prog 1782 - Release the Hounds

[The Amstor Computer]

Trout -

[spoiler]I wonder if we're going to see something like that from Wagner. The way he's introduced the Dark Judges so far has had them impatient to wreak havoc on the city, with their eagerness resulting in an early discorporation and their rampage cut short. I can't see him having reintroduced villains that he's been leery of using for so long just for a brief outing.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they retreated, bloodied and humiliated, to plot something more effective than a frontal assault for a future attack. Perhaps they'll realise they need Death's leadership to be as devastating as they were during "Necropolis", and try to summon him back from hell? Or perhaps they'll partner - temporarily, of courssssse - with one of the other elements Wagner has thrown into the mix?[/spoiler]

[JOE SOAP]

Yes, you'd expect the hero to be at the centre of everything -- but I'm wondering if there's a bigger point being made here.  Maybe this is setting Dredd up for the BIG finale ... there would be no better way to go out than saving the city single-handedly several times in a tight space of time.  It would be a fitting end to the legend.

The bigger point I doubt is any kind of going out for Joe -for obvious reasons- but rather topographically laying the groundwork, clearing the way, for whatever intentions Dredd harbours to carry out Fargo's last wishes. Ironically, Day of Chaos is his best chance to do it and to what extent who knows. Unless it all rebounds with a vengence in the opposite direction, politically.

[a chosen rider]

The bigger point I doubt is any kind of going out for Joe -for obvious reasons- but rather topographically laying the groundwork, clearing the way, for whatever intentions Dredd harbours to carry out Fargo's last wishes. Ironically, Day of Chaos is his best chance to do it and to what extent who knows. Unless it all rebounds with a vengence in the opposite direction, politically.

Yeah, the fact that it's all centred around the mayoral elections does make it seem like it's all setup to push the citizens into finally "choosing democracy" to some degree.  Whatever way it shakes out - a more powerful mayor, civilians on the council, sectors of the city going over to the democrats - I think it's the political landscape that's going to change; the judges are going to lose some of their power, or at least there'll be a schism between the liberal and more hardline judicial elements and Dredd will be forced into publicly choosing a side.

Also, the fact that Wagner has talked about leaving a challenging status quo for other writers actually makes me more confident that we're not going to see Dredd killed off in Day of Chaos.  I would think that if they were going to take a risk that big, they'd at least want Wagner on board for a fair while afterwards to establish the new direction of the strip himself.

[Trout]

centred around

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Sorry. Grammatical bugbear. Ignore me.

[Trout]

Trout -

[spoiler]I wonder if we're going to see something like that from Wagner. The way he's introduced the Dark Judges so far has had them impatient to wreak havoc on the city, with their eagerness resulting in an early discorporation and their rampage cut short. I can't see him having reintroduced villains that he's been leery of using for so long just for a brief outing.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they retreated, bloodied and humiliated, to plot something more effective than a frontal assault for a future attack. Perhaps they'll realise they need Death's leadership to be as devastating as they were during "Necropolis", and try to summon him back from hell? Or perhaps they'll partner - temporarily, of courssssse - with one of the other elements Wagner has thrown into the mix?[/spoiler]

Good points. I'd like to see something more than a cameo appearance.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm eager to see where Dredd ends up after all this, not least because of Wagner's tantalising hint on Facebook. 'A new ballgame' could mean so much, and this is a Dredd epic where I've no idea what's coming. It helps that it's also tremendously written and beautifully illustrated, too. Top marks to all involved.

Elsewhere, Anderson is fine if a bit throwaway, Zilk is bonkers and wonderful, and the Time Twister was somewhat classic Alan Moore-like and a great one-shot. Flesh... I honestly don't know why I'm still reading this. If this didn't have Mills's name attached to it, I can't imagine it'd be garnering what praise it is on these boards. It's messy and illogical, with cyphers rather than characters, and has a continuing misogynistic undercurrent that sours whatever positives are left. Beyond McKay's oddly teenage-oriented infatuation with boobs, the art's not bad, but the script is increasingly terrible.

Still, that's one fantastic, two great, one reasonable and one crap strip this week for me, which is worth the entry price.

[Dark Jimbo]

Zaucer and Dredd are great, and everything that's good about Thargdom. Otherwise thrillpower seems to have been rationed since Dante ended (and even that involved a strangely muted exit for a major character.) Beyond Dredd and Zaucer I'm just marking time until the new line-up now.

Anderson is utterly, utterly average - by no means bad but displaying absolutely no flair or fun of any kind. If it was a meal, it would be plain bread with a glass of water. I don't hate it, but five minutes after reading I couldn't tell you anything about it. Please finish soon.

