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BRINK BOOK 5 Query

Started by SmallBlueThing(Reborn), 25 November, 2022, 04:33:15 PM

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SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Everyone got their copies of the newly-released Brink volume, I hope?

Mine arrived the other day, and since I've been working every single second since, I haven't had time to check- but...

Something wad bugging me, and it's just hit me what it is. The series was called MERCURY RETROGRADE wasn't it? Is it ever referred to by that title in the new collected edition? My initial flick leads me to think it's not. Just 'Book Five' throughout.

Could someone closer to a copy check that for me? I won't be home for DAYS!

SBT

JohnW

Haven't bought Book 5 yet, but I'm pretty sure that the previous collected volumes ditched the original titles too (High Society, Hate Box etc.).
Editorially, I think this is a Bad Thing.
They should leave the original episode breaks, with opening title and even closing 'Next Prog'.
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

That might be so- I have books 1-4 as Ultimate Collection hardbacks, so this is the first paperback I've bought. If an editorial decision, it's an odd one!

SBT

broodblik

Checked it and it is definitely only titled Book 5
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Richard

I am not a fan of keeping episode titles and "next prog" and whatnot. With some stories that works, but with many it just gets in the way. I'm sure that's only personal preference, although I imagine some writers deliberately write a story with an eye on how it will look when it is collected.

JohnW

OK, I can do without repeating titles and next progs, but I still want episode breaks the same way I want chapter breaks in any book I read. They're necessary for structure, keeping the story for being one great lump.
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

JohnW

'...from being one great lump.'
*sigh*
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

Dark Jimbo

But with some strips - and particularly with Brink - a single dialogue scene can stretch across two or even three episodes.
@jamesfeistdraws

JohnW

True, but the rhythm of the story is partly determined by the original five-pages-with-week-long-gap structure, and I'd like that reflected somehow in the collected edition.
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

Southstreeter

Just checked and all volumes have ditched their original titles, regrettably.
I'm in favour of episode breaks, as I never read these in one sitting and want to break somewhere sensible. I don't think we need 'next prog' but a discrete title card each episode would be nice.
I think one of the Dredd Case Files even ditched titles for the start of each new story. It looked horrible and confusing, and I think the idea was dropped.

JohnW

At the very least the volume titles should be kept.
I mean, they're the titles of the damn books, aren't they?
However, when all's said and done, Rebellion is unlikely to take a blind bit of notice of my preferences, and even though I've already bought these stories in weekly instalments, and can read them any time I like, I'll still go and fork out for the collected editions.
Christ, but I'm such an easy mark. :)
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

Southstreeter

Beats me why I keep my progs, as I always buy the collections of my favourite stuff anyway!

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

The weekly progs and the collected editions are two very distinct objects of desire that tweak very different pleasure centres of my brain. It's those weirdos who collect the original art as well, those are the freakozoids you *really* have to watch.

I must admit, when I started collecting 2000AD nearly half a century ago, I wasn't really prepared for it to last this long. I remember tv programmes that showed Bob Monkhouse and his complete Beano collection (which would have been, what, 2000 or so issues at the time) and thinking "at least I won't ever have *that many*". Um.

SBT

credo

Quote from: JWare on 26 November, 2022, 01:50:34 PM
OK, I can do without repeating titles and next progs, but I still want episode breaks the same way I want chapter breaks in any book I read. They're necessary for structure, keeping the story for being one great lump.

The next progs can be such a great part of the tale though. Ones I remember would be Zenith, Phases 1-3 (next progs were songs, films and TV shows, respectively) and John Smith's Fervent & Lobe story, where all the next progs were titles of Sonic Youth songs.

JohnW

Quote from: credo on 28 November, 2022, 09:19:03 AM
The next progs can be such a great part of the tale though. Ones I remember would be Zenith, Phases 1-3 (next progs were songs, films and TV shows, respectively) and John Smith's Fervent & Lobe story, where all the next progs were titles of Sonic Youth songs.
The way I remember it, the Next Progs of the eighties were wonderfully inventive – sometimes not so much teasers as almost a part of the story. I'd forgotten Zenith until you mentioned it, but there are a few that have always stuck in my memory.
For instance, in DR & Quinch Go To Hollwood, DR is forced to admit that his film is turning into a disaster and we get 'The Towering Oranges' as a Next Prog.
Or Dredd shoots himself in the Apocalypse War and the Next Prog is just a question mark.
(This, of course, was when collected editions weren't a given, and we had to be excited about returning next week.)
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!