Main Menu

Prog 2035 - War Games

Started by A.Cow, 10 June, 2017, 02:40:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Smith

Dredd and Hunted are great,Defoe is still average as always,and I couldn't care less about Grey Area and Brink.
I like Weston's art,but those are some huge badges. :)

Frank

Quote from: A.Cow on 10 June, 2017, 02:40:21 PM
Judge Dredd: The Fields (part one) -- Chris Weston, living god, wowing us with his usual top-notch artwork.  (Looks a tad different to usual; does he usually do his own colour?)

Prog 1800's The Death Of DAN-E Cannon was unadulterated Weston, with just as much purple as that suggests, but 1889-1890's The Heart Is A Lonely Klegg Hunter benefitted from the appropriately sensitive palette of Mike Dowling*, so it depends what you mean by 'usually'.

Today's Dredd, with the emergency services evacuating a burning tower block, was inadvertently topical. Like Taryn, I'm intrigued by the title of The Fields - if it was a Carroll story Higbee would be transported to Titan for stealing Tiernan Trevelyn's corn.

'I AM SJS JUDGE PIN'

... and the great low angle on the character's Deadworld-skinny physique are as significant a character introduction as Deep In The Heart's HERE IS PARADOX VEGA, PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO LOVE HER episode. Like George's granny, Pin's mouth is puckered like a dog's bottom [/roalddahl].

I wonder if this is Williams opening up a second narrative front, or if SJS Judge Pin will turn out to be one of Smiley's people and the fields of the title refer to the Enceladus energy field technology that seems set to define Williams's long form contributions to Dreddology.

Pin is fanatical enough to be a remnant of Bachmann's failed religious coup, but a prank call and a knife across the throat are too low tech for Smiley's invisible ninja army. I want to say he has an Edgar vibe**, but Pin's androgynous frame means I'm not sure of the character's gender.

I was going to nominate the reuse of pose and background in the first and fifth images of p.5 for lazy bastard panel of the week, then I realised it illustrates the progress of the firefighting effort, so it's actually an example of good storytelling and Dave Gibbons' proscenium arch theory of visual focus.

I know that's far too much commentary for a six page Dredd, but I'm planning to boost the popularity of the IGNORE function with a lengthy comparison of Brink and Defoe's contrasting use of the detective story format in the context of a weekly serial. You've been warned.



* Weston started painting the strip, but decided that would drive him insane

** McVay and Deep In The Heart's Duke look like they were separated at birth, although the former's soup strainer is more Paw Broon than Sam Elliott. Pin's an unusual name - I know Williams is a fan of Radio Four comedy, so maybe it's a reference to The Pin

Geoff

Weston and Dowling really were a dream team on Sensitive Klegg. Locked me back into 2000ad for good I think.

Look forward to your further musings Frank..!

Dandontdare

It took me sooooo long to read that Dredd as I had to keep stopping to just drool over the loevly deisgn work - the H wagon is a thing of beauty, but even that bike in the background of page one is great (Those  SJS badges did look a tad huge though!)

I really hope that [spoiler]Pin is just a psycho serial killer that Dredd tracks down and brings to justice, rather than part of some hidden Justice Dept hit-squad conspiracy - I'm getting a bit weary of that cliche/spoiler]

Everything else is chundering along in a most satisfactorty manner - there isn't anything I'm disappointed to see at the moment.

Dandontdare

Quote from: Dandontdare on 14 June, 2017, 09:38:43 PM
It took me sooooo long to read that Dredd as I had to keep stopping to just drool over the loevly deisgn work - the H wagon is a thing of beauty, but even that bike in the background of page one is great (Those  SJS badges did look a tad huge though!)

I really hope that [spoiler]Pin is just a psycho serial killer that Dredd tracks down and brings to justice, rather than part of some hidden Justice Dept hit-squad conspiracy - I'm getting a bit weary of that cliche/spoiler]

Everything else is chundering along in a most satisfactorty manner - there isn't anything I'm disappointed to see at the moment.

Dandontdare

bugger. bolloxed up that spoiler edit -Why does the edit function vanish on this thread?

sheridan

Quote from: Dandontdare on 14 June, 2017, 09:40:09 PM
bugger. bolloxed up that spoiler edit -Why does the edit function vanish on this thread?
I agree with what you spoilered.  I like a [spoiler]good conspiracy as much as the next Squaxx, but we've got enough in Justice Department at the moment[/spoiler].

Tjm86

I keep looking at the cover trying to figure out what it was that was throwing me.  Then it twigged: What is Ulysses Sweet doing on the cover?

sheridan

Quote from: Frank on 14 June, 2017, 07:27:31 PM
'I AM SJS JUDGE PIN'

... and the great low angle on the character's Deadworld-skinny physique are as significant a character introduction as Deep In The Heart's HERE IS PARADOX VEGA, PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO LOVE HER episode. Like George's granny, Pin's mouth is puckered like a dog's bottom [/roalddahl].
Glad I'm not the only one who's thoughts strayed in that direction.  Can't find the iconic Cassidy panel, so have this instead:



QuoteI was going to nominate the reuse of pose and background in the first and fifth images of p.5 for lazy bastard panel of the week, then I realised it illustrates the progress of the firefighting effort, so it's actually an example of good storytelling and Dave Gibbons' proscenium arch theory of visual focus.

