Prog 1447: Something Wicked...

[Funt Solo]

Gordon Rennie - you mad bastich!

[paulvonscott]

Cover works really well.  it's not just nicely drawn, it's nicely composed and I think I'd take notice of it in a shop.

Dredd, the only week I've really had a problem with the art.  Not convinced by the flying head, and the Rico scene.  Hmmm...

Shakara fun enough, Atavar is utter gobbledigook (noooo... not more of them!), Caballistics is good, too many storylines competing in too small a space at once, but good.  

A Demon Infested Delight as the News of the World might say.  

Yeah, okay prog.

[Funt Solo]

Okay...calming down now...

In order, least zarjaz to least grexnix:

Atavar III
Okay, so the cliffhanger is intrigueing.  Who hell she?  This reminds me a bit of Return To Armageddon, for some reason.  Talking of which, make that an EE, please, Thargiplops.  Gorgeous art but a story with no soul.

Sinsister Dexter: Slow Train To Kal Cutter
Romptastic.  This is great fun:  has anyone done a train chase before?  Loving the large frames of destruction on the 2nd last page.  It ends more or less where last weeks episode ended.

Caballistics Inc.
Aha, so this one was a slow burner.  This really picked up the pace for me this week.  What I miss from this story is someone to care about:  with them all being such unmitigated bastards, I don't really care who dies or gets hurt.  I suppose it is a horror.

Judge Dredd: Blood Trails
Oh my fecking Grud!  My Rico's got no chin.  How does he speak?  etc.  wtf?  Will he get a bionic chin?  I assume the head I saw flying past didn't belong to Giant or Guthrie?  My creds are on Guthrie being dead, and Rico and Giant surviving (just).

AMAZING developments that I didn't expect at all.  Letting it down?  The art.  I can't believe that such a Dreddverse-shaking story arc has been given over to such a bland, inconsistent artist.  This should be re-drawn by someone competent and proven and released as a GN.

Shakara II: The Assassin
I almost discombobulated with the excess thrill-power emenating from this strip.  This gets my vote as the most thrilling because of the high quality combination of art and script, and the comedy.

[Artificial Idiot]

Just read it (well, aside from Atavar which hasn't grabbed my interest at all) and I have to say, it's pretty damn fantastic!

Dredd is probably the only other stip letting this prog down... I really thought that flying head belonged to Giant. But that doesn't seem to be the case... I also find Roffman horribly distracting. He reminds me of Chris Eccles-cakes for some reason...

Good story, and the art is good. But Currie's story-telling ability and consistancy leaves a lot to be desired...

Sin/Dex hasn't let me down yet! SHOCK! Probably the most enjoyable thing I've read from Abnett since I started reading the prog, top stuff.

Shakara... I'd explain why I like it, but I'm far too busy worshipping Henry FLint and Robbie Morrison.

Cabs Inc wins story of the week for me though! Just when it was starting to look like a fun romp against kilted beasties, BANG! The action and intrigue kicks in full force. Excellent! Love it!

[Dark Jimbo]

Shakara, Cabs and Sin/Dex - sublime stuff, spanking good artwork, great, fast-paced humorous and thrilling... er, thrills.

Atavar - hmm, okay, now even I'm becoming lost with this. The pace seems to be going far too fast to properly explain or explore concepts, and now this female atavar's been thrown into the mix too? Okay, so I AM very intrigued, but what with the UOS, Binods, Cancer, Constructs, and blue flying things, there's way too much going on. We've already been told this is the final book - how the hell is all this going to be resolved in only two more parts? I fear a very rushed and unsastisfactory conclusion approaching...

Dredd - Oh. My. Good. God. I wish I could say this was my reaction to what happened, but it isn't. (Not quite, anyway.) What the hell's going on with the artwork?!?!?!? This seems to be one of the most important stories to come along for a long while - and the artwork is totally ruining my enjoyment of it! For the first time EVER - and i mean that - Dredd is the strip that I dread reading.
(Heh, no pun intended.)
Ah, well. I saw the Giant/Guthrie thing coming (see ya, Guth!) but the Rico thing was a genuine shock, even if the panel in question was slightly bizarre in itself.

[Bad Andy]

Blood Trails

It's a fucking disgrace the way that this important story has been drawn. I thought Thargy had his eyes on the trade collection market but I for one will not be paying for this rubbish again, however important the story will end up being.

