Pat Mills on Action article.

[dweezil2]

For those who missed it, this makes for a very interesting read:

https://bigmouthmag.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/action-comic-britains-brutal-weekly-real-70s/

[Tjm86]

Thanks for that, and yes it does make for interesting reading.  As does Action itself.  From a modern perspective it seems incredibly tame (I'm fairly sure I've commented as such before), particularly in light of nearly 40 years of tooth.  I'm not sure I agree with Pat on Sci Fi / Fantasy as a retreat.  It takes a real talent to twist the reality of the contemporary the way so many of Sci Fi's greatest have managed, particularly some of the writers we have had the pleasure of over the years.  As a cultural artefact though I would argue that it is profoundly important.

[vark]

You have pointing out the most interesting part of what Pat had to say (IMO). Here is the almost complete quote:

“Science fiction is not the same. I remember thinking, If we say it’s science fiction, if we say they’re robots or androids or whatever, we can get away with so much more. But it was a retreat. I always see science fiction as a retreat. People always say how profound a science fiction or fantasy story is, but I’m not convinced that a satire or an allegory can every be as potent as actually telling it like it is on the streets.”

Talent of sci fi writers is not a stake here I think, it is more a question of touching people. For me indeed The Wire is the most moving and potent thing I have ever seen (I would have liked to find other examples in comics or books but nothing comes to mind for the time being).

[The Adventurer]

That quote explains so much about Pat Mills and why I have such a general dislike of his brand of science fiction.

[Jim_Campbell]

Odd how Mills can be revered amongst squaxx despite not actually liking SF, but when certain other droids express a not dissimilar opinion, the ECBT crew clamour for their instant expulsion from the prog.

[blackmocco]

Odd how Mills can be revered amongst squaxx despite not actually liking SF, but when certain other droids express a not dissimilar opinion, the ECBT crew clamour for their instant expulsion from the prog.

Is Mills really saying he doesn't like sci-fi, though? I just get he's disappointed the topics he wants to discuss need to be shrouded in sci-fi in order to be presented, and that's mostly down to Action getting pummelled in the media.

[Jim_Campbell]

Is Mills really saying he doesn't like sci-fi, though?

" I always see science fiction as a retreat."

[blackmocco]

Is Mills really saying he doesn't like sci-fi, though?

" I always see science fiction as a retreat."

I just think that quote can be interpreted in different ways, Jim. Bearing in mind Mills is discussing topics he really wanted to depict and he feels portraying those topics in a sci-fi setting is a retreat from a 'real' setting, but I don't necessarily read he doesn't like sci-fi from it.

[blackmocco]

Is Mills really saying he doesn't like sci-fi, though?

" I always see science fiction as a retreat."

I just think that quote can be interpreted in different ways, Jim. Bearing in mind Mills is discussing topics he really wanted to depict and he feels portraying those topics in a sci-fi setting is a retreat from a 'real' setting, but I don't necessarily read he doesn't like sci-fi from it.

[Frank]

I love Pat Mills:


"Arthur C Clarke may be a smart-ass and he knows all these things about this, that and the other, but a lot of his characters are boring and wouldn't make good comic material. 2001 was a brilliant film but the characters are lousy. In a comic, you start with good, strong characters"

p.35, Judge Dredd: the mega-history, Jarman. C & Acton. P, Lennard Publishing, 1995

[TordelBack]

Well he's not wrong. Characters wouldn't be Clarke's strong suit. For well-realised and fully developed original situations, though, he's hard to beat.

FWIW Pat is wrong about SF. I know what he means by having to use it to being a 'retreat', but the same true of almost all fiction, all entertainment.  The indirect approach can sidestep otherwise immovable preconceptions, and create allegories that  far outlive the context of their creation: Gulliver's Travels, Frankenstein, 1984, Farenheit 45, Judge Dredd, there's a reason these are all part of our cultural and conceptual lexicon.

[TordelBack]

'Farenheit 451'. In the name of COBOL why does autocorrect insist on 'correcting' strings of numbers?

[JayzusB.Christ]

The podcast linked to in the same article is great too.  It's inspired me to listen to The Fink Brothers' Mutants in Mega City 1 for the first time -  I don't really like Madness but this is great.

[IndigoPrime]

Did Mills say he considers it a retreat always, or was he specifically referring to 2000 AD? Because in the latter case, he's right in that 2000 AD's propelling everything into sci-fi-land was clearly a shield and a means of dealing with censorship from idiots. But if he means in a global sense – that all sci-fi is a retreat from 'proper' writing – that would be odd, not least if you only consider Nemesis.

[dweezil2]

I really don't think that he's saying he doesn't like Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Besides, his body of work would suggest otherwise.