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Messages - norton canes

#1
General / Re: Forthcoming Thrills - 2024
27 March, 2024, 07:11:38 PM
Quote from: Dash Decent on 23 March, 2024, 10:00:46 AMWith his overly-long neck and funnt teeth, Rogue looks more like an otter or Rufus the naked molerat.  And what's going on with his left shoulder?

In Cornwell we trust.

So this Hawk thing is Hawk the Slayer, yeah? I know Garth Ennis wrote a limited edition series but it seems like a strange thing to go into the prog.
#2
Wham, bam, thank you Quaxxann! Now that is a prog. To think that in a parallel continuity not to very far from here, they're wading through 36 pages of Lowborn High. Ugh... let's not go there.

The McCrea/Davies cover is better than perfect. When I first saw it I was so certain it was based exactly on the layout of an 80's 2000 AD annual that I went through the whole collection three times before I realised 1985 was the closest. Why is Dredd in that agonised pose? Who cares! It's brilliant! Create your own backstory, and explain the mk.I Lawgiver while you're at it! The customised borders around the character cameos are a touch of genius, as are Rogue's spanners and the blades vexing Vex. More multi-character covers in this vein please, Tharg!

The first instalment of 'Next Man Up' makes for a perfect introductory Dredd, dispensing with all the usual clichéd spiel about where Mega City One is and who the Judges are in favour of some lean, action-packed scene-setting. Brilliantly fluid, muscular penwork from Guera, so good in fact that Giulia Brusco forgot where she was for a moment (Or did she? Perhaps Dredd saw a little of himself as Hale emerged from that vehicle..?). And the little puzzle at the end provided a lovely note of uncertainty - why choose the subpar Moon over the patently more capable Hale? Stay tuned!

An absolutely exquisite opening page for Full Tilt Boogie, and the grisly effects of the crystal on Patrick weren't too shoddy either. Indigo Prime however just seems to be tortuously complex for its own sake and isn't grabbing me.

I thought Rogue Trooper was just great - the strip's roots are in the down-to-(nu-)earth war comic attitude of Gerry Finley-Day's run, and 'War Child' stuck to that welcome simplicity. Didn't see any problem with the Marshall droid's art either, his scrawny Nort figures working well against some of their more draconian pronouncements. Interesting, incidentally, to compare this with that other Nu-Earth child soldier tale, Mayflies - now where did I see that..? Nope, escapes me.

Finally, Proteus Vex continues its stratospheric trajectory. I was hooked at 'Still Immortal - My Excellent Book About Me', chapter 1732.

Oh hang on, almost forgot Thistlebone! How do you pick a favourite page out of that? (it's page 4, obviously)

All in all a proper old-school thrill-packed prog, and a massive improvement on... what was it called..?
#3
Prog / Re: Prog 2374 - A World of His Making!
21 March, 2024, 04:22:10 PM
Excellent cover. I think all the hype for next week's bumper prog must have affected me because I kind of skimmed this one. Fun Dredd, albeit on a well-worn trope. Lovely art from Joe Currie. Nice cliff-hangers for Indigo Prime and Full Tilt Boogie. Loving Thistlebone as ever.

Quote from: M.I.K. on 18 March, 2024, 06:17:07 PMI'm getting old annual cover vibes from the next issue preview

Oh yes!
#4
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 March, 2024, 01:50:43 PMDahl is still incredibly popular.

Delicious with some grilled aubergine
#5
Kind of surprised there wasn't official confirmation in the Nerve Centre that Regened has come to an end (if indeed it has), though I guess that wouldn't really fit with the upbeat vibe. Perhaps a jaunty little sign-off, Starlord-style, from Joko-Jargo? "Great news! My mission on Earth is complete..."

Anyway, back in the Niemand-verse, a lovely Dredd - though whoever it was complained here a while ago about Call-Me-Ken's occasionally clumsy phrasing will presumably have had an involuntary splutter at the duplication in "Obsolete model servo-droids, Kinderman Street. Looks like they've been street-dumped".  I want to like this iteration of Indigo Prime and I actually got three pages in this week before I started to drift, so things are improving. Full Tilt Boogie continues to be lovely and to be honest, I could easily forego the overarching plot for more episodes of Cat and Gran. Spin-off, Tharg? Perhaps as a weekly three-panel short..? Less luck with Deadworld, I'm afraid, its early mystique having all but vanished. And yeah, surely every other member of the Dule Tree cast and crew will be down the local giving it "Am I bollocks going" while Terrence Steele stands in the middle of the wood being mauled by a giant badger?
#6
Prog / Re: Prog 2372 - Escape Pod!
08 March, 2024, 09:14:12 AM
Did think it was a little bit of a cop-out (if you'll excuse the pun) to end the penultimate instalment with Dredd at the hands of a baying mob, then start the next episode with the hand-waving explanation the riots "dwindled to nothing hours later".

