Collector's Dream 4 - Thriller

So much for a weekly posting schedule. Ah well, quality not quantity is better apparently. Anyway this week I'm delving back into my comic book archives to pull out a series that was short-lived but burned very brightly and left a lasting image. A series that climbed to stratospheric heights immediately yet crashed and burned just as swiftly. It's time for a :

Thriller

Back in the early 1980s, DC comics  was experimenting with series sold only through the "direct market" (read my post on "Mars" for some of the history of this initiative). We had already seen things such as "Camelot 3000", "The Omega Men" and the Frank Miller series "Ronin". But in November of 1983 DC took a real risk and released issue one of "Thriller" - created and written by DC staffer Robert Loren Fleming (his first published comics work) with art by Trevor Von Eeden (hot off of Batman and Green Arow).

Roughly fifty years in the future, Satellite News cameraman Daniel Grove and his correspondent twin brother Ken investigate a hostage situation masterminded by the masked terrorist Scabbard (so named because he keeps a huge sword in a grotesque sheath stitched into the skin of his back). When they are caught, Dan is forced to record his own brothers beheading. Slipping into depression and blaming himself for Ken's death, Dan decides to end his own life by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge....but is stopped when the image of a ghostly rainbow-haired woman appears in the sky above him. She is Angie Thriller. Able to see the future, she needs Daniel to become a member of her group of agents - the "Seven Seconds" - and save the world from unusual and unnatural menaces.

Directed to head for their headquarters in the 'Trinity Building', Dan encounters each of the other "Seven Seconds" -

Beaker Parish - a nine foot tall  life form created in a test tube who is also a priest with physic abilities.
Crackerjack - a young Honduran pickpocket.
Data - the son of the President of the USA, interfaced with with his computer system built into a limo which he can never leave.
Proxy - an actor who after suffering a disfiguring accident while freebasing drugs, created synthetic spray on skin for covert assignments.
Salvo - Angie Thriller's brother and a superhumanly expert marksman
White Satin - able to disrupt a persons physiological and mental state with just a touch.

- before meeting Angie's husband Edward Thriller. It turns out that he had been conducting genetic experiments and when it went wrong, became amalgamated with his wife, so that only one of them can manifest at a time - he in flesh and she in spirit. Despite losing her solid body, Angie gained the ability to become part of inanimate objects and see potential futures. She can also merge with her brother Tony (Salvo) due to their similar genetic structure - often appearing as in a face in his palm or helping him perform seemingly superhuman stunts.

(“Only flesh wounds! Only out-patients! I won’t kill a fly - so don’t ask me")

This was the pulp adventures of the Shadow or Doc Savage seen through the lens of science fiction and superheroes - without the day-glo colours or lurid costumes. But it was also a tale of family and loyalty and deep affection. The team had their own encounter with arch-villain Scabbard when he kidnapped the president -  allowing Dan some closure over his brother's death -  and then went on to meet what appeared to be multiple clones of Elvis.

Set outside DC continuity and with more sophisticated and mature storylines, it was an attempt at a series more akin to the Vertigo books that would come later than the colourful adventures of Superman and his pals. It was also way ahead of its time in both terms of storytelling and art.

The creators were trying to do something ambitious and innovative, and in the main they succeeded, creating a comic that could sit alongside the contemporary graphic storytelling of today. There were no easy answers, no spoon feeding of the plot. Significant events happened off panel or between issues. Readers had to figure things out for themselves or learn as the characters did. Von Eeden's art was a tour-de-force of unusual camera angles, twisting panel layouts, shifting perspectives and extreme close ups. This was mature storytelling before the "British Invasion" most famously embodied by the Alan Moore run on "Swamp Thing" or the arrival of "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen". It was chaotic and strange and cutting-edge and often very hard work. 1980s comics had never seen a series like Thriller and it's fair to say even if I didn't understand it all, I definitely loved it.

Sales were strong for those first couple of issues, but the problem was, Thriller's innovation and style was part of it's problem. Readers complained of being too confused. The creators passion for building something memorable on every page was perhaps stymied by their lack of experience. As writers elsewhere have noted, it became a paradox - at once both brilliant and exasperating. 

