2000AD and all things related

[Fambo Number Mive]

I've ordered a couple of Judge Dredd the Mega Collection books, one of which has Brit-Cit Brute in (been looking for this for a while). I'm trying to work out if there are many Mega Collection books that contain content that isn't included in the Case Files. Unless I'm wrote and Brit-Cit Brute is in one of the Case Files.

 

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've ordered a couple of Judge Dredd the Mega Collection books, one of which has Brit-Cit Brute in (been looking for this for a while). I'm trying to work out if there are many Mega Collection books that contain content that isn't included in the Case Files. Unless I'm wrote and Brit-Cit Brute is in one of the Case Files.

According to this review Brit Cit Brute was reprinted for the first time in 2015 in the Mega Collection "The Heavy Mob" -
https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/04/comic-book-review-judge-dredd-the-mega-collection-the-heavy-mob/ - so it looks like it never made it in to a case file, though I'm not sure why.

There are other examples as well, and it seems at least some of the time it's because they've aged terribly / are horribly racist, though no one has explicitly stated that.

[13 schoolyards]

The official line is that the Case Files are only for Dredd stories, which is defined as "stories titled JUDGE DREDD". So no Dead Man, no America, and none of the spin-offs. Some of them have had their own collections (ie The Taxidermist), but a fair few have missed out... possibly, as Small Man Big Horse points out, for reasons of quality

[Fambo Number Mive]

Thanks for the info both of you, looks like I will need to order some more of the Mega Collections, although avoiding any of the racist stories.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Strontium Dog - Search and Destroy Agency Files Volume 1 by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra - My memory is frequently appalling but I have a strange feeling that I'd never read the first appearances of Strontium Dog in  Starlord before, if only because it really surprised me as to just how weird these strips could be. The various villains (Billy Joe, Giant Head Alien Man, the Brain who is training Waterworts to sing songs from Oklahoma) are all fantastic, as are many of the locations, the alien circus being a real highlight.

When it transfers to 2000AD it initially becomes something of a more traditional sci-fi tale however and it lost some of the more extreme moments of absurdity, I still liked it but the Walrog intergalactic war story definitely went on for a bit too long. Fortunately Wagner and Grant then decided to weird it up much more once again as they travelled to the Hell dimension which was my favourite part of this first collection, and the stunning art from Ezquerra might just be the best thing he ever did.

Unfortunately I found that post Hell that the quality varied a little, theres still some nicely offbeat stories (The Schicklgruber Grab especially) but there are some which seem a bit bland, like "Mutie's Luck" and "The Bad Boys Bust", while it's only with the third episodes of "The Doc Quince Case" and "Death's Head" that I started to enjoy them. Oh, and one thing which really began to grate was the fucking Gronk and his "My poor Heartses" catchphrase, it was amusing at first but then the repetition started to really annoy me (as did Wulf's cucumber obsession, if I'm to be honest).

Hmmmm, I feel like this is a far too negative review for a collection which tends to flit between a 4 and 4.5 rating, and only occasionally dipped to a 3.5, I guess it's just down to the fact that I loved the madness in the Starlord issues and wish it had been replicated a little more often. Either way I really do want to get the rest of the Search and Destroy Agency Files even though they're horribly expensive. I did almost manage to get the third volume from WorldOfBooks for £15 on Friday, only for them to cancel the order yesterday and claim it was out of stock, presumably because the shits realised what it normally goes for.

And to end on something (hopefully) amusing, the stories right at the back from annuals / holiday specials didn't do poor old Johny any favours, and I thought this part below made him look like a weird mix of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker!

[13 schoolyards]

I didn't start reading SD until it was well into its "western in spaaaaace" period (sometime after Portrait of a Mutant), so the weird early stories always seemed extra weird to me. They definitely have their charms but they read a bit like the series hasn't settled down and fully figured itself out yet - it's hard to imagine keeping that level of inventiveness up for hundreds of progs.

