2000 AD Online Forum

Spoilers => Prog => Topic started by: norton canes on 05 September, 2019, 12:36:02 PM

Title: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: norton canes on 05 September, 2019, 12:36:02 PM
Never started a prog thread before. Hope no-one minds.

Anyway - What. A. Cover.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDsR53bXkAE5dnv?format=jpg)
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Rately on 05 September, 2019, 12:56:35 PM
Bloody lovely cover.

Has Dylan Teague any interior work upcoming in the Prog?
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Proudhuff on 05 September, 2019, 01:04:56 PM
so is the red nose thing gone?
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 05 September, 2019, 01:20:38 PM
Quote from: norton canes on 05 September, 2019, 12:36:02 PM
Never started a prog thread before. Hope no-one minds.

You'll take absolute pelters for starting a thread without a review of the entire comic, but I've never really understood why. Let's review the cover, to keep them happy. It's great; Dylan Teague should do more art for Tharg.

Only Simon Davis does the red nose thing - he explains why here (https://youtu.be/baH1VJWGtuA?t=102).


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: broodblik on 05 September, 2019, 03:20:53 PM
Great cover. Top-notch review norton  :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: norton canes on 05 September, 2019, 03:46:38 PM
Thanks!

Here's the big picture for ya, scuzzpucks...


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDsVS43XkAEwsZJ?format=jpg)

Finny and Ray looking awesome of course, but how good is that background? Epic stuff.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Bolt-01 on 05 September, 2019, 03:49:47 PM
Do Ray and Finny no longer remember when they 'met' a sentient Downlode that communicated via overhead road signs? (Which makes me think of LA Story with Steve Martin)
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Dandontdare on 05 September, 2019, 03:58:13 PM
Don't know about Ray & Finny, but I'd forgotten that!
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 05 September, 2019, 05:17:32 PM

Yer man's trews have Cliff Robinson creases:

(https://i.imgur.com/t7c9uxL.png?2)


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: norton canes on 06 September, 2019, 10:29:42 AM
Robinson crease-oh
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Colin YNWA on 06 September, 2019, 12:47:14 PM
Quote from: norton canes on 06 September, 2019, 10:29:42 AM
Robinson crease-oh

Oh I am liking your work there sir.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: 73north on 07 September, 2019, 10:37:13 AM
I finally got a copy on a Saturday - Sinister Dexter and Dredd are wonderful
I also noted the end of Indigo Prime -
always a job to understand what's going down in it
but its certainly unique
really enjoyable Prog - and as ever the highlight has to be Jaegir

(https://i.imgur.com/tcSqJXy.jpg)

note - to 2000AD - please commission more of this War Story - highlight of the Prog
and a major reason I am a subscriber
( and if Gordon Rennie and Simon Coleby ever read these words -
Thank you for this story !!
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Richard on 07 September, 2019, 05:06:26 PM
Jaegir doesn't take shit from anyone!
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Colin YNWA on 07 September, 2019, 05:30:22 PM
Well first and formost that is a lovely, lovely cover. What is on the surface a fairly genric pose for two hit men carries so much with it. The background really lifts Sinister and Dexter as well, the colours are just great.

Inside things aren't too bad either are they.

Dredd continues to be wonderful. I'm so invested in Barbarara's dilemma I'm on edge to get to the conclusion next week... with the nagging realisation in the back of my mind that this is Dredd. Things don't end well for folks regardless of how much you might want them to, do they.

Sinister Dexter is fantastic. Quietly and masterfully developing situation and character. Then with the final panel reminding us what we come to this strip for as well. Love this one. Suspect next weeks will be more than just the fireworks

3riller - Red Road - as I suspected last week doesn't really offer much in terms of being more than an extended Future Shock with the page count extended by a fight scene. That said its been very entertaining and I'd like to see this one get another outing as these things sometime do. With more space we could add some context and interest to the Mad Maxing.

Jaegir Well it doesn't hold back does it. Its hard grim and glorious.

And then there's Indigo Prime. If we step back from what we fans know about the creative ins and outs and just look at this as a comic in its own right its been superb. Imaginative, inventive, exciting and intriguing. I've been involved and invested from beginning to end. The final page with Danny landing back in a very human drama, returned to the mundane drama of the 'everyday' wonderfully underscorses the dimension bending schindigs we're had to this point. Just brilliant.

