Well betting on Red here is another safe bet, as is 2000ad at the moment, the story's qualities are pretty predictable, not that the stories themselves, but there's little here to change my opinion about whats good and what's not and even why.
The two endings give their stories conclusions on a parr with what's gone before. Dredd is excellent, wraps things up really well while still feeling like its opening more doors. This has been a great story by Mike Carroll (sorry Michael) and Jake Lynch is rapidly becoming, well has become, one of my absolute favourite current Dredd artists, well 2000ad artists generally. He's the perfect mix of Flint, Baikie and most importantly Lynch, so comfortable yet unique. Survival Geeks looked great too, but telegraphed its easy ending which in keeping with the series as a whole felt twee. As did the developments in ... two folks who have that might, they might they not relation thing going on... can't remember their names, which says it all really!
The other problem is I still don't care about fella me laddio in Skip Tracer, so however exciting it might be, it fails to be.
However I'm fully engaged with both Deadworld and Durham Red. DR in particular has a really effective episode, quietly and closely developing story and tension, really well. The change in artist to Lee Carter works absolutely fine and all in all this is a joy.
So 3 for 5 and a good Prog with an advery for the return of The Order next week just being the icing on the cake!
(https://i.imgur.com/yMoxkzb.jpg)
Cover by Rachael Stott
@RachaelAtWork
Wow, that is a fantastic cover! Plays with just about everything, negative space, perspective, colour, character iconography... terrific stuff. Only bit that doesn't work for me is Too Much Text. "Bet on Red", or just "Bloodbath", would have been fine. That's an an image that needs to be seen!
(https://i.imgur.com/Qt2I3Bd.jpg)
Dredd was an interesting one, enjoyable story and art. Generally like Jake Lynch's loose McM like style...but, a small thing, I really don't like the way he draws the Lawmaster...
Durham Red is a joy and Deadworld is completely nuts.
I had some hopes for Skip Tracer but based on this episode they're fading. Although it started well, with the 4 armed kebab seller we were back to cliched, annoying hard ass, black ops etc...etc..
We're quite a few episodes into Skip Tracer and I can't honestly remember the main character's name without looking it up. Not a good sign really, is it?
What's happening on the cover? Is she lying in a bath of blood? And if she's meant to be topless, where's her nipple?
Quote from: glassstanley on 17 June, 2018, 12:23:22 AM
What's happening on the cover? Is she lying in a bath of blood? And if she's meant to be topless, where's her nipple?
She's not topless, that's armour, as seen in the strip these past weeks. And yes, emerging from a coffin-shape full of (heavily diluted) blood. Fantastic image.
Why on earth would Red be topless on the cover of 2000 AD? It's not the bloody Sun. Anyway...
Cover: fab.
Dredd: great but too short. I was really getting into this tale, and those tantalising flashbacks of the early days of the Judge system. I want more. Again, get Michael Carroll to pen an extended series for the Magazine.
Deadworld: increasingly nuts. I'm still not sold on the references, but otherwise this is properly creepy, oddball horror.
Durham Red: a bit of a bridging episode, but still solid. The art shift was a bit jarring, although I do like both artists who work on the strip (and great to see that neither depicts Red as a stick insect in her undies). I'm assuming we've three more parts of this and it's done. If so, I do hope the strip becomes a semi-regular, with the same creative team.
Survival Geeks: again, I'm happy it's here for the variety, but you'd need to have not been paying any attention to spot the ending coming. The magic memory remover was a bit hmm. Still, as a semi-regular humour strip with some great art, I'm not going to complain if it comes back for these odd bursts of brightness. (Also: smart scheduling against the grimness of Deadworld.)
Skip Tracer: I'll give it a read through when it's done, and I hope it'll grab me a bit more. Right now, it's fine, and it's readable, but I'm hoping it ramps up a bit somehow.
Quote from: glassstanley on 17 June, 2018, 12:23:22 AM
where's her nipple?
