Should/Will The Prog relaunch at the release of the new Dredd film?

[SmallBlueThing]

As an aside, i should just add that we should never underestimate the bbfc's ability to respond to bandwagons- if the sun gets wind that children's comic strip dredd is being filmed as an ultraviolent gunplay 'nasty', AND we have an event such as dunblane or columbine in the meantime, i'd expect an '18' with heavy cuts.

SBT

[Steve Green]

Make it a Christmas prog style jumping on prog.

As much as it goes against my judgment, milk the 3D aspect and do a couple of 3D strips with bundled glasses, along the lines of Blazing World in LOEG.

Or in the spirit of slomo, have one panel eked out over 32 pages...

[Strontium Claw]

Aaargh!... no photo covers please, they look cheap, tacky and wouldn't stand out from every other movie/SF mag that had DREDD photo covers. Renumbering comics is always an opportunity to jump off rather than on...

Ideally if any newbies do pick up the prog, there would be an extra long Dredd strip in each prog plus three or four complete short stories (a Future Shock, Slaine, Zombo etc) to showcase what 2000AD is about.

I imagine almost everybody who is ever going to buy 2000AD is collecting/has already sampled it? UK comics have an increasingly limited audience.

I would love to see a 10 second trailer/ident for for 2000AD at the start of the movie.
There is a huge untapped market for 2000AD out there: lack of awareness is the problem, not lack of potential.
Traditional DC & Marvel sales are dwindling, indy comics are growing - 2000AD could be the new manga.

[Steve Green]

As an aside, i should just add that we should never underestimate the bbfc's ability to respond to bandwagons- if the sun gets wind that children's comic strip dredd is being filmed as an ultraviolent gunplay 'nasty', AND we have an event such as dunblane or columbine in the meantime, i'd expect an '18' with heavy cuts.

SBT

I can't ever seeing it being cut to get an 18. But I imagine it will be an 18.

I'm not even sure if 'that' scene will make it as described in the early script, as casting Lena Headey as Ma-Ma puts a different spin on it.

So I'm guessing an uncut 18, unless there's something that would give 'A serbian film' a run for its money, and I don't imagine that DNA are that fucking mental.

[Van Dom]

I would love to see a 10 second trailer/ident for for 2000AD at the start of the movie.

This is crucial, I think, and an opportunity that shouldn't be missed. Something like what Marvel have, where you get images of all sorts of different characters flicking together until turning into a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, 3D, in-your-face 2000ad logo that fills the screen. You want that logo burnt into peoples retinas as the movie begins, so that when they love the movie because its so damn brilliant (hopefully) they will go away thinking "Hmm...Judge Dredd is awesome and he's in 2000ad...best buy that!"

[Professor Bear]

As an aside, i should just add that we should never underestimate the bbfc's ability to respond to bandwagons

The BBFC is a quite arbitrary body, but also a spineless and inconsistent one.  DNA only need to claim restraint of trade (the depictions of fantasy violence necessary to the product to mark it as aimed at adults) and threaten legal action and the BBFC will most likely capitulate as they have in the past.  The last thing they actually want is any kind of compulsory and binding public or legal scrutiny of their assessment process as it's largely discretionary, and what isn't is usually quite telling as to the sensibilities of the group - it once barred the depiction of rice flails onscreen, for instance*, but not kitchen knives or bricks used as murder weapons, arguably blurring the line between stupidity and racism.  Another no-no was blood on breasts under any circumstances because this created - apparently - a connection between sex and violence and led to crimes against women.

Of course, censorship is predicated on the premise of one group seeing all this nastiness and not being affected by it while the common man on the street will.  I see nothing elitist in that approach...




* The director of Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story threatened legal action if they tried to enforce cuts on the film's finale, which featured nunchuks prominently  - the BBFC unsurprisingly folded like bitches.

[radiator]

I think they should put Dredd on the cover every week for a month or two (get Jock to do a few in the style of the movie Dredd, and perhaps have double helpings of Dredd in the weekly and the Meg for a while like they did when the last movie was released.

Also, and I've mentioned this before, reinstate the 'Featuring Judge Dredd' tagline on the cover!

