Prog 1741: Block Down

[Dark Jimbo]

A pedant would point out that he actually picked Inga up in the middle Americas while masquerading as Don Pedro Julian Montez - luckily for you I am not that man...

Did he? I bow to your wisdom - was there another story about a spoiled teenager being given a sex-mek for his birthday
[/quote]

There was indeed one in the Meg in 2003 or 04, drawn by Carlos. The juve's dad gets fruity with the 'mek and the lovelorn kid kills him in a rage, then goes on the run with the 'mek. Naturally it ends in tragedy.

[Dandontdare]

Ah yes, that's what I was thinking about.

[Banners]

Eh? Why have they suddenly switched back to the old logo?

You beat me to it...  The new one didn't last long...!

[Kehaar]

Well Savage continues to keep me very happy - the degree of 'homage' to Secret Army is blatant even influencing the Milita CO (he looks a lot like the Gestapo guy from Secret Army.) But I prefer Mr Mills when he does something like this and does it well rather than flog his hobby horses (religion/science/colonialisim/capitalisim) to death. Goddard is a genius.

Dredd was enjoyable but doesn't weigh in at the top of Wagner ARSOMness...yet.

Never really got Sin/Dex continues to be a mem.

Likewise the 3 thrillers a bit mem.

Cover was good but not outsnatding (again I think we've been spoilt of late.)

AH but Zombo...what sweet music it makes - out and out laughs. Outstanding worth the prog price alone.

[lborl]

I was a bit surprised to see this prog that Iso-Block 4 is externally just like any other city block, except all black an that. I'd somehow got the idea the Iso-Blocks were secure wings or towers within a larger fortified Justice facility - a bit like how Rico's cell is shown in the Stallone film, admittedly. Have they always been depicted as so exposed and flimsy?

[Trout]

I think it comes down to whatever the artist feels like, lborl.

We've had a wide variety of depictions of the exteriors and interiors of isoblocks.

- Trout

[radiator]

AFAIK Iso-Blocks have always been dedicated city blocks - hence Iso-Block. I think Sector Houses only have temporary holding cells.

But yeah, as Trout says, that's never been nailed down (as with so many other details in Dredd's world) and can vary to suit the story.

[lborl]

Hm. Fair enough.

[Hegel]

Dredd: This is one of those stories that reeks of exposition - PJ has to escape in order to get down to some nitty gritty, but its being handled superbly and I can never stop stating how much I love MacNeil's art whether fully painted or not. I agree with the statement that PJ has become the greatest nemesis of all time, he's quirky and uses nouse and guile rather than pure brawn and as such he is a really versatile character that has been handled well since day one. Be careful with him, don't overuse him.

Also, Dredd said sorry for asking critical questions and doing his job..... hmmm I don't mind that character wise at all but it did seem noteable.

T-shirt advert: £20! and its not even the design thats been promised to existing subscribers for a year now. 'Streety' doesn't rhyme with 'largey' very well 

SinDex: Was fine, but strips that are esentially a big fight like this one get old fast. I'm thinking its about time these characters got retired from the prog..... They have had long enough to try to go somewhere beyond having an incredible ability to dodge bullets.

Savage: Very nice, both script and art. I look forward to the next part of what is building into a great story.

3rillers: Bit suprised by how much the story moved on, it almost felt like a different tale entirely to episode 1, almost. I enjoyed it though but worry that wrapping all that up in one 5 pager next week might get fluffed, but I won't second guess and await patiently.

Zombo: Pretty good all round. Some of the humour was a bit obvious, some was spot on. Zombo is on form in this tale.

[Richmond Clements]

Much as I'm enjoying the Dredd, I do have a few problems with it... PJ Maybe is allowed to send letters to South American drug lords? Did the judges not read the outgoing mail and get suspicious?
Then an employee of this druglord visits him in jail? And he is allowed to see this visitor? And furthermore- I'm astounded that the conversation was not being monitored by the judges, as the coded conversation was a mite obvious...

