The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

[broodblik]

Brass Sun I am really missing this series. Hopefully we can get it sooner than later but with Cullbard doing Brink as well it looks bleak. Now this is were I am asking certain question like how can Skip Tracer get a series ever 6 months and we have to wait years for quality series like: Brass Sun, Kingdom even Brink now?

[Colin YNWA]

Just wanted to pop on and make very quick mention of the Future Shock - Sunday Scientist which introduced Laura Bailey and Paul Williams after the Though Bubble droid pitch thingies (actually was Paul Williams discovered that way??? am i misremembering?). I remember being shocked by it when first reading it AND damn it loses none of its impact on second read.

"If you really care about the planet and our child's future..."

Is all the more chilling when you know the ending. How is this not a Terror Tale you gloriously nasty, nasty people!

[Dark Jimbo]

Now this is were I am asking certain question like how can Skip Tracer get a series ever 6 months and we have to wait years for quality series like: Brass Sun, Kingdom even Brink now?

The most prolific writers simply spread themselves too thinly. Abnett (for instance) has Lawless, Sin/Dex, The Out, Kingdom, Feral & Foe, Brink, Grey Area...; James Peaty's only got Skip Tracer and Diamond Dogs going on. And (whatever his other failings) he's clearly prolific. Tharg knows that when he asks Peaty and Marshall for a 9-part Skip Tracer series to plug a gap after Stickleback or Brass Sun's been delayed for the umpteenth time, they're going to deliver promptly and keep him from having to put progs with blank pages on newsagent's shelves.

[Funt Solo]

Quite clever, I suppose. The 90s had Dry Run, Trash, Grudge-Father, Babe Race etc. Now we just have Skipper Trace over and over again. Saves a lot on logos.

[Dark Jimbo]

Quite clever, I suppose. The 90s had Dry Run, Trash, Grudge-Father, Babe Race etc. Now we just have Skipper Trace over and over again. Saves a lot on logos.

A lightning rod of mediocrity.

[Colin YNWA]

Quite clever, I suppose. The 90s had Dry Run, Trash, Grudge-Father, Babe Race etc. Now we just have Skipper Trace over and over again. Saves a lot on logos.

A lightning rod of mediocrity.

I'll stand up for Skipperty, certainly in relation to those. Skippy has had a couple of decent stories ( as I recall the second story was actively good, the last one not too bad at all and the current one fridging aside pretty decent to.) and was never as actively offensive as Babe Race 2000.

[broodblik]

I do not mind Skip Tracer I only questioned why it got so many series in a short time and a lot of my favorites do not get the same love. The second series as you state was good and the last few was not bad either.

[Colin YNWA]

All it takes is one shot - Sinister Ddexter

Prog 2073 is a nice package. A good launch Prog, a little hit and miss, but we'll get to that when we get to discussing the line-up. What I want to focus on here is to dismiss the idea that Sinister Dexter has had it day. The evidence for the defense. One shot, over 41 panels (there are two panels at the start that stop it being 5, 9 panel pages straight) in 'The Salad of Bad Cafe.'.

Its a simple character piece that as our pair sit and wait for a hit to leave a building opposite the 'Mucnhbox' cafe. The two chew the fat as they wait. Its a fantastic, hilarious interchange that reveals so much about the pair. It sets out the world and their current circumstance to new readers.

It also makes clear that when Dabnett is given the window of chance, a good artist and however many panels as he needs this strip is as magic as its always been. The run of stories this sets up is some of my favourite S&D. And sure it might have gone a bit off the boil in the last year, just as it was meant to cook up a storm but it will get that back. Be it in 5 pages or 25 parts. This remains a wonderful strip by a wonderful writer, it just needs the window through which it can shine.

[MumboJimbo]

I agree, Colin, a great strip!

The title, in case you didn't know, is a pun of a 1954 Novella by Carson McCullers called The Ballad of Sad Cafe, which was made into a film in 1991 with Venessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine. I have neither read nor seen it/them. Presumably, 70s soft rock band Sad Cafe were also named after it, whose song Every Day Hurts instantly transports me to listening to the Terry Wogan breakfast radio show when I was about 6. "Every single day! Every single day!..."

All together now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoIgTBz7GeM

[Colin YNWA]

Prog 2081 - The end

There's a number of beginning in Prog 2081 but we'll come back to that next time as more significently this will be the Prog that marks the saddest of ending as 'Strontium Dog - The Son' draws to a close and will mark the last story completed by Carlos Ezquerra something that will shock us in a few months after we read this. Its hard therefore to read this strip objectively, so much is wrapped in it.