I've not heard of that before - is it in relation to just one page of a given story or can it be applied to recurring images in a chapter?

norton canes

Cover: Great expression and composition, but looking at the concept sketches, it's a shame that the final rendering has kind of smoothed off all the rough edges, making the result look less like a piece of comic art. 

Dredd: OK, let's summarise the best thing about this week's prog in one word: PIN. A genuinely unsettling character - there's something actually disturbing about seeing an old, wizened frame in a Judge's uniform - and that badge! Genius. Story-wise an excellent first episode, though the last-page skip to 'two months later...' was a bit awkward.

Brink: Like I said last week, this doesn't quite have the same sense of foreboding now the mystery is being peeled away. But excellent all the same.

Defoe: Pat's off on one! Nice comedy interlude.

Grey Area: First time this has come round since I re-started reading the prog a few months ago.

Actually this is a good time to echo what was said up-thread, about ongoing stories. Yes, I would appreciate a more comprehensive introduction to returning strips, even if the author has included a recap of sorts in the dialogue. The Nerve Centre paragraphs aren't enough.

More to the point though, I don't see why every single strip in 2000 AD - with the notable exception of Dredd - has to be an on-going epic with a storyline that continues over a dozen or so episodes. Why can't we have more strips that follow the Dredd template of stories that vary from a single prog to six/seven/eight instalments? Why can't more strips/characters be written with this in mind? Why can't we have characters whose strips consist of shorter adventures? Why do they always have to go for the endless long-form stories? Shorter stories clearly work for Dredd, and if a formula is working for your main character then it's clearly viable. It makes Dredd seem such an anomaly that it's the only strip that works in this way. It's not like multiple shorter stories can't also be collected in trade paperbacks, if that's Rebellion's concern. It just becomes a bit tiresome when every story feels like five pages torn out of a longer book.

Let's have a referendum. Should strips with shorter episode counts return to 2000 AD?

Oh yeah, almost forgot...

Hunted: Still not really either enjoying or seeing the point.

Frank

Quote from: sheridan on 15 June, 2017, 09:54:53 AM
Quote from: Frank on 15 June, 2017, 09:54:53 AM
it's actually an example of good storytelling and Dave Gibbons' proscenium arch theory of visual focus.

I've not heard of that before - is it in relation to just one page of a given story or can it be applied to recurring images in a chapter?

Gibbons describes how the regularity of the nine panel grid he applied on Watchmen meant the reader stopped looking at page layouts and followed the action unfolding within the panels. He used the same-panel-slightly-different technique within that schema, to illustrate movement or the passing of time.

Listening to the latest Thrillcast, it sounds like Dandontdare can relax - SJS Judge Pin won't be turning into an ice monster any time soon - but Weston did plan Pin as a character [spoiler]he and Williams will be returning to[/spoiler]. Trite observation: he is actually shaped a bit like a pin.



norton canes

It's such a brilliant name. Thin and sharp, like the character. Pins are a bit scary. And it look fantastic on the badge: PIN

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: norton canes on 15 June, 2017, 10:45:45 AM
More to the point though, I don't see why every single strip in 2000 AD - with the notable exception of Dredd - has to be an on-going epic with a storyline that continues over a dozen or so episodes. Why can't we have more strips that follow the Dredd template of stories that vary from a single prog to six/seven/eight instalments? Why can't more strips/characters be written with this in mind? Why can't we have characters whose strips consist of shorter adventures? Why do they always have to go for the endless long-form stories?... It just becomes a bit tiresome when every story feels like five pages torn out of a longer book.

This came up elsewhere on the board t'other day, and it's a good point. Nikolai Dante was the absolute master of the form - plenty of relatively short, relatively self-contained adventures, not to mention frequent one-prog-and-done stories, and yet they all contributed gradually to the overarcing grand scheme. The other obvious example is Sinister Dexter, but that's long since become another long-form saga since the dimension-hopping nonsesnse started.

I was hoping the likes of Ulysees Sweet pointed the way towards a return to these more self-contained stories - where all a reader really needs to know to get on board with the new story is the gist of the main character(s). He's an insane space mercenary - now read on...
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

Grey Area is structured this way, right up until the last arc, where the team's exile gave it more of a continuous storyline, and I would expect it to revert now. Other examples include Survival Geeks, Anderson and the shorter-run series like Jaegir and Dandridge, which tend to have self-contained scenarios, albeit within a bigger narrative.  Previous examples in recent years would include the first (superb) run of Damnation Station, and perhaps Indigo Prime

I like a long-running story, but I do agree with a call for an episodic middle ground between Future Shocks/3Rillers and continuity-heavy stuff like Brass Sun.

TordelBack

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 15 June, 2017, 12:25:33 PMThe other obvious example is Sinister Dexter, but that's long since become another long-form saga since the dimension-hopping nonsesnse started.

Apologies for the double-post, but as one of the top-three of the forum's SinDex apologists, I feel compelled note that the last few short stories were almost entirely self-contained, with only hints at the larger context.