Messages

So the new Tharg is Anthony Head?

That looks really good. I kind of regret not buying a copy now when I grabbed a pile of stuff a while back.

I suspect with the geeks, there's a certain amount of nostalgia at play in the scripting. The VCs wasn't exactly from a nuanced period in 2000 AD's history, or at least that series wasn't particularly nuanced. But it does feel a bit blunt in a modern context, particularly, as you say, given that there's so little space.

I guess the way to look at these is they're fun and throwaway one-offs that 1) might rope in lapsed readers who recognise characters they loved back in the day, and 2) provide fodder for a trade collection.

Well, they are doing Regened Rogue (which I assume will run in the Meg?)

I re-read Black Light recently. It was... fine. I quite liked the first series, but not so much what followed. The art took a bit downward turn too, with some comparatively rough work when Burns was replaced by Sullivan and then Yeowell/Craddock. It also suffered somewhat from shoe-horning in the MIB character who had taken over from Tharg (or at least someone who looked identical). Vibes of the time, perhaps, but not one of Abnett's best.

Steve White talked over for a long stretch, which tries to ramp up the military aspect. It's certainly better, although I don't recall it being especially good. Then Anbett/White throw everything into the pan for Rogue Troopers (yes: plural), which creates a continuity mess that presumably made the editor at the time punch the trapdoor switch and feed the strip to the crocodile pit.

There's some good art, for sure. Early Flint alone is nice to gawp at. But the strips are at best a really mixed bag, and it all ends up in a convoluted mess. I just find it weird that these are the strips being included. Maybe there are loads of secret Fr1day and Harlem Heroes v2 fans out there?

Yikes at Fr1day making the cut. And so much of it. Pretty glad I'm cherry picking at this point. Still, at least Dry Run or Junker hasn't been included (yet).

And, yeah, some of these are odd picks, given that loads of Dredd could be repackaged. Hey-ho.

I remember at the time feeling like Finn was a bit "We've got Sláine at home". It was... fine. And while I'm sure it has its fans, I can't imagine it would have taken so long to get a reprint if people were knocking down Rebellion's door demanding one. The notion of post-Finn 2000 AD is... quite something. The last episode, according to Barney, was 999, in 1996. 2000 AD was out of its nadir by then, having also been enjoying The Pit. But the Prog still felt fragile: Fr1day, Grudge Father, Tracer, Urban Strike, Maniac 5, Wireheads...

Perhaps Mills remembers that period fondly in part because his work was some of the best stuff in the Prog, even if the Sláine and ABC Warriors of the time weren't at their peak. (Still solid though.)  And even directly after, we have some dodgy stuff (Black Light; Outlaw). But Wagner sticks around. Soon, Abnett kicks off his Durham Red space opera. Mazeworld begins in October. 1997 brings us Sin/Dex and Nikolai Dante. There's still crap knocking around. (David Bishop: I'm looking at you re Space Girls!) But by 1998, it feels like ongoing, gradual recovery, putting the Prog on the road to the Matt Smith era. So if there is a post-Finn 2000 AD, it's a 2000 AD remembering what it was, rather than being driven into the ground. And honestly I'm not sure Finn would have mattered in that context.

I have an SSD of comics that's a network share. I throw some books into Chunky when I fancy reading them. No more organised than that. (Well, bar folders for anything that has more than a single book. eg Judge Dredd, Hellboy, etc.)

Such a pity the follow-up Chunky never went anywhere. The idea was to make it fully network-driven. So it would blaze through drives you connected it to, letting you browse your collection at any time. And a tap would let you grab things for local reading. A bit like the Infuse media player, if Apple device folks have used that. Alas, etc. (Chunky is essentially abandoned, as I understand it. Fans should probably download the IPA using something like iMazing, just in case...)

A bit of a weird Meg, in being the second half of the story that started in 2000 AD and then a few other bits and bobs, but no major top-tier anchor. And it... pretty solid. I enjoyed this more than 2000 AD, on the basis that things start rattling along, rather than 'let's collect the gang'. You get a few twists. There's one callback to a famous frame that I imagine quite a few people will like.

Naturally, the story also has the same issues as other mass crossovers in these 'Elseworlds' take. Everyone is expendable and so there are lots of cheap deaths. But they also have no impact whatsoever. If Major Character A gets offed, I'm all: whatevs. Still: better than the Prog. And I imagine as a jumping-on pair of comics for lapsed readers, this could all be a lot of fun.

Beyond that crossover event, Jim Murray gives us some background on is career, we get insight into a book by the Herne & Shuck author (across three pages with a weirdly larger font), and then hit the last of the IDW miniseries (according to the Meg's intro), False Witness. I don't remember ever reading this one and... I quite liked it. To me, this one actually felt a lot like a Rebellion Dredd.

Next up, we get The Sarge, which in all honesty I didn't even bother to read. 12 pages of advert, and I'm kind of over this now. I won't begrudge these strips getting this treatment. But I've not been into most of these strips, and since they're not self-contained and I'm unlikely to read the books, I'm happy enough to skip.

A Neil Edwards interview is then followed by the Regened stuff. Pandora's still fun. Dept K gets a one-off that works fairly well. And Black Museum was pretty good. But next month promises to be interesting. Fargo & McBane, along with Devlin Waugh and Lawless. Death Cap I'm less interested in, but who knows?

Anyway, a good read, and unlike with 2000 AD arguably an improvement over recent issues. But I'm looking forward to the refresh.

I'm happy to have the subs cover. But otherwise I felt similar to Colin about the Prog. The set-up felt very formulaic. Fun enough. Nice art. But thin. Fine as another one-off but I'm more looking forward to getting back to Brink.

It'll also be interesting to see how people feel about another issue that forces you to buy the sister publication to get the full story. Although at least this is a one-and-done.

I'm starting to reread a few choice volumes. First up were Kingdom and Shakara, which were both great. But then I plucked Caballistics off the shelf. I remember liking this at the time and I'm fairly sure I had the trades. But on rereading it across two evenings, it really drove home how great this strip was.

According to the intro, novels scuppered the series continuing, because someone unwisely gave them to a different author. But at least we then got Absolom (and, more recently, Diaboliks, although that didn't click with me as much).

In collected form, Cabs does still feel a bit guillotined. Maybe it's best to stop after ashes and pretend the other two episodes don't exist. Either way, this is the kind of thing that makes me glad the UC exists. And next I need to head off and grab a few more of Rennie's choice cuts. (Well, once I'm done with Absolom.)

Honestly, I now treat it like a charitable donation and the books are a bonus if I ever get around to reading them. And I missed one Image bundle ages ago and regretted that. So although I no longer get every bundle (there are some I bought I'll never read), I do buy almost all of the Image ones.

I read the first book and it was fine. I didn't really get all the fuss about it. But that bundle looks dead good anyway, and so I'm going to buy it and have another crack. Probably in 2037, when I've read my existing to-read pile.