(Or did I miss something..?)
#7
General / Re: Audible Dredds
07 March, 2024, 11:15:28 AM
Here's actor Gary Martin, who played Dredd in those Radio One dramas, standing in for Gary Wilmot (and singing live, which you had to do at the time) on Top of the Pops for the studio performance of UK Mixmasters' December 1991 hit 'Bare Necessities Megamix'.


Can't image why Wilmot didn't want the gig. Got a theory that fear of recognition after this debacle is what prompted Martin into focussing on voice work...
#8
Prog / Re: Prog 2372 - Escape Pod!
06 March, 2024, 03:57:02 PM
Great conclusion to 'A Better World' - I don't envy the droid who had to come up with some light-hearted, single-episode filler (if indeed that's what we get) to follow it next week. I guess if Dredd was a monthly U.S. comic then writers would have a stint for a few years at a time to fashion their vision for the title, rather than have to supply chapters intermittently. The weekly model might not allow it but I'd like to see droids like Williams, Wyatt, Niemand, Carroll et al have a consistent run so we could really lose ourselves in their take on MC-1.

(How much detail is there in that final panel? Insane.)

Elsewhere Full Tilt Boogie and Thistlebone are so, so good. Normally I'd feel a bit short-changed if a story was as light on dialogue as some instalments of Full Tilt Boogie have been this time around, but the artwork delivers such compelling narrative that it doesn't matter. Thistlebone is sick.

Much fun to be had in the Kek-W worlds too, with the usual caveat that the plots of both Deadworld and Indigo Prime have gone way past the point of comprehension.

Oh, the cover. I think I've mentioned in the past that generally, I prefer to see covers illustrated by the strips' current artist. That way, they're like the strip basically has a whole bonus page. Having said that, where would we be without the prog's roster of cover artists? The Ronald droid is one of my absolute favourites and they've done a sterling job here, glorious art... I just don't think it really captures the essence of Full Tilt Boogie, which to me is more whimsical. Also it's not really a great likeness of Tee, and I say that realizing Alex Ronald and Eduardo Ocana have very different styles. So although it's a great piece of art, for me it's only kind of a qualified success.
#9
Quote from: norton canes on 29 February, 2024, 09:14:53 AMRead the collected edition way back in the late 80's. The page which always sticks in my head is the one that details the handful of seconds it takes Electra to deal with the elite SWAT team types that storm the room, attempting to kill her

Elektra, even. Sake.
#10
Prog / Re: Prog 2371 - Smash the State
01 March, 2024, 11:12:59 AM
I wonder if we're already ramping up for an epic 50th anniversary story?
#11
Prog / Re: Prog 2371 - Smash the State
29 February, 2024, 02:40:21 PM
Yeah, I need to see it in print!
#12
Read the collected edition way back in the late 80's. The page which always sticks in my head is the one that details the handful of seconds it takes Electra to deal with the elite SWAT team types that storm the room, attempting to kill her.

Oh, and it was a long time before I had any more mayonnaise.
#13
Prog / Re: Prog 2371 - Smash the State
28 February, 2024, 05:46:12 PM
That double page spread is of course presented on two separate pages in the digital prog (at least, that's how my CBR file reader's done it). Upon seeing just the left half, my immediate thought was that Maitland, after approaching him on the previous page, had been shot by Dredd.

Anyway. Running out into a full-scale firefight, screaming for the participants to stop? Not sure about that.
#14
Prog / Re: Prog 2370 - Fire it up!
21 February, 2024, 03:31:48 PM
I'm with IndigoPrime on this prog - 'A Better World' and Thistlebone spot on, Full Tilt Boogie pretty lovely, Deadworld sadly straying from its USP. Ironically I'm not with Indigo Prime in this prog - in fact I've never really liked it, not in its John Smith or Kek-W incarnations. Sorry.
#15
Prog / Re: Prog 2369 - Turning the World Upside Down
15 February, 2024, 10:27:50 AM
Two phenomenal stories bookending a trio of lighter strips. It's a shame The English Astronaut was a bit sketchy, both in script and art - the concept was strong and if it were a bit tighter I think it could have supported a longer run. Full Tilt Boogie, by comparison, is able to unfold at a more leisurely pace. Love the flora and fauna detail in the three panels at the bottom of the third page, very nice. Yes, the montage on the second page of Thistlebone looked a bit gratuitous but more importantly, I think, though the elements were as evocatively rendered as one would expect from the Davis droid, the overall layout wasn't particularly well realised. Great stuff overall, though.