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Post by tingramretro on Aug 12, 2018 6:00:17 GMT -5
Sorry to contradict, but Dredd didn't always get the colour centrespread. In early issues, other strips were occasionally awarded that honour, most notably Dan Dare, and on at least one occasion the ABC Warriors. Ah, OK. I'm sure you're right. My best mate and I were reading 2000AD from about 1980 onwards and I always remember Dredd having the two colour pages during that period. Actually, thinking about it, I did know that Dredd started in black & white, before it became popular enough to get the colour pages, I guess, but that was before my time reading the comic. Dredd usually got either the opening or closing slots in the early days, while Dan Dare was considered very much the star of the book and usually got the colour centrespread. I don't think Dredd's popularity really took off until The Cursed Earth, which was really his first epic storyline. That began with #61 in April 1978. |
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 19, 2018 19:01:23 GMT -5
Sci-fi military series, with genetically engineered soldiers; one of whom breaks programming. The Kurt Russell film, Soldier, swiped much of the premise (though there were already prose sci-fi antecedents). Good, mature, well done feature. Started out with Dave Gibbons on art. Gibbons came back to it in 1989, with Will Simpson, called War Machine, which altered things, with a new Trooper. It was printed in Heavy Metal, as well as its own album, in the US.  You're missing the core of the concept : the soldier's weapons and gear (helmet and backpack) all talk to him constantly, because they all have a chip with the mind of previously deceased platoon members fully bio-digitalized. This makes for a very unusal dialogue (which also probably is why the series never got Judge Dredd/Slaine popular, as the technique can feel a tad annoying at times, despite its charm). And it also is not really a military series but an anti-military one, owning quite a lot to Johnny's got a gun from Dalton Trumbo in concept, and to an "all sides are evil in war" mentality. But of course, being that 2000AD still was a boys magazine, it's not that subtle as even if highly anti-military in essence, it still mostly features battles and man to man combat  At fist it was also essentially a US civil war riff. The original Finlay-Day run ran for about 200 issues between 1981 and 1985. Alan Moore wrote three single issue stories. Several other writers such as Tomlison, Milligan, Rennie, Dillon, Geller, Mills, Morrison, etc also took part. There's even an IDW original ongoing from a few years back. The 1989 Gibbons reboot missed the point (he eliminated the biochip parts) that the series was enjoyed as an odd team book. He was swiftly removed from the series to be replaced by a series of first aid writers, incuding Mark Millar, having to figure out how this new Friday character fitted out in hte previous continuity. This run ended in 1996 and saw crossovers with Judge Dredd. It isn't fondly remembered. The original Rogue Trooper has come back to publication in 2002, on and off since then, with adventures set before his death, the most recent ones being written by James RObinson or Alex de Campi. THIS makes me want to read this.
I had a couple of reprints from back in the 90's I think.
Don't remember this but want to read them now.
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At fist it was also essentially a US civil war riff.