Flesh could so nearly have been a modern classic that it causes me physical pain. Every now and again, there's still hints of potential greatness, like McKay's wonderful rat designs... but all surrounded by such mediocrity and downright nonsense. Almost as if he's deliberately trying to discredit those brave few boarders who tried to rationalise Carter's actions a few weeks back, we now have yet another, unrelated female character falling out of her bra and throwing herself at the nearest male (all of whom are older, fatter and uglier than the women in the strip, which makes it all seem pretty creepy, to be honest.) Then a cliffhanger that comes completely out of the blue - oh, the reptiloids have been 'stunned' rather than killed, have they? What's the betting the heroes leave them alive for some utterly contrived/illogical reason, only for them to 'shockingly' reapper a few episodes later and yet again cause havoc? What's the betting Gorehead escapes yet again and once more causes havoc? Yawn. Two books in and this series is already repeating itself. I like cowboys, I like dinosaurs, I like the occasional flash of boob, and I like Pat Mills - so why is none of this working? A book III is seeming sadly inevitable. Bleurgh.

Time Twister - Actually very very good, which was a pleasant surprise. Lee Carter seems to noticeably improve with each and every story he does, and though the story needed a few leaps of logic to work it was still a snappy, dense little morality tale.

[Hegel]

Dredd - Continues to crack on like the proverbial mother squeezer and I simply can't get enough. Huzzah to all involved in it's creation/ production/ distribution. 10/10

Flesh - I lost interest in this a while ago but I like the way the artist draws busts! In truth it isn't as terrible as I had feared when it had first started. 5/10

Zaucer - I have swung from abject hatred of this to mild appreciation several times over the course of it's run. I wish it would end however. I can't take much more of it. It is starting to depress me yet I have not skipped it in any issue - something I am not afraid to do to a strip that bores me (Red Seas, I'm looking at you) 3/10

Time Twister - I love the art, outstanding. Very nice little 4 pager which was interestingly told. 8/10

Cadet Anderson - Here indeed is proof that Yowell's art should always be coloured. Very cool and a nice counter point to the monumental scale of the Dredd saga. I'm guessing this is a 4 parter? 7/10

Overall, as it has been in recent months, a mixed bag that is buoyed up by the sheer delight that Day of Chaos brings to the table. It is nice to have the odd letters page from time to time too

[WhitBloke]

Cover - The detail, the colours, the phrasing.  With ABC Warriors returning in Prog 1800, I hope we'll see a Weston cover during that run.  His delivery of mechanical detail would be a perfect fit.

Dredd - [spoiler]With John Wagner seemingly playing it brisk on the Dark Judges, craftily surprising as that is in itself,[/spoiler] this was an art-o-centric Dredd for me.  Fear as an absence of colour works so well against his take on Mortis and Fire, with great complimentary colouring.  I think my eyes did a little swoon over the way they looked on the first and second pages, the way they're just so vibrantly malevolent and such a grand sight working together.  [spoiler]Fire in a riot truck was a grin inducing touch of slapstick mayhem, too,[/spoiler] and the lighting on Dredd as he gets back on his Lawmaster...  Nice touches all over this week's peek into the Eve of Destruction.  Could Flint or Wilsher have done better?  Or Ezquerra?  No, only differently, though I'm starting to think Blythe is irreplaceable on colours. 

Flesh - You know that bit in Return of the Jedi where [spoiler]Han Solo grabs Leia's boob[/spoiler]?  No?  Well, it's there, at that Endor moon outpost they're trying to get into.  Why am I mentioning this?  Because when you see that, you figure it's a genuine mishap and not at all blatant, and generally an amusing incidental mistake that most people miss in the frenetic action going on in a film which - even if not exactly the best in the series - still manages to end it concisely.  It does not stand out as something purposefully added to distract the audience from the flaws that do surround it in the film's fuller canvas.  No harm done.  However, you know that bit in the latest Flesh where [spoiler]McGurk grabs Carter's boob...[/spoiler]?   
Mind you, I know how McGurk feels, [spoiler]there being no other response to being involved in this story but feeling a massive boob.[/spoiler]  Or, to put it a quicker way, Cosh is bang on the money in his post above.  As is Dark Jimbo in praising the rat design, which brought flashes of a rabid Grobbendonk cheerily to mind even if much of this story is Gibberish.  (I know, I know, cheesy reference.)

Zilk - Can't comment.  Still skimming.  Expecting my inner Zragian to implode when I read the full set.