Behind the scenes, tensions were building. By issue four, Fleming and Von Eeden were increasingly dissatisfied and stressed and there were changes in inker and editor. An unpleasant and some would say abusive incident at DC's offices left Von Eeden feeling infuriated and emotionally betrayed, but he soldiered on even though he was depressed and his enthusiasm was waning. The quality of his art was suffering too - with some strange artistic decisions, such as issues drawn at the same size as the printed comic book pages. Things were starting to fall apart. 

With issue seven, after apparent artistic differences between himself and others who worked on the book, Fleming wrapped up his storyline (fairly satisfactorily) and it was announced that he was gone. Just as he was getting started, he walked away. This comic that was so much a product of it's creators was summarily handed over to Bill DuBay (ex Warren publishing) - a writer who had no connection to the series or it's characters. Nowadays when the writer who had the original vision wants to leave, the book is often cancelled (just look at "Sandman"), but back in the '80s this was still very much work for hire and all the rights belonged to DC. 

Sadly with issue eight the quality took an nosedive. All the things that made the comic so interesting - the slow pace, the oblique storytelling, the unusual art - were pretty much absent. DuBay was seen by editor Alan Gold at the time as a steadier pair of hands who could bring the book back from the brink - he had made no secret of his dislike for Fleming's unique style. Everything that Fleming had done, DuBay seemed to do the opposite. His version of "Thriller" was going to be as different as possible from what had come before. Trevor Von Eeden hung on for this first transitional issue but his heart wasn't it it and all the flair and boldness that was evident in issue one was now wiped away with something far more traditional. Then he too was gone.

The comic limped on for a further four months with art by Alex Nino, but as with DuBay, although it was beautiful to look at, he wasn't really suited to the subject matter. Oh it wasn't out and out terrible and DuBay played with some interesting ideas, such as the then prevalent fear of worldwide nuclear destruction. But it wasn't the "Thriller" I had initially fallen in love with. 

In more recent years Alan Gold has admitted in interviews that at the time he just didn't "get" what Fleming and Von Eeden  were doing and how different and ground breaking it truly was. He wishes he had listened to them.  Bizarrely, he also revealed that a certain Alan Moore had volunteered to take over as writer but Gold turned him down! It makes one wonder what Moore would have done with the property. It certainly would have been excellent but it still wouldn't have been the vision of it's creators. 

Commercially "Thriller" was seen as a failure, with just a dozen poorly selling issues to its name. But artistically it's legacy is far greater. It is still fondly remembered by a host of today's creators and cited as an influence on them. Those early issues were undoubtedly way ahead of their time and a trailblazer for some of the creator-owned comics to come from the "big two" publishers. Sure we had the like's of Dave Sim's "Cerebus" and Matt Wagner's "Mage" and Baron and Rude's "Nexus" published at around the same time, but Marvel and DC were slow to realise the changing tide. If it had been released just ten years later during the height of Vertigo comics, I could be telling a very different story. and far more people would have heard of Angie Thriller and her Seven Seconds

"Thriller" is one of those series that I can't bear to part with. Every so often I will get those scant few issues out of the box and marvel at them. I'd love to see Fleming and Von Eeden mount a revival in today's more forgiving environment but sadly it's unlikely to happen. 

If you can, pick up the back issues and try it out for yourself. 

Collector's Dream 3 - Memories of "Mars"

This week I am going to look back at a perhaps lesser known 1980s comic book classic, but as always with these things I think it's good to provide a little background information and personal historical context...

I think I first discovered colour US comics while on annual family holidays in the UK in around 1978 / 1979. These were the days when newsagents and mini-supermarkets and those shops selling holiday souvenirs all had a rack of comics tucked away at the back (usually at ground level). It was predominately Marvel - titles such as "Power Man and Iron Fist", "Marvel Two-In-One", "Shogun Warriors", "Machine Man", "Spider-Woman" - all selling for something like 20p each, or sometimes bundles of ten for a pound. Pocket money prices. To eleven year old me this was pure gold. Of course I was aware of many of the characters from the black and white reprints in Marvel UK titles such as the justly famous "Captain Britain" and "Star Wars" weeklies, but this was in colour, and not cut into five page chunks.

Those reprints included some of my favourite strips - "Rom:Spaceknight" and "Micronauts"  - but now I could get the original comics (I still have all my copies in a box in the loft, although I had to go back and fill in the first few issues).  I scooped up everything I could find and rooted out local newsagents closer to home who also stocked US titles. My collection started to grow.