The head might still be Giant's. Having re-read the comment by Dredd "No contact from Giant or Guthrie (ie they are still missing). They're (other judges) are still searching the wreckage for bodies."

But let's face it, it's not Guthrie anyway - just some aged Hell's Angel.

[Steve Green]

I'm not as anti the art as some, but I really think this story should have been given over to a more established artist.

I would have loved to have seen MacNeill's take on this week.

- Steve

[Dark Jimbo]

Hmm, yeah, MacNeill would have been a great artist for this.

I'm not really that anti-the art. I've really liked his previous Dredds and most of the early episodes of this, actually - but it does seem to be deteriorating now a little, and while his Vienna looks great, Dredd, Rico and Giant seem a little distorted. And the less said about Guthrie the better.

I want to be on the edge of my seat as I read, but I find I keep wanting the story to just hurry up and end so I don't end up hating every judge character in it!

[Rio De Fideldo]

I predict a reappearance by Dolman real soon.

[Swearengen]

RIP Wagner. Jophn Wagner moves in to the old writers care home and his supporting cast of Dredd is decimated.

Gordon Rennie is certainly clearing the decks for his tenure.

[Bico]

At which point, we can all turn on him because he isn't John Wagner.

[Funt Solo]

I think what's going on with Dredd in Blood Trails is very interesting.  There's a big question over his judgement.

Instead of his standard "a Judge only has one love:  the law!", he's actually seen to be confused as how to proceed when Vienna throws him out of the apartment.

His better judgement takes over after that and he brings in his "friends" (ie strongest colleagues) to help him.

However, it's then pointed out to him that he's using up valuable department resources by placing them all on a single case.

This week we see the result of his flawed judgement, as instead of just cannon fodder judges being wiped out, we lose three top judges (possibly, if all three are dead).

Guthrie is a senior judge (never more so than under this artist's bizarre brush) and Rico and Giant are both (as I remember it) top-of-the-class judge material.

Maybe Dredd's judgement isn't flawed:  after all, he always uses this tactic ("get the best") when hard-pressed.  

And now, how will it pan out?  It's the most shocking thing to happen in Dredd since "I don't know when".

"Young" Giant was always immune in my mind, because of the controversy surrounding the demise of his father at the hands of Orlok.  Rico was also immune, because I'd assumed that he was to be Dredd's replacement at some point in the future.  Guthrie, well, he was the only one I could accept as potential fodder, given that people like Dekker have been casually offed in the past.

Put it this way:  all bets are off.

(Of course, I don't know for sure who is and isn't dead.)  

[The Amstor Computer]

I'd echo the general opinions here - "Blood Trails" is turning out to be a great strip, buggered by a bad choice of artist.

For the tone & content of this story - not to mention its relative importance in the ongoing clone saga - a different artist should have been on this series.

Currie - while perfectly good in his own right - is just as unsuited for "Blood Trails" as an artist like Ian Gibson or D'Israeli would be.

[Dudley]

I too am wearing the ""Blood Trails" is turning out to be a great strip, buggered by a bad choice of artist" T-shirt.  Took me a while to get past the art, but the script is really coming to life for me and this week's dramatic developments help no end.  Prediction remains that Rico makes it and Guthrie snuffs it.

Sin/Dex prediction: Appellido is his own clone.

Cablestickystics prediction: Magister won't be spotted during this tale.

Atavar prediction: Atavar ends up fighting Si Spurrier for control of that woman from "The Scrap".  
(P.S. Elson's use of colour in this fianl arc is superb, ain't it?)

Shakara prediction: SHAKARA!

Atavar prediction:

[Waddie]

Dredd: I actually quite like the art, so yar boo sucks to the lot of you.  My first thought was actually that the ambiguous nature of the Judges' fates was the setup for a cunning twist where they all survive and it's Vienna that ends up dead.  But on reflection, that would be more of a lame twist, so perhaps not.

Sinister/Dexter: Well, Sinister/Dexter, really.  Unremarkable.

Shakara: Excellence.  The Shakaran armoury could have done with more imaginatively named weapons in it though.  They're all a bit deja vu compared with the assassins.

Atavar: Would this make any more sense if I'd read the first two books?  And while the odd panel looks really nice, most of it's just one wobbly shapeless thing after another.

Caballistics, Inc: The best.