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Spoilers => Prog => Topic started by: Mattofthespurs on 09 January, 2017, 09:55:34 AM

Title: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Mattofthespurs on 09 January, 2017, 09:55:34 AM
The first prog I have received in 2017 and it's rather super, I think.
Dredd: Deep in the Heart. Absolutely loving the art work from Trevallion. Nice, crisp and clean and the story is getting very interesting.

Kingmaker Part 3. The one story from five that's not exactly floating my boat at the moment but it could be too early to tell.

Hope...For The Future part 3 Again, it's the art that is blowing me away with this feature. Reminds me of the EC stuff towards the end of those comics and the plot is going along nicely.

The Order never been a massive fan but once again the artwork is teriffic.

Kingdom. Little bit too much action and not enough to read for my tastes but still decent.

If anything this issue sums up exactly what 2000 AD is. Stories of wildly different concepts and artwork spanning the whole gamut of styles and ranges. In other words; something for everyone.

A cracking read 8/10
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Trent on 09 January, 2017, 04:20:53 PM
No one else got their prog.
Clint cover is bright but murky.
Dredd ticks all the boxes with lovely art to boot.
Other stories all continue satisfactorily with a particular tip of the hat to the main image on the opening page of Hope. Very striking stuff from Jimmy Broxton.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Mattofthespurs on 09 January, 2017, 04:44:40 PM
Oops, forgot to mention the cover.
Love it but to be honest would not want to make me pick up the Prog for the first time.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: moly on 09 January, 2017, 08:04:31 PM
 the cover is fantastic this week
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Colin YNWA on 09 January, 2017, 08:58:43 PM
Quote from: moly on 09 January, 2017, 08:04:31 PM
the cover is fantastic this week

Doesn't it just SCREAM Vertigo circa 1993 - not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Anyway inside the Prog we have much to enjoy. Dredd  continues to be beautiful and developing very nicely. I'm really intrigued to see how current Dredd deals with the laws of Diana.

Really enjoyed Kingmaker Ian Edginton does rather rely on these exposition heavy world builders like this episode but I'm intrigued by the world he's crafting and the way he playing with the familar.

Hope ... for the Future continues to look grimmy beautiful and I'm beginning to accept the way this one leans heavily on the fimilar.

The Order continues to look sublimely beautiful and the story shifts in a pleasing direction. God I love this strip.

Kingdom continues to look simply beautiful and this all action number is an effective jolt to remind you what the Prog is all about as it draws to a close (the Prog not the story that is). God I love this strip.

Good dog Tharg, good dog.

Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 09 January, 2017, 11:11:42 PM
(http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/Caliban_photos/e82902c89e28052b1e46e8ed98c49ce4_zpsmyto0ahe.jpg)

Clint Langley
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: CalHab on 10 January, 2017, 02:12:54 AM
Needs a few random pictures of objects photoshopped in for the full "90s Dave McKean cover" effect.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 10 January, 2017, 06:54:39 AM
Quote from: CalHab on 10 January, 2017, 02:12:54 AM
Needs a few random pictures of objects photoshopped in for the full "90s Dave McKean cover" effect.

For the full McKean effect, it really needs to be about four feet high and composed using physical objects...!
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 11 January, 2017, 10:52:49 AM
So in a very strong Prog under a classy cover, I'm inclined towards .Dredd being the top thrill. I confess my heart sank a little as Carroll's Dredd-and-foreign-partner dyad headed toward another new floating/underground/reconstruction settlement, but I was wrong: everything about Diana worked, and the twist was a good'un. Lovely stuff.

Three strips with dog-men in the same Prog: is this a record? (I scoured the background of Kingmaker for a gnoll, werewolf or even kobold, but alas!).
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: The Enigmatic Dr X on 11 January, 2017, 07:29:48 PM
Still not got mine. What about you lot?
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Pegasus P Artichoke on 11 January, 2017, 11:10:05 PM
Another cracking prog with a cracking cover

Dredd continues its fine form, art is superb and the story moves up into another level for me at the end. Really looking forward to seeing this one pan out

Kingslayer looks fantastic and enjoying it

Hope is a corker the opening page is excellent, really enjoying this story

The Order still has me on board, last time I got a bit lost with it but so far so good

Kingdom more action than dialogue but that's no bad thing for me

All in all another top quality prog
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 12 January, 2017, 10:51:58 AM
Fello digital subs, is it just me or are the 2017 prog still materialising weekly in the 2016 folder?
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Molch-R on 12 January, 2017, 10:57:05 AM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 12 January, 2017, 10:51:58 AM
Fello digital subs, is it just me or are the 2017 prog still materialising weekly in the 2016 folder?

