Cover: I've never gone for D'Israeli's covers before, but you can't go wrong with Alan Moore Dirty Frank.
Nerve Centre: NOOOOOOOOO!! Tell me it ain't true! I f**kin' *HATE* [spoiler]Visible Man[/spoiler].
Dredd: Wow. Simply stunning. Ewing has paced this just perfectly and Harrison's art really makes this something special.
Brass Sun: Great stuff again. Like so many other have said, this is already one of my favourites. A brilliant high concept.
ABC Warriors: Eh? Why would somebody in the year 206x refer to 9/11 like it was a recent memory? Even worse, how many even think of 7/7 today? Other than that, a solid episode.
Red Seas: Oh, hang on. It's not in this week. I just get so used to skipping the pages when I see it.
Low Life: Peters & Lee block -- made me laugh. "It's all a bit starry starry night" -- brilliant. "[spoiler]I eat money[/spoiler]" -- brilliant. "[spoiler]Trim my hedge fund![/spoiler]" -- inspired! Utterly fantastic.
The Simping Detective: Drokk me! I'm running out of superlatives here.
Well, aside from the nasty surprise in the Nerve Centre...
BEST PROG EVER!
Damn this lack of edit!
Correction: "how many even think of 7/7 today?"
Should read: "how many Americans talk about 7/7, even today?"
Itsd Rob Williams on the Dredd, rather than Ewing. I quite like the art, though its not always hard to follow, and the strategic damage to Hersheys costume was predictably silly.
Storywise, it was OK, though a lot of the ideas were pretty much seen before - Our man in Hondo had sleeper agent construction worker gets bonked on head as starting point, and theres a lot of Chief Judges Man kind of stuff happening. Cold Deck next week, which Im very much looking forward to.
As for Visible Man, yay says I. Boo for a monthly Megazine after all these years of 4 weekly, but that probably should be in the Meg thread once it manifests....
An all round great Prog again this week, Simping Detective the highlight for me, totally fantastic.
In a couple of frames in Dredd it looks at though Erik Weller lives at 'Karl Urban ' block! Look at his apartment door when he returns to his family and also at the reversed lettering on the wall in the first panel. :)
I also took a double take at the 9/11 and 7/7 references, seemed totally out of place to me and kind of jarred a bit.
Noooooooo! Spurrier, you bastard!
Fare thee well [spoiler]Travis Perkins, Urbane Gorilla[/spoiler] - we hardly knew ye.
So, the frame in the Simping Detective's hallucination, the one with the judges hand stirring the cup of tea against a background of biscuits, could this be the same mystery dunker who contacted Dredd a couple of weeks back?
I love this prog, but I have to say this: in that context, Mr Edgington, it's "populace".
Anyway, five great stories again. :)
You know the most incredible thing is this Prog isn't even unique. I mean in any other comic something this good would be so staggering, so mind bending that you'd be diggin' out the superlatives between now and next week. With 2000ad it provides a mere joyous shrug and nod of acknowledgement that well praise the Mighty One, Tharg you done it again. There's been several times during our current 'Golden Age' that the Progs been this good. Other comics, Christ no, not close, but the Prog... well we're truly blessed.
From the cover, to the 'Thrills of the Future' (ignore the crazy local bovines) to the glorious Brendan McCarthy art on the back inside, heck I even really like the add for Thought Bubble in the back, pretty cool...
... oh yeah and the strips. Christ those beautiful, beautiful strip. Almost to a man note perfect. Great Dredd (with much better art than last week, in that the storytelling hit the spot this week). Divinely bonkers ABC Warriors, such tortuous fun, devastating and devastatingly good Simping Detective. Exposition heavy, but some how heavenly Brass Sun, has world building ever been this good? I mean when the Progs this good it seems churlish to pick a favourite but if pushed I'd give it Low Life just for making it the perfect hand, crazy and wonderful.
The thing is its not unique and the fact that there's not a John Smith or John Wagner story among the lot means the truly incredible thing is the Prog can quite easily be even better than this. Now that is absolutely staggering!
[spoiler]The Visible Man[/spoiler]. Yesssss.
V
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 13 October, 2012, 09:24:43 PM
to the glorious Brendan McCarthy art on the back inside
One whole week to go ...
Simping Detective is a great character, up there with Anderson for mine.
Am I the only one that thinks that Dirty Frank on the cover is doing an impression of Hulk Hogan?!
:o
or Starburns from Community?
Yay! More Frank, can't go wrong there. And 3 Dredd-world strips in the prog at once? Tharg, you spoil us!
3 (mostly) black and white strips too. Gotta admire the cojones of Tharg to run 3 B&W strips in the prog so close to a US push.
Scorching stuff at the moment
Quote from: James Stacey on 15 October, 2012, 04:04:23 PM
3 (mostly) black and white strips too. Gotta admire the cojones of Tharg to run 3 B&W strips in the prog so close to a US push.
Scorching stuff at the moment
Frankly the US's obsession with colour comic's sicken's me. Think of all the class there missing out on.
D'Israeli covers are always awesome, this one doubly so as it's Dirty Frank. And [spoiler]The Visible Man[/spoiler] returning with Mills writing and Flint on art - what exactly is there not to like!? It'll be mental in all the right ways!
Dredd - great finish to a two parter, perfect pacing and a poignant finish. Really liked the Hobson's Choice aspect of a sleeper agent who didn't wake up in time.
That there Brass Sun is fuppin marvellous. It really put me in mind of a film, book or comic that you saw or read as a kid that hooked you in for life because it was just so real, yet has that lovely and inspirational otherness. Top thrill this week again - not a fault to be had.
ABC Warriors made me chuckle as the goons tried to destroy Hammerstein. It was just daft and brilliant all at once and had an interesting pay off considering how straight Hammerstein is in 'later' yarns. I suppose he gets a memory wipe of something? Also, the whole idea of a robot feeling pain and wanting to scream just doesn't work for me, but I'm splitting diodes as I'm really enjoying this.
