An outstanding Dredd cover by Greg Staples.
An equally good picture on the inside back cover by Nick Percival, with some very interesting and welcome news.
The Dredd story concludes in a very satisfactory way, and is my favourite episode of this 8-parter.
There's a new Sinister Dexter story, not a one-off this time but looks likely to be two or three episodes. Quite a fun one.
An action-packed episode of Kingmaker, with a big eye-catching picture of some [spoiler]dragons[/spoiler] which I liked.
The Order carries on. I'm not really a fan, but is suspect that the people who are are going to love it this week. There's lots of fighting.
And there's a particularly gory episode of Kingdom.
All round, a very good prog this week I think. My 40th anniversary prog didn't arrive though, so I suspect those of us who ordered it won't get it early.
Such a beautiful cover.
I've not received either of my 40th Anniversary progs (both covers). Hoping to get them in the week.
Cracking issue, again. Both the Prog and Meg are uniformly excellent at the moment, with a healthy portion of that quality being delivered by new (or new-ish) thrills, which is something to be cheered by in its own right.
(http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/Caliban_photos/2019_zpsuwdrsrut.jpg)
Greg Staples!
Cover of the year?
That cover is just WOW! :o
Lovely Staples Dredd. The print on the cover of my copy is very, very washed out. Any one elses...?
Quote from: Darren Stephens on 18 February, 2017, 05:09:43 PM
Lovely Staples Dredd. The print on the cover of my copy is very, very washed out. Any one elses...?
Nope. Mine looks wonderful.
Yes, mine is a bit paler than that photo.
Quote from: Mattofthespurs on 18 February, 2017, 11:54:57 AM
I've not received either of my 40th Anniversary progs (both covers). Hoping to get them in the week.
The website says "This product will be released on Wednesday 22nd of February 2017" - so maybe they will come in the week / towards the weekend. I'm still a bit flumoxed why they didn't just do a bigger edition for Prog 2020 & make that the 40th Anniversary issue? ...after all 20+20 = 40!
:think:
There really is just nowt to say when the Prog is this good. Won't stop me of course but what the fuck can I add to the lavish praise of the last few weeks.
Dredd ends this story quite superbly, Sinister Dexter is better than last week with a lavish fun story, The Order, Kingdom and Kingmaker all continue to be thrills of the very VERY highest magnitude.
The Prog is astonishing good at the moment this line up would stand side by side with any from the previous 40 years.
Loved the Dredd story - Carroll really landed the ending this time. Often the problem with Dredd is that there are lots of good ideas floating around but little clue as to how to bring them to a satisfying conclusion. After the many stories and threads that fed into this 8 parter it rounds out the Sector Zero arc nicely (if Mike so decides).
Basically what Colin said.
Just a great Prog with a brilliant cover.
Kingmaker has really surprised me - it has gone from something I wasn't sure about, to being a truly great thrill. Equally I didn't really like Leigh Gallagher's art on Defoe, but on this it is just great.
Quote from: Trent on 18 February, 2017, 11:03:18 PM
Loved the Dredd story - Carroll really landed the ending this time. Often the problem with Dredd is that there are lots of good ideas floating around but little clue as to how to bring them to a satisfying conclusion. After the many stories and threads that fed into this 8 parter it rounds out the Sector Zero arc nicely (if Mike so decides).
This ^^^
and Kingdom hurling towards what feels like a final conclusion and the two Thrills of the Prog for me.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 20 February, 2017, 03:01:23 PMKingdom hurling towards what feels like a final conclusion
Noooooooooo! I hope your mouth is full of wrong, Proudhuff.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 20 February, 2017, 03:19:35 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 20 February, 2017, 03:01:23 PMKingdom hurling towards what feels like a final conclusion
Noooooooooo! I hope your mouth is full of wrong, Proudhuff.
Or it could be setting up a whole new story arc :D
There's a lot of stabbing and exploding in this comic. I like it.
Five out of five from me. I'm loving Kingdom, The Order and Kingmaker. Carroll gives good Dredd, with proper plots. And SinDex, although not even slightly surprising, was fun. Extra points for "Electric Landlady". I bet Dabnett has a whole notebook of puns for later use.
- Trout
Quote from: Trout on 22 February, 2017, 05:58:16 AM
I bet Dabnett has a whole notebook of puns for later use.
