Thrillpowered Thursday Says "So Long" to Samantha Slade

[Grant Goggans]

This week!  The post you have all been waiting for!  The tale so important that it deserves its own thread!  It's the tragic, peek-behind-the-scenes story of Samantha Slade's farewell outing, the short, cliffhanging, goodbye of "I, Jailbird," and Ian Gibson's departure from the Galaxy's Greatest Comic.  Read the sad story, share it, hit me with some link love, let me know what you think... and let that Betelgeusian bampot Tharg know what you think, too!

[Trout]

That's well-written stuff, Grant. Nice one.

I think you're a bit hard on yourself, though. 

[JOE SOAP]

Well done Grant but you need to get laid.

[Grant Goggans]

Oooh, burn.  I need aloe.

[I, Cosh]

Yep, that was a really good read, even though I disagreed with almost every opinion you expressed in it. The exception being the poor quality of Gibson's art. A lot of interesting background stuff which I was unaware of too.

[Dark Jimbo]

... and let that Betelgeusian bampot Tharg know what you think, too!

I happen to think Tharg made the right call. The strip clearly wasn't working, for one reason or another. Draw a line under it, move on to new and better things.

Stim! was an utterly glorious story, funny, clever, and beautifully illustrated. Casion Royale was almost as good; but these were the only two I rate from the run. And I think you're unecessarily harsh on Gibson regarding that last story. Grant's script seems almost equally as phoned in by that point, a long way from the inspired heights of Stim!, and that trend seems to have continued - from Cadet Anderson to Durham Red, I find most all his stories equally ho-hum and forgettable these days and the endless origin stories and reboots for old characters are getting a bit annoying.

The worst of the fallout has to be that Gibson's no longer in the prog, which benfits nobody.

[IndigoPrime]

Can anyone remember what happened to Sam Slade in the end in that run? I remember him being a head in a jar, and that's about it. Also, I agree with pretty much all of that, and I'd be happy to see Grant/Williams continue Slade for a bit. 2000 AD desperately needs more female characters, not least now we've lost Dante's strong women.

[The Monarch]

If I recall he retired, went on holiday and basically told Samantha that the two idiots (Hoagy and stoogie) were her problem now

[vzzbux]

Thanks for bringing up that E-mail 
Nice write up. Gibbo is sorely missed in the prog IMO.





V

[The Adventurer]

Excellent write up. Samantha Slade was one of my earliest experiences with 2000 AD (2004/2005 being my induction period) and while reprints of his older work is what truly made me a fan of Ian Gibson's artwork, Samantha Slade still sticks with me. It was a great tragedy for all involved when things fell apart in I, Jailbird, you could definitely tell Gibson wasn't into it any more. But the story was still good IMO. And as a story guy, a great strip is more then just the classic artist that started it all (as cool as that can be). Anthony Williams really did step up to the plate to wrap it up, and if I had to pick any artist to draw the next installment it would be him.

I still wait patiently for the next Samantha Slade installment. I don't think its ever too late.

Great write up Grant. Thrillpower Thursday does it again.

[Colin YNWA]

Finally had a chance to read this but its great to report that, as so rarely happens, I agree with every word you type. It'd be nice to have Sam(antha) back, it really would, but we all know its unlikely to happen. Still it was a great idea while it lasted and since Mr Grant seems to be the go to guy for retro strips, and this is probably the 'retro' strip that had most value, in that it was really retro (of you see what I mean) now would be a time when writing it would be great us of his talents.

Still we'll always have... before Paris actually.