Twisters - Succinct, touching and a fitful ingredient in so varied a prog.  Lee Carter delivers T C Eglington's notably human script with complimentary skill.  Rather enjoyed Carter's colouring on this, too.  If it were just a so-so story, I'd be looking at a great reminder of what I'll be enjoying when Carter and Abnett return with Grey Area soon but it's four pages delivering an affecting story and proving what can be delivered of a Time Twister without automatic recourse to high-gear glamour or an excess of SF visual tropes.  I immediately felt that it deserves to see reprint in some future collection from Rebellion.

Anderson - If you're reading this, Mr Cow, you sent me back for another reread and I certainly like your theory.  Cheers for that.  I appreciated the subtlety of the hand variations in the Birdie sequence but I  sneered at the fact Birdie was plastered over the device.  Two reasons, really, though I expect others are of a similar mind.  Firstly, my Telly doesn't have Telly plastered over half of it.  I know it's my Telly, oddly enough.  Secondly, that lettering...  oh, that lettering.  Ozzy Osbourne's rat didn't need it, so why did the Stones from Westminster Abbey?  (An Osbourne vs The Stones thing?)  [spoiler]Bossington Ritter[/spoiler], even if his sign was offputting, is still a pretty fun name to encounter and I can't deny I still prefer the original Lawgiver's design so I hardly mind seeing them getting used.  Overall, an enjoyable handling of not-quite-a-judge Cadet Anderson action from Grant and Yeowell.

High - "Get off me!"  [spoiler]Mortis tussling with the wrong med-bay season ticket holder and Logan joining that hallowed "Department Legend" elite of judges that have tussled head-on with a Dark Judge and come out breathing.  And he can always grow another arm, can't he?[/spoiler]  (It's just a shame that quote isn't Carter from Flesh...)

Low - The looming expectation that a certain strip will ultimately see reprint and the blurb will describe Pat Mills as visionary.  (Which, while most certainly true and deservedly noted in general is specifically not true of Rexploitation Shambolica this outing for Flesh.)

[a chosen rider]

centred around

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Sorry. Grammatical bugbear. Ignore me.

Well, you can be bugged if you want, but in this context "centred" refers to the distribution of multiple elements with regard to a central focus, and it's perfectly correct to say that disparate elements are distributed around something.

So nyer.

Almost as if he's deliberately trying to discredit those brave few boarders who tried to rationalise Carter's actions a few weeks back, we now have yet another, unrelated female character falling out of her bra and throwing herself at the nearest male (all of whom are older, fatter and uglier than the women in the strip, which makes it all seem pretty creepy, to be honest.)

Urgh.  You know, I do try hard to enjoy Flesh, but it tries even harder to stop me.

[Trout]

centred around

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Sorry. Grammatical bugbear. Ignore me.

Well, you can be bugged if you want, but in this context "centred" refers to the distribution of multiple elements with regard to a central focus, and it's perfectly correct to say that disparate elements are distributed around something.

So nyer.

[Steve Green]

On a re-read I realised how good Chris Blythe's colouring was, Fire especially.

[leebrown1990]

Cover: 4 covers from Weston in a couple of months what a treat. Normally from what I hear it takes him like a month to do one. Probably the weakest of the bunch but still, it is Weston.

Dredd: It's final; Macneil is the quintessential Dredd artist. And great colours by Blythe. Awesome action with just the right amount of Wagner's dark humour.

Flesh: A few weeks in a row I've enjoyed this now, the laughs are keeping me distracted from the lack of plot. Not sure I like the direction he is taking McGurk and Carter though.

Zaucer: Great again, loved the hand drawn effects on page 2. Couple of laughs in there as usual too.

Time Twister, Contractions: Simple story told in an overly complex way, and it doesn't work for me. Why do they waste Carter on such grounded stories, he should be drawing shit like Indigo Prime I swear.

Anderson: Has the best panel of the week. Bisley's alcohol, Lennon's glasses, Ozzy's rat classic. Also just been on Biz's Facebook page, got a bottle of grants on my desk and listening to Plastic Ono Band so couldn't have read it at a better time! Otherwise nowt special.

Overall: Loads of little laughs, and Dredd firing on all cylinders.

Top Thrill: Dredd. 

[vzzbux]

I couldn't see buttonmoon in the letters page. I do believe I was though. It seems a bit misplaced now though as I sent it about a month ago.





V

[DrJomster]

Well for me the prog continues to fly on the strength of two thrills, testament really to how much I'm enjoying them. Dredd and Zilk that is, just for clarity.

And now a few thoughts about art. Dredd continues to be a treat and Colin and Chris have done a great job. Zilk also continues to be quality art-wise and refreshingly different story-wise. While I'm on an art roll, isn't Lee Carter good in colour? His brainblooms Dredd was very strong too. And finally, yes, I too agree that the Owl benefits quite nicely actually from a splash of colour.