Well, postie was insanely early again today, perhaps a little too early. Finally got a chance to enjoy the prog.
Since the majority of the prog continues ongoing tales, a lot of what has been said still holds true. On the art front it really is hard to find fault. Johnson, Burns, Richardson and Harrison continue to provide a visual feast. Googe's addition with the return of Survival Geeks fits in nicely as well. A good contrast of work that fit together nicely.
Storywise? Well, one new strip and four continuing without any major revelations gives the prog a serviceable feel. Geeks goes with the standard "Welcome to a new alternate reality with lost of nice new threats" intro. A smattering of cultural references thrown in to keep the attention and a fairly standard cliff hanger ending. Dredd, The Order, Mechastopheles and Grey Area move the plot along but no earth shattering revelations. Grey Area rather disappointing telegraphs potential plot developments and it now seems to be straying into cliche territory. Possibly Abnett is setting us up for another twist, we'll have to see.
All round then it's a fairly decent prog. Artwork definitely lifts what might be otherwise disappointing stories and arguably the artists are doing a lot of the heavy lifting this week. All hint at the promise of revelations in the run up to prog 2100 so perhaps more of a teaser prog?
(https://i.imgur.com/Z0QdZvj.jpg)
That cover! :o
Neil Roberts has significantly upped his game with this one. Bravo that droid! :thumbsup:
Great Dredd, Sons of Booth very aptly aping The sons of Trump, great art and story with the target of the attack shown but not told!
Glad to see the game of hide and geek return, fine set up and great art, only crit would be a few wee sound effects would aid the action shots.
Grey Area, not entirely unexpected outcomes... so far.
Last Orders, seems to be having everything thrown into the melting pot, not my bag at all now.
I've given up on Franksphysicsjotter
So two outstanding tales two duffers and one meh. A balanced prog.
A Prog with one major revalation... but we'll come to that. Otherwise shifts in quality rather than anything earth shattering.
Dredd notches up pretty damned well and relieved of unnecessary distraction starts to craft a good Sons of Booth tale.
The Order continues to be great and I'm now perfectly at ease with AG being about.
Mech..robosteampunkknightsthingiles slides back into me no caring for some reason... might work with a re-read... but not sure I care enough to find out.
Grey Area slips back to just solid, which is a downturn for this great series. My hope that this has another turn up its shelve otherwise there's a risk it will become trope heavy cliche.
The relavation - I bloody loved Survival Geeks - the slasher movie parody for some reason feeling fresh and more fun that others. Now this series has tricked me before into enjoying easy episodes and then tumbling into dull trite nonsense BUT I don't think I've been wowed as much as this before so... well we'll see...
Good Prog
I seem to be alone in finding that Mechastopheles just took a turn for the much, much better this Prog! Having characters running about in the city as well as inside the beast gives me more context to work out what the hell is going on, which I appreciate. I should probably re-read the original 3riller, but the confluence of religion vs demons vs hard science is very much my thing. (Although I wouldn't mind seeing the 'religion' vertex of that triangle getting a bit of love beyond 'priests are powerful hypocrites' for a change).
The final panel with the spooky chair is, as far as I'm concerned classic 2000AD thrillage, with the Rennies setting up a simple idea that Richardson really embraces for all its haunting potential.
QuoteIT'S TIME WE BROUGHT THE FIGHT TO US
TC Eglinton
I know Nommo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nommo) are a thing, but the Nommo on page 2 of
The Order are specifically the Nommo from William Potter's
Nommo (https://cudbandblog.wordpress.com/about/), right? Kek-W's establishing himself as a clearinghouse not just for John Smith's career but for all esoteric UK strips of the late eighties - early nineties.
Maybe Tharg's late-night Amazon spending spree on the rights to old British comics went further than we thought, and
Cheeky Wee Budgie Boy, The Driver, and
Big Berta will pop-up in
Indigo Prime or join
The Vigilant.
