1406- Return to Life!

[ukdane]

Yup, Humour fans, Droid Life is back.
As are: Asylum II
Robohunter
Stronium Dog.
Shaun (Apocalypse Soon) Thomas is on Dredd duty, along with Alan Grant.
And it's a Gibson-babe cover (Samantha Slade)

[Steamboy]

Asylum 2....oh goody goody goody
Oh bugger, we're only up to prog 1396 down here thats 10 whole weeks I have ta wait..:(

CU Krestel

[Banners]

What a funny, insightful and uplifting Dredd story.

The way we care so much about these characters, that such pathos resonates from the page, embossed with the snappy dialogue and sheer poetry of the historical dialect that so wonderfully avoids cliche; it all demonstrates this is a writer at the very height of his powers. For those that thought Grant had lost it with the Crystal Skull and the Snozzbournes, this proves he is well back in form.

And the final line is a classic - so skillful, in a way not seen by these eyes since the 1970s heyday of British sitcom.

M@

[ARRISARRIS]

...was interested to see that as well as the Strontium Dog main title it was also introduced as 'Johnny Alpha in Traitor to his Kind', which i assume is going to be a BIG story...

...this is the first time this has happened???...

[Bad Andy]

Dredd is awful, awful, awful. Really thought it was going to be a multiparter until it suddenly finished.

What were they thinking? This is the worst story that has been in 2000ad since I started subscribing again.

It's a good job Total War are returning in a fortnight.

[Trout]

Irony is piled upon irony.
Normally, Dredd's the story I head straight for, as it's almost always guaranteed to be excellent.

However, this week it's sadly The Worst Thing In The Prog.
I'm genuinely sorry to type this, as I'm a big Alan Grant fan - especially after the fantastic Moniaive weekend he and Sue just served up - but this one's rubbish.

The painted art was quite nice, with some dark moments harking back to the least-poor parts of the 90s, but the Scouse pisstake element is simply banal and pointless.
OIt's obvious this story took about five minutes to write.
Sorry.

The rest of the comic is superb.

Caballistics is so, so, so much fun!
The art is dark and messy. I love b&w in the right place, and the right place is on horror in 2000AD!
It just doesn't matter that the story's pretty much an aside, a straight adventure tale that doesn't add anything to moving forward the past plots.

Who cares? It's just fascinating entertainment!

In the back three-fifths of the prog, we have a trio of strong scene-setters.

Robohunter was a bit of a laugh, and I'll praise any colour Gibson art at twice the price of 2000AD. Love that detailed convention page.

Asylum seems even darker than before, and Boo Cook's style is pleasingly tidier but no less creative. His aliens... I'm running out of superlatives.

But as for Strontium Dog, well - that's the stuff we want, isn't it?
The first two pages actually made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

Then John switches the focus to plot with some very skilled comedy asides. Why did they ever kill Wulf? He's brilliant!

I'm screaming for more.

(Judicious use of a powerful adjective alert!)

I fucking love being a 2000AD reader.

- Trout

[thrillpowerseeker]

I quite liked the art on Dredd..the story however was woeful..only the shell suit and perm were missing from this cliche heavy crudling..

Asylum looks like more of the same, didnt really enjoy it last time round doesnt look like this will be any different..

Robohunter was excellent however its a real pleasure to read..

As is Strontium Dog..at last a mega Alpha epic..comic strips dont get better than this..EVER

lovely cover too

[Trout]

Nobody else got a prog?

- Trout

[Waddie]

I wondered for a moment whether the Dredd artwork originally had a different script to go with it.  Maybe they could have a competition to write new dialogue that does the pretty pictures justice; I'm suer someone can make something better out of "Dredd arrests a man-eating zombie" than that.

Everything else was wonderful though.

[GordonR]

"What a funny, insightful and uplifting Dredd story."

Havign just read the prog, I took this post at face value when I read it yesterday.

Now everything becomes much clearer.

[Proudhuff]

No sign of mine yet, ho-hum...

[Bolt-01]

Not many comments yet, thought this would be a busier thread.

Gibsons cover is as good as you could want. I actually enjoyed the Dredd strip till the last page. Then all the puns became a bit too much and it fell flat.

Cab is just having a good adventure at the mo isn't it. This is working so well because we are aware of so much of the characters motivations and all that.

Robohunter: ah. The convention panel alone was worth it.

Really pleased to see the return of Asylum. Saw some of Boos pencils there, and seeing the final pages reminded me of just how nice they were. An artist to watch methinks. (Actually, has anybody got a scan of the original pencils we can compare in this first ep? Tharg could have just lettered the pencils and it would have been enough)

SD: Goat? Yeah, right. Class.

Bolt-01

[DavidXBrunt]

Armpit and Navel surplus store. Worth the price for that pun alone.

[Oddboy]

Dredd - not up to standards, scriptwise. Liked the art though.

Caballistics, Inc. is great, as usual. Really top art from Dom here, especially some of the Demonjenny pictures.

Asylum 2, bit too early to judge just yet, but I enjoyed Asylum so it should be good. Think I preferred the more cartoony look to Boo's art, but this is good too.

Robo-Hunter ahh yes, this is the stuff.

Strontium Dog, great stuff.

Droid Life - YAY!

Goodo proggy.

[Dudley]

'Scuse me, WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT?

Stories?  Stories???  F*** that.  Congratulations to Mr Dribbles and Mr Logan for

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

their thoroughly-deserved Krill tro Thargos!

Otherwise, the Rob Zombie was pretty awful, Asylum was absolutely excellent (Boo Cook goes up a whole 'nother grade), Robohunter was fun, Cabs was beyond special, and Stront was cool.

Really good prog, with a really good cover.