PROG 2111 - Welcome to the Thrill-Party!

[Leigh S]

Excellent stuff so far -

Dredd is a great Christmas tale from TC Eglington and Boo Cook, both of whom I find hit and miss, but definite double hit here.

Slaine by Weston is a a bit weird - at is wonderful and it is good to see PAt tell us a bit more about Ukko's origins (as already revealed in the "Kiss My Axe" preview?).  The story is set in "current" continuity, but feels like it could be from the first run (especially Slaine, who looks like he stepped out of the prog 300s!  Preview art for the next Slaine artist - it is indeed Leonardo Manco and it is Biz-tastic looking....

Some early Thargs interviewed between the stories too

[Eamonn Clarke]

John "Ho ho ho" Higgins

[Tjm86]

It's that wonderful bittersweet time of year.  A bumper prog full of delights.  A feast for eyes and minds.  One that has to last us few the longest, darkest nights of the year until the new one comes around.  To binge or eke it out ....

[Tjm86]

Okay ... binge it is!

Quality stuff that is definitely going to need a re-read but am I detecting a nice little dedication to the late Señor Ezquerra at the end of Durham Red?

[Darren Stephens]

Only read the Dredd tale so far, but it's a cracker ( piss poor pun intended.)

[Dandontdare]

am I detecting a nice little dedication to the late Señor Ezquerra at the end of Durham Red?

There's one in Dredd as well

[Richard]

I've read most of this and I thought it was very good. An excellent idea for a Dredd story, a fitting end to Caballistics, outstanding art on Slaine by Chris Weston -- have we seen him do black and white before? -- and a good Durham Red one-off. I think Alec Worley has done his best work on Red recently. I liked Ben Willsher's tribute to Carlos. It was a nice gesture but not so in-your-face as to interrupt the story.

[Frank]

... outstanding art on Slaine by Chris Weston -- have we seen him do black and white before?

Not since the days of Gulf War 1 and Adamski:




682, June 1990

[Richard]

Blimey, he was already amazing way back then!

[Geoff]

After a recent run of thrill-powered progs, this xmas prog was more of a whimper than a bang for me...

A reasonable cover...good but not great from an artist as accomplished as Higgins.

I didn't enjoy the Dredd at all, I've never liked Boo Cook's art and the story, which I think was supposed to be amusing, was not, just tired and rather sad.

Difficult to say if Caballistics was any good as I haven't read the previous episodes. 

Enjoyed the Gosnell and Burt-1 interviews. 

Deadworld's not my cup of gore at all.

Skip Tracer, not generally very engaging but readable. 

Slaine drawn by Weston was great! Chris Weston's recent activities in the prog, a few covers and even the odd strip, keep me subbing in the lean times.  Anything drawn by Weston is pretty much great. Mr Mills seems to have written a story for Slaine for the first time in a while too. 

Brink - just brilliant. Completely engrossed in this.  One of the few stories, these days, that I remember from the previous week and don't have to go back and remind my self of what's going on.

The Fiends and Durham Red were pretty enjoyable too...so on second thoughts, whilst it was less than a bang, maybe it was more than a whimper...

 

[matty_ae]

I've re-read it a couple of time but in the interview I found Richard Burton's assessment of Alan Grant bordering on offensive.

"like so many double acts, the talent lay with John, and I'm sure Alan would agree with that."

Really? Well how about a statement from Alan himself to either agree or challenge that opinion.
I think I find it incredibly biased as he has already stated he didn't get on well with Alan.

Just odd given:
a) Alan went on to do incredible runs on Batman, Anderson PSI Division and others
b) Alan is credited with being a great early supporter of everyone from Alan Moore, to Morrison and Millar. Taking the time to give feedback and handwrite replies etc.

Seemed a bit of a sour note to go unchallenged.

[Frank]

I've re-read it a couple of time but in the interview I found Richard Burton's assessment of Alan Grant bordering on offensive.

"like so many double acts, the talent lay with John, and I'm sure Alan would agree with that."

Really? Well how about a statement from Alan himself to either agree or challenge that opinion.
I think I find it incredibly biased as he has already stated he didn't get on well with Alan.

Just odd given:
a) Alan went on to do incredible runs on Batman, Anderson PSI Division and others
b) Alan is credited with being a great early supporter of everyone from Alan Moore, to Morrison and Millar. Taking the time to give feedback and handwrite replies etc.

Seemed a bit of a sour note to go unchallenged.

To be fair, Alan Grant hasn't held back on his criticism of Burton's professional abilities (while making it clear they like each other as people):





As for underestimating Grant's contribution to the Wagner/Grant partnership, that's something most of us are guilty of, too. While Grant concedes his Dredd is just lacking something (above), Grantless-Wagner eventually proved to be missing the fun, weirdness and invention we loved as kids*

Grant also wrote some incredible Strontium Dog. That tends to get smoothed over in our justification of Wagner bringing the character back at the turn of the century**, but we all know how Wagner and Grant wrote - whoever got his name on the credit box was the one who actually wrote the script.

If Wagner was really the one who wrote Dredd, then Grant was really the one who wrote Stront.


* Wagner's early solo work and latter-day epics more than compensated for that loss by finding different kinds of stories to tell, but there were long stretches during the nineties and early 21st century where Wagner was lost and trying (with varying degrees of success) to recreate TB Grover stories without the magic ingredient that made them work.

** 'Wagner's written Strontium Dog for 40 years, so the character's his to do with as he pleases'

[Dandontdare]

but we all know how Wagner and Grant wrote - whoever got his name on the credit box was the one who actually wrote the script.

I believe it was whoever typed it up got the credit, but it was impossible to sort out which ideas were whose within each story.

[Frank]

but we all know how Wagner and Grant wrote - whoever got his name on the credit box was the one who actually wrote the script.

I believe it was whoever typed it up got the credit, but it was impossible to sort out which ideas were whose within each story.

'Whoever did the typing got the cash' is their wonderfully dry way of describing their creative process. Might be underselling their individual contributions just a little:



https://web.archive.org/web/20050412215234/http://www.2000adreview.co.uk:80/features/interviews/2005/grant/grant3.shtml

[matty_ae]

Fair enough.

I didn't realise that Alan had publicly been rude about Richard's editorial ability.