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2000 AD in Stages

Started by Funt Solo, 23 July, 2019, 10:57:01 PM

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Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 05:17:31 AM
If you don't like Ronald Reagan (see: any even slightly left-leaning British person who grew up in the 80s), then you'll struggle to enjoy watching him dropping the soap in the shower with Johnny Alpha, or getting sucked off by Durham Red (prog 522, page 2, frame 3), or saying "goshdarned", or "ulp" for ten more episodes on top of the fifteen (count 'em) from the previous stage.

I read this for the first time in the recent Ultimate Collection book, and you know what...? Bitch is better than I expected. As more a child of the 90s than the 80s I have only the haziest understanding of what Reagan was like as either a person or president, so all the potshots sailed over my head - but then, the satire's all pretty broad stuff, so I still felt like I was getting it. A really interesting read in 2019, with Trump in the White House - Reagan seems like the most harmless, amiable old buffer imaginable in contrast!

As to the story itself - well, read across 25(!) weeks I cannot imagine how it must have dragged, but read in one go, it fair zips along, and only gets noticeably decompressed towards the end, with everybody hiding in the jungle. And it very much feels like the last part of Johnny's post-Wulf rehabilitation. Red constantly needles and annoys him, refusing to take him as seriously as he takes himself - and by the end, he's smiling again, joking, shooting Reagan with a catapult. She's the distraction he never knew he needed.
@jamesfeistdraws

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 05:17:31 AM
Mean Team
(It turns out that Keller is completely immune to damage, which you think someone would've noticed when he was involved in the galaxy's most violent sport, but logic, she does not live here.)
More (?!) in the next stage...


More importantly, how did he get the facial scar? </continuity>




It's been a while since I read it, so perhaps the field that stops technology working is also the thing that makes him heal?

sheridan

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 18 September, 2019, 09:26:57 AM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 05:17:31 AM
If you don't like Ronald Reagan (see: any even slightly left-leaning British person who grew up in the 80s), then you'll struggle to enjoy watching him dropping the soap in the shower with Johnny Alpha, or getting sucked off by Durham Red (prog 522, page 2, frame 3), or saying "goshdarned", or "ulp" for ten more episodes on top of the fifteen (count 'em) from the previous stage.

I read this for the first time in the recent Ultimate Collection book, and you know what...? Bitch is better than I expected. As more a child of the 90s than the 80s I have only the haziest understanding of what Reagan was like as either a person or president, so all the potshots sailed over my head - but then, the satire's all pretty broad stuff, so I still felt like I was getting it. A really interesting read in 2019, with Trump in the White House - Reagan seems like the most harmless, amiable old buffer imaginable in contrast!

As to the story itself - well, read across 25(!) weeks I cannot imagine how it must have dragged, but read in one go, it fair zips along, and only gets noticeably decompressed towards the end, with everybody hiding in the jungle. And it very much feels like the last part of Johnny's post-Wulf rehabilitation. Red constantly needles and annoys him, refusing to take him as seriously as he takes himself - and by the end, he's smiling again, joking, shooting Reagan with a catapult. She's the distraction he never knew he needed.

I first read it as a child (not even the teenage variety) and if I knew who Reagan was, it would have been almost entirely from Spitting Image (if I'd managed to stay up late enough to see any episodes of that show).

I certainly agree that as bad as he seemed at the time, by the time George W came along it seemed like halcyon days.  The experience has been repeated with both Ron and George with Donald...

I wonder how people who lived through Tricky Dicky feel the presidenthood has fared since?

Dark Jimbo

...And of course Wagner did the same again, much less memorably, with Bill Clinton and Dredd - the ending is almost exactly the same to Bitch, with the President telling his incredible tale and the minders and First Lady all agreeing it'd be better to pretend it never happened.
@jamesfeistdraws

Funt Solo

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 18 September, 2019, 09:26:57 AM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 05:17:31 AM
If you don't like Ronald Reagan (see: any even slightly left-leaning British person who grew up in the 80s), then you'll struggle to enjoy watching him dropping the soap in the shower with Johnny Alpha, or getting sucked off by Durham Red (prog 522, page 2, frame 3), or saying "goshdarned", or "ulp" for ten more episodes on top of the fifteen (count 'em) from the previous stage.