Being dutifully filled in with a red Bic biro by the 4% of readership in their teens.
Conversely I think it's a not great cover
1) the parts of her body seem incoherently exposed if emerging from a (flat lying) liquid.
2) the huge white areas just seem a waste of cover space, like the artist wasn't bothered.
3) the face is weirdly expressionless and the skin colouring dead-like - zombie-red?
4) why are there no drips of liquid on the emerged parts - most notable the right hand gun?
5) what physical position would you be in to expose forehead, hands, breasts and thighs? Great core work out but most people emerge from liquid torso up first.
It sort of works if she's coming thru a vertical plasma doorway / teleport but not at all from a horizontal liquid.
Dredd's not 300 feet tall, but I still think this is a great cover.
(http://2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/204.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ru/0/08/Judge_Dredd_2000AD.jpg)
Who pours a ton of concrete into individually moulded letterforms then arranges them in a featureless wilderness?
And, if Dredd is supposed to have riddled said Roman alphabet monoliths with bullets, how come he's seated atop these suspect orthographic menhirs?
And why did Dredd choose the Lawrod for this task, when his Lawgiver sidearm would be much more readily to hand, giving him vital seconds in which to shoot the Readymix miscreants before they get the drop on him? Violation of standard procedure when encountering violent Alphabetti Spaghetti- Dredd would have reported himself for failing to follow guidelines.
And don't get me started on those feet ... boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder (https://youtu.be/Tfy-DSuc_Kk).
* Best discussion ever!
Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.
She's a vampire mutant haemovore, coffins and baths of blood are relevant iconography, she could well be metaphorically emerging from past perceptions of her nature into unconstrained possibilities etc etc. Rather than literally doing a stomach-crunch in a tub of low-viscosity ribena.
Quote from: Goosegash on 17 June, 2018, 12:17:23 AM
We're quite a few episodes into Skip Tracer and I can't honestly remember the main character's name without looking it up. Not a good sign really, is it?
Now you come to mention it, neither can I. Definitely not a good sign.
I had assumed she was coming through a forcefieldy doorway thing. That's what it looks like to me.
This cover business can start some chewy discussions :)
There's less detail than I'd like, but that's personal taste. Far worse in that regard was the green Anderson from 2074, but people seem to love that cover so hey-ho :|
I didn't even think 'bath, of blood' either, despite 'bloodbath' featuring in the strapline. It's clear once you look.
Originality is important. Truly original covers can be glorious. But a straight-ahead protaganist being gun-pointy isn't something I need to see again. Except, this one has enough going on to justify things.
Hm. Undecided!
Stylised picture of a 'vampire' assassin walking through a coffin-shaped plasma-like doorway in white space designed to drag your eye to the main area of the composition? Works for me.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 18 June, 2018, 10:30:35 AM
Stylised picture of a 'vampire' assassin walking through a coffin-shaped plasma-like doorway in white space designed to drag your eye to the main area of the composition? Works for me.
Yeah it totally works as ong as she's not supposed to be bathing in blood, which I don't think she is.
It's a cool pic of Durham Red, which incorporates elements of her character into an eye-catching design.
And it's bloody good!
Can't see the pount of reading more into it than that.
Looks more like a Brigand Doom reboot to me.
Quote from: Woolly on 18 June, 2018, 10:58:16 AM
It's a cool pic of Durham Red, which incorporates elements of her character into an eye-catching design
Yeah, it's not a naturalistic image. It's no more represents someone in a coffin (or using a portal?!) than this classic cover illustrates the time Johnny Alpha went for a fly around Mars:
(https://i.imgur.com/UPQGSlu.png?2)
The problem is it's not clear cut what it is. Everyone saying it's not meant to be taken literally is putting clear examples of other metaphorical covers (of course Dredd isn't 50 ft tall, of course alpha isn't falling in space). Problem is nobody can clearly say what's going on with this cover - is it a 'bloodbath', is it a plasma coffin? What even is a plasma coffin? Is she lying down, standing up? What is the red stuff?
