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2000 AD => Suggestions => Topic started by: wrly_bird on 15 January, 2009, 01:14:04 PM

Title: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: wrly_bird on 15 January, 2009, 01:14:04 PM
Currently reading and enjoying The Best of Tharg's Future Shocks - any chance you guys will publish a Terror Tales equivalent...?
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 15 January, 2009, 01:18:57 PM
Make it so, Jon!

I find Terror Tales have a much better hit-rate, overall, than Future Shocks, if only by virtue of the fact that they haven't been around as long, so there's been much less dross. Couldn't we also get the entire Tales of Telguuth in one book? Some variable stories among them, but likewise a few gems, and some gorgeous artwork.

I was also a fan of Past Imperfect, but judging by their total lack of appearances in the past few years, no-one else was.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: wrly_bird on 15 January, 2009, 04:51:09 PM
The Complete Tales of Telguuth. Yes, please!
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Daveycandlish on 18 January, 2009, 08:07:32 AM
Telguuth book? I'd buy it. Cracking stuff!
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: SmallBlueThing on 18 January, 2009, 09:22:01 AM
Complete Telguuth? That'd be mine like a shot! And complete Vector 13- surely THE most underrated series in the comic's history? Some of them are actually, you know, scary.

Steev
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: ThryllSeekyr on 18 January, 2009, 10:13:52 AM
I notice there's a whole bunch of these different varieties of these short stories.

Listed on the old site.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: TordelBack on 18 January, 2009, 03:00:36 PM
Wasn't there just one Tale of Telguuth, drawn over and over again by each new artist?  There was a leader-type, and a magic deal that looked like it gave the leader exactly what he wanted, but in the end it backfired, usually involving demonic cackling and a big exclamation point?
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Grant Goggans on 18 January, 2009, 03:15:16 PM
Oh, I remember that one.  It was a great one!  I especially liked it when it was told over three weeks rather than one, because that never got old.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: TordelBack on 18 January, 2009, 06:51:05 PM
I suppose I did enjoy a few ToT, especially the very promising first one, but I wish it had made some attempt to build a coherent world, even tangentially, to the tune of one-or-two panels a week.  I know the idea was standalone stories from a world of supposedly infinite wonders, but it would still have been nice to put some shape on Telguuth itself.  An anal retentive writes.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: I, Cosh on 18 January, 2009, 09:24:00 PM
I would probably buy a collected Tales of Telguuth, but Tordelback's right about being basically variations on the same story every time. The scripts were always good with plenty of daft incidental details, it got some great artists to take a turn (although Jon Haward seemed to suit it best) and was allowed to run for long enough that the failure to at least connect up some of the stories into a coherent world makes it look like a bit of a failure.

Steve Moore seemed to be number 1 on Tharg's speeddial back then. What's he up to now?
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 18 January, 2009, 09:33:06 PM
Quote from: "The Cosh"Steve Moore seemed to be number 1 on Tharg's speeddial back then. What's he up to now?

I think he wrote "Killer" and Tharg kind of went off him ...

Cheers!

Jim
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: satchmo on 18 January, 2009, 09:42:57 PM
I hadn't read any Clark Ashton Smith then, and didn't really get where Telguuth was coming from. I appreciate it more these days and would probably but a collection myself. It really could have done with a more joined up approach but I wonder if that was an editorial decision.
Steve Moore is co-writing the Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic with Alan Moore, it looks class.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: TordelBack on 18 January, 2009, 10:10:28 PM
I always imagine Steve Moore as a kind of John the Baptist figure, introducing Alan No-Relation to the comics world, and then outliving his usefulness and having his head lopped off, so it's always a surprise when I see him writing something interesting.  Dave Gibbon's cartoon sorta-reversing this effect reprinted in his Watching-the-Watchmen book didn't help (Alan as "Steve Moore's weird friend").  

I quite enjoyed some of the stuff he did in the ABC universe, particularly Jonni Future and Young Tom Strong, but like others of Alan Moore's putative posse, he can be very good in his own right, but when tackling Moore-related material he hasn't got that same spark and suffers from the comparison.  See also Rick Veitch.

