Prog 1472 - Queen country

[Dark Jimbo]

Really? No-one done this yet? Cool.

Dredd: Ah, Wagner, you are still the master. Just as we think an end approaches, you pull the rug out from under our feet. This is great and creepy, and miles ahead of that terrible Mandroid one in the Meg. Dredd always works best when he's in the meg itself.

Cabs And I can't say enough good things about this. So I won't try, except to say - heh, great joke at the start, and - ah, I think things are starting to come together at last.

Slaine Ace, and improves on the previous bits. I know the dialogue's a bit po-faced, but you guys do realise that's deliberate, right?

Ten Seconders Brilliant. I had doubts, but this segment is just brilliant. And the art (already great) suddenly improves tenfold halfway through for no apparent reason! Bonus!

Stront Well, like I said, Wagner is the master. Hope we see No Bones return.

[Dark Jimbo]

Bugger. I've just realised I left out the 'and' in the prog strapline, thereby making the prog sound as though it includes a strip about an expedition to a land inhabitated only by homosexuals.

Which, of course, it doesn't. Sorry guys - and apoligies to anyone dissapointed to find there is no such strip in this week's issue.

[The Amstor Computer]

Heh :-)

'Tis a great prog, indeed.

Dredd on top form, with a sooner-than-expected-capture followed by the realisation that there's a copycat out there.

Stront ends on a lovely note, wrapping up a little quicker than I thought but in a perfectly satisfying way.

Ten-Seconders rolls on. Definitely one of my favourite Rob Williams strips, and one that looks like it has potential to be a recurring thrill.

Slaine mehs along. Some beautiful colours & textures in Langley's work, as usual, but it's still too damn dark and murky to make out the action clearly. Pat's script isn't too bad, actually, with the carnival freaks providing a perfect opportunity for him to indulge himself and come up with some fantastic characters.

Cabs is - and has been for the past few weeks - the standout thrill, though. So much packed into so few pages - so, Jonathan has been on Kostabi's trail for a while, apparently. It also appears that Kostabi has posed as an Elizabethan magician - but I don't recognise the "Evangalo Kyner" ref. And is it possible, given the E/K initials on the nameplate on Ravne's birthing tank, that he actually is Kostabi's creature?

Absolutely funktastic stuff - and a funny lesbian joke as well!

Great prog.

[Dudley]

Evangelo is a rare Christian name - and the firm at www.Kyner.com "have successfully combined the strength of a building with the portability of a tent!"

Very disappointed to find out that the prog doesn't deal with a mutant Queen postapocalyptic covers band.  With their own country.

[thrillpowerseeker]

the last page of Stront is stuck to the back inside cover on my prog..managed to somehow peel it away without too much damage..anyone elses all gluey?..

An EXCELLENT cover..Nick Perceval on top form

Slaine is superb..in fact they all are..I know another good Lesbian joke though..

rite 3 bulldykes get washed ashore a desert island with only a...ah fuck it better not sensitive types lurk hither..

TPS (the Considerate)

[The Amstor Computer]

Yep, my prog had several gluey pages too. As the prog is stapled, is there any reason why the pages should be glued anyway? Strange, but no damage done.

Surprised you liked the cover - I thought the composition was a little odd, Hannah's ear looks mental & the whole image has a blurry, undefined look when you get close (it's alright from five feet away, mind... ;-) )

[IndigoPrime]

Yeah, my Prog was also a little knackered this week?several pages stuck together with glue, and the back cover folded over twice. Still, it's what's inside that counts, and the contents were excellent this week?a really top Prog.

[Funt Solo]

Top Prog!

My Free Glue
I was chuffed to bits with this - it's so rare that we get a free gift these days, and free peelaway glue stuck in the spine didn't damage the prog and yet allowed me to create an innovative and yet easily removable Snotarray on my wall.  Keep an eye on E-Bay, as I think I may turn this into a business.

Droid Life
I laughed like a drain.  "Grab that spigot!"

Judge Dredd: Your Beating Heart
What's the connection between Berlin 2080 and Mega-City 2128?  Me no know.  Excellent art and a total blindsider from Wagner.

Crabapplelistics, Inc.: Changelings
Eek!  EK is Ravne's dad / creator?  Wuh thuh fuh?  And the birthing tank?  Birthing what?  Is Slater simply a vessel now?  If so, who for?  Each new episode answers questions only to spring up more:  what's Brand cooking up?  Oh yes - and in a complete sideshow from the main event (or is it?) who's pulling Titania's strings?  Is it Magister?