Grey Area: 'Operation Ferdinand' has to be referring to the Austrian archduke, WWI and some kind of [spoiler]false flag* assassination[/spoiler]. Or Magellan. Unless Grell's hoarding shoes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos). Or
Maybe It's Mabelline is planning a hit. Just the one hit (https://youtu.be/GhCXAiNz9Jo); I mean, it's a good hit, and she tried others, but they weren't successful and nobody can remember them.
**Letters Page: Long-term comic readers are
astonished that a character from one story has appeared in another story from the same publisher. All the other comic companies will be copying that, now.
* See, Abnett, even though I don't believe a word of it, I can Cointelpro and Gulf of Tonkin with the best of them. I'm like a dad who's googled Stormzy.
** Except Snoop Dogg, who memorably expressed a desire to work with that guy, Franz Ferdinand
I'd flippin' love to see a collection of Cheeky Wee Budgie boy.
I loved that strip so much I bootlegged the pages to make myself a copy to keep when I passed my copies of Deadline on.
It's raining today, so I genuinely can't be arsed to go into town and pick up the prog- but, that said, I've been meaning to ask this for some weeks now: why the hell does this "Armoured Gideon" in The Order look ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE the real one? He doesn't even have the same number of eyes, let alone a similar face, body or even build.
It's been a long time since I read the original strips, but did something happen to mank him up at the end? Or is there more to this than first appears. I remember there being more than one giant robot in the series, so why bring back Gideon but not make him look like he should. I mean, one eye? I guess it's just another example of The Order not making a jot of sense.
SBT
Quote from: Frank on 29 August, 2018, 11:12:50 AM
I know Nommo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nommo) are a thing, but the Nommo on page 2 of The Order are specifically the Nommo from William Potter's Nommo (https://cudbandblog.wordpress.com/about/), right? Kek-W's establishing himself as a clearinghouse not just for John Smith's career but for all esoteric UK strips of the late eighties - early nineties.
Weren't those space-whales in the original run of Armoured Gideon? Whether they were called Nommo or not, I can't remember.
Maybe you can track down this vague reference for me. I can't remember where it's from but fairly certain it's early Morrison or Milligan: "Gods are the shadows cast by the Nommo when they passed your world."
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 29 August, 2018, 01:34:59 PM
... why the hell does this "Armoured Gideon" in The Order look ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE the real one?
Might as well ask the same about Cyrano de Bergerac or the average Tek Judge.
Quote from: I, Cosh on 29 August, 2018, 01:41:05 PM
Weren't those space-whales in the original run of Armoured Gideon?
Change your name to Anita Ward (https://youtu.be/URAqnM1PP5E).
Just realised it's Wednesday and I have no prog :(
Quote from: Frank on 29 August, 2018, 01:43:54 PM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 29 August, 2018, 01:41:05 PM
Weren't those space-whales in the original run of Armoured Gideon?
Change your name to Anita Ward (https://youtu.be/URAqnM1PP5E).
Prog 828's recap of the first story: https://i.imgur.com/EbxJZIQ.png
Quote from: I, Cosh on 29 August, 2018, 01:41:05 PM
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 29 August, 2018, 01:34:59 PM
... why the hell does this "Armoured Gideon" in The Order look ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE the real one?
Might as well ask the same about Cyrano de Bergerac or the average Tek Judge.
Just a thought: as well as it being artistic impression, it is also the case that The Order has established that there can be multiple versions of characters and that those look different to each other e.g. Ritterstahl.
For me this was a solid prog.
The surprise for me is Survival Geeks. I always said that this is not my cup of tea, but I think this series is growing on me.
Quote from: AlexF on 29 August, 2018, 09:12:30 AM
I seem to be alone in finding that Mechastopheles just took a turn for the much, much better this Prog! Having characters running about in the city as well as inside the beast gives me more context to work out what the hell is going on, which I appreciate. I should probably re-read the original 3riller, but the confluence of religion vs demons vs hard science is very much my thing. (Although I wouldn't mind seeing the 'religion' vertex of that triangle getting a bit of love beyond 'priests are powerful hypocrites' for a change).
The final panel with the spooky chair is, as far as I'm concerned classic 2000AD thrillage, with the Rennies setting up a simple idea that Richardson really embraces for all its haunting potential.