Confusion is emblematic of it not being a very good cover on a certain level.
Quote from: BPP on 18 June, 2018, 07:34:46 PM
The problem is it's not clear cut what it is.
Never investigate Expressionism, BPP.
(https://i.imgur.com/jMKyUWE.png?1)
What do you mean...
bull, light, horse's head, legs, arms, and up-turned face...it's all pretty clear to me...
Quote from: Geoff on 18 June, 2018, 10:06:40 PM
What do you mean...
bull, light, horse's head, legs, arms, and up-turned face...it's all pretty clear to me...
Most clear-cut case of newspaper horse in a kitchen containing a burning apartment block* I've ever seen.
Quote from: Geoff on 18 June, 2018, 10:06:40 PM
What do you mean...
bull, light, horse's head, legs, arms, and up-turned face...it's all pretty clear to me...
Said Frank Millar when he turned in 'that' cover.
Quote from: BPP on 19 June, 2018, 11:21:46 AM
Said Frank Millar when he turned in 'that' cover.
It mightn't have been quite on the scale of
Guernica, but 'that' cover certainly elicits a similar response of raw horror...
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l_ds-CD9ytM/TI9vQ9HQXbI/AAAAAAAABHg/8Lxm0lK0Azw/s1600/Miller%2BDredd.jpg)
So many questions.
I know I'm an army of one here, but... I've grown to adore that Miller Dredd. So very very wrong, but I love it!
You aren't alone Woolly- I've looked at that picture for way more time than I should have. It is just so wrong, but so fascinating in its construction.
Quote from: Woolly on 19 June, 2018, 12:48:46 PM
I know I'm an army of one here, but... I've grown to adore that Miller Dredd. So very very wrong, but I love it!
As the newly-appointed chair of That Cover's fan club, I
demand that you explain why the ridges on the right kneepad are horizontal and those on the left are vertical. The sleepless nights must end sometime...
Y'see- I'd never noticed that till then. Astounding. Truly...
Quote from: TordelBack on 19 June, 2018, 01:35:35 PM
As the newly-appointed chair of That Cover's fan club, I demand that you explain why the ridges on the right kneepad are horizontal and those on the left are vertical. The sleepless nights must end sometime...
Its all about the energy isn't it :P
Quote from: TordelBack on 19 June, 2018, 01:35:35 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 19 June, 2018, 12:48:46 PM
I know I'm an army of one here, but... I've grown to adore that Miller Dredd. So very very wrong, but I love it!
As the newly-appointed chair of That Cover's fan club, I demand that you explain why the ridges on the right kneepad are horizontal and those on the left are vertical. The sleepless nights must end sometime...
What, have you never seen a sideways kneepad before?
Or a boot so large an old woman could live in it?
Or a bearded Dredd gazing longingly into what appears to be Frank Miller himself's eyes?
It's all genius, and you know it! ;)
Thing is, I'd like to see Frank Miller draw an entire story in that style.
I'm glad it exists. It's definitely something.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 19 June, 2018, 04:51:16 PM
Thing is, I'd like to see Frank Miller draw an entire story in that style.
"Some men just want to watch the world burn".
Dredd - this was a great story and hopefully we can get more stories set in the beginning of the dreddverse (maybe the Meg is a great place for this)
Skip Tracer - enjoying this but it start feeling like it wants to tell you something but not quite clear on how to tell you
Deadworld - macabre at its best, I am enjoying this more and more.
Durham Red - the change of artist did not break the story. Lee Carter's art is different but still great. The new Durham works for me, more please.
Just picked up my prog. All I'm saying for now is The Order is back!
Quote from: BPP on 17 June, 2018, 12:50:04 PM
Conversely I think it's a not great cover
1) the parts of her body seem incoherently exposed if emerging from a (flat lying) liquid.
