, yes, BvM and Dog Man are the defaults. Some of the boys (but few girls) are into SW/superheroes, but it's not that common. A few kids read The Beano, but are starting to age out. Manga hasn't yet taken hold at this age range around here. I'm surprised Luke didn't mention Investigators, which appears to be among the most-liked comics now, according to teachers who stock up comics for class libraries.

Speaking for my own kid, she has read a wide range of comics, including a lot of contemporary fare such as Sparks, Miles Morales, the DC pets series, Ghosts (as in, Telgemeier), Barb the Brave, Kitty Quest, Roller Girl, Zita, Lumberjanes, etc. Again, her experience is anomalous, given my interest in comics.

But as for Regened, I don't know. I think the problem is I still don't really know what it's supposed to be. Monster Fun appears to be attempting to slot into the Fleetway space to DC's Beano. That makes sense. The Beano is very formulaic, and so offering an alternative to it is smart, even if some of the early editorial decisions totally put my daughter off of reading it in the future.

Regened appears to want to be a stepping stone between The Phoenix and 2000 AD, and yet The Phoenix itself has a quite broad age range and is suitable into that early teens space. It has some really smart serious strips (Fawn; No Country), comedy drama (Mega Robo Bros), anarchic comedy (anything by Jamie Smart), and everything in-between. Its pacing is varied. You'll get single-page Jess Bradley Squid Bits in most issues, and DPS cartoons, mixed with longer and more thoughtful strips.

If Regened wants to steal some ideas, that shift in pace might help. Reimagine ABC Warriors or Robo-Hunter (minus the sexism) as a bonkers cartoon strip, with a maximum of a DPS. Get someone to do strange SF single-pagers (or single-pagers in portrait across a DPS) that echo Squid Bits but fire the imagination in a different direction. Cut back the epic episodes to a maximum of eight pages, to inject some intensity into strips that currently too often meander, unless those strips can fully justify the extra length.

I don't know. It's very easy to be a back-seat editor, and I'm sure Rebellion is doing what it can with the resources available. The very existence of Regened and the reprint books suggests this must still be working to an acceptable degree. But as a long-time reader of the comic, it feels like much of the fire has gone out of the belly of Regened this past year or so, and it's headed down a cul-de-sac of dull. A comic shouldn't be boring. Right now, Regened just kind of is, and I find that a little bit heartbreaking.

[Bad City Blue]

I'd redo Robo Hunter with a young person accidentally helping a Robo Hunter (whoever, ideally Sam or Samantha redone) take down a robot and demanding half the fee or an apprenticeship. Easy to do bottle episodes, have fun with a smart kid and weary adult and mad robot stuff.

Hell, I might do it myself, just not use the IP in any way.

[Colin YNWA]

Regened appears to want to be a stepping stone between The Phoenix and 2000 AD, and yet The Phoenix itself has a quite broad age range and is suitable into that early teens space. It has some really smart serious strips (Fawn; No Country), comedy drama (Mega Robo Bros), anarchic comedy (anything by Jamie Smart), and everything in-between. Its pacing is varied. You'll get single-page Jess Bradley Squid Bits in most issues, and DPS cartoons, mixed with longer and more thoughtful strips.

Yeah from my personal experience that gap between The Phoenix and 2000ad defo exists. The boy child is 11 now, about to go to secondary school. I can feel him slowly getting to the end of his time with The Phoenix, though he's happily reading it still, Dog Man et al he's long past, but he's tracking a trajectory similar to girl child who no longer reads comics at 14 (I failed on that one - I might kick her out???).

Anyway I don't think he's ready for current 2000ad so I'm trying to fill the gap with other things and there are bits and pieces about. The things that works best for him, and this is clearly an individual case, has actually bee old 2000ad stuff which I wouldn't say he's lapping up but he happily reads when point to it.

I don't think Regened is there yet, we've tried it a couple of times and it gets a dismissive shrug when read. Now that's not to say that Regened should be old skool 2000ad at all. Kids have moved on, but what it is now isn't filling that gap in the limited way I can see. Its just this weird other at the moment and lacks the craft to really engage.

[IndigoPrime]

That's it exactly. And I agree: it absolutely shouldn't ape the past. What worked in 1977 does not work now. If anything, Regened has been too reverential to 2000 AD's past. Things like that Sam Slade text story were just bizarre, for example. But I don't get the feeling what's there now is really working either.

Again, perhaps the sales say otherwise. Maybe Regened gives the Prog a nice uptick several times every year and the collected trades are doing well. I've no idea. And maybe it's just one of those things, but I am a bit glum that we're currently zero* for two with Rebellion comics in this household, with a 9yo who's a voracious reader.

* Well, half, perhaps. She will read bits and pieces, but there's little real enthusiasm for it. By contrast, her bedroom floor and half the kitchen are currently both littered with Phoenix comics, with her going for a masses re-read.

[broodblik]

Stop this all-ages tag and make something for the kids. They already have me in their snare. So focus on purely what the kids like and not try to accommodate our old farts in the regen prog.

[IndigoPrime]

Thing is, create something good for the kids, and there's a good chance we're going to like it anyway. I keep hoping they'll backfill Bunny vs Monkey in hardcover, because I'd like a collection of those alongside my Complete Peanuts.

[Colin YNWA]

Thing is, create something good for the kids, and there's a good chance we're going to like it anyway. I keep hoping they'll backfill Bunny vs Monkey in hardcover, because I'd like a collection of those alongside my Complete Peanuts.

Oh that would be so good. At the moment they seem to be going for the cheap and cheerful get it into kids hands approach. But when its appreciated as the classic it is I do hope we start to get this in more 'adult' presentation.