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Unfortunately I've only seen his nemesis strips, (maybe some crisis stuff I blanked out) but they were fantastic.  His style really suited nemesis, being quite weird and alien.

No idea what he's up to though.

Kelkron the Necrotic cast a handful of vile herbs into the flames, producing a surge of black light.

"I summon thee dark thing of Khaos to do MY bidding!"

Kelkron cried out, aghast...

"This 'thing' was not meant to be!"

The vile abomination spoke...

"Ello guv, want yer cludgies cleaning?"

I have to say I missed it first time round and had to have it pointed out, duhh...

And yes, it's been fun, but can we stop now?  What is that, THREE refernces now, one via tharg, one in dredd and one in scrap?  It's an obsession.

It's either stop or give him his own strip (and no, that wasn't a suggestion).

Poor arthur must be feeling quite neglected.  His only hope is Bison II.

Treat them harsh to keep them keen?  I don't know about that, if you are talking about the d.c. thompson that spawned a few of britains best talents, then they were paid little in a useful training ground.  Then they quit and went freelance if they could.  A fairly normal cycle as far as I know.

Then there was IPC which paid more, but still with no rights and quite a few talented blokes started here as well.  I don't see how by giving them more money and rights it would have caused the work to suffer (may have misinterpreted that).  Maybe having to work in a very restricted field (4-6 page kids comics of the seventies and eighties) was beneficial?

I would have thought merchandising (films, games etc) was the only real chance to get any money in to be able to pay people more (if that's the issue) and you can only do that through intellectual property you clearly own (again, if that's the issue).

As for slowly dying, you only have to look at the shelves of WHSmiths to realise that we've had that phase.  It only takes one unforseen event and then it's all over.  Give or take fanzines, and comic shop bound publications.

You're right, it can't survive without creators, or for that matter publishers.

Personally despite not having a perticularly great morning, it wasn't as bad as that.  Yak.

1.  Well, they'll look good anyway.

2.  So far all I've heard is a one sided argument, without any facts (as has been pointed out conversly by someone else), what's the point of courting public opinion without them.

3.  All things come to those who wait, or if they have the money, there is always e-bay.

4.  Well, it's happened before and a few years after that it'll happen again.  Nature abhors a vaccuum and all of that rot.

5.  What would he put in it if he did?

I hava book with John Blanche's illustrations in, very nice stuff.  He'd be great for a one off AD cover.

Just feel lucky they haven't put numbers in it, adding numbers is scientifically known to add a fiver to the value of something, signed and numbered, well, the sky's the limit.

I'll look out for some cheap copies and if I get any post em up here, if no-one wants them I shall feed them to the slavering jaws of the demented beast thou callest e-bay.  Where mad people pay mad amounts for complete crap.

I agree with this idea, take the crap stories and reowrk them.  Mind you it would mean people like Fleischer, Hilary Robinson and McEnzie got paid for creating crap through royalties.  I begrudge them a bent ha'penny.

To be honest, I'd just leave it.  It's a lot of time and effort spend recreating something that was good with unpredicatble results, I'd rather see effort being put into new strips.

Somene really ought to sit down, possibly with like minded souls and actually try and work out what readers want, what can be achieved and be called a 2000AD strip and unable to be mistaken for anything else.

Stories that cover similar ground, or take ideas and run with them are less objectionable as long as there is a genuine creative process going on and not just poor mimicry.  I'm not sure if there's many people I trust to do that.

I have heard from people I know, that it is a fun little addictive game, dead simple and even if these things aren't your bag it should be possible to get into it.

Cursed Earth 5
Judge Cal 5
Judge Child 5
Block Mania/Apocalypse War 5
City of the Damned 3
Oz 4
Necropolis 4
Judgement Day 1
Mechanismo 3
Wilderlands ?
The Pit 5
Fetish 3
The Hunting Party ?
Doomsday 3
Sin City 5

Normally Dredd is willing to risk his life for only one citizen, and has made the speech that that's the appropriate action for a judge, several times.

I agree it could be warped by someone who isn't quite as upstanding as Dredd into 'Judges first and then we'll sort out the bodies afterwards'.

"And I don't know if this has been asked already, but how did Orlok survive the plague? Was he given the vaccine that the judges wouldn't give to the general public? Seems a bit dodgy to me."

I'd guess he either had an antidote, or was just tough enough to survive it.  Having said that, it's not implausible that he was kept alive to gain information about Sov actions from him.
 
"why were the judges (who claim to put the defense of the citizens before their own lives) given the vaccine before the citizens?"

Again, look at this thing coldly and logically and you realise you can only save a small percentage of the population.  Or you could try and primarily save the judges who have already been dwindled by various disasters.  

What does the city need more, what did Sin City need more?  Did it need some cured citizens trying to escape while all the judges were dead or did it need someone to maintain authority even still? Morals, as we recognise them, don't really come into this.  The actions are born out of neccesity, rather than any belief the judges have more right to them.

To put it bluntly, they weren't being bastards, they were being practical, which for an observer probably amounts to the same thing.

Loved series I and IV and thought the two inbetween were overly long and self indulgent with a few good lines.  Those last two one offs were weak.