Well what can you say, as you were really and that's a magnificent 4 for 5 worth a 5 for 5 the four are so good.
And its all behind a cover to die for. Quite how Colin MacNeil manages to get so much quiet human arrogance into that metal manic is a little beyond me.
The Dredd story itself is a glorious character piece that drives the plot forward but really examines Dredd. Its feels like the subtlest new reader story. Everything you need to know about Dredd the man in a seemingly easy six pages. And MacNeil is as good here as he is on the cover.
Defoe has the same issues for me as before. Damnit I want to love this art as it has so much to offer.
Brink is a little like Dredd in that it drives the story forward while laying our character out via quiet conversation. This is what Brink does so very well. Trick you into thinking your reading some exposition heavy talking heads piece but giving you so much more.
The Fall of Deadworld doesn't do that - it blasts it in your face front and centre. And as the Russians land stakes raise even higher. Great stuff.
As is Hope - Under Fire which plays a cliche - oh that magic it'll cost ya ya know. Cliche it might be played well it certainly is. Like when Johnny Cash covers Nick Cave. You may have heard it before by someone else and loved it then but somehow he finds a way to play it better. And this is played very well indeed. There also a panel bottom of page three that I'd swear (probably wrongly) is a tribute to Joe Kubert. Brilliant.
Letters and a competition round up a magnificent Prog. Thank you my lovely droids.
(https://i.imgur.com/T6G0Jc0.jpg)
All hail Dylan Teague, ladies and gentlemen.
Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 12 October, 2019, 08:34:31 PM
All hail Dylan Teague, ladies and gentlemen.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 12 October, 2019, 05:47:56 PM
And its all behind a cover to die for. Quite how Colin MacNeil manages to get so much quiet human arrogance into that metal manic is a little beyond me.
Well to my enternal shame I got that wrong and my apologies to both artists.
That's a stunning cover, isn't it?
Quote from: Darren Stephens on 13 October, 2019, 09:53:12 AM
That's a stunning cover, isn't it?
It is rather striking, however I cant help thinking that it would have been suited more to last weeks prog where the robo-chap was actually in the episode. If I were a new reader, I would be more than a little confused trying to him in this weeks story...
Great to have Dylan Teague on covers again after far too many years away though
Usual story lately - Monday , and still no Prog ( and I am a subscriber )
::)
The Dredd story is great stuff and wonderful art, not too sure about the 'sleep with me' line, so many dubious connotations, but I'm trusting the big W to flip those....
Defoe The old diodes struggling a bit to follow this, still preferred McNeil's work on this tale. and it all seems a bit, repetitive?
Brink is excellent, but I'm hoping for a bit of skulduggery soon.
The Fall of Deadworld doesn't do it for me, but again nice seeing the parallels unfold.
Hope - Under Fire what Colin YMCA said :D
Buttman free letters page...will he ever hit that magical centenary?
Prog finally Arrived today -
Dredd - Top Knotch and building up to an interesting problem how Dredd will take over the Missile Sites
with only 2 People and a Droid , and help from the resistance who are only in small numbers
Defoe - The Story is not bad , I finding the artwork ' different ' to the normal fare - and that's probably not a bad thing - I would say that the artwork is better than Scott Harrison's bewildering
artwork in Strontium Dog ( for me , it was the weakest ever in Strontium Dog ) .
At least I can follow the story and his Space ships are really different and creative -
I see now what Pat Mills sees in the Artist SK Moore - and I am glad the guy is getting work
in 2000AD - hopefully his artwork gets even better and better with practice .
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Please note - 2000AD - can we be exposed to Fay Dalton in a strip ?? :-* :-*
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Brink Just sublime writing and great art that does the job -
not showy , but its gets the job done ( like the Hawker Hurricane ) .
The Fall of Deadworld
I am loving this Story , and Dave Kendall's artwork really is great -
for me , the highlight of the Prog , after Jaegir has ended .
Hope - very well written and good and writing that you can follow easily .
over all 4 out of 5 -
Looking forward to next week !
Yeah, I liked Fay Dalton. Seconded.
The prog again is firing on all cylinders.
(https://i.imgur.com/Hex7mvN.png?1)
BLUE BALLS
MacNeil's probably had enough praise to last him a lifetime, but his art this episode is some of the most beautiful work I've seen in more than thirty years of exceptional storytelling.
At Wagner's talk in Dundee, he gestured to Cam Kennedy and MacNeil, sitting beside him, and said if he knew they or Carlos were drawing a strip he could relax and type a script direction like TAKE A PAGE OR TWO AND DO US SOMETHING NICE.
I can imagine something similar featured in this week's Word doc, during Dredd's journey to the Humanista camp. MacNeil's bold inking style turns out to be ideally suited to natural forms, whether that's tortured tree bark, jaguars, mangrove swamp or those huge underground caverns that feature in nature documentaries about the Yucatan peninsula.