On the subject of odd connection (?), I've just starting catching up on the incredibly good Vertigo comic Scalped (Deadwood meets James Ellroy), and scripter James Aaron credits Micheal Fleisher's work (on Scalphunter) as a major inspiration.  One day I'll have to look into this other Micheal Fleisher.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: ThryllSeekyr on 19 January, 2009, 04:45:31 AM
Speaking of Tales of Teguth, I as wondering if 'Witchworld' and 'Mazeworld' have been collected.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: wrly_bird on 19 January, 2009, 01:40:33 PM
Since we're all pitching in short-story compendiums may I also add a vote for TALES OF THE BLACK MUSEUM...? And if you guys do ever get round to publishing one of these please don't forget to include Si Spurrier's Ruddler's Cuddlers (I think it was called) - one of the best short stories I've ever read in a comic. End of.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 19 January, 2009, 03:19:47 PM
Quote from: "wrly_bird"Since we're all pitching in short-story compendiums may I also add a vote for TALES OF THE BLACK MUSEUM...?

I'd buy one of those! I wasn't particularly excited by the prospect of this series originally, but it's produced some gems and generally been of a consistently high quality all round.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Proudhuff on 19 January, 2009, 03:33:37 PM
More likely to be collected into a megazine Trade Floppy than a TPB
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Dandontdare on 19 January, 2009, 07:49:48 PM
Quote from: "Jim_Campbell"I think he wrote "Killer" and Tharg kind of went off him ...

Hmm... I've just Barney'd this, and I'm afraid it's another story that I must have read, but have absolutely no memory of! Cheez, I worry about my memory...now what was I talking about again...?
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: DavidXBrunt on 19 January, 2009, 09:49:12 PM
Quote from: "TordelBack"On the subject of odd connection (?), I've just starting catching up on the incredibly good Vertigo comic Scalped (Deadwood meets James Ellroy), and scripter James Aaron credits Micheal Fleisher's work (on Scalphunter) as a major inspiration.  One day I'll have to look into this other Micheal Fleisher.

I can heartily recommend the Showcase presents Jonah Hex volume. Read that and you'll know exactly why Tharg thought he'd be a perfect fit for the comic, Because, really and truly, he should have been. A hard as nails, taciturn hero in dark, violent, morally ambiguous stories lightened by mordant humour...
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: TordelBack on 26 February, 2009, 03:51:53 PM
Quote... it's another story that I must have read, but have absolutely no memory of!

There was nothing to remember.  A few nice pages of bad-boys-with-guns art, and that's your lot - no plot, no setting, no characters.  A complete waste of time, IMHO.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Richmond Clements on 26 February, 2009, 03:59:07 PM
Quote from: "DavidXBrunt"
Quote from: "TordelBack"On the subject of odd connection (?), I've just starting catching up on the incredibly good Vertigo comic Scalped (Deadwood meets James Ellroy), and scripter James Aaron credits Micheal Fleisher's work (on Scalphunter) as a major inspiration.  One day I'll have to look into this other Micheal Fleisher.

I can heartily recommend the Showcase presents Jonah Hex volume. Read that and you'll know exactly why Tharg thought he'd be a perfect fit for the comic, Because, really and truly, he should have been. A hard as nails, taciturn hero in dark, violent, morally ambiguous stories lightened by mordant humour...

I'm reading this very volume at the moment- it's brilliant stuff! Hex is so jaw-droppingly amoral it's amazing that some of these were published by a US comic company.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: Grant Goggans on 26 February, 2009, 05:21:35 PM
That Showcase is indeed a fine read, but I think the earlier stories (by John Albano, I think?) were even wilder than the Fleisher ones.  Check out the story "Grasshopper Courage" in particular; it's fantastic.

DC's meant to be putting out a Showcase of their kinda-Maverick-inspired western series Bat Lash this summer, which should be completely wonderful.
Title: Re: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales
Post by: DavidXBrunt on 26 February, 2009, 07:40:40 PM
Aye, cheap too as it doesn't run to enough pages for a full length books. Just how much goodness can these books produce?