The ending feels perfect for the story. Carlos who gave us so much, birthed so many great stories, doesn't end with an ending as such. Rather it ends with a world of possiblities, with the potential for new stories opening up in front of us. New chapters waiting to be told. We will never get them, but so many wonders and marvel's sprang from his creative genius its a beautiful ending that opens the possiblity of more to come. So fitting.

That's the good part. Time also brings honest appraisal and while the ending is great and the idea of the story, Wulf's son seeking Johnny's approval and possible tutoring. Johnny's fear and guilt almost closing that door its great. It just at times I find the execution a little clumsy. The story rushes around. The introduction of Silverman right at the end, a giant robot villain of astonishing repute - so much so to claim a 20,000,000 bounty - feels like its going to open a new section to the story. Instead he's shown to be terrible in the most simplistic way - he buys a slave just to torture him - and then is dispatched in just a couple of pages with an almost Scooby Doo caper involving giant magnets is so horribly old school. Its really clunky.

Of course that old school speedy episode at the end, just as a new beginning harkens to the stories of old and the previous start of the series. So of course its a piece of genius BUT alas read as a story now still a clumsy piece of genius!

[Dark Jimbo]

'Strontium Dog - The Son'... So of course its a piece of genius BUT alas read as a story now still a clumsy piece of genius!

I know that it was brought forward in the schedule to plug a gap when Ben Willsher injured himself and Durham Red fell through, explaining Carlos' art looking a bit rushed. I do wonder if it was written in a hurry as well; is that even possible?

It's quite a decompressed strip, epsecially if you compare it to the likes of The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha. There generally aren't too many panels to a page. And it breaks the internal logic of the world a little - for instance, the big joke of The Shicklgruber Grab is that nobody in the future knows (or cares) who Hitler is. But in The Son you have an awed Kenton asking Johnny if he and Wulf really did go after Adolf Hitler himself.

[Colin YNWA]

'Strontium Dog - The Son'... So of course its a piece of genius BUT alas read as a story now still a clumsy piece of genius!

I know that it was brought forward in the schedule to plug a gap when Ben Willsher injured himself and Durham Red fell through, explaining Carlos' art looking a bit rushed. I do wonder if it was written in a hurry as well; is that even possible?

I'd completely forgotten that... testament to my memory again then!

We'll get into the new line up, including Durham Red in a bit as its probably the strongest of 2018 to date. Just wanted to fly by and give mention to 'The Gangbusters' that Sinister Dexter were they fly in the AI WWII planes and Ray starts to see his own thought ballons. Damn this phase of S&D is superb fun.

[Colin YNWA]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/SuHrhej.png[/img

Classic 5 and 5 parters travelling in time

I mean there was a good post title somewhere - I'm just to tired and grumpy to be bothered to find it.

Why is there a good title? Well we have a superb 6 part Survival Geeks story 'Geek Con' that riffs not only off fan nerd culture, but more significently Doctor Who. While in Dredd we have a wonderful tale by Mike Carroll and Jake Lynch - The Paradigm Shift which moves across two time frames as Dredd uncovers leftovers from the Justice Department's earliest days.

The Survival Geeks story is light and buzzy fun done incredibly well. It balances the light and buzzy - on re-read I didn't always get this when read originally - perfectly by making the tongue thrust so violently into its cheek absolutely razersharp. its funny and cutting and while it does just cut into fanboy culture and the things we love it does it very, very well. Oh and the character stuff between Simon and Sam is just fantastic... Speaking of fantastic Neil Googe's art is just devine. Why don't we hail him as a master yet?

Over in Dredd there another fine balancing act as Mike Carroll takes us back to Deacon and the origins of the Justice system and covered (I believe) in his 'Judges' novels while crafting a fantastic Dredd story. The way he interweaves the two tales is a fine piece of craft. Each story allowed to follow its own path, but with echo and beats that allow them to be perfectly interconnected. Its a mini masterclass and reminds us as the disappointing Russian romp just why Mike Carroll is so rated as a Dredd writer.

Just like Survival Geeks the art - this time by Jake Lynch is also superb. - This for me is the story were Lynch really comes into his own. Its an artist we've seen develop in front of us and here that development hits his potential for the first time. I think in part as he works so well with colour. Whether that is reason or its just his confidence hits at the same time as the colour I'm not sure. Either way this is an artistic treat.

So two wonderful time trippin' stories in 5 or 6 parts, so maybe I'm tired but with stories this good there absolutely no reason to be grumpy!

