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Prog 2150 - You want Thrills, Earthlets?

Started by Leigh S, 23 September, 2019, 08:34:00 PM

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metcalfecarr

Cover - The only way I can put this is that it sucked balls big style.  Listner was popular twenty years ago.  What was the point of hiring him to produce some TandA toss like this?  It's outdated, old wank material.  How is this going to bring new readers in?  Who's doing the christmas megaprog cover?  That modern fan favourite Hal Foster?

Dredd - John's script and Colin's artwork are a  gorgeous combination.  I know that people think of HFlint as the modern main Dredd artist but to me it's McNeill.

Hope - nice starter thats got me more interested than the whole of the first series

Brink - really happy that it's back so soon in comparison to previous stories.  Love INJCs art and Abnett has such a deft touch at dialogue and slow boiling plots.  I have to say that Abnett has produced three of the top five strips of the last ten years with Brink, Lawless and Kingdom.

Future Shock - I used to hate Will Simpson's art with the weak scratchy lines he used to do along with the murky colours .  This, like when Siku popped up the other month on Dredd, is a revelation

Anderson - Unoriginal story with ugly, hideous and inconsistant art. 

Deadworld - gorgeously weird and nasty

SinDex - it's attracting me more now that we have short blasts and one artist than when it was in every prog for a year and a different person every week drawing it.
Dave Metcalfe-Carr

The Sherman Kid

Dredd That prog will stick with me for a while. A real gut punch seeing Hershey go out like that having been such a great character and stalwart of Dredd's universe for so long (but this is what makes 2000AD so great). it reminded me of the death of Giant -no foreshadowing, just blam -dead, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!

Extremely powerful and poignant,  delivered from the master Wagner and the superb McNeil.


GermanAndy

I am a few weeks behind, but it is a good jumping on point.

Cover: I didn't mind it at all. There were a lot better for sure, but also a lot which are mediocre or downright dull.

Dredd: Masterful. Wagner can say something meaningful in five words where others need five pages. His work is still the highlight for me. I am basically of the opinion that Dredd has gone too stale and mostly by the numbers. Of course one could argue that the foundation of the series is rich enough to mine it a few years longer, so it doesn't need innovation. And stories like "Machine Law" prove this of course right, where a staple of SF and of Dredd manages to transform itself into a intriguing concept. But after too many dull court intrigues  in Judge administration and lukewarm one-offs I kind of lost interest. Too often I just skim the story and enjoy the art if possible. The one pleasant surprise in 2019 was the work of Ken Niemand.

Now Hershey's death was wonderfully written and drawn. A touching and memorable scene. She was so long a cornerstone of the Dreddverse and will be missed. (And I dearly hope that she won't be resurrected.) I like it how MacNeil manages to make the Judges sinister in just a couple of panels. And it is nice that Beeny is featured again.

Hope: I wasn't a big fan of Hope, but didn't dislike it either. I just have a hazy recollection of some nice visuals and the end being not very well realized.  As an opener this is a bit underwhelming, and in a historical series with the background WWII nobody should say "Hippy". This is just a needless anachronism which kills the atmosphere. For me, at least. Broxton's art is still very well done. I would have said Clark Gable, but there is a lot of John Wayne in Modi.

Brink: Abnett is very much hit or miss for me. I love his novels, I adore Lawson and things like Kingdom, while I mostly skip Sin/Dex or Grey Area. Brink grew on me. Abnett always tries to give little things a twist, and while I normally used to roll my eyes on the blacking out of swear words in the series, here I thought it funny for the first time. A good opener for readers who know the earlier parts, but I can see why new readers will have problems getting into it. Culbard's art is as good as ever. I hope Tunde Weyowa stays as a protagonist. Abnett can be good with everyman heroes.

Future Shocks: Not my cup of tea. I thought the art in parts confusing and the twist not very well done.

Anderson: A weak (and too long) story with some weak art. Grant can do better than this.

Defoe: I mostly skip Pat Mills' work these days. Defoe is the one exception. While the politics were as usual as subtle as a sledgehammer, at least the topic of the Levellers was original. At least for someone abroad. And I loved Gallagher's artwork. So this transition is hard for me. This is of course a matter of personal taste, and of course is the interpretation of different artists for the same characters one of the strength of 2000AD. But the artist change in Aguila for instance pretty much ended my interest in the series. And judging from the first part I am not convinced it works here either.

Sinister/Dexter: Like I already wrote, this is not for me. I don't care for the characters or the story. Yeowell sure does a good job of what is just talking heads, still I can't work up any interest for this.

The Fall of Deadworld: I am not a fan of the whole Judge Death universe. I also managed to confuse this first part with The Dark Judges in the Megazine before looking it up. So I am rather indifferent about this. Like so many other of these "fill in the blanks" series readers know the ultimate outcome, so it is a bit hard to care.





IndigoPrime

Quote from: GermanAndy on 10 October, 2019, 12:02:41 PMThe Fall of Deadworld: I am not a fan of the whole Judge Death universe. I also managed to confuse this first part with The Dark Judges in the Megazine before looking it up. So I am rather indifferent about this. Like so many other of these "fill in the blanks" series readers know the ultimate outcome, so it is a bit hard to care.
I usually agree with that sentiment, but this series has dragged me in anyway. Even if I'm not convinced by its mirrors of the Dredd world we know (Deadworld was always pitched as a very different, less tech society, and so seeing Sov craft zooming about is just weird), it's still engaging me. And, who knows, perhaps there will be a twist of some kind regarding the protagonists. I just hope that if there's an end in mind, Tharg allows the creators to get there, and that it's done in such a way that makes finishing the series as hardback collections viable.

TordelBack

Quote from: GermanAndy on 10 October, 2019, 12:02:41 PM


Hope:  As an opener this is a bit underwhelming, and in a historical series with the background WWII nobody should say "Hippy". This is just a needless anachronism which kills the atmosphere.

'Hippy' dates from the '40s Jazz scene, in common use by the '50s. Not that big of a stretch to hear it used in the Pacific, although the specific usage is odd. Not as much a stretch as occult warfare and thought-seeking bombs anyway...