[Norton Canes]

A reminder that Strontium Dog's weekly Starlord run is available to read on Starlord: The (not quite) Complete Scans

[Small Man Big Horse]

I didn't start reading SD until it was well into its "western in spaaaaace" period (sometime after Portrait of a Mutant), so the weird early stories always seemed extra weird to me. They definitely have their charms but they read a bit like the series hasn't settled down and fully figured itself out yet - it's hard to imagine keeping that level of inventiveness up for hundreds of progs.

I'm the same, and though I got a lot of the Titan collections for various other series I don't think I ever did with Strontium Dog, and that was why it was such a (pleasant) surprise to find how different it was initially. You're right on the inventiveness front though, and I read the strip in 2000 AD from about issue 350 or so onwards (I bought a whole bunch of back issues from my sister's friend, but can't quite remember how far they went back), I guess I just wish it could have lasted a little longer.

It's a shame they haven't released a new collection similar to the Nemesis Definitive Collection volumes, and I wonder if that's in the works, which is putting me off getting further Agency Files in the future.

[madhair60]

"Strontium Dog" is such a fucking cool name for a series

[Oh, Nobody]

It's a shame they haven't released a new collection similar to the Nemesis Definitive Collection volumes

There's these: https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB683

Not quite the size of the Nemesis ones but same lovely smelling paper and all that. Not a fan of the covers. But I bought them, I bought them.

[13 schoolyards]

Those new SD hardcovers are really nice - hopefully they'll do similar for Rogue Trooper as we get closer to the movie, it's really the only classic series left that hasn't had a big upgrade in format from the case files-style collections. Well, I guess Robo-Hunter, but that hasn't aged well. Ace Trucking Co would look amazing in a bigger style but again, possibly not a big demand there.

There's talk that they're going to do an Apex collection of Dave Gibbons art so if they can get a bunch of early Rogue stories for that I'd be happy (and if I could actually afford to buy it, I'd be even happier).

[Small Man Big Horse]

There's these: https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB683

Not quite the size of the Nemesis ones but same lovely smelling paper and all that. Not a fan of the covers. But I bought them, I bought them.

I saw them in Forbidden Planet a couple of weeks ago and was tempted, but the first Agency Files covers all of the first two volumes and part of the third, albeit in black and white which is a real shame as the Starlord material in colour looks lovely. Right now I'm going to hope I might spot the second Agency Files going cheap on Ebay, but if I haven't managed to bag a copy I'll all but certainly pick up that third volume.

Those new SD hardcovers are really nice - hopefully they'll do similar for Rogue Trooper as we get closer to the movie, it's really the only classic series left that hasn't had a big upgrade in format from the case files-style collections. Well, I guess Robo-Hunter, but that hasn't aged well. Ace Trucking Co would look amazing in a bigger style but again, possibly not a big demand there.

There's talk that they're going to do an Apex collection of Dave Gibbons art so if they can get a bunch of early Rogue stories for that I'd be happy (and if I could actually afford to buy it, I'd be even happier).

I liked Rogue pre: Friday but it's a series I haven't revisited since I read it as a teenager, so I might have to check it out online before considering buying a new collection. And my local library had the second volume of Ace Trucking Company in its pretty small graphic novel collection, but it went missing six months ago and and I suspect some shit nicked it.

[13 schoolyards]

Rogue is a bit of a tough one as the art is often first rate but the stories are a notch down from the 2000AD norm at the time. They're pretty basic and there's a lot of dangling plot threads on Nu Earth that don't really get resolved - I get the feeling Gerry Finley-Day was told to wrap things up as there's not really any forward momentum across the run and then suddenly Rogue's quest is over. (as is the story once Rogue leaves Nu Earth as far as I'm concerned)

But again, great art, quality war thrills, Rogue usually has some pithy comment at the end about how war is the real hell or something, four stars.

