2000 AD Online Forum

Reading through my lovely copy of Thrill-Power Overload of late (and thoroughly enjoying every page), I was stuck by how little there is "out there" in the way of books about 2000AD, that aren't just reprints of strips. So, I ignored that thought, but mangled it in my mind's eye (because I am a Child of The Whitehouse generation, obviously*) with the other thought I was having, about how much I used to love those "best covers of the year" things in the annuals.

This is what popped out the other end:

Would it be feasible for Rebellion, or whoever, to produce a "coffee-table" book, that reprinted each and every cover? Say, from the "pilot" mock-up to prog 1500? Four covers to a page, colour, wraparound covers printed in their entirety, with a little bit of text about them below. Volume two (because I have faith) could have progs 1501-1650, plus all the specials, Megs, postermags, annuals, yearbooks and whatnot. Perhaps even Starlord and Tornado and Crisis, etc, to bulk it up.

I would most certainly buy this. Anyone else?

Steev

*and I'll leave it up to you to decide if I mean Mary, or the late, lamented gentlemen's magazine.

Definitely sounds like a very interesting and cool concept. I'd like to see all the other covers included as well. American editions, Best ofs that weren't simply recoloured versions of existing covers. If possible it would be nice to see some of them without logos and banners (or include the actual cover down at 25% or something for those progs) and in some cases in B&W too.

Would it include the creator/ex-creator comments or simply some relevent text - like when they've had the "best covers" chosen by (whoever).

I used to love the filler pages they'd put in the annuals, where they got the various artists etc to pick their favourite strip and cover from the year.
Sounds like a good idea to me!

Given the huge pile of 'Preacher cover' books in every single Forbidden Planet I've ever entered, I wonder how well 'covers only' books sell.

I'd certainly buy it - I always loved those cover features.

...and the covers. When I was younger I used to trawl around Wake's 2000adonline for hours just staring at all the covers. Good plan. If Storm Thorgeson has seventy album cover coffee table books surely there's room for another.

this idea came up a couple of years ago.

a decent coffee table book, with current standards of reprint could be a winner, but its a little niche market, of course.
enjoy the suggestions of creator notes and so on.

but how to choose them that would be a tough job.

Quoteby SpookyTheCat on Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:45 am
Would it be feasible for Rebellion, or whoever, to produce a "coffee-table" book, that reprinted each and every cover? Say, from the "pilot" mock-up to prog 1500? Four covers to a page............

Up to Prog 1500?

Working this out to be roughly 375 pages. Possibly another 150 pages added on to that with the "wrap around covers", and perhaps pages of words that might be inserted by interveiws with script and art droids and other stuff like that.

Would that be too much for a coffee table book?

"Thrillpower Overload" is 260 pages and I think you could almost get away another 265 pages added on to that.

I would much prefer Prog covers to a page.

How about a seprate book for each character.

How about starting with the first 10years to see how it goes?

Quote from: "ThryllSeekyr"

Quoteby SpookyTheCat on Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:45 am
Would it be feasible for Rebellion, or whoever, to produce a "coffee-table" book, that reprinted each and every cover? Say, from the "pilot" mock-up to prog 1500? Four covers to a page............

Up to Prog 1500?

Working this out to be roughly 375 pages. Possibly another 150 pages added on to that with the "wrap around covers", and perhaps pages of words that might be inserted by interveiws with script and art droids and other stuff like that.

Would that be too much for a coffee table book?

"Thrillpower Overload" is 260 pages and I think you could almost get away another 265 pages added on to that.

I would much prefer Prog covers to a page.

How about a seprate book for each character.

Nah, I reckon a 400 page paperback, produced to the standard of any art book you care to flick through in Waterstones, would be fine. Pick up one of the Playboy coffee table books- they're fat, lovely and feel great when held in the palm.

Er, hang on. I may have inadvertently written that a bit wrong.

I'm not saying this would be cheap, by any means, but I feel there is a market for expensive memorabelia. After all, we have statues- which is surely the nichest of niche markets. I'm sure a coffee table volume of all the covers would sell to the nostalgia market AND the art market- as well as the average comic/ 2000ad fan.

Steev

Great idea! There's enough classic covers by the likes of Brian Bolland, Cliff Robinson, Mike Mcmahon, ect to fill a large glossy book. I'd definately buy one.
What about it Rebellion?

In the same vein as the preacher covers collection, with comments from the artist/ editor of the time? That'd be cool.

Bound in bright green synthetic lizard skin with a Tharg rosetta thingy inset on the front cover.

You know.....tasteful.

The kind of thing Taschen do.

It would be a pretty cool looking book, but I'm not sure how widespread the appeal would be. I certainly wouldn't buy it and I'm as obsessive as the next man.

Nice idea. I've not seen the Preacher covers book, but I do have the Sandman covers collection. I think that covers about 75 issues plus trades, so it's filled out with extra pics and notes by Mckean and Gaiman, comes to 208 pages.

Stevie'd be up for that if the covers were full size.

I'd imagine that there'd be a few that wouldn't be eligible for licensing reasons ie all the Dan Dare ones & those promoting competitions (eg Transformers, Star Trek). so collections of best covers would be scheet.

