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Prog 2156 - Gangster's Paradise.

Started by NapalmKev, 02 November, 2019, 11:57:56 AM

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Proudhuff

Quote from: Richard on 06 November, 2019, 01:49:00 PM
I'm sorry you feel that way, McNulty. I agree with you about Defoe, but couldn't disagree more strongly about Hope and Brink, I think they're both brilliant.

I think there is room for comedy stories in the prog, but I suspect that we don't see more of them because they tend to be unpopular with the readers. (You yourself mention Survival Geeks as an example you no longer like.) Rob Williams wrote the Judge Dredd story Undercover Klegg in progs 1969-1972 which bewildered several people on this forum who seemed to think it was meant to be a straight story, at which point I suspect that Tharg despaired and gave up on our capacity to recognise comedy when we see it!

I still enjoy Survival Geeks, but I think jokes work best when they're in straight stories, like in Guatemala right now, which is a dark story in many ways but which is lightened considerably by the antics of the angry colonel and his ridiculous sidekick.

...ridiculous sidekick....
DDT did a job on me

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 November, 2019, 02:29:49 PM
Ace Garp was comedy?

:o

Surely not. It wore its Ken Loach influence on its sleeve.

Very saddened to hear that Guatemala is ending next week. I love it; and El Presidente is the best bad guy in years.  I hope he survives next prog.  Haven't read the rest of the prog yet.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Proudhuff

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 06 November, 2019, 09:13:02 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 November, 2019, 02:29:49 PM
Ace Garp was comedy?

:o

Surely not. It wore its Ken Loach influence on its sleeve.

Very saddened to hear that Guatemala is ending next week. I love it; and El Presidente is the best bad guy in years.  I hope he survives next prog.  Haven't read the rest of the prog yet.

I'm hoping he is PJ Maybe downloaded into a droid, but that's never going to happen....
DDT did a job on me

norton canes

Regarding a perceived lack of jocularity in the prog of late - the current run of strips does seem a little more dry than usual, though the tabloid spoofs in Defoe were amusing, and John Wagner's trademark brand of mordant humour has infused previous installments of Guatemala. Also, in recent months we've had Sinister Dexter, Max Normal, Kingmaker and Absalom all brandishing various shades of wit (Spoonerism not intended), and we're never far from a one or two part Dredd story aimed at tickling a few ribs. So I think Tharg's Betelgeusian biology does include a functional funny bone, just one that fluctuates at a particular frequency.

TordelBack

Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 November, 2019, 02:29:49 PM
Ace Garp was comedy?

Survival Geeks is edgy?  Beautiful to look at and often really funny, but edgy? Or indeed 'subverting expectations'? I don't understand, it's a cute little strip with a bit of romance, detailedo nerd references and short-run stories that make good use of familiar tropes.

Frank


When was the last time we got a Star Scan?



norton canes

Alex Ronald in the centrespread of prog 2073?

broodblik

I can remember the the time when star scans were a regular thing
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

TordelBack

Bit puzzled by the direction Brink is taking - didn't Dabnett say he'd be exploring the setting with different characters after the third series?  Instead we seem to be heading deeper into Kurtis' backstory and the gears of the HSD. Not that I'm complaining, I love Bridge and I could happily have the strip in my prog 50 issues out of the year, just wondering if I misunderstood Dan's intentions.

Talking of wishing things were in the comic each and every week, Dredd: Guatemala is powerful work from complete craftspeople.  That second-page splash will take some beating as Page of the Year, glorious imaging from MacNeil and Blythe.  It does feel like there's way too much set up here to resolve in a half-dozen pages, and El Presidente surely has more stuff to strut?  But you know Wagner, kill your darlings and repent at leisure.

Defoe continues to grab me, still Mills strongest latter-day strip, and given a new and increasingly confident spin by Moore.

Hope is lovely as always, but for me the sudden-but-inevitable betrayal undermines a bit of the investment I had in the gumshoe antics of the previous parts. 

Deadworld looks more amazing every episode, but I wonder if we lost a bit of momentum this week - we seem to have been rescuing each other in the anonymous corridors of Sector 13 now for ages, while big events rumble on outside. The end of Gates-emoth was surprisingly touching, but as that thing freaks me out I'm glad to see it go.

Frank

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 November, 2019, 08:24:19 AM
Bit puzzled by the direction Brink is taking - didn't Dabnett say he'd be exploring the setting with different characters after the third series?  Instead we seem to be heading deeper into Kurtis' backstory and the gears of the HSD. Not that I'm complaining, I love Bridge and I could happily have the strip in my prog 50 issues out of the year, just wondering if I misunderstood Dan's intentions.

Yeah, I'd thought that too. He's allowed to change his mind, I suppose, although this book might end in a way that wraps things up for the Bridge *


* Completely ill-informed speculation for where this is going, based on nothing: [spoiler]YES, BRIDGET, I AM YOUR FATHER[/spoiler]

Frank


... and it just occurred to me that Series One pulled a fast one on me by subverting my expectations regarding [spoiler]which characters made it all the way to the end of the story[/spoiler].

So Abnett might have made an inadvertent spoiler, there.



Jacqusie

Quote from: McNulty on 06 November, 2019, 01:07:58 PM
...not a fan of Brink. Its bland story, its simple artwork and its glaring colours are not for me. I just don't like it.

It goes on a bit without much of a story I'll agree with you there and the main woman with her pouty head shots are just that and not much else. Far too many dud panels of strange looking people doing very little really.

I know most people think the sun shines out of Dan Abnetts pen, but Ive never been a fan sadly and his 24 episode dreary sagas are competing with Pat Mills for who can eek out a series the longest with the least content.

Brink is great and Dredd's always on form with this classic script and art pairing, lets hope that they return one day with a new Stronty Dog...

dweezil2

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 06 November, 2019, 09:13:02 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 06 November, 2019, 02:29:49 PM
Ace Garp was comedy?

:o

Surely not. It wore its Ken Loach influence on its sleeve.

Very saddened to hear that Guatemala is ending next week. I love it; and El Presidente is the best bad guy in years.  I hope he survives next prog.  Haven't read the rest of the prog yet.

I appreciate that it's probably my advancing years creeping up on me, but does anyone else ever mix up Ace Trucking Co. with DR. & Quinch?
Also, did they ever have a crossover?  :think:
Savalas Seed Bandcamp: https://savalasseed1.bandcamp.com/releases

"He's The Law 45th anniversary music video"
https://youtu.be/qllbagBOIAo

Frank


One was created by Alan Moore and the other by Wagner/Grant. Neither of those two parties take a strong proprietorial interest in the strips they created, so who knows why this crossover you dream of never actually happened.



dweezil2

Quote from: Frank on 09 November, 2019, 07:17:04 PM

One was created by Alan Moore and the other by Wagner/Grant. Neither of those two parties take a strong proprietorial interest in the strips they created, so who knows why this crossover you dream of never actually happened.

No "Thargshead Revisited" mashup then?!

It maybe best left in my dreams!!  :lol:
Savalas Seed Bandcamp: https://savalasseed1.bandcamp.com/releases

"He's The Law 45th anniversary music video"
https://youtu.be/qllbagBOIAo