2) the huge white areas just seem a waste of cover space, like the artist wasn't bothered.
3) the face is weirdly expressionless and the skin colouring dead-like - zombie-red?
4) why are there no drips of liquid on the emerged parts - most notable the right hand gun?
5) what physical position would you be in to expose forehead, hands, breasts and thighs? Great core work out but most people emerge from liquid torso up first.
It sort of works if she's coming thru a vertical plasma doorway / teleport but not at all from a horizontal liquid.
I don't really like the whatabout defence in much the same way I don't like 'it's only a comic' or it's only a drawing' an answer. Its not abstract expressionism and its not a symbolic stylised pinup and the fact other pictures exist isn't a particularly good reason not to criticise this one.
Having said that the anatomy exposed from the liquid makes perfect sense. Red's left side is twisted forward, her shoulder is raised out of the blood and her left leg is raised out of the liquid (probably bent at the knee out of shot. he head is tilted forward, chin down. meaning her forehead would be out of the blood. The whole thing is not viewed directly from above but from head height as if standing at Reds feet.
In my opinion the face angel should be more dead on and less from a low angel as Reds head tilt would counter the viewing angel and the right arms angel wold mean it would be at an angle close 45 degrees as it came though the blood rather than strait up, with the hand position that would make the right hand gun partially submerged.
(https://i.imgur.com/7Eur1Bg.png?2)
In a prog where four out of five stories rely on old stories or characters for their appeal*, Skip Tracer is all I've got to get my teeth into that hasn't already been chewed and digested.
Cruel wits suggest Skip Tracer is less a title, more an instruction to readers, but the truth is there's nothing actively wrong with it. It's like Chris Evans (not that one) in the Avengers movies; unremarkable but perfectly adequate and nice to look at.
The fatal femme we've seen trailing Nolan Blake - I typed Blake Nolan before I looked it up - turns out to look a bit like that girl who was hanging around Sam Jackson's helicopter airbase in the Avengers movies (http://media.comicbook.com/2016/10/cobie-smulders-205880-1280x0.jpg), so - like the films of the MCU series - that metaphor ties up neatly without being particularly good in its own right.
I love all the art.
Special mentions go to Jake Lynch's fantastic Lawmaster design, with tyres so wide the bike can be used to roll flat large squares of pastry, and to Dave Kendall, for turning the strip with the most boring colour palette since Carl Critchlow's Nemesis & Deadlock into so much hot pink and lime green it felt like being stuck behind a group of middle-aged men on bikes.
Damned loses all those points for referencing Deacon-fucking-Blue (https://i.imgur.com/SgmgSPF.png). **
* Durham Red's at least only nicking Wagner & Grant's character, but Damned and Paradigm Shift are prequels and/or origin stories of other prequels and origin stories, hanging onto the tailgate of other strips like Marty McFly in an anachronistic simile. Survival Geeks gets top marks for inventing original characters but loses them all again for just being about another series the writers wish they were working on instead.
** Not the one from Canon Fodder
Quote from: Frank on 20 June, 2018, 10:36:05 PM
Damned loses all those points for referencing Deacon-fucking-Blue (https://i.imgur.com/SgmgSPF.png). **
** Not the one from Canon Fodder
Also written by Kek-W, all the way back in 1996; Big Sister Pop obviously holds a special place in his imagination and his heart. Art by Chris Wet-Wet-Weston:
(https://i.imgur.com/XCIAT0L.png?3)
Quote from: BPP on 17 June, 2018, 12:50:04 PM
why are there no drips of liquid on the emerged parts - most notable the right hand gun?
Maybe she's going
into the liquid...
Anyway, whatever inaccuracies there may be with the exact positioning of the liquid, it's a fantastic cover. More Rachael Stott please.