Now, I love Low Life as much as the next squaxx but found this felt a bit too wacky to begin with or something. It charmed me nonetheless so a four rather than five star episode - and Mr Shark Head looks the business. See what I did there?
The Simping Detective - feel the same about it as last week really, just not hitting the mark for me so far but I am intrigued as to what the hell is going on.
Mmmm...tasty Prog there Tharg, but I've room for more.
M.
Prog ( and the MEG) arrived saturday but I haven't had the chance to read it yet...very unusual for me.
I am currently reading the Strontium dog novel...BAD TIMING by Rebecca Levene. Quite good so far..nearly half way thru it.
Just bought the prog in Asda, and prior to me getting there, somebody had placed a few copies at the front of the rack, like i always do.
Obviously the word regarding Thrillpower is spreading. Well done that person.
Just managed to read Dredd and was stunned, as yet again all Mega-City One Judges are crap. When Hershey marches across to Justice One, we see her surrounded by heavily armed Judges and Combat Droids. Fatso manages to do all that damage and still escape!
So I gather from this that no Judges wanted to use infra red when the smoke started to deploy, even though it doesn't deploy that fast! The Combat Droids did nothing, the sniper Judges did nothing, for Drokk's sake, I give up!
We even end with a corridor of dead Judges, as they are all crap ::)
I think they need to clone Dredd more often, as it seems that all the other Judges are useless!
By the way, when Dredd gets taken down, does it look like he's been sliced in half, as it does to me!!!
barnstorming cover!!
Dredd: strangely unsatisfying, mostly that ending: [spoiler]leading his family out into a fire fight? kinda goes against everything elese he says/ does up to that point [/spoiler] also he's overweight enough for Dredd to notice but still able to kick out a ceiling panel and take down multiple Jays?
But mostly I'm uncomfortable with the way Hershey is protrayed, its way out of kilter everything that's gone before, from the hi-heels to the way she's a passive target, from this story you wouldn't think she'd recently ripped JD up for arsepaper!! this and the dodgy last panel on page 3 (apt) with her on her hands and knees in front of the perp, her arse in the air, shoulder on show seems very inappropriate, have we ever seen Dredd treated like that? Roll on the cold deck.
Brass Sun, still loving this! But did I miss an email about 'the rails'? are these the rods and spokes that connect to the bottom of the planets?
ABC, again another email missed? how the feck did he get there all whitey-ed up? it was mentioned in one fly by panel last week and this week tada!!
Lowlife: Flying Ducks!! Peters and Lee, talking sharks! what's not to like, well the talking shark but still its a joy to have Frank (and Teddy) back
Simp detective more flying ducks!, didn't think the Urbane Guy would get it, cranked up the threat there and then great stuff with text layout and a Cammo grud squad... This is what we want!
Damage report... :o
ABC Warriors is utter nonsense, but the rest of the prog is, without hyperbole, some of the best comics I have ever read. Ever.
Quote from: Richmond Clements on 17 October, 2012, 09:39:41 PM
ABC Warriors is utterly wonderful nonsense, but the rest of the prog is, without hyperbole, some of the best comics I have ever read. Ever.
Your post was missing a few letters. Now I've stuck them back in, I don't need to do a review this week. Absolutely great Prog, cover to shining cover. As mentioned above, even the Thought Bubble advert was good!
Cover - Dirty Frank's looking mighty dapper there. I love it.
Dredd - Still like the grimy vibe of the art and colouring in this, although the more photographic style backgrounds on the later pages seem a bit out of step with the rest of it. Can't say I'm very thrilled by the portrayal of Hershey, but overall this wraps well enough.
Brass Sun - This continues to be beautiful and intriguing. Lovely stuff. Although the populous/populace mistake did jump out at me. [/nitpickery]
ABC Warriors - That statue in the first panel looked very Rogue Trooper to me at first glance. I do love this inking style very much. And the plot continues fairly absurd, yet somehow I enjoy it all anyway. Have to agree that the 9/11 and 7/7 references feel very forced for a future setting, though, especially the latter.
Low Life - Has D'Israeli's art for this series got even more amazing than ever? I do believe it has. Fabtastic stuff. (That was a typo, but you know what, we'll go with that.)
Simping Detective - Apologies, I'm apparently on typo patrol today: "naval fluff"? Bit disoriented by the story here, but I gather I'm supposed to be. [spoiler]DeMarco's return[/spoiler] fills me with a certain amount of trepidation: I love her, but I'm not thrilled with the role the noir pastiche frequently forces her into. The bit with the laser was a nice touch, though. I proceed with cautious optimism!
Don't think this was quite as good as last week's very strong prog (to be fair, I'm not sure how much my opinion is being influenced by my current thumping headache), but still solid stuff all round, and it's great to see Dirty Frank back.
Not the best prog ever by my reckoning I'm afraid.
Dredd. Enjoyable romp but I agree with previous comments about the incompetent Judges.
Brass Sun. It's all very lovely and clever but I just wish something would happen. Why am I supposed to care about any of these characters again?
ABC Warriors. Great fun as ever. I'm looking forward to seeing Hammerstein's head change.
Low Life. Never been a massive fan but I preferred it when Amy was the main character and Frank was supporting comic relief. Should be in the Megazine.
Simping Detective. See above. Not my cup of tea and I hate all this 'spot the Dredd reference' stuff. It belongs in the Megazine anyway - three Dredd world strips in one prog is a bit much.
Looking forward to the return of the 'Visible Man'.
Brass Sun: Still enjoying this immensely.
ABC Warriors: I had my misgivings but I'm really really enjoying this! From a comment in an earlier episode it looks like they'll go down the 'memory wipe' route to explain how he joined Robusters with no apparent memory of the ABC Warriors, which allays my main concern over retconning. And I'm loving Langley's B/W linework much more than his photoshop stuff.
Low Life / Simping Detective: brilliant, bonkers, funny, dramatic, beautifully drawn, LOVING 'EM BOTH! It may be a bad idea to have two ex-meg strips about undercover judges running in the prog at the same time, but when they're both this good I don't care.
