Well, here's something incredibly neat. Our fellow earthlet Giles Johnson has written me to ask about a curiosity in his collection: the Earthside 8 dummy.
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_MqYsHWQ7fo4/TGxV2PtwVbI/AAAAAAAAA2A/3GbocCxOwbE/s800/Earthside8a.jpg)
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_MqYsHWQ7fo4/TGxV2MX4UWI/AAAAAAAAA2E/XR0bas-YhMw/s800/Earthside8b.jpg)
The cover art by Dave Gibbons previously appeared, without the lettering, in Thrill-Power Overload, but this is what it could have looked like on newsagent shelves. The strips are:
Tracer by Dave Stone and Paul Peart, later printed in the Dec 1993 Winter Special
The Burning Man by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, later printed in the 1994 Yearbook (8/93)
Alternity by Mark Eyles, unpublished
Mr Elephant Head by Roger Langridge, unpublished
Canned Heat by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, later printed in the Dec 1993 Winter Special
Dinosty by Pat Mills and Clint Langley, later printed in prog 873
Johnson says that he doesn't recall how this prize came into his collection, but says that he worked at Stateside Comics for a time, and that it might have made its way into the shop via its well-connected owner.
I'm surprised by how much it looks like any given prog from 1992. It doesn't look like another comic at all, just something that the comic's design team banged together on their lunch hour. This is the first time we've ever seen the proposed editors for the comic, E-Teen and The Programme Controller. Not quite up to the standards of Big E and Ghastly McNasty, are they?
TPO isn't clear whether the subsequently-proposed follow-up dummy, Alternity, ever made it to the print stage. That's the one that could have included the awful-sounding Mark Millar strip about the teen president.
We need to see more scans of the rest of the dummy!
Looks fab!
I'd love to see a CBR of that (for historical/scholarly/archival reasons) but surely what would be the best idea would be 2000AD getting their hands on this, doing a top quality scan and clean-up and giving it away as a Megazine supplement. Granted Burning Man has just been reprinted and some of the others have since seen daylight but still it would still be great to have.
Yes, add my shout to the call for this being reprinted somewhere. Either as a meg supplement (perhaps with the prog #0 dummy, or the remaining pages thereof, and anything that may exist from the scrapped proto-meg dummies.
SBT
Argh, i realise that post makes little grammatical sense. My cat demanded attention and i lost my train of thought due to the stink of her arse!
SBT
IIC, Tharg offered Earthside-8 ashcans to readers of the 1993 Tooth Winter Special, so maybe that's where this came from?
I advocate scanning the whole thing and putting it up as a cbr at a file site.
What was the hook behind this, exactly? I can't imagine there was much of a niche to fill that wasn't already being filled by 2000ad.
Quote from: jamesedwards on 19 August, 2010, 01:05:45 AM
What was the hook behind this, exactly? I can't imagine there was much of a niche to fill that wasn't already being filled by 2000ad.
It was for younger readers because 2000AD was moving more towards young adults.
Quote from: Garageman on 19 August, 2010, 01:08:58 AM
Quote from: jamesedwards on 19 August, 2010, 01:05:45 AM
What was the hook behind this, exactly? I can't imagine there was much of a niche to fill that wasn't already being filled by 2000ad.
It was for younger readers because 2000AD was moving more towards young adults.
Funnily enough the kind of thing some people have been advocating here recently.
I'd love to have a nosey at this out of curisity. Good to see Jamie Hewlett trying to get the little 'uns into the Fannies!
Seriously, though "E-Teen"? Sounds like grown-ups trying a little too hard to be hip with the youngsters, to me.
I'd still be interested in seeing the rest of the comic, though.
I'd be well interested in getting my hands on this.
Thanks for sharing that, Grant. Earthside 8 piqued my curiosity ever since I read about it in TPO (knowledge of it had completely passed my by otherwise).
