2000 AD Online Forum

Am I the first to bag the new issue thread? Wasn't expecting to see this one in the shops yet.
Stront and Stickleback continue to do the biz with a nice Dredd tale by Grant and Roach. Would be nice to have a little less exposition in Shakara - though the art is fab. Kingdom's okay, though I feel this episode could have easily been squeezed into the last.

- huey

shurrup this ain't in the shops yet... you're just lying to begin the new prog thread yourself!

Stop your mad lies!

Twas in Mega City Comics ( Camden) and Forbidden Planet London today.

As I said I was suprised to see it there. Editorial even starts off with "...and I trust you had a suitably zarjaz festive break...".

- H

BLOODY HELL - someone's buggered up badly then

Madness!  Must schedule shop run tomorrow...!

I picked up 1567 yesterday lunchtime- it's all true.

well it wasn't in my town - where are you Mr Diaz?

Yeah I got it too

funny to see a certain Dredd character appear again

also major dante news in the nerve centre and a forth book of savage with a new artist

Jings, I'll pop down to FP in Edinbra on my T-break and check there too...

Leeds

Not in the Edinbra FP Friday 3.40

Huffspy

'Eecky thump, it's Christmas come early.

It's in Dublin's Sub-City.  Yum-yum.  Oh, hang on, I have to wait how long for the next one now? Shite,

How about a cover spoiler?




V

so much for the 'this special prog will have to last you until after the Christmas holdays' stuff.  Just as well - I've gobbled up my Prog 2008 and megazine already

How about a cover spoiler?

I think the picture on the last inside page of the Christmas Issue was the cover for the next issue. You know, the one with Johnny Alpha with the big gun and the flying machine above...

At least that was the impression I got.

My sub copy arrived today.

The new logo's still there, although it seems utterly pointless, as so much of the text is covered up by Alpha's gun.

"000AD TH Y's GRE OMIC"

What's the point?

I never really understood this dislike of covering the logo with art. I mean, you'd rather the art be covered by Logo? That's silly.

At least with the double redundancy of 2000AD 2000AD you can over one without necessarily covering the other.

Well, SFX have pretty much done it since issue 1, as (even on a subconcious level) everyone knows, S*X sells.

I'd rather the art didn't cover the logo, which means either:
a) there is one area for art, and one for logo, or
b) the artist, knowing full well that the artwork will be used for a cover, leaves (I forget the technical term) blank space in their artwork, for where the logo will appear.
I'm sure that's what they used to do, in the days of:

The difference there is that the 2000AD bit is big enough to withstand some of it being obscured, but the tagline isn't.

Maybe they should just have it as a separate strapline, out of the way of the art - or ditch it.

- Steve

Yeah, I got this in the post today, and was pleasantly surprised. Is this a shipping mistake or something?

Got my sub copy this morning.

Nice Cliff Robinson cover and a returning Alan Grant character in Dredd. Not saying witch one though.

Haven't got any further as yet.

mine arrived this morning and my dog sunk its teeth straight through it, I now have a braille copy of Prog 1567

Your dog is obviously a mutie hater, lol.

What a great prog. Think I'm still on a thrill-power high, cause I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Grant Dredd this much...

Bolt-01

Mine arrived this Morning. I thought briefly of leaving it to the new year before reading, but only briefly.

I liked the one off Dredd story too. Interesting ladies clubs they have in the Megacity.

Stickleback, is quite interesting. Too. Particulary the end part...
Buffalo Bill did come to Engladn during victorian times. Check out From Hell. Sure it's fiction, but that section was taken from fact.  I like fantasy and horror that merges with real life settings.

The rest, a bit predictable, but not bad. Still early days yet. Interesting original aliens in Shakara.

I'm not referring to the indigenous inhabitents of the planet which are, after all, just giant frogs (not that that's a bad idea.) but those strange eyeball aliens. Weeeeiiirrrrrd.

mine arrived today but I am refusing to read it till after chrimbo day.




V

Good to see the last trace of the 800s design vanish - the next prog captions having been a hold over that survived a huge load of redesigns. At least I think this is a new development...

My first thought was 'urgh, that logo is for real!'.  I'd thought that it was an ugly once-off for the 2008 prog.  It isn't, and it seems like we're stuck with the cute, fan-shaped logo jammed next to something that looks like an unsuccessful bid for a new logo in the 90s sometime.
 I didn't really care much about earlier logo-related discussions, but it seems a shame to stuff up something that's quite cute that way.

