Just wondered if any pressure was being brought to bear for a collected edition of Mr Bishop's Thrill Power Overload features? I srill think it's a top idea ...
Ooh-arr.
[Translates as "I agree wholeheartedly".]
I want to read them just to see what all the fuss is about...
I think it would be a fantastic release, but knowing my luck, it'll come out in half-a-dozen Euro-sized hardback editions at ?10 a pop...
;-)
Well, it would seem like a good idea to me!
I would have thought sales of something like this would be as high as many GN's. I'd definitely want a lot more material in if possible, covering many of the people not interviewed before, from GFD to Burt and McKenzie.
If you want a collected TPO, the best thing to do is email Rebellion direct and politely suggest it. The more vocal support there is for such a project, the faster it'll happen.
I recently gave Jason Kingsley a gentle reminder nudge about this - he still seems enthusiastic, but the DC book deal seemed to swallow all available oxygen last year. The looming 30th anniversary (Grud help us) might yet make this happen...
PVS, I wouldn't hold your breath for input from Burt or McKenzie, but there were some quotes from GFD in TPO the first time round. Alas, I didn't get to interview him until the articles were already running, so his memories about the early days are still waiting for the collected, revised edition of TPO to see print.
There's quite a bit of material like that which came to me too late for inclusion at the time, but still awaits its chance - not to mention three years of publishing since the silver jubilee prog in 2002...
davidbishop
Yeah, I appreciate it would be unlikely for Burt and McKenzie to have much input, but you'd almost hope enough time would have passed, that they felt they could at least say something now about it all. Oh well.
I'd look forward to the GFD material. Of course!
30 years... deary me... well, I suppose that would be a good point to launch something like this for maximum publicity, both for the comic and the book.
Anyway, Cheers for the response.
Where exactly should we send these emails to then? Who's the peron who'd deal with this?
Eva, maybe?
I'd back this. Give us some contacts then! Unless you don't want to be seen as too needy, then someone else supply us with info!
Try sending emails to marketing@2000adonline.com - that's a fairly direct conduit to the powers that be...
davidbishop
I have no idea who Burt and McKenzie are (although I could understand any worker who's moved on not wanting to take part anymore).
Can anyone enlighten me?
(I take it Burt was the human embodiment of Burt, Tharg's much-maligned android assistant: but was he an editor?)
Maybe I should re-read TPO. Which would be easy if it was re-printed in GN format...I feel an email coming on.
Steve McManus edited 2000AD throughout it's golden years, until about prog 500 when it went over to Richard Burton, and then eventually to Alan McKenzie.
Oh right - so one of those people must be partially responsible for "the slump"?
That might explain why they don't want to talk about it...
Q: "Hi, you edited the UKs one and only premiere sci-fi anthology through the period known to long-term readers as the opposite of shinola...would you like to comment?"
A: "Oh, just leave me alone for the love of Grud!"
Wellllll, allowing just a hint of gossip into this...
There was an odd incident about five years ago where Alan McKenzie, who edited 2000 AD during the mid-1990s, or, as many fans call them, "the shit years," came to alt.comics.2000ad to reminisce a little. He was pretty well savaged for allowing the comic's quality to deteriorate and sales to plummet under his watch.
His reply was pretty much "It's just a comic!"
Which is not exactly the response one would like to have from someone who was once Tharg.
The thing is, he made a few valid points about the general decline of the comic. One of them, as recounted later in David Bishop's TPO, was that Fleetway (I think?) changed distributors to the same company who nearly killed Doctor Who Magazine about four years previously, and 2000 AD's sales dropped by a quarter in one week.
Other people, however, countered that when a given prog might contain a Millar Dredd, Mother Earth, a Millar Terror Tale, Soul Gun Warrior and Friday, sales might not ever recover.
A lot of it just comes down to the enthusiasm 2000 AD's creators have for the comic itself. Pat Mills, John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, to take three examples, seem to genuinely like 2000 AD, and their enthusiasm is evident both in their work and when they talk about it. Alan McKenzie viewed 2000 AD as just a job, and when you've bought your comic, the transaction is concluded. He had no feeling or interest in 2000 AD's history and legacy, and none in its future, and that's the main reason, I expect, he has nothing to say about it. If someone wanted to interview me about the six months I spent recording for the blind, I doubt I'd have a lot to say either.
--Grant