Quote from: Garageman on 19 August, 2010, 01:08:58 AM
Quote from: jamesedwards on 19 August, 2010, 01:05:45 AM
What was the hook behind this, exactly? I can't imagine there was much of a niche to fill that wasn't already being filled by 2000ad.
It was for younger readers because 2000AD was moving more towards young adults.
I've read most of the reprinted stuff... if that was the intention they really, really messed up because it was tonally identical to the majority of 2000ad strips at the time.
Quote from: jamesedwards on 19 August, 2010, 10:41:13 AM
... if that was the intention they really, really messed up because it was tonally identical to the majority of 2000ad strips at the time.
That fact that this never went beyond a dummy sort-of suggests that they knew this too. It's not like they pushed on for a dozen issues before realising it wasn't up to scratch.
Not having TPO to hand, how much money did they pump into this before they pulled the plug? Was it half a million quid, or was that something else?
'E-Teen'? Bloody hell...
It seems very strange to have a story about a 'futuristic Repo-Man' in a comic allegedly aimed at eight year olds, too.
Quote from: ming on 19 August, 2010, 12:04:03 PM
Not having TPO to hand, how much money did they pump into this before they pulled the plug? Was it half a million quid, or was that something else?
According to TPO, Jon Davidge reckoned that it would have cost £500,000 to launch. It was the TV ad for 2000AD that cost so much to make that they couldn't afford any airtime for it that cost the ridiculous amount of money...
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 19 August, 2010, 12:32:25 PM
It seems very strange to have a story about a 'futuristic Repo-Man' in a comic allegedly aimed at eight year olds, too.
but it was OK to have a tyrannical psychopath chasing after a deviant alien back in 1980.
Quote from: The Corinthian on 19 August, 2010, 12:28:36 AM
IIC, Tharg offered Earthside-8 ashcans to readers of the 1993 Tooth Winter Special, so maybe that's where this came from?
You're right! I double-checked and Tharg did offer five copies to readers.
Quote from: Garageman on 19 August, 2010, 12:38:14 PM
but it was OK to have a tyrannical psychopath chasing after a deviant alien back in 1980.
How ever would the kiddies cope with stories that contain things they don't already know about?
Remember how parents and the outraged-on-your-behalf brigade responded to a (literal) Molotov cocktail in snoozefest 'The Hand' over in 80's
Eagle?
We're them now.
Quote from: Garageman on 19 August, 2010, 12:38:14 PM
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 19 August, 2010, 12:32:25 PM
It seems very strange to have a story about a 'futuristic Repo-Man' in a comic allegedly aimed at eight year olds, too.
but it was OK to have a tyrannical psychopath chasing after a deviant alien back in 1980.
I just thought they'd have a tricky time considering the the hero of the piece is essentially a dept collector, is all...
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 19 August, 2010, 01:02:53 PM
Quote from: Garageman on 19 August, 2010, 12:38:14 PM
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 19 August, 2010, 12:32:25 PM
It seems very strange to have a story about a 'futuristic Repo-Man' in a comic allegedly aimed at eight year olds, too.
but it was OK to have a tyrannical psychopath chasing after a deviant alien back in 1980.
I just thought they'd have a tricky time considering the the hero of the piece is essentially a dept collector, is all...
Grist for the mill in Scream '84. Is it not more subversive for debt collectors not to be portrayed heroes?
(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff248/burlearth/screamP14.jpg)
(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff248/burlearth/Scream0021984-03-3113.jpg)
Quote from: TordelBack on 19 August, 2010, 12:56:36 PM
How ever would the kiddies cope with stories that contain things they don't already know about?
They'd ignore them.
Am I the only person who saw the Tooth TV advert from 1994? It was on Channel 4 well after midnight. I looked up from my "revision" and saw Armoured Gideon staring back at me from the TV.
I'd gone apostate about 3 months earlier. If it had been Toothless for a bit longer I might have been tempted back.
