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I do think it's marketing, the free publicity of controversy and "taking the client list with me", coupled with the familiar vitriol that makes Pat Pat and a realisation that maybe you can burn bridges if at 71 you don't see the need to cross them again.

I do unreservedly wish him well, none of us would be here without him, but I still wish he'd treat his fellow scribblers better.

Continued...!
Looking at Pat's Twitter today, you have a guy telling him how every other Dredd writer undermines his and Wagner's work on the strip to the point of it not being worth reading (I may be misremembering the phrasing). Now nobody is denying Pat's enormous creative contribution to what the character became, but he has written less than 60 out of what's  getting on for 3000 episodes, and about half of those were in the '70s. What's more, he was also the editor that farmed out the strip to other writers in the first place.

This baloney (to be charitable) nostalgic viewpoint presumably represents a significant part of the audience Pat needs to tap into to keep his venture going, so I can see why he courts them - but it also seems horribly counterproductive. The Dredd strip is so much larger than his original (vital) input that it does nobody any credit to be dismissing the other writers who have developed and kept it going all these years.

It'd be easier to be a fan if Pat just championed his own huge successes without being seen to put down others, but that's undoubtedly his way, and I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.

Cinnabar's art where excellent but Kev Walker also needs credit for it

S'right.

Who would have thought Hookjaw would be the first Rebellion animated series.

He's an auld divil, no question, and I'm sure he'd consign most of us here to the bin marked "tyranny of the voting coupon".

Yeah,  Dillon is another droid whose best work was in the prog, IMO.  Nothing but respect for his later collabs with Ennis, remarkable marathons of seemingly effortless storytelling, but nothing there is quite as sublime (for my taste) as his Dredds, Hap Hazard, Tyranny Rex or Cinnabar.

This is all true, even the greatest, most popular comics creators in the history of the medium have struggled with making self-publishing/creator-owned work in the comics marketplace.

Dave Sim was the poster-boy and evangelist of the approach, running a two-to-three-person show with every page promptly reprinted and a monthly circulation of something like 25-35K copies, allegedly getting paid $100K for his single issue of McFarlane's Spawn, but even that level of success seems to have devastated his mental and latterly his physical health and left him in a perilous financial state. And he's a best-case.

It's a savage business both in and out of the corporate embrace, and in a world where the traditional comics giants only still exist because of their ability to flog IP to movies and games, rights are everything. If there is a better future, it probably looks like a shift towards the Raina Telgemeier model, publishing broad-appeal novel-sized kids'comics. She started out doing graphic adaptations of existing novels and properties, but I'd be willing to bet her Scholastic contract looks far more like a standard author/publisher arrangement than any creator that our forum traditionally discusses.

Was the [spoiler]Mimbanese[/spoiler] the [spoiler]mechanic who betrayed[/spoiler] Mando?

The very same.  Shit-hot at his job though, [spoiler]string-and-seaweed macramé to shiny chrome finish in the time it takes to wipe out an Imperial base[/spoiler]...

Can one really be said to 'trash their career' at 71? Pat's had his career, and then some, as a contract editor and work-for-hire writer. He's always been disparaging of certain other editors, writers and artists, and it didn't seem to do him (much) harm.

I can understand that he wants to create 2000AD (again), but this time he'll actually own it, and contrasting Spacewarp with the supposed shortcomings of his old employer and allegedly uninspired colleagues is a solid tactic: certainly he seems to get plenty of support for it on social media from people who only remember the good old days, but don't let it divert them from rubbishing a comic they no longer read (and to judge from comments if they do read it, they certainly don't buy it). Why would he go on writing for the competition who have 'stolen' all his ideas, when he has a shit-load of work to do for his own project?

I can also see that it's going to be a huge task, with very dubious financial rewards, and that only emphasises the knocking-stingey-2000AD contradiction. But any rewards there are will be his this time, and putting your money where your always-active mouth is can only be commended.

I just wish Pat wouldn't be so arsey about the whole thing...

I think arseiness is baked into the singular genius of the man; his supreme confidence about whatever subject he's tackling today, plus his conviction that small-minded grey men are working ceaselessly against the cause of art in general* and Pat in particular**, are what gives his work its unique bite. What I find irritating is the way some of his True Fans*** adopt the same tone, and pile onto his targets with all the ignorance and unearned righteousness of Termites.

One thing is clear, though: a creative powerhouse like Mills should enjoy all the bountiful fruits of his labours, and would in many other fields.  If he's cranky about reprint fees, rights and creative control, despite having been a knowing player in that very system, he's probably still got a right to be.


*True.
**Debatable.
***Among which I count myself.

Just has other priorities...

I did hear Greggs have expanded their menu, that's got to be distracting.

Trust me I don't want to build this up - there's next to no effort gone into this on my part - I'm hoping you lovely folks will do all the graft as ever!

Can't fool us, you're just hoping you'll be immortalised in a flattering nude study, as I believe is the tradition.

Not the worst strip, Kola Kommandos, more a case of wrong place wrong time.  Be interested to see how it goes down.

This is a good project Colin, many thanks for taking on yet more hard thread-work.

[Phil Winslade]

I love Jake Lynch's style, and his work only improves each time it appears - he's a powerful addition to the Dredd roster, bringing a suitable McMahon accent along with his own strong look. He has the important skill of delivering powerful full-figure Dredds that somehow still make for fresh-looking covers.

But if Lynch is getting better and better, Phil Winslade has already achieved perfection. I'm not as big a fan of Lawless as some others, as only an occasional Meggetter, but I sit in awe at his work here. The most recent musical episode alone would earn him my vote.  When does the man sleep!

For me it's Defoe. 

I love Sláine to bits, it's my all-time favourite 2000AD strip after all, but it's had more than a fair run: I'll miss it, but there's plenty of it to re-read. ABC Warriors has been great fun in recent years, but it's definitely been treading old ground. Savage, while really incredibly flexible in the genres it has effortlessly hopped, had maybe got a bit too involved in its continuity stitching efforts.

Defoe, on the other hand, has been completely fresh almost every time it's appeared. Booda's most recent space saga being the ultimate example: did anyone back in 2007 think we'd eventually be getting Reeks In Spaaace? I could definitely use more Defoe.

So I'll miss that, but mainly and always the excitement of a new Mills strip in the prog: you never, never know what you're going to get. There is something ridiculous about expecting any of these gods of the prog to still be serving us up brilliant comics at a per-page fee, now they are in their 70s. Wanting to do something differently, or wanting to do less, is their well-earned right.