Great Prog.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 07 September, 2019, 06:50:42 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 07 September, 2019, 05:30:22 PM
And then there's Indigo Prime. If we step back from what we fans know about the creative ins and outs and just look at this as a comic in its own right its been superb. Imaginative, inventive, exciting and intriguing. I've been involved and invested from beginning to end. The final page with Danny landing back in a very human drama, returned to the mundane drama of the 'everyday' wonderfully underscorses the dimension bending schindigs we're had to this point. Just brilliant.

I agree. I've enjoyed the hell out of this, notwithstanding the sad and obvious provisos...
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: wedgeski on 08 September, 2019, 12:13:07 PM
Jaegir is outstanding, I must agree.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: IronGraham on 08 September, 2019, 04:15:41 PM
Prog has really ben on a roll these last few weeks only let down was the 3riler could of been done in one prog.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: The Monarch on 08 September, 2019, 07:03:49 PM
totally agree with colin and jim on indigo prime
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Bolt-01 on 09 September, 2019, 02:24:25 PM
Only just got my prog - so while I go and read the rest of the thread I just want to say Holy Drokk - what a prog!

#PraiseTharg
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Proudhuff on 09 September, 2019, 04:27:11 PM
Jaegir and Dredd hitting it out the park this week again!
TMO wants to buy a country in Damage Report...any suggestions?  :P
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Richard on 09 September, 2019, 11:18:44 PM
Yeah that 3riller should have been done in four pages.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: McNulty on 10 September, 2019, 10:50:36 AM
I know I don't contribute to the reviews very much but I would like to make my opinion known about 2000AD. 2000AD has become really depressing to read. The art and colour style has gotten a lot darker of late and the stories have lost their spark. If you read this week's Dredd and Jaegir the stories are telling you it doesn't matter if you are a good person and try to do what is right you will come to a bad end. Carrol and Rennie have crafted stories depicting formally good people, the Judges and the Southers as just as bad as organised criminals or the Norts. I understand that these stories never had black and white outlooks, there were always some bad judges and bad Southers, but this is relentless. I'm sure some commenters will just tell me to grow up and stop complaining but this is how I feel. 2000AD is usually an anthology of different styles or art and storytelling but recently they are seeming to converge on a specific worldview that everything is screwed and there is no point trying to be optimistic. This might be the writers and artists reflecting what is going on in the real world and I can understand this, but can we not have at least a few stories that reflect a better world, one that we might strive for?

"She understands all right. She knew now what the rest of us have known for years - that the Judges are just thugs who wear matching uniforms."

"Burn it! Burn the monster that stole our dreams!"

"You can't stop us. We're gonna take...this planet..."

"Y-you didn't have to do that. These others weren't even armed."

Outside or Sin/Dex I don't see any optimism in this week's prog. But then, when was the last time a series ended with any kind of upbeat conclusion? I truly hope this will change in the future.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2019, 12:52:53 PM
Too be fair though has 2000ad ever been big on a happy ending? In the old days, first 100 issues say the standard story conclusion seemed to be 'and the hero died... horribly' or 'The dinosaurs won' etc etc.

As the stories have 'grown up' that darkness has become more bitter and harder possibly but I'd suggest this isn't a new thing. The recent conclusion to Absalom I'd suggest is about as happy an ending as you've ever got in 2000ad.

Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Proudhuff on 10 September, 2019, 01:13:37 PM
Quote from: Richard on 09 September, 2019, 11:18:44 PM
Yeah that 3riller should have been done in four pages. panels.

FTFY
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: IndigoPrime on 10 September, 2019, 04:16:07 PM
I quite liked the Thriller having room to breathe. Sure, it could have been done in a few pages, but not all 2000 AD storytelling has to be dense. That said, the entire thing did whiff a bit of trailer. It was all a bit "if you like this, we could do a series!" (Personally, I'd rather like a series.)
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Woolly on 10 September, 2019, 04:51:21 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2019, 12:52:53 PM
Too be fair though has 2000ad ever been big on a happy ending? In the old days, first 100 issues say the standard story conclusion seemed to be 'and the hero died... horribly' or 'The dinosaurs won' etc etc.

As the stories have 'grown up' that darkness has become more bitter and harder possibly but I'd suggest this isn't a new thing. The recent conclusion to Absalom I'd suggest is about as happy an ending as you've ever got in 2000ad.

