It’s good news all round on the 2000AD front this morning; for starters you may recall many a barbarian gnashing his teeth in frustration when the latest Slaine graphic novel, the Books of Invasions 2, was misprinted, meaning all the copies were faulty. Well, looks like Rebellion have really pushed through a new (corrected) print run at high speed; we were told it may be early next year before we saw it, but now it looks like it will be arriving very shortly, which is great news (and well done for such a quick turnaround on the problem). An advance copy landed on my desk this morning (nice way to start the week) and ye gods, but it is a damned fine offering.
The mighty Pat Mills swings his writing axe with great abandon while Clint Langley supplies some stunning barbarian artwork. Slaine has been lucky in the quality of excellent comics artists it has had over the years (inlcuding the likes of the terrific Kevin O’Neill) and Clint continues this tradition, with his rich mixture of painted artwork and digital manipulation creating a fantastic fantasy visual realm.
Also on the new releases front comes Judge Dredd: the Complete P J Maybe, a collection of tales based around Philip Janet Maybe, a juve (young person in Mega-speak) who finds he little interest in traditional MC-1 hobbies such as skysurfing or eating in competitions and more of an apptitude for murder. Since this collection includes work from John Wagner, Alan Grant and Garth Ennis it is well worth checking out, plus art from Carlos Ezquerra, Liam Sharp and others; it’s a real fun slice of Mega-City life and one of those tales where you find yourself kind of rooting for the bad guy… And old 2000 AD hands like myself will appreciate the dedication inside to the late Tom Frame who passed away earlier this year, one of the few letterists (part of a largely unsung group who make our comics what they are) I knew by name and who lettered so many 2000 AD tales I can’t count them.
Ah, but that’s not all from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, as First 4 Figures announced a new deal with Rebellion to create a range of 2000 AD statues, busts and scale replicas. As a lifelong 2000 AD fanboy (yes, I’m a squaxx dek Thargo, so what? So are half the comics readers in Britain) I’m pretty excited at this – we’ve had some 2000 AD merchandise in the past (the Harrop statues were especially lovely) but not nearly as much as fans might expect for such an influential publication. There isn’t much in the way of details so far, with First 4 Figures simply saying that they would be basing their work on the art of the many 2000 AD artists over the years and that the “Product line up includes but not limited to statues, bust, scaled replica weapons and scaled helmets. There are also plans for a versus diorama line up, with the first being Judge Dredd versus Judge Death.” Sounds zarjaz to me – obviously we’ll bring you more information on this as soon as we hear it.
Mon, Oct 30, 2006
Comics and cartoons, Merchandise