Prog 1791: The End

[Frank]

Dante on the other hand... it's just too big

Many a young babooshka would agree with you.

Oxymoron. A Devotchka is what we're looking for, my Brothers.

[JOE SOAP]

Dante on the other hand... it's just too big

Many a young babooshka would agree with you.

Oxymoron. A Devotchka is what we're looking for, my Brothers.

You can still have a young granny.

[Frank]

You can still have a young granny.

As the the streets of Sauchie attest to daily.

[DrJomster]

Many, many, many thanks to everyone who had anything to do with Dante. It's been an inspiring example of what comics, and indeed 2000AD, can do. Amazing achievement!

[vzzbux]

Quit a weak prog this week.
As mentioned before the portrail of Dredd and Maitland visually just seemed wrong.
3rillers and the future shocks were nothing special.
Dante I was kind of expecting more but on a re read you can see the genius in the writing. Even though Vlad [spoiler]got the bullet in the head he kind of got his way in preventing Dante from marrying his [/spoiler] daughter leaving space for hatred.
For me Ichabod was the only real stand out.


[spoiler]This also opens us up to one off visits to Dante's life in the future. So can we really say The End?[/spoiler]

V

[vzzbux]

Still saying 400mil cit's in the Dredd synopsis. So I guess the final figure is yet to be announced.
I always thought 400mil was a bit light though.




V

[Darren Stephens]

Horses for courses, I thought this was a very good prog indeed.

Cover: Stunning. Nuff said.

Dredd: Yeh, the costumes did seem a little off. Shame really, as Currie is a great artist. Don't really see why Tharg didn't step in at the pencil stage and insist on regulation dresscode! Enjoyable story so far though.

Ichabod: Faultless comicstrippage. Beautiful art ( both in colour and Black and White.) The hunter is a class villain, too. There is a genuine feeling of dread when he turns up.

3Riller: I really enjoyed this. Seems like an intersting set-up and could possibly have been longer without outstaying its welcome.

Future Shock: Baillies recent run of these has been great. Really like his writing style. A droid to watch. I've not heard of Mark Simmons before, but his artwork is quality.

Dante: Brilliant. Don't want to say much more, unless I spoil it for others. To think, all those years ago, I wasn't really a fan of Mr
Dante. Now, I feel absolutely gutted is over. Makes me wonder whats next from both these fine creators....?

Lenny Zero ad: Looks great. Can't wait! :-P

[Dark Jimbo]

I presume the Rich Cabaret is a nod to the Vicious Cabaret in V for Vendetta?
The Judge dancers look like a bit like the performers in the Kitty-Kat Keller.

The fact the club was called 'Weimar' didn't mean anything to you? Given that the 'Kitty-Kat Keller' in V was itself a nod to 'The Kit Kat Klub' of the film/musical 'Cabaret', I'd say it's more a case of both stories riffing on Isherwood's 'Berlin stories' and the decadence of Weimar Republic-era Berlin in general, contrasting their stiff-laced jackbooted baddies (Nazis/Norsefire/Judges) against the citizen's dying bohemia.

Even though Vlad [spoiler]got the bullet in the head he kind of got his way in preventing Dante from marrying his [/spoiler] daughter leaving space for hatred.[spoiler]This also opens us up to one off visits to Dante's life in the future. So can we really say The End?[/spoiler]

You're sort of assuming that [spoiler]Dante won't marry Jena, though. The point of the ending was that it was left so marvellously open, and we're left to guess at what he'll do next.[/spoiler]

[Frank]

The fact the club was called 'Weimar' didn't mean anything to you? Given that the 'Kitty-Kat Keller' in V was itself a nod to 'The Kit Kat Klub' of the film/musical 'Cabaret', I'd say it's more a case of both stories riffing on Isherwood's 'Berlin stories' and the decadence of Weimar Republic-era Berlin in general, contrasting their stiff-laced jackbooted baddies (Nazis/Norsefire/Judges) against the citizen's dying bohemia.

I haven't read this one yet, but that'd tie in with the contrast drawn last week between the the frivolous excess of the Love Generation and our own straightened times. The mood in the Dredd camp at the moment reminds me of the latter day cowboy films (Wild Bunch, Josey Wales, even The Shootist), which looked back fondly at a more joyful, innocent past- while acknowledging that them days are over.

[Dark Jimbo]

Re:Dredd, I forgot to add - 'Deller' himself is of course a riff on Richard Stark's 'Parker' character, also a stone-cold career criminal. Compare the first (captioned) lines of this week's story and his first outing in prog 1718 to a couple of first lines from some of the novels:

'When the dancers hit the stage, Deller stepped through the door and fired twice.'
'When the mopad hit the concrete, Deller was already moving.'

