Sideshow Vote II: What is this piece of broccoli doing on my plate?

[broodblik]

The anthology can be both a curse and a joy, one week you like nothing and the next week it is spectacular from first to last. Quite simple question around this round: what is your tolerant level making the prog acceptable for you? What is your level of acceptance?
-   Only a strong Dredd is required
-   At least one strong thrill
-   2 out of 5 thrills minimum
-   3 out of 5 thrills minimum
-   Thor, I mean four
-   I am a 5-star general, so I want a fiver
-   The knowledge that something better is arriving tomorrow
-   I am more of an anti-pumpkin man I love my broccoli

PS – for an extra bonus name and shame that despicable piece of vegetable that ruined your plate

[Colin YNWA]

Oh this is tough as it depends on how bad the bad is, how good the good is so difficult to quantify. As long as its interesting I guess as we are always safe in the knowledge

... that something better is arriving tomorrow

as a cope out!

[Funt Solo]

I only stopped reading for a while due to financial constraints*, so clearly I don't need any strong thrills to carry on reading (see prog 881).

The current slice of beetroot bleeding inconsiderately all over my plate is Skip Tracer. I poke at it with my fork, and am then sad - because now my fork is contaminated. I wonder at it - sitting there on series seven of its mediocrity as the likes of Grudge-Father, Trash, Dry Run, Junker & Babe Race 2000 look on in awe - wondering why they were sent to the knacker's after a much shorter exposure.

Ah now, says Tharg - there's nothing else I could possibly print. Who wants the next installment of The Alienist, or Brass Sun, or Helium, or Full Tilt Boogie (or Witch World, croaks a hopeful patient in the next ward) - when we are yet to find out if the Man With The Magic Eyes and his Daughter of Wonderment will escape an inescapable fate by being threatened and shouted at and probably tied up - perhaps by minotaurs. Oh no! There's no way out, no way they can possibly ... wait! Those foolish fiends have forgotten the magic eye powers of narrative convenience! No bonds, no locks, no burly miscreants can stand against their ill-defined powers!


* "Due to financial constraints the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off until further notice"

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Dredd isn't my main draw for 2000AD, in fact it's not even in my top ten thrills, but it is mostly at least readable (even if recent Regeneds and End of Days stretched that definition somewhat).

I used to think I'd always keep reading the prog no matter what, since I've come this far- but I've come to realise that was based on not being able to imagine Pat Mills walking away from it in his lifetime, with the vague idea I'd re-evaluate when he goes to the big Burning Man Festival In The Sky.

Now Pat has moved on to pastures new, I've decided to carry on all the while Dan Abnett is on the books. Were Abnett to move on, and therefore even a prog with five misses and no hits was read without the sure knowledge next week might be better, I may jump ship. 

So, for the purposes of this question: one good strip is all I need.

SBT

[AlexF]

Can't say I've ever read a Prog where at least 3/5 strips failed to have something to enjoy in them (the art carries me a long way, and of course my own lack of taste). Even the darkest days of the Megazine always had 1 good Dredd and 1 decent reprint, often of something I'd not read before.
I guess at least 1 good thrill would probably keep me going for a few weeks...

While we're talking anthologies, the veg that makes me recoil in horror is that frozen mixed stuff that ruined many a school dinner, especially the one with peas and sweetcorn, my two least favourites anyway. It's the texture when you bite on them and they splurge open, THE HORROR THE HORROR

[Barrington Boots]

I sometimes find myself more critical than others on the Prog review thread, but I truly love the Prog and its variety. For me not to think ' that was a bad Prog' I guess it has to be 2 out of 5 thrills minimum but I know an anthology can grow hot or cold and I don't mind the odd period that's not for me.

Also beetroot can do one! Foul stuff.

[Aaron A Aardvark]

I don't like Skip Tracer but I wouldn't call it unreadable.

I don't think it's unreadable to expect the majority of strips were worth reading so I'd say three if that includes a good Dredd or two excellent thrills and one meh one. Was that one of the options?

[broodblik]

I don't think it's unreadable to expect the majority of strips were worth reading so I'd say three if that includes a good Dredd or two excellent thrills and one meh one. Was that one of the options?

No but it is now an option:

2 good thrills plus a good Dredd

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

At least one strong thrill ...

... is clearly my answer. or i would have given up (again) on many occasions. there have been times in the not too distant past when the prog has contained (imho, of course) an impenetrable story, a mega city in which the apocalypse suffered by every citizen is almost never referred to, dodgy conspiracist politics, and skip tracer. but there was always another strip that absolutely was more than worth the entrance fee. so. still here.

[Proudhuff]

-  Only a strong Dredd is required and The knowledge that something better is arriving tomorrow

[Southstreeter]

I’m a subscriber, so inertia means that I’d have at least a year of hating it before I bothered to unsub. But I expect at least 2 good stories plus a Dredd, which I nearly always like.
The Meg, on the other hand, requires at least 3 belters before I buy it, because the prog is enough for me.