Yeah, thats my take on it.
Although, the end of 'The Samaritan' did leave a sour taste. Is Dredd *really* complacent with the treatment of her by Justice Dept after she saved his life? Doesn't ring true to me...
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Woolly on 10 September, 2019, 04:54:01 PM
Additional: Is the current 'Judges are bad' run in response to the rise of the far right in real life?
A reminder that we really shouldnt be routing for fascism?

I dunno.. probably reading too much into it!
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Proudhuff on 11 September, 2019, 11:15:28 AM
Quote from: Woolly on 10 September, 2019, 04:51:21 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2019, 12:52:53 PM
Too be fair though has 2000ad ever been big on a happy ending? In the old days, first 100 issues say the standard story conclusion seemed to be 'and the hero died... horribly' or 'The dinosaurs won' etc etc.

As the stories have 'grown up' that darkness has become more bitter and harder possibly but I'd suggest this isn't a new thing. The recent conclusion to Absalom I'd suggest is about as happy an ending as you've ever got in 2000ad.

Yeah, thats my take on it.
Although, the end of 'The Samaritan' did leave a sour taste. Is Dredd *really* complacent with the treatment of her by Justice Dept after she saved his life? Doesn't ring true to me...

Its one of the things I've liked from the early days: the lack of saccharin in all the stories in 2000ad,
i think a life saving precog who ends up used by the Justice Dept, along with hundreds of others, rings true to Sci-Fi and MC1 troupes, as for Dredd he was going to stab her in the neck at one point after she saved him, he's softened but a Prep's still a Perp to old Stoney Face.   
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: broodblik on 11 September, 2019, 12:55:34 PM
Dredd – a dark, moody and grim story. For the judges an individual does not count but getting their man does. Barbarbara is just collateral damage. I am enjoying the story and Dyers's art suiting the storyline.

There were words, there were pictures, some images and allot of sentences, some constructs, a few eclipses, the planets were alignment and then there was Indigo Prime. Final analysis: divide by zero.

Sin/Dex – not enjoying the current run

3riller – this feels like an action packed first episode. Hopefully we can have more later, and this might just be the beginning.

Jaegir – highlight of the prog. Just great story and great art. Wish we had a longer run of this.

4/5 this time around
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: I, Cosh on 11 September, 2019, 04:11:10 PM
Quote from: McNulty on 10 September, 2019, 10:50:36 AMThis might be the writers and artists reflecting what is going on in the real world and I can understand this, but can we not have at least a few stories that reflect a better world, one that we might strive for?
Cherrypicking here, but I'd love to know which classic 2000AD stories you think reflect a better world? There's
the odd character here and there who thinks they're doing something the right thing - Johnny Alpha or Torquemada, for example - but it's invariably against the backdrop of a fairly unpleasant setting.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: geronimo on 11 September, 2019, 04:20:07 PM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 11 September, 2019, 04:11:10 PM
Quote from: McNulty on 10 September, 2019, 10:50:36 AMThis might be the writers and artists reflecting what is going on in the real world and I can understand this, but can we not have at least a few stories that reflect a better world, one that we might strive for?
Cherrypicking here, but I'd love to know which classic 2000AD stories you think reflect a better world? There's
the odd character here and there who thinks they're doing something the right thing - Johnny Alpha or Torquemada, for example - but it's invariably against the backdrop of a fairly unpleasant setting.

Personally I gotta agree with McNulty here, the prog is a downer now compared with the old days. It is so lacking in the irony and wit that made it so much more entertaining then.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Colin YNWA on 11 September, 2019, 05:05:55 PM
Quote from: geronimo on 11 September, 2019, 04:20:07 PM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 11 September, 2019, 04:11:10 PM
Quote from: McNulty on 10 September, 2019, 10:50:36 AMThis might be the writers and artists reflecting what is going on in the real world and I can understand this, but can we not have at least a few stories that reflect a better world, one that we might strive for?
Cherrypicking here, but I'd love to know which classic 2000AD stories you think reflect a better world? There's
the odd character here and there who thinks they're doing something the right thing - Johnny Alpha or Torquemada, for example - but it's invariably against the backdrop of a fairly unpleasant setting.

Personally I gotta agree with McNulty here, the prog is a downer now compared with the old days. It is so lacking in the irony and wit that made it so much more entertaining then.

Is that a reflection on the Prog itself or on popular culture as a whole and the acknowledgement of an aging audience.

