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Underground > Comic Books >

The Dead and Tyranny Rex - for cheap.

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12:16 / 21.02.07

Picked this up today and behind a, pardon me, zarjaz cover by the modern master of the throne of Belardinelli Boo Cook is the complete Peter Milligan and Massimo Belardinelli series The Dead. Though the loose ends hint at plans for more this is more self contained and satisfying than a lot of loose end series like Freaks.

What surprised me is the choice of back up material. Genius at Work! The Morrison/Dillon Future Shock! is standard issue padder but Tyranny Rex? Surely Tyranny deserved her own collection. Reprinted here are her first three stories, 11 episodes worth (and therefore longer than The Dead), with Prince, Indigo Prime, and lots of others 80's fun. Especially worth a look if you bought the frustratingly incomplete Complete Indigo Prime collection a year or two back. Still, the powers that be must be keen on Smithy, he's been the mainstay of the reprints for a couple of years now.

Anyway, Belardinellis art alone is worth £3. It's the last decent script he got before editorial whim left him out in the cold, and missing presumed dead. He's not by the way. But then Death is no more than an irritating illness...

Janean Patience

13:34 / 21.02.07

Tyranny Rex - are these the ones with the Steve Dillon art and a Prince knockoff? Or the much-heralded story that began with Mark Buckingham art, and that I can't remember ever ending?

15:15 / 21.02.07

It's the first three stories so, yeah, Prince is in there 2.

Haus of Mystery

16:58 / 21.02.07

Fucking ace! I've just been reading 'The Dead' in a few old back progs I found lurking in my studio. It's one of the weirdest things ever to appear in The Galaxy's Greatest, partly due to Bellardinelli's insanely grotesque visuals.
And my John Smith love continues unabated...

Janean Patience

17:10 / 21.02.07

And you did actually say Prince in your first post, which evidently I didn't read properly. So beginning with Dillon and ending with the Will Simpson-drawn episodes with Fervent & Lobe, yeah? I thought John Smith was just a pen-name for Dillon at first. Dillon was writing his own occasional series, Hap Hazzard, and John Smith was such an obvious pseudonym... Smith was challenged about that on the old Invisibles mailing list, I remember, perhaps incorrectly.

Did anything ever become of Tyranny Rex? It always seemed to promise a lot. I don't recall it ever really delivered.

Haus of Mystery

17:45 / 21.02.07

She mutated wildly as a character - sometimes a media star, then a nun...she was mooted to make a very different appearance in 'Revolver' before that went tits up. With art by John Hicklenton, which would have been suitably mental. I think Smith is quite undisciploned and tends to get bored of characters fairly quickly. Devlin Waugh's probably the most regular thing he's ever written, and part of that's no doubt due to it being a regular paycheck.

Haus of Mystery

11:57 / 22.02.07

Ahhh. picked this up at lunch time. I'm really enjoying the editorial decisions being made about the reprint material. It's weird - I was flicking through some dusty old progs thinking that someone should collect Milligan's miscellany, and the bugger's do just that.

Now come on Tharg - you know it makes sense...

COLLECT 'SOONER or LATER' NOW!

There's prescious little McCarfyism in the world and you're sitting on a great big wadge of it you tight green fucker.

Janean Patience

12:47 / 22.02.07

Apparently it's Junker next issue.

Haus of Mystery

13:18 / 22.02.07

Fuck.

Janean Patience

13:39 / 22.02.07

Only joking. Though perhaps this thread could usefully be retitled and used as a general Extreme Editions thread, as we're all interested in what's coming next.

I hear it's Night Zero.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:17 / 22.02.07

I thought it was Cola Commandos?

Haus of Mystery

16:30 / 22.02.07

*ahem* that's Kola Kommandos if you please.

I want Chronos Carnival and Dry Run together in one extreme bastard!!

Janean Patience

20:34 / 22.02.07

Damn, I was gonna say Dry Run.

Okay, how about collecting Mean Arena? That's not too bad, you're thinking, I quite liked that Matt dude avenging his brother in various British cities... No. The second series of Mean Arena. The one that was like sci-fi pro-wrestling, but worse.

Haus of Mystery

20:51 / 22.02.07

Yep. All the work of Michael Fleisher, a reasonable American writer who transmogrified into a fuck-dreadful British writer when asked to work for 'the AD'. His stinky pile of dross was backlogged so much that in the drought years, the editor's had to wheel out yet another 27 part Rogue Trooper (i'm talking the excremental 'Friday' version - already a turkey, turned into a proper goose under Fleisher's steely grip).

Happy days.

While we're naming the dross - two words.

Universal.
Soldier.

My heart would sink when this was wheeled out. It was only marginally better than the 'revamp' of Kelly's Eye.

Or howsabout 'Trash'?
Or 'Inspector Raam'?

Nurse! The sedatives!

miss wonderstarr

21:14 / 22.02.07

There really has been so much appalling dross in "the AD" ~ I wonder if it outweighs the considerable good stuff.

