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Prog 2010: Your Move Eathlets

Started by James Stacey, 12 December, 2009, 10:42:44 AM

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radiator

The whole Sinfield thing is very interesting... [spoiler]It seems to suggest that he might be PJ Maybe, but that doesn't add up with previous stories - the whole thing about his clone for instance seems to suggest that he is himself. [/spoiler]I've been wondering for a long time how [spoiler]PJ Maybe[/spoiler] will get woven into Tour of Duty - and can't wait to see what happens next - maybe Francisco will find himself banished to the Cursed Earth settlements with Dredd, realise he's been used and have to redeem himself by helping Dredd and Rico to usurp Sinfield...

The only criticism I'd level at Tour of Duty is that we've so far seen so little of the mutant townships themselves that I assumed would be the focus of the story - I imagined we'd get a lot more of Dredd acting as a small town sheriff, a lot more stuff building the supporting cast like Beeny and the exiled mutants. Fun though it's been, I've been getting a little impatient with Dredd pursuing Pinky week after week. I'd feel a little short changed if the mutants were just given Gore City to live in and we hear no more about them.

Al Ewing's Dredd was fun - especially the retro prologue (Judge Alvin's dialogue in particular) - but while largely it was very amusing, towards the end I found the comedy was getting a bit too contrived. Much as I admire Al's Dredd work, I often find that there's a little too much crammed into his scripts, and perhaps they'd benefit from being pared down a little. Paul Marshall's artwork was wonderful - both the b&w and colour sections.

Zombo was predictably brilliant, very funny and I look forward to the new series.

So great to see Dante back - I recognised the [spoiler]Hawksmoore name[/spoiler] even before the reveal - nice bit of continuity, but it also reminded me of the fact that The Courtship of Jena Makarov was finishing up just before Prog 2000, a whole 10 years ago, which made me feel a bit old!

Haven't had time for anything else yet, but it all looks great.

vzzbux

Quote from: James S on 13 December, 2009, 01:28:22 PM

It was quite a shock to see Sinfield [spoiler]actually breaking the law, or at least obviously planning to[/spoiler]. Wonder if [spoiler]Mayor Maybe will notice and tip Dredd off[/spoiler]. Probably not


not without compromising himself.




V
Drokking since 1972

Peace is a lie, there's only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.

Mardroid

Okay, I finished this issue last night/early this morning.

Before continuing where I left off, I was wondering about that stick Dredd uses on the mutiebilly in the first strip. Was that just a bit of pipe or is that a new look daystick? It looks telescopic, a cool idea for a futuristic truncheon. Take the little cylinder off your belt or out of your sleeve (which is how this appears to appear.) Touch a button. FSSSST! Perp twatting action, wahaay! I wonder about the weight of a stick which is basically a hollow tube though, but maybe most of the weight is in the end, or there's weird nanomachine rearrangement stuff going on inside.

Trust me to get carried away with future weapons tech speculation.

So continuing where I left off...

Letters pages.  Nice to see this back. And nice to see a printed letter from Andy (Judge Muffin)Grannell in pride of place.

Zombo. Sick. Wrong. Funny. I like it. I'm not sure the last panels bode well though. More death planet fodder, cept this time they're a bunch of emos who want to die? Mind you I can see why that would generate more sick comedy laughs. I'm just worried this strip could get a bit repetitive, although I've liked what I've read so far. I was hoping future stories would get Zombo off of this particular death world.

Ampney Crucis- Heh. A bit chatty at the start, but I like the delightful gossipy aunties. It's interesting to see the different style changes considering this is the same writer of Stickleback. More weirdness, but a promising start. I might try to translate that German at the end to see what the lady is actually saying. Promising start.

More Sketch to Shelf pages! Interesting to see.

2 page poster spread. Now this is wonderful! Almost a shame it's in the prog as it means ruining it if you want to stick it on your wall. On the other hand, the pages on the other side are not story pages, so ruination is minimal. I was about to say, I'd have preferred it to have been in the centre, so you can pull it out easily in one sheet, but then the penny drops, this bumper copy has a spine. What a numpty I am. I won't pull it out just yet anyway.

Amusing Red Seas ad!

Low Life: A very basic story, (How did Dirty Frank defeat the giant turkey? Why is naked? Do we want to know?) but this is played for laughs, and it really is very chuckle-worthy what with the running vomit gag. I'm not sure why the baby swears by calling peoples names, but it's all the more funny for it. Oh, and  kudos for the 'bittan' reference. Bad baby. Heh. Last couple of panels were somehow a bit downbeat though. I like Low Life though, and this was good.

