Prog 2233:Regened - Ready to face the law?

[MacabreMagpie]

Liam Johnson has done bits before, but if I'm honest not enough for me to remember the name (sorry!). I will after this.

Liam was one of the Thought Bubble talent search winners in 2019, he's doing very well!

[Barrington Boots]

My own general wordsearch enthusiasm aside, I think some kind of wordsearch / puzzle might be a good idea for these progs as in my (reasonably narrow, in fairness) experience younger readers love them in stuff like The Phoenix. I'm picturing something that looks really anarchic and eye-catchingly cool though rather than the bland space-filler I see in product branded kids magazines. Probably easier said than done, but...

I know I've had a little gripe before about the necessary evil of Regened, but I've only skimmed the prog and this does look like a stronger one than usual. Will read it later & review.

[Funt Solo]

that Planet of Death thingie (can't remember the title) was absolute genius!

That was great, it should have been given its own strip!

FCBD 8 (2018) / 2000 AD Regened #1

[broodblik]

Cover by Neil Googe and Cary Caldwell:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Over time, I have gone from not liking these, to warming to them, to really enjoying them as a diversion and throwback.

I see there's an ad for a collection. That makes me a little sad. A collection would be a great annual, Viz style.

[Leigh S]

The Dredd was great stuff - not sure about the bucket of water Indiana Jones bit, but otherwise it was a spot on bit of Dredd - get this fellow on the old man version!

The FS was well told, but I'm not sure Social Media needs to be the punchline of everything aimed at kids?

Pandora Perfect was a good read again

Anderson was a bit too generically generic a tale and Dept K just fell flat for me wwhen your protagonists are super efficient wise crackers - the peril evaporates - see Doctor Who

[Dandontdare]

Mine's just arrived and I have say: +100 points for including a wordsearch.

They need to make it a 'Spot the Difference' the word search was way to easy and the boy child and I love doing the Spot the Difference in The Phoenix* together, some of which are devilishly tricky.

Well if you insist... https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47603.0;topicseen

And on-topic I groan when Regened week comes around, but I enjoyed this one far more than the previous ones - the 'juve-appeal' felt less forced

[IndigoPrime]

Strong enough as a Prog, if a mixed bag for me.

Great cover and solid Dredd. Probably the best Cadet Dredd so far. Anderson didn’t click for me though.

I though the Future Shock was fun. That would have worked just as well in the regular Prog. Pandora was entertaining.

Dept K was an odd one. It went in a totally different direction to what I was expecting (Black Science meets MC1) and so I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve read a few episodes of the full run.

[Richard]

Cadet Dredd annoyed me a bit. The point was that "Cadet Dredd broke the law," and we're meant to think that meant Joe, but it turned out to be Rico all along. But when Rico's badge doesn't say Dredd, it doesn't really work. There was one line of dialogue where Rico calls Joe "little brother," but that's the only way you'd know they're brothers (we know that already, but the target audience don't), and even if the reader does pick up on the fact that they're brothers, Rico's name still appears to be Cadet Rico. It undermines the whole point.

[Barrington Boots]

I thought this was a mixed bag.

Strongest Cadet Dredd so far IMO, good little story, the Ant & Dec / Ants & Deck joke on page 1 is the sort of dreadful pun I like.

Future shock was fine although I also feel we've had a few 'social media bad' ones like this lately.

Anderson I didn't rate I'm afraid, generic story removed from the MC1 setting and both Anderson and the cadet had the same jokey 'voice' meaning there was very little to distinguish between them.

Pandora Perfect was the highlight again: anarchic, charming, original rather than 'young version of old character', cool character concepts. If the plan is to have prog runs to enable a full TPB to sell to younger readers, this should be comissioned.

Department K surprisingly didn't enjoy at all. As Leigh said upthread, when the whole team is wisecracking and flawless there's no peril and everyone is annoying. I too was surprised by the change in what we all thought was the concept so we'll see where this leads. What a great first page by PJ Holden though!

I thought the art was really strong throughout.

Best Regened so far imo and it does feel like it's finding it's feet, but as ever I'm writing that from the pov of a grown man with no kids. I'd be interested in how this was received by any actual children?

Looking forward to next week. With the lineup for the next prog having Chimpsky, Mechastopheles and a Regend spinoff all scheduled, it's going to be adored by some elements of the readership

[Proudhuff]

Over time, I have gone from not liking these, to warming to them, to really enjoying them as a diversion and throwback.

I see there's an ad for a collection. That makes me a little sad. A collection would be a great annual, Viz style.

This^^^ but without the spoonfiddling

[Leigh S]

I thnk that's fine - aand Dredd DID break the Law, just Rico did too.

The only bit I thought was slightly off was Joe suspecting Rico - knowing Dredd, he would have gone and blabbed! Better to leave him unsuspecting?

Cadet Dredd annoyed me a bit. The point was that "Cadet Dredd broke the law," and we're meant to think that meant Joe, but it turned out to be Rico all along. But when Rico's badge doesn't say Dredd, it doesn't really work. There was one line of dialogue where Rico calls Joe "little brother," but that's the only way you'd know they're brothers (we know that already, but the target audience don't), and even if the reader does pick up on the fact that they're brothers, Rico's name still appears to be Cadet Rico. It undermines the whole point.

[Jacqusie]

I'd be cheered if we could move on a bit from the argument surrounding the method by which the Regened content is published (because previous threads have really explained the why of the matter quite thoroughly)

I KNOW.

Gosh, fair enough, I get the point, they can't be separate specials, gotcha. Though it must be said that not eveyone has the time to read all these threads so thoroughly, so my apologies for raising a point which I get the impression that you all may have discussed endlessly before.

However my main point was missed entirely, namely that of:

" or which might be a better plan, we could opt out on the subscription, as I really don't want to have to keep paying for four of these every year"...

That means that some folk like yourselves who do want and get them which is great and then some folk who don't want them, dont get them, which is also great.

Then again there is probably a good reason that idea is also not feasable in the grand scheme of things

[Funt Solo]

Right, so your subs choices would be an easy:

 - Megazine monthly
 - Megazine quarterly
 - Megazine yearly
 - Megazine two-yearly

 - 2000 AD monthly
 - 2000 AD quarterly
 - 2000 AD yearly
 - 2000 AD two-yearly
 - 2000 AD minus Regened monthly
 - 2000 AD minus Regened quarterly
 - 2000 AD minus Regened yearly
 - 2000 AD minus Regened two-yearly

 - Combi monthly
 - Combi yearly
 - Combi two-yearly
 - Combi minus Regened monthly
 - Combi minus Regened yearly
 - Combi minus Regened two-yearly

There *might* be a little push-back from someone with some sense of management or promotion in offering something that doesn't include a thing that you're trying to promote. But you could probably distract them by pointing out a window and shouting "look - a two-headed monkey". Try to also include whoever's in charge of subs in that distraction, as well. Apart from those minor issues I think you're onto a winner.

Can I add in some more ideas here...

Megazine minus articles (monthly / quarterly et al)
Megazine minus floppy (as above)
Megazine minus the bits I don't like

2000 AD plus more Wagner minus that rather confusing Future Shock that didn't float my boat.
2000 AD with Ken Niemand's real name in it (monthly sub. only) [Ed. stop this now!]