That's not to say someone can't find it too grimdark (is that still a word?) for their tastes of course, but certainly don't think it's the Prog alone that has developed that way.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: geronimo on 11 September, 2019, 05:26:25 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 11 September, 2019, 05:05:55 PM
Quote from: geronimo on 11 September, 2019, 04:20:07 PM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 11 September, 2019, 04:11:10 PM
Quote from: McNulty on 10 September, 2019, 10:50:36 AMThis might be the writers and artists reflecting what is going on in the real world and I can understand this, but can we not have at least a few stories that reflect a better world, one that we might strive for?
Cherrypicking here, but I'd love to know which classic 2000AD stories you think reflect a better world? There's
the odd character here and there who thinks they're doing something the right thing - Johnny Alpha or Torquemada, for example - but it's invariably against the backdrop of a fairly unpleasant setting.

Personally I gotta agree with McNulty here, the prog is a downer now compared with the old days. It is so lacking in the irony and wit that made it so much more entertaining then.

Is that a reflection on the Prog itself or on popular culture as a whole and the acknowledgement of an aging audience.

That's not to say someone can't find it too grimdark (is that still a word?) for their tastes of course, but certainly don't think it's the Prog alone that has developed that way.

Nah! it's the prog now I think. Recently I reread The Taxidermist and just loved its tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking humour. no one in it was being taken seriously and that as much came from Dillons art as the writing. Absalom had a touch of it, taking the p*** out of it's own genre with over the top silly violence and ridicelous characters in silly situations.
I really cant be arsed to pick up this weeks prog, its 4 grim stories and SinDex; the filler of fillers.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 11 September, 2019, 05:49:33 PM
Quote from: geronimo on 11 September, 2019, 05:26:25 PM
I reread The Taxidermist and just loved its tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking humour. no one in it was being taken seriously and that as much came from Dillons art as the writing

Kennedy/Farmer, bud. Although Dillon provided a cover (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=507).

I think we reap what we sow. Carroll took pelters for Paradox Vega riding a giant puppy and Dredd surfing a dead dog, so now he's playing safe by pivoting to downbeat, cynical crime dramas that impress the inner teenage boy of middle-aged readers as the kind of thing that should be taken seriously.*

Williams & Weston just gave us blind Dredd eating a rat and crawling through shit, but then again they also gave us chimps in space.


* I can't remember the origin of the quote, but Charles Lippincott cites the maxim that writers should avoid humour in superhero or science fiction stories because taking the piss out of the reader's favourite character is like laughing at their dick. I suppose that works the other way round, too - when writers put their heart into creating a character they hope readers will love, it must be a wounding experience to see your fictional child rejected or derided. Nobody likes having their dick laughed at
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: TordelBack on 11 September, 2019, 06:50:05 PM
The judges have been baddies for a very long time now. Even Fargo knew it. Callously manipulating a perp (and she is a perp, however unwilling) to bring down organised crime hardly seems like a new development.

Equally, the Southers created several entire subspecies of clones indoctrinated from birth and sent them out to kill and die on a planet they had ruined with chemical warfare,  then hunted the soie survivor as a deserter; almost all the officers we met in the GFD run were bastards (Magnum, Kovert etc). That they have psychotic sadists in the ranks is also nothing new.

Plus Sgt Klaur rescuing his Kapiten against orders and Helix & Syd rescuing a sprog has to count for a positive spin, no?

Which is my way of saying I thought this was a really great well-stuffed prog.

If this Dredd sticks the landing it'll be my favourite Dredd story since 'Harvey'. Great stuff and oh-so pretty.

Really liked the 3riller, brave to go for decompressed action, and it leaves me wanting more. Also confirms my belief that only Willsher can colour Willsher.

SinDex is like a particularly tasty IPA, 6% at Ieast. This is an addictive tale, great to see the long setup knitting together.

Jaegir is Jaegir, may the suns never set on Nordland's finest daughter.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Richard on 11 September, 2019, 07:00:34 PM
Yeah, 2000AD has always been different from other comics precisely because it tends to steer clear of happy-ever-after endings and so on. It's always been bleak and cynical. I agree that there wasn't any humour in this week's prog, but there has been recently. Sinister Dexter usually has jokes, Machine Law had the scene in The Unco-operative supermarket, and so on. Even the demon-possessed Margaret Thatcher only last week may have been Kek-W trying to lighten the mood.

