Main Menu

Prog 2061 - Happy New Year, Bitches!

Started by Richard, 09 December, 2017, 02:32:57 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

On the whole, loved that. Top Thrill was Starlord, which was of the kind 2000AD so rarely does these days- funny, self-contained and packed with design work and jokes. Least favourite thing was Brass Sun, which I will never get to grips with in a million progs.
Everything else sat between the two, with ABC Warriors and Savage at the top end. Sad to see another run of Bad Company is upon us, which looks as irritating and skippable as the last one. There's nothing about it that appeals, and it only nudges ahead of Brass Sun for me because of the slight twinge of nostalgia for the original two runs.
But that's 2000AD for me- some excellent, some not, some that might grow over their series.
SBT

DrJomster

Overall, that was a very strong end of year Prog. Well done those droids!

I don't really want to single anyone out as it was a great Christmas feast of thrill power, which I gobbled done in one sitting!

Very excited by some of the future thrills btw.
The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.

Taryn Tailz

There's some questionable opinions voiced in the end of years letters page. I struggle to comprehend how anyone could praise the latest Slaine strip so highly (even if I didn't mind it too much), whilst panning Fall of Deadworld and Indigo Prime. Still, that's probably one of the strengths of the Prog. Every strip has its fans. For me, the latest Indigo Prime strip was the finest strip of the whole of 2017.

sheridan

Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 09 December, 2017, 11:03:10 PM
Ken Niemand.
"I know nobody" of that name.
At least in Dutch anyway.
;)


I caught on on Niemand = nobody (in German) but good call on the 'Ken' (German would be Keine Niemand).

sheridan

Quote from: sheridan on 18 December, 2017, 02:45:15 AM
Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 09 December, 2017, 11:03:10 PM
Ken Niemand.
"I know nobody" of that name.
At least in Dutch anyway.
;)


I caught on on Niemand = nobody (in German) but good call on the 'Ken' (German would be Keine Niemand).

Whatever happened to the edit button?

It should be "Ich kenne niemanden".

norton canes

Finally got round to reading all the stories. The pleasure of having so many to get through is offset by the knowledge that it'll be three weeks before I see any more!

Cover: Nice action scene. Anyone think the back cover should have been on the front though?

Dredd: Promising setup, even though it involves a further band of outlaws in the Sov wastelands. Always good to have Colin MacNeil on art duties.

Brass Sun: As with Scarlet Traces, an intriguing concept that hasn't translated into a good strip. Must be something about Ian Edginton's writing style that just doesn't click for me; and INJ Culbard's art here is not in the same league as his work on Blink.

Savage: The prog's second-best Mills strip. Too many Mills tropes, some of it reads too much like a continuation of Greysuit. Bring back the geezah with the shootah!

Bad Company: I agree with those saying BC has run its course. I'd much rather be reading book II of Counterfeit Girl.

Deadworld: This strip can do no wrong. Incredible stuff.

Ace Trucking: I don't think there could be a worse candidate for a strip to bring back without the involvement of the original creators. John Howard and Alan Grant's writing style and dialogue were so distinctive, and of course Belardinelli's art was incomparable. The characters in this strip neither look like nor sound like (where did all that "t'touch" type dialogue come from?) the characters we love. All wrong!

ABC Warriors: Pat Mills back on form! A proper, decent plot concept that actually seems to be moving events along| Very satisfying. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who's not keen on Clint Langley's use of photographic material. The full-page Nemesis panel was awesome though.

Starlord: OK. Two things. Firstly: TOP THRILL. This is what 2000 AD needs more of - real irreverent humour,   fourth-wall breaking, pushing the boundaries. Not confined by the need to be a 'proper' comic strip. Don't leave this sort of thing to the specials!

Secondly... I have to say, that final panel was really... well, really disturbing, in a way that I used to find the early Future Shocks creepy and unsettling when I was a kid. Perhaps this was because it was a callback to something from a similar era, I don't know. Anyway top marks to the enigmatic Herr Niemand.

Magnetica

Quote from: norton canes on 18 December, 2017, 10:36:35 AM
Brass Sun: As with Scarlet Traces, an intriguing concept that hasn't translated into a good strip. Must be something about Ian Edginton's writing style that just doesn't click for me;

At the risk of going over old ground, I would suggest, that any perceived issues with those strips' narratives is more the result of lengthy gaps between series than poor writing.

It's a general issue in 2000AD these days. As far as Ian Edington series are concerned I would suggest the situation is not helped by using the same small set of artists who can understandably only produce so much work.

