Forthcoming Thrills!

[13school]

I think Dante vol.4 (Tsar Wars 1) might also be out of print now. Which is annoying as I'd managed to track down the first three but hadn't yet gotten around to ordering 4 from the Thrill Shop...

[TordelBack]

Mmmm.  While I really do appreciate the financial constraints on Rebellion and Robo-Keef, yesterday I chanced a look at the (very extensive) 2000AD GN holdings of FP Dublin, and the Dante situation there is a shocking mess.

They have a smattering of later volumes in the 7-10 region, and then a sole copy of the Too Cool to Kill version, which while a very handsome production indeed looks so different to the rest that you'd hardly connect it with them.  And what about the yawning void between it and the other volumes?  Hit the internet to make sense of all this, and all you find is daft prices and the likes of us moaning about OOP volumes.

As Dave Sim sagely noted, what prospective customer has the time to chase up these things?  If you can't get the first couple of collections at any time, and be sure of the future availability of the rest, no casual reader is ever going to take the plunge, especially without the tug of nostalgia that probably helps the likes of Dredd, Nemesis and Slaine. This is a shame, 'cos this stuff is gold, and in contrast so many comics starts strongly and only gets better as it goes along towards its devilishly clever and apposite ending.

That said, my advice for the moment is to hit the local library:  Dante seems very popular with librarians.

Putting all this in perspective, I picked up Sinister Dexter's Eurocrash volume in the library last week, and brother if you think Dante has reprint problems...   

[Judge Brian]

Putting all this in perspective, I picked up Sinister Dexter's Eurocrash volume in the library last week, and brother if you think Dante has reprint problems...   

I recently bought the first 2 collections of Sinister Dexter. I got half way through the first volume & put it down for a while. I can't say I was too impressed.

[Colin YNWA]

Putting all this in perspective, I picked up Sinister Dexter's Eurocrash volume in the library last week, and brother if you think Dante has reprint problems...   

I recently bought the first 2 collections of Sinister Dexter. I got half way through the first volume & put it down for a while. I can't say I was too impressed.

Stick with it, you're only seeing the series as it develops. The series begins to really find its stride in the last story I  this volume (I think I don't own the trades) and the first of the second volume. When Simon Davis becomes the 'regular' artist xoes it start to take off. Even then though its still improving. Its really worth giving it a chance to develop, once it gets there its a glory. Just wish the trades did it justice.

[TordelBack]

I recently bought the first 2 collections of Sinister Dexter. I got half way through the first volume & put it down for a while. I can't say I was too impressed.

Think that's bad, I read the first few Sinister Dexter stories in the Prog and then put the whole thing down for about 7 years...  Lawks but I hated that strip back then, whereas now I love it with a passion.

(I have a suspicion we're derailing the thread here, but I'll carry on regardless since we are (tenuous segue) discussing what form we would hope forthcoming collections might take...)

The thing with Sinister Dexter is that it gets under the skin very gradually.  Totally unlike Dante it takes a good while to take shape, and when it does it's sort of through repetition, like a chorus that you really have to hear a good few times before you realise how catchy it is.  On that basis, I honestly don't know how best you could present it in reprint form.  Too much in one go Casefiles-style and I suspect the repetition becomes annoying and the puns and gags too frequent; too little in a slim collection and you don't get the overall flavour or the variations in tone.  It's a tricky one, and I'm not sure there's an easy solution.

What you definitely do not do is produce Eurocrash, a collected 'epic' which is missing most of its conclusion, but does feature its epilogue. I know Rebellion are painfully aware of what mistakes this collection made*, primarily omitting Downlode Tales because it wasn't called Sinister Dexter, even though it is in fact the aforementioned conclusion to the Eurocrash story, but it really is a very annoying read: we never get to learn about the conspiracy at its heart, but we hear about it after the fact in passing, literally *spoilers* within the story as presented.  There's also some pages out of order, but that barely features in the annoyance stakes.

This is a massive pity since what is there is the strip at its best: Simon Davis' art is spectacular, the puns are mighty and the atmosphere is compelling.  But I suspect that anyone reading this far into the collected material would give up completely about half way through in sheer exasperation.  I know the Meg recently reprinted Downlode Tales as a floppy, but if Sinister Dexter is ever to succeed in the GN format a proper fix is definitely required.

Probably should let this thread get back on topic now...


*Although Abnett agonisingly refers to what's missing in his introduction.

[Colin YNWA]

I know the Meg recently reprinted Downlode Tales as a floppy, but if Sinister Dexter is ever to succeed in the GN format a proper fix is definitely required.

Probably should let this thread get back on topic ...

Well almost, just time for me to add that the appearance of Downlobe Tales as tbe Meg reprint is surely Rebellion waving the white flag to getting Sinister Dexter reprinted in the forseeable future and an attempt patch up a poor job.

