1507 - Monsters inside. Or whatever it said. The one after Man Alone.

[Trout]

Oh, and the two-headed kid's called Roofus!

Hooray for boarders in Dredd!

- Yo!

[Carlsborg Expert]

Hi. Quick infoburst...

Has Nick Percival done any strips for toof? I like the cut of his jib.

As for smudge, his art is exquisite, all his greyscale is in the right bits, there is the crosshatching to admire, his close ups do not disappoint and the backgrounds are of such a standard I cannot think of a word for them.

The opening panel reminds me of artwork from The Deadman.

I haven't read the stories fully but on first peel through I was reminded of the fact that, with such a strong Dredd story, others within the pages seem to pass by very quickly and my feelings for the characters water down to ; "Who cares!!? What's happening to Dredd?"

I'm sure I'll be set straight when I've read them more thouroughly.

Its funny. When I used to read toof leeters, only kids would write in and now we see people writing in with the same astonishment picking up thier kids!

Should we have a poll about Dave Brooks aswell?

Is there going to be only four strips next week too? I wonder.

[MIKE COLLINS]

Gawd, but Tooth is quite wonderful at the moment... kinda makes me feel like back in the day before I turned pro and there was always a Mick, Kev, Gibbo or Bolland strip in there (or if you'd been good and gone to Confession, a Mick, Kev AND Gibbo and/or Bolland!).

Tooth is now about as good as it ever was. Carlos is drawing Dredd! John's writing it! Robbie, Edge and Si are writing nasty and twisted but with the old sharp wit we've come to expect from 2000AD. And there's not a bad art job. This is a golden age folks, savour it!

(Not in this issue) Mike

[DavidXBrunt]

What he just said?

IT'S THE TRUTH. Say it loud, say it proud. 2000A.D. is fucking great.

[Emperor]

OK finally got mine.

Cover: Interesting but you might be a tad siappointed if you bought the issue on the basis of the cover - then again if you did then carry on reading so...

Chiaroscuro: Great setup and let us hope that the Mighty One has this Smudge chappie shackled to a bench as we'll want to see more of this. One does wonder how much of this stems from Simon Spurrier's time in the industry. You'd think a lot of people at the top of the film world were soul sucking arseholes (heaven forbid). Fingers crossed for this story mining the strange dark territory between 8mm, Faces of Death and something like The Ring and toes crossed for it wrongfooting (accidental pun) me and doing something else (see my thoughts at the end of this post).

Dante: It is another week of run, fight, interact, pose for last shot. I was getting quite excited about Dante for the first time in a while but I'm now being reminded why I went off it in the first place. I'm hoping it picks up again next week.

Stone Island: Blimey. Make me a big hat with WTF written on it. I'm hoping going back and reading this in one go might explain a few things like what happened and who everyone was and probably some other stuff too I suspect (like how does someone blow up a prison full of transdimensional aliens and the only survivors are good alien/prisoner hybrid and pretty lady?). It seemed awfully unbalanced with a lot of running round and then a turn in the road so fast I'm going to have to wear a neck brace for the next few days. There seemed to be issues with the art and with the pacing of the story. I'm not sure if this was down to trying to fit too much into too small a space or what but in some ways this shows what I like about 2000 AD - it is prepared to take risks and try things rather than play it safe. It didn't turn out quite right but I'd rather this than the people not being given enough room to push the envelope. I hope if it returns that it be given whatever it requires to tell the story properly.

Dredd: Just great. The foundations laid for a big fight, lots of mutants and some tragedy. I think we can also see that this diversion will help build the plot as the Wiseheads were born right after the war.

Verdict: Another good one - a bit down on previous weeks although Dredd and Chiaroscuro balance out the other stories which seem to have gone off the boil (or stolen the pustule from the face of the mad crone it was sitting on and run off to the hills).

Sidenote: I can see no correlation between knob frequency and quality so perhaps this experiment can be put down to a nice idea but not practical. That said I fully expect the dark heart of Chiaroscuro to be an occult Magic Eye poster tattooed on someone's scrotum (possibly an evil Navajo shaman). I fully expect/hope to be wrong.

[Carlsborg Expert]

Can I claim my £5 now?

[Mr Ruh]

Still an amazingly strong line-up.

I'm reserving judgement on Chiaroscuro - Spurrier's far from being my favourite writer, but occasionally comes up with the goods (as long as the comic's not glutted with his work as it often is in the run-up to a relaunch). I can't help but feel that the story demands rather more stylish artwork than that on offer with bolder use of light and shade.

Dante - always entertaining, pity we have to wait a few progs for the next instalment.

Stone Island - a good, gruesome read. Edginton's always a fave of mine. My only criticism of his work generally is his habit of introducing characters with no explanation as to who they are. The sole (human) survivor is a nameless girl, who's never properly been introduced. It's an old habit of his, it took a couple of series before the crew in The Red Seas were all introduced, and The Establishment was cancelled before all of his central team were all named. Still this is carping - good ideas as always.

Origins - old school Dredd of the first order.

And I'm looking forward to the return of Sin/Dex. Never thought I'd hear myself say that.

[dweezil2]

Has anyone else got a copy of 1507, where the pages of Chiaroscuro appear faded? Also, my cover looks all washed out.

[Grant Goggans]

Isn't next week the Tom Frame tribute?  That could be the fifth strip, with something new starting in 1509, maybe?

[Emperor]

Has anyone else got a copy of 1507, where the pages of Chiaroscuro appear faded? Also, my cover looks all washed out.

I don't think mine are faded (although how would I tell?) but I do seem to have a light splattering of blue ink on a couple of pages.

[Goaty]

yes my copy of 1507 got its last pages of Judge Dredd story appears faded...

[Bico]

Where did Vinny Jones come from in Stone Island?  Did he cross over from the Event Horizon spaceship on the other side of the dimensional rift?  If so, shouldn't he have looked like Sam Neill?
Poor.  But as said above, better to try and fail, than just play it safe with the same old guff.
Dante - lost a bit of steam of late, but no big shakes either way.  Not sure about the soap-opera before the last page, which - as an ending for the story - was a bit too similar to that time he fell off a cliff (or something).
Bit too much Chiascuro.  Nothing wrong with the strip, just could have been done in half the space it has here.
I liked having Dredd at the back, as it saved me the trouble of reading it last anyway.  I always read the stories in reverse order of preference, saving the best until last, so this prog was well laid-out for me - although I've nothing against Chiascuro, it's just the new boy, that's all.

[Dudley]

Whose flame effects are better, Nick Percival's or Clint Langley's? OK cover, 5/10

Chiaroscuro.  Why the pseudonym when the style's this distinctive, I wonder?  Awesome art, and a great opening instalment.  Not sure about the blond chin-beard.  7/10

Dante.  In the hope that this isn't just another tiresome cliffhanger that leads nowhere, I'll give it 6/10.  Grudgingly.

Stone Island. 3/10.  Awful, but with pretty pictures.  Award of the WTF all the way round.

Dredd.  As an episode, 5/10.  As build-up, let's see.

[dweezil2]

Sounds like I've been luckier than some, then. As it's only the first couple of pages of Chiaroscuro and not Dredd! Phew!

[Artificial Idiot]

Isn't the guy at the end of Stone Island that preist they met earlier on (last seen cowering under the floorboards, or something)?