But now we must come on to Dredd. Oh dear. I thought this was one of the poorest Dredd strips I've seen in a long long time. The basic idea of a sleeper agent who overlseeps is a good one (though I'm sure we've had sleeper stories before). Beyond that I can't find a single positive. The storytelling, both from a script and an art perspective, was confusing. In the two action pages in part 1 I had great trouble working out what was happening in each panel, and I had to go back over the strip several times to work out what was going on. One only made sense from the comment in part 2 (aha, so that was "three small stones" taking out the cams - clear as mud). The denouement, both of him being able to get so close to Hershey, and then changing his mind about taking his family with him, was far fetched. As well as not telling me the story, I found the artwork pretty unappealing. Some of it was over-detailed, but other parts (eg background characters) often seemed unfinished. I wasn't keen on the colour palettes and all those background sound effects were very annoying - comics don't need a soundtrack. It's like when you accidentally switch on 'audio description' on the telly - great if you're blind, but irritating and superfluous otherwise. I think is proabably the most negative Dredd review I've ever had to write, but I gotta call 'em as I see 'em and this strip really did disappoint.
Good job the rest of the prog was so strong, but even with a 4 out of 5 hit-rating, if the Dredd is poor, it leaves a strangely unsatisfying prog, more so that if one of the other strips is disappointing.
I found Dredd a bit hard-to-follow this week, and a bit unbelievable to boot. I didn't really think the ending worked, either - now in a film, say, that could have been a beautiful moment as he runs toward the judges; go into slow motion, accompany with some suitably emotional music, slowly fade the picture to white. Ambigious, but in the right way. In a comic that same moment falls a bit flat, and it feels as though events just abruptly stop, shortchanging us of an ending. Dissapointing.
Brass Sun starts to offer a glimmer of it's own future potential. Not much to say about it this week (but that's a good thing).
ABC Warriors's 11/9 - 7/7 reference was subtle as a sledgehammer, but that's our Pat for you. Besides that one clunky moment a great episode. I'm really enjoying this series if only for how different to the usual adventures it is! Coming after the high-stakes four-book Volgan War epic it's genuinely lovely to go small scale again and just bimble around with Hammerstein on his lonesome for a bit.
It's also helped finally clear something up for me regarding RoBusters - I never understood, reading that strip, why humanity is presented as being so rabidly, almost ridiculously, anti-robot. It never made much sense to me, beyond fulfilling an obvious narrative purpose. Robots would surely be a good thing, right? They'd make humans' lives easier all round, right? Put RoBusters in the context of the Millsverse - right in the aftermath of the Volgan War, when the world watched tens of thousands of meks decimate Europe and Asia and slaughter millions of human civilians and soldiers - and suddenly it all makes sense at last.
I too preferred Low Life when it was an ensemble piece. Don't get me wrong, Dirty Frank is a ludicrously good character but I can't help feeling we see a bit too much of him. This strip desperately needs a new supporting cast now that everyone else is dead (though I'm assuming that moustahce-chap is Cameron undercover, who I'm reasonably sure survived the last outing?)
I think running it alongside Simping Detective is going to flag up the similarities of both strips to their detriment, especially coming so soon after also-very-similar Lenny Zero - and as if to prove the point (comes right after the Jack), both strips feature a 3-flying-ducks motif this week, of all things - what are the chances?! Not to mention that they're both following a narrator-straight-in-at-the-deep-end-unsure-what's-happening plot; Dirty Frank's got a bump on the head and no memory, Jack's got a hangover and toothache, but it's still all far too similar. Three Dreddworld strips in a five-strip comic is too much. Isn't that what the Megazine's for?
I think Simping Detective probably comes off the better of the two this week, though I was genuinely gutted to see Travis Perkins go to the great jungle in the sky. Coleby's just ridiculously good these days, isn't he?
Confident Mustach chap IS Cameroon, he was at Frank's long walk ceremony but never turned up again. There interaction this week was killer. :lol:
And so to issue six of 'Brass Sun Comics Weekly', as I am increasingly thinking of 2000AD this quarter...
Ah, now then. This week was always going to be problematic for me- three Dreddworld strips in the weekly is just too much, and I'm just not interested enough to give them all the time they probably deserve. It helped that Dredd itself was actually quite bad this week, so I can spend a bit more time admiring Simon Coleby's art on The Simping Detective, even if the story itself is doing not very much for me, and the glorious return of Dirty Frank in Low Life. Of the three, Low Life is obviously the best as it takes place on the moon, and anything that takes place on the moon is immediately better than something that doesn't. I don't think I could ever stop loving Dirty Frank and Tharg has, in this smelly old Alan Moore-alike, a character to waggle in peoples' faces along with Nikolai Dante, Shakara and Gene The Hackman, when said peoples claim 2000AD has never equaled the likes of Dredd, Rogue and Stront in the character-creation stakes. "Dirty Frank has teddy" made me howl, as did "Oh... well that explains it then"- never has any 2000AD character been so effective in speaking for the reader, lost in the mental world of Tharg's wonderful comic.
Dredd wasn't very good at all. Pages 3-5 were nonsensical on first reading- literally so, as I couldn't work out what was going on. when I did sort it out, the story was okay and actually I think the way Mark Harrison chose to depict it was quite smart and interesting... but it didn't really work, and the story just didn't live up to it anyway. What should have been poignant and affecting, in the end wasn't. Let's hope things get better next week. But I like Harrison's work so much, I will just ask for a nice long story with him on pictures- eight or ten weeks, please.