Also worthy of a mention in dispatches is MacNeil and Wagner's fellow shortbread and tartan teatowel lover, SK Moore, who appears to have relaxed and learned to trust that his excellent line art will work on its own considerable merits.
Moore's previous tryout for Defoe employed a bolder, woodcut style (https://i.imgur.com/SIjTrbg.png). I wonder if the previous episodes' Photoshoppery was maybe the result of an insecurity that he needed to offer something more? He needn't have worried, because the balance struck here between the filigreed draughtsman's plan of the Albion and the more graphic shapes relying on sharp contrast between black and white to describe form is masterful.
On this trajectory, Moore's on course to rendezvous with Trevallion and Culbard in the orbit of the untouchable D'Israeli amid the constellation of Tharg's universe reserved for stylists who will never draw Slaine but can be trusted to create compelling fantasy worlds with distinctive tech and grotesque characters.
(https://i.imgur.com/uEi26Fw.png?2)
Quote from: Frank on 16 October, 2019, 06:24:08 PM
Also worthy of a mention in dispatches is MacNeil and Wagner's fellow shortbread and tartan teatowel lover, SK Moore, who appears to have relaxed and learned to trust that his excellent line art will work on its own considerable merits.
This episode was really well done and I enjoyed his work. I will agree with the photoshop heavy work that was not really required. His line art was excellent
Cover: Magnificent - but yes, surely intended for last week's prog? (Come to think of it, when was the last time we got a MacNeil cover?)
I said of prog 2152 that with the exception of Dredd its strips' story-lines seemed to be treading water. Well this week it's Dredd that relaxes the pace while things get moving elsewhere. It's so great that Wagner can say to his artist "Look, just take a page to do something special", and that MacNeil can reward his confidence. Also, there's no way that the Humanista leader's conjugal invitation (and there's definitely nothing ambiguous about it!) would have had the impact it did in a busier installment. In the past Dredd has brushed off amorous advances but that final panel almost makes one think he regrets this decision...
Brink is starting to warm up nicely, after a slow couple of episodes even by its own unhurried standards. Hope continues to be an intriguing read but it does feel like this second chapter is still in search of a plot. Deadworld has perhaps exceeded its scope with the involvement of the Sovs - I kind of preferred when it was mired in unpleasant American backwater towns - but I guess that increased scale presages the sort of global catastrophe that resulted in its complete transformation. Defoe ain't a bad read and I guess Moore's busy artwork reflects the hectic narrative.
Dredd saying 'I can't' as opposed to 'no' suggests to me that he would (if he could).
Sly old dog!
Dredd and Brink. Yup.
Yours, experimenting in brief review styles, Dr J.
Forgot to comment on this prog, much has already been said - re McNeil's art in particular which was an absolute joy.
I'm rather in two minds about Defoe and it's art and very much enjoying Hope.
But what struck me was the political commentary in Brink this week that actually has contemporary resonance. I've long been rather disappointed in 2000ad's rather plodding and out of date political commentary, often from Pat Mills. At least he does it I suppose... and the man who wrote Terrameks and Nemesis has my enduring affection and respect but the world being run by bowler hatted toffs in Pall Mall just doesn't cut it anymore.
So by a long and torturous route I come to the point and back to Brink. The device of the Hate/Swear Box machine that polices language has clear relevance to today's political lansdscape and the on-going threat to free speech. Often those of an authoritarian bent, under the guise of seeking to moderate language, are actually seeking to control language, what can and cannot be discussed and therefore what people think and feel. That box monitoring your language and doling out fines is both comic and terrifying in equal measure!
Just another reason to enjoy Brink and to hope that Abnett sticks with us.
That cover is loverly but quite misleading!
Dredd a bit slow, a trip into the Generican jungle, a weird Archer-esque conversation behind a waterfall and that's your lot. Don't think Dredd is really here about a handful of nukes, that's not what was on Hershey's mind at all. But it all looks wonderful and I loved it all the same.
Brink is great, Kurtis and Gita always have such a fun rapport. Still chuckling about "over the shirt action" from the last series.
Defoe is genuinely interesting, and I'm really enjoying the shakeup in the art now.
Can't decide if it's a good or a bad thing that Deadworld's re-run of the nuke bit was so brief. Probably the former - I liked the Sovs' shocked reaction to seeing Death's capital. And I really liked Kendall's version of the Statue of Liberty!
Hope lost me a bit this week, but it sure is purdy!
Quote from: Geoff on 19 October, 2019, 11:24:31 PM
That box monitoring your language and doling out fines is both comic and terrifying in equal measure!
[spoiler]Not what you expected[/spoiler] one dollar fine.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 22 October, 2019, 05:53:18 PM
Quote from: Geoff on 19 October, 2019, 11:24:31 PM
That box monitoring your language and doling out fines is both comic and terrifying in equal measure!
[spoiler]Not what you expected[/spoiler] one dollar fine.
:lol: