Prog 2006

[2000AD Online]

Celebrated Powers artists Mike Avon Oeming illustrates a one-off six-page Judge Dredd story, written by Robbie Morrison (The Authority, Wildcats, Nikolai Dante), and is published in the 100-page Christmas issue Prog 2006, out 14 December 2005.

The story 'Straight Eye for the Crooked Guy' is a parody of TV reality shows, in which Mega-City One perps are given a makeover to try to curb their criminal ways!

Oeming illustrated the shortlived DC Dredd comic ten years ago, and had a hankering to return to the character.
   
Prog 2006 also features the likes of Strontium Dog by John Wagner (A History of Violence) and Carlos Ezquerra (The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin), Nikolai Dante by Robbie Morrison and John Burns, Slaine by Pat Mills (Marshall Law) and Clint Langley, plus brand-new series The Ten-Seconders by Rob Williams (Cla$$ War) and Mark Harrison.

Link: Tharg's Newsround

[Harmful if Swallowed]

>Celebrated Powers artists Mike Avon Oeming illustrates a one-off six-page Judge Dredd story

I know the newsround page only has two panels on it but they arent getting my thrill juices flowing. Hopefully his name will bring in some new readers.

[The Adventurer]

More Slaine?

Awwwww....

More Dante?

WOO!

The Ten-Seconders?

Could be another Leatherjack(that's a good thing).


For a 100 Pager 5 new stories seems kind of thin. What else is in there? or is everything getting like a 18 page first episode?

[The Adventurer]

Hopefully his name will bring in some new readers.

I don't know, I just went over to the Jinxworld Forums (the Brian Micheal Bendis Forums) to the Oeming section were Oeming fanboys should be slobbing all over themselves for this, and there's nothing there on his Dredd story.

I'm not thinking this Prog is going to break into the American audiance in any remarkable way.

[Grant Goggans]

I think it's two Dredd stories (one twelve pages, one six), a one-off Low Life, a one-off Dante, and the first episodes of Caballistics, Ten-Seconders, Slaine and Strontium Dog.

--Grant

[Art]

I don't think regular prog based 2000ad has any hope whatsoever of breaking any kind of American audience anyway...

[The Amstor Computer]

IIRC, the line-up is:

Judge Dredd: Class of 79 (John Wagner & Greg Staples)
Judge Dredd: Straight Eye for the Crooked Guy (Robbie Morrison & Mike Oeming)
Slaine: Carnival (Pat Mills & Clint Langley)
Strontium Dog: A Shaggy Dog Story (John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra)
The Ten-Seconders (Rob Williams & Mark Harrison)
Low Life: He's Making a List (Rob Williams & Simon
Coleby)
Nikolai Dante: Unknown title (Robbie Morrison & John Burns)
Caballistics, Inc.: Strange Bedfellows (Gordon Rennie & Dom Reardon)

I think there may be one other one-off, plus the usual text feature/letter pages.

[The Amstor Computer]

Art --

No chance at all, I'd say. It's a weekly anthology - compared to the usual monthly comics US audiences have been reading for decades it's a totally alien concept.

[Art]

Plus if it's ever in a shop here it'll be in some dusty corner in the back that only weirdo ex-pats like myslef will ever go to, and it'll arrive in clumps of 4 a few weeks late. Progs are only ever going to be a special interest thing in the US I'm afraid.

[The Adventurer]

No chance at all, I'd say. It's a weekly anthology - compared to the usual monthly comics US audiences have been reading for decades it's a totally alien concept.

Alien. But completely awesome once you get into it. Atleat it was for me.

I mean, god, 4 issues a month? A varrity of genres and subgenres across the board? I'm in love here.

Granted my tastes arn't in line with the majority of american comic readers...unfortunatly.

But if Manga can make it big....

[Byron Virgo]

But the Manga scene is really one entirely outside the normal comics audience (which, to be honest, is probably a good thing).

[The Adventurer]

Honestly I think the cost of the Prog and Meg have a big thing to do with it.

I am paying up the nose, through the nose, and out the nose for 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine just because I'm extentialy importing them. The UK Pound to US Dollor exchange is painful.

If Rebellion was to get someone, like say Image, to print  and distribute a US edition (unchanged from the current UK edition) the cost would drop into a resonable margin for US consumers to actualy see the books as affordable.

In this age of digital data, it's cake to take the 2000AD page layouts and send them across the world to a different printer to hit a different market.

The US isn't against anthologies. Not when books like Shonen Jump burn up the sales charts.

[Grant Goggans]

No, the prog will always be a specialty taste.  God knows I've done everything short of gunplay for about fifteen years to sell people on the weekly and only had minimal success.  I still think the trades can and should sell extremely well with the right promotional push and consistent effort... one thing I am worried about is what looks like a lack of reorder ability from retailers, though.

--Grant

[The Amstor Computer]

The US isn't against anthologies. Not when books like Shonen Jump burn up the sales charts

Manga again, though, and a 200-page plus book like SJ is very different from a 30-page comic like 2000AD. I can't think of any non-manga anthology that's succeeded in the US in recent years.

The 2000AD TPBs, and maybe a line of monthly reprint titles along the lines of the old Quality books, would seem to be the most potentially successful way to approach the US market. Even then, there's no guarantee of success (witness the DC deal...)

[Roger Godpleton]

Wasn't Ten Seconders advertised in Prog 2005?


Is there any reason for the delay?


P.S. I know this sounds accusatory (I'm trying to avoid it), so apologies to anyone offended.