Then two things happened that changed everything - the growth of the  "Direct Market" and the rise of "independent" comic book publishers. The Direct Market basically meant that retailers could bypass existing book shop and newsagent distributors to make purchases direct from the publishers. However the trade-off for more favourable ordering terms was that the stock was non-returnable. Retailers had to make a gamble with their predictions for customer demand, although surplus stock could be held for future potential sale. The Direct Market led to a big rise in speciality shops where readers could get a wider range of comics quicker and in better condition. If you missed a month you would likely be able to find it amongst the extensive back issues.

The emergence of this business model and the larger number of comic shops also meant that publishers could target their retail audience, rather than relying on the somewhat scattershot approach of a newsagent who didn't understand the product, just shoved it out of the way and sent it back for a refund the next month. In the very early 1980s, Marvel saw the potential of the Direct Market and starting putting out a number of titles aimed specifically to capitalise on it. They could print fewer copies, put them only in comic shops and sell out of everything, rather than having tons of returns. "Dazzler" was one of the first and I clearly remember when "Micronauts", "Ka-Zar The Savage" and "Moon Knight" switched to being direct only in 1982. Yes there was a small price rise but you also got more pages and the stories just seemed to become more complicated and grown up. The fact that I was heading towards being fifteen years old at this time might have had something to do with it too. Those old titles are still some of my favourites.

The ability to have a smaller print run and target it at a fan audience also meant that others could get into the comic book game other than just the "big Two" of Marvel and DC. There had always been alternative publishers in the market place - the likes of Charlton, Fawcett, EC and Archie - but now things exploded. Anyone could start their own comic book company and in a couple of years there would be dozens of publishers and hundreds of titles. Pacific Comics were one of the first Direct Market publishers  - releasing titles in such as Jack Kirby's "Captain Victory and the Galaxy Rangers" and the initial issues of Mike Grell's "Starslayer" in 1981 / 1982. There were many others like Capital and Eclipse and Renegade, but I want to deal with a publisher who took things to a different level (for me anyway)  - First Comics.

First Comics was the brainchild of Ken Levin and Mike Gold. Based in Evanston, Illinois they launched in 1983 with "Warp" - an adaptation (and continuation) of the 1970s SF stage play - written by Peter B Gillis and drawn by Frank Brunner. It told the tale of bank clerk David Carson, who is transported to the mystical realm of Fen-Ra where he is tasked by the sage Lugulbanda to battle alongside leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon against the evil Prince Chaos. So far, so superheroes in a fantasy setting. It was okay as an alternative to Marvel. But far, far better was to come.

In quick succession, First Comics released a range of innovative, unusual and above all successful titles. Characters which are still fondly remembered to this day - Howard Chaykin's "American Flagg", Mike Grell's "Jon Sable, Freelance", John Ostrander and Tim Truman on "Grimjack" (god how I love that series), "E-Man" drawn by Joe Staton. The list of hits goes on and on. They took over publishing "Dreadstar" by Jim Starlin, "Nexus"  by Mike Baron and Steve Rude and that writers other series, "Badger". I'm sure I'll be coming back to some of these titles in later posts.

First Comics became *my* comic book company. I bought everything they released. I recall so vividly leafing through the racks of the local book /comic shop in Southend-on-Sea (called "The New Bookshop" if anyone else remembers) and discovering those first few issues. Then the old gentleman who owned the shop started putting comics aside for his regular customers. He had a comic storage box of brown paper bags with names on. Every week I would visit the shop and pick the latest releases. I was also making irregular trips to Forbidden Planet in London where I found even more titles for me to reserve. I think this is where I really discovered "mature" comics - concepts beyond basic superhero tales. I was sixteen - leaving school and venturing out into the big wide world. Even now writing these words I have a big grin on my face thinking about the enjoyment these comics brought and what they meant to me.

In 1984, in the middle of all this success and well-deserved industry recognition, First Comics released something even more different. As mature as "American Flagg" was, this series just blew my mind. It's title? One word. "Mars".

"Mars" is the story of one woman, Morgana Trace - a scientist crippled in a horrible attack which took the life of her father, Resolving to continue his work, Morgana moves to the lighter gravity of the Moon, where she can still use her legs, and develops the technology to allow human minds to control robotic bodies.  The chance then arises for her to be part of the eleventh mission to Mars - a mission to terra-form the surface for human habitation.