I read this for the first time in the recent Ultimate Collection book, and you know what...? Bitch is better than I expected. As more a child of the 90s than the 80s I have only the haziest understanding of what Reagan was like as either a person or president, so all the potshots sailed over my head - but then, the satire's all pretty broad stuff, so I still felt like I was getting it. A really interesting read in 2019, with Trump in the White House - Reagan seems like the most harmless, amiable old buffer imaginable in contrast!

As to the story itself - well, read across 25(!) weeks I cannot imagine how it must have dragged, but read in one go, it fair zips along, and only gets noticeably decompressed towards the end, with everybody hiding in the jungle. And it very much feels like the last part of Johnny's post-Wulf rehabilitation. Red constantly needles and annoys him, refusing to take him as seriously as he takes himself - and by the end, he's smiling again, joking, shooting Reagan with a catapult. She's the distraction he never knew he needed.

My distaste for Ron blinded me to the subtleties of the story: in particular I think it's a great point you make about the rehabilitation following Wulf's death.

The weekly read vs. collected read being two very different experiences crops up quite a lot and I think it's fascinating the difference that makes to the experience (of many strips). Rogue Trooper (say, the first year) was a great experience for me as a weekly reader, but I've heard that as a sit-down it seems too repetitive.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Tjm86

Quote from: sheridan on 18 September, 2019, 12:59:02 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 05:17:31 AM
Mean Team
(It turns out that Keller is completely immune to damage, which you think someone would've noticed when he was involved in the galaxy's most violent sport, but logic, she does not live here.)
More (?!) in the next stage...


More importantly, how did he get the facial scar? </continuity>

It's been a while since I read it, so perhaps the field that stops technology working is also the thing that makes him heal?

This is it.  I always took it as unique to earth.

Frank

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 03:24:06 PM
If you don't like Ronald Reagan (see: any even slightly left-leaning British person who grew up in the 80s), then you'll struggle to enjoy watching him dropping the soap in the shower with Johnny Alpha

In 1985, if you'd asked me to name my favourite TV show I would definitely have replied Spitting Image. Grant & (the uncredited) Wagner were shamelessly copying that show's characterisation of Reagan as affable but dumb and psychotically hell-bent on Armageddon.

I don't remember feeling Bitch outstayed its welcome, but it had a break of several weeks because of the change from squareish pages to A4-ish proportions. In retrospect, I wonder whether Tharg asked for an extra few episodes, so it wasn't just returning for 3 or 4 parts after the change to tall, narrow format?



Funt Solo

Quote from: Tjm86 on 18 September, 2019, 06:58:11 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 18 September, 2019, 12:59:02 PM
It's been a while since I read it, so perhaps the field that stops technology working is also the thing that makes him heal?
This is it.  I always took it as unique to earth.

This'll be another case of me not paying enough attention. What was funny was that when Bad Jack was figuring out that Emerald Eyes was his sister, and probably also immune, he tested the theory by shooting her in the back with a crossbow.

Someone else recently pointed out that it was unusual that Jack basically wore a Henry Moon codpiece the entire time as well...

++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Funt Solo

Quote from: Frank on 18 September, 2019, 07:12:56 PM
In 1985, if you'd asked me to name my favourite TV show I would definitely have replied Spitting Image. Grant & (the uncredited) Wagner were shamelessly copying that show's characterisation of Reagan as affable but dumb and psychotically hell-bent on Armageddon.

I don't remember feeling Bitch outstayed its welcome, but it had a break of several weeks because of the change from squareish pages to A4-ish proportions. In retrospect, I wonder whether Tharg asked for an extra few episodes, so it wasn't just returning for 3 or 4 parts after the change to tall, narrow format?