Slaine: Carnival
In some weird reversal of thrill-appreciation, I'm not really enjoying this much, whereas the usual Slaine detractors are apparently liking it.

It's good and all, but seems like a weak final chapter to the epic Books of Invasion(s).

The Ten Seconders: The American Dream
Ooh - a new one: Watchtower.  And then there were 4.  My guess - the Gods are all humans, somehow altered by the scientist.  He may know a way to stop them.  The battle-bot will work.

Strontium Fugue: A Shaggy Dog Story
It was good but not great, and now it's finished.  I tremble in fear and loathing as I sense the probable approach of another 'late winter comedy slot filler' such as Boke & Bawl.

[Proudhuff]

Does anyone else on the board read the prog? shameful lack of comment really given its Wednesday and such a good prog, maybe thats the problem, nothing to complian about... except that cover!! not my bag of groats at all. There could have been a loverly mock Shakespearean wood-cut or Shakespearean Prog-ramme cover, tsk, missed opportunity olde Thargygreen-pus.

Droid Life Quote of the prog: "Grab that spigot!"

Judge Dredd: Your Eating Heart
Good to know it continues rather that a 'Pat' ending, DNA ? Clone brother?  Split personality?

Copperlistics, Ink: Continues apace! doing what it should, but as I'm getting on, I get some of the male characters a bit mixed up if I haven't seen them for a bit, not that I'm suggesting the american soap way of intro's  'Hi Jim, aren't you my cousin's next door nei-bour who's having an affair with the butcher's dog?' type of thing, thankfully 'that' website is a great boon to this OAP.

Slaine: Carnival
Is it me? Thought about this and I feel its the art that detracts for the story, surely in a comic tale you shouldn't really notice the art? where as here its hard to get at the story behind the art. But there again I'm a big fan of Yeowell's (Sp?) minimal last few episodes of Zenith, each to their own I suppose.  


The 10Seconders: Enjoying this, some said it was a bit of a Ninties story, maybe that's why.

Strontium Shaggy Story
The lack of Homoerotica and Shag-gy jokes spoiled this for me ;-)
Mind you, didn't that ending remind you a bit of James Bond bagging off at the end off the filum so maybe there is some after all?


Spigotgrabbing-Huff

 

[petemaskreplica]

"its hard to get at the story behind the art"

I think you've put your finger on why Langley's art doesn't really do it for me. It kinda burns the retinas out, doesn't it? (IMO). I'm quite enjoying this Slaine story, it's nice to have something a bit knockabout after the self-consciously portentious tone of much of Books of Invasions, though it does sit a little ioddly as an adjunct to that, more an appendix than an epilogue.

Otherwise it's all pretty wonderful, Dredd pulling off an astounding plot reversal, just when I thought it was all over. Cabs somehow contrives to seem like things are being pulled together while bunging in more ideas than you can shake a stick at. Stront was fun too, I think people have been expressing disappointment because they were expecting another gritty tale in the same vein as the last one. But I've enjoyed it, and this was a great payoff to a fun story. Droid Life was wonderful again after a couple of slightly below-par strips.

Good to see Noel Edmonds turning up in 10 seconders, let's hope he falls to his death from the 'copter, eh? :p

Oh, and Tharg in controversial people-skinning suggestion!

[The Amstor Computer]

IMO, Langley is a great pinup artist - though not to my taste - but not a particularly good storyteller. Even with the quirky visual cues (multiple Slaines, all at different points in the action, for example) that try to give the strip a sense of motion, I still find his art too dense and awkward.

[Carlsborg Expert]

Maybe they are all following Thargs ord-er-advice, Huff and writing in the good old Betelguesian way.

I think someone mentioned a while back that the cover to a prog will add and aid the story inside, for us thickos who don't really know,in this case anyway, in what Royal presence Chapter is in?
What a cover it is too. For me the creamy paint look by Nick works andcreates Chapter as a charactor who really looks like she enjoys comfortable shoes. I certainly don't hold any hope of her fancying my male attributes, from this depiction. :)

Input and Output;

Hoo Tharg opens out quite curtiously then slams a hotshot in the direction of Pete-Monty-Burns.( Smithers is obviously awaintg his return in the David Bowie blackening T-shirt.If I was Bowie-and I damn near could be, I would dissassociate myself with anything those two fashion dorks call a line of clothing.)So. N9ice one Green Bonce.

