Prog 1862

[JOE SOAP]

A stunning looking prog and the intro to Dredd in Space made me piss myself laughing.

[Frank]

In before Pete Wells:

[DrJomster]

For me this is an interesting prog. It's the first one of the year and the big question is how many cylinders are we firing on after the relative travails of the last several months. This question is all the more interesting given the recent strength of the Meg.

For me it's three, but these are firing very well indeed. Strontium Dog is excellent, while Dredd and ABC Warriors are also bringing the awesome.

Quite a nice Future Shock and more from these folks would be great.

Looking forward to next week's prog already!

[Steve Green]

Excellent start to the year following on from a strong prog 2014.

Dredd in space is shaping up to be great, and loved the dialogue between Dredd and the Marine. Brilliant update of a Justice One style ship as well.

I'm really interested to see where SD goes.

I did think that for one moment [spoiler]we might have been blindsided by John's insistence that Dredd and Stront are not part of the same universe, and had something more tied in with a future Justice Department turning up, rather than the Neo-nazis.[/spoiler]

There are a lot of loose ends, Portrait of a Mutant showed that others in Government knew that Alpha was Kreelman's son. There is also his anti-mutant half-brother Nelson Culliver, as well as Johnny's sister, Ruth.

Precious Matson seems to have disappeared from the scene - Freedonia also presumably still exists, as well as any pro-mutant states on Earth.

[ChickenStu]

Agreed. Strong prog. Nice new Judge Dredd story from the looks of it and it's great to see ABC Warriors and Strontium Dog back. This is REAL 2000AD. Seriously. That's the shit right there.

I'll probably re-read this a bit later. Very strong start to 2014. Let's hope the Meg starts off on an equally strong footing.

[Mabs]

Wow. This Thrillpowered first prog of the new year nearly blew my socks off! And the cover by Henry Flint is superb. The design of the suits and the Justice Department Ship (Olympus 1) is so so cool. Probably overshadowing the most coolest military ship in sci-fi - The U.S.S Sulaco in Aliens!

Judge Dredd: Titan Part One - what an opener this was to the new story! Dredd is sent to Titan's prison colony to investigate why they lost contact. With him are a crack team of Marines headed by Austin. I loved the way the script was set up, almost like a film with key flashbacks which helped to build the story.  The first page with the shot of Titan and Jupiter in the background was simply stunning.

I was a little disappointed with Henry Flint's work on the recent Dredd: Underbelly storyline; some of the panels looked really rough, almost rushed. Compare the artwork of Underbelly to the Ma-Ma prologue story to see what I mean. But I'm glad to say that it seems like he's back to his best here. Indeed, the opening few pages are simply captivating. And his depiction of Hershey is sublime, especially the close up on page 6. I'm really excited with this new story and look forward to the next episode with great fervour.

Future Shocks: Dying Wishes- A nice little tale from newcomers Eddie Robson & Jake Lynch. The story concerns a robot's trip to the planet of its origin, to rescue the blueprints of its now extinct occupants. But his human assistant has other plans.  Robson's b&w artwork is excellent; I love the design of the futuristic ship and environment and a nice little twist at the end. I'd love to see more from  both these new droids in the future.

ABC Warriors: Return to Mars Part Two - Really enjoying this. I'm so glad to see this strip back in the prog; the last series (Return to Earth) was great fun with a lot of memorable moments, and this too is shaping up rather nicely. The opening double page spread was fantastic, I'm not a fan of Clint Langley's CGI/ Photoreal style (as witnessed in American Reaper), but it works really well for ABC Warriors.

Ulysses Sweet Maniac for Hire: Centred Part Two - I loved the opening double length episode in Prog 2014, and here we carry on as Ulysses Sweet escorts a Britney Spears-a-like pop star to a peaceful planet ruled by someone who looks the distant cousin of Tharg! Again our protsgonist is up to his silly shenanigans, and this might sound very insensitive from my side but I thought his encounter with the dolphin was very funny,  especially the use he derives from the poor thing! I'm really enjoying Paul Marshall's artwork - his work looks so much better in b&w if I am honest, just look at his prior works on Samizdat Squad and Judge Dredd: Killer Elite.

Strontium Dog: The Dogs of War Part 2 - Another excellent episode. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed the political subtext in this  series, just change the word Muties for Muslims and the Norm Brotherhood For the B.N.P or any far right organisation and you can see the allegory quite clearly. Being from a minority group myself there are instances in the strip which really ring true. The hostility or fear of the 'other', and fear mongering by politicians which we ourselves witnessed during the Iraq war and so-called War on Terror. I'm really intrigued to see where this new series will be heading, but one thing is for certain - it's already looking one hell of a read. I cannot finish without commenting on Carlos Ezquerra's artwork which is simply magnificent to behold. I'll be honest, I've had a bit of a love hate relationship with his art (being blown away at times, and not so impressed at others)  but recently it's been nothing short of outstanding. Like good wine his work seems to get better with age - or maybe it's just me!

All in all, a superb opening prog for the new year!

