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Topics - AlexF

#21
Classifieds / Wanted: Prog 2015 print edition
29 December, 2020, 04:08:32 PM
No, not the one with Kingmaker on the cover, the Xmas end-of-year Prog from 2104, with Judge Death's badge on the cover and episode 1 of Dark Justice on the inside.

Seems to be out of stock in print everywhere I can think to look.

Will pay reasonable price + postage to London!
#22
General / Dredd epics ranked
02 December, 2020, 09:15:53 AM
This blog has just gone live today:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/

Mostly for my own amusement, but also because even Judge Dredd doesn't have enough of an internet presence for my tastes. There are websites out there that run down short lists of 'essential Dredd stories', and clearly the people behind them know what they're talking about.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/top-11-essential-judge-dredd-stories-5944097 (a chronological list)
https://vocal.media/geeks/top-10-judge-dredd-stories (plays a little fast and loose with the idea of a single storyline)
https://www.scifinow.co.uk/top-tens/top-10-best-judge-dredd-comic-book-stories/ (best of the bunch I reckon)

But they tend to skew too heavily towards the older epics, and more to the point, why stop at 11 when you easily classify more than 50 stories as 'epic' - in length, if not in brilliance?
Anyway, 3 new posts per week will get us through my ranking by the New Year. My Number 1 won't be much of a surprise, but just maybe the rest of the Top 10 will be...
#23
Books & Comics / Alan Dean Foster
25 November, 2020, 09:08:31 AM
Speaking of much-loved creators being screwed over by corporate overlords*, have you guys seen this:
https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/?

Proper outrageous!



*without wishing to turn this into another thread about Mills vs Big 1 again.
#24
General / It's Dredd, but...
20 October, 2020, 09:18:29 AM
So on the Niemand Tapes there's mention of the fact that Megatropolis is a rare example of doing an 'Elseworlds' Dredd strip. There was that one Dredd 'Alternity' Mega Special which is mainly memorable for Simon Jacob doing Dredd as a medieval knight on horseback (and Barnes 'n Hairsine on Dredd of Drokk Green is kinda fun). You can read these in the Restrcited Files 4, should you be intrigued.

But my memory is that right around the time the Megazine got going, there was something of a glut of strips that more or less took the idea of 'the best (and least corrupt) Cop in town' and plonked it down in a variety of settings, to varying degrees of success...

Dredd in Brit-Cit: Armitage
Dredd in Cal-Hab: MacBrayne
Dredd in Hondo City: Shimura/Inaba
Dredd in the Afterlife at the end times: Canon Fodder
Dredd as a sheep in Vegan Europe: Inspector Raam
Dredd in Eco-Hell New York: Trashman Trask

For my money, it's Trashman Trask who is the most Dreddlike, and I'm surely doing a disservice to the creators involved. But the way these characters were advertised, on the other hand...

Any more for any more?
#25
Books & Comics / John Wyndham
01 October, 2020, 11:14:47 AM
Just finished reading the Chryslaids with my 10 year-olds. Quite hard work but they liked it, found the evil future society deeply upsetting, as they should!
Now, Wyndham was def. a big deal in UK sci-fi, certainly for children, but it's only now that I noticed quite how much an influence this specific story may have had on Pat Mills re Nemesis the Warlock (it's all about religious zealots rooting out 'deviations') and on John Wagner re Strontium Dog (the mutants in this story all have minor but obvious physical deformities and are shunned by norms, and the odd few have mental powers...)

I kind of assume the book was so well-known in the late 70s that people just took these connections for granted but this specific book seems to have fallen out of fashion nowadays, it's all Triffids and Cuckoos.
#26
Fresh off a re-read of Aquila from the Ultiamte Collection, I noticed that the story Charon's Mercy is a strong contender for the nastiest story ever to see print in 2000AD, and that's got to be saying something. The bad guy is a torturer who takes his work to a level that is best described as Human Centipede meets Martyrs. Rennie's descriptions and Davidson's art leave literally nothing to the imagination.