Oh well, won't make me boycott the comics or anything.

other than that, als in ordnung

cover: pretty good. I like the way it covers part of the awful looking logo
Dredd - bit of fun, nice art, nothing special
Shakhara - completely predictible, yet I really felt for those frogs! Must be the art.

Kingdom; glourious art, interesting stuff

Stickleback; well done, a bit sub-Moore,

strontium Dog: Frabjous art, a somewhat subdued story this week

Hmmm, I liked the balls up in timing. Great big luvverly prog 2008, a two week break, new prog, two week break, regular progs. I think I'd prefer it if Tharg followed this model every year!

My thoughts:

Dredd - Nice art, rubbish story (I can't even remember the character from before.) I think Dredd has been so consistantly brilliant for so long now that throwaway strips are just getting in the way. Dredd's attitude to mutants felt a bit off too, considering current events.

Shakara - Nuts but beautiful.

Kingdom - Readable and intruiging. I like it but can't see why people are raving about this strip.

Stickleback - Joint prog highlight. What a horrible character he is!

Stront - The other highlight of the prog. Wagner expertly juggles drama with humour. For dramatic effect I'd have liked Billy to have stayed dead beyonf the last panel. Now that would have been a cliffhanger (excuse the pun.)

good call on the Stront cliffhanger, though my disappointment after 2 weeks of celebrating might ahve been too much to bear!

Dredd's attitude to mutants felt a bit off too, considering current events.

Not really, I don't think he said anything negative concerning mutants in general, only that there were reports that a mutant was causing trouble... and its his job to prevent trouble from perps whoever/whatever they are.

Course, it wasn't a mutant, but that was the info. he was given, and it's an easy assumption to make. That or an alien anyway.

I liked the remote control broomstick.

Dredd's attitude to mutants felt a bit off too, considering current events.

Poor Joe, that whispering campaign is really gathering strength!  Dredd hasn't gone "soft" on mutants - he's just realised that there are decent mutants (Novar, Moze and Henry, the Fargos), and lawbreaking mutants, and that the Law needs to distinguish between them on that basis, rather than their 'genetic status'.  Rampaging mutant beasts are a clear-cut case.

Re: My Mutant comment - I dunno, it might have been a nice if Dredd could have made a comment along the lines of "A rampaging mutant, that's all I need!" or some such. Would have tied a weak story into the continuity.

Try as I might, I can't like Alan's modern take on Dredd.  The babelicious Roach art was nice, the story was okay-ish, but as usual, Dredd was just wrong for me.

I  loved everything else, but with four of my all-time favourite 2000AD strips running alongside the Dredd, that's no surprise.  

Try as I might, I can't like Alan's modern take on Dredd.

Agree. It seems like, when he does write it, he's doing anything he can to avoid writing about Dredd: inventing pointless recurring characters and so forth.

On the bright side, mister Roach does draw exceedingly nice ladies.

I liked the ladies, too.

It was a strong prog overall, with a decent Dredd and excellent second parts of the other four.

Kingdom's bloody good, and Stickleback's my highlight.

I'm not bothered about the logo.

- Trout

Agree. It seems like, when he does write it, he's doing anything he can to avoid writing about Dredd: inventing pointless recurring characters and so forth.

Perhaps out of consideration for Wagner? If he's only going to write a one-off for the strip every now and then, why not create a character like Toots who is essentially your own and whose adventures won't really impact upon the current "arc", or need to refer to it? Edginton has done the same with his time-traveller, as has Si Spurrier with Domino.

Oh, and the new logo reeks. The way it's used now it essentially hacks off the top of the page, duplicates the comic title & looks damn ugly. It just seems that finding a decent new design & identity for the comic is proving much harder than for the graphic novels.

My Huffthoughts:

Dredd - what a come down after last progs vote-a-thon, I'm just wanting to see how the mutie thing pans out, this felt like a bit of a filler to be honest, sorry AG.

Shakara - Big frogs with shiney eyes, mental roboty things, great art work this is what 2000ad's about.


Kingdom - fine


Stickleback - Prog highlight. Bill Cody did indeed come to Britain, the stories of him and his native pals in Glasgow are a hoot!


Stront - How great is that artwork now CE has mastered the colouring?

Hate the new logo a waste of the top half of the page, what does it DO? does it help recognition? nope help if the comics are stacked behind one another? nope. what does it DO?

Huffski