Onto more important things, and ABC Warriors was just brilliant. Characters talking about 9/11 and 7/7 is absolutely fine- none of this is real, and the characters only exist to allow Pat Mills to tell the reader what he wants to tell them. In this case, he wants to make a humorous point about the 'coincidental' use of 'mock terror drills' in the event of recent horrors. I'm willing to bet that in reality, once the number of years between now and ABC Warriors-time has elapsed, that there won't be sentient robot soldiers fighting for and against a living Martian Consciousness and occasionally celebrating the ways of an alien warlock in his battle against a corrupt human empire based on the Catholic Church. I'll stick my neck out now and say that won't happen. However, that doesn't make Pat Mills wrong for suggesting it to tell great stories, any more than his using ordinary people mentioning contemporary disasters does. The art is gorgeous too. In any other month, this would be the absolute highlight of the prog- that I have to place it below Low Life and Brass Sun is astonishing. But yay for new stuff in 2000AD.
Lastly Brass Sun, the shining jewel in the heart of 2000AD at the moment. Okay, so this week wasn't as much fun as the previous five- but every brilliant strip has the odd episode where things flatten out a bit. I thought this week was one of those. But Culbard's art is just so orgasmic on the eyeballs that I didn't really notice until writing this review.
There was something very good about each and every strip in this week's Brass Sun Comics Weekly. However, as always some things were better than others. A crowning achievement though was the cover- lots of pink, and possibly a riff on an old Dan Dare picture. Or something, anyway. I've definitely seen it before and that starburst mustache is ringing bells.
Keep going Tharg- all is well. We don't need no movie to make us love you.
SBT
So on reflection, there were just two things I didn't like about this week: the humiliation of Hershey, and the [spoiler]death of Travis Perkins, Urbane Gorilla.[/spoiler]
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Hershey, in and around her tenures as CJ, is a tough-as-nails street judge. Seeing her helpless at the Sov's feet made her seem like a tottering bureaucrat: Goodman in his final days, if Goodman was showing some skin and had his bum pointing at the camera. 'Orlok level' our man may be, but Hershey was part of Dredd's hand-picked Apocalypse Squad, and she had 20 years of street experience after that Also disappointed to see that hairdo isn't bomb-proof.
Travis Perkins was never my favourite character, beyond his wonderfully punnish sobriquet, and I know it's a Dreddworld tradition to arbitrarily off speaking parts in the corner of panels, but we haven't seen him at all for years and years, and then to just tie him up and kill him, well, it seemed cheap. Having DeMarco ('hotter than a crotchless kettle', heh, I have got to use that line and soon) just sort of brush his death off with a few kicks and then wander off set added insult to injury. At least she got to almost redeem her 'damsel in distress' schtick with that laser - no such luck for poor Travis!
Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 17 October, 2012, 05:18:13 PM
Just managed to read Dredd and was stunned, as yet again all Mega-City One Judges are crap. When Hershey marches across to Justice One, we see her surrounded by heavily armed Judges and Combat Droids. Fatso manages to do all that damage and still escape!
So I gather from this that no Judges wanted to use infra red when the smoke started to deploy, even though it doesn't deploy that fast! The Combat Droids did nothing, the sniper Judges did nothing, for Drokk's sake, I give up!
We even end with a corridor of dead Judges, as they are all crap ::)
I think they need to clone Dredd more often, as it seems that all the other Judges are useless!
By the way, when Dredd gets taken down, does it look like he's been sliced in half, as it does to me!!!
I have given up on pointing this out. In one panel alone he is walking through the bodies of
SIX dead Judges. I take it not many writers read these comments and take note.
Highly trained men and women who have spent 15 years as a cadet just seem to potter along and are trashed by (insert any kind of felon here). This is why many readers question the canon of non Wagner writers.
Come on writers a bit of realism here.
V
Also why didn't Dredd throw his bootknife into the assassins skull. The chance was there.
V
Have to agree about the 'Stormtrooper Syndrome' the Judges seem to be suffering. Maybe it'd been better if Fatso's respective blocks Citi-Def had been alerted and he'd gone through them like a knife through butter, as they could have been outside his apartment in a matter of minutes and also stopped the Judges being depleted even more, yet again.
A small quibble in an otherwise excellent prog. Still reckon Fatso lives in Karl Urban blcok though...
I guess the fact that he's 'Orlock level' is supposed to justify how he massacred all those judges.
I remember Orlock taking out a load of weather control personnel and obviously he took down Giant but are there any instances of him taking out a squad of top street judges like this?
I'll probably be back on to post a more in-depth critique when I have time, but for now here's my very brief prog review:
"Dirty Frank has Teddy" - 10/10
Quote from: JamesC on 19 October, 2012, 09:59:16 AM
I guess the fact that he's 'Orlock level' is supposed to justify how he massacred all those judges.
I remember Orlock taking out a load of weather control personnel and obviously he took down Giant but are there any instances of him taking out a squad of top street judges like this?
The thing is with an 'Orlok level threat' (well aside from having no real qualifications as it fictional, but we have to get past that) is I always think of Orlok as being the Sov Judge equivalent of Dredd. So if you could imagine (or are prepared to accept) Dredd taking out a crack team of Sov Judges, with nothing but surprise and a beer belly on his side then I can take it from his Sov equivalent.
At this rate the Judge/Cit ratio is going to change back in the favour of the citz!!
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 19 October, 2012, 11:21:50 AMSo if you could imagine (or are prepared to accept) Dredd taking out a crack team of Sov Judges, with nothing but surprise and a beer belly on his side then I can take it from his Sov equivalent.
Yeah, well put. Orlok was probably at his most visibly effective in Hour of the Wolf, after a half-dozen years in the cubes. The other thing to note is that the heavy security around Hershey (the war-droids etc.) actually turn back once she boards the shuttle-thing (didn't Volt have direct access to the bunkers from the HoJ?) and are quite a distance away when the agent strikes. My beef is with easily-cowed submissive porn-pose Hershey. A nice twist would have been for her to shift the balance of the encounter, perhaps even giving her Dredd's lines about his family, rather than having her in the (-snore-) tattered-clothing damsel in distress role. Dredd could have been unconscious, making him look like less of a chump for not chucking his badge or knife or
something at the baddie, like he would normally do: he'd already done his thing in the episode by spotting the paunch.
