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yet another rather uninspiring story nicely drawn by that guy who used to do Sonic the Comic...

Saying that, I enjoyed The Scrap a bit more. A lot more in fact. But thats not saying a lot.

it should have been longer

er yeah i did.

I enjoyed it, but I'm going to have to re-read it in one sitting to see if it was actually any good.

Think it could have done with a longer run though.

Bolt-01

Oh....

maybe it just didnt work for me... even though the story was probably more interesting than that of Chopper, it still didnt have the right appeal.

I liked the chopper story a lot, and the artowrk was nice. Shows how simple crap can entice such impressionable minds as mine.

oh and welcom to the board,

you belong to us
you will be like us

Quite.

Chimpanzor, eh? A fine name.

What are your thoughts on millinery?

Ishmael certainly ennoyed A.H.A.B. - she pissed him right off!

M@

I thought it was okay.  2000ad's printed some right chuff over the years, but this was nowhere near being the worst of it.
My only real issue would have been the pacing.  A few more episodes and a more fleshed-out cast would have helped it immensely, but it was a decent enough strip.

First 4 episodes - yes.  

Next 5 episodes - not so much.

I think that the problem was the 2-handed nature of the plot.  Was it a story with a great villain as the centre - "Watch in appalled fascination as A.H.A.B. unleashes the virus and takes command!"? Or was it the story of plucky Jane Ishmael and her mystical sidekick Tashtego, in their attempts to defeat the monster's obsessional crusade?  As it was, I finished up not caring too much about either of them.

Oh God, sorry, but I can't keep Melville out of this.  In Moby Dick we learn sod-all about Ishmael: he's the classic accidental narrator, who just pretty much wanders into what turns out to be the wrong boat.  We don't even know his name by the end of the book.  This allows for the focus to remain on two things: bastard captain, horrendous trade of whaling.  A.H.A.B., however, seemed to be told from the point of view of Starbuck or one of the other lieutenants: someone right in the thick of things, whose decisions change the course of events.  Because of this, it lacked the tragedy - the hubris, the inevitablity of fate - of its source material whilst not delivering another sort of story.

This isn't a monstering: I would definitely like to see something new from Nigel Kitching.  (And Richard Elson, but only if he changes his palette and thinks of other ways of drawing aliens.  Then again I've never been much of an Elson fan).  The build-up to the action was excellent, and the twisted complete-and-utter-sodliness of A.H.A.B. made him hero of the hour - which suggests that there's much darker and more enjoyable stuff Kitching could write, if he chooses to.

What did A.H.A.B. stand for again?

it was good
but seemed to be building characters  and back storys for later books.
which is a good thing.
i reckon a single one sitting read would offer greater pleasure.

I'll try it in one go. Having never read the actual story of Moby Dick and perhaps watching ten minutes of the film with the star trk guy in, I can't compare A.H.A.B to its classical origins but to put my thoughts down on it in one sentence, I'd have to say it was too short a story with too much crammed in, trying to make a "clever reincarnation" of a well known story. (And failing)

It didn't do it for me, but that isn't the same as saying it was Bison.  Elson's art is a little too sharp and clinical for my taste, yet I can see the quality.  As for the story, perhaps it could have done with a few more episodes - as it was I didn't really get excited by the characters or the concept.

Loved the artwork, thought the story was pants. I'm not a big fan off old stories given a sci-fi twist, I just think there's a certain amount of oooh, that's interesting how they've made that character modern i.e. now they are a woman. Then the rest is just the same, where is the originality, it's just a rehash - and boring, I don't care about any of the plot, goodies or baddies or anything else...

an annoyingly poor interpritaion of moby dick art was good but it sucked a very ill and dirty donkeys c*ck.

and the donkey wanted his money back

Didn't like it. I'm not a fan of Richard Elson's art, and generally speaking I'm not into the whole outer space thingy in comics - I prefer more familiar settings for 2000ad stories (Zenith and Button Man are the obvious ones, but there's a lot that goes on in Dredd that reflects the important issues of today. And Halo Jones.) The exception is early Nemesis, which was so twistedly imaginative I had to like it. Slaine was about the only out-and-out sword and sorcery strip I liked, at least before it collapsed into the dull formula of a) invasion, b) battle and c) victory.