[Colin YNWA]

Skip to the end

So lets get to it, I mean its not like its not been discussed to death elsewhere but since I'm doing a re-read I want to do a bit of thinking about why Skip Tracer doesn't work... before we get to the second story which I think does work!

1. Its not the art - Paul Marshall does a great job.

2. Its the fact that 'The Cube' the settling for the series just not properly introduced and formed. It presented to us as if its this cool place, like Mega City One or Downlobe. But we're given nothing to understand it, to gain insight into what it is - other than a big place thats a bit rough. We have nothing to understand what makes it tick. So in part its that.

3. The events just happen. I mean Nolan gets attacked by a minataur - that should be cool right, but again no time for context or build up. Or to understand the minataur is kick ass. It just turns up, like The Cube, its just assumed we think its cool. Then its done. This happens time and again. So in part its that.

4. The twist are just... well dances we've done before. So in part its that.

5. Nolan himself - damn he's so there. He's just angry and hard and full on old school action movie one liners. Like 'The Cube', like the events, like the twists we have nothing new and nothing to make us care.

6. But the main thing is the context it finds itself. Put this in the 800s or 900s would we feel than same way. I mean it wouldn't be the best strip. It wouldn't be the strip we look at and thing - thank fuck for John Smith and Skip Tracer. But it would be in the ball park of things that were okay. That kept the Prog full and ticking along.

Skip Tracer isn't that bad. its just there's so much around it now that's so much better. I've got so used to the quality that a strip like this that isn't terrible and isn't great, a strip that feels stayed stands out like a sore thumb. And that's damning with faint praise if ever I typed it.

Okay so we've done why Skip Tracer isn't that good. I've got that off my back. When it returns later this year I'm looking forward to seeing why the second story works. As that will be much more interesting.

Oh and while I'm at it the new Durham Red - Born Bad shows how to do a good 90s action movie. This thrill might have need an artistic save when Ben Wilsher had to unfortunately step aside BUT GOOD GOD DAMN Lee Carter does a good save. And the story is just... well exactly fantastic its so solidly great it just feels fantastic. It kinda Skip Tracer done but not trying 2, earning all the events in 3. Making the big 4 work a treat - I'm not your mum is just great and damn does it do 5 better. We are made to care about Durham and the torment she goes through and that makes things that happen to her, those earnt things matter and us care... maybe I don't need to wait for the next story to find out what will make Skip Tracer work, maybe I was reading it alongside it!

[Colin YNWA]

Kek-w isn't pants

See that works cos were I come from Kecks means pants, as in trouser. As in 'Man your kecks are terrible', so see... okay okay, it wasn't worth it.

We had a Kek-W power hour (to use the terms of Space spinner) during the run into 2100, as for a number of issues both Fall of Deadworld and The Order both run in the Prog and they shine, even against some great thrills. Folks often seem befuddled by The Order and if I'm honest it can take me a couple of goes to catch up. Put a little effort in and its all there and its all wonderfully inventive fun, with great characters and fantastic crazy action. What's not to love. And as for it being complex. Well one page at the end 'The New World' gets you up to speed. Ritterstahl comes back*

"Francis Bacon is no longer our ally, but a dangerous enemy. He commands an army of automata - weapons from beyond this era! If he has allied himself with the shadow agent George Washington..."

"...then all space and time are in peril."

See in three panels up to speed, with the essentials at least. Shame it was at the end of a story not at the start of the next, might have stopped some of the doubters.

Now 'Fall of Deadworld' does get into this trouble, folks seems to love it and this is the one, even on re-read, I sometimes struggle with. The also Romanic struggles for power within Sidney's ranks, the Goths amassing at the gates ... well the Sovs anyway... and assasins breaking in to shake things up... there's a heck of a lot to keep up with. Yet it is all wonderful stuff. Its the zombie apocolypse dialed up to 12teen.

Kek-W rocks and both strips look superb and read a dream - literally sometimes. Its brilliant stuff.

Oh and that other stuff these strips sit beside. Fantastic Grey Area as Grell goes all Black Ops and takes control two of our squad. Survival Geeks in full pelt crazy slasher fun. I can't tell you how much more I appreciate this one on re-read. There's more but also the end of the 'Sons of Booth' story line. Its been a fun ride, alas it doesn't quite stick the landing - like so many perps having their pink bouncy armour switched off, but it gets close and it fun. Just goes quite live up to the build up. There is some great stuff in the run up to 2100 BUT its nothing compared to what's coming when we hit that Prog... but that's for next time...

*The original one who Anna feel in love with... and only kinda comes back... well it couldn't be straight forward could it...