Oh, & Whitehouse -- surely you mean the noise band there, Spooky?

I'd agree with the call to have a cover a page and thus limiting this to say the first 300 issues to begin with with additonal material such as the prelims Robin Smith for the Bolland cover that I saw recently in some Annual or other. I'd defo buy this. Have to be on good quality paper of course maybe a format along the lines of the old year books? I think these ealy issues (well paricularly up to 520) would really benefit as being printed on good quality paper will certainly give the art the platform it often deserves than the loo paper they were originally printed on.

Anyway great idea.

Glad you agree. and it might a good idea to limit it and then have other volumes.

What if it was just one volume per each time the magzines had a upgrade?

So volume one has every issue that looks like the newspaper progs--however you may describe them, somepeople call them the Bog Roll issues, and so on.

The thought of some of the covers with nice tight reproduction is almost too much to bear. I used to love the Titan reprints where they had the covers in B&W with the colour knocked out. I think the printing let the art down too often in the early years and as stated above, it would be really nice to see some of the art in all it's glory.

Hmm. A book of "best" covers is not my ideal, because what I would want is a nice big comprehensive volume that contains everything. As I've said, art books of the type found in rich friends houses when I was growing up (as opposed to the books on horse racing and murder in ours) were often too big to even pick up- and they seemed to sell. I really don't like the idea of a page per cover- quite frankly, not enough of the early ones are good enough for that, I feel. However, maybe a compromise? What about a series of them in the format of those little "1001 horror/scifi movies you must see before you die" books that are currently overstocked in bookshops? Or four per page in a big book, but fullpage reserved for the standouts?

Or- and here's an idea! Scrap the reprint pamphlet in the Meg and have a "collectable partwork" bagged with it instead, each featuring however many cover repros would fill up its pages? That it would go on for years did not stop the notorious 'Dark Side A-Z of Horror' feature, bck in the day. Did that ever finish, by the way?

But I'm really, really glad that others have responded to this idea so well. When I was in Brighton on Friday, I noticed that an art shop was selling huge (A2 I think) framed repros of classic Marvel covers. Perhaps something similar for the prog?

Steev

Quote from: "SpookyTheCat"Or- and here's an idea! Scrap the reprint pamphlet in the Meg and have a "collectable partwork" bagged with it instead, each featuring however many cover repros would fill up its pages? That it would go on for years did not stop the notorious 'Dark Side A-Z of Horror' feature, bck in the day. Did that ever finish, by the way?

Tell you what if they did that I might well start subscribing to the Megazine! Which I guess then begs the question if you've got an open ended series like this do you include posters as well????

Quote from: "SpookyTheCat"Hmm. A book of "best" covers is not my ideal, because what I would want is a nice big comprehensive volume that contains everything. As I've said, art books of the type found in rich friends houses when I was growing up (as opposed to the books on horse racing and murder in ours) were often too big to even pick up- and they seemed to sell. I really don't like the idea of a page per cover- quite frankly, not enough of the early ones are good enough for that, I feel. However, maybe a compromise? What about a series of them in the format of those little "1001 horror/scifi movies you must see before you die" books that are currently overstocked in bookshops? Or four per page in a big book, but fullpage reserved for the standouts?

Or- and here's an idea! Scrap the reprint pamphlet in the Meg and have a "collectable partwork" bagged with it instead, each featuring however many cover repros would fill up its pages? That it would go on for years did not stop the notorious 'Dark Side A-Z of Horror' feature, bck in the day. Did that ever finish, by the way?

But I'm really, really glad that others have responded to this idea so well. When I was in Brighton on Friday, I noticed that an art shop was selling huge (A2 I think) framed repros of classic Marvel covers. Perhaps something similar for the prog?

Steev

Trouble with this idea is that there have been a fair share of really poor covers over the years, as well as ones promoting movies of the time, so I really think some quality control is required.
Print the iconic ones, not ones promoting Star Trek-The Motion Picture.

There HAVE been some bloody awful covers over the years, yes- but mostly back at the start and hugely in the minority. Yes, there was that Star Trek: TMP one, the infamous Star Wars figues one, and, well, prog one isn't exactly a masterpiece... but I think for the sake of nostalgia I'd still prefer to have them all. Even that Independance Day one.

There have also been, of course, some truly dreadful covers more recently as well... in fact, when I look through my progs I often enjoy mentally (in so many senses of the word!) ticking them off "shit, shit, great, classic, shit, mmm...okay, great" etc. I imagine we all do that, don't we? But a book that allowed me to laugh and cheer at yesterprogs, yes, I'd love that. After all, every cover was somebody's first.

The idea of having them printed as a nice build-up Meg supplement is growing on me. After all, I still fail to see the business sense of giving away your product "free" while at the same time massively raising the price of one of your magazines. Surely everything printed in the Meg supplements would be better off being SOLD in bookshops, or as a reprint magazine like Extreme was? How many people pick up the Meg and think "Quaequam Blag! £4.99? They are having a laugh, the nonscrots!". Besides, every time the supplement features Dredd it's a waste of time, because they are all being collected elsewhere aren't they? And I'd've BOUGHT Snow/Tiger as a £5.99 collection between bookshelf-friendly harder covers.

