Messages

[Caverns of the Snow Witch]

Caverns of the Snow Witch was an interesting one on publication. The Fighting Fantasy magazine, Warlock, had run a cut-down version (190 entries) that was basically the opening mission & cavern part - so it was a standard dungeon crawl with your key enemy waiting at the end.

I don't know if they wrote the book first, then cut it down for the magazine, or vice versa - but it explains the chapter-like structure.

[Shadows]

I just couldn't get past the ass-headed character in SCB. Call me shallow. You hear the argument far too often if you peruse certain corners of teh Interwebz, but the idea that 2000 AD is too clean cut compared to its earlier incarnation can be used in a comparison between the gritty fever of Harlem Heroes when compared to SCB. Hammer House of Horror vs. CBeebies. (But this is a 2005 argument, not a 2022 argument.)

Anyway - Shadows was a flawed gem.

Rouge Trooper:

I should start charging a fee for my forum posts. Right, you lot - pay up!

[sci-fi]

What is your favorite genre in the prog?
-   Horror/Supernatural
-   Comedy/Satire
-   Sci-Fi
-   Fantasy
-   Thriller

Being forced to choose one, it's sci-fi - because it's sitting right at the core of what defines 2000 AD.

As others have pointed out, though - the strength of the prog is in its variety. If Dredd's top dog (or is it Alpha?), it's clear that those strips straddle the genres and can be, on any given day, any of them.

It's difficult to try to choose one of those to lose, and still have what we know of as the prog. If you ditch fantasy, you lose Slaine. If you ditch horror, you lose Cradlegrave and Thistlebone. Comedy - you lose Ace Trucking or Survival Geeks. The Thriller genre is trickier to hold up - Judge Dredd sometimes goes there with some of Wagner's suspenders*. Put pure thrillers are either difficult to pick out of the mix or I wouldn't mind if they weren't there - like that one with the woman with the scarred face who's an international agent. Most of the thrillers also encompass one of the other genre-types.



*Oo-er, missus!

[Joe Black]

Joe Black should definitely return to the prog.

[Angelic]

Judge Death as a standalone series is mostly two stories: My Name Is Death and The Wilderness Days - which are good, but not the best of Death.

I prefer Angelic's gritty, deeper take on what were originally quite vaudevillian foils. That's not to say that Angelic doesn't owe a lot to the originals, of course.

[Newsthump]

Newsthump are on fire with their headlines today:


'I am too stupid to understand my own laws' insists man in effort to regain confidence of nation

Conservatives tell Boris Johnson 'this is your last chance' for the 27th time

Parliament to give over time for daily apology from Boris Johnson for previous day's transgressions

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/?

suffers badly from not being complete.

You wouldn't even know that if Tharg hadn't told you. Just going by reading the stories, there's nothing to indicate that book 3 wasn't the last. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it just ends.

I agree with you ... mostly. The final panel of Book III says "End of Book Three", rather than "The End" - so there's a suggestion of more to come. It would be easy to be persuaded that the prologue to Book II suggests a much wider saga stretching beyond the events of Book III - although you could argue that's just added depth within a finite story.

I think that would be Watchmen vs. Neonomicon.

[Halo Jones]

Fuckitty fucksticks! You're asking me to choose between Blade Runner and Aliens. Clearly, Blade Runner wins the artistic endeavor prize, but Aliens has that bit where the Sarge says "Look into my eye!" It wins the chutzpah battle hands down.

Blade Runner has the questionable sexual politics scene, Aliens has that bit where Hudson says "Stop yore grinnin' and drop your linen!" Aliens is winning the nobody gives a fuck prize by transcending politics altogether. After all - you don't see them fucking each other over for a percentage.

So, what I'm saying is that clearly the academic answer should be Watchmen, but actually my choice has to be Halo Jones.

Welcome back - you must be pleased to see that while you've been away the climate crisis has been fixed and now there's nothing to worry about. [cue manic laughter]

[Choppah]

Get to the Choppah!

[Boliks]

Boliks for me, please!

And, to Southstreeter: O'Rork is an Ozzie PI that didn't feature for long. He had big hair, and a big nose.