Arriving at the red planet, the explorers and engineers set to work using their metal avatars, laying the groundwork for the centuries it will take to transform the world into an earth-like paradise. When suddenly all contact is lost with the Earth and Moon, the team believe that their only option is to go into suspended animation and wait out the 10,000 years for Mars to become habitable.

10,001 years later, Morgana is woken by the computer, only to find that she is totally alone and the ship has been stripped of everything to sustain life. Her only hope is to take her robot and fly down to the surface of the newly lush planet and find what happened to her missing crew mates, and why they left her behind. But it turns out Mars is also home to something far more powerful, terrifying and just possibly impossible to understand.

Sounds fairly simple doesn't it? Don't be fooled. As much as the story might be about exploring a weird and wacky landscape, it's also about, artificial intelligence, memory, what makes us alive, faith, life after death, the nature of god(s) and the corrupting influence of power. Oh and lots of lots of very strange alien creatures.

"Mars" was the creation of Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel. Nowadays these two men are separately and together synonymous with unique and innovative comics work - things such as "Breathtaker", "Hammer of the Gods", "Gregory" and of course "Sandman". But back in 1984 no one had really heard of them beyond a couple of issues of "Heavy Metal " and the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book series "Be An Interplanetary Spy". This was their first major comics work - and they put everything into it. At the time they deliberately took a single by-line on it, blurring the lines over who did what. This was a real joint labour of love.

I think what threw me most was how different it was to the other comics I was reading. . Okay so I was no stranger to more "cartoony-looking" comic books - having worked my way through the local libraries entire stock of "Tintin" and "Asterix" several years previously - plus I was already reading "E-Man" which was far more of a humour book. Not everything had to look like it was drawn by Gil Kane or Jack Kirby or George Perez or Sal Buscema or John Romita or be about superheroes. Most of First Comics' output was about as far from that was you could get. But "Mars" was....less straightforward. Stranger. More philosophical. There were almost no thought balloons or captions. The art was almost minimalist at times. What was with all the dead artists? The talking dinosaurs? The hallucinations? I wasn't prepared for the jumps between the real and the metaphysical, the changes in style. The non-linear storytelling. I'll admit, it confused me.

And then around six issues in, something just clicked. Maybe I just got with the flow of what Hempel and Wheatley were doing, but suddenly "Mars" became my favourite book and went to the top of my reading list each month (well, after "American Flagg" to be perfectly honest). I couldn't wait to see where this SF psychological drama would take me next.

It's also worth mentioning the back-up strips at this point. As well as 18-20 pages of the main story, there were two supporting stories that were completely different in tone and style. The first started in issue two. "The Black Flame" by Peter B Gillis, with lurid over the top art from Tom Sutton / Don Lomax, was a kind of supernatural super-hero with a black staff and a motorcycle. fighting demons.

A member of the Nightmare Legions, he rebelled against his masters to protect the souls of the innocent - a kind of cross between Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider. That lasted until issue 8, when it transferred to the "Starslayer" title (and ended taking over a whole issue of that book at one point).

The second backup starting in issue 10 was "Dynamo Joe", by writer /artist Doug Rice. It was an anime & manga influenced story about a giant robotic battle suit - piloted by Imperum soldier Elanian Daro and humanoid feline Pomru Purrwakkawakka - fighting the lethal alien Mellanares. Again the strip continued elsewhere in other series and eventually spin off into it's own comic.

Both were good fun and definite counterpoints to the weirdness that was going on in the main feature.

But, all too soon, flagging sales meant that "Mars" came to an end. Issue twelve proved to be the last. Hempel and Wheatley managed to wrap up their initial storyline (cramming 80 pages worth of story into half that) while leaving things open enough for future adventures, but these never materialised. Well not quite....

When the complete story was reprinted with new colouring by IDW in 2005, Mark Wheately revealed that his 1994 series "Radical Dreamer" was set in the same universe - filling in some of the gaps of what was happening on Earth during those 10,000 years Morgana was in suspended animation. His intention is that one day he'll link everything together into one cohesive tale, but ten years have gone by since then and nothing has been released.

 I think in reality "Mars" was probably ahead of it's time. A unique art style. Blurred lines between hero and villains. An ever-evolving storyline with only minimal indication of resolution. It was a kind of storytelling years before that became a popular thing to do. The market wasn't ready for it back in 1984.

