Messages

That Crowley!  Is there no end to his evil!

That's good one David, and fairly common (at least, I've heard of it, and as a Jackeen my folklore is shite).  I think that you're getting ri-wogue from riabhach, meaning brindled or multi-coloured- as in an bhó riabhachor an tsean bhó riabhach - 'the old brindled cow', which is how I heard the story.  I've also seen it as an bho rabách which I think is something like 'lavish' or 'reckless', but my Irish is as bad as my folklore.  Might have been in one of poor old Brendan McWilliam's weather columns in the Irish Times, much missed.

Worth buying blind, so to speak?

Yes, thrice yes.  Bellardinelli's ambulatory head in Too Many Bams alone is worth the price of admission.  I wouldn't be so keen on anything after the Nightlight Flight, but that's almost certainly in a putative Book 2.

i will still have one when i'm out drinking plastered.

In which case it's probably the lesser of the two evils!  

Great story, DD.

Heh, my own little fella is a Jack too, named for Jack-Jack in The Incredibles - it's a surprisingly fun name.  Congrats to you and Ms. The Satanist and the little The Satanistas.  And try not to worry too much.

That is a seriously, seriously crap situation, Satanist, I don;'t think anyone would blame you for taking far more serious drugs than nicotine to get through that much stress...  

StilI, hearty congratulations are in order - I had been wondering how your imminent new arrival was getting on, but it's the sort of thing one doesn't like to ask.  Boy/girl/bit of both?  

...and freeforming in the closing music that was later murdered by 911..

Someone explain please?  Is this a Helterskelter-type thing I'm missing?  Does Bin Laden tap dance, play the tumpet?

The way I see it is if that's bad, what the fuck must lung cancer feel like then - don't want to find out

Cleverest thing I've ever seen written in connection with quitting.  My grandfather died of emphysema, my uncle of lung cancer - nobody wants to play those games.  Give me a cholesterol-induced heart-attack any day (other grandfather, another two uncles - much, much nicer for all concerned).

Well done, that Larf.  Keep it up.

The only bad thing about that BBC clip is that I now passionately wish that penguins could fly north for a bit of winter sun.  Actually found the flying scenes quite moving.

Stupid short-sighted Wells - four legs, not three.  The man was an imbecile.

The story is great but it isn't the most action packed yet he's managed to make every page engaging.

My thoughts exactly - it could very easily have been a series of talking heads and VOs, instead it's almost frantic in its pacing.  On Page 4 of Part 3 alone I count 5 different locations (including the Palais de Boing®), a new character, 5 narrator insets, and 7 speaking parts, all clearly distinct from each other, all flowing nicely along.  That's a lot to get into a page, and keep it lively too.  

One man's messy is another man's neat.

That's a fair point, Robin, but the same could be said of nearly all the extended Dredd classics (bar the Apocalypse War, Judge Death, Necropolis and Origins) -Cursed Earth, Day the Law Died, Judge Child, City of the Damned, The Pit... all have wildly clashing art styles, some to their benefit, some to their detriment.  It's part and parcel of the Dredd experience that he is drawn in so many different hopefully complimentary ways, without a pre-conceived idea of a homogenous trade package.  McNeill is a terrific 'serious' artist, ad Ezquerra is a living god, but I'd soon die of boredom if theirs were the only styles allowed on any 'mythos' story.  

I really do see Dyer as filling the McMahon 'crazy boots' slot in the Mutant Rights/Origins saga, set amongst all the 'serious' Bolland art.  It's fresh, complex and different - much like the subject it's portraying.

This is however clearly one of those intractable 'taste' things.

I don't remember seeing Nick Dyer's work before, although it is vaguely familiar  (was it in the Meg's Small Press slot?).  Cartoony isn't my thing for 'serious' strips, but I think his work on Dredd is quite brilliant, for reasons I've elaborated on various review threads that no-one wants to see again.  

I'd rather see someone fresh and exciting getting to grips with Dredd (which took Nick about 6 pages), than a tired old droid wheeled out to do his party piece (and I'm not talking about Gibson (who lest we forget did us proud during the Origins intermission)).  Dredd art has always been about pushing taste limits, and it's a familiar feeling to revisit a story whose art you remember disliking and instead being bowled over by it.

It's a risky proposition putting a relative noob on your flagship story, but Tharg (and maybe John) thought that Dyer was ready, and IMHO it paid off with some of the most fascinating work on the strip in years.

If people don't like the art, or don't thik it's appropriate, that's fine.  There are plenty of artists I never want to see on Dredd again.

But the duration of your Service to Thrillpower shouldn't be what determines your access to Dredd - it should be based on what you have to offer.  It ain't the length of the pencil that matters, it's the lead in the point.

BTW, great post, DXB.