Hence I guess Tiernan Trevallion now doing the next series of Helium rather than D'Israeli.

Robin Low

Well, I still haven't given up on the Prog yet. Happy enough with Dredd, but it was a shame it wasn't a Christmas one-off. Deadworld stood out, as it often does.

Right.

I'm obliged by honesty if nothing else to say that Savage is the Mill's series I've enjoyed the most since, well, probably, The Black Hole Mission. So, keep that in mind.

I was intrigued by Mill's comment about the Edelweiss Pirates, or at least intrigued enough to use the lazy-man's research tool that is Wikipedia. From this article, it's somewhat unclear exactly what the Pirates did beyond beat up Hitler Youth. The section that says they assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Third Reich, and that their contribution to resistance has been overlooked for various reasons, has no citations.

One thing in particular stands out. In the comic, it's said that "the pirates fought their 'liberators', to save German girls from Allied soldiers". In the Wiki article it says, "There were also attacks against German women who were known to have been friends or been intimate with British soldiers". This latter point is referenced:

Henke, Klaus-Dietmar (1995). Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands (in German). Munich: Oldenbourg. pp. 198–200

Now, I don't speak German (Google informs me the title translates to The American occupation of Germany), so even if I had access to the book to know if it's been misrepresented. However, this doesn't exactly fit with the words Mill's put into the character's mouth (see how I was careful there?). In reality, I can see both scenarios being credible and simultaneous.

Anyway, the Wiki article on the Pirates also led to an interesting group called The White Rose:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

I'm guessing Uncle Pat wouldn't be so interested in this group, as they had an academic background and religious sentiments, and weren't rebellious working class kids.

Another link of interest:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/03/ber3-m05.html

This discusses two films, Sophie Scholl—The Final Days and Edelweiss Pirates, the latter's subject obvious, the former concerning a member of White Rose.

If anyone wants to point me to a good reference or two on the deliberate mass starvation of the German civilian population, I'd be interested.

Happy Christmas,

Robin

Richard

Indeed; I had been under the impression that the Allies did their utmost to help prevent the Germans from starving after the war. This is the first I've heard of this matter, but if it's true then I expect there will be credible sources to look for.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Robin Low on 18 December, 2017, 06:55:01 PM
If anyone wants to point me to a good reference or two on the deliberate mass starvation of the German civilian population, I'd be interested.

No time to do any proper research but a quick google on the phrase "deliberate mass starvation of the German civilian population" turns up a couple of hits on the first page but going to the home page of those sites looks a bit tinfoil hatty, TBH. I'm not going to give a huge amount of credence to any site also proclaiming "VACCINATION IS CHILD ABUSE!"
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Modern Panther

Note that Wolf's important lesson about how "liberators" aren't necessarily the good guys and worthy of respect is immediately contradicted by his own insistence that Bill and Volodina should be spared:

"Should we shoot them both?"
"How can we?  She saved us."




Robin Low

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 18 December, 2017, 07:36:50 PMNo time to do any proper research but a quick google on the phrase "deliberate mass starvation of the German civilian population" turns up a couple of hits on the first page but going to the home page of those sites looks a bit tinfoil hatty, TBH. I'm not going to give a huge amount of credence to any site also proclaiming "VACCINATION IS CHILD ABUSE!"

You know I actually considered bunging that into Google, but I honestly thought I'd need something more specific, an actual name or something. Naïve of me, really.

However, I was worried that someone would immediately post saying, "Yeah, here you go Robin. How come you didn't know about this already? Pretty common knowledge round our way."

For the time being, I will continue herding it with the sheeple.

Regards,

Robin

Robin Low

Quote from: Robin Low on 18 December, 2017, 08:13:37 PMHowever, I was worried that someone would immediately post saying, "Yeah, here you go Robin. How come you didn't know about this already? Pretty common knowledge round our way."

Well, I so rarely get PMs I neglected to see someone had kindly sent me this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_in_occupied_Germany

Regards,

Robin

Richard

Looks like Pat wasn't just making it up.

Robin Low

Quote from: Richard on 18 December, 2017, 10:40:06 PM
Looks like Pat wasn't just making it up.

I don't think he does make things up, but I sometimes wonder about his choice of sources. I also think his world view affects his presentation of facts and what he accepts a fact in the first place.

In this particular case, I think the situation was considerably more complex than presented in Savage - but the characters could quite realistically have that simplistic attitude born of historical and nationalist resentment. And it is only a comic strip, after all.

Regards,

Robin