Nothing to see here

[Frank]

I made my peace with the work of another author ** after learning that the arrival of his copious and uniformly awful scripts in Tharg's bullpen *** struck terror in the hearts of copy boys cowering behind walls and ramparts constructed from the stacked volumes of bad fiction, for which he invoiced Fleetway on an almost daily basis.

No mercy for that one from this quarter.  We'll have no Jonah Hex apologists here.

I blame the enervated nightlife victims occupying the Nerve Centre. Pat Mills's method of commissioning any freeloader hanging around the offices to get something - anything - down on paper, and then rewriting it to make it funny, to make sense, and to make some kind of point, proves pearls can be made from grit. See also Alan Grant's aforementioned reduxxing of GFD's work.

If you're fool enough to commission something as awful as the work of the Olivetti jockey alluded to above, the least you can do is take a pass over it yourself to try and bring it up to code. Or better yet, unleash the malevolent, cackling genius of John Smith upon the dreck to subject it to the blackest parodic sub-editing imaginable, as he begged to be allowed to do with another divisive author's efforts.

[Ancient Otter]

If the fantastically named Bongo Clive - who must surely be named in memorial of the fact that Dr Clive Gibbons from Neighbours played the bongos - wants to understand the majesty of Finley-Day's creative process, he need only read Thrillpower Overload's account of the editorial team's frustrated attempts to piece together randomly ordered typewritten pages of Burroughs cut-up technique script, with physically impossible stage directions and dialogue which appeared to be written in a language other than English, into something resembling a coherent narrative.

One of my top all-time favourite 2000 panel sequences is in Fort Neuro - "Stak! Souther G.I. on suicide* run!" - but I now wonder how much of that was created by GFD or editiorial. Hmmm.....

* I think they spell it su-ee-cide in the speech bubble or something like it?

[Magnetica]

I think it is unfair to single out GFD. To me some of his stories were absolute classics, especially Fiends of the Eastern Front and Harry 20.

Death Planet and Angel (recent floppies) are, in my opinion, easily more hackneyed than any of GFD stuff (apart from  possibly Ant Wars). But for an eight year old in 1978 I'll bet they were great.

As to the suggestion that Dredd was fully formed from the start, I can't agree. Some of the early stories are not that sophisticated and follow a basic pattern of introducing a baddie, the baddie having a run in with Dredd and ending up dead or with a heavy sentence and that's about it. I think even the 'classic" robot wars does not particular stand up well now.

[Greg M.]

I'm pretty sure Pat Mills has said that the editing needed on GFD's scripts wasn't anything like as extensive as is sometimes suggested. He's also said he feels GFD doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves: in fact, Pat cites GFD as the third key member of a progressive British comics vanguard (the other two members being Pat himself and John Wagner, of course.)

[judda fett]

I'm pretty sure Pat Mills has said that the editing needed on GFD's scripts wasn't anything like as extensive as is sometimes suggested. He's also said he feels GFD doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves: in fact, Pat cites GFD as the third key member of a progressive British comics vanguard (the other two members being Pat himself and John Wagner, of course.)

I picked up the Rat Pack from the Works today for three pound ninety nine pence and an interview with Pat included is pretty much summed up by Greg's post here.

[Fungus]

I completely disagree with your stance.
I really like the way GFD writes.
So what are you missing? You are probably looking for a level of modern complexity and coolness that is not there. If you don't like his stuff, I would suggest not reading it.

Yup, as per Skullmo.
Been about 18 months back in the fold and the only Megazine floppy I've genuinely enjoyed is
Disaster 1990. GFD. It wouldn't win awards but it is crafted perfectly. The Lobster Randoms and Black
Siddhas leave me cold...

Why 'nothing to see here'? That title is tempting fate 
But each to their own, of course.

[Skullmo]

I think GFD bashing has become a common sport. It seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world.

Having said that I cannot help but feel if he was such a terrible writer how come so few since him have managed to write a good Rogue Trooper story.

[Colin YNWA]

I think GFD bashing has become a common sport. It seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world.

Oh course its also entirely possible that any 'GFD bashing' as you put it rather provocatively put it is actually simply some people not enjoying his work. This would have nothing to do with what people have read elsewhere (meaning outside the works of GFD) and well... you know... just their opinion. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly know that applies to me.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Why 'nothing to see here'? That title is tempting fate 
But each to their own, of course.

