To Flesh or not

[broodblik]

I do not know if anyone can remember how Flesh ended in its last arc (prog 2001-2010) but it ended with the words "to be continued". I would like to see that at least it is concluded but then again I would rather see more Brink/The Out/Brass Sun etc

On twitter I saw a question related to Flesh (and an answer from Pat)

Q: Any chance we'll ever see closure on Flesh?

A: I was tweeting about this recently. There's about four problems currently in the way. The first one is Clint's availability. He's still working on Joe Pineapples.  Ultimately it's about whether Rebellion are keen to make it happen. Currently, I'd say they're not.

[IndigoPrime]

"Ultimately it's about whether Rebellion are keen to make it happen. Currently, I'd say they're not."

That's a curious statement from someone who basically said they're done with 2000 AD. Or is the spin now that he'd like to close out his strips but Big Bad Evil Nasty Rebellion won't allow this to happen? (I never got the impression Matt Smith wanted Mills to hang up his typewriter, so to speak. And prior to Mills's decision, he was still a regular in the Prog.)

[Jim_Campbell]

Or is the spin now that he'd like to close out his strips but Big Bad Evil Nasty Rebellion won't allow this to happen?

Pat has some form in this respect: he's always said that there were no more series of Deadlock because Andy Diggle vetoed it. Only two problems with that: 1) Andy said he didn't care for Pat's first pitch for Book 2, not that he would never commission another series, and 2) Andy hasn't been the editor for twenty years.

[Barrington Boots]

I'd also love to see a final series of Flesh. I re-read it lately and I'd like to see it concluded. (I also have a real appreciation for James Mckay's work on it that I didn't have at the time, it's a shame he departed from it)

Tbh I'd rather see a conclusion to Savage though. I definitely don't want any more Deadlock.

[AlexF]

According to Henry Flint in one of the intros to Shakara, he was offered to either do Deadlock 2 or Shakara, and chose the latter. Which rather suggests Diggle (or maybe Matt Smith) would've asked Pat for more Deadlock if Flint has said he wanted it.

I'd love a final book of nuFlesh. Might even enjoy it more iof it wasn't Clint Langley. Obvs he's great, but there's always fun to be had from seeing a different artists take on something. Bet S K Moore could do a cracking job, and he's got form with Mills, too.

[broodblik]

I am glad that Henry decided to do Shakara. 

[Jim_Campbell]

Which rather suggests Diggle (or maybe Matt Smith) would've asked Pat for more Deadlock if Flint has said he wanted it.

Like I say, Pat's version of this is/was that he pitched Deadlock Bk2 and Andy Diggle 'wasn't interested in more Deadlock'. As is often the case, other people's versions/recollections may differ. :-)

[nxylas]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone else think that the Dino Files collection should have consisted of just books 1 and 2, and the one-off stories from annuals and specials of the period? There's a real crunch of gears when we get to the '90s stuff. I'm not saying Nu Flesh shouldn't be reprinted, just that it should be the start of a new volume.

[Dark Jimbo]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone else think that the Dino Files collection should have consisted of just books 1 and 2, and the one-off stories from annuals and specials of the period? There's a real crunch of gears when we get to the '90s stuff. I'm not saying Nu Flesh shouldn't be reprinted, just that it should be the start of a new volume.

Yes, absolutely. And that weird decision was repeated again for the UC Flesh volume.

[IndigoPrime]

It would be like welding the first book of Savage to the end of Invasion. It's an interesting curiosity to show a modernised take on the original, but is very much out of place.

[Richard]

There's no reason why Flesh can't be finished by another artist.

[Jim_Campbell]

There's no reason why Flesh can't be finished by another artist.

No reason why it couldn't be finished by another writer... ;-)

[IndigoPrime]

Careful, Jim, or Mills fanboys will send him a screen grab of your post. Then you'll be for it.

[Max Headroom]

Rather than 'Flesh' I would much rather see a completion of 'Defoe'. If Pat and Rebellion can sort out their not insignificant issues; could it happen?

[13school]

Or is the spin now that he'd like to close out his strips but Big Bad Evil Nasty Rebellion won't allow this to happen?

Pat has some form in this respect: he's always said that there were no more series of Deadlock because Andy Diggle vetoed it. Only two problems with that: 1) Andy said he didn't care for Pat's first pitch for Book 2, not that he would never commission another series, and 2) Andy hasn't been the editor for twenty years.

To be fair, if Mills pitched a sequel for Book 2 then presumably that was how he saw the character's story continuing. If Diggle said he "didn't care for it", then it seems reasonable to read that as "I don't want the character's story to continue down the path you have chosen".

Sure, Mills could have gone away and came up with a different angle, but after a few decades of writing Deadlock he might have only seen one way for the character to progress. And by the time Diggle left the idea had gone off the boil and that was the end of that.

Or it might have been a really crap idea. Honestly, while I'd like Mills to return and wrap up Savage, and Defoe, and Flesh, has he ever given any series a quality, definitive ending? Even with Nemesis he went back and changed it. He's a serial storyteller, not a graphic novelist - he always leaves the door open.

Even outside 2000ad Marshall Law currently ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, Charley's War... ok, that had a decent ending.