Wagner & Grant are fairly subtle compared to the depiction of Reagan in Diceman #5 (You are Ronald Reagan in Twilight's Last Gleaming) in which, whatever option you choose you end up burning innocent Nicaraguan villagers as part of the Iran-Contra affair.

(Bitch didn't have a break: it ran for for twenty-four episodes straight through progs 505-529.)
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Frank

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 07:23:10 PM
Quote from: Frank on 18 September, 2019, 07:12:56 PM
Bitch ... had a break of several weeks because of the change from squareish pages to A4-ish proportions.

Bitch didn't have a break: it ran for for twenty-four episodes straight through progs 505-529.)

Right you are. That'll teach me to check my facts before commenting.



sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 18 September, 2019, 07:16:58 PM
Someone else recently pointed out that it was unusual that Jack basically wore a Henry Moon codpiece the entire time as well...

So what you're saying is, it isn't normal to wear a portrait of your best friend over your groin when you go out?




















I guess I'd better buy some new clothes then...

Funt Solo

Stage #15: Wizards of Oz (progs 532-570)

It feels like the new Tharg starts to find their feet in this phase, which delivers some of 2000 AD's all time classic thrills in a powerful mix of old and new. This might be considered a second golden age, or just a grittier comic, but it certainly feels different. No surprise, as not only has Tharg reincarnated but the comic changes publisher around the prog 540 mark and then changes logo in the new year prog 555.

Longer thrills sometimes still suffer either from scheduling blips or from multi-artist solutions (something the modern prog largely avoids), and this seems to be the beginning of a period where strips often get split awkwardly across the centre-spread story with its colour pages.

Alongside the known quantities (including a reprint from Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tales) we get the introduction of a raft of new thrills (some more important than others) in the forms of Zenith, Universal Soldier, Freaks, Bradley, Hap Hazzard & Tyranny Rex.




Tales from Mega-City One
We get the two-part Taxi Driver, [Fire!] and [Father Time]. Taxi Driver breaks the rules (that these are one-pagers) by jumping in with a fourteen-pager.
Taking the naming entirely literally, the next one of these is in 2012 in the Megazine, but there have been others inbetween that fit the mould. There's a "Tale of Mega-City One" in prog 605, for a really obvious example. Utimately, it's an anthology series that didn't take off: maybe because you can do almost exactly this just in the weekly Dredd.


Judge Dredd
This is a hugely important stage for Dredd: first we get the tail end of Revolution (progs 531-533), which is a direct follow-up to Letter From a Democrat in prog 460. Here, a peaceful protest march is deliberately stamped on by the Judges, as directed by the Chief Judge (Silver) who orders Dredd to break the law to achieve the required result. Dredd complies, and the Justice Department infiltrates the marchers with Wally Squad operatives who attack uniformed Judges and provide the excuse needed to violently suppress the march. Up to now, Dredd's clear focus has been attacking those who break the law, but here he's deliberately attacking citizens who have broken no law. We're left with Dredd clearly as fascist (although believing that ultimately his actions are best for the city), not as hero.

This is followed up by the one-episode Bug (with atmospheric art by Liam Sharp) which introduces the character of PJ Maybe (as a youth) and tells the story of his ingenious first murder. Having Maybe as a recurring character is clearly planned right from the start as the story states "This has been his first murder. It is far from being his last."

Alabammy Blimps is a fondly remembered flatin' five-parter (with excellent art by Steve Dillon) set up as a Cursed Earth rescue mission with a difference. This is partly down to the setting (the Alabama Morass), as it takes us away from the more standard baked desert, and aided by the humor inherent in the caricatured inhabitants.