Quote from: The Corinthian on 19 August, 2010, 02:09:35 PM
Am I the only person who saw the Tooth TV advert from 1994? It was on Channel 4 well after midnight. I looked up from my "revision" and saw Armoured Gideon staring back at me from the TV.
Yes, I think you might well be...
Doesn't even seem to have made it to YouTube either, although searching for 2000AD advert does find this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pRhR5uzbR0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pRhR5uzbR0)
Which just goes to show that the Halo Jones stage play may well have been even worse than I imagined, and late night Yoof TV was actually even worse than I remembered...
I want to read Mr Elephant Head now!
Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 18 August, 2010, 11:38:28 PM
Yes, add my shout to the call for this being reprinted somewhere. Either as a meg supplement (perhaps with the prog #0 dummy, or the remaining pages thereof, and anything that may exist from the scrapped proto-meg dummies.
SBT
I'd pay very good money for this.
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 19 August, 2010, 04:13:15 PM
Quote from: The Corinthian on 19 August, 2010, 02:09:35 PM
Am I the only person who saw the Tooth TV advert from 1994? It was on Channel 4 well after midnight. I looked up from my "revision" and saw Armoured Gideon staring back at me from the TV.
Yes, I think you might well be...
I saw it too. I think I saw it after an edition of The Big Breakfast.
I like the idea of the comic being themed like a televison station but my god those "editors" are embarassingly naff despite being designed by Hewlett...
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I saw a dummy issue of something called "Alternity", or something like that at a UKCAC in the early 90s. It was possibly this! It had Dinosty in it, as I recall and was to be a younger 2000AD. It looked great.
Edit : And yes, The Corinthian, I remember that ad too. Took me by surprise. Talk about blasts from the past! :D
We did get confirmation from Roger Langridge this week that Alternity did go to print, and presumably contained the lost Mark Millar story, so it probably showed up at a few dealers' stalls at UKCAC. Hopefully we can get a nice scan of the Mr. Elephant Head strip; unfortunately the owner of the comic says that he doesn't really have a nice scanner.
Quote from: The monarch on 21 August, 2010, 01:25:44 PM
I like the idea of the comic being themed like a televison station but my god those "editors" are embarassingly naff despite being designed by Hewlett...
They should have done what Starlord vetoed and made the editor a scantily-clad space babe.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/08/26/earthside-the-2000ad-for-kids-that-never-was/
Quote from: Grant Goggans on 21 August, 2010, 03:49:34 PM
We did get confirmation from Roger Langridge this week that Alternity did go to print, and presumably contained the lost Mark Millar story, so it probably showed up at a few dealers' stalls at UKCAC.
I thought it worth quoting Grant's previous take on this:
QuoteWhat I did not know at the time was, of course, this was using up old material. Tracer and Canned Heat were "survivors" of a proposed anthology book called Earthside 8 which was in development in the early 90s and axed by the summer of 1993. The book was aimed at younger readers than those currently absorbing 2000 AD. After learning about Earthside 8, I thought for some time that Stone and Peart had completed three episodes of Tracer before the axe fell, the pilot and this two-parter, and 2000 AD just found what place they could to make a little back on the investment. However, in part two, Paul Peart's signature is clearly dated "95," so at least 18 months had to pass before the art was finished. Perhaps the scripts sat in a drawer for all that time, and 2000 AD went ahead and paid for an artist, since the script droid had been paid two years previously?
Earthside 8 was also meant to have featured Dinosty by Pat Mills and Clint Langley. As the artist had finished five episodes before the comic's cancellation, it was decided to bring all ten episodes to 2000 AD; this ran in progs 873 to 882 in early 1994. There was also a hitman story by Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra called The Burning Man. The pilot episode for that was used as filler in the 1994 2000 AD Yearbook.
