2000 AD Online Forum

Will we ever see 2000ad/ Judeg Dredd annuals again?

I'd buy them as a separate item although the yearly progs 2006 etc may be seen as a replacement for them.

"Will we ever see 2000ad/ Judeg Dredd annuals again?"

The Christmas/New Year progs are the replacement for the annuals.

You might ask what the problem with the annuals (and subsequently, the 'yearbooks') was ...

I can do no better than cite the words of Andy Diggle: "No-one bought them."

Cheers!

Jim

I did! (well, Santa did for me.)

And those few who did buy them ended up lumbered with crappy reprint and strips that couldn't be shoe-horned in anywhere else. The last few annuals were dreadful.

Annuals are great for reading on the bog, though. :)

They made a nice stocking filler, although one of the highlights of my year is curling up in bed on a cold winter day with the bumper xmas prog, so I prefer that really.

"The last few annuals were dreadful"

Apart from the 91' Dredd annual with the big Strontium Dog tale. That was the last decent one.

I wish they'd bring back the annuals. They were great!

My other half has an old eighties 2000AD annual where Tharg shows "an exemplary display of photon surfing" which is probably my favourite line in a comic ever.

Annuals should definately be brought back, at least once a year

Gotta admit, I do miss 'em. More the Annuals than the Yearbooks (for reasons previously stated by others) and even though the prog 2000 etc. really are superb i miss the hardbacks none-the-less.
Bring 'em back gets my vote. Hey - an idea for a new poll perhaps?
Cheers,
Rob.

I loved the old annuals, to the extent a hardback, annual-style printing of a book like Kingdom of the Wicked makes the experience even better for me.

- Trout

I was in smiths over the weekend with the kids and they made a bee-line for the annuals when they saw them. Couldn't Rebellion liscence 'pedigree' to do an annual for them? New Dredd with a family rating- bit of reprint from the previous year. I'd love it.

Bolt-01

The Americans have the right idea - the annual is basically an oversized edition of the regular comic that can be read in one go without having to read the other issues of the book.  Basically what the oversized end of year progs are at the minute (except all stories would be self-contained, rather than beginning longer stories that you wouldn't see the second part of for about three weeks).

British annuals were usually 30-40 percent filler and reprints, but with a 6 quid price-tag and a card cover, which was why I stopped buying them in the first place - not because I didn't want to read them.  They just weren't worth the cash.  A rethink of how they're put together - rather than a dismissal of them altogether just because someone couldn't come up with a marketable alternative - was what was needed.

I used to love the annuals back in the day, because it was usually a good excuse to sift through some reprints I hadn't read before, plus the usual load of hastily assembled features and whatnot that filled a bit of time on Christmas morning, plus they only cost about three or four quid (or rather, cost your parents, since they were doing the buying).

Course, thing is the market for the annuals bottomed out in the late 80's, and you went for a situation where almost every genre book had an annual to there only being about three (Dandy, Beano and Rupert the Bear). There are a few more now, but it's not a growing market - basically, it's only licensed titles that do well, for a generally pretty young audience, and 2000AD/Dredd don't have that kind of pull or recognition with those readers. Plus, with the extensive reprinting of the back catalogue in the form of EE's and tpb collections, Rebellion would only be duplicating that market for fewer sales.

I liked the annuals when I was too young to realise that they were filled with reprints and junk, but probably wouldn't buy a similar product now.

I think the bumper yearly Progs are a fantastic way of keeping the "special" experience of the annual, while filling it with worthwhile content.

"A rethink of how they're put together - rather than a dismissal of them altogether just because someone couldn't come up with a marketable alternative - was what was needed."

Well, they did have a go, when they changed the annuals into 'Yearbooks' and gave them soft covers.

No-one bought them, either ...

Cheers!

Jim

It is true that the big progs 2005/2006 etc are the modern replacement but surely that only really replaces the normal ones for that part of the year.
Surely we need another even bigger prog to keep us going over Christmas/New Year? :) I know I do!

The Yearbooks really were fucking dogs, weren't they? Joyless, souless excercises in "Fuck! We don't know what to do instead of an annual, so lets just bung this old shite together!" Say what you like about the annuals, but they were miles better than that.

I mean, there's always be the odd one or two interesting strips in the Yearbooks - a Cam Kennedy Dredd, a Big Dave, a Tyranny Rex or something. But the rest of it would be uniformly awful. And it was the 90's, so it looked like it too.

If I remember correctly, there was one where the red of Dredd's helmet appeared to be painted in Tipp-Ex on several occasions throughout the strip...?

Not so much bothered about the Annuals, but original GNs would be aces.

M@

Maybe the annuals should be aimed at a kids market, with us oldies using them to initiate a new generation of Squaxx, by buying them for our kids (then reading them in the shithouse, and complaining here what utter tosh they are). As Bolt says, kids make a beeline for them. They seem to be coming back 'in' again.

But kid freindly art in an annual would be misleading. If the language in Ten Seconders and Sin Dex and the nudity in Stone Island and the vioulence in Chiarascuro were read by the wrong people there'd be Daily Mail controversy.

Which may boost sales...

I've long thought that a Devlin Waughn controversy would do wonders for sales of the book, except withing five seconds of doing a google search (if Daily Mail journos even get that far), they'd twig it was all our doing to try and drum up some interest in our failing and increasingly-sidelined sci-fi comic.

KIDS' COMIC PUSHES HOMOSEXUALIST AGENDA ON ASBO YOUTH KNIFE-STABBING CARTHIEF YOB GANGS.
Local youth claims "That comic wiv queers made me stab me gran.  And Gran Feft Auto made me nick 'er purse and buy cider"

etcetera

"doing a google search (if Daily Mail journos even get that far)"

I don't think you've got any worries there...

Gotta say, though... one of my fave all time JD moments of all time, mate, came straight from an Annual.

'82's The Alien Zoo story (notable for being Bolland's only all-colour JD strip)- Our Hero 'cuffing the rampaging Wurlitz Wooflebeast to a flagpole... by its nose!

That's just so... so Dredd!

Hmmm...that's true. Without a 'Lawman of the Future' type comic to filter kids into, it could cause a problem.
Oh well! In that case- fuck 'em.
Give us some annuals with scuddy pics and people getting their faces caved in! Oh and lots of swearing!