I think that was the mods' work, not the OP's. But yeah... have to admit, Rich, it made me click on the thread immediately 

[hippynumber1]

I think the original thread title was 'Worst Writer Ever' or words to that effect!

[Skullmo]

I think GFD bashing has become a common sport. It seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world.

Oh course its also entirely possible that any 'GFD bashing' as you put it rather provocatively put it is actually simply some people not enjoying his work. This would have nothing to do with what people have read elsewhere (meaning outside the works of GFD) and well... you know... just their opinion. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly know that applies to me.

I don't see a thread saying anyone else is the worst writer ever . . .

[ming]

I don't see a thread saying anyone else is the worst writer ever . . .

Well there's always this one...

Poo-gate, aka A Message from the Writer of Stalag 666.

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,23489.0.html


Say what you like about GFD, no-one ever sent him poo through the post.

[Colin YNWA]

I think GFD bashing has become a common sport. It seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world.

Oh course its also entirely possible that any 'GFD bashing' as you put it rather provocatively put it is actually simply some people not enjoying his work. This would have nothing to do with what people have read elsewhere (meaning outside the works of GFD) and well... you know... just their opinion. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly know that applies to me.

I don't see a thread saying anyone else is the worst writer ever . . .

No quite agree but luckily the titles been changed - though it lingers on those first few posts alas. It was an unfortunate title for the post, particularly one that actually sort to understand why a lot of people liked GFD's work and gave reasons for the poster not liking it rather than why it was the worst. So yeah not a great start...

...BUT (as ever it was always coming). One poster starting a post with a poor choice of title does not make 'GFD bashing' common sport. BongoClive gave reasons for why he didn't like his work, as have others, myself included, none of which seem to evidence the fact that stuff was said in Thrillpower Overload, rather that its their (and my) reaction to reading his work.

To assign some other reason, i.e. the comments made in Thrillpower Overload, comes across to me as dismissive of people who have expressed an opinion that differs from your own, for reasons I can see no real evidence for. Now if you'd said 'Well if you don't like GFD's work I think you smell of poo' no beef as you're not assigning reasons for why we've said it, rather you are disagreeing.

[Skullmo]

I don't see a thread saying anyone else is the worst writer ever . . .

Well there's always this one...

Poo-gate, aka A Message from the Writer of Stalag 666.

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,23489.0.html


Say what you like about GFD, no-one ever sent him poo through the post.

Oh dear! yes, I forgot about that. Did anyone ever find the dirty bum who did this?

[Skullmo]

I think GFD bashing has become a common sport. It seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world.

Oh course its also entirely possible that any 'GFD bashing' as you put it rather provocatively put it is actually simply some people not enjoying his work. This would have nothing to do with what people have read elsewhere (meaning outside the works of GFD) and well... you know... just their opinion. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly know that applies to me.

I don't see a thread saying anyone else is the worst writer ever . . .

No quite agree but luckily the titles been changed - though it lingers on those first few posts alas. It was an unfortunate title for the post, particularly one that actually sort to understand why a lot of people liked GFD's work and gave reasons for the poster not liking it rather than why it was the worst. So yeah not a great start...

...BUT (as ever it was always coming). One poster starting a post with a poor choice of title does not make 'GFD bashing' common sport. BongoClive gave reasons for why he didn't like his work, as have others, myself included, none of which seem to evidence the fact that stuff was said in Thrillpower Overload, rather that its their (and my) reaction to reading his work.

To assign some other reason, i.e. the comments made in Thrillpower Overload, comes across to me as dismissive of people who have expressed an opinion that differs from your own, for reasons I can see no real evidence for. Now if you'd said 'Well if you don't like GFD's work I think you smell of poo' no beef as you're not assigning reasons for why we've said it, rather you are disagreeing.

Ok - I will restate my comment. I didn't think it would cause any concern, I sort of write these things off the cuff when I'm bored.

In my view, as anything I say is in my view, I think GFD bashing has become a common sport (and of course I say this with a sense of humour as, arguably, there could be no actual sport that would involve bashing GFD). In my view this commonly seems to be based on a few comments which were in the Thrillpower Overload about the quality of his scripts, and I say this because I have heard this point raised a number of times by people not just in this thread but elsewhere. I am sure everything in that book is completely unbiased and represents the full picture of the world (this unfortunately is sarcasm as I do not think the book was unbiased in any way - and did not include a contribution from GFD as far as I remember). Having said that I am sure there are many other reasons for disliking his work which everybody is entitled to have.