Prog 1820: Sins of The Flesh

[Mabs]

I very much enjoyed the sexy ladies in Currie's art.

Great prog all round.

Lol. Same here -  the extra hot one is staring right at us! 

Whereas I find it tedious and infantile. Every woman in the city seems to have heaving cleavage and is staring at the reader.
I can only assume the artist, while undeniably brilliant at his job, is a fourteen year old boy.

[/b]

[Ghastly McNasty]

Whereas I find it tedious and infantile. Every woman in the city seems to have heaving cleavage and is staring at the reader.
I can only assume the artist, while undeniably brilliant at his job, is a fourteen year old boy.

Sure, it damages the realism of the story a bit. but I appreciate a bit of eye candy every now and then.

It's just the massive pervert in me. (How wrong does that sound)

[Spikes]

My issue with the art was that last time it was pretty OTT cleavage-wise, and did detract from the story, but this time around ive no real problems with it - on that count.
Its stylised, for sure. And a wee bit cartoony - for the wont of a better word, but still, nice art.
(And is that bit of eye candy on page four wearing (just about) a version of the movie look Judge costume?)

Had chance to read, and re-read the prog in full now; Another cracker, i think. From the front cover to the back, i really enjoyed this. The two slowish strips - Red Seas and Stronty are on fine form. I dont think Stronty is a classic (though reading it as a whole will no doubt be a better experience), but its deffo pick up for me, of late.

Savage, and especially Ampney, are a joy to read at the moment. Superb stuff!

[TordelBack]

For my tuppence worth, if Currie was the sole or dominant artist on Dredd then his curvy come-hither art would be pain in the proverbial, and it would affect my enjoyment of the strip, shifting it the unwelcome direction of sexist nonsense (actually I suspect he wouldn't do it half as much if he was rostered more often).  As it stands, it's a fun-if-silly occasional look that sits quite comfortably beside other Dredd alumni like Gibson, Willsher, and Kitson (if very different in style), and I think it adds a bit of cheeky Mad-magazine humour to proceedings. It's not like the guy doesn't deliver energy and character on the rest of the art - and there are some fantastic moody panels this week as well.  I can certainly see, the objections, but in moderation it adds to rather than takes away from my enjoyment, speaking as a guilt-ridden practitioner of the hated male gaze.

TL;RD: It balances out all teh ghey. 

[Richmond Clements]

For my tuppence worth, if Currie was the sole or dominant artist on Dredd then his curvy come-hither art would be pain in the proverbial, and it would affect my enjoyment of the strip, shifting it the unwelcome direction of sexist nonsense (actually I suspect he wouldn't do it half as much if he was rostered more often).  As it stands, it's a fun-if-silly occasional look that sits quite comfortably beside other Dredd alumni like Gibson, Willsher, and Kitson (if very different in style), and I think it adds a bit of cheeky Mad-magazine humour to proceedings. It's not like the guy doesn't deliver energy and character on the rest of the art - and there are some fantastic moody panels this week as well.  I can certainly see, the objections, but in moderation it adds to rather than takes away from my enjoyment, speaking as a guilt-ridden practitioner of the hated male gaze.

TL;RD: It balances out all teh ghey. 

The guy is unquestionably a superb artist - there is an incredible energy to his work.
But I'm afraid I have a zero tolerance to unnecessary (if indeed there is another kind) cheesecake in comics.
It just presses my moany-old-duffer button.
And I get genuinely puzzled when I read 'phwooar' type comments about cartoon drawings of ladies...but that's another thing entirely!

[TordelBack]

And I get genuinely puzzled when I read 'phwooar' type comments about cartoon drawings of ladies...but that's another thing entirely!

That Karl Urban really did a number on you.

[Grant Goggans]

With the complete agreement that Currie's previous story, "The Rich Cabaret," really was a boob too far with all of its cleavage and Maitland running around next to Dredd with her uniform unzipped, I wonder if we're not being a little unduly sensitive to his style this time around?  Amanda's not depicted as cheesecake, and neither is the Faux News reporter, and neither is Hershey (although I agree that she looks far too young).  When Amanda and Dmitry are roused from bed, she's wearing a T-shirt and not frilly lingerie.  It's one lady in the angry crowd in a hot top, and one wink at the reader in a comedy jimp uniform*.