Great resolution to Dredd this week, the way the two plot strands have dovetailed (do strands dovetail?) really has been masterful. Survival Geeks is inconvenienced by having a plot resolution get in the way of the jokes, but remains as entertaining as ever. Deadworld is just... freaky. Yeah, I'll need to re-read at the end to pick up the plot but on a week-to-week basis it's grotesquely wonderful. Durham Red - couldn't quite put my finger on why it looked different, at first - think I preferred Willsher. Or hang on - let's get Rachael Stott!
I'm actually quite enjoying Skip Tracer. It's almost like a throwback to the more juvenile kind of strip that 2000 AD was doing back in the early days. And that's not meant as a criticism, it's nice to have something like that around again.
Finally, Little Detail of the Week: in that panel in Survival Geeks where Simon is walking off with a cloud over his head, Sam's fingers as she speaks. Sweet!
The cover is all kind a great, design wise.
[Pimp]
I wish I'd been able to get Rachael to do more for FQ, but the one strip she did is a cracker, and the issue is still available from the fqp shop too... (https://www.futurequake.co.uk/futurequake/futurequake-19/) for a mere £2.50...
[/Pimp]
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 17 June, 2018, 11:17:39 AM
Why on earth would Red be topless on the cover of 2000 AD? It's not the bloody Sun. Anyway...
Same reason Anderson was topless in a Sci-Fi special in the dreaded nineties!
Quote from: TordelBack on 19 June, 2018, 11:26:17 AM
Quote from: BPP on 19 June, 2018, 11:21:46 AM
Said Frank Millar when he turned in 'that' cover.
It mightn't have been quite on the scale of Guernica, but 'that' cover certainly elicits a similar response of raw horror...
Named after an infamous bombing campaign - so the latest cover must be called Coventry, or Dresden?
Quote from: Woolly on 19 June, 2018, 04:44:00 PM
What, have you never seen a sideways kneepad before?
Or a boot so large an old woman could live in it?
Or a bearded Dredd gazing longingly into what appears to be Frank Miller himself's eyes?
It's all genius, and you know it! ;)
Bearded Dredd? Seems to happen when you get someone from the US to draw 'im ;-)
Quote from: sheridan on 21 June, 2018, 12:29:59 PMSame reason Anderson was topless in a Sci-Fi special in the dreaded nineties!
I'd hope we've all grown up a bit since the Loaded days and that frankly sexist bilge of a poster. Also, that was on the inside, and I can't imagine 2000 AD even during its nadir going for a fully topless image on the
cover. That'd be a good way to find yourself on the top shelf at WHSmith.
Quote from: Woolly on 19 June, 2018, 12:48:46 PM
I know I'm an army of one here, but... I've grown to adore that Miller Dredd. So very very wrong, but I love it!
Dredd shouldn't have a beard, but I've liked that image since I first saw it. Strange zig-zag leg linework included.
Cover: While I recognised the red stuff as blood, I got the impression she was upright. I know liquid doesn't work like that, but her posture suggests she is upright.
I have mixed feelings concerning the image, but it's... something*. And the fact the colour tone on her breast armour is very close to her face (and the outfit she wears in the strip itself is not so figure hugging) suggested at least partially bare breasts to me. Maybe I've just got a one track mind.
*Not meant in a derogatory way. I just can't t think of the correct word right now. I'm having one of those 'tip of your tongue**' moments.
**Or 'thumbs' in my case since I'm typing this on a smartphone.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 21 June, 2018, 02:32:17 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 21 June, 2018, 12:29:59 PMSame reason Anderson was topless in a Sci-Fi special in the dreaded nineties!
I'd hope we've all grown up a bit since the Loaded days and that frankly sexist bilge of a poster. Also, that was on the inside, and I can't imagine 2000 AD even during its nadir going for a fully topless image on the cover. That'd be a good way to find yourself on the top shelf at WHSmith.
Nothing that extreme, but they gave it a few good tries!