Plus as Frank points out, whenever someone tries to do comedy they face a tough audience here. Why should they bother?
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: TordelBack on 11 September, 2019, 07:30:13 PM
Do the final panels of Indigo Prime not count as a gag? Or even microscopic aliens burning Thatcher's final form with a giant magnifying glass? I'm ideologically excluded from enjoying IP, but I thought those bits were pretty funny.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: DrJomster on 11 September, 2019, 10:27:33 PM
Just having the name Barbarbara is very 2000AD of old. Still loving that, several progs in.

Also. SinDex is just excellent at the moment. I really want see where this goes next. Loving the slow build as each prog progresses. No pressure, obviously... the art's looking gorgeous too.

Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: norton canes on 12 September, 2019, 12:02:30 PM
At last, I get to review the prog in the thread I started a week ago  :)

Dredd cranks up the tension big time, taking the Judges' disregard for the rights and well-being of the common Cit to new levels. Though I can't help feeling they might have been better using someone from the Wally Squad, someone a lot less likely to crack under pressure. Or perhaps that's the point..?

SinDex is a beautiful read, as ever. Long may it continue to fill four-week slots before jumping-on progs.

Rather impertinent of IP to take up so many pages, I thought.

Red Road, hmm... I think it's perhaps asking rather a lot for us to buy into a continuation when we've been given so little information about the protagonists or the world the inhabit. I get that as a 3riller it's run like an action-packed pre-credits sequence but it needed, I think, to at least hint at a little more depth beyond the vague exchange in the final page.

Jaegir - killing it. Literally.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: broodblik on 12 September, 2019, 02:23:02 PM
The cover rough version:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDsZaJ_XsAAxv-1.jpg)

and the final version without logo:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDsVS43XkAEwsZJ.jpg)
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 12 September, 2019, 08:08:49 PM
Quote from: norton canes on 12 September, 2019, 12:02:30 PM
Red Road ... I get that as a 3riller it's run like an action-packed pre-credits sequence but it needed, I think, to at least hint at a little more depth beyond the vague exchange in the final page.


You're forgetting the non-twist that humans are the real monsters! Page 19 of Al Ewing's Ultimate Future Shock (http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2004/10/ufs1/).


(https://i.imgur.com/WLD4tjT.png?1)


Once I got over my disappointment that Red Road (https://youtu.be/dSfy6UpAXKQ) wasn't an even more inappropriate 2000ad film adaptation than A Life Less Ordinary (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1063), I thought Ewington & Willsher's Mars Max: Fury Red was okay.

I'm either in complete agreement with the Right Honourable Member for Norton Canes (East) or disagree in the strongest possible terms. Maybe I'll have made up my mind by the end of this post.

NEEDS MORE WORD: Shakespeare coined the saying all comparisons are odious, although I think Cervantes made better use of the phrase, and Pat Mills is in every way the equal of both authors.


(https://i.imgur.com/cekPjs2.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/mAHIflr.png?1)


Similar number of panels per page, twice the number of text balloons/panels, so many words you can't read them in the image above^. Although in terms of characters established and action shown, the balance is broadly similar, the amount of world-building in Comic Rock is significantly greater. 

It'd be a brave modern-day writer who packed panels with characters instructing the reader where to look. explaining what they were seeing and who was doing it, but behold the mileage (pun) Mills gets just from compulsively naming every supporting character, vehicle, and lamp post Brother O'Neill illuminates.

NEEDS MORE PICTURE: I love Ben Willsher's art. Like the astute commentators of ECBT2000ad, I prefer the exaggeration and energy of his previous stylised work, but, unlike the spiteful hatemongers of ECBT2000ad, I like this more photo-referenced, Lee Carterist work almost as much, even if it's undeniably more static.


(https://i.imgur.com/92YIMDO.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/x4HZtuh.jpg?2)
Hard Boiled #2. Art by Geof Darrow, drunken blether about Islam and Momma's boys by Frank Goddam Miller


Although it's lost in that blurry, shrunken image above^, Geof(rey) With One Eff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXYfuhFxxw)'s occasional stupidly detailed panels have the same effect as Patrick With One Tee's text, slowing the progress of the reader's eye around the page and through the story. Darrow runs the film at Benny Hill speed during simple, boring functional panels ...

... and slows the frame rate down to bullet-time for showpiece action carnage, forcing the reader to take in every tiny detail of those Mandlebrot car wrecks and hyper-crenellated panes of shattered glass - in much the same way survivors of real-life crashes report the brain experiences events at reduced speed and in great detail.