Marlon 'Chopper' Shakespeare started out as King Scrawler in 1981's Unamerican Graffiti but was then remoulded as a sky-surfer in 1985's Midnight Surfer, where he won Supersurf 7 and became a hero figure of the citizens, only to be cubed by the Judges. Now, clearly advertized as a Mega-Epic and with a cut-out support kit, we get Oz, a 26-part saga where Chopper escapes encubement and tries to make it to Supersurf 10 in Oz, half a world away. The comic utterly embraces this as a multi-artist comic event, with (count 'em) Jim Baikie, Steve Dillon, Dave Elliot, John Higgins, Barry Kitson, Garry Leach, Brendan McCarthy, Liam McCormack-Sharp, Cliff Robinson and Will Simpson all involved in the 198-page, 9-cover, 5-poster epic.

Of course, it's not all about Chopper and Supersurf, as this is a story with two narrative threads: one of which introduces a Justice Department splinter group from the distant past, the Judda, who are intent on a hostile takeover of Mega-City One. This suggests (quietly) the character of Kraken, a Dredd clone and part of the Fargo bloodline. This idea of a bloodline (and, as with Dredd's clone-brother, Rico) the common flaw of corruption within it, becomes another throughline that echos (like democracy) into the future of the strip.

The next stage returns us to a more regular Dredd schedule...


Tharg's Future Shocks
Fifty-six percent of the progs in this stage contain Shocks, but what does that tell us? More importantly, prog 533's Alter-Nators introduces the character of Bradley (a troublesome alien child), who breaks out into his own sequence of one-offs starting in prog 545.
More in the next stage...


Strontium Dog
A mixture of adventures for Alpha starting lightly with the five-part Royal Affair (where King Clarkie falls in love with mutant Vera Duckworth) as Strontium Dog meets Coronation Street by way of Edward VIII's actual factual historical abdication.

The four-part Sorry Case has Alpha attempt to transport Sorry Bobbs from A to B, with the metaphysical problem that Bobbs causes misfortune to those around him: the closer you are, the worse things go for you.

The Rammy is a ten-parter that has Alpha team up with Middenface McNulty on a scheme not too far removed from 81's The Bad Boys Bust, 84's The Killing and 85's Big Bust of '49. In those terms, it's a bit formulaic.

Finally for this stage, Stone Killers features Johnny, Durham Red and McNulty in a pun-laden escapade featuring go-to never-quite-defeateds the Stix brothers.

Stone Killers continues through to the next stage...


D.R. & Quinch's Incredibly Excruciating Agony Page
A bold experiment in reader-driven comic narrative, this ends here with the ninth episode.
The Crazy Chrissie Star Scan in prog 536 marks the last vestige of D.R. & Quinch, although the final Agony Page in prog 534 states that they'll "return to 2000 AD after some, like suitable treatmant, man." Still waiting...


Mean Team
Just to get you up to speed, Bad Jack Keller, an enslaved future sport gladiator, is head of the titular Team, who have absconded to a weird Grimm's Fairy-Earth where technology doesn't work (except for human-brain-in-a-panther's-body team-mate Henry Moon's electronic vocalizer) and Jack discovers his sister (Emerald Eyes), and that they're both entirely immune to damage (except when a random unicorn-centaur gives them the stink eye).

Like a demented D&D campaign inspired by Ray Harryhausen, we're taken through a gladitorial arena and a sort of river-borne Jason and the Argonauts segment before tumbling down seemingly into hell itself (replete with hot coals), all on a quest for the Rod of Power! The rod turns out to be a poorly made crutch that has the power to destroy the ultimate evil that infests the earth, but only if you remember the magic words [see title]. With that done, technology starts working again, Jack and his sister revert to being vulnerable and (because they are all wanted murderers) a spaceship pops in and summarily executes them all (from behind) in a low-key and rather grim denouement.

Despite everyone apparently being disintegrated (look closely, eagle-eyed readers), a spin-off series starts up for one of the characters in 1989's prog 639...