According to David Bishop's Thrill Power Overload, other strips planned for Earthside 8, which was briefly renamed Alternity, included work by creators such as Mark Eyles, Brett Ewins and Roger Langridge. The one I actually want to see, just because of the train-wreck factor, was Billy Whisper, a story about a teenage US president, as imagined by Mark Millar. The same concept had been used in an incredibly entertaining and goofy DC title called Prez in the early '70s. The Joe Simon comic has been a cult classic for years, and inspired my favorite episode of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Somehow, I cannot for the life of me imagine a comic worse than a Mark Millar take on Prez.
http://thrillpoweredthursday.blogspot.com/2008/06/21-i-cannot-imagine-comic-worse-than.html (http://thrillpoweredthursday.blogspot.com/2008/06/21-i-cannot-imagine-comic-worse-than.html)
I am now morbidly fascinated by tracking down Millar's story too.
Quote from: Grant Goggans on 21 August, 2010, 03:49:34 PMHopefully we can get a nice scan of the Mr. Elephant Head strip; unfortunately the owner of the comic says that he doesn't really have a nice scanner.
To keep everything joined up those scans are here:
http://www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,29827.0.html
Interesting to see the 'Earthside 8' title appear on Bleedingcool.com the other day.
This ebay listing may be worth a look.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300460850244#ht_2989wt_1133
If anyone from here is bidding on that do let us know - I'd hate to think we were bidding against each other but I'd also like to make sure the copy stayed... close to home, as it were. ;)
Ive stuck the first bid on it. But as im expecting it to make triple figures, it's more so i get a notification of its final price, cos chances are i'll forget about it! So, bid away!
SBT
If its anywhere near my pocket toward the end Ill throw a bid on it.
David
It certainly will be a nice thing to own and be very interesting to see if interest in this one catches fire.
I see the auction has ended. Was the winning bidder from here?
Went for £26. Given its rarity I thought it might have fetched more. Mind I guess it is a pretty niche item.
I'm pleased to say that I managed to win this beaut. It came today and is in perfect condition - obviously been well looked after. Apologies to anyone here who bid and lost , I know what it's like to lose :( , but rest assured it at least went to a fellow boarder.
Quote from: strontium71 on 07 September, 2010, 07:56:17 PM
I'm pleased to say that I managed to win this beaut. It came today and is in perfect condition - obviously been well looked after. Apologies to anyone here who bid and lost , I know what it's like to lose :( , but rest assured it at least went to a fellow boarder.
Hurrah!!
Dont know how many bid, but i put the first tenner on, and went up to £14 (i think, it may have been £16), but didnt keep an eye on it, cos i honestly expected it to go over a hundred. I reckon you got a bargain! Glad it's stayed 'in house'.
SBT
Quote from: strontium71 on 07 September, 2010, 07:56:17 PM
I'm pleased to say that I managed to win this beaut. It came today and is in perfect condition - obviously been well looked after. Apologies to anyone here who bid and lost , I know what it's like to lose :( , but rest assured it at least went to a fellow boarder.
Scan the bugger, sir. You know you want to!
It's his moral obligation to the team to scan it.
Well done I think you might have got yourself a good deal there.
So lets have a nosey then...
Actually I'm going to be a bit contrary here and say that if you don't want to scan it- then don't feel pressued. You've just parted with your hard earned creds to buy a piece of history- so if you don't feel like scanning it so us lazy buggers can take a gander for free- that's your perogative.
Congrats btw :)
Looks very cool. I'd love to see it if you decide to share, but I agree with Bolt, it's yours and you've earned the right to tell us lot of lazy nerks to naff orf!
Hi
I really don't mind scanning it in for you . I'm one for sharing . Trouble is , I don't own a scanner.
I have a few Argos vouchers left so I shall pop in on Saturday and buy one . Give me time and I shall hopefully get the scans up for whoevers interested. I need a scanner anyway so it just means I shall get one earlier than planned is all.
Hopefully I'll be able to operate the scanner as I'm not that good with new machinery. :-[
Good man. Eternal blessings on your soul.