Prog 1798: Mecha Death!

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Cover -

Not really a fan of JDH at all - or massive robots. So this is well and truly a 'meh' cover for me. Detail over dynamics.

Dredd -

Very nice dark tale and I concur with people on it. It's nice to see Laurence's "rough" style (ooh err not even got to Lenny yet) although there's so much photo reference it feels a bit stilted at points (that's the Minty helmet). But then he has been with Marvel for a bit, tracing is a way of life for those cats! Story is very dark and interesting. Blythes colouring is, as always, a different level of amazingly amazing.

3rillers -

Giant robots no. JDH no. "It's times like this I thank every scientist ever - " no.

Aquila -

I do agree with what's being said about this by others on the thread - the endless, bigger fish eats bigger fish eats bigger fish and the always-getting-trumped thing doesn't inspire me. Caldwell's colouring is great though - nice to see him getting to flavour something long outside of Dante (ooh eerrr still not at Zero yet).

Ichabod -

I am actually quite fond of this, given the "hell and bloodfire" type dialogue of Aquila just before they kind of grate against eachother but I'm interested as to where this is going. I was a bit shocked that I didn't actually notice in the last episode that Reardon had been replaced Testament to Doherty's fine colours and Fuso's appropriately matched style. He slips a bit here, noticeably in the second page. The pulled-apart Ichabod page is just magnificent though. Brilliant bit o' comics.

Lenny -

Well now I did think the spit-roast scene was a bit excessive but I've found the whole story to be a bit self-indulgent really so if that's the only evidence of it anyone's spotted I'm surprised. It doesn't put me off Diggle or (lol) the whole of 2000ad but it is a bit much. People's reactions to it here is part of the reason I baulk at raunch when editing scripts. Draws attention away from the story more than anything.

I'LL BAULK AT YOUR RAUNCH. FNARR.

[jamesedwards]

Staggeringly fucked up. I think that's me done with Andy Diggle now, and quite possibly 2000ad as a whole for publishing it. Cheap, nasty and triggering.

I find this a truly baffling overreaction.

It's not the sexual content, it's the context. And the character history. And the one liner about - giggle! - dicks. Dicks belonging to two men who are defined by their choice to abstain from sex, inside a woman who doesn't want to have sex with men and who broke the heart of the male power fantasy cliche who planned the whole thing. Everyone in that threesome is raping the others, as proxies of Lenny Zero and his gang. I've always found it easy to understand the sci if trappings of 2000ad as a sort of delivery mechanism for a more down to earth statement. Strip back the sci fi from this week's Lenny Zero...

I don't feel good about paying money for this. The least I can do is Not buy the next one. Dredd's a spent force and Dante's over - I won't be missing much, except maybe some of the artists.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I don't agree with that (this is the internet after all).

The judges have insane puritanical no sex regulations, and they used them to condemn Lenny. It kind of makes sense that he would use those hang-ups as a weapon against them.

[jamesedwards]

If you see this as a tit for tat pissing match and not a violation of someone's sexual integrity...

I think rape can be depicted artistically - its used as such in Punisher: Born, for example. But this is a badly written pulp crime pastiche (with a sideline in "look! Concepts from the first two hundred issues that haven't been used since!!!"). It's not the place to be doing this.

Realtalk: I had PTSD-like symptoms for about six months because I failed to prevent someone being drunkenly abused last summer (not that they were my actually responsibility or that I couldn't actually have done much to stop them, but you do tend to feel that way). If something is going to bring that to mind - be a trigger - it shouldn't be played for mild titillation or a shit one-liner. In this it's played for both. It's artistically irresponsible to produce material like this.

[jamesedwards]

And if anyone thinks unpacking an objection is the same as overreacting...

[COMMANDO FORCES]

DREDD was excellent this week. Interesting developments from Justice Department, as they try to come up with ideas to try and sort out the mess the city is in.
The artwork is spot on from the Campbell Droid and I think Dredd looks awsome and the style fits the feel of the story perfectly.

By the way, that page with the Statue of Judgement is in the 'cellar', along with a few more from the strip

[Daveycandlish]

Glad to see that others echo my thoughts on Lenny Zero. It's been a great strip so far but that panel was just a step too far; the speech bubbles gave you all the info you needed to grasp what was happening, the frame was just unnecessary.
Dredd was looking dark and good, Ichabod will read better when collected (and I for one can't wait for the trade!) and the other two just keep tootling on.

Not a bad prog, just that one panel jarred for me

[The Prodigal]

Staggeringly fucked up. I think that's me done with Andy Diggle now, and quite possibly 2000ad as a whole for publishing it. Cheap, nasty and triggering.

I find this a truly baffling overreaction.

Mate no offence but its your Daily Mail response that I find as a misplaced over-reaction-to simply insult someone by trying to shoe-horn what they say into a standard issue Daily Heil tick-box status does them a great dis-service imo.