Did anyone mention "Below Zero"? (I'm not sure if there was also "Beyond Zero" or if that was some fever-nightmare of my own). Why such a criminally dull and generic story deserved two sequels, I can't guess. It was the comic book equivalent of straight-to-video, pirate-copy market-stall SF action. In a bad way. You could watch it post-pub with a bunch of SF action movie fans, and still turn it off after ten minutes.

And like Dry Run, that utterly indifferent epic, it seemed to run for months.

I found Mean Team and Moon Runners utterly ghastly and embarrassing too. And the revamped Sam Slade, with a gay robot spider sidekick who wore a biker cap with a pink triangle, and pink lipstick, was pretty unspeakable. Simon Harrison's Strontium Dog was so ugly I couldn't bear to read the story. Simon Bisley's Slaine was pretty if you like heavy metal art, but just seemed to drift smugly, trailing its references to genuine Celtic myth. And yes, Simpson and Gibbons' "Friday" Rogue was way too proud of itself for what it was ~ indulgent, pretentious and aimless as I remember, with art that looked like he should have let one colour dry before starting with the next.

Haus of Mystery

21:46 / 22.02.07

There really has been so much appalling dross in "the AD" ~ I wonder if it outweighs the considerable good stuff.

No. Because the good stuff is so damn good

It was just hard to remember dring the dry times...

Haus of Mystery

21:48 / 22.02.07

Spot on about Below/Beyond/Bastard Zero. Truly truly dull.But Tanner - what characterisation! He had...

A METAL ARM.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:32 / 22.02.07

The Zero things were by 2000AD film and TV critic turned writer John Brosnan, I believe. Whether they were rips of his "Sky Lords" novels or the other way around, I know not.

miss wonderstarr

06:49 / 23.02.07

Tann(er)hauser's memory must be a curse sometimes, if it means you recall the work of John Brosnan in all its grey detail.

I don't think there's ever been a time when I didn't skim and skip one or two strips in 2000AD to get to the ones I really wanted. Sometimes it was a question of skimming and skipping five stories, to get to one. When I skimmed or skipped all of them, it was time to stop reading the comic.

Janean Patience

08:17 / 23.02.07

Moonrunners. God, that sucked. And it kept coming back and coming back... Didn't a Henry Moon solo story pop up like six years later, when even those of us who lived through the first series had happily forgotten it? They treated it like a headline strip from a merged comic, The Mind Of Wolfie Smith for example, continually bringing it back for another lacklustre run to keep some imagined fans happy.

It's always been the way of Tooth to run shit stories. Dave Gibbons's Dan Dare? Angel? Tao De Moto? It's the fatal flaw of the anthology comic, as anyone who remembers The Legend of Prester John from Warrior or the vast majority of Crisis will attest. I flicked through 2000AD yesterday, and it looked like there was some good stuff - this Stickleback thing looked vintage - but yeah, the bad stuff overwhelmed the good stuff for an awful long time in the late hundreds. Out of about 450 progs from 600 to 1050 approximately, I must have kept 50 of them and probably only wanted a fifth of each one.

Being positive, what would Barbelith like to see in Extreme Editions? I'd totally go for the original run of The VCs.

Janean Patience

08:19 / 23.02.07

I forgot. What was that piece of awfulness called that I think began in Prog 1000, with a bald black dude who was once a badass killer being forced out of retirement because his daughter was kidnapped? Every episode was painted by a different neophyte artist and it was impossible to tell what was going on. Or to ever, ever care.

08:33 / 23.02.07

T.B.P.H., I.M.H.O. an E.E. of the V.C.s is unlikely because of the upcoming T.P.B., I.R.R.C.

As for Brosnans series, well he got to avoid the Future Shock route into writing because he had an established career, and was able to keep selling series because he was mates with Tharg.

We're about due a trip right back to the early days but it's hard to think what it could be. Harlem Heroes, Flesh, Invasion, Dredd, M.A.C.H. One have seen reprints recently snd Dares a no-go. Other strips like Harry 20 on the High Rock, Fiends of the Eastern Front, Shako, Bad City Blueand Meltdown Man have had their turn too. Visible Man? Yep. Colony Earth? Unbelievably yes. Of the early stuff Return to Armageddon stands out as the last unreprinted wilderness

There's always a chance that the later post Traitor General Finley Day Rogue strips might see print as they're not getting a book of their own, and possibly the last of the (original) Sam Slade run as that book is in limbo as Rebellion refocus the line-up. Actually, that might be a serious contender as the clean-up work was done for the book so it's hanging around and Samantha Slade is due to return anytime now.

08:59 / 23.02.07

Offhand, I'd like to see Silo (Millar script, I think?) and Canon Fodder reprinted.
But I could live without the Mean Arena ("*Bolton Nostalgics, suggested by P. Kay, Bolton!"), really.

Haus of Mystery

10:06 / 23.02.07

wonderstarr - you skipped the bad stories? Bad squaxx! It's your duty to slog your way through the bad to enjoy the blessed fruits of the good.

Next you'll be telling me you read the prog out of sequence...

Janean Patience

11:23 / 23.02.07

Or cut the posters off the back and used them to back your schoolbooks, leaving several episodes of Ace Trucking forever incomplete. Outrageous.