Somehow at the time I didn't notice it, perhaps more struck by yet another nice nod to Blackhawk (by the end of that story, our Hero had half his face sort-of melt; in this story half his face/body are skinned), but it really is strong stuff.

Not complaining! But it did make me wonder if anything has been nastier? I mean, the tradition of torturers in the Prog goes back at least as far as The Fink and Great Uncle Baal, and gorey body horror art goes back all the way to the Visible Man (not to mention dinos and bears munching on people), but Aquila goes that extra mile...

John Wagner turned my stomach some with The Skinning Room and Ratfink; Simon Davis merits consideration for his work on Stone Island, and surely John Smith has to be in the conversation.

What say you?
#27
General / Judge Dredd reading order
24 August, 2020, 05:32:45 PM
Partly inspired by Pioneer's thread about recent Dredd stories he's missed, I've had a go at whittling down a bare bones 'what Dredd stories do you have to read to make sense of what's going on from one epic to the next?'
It's a long list, so I've split it into chunks, with so-called mega-epics listed in italics.
I've also included various Anderson and Low Life stories that I think are necessary, and I've tried to keep track of all the stories that show status quo changes for long-running villains Judge Death, Orlok and PJ Maybe.

Phase 1: Dredd's World (Progs 1-86)
Judge Whitey
New You
Statue of Judgement
Robots / Robot War
Academy of Law
Return of Rico
Luna 1
First Luna Olympics
Return to Mega City 1
The Cursed Earth

Phase 2: Mega City 1 (Progs 87-275)
Judge Cal
Vienna
Judge Minty
Judge Death
The Judge Child
The Fink
Pirates of the Black Atlantic
Unamerican Graffiti
Judge Death Lives
Block Mania
Apocalypse War

Phase 3: Rebuilding (Progs 276-450)
Destiny's Angels
Question of Judgement/Error of Judgement/Case for Treatment
City of the Damned
Anderson, Psi Division: the Four Dark Judges
Midnight Surfer

Phase 4: Around the World (Progs 451-630)
The Warlord / a Chief Judge Resigns
Letter from a Democrat
Anderson, Psi Division: Hour of the Wolf
Revolution
Oz
Bloodline
PJ Maybe, Age 13 / 14
Anderson, Psi Division: Triad
Confeshuns of PJ Maybe

Phase 5: The world turned Upside Down (Progs 631-712)
The Shooting Match
Young Giant
The Dead Man
Necropolis
Theatre of Death
Nightmares
Wot I did during Necropolis
America

Phase 6: The muscled years (Progs 713-915; Megs 1.1 – 2.60)
The Devil you know / Twilight's last gleaming
Judgement Day
Anderson, Psi Division: Reasons to be Cheerful / The Jesus Syndrome
Mechanismo I / II [Meg]
PJ and the Mock-Choc Factory
Anderson, Psi Division: Childhood's End [Meg]
Purgatory / Inferno
Mechanismo III [Meg]
Conspiracy of Silence
Prologue/Tenth Planet/Wilderlands [Meg]

Phase 7: under new management (Progs 916-1160; Megs 2.61-3.60)
Farewell to the Chief / The Candidates
Bad Frendz
The Cal Files
The Pit
America II [Meg]
Worst of Frendz
Beyond the Call of Duty
The Scorpion Dance
Doomsday [Meg]
Volt Face

Phase 8: Family (Progs 1161-1450; Megs 3.61-240)
The Cal Legacy
Blood Cadets
All new adventures of PJ Maybe / Gunga Dinsdale / Heart of
Sector House
Judge Death: My Name is Death
Sin City (aka Satan's Island)
Blood and Duty
Judge Death: Wilderness Days [Meg]
The Trial of Orlok
The Satanist
Brothers of the Blood
Lowlife: Paranoia
Terror / Total War
After the Bombs
Six [Meg]
The Monsterus Mashinashuns of PJ Maybe
Blood Trails
Matters of Life and Death