[Pete Wells]

Feel like I wanna stick up for Sinister Dexter. I was pretty disappointed with it last week at the ease of their escape but was impressed with reveal of the taxi dude's motives this week. I loved the cliched non-dialogue too, it was hilarious!

As just about everyone else has said, Zombo was laugh out loud brilliant and Henry Flint should be locked in the Nerve Centre forever.

I'll agree with Richmond on Dredd, the Judges are being uncharacteristically lax but I'm more than willing to forgive this as I'm loving the story. I certainly DO hope that PJ is at the centre of the Day of Chaos as he really has earned his place as Dredd's best ever nemesis. MacNeil is the king of robots and those assault Droids were amazing. If I could have my way, Ashley Wood's ThreeA company would be making Colin's Mechanismo Mk 1 Droids followed by every robot he has ever drawn. It would be great if this tied into Insurrection, the biggest surprise since Deadman...

Loved Savage. Goddard is brilliant, he really managed to convey the darkness of the location without sacrificing any storytelling. Great work by Mills too, Savage comes across as a real cold fish in this episode.

Finaly Norxmas Stocking 3illers. Bursting with ideas like tales of old. The art is canny but no better than what our Kev Levell could do. I thought one of these strips would have been an ideal tryout for Kev.

The prog is on stonking form, all hail Tharg!

[radiator]

PJ Maybe is allowed to send letters to South American drug lords? Did the judges not read the outgoing mail and get suspicious?
Then an employee of this druglord visits him in jail? And he is allowed to see this visitor? And furthermore- I'm astounded that the conversation was not being monitored by the judges, as the coded conversation was a mite obvious...

...and evidently the judges haven't frozen his assets as he still has access to his (ill gotten) gains, and they entertain his complaints that his new nose isn't right rather than telling him to shove it, creep!...

It's all a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

Personally I hope that PJ's escape somehow lights the touchpaper for Day of Chaos, but Maybe himself doesn't feature much in the actual story.

[I, Cosh]

Enjoyed this week's Prog more than last, primarily because I thought Zombo was bloody funny this week.

I certainly DO hope that PJ is at the centre of the Day of Chaos as he really has earned his place as Dredd's best ever nemesis.

I think everyone's getting a bit carried away here. I reckon the PJ story is just going to be manouevring him out of the cubes (or, at least, out of captivity as I reckon he's switching identities with the face-change guy) and then he'll disappear for a couple of years as he has in the past.

[Colin YNWA]

I think everyone's getting a bit carried away here. I reckon the PJ story is just going to be manouevring him out of the cubes (or, at least, out of captivity as I reckon he's switching identities with the face-change guy) and then he'll disappear for a couple of years as he has in the past.

Instinctively I certainly hope that that's the case. Though it being so close to the next big epic does make me wonder. Guess there still way too much to find out one way or another to read too much into what's about to happen. Maybe he's getting out to make us second guess any characters that appear for a while! Hundreds of threads saying...

"Uh now that insert character name here is back I was wondering could it really be PJ?"

[1000AD]

Much as I'm enjoying the Dredd, I do have a few problems with it... PJ Maybe is allowed to send letters to South American drug lords? Did the judges not read the outgoing mail and get suspicious?
Then an employee of this druglord visits him in jail? And he is allowed to see this visitor? And furthermore- I'm astounded that the conversation was not being monitored by the judges, as the coded conversation was a mite obvious...

Wouldn't a life prisoner be held in solitary confinement and not be allowed visitors? Not sure why the Judges would allow someone as dangerous as Maybe the right to associate with other people. Seems a bit of a stretch of the imagination to believe Maybe can request anyone he likes to visit him. The Judges would have to check each person visiting Maybe to make sure they weren't trying to help him, they didn't have a criminal record, didn't work for dubious people like a crime cartel, didn't have a reason to help Maybe.

Realistically speaking, the only people Maybe should be allowed to see would be members of his immediate family, the block shrink, the warden, guards etc.  Maybe being allowed contact with anyone he wants seems bit far fetched as is Justice Dept not reading the letter and not wondering "why does Maybe want to see this person?"