That said, I thought it was a good tale with lovely dense art, and the Butch & Sundance ending was nicely unexpected. Hope they made it.
JUDGES DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
Quote from: Lee Bates on 19 October, 2012, 02:11:42 PM
JUDGES DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
There is plenty of evidence to the contrary though
Quote from: TordelBack on 19 October, 2012, 01:56:23 PM
My beef is with easily-cowed submissive porn-pose Hershey. A nice twist would have been for her to shift the balance of the encounter, perhaps even giving her Dredd's lines about his family, rather than having her in the (-snore-) tattered-clothing damsel in distress role.
Especially given the events of two weeks ago with Hershey giving Dredd what for. It would have really nicely underscored that.
Clearly as the two stories were done by different writers it would have taken Matt Smith stepping in on Tharg's behalf to coordinate. Guess that's the small price we pay for the massive gains of Smith's 'light touch' editing.
Quote from: James Stacey on 19 October, 2012, 02:19:50 PM
Quote from: Lee Bates on 19 October, 2012, 02:11:42 PM
JUDGES DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
There is plenty of evidence to the contrary though
True. Not for a long while though. I thought we'd got past needing all female Judges to look like porn stars nowadays.
Perhaps I should have said
JUDGES SHOULDN'T WEAR HIGH HEELS.
Quote from: Lee Bates on 19 October, 2012, 02:11:42 PM
JUDGES DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
Thought we'd knocked all that on the head years ago!!
prog 309:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/tomproudfoot309.jpg)
Bloody great prog!
Dirty frank, trim my hedge fund!
Aye, a double top prog again this week, love the cover by D'israeli. The only quibble being a slightly iffy Dredd.
Highlights for me, was Brass Sun (by a mile), and the Simping detective. And Visible Man returning? Yes please.
Brilliant stuff!
Quote from: Proudhuff on 19 October, 2012, 05:45:32 PM
Quote from: Lee Bates on 19 October, 2012, 02:11:42 PM
JUDGES DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
Thought we'd knocked all that on the head years ago!!
prog 309:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/tomproudfoot309.jpg)
He's a question dodging jammy sod that Tharg. :lol:
Quality prog!
Dredd: not amazing, but also not that bad. Probably the weakest story in the prog which is a surprise, but it's certainly not awful.
Brass Sun: I thought this was the best part yet. The story opened up a hell of a lot compared to previous episodes. Quality series.
ABC Warriors and Simping Detective were both excellent, but better than that was the return of...
Dirty Frank: I think Frank is one of the best characters to come out of the Mega City. An extremely well written character, (great artwork as well). My highlight of the Prog.
Cheers :)
Great Prog!
Sorry for late review as wait for digital copy!
Dredd - Wow... but can see it be weak story of the Prog, too many Judges get killed quickly even after Day of Chaos! Think the family got away safety
Clockwork world - Wow... that is mind-blowing story, and like to see where it going...
ABCDEFGH... - Did I miss a prog about how that Stenhammer be statue?
Low Life - Dirty Frank IS the Low Life... love his replys in the story, but how to be in Mars? And Sharkhead!!!!
Simp Clown - Now that's very confused fuck up! And RIP gorilla!
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 19 October, 2012, 11:21:50 AM
Quote from: JamesC on 19 October, 2012, 09:59:16 AM
I guess the fact that he's 'Orlock level' is supposed to justify how he massacred all those judges.
I always think of Orlok as being the Sov Judge equivalent of Dredd.
Nah, it clearly says that the sleeper takes out three security cameras with stones in a single throw. That's pretty special stuff. Dredd could never do that.
For this reason I find it extremely plausible that he would take down so many judges -- Dredd getting badly cut in the process, too.
Dredd There is quite a decent amount of time for those two snipers, that we can see, to take him out. They are high up, not affected by the confusion, can switch to infra red and take fatso out. As for the two combat droids, they were still in the landing area. During the smoke grenades dispersal they could have just turned round, locked on the target and taken him out.
It seems as though no Judges can take the initiative, even after 15 years training.
Too many points at which he could've been taken by the Judges, way before he eventually just vanished.
I loved the whole idea of the story and enjoyed it but the Mega-City One Judges really need to perform better!
With the recent poor performance of Judges I am beginning to wonder if there has been an easing of the required pass mark for a rookie to get full eagle. Will there be a reveal that cadets have been given their final assessment at 10 or 12 years, resulting in the resulting ineptitude?
Cover- I liked it.
Dredd- I liked that too. I found the story-telling a bit abrupt, but I figured out what was happening. I didn't have much of an issue with the guy killing all those judges (although the thought occurred to me) as he is obviously something special. I did wonder why he didn't just shoot Hershey before running to his family since she was helpless. It wouldn't have taken much more time to pull the trigger (baring in mind he is pointing the gun at her) and run. Okay, maybe he was concerned that the subsequent judge hunt would have been more aggressive. I like to think that when his family were brought to mind he just had a change of heart and decided to give up killing, except when absolutely necessary. Anyway, I liked the story, and I hope he made it too. It was an interesting story arc for the character too.
ABC Warriors - I thoroughly enjoyed this, although there were bits that made me scratch my head. Considering we saw a few Hammersteins wiped out with special weapons last week, how come these soldiers didn't come so equipped? Okay, maybe they wanted the damage to be minimal so they could extract his memory, but surely that laser knife in the right place would do the trick? Or is the Hammerstein Type 3 prototype made of literally tougher material than his brothers? (I.e. did the manufacturers downgrade the armour when mass producing more?)
I was curious about the tapping into Khaos bit too. I thought it was something that only those with a particular talent, or at least years of training could do. (Although being a - presumably - chaotic magic -or should that be magick? - maybe training is the very thing you don't need to tap into it.) It felt a bit machina-ish (no pun intended) Hammerstein suddenly developing this new power when he needed it, but I think seeing Deadlock's face in Hammerstein's eye might have been key. I.e. I can imagine Deadlock sensing Hammerstein's concentration and sending a help spell his way.
