Prog 1960 The Good, The Bad, The Psychotic!

[Echidna]

The whole thing was scripted to sucker punch dosey folk like me who'd known what was going on all along but left dangling at that last page turn. For me its an example of a master of his craft knowing he'll pull you along for three progs (hence length) smugly feeling like we know whats what and then confident he could still throw us in a loop at the death. Worked on me... but then I'm a mug!

Same here! I spent two weeks rolling my eyes at the obviousness of it all and tutting at the headlines on Bleeding Cool and a couple of other places, knowing full well that the beating was staged, and yet I still fell for that penultimate page. I guess the build-up might seem a little workmanlike if you've been reading Dredd for decades (I haven't), but Wagner totally nailed the reveal.

[staticgirl]

Prog 1960 arrived on the same day as 1961 and the Megazine! It caused me so much joy I sang a little song as the postman walked away.

As you can imagine I am pacing myself else the thrillpower will cause bleeding on the brain..

[Proudhuff]

There must be a Posties board/thread somewhere where they discuss delivering 2000AD and the squeaks, squeals and jigs it encourages in growed-ups!

[I, Cosh]

There must be a Posties board/thread somewhere where they discuss delivering 2000AD and the squeaks, squeals and jigs it encourages in growed-ups!

There's definitely a thread on there where they discuss the best way to mangle a copy. It was a black day for them when the paper envelopes were replaced by plastic.

[Dark Jimbo]

From the citizens' point of view Dredd's only good point is that he has saved (most of) the city time and again.  The last two times (Day of Chaos, Enceladus), and arguably with the Mutant Reforms, he didn't even manage that. His popularity/credibility has to be at an all time low. Why put up with Dredd the Bastard if he can't even cut it as Dredd the Hero.

Hmm. I disagree. It's not all about the mega-epics. This is a city where people nip out to the local hyper-mart and are never seen again; where every other unlicensed taxi could be part of an organ-legging operation; where the very next phonecall could be the Hunter's Club, telling you to start running; where that nice Mr Bloggs from three doors down could go futsie with a las-knife at any moment. Knowing Dredd and the Judges were patrolling 24/7 would be all that helped me sleep at night.

If I was old enough, I'd remember Cal. I might remember Grice. I'd certainly remember Sinfield. And I'd remember which Judge brought them down. Even if I saw the Judges as a necessary evil, I'd still take to occassionally wondering 'who watches the watchmen' - then I'd remember that Dredd was still around, and feel better. He's to Mega-City One what Victoria was to the British Empire - the implacable, eternal Rock of Gibraltar around which every other life revolves.

Against all that, I'd probably allow him the odd mistake. I probably wouldn't even care that he'd allegedly beaten some biker to death - the same biker gang might have mugged me outside my block just the week before! I'd forgive him that and more so long as he was still around ready for the next time alien ice creatures or Dark Judges invaded.

[Frank]

I probably wouldn't even care that he'd allegedly beaten some biker to death

Internet reaction to unarmed, entirely innocent US citizens being murdered by Dredd's present day equivalents during routine traffic stops suggests at least half of Dark Jimbo block's residents would agree.

MC1 doesn't strike me as a liberal town.

[Fungus]

Something so off about the "murder" of the biker that this was not an enjoyable Dredd tale - regardless of the sleight-of-hand reveal. That *something* was going on was obvious; waiting, waiting for the explanation felt quite sub-Wagner. Has anyone mentioned the colouring? Goddard's art gets very high marks but the colouring by Brown (there's a colourists handle  ) was perhaps the best I've seen in the prog. A great pairing.

Looking forward to Wednesday's bumper prog, natch. Defoe has seen me enjoying a zombie tale recently - not easy! - but otherwise the line-up needs a lick of paint, for me.

[TordelBack]

Against all that, I'd probably allow him the odd mistake.

Like failing to save 80% of the populaton, killed in retaliation for something Dredd himself did? Or doing nothing to stop the ice-judges invasion, and arguably inciting it? Maybe when Dredd was saving everyone from Cal, Death, Sabbat, but all he's done recently is fill the city with muties.

And for that matter, all those everyday fates of mega-citizen on their way to the shops... They still happen, regardless. 

[Dark Jimbo]

Against all that, I'd probably allow him the odd mistake.

Like failing to save 80% of the populaton, killed in retaliation for something Dredd himself did? Or doing nothing to stop the ice-judges invasion, and arguably inciting it? Maybe when Dredd was saving everyone from Cal, Death, Sabbat, but all he's done recently is fill the city with muties.

I don't really buy the 'Dredd caused Chaos Day' line anyway, and if I lived in the Big Meg I'd be a 'Murican and probably be so blinded by my hatred of the sovs (particularly if I'd lived through the Apocalypse War) that all Chaos Day would have done is prompt me to join my block Citi-Def - next time, we get our retaliation in first!

As far as the ice-judges go, then presumably the first I'd know of them was when they invaded the city - and afterwards all I'd know about the whole shebang was whatever Justice Department chose to tell me (which probably wouldn't be 'Dredd incited this').

[Hawkmumbler]

Honestly the only recent disaster cit's could point the blame at Justice Dept. for is Luna City-2. All those ninja judges had to come from somewhere!

[sheridan]

Defoe was a good helping, a solid resolution, and left a nice setup for the future - although I wonder will the strip ever reach such a level without Leigh Gallagher at the sharp end. His body of work on this series has been stupendous.

Do we have any idea who the next Defoe artist will be?

She's a good egg. And now you'll never look back.

She is that and should get a proper acknowledgement in the Prog: Block Name!!

The campaign starts here 

Denise for the Thrill-cast!

Defoe: Mill's voice was strong in this one. And with the "superiour heroes" thing, it really felt like I was reading Marshal Law at times. Good times

Yep - Uncle Pat can sometimes get a little heavy-handed with his polemics, but imaging it's in the voice of Marshal Law helps :-)

[TordelBack]

I don't really buy the 'Dredd caused Chaos Day' line anyway,

Well fair enough, it's a valid PoV, but Dredd certainly didn't stop it. Justice Dept lost completely, the only reason that the whole city didn't die was because of Yurgis' built-in weakness. And Dredd was on the Council of Five when it happened, and Francisco was a Chief Judge he supported back into office.

If you put up with the surveillance, the lies, the brutality, the repression, the least you can expect is that Justice Dept as personified in Joe Dredd should stop 7 out of 8 people you know dying horribly. I can't see his reputation as saviour of the city surviving that, at least until he does something publically heroic again - and Trifecta and Enceladus weren't that.

[Proudhuff]

Defoe was a good helping, a solid resolution, and left a nice setup for the future - although I wonder will the strip ever reach such a level without Leigh Gallagher at the sharp end. His body of work on this series has been stupendous.

Do we have any idea who the next Defoe artist will be?

In my world it's George Coleman 

[ming]

Great cover - would be great to have McCarthy back in the prog.. would a Dredd be too much to ask?

There'll be more McCarthy in (and on) the Prog in due course, I hear.  Dredd... yup.

Great news! Looking forward to that already!

Sneak peak of a forthcoming cover*...  Brendan's not on art duties for the strip itself I think (but he did mention that there's a Dredd one-parter he'll be doing at some point).




* Sketch version, at least - feel able to share this now since Brendan put it up on Facebook.

[Hawkmumbler]

Sweet jovus drokk! :0