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I would never deny that the artists who make the stories for 2000ad are not very skilled craftsmen.
Comic strips are associated with low popular culture, like the newspapers that originally spawned them.

Because something belongs to low popular culture does not make it of any less value than something belonging to high popular culture, such as Pound's Cantos. Heck! I can enjoy a Shakespeare play as much as I can enjoy watching a wrestling match.

I enjoyed AR, a few on here are evaluating a bit harshly for a comic strip. That was my original contention. As far as comics go I think 2000ad is of the highest standard, and I do not bother reading any others because I do not think they are as good as 2000ad.

Tonight something really good called "Mistrine" by La Bottine Souriante.
http://www.bottinesouriante.com/welcome-2677-en.html
This is definitely where the music does the talking.

so yeah...how 'bout that Dredd film?

That's the film no one can decide whether it's going to be good or not, or what certificate it's going to get?

Well I've got no end of other stuff to read for a start, getting swamped with books actually. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of Major Eazy in May!!

No, it's the "dedicated Dredd fans waiting (un) patiently for another measly snippet from the film" thread.

So being a creative, imaginative individual, you could turn that product based on a work of art back into a unique work of art. How? Drawing a picture of it yourself or incorporating it into your own story or imagination in some way. 

Yes Judge Jack, Victor too. And Battle of course. I'd really need to see a copy of Warlord to jog my memories though.

No Lee Bates you keep missing my point, I do not think AR is vacuous and low brow, I think it reflects the vacuous and low brow elements of our society/culture (exactly what they are is a different debate), this is what the strip wants to portray, and I think it does this successfully by the way it is presented to us in the MEG.

The creators are communicating with their readership, true enough. My point is the guy who is stacking 1000's of magazines in a warehouse on a minimum wage is not going to be bothered whether it's 2000ad or Which? Magazine he's stacking because he is not getting paid to worry over it. To him it's a wage and not art. The guy stacking magazines is essential because without him the publication won't get out of the warehouse and to the customer. 2000ad is produced for a mass market, "Les Demoiselles de Avignon" is a unique object created by Picasso. The fact that it's been reproduced millions of time in the mass media just increases it uniqueness and value.

Tell me about it Tordell. Remeber I paid 50 quid for Nemesis Book 3! I never said comics couldn't be art. No one can agree what is really art and what isn't. When you hold a Stars Wars figure in your hand do you see a work of art or a product?

If you take the time to read my comments on AR you will see that I have been defending the quality of the comic strip, not attacking it.

Tacky, cheap, gaudy, you've got it, that's what you've been accusing AR of being, not me. My point is mass produced comics are deemed to be this as a whole, and I read AR as a reflection of this.

My argument isn't flawed at all. Magazines are produced by, on the whole, people on low wages and in shit jobs. I do not refer to artistic creators or geniuses, but the mass of people who are needed for a magazine to be printed, bound and distributed. Picasso made single work of arts. The magazine industry reproduced them by cheap labour for a cheap market.

And while the ancient Greeks were enjoying their Sparteque and wine they would remove their garments and hope the sun would give their bodies a nice, brown Spartan.

Hi there!

I remember Empire Strikes Back being made into a good comic version.

Brother, you have got to tell me where this newsagent is.

I have never bought the idea of comics as 'cheap popular' entertainment.  By any measure they'd be neither.

It's called WHSmith Tordell. Every time I go in there to find 2000ad I'm faced with row upon row of magazines, too numerous to count. Well, Tordel, buying a magazine costs a few quid, there's millions of them produced every day, there are only one of Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d' Avignon" which if you wanted to buy would cost you millions upon millions of filthy lucre. This is how I discriminate between cheap and expensive art. However, Picasso and magazines though not equal when it comes to buying it are more or less equal when it comes to to being popular. In fact more people have probably heard of Picasso than they have 2000ad, which might be why his paintings are more expensive to buy than a comic.

Er, engage humour detectors please
(I thought calling it an issue of "American Reaper" was an obvious humour giveaway. Though perhaps we need a "Joke Alert" icon like as used in The Register.)

seems a lot of MEG readers missed the irony in AR and thought they were having the piss ripped out of them.

nope you're wrong, there is no irony in AR, standard Pat, dare I say striaght faced story, piss has been ripped by the length, page count and bogus adverts

My friend, it's a comic strip, a form of cheap popular entertainment, not Picasso or Ezra Pound. I am not in any way trying to patronise you proudhuff, you obviously know what you like and don't like, but comics are ten a penny, you only have to go into a newsagent to see this. For me AR is a reflection of this throwaway commodity culture we are unfortunate to be living in. That's how I read it. If the strip seems bankrupt of ideas and artistic merit that's because we live in a society that is totally bankrupt financially, emotionally, morally and spiritually. AR is attempting to portray the contemporary attitudes to life which seems to visualise the realisation of happiness through the material possessions of a young body and owning a car.

Cassandra Kresnov has more fury than Hell, but Hell doesn't know this yet be...oh forget it!