Of course the IDW reprints might catch fire and we could, just possibly, see a demand created there... well a man can dream can't he...

[Mabs]

I think Dante vol.4 (Tsar Wars 1) might also be out of print now. Which is annoying as I'd managed to track down the first three but hadn't yet gotten around to ordering 4 from the Thrill Shop...

It's time for a mother-drokking reprint! I would love an Omnibus, maybe 2 trades in 1 book, so 5 altogether (like Y The Last Man Deluxe collection).

Please Tharg, make it happen! If not the omnibus' just reprints would do.  :-)

[Theblazeuk]

Courtship of Jena Makarov was a real sprocking pain to get hold of, putting my Dante collection on hold for some time.

Much easier to get hold of Tsar Wars, I think bookstores loved the pun.

[radiator]

I think it's been made quite clear in the past that Dante just isn't a big enough seller to warrant a reprint - and stuff like Dredd is the priority to keep in print.

I think a good compromise would be to make all or part of Dante available digitally - not unlikely as Rebellion seem to be ramping up their digital trade program recently.

[TordelBack]

I think it's been made quite clear in the past that Dante just isn't a big enough seller to warrant a reprint ...

While I understand that Rebellion has to operate in the real world, and manage it a lot better than I, this is ultimately  a waddayacallit self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you don't make it accessible, how can you generate demand for it?

A reinvigorated, repackaged and readily available Dante trade line, a mighty hullaballoo made, and yes, cheap digital availability to whet appetites, and who knows what popularity Dante might find - I have to believe there's an audience for something so big, so complete, so much fun and so damn good.  Simon's architectural spreads alone are something every comics reader should see, never mind Lulu's corsetry, and John's gore-strewn battlefields and buxom pirates are magnificent.  The final conversation between Dante and the Tsar should be quoted and reproduced on every tumblr and blog out there, alongside Bats and the Joker from The Killing Joke and Adrian and Jon from Watchmen: it's better than either.

But then I don't have to write the cheques.

[The Adventurer]

Digital Editions of all the Dante trades wouldn't go amiss.

[Recrewt]

I recently bought the first 2 collections of Sinister Dexter. I got half way through the first volume & put it down for a while. I can't say I was too impressed.

Think that's bad, I read the first few Sinister Dexter stories in the Prog and then put the whole thing down for about 7 years...  Lawks but I hated that strip back then, whereas now I love it with a passion.

(I have a suspicion we're derailing the thread here, but I'll carry on regardless since we are (tenuous segue) discussing what form we would hope forthcoming collections might take...)

The thing with Sinister Dexter is that it gets under the skin very gradually.  Totally unlike Dante it takes a good while to take shape, and when it does it's sort of through repetition, like a chorus that you really have to hear a good few times before you realise how catchy it is.  On that basis, I honestly don't know how best you could present it in reprint form.  Too much in one go Casefiles-style and I suspect the repetition becomes annoying and the puns and gags too frequent; too little in a slim collection and you don't get the overall flavour or the variations in tone.  It's a tricky one, and I'm not sure there's an easy solution.

I think TB totally hits the nail on the head there - SinDex is a strip that works best as a regular prog feature, a few pages a week with long runs.  It's one of those strips that folks don't always appreciate but miss when it's gone.  I quite like SinDex but don't think I would be interested in a case files type collection - it would be too repetitive and meandering.  Trying to select smaller TPBs is also difficult as the story is so intertwined. 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a 'right' answer to this one.

[radiator]

While I understand that Rebellion has to operate in the real world, and manage it a lot better than I, this is ultimately  a waddayacallit self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you don't make it accessible, how can you generate demand for it?

A reinvigorated, repackaged and readily available Dante trade line, a mighty hullaballoo made, and yes, cheap digital availability to whet appetites, and who knows what popularity Dante might find - I have to believe there's an audience for something so big, so complete, so much fun and so damn good.  Simon's architectural spreads alone are something every comics reader should see, never mind Lulu's corsetry, and John's gore-strewn battlefields and buxom pirates are magnificent.  The final conversation between Dante and the Tsar should be quoted and reproduced on every tumblr and blog out there, alongside Bats and the Joker from The Killing Joke and Adrian and Jon from Watchmen: it's better than either.

To be fair, they have tried to launch the Dante trade line twice already in the US. And as great as we all know Dante is, it's a tough sell - hence why so many of those trades ended up in bargain bookshops. ISTR that someone at Rebellion said that response at US conventions was generally along the lines of "I don't want to read a book about these crazy Russkies".

[Robo-K33F]

New editions of the Great Game and The Courtship of Jena M will be released in 2014.

[James Stacey]

New editions of the Great Game and The Courtship of Jena M will be released in 2014.

And a kiss for Robo-K33F the kindly droid who listens.
Will they follow the British or American trade dress or be completely new?