 I liked it, but I think the point about focussing on AHAB was spot on, since the demise of Torquemada the comics lacked a really good villain to  focus on (Judge Death veers about too much in tone) and we almost got one here.
 Would defiently be interested in seeing more from the same writer though, maybe the artist could do something alien free for a bit.

"Think it could have done with a longer run though."

No, it could have done with a much shorter run. One episode ideally, about the length of Droid Life.

loved it.best villian in 2000ad for years,im a big fan of elson art,the story did seem as if it was wrapped up a bit too soon at the end,looking forward to the second (hopefully)series
david

yep! i enjoyed it too.Especially the artwork,which imho is abolutely fantastic,put Richard Elson back on Dredd for a spell.Excellent.
Rob.

I think to dwell too much on comparing it to Moby Dick misses the point somewhat. In some posts he made on 2000adreview.co.uk and the interview with him there, Nigel Kitching explained that not only has he never read the original book, but that he was never intending to transplant it directly, or even to any great extent, into a sci-fi setting.

I enjoyed it start to finish, although I have to agree it petered out somewhat. But it made me forget the previous space saga bullshit of Valkyries.

i thought it was dull, and gave up after part 3

Nigel Kitching explained that not only has he never read the original book, but that he was never intending to transplant it directly, or even to any great extent, into a sci-fi setting.

Naming half the charcaters after those in the book and sticking a bloody great whale in it may have been a bir of a mis-step then...

I have to admit I didn't read all of Valkyries. I did look at some of the pictures though....

Richard Elson was my favorite artist for two years of my life as a young youth. I have never met him, but i won't hear a bad word said about him...

Okay, I'll try and be constructive about this, as Nigel has been about on the board.  I also gave up after so many episodes.  Just as I did Low-life (which is just a bad Cop B-Movie in mega city, if you like gung-ho movie gun action bollocks, then I bet it's great).  

I've found my tolerance for stuff I'm not interested in has really dissapeared.  I don't read Sin Dex, I don't read anything by Author X, and will give Author Y the first few episodes only the benefit of my doubt for the first few issues.

I'm not saying AHAB was bad, but it would have been much better if it had lost much of the overt Moby Dick trappings.  Whether it's true or not, it looks like someone has problem coming up with ideas so lets do a half arsed moby dick story. So basically, for me any Moby Dick references should have been really toned down, A.H.A.B. was very annoying, chuck all of Merv's names names, get rid of the spacewhales.

If it had jettisoned all the overt trappings, and just told a more dramatic tale, with less smart buffy-esque chatter like 'Sure I'm afraid, you're a ten foot tall killing machine' which killed any tension for me stone dead.  The dialogue could have been cut for more atmosphere I reckon.  It was more soap opera than space opera.

The basic story of this crew coming across this guy who has preserved himself in an alien body suit at the expense of his crew, and then goes on a power crazed takeover as he is gripped by his obsession should have been much more exciting.  If they'd then gone off to chase some mysterious ship instead of space whales, again there would have been some genuine mystery for me.  Maybe I just have a problem with space whales.

I wouldn't object to seeing another NK strip (not that it matters to anyone but me whether I would or not), but next time I'll only give the strip half the amount of chance I gave this one.  As I say, that's just me, if you made the strip to suit me, no bugger else would probably like it.

I didn't hate it, didn't dislike it really, it just didn't stir my juices.  That wasn't that positive I know, but those were the elements that had me turning off.

Not really...art was nice though.
Story was abit uninspired.

SO in conclusion.. try harder next time guys.

Just as I did Low-life (which is just a bad Cop B-Movie in mega city, if you like gung-ho movie gun action bollocks, then I bet it's great).

phew... it wasn't just me then? i really didn't like low-life - and that (contentious point ahead) includes the art

as far as AHAB goes, after reading it in one go i feel that the 2nd half was too rushed and i lost sympathy/empathy with the characters. i think it suffered from trying to do too much in too little space... but AHAB himself was a bad mo-fo and very very unlikable (in a good way) - he so could have been (as someone else has pointed out) the next torquemada

thinky