2000 AD Online Forum

A few new trade covers/placeholders, which I don't think have been posted yet:





and from Black Flame:
Fiends of the Eastern Front

Cab Inc: Better The Devil

That Slaine pic is fuckin stunning!
Thanks to the superb repro in the hard-backs ive *really* warmed to Langley's style.

Cant wait!

Helen Earth was the villain in Hell on Earth, what could the villain be called in Better the Devil. Best punning title wins a shitty prize.

Betty the Devil?

Nyeeeaah!

Cobblers!

What's Storming Heaven and why does it look so awesome?

Storming Heaven was a Gordon Rennie/Fraze Irving story about acid tripping superheroes fighting against Charles Manson in 1969 San Francisco with the trippiest, most colourful artwork that Irvings done.  Cool huh?

Well, not really.. beautiful art and premise, but it was 'compressed to death' - told in 8 parts or something when it should have had about 20.  But here it seems to be grouped with A Love Like Blood, From Grace and some future shocks maybe?  Looks to be a promising collection.

To be fair to Gordon the scripts were hampered by outside editorial dictates that meant he had a strict page count to hit. It was detrimental to the story telling, it didn't bear fruit, and it's probably a mild regret for those involved.

It's still a great story with stunning art and had much potential.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked what I saw, I just wanted way more of it.  I remember quite a few stories were hit by the '46 page rule'.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were harsh on it. What we got was better than it could have been but not as good as it could have been.

As for the collection, I've heard the title 'A Love like Stroming Grace' bandied around and whilst it's silly it's still what I'll be thinking of it as.

Next artist specific collection? Howabout some of Carlos' shorter Dredd work? His epics are, rightly, lauded and available but his work on things like 'Fartz' and 'The Girlfriend' are minor masterpieces.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were harsh on it. What we got was better than it could have been but not as good as it could have been.

As for the collection, I've heard the title 'A Love like Stroming Grace' bandied around and whilst it's silly it's still what I'll be thinking of it as.

Next artist specific collection? Howabout some of Carlos' shorter Dredd work? His epics are, rightly, lauded and available but his work on things like 'Fartz' and 'The Girlfriend' are minor masterpieces.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were harsh on it. What we got was better than it could have been but not as good as it could have been.

As for the collection, I've heard the title 'A Love like Stroming Grace' bandied around and whilst it's silly it's still what I'll be thinking of it as.

Next artist specific collection? Howabout some of Carlos' shorter Dredd work? His epics are, rightly, lauded and available but his work on things like 'Fartz' and 'The Girlfriend' are minor masterpieces.

I seem to remember Matt and/or Jon saying at Bristol that there was going to be an Ezquerra/Dredd collection after the Irving one.

I really liked the concept of Storming Heaven and was blown away by the art (including some superb colouring).

I like the title Amazon have: Storming Heaven: The Frazer Irving Collection - ooooo.

oooh Storming Heaven is one of my favorite Limiteds they've done, certainly could've done with a longer run though.  see also From Grace and A Love Like Blood. All in the one book, I must have.

CU Radbacker

Thumbing through the Irving profile page on the site... Based on the creator credits, I'd think we'd see,

Storming Heaven (46pgs)
A Love Like Blood (36pgs)
From Grace (30pgs)
Reefer Madness (5pgs)
Monsters of Rock (5pgs)
Mars Needs Mates (5pgs)

Which comes out to 127 pages.

What confuses me is, why is Reardon's name on the cover? How does he fit in?

Yeah - "compressed to death" is what I'd go with.

The idea of superheroes as counterculture icons is a great one - Taking the emerging superstars of the day and the politics and fueds of the 60s supergroups and transferring that into an acid hued comic strip just works - except when you try and fit it into 46 pages and condense it into a very basic character-lite "Manson kills the 60s dream" piece.

I still have dreams of a Storming Heaven givent he time to work, with the peace and love generation fighting the Man, Manson style uber freaks and just as importantly, themselves, as the facade of brotherhood is revealed to be pretty fragile.  And with David Crosby (in his cape, naturally) being thrown out of the American League of Byrds by McGuinn - I can see the cover in Glorious Frazervision as I type!

I seem to remember Matt and/or Jon saying at Bristol that there was going to be an Ezquerra/Dredd collection after the Irving one.

What might be in said collection? If it is Judge Dredd focused spessificly?

Is Al's Baby too far removed to have the whole thing put under a "Judge Dredd" branding? Or would that make a better TP of it's very own?

Al's Baby would make the best TP ever, regardless of the spine color!  =)

Seriously, the little framing pages in the Mega-City One classroom in the first book were the only connection to Judge Dredd.  It was planned for another comic (Toxic?) and brought to the Megazine when it was rejected.

Yup, Toxic.

spine colour
why, Baby Blue, of course!

From Grace made my pants tighter, great stuff.

OK, so does this look about right for 2007 thus far?  Compiled from Amazon and Forbidden Planet.

----------------
January
STORMING HEAVEN: THE FRAZER IRVING COLLECTION
144 pages (paperback) | £12.99

CABALLISTICS, INC.: CREEPSHOW
144 pages (paperback) | £11.99

Reprint:
THE COMPLETE BALLAD OF HALO JONES
BUTTON MAN: THE KILLING GAME
ROGUE TROOPER: FORT NEURO

February
JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE CASE FILES 07
384 pages (paperback) | £13.99

ROGUE TROOPER: REALPOLITIK
144 pages (paperback) | £11.99

Reprint:
BAD COMPANY

March
JUDGE DREDD: ORIGINS
160 pages (paperback) | £12.99

NIKOLAI DANTE: TSAR WARS: VOLUME 2
128 pages (paperback) | £11.99

SLAINE: THE BOOKS OF INVASIONS: VOLUME 2
112 pages (hardback) | £13.99
----------------

If I'm not completely wrong, that sounds rather nice.