I'm now imagining Roger the Dodger's library of leather-bound Dodge volumes, but with titles like
Puns: Canine Vol XIV and
Smutty Paronomasia Vol XXX.
Quote from: Trout on 22 February, 2017, 05:58:16 AM
Extra points for "Electric Landlady". I bet Dabnett has a whole notebook of puns for later use
He stores them as mp3s (http://i.imgur.com/px3buqA.png). It was Finny's articulation of male domestic priorities that tickled my funny bone:
(http://i.imgur.com/kF5yMGM.png?2)
Regarding fears that
Kingdom might finally Come - I might be wrong, but I can't see Abnett expanding the mythology (and potential for new pun names) exponentially and then just wrapping things up quickly in a few exposition-heavy episodes.
As It Is In Heaven seems more like a Return Of Rogue Trooper (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=422) on Horst than a rushed and perfunctory
Final Hit (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=WINTER89), to me.
Dear grud in heaven, that cover! :o
The Dredd didn't end as I expected at all, which is to Carroll's credit. Nice to have a strip that keeps you guessing to the end, but wrongly. Very neat story, probably his best one yet. Where next for Sector Zero, though?
Dabnett is a walking pin generator. He has my highest respect for his use of the highest form of wit.
I liked the kettle bit in SinDex too.
A longer review than normal in honour of 40 years- but aargh all the top points I wanted to make have already been made!
jaw dropping cover = check
Satisfactory ending to a good Dredd = check
"electric Landlady" as the best pun ever and Abnett's general skill as a pun-master = check
As the "real" 40th aniversary prog (we don't count specials) I think this is an absolute triumph - even strips that may not be my faavourite are are of such good quality that they would have been the best thing in some progs from darker years.
As much as I love it, I think Kingdom should come to it's logical conclusion - I hate it when comics or TV shows are extended too far just because they're popular - always leave 'em wanting more!
Mike Carroll's Judge Dredd stories have always had great concepts and he "gets" Dredd's speech and attitudes 100%, but they have sometimes ended abruptly or unsatisfactorily, but this one wrapped things up beautifully - nice twist [spoiler](she WAS a wrong 'un, but also a good 'un)[/spoiler], and I loved Dredd's line "I'm not known for giving advice ... and the instead of some heartfelt plea to emotion, his advice was basically [spoiler]"suck it up and get back to work ya big jessie"[/spoiler]
Kingmaker has won me over - I wasn't sure about the concept at first but the protaganists feel like real characters rate than character-types. This episode was mentioned in the "building worlds" panel at the 40th fest (video is online now)- when discussing how much input artists have into stories, Edgington said that on reading the original concept of high fanatsy vs SF, Leigh Gallagher said "oooh - can we do dragons fighting spaceships?" and so he wrote that into the story.
I'm still not 100% sure what's going on at any particular moment in The Order, but it's such a madcap bonkers rollercoatser of a strip that I really don't care. It may make more sense on a re-read but for now I'm just enjoyingt the energy, the lush art and the tight scripting ("Madam if you would be so kind ...I would have that word" - great line)
I've always been a fan of Sinister Dexter - it did lose it's way a bit in the over-long alternate-Moses stories, but was always at it's best with punchy one or 2-3 parters. Just as I could enjoy a well-written Dredd procedural about solving a simple robbery, I could endlessly enjoy these vignettes of character-based banter with a bit of ultraviolence thrown in.
I am beyond chuffed that after entertaining me for 4/5 of my lfetime, the prog is in rude health and delivering top notch thrills week after week. It was great to hear at the 40th bash (well on video afterwards 'cos I was in the bar at the time), the Kingsley brothers' enthusiasm for the prog and their philosophy behind running it (eg the number of times they have turned down a lucrative licence offer because they didn't beleive the licensees would stay true to the character), and also their unequivocal praise for Matt Smith our current Tharg who has done, and continues to do, such an incredible job. When I heard in the late 90s that a compuer game company had bought my beloved 2000ad I despaired as I was sure that we would get a few years of shite game tie-ins and then it would fold.
How wrong could I be. :D
Here's to another 40!
Actually, I could've saved a lot of time and just gone with our fishy monarch's perfect summation:
Quote from: Trout on 22 February, 2017, 05:58:16 AM
There's a lot of stabbing and exploding in this comic. I like it.
Cover: Immense. Love that Dredd looks all of his (consults Wiki) 66 years, but still someone you wouldn't **** with.