Fear not, the droids are working to correct this problem!
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: I, Cosh on 12 January, 2017, 11:26:06 AM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 12 January, 2017, 10:51:58 AM
Fello digital subs, is it just me or are the 2017 prog still materialising weekly in the 2016 folder?
All fine here...

(http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii544/TheCosh/PublicShare/COMIC_FOLDER_STRUCT_zpseajnvy2r.jpg)
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 01:18:37 PM
.
The prog review section (and the forum in general) is really more of a support group for people who have ordered stuff online and are worried because it hasn't arrived yet.

'YOU SHOT MAH PAW!' (http://i.imgur.com/QcseNOW.png)

© Tommy Cooper, 1978. If Michael Carroll has a section planned where Dredd and Brass travel on horseback, I can let him have a joke my dad used to tell about how cowboys deal with chapped lips (https://unijokes.com/joke-566/).

Tiernen Trevallion's art is a revelation, especially that BLAM! BLAM! panel of Rufus taking a pop at Dredd. If Tharg's looking for someone to join the holy trinity of MacNeil/Flint/Willsher on the next 6 month epic*, the man with the name that looks like an anagram of itself is one to consider.


* Are Grindstone Cowboys, Lion's Den, Reclamation, and Deep in The Heart already part of some kind of Tour Of Duty-style epic in instalments?
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Smith on 12 January, 2017, 01:51:31 PM
I guess that would be "Every empire falls" story?
Granted,coorporate aliens have been done before,but its a nice twist for Kingmaker.
Texas city tour is promising to be pretty good.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 12 January, 2017, 02:31:02 PM
I loved seeing what looked like a whole laborious set-up just to get the 'paw' gag in there turning instantly into something grim and significant. Textbook Dredd writing really. 
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: moldovangerbil on 12 January, 2017, 05:25:55 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 11 January, 2017, 07:29:48 PM
Still not got mine. What about you lot?

Nope.  Still nothing here.  PICKLZ is on the case so I'm hopeful a replacement will turn up soon. 
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 05:53:32 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 January, 2017, 02:31:02 PM
I loved seeing what looked like a whole laborious set-up just to get the 'paw' gag in there turning instantly into something grim and significant. Textbook Dredd writing really.

Yeah, I LOLed. Visual dramatisations of dad jokes make dad jokes novel and acceptable, and I'll never stop being pleasantly surprised when The Nicest Dredd Writer Ever * reminds me he has a real talent for nasty violence.

Like all made up rules - not feeding Gremlins after midnight, the balance of The Force, daylight savings time - Diana's system of associative retribution doesn't make sense if you think about it too much, but it facilitated an otherwise tightly written and affecting story.

I could watch Richard Elson draw doggy fights all day, but three weeks in the same room is pushing it. Looks like next week is a Ulysses 31-style defrosting, so hopefully there'll be lots of Gene asking the whereabouts of Sir Winalot, Dylan Woof, Germaine Grrrr, and Dachshund Hammett, before it all goes Spartacus.

I liked the childish nature of Hopey's WHY DO YOU KEEP HITTING YOURSELF, WHY DO YOU KEEP HITTING YOURSELF curse, although the combination of images in the sigil he carved on that tree should really denote that the black power movement (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Fist.svg/720px-Fist.svg.png) is buffering. The boy Broxton can draw, ay?