That's what I'd like to see: Ace Trucking reprints...

Haus of Mystery

11:47 / 23.02.07

Yeah - there was tonnes of it too, although it never really gets the loving that Robo Hunter, Strontium Dog et al recieve. Wagner and Grant are capable of very funny writing something that Moore, Morrison and Ennis (despite what he clearly believes) find tricky.
really liked the double-speak and slang of the Co., and Feek the Freek is an all time great character.

miss wonderstarr

12:09 / 23.02.07

wonderstarr - you skipped the bad stories? Bad squaxx! It's your duty to slog your way through the bad to enjoy the blessed fruits of the good.

Next you'll be telling me you read the prog out of sequence...

I was very faithful and disciplined as a teenaged reader, but in my jaded twenties, I think I mostly went to Zenith first, then probably Dredd, followed by anything by Morrison or Yeowell, followed by people like Smith, Dillon, Simpson, until I got down to Armored Gideon and used it for cat litter.

Haus of Mystery

12:28 / 23.02.07

Ahhh y'see I have a soft spot for Armoured Gideon. Something about the undisciplined cross-hatch craziness of the artist, and the absurd nature of the titular character tickled me. Especially the one where Bill Savage, Shako and the rest were rescued from Limbo by a pan-dimensional alien god-nerd. Don't get me wrong it was no classic, but compared to the unparallelled awfulness of 'Junker' or the tedium of 'Trash' it was at least readable.

Janean Patience

12:45 / 23.02.07

Yeah, I too would say ol' Armoured Gidz was one of the more readable strips. Not brilliant by any means, but competently done and quite fun sometimes, especially when Savage and the rest turned up. Nice robot design, tongue-in-cheek, at least some form of plot.

I think I always read the comic in order. I'm like that; if Zenith is at the back, I'll delay the reading joy rather than race straight to it. It's a damning indictment of Dry Run, then, that I read the whole thing, in order, and at no point could I follow any of it. I couldn't tell you what it was about and never could, even when I was technically mid-read. You don't care about twenty successive episodes and then don't care enough to reread. They pass, these semi-epics, like badly-drawn dreadnoughts in a distracted dream.

Haus of Mystery

15:35 / 23.02.07

Kev Hopgood seems to be the artistic death touch. Poor lad. Below Zero andDry Run?
I remember when Zenith Phase III (still my all time fvourite comic of all time ever) was interrupted, to be replaced by 'Mean Team'. Which then went on for ever. And ever. And ever. It made me feel like time was my enemy.
2000ad always seems to have peaks and troughs...when it was in a weak period you'd get these little teaser ads; "Prog 650, Prog 700, The Summer Offensive" etc when all the greats would return in one cosmic spunkfest. But in the meantime you've got a brand new series of 'Time House' to enjoy!

21:21 / 23.02.07

I've just picked up Storming Heaven: The Frazer Irving Collection which i think is a pretty new development. Collections of one artists work from 200AD. They're following Marvel and DCs recent output in this area of course. This is the first Rebellion release of this sort i've seen but Irving does seem like an odd choice for it, as great as he is. I can see how they maybe might be wary of giving the same treatment to Bolland, Gibson,Belardinelli, Ron Smith for fucks sake! Dredd Gold! Are they just testing the water? Is there a market in the UK for this sort of collection? I havn't read it yet but i'm interested as i gave up reading 2000ad many years ago and keen to see what Thargs future shocks are doing these days and i do like his art.

Haus of Mystery

21:33 / 23.02.07

They pass, these semi-epics, like badly-drawn dreadnoughts in a distracted dream.

Yep, that's a pretty perfect description.

But you know what we all forgot?

WIREHEADS

This virtual reality turdburger was one of the most testing things my little mind had to endure. It was...jawdroppingly bad as I recall.

miss wonderstarr

06:53 / 24.02.07

Was that 2000AD attempting cyberpunk a decade after Gibson invented it?

08:41 / 24.02.07

As this seems to be almost all general EE stuff now, I was wondering: as I'm going to be online buying Revere, is there anything else you'd recommend my getting?

14:17 / 24.02.07

Well if you want a dose of Smith then number 10 has Darkside which is solid Dredd antics that require some knowledge of at least 'City of the Damned' and number 8 has the complete Firekind. Both issues have early material as filler.

Silo and Tribal Memories are both reprinted in issue 14, along with the cover hogging Bad City Blue. Your mileage may vary but it's early Millar and Milligan.

Issue 16 has the first Als Baby and it's a lot of fun. Wagner, Ezquerra, pregnant Gangster. Hurray. Issue 5 has one of my personal favourite Dredd stories and the first two Bix Barton stories. They're a real matter of taste, they are.

Skip the Invasion issue, as there's a collection coming soon if you really want to get Savage. They don't seem to have both issues of Meltdown Man so you might as well skip that too.

As to the rest it depends on whether you're nostalgic or not. If not avoid Shako, Ant Wars, Harlem Heroes and M.A.C.H.1. If you are, wallow away.

You could also ask them to stick 1526, the anniversary issue in...

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