Prog 1635 - The Axeman Returns

[Rex Banner]

Just had a quick glance before the train to Bristol arrived. Slaine is back and the art really looks aces.

[Pete Wells]

Cover - A big axe. Not amazingly exciting but there you go!

Dredd - Absolutely mental! I don't want to spoil it for any of you but I just wanted to say that Al Ewing delivers yet again - that's why I've just voted for him as best new writer in the Eagle Awards. The [spoiler:3fcbrsxr]Unsullied Ring[/spoiler:3fcbrsxr] made me laugh out loud as did just about everything Gonzo said. Add the mutie issue into this bonkers mix and we have a winning strip!

Zombo - Following on from a loopy Dredd we have a just-as-loopy Zombo - [spoiler:3fcbrsxr]Ike and Mike, we thought alike[/spoiler:3fcbrsxr] was genius and the ending of this part was disturbing and funny at the same time. Tops!

Slaine the Wanderer - Breathtaking art by Langley and a simple (though somewhat misogynistic - surprise!!!) script by Mills. Tharg says we're having a bunch of shorter Slaine arcs over the year, sounds good to me! This was enjoyable fluff, have fun Thryllseeker!

Cradlegrave - No real creepiness this week, just an episode of Shameless. Exciting ending though...

Savage - Great stuff. Mills and Goddard really have nailed the Orwellian future haven't they? Surprised to read Bill's thoughts on the Thatcher character though - forgive and forget? No chance matey! Great cliffhanger, really looking forward to next week's episode of this.

Another very strong prog that highlights the amazing levels of creativity our script droids have. Enjoy!

[Banners]

Congrats to Al for tackling a subject which could so easily have been a cringe-making mess. It must have been very hard, but he pulled it off.

M@

[Dandontdare]

It must have been very hard, but he pulled it off

fnaar fnaar

Cover - cool. Big axe. lots of blood. Not sure about the tag-line typeface though

Dredd - excellent, made me laugh, but I think the joke will wear thin if there's too many parts.

Zombo - Mr Ewing's on fine old form these days keeping up high quality through the first two stories in the prog. Zombo turns out to be a lot more articulate than your average zombie. [spoiler:16x2mc0f]That order "you don't have to take orders from dead people" is clearly going to bite him on the arse at some point.[/spoiler:16x2mc0f]

Slaine looks absolutely lush. looking forward to several short tales, I always lost track of the longer epics.

I'm wondering when Cradlegrave will  start getting weird. Pete put his finger on it - an episode of Shameless.

I'm enjoying this run of Savage even more than previous ones. Goddard's art is a perfect fit for this story. It may not have the WOW factor of Langley, but it's really good clear black and white stuff, old-school skill.

Another very, very good prog. And it arrived just the day after a big marvel/DC splurge from Amazon and my bundle of comics from the Futurequake boys! I got a whole weekend of comics ahead  

[Jim_Campbell]

It must have been very hard, but he pulled it off.

Bravo!

Jim

[Toni Scandella]

I'm wondering if Cradlegrave is actually going to _get_ weird or if it's going to just be a contemporary drama and John Smith is putting in things that seem creepy to throw us all off the scent

[Darren Stephens]

Yep, another great prog. Weak cover, but everything inside was tops. Surprisingly, Savage is the tale i'm most looking forward to next week. Bravo, Mr Mills.  

[Mardroid]

Cover:  Lovely. Slaine's axe. I like celtic knot artwork.  Nice touch that hint of reflection in the middle too.

Thrills of the Future:  Panel of The Mork Whisperer. Interesting. [spoiler:393v5q6p]Is that another time bomb? Using those to trip around isn't going to be a habit is it? Temporal Russian Roulette. Heh.[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Dredd: Oh dear how rude. This was very funny. Great so far. [spoiler:393v5q6p]A whole other slant on the mutant problem. Do you feel sorry for Gina having to get up close and personal with Gonzo? And what about from Gonzo's point of view... (ok, doesn't do to think it through....) Amusing how the self righteous little kid is seen as the deviant one. Heh.[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Zombo:  Great, and rather warped.[spoiler:393v5q6p]So the agent has a history of 'doing it solo' like Gina too. (See what I did there?)[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Slaine:  Gorgeous artwork. [spoiler:393v5q6p]The posture of Gardar when he first appears looks odd though.  And I'm not sure why Sabrina is in bondage gear. Ok, I do... it's saucy.... but ... oh never mind. A bit too early to tell if this will be any good. Not a whole lot happens but ok. The part of me that's read about celtic history thinks, they didn't build stone towers like that. There idea of fortresses was hill forts, wooden building surrounded by a fence and/or ditch. On the other hand, if this is an otherworld representation of Britain who knows?  I'm assuming the Cyth is a reference to the Cythrawl. Considering the amount of times Slaine hits Gardar with his axe, is Gardar a bit rubbish? Every strike gets through. Is he THAT reliant on his armour? Or have they not quite started yet, and they're just mucking about?[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Cradlegrave: This is certainly a slow burner. Still not a bad thing though as we learn more about the characters. [spoiler:393v5q6p]Still no obvious supernatural stuff happening.  The whole guys on Es thing is a bit cliched, but then it happens often enough at such events, and these are the rascals of Cradlegrave. And the ending certainly helped it along some. Isn't that the same little girl he bought the comics from last week?  Nice art, but the faces of the boys and girls are a bit samey.[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Savage:  Ok.  [spoiler:393v5q6p]Are they in the tube station at the end there? I'm a bit confused with the fact the E-bomb has taken some of these things out, yet it's still affected by the rush hour. And people are living there too. Maybe they've got a few trains working and the last bit is just empty sections reclaimed by homeless...[/spoiler:393v5q6p]

Back cover: That's a great Meg cover.