Nemesis the Warlock
The one-off Bedtime Story in prog 534 is a photo-story with some fairly inept Nemesis and Torquemada costumes (by modern cosplay standards) in which Nemesis takes the time to cure Candida of her madness. There's also Torquemada's Second Honeymoon, a short flashback in the 2000 AD Annual 1988, with art from Kevin O'Neill.

Like a nightmare in comic form, John Hicklenton's art brings the horror of The Two Torquemadas (Book VII) to ghoulish life. The initial premise is odd: the modern day Torquemada is being taken through a hypnotic regression to witness his past lives and arrives at Tomas de Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition, who is being observed by a magically disguised Nemesis and Purity Brown (themselves on the hunt for Nemesis's wayward son Thoth, known to be murdering incarnations of Torquemada from throughout time). Medieval torture, time travel, spirit-walks, descents into madness, dinosaur-love and chainsaw massacres follow.

Following on immediately from Book VII (in the very next prog, and narratively the very next panel) we get Book VIII, Purity's Story: in some sense a Purity Brown origin story and also some background as to how she and Nemesis began working together. The larger theme is that of Purity being used by Nemesis as a plaything, as he toys with humans as a human might toy with insects (or, as in the strip, actual termites). It ends with Nemesis making Purity forget, and so he continues to abuse her by controlling her thoughts. Pretty dark stuff.

Part of the story continues with the ABC Warriors but Book IX of Nemesis (Deathbringer) starts after that, next stage, in prog 586...


Zenith
An out and out classic that succeeds in taking a superhero reality to the UK: something that still feels unique today. It sets out its stall early as an alternate reality in which the war in Europe (of World War II) was ended by dropping an atom bomb on Berlin. Thrown into the mix are scientifically wrought superheros, dark gods akin to those of the Cthulhu mythos and the yuppie culture of 80s Britain. For all that it features a Nazi superman with laser-beam eyes, it feels real in a way that perhaps no other story in the comic ever has.

The level of care and artistry attached to this story sets it up there vying for position as the best thrill ever published in the comic. It has a careful history that is sewn into the plot, at times seeming just like backstory and then later coming back to the fore. It has "Next prog..." captions that are all song titles (and some playlist). It has beautiful art by Steve Yeowell and supporting covers by Steve Dillon, Brendan McCarthy & Dave Gibbons (a roster of some of the best artists at work on the prog). Brendan McCarthy did the character designs for the series, which you can view on Steve Cook's blog (as linked to in Ben Hansom's 2013 review of a collected edition).

Letting us know that the series is not yet done, progs 558 & 559 present A Zenith Interlude, providing some backstory and deepening the context for what came before and is yet to come.

Phase II starts up in 1988's later summer prog 589...


Universal Soldier
Escape from New York meets The Matrix (marking this as clearly ahead of its time): an agent has been provided with some tech that allows them to adopt whatever combat technique best fits the situation (that's the Matrix-y bit) and is dropped into an open air prison to retrieve a target. The odd part of the tech is that when they adopt a combat technique they hallucinate an altered reality (including one which is an homage to A Man Called Horse): as do we as the readers.

Slightly less compelling as comic fare, the adventure is Basil-Expositioned from the perspective of a darkened board-room where nobody moves, sometimes with entirely blacked out panels. An unsatisfactory conclusion (and really a lack of a recognizable hero) allows this to peter out. As the nameless corporate bastards in the board room lack any care for their agent, so we the readers have been given no reason to root for him (beyond his being a puppet).

We have to wait three years for an unexpected second series, starting in 1990's prog 672...


Freaks
An attractive yet shallow and selfish yuppie finds himself transported to the world of the Kakkaks, where he's the ugly, weird one. Him being the alien, the locals want to harvest him for military secrets and biological study, which he's none to keen on. He falls in love with a brave local and together they (and a sentient pet) attempt to escape the machinations of the evil-doers. Like an 80s US sitcom, the strong moral message that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, is lathered on thickly from beginning to end, with some laughs in the middle.
There's a text story in the winter special Prog 2004 and then a sequel series starts in 2004's prog 1412.


