Messages

Valentine De'Ath!  Good grief, what a wonderful name...

--Grant

Naaaaa, I wouldn't want to relocate and they couldn't justify flying me to every convention in the UK to shout about their books.

Also, it is unlikely I would hit myself in the face with a hardback.

--Grant

Link: http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/rebellion.html" target="_blank">Touched by the Hand of Tharg

Formally on the schedule for a May 11 release, the first two of the last six DC/Rebellion trades:

MAR050455D   JUDGE ANDERSON VOL 1 ANDERSON PSI DIVISION TP    $14.99
MAR050454D   SINISTER DEXTER VOL 3 SLAY PER VIEW TP (MR)    $19.99

--Grant

I'm hoping for an announcement at the Bristol con...!

--Grant

Just in case anyone else still can't get enough of the fan press talking about last month's brouhaha, there's some good commentary from the Basement Tapes guys this week.  I was pleased to see that Joe Casey really enjoyed the recent release of 13!

Link: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=17" target="_blank">The Basement Tapes at CBR

I think that people have been far too quick to write Samantha off.  The oddball scheduling of the strip has left it unable to make a strong impact, although one has to sadly concede that Ian Gibson was not giving 100% with his work on The Furzt Case.

I bet Robo-Hunter will be more successful if it gets a good run of 13 weeks to build and build.  One of the many great things about the original was, as I've often said, that sense of certain disaster building and building over the course of several episodes, and a grandiose plot that seems too ridiculously large, as well as too ridiculous, period, for our hero to bear.  Having said that, these need to be 13 weeks of sumptuous Ian Gibson illustrations, with no shortcutting like we saw in The Furzt Case.  (Furzt Case also might have suffered from its scheduling.  It looked like Wagner, Flint and Ezquerra were trying their damndest to do career-best work in Dredd and Strontium Dog at the time, so the lackadasical Gibson art in Furzt Case looked bad by comparison.)

Depending on my mood, either it or Indigo Prime is my favorite 2000 AD strip.  So I want it to succeed, and Furzt Case was by no means bad, but Robo-Hunter should never be ordinary, and that was.  The far superior Davinchy Case in Prog 2005 proved that Ian Gibson is still capable of firing on all cylinders if he wants to, and I'm confident Samantha's next appearance will be a winner.

--Grant

Well, some of us (and by that I mean all one of me) are still cross our fingers for a Volume 5 with the Peter Hogan / Rian Hughes episodes of Robo-Hunter.  Either that or a "Complete Rian Hughes" collection with those, Tales from Beyond Science and Really & Truly.

--Grant

I dunno, that third series seemed pretty tired, but what I've seen of the first two, from my woefully incomplete Meg collection, was really entertaining, with that gorgeous coloring job Ezquerra was doing on his work in the early 90s, and a very funny script.  Plus, Al's wife is ridiculously sexy.

I've been hoping this gets a trade treatment before too long; all three series would fit comfortably in a Rebellion trade.

--Grant

"4) Tek-Div synthesising Kryptonite would be lame beyond belief."

Ah, it was pretty funny when they got rid of Fairlyhyperman that way...

--Grant

The TPB collection of Sinister Dexter Vol 3: Slay Per View is not on Diamond's expected ship list for May 4:

http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/expected_050405.txt

May 4 is still the date given at dccomics.com, not that the dimwits would care much to change the listing, but there's nothing on the Newsarama's "shipping changes" headline to indicate it's been cancelled or delayed.  Bummer.

At least Robo-Hunter Vol 2: Day of the Droids is still set to ship tomorrow!

--Grant

I wouldn't mind seeing something done with the Vatican's Judge Inquisitors again.  Cesare was stupid, and "Crusade" more so, but I liked the design, and as John Smith has positioned Vatican City as the world's principal line of defence against the occult and extraterrestrial weirdness, maybe there's more mileage in the idea than Morrison and Millar could come up with.

Also, it'd be nice to see the PI from B*w*tch*d again.  And Banzai Battalion.

--Grant

Add mine to the petition to trade Canon Fodder.  While neither series ranked among my favorites, Weston's amazing artwork really should stay in print, and every store should have that on its shelves as Weston's fan base grows.  Everyone who bought The Filth should be able to get a copy of this.

--Grant

Well, Halo Jones is still pretty likely.  That's one of the three June DC books, and DC hasn't said anything about cancelling those.  D.R. & Quinch is probably off the schedule for now, though.

--Grant

Okay, I've updated Touched by the Hand of Tharg (with a slightly modified URL) to reflect five of the tentative six new titles, and to give Day of the Droids its page (although, sadly, still with the unfortunate "placeholder" cover at this time).

One striking note about the Play it Again Sam and Portrait of a Mutant covers from amazon.co.uk - the 2000 AD logo is the American one in the black circle with the small white text.  I'm certain these were readied before the poop hit the fan this month, probably by a department that had no idea what the bosses were planning.

--Grant

Link: http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/rebellion.html" target="_blank">Touched by the Hand of Tharg

Yeah, I made the reference about Bec & Kawl because of something Jamie B mentioned either here or at the DC message board - I got the impression those hardbacks are Rebellion hardbacks *because* DC didn't want them.  DC got first pass on what to publish and what not to.  They didn't want Bec & Kawl, so it went the hardback route.

--Grant