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/987.jpg)
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/991.jpg)
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/1045.jpg)
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/1116.jpg)
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/1655.jpg)
Racked on newsagents' shelves wrapped inside a plastic bag. Not because it was especially pornographic, but because it was shite:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1066
Quote from: Frank on 21 June, 2018, 07:25:36 PM
Racked on newsagents' shelves wrapped inside a plastic bag. Not because it was especially pornographic, but because it was shite:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1066
Oh I don't know, the Dredd tale was pretty good and undoubtably prophetic!! :lol:
Quote from: dweezil2 on 21 June, 2018, 09:31:12 PM
Quote from: Frank on 21 June, 2018, 07:25:36 PM
Racked on newsagents' shelves wrapped inside a plastic bag. Not because it was especially pornographic, but because it was shite:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1066
Oh I don't know, the Dredd tale was pretty good and undoubtably prophetic!! :lol:
Thought you were going to say prophylactic for a moment...
Quote from: sheridan on 22 June, 2018, 12:24:42 AM
Quote from: dweezil2 on 21 June, 2018, 09:31:12 PM
Quote from: Frank on 21 June, 2018, 07:25:36 PM
Racked on newsagents' shelves wrapped inside a plastic bag. Not because it was especially pornographic, but because it was shite:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1066
Oh I don't know, the Dredd tale was pretty good and undoubtably prophetic!! :lol:
Thought you were going to say prophylactic for a moment...
And that! :lol:
Skip Tracer: more an instruction than a name. (Really like the Dredd at the moment though, and Deadworld is great.)
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 22 June, 2018, 07:56:28 PM
Quote from: Frank on 20 June, 2018, 10:36:05 PM
Cruel wits suggest Skip Tracer is less a title, more an instruction to readers
Skip Tracer: more an instruction than a name.
Cruel wit.
Oops! That'll teach me to read threads properly before posting :-[
Maybe he works for a refuse company, and is literally trying to find a missing skip....
Quote from: Frank on 21 June, 2018, 07:25:36 PM
Racked on newsagents' shelves wrapped inside a plastic bag. Not because it was especially pornographic, but because it was shite:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1066
I could never quite fathom how this one was allowed. Not only nipples, but most of a schlong too. In slightly soft focus, sure, but very, very visible.
(https://www.bedetheque.com/media/Couvertures/Couv_11021.jpg)
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 23 June, 2018, 02:54:46 PM
I could never quite fathom how this one was allowed. Not only nipples, but most of a schlong too. In slightly soft focus, sure, but very, very visible.
https://www.bedetheque.com/media/Couvertures/Couv_11021.jpg
French.
I did see an English version with the same cover in the Dublin branch of Forbidden Planet, though.
Collections are more specific then the prog and less likely to be seen on newsagents shelves. The cover does represent the content pretty well. The wang shaped lump may not be his spam dagger, it could just be part of Slaine's leg muscle. it's nothing out of the ordinary for a fantasy book cover.
I reread the Horned god recently and its full of 'is that a pork sword or just a funny shadow' moments.
Definitely nips on that cover though.
For reasons nobody quite understands, ace cover artist Rachael Stott was on this episode of DIY: SOS (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08w6dz9). *
* I don't watch it, honest. It was just on when I woke from a heat-induced coma
Quote from: Frank on 29 June, 2018, 07:45:52 PM
For reasons nobody quite understands, ace cover artist Rachael Stott was on this episode of DIY: SOS (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08w6dz9). *
* I don't watch it, honest. It was just on when I woke from a heat-induced coma
Well that was quite lovely.
Quote from: BPP on 29 June, 2018, 11:40:06 PM
Quote from: Frank on 29 June, 2018, 07:45:52 PM
For reasons nobody quite understands, ace cover artist Rachael Stott was on this episode of DIY: SOS (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08w6dz9). *
* I don't watch it, honest. It was just on when I woke from a heat-induced coma
Well that was quite lovely.
Stott was brilliant with the wee kids. Talent and a way with people don't always go together.
I heard about a guy, another guy, who lives two towns over, who had a right good blub at the end of that show.