I don't really understand the Khaos thing though so maybe it was clearer to you guys.
Oh and who is Dedan? I get that he is Hammerstein's contact, his way of getting around the inhibitor, as spoken of last week, but have we met him before? I also wonder how the FBI were clued up that it was him, but I think that will probably be made clearer later on.
Brass Sun: I enjoyed this a lot. I actually quite like these expositiony world-building episodes.
Low Life: Wacky as ever, but good funny stuff. The spittle face bit made me go 'ugh' though.
The Simping Detective: Weird, and wacky in a different way, but also very good.
Thrills of the future (I guess this should have been at the top), I'm unacquainted with this character. I was introduced to him in Prog 2012 and didn't think much of that story at all, but then again it was a one off. I can't really judge the strip by that.
Quote from: Mardroid on 20 October, 2012, 10:38:14 PM
baring in mind
Bearing! There is no edit function in this thread.
Quote from: Mardroid on 20 October, 2012, 10:38:14 PM
Low Life: Wacky as ever, but good funny stuff. The spittle face bit made me go 'ugh' though.
You sure it was spittle? Frank checked his shorts afterwards, and he did seem
very pleased to be back in the Big Meg.
PROG 1805
COVER: I'm loving D'israeli's superb cover. Loving the pink. Is there no end to this guys talents? My favourite cover since the Hammerstein/ Swamp Thing one, two Progs ago.
JUDGE DREDD ASLEEP PART TWO: Not as visually striking as the last Prog, no shots of the MC-1 vistas's here, but still some excellent stuff from Mark Harrison. As for the story, it was okay. There were some qualms though, like the fact that a dozen or more Judges getting their asses handed to them by a guy with a beer belly! The last couple of panels were a little touching, the family aspect. This doesn't end too good does it?
BRASS SUN: Another enjoyable instalment from what is my favourite story in the Prog right now. The artwork by Culbard is just gorgeous as ever. Its a joy opening the Prog every week to see what we have in store - and this week's issue did not disappoint. It was great to see the origins of The Orery, and how came to be in such woeful situation - I guess wherever there are humans, there will always be problems. The story is building up nicely, and I cannot wait to see what we have in store next Prog.
ABC WARRIORS RETURN TO EARTH: A great instalment. Langley's black and white artwork continues to impress. I wasn't too keen on ABC Warriors at first, but I've really grown to it. It was fun seeing the FBI unable to break down Hammerstein. I was a little confused with Hammerstein's ability to feel pain. He's a robot isn't he? I thought they're not meant to feel pain especially one that is an ABC Warrior! Or maybe because he is so high tech so to speak, he can feel pain only if he wants to? Maybe he couldn't surpress the pain because of his frozen predicament? Who knows but it was still enjoyable stuff. I agree with most of my fellow reader's that the 9/11 7/7 reference was a little jarring. The story is supposed to take place in the distant future, I think within that period there would have been recent catastrophe's to cite. But thats just a minor quibble - overall it was an excellent read. Looking forward to seeing Hammerstein kicking ass next Prog!
LOW LIFE PART 1: I'm loving D'Israeli's superb artwork. The story? I'm not too familiar with Dirty Frank's character, so was left in the dark a little. Having said that, he seem's like a likeable fellow! I enjoyed reading this opening story and look forward to next week's instalment.
THE SIMPING DETECTIVE PART 2: Another great read. Eh hold on - another black and white story? Hmmm, I mean all them do look really nice, especially ABC Warriors and Low Life. But is it one too many? Anyway, back to the story - I think things are developing nicely. I'm really loving the look and feel of the setting, its like the arse end of MC-1! Nice seeing Jack Point getting one over that dastardly Judge! But hold on, he had backup? oh dear. Really interested next Prog to see how he gets out of this!
Roll on next Prog!
Quote from: Mabs on 21 October, 2012, 09:38:19 AMI agree with most of my fellow reader's that the 9/11 7/7 reference was a little jarring. The story is supposed to take place in the distant future...
Mid-late 2060's, at a guess, so not
that distant - we still refer to the Eleventh
Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on, and to the 7th December 70 years on. This is a confirmed Mills tic, no doubts there - the point is a good fun one, the execution maybe a little clunky - even throwing in a third date fictional futuro-date reference would have sugared the pill. But it is what it is.
I didnt even notice we had three black and white strips this week! Is that me being very old and boggling that we have colour inside at all, or the fact that the prog is so bloody good at the moment?
SBT
Quote from: TordelBack on 21 October, 2012, 09:52:43 AM
Quote from: Mabs on 21 October, 2012, 09:38:19 AMI agree with most of my fellow reader's that the 9/11 7/7 reference was a little jarring. The story is supposed to take place in the distant future...
Mid-late 2060's, at a guess, so not that distant - we still refer to the Eleventh
Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on, and to the 7th December 70 years on. This is a confirmed Mills tic, no doubts there - the point is a good fun one, the execution maybe a little clunky - even throwing in a third date fictional futuro-date reference would have sugared the pill. But it is what it is.
Oh, I didn't realise that! The story
feels like its set in 2160 and not 2060: but then again some memorable sci-fi films/ book's got their dates wrong, like 2001, and Blade Runner which is just 7 years away! I cannot wait to see Spinner's flying around and male nuns roaming the streets! :D
Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 21 October, 2012, 09:55:36 AM
I didnt even notice we had three black and white strips this week! Is that me being very old and boggling that we have colour inside at all, or the fact that the prog is so bloody good at the moment?
SBT
I'd go for the latter mate!
Agreed, the current line-up is the best there's been since Zaucer of Zilk and Day of Chaos brought me back to the fold.
Brass Sun's the obvious highlight; it really is the perfect marriage of script and art. Just imagine how much more generic the story's sort-of-like-the-olden-days-but-not-quite fantasy setting would have felt with Bisley-copyist painted art, or how differently you'd feel about Wren as a character if Leigh Gallacher was rendering her as an exquisitely detailed and anatomically precise nymph with a bandage across her breasts. Somebody in editorial probably deserves a pat on the back.