'When a fresh-faced guy in a chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to Hell.'
'When the woman screamed, Parker woke and rolled off the bed.'
'When the bandages came off, Parker looked in the mirror at a stranger.'

[Eamonn Clarke]

The fact the club was called 'Weimar' didn't mean anything to you? Given that the 'Kitty-Kat Keller' in V was itself a nod to 'The Kit Kat Klub' of the film/musical 'Cabaret', I'd say it's more a case of both stories riffing on Isherwood's 'Berlin stories' and the decadence of Weimar Republic-era Berlin in general, contrasting their stiff-laced jackbooted baddies (Nazis/Norsefire/Judges) against the citizen's dying bohemia.

Good point, badly made.

[Colin YNWA]

I've been on a parent run all weekend with my subscription copy brought in my our neighbour, teasing me across the country sat on top our washing machine. I've just got home unpacked the car and read it.

All weekend a million possibilities, a hundred possible endings crossed my mind and none of them in that Prog. That is pure genius. The true point of wonder is that almost all those possibilities are [spoiler]still mine to make, if slightly twisted[/spoiler].

Thank you Mr Morrison and Mr Fraser that was an delight. The rest of the Prog will have to wait for after tea. I'm quite emotional.

[Simply Si]

Dante on the other hand... it's just too big

Many a young babooshka would agree with you.

Hmmm a young Russian grandmother?!!

Still pondering the Dante ending, not sunk in yet ...... way to soon to comment

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Very solid prog -

Cover: Stunning - one of those that you open the mailbox and just stand there staring at it like an idiot. I would say - if there was a flaw in it, it's the graffiti. Not really needed - but the sky is overwhelmingly beautiful. Simon Fraser is a genius.

Dredd: Ruined by Andrew Currie - never been a big fan of his "caricatures with big tits" style of art. Here was no exception - and totally distracted me from the story. The cleavage uniform should have been caught and stamped on. Completely ridiculous.

Ichabod: Neat - very very happy to see Peter Doherty's colours in the prog again - he's a huge inspiration and I've got a print of him & Darrow on m'wall. Reardon is fantastically flawless and the page that has the dogs at the top and sort of... squeezes in towards the bottom is a masterclass in composition. Brilliant.

3Rillers: Story didn't really grab me - although it was a neat idea. Executed perfectly and I can't express how HAPPY I AM that there's two new artists in this issue. NEW ARTISTS. Hoorah - !!! Michael Dowling's stuff is gurt lush. The Doherty-esque muted tones are a big hit with me and it, well it looks very slick. More of this sort of thing.

Future Shocks: Story was a bit dense, although Baillie is normally good so it didn't bother me that much. This is one of those inevitable new four pagers that has made me miss the fifth. Give him a proper run of something, eh Thargy?  NEW ARTIST though. Mark Simmons - very good. Like a cross betwixt PJ Holden and D'Israeli. Greytones well deployed.

Nikolai Dante: Ah. Very nice ending. The page with [spoiler]why are people who haven't read the prog reading the review thread at all?! I avoided it for months because I wasn't up to date and now I am so I'm here[/spoiler] Dante, the gun and Vladimir is just... perfection. Perfect perfect perfect. EXCEPT. For Annie Parkhouse's upsettingly intrusive and comical Bdam! and Klik! sfx. With primary red-and-yellow and ... DROP SHADOWS. AGAINST WHITE. REALLY. Sorry, I will rant about this at length. It's ugly as sin. The penultimate page is beautiful - the last (is that Fraser lying there?) is a'ight. Brilliant end though and I will miss him.

I still remember gingerly asking Simon Fraser to draw Dante for me at Bristol '01 and him being excited because he'd been drawing unfamiliars and Spider-Man all morning. I still remember buying a big load of progs in a charity shop that contained the first Dante story and reading it late into the night in one sitting. ahhh Dante memories.

Great blog, Pete by the way - ! I was very nervous as well - !

[Colin YNWA]

Rest of the Prog was strong. Its was always going to be over shadowed and so it was.

I still have issues with Dredd and the seeming pasting over of old stories to quickly make them post 'DOC'. I have no evidence to back this up of course and could be utterly wrong. It just felt again a few captions aside this could have been pre DOC. Shame as one of DOC strengths of what I thought was going to some real impact on the strip. Still plenty of time for that to bare fruit.

As for Maitland I see why people are a little up set about the art (which over all is great). However regardless of how she's rendered she's still a strong, great new character and maybe we should all be focusing on that rather than how she is or isn't drawn?

Enjoyed the end of the 3riller, though maybe it wasn't as interesting as it might have been. A fairly standard Future Shock. As CrazyFoxMachine said though great to see two new artists.

Ichabod was superb and hopefully will have helped newcomers who were feeling lost, while rattling the story along for everyone.

Arh Dante you shine.