* To be fair, there isn't much competition. Everyone who's met Wagner says he's a real gent, but if the new Thrillpower Overload reveals he did time for malkying someone in a Dundee chip shop, nobody would be surprised.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: I, Cosh on 12 January, 2017, 06:12:49 PM
Quote from: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 05:53:32 PM
I could watch Richard Elson draw doggy fights all day, but three weeks in the same room is pushing it. Looks like next week is a Ulysses 31-style defrosting, so hopefully there'll be lots of Gene asking the whereabouts of Sir Winalot, Dylan Woof, Germaine Grrrr, and Dachshund Hammett, before it all goes Spartacurs.
FTFY.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 12 January, 2017, 06:36:43 PM
Quote from: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 05:53:32 PM
Spartacurs.

FTFY

I thought the pacing in Kingdom was just right. We've had a fair bit of Neuman and pals discussing The Plot, a VzR prison,  a welcome reintroduction to Lezzee, and a good bit of Gene getting whet.  Seems like a reasonable amount of ground.

Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 12 January, 2017, 06:38:08 PM
Aaargh, radblast it. Didn't see Cosh's infinitely faster brain beating me to it.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 07:19:08 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 January, 2017, 06:36:43 PM
a welcome reintroduction to Lezzee

Ah, Virginia, this is Daphne, who wrote The Birds and Rebecca.

Actually, Ms Woolf and I have already met.


The action and characters are great. I meant Gene woke up in that featureless, grey-blue room on page three of the story and is still there fifteen pages and three weeks later.

Actually, I went back and checked - they left the room in episode two. They're in a featureless, grey-blue corridor now. Previous series have been all orange rocks and cyan sky, but there were lots of wine gum and cola bottle hued insects to stop everything looking too tasteful.

That's not a complaint about Abnett's exciting and involving story or Elson's dynamic, masterful art. It's just a consequence of the space station setting *. It's not really a complaint at all - Kingdom's arsom.


* Although, if it was Barbarella or Flash Gordon's space station, Elson wouldn't be having to bulk order more blue-grey pixels for his copy of Manga Studio. The strip's full of colourful characters, but they're all wearing clothes that match the wallpaper.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: scrotnig on 13 January, 2017, 12:16:09 AM
That Dredd episode was just fantastic. Really took me by surprise. As has been noted, it looked like it was going to be a fairly light affair, with that 'paw' joke and the awesome 'they started it' scene (which was drawn to perfection)....but then....utter bleakness! I really wasn't expecting that at all.

Both the writing and the artwork on this are just first class. I'd like to say it's the best Dredd in a long time but that's far from true since Dredd is currently so good, so often.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: sheridan on 13 January, 2017, 07:31:37 AM
Quote from: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 01:18:37 PM
.
The prog review section (and the forum in general) is really more of a support group for people who have ordered stuff online and are worried because it hasn't arrived yet.

'YOU SHOT MAH PAW!' (http://i.imgur.com/QcseNOW.png)

© Tommy Cooper, 1978. If Michael Carroll has a section planned where Dredd and Brass travel on horseback, I can let him have a joke my dad used to tell about how cowboys deal with chapped lips (https://unijokes.com/joke-566/).

And that'd be Rufus Hound uttering that pun ;)

QuoteTiernen Trevallion's art is a revelation, especially that BLAM! BLAM! panel of Rufus taking a pop at Dredd. If Tharg's looking for someone to join the holy trinity of MacNeil/Flint/Willsher on the next 6 month epic*, the man with the name that looks like an anagram of itself is one to consider.


* Are Grindstone Cowboys, Lion's Den, Reclamation, and Deep in The Heart already part of some kind of Tour Of Duty-style epic in instalments?

Yes - it's called Every Empire Falls.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: sheridan on 13 January, 2017, 07:39:14 AM
Was anybody else thinking of Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds on the last page?
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Trout on 13 January, 2017, 08:15:52 AM
Five out of five. Every page a joy. This is the thrill power we need.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 13 January, 2017, 09:26:09 AM
The Trout is correct. While I still harbour reservations about Kingmaker, this episode is definitely a good'un, making it 5 out of 5, plus a cool cover. Maybe not a particularly strong Droid Life, but essentially the perfect Prog. How hard must it be to pull something like that together, and then turn around and try to top it the following week? Hats off to all involved.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Proudhuff on 13 January, 2017, 02:56:00 PM
Quote from: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 05:53:32 PM
Sparpupcurs.
FTFY Cosh.