Did Tsar Wars Vol. 1 ever come out?

Realpolitik is already out, though it's still unavailable on the net, so that'll be another book for Feb.
Tsar Wars v.1 out at the end of this week, according to Jon.

Clarify...

Realpolitik is already out, though it's still unavailable on the net, so there'll be a different book for Feb.
Tsar Wars v.1 out at the end of this week, according to Jon.

I'm guessing that Books of Invasions should be vloume 3 as Jon also said the remastered version of vol 2 was just about to hit the shops.

Its Caballistics and Dante for me, and the Button Man paperback.

Are the reprint editions redesigned to fit with the new Rebellion books?  Care to comment, Jon?

Yes, the reprints (paperback that is) fit in with the new designs, matt covers and all.

Will the reprints be solicited through Diamond? Because I know you didn't for Durham Red: The Vermin Stars. So now it's not possible to find in in the US. I really really really want updated tradedress editions for Halo Jones, Bad Company, and Fort Neuro.

Oh and Button Man, I really really want that too. I fear the same problem I'm having with Vermin Stars as it too is a reprint.

I was actualley hoping that the Second volume of the 'Slaine, Book of Invasions' is supposed to be available right now.

Reprinted and rebound since it was recalled over a few months ago.

I also seem to recall Jon mentioning that a TPB of the original VCs was in the pipeline for next year. Obviously, I've no idea where it fits into the calendar, but it allows more room for rampant speculations.

Said this before but I would love to see a collection of all the simp stories as a trade paperback or EE. Sure there are enough stories between the prog and the Meg.

Any reason why some of the recent trade paperback releases are in the shops but not available from on-line retailers yet?

Tsar Wars vol1 is out, as is Hunting Party (mine arrived today)

"I also seem to recall Jon mentioning that a TPB of the original VCs was in the pipeline for next year."

A great big slab of Leach/Kennedy goodness? I'm liking the sound of that ... Oh, yes!

(And, yes, I'll want the series through to its conclusion, even with the substandard (Jon?) Richardson artwork [1])

Cheers!

Jim

[1] No disrespect to the Richardson droid who -- I thought -- did some fine work on the early Mean Team stories ...

Cheers!

Jim

"on the early Mean Team stories"

That would be Mean Arena stories, obviously.

Curse my drunken fingers!

Cheers

Jim

'Tsar Wars vol1 is out'

Really? Where did you order it from?

Link: FP

Tsar wars 1 is available, as I've got one.

However, why is Steve Yeowell on the cover credits Jon? He didn't do any of the strip work inside?

Bolt-01

Yes, apologies for this. This is a hang-over from when it was all going to be one volume and I should really have spotted it.

No biggie. It is a storming collection, and I had to wait till Dan had read it to get my hands on it.

The cover gallery is a treat.

Bolt-01

I've flicked through page after page, a few times now, trying to find the Yeowell art- I thought I was going mad, or blind, or both.
;-)
FP have a cover image on their site for the second collection. A (recent?) Simon Davis cover. Is this a placeholder or the final cover?

However, why is Steve Yeowell on the cover credits Jon? He didn't do any of the strip work inside?

Heh... I noticed that too... I wonder if Steve still gets a free copy!?

Is "One Last Night in the House of Sin" in volume 1 or is that going to be in volume 2 as well as the Yeowell stories?

No, volume 1 ends with Battleship Potemkin. I bought it on Friday and I've read it twice so far. The end of Love and War affected me a lot more than Potemkin. I can't wait six months for the rest of this story...

As far as Dredd GNS go, I'd like to see The Pit reprinted, as its now become impossible to find.  I want to read it..

As far as Dredd GNS go, I'd like to see The Pit reprinted, as its now become impossible to find. I want to read it..
It comes up on E-bay a fair bit, although that guy's having a laugh if he think's he'll get £95. I got one for a fiver last year.

Pit for Sale

Of course, it'd be nice to get it in the same format as the others.

During my 2000AD wilderness years I used to flick through it in Smiths and I have vague memories of Dredd and Anderson being kidnapped and put on trial by the Sovs in the Vatican (I think.) What was this story and has it been reprinted anywhere/should it be?

That was Doomsday, around prog 1150, and it was reprinted by Hamlyn in two volumes.

'Doomsday for Dredd', and 'Doomsday for Mega City One' (Both published by Hamlyn). Though to appreciate the full story, you have to read 'Blind Justice', 'The Pit', then 'The Scorpion Dance' (In that order), although it should be noted that these collected editions miss out several important prologue and epilogue stories (Bad Frendz, Worst of Frendz,Gun Play, The Cal Legacy)- annoying for a continuity nerd like me.

I've seen all of these go for very cheap on Ebay recently.

They're working through Dredd in order aren't they? I can't keep up with 6 volumes ina bout 5 months!

"...that guy's having a laugh if he think's he'll get £95. I got one for a fiver last year"

The fact that there's another copy listed for £1.99 makes it highly unlikely.