The recent Garth Ennis scripted Rogue Trooper story was a reminder that there actually is something interesting in there (as is Cinnabar, a stand alone Rogue Trooper story scripted by John Smith that's possibly the best use of the original Rogue to date). But war stories that are actually about combat are tough to do and 2000AD doesn't seem to have the writers for it at the moment.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Rogue is a bit of a tough one as the art is often first rate but the stories are a notch down from the 2000AD norm at the time. They're pretty basic and there's a lot of dangling plot threads on Nu Earth that don't really get resolved - I get the feeling Gerry Finley-Day was told to wrap things up as there's not really any forward momentum across the run and then suddenly Rogue's quest is over. (as is the story once Rogue leaves Nu Earth as far as I'm concerned)

But again, great art, quality war thrills, Rogue usually has some pithy comment at the end about how war is the real hell or something, four stars.

I thought that might be the case, and I'm sure I'll definitely pick it up at some point, but it'll be later rather than sooner given everything else I want to read!

The recent Garth Ennis scripted Rogue Trooper story was a reminder that there actually is something interesting in there (as is Cinnabar, a stand alone Rogue Trooper story scripted by John Smith that's possibly the best use of the original Rogue to date). But war stories that are actually about combat are tough to do and 2000AD doesn't seem to have the writers for it at the moment.

I didn't know they were still doing new Rogue Trooper stories at all, though I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise given the forthcoming movie, but that'll be another thing to add to my Amazon wishlist!

[13 schoolyards]

Three months to save up!

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB867/rogue-trooper-blighty-valley

[Ron Maels Moustache]

I thought that might be the case, and I'm sure I'll definitely pick it up at some point, but it'll be later rather than sooner given everything else I want to read!

I didn't know they were still doing new Rogue Trooper stories at all, though I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise given the forthcoming movie, but that'll be another thing to add to my Amazon wishlist!

This was actually the first new Rogue material of any substance for quite some years, for most of the last couple of decades it's been mainly one-off specials and "same universe" spinoffs like Gordon Rennie's Atelier.

I think the issue is a lot of writers struggling to make a modern take on Rogue work, Rennie himself said he always had difficulty with the concept of making a gritty future war comic where the main character has a talking hat. To his credit, Ennis got around this by playing into the retro war comics vibe, which ended up working working really well for this particular story.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Three months to save up!

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB867/rogue-trooper-blighty-valley

Thanks for that, I should just about have enough put aside for it by then! I was in Forbidden Planet this afternoon and looked at their 2000AD section, but it's sadly rather lacking, most of it was Dredd based, along with a lot of copies of Halo Jones and the recent Strontium Dog reprints, and while there were a couple of other titles I thought it was a real shame that they had so little in stock. I did consider buying the third Strontium Dog collection as well but the page count wasn't that high so I'm definitely going to try and get hold of the 2nd Agency Files volume instead.

This was actually the first new Rogue material of any substance for quite some years, for most of the last couple of decades it's been mainly one-off specials and "same universe" spinoffs like Gordon Rennie's Atelier.

I think the issue is a lot of writers struggling to make a modern take on Rogue work, Rennie himself said he always had difficulty with the concept of making a gritty future war comic where the main character has a talking hat. To his credit, Ennis got around this by playing into the retro war comics vibe, which ended up working working really well for this particular story.

Ah, I didn't know that, and it's a good point about how hard it must be handle the character, and it'll be interesting to see how the film deals with that aspect as well.

[13 schoolyards]

I think the issue is a lot of writers struggling to make a modern take on Rogue work, Rennie himself said he always had difficulty with the concept of making a gritty future war comic where the main character has a talking hat. To his credit, Ennis got around this by playing into the retro war comics vibe, which ended up working working really well for this particular story.

This is the big problem with pretty much all 2000AD's legacy characters at the moment - they were created by people working with the kind of stories they liked and the kind of subject matter that interested them, but now they're being handed over to writers with a different set of interests.

Rogue is a pretty basic character, but having "a talking hat" isn't a weakness, it's a solution to the problem that having a solo character on the run in a warzone isn't going to have anyone to talk to. There's other ways around it - the Mad Max approach of every story being told from the point of view of the supporting characters comes to mind - but for a character created for a UK comic in the 80s, having the minds of Rogue's dead comrades preserved in his equipment is pretty good stuff and if a writer today can't make it work that's on them.

The other part of the problem is that Ennis is a much better writer than Rennie, but Rennie is the one writing big chunks of the prog.