Bradley
Bradley's Birthday introduces his friends Milton (giant psychopathic child that all adults and most children are afraid of) and Annabella (who uses her smarts and chutzpah to pacify Milton). We also get [Bradley and the Bandit] and A Krissmas Karol (where Santa is captured). There's still a byline that suggests we're on another planet, so it'll be interesting to see how that gets dropped (or if it does) when Bradley starts meeting pop stars later in the history of the strip.
Bradley's one-offs are sporadic and we don't get the next one until prog 606...


Bad Company II, The Bewilderness
A thinly-disguised Kano is rampaging through scrubby landscapes, massacring human and Krool alike, until it's revealed that the other half of his Krool brain is locked away somewhere but taking control of his body from time to time. Elswhere Danny Franks and the sparse remnants of Bad Company go on a recruitment drive to up their numbers with a roster of deliberately unlikeable weirdoes.
Part 2 of Bad Company II (The Krool Heart) starts next stage in prog 576...


The A.B.C. Warriors, The Black Hole
Simon Bisley kicks the door down with the opening four episodes, where the ABC Warriors go up against the Mekaniks in an attempt to find their way to the control room of the time wastes. Bisley's art style was very unique and a crowd pleaser, so it felt odd that it was then switched every four episodes with S.M.S., who was also a great artist: but who'd want to follow Bisley on stage?

The plot, as you'd expect, ties back to Nemesis, with the Monad (from Book VI) in there as a foil. In terms of warriors, we get our first human, Terri (who falls in love with Hammerstein) and the return of Deadlock, who we must suppose stopped being a subsumed aspect of Nemesis when we weren't looking. Blackblood loses a leg and replaces it with a road drill. There's an unusual backstory when Hammerstein dies and then, through traumatic memory recall, brings himself back to life.

The story continues in the next stage after a six-prog break...


Hap Hazzard
Set on Fred's World, but it could just be Camden Town on Halloween, these are the relatively innocuous misadventures of young man about town Hap Hazzard, who gets into trouble with young women, gangsters and drunken sailors.
Returns next stage...


Tyranny Rex
A woman (the title character) with a lizard tail is a criminal mastermind running an illegal pop-star cloning racket.
This quick three-parter is followed by another in the next stage, with a thirteen-prog wait...


Rogue Trooper
Realizing that thirty-five progs since the last instalment is a bit much, prog 567 has a two-page catch-up with The Legend. In Hit Two, Rogue assassinates a souther commander but then gets shirty with his alien overlords and demands intel in advance of further missions. Wonderful art from Steve Dillon lifts this above a disappointing premise.
Continues directly into the next stage...

---

Simon Harrison provided his take on Joe Pineapples (as the back cover of prog 535) to foreshadow the return of the ABC Warriors in their own series (The Black Hole) in prog 555:



---

References:
- Barney
- Strontium Dog : A Potted History (part 3)
- The 2000 AD ABC
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Tiplodocus

Prog 534 should be the start of a Phase.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Funt Solo

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 23 September, 2019, 11:12:37 PM
Prog 534 should be the start of a Phase.

Not 535 with the start of Zenith? (I wasn't happy with where this phase started, either. I felt kind of stuck with bad options.)
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

TordelBack

Yep, there are no really good options around here. You either end up splitting Revolution and have everything else more-or-less fresh (532; as Funt did), or starting with a bunch of last episodes (531), or cutting up a Strontium Dog (534) and starting with a mix of ongoing and one-offs.  The argument for starting with 534 presumably hinges on the introduction of PJ Maybe, and leaves Revolution entirely in the previous phase.  The case for 535 comes from Zenith.  Either would be a solid call, as is 532 - none are perfect.

Thing I can't believe from this phase is that Bradley started before Tyranny Rex.  :o