Skip Tracer: Never really got into this story but kept reading it throughout. It probably would be better when read in its entirety. It did suffer from the perennial problem of 2000AD stories in that long spaces of time can go by before further chapters of the stories are printed.
Not sure I agree with this - to me it feels like Skip Tracer has barely been out of the prog for the last two or three years. All a matter of perception I suppose.
A very 90s looking cover but that's ok; it's generic Dredd but who doesn't like generic Dredd?
My highlight has been the 3riller the last three progs, and that barely EVER happens so well done to the team. I did wonder if Millmore ran out of time a little when the backgrounds all disappeared on page three but his facial expressions are great and carry it through, and when he does put the detail in, as he does on the final page, it's excellent stuff. Not sure if I want to see this return - Herne is a little bit 'generic hard man' so far, and the actual Crawly Man demon might be a bit limiting unless it was dealt with in a clever way. But I disagree with the idea that because we've got Thistlebone, the prog doesn't need another folk horror strip - as long as it's completely different, then why not.
Sentientoid did wrap up quite suddenly but it's clearly just one installment of Rob Williams's somewhat comedic and singular take on Dredd and no doubt we'll be seeing the droid at some point in the future. People have often said that Dredd lacks a unified feel these days in that different writers have their own version of the strip with their own recurring characters and plot threads. Whether or not this is a satisfying approach to the strip aside, I'd say Williams has one of the most distinctive 'versions' of the Dredd-verse that we have at the moment. I'd be happy for Tharg to give the entire strip to Niemand for, say, a year, and let him plot out the flow of the strip for a longer period, but I do enjoy the Williams stuff.
Dexter... ehhh. I've actually been happy with the piecemeal way the strip has run in the last couple of years - you're never far away from another burst adding to the progression of the wider arc. Not sure about this ending though - after all this time travelling to get to Mangapore and enjoying the interactions of this team, Dex just decides he's going to head back to Downlode again and the other three are dismissed. Hopefully we've not seen the last of them. Also if the friendly AI had revealed its
let's say cloaking device at the start of the story there would have been no need for the whole journey at all. Hey ho!
Skip Tracer has not been the story for me. Top art though.
Jaegir... I need a reread of the whole thing because I get a wee bit lost with the plot threads and characters in this one. It looks amazing, Coleby and O'Grady make it so imersive and the lettering is fab too - that little 'whisper' at the bottom of page three is lovely. In nit-picking mode I think there's a word missing from the first panel of the final page - I'm never sure when that happens if the word has been missing in the script and the letterer has to replicate the script, mistakes and all. No big deal of course!
The upcoming zombie thing... I'll wait and see. I'm pretty wary of treating 2000ad strips as a 'multiverse' where all sorts of crossovers can occur (don't mind the odd one here and there). Anyway I'm sure this will be well-judged!