I'm not averse to comic Dredd getting a uniform/gun/bike overhaul to become a little more like the movie version (much as they did with the last movie) so long as its nothing too drastic. Arguably they have already started to do this - there have been a few Dredds lately where his visor has been coloured all black, presumably to match the movie version more.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

They should give free gifts each week for many, many, many weeks. These would come in the form of Lawmaster parts and after quite a few years of collecting we would all have life size Lawmasters to sit on 

[James Stacey]

Arguably they have already started to do this - there have been a few Dredds lately where his visor has been coloured all black, presumably to match the movie version more.

I've been meaning to mention this. It's been really pissing me off (yes clearly I don't have enough to worry about) They are clearly still being drawn 2 tone and getting coloured that way later and it looks naff (unlike say Jock who has always drawn them that way and it looks good) It even changes from panel to panel as if its some sort of reactorlite lens.

bah!

[radiator]

Oh, and if they could perhaps get Jock to polish up that storyboard/comic script adaptation he did for the movie and run that in the Megazine, then I wouldn't complain...

[Colin YNWA]

Kinda spinning a bit here but movies have failed to increase the sale of floppies much in America. Which is not to say you shouldn't try by the way, just the impact might be limited. Rather its how trades and graphic novels are marketed around the film that might be more important? At least that's my limited understanding.

[Grant Goggans]

What I'd do is limit the direct tie-ins to four issues.  Add eight pages for four weeks, go to six stories a prog. (That's five pages of story, one text page about the movie, one text page about the one-off episodes [below], one house ad for the Meg, Abaddon or the trade range).  Free gifts each week.

These would be the four issues solicited in America as a prog pack, with additional incentives to retailers in the form of an extra ad in Previews and direct mail to comic shops telling them that the prog pack will contain all self-contained stories and information about the film, the 2000 AD universe and the trade collections, and that this is the finest, most cohesive and comprehensive "jumping-on" event that 2000 AD has ever done.

Three of the six story slots are four-part adventures for, say, Dredd, Stronty Dog and Slaine.

The other three slots are one-offs.  So the first issue of the tie-in has the first episodes of those three 4-part stories, plus one-off episodes of Sin Dex, Zombo and ABC Warriors.  They could be written as introductions or recap adventures to detail the running subplots.

Second issue, the one-offs rotate to Savage, Anderson and Dandridge.

Third issue, one-offs rotate to Devlin Waugh, Defoe and Samantha Slade.

Fourth issue, one-offs rotate to Kingdom, Damnation Station and a brand new thrill, trailing a forthcoming series.

Fifth issue, back to the regular size and rotation, with four of those twelve one-offs starting new stories, and the other eight returning ASAP.

If the film is scheduled for release in Feb 2012, then the assumption is that Dante will have ended by then, otherwise of course we'd make room for him...

[Grant Goggans]

Actually, now that I (over)think about it, Tharg really does have the opportunity to roll out something really big with this.  If the film is coming out in Feb. 2012, then consider how this might look:

Prog 2012: The usual 100-page issue is entirely one-off adventures.  Ten eight-page stories and features.  All the greats.
Jan. 2012: Four progs containing five four-part stores (similar to progs 901-903).  Launch a couple of new series.
Feb. 2012: The tie-in progs I suggested above.
Mar. 2012: Normal service resumed.

The opportunity's there to pile a lot of really interesting, shorter material together across nine issues, and not worry about curious new readers picking up a prog like this week's, with part six of a Judge Dredd story and part ten of four other, subplot-heavy ones.

[Toni Scandella]

I'd like to see 2000AD carrying on as normal throughout the whole film hype thing.  If people jump on board, they need to jump on board something with the quality of what the comic is doing now.  LOTF failed because it wasn't very good. DC Dredd failed for the same reason (even if there was one good Wagner arc in Legends of the Law) - just release the film and say, 'This comes  from 2000AD.'and let people see for themselves - no renumbering, no big hype - just quality stories with quality art.  If anything, simply make sure that whilst the film is out, copies of 2000AD are widely available.  Maybe ensure that on release the comic is at a jumping on point with a bunch of stories at Part 1.

[satchmo]

I imagine almost everybody who is ever going to buy 2000AD is collecting/has already sampled it? UK comics have an increasingly limited audience.

Except that isn't the case at all. Comics are one of the few parts of the print market in this country that are doing well.