You are not alone in this I am enjoying this.
Quote from: I, Cosh on 29 August, 2018, 01:41:05 PM
Weren't those space-whales in the original run of Armoured Gideon? Whether they were called Nommo or not, I can't remember.
Maybe you can track down this vague reference for me. I can't remember where it's from but fairly certain it's early Morrison or Milligan: "Gods are the shadows cast by the Nommo when they passed your world."
The Nommo are also the ancient amphibian gods at the root of turning everyone into newts in
Sirius Rising (IIRC), so might the line be from that?
As to Armoured Gideon having a different head, I've been assuming its because it gets destroyed/changed sometime in the centuries between Clara and Frank Weitz's tenures (or between Frank and Clara's - who knows which way he's travelling?). However, I did always think that sticky-up grate in front of his neck was his lower 'jaw', but it's clearly part of his chest here, which is weird. -Er.
Cyrano de Bergerac in
The Order seemed to look like etchings of Cyrano de Bergerac, didn't he? Or did I miss something?
Short on time, so a few quick comments on this week's outing:
The Order: I don't think Burns is getting enough credit for just how drokked-up his Wyrm-creatures are. The horses and dogs and Berg's finger continue to freak me out, you think I'd be used to them by now.
Mechastopheles: the first episode of this that has really piqued my interest. It could be because there's no Giant Demon Robot action, which I've been finding frustrating in a
Detonator X way: my problem there seems to be a lack of scale cues in the art - because you've a big mecha-satan fighting other giant and/or person sized demons against a red sky and desolate hellscape, it may as well just be ordinary sized robo-mayhem. There's nothing to really sell the scale (even the cities on the back of the Bilbo's Trolls-type monsters a couple of week's back just looked like odd protrusions). Then we cut to the characters inside, and it may as well be happening somewhere else entirely. This week, by contrast, we get just a glimpse of the Big Guy, and everything else is human-scale, and its getting rather interesting. If the strip can manage to visually convince me that the human dramas are happening inside a city-sized demon, I think we might get along better.
Survival Geeks: Googe is back, and all's right with the world.
Quote from: TordelBack on 31 August, 2018, 09:02:13 AM
As to Armoured Gideon having a different head, I've been assuming its because it gets destroyed/changed sometime in the centuries between Clara and Frank Weitz's tenures (or between Frank and Clara's - who knows which way he's travelling?). However, I did always think that sticky-up grate in front of his neck was his lower 'jaw', but it's clearly part of his chest here, which is weird. -Er.
Maybe he had his old head repaired before re-enlisting?
(https://2000ad.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/nemesis-talbot-1-0011.jpg) (https://2000ad.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/nemesis-talbot-1-0011.jpg)
The Wing Whales were definitely also called the Nommo in the Armoured Gideon stories, (and were [spoiler]actually something else as well, but we won't go into that[/spoiler]), and that sticky-up grate thing is definitely part of the jaw on his other head.
Quote from: M.I.K. on 31 August, 2018, 10:53:15 PM
The Wing Whales were definitely also called the Nommo in the Armoured Gideon stories, (and were [spoiler]actually something else as well, but we won't go into that[/spoiler]), and that sticky-up grate thing is definitely part of the jaw on his other head.
Maybe they are working towards reviving Armoured Gideon in his own series again.
It might be an earlier model of Gideon. This may explain why he has such presumably tiny legs on the cover of the prog.
That was all solidly entertaining stuff for me.
Grey Area builds nicely and Survival Geeks had me lolling at "The Final Girls".
I agree that the emphasis on the human elements has improved Mechastophoclese.
And I have slowly but surely been converted to The Order. It could still do with an extra transitional panel or establishing image between scenes and actions to help the story become clear but I am used to taking the extra time now.
Dredd is also good stuff; the only down point being the villains being very much of this time. I prefer it when they aren't such obvious analogues.
But these are minor gripes, I'm really enjoying the Prog and The art is of a ridiculous standard (And all in styles I like).