2000 AD Online Forum

According to the Black Flame website there will be a Caballistics novel, Hell on Earth, already written by some writer called Mike Wild.

Has anyone any infos about this project?

Normally I am looking forward to the novels, even if continuity is shaky, so what if the novel is well written, and I enjoyed them more often than not, but this series is so much Rennies (and of course Reardons) child that in this case I am a bit sceptic if this will work :-) I mean, the story is in full swing just right now, this can?t be easy to put a novel into the cracks.

By the same guy who massacred the ABC Warriors after Pats great opener - not a good sign, but maybe this is more his thing than manic robots in weirdy world?

As far as I'm concerned, novels (of comics) don't count, just as novels of films don't count.  (Strangely, films of novels or comics are allowed to count.)

The fact that it's not even the current writer of the strip just sinks it lower off my radar.

From Amazon:

Nice to see they've stuck with Dom Reardon's artwork :-(

Not. Interested.

I think hell's going to have to freeze over first, because there's no way on earth I'm buying that book.  (hee, hee)

Grant --

What, not even after you've read the synopsis?

"Show me your sins" are the last words heard by the town of Boswell before it is incinerated by a powerful force in 1944. Old news until the biblical being, buried by the wartime Q Department, is awoken by Helen Earth's apocalypse cult. Facing explosive leylines, the reanimated dead, troglodytes and a fallen angel intent on bringing about Judgement Day, it's a busy day at the office for Caballistics, Inc.

Helen. Earth.

Perhaps her evil associate goes by the name of Bea Zelbub?

I really don't get it.

Joss Whedon had the right idea with Serenity - appeal to both the fans and newcomers.  After all, it's the fans that bloody well liked it in the first place.  Why set out to distance yourself from them, as this so obviously has?

Black Flame committee meeting:

"Well, the first thing we have to do is distance ourselves from all those bloody fans that already exist for this material."

"Agreed.  Their preconceptions (and their money) must not get in the way of our market dynamic."

"What about the fucktards that created this story in the first place - should we hunt them down and kill them?"

"No - too harsh - just lock them out of the creative process - after all, what do they know about telling a good story?"

"Sod all, my corporate lackey friend, sod effing all!"

"Churn out another one, Farquar!"

Hmm.  If they'd released a Grennie Cabs novel I'd buy it like a shot, no question; as it is, I'm less likely to pick this up than some random novel.  The author may well be perfectly good, but somehow non-Grennie Cabs just doesn't seem right, moreso than most other strips.

Funny thing is, on paper the (very brief) synopsis doesn't sound too far removed from something that could crop up in the strip: fallen angels, subterranean beasties, leylines.  Y'know, except for the Helen Earth bit.

Speaking of, a friend of mine swears he had a teacher called Helen Highwater.  But there you go.

"It's a horrible name, Helen.  It sounds like the sort of name you'd give to someone who'd been to Hell and back.  Luckily, my surname's not Beck.  That would be awful, wouldn't it?  Helen Beck.  My surname is Mucus."

Man, I watched The Young Ones far too much when I was in high school to remember that.

Perhaps the evil associate is named Lou Siffer.  That's original too.  Really.

Watched Angel Heart recently, Grant?

;-)

No... never seen it...

*imdbs Angel Heart*

Oh, my God.  *facepalm*

This was not a comedy?

Heh, no.

It's actually an OK little period horror movie, but de Niro is outrageously hammy, and the signposting of his character's real identity couldn't have been any more obvious even if they'd actually stuck a signpost marked "I AM THE DEVIL" in his head... :-)

"Helen Earth"

Amstor, you made that up, right?

(And glad I'm not the only one that immediately thinks of Helen Mucus when I see the name Helen.)

Nope, taken straight from the Amazon synopsis, sadly.

"Helen Earth"?

Even I shudder, and english is not my language :-)

Will the Cabs team get a new member, mysterious Agent H.Eaven? :-))

Still waiting for the Grennie response.

Have to say, Cabs never really took me on, in the weekly.  But I took a chance and bought the new TPB and I'm in.  I finally get what's going on, my own damn fault for not paying attention.

could be good.  There's a lot of mileage in the story.

so i take it that gordon  does not have the same influence as PAT on the their my characters debate then.
not going to bother with this though.

Different company, different debate.

Personally, I won't be touching this book with a 10 foot turd. It smacks of badness on *so* many levels. But the most important question regarding this book is...


Does Mike Wild have a Street Team?

Why would you be holding a ten foot turd?

Not enough fibre.

DD - Not at all - Pat doesn't have that influence over Black Flame either... hence the ABC Warriors 2nd book being written by ... not Mike Wild, was it??