2000 AD Online Forum

THE END IS NIGH - Interested in the Apocalypse?

I've been talking about this and slowly setting up a comics project for the last month or so.  It's Science Fiction, but in a fairly broad sense.  It will be called THE END IS NIGH and will deal with the Apocalypse, and Post-Apocalypse fiction (though concentrating on the former for the first issue).  There will be features, reviews of other media (comics, films, TV, music, books, anything) and all sorts of interesting articles on the subject.

A good portion of the magazine is planned to be comic strips, 1-6 page stories, each by a different writer, covering their version of how the world ends.

In addition to scriptwriters and artists, we want plenty of people who maybe wouldn't normally consider doing something for a comic, to work on reviews etc.

There is a Yahoo Group (which shouldn't be too hard to join) for anyone interested, it's all early days, but the idea would be to have it ready for the Winter Comics Festival in November.

Many Thanks

Paul

p.s.  We're doing this alongside SOLAR WIND, so don't worry, were still carrying on with it, and are busy working on Issue 2 as I type.

Link: The End is Nigh yahoo group

Have you read "Good Omens"?

Yeah, at the time I didn't like the bits I thought Pratchet had wrote (like car tapes always turning into The Best of Queen, which is  excellent observational humour about there being a Queen tape in Terry's car that he keeps picking up) and if I reread it again today, I'd probably dislike all the bits Neil Gaiman wrote as well.

Basically what I'm saying, in a roundabout way, stopping to poke Terry in the eye, is that if you wanted to do a review of it, with specific comments on how the world ended in it, that would be great!

If you were just enquiring as to whether I'd read it, the answer would be a simple... yes.

And does anyone know if the man who used to wear the 'end is nigh' sandwich board still parades up and down Oxford Street?  

Because a picture would be great (an interview even better, but...) though he may have since died, sent to a special place, or realised after X number of years that it wasn't as nigh as he first thought.

Good Omens....covered in brief in my article....let me know if there's an in depth one so I can change it.

Sorry Dave I forgot about that.  A standard review would still be okay though, both could exist in the same mag.

I've done this twice now, send me a brief Dave (and Gary) and I'll add it to the files section as stuff being done.

Sorry Dave I forgot about that.  A standard review would still be okay though, both could exist in the same mag I suppose I'm wanting multiple opinions on reviews.

But, I've done this twice now, send me a brief Dave (and Gary) and I'll add it to the files section as stuff being done.

Sigh... thats what happens when the dawn chorus starts just after 3am outside your window.

You really are the cheeriest of souls, aren't you Paul?!?

Count me in.

Heh, well, as long as my life is irritant free I'm happy, and while the End of the World will be fairly irritating and least everything else that annoys me will be gone as well.  So it has it's plusses and minuses.

But the idea is to not make it too depressing and enjoy the End of the World, because it only comes around once.  The thing to avoid is a mag which increases the countries suicide statistics ;)

As well as being a staple concept for lots of great science fiction, real life apocalyptical threats rear their heads all the time and are then forgotten, though they don't really go away.

I just thought it was something interesting to do as a one shot (though potential for more if it is popular), which could reach people outside of comics.

Get someone to review Left Behind.

http://www.leftbehind.com/

Well, it seems largely book selling blurb than content.  If anyone wants to have a go at something like this, feel free.  Uncritical articles on stuff like this would probably be safest.

Left Behind.  Is this something to do with the Rapture, something I've never really understood.

Articles on the end of the world from a variety of faiths would be really interesting.  How it happens, why it happens, what happens to the people, what happens next?  That probably sounds a bit crass, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

Nice article about possible ends of the world in wired...

Link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/doomsday.

I've read the first of the left behind books. As far as speculative fiction go I thought it was enjoyable enough.

BUT

It is written with a specific audience in mind, Christians. And it places the anti-christ in Europe, not the White house where he lives these days.

Paul: If you want any spot illos or strips from me, let me know. Always time to help.

Rotts

"Articles on the end of the world from a variety of faiths would be really interesting. How it happens, why it happens, what happens to the people, what happens next?"

A dissection of Revelations and recurrence of it's themes through the ages, from the Plague to the Iraq War? With illustrations?

++A dissection of Revelations and recurrence of it's themes through the ages, from the Plague to the Iraq War? With illustrations?++

I'd buy that for a dollar.

btw:  I wasn't advertising the Left Behind books (Hell no!), just pointing the board towards a link to a very popular apocalyptic ideology in the country that has the biggest voice in our cultural landscape.  No discussion of the apocalyse could take place without considering this - just look at the bestseller lists.  There's even two films!

 

I diidn't think you were pimping for them GC, honest ;)

I agree, it's an interesting area, something I can't really get a grasp on, particularly as the site is fairly low info (buy the book!) but if you or anyone else wanted to try, please do.

