Prog 1695 : The Hunger.

vzzbux · 24 July, 2010, 08:41:21 AM

An absolute wonderful cover by Karl Richardson.

Love to review it but my daughter is scanning over it at the moment.

V

Darren Stephens · 24 July, 2010, 10:05:07 AM

Yeh, that covers a doozy. So is the Dredd strips script and art.
Everything ticks along nicely this week. Strontium Dog seems to be stretching things out a wee bit now though. Its still entertaining as ever, but I just want to know what happened to Alpha! Some great pagers of artwork this week. That "Finnys face" page in Sin/Dex, and the last page of savage were tops....

Colin YNWA · 24 July, 2010, 10:18:05 AM

The two 'main' features are decent enough. A solid and intriguing opening part of a Dredd and John and Carlos continue to led us a merry dance in 'Strontium Dog'. Twisiting and turing slowly to keep us guessing at their storys out come. The 'secondly' stars are therefore left to see if they can make the Prog shine.

And what a fantastic job they all do. 'Savage', 'Red Seas' and 'Sinister Dexter' are the stars of this weeks Prog and all brillant.

When I finished the 'Red Seas' I was pleased, thinking that'll be the best story this week. This quiet interlude of characters moments brillantly settling the pace for the big action to come, I suspect from that last panel, next week. Savage did almost exactly the same, a few quiet little moments superbly building things up for next Prog and the explosions to come.

Amazingly though neither of these is the best story this week, however good they both are, Sinster Dexter gets that. Dan Abnett is exploring how the two Gunsharks cope in a situation that strips them of their great strength, their gun play. You can taste the impedent frustration they both feel. Finnegan drinking and barely able to contain his rage, Ramone brooding in his contained shadowly emotions. Its beautifully realised by Anthony Williams too and things are building wonderful... if not to an explosive end in this case and absolutely fascinating one. All the players are in place and I can't wait to see how this all plays out. genius stuff.

Great Prog.

mygrimmbrother · 24 July, 2010, 11:43:30 AM

Progless.

*sniff*

House of Usher · 24 July, 2010, 11:58:56 AM

Judge Dredd was very good this week. Excellent artwork and very nice wordsmithing. A genuinely interesting and different adversary with 'powers,' which, refreshingly, aren't too supernatural.

I actually liked the Stone Wizards segment in Strontium Dog this week, particularly the way they dealt with Feral's new pal and their professional jealousy at the mention of Lyran Sorcerors. Even though this was clearly a 'magic planet,' such things are a well established part of the backdrop to Strontium Dog stories.

The Red Seas was a good read even if nothing happened. If you're going to have an ensemble cast, this is how you have to make them interact.

Savage is going great guns at the moment. War, espionage, infiltration and the best artwork currently gracing the Prog. Savage's mission is a bit precarious though, given how chavvy his 'Volgan' unit looks. Reminds me of that bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones gets told to smarten himself up in the submarine dock. You know the bit I mean.

I was immune to the dubious charms of Sinister Dexter this week, last week, and the week before.

locustsofdeath! · 24 July, 2010, 12:11:33 PM

Quote from: House of Usher on 24 July, 2010, 11:58:56 AM
I was immune to the dubious charms of Sinister Dexter this week, last week, and the week before.

I've been immune to Sin/Dex's dubious charms since the first time I read the strip!

radiator · 24 July, 2010, 12:23:14 PM

You've obviously all missed the most significant thing in this week's prog - Tharg uses the term ARSOM in his intro!

Jared Katooie · 24 July, 2010, 09:45:55 PM

What?

Jim_Campbell · 24 July, 2010, 09:58:18 PM

Quote from: Jared Katooie on 24 July, 2010, 09:45:55 PM
What?

You heard.

Jim

Judge MANSON · 24 July, 2010, 10:09:33 PM

I have not open it since this morning but i am looking each time to the cover!!!

What a delicious instants I will have with this prog, as always with any prog since my subscription!

zombemybabynow · 25 July, 2010, 10:16:21 AM

A neural architecture is presented, aimed to describe the dynamic evolution of complex structures inside a video sequence. The proposed system is arranged as a tree of self-organizing maps. Leaf nodes are implemented by ARSOM networks as a way to code dynamic inputs, while classical SOM's are used to implement the upper levels of the hierarchy. Depending on the application domain, inputs are made by suitable low level features extracted frame by frame of the sequence. Theoretical foundations of the architecture are reported along with a detailed outline of its structure, and encouraging experimental results.

TordelBack · 25 July, 2010, 12:05:25 PM

Quote from: zombemybabynow on 25 July, 2010, 10:16:21 AM
A neural architecture is presented, aimed to describe the dynamic evolution of complex structures inside a video sequence. The proposed system is arranged as a tree of self-organizing maps. Leaf nodes are implemented by ARSOM networks as a way to code dynamic inputs, while classical SOM's are used to implement the upper levels of the hierarchy. Depending on the application domain, inputs are made by suitable low level features extracted frame by frame of the sequence. Theoretical foundations of the architecture are reported along with a detailed outline of its structure, and encouraging experimental results.

Better than that, later on it says: "The proposed system has been developed as part of .... the ASI SPIDER robotic arm that will operate on the International Space Station". Way to go, Cyberleader2000!

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8hk2mwh066qbj25/

For myself, I now intend to start using 'Classical SOM' to refer to things that are not quite cool enough to be Arsom. So for example, this month's Armitage was classicalsom.

I, Cosh · 25 July, 2010, 01:27:44 PM

Quote from: House of Usher on 24 July, 2010, 11:58:56 AM
I actually liked the Stone Wizards segment in Strontium Dog this week, particularly the way they dealt with Feral's new pal and their professional jealousy at the mention of Lyran Sorcerors.

Yep, all of that. First episode of this that I've really gotten into. Feral not being willing to make that sacrifice after going so far feels right in a way a lot of this hasn't. The Stone Wizards are too coll to be related to the Stone Killers.

Everything else was fun. I wonder how much longer Savage is going to run as all the previous books have been a mere ten episodes. Can The Red Seas possibly wrap up in four weeks? Another cliffhanger isn't what it needs unless it's back before the end of the year.

SmallBlueThing · 25 July, 2010, 05:28:57 PM

I'm not going to get this til Wednesday- but I've just taken a look at the cover, on this very site, and it gets a vote from me as (along with the Cradlegrave and stained glass Frank ones last year) possible the Cover of the Decade! Blisteringly good stuff.

SBT

radiator · 25 July, 2010, 05:43:37 PM

QuoteI've just taken a look at the cover, on this very site, and it gets a vote from me as (along with the Cradlegrave and stained glass Frank ones last year) possible the Cover of the Decade!

Really? Didn't much care for it myself - not a bad cover, but not great. Some nice touches, but I guess I'm just not really a fan of Richarson's work in general.

The main thing I'd single out is Dredd's lawmaster - it looks tiny, like a scooter.