2000 AD Online Forum

Look at this.  LOOK AT THIS!  The "Nerve Centre" of Scream comic's first issue, courtesy of the fantastic site of ARRISARRIS.  (I've linked it in case of snarled web-fu).

Think back to when the 2000AD Nerve Centre had mini text stories, droid profiles, stupid competitions (not just the product tie-ins), news, reader's suggestions, blah blah blah.

Why are we now reduced to one letters page every 6 weeks, and a Nerve Centre that, apart from Tharg's own amusing scribbles, might as well be a big blue box marked "write own thoughts here"?

C'mon Nerve Centre droids, how hard could it be to have some silly stuff there?  Even if you just gave over half the space to readers' letters and fan-art it'd still be more fun than it is now!  

Please?

Link: Scream Issue #1

I think we should all send reader art to Tharg. I'm willing to make a fool of myself and try and get my Judge Parsnip pic from the Dredd/Siku thread into the prog - who'll join me?

A good point of how rubbish it is can be seen in this week's prog.

Tharg talking about prog 2004 decides to tease the readers about who is likely to be starring in the prog.

'Ay caramba' says the Mighty One.

Samantha Slade says Previews, this website and just about anyone else who is a fan.

Surely big news like this should appear first in the nerve centre.

Also before Samantha Slade's debut we could have a brief overview of Sam Slade.

I may send in some hatemail to Tharg, just for cruel fun.

There's an e-mail address on the page, IIRC?

- Trout

How about the Dictators of Zrag taking over for a prog or two, with tharg coming back in a one page special????  

Bring back the Dictators and Thrill suckers!!!

Yer Slips

"Tharg talking about prog 2004 decides to tease the readers about who is likely to be starring in the prog.  'Ay caramba' says the Mighty One."

Following on from Dredd-Aliens, they're doing a Dredd-Simpsons crossover?

Petemaskreplica, I'm with you!  (Though I may claim to be a 10-year-old with ADHD).  If they get 10 examples of reader art in the same week, they can't ignore us, can they?

Why not have everyone post a message here when they've sent their stuff in?

I was flicking through the Argos catalogue last night, as is my wont, and I had a real shock when I looked at the toy pages.

Will someone please tell me when kids' toys got so cool?

When I were a lad, I had to make do with three Action Men (one broken), a crappy He-Man and a Hulk with one leg, plus various things made of brick and cardboard boxes.

Nowadays, the toys are brilliant!

There were entire castles with dragons and things, and all sorts of terrific radio controlled cars. I want the Freelander with the big wheels for Christmas.

The Action Man toys are far better than they ever were.
I used to have shite like little plastic rifles, but now there are snowboards and windsurf things that fire missiles and everything. Gagh!

There's even a new villain called Anti-Freeze, who's transparent, with weird-looking fluid pumping round hs body.

But my favourite is a toy called Alien Agency.
Not only do you get a whole science centre for investigating aliens, you get all eight characters and a comic to tell you about them.

There are also a load of moulds and slime to make your own aliens, plus - and this blew me away - an autopsy table and surgical instruments to let you dissect them!
That sounds so wrong but feels so right!

Okay, it'll all be broken by Boxing Day, but it's still pretty brilliant.

So, I want everyone to join in my petty jealousy and condemn all children.

Why are they out vandalising bus shelters when they could be playing with all this great stuff?

- Trout

I emailed Tharg yesterday actually...

Not sure I should submit my collage of Dredd - what d'y'all reckon?

Let's bombard him with crappy pictures! Make him pay for not printing my Torquemada drawing when I was 12! BWAAH-HA-HA-HAA!

-childhoodissuesmaskreplica

Odds, don't send him that. You'll scare him.

But, yes - BRING BACK THE DICTATORS OF ZRAG!

- Trout

I'm quite lazy so I don't know about the reader's art.

Its like the Gallery on Take Hart I often drew things but I never got round to sending them in.

I remember drawing an hilarious drawing of Halo Jones dog as a little ceramic man clutching a mug wearing a three pointed hat.

It was entitled "Toby Jug".

You probably had to see it. Believe me, if I'd got off my arse the Galatic groats would have been mine!

Ghastly McNasty!  Oh my achin' sides!

Come on, we need to see a TMO story where Tharg explains how he helped Ghastly, Max and the Big E find employment in other fields.  That could be extremely funny!

--Grant

the nerve centre never actually sems to state anything anymore, it used to tell about upcoming thrills 6 months in advance in a long list and then do an overview and then a more in depth one nearer the time

now i dont read cos its borin but whenever it sounds like fanboy begging u to buy the mag, or keep buying the mag, or place a subscription or get the meg as well

everyone now and then it gives a cryptic mention of a character or series

'I remember drawing an hilarious drawing of Halo Jones dog as a little ceramic man clutching a mug wearing a three pointed hat.

It was entitled "Toby Jug". '

That's nothing, compared to the comic genius of a drawing I had planned to send in. To the detriment of the human race, I never drew it, but it was going to feature the Lord Weird, tied to the back of a tractor, his horns raking furrows through the soil. And before we move on to the bonus round, what was it going to be called? Say what you see, say what you see... You've said everything BUT the right answer...

Plough Feg.

Oh, god.

SOB!

We might as well end it all now.

Plough bloody Feg, my arse.

- Trout

'Plough Feg'-
RRRIIIIIIIGGGHHHHTTTT!!!!

Chortle! Good one, eh, readers? A Joycean play on words if ever there was one, if I do say so myself.

Well, that one line was better then the entire slaine script since prog 1000. I nearly cried when in Thrill Power Overload it essentially said that Finn was dropped in favour of Slaine...

many of us have had letters printed.
but i think its time we started to send in our more fun ones again. in defence of tharg though.
garbage in grabage out. if he only gets slim pile of letters emails to choose from perhaps the current crop is the best of the bunch.

why dont we ask Floyd for tutorail online.he gets many printed, and in honesty, they are worth reading.
the recent siku dredds should see the light of day without doubt.

there are enough of here,to make decent flood of potential letters.

I've sent three, and had two printed. Not a bad score. The way I look at it, make a comment when you have something worth saying, otherwise it is all the same comments. A little diversity goes a long way on a letters page.

I think the reader art is a great bring back, especially if Oddboys Dredd gets used. Dave McKean, my arve!

Bolt-01

I've had several letters printed in both Meg and Tooth, none of which had a whole lot interesting to say.  It seems from all the letters I send (some of which IMO are occasionally interesting) he picks up the ones which say what he wants to hear...  "This story's good, love this, la la".

Actually I'm convinced it's the SAME Nerve Centre every week since Prog 1000....Zzzzzz.
Ok theres not that much they can do with it but it is dull I agree.

I had a letter published in the last issue of Toxic & I had a letter pulished in Tooth and it was the last issue the Men in Black were in control.
Perhaps I should stop writting letters...

"Come on, we need to see a TMO story where Tharg explains how he helped Ghastly, Max and the Big E find employment in other fields. That could be extremely funny!"

Read Zarjaz #4. It features a hilarious strip drawn by some of Tharg's top droids(and me) about the whereabouts of some of our classic characters and editors, called The Big Lie...

Link: Zarjaz 4