2000 AD Xtreme - S/D C/D

bah, no thrill power here.

I fear thrill-suckers have taken hold of ILC. It's the only explanation.

Extreme Editions are a great idea, even if some of the choices are a bit odd. It was great to finally be able to read the whole of Revere, and some of the material that looked unpromising from a distance has turned out to be unexpectedly wonderful, like Al's Baby. Some of it has just been plain rubbish, like Maelstrom, which surely must be most confusing and least rewarding series ever.

I'm not saying Mean Team is any good, but there've definitely been worse strips published under the 2000AD banner that didn't even have the benefit of being drawn by Belardinelli. Universal Soldier for one, which appeared to've been painted in shades of fresh sick.

I do wish they were printed on thicker paper. The stuff they use at the moment is so flimsy it takes nothing at all to end up with a big creased-up mess.

Also when oh when oh when is the Ace Trucking EE coming out? Or is that going to be a proper GN now?

The problem with Ace Trucking Co was that it was pretty lame when it started but got really good after a while. So if they do the proper GN, everyone will buy the first one and think "christ this is shite" and not bother with a second. mmm.

dude, fuckin SHAKO rules.

Incidentally, why hasn't Zenith been republished yet? Some kind of trademark issue? I found the set at Toronto Comicon last year, but the dude was asking crazy money for it.

Yep, Zenith is in limbo for the forseeable future due to longstanding dispute over creator's rights - basically IPC said they owned the rights to Zenith as it was done as "work for hire" by Morrison, but Morrison insisted he never signed anything to this effect, ergo the character rights belong to him. As a result of this silliness it hasn't been reprinted in any form since the early nineties, which is why the Titan TPBs go for stupid money.

Actually, it's a something mystery as to why this still hasn't been resolved, especially now 2000AD is now under the control of publishers who are amenable to the concept of creator-owned characters. Apparently there's a warehouse somewhere with a batch of Zenith Phase 1 books just waiting for the go ahead, but whenever anyone asks if the dispute is ever going to be cleared up, the answer given is always "don't hold your breath".

dude, fuckin SHAKO rules.

I remember Shako... it was very scary... too scary for me to buy the reprint.

in other news, MEAN TEAM is surprisingly enjoyable,

Is that the first series they reprinted, or the whole thing including Henry Moon Survivor? The first series was a decent enough action thing, but there was a change of writer for the second series which is when it nosedived.

It's got up to (SPOILER) they are all killed. I didn't realise there was more.

The first part of the strip is credited to "The Beast" as writer, with the introduction saying it was written by Mills & Wagner. The second part is credited to Hebden or Alan Hebden. I think that is a person rather than a pseudonym but maybe I am wrong. The story seems a bit less discontinuous than I remember, with the crazy earth stuff being somewhat prefigured at the very start of the story.

According to Amazon, there are a whole bunch of 2000 AD reprints coming out in the US over the next few months. Found them while looking around for the complete Halo Jones- there were some complaints about the print quality of the last set of reprints to come out in the States and I wanted to see if I could find an older printing; hopefully now I won't have to.

So, what are the undisputed classics, the stuff I absolutely must read? I've been wanting to properly get into 2000 AD for ages, but the fluctuating availability in the States has always made it more difficult than it should be. Not as bad as Humanoids/Metal Hurlant stuff, granted, but still a pain in the ass. Provided these are decent printings, I'm planning on picking up the Alan Moore stuff (Halo Jones, DR & Quinch, Skizz) and the first Judge Dredd trade, but what else is worth reading?

Mills' and O'Neil's Nemesis the Warlock is as essential as 2000AD gets.

It kinda suffers when O'Neill is replaced by Bryan Talbot, as young Talbot was pretty stiff and wooden as an artist, and no one can draw weird and grotesque creatures as well as O'Neill. But the plot still remains interesting. I haven't read anything beyond Vol. 4 though, I'm not sure if the later volumes are as good.

the first Judge Dredd trade

If you're talking about the complete case files or whatever they're called, I'd skip straight to the second, which has the first two mega-epics (The Cursed Earth and The Day the Law Died). Everyone's still finding their feet in the first one.

Also Strontium Dog is a fave of mine. Wagner/Grant and Ezquerra, can't go wrong.

I haven't read anything beyond Vol. 4 though, I'm not sure if the later volumes are as good.

They are not. The storytelling gets terribly convoluted. The ABC Warriors Black Hole Mission, which ties into the same mythology, is excellent though.

With Nemesis, which one is vol 4? I lean towards thinking that only vol 1 of the recent reprints is truly essential.

Vol 4 is the Gothic Empire I think.

With 2000 AD, most of the long stories trail off in quality. This is particularly true of anything written by Pat Mills, where he tends to disappear up his own arse or be replaced by his evil twin after a while.

My recommendations:

Nemesis
Judge Dredd (there is wisdom in going straight to book 2, but book one does have some good stuff - Robot Wars, the Lunar City stories, etc.)
Strontium Dog (a bit variable in quality, before the inevitable trail-off. stay away from the interminable Ragnarok storyline).
Robo Hunter (generally good when written by whatever John Wagner was calling himself that week, not so good when written by Alan Grant)
Halo Jones (obv)
ABC Warriors (earlier stuff much much better).

and so on.

Vol 4 is the Gothic Empire I think.

that's the original book 4, but it is in vol 1 of the recent reprints.

Oh yeah, Robo-Hunter seconded. Great fun.

This may be contentious, I dunno, but I wouldn't bother with Rogue Trooper. It's rather dull.

It is pretty poor. Often good art, though.

I keep saying this, but RT's problem was that they never could make up their mind as to whether it is an anti-war story or an up-and-at-'em war story. So one minute the Norts would be equal victims of the conflict, the next evil cockfarmers.

Another recommendation - the original VCs (an entertaining future war story).