Brass Sun and Low Life really demonstrate how clear and simple line art can help bring a strip to life: by letting the reader's imagination fill in the gaps and resolve the visual aporia encouraged by the stylisation of the art; by acknowledging and revelling in the artificiality of the medium; and by encouraging the readers' immersion in the strip as pure story - something separate from ordinary reality, with its own rules and internally consistent logic. All the textures, filters and effects in the modern cartoonist's toolbox can't hope to compete with that. More please.
Found some of the Dredd panels a bit confusing but needed another quick read. Brass Sun turned into the huge info dump but ABC was impressive although how do you kill an ABC robot? Anyway Low Life was tops with some fabulous digs at the uber rich. Simping was good but not quite so atmospheric as the first episode.
What's the significance of Hilda Ogden's flying porcelain ducks, a recurring motif in both Low Life and The Simping Detective this week? Were editorial running a competion, like when we had to spot the X-wing in every story?
Quote from: Goaty on 19 October, 2012, 11:09:13 PM
ABCDEFGH... - Did I miss a prog about how that Stenhammer be statue?
I was a bit confused too, so I re read prog 1804 and it is all in here (the war memorial, the white paint and the deactivation).
For my part 9/11 and 7/7 references really don't bother me. Pat Mills is always straightforward when he wants to refer to something, and let's not forget these references are not intended to a "near future" readership.
Quote from: vark on 21 October, 2012, 08:58:34 PM
Quote from: Goaty on 19 October, 2012, 11:09:13 PM
ABCDEFGH... - Did I miss a prog about how that Stenhammer be statue?
I was a bit confused too, so I re read prog 1804 and it is all in here (the war memorial, the white paint and the deactivation).
Yep, another one confuddled here. It wasn't made very clear what was happening though. Just a mention from 'Stein as to what would happen and then the final panel.
Still enjoying the story though.
... and the ducks? Come to think of it, the judge in Frank's dream reminded me of Alan Bennett; it's all very 'Northern', and now I think the biscuit dunking from a few weeks ago might have been a reference to A Cream Cracker Under the Sofa. Is Tharg sowing the seeds of a crossover with the Bennett-verse?
Quote from: TordelBack on 21 October, 2012, 09:52:43 AM
we still refer to the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on ...
That's rather mnemonic in its nature, anyway. If it'd been a different date I doubt it would still be in use.
I'd suggest that few people other than historians (or pub quiz experts) could name -- off the top of their head -- the actual date when Armstrong landed on the moon, or WWII broke out, or even VE day.
Quote from: TordelBack on 21 October, 2012, 09:52:43 AM
... and to the 7th December 70 years on.
Nope, genuinely haven't got a clue what that's about. Will have to look it up.
Looked it up. I doubt that more than 1% of any population outside the US would know that was the date of Pearl Harbor.
Quote from: A.Cow on 22 October, 2012, 08:48:33 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 21 October, 2012, 09:52:43 AM
we still refer to the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on ...
That's rather mnemonic in its nature, anyway. If it'd been a different date I doubt it would still be in use.
And there's othing mnemonic
at all about 9/11 (the phone number for the emergency services) or 7/7? As to Pearl Harbour... really? "A date which will live in infamy"? No-one remembers that?
7th of December? I thought that was the last night Lennon brushed his teeth in pyjamas. Pearl Harbour? What's that when it's at home, then?
Just a little note about Dredd, this coulda been a contender! The recent tension between Dredd and Heshey could have been ramped up. A curt comment from Joe after saving Hershey would have served as a thorny reminder to the Chief Judge how infallible his judgement generally is.
It was an okay script that could have been elevated with a couple of minor tweaks...
Quote from: Pete Wells on 23 October, 2012, 08:07:34 AM
It was an okay script that could have been elevated with a couple of minor tweaks...
I'd agree with that. It's a lot to ask that the current pool of (excellent) writers synchronise their scripts to reflect ongoing characterisation and minor events
as well as the foundation-shattering DoC, especially when we're actually talking about a non-Wagner development in the first place, but it is striking how
off the treatment of the final Hershey scenes seemed.
I suppose that's what happens when your characters are no longer one-dimensional placeholders (Hershey: vulnerable target; Dredd: cunning warhorse) - they actively resist the writer's intentions for them.
If the scene had played out with
either Hershey confirming that she's not to be messed with by gaining the upper hand on the perp,
or Dredd taking the opportunity to put the boot in, it would have all been great - as it was, submissive Hershey, all-business Dredd, it fell a bit flat. Which is not to say it wasn't an entertaining tale, well told - just, as Pete says, it could have been
great.
Quote from: A.Cow on 13 October, 2012, 12:33:59 PM
Why would somebody in the year 206x refer to 9/11 like it was a recent memory? Even worse, how many even think of 7/7 today?
Well whaddya know? On my way to the shops today I witnessed a near-miss traffic accident, and my
genuinely involuntary cry was 'Bigod, sirrah! 'Tis like unto Naseby and that terrible June of '45, when perfidious Cromwell did smash Good King Charlie's cavaleros!'
Seems Pat knows what he's talking about, after all.
It could of course be referring to a disaster on the 7th of July in our future.......