[vzzbux]

Perhaps Lenny Zero should have stayed in the Meg and kept as a pre DoC story.





V

[jamesedwards]

It's more that it shouldn't play certain things for schoolboy giggles, really. I do want Lenny to die now.

[TordelBack]

Cover:  Kewl.
Dredd:  Yeah, this is good stuff from Williams and Cambpell.  Surprised to see that was Blythe on colours, would have expected that style of art to come in already coloured.  First impression was "ugh, s'all smeary and out of focus", but actually reading the story it worked quite wonderfully, both in terms of storytelling and atmosphere. 
3rillers:  Pretty, but didn't add much to last week's setup. Mecha not my thing anyhow.  Still, enjoying the format, and hoping for a good final installment.
Aquila:  Too. Much. Talk.  Wait, did I really just write that?  Weren't there immortal warriors scrapping on a burning Roman bridge? Nah, this is just the first episode I didn't completely love, mainly because it felt like nothing really happened bar the Highlander revelation and teasey danglers.
Ichabod: Losing patience here again a bit, but saved by a great cliffhanger that ties back into the first series, and that a fabulous final page! 
Lenny Zero:  Loving this series, but for the first time this episode seemed to unnecessarily repeat elements from the previous one: stub guns and boinking judges was clever and funny last week, this week it's a bit tired: if you're going to build a story around surprise guest-stars and gags you better keep them fresh!  Couldn't be bothered less by the spit-roast (repressed judges lose inhibitions and are filmed in act of savagely poetic vengeance, so what?), but I did think the arse-to-camera-teetering-on-stillettoes art on Mink was the slightly skeevy part of this instalment.

Not my favourite Prog of recent months, but a strong Dredd lifts all boats.

[Dandontdare]

Isn't the innocence drug pretty much what Morton Judd wanted to do?  History repeating... 

Yeah, I was expecting Dredd to quote Fargo's line: "our duty is to police the citizens we have, not create the citizens we'd like". Loving this story, it'll obvioulsy end in tears, but I can't wait to find out how.

not too keen on the cover - the arms made it look like a man-sized suit, but with an improbably tiny head. One of those oictures where you have to actively work out what's what, whereas a cover should be instantly obvious)

Loving Aquila, 3rillers and Lenny Zero is my favourite thing in the prog at the moment (if drug-induced sex is 'beyond the pale', should we stop writing comics about war or murder as they're pretty nasty too? Didn't bother me in the slightest.)

Ichabod will probably work better in a full read-through, I'm not too engaged with the story, but every episode contains something to enjoy.

I think we're getting very strong proggage at the moment.

[jamesedwards]

If drugging and blackmailing a girl who doesn't want to have sex with you/go out with you is your idea of "savagely poetic justice" then you're a scumbag and I'm glad I don't know you. Homicide and war are not inherently void of justification but sexual assault and rape never are. "losing your inhibitions" is the philosophy of a date rapist. We have a right to inhibition.

[The Prodigal]

Isn't the innocence drug pretty much what Morton Judd wanted to do?  History repeating... 

Yeah, I was expecting Dredd to quote Fargo's line: "our duty is to police the citizens we have, not create the citizens we'd like". Loving this story, it'll obvioulsy end in tears, but I can't wait to find out how.

not too keen on the cover - the arms made it look like a man-sized suit, but with an improbably tiny head. One of those oictures where you have to actively work out what's what, whereas a cover should be instantly obvious)

Loving Aquila, 3rillers and Lenny Zero is my favourite thing in the prog at the moment (if drug-induced sex is 'beyond the pale', should we stop writing comics about war or murder as they're pretty nasty too? Didn't bother me in the slightest.)

Ichabod will probably work better in a full read-through, I'm not too engaged with the story, but every episode contains something to enjoy.

I think we're getting very strong proggage at the moment.

I don't want to go all one dimensional on one story and theme (Having said that I am now going to go all one dimensional) and maybe you are right on one level with regard to the war/murder scenario-fair point However part of the difference for me was that this bit of "action" and the follow up scene (as opposed to most war/murder scenarios) reeked of being played for laddish laughs in a juvenile and self indulgent manner. That's what distinguished it in my book.

When i see stuff like this I suspect somebody going wilfully beyond the pale in an attempt to outrage and goad a reaction. I also suspect that such depictions might be a device for grabbing attention when a good story line/writing might be a better option.

[The Prodigal]

If drugging and blackmailing a girl who doesn't want to have sex with you/go out with you is your idea of "savagely poetic justice" then you're a scumbag and I'm glad I don't know you. Homicide and war are not inherently void of justification but sexual assault and rape never are. "losing your inhibitions" is the philosophy of a date rapist. We have a right to inhibition.

Or to articulate it in a far better way-what this guy said.