The John Wagner Facebook Thread

[TordelBack]

It's fascinating to see John's literary preferences set out like that.  Some of it seems so apt:  Steinbeck with his sweepingly desolate  landscapes, spare prose and third-person internal narrations, and O'Brian's powerful but unspoken friendships, and tendency to kill off major characters without plot reason or fanfare, or have major events happen entirely "off-screen".  Brilliant.

[James Stacey]

Ooh Ohh, John replied to my question. I feel like a giddy schoolgirl and probably sounded like one.

Asking whether we would ever hear any more of MC2 he replied

It wasn't my creation so I tend not to give it much thought. Another writer may well use it, and If I ever needed it I wouldn't hesitate.

I don't have the comics handy but I guess the Cursed Earth was the first occurance of Mega City 2. As a fan reading the comics I'd never considered something so what I see as fundimental to the make up of Dredds world being the preserve of Pats. I guess it also gives the reason for the total lack of consiquence for the Judgement Day story.

[W. R. Logan]

think you may find his answer has more to do with MC-2's later storylines of being destroyed and then being rebuilt by another mega power. Lots of plot threads left from it that were nothing to do with John.

[jabish]

I'm glad to see him disregarding Alan McKenzie's very poor Chopper series.

What a missed opportunity that series was. Some lovely art from John Higgins and being a huge fan of Song of the Surfer I was cock a hoop at the time it was announced thinking it was John Wagner's return to the character. What a disappointment to see McKenzie's name in the credit box.

That sentiment went for a lot of things in the comic at that time.

[radiator]

Could someone with an account post a link to this thread on the 2000ADReview forum? I'm not registered there, but noticed that some folks there only just discovered the facebook thing, and are now unable to read the relevant posts there as they have nearly all been deleted.

On the same thread I was reading, it was also mentioned that John will be doing a short Q&A with Gavin @ 2000AD Review sometime before Christmas -should be an interesting read.

[radiator]

On his personal favourite Dredd stories:

Explaining why would in most cases take too long, but some of my more recent favourites include Slow Crime Day, the first Hottie House Siege story, The Runner, Citizen Sump. Often a story stands out as much because of the work of the artist as for my own contribution. For instance, Slow Crime Day wouldn't have been half as good if it hadn't been for the skill of Peter Doherty, one of my favourite Dredd artists - never spectacular but always gets to the heart of a story. Similarly, bad art can ruin what I considered to be a good story -- won't mention any names! My favourite one-off of recent years was actually a Stront story, The Sad Case. Kid Knee is a little git and consequently much fun to write, and Carlos always gives good art.

On Arthur Ranson (another one of his favourite artists), the proposed Button Man movie, and Button Man in general:

I'm expecting news on the movie from Dreamworks very soon, one way or the other. No plans for a series 5 unless Arthur decides he's ready to draw again.

Q: Why can't/won't Arthur do another series? I heard it's due to health issues, but I also heard he'd retired, but that doesn't seem to be the case if he's just launched this site..

It's a bit of both. The website is just for entertainment, I think - at least for the moment. I nagged Arthur for years to get a computer; now that he's got one he's having a little fun with it.

On the 5 other mystery Dredd clones:

... we will return to them in the future -

- unless [spoiler]Chief Judge Sinfield[/spoiler] decides to play Herod and have them all quietly terminated. For the good of the city, of course.

Will he or won't he? Hmm...

On Dredd spin-offs:

I generally don't follow spin-offs and don't have a veto - wouldn't use it if I did ... but the one that always makes me smile - just the idea of it, so ridiculously Mega-City - is The Simping Detective. Brill.

On the proposed Dynamite deal for a new monthly US Dredd comic:

Wouldn't say the Dynamite link up is completely dead, but if you prod it with a sharp stick it doesn't move.

He also reveals that his current plan for the issue of Dredd's advancing age MAY be to have [spoiler]Dredd retire, die or take a desk job while Rico takes on the Dredd name[/spoiler], but there's no guarantee it will happen like that.

[Bolt-01]

Kid Knee is my fave S/D, so to see John mention him gives me a warm glow.

[radiator]

Likewise Slow Crime Day - a perfect little one-off from around prog 1200 - such a neat idea for a story I'm amazed it wasn't done earlier! Never seems to get much recognition, though.

[JOE SOAP]

He also reveals that his current plan for the issue of Dredd's advancing age MAY be to have [spoiler]Dredd retire, die or take a desk job while Rico takes on the Dredd name[/spoiler], but there's no guarantee it will happen like that.

I think he also infers that it doesn't need to be addressed for several years yet, maybe a decade or more.

[radiator]

I think he also infers that it doesn't need to be addressed for several years yet, maybe a decade or more.

Does he? Reading back his earlier comments, my reading of it is that something is going to happen pretty soon - however with Wagner's slow burn storytelling pace it may well be a decade in any case!

[JOE SOAP]

I think there's also the matter of Rebellion's approval.

[Colin YNWA]

Damn you tempting spoiler tag, DAMN YOU...

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Does he? Reading back his earlier comments, my reading of it is that something is going to happen pretty soon - however with Wagner's slow burn storytelling pace it may well be a decade in any case!

Uh oh! Stevie was kept awake at 3 o'clock in the morning by this very thought:

[spoiler]Two Fargo clones are cast out into the Cursed Earth.

Only one returns.[/spoiler]

[Hoagy]

Just wanna say, while I'm on a laptop, what a great thread this is.

[Jim_Campbell]

*sigh*

I see Scojo's taken over John's fan page again and is already indulging in some Rennie-bashing. Only a matter of time before the screenplays reappear, I reckon.

I don't want to shit up John's page by starting a fight with the little turd, but I really feel like dregding up some of the thoroughly uncomplimentary things he's said about John's writing in the past and asking him whether he still stands by them ...

Bah.

Jim