It's fairly easy to pick up the back issues of the series (the trade is somewhat more difficult which is odd considering it's twenty years younger). Give it a chance. It deserves a wider audience.

Collector's Dream 2 - Action Comic

I can't recall a time when I haven't read comics.

Some of my fondest early memories are of trips to my grandparents in Suffolk, where I would beg to visit the newsagents, so I could root around in the cardboard box of old comics he kept - five for ten pence. Copies of Buster, Cor!, Whizzer and Chips, The Beezer, Shiver and Shake. Monster Fun...

Actually I need to do a separate post on Monster Fun, as I remember liking that one a lot.

Anyway, I bought as many as my pocket money would allow and devoured them avidly while laying on a rug in the garden during those endless school holiday summers we just don't seem to get any more.

There were occasional copies of TV Century 21, Countdown and the like. Maybe they were more expensive and I preferred to get more comics for my ten pence. Or maybe they were not that well distributed in my area. I can't really recall. I do remember seeing some of those early Doctor Who strips though.

I bought more comics at home through "jumble" sales (the precursor to today's boot sales). Comics sold in rolls of ten tied up with elastic bands. There was always a pile in the corner of my bedroom. In between all the books there were always comics.

But ultimately these were disposable entertainment. One or two page comedy strips with cartoon characters and no ongoing plot. There were a few adventure stories - General Jumbo, The Steel Claw and Adam Eterno perhaps (my memory may be getting timelines mixed up) but these tended to be all over in one issue. Who cared if they got ripped, or lost or coloured in with felt tip pens?

Then in February 1976, when I was almost nine years old, something came along that changed all that. "Action" comic had arrived.

Nowadays most UK comics fans know the genesis of Action, but I'll recap briefly.

The UK comics industry of the 1970's was pretty much dominated by two major companies - DC Thomson and Fleetway / IPC. Thomson were publishers of the Beano, Dandy and Beezer. IPC produced Buster, Whizzer and Chips, etc. I'm pretty sure that read more IPC comics than any others.

Although at this point we were 30 years on from the end of World War II, the conflict was still a big presence in people's minds. In 1974, DC Thompson released "Warlord" - an adventure strip comic for boys focussing on stories set during the war. It was a huge success.

In response, IPC tasked comics legends Pat Mills and John Wagner to create a rival comic - "Battle Picture Weekly". This was also enormously popular, and contained some strips now regarded as outright classics (although I didn't read the strips until much, much later, having no interest in an all-war comic at the time).

Wanting to capitalise on the success of "Battle", IPC decided they wanted something similar but with a more contemporary feel. Springing from Mills' mind against a   backdrop of social unrest in the UK and huge changes in fashion and music, it was revolutionary. This was a comic freely ripping off Hollywood with a unique British slant, pushing the boundaries and setting out to shock.

Of course at age eight I wasn't aware of any of this. All I knew was that "Action" was like a lightning bolt directly into my brain. Even now those early issue are indelibly stamped into my memory.

The movie and social influences are obvious in those first strips. "Dredger" was a British Dirty Harry. "Look Out For Lefty" included elements of football hooliganism which was a very hot topic at the time. "BlackJack" - the story of a black boxer who is in danger of losing his sight - actually prefigured "Rocky" by a good few months. "Hellman of Hammer Force" was a WWII story but with the Nazi major as the anti-hero. Then there was "Hook Jaw"...

Blatantly ripped off from "Jaws", Hook Jaw turned the gigantic man-eating Great White shark into the hero of the story, pitting him against corrupt or criminal humans looking to exploit the oceans. Illustrated in gory detail (often in glorious blood-soaked colour in the centre pages) Hook Jaw was the breakout star of Action, treating us mere mortals as nothing more than a food supply to be ripped apart.

A controversial inclusion right from the start, Mills had no problem with killing off as many humans as possible in as many grisly ways as possible, while maintaining an environmental undercurrent. What kid wouldn't love it? It was the talk of my playground.

In fact Mills kept pushing the boundaries, when in issue 31, Hook Jaw actually manages to kill the human 'hero' who has been pursuing him since issue one, leaving just his severed head...

I remember that panel so clearly. A real shocking cliffhanger.

As enjoyable as Hook Jaw was, it took until issue 13 for my own personal favourite story to turn up - the "Rollerball" inspired "Death Game 1999".