Dredd felt a bit flat to me. It ended and I just went "what" for a bit. I did find the absence of Hershey's massive balls to be a bit disappointing as her chewing Dredd out for his quitting every fart's end has been the best scene in the strip for ages and I'd expect it to be followed up in some way rather than ignored to the point that I could believe this script came out of a drawer to capitalise on the writer's growing profile in the US and had one or two dialog edits to make it fit into current continuity. She is pretty much useless here, and the closest she comes to being remotely effective is when she saves herself from a grenade - by abandoning her men to die. The ending made no sense in the context of the story, and while I know the intent was likely to create a Butch and Sundance moment, there wasn't enough of fatty's character to give such a scene any emotional resonance, and taking his family - whom he apparently loves - into a firefight in which he will be killed seems... a bit thick of him. Also, ending a strip with a a famous ending from a movie not only seems a little cheap, it's arguably lazy because I can think of at least three Dredd tales that have ended this way already. If it helps, one of them was some bikers jumping at Dredd and the caption was "The good times are over" and it was drawn by Simon Coleby when we apparantly hated his lovely chunky, gritty art style. If you name the exact strip, I will give you a special prize of [spoiler]fuck all.[/spoiler]
Brass Sun was as usual the best thing in the prog for me, and this episode didn't seem to suffer as much as previous installments did in terms of backgrounds, establishing shots or detail, though there is the ongoing issues with a satisfactory sense of the scale of things - at least for me, anyway. Still the best thing in the prog.
I try not to apply logic to Low Life as I find it to be at it's enjoyably stupid best when it's trying to be random and logic doesn't even apply to characters that aren't Dirty Frank. I found it dull when it was just a sci-fi riff on Miller's Sin City and have liked DF's outings as the central character much, much more than I would if it was that cyber woman with the steam-powered wanking gauntlet whining on about her first world problems of the future. Enjoyably daft stuff that wants to be Dr McNinja when it grows up, and that is probably why I and sensible persons everywhere like it.
What is ABC Warriors even about right now? It's been a few episodes and I don't know what Hammerstein is up to, where he's going or how he ends up in some situations beyond that he just seems to stumble across stuff happening that allows him to stick the boot into capitalism via his infodump first person narration - who is he even explaining things to? He's in a park this week not moving for some reason and I get the impression he's programmed himself to not move rather than just not moving which I think would be the more sensible approach, but I don't understand why he couldn't just hide in a scrapyard or a sewer or somewhere with no large crowds of people or easy access for tanks. Looks nice, though.
I hate Simping Detective but try to like it because I've paid for it even when it's hard to understand some stuff as it relies so heavily on continuity from elsewhere, like whatever story it was where we establish DeMarco is a total chump who hangs out with a gorilla now. Fair play, though, to the story for not playing along with the tiresome "monkeys are awesome" bollocks by shooting the gorilla through his stupid monkey head so I don't have to look at him do anything at all, but isn't this DeMarco's first appearance in the prog since she was an actual judge or something? I'm not sure I like the inference that people who haven't been buying the Meg for at least 10 years can go fuck themselves - I've been reading it for years now and some of this is news to me and just looks like lazy writing by substituting an easier-to-write personality for what has already been established (and in very high-profile Dredd stories like The Pit, to boot).
Also not sure why some people have issues with the Visible Man. We won't know if its any good until we've had a butchers at the strip as Mills can be hit or miss - it's worth the gamble.
Quote from: Professah Byah on 26 October, 2012, 12:05:46 AM
What is ABC Warriors even about right now? It's been a few episodes and I don't know what Hammerstein is up to, where he's going or how he ends up in some situations beyond that he just seems to stumble across stuff happening that allows him to stick the boot into capitalism via his infodump first person narration - who is he even explaining things to?
I never know if the Prof is just Byah-baiting (it's not that he's subtle, just that I'm dim), but I'm knackered from a night of costume-manufacturing, so I'll bite rather than commence wrestling the childers into the car.
The story is framed as Hammerstein telling Mongrol, Zippo and Joe the tale of how he ended up in Ro-Busters, while they repair their craft on Mars. He's been sent to Earth by secret factions (in the UN, I think), most likely to assassinate the PotUS but it could be another of Pat's Awful Things, thus turning mankind against the whole notion of War Droids and the devastating wars they facilitate. He's in a park because his cover is to be an immobilised, white painted war-droid as part of a Volgan War memorial in DC.
Prof: that Dredd story would be Koole Killers. From around prog 780 or so.
Quote from: TordelBack on 26 October, 2012, 07:56:46 AM
I never know if the Prof is just Byah-baiting ... He's in a park because his cover is to be an immobilised, white painted war-droid as part of a Volgan War memorial in DC.
... and the second dialogue box on the first page makes it clear that he's been neuro-mechanically incapacitated, which is why he has to invoke Deadlock to counteract his hobbling programme. The Prof's no dummi-
Byah, so I'm assuming he just meant the story wasn't engaging him; which is a pity, because I think this story has entertained me more than any Warriors story since Kev O'Neil's turn on the
War Memoirs.
If you'd asked me beforehand, I'd have said the story of what happened to Hammerstein between Mars and
Robusters needed telling about as much as another Savile abuse tabloid exposé, but this has been good fun. Stripping the material back to its basics seems to have engaged the part of Mills's brain that allows him to relate his esoteric ideas to the real world; and even though I sometimes find Clint Langley's work frustrating, the last panel of 1805's strip is an iconic image of the character.
Quote from: sauchie on 26 October, 2012, 07:32:43 PM...I think this story has entertained me more than any Warriors story since Kev O'Neil's turn on the War Memoirs.
Agreed. It's certainly the most fun I've had from
ABC Warriors since 'Shadow Warriors', and it's probably the most coherent the strip's been since 'The Black Hole'. It also works
surprisingly well as a fill-in-the-gaps story, and I've been reading a
lot of
RoBusters and early
ABC Warriors at the moment with the Boy.
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 18 October, 2012, 03:39:28 PMI was genuinely gutted to see Travis Perkins go to the great jungle in the sky.
This did strike me as jarringly brief "you shot my gorilla" or some such is no fitting eulogy for one of the most amazing apes in recent memory. The petition to have a proper farewell strip in Zarjaz starts here!
Oh fuck me, it's really worth it to re-read this issue! Judge Smiley appears in Low-Life AND Simping Detective!!
Quote from: Goaty on 22 November, 2012, 07:24:12 PM
Oh fuck me, it's really worth it to re-read this issue! Judge Smiley appears in Low-Life AND Simping Detective!!
I'm prity sure in a few week's time we'll ALL be going back over The Cold Deck crossover to see where everything fit's in.