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2000AD and all things related

Started by Artie Fufkin, June 14, 2022, 12:41:58 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Registering to lurk on June 15, 2022, 10:28:32 PM
Jigsaw disease, from The Judge Child, really creeped me out. Poor Mr Prosser, I worried about the questions he asked about Jigsaw disease. How did he stay together? Where was he disappearing to?


Similarly, this creepy condition that haunted our dreams.


Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on June 16, 2022, 02:33:39 PMI've had a look but I can't see anything. It's weird, sometimes images don't work for me (for instance badaids picture of Simon Bisley's ABC Warriors art came up once, but isn't showing now) and it all seems a bit random as to why I can seem some images but not others.

Bisley has hotlink protection on his images so you can't link to them, they'll only appear if you've already been on the site and looked at them (I think)

Anyone know what happened to John Smith? Incredible writer who seemed to disappear about a decade ago. Pretty much ungoogleable name so my very minor attempts to find out what he is up to have come to nought. Hope he's OK.

Cradlegrave is one of the best things that has ever been in 2000AD, a genuinely creepy, unsettling horror set on a council estate.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Wentworth Smith on June 20, 2022, 09:28:49 AMAnyone know what happened to John Smith? Incredible writer who seemed to disappear about a decade ago. Pretty much ungoogleable name so my very minor attempts to find out what he is up to have come to nought. Hope he's OK.

Cradlegrave is one of the best things that has ever been in 2000AD, a genuinely creepy, unsettling horror set on a council estate.

This thread hints at what might have happened (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=45423.0) maybe I'm reading too much in to it but it sounds like he might have had a bit of a falling out with Matt Smith, but I could be very, very wrong about that.

This has some thoughts on his work too, but no answers alas: https://www.tcj.com/from-revere-to-eternity-the-works-of-john-smith/

13 schoolyards

Supposedly Smith was in the middle of writing a Indigo Prime series when his partner (or at least, someone close to him) died. He wasn't willing or able to continue writing for quite some time (a year? more?), then he put a post up on FB saying something like "I'm finally able to get back to this script, this episode I'm writing will be insane" and there was a reply from current Tharg Matt Smith saying words to the effect of "please get in touch with me immediately".

It turned out that Tharg had grown tired of waiting and had given all his series to other writers. That - sadly - was the end of that, and Smith doesn't seem to have written anything since.

It's somewhat understandable that Tharg thought he was gone for good and didn't want to be stuck with a half-finished Indigo Prime story, but not having Smith around is a massive loss for 2000ad.

Thanks for that. I'd seen that Indigo Prime had been taken over by someone else as that removed all my interest in the story. The Smith Prime is great stuff, with Killing Time being a key story for me as a lad. Has that similar grimy all encompassing ickiness (for want of a better word) as Cradlegrave.

Read Firekind last night as well and really stands up. Obvious Dune influences mixed with odd anti colonial folk horror. Stays away from the main character being a white saviour type
Spoiler alert
as he doesn't really do much other than observe.
[close]

Need to give Revere a re-read, not looked at it since the '90's and not sure I really got it then.

Ray Travez


Small Man Big Horse

Nemesis Book 2 - A fun trip to the giant spider filled prison planet where Nemesis dumps defeated humans, the art by Jesus Redondo is good, and sometimes great, but yet nowhere near as stunning as Kevin O'Neill's, so I found myself missing the amazing detail he included. The ending feels a little rushed too,
Spoiler alert
after a big build up no one wins and the final panel feels like it should lead in to next week's strip, and not a whole new book
[close]
, though, I'm not really complaining too much about that as Book 3 sees the return of O'Neill. 4.25/5

Brundle-Fly

The original Flesh was the scariest strip from 2000ad. Giving Action comic's Hookjaw a swim for its money.








Norton Canes

Though I was never scared by 2000 AD in the same way I was by various instances of 70's sci-fi television, there were a lot of things in those early progs I found really disquieting. The first two Dan Dare strips, drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, for instance - with eerie Martian commander Mr. Monday taking his own life dragging the alien Biog fleet into the heart of the sun, and a hapless technician aged to a withered husk in a matter of seconds (they're all... etc.) when his spaceship's warp protection shields failed. And the final episode of Flesh book I where we forget about the Trans-Time base altogether and follow giant Tyrannosaur Old One-Eye to her death.

Artie Fufkin

One that really disturbed me was a Terror Tale(?), I think by Moore, though I could be wrong.
About a guy who had this poisonous snake/s(?) in his room. It was wrapped around the light fitting because it hunted by heat. At the end of the strip the light went out. Blank panel with just an 'AAAAARGHHH!!'.
Brilliant.

