Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 15 of 38  Cover, Revolver (1990), featuring yet another revival of Dan Dare. Art: Rian Hughes. The third Fleetway title was The Judge Dredd Megazine (1990), a straightforward spinoff from 2000AD starring its most popular character. It included inventive new Dredd storylines (plus new enemies), and a selection of unconnected strips, such as the splendidly bizarre 'Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood', about a homosexual exorcist and his battle with a swarm of vampires. The fourth and final Fleetway offering was XPresso (1991), an out-and-out 'adult' comic (strapline: 'For Sophisticated Coffeetables'), modelled on successful European anthologies, and showcasing continental creators such as Milo Manara and Max Cabanes. At the same time, other publishers were similarly putting out new products. Toxic! (Apocalypse, 1991) was founded with the explicit intention of recreating the early energy of 2000AD, and was put together by some of that comic's leading lights (Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, John Wagner and Alan Grant among them). It was a sanguine mix of science fiction and black humour, with superhero satire 'Marshal Law' proving the most popular strip. Blast! (John Brown, 1991) was more rock literate, and along with reprints of hip American material featured a reworking of Warrior's 'Laser Eraser and Pressbutton', and new work by 2000 ad's then-biggest star Simon Bisley (notably, 'Mr Monster'). Even Marvel UK decided to test the waters. Their first two releases (Strip, 1990, and Meltdown, 1991) relied heavily on low-risk reprints of other Marvel products, but their third, Overkill (1992), was designed specifically as a rival to 2000AD and featured new science fiction stories by British creators which interlocked into a self-contained 'universe'. For all the effort that these new titles represented, collectively they were a disaster. This fresh burst of publishing activity was no more successful than the early 1980s one had been. Britain's economy was deep in recession by this time, and it was not a wise policy to launch new products (especially not at high 'adult' prices). Also, once again, publishers had failed to bargain for 20ooad's extraordinary staying power, and the fact that its fan base was loyal, even if it was declining. The numbers of issues the new comics survived for were as follows: Crisis; Revolver; Xpresso; Blast! ; Toxic! ; Strip ; Meltdown; and Overkill.  2000AD |