Set in a dystopian future (1999 seemed *such* as long way off to a young boy sat in 1976) the premise was that teams of criminals on death row or with life sentences competed in the ultra violent sport Spinball to try and win their freedom.

Spinball was a mash-up of ice hockey, motorcycle derby and insanely, pinball - with gigantic flippers and bumpers flinging steel balls at the poorly protected players at high speed. There was more than a hint of the ancient gladiatorial arena, with the bloodthirsty crowds hungry to watch the next poor soul be smashed in the face by a ball, or mangled under the spiked wheels of a roaring motorcycle.

They get their wish in the very first instalment, when 'Karson City Killers' Captain Al Rico attempts a 'Death Run' against the whole of the opposing team to get his coveted million points and a full pardon. Sadly his quest to gain the black pin results in him being crushed to a bloody pulp by one of the flippers against the wall of the Spinball-drome.

(some early Ian Gibson work there)

Meanwhile, washed up football star Joe Taggart is mistakenly accused of beating someone to death. Using his influence, corrupt Karson City governor Henry Smailes arranges for Taggart to be incarcerated at his prison, and coerces him into becoming the new leader of the Spinball team. Thus the stage is set for an epic battle of wills against a backdrop of a gory sport where death is an almost certainty.

Veteran writer Tom Tully cleverly layers the plot across several weeks as Taggart gradually builds a new squad and starts to win the respect of his fellow inmates - despite losing a few along the way in a number of savage games - all to further his goal of completing a Death Run and getting out of prison. Eventually Smailes realises that his star player is getting a little too popular with the fans and decides to bump him off.

Secretly, the governor has kept the hideously injured Al Rico on ice, and with the aid of the aptly named Doctor Jekyll, turned him into a rampaging hate-filled cyborg with only one mission - kill Joe Taggart!

Now you know how certain images will stick in your mind? Well that drawing above of the cyborg Rico smashing his way out of his cell positively haunted me for weeks. I felt uncomfortable looking at it, yet couldn't help but keep going back to the issue and taking another peek. It was probably one of my first experiences of the influential power of comics. Death Game 1999 was futuristic, violent, brutal and I loved every panel.

In the end, Action became a victim of it's own success at stretching the limits of what was possible in a British boys comic of the 1970's. The grim and gritty storylines and graphic violence (particularly in a strip called "Kids Rule OK") drew the attention of the media over the hot summer months. They went to town with lurid headlines like "Comic Strip Hooligans!", dubbing the comic "the seven penny nightmare". Doctor Who's deadliest enemy, the moral activist Mary Whitehouse, got involved and started a campaign to get Action banned.

Editor John Sanders faced an antagonistic interview abut the comic on an early evening news show on BBC1. Publishers IPC then began to get pressure from the main high street retailers ,who threatened to not only withdraw Action, but all IPC magazines from their shelves. Finally, after issue 36 had been published in October 1976, they caved in and pulled the comic from sale, pulping the next issue completely.

Now while I do recollect seeing the TV interview ("they're talking about my comic" I said to my parents), I knew nothing else about the drama going on behind the scenes. All I noticed was that when I rode my bike to the newsagents on that Saturday morning in October to get a newspaper for my dad, Action was suddenly no longer there to buy. I was slightly annoyed to say the least!

Eventually, five weeks later, Action did return to the shelves, but it was a shadow of it's former self. Scripts had been amended, violence reduced and gory deaths were non existent.To be honest I can't recall how much I noticed the difference, because my memories of that time are mixed up with what my adult self knows now about the changes. In any case, the neutered comic limped on for another 12 months before merging with "Battle".

One thing that I do remember though is that Death Game 1999 wrapped it's storyline up incredibly quickly in four short pages, changing it's name in the process to the less objectionable "Spinball" (followed by "Spinball Slaves" and "Spinball Wars"). Although markedly less violent, the successor strips are at least notable for featuring early work by Massimo Bellardinelli and later some simply superb illustrations by Ron Turner:

Action may have been castrated, but it's legacy was huge - both in the industry and with me personally. I would never be satisfied with simple old humour strips again. I wanted adventure comics - the more SF flavoured the better. Luckily, in a few short months I would get my wish - Pat Mills had taken the lessons he learned from the Action controversy and applied them to his next comic launch - a title that looked to the future for it's inspiration.

