When it was still technically a kids comic (owned by IPC) we had stories that could make serious points, be genuinely moving, address adult issues (though the issues were often veiled, slavery, fascism, drug addiction etc.) and even swear in it's own peculiar way (I actually rather enjoyed people being called a dastard and kiss me axe, you knew what they meant, but it was fun in it's own way).
Between IPC and Rebllion there seemed to me a trend for so called 'mature' stories that were actually pretty embaressing, featured people with guns and no consequences for no ther reason than they were simply 'cool' and were just blatantly crass and crude. This was at a time when the comic was recognised as actually being for people in their late teens and onwards and of course this has it's legacy on the magazine today.
I think one of the great shames about 2000AD is that it is just a magazine for twenty (and later!) somethings, especially when there aren't any kids comics really anymore unless you count toddler stuff and tie-ins. If I was 11, I wouldn't want to buy it, and judging by the contents would be actively stopped from doing so.
Anyway, that's my opinion, as usual just a load of views that spilled from my brain and cosmically of no worth whatsoever. Still, I'd be interested in what anyone else thinks.
Tell me this: would the Ballad of Halo Jones have been given a second series if it started last year?
i think you aren't 11 and so therefore have no idea what a 21st century 11 yr old wants.
like when we was kids, the oldens had no idea. now we are the oldens.
how bitterly ironic
"i think you aren't 11 and so therefore have no idea what a 21st century 11 yr old wants"
I would never even try and pretend what other people my age want, never mind if an eleven year old. I am however fully capable of telling you whether I would have enjoyed the 2000AD of the 1990's when I was an eleven year old and I wouldn't have. I'll admit that that statement may well have no value, but there you go.
I don't find being old particularly ironic.
Ironic would be perhaps that kids today might have no interest in comics while we old duffers do, almost the exact opposite of 25 years ago.
And while kids today are so much more grown up than we were at the time, our generation is still in many ways rather backward and childish.
Again, more ramblings skimmed from the froth at the top of my mind.
Our generation? Childish? Pah!
I'm off to play with my Star Wars Lego.
Trough
Yeah, I wish they had had Star Wars Lego when I was a kid.
Hang on...
Judge Dredd Lego? Go on give it a go rebellion. I imagine the scale citi-block set would retail for about ?50,000. Got to be money in that.
I'd buy that for a dollar, also an Angel Gang Torture Playset. Ooh, and a Lego version of the Preying Mantis would be lovely too.
Hey - come to think of it, does anyone know what 2000AD-related games might be in the offing from Rebellion?
My personal choices would be SimCityblock and a Wipeout-style Nemesis Terror Tube thing.
Trough, regressing rapidly
Oh yeah, and a beat-'em-up. Imagine: you ARE Hammerstein with hammer arm special move, repeatedly beating the living bejeezus out of the Gronk.
Trough, one bottle of Stella down
Go Trough
Beer is your ally... While I place my trust in the Jack.
Actually I don't mind buying boardgames, or say a comprehensive range of 28mm figures, but I did feel guilty about buying those action figures. As well I probably should.
So I wouldn't suggest a Ro-jaws figure and a range of sewer 'accessories' and moving shovel arm that would work with the 'Ro-Jaws - Clean the Cludgies!' game.
Like Smash Bros. only with 2000AD characters.
Just hope they never make 2000AD Kart.
Seriously though, I'd like to see a Dredd game inspired by GTA3.
Guess with the role playing games coming out there's going to be minatures to be bought - hope its a nice and diverse range, not just the usual obvious choices. I mean, there's been an awful lot of water under the bridge (across the big smelly?) since the Games Workshop ones.
Yes, fifteen years after GW gave up on British roleplaying, it's finally recovered.
I have heard the figure range doesn't extend beyond a limited edition four figure set, I really hope that ain't true!
Just to point out that this wasn't a 'it's not as good as it used to be' post just a comment on maturity which has little do do with quality.
For instance seeing people zapped in the nadgers is argueably less mature than any scene from a contempory series of the time, though you could argue that ND is overall more mature than a series from the time of Ace Garp.
Interesting idea - has anyone seen the 'Kubricks' lego style figures from Japan?
Basically, they prduce lego type figures, except of famous films and stars - i.e. Bruce Lee, and I think there have been sets based on 2001 and Psycho.
And Planet of the Apes too.
true, you COULD argue that...:)
i just think that "maturity" is a relative thing, relating to the era, the enviroment, the individual reading it and the mags around att he same time.
anyway i think the Fruckin buggerians and their pubic lice were hilarious, as a direcdt contrast to the star-trekesque aliens that seem to infest evrery other sci fi strip i read.
I could argue it, but I wouldn't either. It was just an illustration.
I'm already quite aware you and several others think about Shakara episode 4. This thread wasn't set up to discuss that specific incident, but thoughts that came from that previous thread. Basically it does what it says on the lable.
The fact that you have reached a logical impasse where no inferences or comparisons can be made whatsoever is perfectly acceptable.
But of course it doesn't answer the question.
Star trekesque aliens infest TV I agree, but I don't see that many in 2000AD strips. The aliens are usually a bit more unusual. Not that aliens appear in that many strips anway.
OK, I'll be honest and say I haven't a clue what you are going on about.
I was hoping for some lengthy and probably very dull conversations about how the contsraints placed on a kids comic actually caused artists to create works which had more depth to them. Halo Jones being the previous exapmle given.
While I'm loathe tomention it, Tao de Moto tried to be a cool Halo Jones story, but for whatever reasons, failed.
In the old series you had people with guns who had some justification for gratuitously killing people. Later it largely occured because people with guns were just, well, cool. In fact a lot of series seemed to have been created because they had a cool title, looked cool, had cool guns etc. Things trying to be coll in a pulp fiction way and actually just being a bit of frothy style with no substance.
I'm not talking about 2000AD now, I hasten to add.
Oh well, this thread has failed beyond my wildest dreams. So I'll flee this cold corpse and go in search of-
SHAKARA!
Ungh! Arrgh! Splat!
Have to broadly agree with you.
It's why I stopped buying it all those years ago (1987) after having grown up with the thing. I was really turned off by what seemed to be an attempt to make it 'adult' but what was really about making it 'adolescent'. Fair enough, I suposes - you've got to follow the market - but it didn't work for me.
Before, the more 'mature' stuff was handled sublty, so if you got it, great, if not, it didn't spoil the story. Or it was just straight down the line exciting stories.
I think that now the audience - if the lot on here are anything to go by - has got into its 20s/30s, it's getting good again (which is why I've started buying it again!). Nikolai Dante is a case in point. It's adult but it doesn't wear that fact on its sleeve.
Let's hope it stays that way and we don't go back to Durham Red/Anderson PSI division crotch-shots for kids without girlfriends.