I understand that, Rich, you've got a moany-old-duffer button about this sort of thing, but I assume that you've drawn a blind eye to all of Ian Gibson's unnecessary nudity over the years, and Brett Ewins' regular drawings in the 1980s of Anderson having the firmest butt in all of comics, so why does Currie aggravate us all so much?  And did we mind the cheesecake so much when he drew the last Bato Loco story and every panel was full of it?

I think that he really did exercise poor judgement with "Rich Cabaret," but let's not pillory the fellow, generally, for one poor episode, months ago.


*Which, going by the legal precedent set by "The Hoolie" case, when we learned that inaccurate artistic depictions of a judge uniform do not count as jimping, the young perky, white-haired lady is not, technically, a jimp at all.

[TordelBack]

Don't try to reason with him, Grant.  Once you've hugged Karl any other representation of the carnal world is like sandpaper to the libido.

I do admire your stance, RAC, you are very probably correct in adopting zero-tolerance to these matters, but while sexism is a huge and ugly blot on comics, I'm not sure this is a particularly heinous case.

[Richmond Clements]

Don't try to reason with him, Grant.  Once you've hugged Karl any other representation of the carnal world is like sandpaper to the libido.

^^^this.

Or more seriously...

I understand that, Rich, you've got a moany-old-duffer button about this sort of thing, but I assume that you've drawn a blind eye to all of Ian Gibson's unnecessary nudity over the years, and Brett Ewins' regular drawings in the 1980s of Anderson having the firmest butt in all of comics, so why does Currie aggravate us all so much?  And did we mind the cheesecake so much when he drew the last Bato Loco story and every panel was full of it?

I think there's a difference between a lot of Gibson'd stuff and things like the aforementioned Maitland drawings and the ones that annoyed me here, and that is context.
Gibson was drawing semi-nude women in stories that were clearly pastiches of bawdy British comedies that also featured them. That's not to say this was always the case.
As for Ewins - I have to confess to not really remembering any examples in his work, sorry.
A good example of female nudity that is not gratuitous or childish is in the Roach illustrated strip in the last Meg.
And while you are correct in saying the main female character in the DRedd was dressed 'normally', but we did have the egregious citizen in a 'sexy' judge uniform.

but while sexism is a huge and ugly blot on comics, I'm not sure this is a particularly heinous case.

Yes, you are correct. I am aware I'm being an old grump here, and worried that this sounds like I'm having a go at this particular artist, which is not my intention at all.

[Frank]

As for Ewins - I have to confess to not really remembering any examples in his work, sorry.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/bobmitchell/blog%20pics/bonus%20pin-up/prog0353.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4CAZzAgPUSc/TtD5pufyxBI/AAAAAAAAAD4/pTWGNATinC0/s1600/BlueWoman.jpg

in the Gargarax story, Ewins's Anderson falls over (with her arse to camera and her skintight uniform progressively more distressed) so much I thought she was suffering from an inner ear infection. I didn't find the above examples or Currie's art in this prog offensive or something which undermined the characters or the story which was being told - which titillating art can certainly be.

[Eoin_McLove]

'Looks like a bad case of demonic possession to me.' 

[TordelBack]

'Looks like a bad case of demonic possession to me.' 

This is no place for a man with no willy.

[maryanddavid]

There is in Fr. Ted!

Great prog, great art, hard to pick highlights, but a story I activly disliked was Ampney, and in a really strong field its the best for me now.

[House of Usher]

The three pop-culture-tastic refs I picked up in this weeks fabarooney Ampney

Does the Jerry Cornelius referencing title of the story (and its immediate predecessor) not count as pop culture? Something about multiverses I imagine but can't quite decide what.

Aye.  The titles, combined with Ampney's Pater being one Cornelius Crucis, acknowledge the debt to Moorcock's entropy-riddled reality-hopping sometime-agent, and by extension the steampunky shenanigans of Talbot's Luther Arkwright.  Also, they were always somewhat better titles than books, so no harm giving them another outing!

You mean "is the title Ampney Crucis Intestigates: The Entropy Tango a reference to the title of the anthology-novel The Entropy Tango by Michael Moorcock?"