Another little poster spread thing this time with Tharg and droids! It's a shame I don't know enough about the various creator's appearance to get who is who but it's a cute toony picture.

And last but not least:

Judge Dredd: O Little Town of Bethlehem-  I like how the yesteryear segments are actually written in a yesteryear style with the explanation speech balloons and a thought bubble thrown in!

The present day culmination relies a lot on a number of coincidences for resolution*, but again, like Low Life, this is really for laughs. The ridiculous over-sensitive guys with farm animal mutations are a hoot (if unrealistic as mutations.) Good stuff overall. It's curious to see the change of Dredd's voice with another writer though after reading lots of Wagner stuff these last few weeks.

A great seasonal issue!

* [spoiler]It's Christmas and the town happens to be called Bethlehem, and the muties in 'the inn' happen to have farm animal mutations? That's rather funny though.  I'm not over keen on the fact that the guys who stole the doll happen to arrive at the same town as the original villain who attempted to steal the first dolls yesteryear. He's there to kill Dredd, the doll is a surprise to him. I think he should have been tied to the other two from the start, but to be fair the irony of the situation is part of the comedy.[/spoiler]




radiator

[spoiler]
* It's Christmas and the town happens to be called Bethlehem, and the muties in 'the inn' happen to have farm animal mutations? That's rather funny though.  I'm not over keen on the fact that the guys who stole the doll happen to arrive at the same town as the original villain who attempted to steal the first dolls yesteryear. He's there to kill Dredd, the doll is a surprise to him. I think he should have been tied to the other two from the start, but to be fair the irony of the situation is part of the comedy.
[/spoiler]


Yeah, my point exactly - I know it was supposed to be a silly story, and a lot of the contrivances were knowingly ludicrous, but I still think it could have been simplified quite a bit to flow better.

re: the telescopic batons - I think police use them already and ISTR that despite looking a bit feeble, they're weighted in a way that they can shatter kneecaps with a strike.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: radiator on 13 December, 2009, 02:32:41 PM
The whole Sinfield thing is very interesting... [spoiler]It seems to suggest that he might be PJ Maybe, but that doesn't add up with previous stories - the whole thing about his clone for instance seems to suggest that he is himself. [/spoiler]

What?! It doesn't really suggest any of the sort - as you say, that wouldn't even make sense. He's clearly just going to [spoiler]use the SLD88 to make Francisco the compliant political puppet he wants.[/spoiler]
@jamesfeistdraws

radiator

Mm. Well, perhaps I'm so sure that we're going to have a [spoiler]surprise PJ Maybe reveal at some point, I read too much into it. Also, it was a bit of a jump for Sinfield to go from being mildly sinister to being a full blown criminal. My initial thought was that if PJ were in a position of power, he'd use it to get his old toys back, but then I guess it would be simpler to just synthesise some more of the truth drug.[/spoiler]

UncleBaal

I really enjoyed this prog, not a bad story there and particularly [spoiler]"Look at him! The finest man I know and you've broken him!"[/spoiler] which cracked me up as they say. Re the [spoiler]Sinfield[/spoiler] thing, I can't see how he is [spoiler]PJ Maybe[/spoiler], surely he is [spoiler]just a corrupt Judge with a good working knowledge of unsolved cases[/spoiler]...

WoD

Since the beginning of the story-line I've been waiting for more MAYBE action...there has to be a link somewhere what with him being mayor...but maybe a 'positive' link and not a negative one...

Grant Goggans

For the sake of my spreadsheet (I ask this every year)...

Could somebody please post the page counts of each strip?  I'd like to know which are double-length.  Thanks!

Proudhuff

Read it all now and its all great!!
Stickleback my Fav is back with a vengence a Double Dredd, Robbie Williams and older wimmin in their scants! But no letters from Moi sob! where is Buttoman's spreadsheet? I want to know how badly I've done THIS year!
DDT did a job on me

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Grant Goggans on 13 December, 2009, 09:39:02 PM

Could somebody please post the page counts of each strip?  I'd like to know which are double-length.  Thanks!

Dredd: Gore City - 6pgs
Future Shock - 5pgs
Stickleback - 10pgs
Dante - 12pgs
Zombo - 6pgs
Ampney Crucis - 10pgs
Lowlife - 8pgs
Dredd: Little Town of Bethlehem - 15pgs

Cheers!

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Hegel


I, Cosh

The only thing I've read so far is the first Dredd. All I can really say is "Fuck! Yeah!" We already know how PJ reacts to copycats.
We never really die.

Trout


ThryllSeekyr