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Prog 2056 - Bringing the House Down!

Started by Magnetica, 04 November, 2017, 12:33:04 PM

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Bolt-01

As much as I like Sinister Dexter (and I genuinely do) this last strip was 'very' reminiscent of the coffee war run that was in the floppies last year. It's rare for Dan Abnett to misfire for me, but this was one.

TordelBack

Love the gonzo cover, more McCrea please.

Not getting along with this passive Dredd, who demonstrates impressive skills of delegation and as a result does nothing himself for the second week in a row. In line for a big bonus, presumably. I'm also struggling with the idea of Siberia being the most hostile environment on an Earth that boasts Sauron Valley, the Radlands of Ji and the radioactive crater of East Meg 1. I do like the Kafka bits though, and the art is downright boisterous.

Slaine is more my thing, gorgeous lighting and glad to get back to Macha's story (although wasn't the Death Winter that let the Formorians sweep down on the ice from Tory a later event?). How long was Slaine on Mona anyway he was just Don Johnson when he went over, now he's the full Frankie Boyle.

Indigo Prime vexes me, so I'm reserving judgement until it's done, but I did like the "nothing can stop me" gag.

Sinister Dexter offered an unexpected solution, and continues to build the new status quo in a satisfying way. The Punmageddon Climax was great, "Harrissa Explains It All" taking some kind of award. Great art team on this, never seen Yeowell coloured better.

Absalom was all about the tentacle art for me, just extraordinary. Plus story threads pulling together in a worrying way.


norton canes

From memory, since I don't have the prog in front of me...

Cover: Guest artist alert! It's decent enough but I'd have preferred a big-screen version of Yeowell's explosion.

Dredd: Liking the fact that this is a relatively gritty story. I'm not usually keen on the humorous one- and two-parters that litter the progs. Though of course the insight into the Sov's administrative procedures provides some drollery.

Slaine: Superb colouring. The multiple Sinead faces are interesting but in what might be a rare misfire from Simon Davis, too many of them look the same. Anyway, it's a relief from the last few weeks of hack-and-slay. 

Indigo Prime: Under all the clever plot devices and wordplay, I don't think there's quite enough humanity on display to make this completely satisfying. In The Order, Kek-W wrote many characters for which we cared and had deep sympathy. Here, perhaps because they're not his creations, we're not getting that. The story seems to be a bit of an extended exercise in 'what can we come up with next'.

SinDex: A narrative that doesn't really fill five pages, hence perhaps the large panels. Are you punned out yet, Mr Abnett?

Absalom: Top Thrill again, attractive art and engaging story in complete harmony. Lovely.

Dandontdare

Abnett will NEVER be punned out! There were more laughs in that penultimate speech bubble than a whole season of ITV comedies

Tiplodocus

Really enjoyed the prog again.  Agree with Tordels that the Dredd is a bit of a mixed bag but it still comes out mostly on top. But my, how fab is Absalom?  Very fab. That's how fab.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Richard

To be fair to Kek-W, he's trying to make Indigo Prine resemble Smith's writing as much as possible. I love Smith's writing, but I'm not sure how many of his characters stand out for their humanity. Maybe Murray in Swimming in Blood, but that's about it.

And Smith's shoes are big shoes to fill, so anyone trying to replace him would inevitably feel obliged to follow a "what can I come up with next" approach. Kek-W has certainly done that in this story, and he's done it very well. There are some mental ideas in this story.

Now I don't know what John Smith himself makes of all this, he didn't sound very happy in his last post on the subject, but speaking only for myself I'm delighted with the result.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Top Thrills: Slaine, Absalom
Ticking over: Dredd, SiniDex
Not my thing: Indigo Prime

Glad to see Slaine getting a bit meaty again this week, with the question of his parentage being addressed. Am I the only one genuinely interested in this, and feeling that the answer is going to change things for the foreseeable future. I still don't get on with Simon Davies's art here I'm afraid, which has curtailed my enjoyment a bit, but I also know a lot of folk love it, so I'm happy to see it continue, for now.

Absalom is just completely readable, whether in weekly form or as a collection- which isn't something you can say about all of Tharg's strips over the last ten years.

Dredd isn't doing much for me of late, and SiniDex was a bit of an anticlimactic end to what was a fun story. Indigo Prime, I'm very to concede, has lost me and I'll be skipping it from here on in.
Nice Droid Life too. Shame no letters, and the cover was a bit dark and fugly for me.

A 6/10 prog for me.

SBT

TordelBack

Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 10 November, 2017, 04:37:59 PM
Glad to see Slaine getting a bit meaty again this week, with the question of his parentage being addressed. Am I the only one genuinely interested in this..

You are not: in fact I'm really enjoying learning about Macha.  I'm a bit puzzled by why Slaine himself is interested, it seems like the sort of thing he would have been preaching the irrelevance of in his 'I am the Laughter in the Woods' days, and certainly not the sort of pursuit Danu would approve of, the old slapper.

I'd also note that Slaine has conversed with Macha's ghost/spirit before (as well as brought people back from the dead and romped about the Underworld meeting/fighting the dead), so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about here.  It is a wonderfully atmospheric scene here though, and I hope that this spot of necromancy might put  him at odds with more than just the Archons, which would be cool: Slaine hounded across the land by the Goddess is something I'd like to see.


Magnetica

Yes I am genuinely interested to find out the answer. It's been a while since I have looked forward to the next episode of Slaine but that is the case this week.

Dandontdare

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 November, 2017, 05:07:54 PM
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 10 November, 2017, 04:37:59 PM
Glad to see Slaine getting a bit meaty again this week, with the question of his parentage being addressed. Am I the only one genuinely interested in this..

You are not: in fact I'm really enjoying learning about Macha.  I'm a bit puzzled by why Slaine himself is interested, it seems like the sort of thing he would have been preaching the irrelevance of in his 'I am the Laughter in the Woods' days, and certainly not the sort of pursuit Danu would approve of, the old slapper.

I'd also note that Slaine has conversed with Macha's ghost/spirit before (as well as brought people back from the dead and romped about the Underworld meeting/fighting the dead), so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about here.  It is a wonderfully atmospheric scene here though, and I hope that this spot of necromancy might put  him at odds with more than just the Archons, which would be cool: Slaine hounded across the land by the Goddess is something I'd like to see.

Yes - I've been a bit dismissive of the storylines in Slaine- I'm happy to look at the pretty pictures despite the endless speechifying - but I also find Slaine's motivations a bit out of character for him - why is this important to him, given Sinead's objections?

Dandontdare

Soz, double post:  When Slaine started going on about star magic, I was expecting Sinead to remind him that his loyalty is to the EARTH goddess

Taryn Tailz

Indigo Prime is the single best strip to appear in the prog this year, and any opinion to the contrary is utterly without merit. ;)

DrJomster

Lots of gorgeous art this week. Special shouts out though for

  • PJ's Dredd. The Sov building at the bottom of page 3 was brilliant as was the hover tank landing from quite a height on page 4
  • Simon Davis' faces, basically all of them!
  • Lee Carter's Burroughs World at the bottom of the fourth IP page
  • Steve Yeowell looking v nice in John Charles' colours
  • Tiernon's placing of a dainty little heart on the apron of the servant at the top of page 2!

Yep. Busted. I've mentioned everyone.
The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.