Phase 9: Regime change (Progs 1451-1780; Megs 241-320)
Class of '79 (Prog 2006)
Dominoes
Splashdown
The Simping Detective 2 (Megs 234-239)
Cadet [Meg]
The Connection
Origins
The Streets of Dan Francisco
The Gingerbread Man
Mutants in Mega-City 1
The Facility / Secret of Mutant Camp 5
Mind Games
The Spirit of Christmas (Prog 2008)
Lowlife: War without Bloodshed [Meg]
Emphatically Evil
...Regrets
(Wot I did for Chrissmass)
The Edgar Case
Low Life: Creation
Backlash
ToD: The Talented Mayor Ambrose
ToD: Mega City Justice


Phase 10: things get worse... and somehow worse again (Progs 1781-1990; Megs 321-380)
Lowlife: Hostile Takeover / the Deal
Further Dasterdly Deeds of PJ Maybe
Day of Chaos: Nadia
DoC: Fourth Faction
Elusive
DoC: The Assassination List
DoC: Eve of Destruction
DoC: Tea for Two
DoC: Wot I did during...
Chaos Day

The Days After
The Bean Counter
Innocent
Family Man
Bullet to King Four
Simping Detective: Jokers to the Right / LowLife:Suadade / The Cold Deck / Trifecta
Titan
Dark Justice
Orlok: Agent of East Meg 1
Enceladus I
Blood of Emeralds
Enceladus II
Terror Rising
Serial Serial
Grindstone Cowboys
The Lion's Den
Reclamation

From the Ashes

Phase 11: new normal? (Progs 1991-2200; Megs 381-425)
Carousel [Meg]
Ladykiller
Act of Grud
Harvey
Ape Escape [Meg]
Dark Justice: Dominion [Meg]
Krong Island [Meg]
Dark Justice: Contagion [Meg]
The Small House
Machine Law
The Red Queen [Meg]
Guatemala
Hershey
End Times

In the final stages I've included the Harry Heston stuff as that's building up into a long ongoing storyline in the Megazine. I've also ignored a bunch of Michael Carroll scripted stuff that will probably turn out to be 'essential' if he ever gets back to his 'Sovs in Mega City 2' stories, his 'MC1 Psi Judge hidden as Chief of Texas City' story or indeed his 'secret gangsters inflitrating Justice Dept' stories - which could all erupt into one mega mega-epic all at once if the mood takes him.

I have a list that's at least twice as long as this one, picking up on more threads, more long-running side characters and such. But the point is really to make the number of stories you 'have' to read be as short as possible! At which I have failed.
#28
Classifieds / Top Cop Swap Shop?
03 March, 2020, 11:00:43 AM
Hey forum people
Is anyone interested in a straight up exchange of goods? Specifically, I would post out my copy of the Rebellion edition of Trifecta, and you would post out to me your copy of the Judge Dredd Mega Collection Trifecta.

Why would anyone do this? Well, I'd be sacrificing the super cool Henry Flint lenticular cover, and a bunch of concept art sketches, promo material and such for the sake of getting the edition that has the article in the back, and perhaps more crucially the reprint of 'Family Man', which wasn't included in the Rebellion edition (although it does include the Trifecta prologue, 'Bullet to King Four').

Any takers?
#29
Off Topic / Comics or opera? U decide
29 July, 2019, 11:14:04 AM
Following a story on the BBC today about UK petitions, I found this one:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/257090

which calls for the government to fund comics in the UK to the same level as opera.
If everyone signs it who reads 2000AD, the Phoenix, the Beano, Commando and all the Panini Marvel/DC reprints...

...it'll probably still fall short of the 100,000 signatures needed to force Parliament to at least consider the proposal. Still, fun to see actual politics being used as a way to keep comics going!

I'm also tickled by the idea of comparing comics to opera. I guess both are examples of arts that were once genuine mass-market entertainments that have ended up being incredibly niche and prohibitively expensive.