Much as I love Ben Willsher's art and admire the economy of Ewington's prose, I'm not sure either give the reader enough cause to pause and take in each panel in the manner necessary to lend the story the dramatic weight and visual density to avoid skipping lightly across the consciousness of the reading mind like a smooth stone on a still pond.

More of either would produce the desired effect*


* Fooled you, Norton - I didn't make up my mind at all. Equivocation rules.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Woolly on 12 September, 2019, 08:34:05 PM
No offence Frank, but I think I've just found a cure for my insomnia...
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 12 September, 2019, 08:41:40 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 12 September, 2019, 08:34:05 PM
No offence Frank, but I think I've just found a cure for my insomnia...

That's a pity. I mention you by name at the 800 word mark.


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: TordelBack on 12 September, 2019, 10:05:22 PM
I dunno how I find myself defending strips that both cruelly benefit from the reader remembering what happened in the last 'book' (or indeed previous week) AND strips that are just one big dozen-page action scene with the plot squeezed onto the last 2 pages.

Something something anthology something.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: IndigoPrime on 13 September, 2019, 10:14:25 AM
Quite. There's this notion that 2000 AD must be X or Y. It's best when it's X and Y. Decent anthologies (and also magazines, newspapers, etc.) are about pacing. Five strips packed to the gills with text balloons would be too much. Five strips as light as the Thriller would be borderline ephemeral. I like that in a Prog where you had a fairly dense Dredd, the always wordy Sin/Dex, and the WTF of Indigo Prime that there was a straightforward and decompressed strip. As for the 'twist', I didn't really see it as such, given that she was throughout trying to save an alien in a cage. If anything, it slotted into that grand tradition in 2000 AD that goes back to the aforementioned Nemesis (and continues in the likes of Lawless) about humans generally being awful, thereby echoing modern-day realities on our own planet.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 13 September, 2019, 01:18:18 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 13 September, 2019, 10:14:25 AM
Quote from: Frank on 12 September, 2019, 08:08:49 PM
You're forgetting the non-twist that humans are the real monsters! Page 19 of Al Ewing's Ultimate Future Shock (http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2004/10/ufs1/).

As for the 'twist', I didn't really see it as such ... it slotted into that grand tradition (of) humans generally being awful


Quote from: IndigoPrime on 13 September, 2019, 10:14:25 AM
Quote from: Frank on 12 September, 2019, 08:08:49 PM
Geof Darrow's occasional stupidly detailed panels have the same effect as Mills's text, slowing the progress of the reader's eye around the page and through the story ... forcing the reader to take in every tiny detail. More of either would produce the desired effect.

There's this notion that 2000 AD must be X or Y


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Tiplodocus on 14 September, 2019, 01:13:32 PM
Enjoyed that. JAEGIR top of the pile again with an amusing Sin/Dex following.

I have some misgivings about the slightness of the 3RILLER and the thirty odd year old references in INDIGO PRIME but not enough for me to really moan about.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: IndigoPrime on 14 September, 2019, 01:16:30 PM
Thanks for the selective quoting, Frank. That's really helpful. I don't see how there's any contradiction there anyway, but whatever.
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: IndigoPrime on 14 September, 2019, 01:17:58 PM
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 14 September, 2019, 01:13:32 PMEnjoyed that. JAEGIR top of the pile again
Odd that – Smith-penned Rogue aside – it really is one strip where the playground is a lot more interesting than the lead. Jaegir for me betters almost any Rogue Trooper, and long may it continue. (And long may it avoid Rogue rocking up. Or any other GI, for that matter.)
Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 14 September, 2019, 02:13:56 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 14 September, 2019, 01:16:30 PM
I don't see how there's any contradiction there

That would be my point.


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 16 September, 2019, 07:07:58 PM

The great Steve Yeowell posts his original art for each episode on social media. John Charles' colours are wonderful, but he seems to be getting all the credit for the increased tonal variation in Yeowell's work:


(https://i.imgur.com/M75pqZy.png)


Title: Re: Prog 2148 - Fear of the Machine!
Post by: Frank on 16 September, 2019, 07:09:30 PM
Quote from: Frank on 16 September, 2019, 07:07:58 PM
The great Steve Yeowell posts his original art for each episode on social media

https://www.facebook.com/steve.yeowell.7/posts/2635414659826496