Dredd: I love a good downbeat ending. Having only been back on the progs for the last few weeks the references to past stories were lost on me but I could deduce enough to get the gist.
Sin Dex: Some decent laughs (the protracted list of concealed weapons was excellent) but I can't say this completely hit the spot. And sorry, but Kirsty MacColl got to Electric Landlady (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Landlady) a while ago :P
Kingmaker: It's all good, epic stuff, eminently readable. OK the premise is a bit 'chuck everything into the mix and see what cooks' but when the result is this good I ain't complaining.
The Order: Utterly magnificent. I don't think I've ever read a comic strip where each and every panel in such a pleasure. It's so ridiculously fast-moving, but structured so well that it's never confusing. Do people really not know what's going on?
Kingdom: Vying with The Order for the best strip currently running. It'll be a huge shame when these two stories are no longer gracing the prog. Wonderful gore, so beautifully visceral. Followed by a couple of pages of exposition but that's cool... the story moves on to the next stage...
...and that' it. Ten minutes of reading and another unbearable wait for the next prog.
Reckon the cover will be a riff on '20/20 vision'?
Quote from: norton canes on 23 February, 2017, 10:22:08 AM
And sorry, but Kirsty MacColl got to Electric Landlady (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Landlady) a while ago :P
Gah, of course she did - should've remembered that. :-[
Small confession, while I mostly enjoyed whole recent Sector Zero story I had small reservations about it being to close what Williams started in Act of Grud... but after recent issue I salute you mister Caroll. Story wrapped up nicely and and final Duke letter - the icing on the cake.
Great prog!
Really enjoying Kingmaker and Kingdom. Enjoying all the Kings.
I usually dislike Sinister Dexter but this one's giving me a few chuckles. I really like the way it looks with Steve Yeowell on art. Usually the two main characters look to cheesy and '90s to me but they look great here. I think Yeowell's style fits the humour of the strip really well. Has he worked on SinDex before?
Loved the ending to Dredd. There was a dark humour to it but at the same time it was completely in character for Dredd and his world. The character design for the baddie was awesome. I liked how he looked all flabby but still had this strong sense of menace to him.
The Order still confuses me and makes my head spin but looking back I always reflect that it was a good time. It's the comics equivalent of having six or seven pints and a karaoke session with the people from IT on a Friday after work.
You know what's great about this prog? If I was trying to convince someone of 2000AD's greatness and vitality as it enters its 5th cace, I'd give them this 'ordinary' prog over the lush stylings of the 40th Special. That's how it should be.
For 'cace' (???) read 'decade'.
Well everything seems to be in order here! A cracking line up continues onwards with not a duff title among them!
Dredd wraps up perfectly, and the Carrol droid continues to out do himself, extremely excited to see where this takes us wuth Texas City and Sector Zero in future. Sinister Dexter is an excellent set up, and its always wonderful to have the Yeowell droid back in the prog. Two for two!
Kingdom does appear to be heading towards some kind of finale, if not this run then certainly the next. Ive had a rocky relationship with the strip, finding it parts slow and others pure thrill power. But I will look forward to seeing where this proto aux takes the strip.
Kingmaker is pure brilliance. Actually, so is The Order. Its a testement to Edginton and KekW as writers that in a market as diluted as the genre mashup and historical plunder of famous figures that these two trips can still come off as utterly fresh and endearing. Having two of the best artists in the fold working on them is also a credit to Gallagher and Burns. Pure, brilliant thrill power.
Quote from: TordelBack on 24 February, 2017, 09:58:30 AM
You know what's great about this prog? If I was trying to convince someone of 2000AD's greatness and vitality as it enters its 5th cace, I'd give them this 'ordinary' prog over the lush stylings of the 40th Special. That's how it should be.
Yep this is so right. Not read the 40th and sure its great but a Prog like this goes a long way to saying all you will ever need to know about why 2000ad is the Galaxy's Greatest.
Quote from: norton canes on 23 February, 2017, 10:22:08 AM
The Order: Utterly magnificent. I don't think I've ever read a comic strip where each and every panel in such a pleasure. It's so ridiculously fast-moving, but structured so well that it's never confusing. Do people really not know what's going on?
For me this calls to mind a quote from the late, great Richard Feynman: "if you think you understand quantum physics, you don't understand quantum physics"
I live Dredds with bleak endings, and that was certainly bleak.
I love Michael Carroll's take on Dredd, it holds real intrigue and fascination for me.