#30
Suggestions / What, no Action! reprints?
20 May, 2019, 12:12:43 PM
Now I'm sure this question has been answered somewhere before, but in amongst all the many goodies being collected for the first time by Rebellion's Treasury wing, why haven't they reprinted anything from Action! yet?
It's always being touted as the precursor to 2000AD,and surely they must own the rights as part of the giant bundle. No?

I know Hookjaw has been collected by Hibernia (the edition I have, and lovely it is too), and I think again by Titan comics, and I gather that's by far the best strip from Action, but what of the rest? I've long wanted to read Dredger, Kids Rule OK and Death Game 1999 in particular, and I can't be alone in this, can I?
Is it just that these stories aren't really good enough to merit the reprint treatment, or is there some rights issue going on?
#31
General / Drokk!! - a rival to SpaceSpinner 2000??
06 February, 2019, 08:36:01 AM
Word is, there's a new podcast in town, reviewing all of Judge Dredd, in order.
Details to be found here:
http://www.waitwhatpodcast.com/wait-what-ep-264/,
- but you have to the end. (or download the episode and fast forward by about 2 hours!)

It's being co-hosted by comics/pop-culture journalist Graeme MacMillan, who's appeared on the Thrillcast at least twice already, so it's in good hands. (Wait, What?, his main podcast, is bizarrely entertaining and listenable, despite the general rambling tone. I guess it's down to the chemistry with his co-host, which is on the same level of infectious as Fox 'n Conrad.

Apparently it kicks off next week...

Frankly, what has me most excited are the comments at the bottom of the above-linked post, in which their American listeners get very excited to find out more about Dredd.

Who'd have thought that the best way to promote the joys of 2000AD, a silent comic, would be via podcast, an auditory-only experience...
#32
Other Reviews / Complete Future Shocks
14 June, 2018, 12:22:47 PM
I'm definitely buying the Complete Future Shocks when I get paid at the end of the month, but I'm curious to know what the remit of the book (and, I hope, ongoing reprint series!) is. As with Dredd Case Files 1, I'm expecting the first half to be nigh unreadable and the second half to be super amazing.

I'm assuming it'll cover everything that ran under the 'Tharg's Future Shocks' banner, but I note that it includes the first Abelaard Snazz story, which was a Ro-Jaws Robo Tale.
In my dream world, this 'Complete' collection would go on to include all Robo-Tales, Time Tiwsters, Terror Tales, Past Imperfects and whatever else I've forgotten. But will it include some of those one-off stories that just had their own title and weren't technically called 'Future Shocks'?

It's an editorial minefield! Someone get Keith Richardson onto the Thrillcast quick to explain his rationale...

(frankly I'd settle for a 'Future Shocks - restricted files' volume to cover all these later if that's the way it goes. Tharg is so close to literally reprinting every strip ever published that he might as well just go whole hog.)
#33
Books & Comics / The Motherless Oven
20 June, 2017, 10:47:08 AM
Just finished reading this utterly bonkers comic by Rob Davis. Anyone else had a go?

It's the weirdest metaphor for teenage life in 1970s/80s Britain I could hope to imagine, and wouldn't be out of place in 2000AD.

All the children have a deathday - the date they're going to die. Their parents are mechanical contraptions. All devices, from tin openers to teapots are known as gods. The weatherclock is the most important, as it warns you when it's about to start raining knives. The streets are ruled by marauding gangs of teen rock bands. There are a handful of scary OAP humans who seem to be in charge of everything.

I can't form coherent thoughts about it, but I loved it. There seems to be a sequel, too, so i'll have to hunt for that.
#34
Books & Comics / New Bookshelf review
18 June, 2017, 06:58:11 PM
So it seems to be the done thing on this board to post photos when you get a new bookshelf in your life. Here's mine!



It has that oh so lovely bit of extra space for adding extra volumes. I'm especially pleased to get more room for the Case Files, which had completely maxed out a shelf on my old cheap freestanding job.
#35
General / 2000AD in Nature
03 March, 2017, 09:12:49 AM
No, not 'nature' as in '2000AD has been released back into the wild where it can roam free and assault passing hikers', Nature as in the long-running super-influential science magazine where like proper research scientists publish their articles to be read by other proper scientists. They did a small peice on 2000AD recently.

