Prog 1915 - Fiends Reunited

[user2000]

The paper's back to normal, thank goodness!

Lovely cover by the Staples droid of our four best fiends.

Not read any yet, just glad that the tracing paper is gone.

[Mattofthespurs]

Beautiful cover.
Won't have a chance to have a peek inside until tomorrow due to football duties.
Looking forward to it though.

[Eamonn Clarke]

"Fiends Reunited"
Chapeau, Mr Tharg. Chapeau

[Proudhuff]

A review of sorts finally...
if you liked last weeks you'll love this week's prog. Groundhog day for me with the only higlight being the Nerve Centre! Absalom  to return and the news of Thor's sex change.

[JamesC]

Cover - lovely Staples artwork as seen above. Plenty of shelf appeal.

Dredd - Well, I didn't see that ending coming (although I probably should have). This is getting more interesting as it unfolds and the art is consistently excellent.

Ulysses - Skipping this I'm afraid. Just not my thing.

Orlock - A perfectly serviceable action/adventure strip but I can't see much to make it stand out from the crowd. Orlock himself seems a bit dull.

The Order - My pick of the prog again. I just love the weird vibe of this strip (it manages to do weird while still managing to be coherent - something lesser strips fail at) and the John Burns artwork adds a touch of class.

Savage - A shock reveal this week. I can see why some people find this strip clunky and old fashioned but, personally, I love it.

Another quality prog. There are a couple of ads for 2000ad merchandise too which I'm sure will be of interest to many.

[Bat King]

My review is on my blog

I am not getting in to Ulyses Sweet at all.

Dark Justice is really good, really good.

Enjoying Orlok and The Order too.

Savage is doing fine.

[Jacqusie]

Amazing cover by Greg with some fantastic greens going on. You have to love the 'Death pants' thing going on.

The only quibble, which I think I'm going to need to work through in therapy eventually, is the dicking about with the damn logo for the second week running.

We were told that the head-mast font was changed to allow space for the artwork - but now it's being moved down anyway. Coupled with the fact that it reminds me of the mid 90's crap logo &  the FAN logo has been shrunk, it just spoils the artwok...


OCD rant over...

Si

[Zenith 666]

I'm sure Mr wells will have a logo free image for your enjoyment very soon.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Unhappy with the lot.

Dredd - dare I say it's a bit staid? Hopefully, it will kick into gear with the Alien vibe now starting up. Lovely to look at, though.

Ulysses - I find this a hard to follow and a throwback to the Abelnard Snazz (sp) days. I didn't enjoy that, either. I'm not sure who it is aimed at and sometimes the zaniness fails.

Orlock - suffers for following on from Ulysses. It's been a while since two b&w strips have been consecutive in the prog, right? 'cos I find it hard to distinguish the two.

Order - it's okay but by the time I get to it I feel grumpy and it seems to be jumping too fast for my tired eyes.

Savage - best thing in the prog

[Tjm86]

Unhappy with the lot.

I don't know about unhappy but I'm certainly not blown away at the moment.  Dredd reads like a strip that is going to make more sense (nearly ended up overdoing the esses with 'ssssensssse') as a whole.  I'm mildly curious to find out what happened to P J Maybe and how his nibs came back from being lost.  It looks like P J became host but I may be in error here.


Of the rest Savage is perhaps the most interesting and Orlok the least for me.  The Order and Sweet are serviceable but not mind blowing.  Still, better than we had to endure in the nineties. 

[ZenArcade]

The prog now is everything the 90's prog wasn't. Lovely cover as well. Z

[Frank]

The only quibble, which I think I'm going to need to work through in therapy eventually, is the dicking about with the damn logo for the second week running. We were told that the head-mast font was changed to allow space for the artwork - but now it's being moved down anyway ... it just spoils the artwok... OCD rant over...

Grouping the cover line (FIENDS REUNITED) and masthead (2000ad) together at the top of the page means the only area of the image that's obscured by text is an area of dead space, which Greg Staples deliberately left empty to accommodate the logo and masthead anyway. The area of artwork that would have been obscured by the cover line running in the usual place would have been the lovely fine detail work Greg has put into Death and Mortis's decomposing mid-sections.

More importantly, a solid block of text in that area would have ruined the 3D pop effect on Stanley's outstretched claw. That effect relies on the contrast between the sharp focus on the brightly coloured hand in the foreground, and the muted palette and subtle defocusing Staples has employed in the bottom (background) section of the image. Stick big, bright, white text in there, and the effect is ruined.

If the cover line had ran along the lower third of the page, as usual, and at the usual size, then the combined area of artwork which would have been obscured by text would have been over a third of the image. This way, it's not even one fifth. If the concern with text placement is that of showing the most possible of the artwork and to maximum effect, grouping the cover line and masthead at the top of the page was the right decision, taken for the right reasons.

[ZenArcade]

Couldn't put it any better myself....who the drokk am I kidding; I could only aspire to give an opinion such as Butch's above. Z

[Eamonn Clarke]

for comparison

[IndigoPrime]

Composition-wise, the 1980s Prog has all kinds of things fighting for attention, not least the giant red logo and 16p. By contrast, the Staples cover looks far balanced to me. As for the Prog, none of this run's really clicking with me. Still, anthologies, eh?