It all seems crazy. Surely, as we all get older, the main audience of 2000AD is more interested in durable, aesthetically pleasing bookshelf versions of these stories, not floppies?

Anyway- if the Meg MUST have a "free" pamphlet with it, I'd much rather it was something we couldn't get anywhere else- and a collection of covers would fit that description. Cheap, welcome, and happy to give the goods, like the dirty stripper at my 25th birthday party.

Steev

I reckon it's possible to do 100 progs or even 2 years worth of covers in 64pages.
Breaks down something like this:
38 pages of full page cover reprints - where there are large header and footers, some info could accompany on the same page a further 4 pages (for the créme de la créme) will have supplementary material, creator's thoughts, favourite picks etc. (possibly include the supercover stories too where appropriate or worthy.)
16-20 pages would be divided into 4 or 6 per page to complete the 100/126 covers.
Any left over space could be taken up with b&w repros where available. The actual cover should be from the included run of progs, but not repeated...
It would make a nice companion to TPO.

Quote from: "kevlev"I reckon it's possible to do 100 progs or even 2 years worth of covers in 64pages.
Breaks down something like this:
38 pages of full page cover reprints - where there are large header and footers, some info could accompany on the same page a further 4 pages (for the créme de la créme) will have supplementary material, creator's thoughts, favourite picks etc. (possibly include the supercover stories too where appropriate or worthy.)
16-20 pages would be divided into 4 or 6 per page to complete the 100/126 covers.
Any left over space could be taken up with b&w repros where available. The actual cover should be from the included run of progs, but not repeated...
It would make a nice companion to TPO.

Should I now start designing some "we want a covers supplement and we want it now!" placards, so we can descend on the Nerve Center and wave them?

But yeah, I like this idea. If I were Tharg, I'd do it.

Steev

Its a great idea .. lets petition Green Bonce now.

The way I'd like to see this implemented is as a nice big one off "best of" covering a wide range of artists, styles and all eras, not just the first howevermany - that way there's something for everyone to get nostalgic about.  Perhaps stuff from the associated titles, posters etc?  All on nice paper like the aforementioned art books, perhaps sized and marketed to that audience.

If it works then, a year later there would certainly be material for a second - and not sticking to a "first 10 years" attitude means that the second volume would still have a lot of those forgotten masterpieces from the beginning of the comic.  Keep it paperback to keep costs down (all those art books on my shelf being paperback would also mean it wouldn't be out of place on the shelf, either in the home or the bookshop).

And the title of this thread should, naturally, be the title of the book.

"THARG THE MIGHTY'S LOVELY BOOK OF COVERS"

Ok, maybe the title should be left to someone less likely to take the mick.

Quote from: "mikegloady"And the title of this thread should, naturally, be the title of the book.

"THARG THE MIGHTY'S LOVELY BOOK OF COVERS"

Ok, maybe the title should be left to someone less likely to take the mick.

No, I think that you've sold me on the title right there. After all, we're all geting older, and there's no real need to "sell" the comic to us using melodramatic terminology like "thrill-powered" and "zarjaz" anymore, is there. I think, in fact, that the next time we have a relaunch issue, the strapline should be "four lovely new stories begin inside, readers!", or similar.

I was privately hoping for something like '2000AD: Cover-Story', but 'Tharg's Lovely Book Of Covers' does it for me.

And, if we also have the "posters" in there, it musn't be "posters", it must be "pin-ups", or at a pinch "full-page drawings".

Steev

Quote from: "SpookyTheCat"I think, in fact, that the next time we have a relaunch issue, the strapline should be "four lovely new stories begin inside, readers!", or similar.

That had me snorting outloud (no, I categorically was not "laughing out loud" or whatever the kids say.  I just don't do outloud.  Not unless the cat's accidentally jumped in the bath with me at any rate).  I think that such a strapline would show balls on Tharg's part.  Not literally.

"Zarjaz" and "Thrill-powered" still work on me I'm afraid.  Perhaps my inner-child is, well, a bit thick.  It's possible (although unlikely).

No No No.

The cover should be a brand new Rian Hughes of Green Bonce looking the reader in the eye & winking saucily, with the speech bubble encapsulated title of, "Come Inside & See Tharg's Etchings."

Brilliant idea, I too have- and still do from time to time - spent hours poring over the covers collection on the Barney site. Id love them have them all in print in a pretty format.
A big hardback book would be cool but even the megazine supplement would be a great way of presenting them.
Mark me down in the "definately would buy" camp!

Anyone know how to get a poll going for this?

• Hardback - coffee table book
• Free supplements with the meg
• Not at all interested
• Would want/buy regardless of format

Quote from: "steven lenfant terrible"No No No.

The cover should be a brand new Rian Hughes of Green Bonce looking the reader in the eye & winking saucily, with the speech bubble encapsulated title of, "Come Inside & See Tharg's Etchings."

Mmmmmm.

I like this idea.  Naughty Tharg!

Is there a poll where we can vote on what the options in a subsequent poll ought to be?