That sounds like meaty stuff LMS, feel free to give it a go.  Again, if you want to send me a brief or a guide first so I understand it all, great.

Oh dear.  For a while now, I've had this idea about suggesting to Tharg that he do an FS-replacement stream of short one-offs about the end of the world, kinda like in the same spirit as the Past Imperfects.

Naturally, I haven't got round to doing it yet, and the only reason I've thought about it is of course because I've got some story ideas to submit along those exact same lines.

Sorry Gordon I'd feel a bit bad if it stopped you.

To be honest, I suspect the sort of stories that might appear in a 2000AD strip, where even the past imperfects are still to some extent twisty tales and what might appear in the end is nigh would be different.

Again, if it's buggered the plan, apologies, and I'd be happy to try my best to skew it away from the sort of stories that would be covered, if you give me a sort of format brief.  I'm not expecting these tales to be like future shocks.  Obviously some of the same ways the world ends would be covered, but thats true of the great mass of apocalyptic fiction out there.

I only plumped on this idea because I thought nobody else had really done it.  Of course I just hoped we would do it before anyone else, as it seemed an obvious route to take.  Really didn't intend to impact or even try to compete with commercial stuff, because we'd lose!

Surely thats every tale of teleguth, ever?

Nah, that's okay.  I've been sitting on it for ages, and never bothered doing anything, so it's entirely my usual lazy fault.

Besides, being an experienced pro, I've...erm...got...uuuhhh....lots and lots of other fantastic alternative ideas to submit to The Mighty One.

Yeah, let's just go with that...

-points off in other direction-

"Quick, everyone!  Look over there!"

-ducks out before anyone notices-

Yeah...  Didn't I read somewhere that a few different cultures- some of which use different calendars to 'ours'- all predict the end of the world as being within the same 150 year window- or somethng like that?

Apologies if it was Eric Von Daniken...

Rapture:  When God calls the faithful to Heaven, leaving the rest of us here on Earth.  I imagine that's what those books are about.  Be pretty freaky really- imagine sitting on a plane where the pilot and co-pilot both happen to be full blooded Christians at the time of the Rapture.  Bummer!

A tale that probably belongs on the Religion thread- but a friend of mine (while about ten or eleven) once came home to find that none of his family were home.  His first thought wasn't that they'd all gone out, but that they'd been Raptured and he hadn't!  Trauma!

So being meek and an unbeliever, is obviously the route to world domination or am I mixing my scripture here.

Seriously, even if it is Erik Von Daniken, I'd be interested.  Didn't he write loads of books on this topic beyond chariot of the gods?  And was it a joke on the cover of Fortean Times that there is a theme park based on them?

I think it was the Mayans who predicted the world would end at a certain time and had said it had been 3 or 4 times before.

So much interesting stuff to cover.

'And was it a joke on the cover of Fortean Times that there is a theme park based on them? '

No Paul, it wasn't a joke. The daft bugger really is building a theme park based on his 'research'.

"And does anyone know if the man who used to wear the 'end is nigh' sandwich board still parades up and down Oxford Street?"
I believe he has passed on, but apparently his board is in the Museum of London.

"I believe he has passed on, but apparently his board is in the Museum of London."

Right, unless someone wants to beat me to it, I'll have to take a picture of that next time I go to London.

Okay, I was going to e-mail this directly but for some reason the send-mail isn't functioning.

Protein Man's 'The End is Nigh' sign might be in the Museums collection but it won't be on display as the current lay-out goes up to the eve of the first World War. I'll get on to the archaeology department next week to see if they can help. The curator of the 'Later' collection has agreed to look for some biographical details of the man who carried it though, if that's any use.

Secondly, I have and e-mail adress for the comic shop that said they'd stock some 'S.W.'. Send me an e-mail and I'll pass it on.

More zombies in the news


This reminded me of the strip in the End is NIgh zine with the dog saying "sausages"

Link: Zombie Dogs

Remember the grafitti on the back of the jeep in Crisis's Third World War:

"If I get swept up to heaven in the rapture, grab the wheel!"

Woah! This thread's a blast from the past ... ;)

Dave - did anything come of your investigations about the Sandwich Board Man?

i like the post-end-of-the-world stuff with survivalists etc. though i cant understand why they dont run off into the wilderness, avoiding folk seems a good idea

Rapture: When God calls the faithful to Heaven, leaving the rest of us here on Earth. I imagine that's what those books are about. Be pretty freaky really- imagine sitting on a plane where the pilot and co-pilot both happen to be full blooded Christians at the time of the Rapture. Bummer!

Some airline companies have taken to never having both the pilot and co-pilot on any single flight being full blooded Christians. No, really, they have.