2000 AD was coming...

Collector's Dream 1 - Judge Dredd: The Mega-Collection

This is the part of the blog where I want to chat about comics old and new and everything in between. Anything and everything to do with my lifelong obsession with the brilliance that is sequential art.

By the way, the origin of the "Collector's Dream" name is a *long* story - involving (amongst other things):  three comics fans, Gary Spencer Millidge, a shop in Southend-on-Sea, a Commodore 64, Titan Distributors, an awful lot of Copydex and a guest appearance from Warren Ellis. One day I'll bore you with the whole complicated tale...

Anyway, first up - the brand new collection of Judge Dredd strips.

 

2000 AD has been a part of my life since I was ten years old.

I vividly remember buying that first "Prog" back in early 1977 and I haven't missed a single issue since. 38 years worth of collected issues are still the most important thing in my comics collection.

2000 AD was (and continues to be)  the breeding ground for the best of British comics talent. Those high-profile creators you love with their hugely successful and influential US comics? 99% of them started out writing or drawing for 2000 AD.

Obviously with a weekly publication schedule there have been a huge number of important characters and strips - and I will perhaps return to some of these at a later date. But striding across them all is the most important British comics character since Dan Dare in the 1950's - Judge Dredd.

Dredd first appeared in 2000 AD in Prog 2 in 1977 and has missed only a handful ever since. That's over 1,700 issues, plus 300+ monthly "Judge Dredd Megazine" comics. When you add in annuals, specials and assorted other appearances, it's a vast body of work.

Quick potted history for those who may not know:

Judge Joseph Dredd is an officer of the law in the future city of Mega-City One, which covers the eastern coast of the USA. A series of atomic wars turned much of the rest of the planet into a radioactive wasteland.

Most of Mega-City One's millions of citizens live in gigantic "City Blocks" where crime is rampant, unemployment is the norm and addiction to the latest drug, fashion or idiotic craze is an everyday occurrence. Judges have the power of "judge, jury and executioner" over the perpetrators ("perps") of any crime, ranging from littering and jaywalking to homicidal murder and alien trafficking. Dredd is the most infamous (and one of the longest serving) of them all. The Law is everything to him. He's not known as "Old Stoney Face" for nothing.

In between everyday cases (if a marauding alien bounty hunter can be considered ordinary) Dredd has over the years faced a number of major threats including a robot rebellion, corrupt Judges seizing power, the alien super-fiend "Judge Death", a war with East-Meg One, democracy terrorists and even a zombie invasion. Many of these "mega-epics" have resulted in the destruction of vast swathes of Mega-City One and the loss of millions of lives.

What makes Dredd even more special though is that a) the strip progresses pretty much in real time and b) it's been mainly written by one man over it's entire history - John Wagner.

Of course the Dredd stories have been reprinted many times before - and I bought most of them, despite already owning the originals. Notably, from the 1980's there were the slim Titan Books volumes and the exceptional colour US format Eagle comics  - both with fabulous new covers. Then there were the not-so-good Quality versions:

In more recent year's there have been the Complete Case File "omnibus" editions and the excellent range of graphic novels from 2000 AD owners Rebellion:


Personally I'd not bothered with these later editions due to space / financial constraints at the time.

So what made this set of reprints from Hachette / Rebellion worth a look and persuaded me to part with my money? Part work collections are often a mixed bag. (Although a collection of Dredd strips is far more interesting than a 150-part "build your own Millennium Falcon from scrappy bits of plastic").

Well, published fortnightly, the 80-issue Judge Dredd Mega Collection is meant to be something slightly different. Instead of printing everything in publication order, the series is structured around key "themes". All the classic Dredd stories and Mega-epics will be there, but alongside them will be smaller tales dealing with similar subject matter. In addition there will be collections of stories from the various Dredd spin-offs - Anderson Psi Division, Devlin Waugh, Simping Detective, etc. The sales blurb describes the series as the "...definitive collection of Judge Dredd and the world he occupies...".

I'll admit that I did have to think long and hard before subscribing to this. Haven't I bought a lot of this (several times) before? Don't I have the original issues sitting there anytime I want to pick one up? However, in the end there were several key factors that swung it for me:

a) I don't have collected editions of a lot of the "expanded Dredd universe" stories.

b) The books are nice sturdy hardback editions (I remember the Titan versions and the binding glue that only lasted a few weeks before you ended up with pages falling out).

c) Each volume will feature previously unseen concept art, sketches and bonus features.

d) When complete the spines will form a single specially commissioned new image.