Great Prog as all above have said the Car-Roll Droid is... well on a roll  :D
great art and happy to see this epic unfold in a series of short stories that dovetail.

Everything else hunky dory, except Kingmaker, which doesn't float my boat, but that's me and stories with too many beardy barsturds in them.
Really hoping the Postie for Huff Mansions sur La Mer is on form this Saturday!

Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Frank on 13 January, 2017, 06:16:33 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 13 January, 2017, 07:31:37 AM
Quote from: Frank on 12 January, 2017, 01:18:37 PM
Are Grindstone Cowboys, Lion's Den, Reclamation, and Deep in The Heart already part of some kind of Tour Of Duty-style epic in instalments?[/size]

Yes - it's called Every Empire Falls.

I suppose what I should have asked was whether Deep In The Heart is a coda to an epic that's called Every Empire Falls, or whether Every Empire Falls is book one of a larger epic with a different name - in the same way book one of Tour Of Duty is called The Backlash *.

Earth shattering stuff, I know.

Nobody's had a guess at the identity of the perp Dredd's after. Not the bisonosaur herder, the 'someone bigger' only hinted at, so far. Maybe's dead, Mean Angel's either nice or buried (depending on which story you consider his last), his family exist in an indeterminate fictional state, Sabbat's only a head ...

Carroll specific characters: Gideon Dallas' head 'sploded; Pax was 'grud knows where, on some mission nobody knows anything about'; Paris (and Dredd baby?) was in custody; Sector Zero was reincorporated; it looked like Oswin was nuked, but no body = no death.

I suppose a crispy, glow in the dark Oswin would make most sense, if this is a continuation of Every Empire Falls, rather than an epilogue.



* Prepare yourself for this, because - trust me - I am about to FASCINATE you. The stories collected together under the title Tour Of Duty all ran weeks apart, over the course of three years (1536-1693), with other (unrelated) stories separating them. The title, Tour Of Duty, doesn't appear until 1649, on the story sequence whose actual title is Tour Of Duty. The subsequent story, Snake (1659), is the first story to feature the Tour Of Duty banner. The name The Backlash doesn't crop up until the story titled The Backlash (1628) and Megacity Justice is the title of the seven part story that rounds out the whole sequence (1687-1693)
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 14 January, 2017, 02:43:37 PM
Kingmaker is still very much in the build up phase, not a great deal to it right now. That being said, it has potential like few thrills i've seen in ages. It's an utterly joyous execution and anything that gives me Hinterkind vibes is a winner.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: johnnystress on 03 February, 2017, 02:58:51 PM
Getting through the unread pile that has amassed since Christmas, I was pleased to see I have finally made it into the prog --sort of! :D

That's me with the quiff, my bro with the chops and our family dog "Woody" as Rufus.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/johnnystress/bros_zps7l5bq3gc.jpg)
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: TordelBack on 03 February, 2017, 03:54:33 PM
So now isn't the best time to mention that I thought these guys were a riff on the Balls Brothers?  :lol:

Good to see you round these parts again Johnny, and congrats on immortality!
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: johnnystress on 03 February, 2017, 04:41:36 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 03 February, 2017, 03:54:33 PM
So now isn't the best time to mention that I thought these guys were a riff on the Balls Brothers?  :lol:

Good to see you round these parts again Johnny, and congrats on immortality!

Hello Tordelback. I lurk occasionally but I don't know most people here anymore...it scares me.
Title: Re: Prog 2013 - Infernal Investigations
Post by: sheridan on 19 February, 2017, 11:41:17 AM
Quote from: johnnystress on 03 February, 2017, 04:41:36 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 03 February, 2017, 03:54:33 PM
So now isn't the best time to mention that I thought these guys were a riff on the Balls Brothers?  :lol:

Good to see you round these parts again Johnny, and congrats on immortality!

Hello Tordelback. I lurk occasionally but I don't know most people here anymore...it scares me.

I thought they were the Balls Brothers too!  Johnny - if you ever want to cosplay, there's your opportunity right there :)