My dad (he was a neuroscience editor on the mag for a time) sent me a link:
http://www.nature.com/news/sci-fi-comic-still-has-thrill-power-1.21569
#36
General / Black History Month
14 October, 2016, 09:28:55 AM
It's Black History month!
For reasons that I don't entirely understand, I felt compelled to idenitfy a list of black and minority ethnicity characters from 2000AD, and have ended up writing three enormously long blog posts about the topic.

Which I couldn't resist titling 'BAME! POW! Comics get diverse'

Part 1 is here:
http://meanwhileon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/bame-pow-comics-get-diverse-part-1.html
(on my old largely defunct blog because it doesn't really fit in with the 'Heroes of' theme)

I think it's fair for 2000AD fans (and creators, obvs) to take some pride in the fact that there's no need to shout about it, Marvel style, every time a prominent black character appears - it's just been part of the Prog since the beginning. Of course, it's not exactly a spotless record of diversity and inclusiveness.

Oh, and because it's not obvious but feels relevant, I should say that I am a white guy. I'm so white I'm actually half-German.
#37
General / 2000AD fantasy film season
26 September, 2016, 03:16:14 PM
If I was in charge of programming at one of the film-based Freeview Channels, say Film4 or the Horror Channel, I'd try to programme a series based around the films/TV shows that inspired, and were inspired by, 2000AD stories.

I'm sure boring reasons around rights mean this would never actually happen, but wouldn't it be neat to get even a few of these together somehow, along with, of course, screenings of Future Shock and the two Dredd movies.

Anyway, here are some starter lists, grouping films into various categories of inspiration. I feel that some of these examples are almost boringly well-known; others less so. I also don't know if anyone's ever gathered a definitive list anywhere. Please add in examples I've missed off!

1. Films that inspired 2000AD

Hell Drivers – gave birth to Bill Savage and Invasion (it's also really exciting!)
Rollerball – gave birth to Harlem Heroes / Inferno
The Six Million Dollar Man – MACH One (I've never actually seen it; presumably there are some choice episodes)
Death Race 2000 – inspired the look of Dredd, (and is laced with the kind of black humour that 2000AD thrives on; also a lark of a film)
Dirty Harry – a more obvious influence on Dredd
Jaws – the archetypal killer monster movie, with a direct link to Hookjaw (from Action comic), and in turn to Flesh and more obviously Shako
Damnation Alley – gave birth to the Cursed Earth storyline

and, from more recent years:

X-Files – without this, there'd be no Vector 13 or Black Light
Pulp Fiction – Sinister Dexter
The anthology films of Hammer and Amicus, e.g. Asylum, The House that Dripped Blood, and a bunch of Doctor Who – Caballistics, Inc + Absalom
Jason & the Agonauts  / The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad / The Golden Voyage of Sinbad – the Harryhausen elements of these films directly link to the Read Seas.


2. Films inspired by 2000AD stories

Hardware – wittingly or not, it's a direct adaptation of Shok! (and it's pretty decent, too)
RoboCop – would not exist without Judge Dredd
Universal Soldier had loose (but not that loose) connections to Rogue Trooper,
as did Soldier
BloodRayne – based on a computer game very directly inspired by Harrison era Durham Red
E.T. / Boys from the Blackstuff – Skizz is a mash-up of these two
O.C. & Stiggs – the very direct antecedent of DR & Quinch, which I've never seen

3. Films inspired by 2000AD generally, or films that just have that 2000AD feel about them (this list could probably go on forever)
Accion Mutante + Day of the Beast (seriously, check 'em out!)
Avatar – I doubt it was even slightly deliberate, but the film is mash-up of Maniac 5 and Firekind (with both the fun and intelligence sucked out)
Underworld – a not-as-good similar story to A Love Like Blood
Moon