Droi-ahahahoid Laugh out loud-ife. Lol.Very wordy and worthwhile.

Dredd;

Hmm,I spoilt this for myself but its still gripping and the art is still good. Enjoyed the semi-splash as the culprit is caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Classic close-up on Dredds face at the final panel. The drama!:)

Cabbagepatchkidsalistics;
 Frighteniningly thrown from story to story. This is very new too me. The riveting is beginning to be heard? Um, nice tazer.

Slaine.Carnival;

The superman line comes to mind with all this talent at work;-" All these amazing  powers and I couldn't even save my own father." With all these fantastic abilities these charactors need to step out of the shadows and bake themselves in an arid, barbarian, and sunny(!) adventure.

10 seconders;

 I love this turn around of heroes stuff. Pat Mills touched upon it in Marshall Law, giving Rob Williams this exciting platform of "those who came to save us end up destroying us in disgust." As for the story? Unravelling nicely, though I do think the change of art is between the time frame of putting the story out or the embarking into another land. After close scrutiny I settled with not liking panel three and four on the final page.Those guys are not aware of this scientist, fully, are they? Intriguing.

Shaggy Dogs;

All good tales must have a beginning, middle and an end. But this one had chuckles spread right the way through to the last panel. Its funny, but Wagner must be a very intense person when he is doing something that is full on and extremely scary, then on his other side is charmingly witty and genteel, even. I bet he was brought up in some hills.

Origins reminder instead of mail.

Back page;

Im impressed by the details they gave out concerning the EE14. Really informative.

What was best for me? I don't know I will have to read it again and again to decide.(Over filthy toast, sticky coffee, greasy chicken dinners and staining lagers;) I am glad I don't have a reviewers job in the comics. Phew.





 

[Tiplodocus]

A thing I've noticed about Langley's art is the poor "acting" by the models used to photoref the faces. It really is sub-River City faces that they pull. "Look worried!" and no amount of photorealism on a shite expression can match a few simple and abstract line strokes that get the emotion perfectly. I'd rather see Dom's deceptively simple style to Langley's deceptively good style anyday.

Caballistics is plain old great - I'm enjoying getting confused by the backstory now - that must be a good sign.

Everybody has liked the turnaround in DREDD but our other Wagner tale left me slightly confused.

Was that really it in Strontium Dog?  It seemed a lot of setup but no actual Shaggy Dog story? Did I miss half a dozen episodes?

Ten Seconders doesn't yank my chain yet. It should do as  it seems to have a lot of the sort of plot elements that I like. On occassion, I find Harrison's art unclear and it confuses me as to exactly what's going on (there was a bit in the helicopter last week when I thought one of the crew had turned into the lava creature thing).

[Dudley]

Best to not-so-best:

1) (By a country mile) The Ten Seconders
2) (Just nosing ahead of Dredd, but losing ground cos I'm getting a distinct sense of X-Files over the endlessly multiplying, never resolved plot strands) Caballistics
3) (Solidly performing in the middle ground, a bit of a carthorse) Judge Dredd
4) (Jockey seems to have been snorting some kind of happy pills: an interestingly eccentric performance) Strontium Dog
5) (Never left the starting gate) Slaine


Cover's... OK.

[Roger Godpleton]

Cover: Not offensive. Chapter's a bit too girly. OK Stuff.

Dredd: The plot thickens, I didn't see that one coming. Way to keep us all hooked John. Goddard's art is nice. Good Stuff.

Caballs: The Plot Thickens. All Ravne wants to do is find his dad. Aah, bless. (Although this demon thingy isn't making it very hard if he keeps using the same initials). The Chapterstuff is mucho fun as well. Great Stuff.

Slaine: Slaine fights some stuff. The Plot thickens. Clint's back on the Flame effects. Why Clint Why? My mother was right about you, what I have I done to do deserve this, what have the kids done? I don't know who you are anymore *SOB*. Ahem... OK Stuff.

Ten Seconders: They fly about a bit. Some tired jokes about "Celebrity Culture" are made. Our heroine is as right as rain without any explanantion. Our alien-thingy guy acts all "mysterious". How big is this gunship thingy anyway. OK Stuff.

Dogtium Stront. Ends a bit suddenly. Feels all a bit "Robohunter". I hope we see Shaggy, No Bones & chums again. Good Stuff.

Droid Life. Repulsive humour. It's just not necessary. Good Stuff.

Overall: Good Stuff.