Small Man Big Horse

Nemesis The Warlock Book 3 (The First Half) - Man it's good to have O'Neill back, especially as this gets weirder and weirder as we meet more of Nemesis's family, his horse-like wife and her enemy who desperately wants to seduce Nemesis, and the celebration of Thoth's birth and Great Uncle Baal gatecrashing the party is extremely funny stuff. 5/5

I've now managed to buy the second and third volumes, someone was selling the whole set on ebay for £75, I offered £60 and he agreed. It's more than I've ever spent on a graphic novel but to get all three for £20 each doesn't seem so bad, especially given the scarcity of the second volume. I did find out that it has also been republished as 2000AD The Ultimate Collection, but that's spread across four volumes and price wise was still going to be very expensive, so I'm happy with the way things have worked out.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on June 23, 2022, 11:11:07 AMOne that really disturbed me was a Terror Tale(?), I think by Moore, though I could be wrong.
About a guy who had this poisonous snake/s(?) in his room. It was wrapped around the light fitting because it hunted by heat. At the end of the strip the light went out. Blank panel with just an 'AAAAARGHHH!!'.
Brilliant.

What was the Future Shock where the hero had to lie on a big, white hot plate, burning in eternal, excruciating agony to save the human race?  The final panel of that strip has always stuck in my mind.

badaids


The two that stick in my mind and creeped me out were:

The one where a woman goes to see a priest with her baby covered in a pram to ask for help because her family want to kill her child and its father.  She recounts her story and long distance relationship with the father, and at the end the reveal in the last frame is that the baby is a hideous phone human hybrid with the priest looking disgusted. 

The other is an old woman getting ready to go out recounting to the reader her time as a child before the apocalypse.  As you get toward the very end you release she is getting armoured and tooled up to go and and fight for the corporate capitalist company she is part of now, against some other horrible industrial-corporate syndicate.  She opens her front door to reveal a horrible devastated world.

It's amazing how many solid gold ideas, conceits and concepts these single shot strips would burn through on a weekly basis, they way that a band like the buzzcocks would burn just through and jettison perfect little songs and riffs.

13 schoolyards

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on June 23, 2022, 11:11:07 AMOne that really disturbed me was a Terror Tale(?), I think by Moore, though I could be wrong.
About a guy who had this poisonous snake/s(?) in his room. It was wrapped around the light fitting because it hunted by heat. At the end of the strip the light went out. Blank panel with just an 'AAAAARGHHH!!'.
Brilliant.

I'm pretty sure that's in Nemesis bk.1 - the early episode where the villagers have Nemesis strung up in the town square thinking he's dead but various unpleasant alien plagues keep killing them off until they wise up and cut him down (at which point he walks off unharmed)

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: 13 schoolyards on June 24, 2022, 07:51:24 AMI'm pretty sure that's in Nemesis bk.1 - the early episode where the villagers have Nemesis strung up in the town square thinking he's dead but various unpleasant alien plagues keep killing them off until they wise up and cut him down (at which point he walks off unharmed)

You're 100% right there:



Also, as a final twist in the tale about my attempt to get Nemesis Volume Two for a reasonable price, I've just discovered that there's one on Ebay for £18.85 - instead of ten times that amount on Amazon - so if anyone's ever wanted to read the series I'd highly recommend getting it while it's so cheap: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115438815057?hash=item1ae0b08751:g:jAQAAOSwQW1itI4c

Artie Fufkin

^Annoyingly I can't see the picture, if you've put one there^

Thanks for the feedback, but it wasn't a Nemesis story. I'm 99% sure of that.

Artie Fufkin

Fuck my old boots. Apologies, you're both absolutely right. I don't remember it being in Nemesis at all. Thanks, guys.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on June 24, 2022, 11:00:12 AMFuck my old boots. Apologies, you're both absolutely right. I don't remember it being in Nemesis at all. Thanks, guys.

No need to apologise, I only read it a couple of weeks ago and so it was very fresh in my memory.

13 schoolyards

It's the part where the old woman wakes up and still thinks it's dark, only to realise all the windows are covered in flies that's always stuck with me

madhair60

i'm reading the Dredd complete case files, just started. fascinating to see how it all came together. I've got volumes 1 thru 6, should keep me busy. If they remain in print I can see myself persevering, it's very enjoyable.

Swift

I somehow advanced from The Dandy and The Beano to 2000AD in about 1991 aged 10. I remember feeling a sense of "this is too old" for me excitement but also uneasiness. I didn't quite understand the satire and the edginess made me a bit uncomfortable, I guess. Kept buying it every week up until about 1998 I'd guess. My dad would pick it up for me each week coming home from work and I remember him being annoyed at having to buy the infamous Sex issue which came wrapped in cellophane.

I briefly got back into it about a decade ago for a year or so. No issues with quality, but it's expensive to get here in Canada so it's been hard to justify a subscription.