4. Films made by people with an explicit 2000AD connection
Shaun of the Dead (although, for me, The World's End is the Wright/Pegg film that feels most as if it could have run in 2000AD as a strip)
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road (and I suppose highlander II: the Quickening. But who wants to see that again?)
The Book of Eli
#38
General / The Great Unreprinted list
10 August, 2016, 08:41:36 AM
There are various threads on here asking for stuff to get reprinted in collected editions, or Megazine floppies at the very list, but I don't know if there's a definitive list of all the strips that haven't been given this treatment. Anyway, I couldn't resist having a go. Hope this is the right place to post it!
It's a long list, but really not as long as you might think.
#39
Other Reviews / Monster
18 July, 2016, 05:37:55 PM
I had never even heard of Monster until the new collection was advertised. The mixture of Alan Moore, John Wagner and Jesus Redondo made it a must buy book, and now I've read it.

It's a damn-near perfect iteration of the sort of strip that doesn't exist any more, and I suppose may never exist again. It's also a slightly odd thing to come to with no context. I can imagine people who read the odd issue of Scream or the 80s Eagle would have fond memories, and may be curious to know how it started, or what happened across the series as a whole, but reading through the whole thing from beginning to end with no nostalgia factor is odd.

Nonetheless, the book holds up well, I think. The opening episode by Alan Moore and artist Heinzl is moody and spooky. It doesn't actually get as far as introducing the Monster himself, and I gather that no one knows what Moore himself intended to do with the story. Under the pens of Wagner, Grant and Redondo, what we get is a road trip in which a boy and his monstrous uncle are on the run from the police, and end up getting into scrapes which involve an average of two murders per epsiode.

As you'd expect from Wagner & Grant, it's both dark and hilarious in equal measure. Best of all, they somehow sell each episode as making perfect sense. There's an element of conicidence along the way (the unfortunate pair run afoul of crooks far more often than friendly folk), but within that young hero Kenny makes sensible decisions, and the Monster is consistent in his emotions and reactions, and it's all so sad that he just keeps having to murder his way out of trouble!

There's a great bit where Kenny tries to explain to a police officer that it's really not Uncle Terry's fault he keeps killing, and you sympathise, but at the same time the cop has no time for it and you sympathise with his point of view, too.

As times the story can feel a bit samey from episode to episode - which was sort of the point with throwaway comics of the era - but there's always a ongoing situation to play out. And when that sameness involves a lumbering beast of a man slurring words and murdering people who sort of deserve it, it's classic 2000ADish fun.

It's all very League of Gentlemen / Psychoville, and if that's your thing I'd definitely recommend the book.

Somehow it manages to have a coherent and sort of happy ending, too - although I've yet to read the text stories at the back which may upend things...
#40
Books & Comics / Luther Arkwright
18 July, 2016, 05:13:16 PM
So I've just recently finished reading Bryan Talbot's 'Adventures of Luther Arkwright' (the Dark Horse collected edition). It's the sort of comic that you just have to talk about afterwards, and I'm hoping to find a receptive audience here!

In short, it's blinding. So many ideas, such marvellous art, weirdly compelling characters (some of whom are only in it fleetingly), and I suspect massively influential on a lot of British comics creators who read it as it first came out.

It's also super dense and difficult to follow, to the point that I tried to let it wash over me rather than trying to stay on top of the overarching plot. I wouldn't recommend trying to read it in one go, but I'd definitely recommend it.

Did anyone here read it in small doses wherever it was printed first time around? That must have been something both astounding and frustrating, as I gather it had a tricky publication history, to say the least.

For 2000 AD fans, there's obviously a fair bit of overlap with some of the tone of Nemesis: the Gothic Empire (which Talbot drew, presumably hired on the strength of his Arkwright work). But I reckon there's more than a passing love for Luther Arkwright in the work of Grant Morrison and definitely John Smith, to pick just two names (Invisibles, The Filth and Indigo Prime, I'm looking at you). There's a staggering mix of politics, history and sex along with widescreen hyper-cool action.

Why isn't it more widely known / read?