2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[Dark Jimbo]

From the first page he appeared in, Gene the Hackman was instantly one of the great 2000 AD heroes. Distinctive look, great speech patterns, hard as nails but a really earnest and adorable persona. You'll love Kingdom!

[TordelBack]

And it's even better than it sounds!

[Tjm86]

This is a perfect example of what happens when you get the right artist too.  Elson is perfect for it.  He captured that 50's B-movie feel, created an utterly believable world populated by giant mutant insects and bizarre genetic hybrids then has continued to develop the quality of the visuals over the course of the strip.  For obvious reasons his artwork now graces my nascent original art collection.  The strip deserves its position in the tooth hall of fame.

[Swerty]

Ah that does make more sense.

What's the bet on Dredd being vol 1-3?

pretty much guaranteed, and I'd say Rogue filling in 14-18

From the spine image I'd say Robo-hunter.Rogue's further up between Durham Red and Bill Savage.

[Tomwe]

From the spine image I'd say Robo-hunter.Rogue's further up between Durham Red and Bill Savage.

You're not wrong, but there's a five book gap between SD & Nemesis which is the length of the Rogue section. Robo-Hunter only three. Plus if you're thinking like that, Nemesis should be standing to the left of the ABC Warriors.

Who knows though. Wondering if Robo-Hunter is next to Halo Jones for the Ian Gibson connection.

[geronimo]

If we are going by the spines, then shouldn't we be losing the bottom half of the lowest panels on each page!!!

[Arkady]

We've now learned that Nikolai Dante makes up the final volumes, but he's in the first 1/3rd of the Spine Art. Slaine is in the middle of the collection but towards the end of the spine art. Might not be that useful a guide.

[The Monarch]

use the spine as an signpost of whata in it not where they are

[Dark Jimbo]

When you've got 13 books of Slaine, 10 of Stront, 9 of Dante etc, it's a bit of a tall order to expect the characters on the spine to match the content of the books...!

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Just picked up Vol 4, The Kreeler Conspiracy, and am sat reading it while waiting for my GP appointment (which is by Skype, annoyingly. I hate living in a Tory future).
Sometimes, collected editions don't live up to the weekly prog experience (The Apocalypse War, ferinstance, is never as good as it was in the prog, where the wait between weeks was horrible), and others read so much better. This is the latter here, as it's absolutely stonking. When this ran in the prog, I disliked it immensely- and it started a phase of me skipping Stront- which I never imagined I'd ever do, having been a fan since Star Lord #1, when Ezquerra's art scared the absolute shit out of me.
Reading it now, I'm totally in love. I'm only 60 or so pages in, but already it's the best tenner I've spent this week.
SBT

[Arkady]

Just picked up Vol 4, The Kreeler Conspiracy, and am sat reading it while waiting for my GP appointment (which is by Skype, annoyingly. I hate living in a Tory future).
Sometimes, collected editions don't live up to the weekly prog experience (The Apocalypse War, ferinstance, is never as good as it was in the prog, where the wait between weeks was horrible), and others read so much better. This is the latter here, as it's absolutely stonking. When this ran in the prog, I disliked it immensely- and it started a phase of me skipping Stront- which I never imagined I'd ever do, having been a fan since Star Lord #1, when Ezquerra's art scared the absolute shit out of me.
Reading it now, I'm totally in love. I'm only 60 or so pages in, but already it's the best tenner I've spent this week.
SBT

Exciting. Having read no Stront before (except or a few in recent progs) the completist in me is tempted to not read it until I've read the earlier volumes in the collection - I've acquired the Starlord stuff to read first.

I don't think we're getting any Ro-Busters in the collection, and I'm considering whether to acquire the two trades before the first ABC warriors issue comes out - is this wise from a continuity perspective?

[Dark Jimbo]

I don't think we're getting any Ro-Busters in the collection, and I'm considering whether to acquire the two trades before the first ABC warriors issue comes out - is this wise from a continuity perspective?

Not 'necessary' as such, but the characters are gradually re-introduced during later series (both ABC and Nemesis the Warlock) with the assumption that you're familiar with them via Ro-Busters. You might get a bit more out of it if you have read Ro-Busters already.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

From the perspective of continuity, yeah why not. Sometimes it's easy to forget that some readers haven't been fed this stuff week on week since they were seven years old. Coming to 2000AD for the first time as an adult could be daunting, in the sense that it may seem "important" to have to "catch up". Personally, I have faith that most of the longest running stories, ABCs included, stand well-enough on their own to be picked up with any given story. Or at least, in the case of the ABCs, as individual stories when the artist changes. I'm not sure the more recent Clint Langley books could be just as easily dipped into, as Pat seems to be in the process of tying everything together now.
Ro-Busters and the ABC Warriors are a brilliant, clever, funny and mesmerising couple of strips that tell a long and rhythmic saga over decades. But I don't think you lose everything by starting at later points.
SBT

[Arkady]

Thanks both. That seems to give me an excuse to indulgently purchase Ro-Busters while also not delaying gratification and reading Kreeler now...

[IndigoPrime]

Exciting. Having read no Stront before (except or a few in recent progs) the completist in me is tempted to not read it until I've read the earlier volumes in the collection - I've acquired the Starlord stuff to read first.

At this point, you'd be fine. Kreeler Conspiracy was a soft-reboot that was subsequently broadly forgotten as Wagner dovetailed the 'new' and 'old' Stront effectively into one continuity. I don't think there's anything in there that would spoil enjoyment of earlier volumes. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

I don't think we're getting any Ro-Busters in the collection, and I'm considering whether to acquire the two trades before the first ABC warriors issue comes out - is this wise from a continuity perspective?

Ro-Busters is fun if inessential. The hardbacks are very nice collections, though.