[Mardroid]

'There idea of fortresses' should be 'their idea of fortresses.'

A small error I can't correct now... but it's irritating when I do that. I know the difference when to use each one, but my fingers are faster than my brain sometimes.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Slaine the Wanderer - Breathtaking art by Langley and a simple (though somewhat misogynistic - surprise!!!) script by Mills. Tharg says we're having a bunch of shorter Slaine arcs over the year, sounds good to me! This was enjoyable fluff, have fun Thryllseeker!

Is this the typical C. Lanely phototshopped art or his earlier work or has he tried something altogether new here. Although I am already imagining it's his highly successful photoshoppery.

Ah well,

Damn I think I'm nine weeks behind being in the land of Oz. I wonder if should subscribe or buy the didgital download.

I'm not sure, but I think this would be the first time Slaine has be back in the loop since -- Not including Carnival -- I joined the forum.

The part of me that's read about celtic history thinks, they didn't build stone towers like that. There idea of fortresses was hill forts, wooden building surrounded by a fence and/or ditch. On the other hand, if this is an otherworld representation of Britain who knows?

I 've noticed a few things about Slaine --now that I have researched Celtic history abit more -- that are probably just being used for the sake of making it seem cooler or easierly understood. I think your right about the stone fortresses or towers. Though they look cool. Perhaps they were introduced through the fantacy element. I can't be sure though. It's history and I was never there. I spent ages wondering if the wearing of tarten trousers/trews or breechs is something thats more modern or atleast that wasn't introduced until after loin cloths, kilts/skirts. Maybe Slaine found a shipment of these somewhere in the time streams. They seem more fashionable

I'm assuming the Cyth is a reference to the Cythrawl.

I think so, and it will be cool to see how Clint Lanely has shown them.

[Dark Jimbo]

The part of me that's read about celtic history thinks, they didn't build stone towers like that. Their idea of fortresses was hill forts, wooden building surrounded by a fence and/or ditch.

Well, no, but it was built by the Cythrons, not the Celts, several hundred (thousand?) years earlier. And bear in mind that even Slaine and his people are not actually Celts either, but the Tuathaa de Dannan from Celtic mythology, who supposedly predated the Celts proper by a good few centuries.

Anyhoo - barnstorming prog all round, even if Slaine (same as new Stronty Dog), while enjoyable, feels a little redundant now that we've already had an 'end' of sorts. Hard to see where the character can go from here. Cradlegrave shows Mills how slang and colloquialisms should be done in comics, while Zombo is just funfunfun. Lovely stuff from all five thrills.

[Dandontdare]

Is this the typical C. Lanely phototshopped art or his earlier work or has he tried something altogether new here. Although I am already imagining it's his highly successful photoshoppery.

Ah well,

Damn I think I'm nine weeks behind being in the land of Oz.

As a loyal citizen of the board, I can't abide the thought of our esteemed mayor waiting 9 weeks to see what Slaine looks like, so for you TS:

[spoiler:yzue79ll]Considering the amount of times Slaine hits Gardar with his axe, is Gardar a bit rubbish? Every strike gets through. Is he THAT reliant on his armour? Or have they not quite started yet, and they're just mucking about?[/spoiler:yzue79ll]

[spoiler:yzue79ll]I think the point is that he doesn't need to defend himself as the armour makes him invulnerable - magic/cyth science?
Oh, and "problems with the abacus" was a bit cheesy[/spoiler:yzue79ll]

Can't be arsed to hunt out the old story, but is this the same sex-olympic family from the previous Dredd story where the little kid was so proud of mom'n'pop?

[TordelBack]

And bear in mind that even Slaine and his people are not actually Celts either, but the Tuathaa de Dannan from Celtic mythology

Calgacus (possibly the very one who Tacitus describes as the Caledonian general who fought Agricola, and thus pretty much the archetype for 'Celt'!) begs to differ:  "Because he's a Celt, like me, and we're the world's greatest fighters!" (Time Killer).  

But Jimbo is correct - seems likely to me that the Celts of Sláine are a mythological composite created by and drawn upon by the 'real' Celts for much of their identity - UrCelts, to use an ugly term, Platonic Celts, to use a naff one.  Still, this isn't a bad way of thinking about it, since there's plenty of evidence to suggest that on a European level 'Celtic' was a cultural package rather than a people, and what we see and characterise as Celtic today is the result of scattered elements of Celtic culture adopted by the pre-existing inhabitants of those places at and beyond the fringes of the Roman Empire.  

Also, I direct the curious to the very-much-built-in-stone Celtic oppida of the European Iron Age (good example:  Enserune, near Narbonne http://www.livius.org/ei-er/enserune/enserune.html).  Probably worth noting they didn't have leyser guns and fire lances, though.

[Pete Wells]

Can't be arsed to hunt out the old story, but is this the same sex-olympic family from the previous Dredd story where the little kid was so proud of mom'n'pop?

Hey, you're right! Meg 213:

[House of Usher]

What a great Prog! 10/10. Al Ewing's stories really are the tits. Al, John Smith and Pat Mills make a great combination of writers (this Prog), and I can't fault the artwork either.

In order of likiness: Zombo, Judge Dredd, Cradle Grave, Slaine, Savage.