I dug out my 90s issues during the pandemic and have been going through them again. Some good, some stinkers, and the ever reliable Dredd.

Alberon

I remember once the newsagent didn't receive 2000AD one week so he substituted it with The Beano.

I ripped it up in fury.

28 years old I was (probably actually half that, but still).

willbo

Quote from: Swift on June 24, 2022, 07:37:10 PMMy dad would pick it up for me each week coming home from work and I remember him being annoyed at having to buy the infamous Sex issue which came wrapped in cellophane.


was that the one that had the first Nikolai Dante story in? I remember taking that into school and everyone was reading it. I can't remember what else was sexy in it tho. Yeah I remember my first look at 2000AD when I was 11 or so, it was so scary and surreal, kind of unsettling.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: 13 schoolyards on June 24, 2022, 01:33:23 PMIt's the part where the old woman wakes up and still thinks it's dark, only to realise all the windows are covered in flies that's always stuck with me
Bloody hell! Had forgotten about that one. Brilliant stuff.

Glebe

Quote from: Alberon on June 24, 2022, 11:15:14 PMI remember once the newsagent didn't receive Bunty one week so he substituted it with Whizzer & Chips.

I ripped it up in fury.

56 years old I was (probably actually half that, but still).

Quote from: Wentworth Smith on June 20, 2022, 02:34:59 PMThanks for that. I'd seen that Indigo Prime had been taken over by someone else as that removed all my interest in the story. The Smith Prime is great stuff, with Killing Time being a key story for me as a lad. Has that similar grimy all encompassing ickiness (for want of a better word) as Cradlegrave.

Read Firekind last night as well and really stands up. Obvious Dune influences mixed with odd anti colonial folk horror. Stays away from the main character being a white saviour type
Spoiler alert
as he doesn't really do much other than observe.
[close]

Need to give Revere a re-read, not looked at it since the '90's and not sure I really got it then.

Nice to see John Smith getting some respect on this thread, he was always one of consistently imaginative and inventive creators on the 2000AD regular staff (and apparently was nearly offered the Tharg job, how amazing would that've been), and it's a real sadness that the relationship between him and editorial broke down.

I suspect one reason he never became a comics megastar was that he wasn't interested in self-publicising in the way that some of his contemporaries were, he never turned himself into his own personal brand like Gaiman or Morrison, he was just a guy working away producing all this weird, mind-bending stuff almost anonymously. Also I don't think he was interested in writing superheroes, which probably closes a lot of doors with regard to working on lucrative US work.

I'd say Revere deserves a revisit, it's genuinely bizarre mindfuck of a thing, which maybe isn't a surprise considering Smith was coming off a period of massive LSD abuse during it's creation (there was an interview where he described it something like "I was seeing people walking around as living meat puppets, so I thought it was probably time to stop") but despite that it still makes a sort of sense as a whole story and the ending is actually kind-of beautiful. The art by Simon Harrison is properly otherworldly as well, particularly in Book 3 where it practically drips off the page.

I've always thought Cradlegrave would make a perfect low-budget British horror film, I'd be amazed if no-one's ever considered it before.

Swift

Quote from: willbo on June 24, 2022, 11:23:38 PMwas that the one that had the first Nikolai Dante story in? I remember taking that into school and everyone was reading it. I can't remember what else was sexy in it tho. Yeah I remember my first look at 2000AD when I was 11 or so, it was so scary and surreal, kind of unsettling.

I don't think it was the first Dante, but he had a strip in that issue, along with Dredd and Space Girls I believe. Can't remember the others. The Dante one leaned into the sex stuff the most with him taking part in an orgy. Lots of boobies I seem to recall.

willbo

Quote from: Swift on June 26, 2022, 04:56:30 AMI don't think it was the first Dante, but he had a strip in that issue, along with Dredd and Space Girls I believe. Can't remember the others. The Dante one leaned into the sex stuff the most with him taking part in an orgy. Lots of boobies I seem to recall.

I'm almost 100 percent sure I remember Dante debut-ing in the "sex issue". But I'll have to google it. Hm. Seems I might be wrong. Maybe it was his first comeback story or something.  I remember getting prog 1000 too, wish I kept it...

Small Man Big Horse

If anyone's ever looking to read any UK comics than this long running site is amazing - https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2021/09/04/main-page-large-titles/

And Dante debuted in 1035, with this technically being his third story:

Quote"The Adventures of Nikolai Dante" (with Simon Fraser, in 2000 AD #1035–1041, 1997)
"The Romanov Dynasty" (with Simon Fraser, in 2000 AD #1042–1049, 1997)
"Russia's Greatest Love Machine" (with Chris Weston, in 2000 AD #1066, 1997)