Messages

Loved the Future Shock! Haven't said that before I think, at least not in modern 2000ad times.  Super art, indistinguishable to me from Fabry on his own, but there we are.  And then the tale itself, well crafted (you get it, just before, you get it) has a bit of a punch and makes you think.  If only they were all like this...

Jaegir's also been very enjoyable.  Coleby's art is great and the action packed story works. The ending is somewhat surprising though - such utter ruthlessness is a new development I think.

Although I'm not really a big fan of Sin/Dex, I'm enjoying it at the moment.  Decent action/adventure that's engaging (and easy to follow/remember) week to week.

Dredd was the only real disappointment for me. I've quite enjoyed the story and I can live with the art but its ending turns this story into just another example of Dredd failing. He has avoided getting shot/beaten/captured or held hostage so I suppose the writer has let him off lightly, just (another) unsuccessful operation.  I'll head over to the Meg and see how his operation against the Red Queen is going...         

As well as helping himself to Revere, Kek-W is incorporating the Kelvin McKenzie Sun Says editorial caption boxes from Big Dave. The visual of an Apache strafing city blocks recalls White & Austin's Urban Strike tie-in, too, making this a treat for all those readers who remember nineties 2000ad fondly.

I've delighted everyone long enough with my opinions on the exploitation of John Smith's legacy, so I'll say something nice^* - Lee Carter, like Edmund Bagwell and Chris Weston before him, has the perfect aesthetic to complement the script's Kaiju Burroughs and Batman '66 outsize consumer items.

The temptation for the callow editor, when in receipt of a script full of funhouse imagery and pages with the bottom corners torn off, is to assign an artist with a (notionally) appropriate cartoony style. Think (the great) Philip Bond on the final book of The Invisibles or Mike Hadley on Fegredo & Lobe.

The result is too on the nose, burying the needle firmly in the red of WACKY. The representational aesthetic and lucid storytelling of Weston, Bagwell and, now, Carter perform the same function as Ringo's drums, grounding the acid trip toss swirling around it and providing a clear direction of travel.


* I also thought the line questioning whether the cast of Revere were appearing in Indigo Prime or vice versa was arch and self-aware. If it had appeared in Kek-W's own strip, I might even have enjoyed it. Beats me why anyone with the intelligence and humour to write that is wasting their time carrying Tharg's water on a corporate piss-spraying exercise.

What I understand of this, I wholeheartedly agree with...

But then I've always said Carter is a superb artist! 

Nice one Matt! I'll keep my fingers crossed it's in one piece too!

If my Ring doorbell footage is anything to go by, it looks like my 51/52 have arrived too. And with an oddly shaped package that could just be my Rogue statue.

Fingers crossed for you other subbers out there still waiting!

My mega collection worked more smoothly too. The ultimate collection is a bit hit and miss with delivery, I've not received 51/52 yet.

I'm with Colin on this one - great prog all round!

The Future Shock was certainly shocking!

Otherwise a pretty strong prog.

Mine arrived this morning ok...
(Sorry to hear yours didn't, I still look forward to getting it even when it's not on form, and at the moment it mostly is)

I worshipped Rik.

A hilarious character, realised brilliantly by the wild talent that was Rik Mayall.  Sadly missed...

Oddly, the character's tendency to call anything he found remotely disagreeable FASCIST seems to have caught on quite widely...

Anyway, speaking of fascists, Dredd was on great form again this week.  Loving the art and being both involved in and excited by the story is something of a rare treat these days.

Great to see Jaegir back and the back of this recent Anderson.  Couldn't agree more with the comments above about how ill-treated by editorial poor old Cass has been of late. Give her a good script, that has something of her character in, and a decent art-droid, or leave her be.   

Er...meant to quote the post above about the figures..

Not sure if I can post links on here, but you can pre-order up to volume 60 on forbiddenplanet.com

Cheers Fingers!

Anyone know what the next premium sub figure will be? Feel like I haven't had a premium gift for a while now...

I do like the identification of Chaos Day as Dredd's failure though: it really is, it was the city's biggest crisis and he outright lost.

There's no doubt that MC1 lost and therefore so did Dredd, but was Chaos day really Dredd's failure? It's often seen as such and Dredd certainly sees it that way.  It's right that it was in retaliation for Dredd's nuclear strike in AW and that Dredd wasn't able to save the city from the worst of the Chaos Bug.  I do remember a point though where Dredd strongly advises that a ground assault is the only way to be sure that the agents are eliminated and his advice is either ignored or over-ruled.  The airstrike does not work allowing the agents to escape. Had Dredd been listened to, then the disaster would likely have been averted at that stage.  (Note: I'm far from sure about this, but this is how I remember it...)   

Yep, the norm should be Dredd on the front foot and crackin skulls. Him being captured, beaten up out-smarted etc should be an occasional thing.

The Cover and back cover are brilliantly done, as was the ending to Absalom.  I agree with Norton, it bucks the current trend of the overly long, overwrought ending.

Dredd is still great, oh that artwork, even though old Joe has once again been captured.  Hopefully he'll find his own way out of this predicament and bring the nefarious Pin to justice, rather than having to be rescued (again).

Thistlebone has reached it's penultimate episode with very little, other than some beautiful artwork, having happened.  Back in the day, all of what's happened so far would probably have happened in the opening episode.  The main characters probably wouldn't be so deathly dull too...

Indigo Prime, complete madness but for some reason I enjoy reading it and looking at it.

Anderson should really be in a fanzine, or not, but it shouldn't be in 2000ad.

A mixed bag then, but the good stuff is strong enough to keep it worthwhile.