Prog 2054 - Me & My Shadow

[James Stacey]

OMG (as the youth are wont to say) How good is it to see Mick on Dredd. Nice little story to go along with it too. I thought the colouring really suited it too. All round a top job. That fellah from last weeks wobbly Dredd can do more if we get this to follow. Top shadow drop Tharg.

[A.Cow]

How good is it to see Mick on Dredd. Nice little story to go along with it too. I thought the colouring really suited it too. All round a top job.

Normally I'm not a fan of the modern McMahon style, but I loved this -- particularly Chris Blythe's brilliant colouring, which brought it to life much better than McMahon's usual flat, OTT palette.

[Trout]

I really enjoyed this week's prog,  especially the McMahon art on Dredd, the twist in Indigo Prime and the punning in SinDex. Meanwhile, Absalom is splendid, rollicking hokum and I love the art on Slaine.

[norton canes]

Grudsakes! This is the one week that WH Smith didn't get their order!

Now have to wait until tomorrow... not happy

[The Corinthian]

I'm afraid the SPOILER in Indigo Prime has just contributed to my sense that it's the work of a man wearing a rubber John Smith mask rather than someone who's completely sympathetic to the series and can make it work in his own style. Even if this was exactly where Smith was planning to go, I imagine he'd do it in a much subtler and stranger tone.

[The Corinthian]

Including in Barney:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=416

But it's not unknown for Barney to mistake captions or other text for proper story titles, e.g. the Future Shock in Prog 1872 is called 'The Modular War' - and that title appears on the first page of the strip - but Barney thinks it's called 'Connection Lost' because those words appear on a screen in the background on the same page.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm afraid the SPOILER in Indigo Prime has just contributed to my sense that it's the work of a man wearing a rubber John Smith mask rather than someone who's completely sympathetic to the series and can make it work in his own style.

You pick up a series mid-run, it makes sense to find a transitional style between what has gone before and your own. Writers do it, artists do it, and sometimes fans are rude little pricks about it.

[Spikes]

Simply brilliant, and a very nice little surprise, to see Mick McMahon return to do a Cursed Earth based Dredd tale.   

(Not had chance to read the rest yet...)

[john_s]

I'm afraid the SPOILER in Indigo Prime has just contributed to my sense that it's the work of a man wearing a rubber John Smith mask rather than someone who's completely sympathetic to the series and can make it work in his own style. Even if this was exactly where Smith was planning to go, I imagine he'd do it in a much subtler and stranger tone.

Damn right. It had my blessings. Now it has my curses. Loved it up to that stupid "twist". Of course, Tharg owns everything. But do you have to monster-mashup every story I've ever written under the same roof? It's incredibly lame and screams of "product on shelf". Just coz DC do it...

[TordelBack]

Mmmm, I had wondered.  While I normally love everything Nigel writes, and think he was doing a pretty good job keeping the IP ball rolling in appropriate style, that last panel may be the biggest clanger I've seen in 2000AD in... I dunno, I'm struggling to think of a worse one in recent years.  I don't know Tharg's thinking here, but it's lost me completely.  What's on the menu for next week, Karkossa and Larsen? Danny Redman turns out to be Shane Holt?

Think I need to bathe my brain in that McMahon Dredd again for a bit. 

[Jim_Campbell]

You do work for hire, sometimes it's taken out of your hands. Anyone think I wouldn't have written Daemonifuge books two and three if I'd been asked?

You sign the contract, you cash the cheque, you know the deal.

FWIW, I think there are a nebulous threads running through the Smithyverse that mean I have no problem with the current episode's reveal. Would I rather the notion had originated with John? Yes. Absolutely.

As a reader, though, absent any story-external knowledge...? I found it rather thrilling to be surprised like this. Nigel/Kek has taken a poison chalice here, and I think he's making a decent fist of it, TBH.

[TordelBack]

I've nothing at all against Kek-W, his presence in the prog has been like a fresh breeze in a classic 2000AD style these psst few years, and he should write whatever suits. While I was very poorly disposed to the idea of non-Smith Indigo Prime, there's no denying that Nigel was making a characteristically good job with what Jim correctly calls a poisoned chalice (see also: "an ongoing Dark Judges prequel", the strip nobody thought they wanted).

But this reveal is a misstep, a completely at odds with this particular reader's idea of how these things should work. Let me tell you, if it had been Ritterstahl coming to save the day I'd have been out of my chair cheering.

[Jim_Campbell]

Arthur Wyatt's Samizdat Squad ret-conned The Inspectre out of Dredd continuity, removing a tiny contribution I made to a small corner of the history of one the most important fictional characters in my life. As I observed at the time, that was entirely my fault for failing to write anything Tharg wanted to publish in the years between those two strips.

And I wasn't even getting asked to write more stories.

Is there something applicable in that anecdote...? You be the judge.

[JOE SOAP]

Arthur Wyatt's Samizdat Squad ret-conned The Inspectre out of Dredd continuity, removing a tiny contribution I made to a small corner of the history of one the most important fictional characters in my life.

Don't worry, Robin Low is working on it.

[JamesC]

I really enjoyed this week's prog. Dredd was great, SinDex was really funny, Absolom was entertaining. I'm struggling a bit with Slaine as I just don't think the art suits the story.
As for Indigo Prime, I thought it was an enjoyable episode and I don't think the Revere reveal is a big deal to be honest. I can barely remember anything about Revere as I didn't understand it. I'm a little bemused as to all the fuss to be honest - if you'd have asked me if Revere was in IP continuity last week I'd have shrugged my shoulders. I doubt I'm the only one.