[Frank]

Henry Flint ... seems like he's back to his best here

Oh, yes - although the etcha-sketch geometric line shading employed on the big splash page of the ship made it look a little like he was back to Simon Fraser's best. Top work all round, and Flint seems to have the effortless facility for churning out the chunky tech required for Dredd's world that only a handful of all the great talents to work on the strip have enjoyed.

[TordelBack]

Just an excellent Prog, from the thrilling cover on.

Pigs in Space showcases some supremely confident scripting from Rob Williams, making full use of the incredible Henry Flint, who presumably never sleeps.  It'd take a harder heart than mine not to love the simultaneous acknowledgement and dismissal of Inferno, in what's pretty much the platonic form of Dredd continuity.  The splash page should feel like an indulgence in a 6-page strip, but hell Hestia got one, and instead it adds a welcome weight to proceedings (while I still wish that one day someone would draw Titan's sky correctly, with Saturn's rings edge-on, I'm perfectly happy that that is not this day - and at least Dredd's Titan orbits the right planet these days).  Not entirely sure 'gravitas' is the word Teen Hershey is looking for.  Lovely, lovely stuff.

Future Shock: Dying Wishes: The kind of FS I like, one with all sorts of hints of a wider history for the interesting characters outside of what we see, backed up with really striking tech designs from Jake Lynch.  Perhaps not the most unexpected of endings, but an accomplished and memorable short.

ABC Warriors:  Much better than the opener IMO, with the Walkerish colours on the bar droids working particularly well, and nice to finally see that legendary brawl.

Ulysses Sweet:  Internal jury is still deliberating on this one.  I think 'Sugar Tits' would have worked better had it been accompanied by the reactions in first few pages of this episode, but I'm still not sure this isn't celebrating what it thinks it's mocking.  A bit like Colin Smith's recent thoughts on Big Dave (a series I liked), where he wonders if it wasn't unintentionally reinforcing certain views that it set out to satirise. Ultimately I think I need to find it a lot funnier than I am in order to get on board.  Marshall's art is positively gorgeous.

Strontium Dog:  We asked for signs, and signs were sent.  The birth betrayed, the marriage spent.  The widowhood of every government. Signs for all to see. I can't run no more with that lawless crowd, while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.  But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud.

And they're going to hear from me.

[TordelBack]

[/b] close tags dagnabbit.

[Richmond Clements]

[/b] close tags dagnabbit.

Better?

[TordelBack]

[/b] close tags dagnabbit.

Better?

Yes thanks, nurse.

[MercZ]

A good start to the year. I just got around to reading this though it's been sitting on my ipad since it dropped back around Tuesday for me.

I'm interested to see where this Dredd arc goes. I always have had a soft spot for the ones that explore what's going on outside of Mega-City One so seeing what's happened to one of their main presences offplanet on the Titan prison would be a good adventure.

The Future Shock was cool, but what was going on at the end there? Did the robot return in another form or was that a stored version of its creator? I know it seems like an irrelevant point but it's been bugging me.

I've still haven't had the chance to look at earlier ABC Warriors so I'm still lost in the middle of this, but somehow this did work standalone for me. Ulysses Sweet, well, I felt bad for the dolphin but it's something I like. I think it'll be one of those that works better in short arcs than in long ones though.

I wonder if we'll get Django levels of violence towards the neo-nazis in Strontium Dog later on 

[Fungus]

Prog back to better form, nice if not perfect follow up to prog 2014.

Dredd needed a jolt and Flint's art and Williams' script are suitably epic. In great hands for the next 8 weeks.

Enjoying Ulysses Sweet, bit near the knuckle but I wear knuckle protectors when handling comics these days. Marshall art is fantastic.

Future Shock must have caught me at a low ebb. Lost me, bored me. Could be me, as others liked it.

Strontium Dog remains joyless and no improvement on last year's meandering. Genocide. I get it. The art doesn't help, Ezquerra is a legend but I don't think dayglo helps his style. There are some true genius colour droids around, would it be sacrilege to consider Blythe colouring SD? Won't happen I know, just mumbling aloud.

[Chris Tresson]

Haven't read it all the way through yet, read Dredd and the FS. All is good so far!

But... Did anyone notice/post about the spelling mistake on the Batman/Dredd ad on the back of the prog?

It says "Die Lauging".

[Frank]

Ezquerra is a legend but I don't think dayglo helps his style. There are some true genius colour droids around, would it be sacrilege to consider Blythe colouring SD? Won't happen I know, just mumbling aloud.

Disagree strongly. Carlos rediscovering the distinctive planar colouring style which characterised his best hand drawn work during the likes of Necropolis - where all the figures in the foreground are treated in a solid block of one colour and the background in another - has been one of the joys of his recent work on Strontium Dog for me.

Those sections of solid blue and purple and they effect they produce when contrasted with reliefs of vivid reds and greens are as much a part of Ezquerra's utterly unique means of expression as mannerisms such as the serrated edge he used to apply around characters' outlines. I'll take an artist doing what makes them original and distinctive over work for hire colouring any day.