If the first three reasons were not enough, the spanning image was the clincher. I'm a real sucker for that kind of thing. (By the way, subscribing does get you a number of free gifts - mugs, coasters, bookends, etc. I'm not really bothered by those and they didn't influence my decision).

So far there have been four volumes published: "America", "Mechanismo", "The Apocalypse War" and "Origins"  - with the fifth: "Anderson: Shamballa" available only to subscribers as yet.

 

 

 

The first thing that stands out is the cover design. This minimalist approach of black and white with a hint of red is really striking and I hope they continue it throughout the 80 issues. Some of the artwork (such as the Mechanismo cover) has been specially commissioned for the collection. It's a really bold design choice.

The volumes themselves are lovely and sturdy and run from 200 to 250 pages dependant on the stories contained. The spine has a big number for it's place in the collection along with a slice of the overarching image. Each issue has a timeline / story so far to bring you up to speed with where the story is set in the Dredd canon, along with a new introduction by 2000 AD editor (and current Tharg), Matt Smith (no not that one!).

It's worth mentioning that like many collections of this type, the 80 parts are not being published in order. Issue one *is* part 1, but issue two then jumps to part 24, issues three to part 36 and so on. It means that you have to get all 80 issues to fully experience that spine spanning image and the stories you may be longing to see released might be a long way down the line. I can see that it makes business sense, but it does seems to have confused a few people from reactions I have seen online.

Having said that, Hachette / Rebellion have obviously decided to start with a bang for these first few issues by collecting major pieces of Dredd lore.

"America" is often cited as the greatest Dredd story ever published (odd considering Dredd himself only appears in the background until the end). A tale of love, loss and terrorism against judicial oppression, it features stunning painted artwork from Colin MacNeil - who also provides the majority of the art for "Mechanismo", a series of stories about the introduction of robot judges.

"The Apocalypse War" was the first true mega-epic, depicting the devastating impact of an attack by the Sov East-Meg One. All 25 episodes were drawn by Dredd's co-creator - the peerless Carlos Ezquerra. Even 30 years later the effects of this story are still being felt in the strip. It's one of my personal favourites.

"Origins" is exactly what it says on the tin - a 23-parter telling the story of the last US president, Robert Booth, how he started the atomic wars and the Judges eventual rise to power. It took 30 years for this story to be written and it was worth the wait. Fittingly it is only Wagner and Ezquerra who could tell it.

Flipping through the books, the quality of the production is evident. The pages are crisp and white. The colours are vibrant and the artwork is beautifully reproduced. Well almost....

This is my one gripe with the series. It appears that with the older stories where only the centre spread was in colour, Hachette are just going to print everything in black and white. So the "Apocalypse War" edition perhaps loses some of its impact by omitting those 25+ colour sections.

I contacted Hachette directly about this and was told that the colour quality was too poor to be reprinted. I find that a bit strange as they were able to reprint one of the colour pages plus the covers in the extras section in the back. I suspect (and this is only a personal opinion) that the artwork files they are using are the same one's used by everyone else who has reprinted these stories before - and those were all in black and white too (the Eagle comics were an exception because the whole stories were recoloured). Indeed Rebellion are to publish their own special edition hardback of the Complete Case Files volume 1 in 2015 which will "include the addition of the famous colour centre spreads, restored to their former glory for the first time".

 It's a disappointing omission in an otherwise first-rate set of books. I am slightly concerned about how things will look when we get to some of the darker colouring on later centre spreads and how turning it to "greyscale" will turn out. Time will tell. However the lack of colour does not detract from the power of these stories.

One final thing to mention - the smell of the hardcovers. I personally *love* that new book smell when you first crack open the cover and these do not disappoint. A small thing but I guess I am easily pleased. Maybe it's the smell of concentrated Thrill-Power ?

So are these editions worth your investment? After all, the "omnibus" editions of much of 2000 AD's output is perhaps better value for money.

I would say yes there are. The production quality is top-notch and the hardbacks will stand the test of time. The extra material is interesting and diverse. The stories selected are well worth reading and later issues will collect some lesser known classics. If you are totally new to Dredd I think it's an brilliant place to start. If you are an existing aficionado then these still have great merit - this is an exemplary collection of one of comics most important and enduring characters.